and, by the intervention of the same eminent patriots, were a second time persuaded to lay them aside. The next day, when tranquillity was entirely restored, the Governor sent a message into the city by one of the magistrates, to inform the people that, if they offered the least violence to his secretary, Captain Foy, or to Captain Collins, he would set the slaves at liberty, and lay the town in ashes. This threat, issued without any apparent necessity, since the two officers whom it was intended to protect had been quietly walking the streets without molestation throughout the whole disturbance, increased the irritation of the inhabitants, which did not, however, at the moment, show itself in any further act of open insurrection.

While the accounts of these proceedings were rapidly circulating throughout the colony, intelligence came on from the east of the events of the 19th of April at Lexington and Concord. The effect was electrical. The volunteer companies, which had recently been formed, for purposes of discipline, under the direction of Lord Dunmore himself, assembled in arms in every county. By the 27th of April, seven hundred men, well armed and disciplined, styling themselves friends of constitutional liberty and America, were collected at Fredericksburg, with the intention of marching to the capital. This movement was

checked by an express, received from Peyton Randolph on the 29th of April, stating that the gentlemen of Williamsburg and its neighborhood were satisfied with the result of the seizure of the powder, and advised the volunteers to proceed no farther. On the receipt of this express, a council was held, consisting of a hundred and two persons, officers of companies, or delegates to the provincial Convention, who, after expressing in the strongest terms their opinion of the Governor's proceedings, and their readiness to march at a moment's warning, whenever it might be necessary, in defence of their rights and liberty, recommended to their comrades to return, for the present, to their homes. They also sent off messengers, with advices to the same effect, to other meetings of a similar kind, which had been called in several other parts of the colony.

In this way, the movement was checked for the moment in every county, excepting Hanover, where Henry had again fixed his residence. Far from sharing the solicitude that seems to have been felt by the prominent patriots of Williamsburg to suppress any violent ebullitions of popular feeling, he was rather disposed to encourage them, and avowed to his confidential friends that he considered the seizure of the powder as a fortunate occurrence. Convinced that hostilities were inevitable, he was pleased with any

incident which naturally tended to awaken the military spirit of the colony, and induce the people to place themselves at once in a condition for effectual resistance. As soon as he received intelligence of the proceedings at Williamsburg, he immediately summoned the members of the volunteer company of Hanover county to meet him in arms at Newcastle, on the 2d of May, on business of urgent importance. He also called together the county committee at the same time and place.

At this meeting, after a powerful and eloquent address from Henry, on the topics appropriate to the occasion, it was decided to march at once to Williamsburg, and either recover the powder, or make reprisals to an equal amount upon the money in the public treasury. Captain Meredith, who commanded the volunteers, resigned his commission, and consented to serve as lieutenant under Henry, who was immediately elected captain, and without delay took up the line of march for Williamsburg. Ensign Goodall, in the mean time, was ordered to cross the country to King William county, which was the place of residence of the King's Receiver-General, Richard Corbin, and to obtain from him three hundred and thirty pounds, the estimated value of the powder, or to take him prisoner. The party reached the house of Mr. Corbin in the

night, and surrounded it for the purpose of preventing his escape. The next morning, they were assured by the ladies of the family that the Receiver-General was not in the house; and, after satisfying themselves that the statement was correct, they left the place and rejoined Henry, agreeably to their orders, at Doncastle's ordinary, about sixteen miles above Williamsburg.

The movement of Henry created an intense excitement throughout the colony, and revived at once the military ardor which had been momentarily checked by the moderating influence of the patriots at Williamsburg. The volunteer companies rose again in all quarters, and marched across the country to join Henry. It is supposed that not less than five thousand men were on their way to meet him. The royalists were alarmed. The Governor immediately sent his family on board the Fowey man-of-war, which was lying in the harbor, and issued a proclamation, in which he denounced the movement as treasonable, and ordered the people to oppose and resist it. Even the prominent patriots inclined, as before, to a pacific course, and despatched several expresses in succession to Henry, for the purpose of persuading him to recede from his design, and disband his troops. Henry paid no attention to these remonstrances, but resolutely pursued his march, until, on arriving

at Doncastle's ordinary, he was met by a messenger from the Governor, bringing him a bill of exchange, drawn by the Receiver-General, for the value of the powder.

In the mean time, the marines from the Fowey had been landed, and apprehensions were entertained by some that they would make reprisals, for the money thus extorted by Henry, upon the public treasury. Henry, in consequence, addressed a letter to Mr. Nicholas, the treasurer of the colony, in which he offered, if it should be thought necessary or expedient, to detach from his own troops a guard sufficient for the protection of the treasury. Nicholas declined the offer, and Henry returned with his volunteers to Hanover. Two days after, the Governor issued a proclamation, denouncing the conduct of "a certain Patrick Henry as treasonable, and cautioning the people not to give him any aid or countenance. No attempt was, however, made to institute legal proceedings against him, or to give him any personal molestation. Immediately after his return, he proceeded to Philadelphia to take his seat in Congress. He was escorted by a numerous cavalcade of his neighbors as far as the Potomac, and was met at every stage on his route by addresses and other demonstrations of the public regard. No accounts are preserved of his action at this session of Con