destroyed and took possession of the stores, while the minute-men being reinforced by different bodies which had hurried there at the sound of the firing, a skirmish ensued. A considerable number of the regulars were killed, and the rest forced to retreat, the colonial militia pursuing them hotly all the way back to Lexington, where, fortunately for themselves, they found Lord Percy with a reinforcement of 900 men. But for this timely aid, it is doubtful if any of their number would have reached Boston; the Americans, having the advantage of the knowledge of the ground, and availing themselves of the Indian mode of warfare, took fatal aim from behind bushes, stone walls, barns, or whatever offered a means of concealment. At sunset the exhausted regulars reached Bunker’s Hill, near Boston, having lost in killed and wounded about 300 men, while the loss of the provincials amounted to eighty-five. The news of this battle, of this first shedding of blood, flew like wild-fire through the colonies. Couriers were despatched at full speed from place to place, bearing tidings which called all to arms. “The war has begun!” was shouted in the market-place; at the ferry on the river; in the crowded meeting-house on the Sabbath; and all rushed to arms. It was twenty days, however, with their utmost speed, before the news reached Charleston in South Carolina; yet, long before that time, volunteers had marched from all parts of the New England colonies. From Rhode Island, a body of volunteers hastened to Boston, under the command of a young Quaker, Nathaniel Greene, who was disowned by his brethren for this violation of their principles. Nor could the admonitions and threats of discipline of the elder Friends of Philadelphia keep the martial spirit of their young men under control. Mifflin’s example and influence was stronger than all the advice they could give, and Quaker-Philadelphia sent out a company of brave volunteers. Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina, all were moved by the same spirit; while Patrick Henry, the young patriot lawyer of Virginia, marched with a troop of volunteer riflemen to Williamsburgh, the capital of the Old Dominion, and compelled the royal treasurer to refund the value of ammunition which Lord Dunmore, the governor, had lately seized. Dunmore, incensed, issued a proclamation declaring them rebels, and fortified his residence. Soon after, letters of his, addressed to the English government, and which were considered false to the colony, being intercepted, the public indignation waxed hot against him; whereupon, fearing for his life, he fled to a man-of-war lying at Yorktown, and abandoned his government. Governor Martin, of North Carolina, about the same time, fled also in terror on board a ship of war, at the mouth of Cape Fear River; and in South Carolina, Lord William Campbell, the governor, being suspected of secret negotiations with the Cherokees, was likewise obliged to retire. Georgia, the