The Town-Select-Men waited on The vessel’s consignees; But these were waiting on the fort,[21] Well lock’d with English keys. True courtiers, they would tender The governor there their tea. The governor tried his council; The council[22] said: “Not we; Our homes are with the people; And we are not the ones To hold the cup of serfdom To them, ourselves, or sons.” The consignees were waiting Until, in forms of law, Their tea was enter’d at the port, When none could it withdraw.[23] So quick the Town-Committee Had made and seal’d a writ, And pledg’d the vessel’s owner’s word Not yet to enter it.[24] At Faneuil Hall,[25] next morning, While all the bells were rung, Men swarm’d, like bees, to buzz before, Prepar’d to die, they stung. The sheriff[26] came and cried aloud: “You meet unlawfully!” His cry but made them busier buzz, With Saxon loyalty. The consignees were summon’d; “The tea,” they wrote, “we stack.”[27] “The tea shall sail for England,” The people answer’d back. And then to ports in England, And those at home they wrote: “Tea-taxers here, or traders, Our country’s foes we vote.[28] Think not our men will waver, Our wives their vows abate; The herbs they steep for tea will keep Less bitter than their hate.” Two tea-ships more were sighted.[29] Our guards, like nerves, were strung[30] From bay to every belfry’s bell, The slightest move had rung. Then spoke the vessels’ owners: “Our tea is legal prey For fort and fleet, if enter’d not Before the twentieth[31] day.” “Then send it off to sea again,” The Town-Committee said. “Too much you ask,” was answer’d, “For then would blood be shed. The port’s collector warns us We must not clear the port. Without his ‘Writ of Clearance,’ We dare not brook the fort.” They pointed down the harbor: There lay the fleet,[32] alas, Like prongs along the channel, To rake whate’er should pass. They pointed toward the castle, And all the guns within Bespoke how they would treat a prey That sought the sea to win.