The sun was now getting high. The glory of the spring was everywhere. Here and there a ploughman followed his team in a distant field. But it became more and more evident, as I advanced along the road, that the spirit of war would soon absorb everything. Suddenly my horse snorted and lurched violently back, almost throwing me from the saddle. He gazed wild-eyed and with fiercely-blowing nostrils at a spot in the road. Here blood had been shed. A momentary shudder ran through me, but I urged him on. A few miles further along the way I noticed that the fence had been torn with bullets, and in a field, a little from the road, were four fresh mounds that I took at once for graves. Under a shady tree near these sat an old man of some eighty years. 'Are these graves?' I asked. 'Aye, they be. Four redcoats lie here, or accordin' to some, three sodgers and a Tory. But if you're wantin' to see where the main slaughter was, go on. I'm watchin' here. There's some reason for thinkin' the one who wasn't a sodger was a person o' consequence--a man o' valuable property that may be useful during the siege as well as after. There was a lank old villain--a schoolmaster of Cambridge, I think our Colonel said--nosin' round here early this mornin'. It leaked out that he was huntin' for a body. Anyway he was surprised, captured, an' carried off to the village. It's generally agreed that he'll be hanged.' It flashed upon me in an instant, that the man of consequence spoken of was my father, and that the other was Duncan Hale. I was quite sure Duncan had escaped from the soldiers who had attempted to seize him in our home; and I knew also that for friendship's sake he would in all probability venture out, even in the face of danger, to learn, if possible, where my father fell. If I was right in my conjecture, and the old man spoke truly, the faithful fellow's love had got him into strange difficulties. I resolved to go on, hoping to pick up some further scraps of information before returning home. Had I known all that was to befall me, I certainly would not have gone further. But the information I had received regarding Duncan Hale, especially the hint of his danger, convinced me that it was my duty to go on at least to Lexington. After leaving the old man at the graves, I saw numerous evidences of severe fighting almost everywhere. Barns and buildings on every side were riddled with bullets. Fences were thrown down, and the fields showed the marks of galloping troops. Graves and bloodstains became more and more common. But as I proceeded, I noticed that a Sabbath quiet had settled upon the country. I now met nobody. The houses seemed deserted. One of the only moving objects was a farmer far up a hill slope who, with a large white grain basket by his side, strode over the red ground sowing grain. One man at least in the midst of war was determined to be at peace.