But it did not conduce to peace of mind, in his case, to be convinced that the colonial remonstrance was neither local nor of the rabble. The more general and respectable it was, the more embarrassing was his own situation. Would it really come to war? With ill-concealed anxiety, he sought the opinion of this person and that. On the fourth day after his arrival, he went into a tavern in King Street with Lieutenant Massay, of the Thirty-fifth, Ensign Charleton, of the Fifth, and another young officer, and, while they were drinking, heard a loyalist tell what one Parker, leader of the Lexington rebels, said to his men on Lexington Common, on the morning of April 19th, when the King's troops came in sight. "'Stand your ground,' says he. 'Don't fire till you're fired on, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!'" "And it began there!" said Harry. The English officers stared at him, and laughed. "Ay, 'twas the Yankee idea of war," said one of them. "Run for a stone wall, and, when the enemy's back is turned, blaze away. I'd like to see a million of the clodhoppers compelled to stand up and face a line of grenadiers." "Ay, gimme ten companies of grenadiers," cried one, who had doubtless heard of General Gage's celebrated boast, "and I'll go from one end of the damned country to the other, and drive 'em to their holes like foxes. Only 'tis better sport chasing handsome foxes in England than ill-dressed poltroons in Bumpkin-land." "They're not all poltroons," said Harry, repressing his feelings the more easily through long practice. "Some of them fought in the French war. There's Putnam, and Pomeroy, and Ward. I heard Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie, of the Twenty-second, say yesterday that Putnam--" "Cowards every one of 'em," broke in another. "Cowards and louts. A lady told me t'other day there ain't in all America a man whose coat sets in close at the back, except he's of the loyal party. Cowards and louts!" "Look here, damn you!" cried Peyton. "I want you to know I'm American born, and my people are American, and I don't know whether they are of the loyal party or not!" "Oh, now, that's the worst of you Americans,--always will get personal! Of course, there are exceptions." "Then there are exceptions enough to make a rule themselves," said Harry. "I'm tired hearing you call these people cowards before you've had a chance to see what they are. And you needn't wait for that, for I can tell you now they're not!" "Well, well, perhaps not,--to you. Doubtless they're very dreadful,--to you. You don't seem to relish facing 'em, that's a fact! You'll be resigning your commission one o' these days, I dare say, if it comes to blows with these terrible heroes!" Harry saw everybody in the room looking at him with a grin. "By the Lord," said he, "maybe I shall!" and stalked hotly out of the place.