The Yankee Tea-party; Or, Boston in 1773Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
History
The Yankee Tea-party; Or, Boston in 1773
Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
"For several nights they went on in this manner, being delivered over to
different persons from time to time; and, as Lee could gather from their
whispering conversations, they were regularly employed on occasions like
the present, and well rewarded by the British for their services. Their
employment was full of danger; and though they seemed like desperate
men, he could observe that they never remitted their precautions. They
were concealed days in barns, cellars, caves made for the purpose, and
similar retreats; and one day was passed in a tomb, the dimensions of
which had been enlarged, and the inmates, if there had been any,
banished to make room for the living. The burying-grounds were a
favourite retreat, and on more occasions than one they were obliged to
resort to superstitious alarms to remove intruders upon their path.
Their success fully justified the experiment; and unpleasantly situated
as he was, in the prospect of soon being a ghost himself, he could not
avoid laughing at the expedition with which old and young fled from the
fancied apparitions.
"Though the distance of the Delaware was not great, they had now been
twelve days on the road, and such was the vigilance and suspicion
prevailing throughout the country, that they almost despaired of
effecting their object. The conductor grew impatient, and Lee's
companions, at least one of them, became ferocious. There was, as we
have said, something unpleasant to him in the glances of this fellow
towards him, which became more and more fierce as they went on; but it
did not appear whether it was owing to circumstances, or actual
suspicion. It so happened that, on the twelfth night, Lee was placed in
a barn, while the rest of the party sheltered themselves in the cellar
of a little stone church, where they could talk and act with more
freedom; both because the solitude of the church was not often disturbed
even on the Sabbath, and because even the proprietors did not know that
illegal hands had added a cellar to the conveniences of the building.
"Here they were smoking pipes with great diligence, and, at intervals
not distant, applying a huge canteen to their mouths, from which they
drank with upturned faces, expressive of solemn satisfaction. While they
were thus engaged, the short soldier asked them, in a careless way, if
they knew whom they had in their party. The others started, and took
their pipes from their mouths to ask him what he meant. 'I mean,' said
he, 'that we are honoured with the company of Capt. Lee, of the rebel
army. The rascal once punished me, and I never mistook my man when I had
a debt of that kind to pay.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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