"You have come here as men determined to obtain your rights," he cried, in a ringing voice, which could be heard distinctly by all, "and will you depart as children? Will you listen to those who counsel soft words when you are confronted by the muskets of your enemies? Will you, town-born, be thrust aside by the Britishers at every corner of the streets? Have you come here simply to shriek for your rights, and then to disperse quietly, lest you displease the hirelings of the King? Are you afraid of punishment which may follow, that you would slink away now? It is the town-born who must defend the town. It is the town-born who shall relieve the town from the burden under which it groans, and it is the town-born who this night should appear before the main guard as their masters, not as their servants." "To the main guard! To the main guard!" The multitude caught up the cry, and as if in a twinkling the throng was in motion, each pressing forward by the nearest way toward the barracks. The streets were choked with people, and as the vast throng spread itself out toward the nearest approach to the quarters of the guard, they were, by force of circumstances, divided into three divisions. [Illustration] Samuel Gray and his two companions were carried, without effort on their part, with one of these bodies, and, by a singular chance, pressed into close companionship with the barber's apprentice and his comrades. The direction taken by this last division led them directly past the Custom House, and as they approached it Amos heard the shrill voice of Hardy, high above the cries and shouts of his companions: "There's the scoundrel who knocked me down! That sentinel in the doorway blackened my eye because I dared ask to see Lieutenant Draper!" The attention of the throng was thus directed to the single soldier who stood on duty at the Custom House. "Knock him down as well! Give him a dose of his own medicine!" "Death to the 'bloody backs'!" "Kill him! Kill him!" Now the excited ones no longer thought of the main guard. They saw before them an armed enemy, and he it was who had abused one of the town-born. Some continued to utter threats; but many flung bits of ice, frozen dirt, and even such harmless missiles as snowballs, while not a few pressed toward the soldier, as if to make him prisoner. The man looked down upon his assailants defiantly, and, as if to show more clearly what punishment it was possible for him to inflict upon them, began deliberately to load his musket. This action intensified the anger of the younger people, and they pressed yet closer. "Advance one step further, and I kill the man nearest!" the sentinel cried. "If you fire you must die for it!" Henry Knox[F] shouted from among the throng. "I shall shoot if they come nearer!" As he said this the soldier levelled his weapon, evidently determined to execute the threat, and at the same time he shouted lustily for the main guard.