“I’m glad you put it in that way,” replied the doctor. “No; in the first expedition there are no names so brilliant as these. Pepperell was a merchant, and a colonel in the militia. Whether that makes his exploit the more glorious or not, I leave you to judge. But this much is true, that about the first siege there was a reckless dash, and gallantry, and romantic heroism which we cannot find in the second. Mind you, it was all the work of a lot of farmers, fresh from the plough, raw militia, and how they could get such a plan into their heads I cannot imagine, I have often thought that it was their very ignorance that emboldened them. It was principally the work of Massachusetts, though the other New England Provinces took some share in it. The idea was started there, and the governor took it up very earnestly. So they raised four thousand men and a fleet of thirteen vessels, which was a wonderful thing to be done by so thinly peopled and so young a community. At first they intended to have the cooperation of the British fleet, but the commodore declined; and it was only after he had sailed to Boston under orders from the British government, and found the New England expedition gone, that he followed them, and so took part in it; for Governor Shirley and the New England militiamen resolved to go on, whether the commodore helped them or not; and so they did go on. But it was all right in the end, for the British fleet came up with them, and they went on in company to their destination.