104: COUNT RUMFORD. 



struggle, delegated their authority to every witness or 

 agent who might be a self-constituted guardian of 

 patriotic interests, or a spy, or an eavesdropper, to 

 catch reports of suspected persons." Human nature 

 is everywhere the same, and to protect a cherished cause 

 these " Sons of Liberty " sometimes adopted the tactics 

 of the Papal Inquisition. 



Public feeling grew day by day more exasperated 

 against Thompson, and in the summer of 1774 he was 

 summoned before a committee to answer to the charge 

 of being unfriendly to the cause of liberty. " He denied 

 the charge, and challenged proof. The evidence, if any 

 such was offered and no trace of testimony, or even of 

 imputation of that kind is on record was not of a sort 

 to warrant any proceeding against him, and he was dis- 

 charged." This, however, gave him but little relief, and 

 extra-judicial plots were formed against him. The 

 Concord mob resolved to take the matter into their own 

 hands. One day they collected round his house, and 

 with hoots and yells demanded that Thompson should 

 be delivered up to them. Having got wind of the 

 matter he escaped in time. In a letter addressed to 

 his father-in-law at this time from Charlestown, near 

 Boston, he gives his reasons for quitting home. " To 

 have tarried at Concord and have stood another trial 

 at the bar of the populace would doubtless have been 

 attended with unhappy consequences, as my innocence 

 would have stood me in no stead against the prejudices 

 of an enraged, infatuated multitude and much less 

 against the determined villainy of my inveterate ene- 

 mies, who strive to raise their popularity on the ruins 

 of my character." 



He returned to his mother's house in Woburn, 

 where he was joined by his wife and child. While they 

 were with him, shots were exchanged and blood was 



