168 THE SQUIEE AND HIS VOLUNTEERS. 



could get tliein — for supper ! At the name of 

 "Boney" naughty children were frightened, and a 

 false alarm of his coming and landing often made 

 grown-up men turn pale. 



" This way and that the anxious mind is torn." 



The impulse was in proportion to the alarm ; the 

 determination raised was spirited and praiseworthy. 

 Stout hearts constituted an impromptu force, daily 

 advancing in organization, with arms and accoutre- 

 ments, ready to march with knapsacks to any point 

 where numbers might be required. Once or twice, 

 when a company received orders to march, as to 

 Bridgnorth, for instance, an alarm was created 

 among wives, daughters, and sweethearts, that they 

 were about to join the battalion for active service, 

 and stories are told of leave-takings and weepings 

 on such occasions. Beacons were erected, and 

 bonfires prepared on the highest points of the country 

 round, as being the quickest means of transmitting 

 news of the approach of an enemy. Of these watch- 

 fire signals, Macaulay says : — 



" On and on, without a horse untired, they hounded still 

 AH night from tower to tower, they sprang from hill to hill, 



