Life of Count Rumford. 67 



friends there, from his wife and his infant child. He 

 was never to see that pleasant home again, nor any one of 

 those whom he left there, except that he had a brief and 

 troubled visit from his wife and infant, and met the latter 

 again only after an interval of twenty-two years. He was 

 himself, when he fled, midway in his twenty-second year. 

 He had made a hasty effort to collect some dues which 

 belonged strictly to himself, but he scrupulously avoided 

 taking with him anything that belonged to others, or 

 even to his wife. What of his own he left there we shall 

 see was soon subjected to the process of confiscation. 



Thompson at first sought refuge in his former home 

 at Woburn, with his mother, in the house to which she 

 had moved with her second husband, opposite the Bald- 

 win Mansion, a security to which, as we shall find, he 

 was to be indebted for another release from the dealing 

 of a mob. Here, for a short time, he sought to occupy 

 himself in quiet retirement with his favorite pursuits of 

 philosophical study and experiment, especially on the 

 properties of gunpowder. But popular suspicion found 

 means to visit its odium upon him here, and he was 

 kept in a continual state of anxiety. Seeking a new 

 place of refuge, he found temporary shelter in Charles- 

 town, with a friend, nine miles from Woburn and one 

 from Boston, divided from the latter place, with which 

 he could easily hold intercourse, only by a river. This 

 position, when it became known, was not likely to 

 reassure confidence in him. (See Appendix.) 



While in Charlestown, Major Thompson addressed 

 the following letter to his father-in-law, at Concord. 



" December 24th, 1774. 



"REVEREND SIR, The time and circumstances of my leav- 

 ing the town of Concord have, no doubt, given you great un- 



