1774. JET. 21.] COUNT RUMFORD. 



December 24, 1774. 



REVEREND SIR, The time and circumstances of my leav- 

 ing the town of Concord have, no doubt, given yon great 

 uneasiness, for which I am extremely sorry. Nothing short 

 of the most threatening danger could have induced me to 

 leave my friends and family ; but when I learned from 

 persons of undoubted veracity, and those whose friendship 

 I could not suspect, that my situation was reduced to this 

 dreadful extremity, I thought it absolutely necessary to 

 abscond for a while, and seek a friendly asylum in some 

 distant part. 



Fear of miscarriage prevents my giving a more particular 

 account of this affair ; but this you may rely and depend 

 upon, that I never did, nor (let my treatment be what it 

 will) ever will do, any action that may have the most 

 distant tendency to injure the true interest of this my 

 native country. 



I most humbly beg your kind care of my distressed 

 family; and I hope you will take an opportunity to 

 alleviate their trouble by assuring them that T am in a 

 place of safety, and hope shortly to have the pleasure of 

 seeing them. I also most humbly beseech your prayero 

 for me, that under all my difficulties and troubles I may 

 behave in such a manner as to approve myself a true 

 servant of God and a sincere friend of my country. 



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 villany of my inveterate enemies, who strive 

 to raise their popularity on the ruins of my character. My 

 friends would have been deemed unfriendly to the cause of 

 Liberty, and my defence would have been treated with 

 contempt and disdain. It would have been vain for me io 



