Life of Count Rumford. 69 



my flight unavoidable. And had I not taken the opportunity to 

 leave the town the moment I did, another morning had effectu- 

 ally cut off my retreat." 



There is a tradition, which I have not been able to 

 authenticate, that either at this time or nearly a year 

 afterwards, while Thompson was concealed in some 

 friendly refuge in Boston, he received a visit from his 

 father-in-law, who urgently appealed to him to return 

 to his home. There is no evidence within my reach 

 that the two ever met again. But on the ^th of Janu- 

 ary following the date of the above letter, the Rev. Mr. 

 Walker addressed him a reply, the tenor of which we 

 know only from the response which it drew from his 

 son-in-law. The relations of the latter were becoming 

 more and more embarrassing, on account of his visits to 

 Boston and the intimacy which he appeared to seek 

 with the British officers ; though, as there had not yet 

 been any decisive outbreak, he might have expected 

 that the rupture would be averted. Mr. Walker had 

 urged his return to Concord, and had coupled with the 

 appeal a suggestion that he should be prepared, in doing 

 so, to make some sort of recognition of the grounds 

 under which his patriotism had been doubted and his 

 conduct brought under suspicion. We may infer from 

 this advice, that the wise and esteemed minister had mis- 

 givings, at least, about the discretion of his son-in-law; 

 and from the answer written by the latter we may also 

 infer, that, regarding the advice as proposing a confes- 

 sion or recantation, he was determined to stand on his 

 dignity or his sense of perfect innocence, and refuse to 

 make it. He might have shrunk from the full de- 

 mands of truth, or he might have feared the risk of 

 hypocrisy. His answer was as follows: 



