PAUL EEVERE 



171 



Deacon 

 Larkin 



Meeting 



British 



Officers 



Sounding the 

 Alarm 



Somerset man-of-war lay. It was then j'oung flood, the ship was wind- 

 ing, and the moon was rising. 



They landed me on the Charlestown side. When I got into town, I Getting Ready 

 met Colonel Couant and several others ; they said they had seen our 

 signals. I told them what was acting, and went to get me a horse ; I 

 got a horse of Dejicon Larkin. While the horse was preparing, Richard 

 Devens, Esq., who was one of the Committee of Safety, came to me, 

 and told me that he came down the road from Lexington, after sun- 

 down, that evening ; that he met ten British oificers, all well mounted 

 and armed, going up the road. 



I set off upon a very good horse ; it was then about eleven o'clock 

 and very pleasant. After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got 

 nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on 

 horseback, under a tree. When I got near them, I discovered they 

 were British oflScers. One tried to get ahead of me, and the other to 

 take me. I turned my horse very quick, and galloped towards Charles- 

 town Neck, and then pushed for the Medford road. The one who 

 chased me, endeavouring to cut me off, got into a clay pond, near where 

 the new tavern is now built. I got clear of him, and went through 

 Medford, over the bridge, and up to Menotomy. In Medford I waked 

 the Captain of the minute men ; and after that, I alarmed almost 

 every house till I got to Lexington. 



At Lexington he gave the alarm to John Hancock and 

 Samuel Adams, and then pressed on towards Concord 

 ''to secure the stores, etc., there." On his way, how- 

 ever, he met with some British officers ; " in an instant I 

 was sm-rounded by four ; — they had placed themselves in 

 a straight road, that inclined each way ; they had taken 

 down a pair of bars on the north side of the road, and two 

 of them were under a tree in the pasture. ... I ob- 

 served a wood at a small distance, and made for that. 

 When I got there, out started six officers, on horseback, 

 and ordered me dismount." And thus the "midnight 

 ride of Paul Revere" came to an untimely end. 



During the war Revere served his country in a dual 

 capacity — as a Colonel in the Massachusetts artillery, and 

 as a producer of gunpowder and cannon. In the capacity 

 of Colonel, he had active command of the defenses of 

 Boston harbour until he resigned from the service in 1779. 

 As a manufacturer he was sent to Philadelphia by the 



Stopped by 

 the Enemy 



Colonel and 

 Powrder Maker 



