112 



a, person, to my informant unknown.'^' On^Yar(l llio troops 

 pursued their mareli, apparently read^^ and able to bear down 

 all opposition, their commander not appearing to discern the 

 fjarricade thus raised against him by the people, until witliin a 

 few rods of the open chasm before him. Had a huge boa-con- 

 strictor, like the serpent that stopped the army of Atilius Reg- 

 ulus, suddenly elevated its head, and extended its capacious 

 jaws to receive him, he could not have appeared more surprised 

 than at this unexpected obstruction. As soon as he had recov- 

 ered his self possession, he demanded in a voice which was 

 accustomed to be obeyed, that the leaf should be immediately 

 let down. But this command was given to the winds, — the 

 assembled multitude utterly disregarded it, and the very draw^ 

 itself, as if participating in the feelings of the inhabitants, and 

 conscious of the part it was expected to perform, frowned defi- 

 ance. 



The regiment was now brought into line on the west side of 

 the bridge, facing to the eastward. Colonel Sargent, the tory 

 informer, had also followed the troops to the bridge with the 

 other inhabitants, and when he saw the leaf raised, exclaimed, 

 "it is all over with them." " What is all over wath them," said 

 his companion. He then whispered, " they were going after the 

 guns." This man thought it best to absent himself ever after 

 from Salem. 



The people on the north side of the bridge had climbed upon 

 the top of the upraised leaf by the help of the chains, and there 

 set astride, in the language of my informant, "like so many 

 hens at roost." The indignation of the Colonel at having his 

 design thus suddenly and unexpectedly baffled, was excited 

 almost to frenzy, and he gave utterance to his feelings, to say 



* Mr. Samuel Holman states that " his father's apprentice took his 

 gun and equipments under his cloak, saying he would lodge them in 

 some private place where he could put his hand on them in case of 

 need." Some recent accounts state, that Colonel Pickering, with a 

 force of forty armed men, was on the north side of the bridge, where 

 also large numbers were rallying around him. This statement is how- 

 ever said to be a mistake by persons now living. In fact, Colonel Pick- 

 ering must have been gifted with the power of omnipresence on that 

 day, to reconcile the conflicting accounts respecting the part taken by 

 him in this affair. Beside the statement here referred to, there is 

 another, that he was, the while, mustering his regiment in School 

 street— and yet another, that he was on the south side of the bridge, 

 with Felt, Barnard and others, and that " he scuttled with his own 

 hands one of the gondolas." 



