"The Continental Congress?" stammered the hesitating officer; "I know of no right—I don't acknowledge it, sir "But you soon will acknowledge it, sir!" fiercely interrupted the impatient leader. "And hesitate to obey me one instant longer and, by the eternal heavens! I will sacrifice every man in your fort!--beginning the work, sir," he added, whirling his sword furiously over the head of the other, and bringing the murderous blade at every glittering circle it made in the air nearer and nearer the head of its threatened victim, "beginning the work, sir, by sending your own head dancing across this floor!" "I yield, I yield!" cried the shrinking commandant. "Down! down, then, instantly!" exclaimed Allen, "and communicate the surrender to your men while any of them are left alive to hear it." Scarcely allowing the crestfallen officer time to encase his legs in his breeches, Allen hurried him down to the scene of action in the open parade below. Here they found the Green Mountain Boys eagerly engaged in the work of capturing the garrison, who were making considerable show of resistance. Two of the barrack doors had been beaten down, and about a third of the enemy already made prisoners. And the fiery Arnold was on the point of blowing a third door from its hinges with a swivel, which he had caused to be drawn up for the purpose; while a fourth was shaking and tottering under the tremendous blows of an ax, wielded by the long and powerful arms of Pete Jones, who was found among the foremost in the contest. "Cease, cease ye all !" cried Allen, in a loud voice of command, as he appeared among them with La Place by his side. "Now, raaly, colonel," said Jones, suspending his elevated implement and holding it back over his head in readiness for another blow, "I wish you would let me settle with this devilish old oak door before I stop. Why, I never was so bothered with such a small potato in my life!" "No, no!" answered the other, smiling, "let us have silence a moment, and we will save you all troubles of that kind." "Well, then, here goes for a parting blessing!" exclaimed the woodsman, bringing down his ax with a tremendous blow, which brought the shattered door tumbling to the ground. The British commandant then calling his officers around him, informed them that he had surrendered the fortress, and ordered them to parade the men without arms. While this was in performance a second detachment of Green Mountain Boys reached the shore, and, having eagerly hastened on to the fort to join their companions, now, with Warrington at their head, came pouring into the arena. A single glance sufficed to tell the latter that he was too late to participate in aught but the fruits of the victory. With a disappointed and mortified air he halted his men and approached to the side of his leader. "Ah, colonel!" said he, "is this the way you appropriate all the laurels to yourself, entirely forgetful of your friends?" "Pooh! pooh! Charles," replied Allen, turning to the other with a soothing, yet self-complaisant smile at the half-reproachful compliment thus conveyed, "you need not mourn much lost glory in this affair. Why, the stupid devils did not give us fight enough to whet our appetites for breakfast! But never mind, Charles, there is more business yet to be done; Crown Point and Major Skene's stone castle must both be ours tonight. The taking of the first shall be yours to perform. And after breakfast and a few bumpers in honor of our victory, we will dispatch you for that purpose, with a corps of your own selection." "Thank you, thank you, colonel," replied the other with a grateful smile. "But the expedition to Skenesboro'— may I not speak a word for our friend Selden?" "Aha!" replied Allen, laughing, "then this offer to take charge of the negro's letter had its meaning, eh? I don't know exactly about that chip of a British colonel for a Yankee patriot. Now, yours, major, I acknowledge to be a true cynosure. But his, I fear, will prove a dog star. However, this is his own hunt; and, as he is a finished fellow, and doubtless brave and true, I think I will give him the command of the expedition, unless claimed by Easton. But hush the commandant is about to go through the forms of the surrender. I must away, but will see you again." The brief ceremonies of the surrender were soon over; when, as the fortress was pronounced to be in full possession of the conquerors, the heavens were again rent by the reiterated huzzas of the Green Mountain Boys, while British cannon were made to peal forth with their deep-mouthed thunders to the VOL. XVIII.-23 trembling hills and reverberating mountains of the country round, the proclamation of victory! the first triumph of Young Freedom over the arms of her haughty oppressor. THE SWORD OF BUNKER HILL. BY WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE. [1819-1881.] He lay upon his dying bed, His eye was growing dim, When, with a feeble voice, he called "Weep not, my boy," the veteran said, "I bow to heaven's high will; But quickly from yon antlers bring The sword of Bunker Hill." The sword was brought; the soldier's eye And, as he grasped the ancient blade, I leave you, mark me, mark me, now, ""Twas on that dread, immortal day, A captain raised his blade on me, And while the glorious battle raged, It lightened Freedom's will; For, boy, the God of Freedom blessed The sword of Bunker Hill. "Oh! keep this sword," his accents broke, A smile, and he was dead; But his wrinkled hand still grasped the blade, Upon that dying bed. The sun remains, the sword remains, Its glory growing still, And twenty millions bless the sire And sword of Bunker Hill. CHARACTER OF THE LOYALISTS.1 BY MOSES COIT TYLER. (From the "Literary History of the American Revolution.") [MOSES COIT TYLER, American educator and author, was born at Griswold, Conn., August 2, 1835; studied theology at Yale and Andover; and for a few years held the pastorate of a Congregational church in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was professor of English in the University of Michigan (1867-1881), and since 1883 has occupied the chair of American history at Cornell. He is a frequent contributor to magazines and reviews, and the author of a "History of American Literature during the Colonial Time" (1878), "A Manual of English Literature (1879) "Life of Patrick Henry" (1888), and "Literary History of the American Revolution."] AFTER the question of number, very properly comes that of quality. What kind of people were these Tories, as regards intelligence, character, and standing in their several communities? And here, brushing aside, as unworthy of historical investigators, the partisan and vindictive epithets of the controversy, many of which, however, still survive even in the historical writings of our own time, we shall find that the Loyalists were, as might be expected, of all grades of personal worth and worthlessness; and that, while there was among them, no doubt, the usual proportion of human selfishness, malice, and rascality, as a class they were not bad people, much less were they execrable people, as their opponents at the time commonly declared them to be. In the first place, there was, prior to 1776, the official class; that is, the men holding various positions in the civil and military and naval services of the government, their im 1 Copyright, 1887, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. mediate families, and their social connections. All such per sons may be described as inclining to the Loyalist view in consequence of official bias. Next were certain colonial politicians who, it may be admitted, took a rather selfish and an unprincipled view of the whole dispute, and who, counting on the probable, if not inevitable, success of the British arms in such a conflict, adopted the Loyalist side, not for conscience' sake but for profit's sake, and in the expectation of being rewarded for their fidelity by offices and titles, and especially by the confiscated estates of the rebels, after the rebels themselves should have been defeated, and their leaders hanged or sent into exile. As composing still another class of Tories may be mentioned, probably a vast majority of those who stood for the commercial interests, for the capital and the tangible property of the country, and who, with the instincts natural to persons who have something considerable to lose, disapproved of all measures for pushing the dispute to the point of disorder, riot, and civil war. Still another class of Loyalists was made up of people of professional training and occupation, clergymen, physicians, lawyers, teachers, a clear majority of whom seem to have been set against the ultimate measures of the Revolution. Finally, and in general, it may be said that a majority of those who, of whatever occupation, of whatever grade of culture or of wealth, would now be described as conservative people, were Loyalists during the American Revolution. And by way of concession to the authority and force of truth, what has to be said respecting the personal quality commonly attaching to those who, in any age or country, are liable to be classed as conservative people? Will it be denied that within that order of persons one may usually find at least a fair portion of the cultivation, of the moral thoughtfulness, of the personal purity and honor, existing in the entire community to which they happen to belong? Precisely this description, at any rate, applies to the conservative class in the American colonies during that epoch, a majority of whom dissented from those extreme measures which at last transformed into a revolution a political movement which began with the avowed purpose of confining itself to a struggle for redress of grievances, and within the limits of constitutional opposition. If, for example, we consider the |