Gage having heard that both men were
staying at the village of Lexington decided to arrest them together.
For this he carefully laid his plans. Eight hundred men were to
leave Boston in secret at dead of night. First they were to go to
Lexington, and having arrested the "traitors" they were next to
march on to Concord to seize the large war stores which were known
to be gathered there.
All the preparations were made as silently and as secretly as possible.
But the colonists were on the alert. They knew that something was
afoot, and guessed what it was.
On the 18th of April Gage gave strict orders that no one was to
be allowed to leave Boston that night. But no orders could stop
determined men.
And as the moon was rising a little boat was rowed across the Charles
river almost under the shadow of the British man-of-war. The boat
reached the farther shore and a man booted and spurred, and if ready
for a long ride, leaped out upon the bank. This man was Paul Revere.
At ten o'clock the troops also were silently rowed across the
Charles River, and in the darkness set out for Lexington. But not
far off on the bank of the same river, a man stood waiting beside
a saddled horse. Quietly he waited, looking always towards the
tower of the Old North Church. It was Paul Revere, and he waited
for a signal to tell him which way the red coats were going.
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