Then, commanding them to follow him with all speed,
he mounted his horse, and turned its head towards Cambridge. Hour
after hour throughout the night he rode onward, and as day dawned
on the 21st of April he galloped into Cambridge, having ridden a
hundred miles in eighteen hours without a change of horse. Handsome
young Captain Benedict Arnold, half sailor, half merchant, gathered
his men on New Haven green. And when the general of militia bade him
wait for regular orders and refused to supply him with ammunition
for his men, he threatened to break open the magazine if the
ammunition was not forthcoming at once. So, seeing that nothing
would restrain him, the general yielded, and Arnold, gallant and
gay, with sixty men behind him marched for Cambridge.
Thus day by day men of all classes, and of all ages, poured in from
the countryside, until an army of sixteen thousand was gathered
around Boston.
Meetings, too, were held throughout the country, when patriots
urged the need of arming and fighting. In the Virginian Convention,
Patrick Henry, the great orator, thrilled his hearers with his
fiery eloquence. "We must fight," he cried, "I repeat it, we must
fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is
left us." Brilliantly, convincingly he spoke, and ended with the
unforgettable words:-- "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery! Forbid it, Almighty
God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give
me liberty or give me death!"
"His last exclamation," said one who heard him, "was like the shout
of the leader who turns back the rout of battle.
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