Part 21 (2/2)
The boys returned to Charlottesville and Angus immediately joined a company of volunteers, declaring if there was to be a war he was going.
By this time they had heard the news of the battle of Lexington, brought all the way from Boston by mounted messengers riding by relays.
”That means war,” Rodney remarked to his mother. How he wanted to go, to do as Angus had done and join the volunteers! But he hadn't the heart to propose it after seeing the look which came into his mother's face. It sometimes happens, however, that war comes to those who do not go to war, and so it happened to Rodney Allison.
CHAPTER XXI
VIRGINIANS LEARNING TO SHOOT BRITISH TROOPS
Rodney's duties took him to Philadelphia during the Continental Congress. There he saw Was.h.i.+ngton, a delegate from Virginia and clad in his uniform, for he knew war must come, and that warlike dress proclaimed his belief more loudly than his voice. There also were the Adamses, from Ma.s.sachusetts, Samuel and John, the latter a wise, shrewd organizer determined to have all the colonies, especially the southern, committed to the revolution he saw approaching. In this effort he used his influence, not for John Hanc.o.c.k of Ma.s.sachusetts, who coveted the place of commander-in-chief, but for George Was.h.i.+ngton, who the day after the battle of Bunker Hill was chosen and modestly accepted with the proviso that he should receive no pay for his services. There, also, came Benjamin Franklin, just returned from England and convinced nothing remained but war; and there, too, was Jefferson, likewise certain the time had come for the colonies to declare their independence of England.
Rodney's boyish prejudices were in favour of everything Jefferson did, and he was impatient with those, and they were the greater number, who wished to delay decisive action in the hope of conciliation. This prejudice extended to the Quakers in their broad-brimmed hats, nearly all of whom were opposed to war.
Boys are usually impatient, unable to work and wait and keep working, as the wise men of that Congress were doing.
The boy had but part of two days in the city, which was the first he had seen and consequently full of interest; so he did not call on Lisbeth, indeed, had there been plenty of time he would have hesitated in his rough dress of homespun to have presented himself before her aristocratic friends.
The day he turned Nat's nose in the direction of Virginia a young man rode alongside and said, ”Why, this is an unexpected pleasure, if as I suspect, you are on your way home.”
He was Lawrence Enderwood. Rodney's reply was almost surly, as several reasons for Enderwood's presence in Philadelphia flashed through his mind.
”I'm not going directly home but by way of Williamsburg. I live in Albemarle County.”
”I, too, am riding by way of Williamsburg, and if you have no objections to my company should be delighted to join you. It is a long ride.”
Rodney could offer no objections, indeed, as they went on, he found his companion a very agreeable one, notwithstanding that in course of the conversation it appeared that Lawrence had seen Lisbeth.
”She is very gay, seems to be absorbed in the gaieties and social life so that she has little time for anything else.” Somehow this remark of Enderwood, spoken rather impatiently, afforded Rodney a little comfort, though he hardly could have explained it.
On arriving at Williamsburg, they found the little town well filled, for Governor Dunmore had convened the House of Burgesses to listen to Lord North's plans for conciliation.
”'Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss,'” quoted Rodney, and Lawrence laughingly replied, ”Patrick Henry has a way of saying things so the people remember them.”
”I'll wager they remember that and turn Lord North down with a slam.”
”It's evident to me you are for war, Rodney.”
”Aren't you?”
”Yes, er--I suppose I am, but it isn't pleasant to think of losing one's estate if not his neck, all of which is possible. The business men of Philadelphia are pretty long-headed, and most of them believe England will win in the end and that the war will be most destructive of property.”
”Surely Was.h.i.+ngton and Jefferson have estates to lose.”
”Oh, I reckon we're in for it, and my father says when there's something to do, do it.”
As was expected, the House of Burgesses would have nothing to do with the kind of conciliation proposed. The people were restless and Dunmore, fearing them, left his ”palace” and went aboard a British vessel and ordered that the bills be sent to him for signature. He was politely informed that if he signed them he would have to return, which he did not do. Then the Burgesses adjourned to October, appointing a permanent committee to have charge of colonial affairs, and that committee appointed Patrick Henry to command of the colonial troops.
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