of the people.

It was early in the next year, 1770, that the hostility between
towns-people and soldiers led for the first time to the shedding of
blood. In February a boy, Christopher Snyder, was shot and killed during
a disturbance, and in March occurred the "Boston Massacre." The story has
been many times told. Quarrels had grown frequent between the soldiers
and the rope-walk hands, the soldiers usually getting the worst of it.
On the evening of the 5th, an altercation began just below the Old State
House, between the sentinel of the guard and a crowd of townsfolk. An
alarm was rung from one of the steeples, and many citizens hurried to
the place, most of them thinking that a fire had broken out. A sentry
was at the corner of King and Exchange streets, where the Custom House
stood, and he was assaulted by the boys with snowballs. Captain Preston
with seven or eight men rushed to the scene, loaded their muskets and
made ready to fire. The mob hooted, struck their muskets and dared them
to fire. At last a volley came. Three were killed and eight wounded.
At once there was a tumult. The bells were all rung and the populace
hurried to and fro. The bodies of the slain lay on the ground which was
sprinkled with a light snow, serving to plainly reveal in the clear
moon-light the stains of blood.

[Illustration: OLD STATE HOUSE IN 1801.]

The 29th regiment repaired to the spot prepared for firing, and there
would have been a fierce contest but for the excellent conduct of the
acting governor, Hutchinson. He took Captain Preston severely to task
for firing at the people without the orders of a civil magistrate, and
then, quickly working his way to the State House, took his stand in the
balcony of the council-chamber looking down King Street, and made an