The news was received in England with astonishment and sorrow. Great
concessions had been made by Parliament, but the news had reached
America too late to avoid hostilities. Public opinion was divided;
many were in favor of granting at once all that the colonists
demanded, and many officers of rank and position resigned their
commissions rather than fight against the Americans. The division,
indeed, was almost as general and complete as it had been in the time
of our own civil war. In London the feeling in favor of the colonists
was strong, but in the country generally the determination to repress
the rising was in the ascendant. The colonists had, with great
shrewdness, dispatched a fast-sailing ship to Europe upon the day
following the battle of Lexington, giving their account of the
affair, and representing it as a massacre of defenseless colonists by
British troops; and the story thus told excited a sympathy which
would not, perhaps, have been extended to them had the real facts of
the case been known. Representatives from all the colonies met at
Philadelphia to organize the national resistance; but as yet,
although many of the bolder spirits spoke of altogether throwing off
allegiance to England, no resolution was proposed to that effect.

For the first six weeks after his arrival at Boston, Captain Wilson
was engaged in drilling his company. Harold was, of course, attached
to it, and entered with ardor upon his duties. Captain Wilson did not
attempt to form his men into a band of regular soldiers; accuracy of
movement and regularity of drill would be of little avail in the
warfare in which they were likely to be engaged. Accuracy in
shooting, quickness in taking cover, and steadiness in carrying out
any general orders were the principal objects to be attained. Most of
the men had already taken part in frontier warfare. The majority of
them were gentlemen--Englishmen who, like their captain, had come out