How the rumor was
communicated no one could tell. It was there believed that the enemy had
fallen upon Ipswich, and massacred the inhabitants without regard to age
or sex.
It was about the middle of the afternoon of this day that the people of
Newbury, ten miles farther north, assembled in an informal meeting, at
the town-house to hear accounts from the Lexington fight, and to consider
what action was necessary in consequence of that event. Parson Carey was
about opening the meeting with prayer when hurried hoof-beats sounded up
the street, and a messenger, loose-haired and panting for breath, rushed
up the staircase. "Turn out, turn out, for God's sake," he cried, "or
you will be all killed! The regulars are marching onus; they are at
Ipswich now, cutting and slashing all before them!" Universal
consternation was the immediate result of this fearful announcement;
Parson Carey's prayer died on his lips; the congregation dispersed over
the town, carrying to every house the tidings that the regulars had come.
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