CHAPTER IV.
"————Keep thy counsel well, |
By a short path the stranger and his companion moved from the bridge to the place of gathering. It was not long before they found themselves in the thick of the crowd, upon the green plot in front of the church, from the portals of which the heavy roll of the drum commanded due attention from the populace. The proclamation which the commander of the garrison at Dorchester now proceeded to read to the multitude, was of no small importance. Its contents were well calculated to astound and terrify the Carolinians who heard it. It was one of the many movements of the British commander, unfortunately for the cause of royalty in that region, which, more than anything besides, contributed to arouse and irritate that spirit of resistance on the part of the invaded people, which it should have been the studious policy of the invaders to mollify and suppress. The document in question had been just issued by Sir Henry Clinton, declaring all paroles or protections granted hitherto to be null and void, and requiring the holders of them, within twenty days, to resume the character of British subjects—taking up arms in the promotion of his majesty's cause, against their brethren, under pain of being treated as rebels to his government.
The motive of Sir Henry for a movement so exceedingly injudicious, may be only conjectured from he concurrent circumstances of the time. The continental army, under De Kalb, was on its way to the South—Gates had been ordered to command it—and this intelligence, though not generally known to the people of Carolina,
