"
His air, evincing not the slightest perturbation or anxiety on his own
part, but carrying it as if they only were in peril, startled and
filled them with inquietude. His evident conviction that there was
more peril at their end of the guns than at his, impressed them. They
lowered their muskets, some threw them down. The line wavered.
"He lies. Shoot him! Fire! Damn you, fire!" yelled Hubbard in a panic.
"The first man that fires hangs for murder!" thundered Sedgwick.
"Throw down your arms and you shall not be harmed."
"Kin yew say that for sartin, Squire?" asked Laban, hesitatingly.
"No, he lies. Our only chance is to fight!" yelled Hubbard,
frantically. "Shoot him, I tell you."
But at this critical moment when the result of Sedgwick's daring
experiment was still in doubt, the issue was determined by the
appearance of the laggard infantry at the mouth of the Stockbridge
road, while simultaneously shots resounding from the north and south
showed that the flanking companies were closing in.
"We're surrounded! Run for your lives!" was shouted on every side, and
the line broke in confusion.
"Arrest that man!" said Sedgwick, pointing to Hubbard, and instantly
Laban Jones and others of his former followers had seized him.
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