the trial justice, Rivers.  Rivers proceeded to court alone and found Butler there waiting for him.  He was about to proceed with the case when Butler asked for more time, which request was granted.  He went away and never returned to the court.  Instead he went to the council chamber, being surrounded now by greater and greater numbers of armed men, and he sent a committee to the officers asking that they come to the council chamber to see him.  The men again declined for the same reason as before.  Butler now sent an ultimatum demanding that the officers apologize for what took place on July 4 and that they surrender to him their arms, threatening that if the surrender was not made at once he would take their guns and officers by force.  Adams and his men now awoke to a full sense of their danger, and they asked Rivers, who was not only trial justice but also Major General of the division of the militia to which they belonged, if he demanded their arms of them.  Rivers replied that he did not.  Thereupon the officers refused the request of Butler on the ground that he had no legal right to demand their arms or to receive them if surrendered.  At this point Butler let it be known that he demanded the surrender of the arms within half an hour and that if he did not receive them he would “lay the d——­ town in ashes.”  Asked in an interview whether, if his terms were complied with, he would guarantee protection to the people of the town he answered that he did not know and that that would depend altogether upon how they behaved themselves.

Butler now went with a companion to Augusta, returning in about thirty minutes.  A committee called upon him as soon as he got back.  He had only to say that he demanded the arms immediately.  Asked if he would accept the boxing up of the arms and the sending of them to the Governor, he said, “D——­ the Governor.  I am not here to consult him, but am here as Colonel Butler, and this won’t stop until after November.”  Asked again if he would guarantee general protection if the arms were surrendered, he said, “I guarantee nothing.”

All the while scores of mounted men were about the streets.  Such members of the militia company as were in town and their friends to the number of thirty-eight repaired to their armory—­a large brick building about two hundred yards from the river—­and barricaded themselves for protection.  Firing upon the armory was begun by the mounted men, and after half an hour there were occasional shots from within.  After a while the men in the building heard an order to bring cannon from Augusta, and they began to leave the building from the rear, concealing themselves as well as they could in a cornfield.  The cannon was brought and discharged three or four times, those firing it not knowing that the building had been evacuated.  When they realized their mistake they made a general search through lots and yards for the members of the company and finally captured twenty-seven of them,