“McNeir, the rogue,” exclaimed Mr. Carvel, “and that hulk of a tanner, Brown.  And I would know those smith’s shoulders in a thousand.”  “Right, sir,” says Pryse, “and ’twill serve them proper. when the King’s troops come among them for quartering.”  Pryse being the gentry’s patron, shaped his politics according to the company he was in:  he could ill be expected to seize one of his own ash spokes and join the resistance.  Just then I caught a glimpse of Captain Clapsaddle on the skirts of the crowd, and with him Mr. Swain and some of the dissenting gentry.  And my boyish wrath burst forth against that man smirking and smiling on the decks of the bark, so that I shouted shrilly:  “Mr. Hood will be cudgelled and tarred as he deserves,” and shook my little fist at him, so that many under us laughed and cheered me.  Mr. Carvel pushed me back into the window and out of their sight.

The crew of the bark had assembled on the quarterdeck, stout English tars every man of them, armed with pikes and belaying-pins; and at a word from the mate they rushed in a body over the plank.  Some were thrust off into the water, but so fierce was their onset that others gained the wharf, laying sharply about them in all directions, but getting full as many knocks as they gave.  For a space there was a very bedlam of cries and broken heads, those behind in the mob surging forward to reach the scrimmage, forcing their own comrades over the edge.  McNeir had his thigh broken by a pike, and was dragged back after the first rush was over; and the mate of the bark was near to drowning, being rescued, indeed, by Graham, the tanner.  Mr. Hood stood white in the gangway, dodging a missile now and then, waiting his chance, which never came.  For many of the sailors were captured and carried bodily to the “Rose and Crown” and the “Three Blue Balls,” where they became properly drunk on Jamaica rum; others made good their escape on board.  And at length the bark cast off again, amidst jeers and threats, and one-third of her crew missing, and drifted slowly back to the roads.

From the dock, after all was quiet, Mr. Carvel stepped into his barge and rowed to the Governor’s, whose house was prettily situated near Hanover Street, with ground running down to the Severn.  His Excellency appeared much relieved to see my grandfather; Mr. Daniel Dulany was with him, and the three gentlemen at once repaired to the Governor’s writing-closet for consultation.

Mr. Carvel’s town house being closed, we stopped with his Excellency.  There were, indeed, scarce any of the gentry in town at that season save a few of the Whig persuasion.  Excitement ran very high; farmers flocked in every day from the country round about to take part in the demonstration against the Act.  Mr. Hood’s storehouse was burned to the ground.  Mr. Hood getting ashore by stealth, came, however, unmolested to Annapolis and offered at a low price the goods he had brought out in the bark, thinking thus to propitiate his enemies.  This step but inflamed them the more.