The retreating army dragged wearily forward, fighting
as bravely as possible, but on the verge of confusion and panic.
They reached Lexington Common at two o'clock, quite overcome with fatigue.
There they were met by one thousand two hundred fresh troops, under Lord
Percy, whose timely arrival saved the entire force from capture. Lord
Percy's men formed a square for the protection of the retreating soldiers,
and into it they staggered, falling upon the ground, "with their tongues
hanging out of their mouths like those of dogs after a chase."
After resting for an hour, the British again took up their march to
Boston. The minutemen, increasing in numbers every moment, kept up the
same kind of running attack that they had made between Concord and
Lexington until, late in the day, the redcoats came under the protection
of the guns of the war vessels in Boston Harbor.
The British had failed. There was no denying that. They had been driven
back, almost in a panic, to Boston, with a loss of nearly three hundred
men. The Americans had not lost one hundred.
But the King was not aroused to the situation. He had a vision of his
superb regiments in their brilliant uniforms overriding all before them.
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