Along with this, however, there was an obvious spirit
of dissatisfaction, partial, it is true, as to numbers, but yet
sufficiently marked as to satisfy an observer that such a people, if
united upon any particular subject or occasion, were not for a moment to
be trifled with or cajoled. Their feelings upon the day in question were
stirred into more than usual warmth. A friend, a neighbor, a man of
an old and respectable family, frugal, industrious, and loyal, as
they said, both to king and country, was now forced from want of due
encouragement from his landlord, to disturb all his old associations
of friendship and kindred, and at rather an advanced state of life
to encounter the perils of a long voyage, and subject himself and his
family to the changes and chances which he must encounter in a new
world, and in a different state of society. Indeed, the feeling which
prompted the expression of these sentiments might be easily gathered
from the character that pervaded the crowd. Not to such an extent,
however, with respect to Wallace himself or any portion of his family,
There might be observed upon him and them a quiet but resolute spirit,
firm, collected, and cheerful; but still, while there were visible no
traces of dejection or grief, it was easy to perceive that under this
decent composure there existed a calm consciousness of strong stern
feeling, whose dignity, if not so touching, was quite as impressive as
the exhibition of louder and more clamorous grief.
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