about eight o'clock in the evening
Those who had put their furniture into carts unloaded it , and those who had buried their silver in their cellars dug it up to use on the tea table . Nevertheless , along about dusk , a good many men living in Stockbridge , who had been down to Great Barrington all day , came home drunk and flushed with victory and these , with the aid of some of the same kidney in the village , kept up a lively racket all the evening , varied with petty outrages which Perez thought best to ignore , knowing too well the precarious tenure of his authority , to endanger it by overstrictness . Perhaps , indeed , he was not wholly averse to such occasional displays by the mob , as would keep before the gentlemen of the town a vivid impression of what would be in store for them if but for his guardianship . It was about eight o'clock in the evening that , coming in sight of the store , he saw it besieged by a gang of men , whom Squire Edwards , visible against the background of the lighted doorway , was expostulating with . The men were drunk and reckless . They wanted rum and were bound to have it , and on the other hand the Squire had evidently made up his mind that if they got into his store in their present mood , they would be likely to plunder him of whatever he had , and drawing valor from desperation , was opposing , a resistance which involved no small personal peril . The crowd , besides being drunk , was composed of the very men who had grudged him his escape from the whipping-post a few days previous , and was by no means disposed to stand on ceremony with him .