Revere's road was now clear. He reached
Medford, and roused the captain of the minute
men ; then, hastening on through Menotomy,
now Arlington, and thence to Lexington,
he " alarmed almost every house." He reached
Lexington about midnight, and went directly
to the house of the Reverend Jonas Clark,
where Hancock and Adams were sleeping under
a guard of the militia. Revere asked admit-
tance, and the sergeant informed him that the
family had requested that no noise be made.
"Noise!" replied Revere in the phrase
familiar to every schoolboy, "you'll have
noise enough before long — the regulars are
coming out!" 1 The family was accordingly
at once aroused.
1 Most of these facts are from Frothingham's " Siege,"
57-59, and from Revere's letter.
184 The Siege of Boston

Meanwhile the troops had actually started.
"Between 10 and 11 o'clock," says Lieutenant
Barker, "all the Grenadiers and Light In-
fantry of the Army, making about 600 Men,
(under command of Lt. Coll. Smith of
the 10th and Major Pitcairn of the Marines,)
embarked and were landed on the opposite
shore of Cambridge Marsh." This phras-
ing is not immediately clear to one of to-day.
In those days every regiment had two special
companies, the heavy-armed grenadiers, so
called because they originally carried hand-
grenades, and the light-infantry company.
