This particular incident happens in Chapter 20, when Isabel goes into town on an errand.  When Isabel enters town, she sees the rebels throwing a rope around a larger-than-life statue of King George III on a horse.  The rebels proceed to pull the statue down and begin hacking at it with axes.  Isabel finds it ironic that the statue is lead with a very thin layer of gold over it.  When the rebels agree to melt down the lead to make bullets, one of the rebels exclaims, “We’ll fire Majesty at the redcoats!”  When the rebels "take down" the statue of King George III, it means that they are publicly announcing their position against England.  The irony is, the rebels do a lot more than just take the statue down:  they chop through it with axes. This foreshadows the brutality found within the battles of the American Revolution.