.

Ashley saw the look he bent upon the travellers, and he made them
known to one another.

"These friends have travelled far from the lands of the south, and
have been friends in need to our kinsmen yonder. Fritz Neville and
Julian Dautray are their names.

"Susanna, set food before them. Your mother will not be able to
think of aught just now. We must let her have her cry out before we
trouble her."

The rest of the party seated themselves, whilst in the recess by
the window Hannah stood between the brothers she had parted from
ten years ago, listening to their tale, and weeping as she
listened.

Ashley turned to his two guests, who were eating with appetite from
the well-filled platters placed before them, and he began to speak
as though taking up a theme which had lately been dropped.

"It is no wonder that you are perplexed by what you hear and see in
this city. I will seek to make the point at issue as clear to you
as it may be. You have doubtless heard of the Penn family, from
whom this colony takes its name. Much we owe to our founder--his
wisdom, liberality, and enlightenment; but his sons are hated here.
They are absent in England, but they are the proprietaries of vast
tracts of land, and it is with regard to these lands that the
troubles in the Assembly arise. The proprietaries are regarded as
renegades from the faith; for the Assembly here is Quaker almost to
a man. They hate the feudalism of the tenure of the proprietaries,
and they are resolved to tax these lands, although they will not
defend them, and although no income is at present derived from
them."

"Have they the power to do so?" asked Julian.

"Not without the consent of the Governor. That is where the whole
trouble lies. And the Governor has no power to grant them leave to
tax the proprietary lands. Not only so, but he is expressly
forbidden by the terms of his commission to permit this taxation.
But the Assembly will not yield the point, nor will they consent to
furnish means for the defence of the colony until this point is
conceded. That is where the deadlock comes in. The Governor cannot
yield; his powers do not permit it. The Assembly will not yield.
They hate the thought of war, and seem glad to shelter themselves
behind this quibble. For a while many of us, their friends,
although not exactly at one with them in all things, stood by them
and upheld them; but we are fast losing patience now. When it comes
to having our peacefu