leaned partisans and halberds;
and it was hung about on nails driven in for the occasion, with
shining corslets, and swords, and daggers.

Arundel had barely time to run his eyes over the preparations, when a
salvo of cannon announced that the Governor was starting from his
house, and presently appeared the procession, preceded by martial
music. First came the musicians, whose number it must be confessed was
not very large; next followed twenty stout men bearing halberds or
staves of about five feet in length, finished off at the end with a
steel head in the shape of an axe; immediately after these marched the
Governor, attended by his Council of Assistants, all wearing swords at
their sides, and several "ministers;" after whom followed the
Taranteen embassy, consisting of about a dozen noble looking Indians
of various ages, from thirty to seventy; and the whole was closed by
two or three hundred men, completely armed with both the offensive and
defensive arms of the period. The steeple-crowned hats, the slashed
sleeves, the red stockings, russet boots, and rosettes on the shoes,
made a combination which, if it would be quaint and grotesque in our
eyes, was striking to those who witnessed it.

As the procession came nearer, Arundel could see among those in the
immediate neighborhood of Winthrop, the Knight of the Golden Melice,
conspicuous for the richness of his habiliments, adopted either to
heighten the general effect of the ceremonial, or to increase his
authority with the Indians, over some tribes of whom it was known that
he possessed considerable influence. The Knight, indeed, well
understood how much manner and external adornment affect not only the
savage but the civilized man. A perfect master of the former, he was
uniformly courteous. No frown ever deformed his face, nor even wrinkle
ruffled its placid surface, on which was stamped the expression of a
sweet and confiding nature; and, when circumstances required, he knew
how to resort to the latter with an effect which seldom failed of
achieving its purpose.

When the procession reached the files extending from the throne, the
soldiery composing them presented arms, and the musicians stepping on
one side, the Governor, preceded by his halbadiers, and accompanied by
the Knight, his Council, and the Indians, walked between, and seated
himself on the chair of State, while those who were with him occupied
the other seats, and the halbadiers posted themselves a