ight, who had strictly commanded him not to put foot upon the soil
under the jurisdiction of Winthrop, continued to keep up a
communication with his mistress. Pretty Prudence, like a beleaguered
city hard bested, kept the enemy Spikeman at bay; nor did he, with all
his parallels and circumvallations, make any progress. Not so,
however, thought the Assistant, (for what man cannot the cunning of a
coquette deceive?) who every once in a while fancied the fortress was
about to capitulate. Whenever he began to despair, a few sweet smiles,
or a word of encouragement, were sufficient to re-kindle hope; for
though the girl hated him, she yet took a mischievous pleasure in
practising her caprices on him, and keeping him dangling at her apron
strings.

Such was the state of things, when one morning a canoe was seen
entering the harbor of Boston, containing a couple of Indians. They
paddled directly up to the wharf, where several persons were standing,
looking on, while others were engaged in various employments connected
with commerce, and sedately stepping on shore, one of them hauled the
canoe upon the beach, beyond the rising of the tide. This being done,
they advanced in the direction of the group of white men. The one who
was evidently the leader, as well from his walking first, (the other
stepping in his track,) as well as from the superior richness of his
dress, which was the skin of a moose loosely disposed over his
shoulders as a robe, and that of a deer divested of its hair,
beautifully tanned, and painted in bright colors, for a breech cloth,
with the feathers of some bird in his scalp lock; while the garments
of his follower were merely deer skins dressed with the hair;
pronounced, as soon as they came within about a rod of the white men,
the single word "Taranteen," and then both stopped. So similar were
the dress and general appearance of the Indian tribes to one another,
that the eye alone would have been insufficient to detect a
difference; but the utterance of the word indicated at once to which
one the new comers belonged, and their desire to have it immediately
understood. Various questions were now asked by the curious, who
thronged around the savages, but no answer was returned save the word
Taranteen, and some words that sounded like an attempt at French.

The gallant Captain Sparhawk, who, to judge from the part he took in
the conversation, and the emphasis wherewith he expressed his
opinions, was the pri