ncing that, Mr.
Mason's suggestion finding favor in his sight, they would forthwith
dismount, dine, drink red wine and white, and wear out the heat of the day
in this sylvan paradise until four of the clock, when the trumpet should
sound for the mount; also, that if the goodwife and her daughter would do
them the honor to partake of their rustic fare, their healths should be
drunk in nothing less than Burgundy.

As he spoke he swung himself from the saddle, pulled out his ruffles, and
raised his hat. "Ladies, permit me,"--a wave of his hand toward his
escort, who were now also on foot. "Colonel Robertson, Captain Clonder,
Captain Brooke, Mr. Haward, Mr. Beverley, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Fontaine, Mr.
Todd, Mr. Mason,--all of the Tramontane Order. For myself, I am Alexander
Spotswood, at your service."

The pioneer, standing behind his wife, plucked her by the sleeve. "Ecod,
Alce, 't is the Governor himself! Mind your manners!"

Alce, who had been a red-cheeked dairymaid in a great house in England,
needed no admonition. Her curtsy was profound; and when the Governor took
her by the hand and kissed her still blooming cheek, she curtsied again.
Molly, who had no memories of fine gentlemen and the complaisance which
was their due, blushed fire-red at the touch of his Excellency's lips,
forgot to curtsy, and knew not where to look. When, in her confusion, she
turned her head aside, her eyes met those of the young man who had
threatened to turn Papist. He bowed, with his hand upon his heart, and she
blushed more deeply than before.

By now every man had dismounted, and the valley was ringing with the
merriment of the jovial crew. The negroes led the horses down the stream,
lightened them of saddle and bridle, and left them tethered to saplings
beneath which the grass grew long and green. The rangers gathered fallen
wood, and kindled two mighty fires, while the gentlemen of the party threw
themselves down beside the stream, upon a little grassy rise shadowed by a
huge sugar-tree. A mound of turf, flanked by two spreading roots, was the
Governor's chair of state, and Alce and Molly he must needs seat beside
him. Not one of his gay company but seemed an adept in the high-flown
compliment of the age; out of very idleness and the mirth born of that
summer hour they followed his Excellency's lead, and plied the two simple
women with all the wordy ammunition that a tolerable acquaintance with the
mythology of the ancients and the poli