ched himself free, and making for this gentleman might have given or
received bodily injury, had not a heavy hand falling upon his shoulder
stopped him in mid-career.

"Stand aside, boy," said MacLean, "This quarrel's mine by virtue of my
making it so. Mistress Truelove, you shall have no further annoyance. Now,
you Lowland cowards that cannot see a flower bloom but you wish to trample
it in the mire, come taste the ground yourself, and be taught that the
flower is out of reach!"

As he spoke he stepped before the Quakeress, weaponless, but with his eyes
like steel. The half dozen spendthrifts and ne'er-do-weels whom he faced
paused but long enough to see that this newly arrived champion had only
his bare hands, and was, by token of his dress, undoubtedly their
inferior, before setting upon him with drunken laughter and the loudly
avowed purpose of administering a drubbing. The one that came first he
sent rolling to the floor. "Another for Hector!" he said coolly.

The silversmith, ensconced in safety behind the table, wrung his hands.
"Sirs, sirs! Take your quarrel into the street! I'll no have fighting in
my store. What did ye rin in here for, ye Quaker baggage? Losh! did ye
ever see the like of that! Here, boy, ye can get through the window. Rin
for the constable! Rin, I tell ye, or there'll be murder done!"

A gentleman who had entered the store unobserved drew his rapier, and with
it struck up a heavy cane which was in the act of descending for the
second time upon the head of the unlucky Scot. "What is all this?" he
asked quietly. "Five men against one,--that is hardly fair play. Ah, I see
there were six; I had overlooked the gentleman on the floor, who, I hope,
is only stunned. Five to one,--the odds are heavy. Perhaps I can make them
less so." With a smile upon his lips, he stepped backward a foot or two
until he stood with the weaker side.

Now, had it been the constable who so suddenly appeared upon the scene,
the probabilities are that the fight, both sides having warmed to it,
would, despite the terrors of the law, have been carried to a finish. But
it was not the constable; it was a gentleman recently returned from
England, and become in the eyes of the youth of Williamsburgh the glass of
fashion and the mould of form. The youngster with the shoulder knots had
copied color and width of ribbon from a suit which this gentleman had worn
at the Palace; the rake with the wig awry, who passed for a wit, had do