Another group of characters had now partly descended the staircase.
The first was a venerable and white-bearded patriarch who cautiously
felt his way downward with a staff. Treading hastily behind him, and
stretching forth his gauntleted hand as if to grasp the old man's
shoulder, came a tall soldier-like figure equipped with a plumed cap
of steel, a bright breastplate and a long sword, which rattled against
the stairs. Next was seen a stout man dressed in rich and courtly
attire, but not of courtly demeanor; his gait had the swinging motion
of a seaman's walk, and, chancing to stumble on the staircase, he
suddenly grew wrathful and was heard to mutter an oath. He was
followed by a noble-looking personage in a curled wig such as are
represented in the portraits of Queen Anne's time and earlier, and the
breast of his coat was decorated with an embroidered star. While
advancing to the door he bowed to the right hand and to the left in a
very gracious and insinuating style, but as he crossed the threshold,
unlike the early Puritan governors, he seemed to wring his hands with
sorrow.

"Prithee, play the part of a chorus, good Dr. Byles," said Sir William
Howe. "What worthies are these?"

"If it please Your Excellency, they lived somewhat before my day,"
answered the doctor; "but doubtless our friend the colonel has been
hand and glove with them."

"Their living faces I never looked upon," said Colonel Joliffe,
gravely; "although I have spoken face to face with many rulers of this
land, and shall greet yet another with an old man's blessing ere I
die. But we talk of these figures. I take the venerable patriarch to
be Bradstreet, the last of the Puritans, who was governor at ninety or
thereabouts. The next is Sir Edmund Andros, a tyrant, as any New
England schoolboy will tell you, and therefore the people cast him
down from his high seat into a dungeon. Then comes Sir William Phipps,
shepherd, cooper, sea-captain and governor. May many of his countrymen
rise as high from as low an origin! Lastly, you saw the gracious earl
of Bellamont, who ruled us under King William."

"But what is the meaning of it all?" asked Lord Percy.

"Now, were I a rebel," said Miss Joliffe, half aloud, "I might fancy
that the ghosts of these ancient governors had been summoned to form
the funeral procession of royal authority in New England."

Several other figures were now seen at the turn of the staircase. The
one in advance had a thought