whence proceeded the voices of many
guests. The casement of one of the lower windows was thrown back, and a
very thin curtain permitted Robin to distinguish a party at supper,
round a well-furnished table. The fragrance of the good cheer steamed
forth into the outer air, and the youth could not fail to recollect
that the last remnant of his travelling stock of provision had yielded
to his morning appetite, and that noon had found and left him
dinnerless.

"Oh, that a parchment three-penny might give me a right to sit down at
yonder table!" said Robin, with a sigh. "But the Major will make me
welcome to the best of his victuals; so I will even step boldly in, and
inquire my way to his dwelling."

He entered the tavern, and was guided by the murmur of voices and the
fumes of tobacco to the public-room. It was a long and low apartment,
with oaken walls, grown dark in the continual smoke, and a floor which
was thickly sanded, but of no immaculate purity. A number of
persons--the larger part of whom appeared to be mariners, or in some
way connected with the sea--occupied the wooden benches, or
leatherbottomed chairs, conversing on various matters, and occasionally
lending their attention to some topic of general interest. Three or
four little groups were draining as many bowls of punch, which the West
India trade had long since made a familiar drink in the colony. Others,
who had the appearance of men who lived by regular and laborious
handicraft, preferred the insulated bliss of an unshared potation, and
became more taciturn under its influence. Nearly all, in short, evinced
a predilection for the Good Creature in some of its various shapes, for
this is a vice to which, as Fast Day sermons of a hundred years ago
will testify, we have a long hereditary claim. The only guests to whom
Robin's sympathies inclined him were two or three sheepish countrymen,
who were using the inn somewhat after the fashion of a Turkish
caravansary; they had gotten themselves into the darkest corner of the
room, and heedless of the Nicotian atmosphere, were supping on the
bread of their own ovens, and the bacon cured in their own
chimney-smoke. But though Robin felt a sort of brotherhood with these
strangers, his eyes were attracted from them to a person who stood near
the door, holding whispered conversation with a group of ill-dressed
associates. His features were separately striking almost to
grotesqueness, and the whole face left a deep imp