ngst the savages. O, they were exemplary
despots! What, when a turn of Fortune's wheel brought them up, could
grateful, loyal gentlemen, could a grateful King's Governor do, but
follow the example set them and be civil to the officers of the late
Commonwealth, and something more than civil to the gentleman who so
gracefully avowed that he had but bowed to the times, and that the
restored sovereign had no more faithful subject than he? When his
Majesty was graciously pleased to continue that gentleman (at the
solicitation of his loyal kindred at home) in the office of
Surveyor-General to this colony, sure, we all rejoiced. It is not with
the past of Major Carrington that I quarrel; it is with the present. In
his case, that which should speak loudest for his recovered loyalty is
wanting. Others there are who have that witness. Let Mr. Digges ride
abroad, and from his cabin-door some prick-eared cur cried out,
'Renegade!' (Pardon me, the word is not mine.) The Oliverian and
schismatic servants spit at him. Is it so with Major Carrington? By
G--d, no! These people uncover to him as though he were the arch rebel
himself. Speak of his Majesty's Surveyor-General before an Oliverian,
and the fellow pricks up his ears like a charger that scents the battle.
Nay, I am told that in their conventicles the schismatics pray for him,
that he may be brought back into the fold, and may become a second
Moses, and lead them out of Egypt! Even the Quakers have a good word for
him. Major Carrington asks me if I question his loyalty. I answer that I
know not, but I do know that the discontented and mutinous of the land
do look upon him with too favorable a regard. And his loyalty is of that
tender age that it may well be susceptible to the influence of the evil
eye." The Governor, who was now in a white heat of passion, stopped for
breath.

"Sir William Berkeley, you shall answer to me for this!" said the
Surveyor-General, with white lips.

"With all the pleasure in life," said the Governor, clapping his hand to
his rapier.

Carrington folded his arms. "Not now," he said, with stern courtesy. "I
believe your Excellency sleeps at Verney Manor? I, too, am invited
thither. There, and it please you, we will adjust our little difference.
For the present, you are my guest."

The Governor choked down his passion, though with difficulty. "Till
to-night then--" he began, when Colonel Verney interposed.

"Neither to-night, nor at any other time,"