en counties filled the twenty houses that
constituted the town to suffocation. Up-river planters, too, had come
in, choosing the time the Assembly was in session to attend to their
interests in the "city." Several ships were in harbor, and their
captains, professing themselves tired of salt water, threw themselves
upon the hospitality of their friends ashore. The crowded population
overflowed into the houses of the neighboring planters, who, after the
manner of their kind, entertained profusely, giving jovial welcome and
good liquor to all comers. There was a constant jingling of reins along
the bridle paths, a constant passing of white-sailed sloops upon the
river, as gentlemen in riding coats and jack boots, or in laced coats
and silk stockings, fared to and fro between plantation and town. In the
intervals of business the worthy burgesses and their fellow planters
made merry. They were good times--for king's men--and it behooved every
loyal subject to follow (at a respectful distance) his Majesty's
example, and get all possible enjoyment from a laughing world. So there
were horse-races and cock-fights and bear-baitings, as well as dinners
and suppers, at which much sack and aqua vitae was drunk to king, church,
and reigning beauties. And if a quarrel sprung, full armed, from the
heated brains of young gallants, crossed rapiers did but add a piquancy,
a dash of cayenne, to life.

Popular with the elder gentlemen because of his excellent Madeira, quick
wit, jovial soul, and friendship with the Governor, and with the younger
by virtue of being father to Mistress Patricia Verney, Colonel Richard
Verney had no difficulty in securing a score of guests for a day's
entertainment at Verney Manor.

About ten in the morning of the appointed day the guests began to
arrive, some by water, some on horseback, Colonel Verney meeting each
arrival with a stately bow and a high-flown speech of welcome, and
handing him on to the hall where stood Sir Charles Carew and the ladies
of the household.

Upon a pillion behind her father, Major Miles Carrington,
Surveyor-General to the Colony, came Mistress Betty Carrington, bosom
friend to Mistress Patricia Verney. Her sweetly serious face, pensive
eyes, and smooth, dark hair, with her dress of sober silk and kerchief
of finest lawn, demurely crossed over her bosom, contrasted finely with
Patricia's radiant beauty, decked in shimmering satin and rich lace, and
heightened by a tinge of vermil