widely different, for with Bradford's
grief was mingled self-reproach and keen introspection; he weighed his
own life, he found it wanting, he condemned it, and offering his
suffering as righteous penance, he extolled the justice of God, and
submitted himself as a culprit to the scourge.

But Standish thought neither of the justice of God nor of his own
demerits, nor had he skill or practice for introspection. "A man under
authority and having soldiers under him," he both rendered and expected
obedience, prompt, entire, and unquestioning. His was a nature of
loyalty so magnificent as to need no buttresses of reason, or of
self-distrust, a loyalty so sweet as to be unconscious of itself, a
loyalty so entire that the soul could not get outside of it to consider
it objectively.

The order came from the King of kings, and it was to be obeyed, or
endured; the King could do no wrong.

Nor indeed had he been skilled to search, could Myles have found matter
for self-reproach in all his dealings with the child dying at his side.

Busy from his boyhood in the pursuit of arms, and loving his mother with
all the force of his great nature, the man had cared little for other
women, turning with scorn from the meretricious charms of those he
encountered in camp or among his comrades, and finding no time or
inclination to seek others, so that except for the light fancies of an
hour, or the calm affection for his cousin Barbara, whom he found on one
of his visits to his home in Chorley giving a daughter's tendance to his
mother, Standish had passed his three and thirtieth birthday ignorant of
the nature of love, and mocking at its power.

But the first glance at the lovely girl weeping beside her mother's
grave warned him that a new hour had struck, and a new foe opposed him;
nor was he long in making full and frank surrender to an authority as
strong as it was gentle, and as tyrannous as sweet.

Motionless and erect the soldier sat the long night through, and as if
she gathered strength from the grasp of his healthy hand, Rose slept
quietly until the sun rose, and the women still well enough to wait upon
the sick came softly in.

Then she opened her eyes, fixed them upon his with a tender smile, and
said,--

"Poor Myles! Thou hast watched all night while selfish I held thee and
slept. But now begone and get thine own rest and food. I shall do well
with these kind friends."

"I'll leave thee, then, for a little, but I shall