atures of New England's colonial history.

"I have read but one book of Hawthorne's," said he--"'The Scarlet Letter.'
I do not coincide with you; I think that to be a remarkable instance of
the triumph of genius over difficulties. By the way," said he, "speaking
of authors, what an exquisite poem Tom Moore would have written, had he
visited Chapel Island, which you have seen no doubt? (here he gave a
little nod with the big hat) and what a rich volume would have dropped
from the arabesque pen of your own Irving (another nod), had he written
the life of the Baron de St. Castine, chief of the Abenaquis, as he did
that of Philip of Pokanoket."

"Do you know the particulars of that history?" said I.

"I do not know the particulars," he replied, "only the outlines derived
from chronicle and tradition. Imagination," he added, with a faint smile,
"can supply the rest, just as an engineer pacing a bastion can draw from
it the proportions of the rest of the fortress."

And then, from under the shelter of the big hat, there came low and sad
tones of music, like a requiem over a bier, upon which are laid funeral
flowers, and sword, and plume; a melancholy voice almost intoning the
history of a Christian hero, who had been the chief of that powerful
nation--the rightful owners of the fair lands around us. Even if memory
could now supply the words, it would fail to reproduce the effect conveyed
by the tones of _that voice_. And of the story itself I can but furnish
the faint outlines:

FAINT OUTLINES.

Baron de St. Castine, chief of the Abenaquis, was a Frenchman, born in the
little village of Oberon, in the province of Bearn, about the middle of
the seventeenth century. Three great influences conspired to make him
unhappy--first, education, which at that time was held to be a reputable
part of the discipline of the scions of noble families; next, a delicate
and impressible mind, and lastly, he was born under the shadow of the
Pyrenees, and within sight of the Atlantic. He had also served in the wars
of Louis XIV. as colonel of the Carrignan, Cavignon, or Corignon regiment;
therefore, from his military education, was formed to endure, or to think
lightly of hardships. Although not by profession a Protestant, yet he was
a liberal Catholic. The doctrines of Calvin had been spread throughout the
province during his youth, and John la Placette, a native of Bearn, was
then one of the leaders of the free ch