eagre and haggard, and probably caused
him to appear as if he hardly belonged to the world."

"Was not the witchcraft delusion partly caused by Cotton Mather?"
inquired Laurence.

"He was the chief agent of the mischief," answered Grandfather; "but
we will not suppose that he acted otherwise than conscientiously. He
believed that there were evil spirits all about the world. Doubtless
he imagined that they were hidden in the corners and crevices of his
library, and that they peeped out from among the leaves of many of
his books, as he turned them over, at midnight. He supposed that these
unlovely demons were everywhere, in the sunshine as well as in the
darkness, and that they were hidden in men's hearts, and stole into
their most secret thoughts."

Here Grandfather was interrupted by little Alice, who hid her face
in his lap, and murmured a wish that he would not talk any more about
Cotton Mather and the evil spirits. Grandfather kissed her, and told her
that angels were the only spirits whom she had anything to do with.

He then spoke of the public affairs of the period.

A new War between France and England had broken out in 1702, and had
been raging ever since. In the course of it, New England suffered much
injury from the French and Indians, who often came through the woods
from Canada and assaulted the frontier towns. Villages were sometimes
burned, and the inhabitants slaughtered, within a day's ride of Boston.
The people of New England had a bitter hatred against the French, not
only for the mischief which they did with their own hands, but because
they incited the Indians to hostility.

The New-Englanders knew that they could never dwell in security until
the provinces of France should be subdued and brought under the
English government. They frequently, in time of war, undertook military
expeditions against Acadia and Canada, and sometimes besieged the
fortresses by which those territories were defended. But the most
earnest wish of their hearts was to take Quebec, and so get possession
of the whole province of Canada. Sir William Phips had once attempted
it, but without success.

Fleets and soldiers were often sent from England to assist the colonists
in their warlike undertakings. In 1710 Port Royal, a fortress of Acadia,
was taken by the English. The next year, in the month of June, a fleet,
commanded by Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker, arrived in Boston Harbor. On
board of this fleet was the English Gen