hakspeare, though, unfortunately, it is now
in far humbler hands."

"A noble subject, truly," said the Colonel, "and from your deprecating
air, I have no doubt that we are to be indebted to your pen for its
production."

"Partly, sir," returned Bernard, with an assumption of modesty. "It is
the joint work of Mr. Hutchinson, the chaplain of his excellency, and
myself."

"Oh! Mr. Bernard, are you a poet," cried the old lady in admiration;
"this is really an honour. Mr. Temple used to write verses when we were
young, and although they were never printed, they were far prettier than
a great deal of the lovesick nonsense that they make such a fuss about.
I was always begging him to publish, but he never would push himself
forward, like others with not half his merit."

"I do not pretend to any merit, my dear madam," said Bernard, "but I
trust that with my rigid loyalty, and parson Hutchinson's rigid
episcopacy, the roundhead puritans will not meet with more favour than
they deserve. Neither of us have been long enough in the colony to have
learned from observation the taste of the Virginians, but there is
abundant evidence on record that they were the last to desert the cause
of loyalty, and to submit to the sway of the puritan Protector."

"Right, my friend, and she ever will be, or else old Henry Temple will
seek out some desolate abode untainted with treason wherein to drag out
the remainder of his days."

"Your loyalty was never more needed," said Bernard; "for Virginia, I
fear, will yet be the scene of a rebellion, which may be but the brief
epitome of the revolution."

"Aye, you refer to this Baconian movement. I had heard that the
demagogue was again in arms. But surely you cannot apprehend any danger
from such a source."

"Well, I trust not; and yet the harmless worm, if left to grow, may
acquire fangs. Bacon is eloquent and popular, and has already under his
standard some of the very flower of the colony. He must be crushed and
crushed at once; and yet I fear the worst from the clemency and delay of
Sir William Berkeley."

"Tell me; what is his ground of quarrel?" asked Temple.

"Why, simply that having taken up arms against the Indians without
authority, and enraging them by his injustice and cruelty, the governor
required him to disband the force he had raised. He peremptorily
refused, and demanded a commission from the governor as general-in-chief
of the forces of Virginia to prosecute this unholy wa