"Will your Excellency permit me to volunteer for guard duty?" demanded a
young man who had pressed his horse to the leader's side. "It's odds,
though, that when you return this way you'll find me turned Papist. I'll
swear your Excellency never saw in Flanders carved or painted saint so
worthy of your prayers as yonder breathing one!"
The girl Molly had followed her parents, and now stood upon a little
grassy knoll, surveying with wide brown eyes the gay troop before her. A
light wind was blowing, and it wrapped her dress of tender, faded blue
around her young limbs, and lifted her loosened hair, gilded by the
sunshine into the likeness of an aureole. Her face was serious and
wondering, but fair as a woodland flower. She had placed her hand upon the
head of the child who was with her, clinging to her dress. The green knoll
formed a pedestal; behind was the sky, as blue as that of Italy; the two
figures might have been some painted altar-piece.
The sprightly company, which had taken for its motto "Sic juvat
transcendere montes," looked and worshiped. There was a moment of silent
devotion, broken by one of the gentlemen demanding if 't were not time for
dinner; another remarked that they might go much farther and fare much
worse, in respect of a cool, sweet spot in which to rest during the heat
of the afternoon; and a third boldly proposed that they go no farther at
all that day. Their leader settled the question by announcing that, Mr.
Mason's suggestion finding favor in his sight, they would forthwith
dismount, dine, drink red wine and white, and wear out the heat of the day
in this sylvan paradise until four of the clock, when the trumpet should
sound for the mount; also, that if the goodwife and her daughter would do
them the honor to partake of their rustic fare, their healths should be
drunk in nothing less than Burgundy.
As he spoke he swung himself from the saddle, pulled out his ruffles, and
raised his hat. "Ladies, permit me,"--a wave of his hand toward his
escort, who were now also on foot. "Colonel Robertson, Captain Clonder,
Captain Brooke, Mr. Haward, Mr. Beverley, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Fontaine, Mr.
Todd, Mr. Mason,--all of the Tramontane Order. For myself, I am Alexander
Spotswood, at your service."
The pioneer, standing behind his wife, plucked her by the sleeve. "Ecod,
Alce, 't is the Governor himself! Mind your manners!"
Alce, who had been a red-cheeked dairymaid in a great house in England,
needed no admonition. Her curtsy was profound; and when the Governor took
her by the hand and kissed her still blooming cheek, she curtsied again.
Molly, who had no memories of fine gentlemen and the complaisance which
was their due, blushed fire-red at the touch of his Excellency's lips,
forgot to curtsy, and knew not where to look. When, in her confusion, she
turned her head aside, her eyes met those of the young man who had
threatened to turn Papist. He bowed, with his hand upon his heart, and she
blushed more deeply than before.