Audrey and Mistress Deborah, mounted upon the sorriest of Darden's sorry
steeds, turned from Duke of Gloucester into Palace Street. They had parted
with the minister before his favorite ordinary, and were on their way to
the house where they themselves were to lodge during the three days of
town life which Darden had vouchsafed to offer them.

For a month or more Virginia had been wearing black ribbons for the King,
who died in June, but in the last day or so there had been a reversion to
bright colors. This cheerful change had been wrought by the arrival in the
York of the Fortune of Bristol, with the new governor on board. His
Excellency had landed at Yorktown, and, after suitable entertainment at
the hands of its citizens, had proceeded under escort to Williamsburgh.
The entry into the town was triumphal, and when, at the doorway of his
Palace, the Governor turned, and addressed a pleasing oration to the
people whom he was to rule in the name of the King and my Lord of Orkney,
enthusiasm reached its height. At night the town was illuminated, and
well-nigh all its ladies and gentlemen visited the Palace, in order to
pay their duty to its latest occupant. It was a pleasure-loving people,
and the arrival of a governor an occasion of which the most must be made.
Gentlemen of consideration had come in from every county, bringing with
them wives and daughters. In the mild, sunshiny weather the crowded town
overflowed into square and street and garden. Everywhere were bustle and
gayety,--gayety none the less for the presence of thirty or more ministers
of the Established Church. For Mr. Commissary Blair had convoked a meeting
of the clergy for the consideration of evils affecting that body,--not,
alas! from without alone. The Governor, arriving so opportunely, must,
too, be addressed upon the usual subjects of presentation, induction, and
all-powerful vestries. It was fitting, also, that the college of William
and Mary should have its say upon the occasion, and the brightest scholar
thereof was even now closeted with the Latin master. That the copy of