verses giving the welcome of so many future planters, Burgesses, and
members of Council would be choice in thought and elegant in expression,
there could be no reasonable doubt. The Council was to give an
entertainment at the Capitol; one day had been set aside for a muster of
militia in the meadow beyond the college, another for a great horse-race;
many small parties were arranged; and last, but not least, on the night of
the day following Darden's appearance in town, his Excellency was to give
a ball at the Palace. Add to all this that two notorious pirates were
standing their trial before a court-martial, with every prospect of being
hanged within the se'ennight; that a deputation of Nottoways and
Meherrins, having business with the white fathers in Williamsburgh, were
to be persuaded to dance their wildest, whoop their loudest, around a
bonfire built in the market square; that at the playhouse Cato was to be
given with extraordinary magnificence, and one may readily see that there
might have been found, in this sunny September week, places less
entertaining than Williamsburgh.

Darden's old white horse, with its double load, plodded along the street
that led to the toy Palace of this toy capital. The Palace, of course, was
not its riders' destination; instead, when they had crossed Nicholson
Street, they drew up before a particularly small white house, so hidden
away behind lilac bushes and trellised grapevines that it gave but here
and there a pale hint of its existence. It was planted in the shadow of a
larger building, and a path led around it to what seemed a pleasant,
shady, and extensive garden.

Mistress Deborah gave a sigh of satisfaction. "Seven years come Martinmas
since I last stayed overnight with Mary Stagg! And we were born in the
same village, and at Bath what mighty friends we were! She was playing
Dorinda,--that's in 'The Beaux' Stratagem,' Audrey,--and her dress was