be taken, or had omitted any courtesy or
attention; but he could find nothing to reproach himself with. He was
unable to believe that Waqua would steal away without formally taking
leave, on account of any slight or impertinence from another, after
the command of himself he had exhibited following the violence of
Spikeman; and, finally, tried to avoid thinking of the subject,
expecting that the truant would turn up at some time during the day,
and explain his absence.

Meanwhile, it was understood that the expected deputation of the
Taranteens had arrived, and been received at the house of the
Governor. Armed men had been constantly coming into town; their wives
and children, in some instances, accompanying them; until the
settlement had become a scene of gay and animated confusion. The place
fixed upon for the reception of the ambassadors (there being no
building sufficiently large to contain the number present, and who
were anxious to witness the ceremony) was an elevation near the
village, commanding a view of the buildings, of the green rolling bay,
and of the ships tossing on its waves. Here, under the shade of a
patriarchal elm, spreading like an umbrella its immense and gracefully
drooping branches over a wide extent of green turf, Winthrop was to
give public audience to the dusky delegates.

The hour for the reception had nearly arrived, when Arundel strolled
to the place appointed. He found it covered with a crowd of five or
six hundred persons, including the women and children. The number of
armed men might have been two-thirds of the whole. The women were
gossipping together, and the children amusing themselves in sports
becoming their age, while the soldiers were ranged in double files,
extending from a large chair or kind of throne placed near the body of
the tree, thus forming a lane, only by passing through which could
access be had to it. The spot where the chair was placed was covered
to some little distance around with scarlet cloth--the chair itself as
representative of majesty, with cloth of gold--and on either side
stood grimly a culverin or small cannon, capable of carrying a ball of
seventeen or eighteen pounds in weight--silent, but eloquent orators,
to convince of the ability of him who might occupy the seat to enforce
his words. Other chairs, to the number of perhaps twenty, were ranged
in a semi-circle on either side of the seat intended for Winthrop;
while against the body of the tree were