soldier is
harsh. It was against both my feeling and my judgment. How often am I
compelled to practise a severity over which my softer, and perhaps
weaker nature, mourns!"

CHAPTER III.

"I am sorry one so learned and so wise,
As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood
And lack of tempered judgment afterward."

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Early in the afternoon of the same day, a man whom we recognize as the
servant we saw at the Governor's house, entered a building which stood
not far from the margin of the bay. It belonged to the Assistant
Spikeman, and it was he whom the man sought. The Assistant was found
sitting before his ledger, whose pages were open, and surrounded by
the articles of his traffic, for he was a merchant, largely engaged in
the purchase and sale of the products of the country, from which he
had drawn substantial gains. Quintals of dried fish were piled up in
one part of the store-room, in another, bundles of furs procured from
the Indians, in a third, casks and barrels containing spirituous
liquors, and elsewhere were stored cloths of various descriptions, and
hardware, and staves and hoops, and, in short, almost everything
necessary to prosecute a trade between the old country and the new.

The Assistant raised his head at the noise made by the entrance of the
man, and passing his fingers through the short, thick red hair that
garnished his head, demanded, "What new thing bringest thou, Ephraim?"

"There has been," answered the man, "him whom they call the Knight of
the Golden Melice, though I know not what it means, with the Governor
this morning, and according to your wishes, I have come to acquaint
you therewith."

"Thou hast well done, and thy zeal in the service of the Commonwealth
and of the congregation merits and shall have reward. What passages
passed between them?"

"I heard only part of the conversation, but enough to make me believe
that the Governor, at the prayer of the strange knight, means to
release the soldier Philip Joy."

"Verily!" exclaimed Spikeman. "Art sure you heard aright? Rehearse to
me what was said."

The spy employed by the Assistant to be a watch upon the conduct of
Winthrop, here went into a detail of his discoveries, to all which the
other listened with fixed attention.

When the man had concluded his narration, which was interlarded with
protestations of pious zeal, the Assistant said: