tion 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
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