said Sir William Howe to the officers who attended
him: "we have no time to hear lamentations now!"

And, coldly bowing, he departed. Thus, the chief justice had a foretaste
of the mortifications which the exiled New Englanders afterwards suffered
from the haughty Britons. They were despised even by that country which
they had served more faithfully than their own.

A still heavier trial awaited Chief Justice Oliver, as he passed onward
from the Province House. He was recognized by the people in the street.
They had long known him as the descendant of an ancient and honorable
family. They had seen him sitting, in his scarlet robes, upon the judgment
seat. All his life long, either for the sake of his ancestors, or on
account of his own dignified station and unspotted character, he had been
held in high respect. The old gentry of the province were looked upon
almost as noblemen, while Massachusetts was under royal government.

But now, all hereditary reverence for birth and rank was gone. The
inhabitants shouted in derision, when they saw the venerable form of the
old chief justice. They laid the wrongs of the country, and their own
sufferings during the siege--their hunger, cold, and sickness--partly to his
charge, and to that of his brother Andrew, and his kinsman Hutchinson. It
was by their advice that the king had acted, in all the colonial troubles.
But the day of recompense was come.

"See the old tory!" cried the people, with bitter laughter. "He is taking
his last look at us. Let him show his white wig among us an hour hence,
and we'll give him a coat of tar and feathers!"

The chief justice, however, knew that he need fear no violence, so long as
the British troops were in possession of the town. But alas! it was a
bitter thought, that he should leave no loving memory behind him. His
forefathers, long after their spirits left the earth, had been honored in
the affectionate remembrance of the people. But he, who would henceforth
be dead to his native land, would have no epitaph save scornful and
vindictive words. The old man wept.

"They curse me--they invoke all kinds of evil on my head!" thought he, in
the midst of his tears. "But, if they could read my heart, they would know
that I love New England well. Heaven bless her, and bring her again under
the rule of our gracious king! A blessing, too, on these poor, misguided
people!"

The chief justice flung out his hands with a gesture, as if he were
bestow