."

The justly-mortified Patroon bowed ceremoniously to the equally
disappointed burgher, and left the room the moment he had done speaking.
The negro took his retreat as a favorable symptom for one who was
generally known to be his rival; and he hastened to inform the young
captain, that the coast was clear.

The meeting, that instantly succeeded, was sufficiently constrained and
awkward. Alderman Van Beverout assumed a manner of offended authority and
wounded affection; while the officer of the Queen wore an air of compelled
submission to a duty that he found to be disagreeable. The introduction of
the discourse was consequently ceremonious, and punctiliously observant of
courtesy.

"It has become my office," continued Ludlow, after the preliminaries had
been observed, to express the surprise I feel, that a vessel of the
exceedingly equivocal appearance of the brigantine, that is anchored in
the Cove, should be found in a situation to create unpleasant suspicions
concerning the commercial propriety of a merchant so well known as Mr.
Alderman Van Beverout."

"The credit of Myndert Van Beverout is too well established, Captain
Cornelius Ludlow, to be affected by the accidental position of ships and
bays. I see two vessels anchored near the Lust in Rust, and if called upon
to give my testimony before the Queen in Council, I should declare that
the one which wears her royal pennant had done more wrong to her subjects
than the stranger. But what harm is known of the latter?"

"I shall not conceal any of the facts; for I feel that this is a case, in
which a gentleman of your station has the fullest right to the benefit of
explanations----"

"Hem--" interrupted the burgher, who disliked the manner in which his
companion had opened the interview, and who thought he saw the
commencement of a forced compromise in the turn it was taking;--"Hem--I
commend your moderation, Captain Ludlow. Sir, we are flattered in having a
native of the Province in so honorable a command on the coast. Be seated,
I pray you, young gentleman, that we may converse more at leisure. The
Ludlows are an ancient and well-established family in the colonies; and
though they were no friends of King Charles, why--we have others here in
the same predicament. There are few crowns in Europe that might not trace
some of their discontented subjects to these colonies; and the greater the
reason, say I, why we should not be too hasty in giving faith to the
wis