ey! the sack and the aqua vitae. And, Pompey! a handful of
mint."

The company fell to drinking, and then to tobacco. The Governor, whose
fits of passion were as short as they were violent, arrived by rapid
degrees at a pitch of high good humor. The company listened gravely for
the fiftieth time to stories of the court of the first James; of
Buckingham's amours, of the beauty of Henrietta Maria, of a visit to
Paris, an interview with Richelieu, a duel with a captain of
Mousquetaires, a kiss imprinted upon the fair hand of Anne of Austria.
The charmed stream of the old courtier's reminiscences flowed on--he
stopped for breath, and Sir Charles took the word and proceeded to
unfold before their dazzled eyes a gorgeous phantasmagoria. The King,
the Duke, Sedley and Buckingham, Mesdames Castlemaine, Stuart and
Gwynne, Dryden and Waller and Lely, the King's house, the Queen's
chapel, the Queen's duennas, the Tityre Tus, Paul's Walk, the Russian
Ambassador, astrologers, orange girls, balls, masques, pageants, duels,
the court of Louis le Grand, the King's hunting parties, Madame
d'Orleans, Olympe di Mancini.

The Governor listened with dilating nostrils and sparkling eyes; Colonel
Yerney's vexed countenance smoothed itself; Captain Laramore, sitting
with outstretched legs, and head hidden in clouds of tobacco smoke,
rumbled from out that obscurity laughter and strange oaths. Even Mr.
Peyton, after vainly trying to fix his attention upon the construction
of a sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow, succumbed to the enchantment, and
sat with parted lips, drinking in wonders; but the Surveyor-General,
though he listened courteously, listened with forced smiles and with an
attention which was hard to preserve from wandering.

In the midst of a brilliant account of the nuptials of the Chevalier de
Grammont came an interruption.

"De horses am fed an' brought roun', massa."

The Governor started up. "Rat me, if good sack and good stories make
not a man forget all else beside! Colonel Verney, I wish you, as
lieutenant of this shire, to ride with me to this Chickahominy village
where I have promised an audience to the half king of the tribe. Plague
on the unreasonable vermin! Why can they not give way peaceably? If the
colony needs and takes their lands, it leaves them a plenty elsewhere.
Let them fall back towards the South Sea. Sir Charles, I grieve for the
necessity, but we must leave the court and come back to the wilderness.
Gent