abited neatly and soberly in black, with a fine white cravat
and starched shirt-bands. He wore a plain bob-wig below a huge
flat-brimmed hat, and big blue spectacles shaded his eyes. His mouth
was as precise as a lawyer's, and altogether he was a very whimsical,
dry fellow to find at a Virginian port.

The Receiver called me to him and asked after a matter which we had
spoken of before. Then he made me known to his companion, who was a Mr.
Fairweather, a merchant out of Boston.

"The Lord hath given thee a pleasant dwelling, friend," said the
stranger, snuffling a little through his nose.

From his speech I knew that Mr. Fairweather was of the sect of the
Quakers, a peaceable race that Virginia had long ill-treated.

"The land is none so bad," said the Receiver, "but the people are a
perverse generation. Their hearts are set on vanity, and puffed up with
pride. I could wish, Mr. Fairweather, that my lines had fallen among
your folk in the north, where, I am told, true religion yet
flourisheth. Here we have nothing but the cold harangues of the
Commissary, who seeketh after the knowledge that perisheth rather than
the wisdom which is eternal life."

"Patience, friend," said the stranger. "Thee is not alone in thy
crosses. The Lord hath many people up Boston way, but they are sore
beset by the tribulations of Zion. On land there is war and rumour of
war, and on the sea the ships of the godly are snatched by every manner
of ocean thief. Likewise we have dissension among ourselves, and a
constant strife with the froward human heart. Still is Jerusalem
troubled, and there is no peace within her bulwarks."

"Do the pirates afflict you much in the north?" asked the Receiver with
keen interest. The stranger turned his large spectacles upon him, and
then looked blandly at me. Suddenly I had a notion that I had seen that
turn of the neck and poise of the head before.

"Woe is me," he cried in a stricken voice. "The French have two fair
vessels of mine since March, and a third is missing. Some say it ran
for a Virginian port, and I am here to seek it. Heard thee ever,
friend, of a strange ship in the James or the Potomac?"

"There be many strange ships," said the Receiver, "for this dominion is
the goal for all the wandering merchantmen of the earth. What was the
name of yours?"

"A square-rigged schooner out of Bristol, painted green, with a white
figurehead of a winged heathen god."

"And the name?"

"The name is a