h lay at anchor. Drummond,
Cheeseman and Lawerence withdrew, leaving Robert alone with his mother
and sister. A few silent tears, a few silent embraces, and then he bade
them adieu, entered the boat, and was rowed away into the darkness.

CHAPTER XII.

THE DAUGHTER OF A REGICIDE.

When thy beauty appears
In its graces and airs,
All bright as an angel new dropped from the sky
At a distance I gaze and am awed at my fears,
So strangely you dazzle my eyes.
--PARNELL.

One bright morning in autumn a ship from Virginia entered Boston Harbor.
The appearance of a vessel was not an uncommon sight, and this one
attracted little more than passing comment. Passengers were coming
ashore and among them a stalwart youth of eighteen. His eyes wandered
about over the town while the breeze played with his long hair hanging
about his shoulders. He wore the costume of a cavalier, with a
low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat and plume; but his face had all the grave
aspect of a Puritan.

He asked no questions on landing, but went up to the Common, where a
fencing-master had erected a stage and was walking back and forth upon
it with a rapier in his hand, saying:

"Come, any who will, and fight me with swords."

Near him were a dozen or two swords of all kinds. The new-comer paused
near the platform on which the boaster stood and gazed at him in wonder.

"I have been on this platform for several days, defying any man to fence
with me. Have you no one in Boston brave enough?"

"I will," a voice cried at this moment. All turned at the sound, for the
voice was deep and commanding, sounding like the boom of a cannon.

This stranger to all assembled on the Common was most singularly armed
and equipped for a fight. On his left arm, wrapped in a linen cloth, was
a large cheese for a shield, while he carried, instead of a sword, a mop
dipped in muddy water.

"Who is he?"

"Some madman."

"Beware of him, and allow him not to go on the stage," cried another.

But the stranger, with an agility not to be expected in one of his
years, sprang upon the platform. The fencing-master evidently thought he
had an easy victory, for a smile curled his lip, as he asked:

"Are you ready?"

"Yes," was the answer.

"Guard!"

He sprang at the fencing-master, who made a thrust at him, burying the
point of his sword in the cheese, where the white-haired man held it,
while