of a pair of soft brown eyes
which held him. Ester Goffe was the most interesting person at Boston.
She was a creature born to inspire one with love. She was young, hardly
yet budded into womanhood, when first he saw her. Day by day and week by
week she seemed to him to grow in beauty and goodness.

The third day after his arrival, General Goffe mysteriously disappeared.
He had been gone almost a week, when Robert asked Ester where her
father was.

"He is gone," she answered. "The king's men learned that he was here,
and were coming after him, when he escaped."

"Whither has he gone?"

"Alas, I know not."

"What would be his fate if he should be taken?"

"He would suffer as did Sir Henry Vane. No mercy will be shown to a
regicide."

"You must suffer uneasiness."

"I am in constant dread, though my father is brave and shrewd, while the
king's officers are but lazy fellows with dull wits, who do not care to
exert themselves, yet some unseen accident might place him in
their power."

Then he induced her to tell the sad story of their flight from the wrath
of an angry king, and how they had walked all the way from Plymouth
to Boston.

The year 1675 came, just one century before the shots at Lexington were
heard around the world.

There was a restless feeling in all the colonies. The governor of
Virginia was a tyrant. The Indians were becoming restless, and a general
outbreak was expected.

Robert had been informed by his mother that his friends had procured his
pardon from Governor Berkeley, and he was urged to come home. Robert was
now twenty-six years of age. Ester was twenty-two, and they were
betrothed. Their love was of that kind which grows quickly, but is as
eternal as the heavens. The regicide had been home very little for the
last five years. He came one night to spend a short time with his
daughter. They had scarce time to whisper a few words of affection, when
Robert ran to them, saying:

"The king's men are coming."

In a few moments a dozen cavaliers with swords and pistols rushed on
General Goffe.

"Do not surrender; I will defend you," cried Robert.

He drew his sword and assailed the foremost of the cavaliers with such
implacable fury that they fell back. General Goffe took advantage of the
moment to mount a swift horse and fly. A few pistol shots were fired at
him; but he escaped, and Robert conducted the half-fainting Ester home.

It was nearly midnight when a friend came to inform