screet matron could know of all this, she would hold me
free of my bonds, the rather that I have never looked upon her with that
tenderness that God putteth in our hearts toward those"--

"Nay, then, if it comes to that," interposed Desire, snatching away her
apron and showing a swollen and tear-stained face, "I hate and despise
thee, John Howland, and always have and always will; and if I took thee
for my bachelor at all it was only in hope that 't would give a jealous
twinge to the heart of a better man, and if at the last I failed of him
thou wouldst be better than none; but I've changed my mind, and now I'll
none of thee, not if ne'er another man"--

"Peace, shameless wench!" thundered the elder, striking the table with
his hand. "Profane not the ears of a decent matron with such talk. John
Howland, it is my rede that thou art free of thy pledge to marry this
woman. What say you, Governor?"

"I agree with you, Elder Brewster, that since both man and maid desire
to render back their troth that they should be permitted so to do; and I
further suggest that by the first occasion presenting, Desire Minter be
sent back to her friends in England, who will, as Mistress Carver told
me, be content to receive her."

"Amen!" ejaculated John Howland with such unction that Bradford gravely
smiled as he followed him from the room, and murmured under his
breath,--"He will wed Elizabeth Tilley, an' I'm not mistaken."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

PHILIP DE LA NOYE.

"'T is a year agone to-day since we in the Mayflower sighted land in
this place," said Bradford to Standish, as the two stood beside the gun
just fired for sunset when all obligatory labor ended in the village.

"Ay, is it so? Well, it hath been a year of note in more ways than one,
and the next is like to be as adventurous. Ha! Look you there, Bradford!
Dost see that Indian runner breasting the hill. Some great news,
surely,--come, let us go to meet him."

"Squanto is before us. See him leap the brook"--

But Standish was already half way down the hill, and presently in the
open space already spoken of as the Town Square he and two or three of
the other leaders met the runner, who escorted by Squanto came panting
up the hill from the brook, and after the usual salutations informed the
governor that he was sent from Aspinet, sachem of the Nausets, to inform
the white men that a vessel had been watched feeling her way through the
shoals around Cape Cod, and was now