quiet, pleasant man, who made
it a point to be at harmony with all his neighbors, yet whose personal
feelings and opinions as a Whig were well known. Lot delighted in being
where the older men of the community discussed the trend of public
affairs and it was due to him that Enoch, the second night after his
arrival, gained some little notoriety in Westminster by an encounter he
had at the Royal Inn, kept by one John Norton.

The tap-room and parlors of the inn were occupied every evening at this
time by the men of Westminster, and by certain visitors who had, for
some days, been gathering for the meeting of the General Court. And all
these visitors were not attorneys, or plaintiffs and defendants in the
several cases which would come up for hearing before their Worships the
justices. The sheriff was already at Westminster and there were more
armed men about the town than had ever been seen there before at one
time. Until the closing hour earnest discussions were carried on in the
inn, for although the Royal, or "Norton's house" as it was called, was
the headquarters of the Tories, many Whigs frequented it, too.
Naturally, the young men and half-grown boys wished to listen on the
outskirts of these groups, and Lot Breckenridge was desirous of hearing
all that went on. Enoch went with him to the inn rather against his
will. Mistress Harding did not approve of such places for youths and
Enoch had not grown so old or so big as to wish to disobey his mother,
or even to believe that she was less able to guide him than she had
formerly been.

The inn was well filled, indeed, that night and Master Norton was
bustling about from group to group, dropping a word here and another
there, determined to keep all his guests pleased as maybe; for despite
his Tory principles, the innkeeper was first for his own pocket and
would not antagonize any man knowingly. Mine Host was particularly
attentive to a party of ten or a dozen gentlemen who, having eaten, now
sat grouped before one of the fires engaged in earnest, and somewhat
noisy, conversation. The figure of the sheriff was the centre of this
group.

Lot and Enoch stood with other young men within ear-shot and heard many
remarks which plainly showed the affiliation of the sheriff and his
friends to the Tory cause; and the party had dined so well that they
were not particularly careful to modulate their voices so that others in
the vicinity who might be of a different mind, should n