BEN JONSON'S _Alchemist_.


Our tale begins within a few years after the end of the first quarter
of the 17th century, at Boston, in Massachusetts, then in the infancy
of its settlement.

On an evening in the month of May, were assembled some seven or eight
men around a table, in a long, low room, the sides only of which were
plastered, the rough beams and joists overhead being exposed to view;
the windows were small, and the floor without a carpet; and the
furniture consisted of the table, over which was spread a black cloth,
whereupon stood several lighted candles in brass candlesticks, of a
dozen chairs, covered with russet-colored leather, and of some wooden
benches, ranged against the walls, and which were occupied by various
persons. At one end of the apartment the floor was raised a few
inches, and the chair standing on this elevation differed from the
others in having arms at the sides, and in being of ampler proportions,
as if by its appearance to vindicate a claim to superior position. But
unpretending as was the room, it was a place of no little importance,
being no less than the Court Hall and Council Chamber of the "Governor
and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England." At the moment
of which we are speaking, it was appropriated to a meeting of the
Court of Assistants of the Colony.

The person occupying the arm-chair, on the platform, was a man of not
unpleasing appearance, somewhat less than fifty years of age, and
dressed with considerable precision in the style prevailing among
gentlemen of distinction at that day. His face was rather long, and
surmounted by a high and well developed forehead, from the top of