fellow," said, with a grim smile, the gentleman who was the third one
described, stroking, with his embroidered glove, the tuft of hair that
hung below his chin.

"You are a soldier, Captain Endicott, and can look a man straight in
the eyes," paid Joy; "and, though people give you credit for a hot
temper, I will trust you."

Endicott elevated his eye-brows at this ambiguous compliment, and for
a moment seemed at a loss how to take it, especially as he remarked a
peculiar expression on the faces of his colleagues.

"Being a soldier thyself," he replied, fastening his eyes sternly on
the face of the prisoner, "thou art bound to know that it becomes not
one in the ranks to prattle."

Joy made no answer, but returned a cool and unabashed look to the gaze
of the other.

"If the witnesses have been called, let them appear," said the
President.

Two men, of a rather moan appearance, now stepped forward; an oath by
the uplifted hand was administered, and one commenced his testimony.

The substance of his story was, that Joy, on a certain occasion, and,
at a certain place, in his presence and hearing, had declared, with a
profane exclamation, that there were men in the colony, wiser, and
more learned, than either the magistrates or ministers; and that,
between them both, what with their long prayers and intermeddling in