werowance, the two bells then newly hung in the church began to
peal and the drum to beat. Stepping ashore, I had a rear view only
of the folk who had clustered along the banks and in the street,
their faces and footsteps being with one accord directed toward the
market place. I went with the throng, jostled alike by velvet and
dowlas, by youths with their estates upon their backs and naked
fantastically painted savages, and trampling the tobacco with
which the greedy citizens had planted the very street. In the square
I brought up before the Governor's house, and found myself cheek
by jowl with Master Pory, our Secretary, and Speaker of the
Assembly.

"Ha, Ralph Percy!" he cried, wagging his gray head, "we two be
the only sane younkers in the plantations! All the others are
horn-mad!"

"I have caught the infection," I said, "and am one of the
bedlamites."

He stared, then broke into a roar of laughter. "Art in earnest?" he
asked, holding his fat sides. "Is Saul among the prophets?"

"Yes," I answered. "I diced last night, - yea or no; and the 'yea' -
plague on 't - had it."

He broke into another roar. "And thou callest that bridal attire,
man! Why, our cow-keeper goes in flaming silk to-day!"

I looked down upon my suit of buff, which had in truth seen some
service, and at my great boots, which I had not thought to clean