have been specially deputed by his worship, Master Thomas Morton, armigero and lord of the manor of Merry-Mount, to bid you to certain mid-summer night revels, which we propose to keep at the said manor of Merry-Mount, to begin at five of the clock upon the morrow evening, and to continue throughout the May-day, which immediately succeedeth, and as many hours longer as the butt holdeth out."

"And be this all which bringeth you here this morning, ye devil's crew?" said the courteous blacksmith to his guests. "Have I not already been bidden to your mid-summer revels for May-day, as this pudding-brained Bootefish hath it, and must my privacy be disturbed for such a marvellous piece of information? Know, then, that I have already promised your Master of Misrule to visit him to-morrow, and with that take yourselves off. Away, ye buffoons; yet stop awhile, your throats shall be moistened before you go."

So saying, he thrust his colossal thumb and fore-finger into an iron ring which was fastened into a large square stone in the corner of his shanty, and lifting the rough and ponderous granite slab as easily as if it had been the lid of a snuff-box, he suddenly disappeared, like some eastern enchanter, into the entrails of the earth.

When he returned, he bore an earthen jug in his hand, out of which he filled a pewter can of ample dimensions for each of his guests, and pledging them himself from the mouth of the jug, he exclaimed,

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There, my merrymen all, taste ye the rosa solis, which hath been ripened in the bowels of the wilderness. What sayest thou, Robin Bootefish, is it potent?"

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'Truly good, Master Walford," said the pompous butler, his elephant eyes twinkling with delight, "truly thou hast laid bare a fountain of unequalled purity; thou hast laid up a treasure in the earth; thou hast found a mine of virgin gold in the

entrails of the desert. Good master smith, I honor thee and love thee."

Peter Cakebread drained his measure of the potent fluid at a single draught, gasped for breath as if he had swallowed a sword, according to his paternal avocation, and then with his toad-like eyes, glittering and almost darting from his leathern face, he exclaimed,

"Thou marvellous ogre of Mishawum! Thou potent enchanter ! Let me worship thee. Truly it is comforting to see so sweet and spiritual a resurrection from beneath yon mighty tombstone. Come then to Merry-Mount, and be king over us, most stalwart smith, for truly he who can compel such spirits from the bosom of the earth should fitly rule his fellows."

To this spontaneous indication of fealty to himself, or rather to his subterranean treasures, the blacksmith made no further answer than by filling each man's goblet again, and bidding them drink it off and begone.

Thus conjured, the respectable party of visitors, having again done due honor to the blacksmith's cellar, bade their host farewell.

The blacksmith closed and barred the door as they departed, and then, after listening for a moment to their confused shouting and hallooing as they descended the precipitous hills, helterskelter, now tumbling over each other, now quarrelling, now laughing, now cursing, he stepped calmly back to his forge.

"Truly an ill-begotten pack of drunken knaves," said he to himself, as he lustily plied the bellows and resumed the occupation which had been interrupted. "This Master Morton is like to raise trouble now for himself, by keeping such a nest of buzzing hornets to swarm about the country, disturbing every honest man in his business. Small love do I bear yonder Plymouth crop-ears, yet I swear by my stedge-hammer, I had rather consort with psalm-singers than with such brawling,

drunken vermin. to-day; but stay

Thank fortune, I am fairly rid of them for what mean these shouts yonder? Heaven forefend the hornets be not all buzzing back again about mine ears. Stay, that was the yell of a red-breech."

In truth, during the worthy blacksmith's soliloquy, a complication of noises had been faintly audible in his sylvan retreat. For a few moments after the last shouts of his departing visitors had died away beneath the hill, there had been an absolute silence. It was, however, soon broken by a confused din of angry shouts, ferocious execrations, clashing weapons, reports of fire-arms, and that shrill, unearthly, fiendlike yell of the savage, which seems to blend into one cry the guttural trill of a Tyrolese mountaineer with the long howl of a famished wolf.

"The drunken varlets are squabbling with the savages," said the smith, after listening attentively. "Have a care, my masters, or mayhap ye may find the Mishawum red-skins not so easily tamed as your Passanogessit savages! Yonder coppernosed Bootefish may chance to find himself without a scalp to his wooden head before he gets home to his ale butt. By my beard, he would gain by the loss of it, for methinks his wits be mightily in need of airing, and I marvel how the fog is to be ever cleared from his brain, unless a little daylight be let into it with a tomahawk. Fore George! but there be swinging blows and bloody coxcombs passing about by this time, I warrant me," concluded the smith, as the noise of the scuffle became gradually louder and more distinct, while the contending parties appeared to be struggling nearer to the blacksmith's abode.

The worthy blacksmith, who had no particular desire that his solitude should again be interrupted by the drunken foolery of his late visitors, was yet something curious as to the cause of the uproar. As he was, however, about sallying forth to investigate the matter, the sounds seemed suddenly to cease. Either

the contest, whatever it might have been, was terminated, or the scene had been shifted to a more distant spot. He accordingly relinquished his intention, and went on with his work for a few minutes, until he was again aroused by confused shouts, yells, and a variety of other disturbing sounds, which again arrested his attention.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BATTLE OF MISHAWUM.

"BESHREW me," said Walford to himself, suddenly abandoning his forge, and advancing towards a look-out which he had built for himself within the precincts; "beshrew me, but there seems to be warm work going on yonder. Of a surety yon vagabonds have incensed by their devil's tricks, some straggling party of my red-legged friends. Peaceable they be and well disposed to those whom they have learned to respect; but the Lord preserve the scalps of such as meddle with them without need."

With these words he ascended his rustic watch-tower, and looked out upon every side. He was apparently not long in arriving at a conclusion as to the state of the case, for after remaining but a few moments in his elevated position, he descended with great rapidity, put on a huge iron head-piece, and arming himself with his sledge-hammer, strode resolutely towards his gate, unbarred its fastening, and sallied forth in the direction of the din which had now subsided again into a confused and discordant murmur.

He strode through the craggy and unsteady pathway which led along the heights, descended from the elevation upon which his solitary abode was situated, and after tearing his way through the tangled thickets which obstructed his passage, he emerged at length upon a low, open plain, which, studded with a few large oak trees, expanded itself upon the southern and southeastern base of the crag where his hermitage was placed. When