Morton, being used to such scenes, saw at once that all resistance would be useless. Moreover, after the first surprise was over, and he had found himself captured beyond all peradventure, his thoughts reverted to his dead falcon. That he was arrested did not surprise him, and he had long since exhausted his indignation at the tyrannical persecution which the Puritans seemed determined to inflict upon him. He should soon extricate himself, he thought, from this new dilemma, but who could restore to life his gallant hawk, whom he had been training so long, and who was as dear to him as the apple of his eye. Looking with profound contempt at the rigid countenances of his captors, he again raised the dead body of his favorite from the ground, and placed it in his bosom. Absorbed in his melancholy reflections, he stood there fondling the creature, whispering and whistling to her, as if his endearments could recall her to life, and hearing not a single word of the long exhortation with which the leader of the party was indulging him.

Finding his eloquence so utterly lost upon the hardened sinner, Captain Underwood broke off in his address, saying only in conclusion,

"Thou wilt follow me now, and that obediently, O, thou Master of Misrule, else shall it go hard with thee!"

"And whither, most peremptory of Puritans?" said Morton carelessly, still caressing his hawk.

"Even to Charlestown, even unto the magistrates who have ordered thy instantaneous arrest, now effected by their unworthy servants."

"And what have I to do with the magistrates of Charlestown, or they with me?" replied Morton; "truly, I have as little relish for their company as they for mine."

"Verily," answered Captain Underwood, "Governor Winthrop, the deputy, and all the assistants, hold a solemn court to-morrow, to which thou art formally cited, then and there to

answer for thy various misdemeanors. Verily, the magistrates do intend to erect their authority throughout the land. They shall smite their enemies in the hinder part, and put them to perpetual reproach."

So saying, the captain of the party led the way, and his soldiers, taking Morton in their midst, started on their march to Charlestown.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SUZERAIN OF MERRY-MOUNT DEPOSED.

UPON the day succeeding his capture upon the marsh, Thomas Morton, in custody of two or three tall fellows in buff jerkins and steel head-pieces, stood in the corner of the large room in the Great-house at Charlestown. This building, which had been constructed with especial care, by Mr. Graves, during the previous year, expressly to serve as a government house, was a timber-work mansion of very respectable dimensions, and stood upon the open plain below the Mishawum hills. In its neighborhood were huddled together a miscellaneous collection of booths, tents, and wigwams, in which the emigrants had established their temporary residence, and in which they were suffering dreadful ravages from the sickness which still prevailed with unabated fury. As nearly the whole population were upon the point of removing to the south side of the Charles River, where, at least, they could promise themselves a supply of wholesome water, which was denied to them at Mishawum, the infant village of Charlestown presented rather the appearance of a temporary encampment, than of an organized town. Still, however, the forms of government were rigidly observed, and the governor, with most of the magistrates, who resided in the Great-house, although active and benevolent in relieving the sufferings of the people, still maintained, throughout all the difficulties which beset them, an elevated and decorous deportment, which invested their responsible offices with a certain patriarchal air of authority, and which inspired the people with additional feelings of confidence and respect.

The potentate of Merry-Mount, with the good-humored expression which habitually characterized his face, was looking carelessly round him, whistling and talking to himself, besides making, occasionally, an unsuccessful attempt to draw some one of his attendants into conversation. The magistrates had not yet made their appearance in the apartment, although they were soon expected, as the third Court of Assistants, which had been held in Massachusetts since the arrival of Winthrop with the charter, was to be held that morning. Besides the armed attendants upon the magistrates, who answered Morton's flippant remarks with forbidding silence, there were clustered together, in the different corners of the room, a few stragglers, who appeared to be awaiting the arrival of the court, and who, in the mean time, were conversing in a low tone with one another. These persons all wore tall, steeple-crowned hats, and sad-colored garments.

"The seat of government is to be fixed at Trimountain, yonder," said a leathern-visaged, sinewy-looking individual, addressing a companion who stood near him; " at least, I understand that the governor, as well as the worshipful Master Johnson, have already decided upon removing thither immediately."

"Aye, Goodman Faunce," replied the individual addressed, "who rejoiced in the appellation of Jonathan Jellett, “and I have likewise decided to take my staff in hand and accompany their worships. The mortality which prevails upon this promontory is appalling. Verily it trieth the heart and the reins."

"Truly, the pestilence shooteth its arrows among us unsparingly," answered Faunce, "but it is in vain; the Lord is the rock of our refuge."

"'Tis said," said a third person, who had not yet spoken, "that the company have determined to re-baptize yonder peninsula of Trimountain, which the heathens call Shawmut, seeing that it is likely to become a goodly town, and a large."

"And by what name do they propose to baptize the promontory, Goodman Pid?" asked Faunce.

""T is to be baptized Boston," answered Pid.

"In honor and commemoration, doubtless," said Jellett, "of the Lincolnshire folk, and of the pious and learned John Cotton, who hath long time ministered in that ancient town, and who is shortly expected hither to prophesy unto us even at New Boston."

"Aye," continued Pid, "and doubtless New Boston will be the centre and the metropolis of the Massachusetts. The site is a goodly one, and the harbor commodious and safe."

"I am of your mind," said Jellett. It hath, moreover, become less necessary that one great fortified town should be built, according to the company's first intention. The discomfiture of the great Indian conspiracy, which hath so recently occurred, and the peaceable deportment of the heathen at present, renders an impregnable fort of less consequence."

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Aye, Goodman Jellett," answered Faunce, "the Sagamore John, who revealed that great conspiracy a few months since, hath merited richly of the Lord. But know ye, my brethren, who it is, who is said to have been the chief instigator of this foul conspiracy to cut off by savage hands the whole English population of New England?"

"Is it the Sachem Chickatabot?" demanded all the others, somewhat impressed by the speaker's air of mystery.

"Not at all," was the reply, "the heathen chieftain is well affected towards us. "T is an Englishman, a vile and unworthy renegade, a papist, and a secret emissary of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the arch-enemy of our company. Such an one it is who hath fostered and guided the savage plot against us, thus revealed by the friendship of the gentle Sagamore."

"And who is this Englishman?" demanded all the speakers, with frowning faces and eager voices."