"Receive my trust! take it quickly!" cried she; "for methinks Deathis striving to snatch away my triumph. But he comes too late. ThankHeaven for this blessed hour! God save King George!""That, Madam, is a strange prayer to be offered up at such amoment," replied the unknown guest of the Province House, andcourteously removing his hat, he offered his arm to raise the agedwoman. "Yet, in reverence for your gray hairs and long-kept faith,Heaven forbid that any here should say you nay. Over the realmswhich still acknowledge his sceptre, God save King George!"Esther Dudley started to her feet, and hastily clutching back thekey, gazed with fearful earnestness at the stranger; and dimly anddoubtfully, as if suddenly awakened from a dream, her bewilderedeyes half recognized his face. Years ago she had known him among thegentry of the province. But the ban of the King had fallen upon him!
How, then, came the doomed victim here? Proscribed, excluded frommercy, the monarch's most dreaded and hated foe, this New Englandmerchant had stood triumphantly against a kingdom's strength; andhis foot now trod upon humbled Royalty, as he ascended the steps ofthe Province House, the people's chosen Governor of Massachusetts.
"Wretch, wretch that I am!" muttered the old woman, with such aheart-broken expression that the tears gushed from the stranger'seyes. "Have I bidden a traitor welcome? Come, Death! come quickly!""Alas, venerable lady. said Governor Hancock, lending her hissupport with all the reverence that a courtier would have shown to aqueen. "Your life has been prolonged until the world has changedaround you. You have treasured up all that time has renderedworthless- the principles, feelings, manners, modes of being andacting, which another generation has flung aside- and you are a symbolof the past. And I, and these around me- we represent a new race ofmen- living no longer in the past, scarcely in the present- butprojecting our lives forward into the future. Ceasing to modelourselves on ancestral superstitions, it is our faith and principle topress onward, onward! Yet," continued he, turning to his attendants,"let us reverence, for the last time, the stately and gorgeousprejudices of the tottering Past!"While the Republican Governor spoke, he had continued to supportthe helpless form of Esther Dudley; her weight grew heavier againsthis arm; but at last, with a sudden effort to free herself, theancient woman sank down beside one of the pillars of the portal. Thekey of the Province House fell from her grasp, and clanked against thestone.
"I have been faithful unto death," murmured she. "God save theKing!""She hath done her office!" said Hancock solemnly. "We willfollow her reverently to the tomb of her ancestors; and then, myfellow-citizens, onward- onward! We are no longer children of thePast!
THE END
.
1838
TWICE-TOLD TALES
PETER GOLDTHWAITE'S TREASURE
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
AND SO, Peter, you won't even consider of the business?" said Mr.
