Our gentlemen adventurers were mighty jealous of their secrets
in those days. I think they imagined their great game-preserve a kind
of Spanish gold-mine safer hidden from public ken, and they held their
meetings with an air of mystery that pirates might have worn. For my
part, I do not believe there were French spies hanging round Horth's
office for knowledge of the Fur Company's doings, though the
doorkeeper, who gave me a chair in the anteroom, reported that a
strange-looking fellow with a wife as from foreign parts had been
asking for me all that day, and refused to leave till he had learned
the address of my lodgings.
"'Ave ye taken the hoath of hallegiance, sir?" asked the porter.
"I was born in England," said I dryly.
"Your renegade of a French savage is atakin' the hoath now," confided
the porter, jerking his thumb towards the inner door. "They do say as
'ow it is for love of Mary Kirke and not the English--"
"Your renegade of a French--who?" I asked sharply, thinking it ill omen
to hear a flunkey of the English Company speaking lightly of our leader.
But at the question the fellow went glum with a tipping and bowing and
begging of pardon. Then the councillors began to come: Arlington and
Ashley of the court, one of those Carterets, who had been on the Boston
Commission long ago and first induced M.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273