Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-08-10

Along the road in the white moon
light they stamped as wantonIy as
any herd Of kline; youths and maids
with arms about each other and all
with faces flushed with ale drinking.
and the maids with tossing hair and
draggIed coats. and all the fresh gar
lands withered or scattered.
And the old graybeard who was
Maid Marion was riotously drunk and
borne aloft with mad and feeble ges-
turings on the shoulders Of two stag
gering young men. and after him came
the aged morris dancers, only upheld
from collapse in the mire by mutual
upholdings, until they seemed like
some monstrous animal moving with
uncouth sprawIs of legs as multifold
as centipede, and wavering drunk
emily from one side of the road to
the other lurching into the dewy
bushes, then recovering by the joint
effort of the whole.
! stood well back to let them pass,
being in that mood of self Importance,
by reason of my love and the service
rendered by it, that could have seen
the whole posse led to the whipping
block with a relish, when suddenly,
from their tipsy threats, came a shout
Of such import that my heart stood
still. Down with the king" hallooed
one mad reveler, in a voice of such
thickness that the whole sentence
seemed one word; then the others took
Nv, 81
that their heads were not worth a
farthing. Then, Down with the gov
ernori Down with Lord CuIpeperr
shouted that same thick voice of the
man who was leading the wild crew
like bellwether. He forged ahead.
something more steady on his legs, but
all the madden of his wits for that,
with an arm around the waist of a
buxom lass on either side, and all
three dancing in time Then all the
rest echoed that shout of Down with
the governori" Then out he burst
again with, Down, down with the to-
bacco, down with the tcbaecor'
But the volley Of that echo was cut
short by eve horsemen galloping after
the throng and scattering them to the
right and left. Then great voice of
authority, set out with the strangest
oaths which ever an imagination of
evil comprised, called out to them to
be still if they valued their heads and
cursed them all for drunken fools, and
as he spoke dashed with his whip from
side to side, and his face cleaned with
wrath like a demons Ill the full light.
and | saw he was Captain Noel Jaynes,
and we'll understood how he had made
name for himself on the high seas.
After him rode the brothers, Nicho-
las and Richard Barry, two great men,
sticking to their saddles like rocks,
with fair locks alike on the head of
each flung out on the wind, and then
came Ralph Drake, rising in his stir
rups and laughing wildly, and last
Parson Downs, but only last because
the road was blocked, for verify
thought his plunging horse would have
all before him under his feet.
They We're all past me in a trice like
a dream. the May jewellers scattering
and Fastening forward with shrieks
of terror and shouts of rage and peals
of defiant laughter, and Captain
Jaynes' voice, like a trumpet, overbear-
ing everything. and shouts from the
Barry brothers echoing him, and now
and then coming the deep rumble Of
approximations from the parsons great
chest, and Ralph brakes peals of horse
laughter, and / was left to consider
what finder box this colony of Yir-
ginia was. and how ready to leap to
flame at a spark even when seeming
~ most at peace, and to regard with
more and more anxiety Mary Caven-
dish's part in this brewing tumult.
After the shouting and hallooing
throng had passed walked along slow
~, rejecting. as have said, when |
saw in the road before me two adyanc-
ing ga woman and man leading a
horse by the bride and it was Mary
Cayendish and Sir Humphrey Hyde.
And when / came up with them they
stopped. and Humphrey addressed me
rudely enough. but as one gentleman
might another when he was angered
with him, and not contemptuously for
that was never the lads way with me.
master Wingfeld." he said, standing
before me and holding his champing
horse hard by the bits. 81 pray you
have the grace to explain this matter
Of the goods
saw that Mistress Mary had been
acquainting him with what had passed
and her puzzlement over. it.
There is naught to explain, Sir
Humphrey said l. "'Tis very sim
pie. Mistress Mary hath the goods
for which she sent to England
Master Wingtield, you know those
are my Lady Culpeper's goods. and
have no right to them!" cried Mary.
But bowed and said. Madam. the
goods are yours and not Lady Gull
peper's
But IL lied when gave the list
to my grandmother she cried out
half sobbiDg for she was after all lit