Nothing
for the first half-hour of their visit escaped the guarded lips of men
evidently well skilled in their present duty, which might lead to a clue
of its purport. The morning meal passed almost without discourse, and one
of the party had arisen with the professed object of looking to their
steeds, before he, who seemed the chief, led the conversation to a
subject, that by its political bearing might, in some degree, be supposed
to have a remote connexion with the principal object of his journey to
that sequestered valley.
"Have the tidings of the gracious boon that hath lately flowed from the
favor of the King, reached this distant settlement?" asked the principal
personage, one that wore a far less military air than a younger companion,
who, by his confident mien, appeared to be the second in authority.
"To what boon hath thy words import?" demanded the Puritan, turning a
glance of the eye it his son and daughter, together with the others in
hearing, is if to admonish them to be prudent.
"I speak of the Royal Charter by which the people on the banks of the
Connecticut, and they of the Colony of New-Haven, are henceforth permitted
to unite in government; granting them liberty of conscience, and great
freedom of self-control.
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