The Knight of the Golden Melice | Page 5

to
view; the windows were small, and the floor without a carpet; and the
furniture consisted of the table, over which was spread a black cloth,
whereupon stood several lighted candles in brass candlesticks, of a
dozen chairs, covered with russet-colored leather, and of some wooden
benches, ranged against the walls, and which were occupied by various
persons. At one end of the apartment the floor was raised a few inches,
and the chair standing on this elevation differed from the others in

having arms at the sides, and in being of ampler proportions, as if by its
appearance to vindicate a claim to superior position. But unpretending
as was the room, it was a place of no little importance, being no less
than the Court Hall and Council Chamber of the "Governor and
Company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England." At the moment
of which we are speaking, it was appropriated to a meeting of the Court
of Assistants of the Colony.
The person occupying the arm-chair, on the platform, was a man of not
unpleasing appearance, somewhat less than fifty years of age, and
dressed with considerable precision in the style prevailing among
gentlemen of distinction at that day. His face was rather long, and
surmounted by a high and well developed forehead, from the top of
which, dark, parted hair fell in curls down the temples over a white ruff,
fringed with costly lace, that encircled his neck. His eyes were blue; his
eye-brows highly arched; his nose large; beard covered the upper lip
and chin; and so far as an opinion could be formed, from his sitting
posture, he was tall and well-made. The expression of his countenance
was gentle, and there was an air of introspection and abstraction about
it as if he were much in the habit of communing with his own thoughts.
The upper part of his person, which only was visible, the rest being hid
by the table and depending cloth, was clothed in a black coat or doublet,
without ornament or even the appearance of a button, and at his side he
wore a rapier, evidently more as a badge of his rank than for use.
Seated at his right hand, and below the platform, was a man a dozen
years at least his elder, whose stout look and fiery glances indicated
that if time had grizzled his thick and close cut hair, it had not
quenched the heat of his spirit. Like the gentleman first described, he
was dressed in sad-colored garments, differing but little from them,
except that instead of a ruff, he wore a plain white band, falling upon
his breast, cut somewhat like those worn by clergymen at the present
day, but longer, and passing round the neck and covering the collar of
the coat. Although the oldest of the company, he seemed to have
himself the least under control, continually moving in his chair,
drawing forward and pushing away the sheets of paper that lay before
him, and now and then darting an impatient glance at the person in the

arm-chair, from whom it would wander over his companions, and then
fasten on the door.
The third and last gentleman whom we think proper to describe, was a
man of about the age of the first, but utterly unlike him. His head was
covered with a black skull cap, (probably to protect his baldness,)
beneath which, rose ears more prominent than ornamental, being very
little relieved by the hair, which was cropped short. His complexion
was florid, and the parts of the face, about the chin and jaws, full and
heavy, giving an appearance of great roundness to the countenance. His
features were regular, the mouth small and compressed, and on the
upper lip he wore a moustache, parted in the centre, and brushed out
horizontally, balanced by a tuft on the chin, four or five inches long. An
adventurous spirit gazed out of his clear steady eyes, and altogether he
looked like a man of determined temper, and one who, having once
formed a resolution, would find it difficult to relinquish it. Around his
neck he also had a broad band, divided in the middle, and falling half
way down his breast. The remainder of the persons around the table
bore the same general resemblance to these three, in dress, that one
gentleman ordinarily does to another, and all were engaged in
conversation.
Presently the gentleman in the arm-chair, who was evidently the
President, took up a small bell that was placed before him, and
sounding it, the summons was replied to by the entrance of a man from
a side-door. He was the servitor or beadle of the Court, and moving to
the end of the table opposite the President, he stood facing him and