Twice Told Tales

Twice Told Tales

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Title: Twice Told Tales
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13707]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TOLD TALES ***

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TWICE-TOLD TALES.
BY
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
PHILADELPHIA: DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER, 23 SOUTH
NINTH STREET.
1889.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE GRAY CHAMPION 5

SUNDAY AT HOME 15
THE WEDDING-KNELL 23
THE MINISTER'S BLACK VEIL 33
THE MAYPOLE OF MERRY MOUNT 49
THE GENTLE BOY 63
MR. HIGGINBOTHAM'S CATASTROPHE 99
LITTLE ANNIE'S RAMBLE 113
WAKEFIELD 123
A RILL FROM THE TOWN PUMP 133
THE GREAT CARBUNCLE 141
THE PROPHETIC PICTURES 159
DAVID SWAN 175
SIGHTS FROM A STEEPLE 183
THE HOLLOW OF THE THREE HILLS 191
THE TOLL-GATHERER'S DAY 197
THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN 204
FANCY'S SHOW-BOX 211
DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT 218
LEGENDS OF THE PROVINCE HOUSE: I.--HOWE'S
MASQUERADE 233 II.--EDWARD RANDOLPH'S PORTRAIT 249
III.--LADY ELEANORE'S MANTLE 263 IV.--OLD ESTHER
DUDLEY 281
THE HAUNTED MIND 294
THE VILLAGE UNCLE 300
THE AMBITIOUS GUEST 313
THE SISTER-YEARS 323
SNOWFLAKES 332
THE SEVEN VAGABONDS 338
THE WHITE OLD MAID 358
PETER GOLDTHWAITE'S TREASURE 370
CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL 393
THE SHAKER BRIDAL 405
NIGHT-SKETCHES 412
ENDICOTT AND THE RED CROSS 419
THE LILY'S QUEST 427
FOOTPRINTS ON THE SEASHORE 435
EDWARD FANE'S ROSEBUD 447

THE THREEFOLD DESTINY 455

TWICE-TOLD TALES.

THE GRAY CHAMPION.
There was once a time when New England groaned under the actual
pressure of heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought
on the Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the
Voluptuous, had annulled the charters of all the colonies and sent a
harsh and unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and endanger
our religion. The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely
a single characteristic of tyranny--a governor and council holding office
from the king and wholly independent of the country; laws made and
taxes levied without concurrence of the people, immediate or by their
representatives; the rights of private citizens violated and the titles of
all landed property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled by
restrictions on the press; and finally, disaffection overawed by the first
band of mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. For two
years our ancestors were kept in sullen submission by that filial love
which had invariably secured their allegiance to the mother-country,
whether its head chanced to be a Parliament, Protector or popish
monarch. Till these evil times, however, such allegiance had been
merely nominal, and the colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying far
more freedom than is even yet the privilege of the native subjects of
Great Britain.
At length a rumor reached our shores that the prince of Orange had
ventured on an enterprise the success of which would be the triumph of
civil and religious rights and the salvation of New England. It was but a
doubtful whisper; it might be false or the attempt might fail, and in
either case the man that stirred against King James would lose his head.
Still, the intelligence produced a marked effect. The people smiled
mysteriously in the streets and threw bold glances at their oppressors,
while far and wide there was a subdued and silent agitation, as if the
slightest signal would rouse the whole land from its sluggish
despondency. Aware of their danger, the rulers resolved to avert it by
an imposing display of strength, and perhaps to confirm their despotism
by yet harsher measures.

One afternoon in April, 1689, Sir Edmund Andros and his favorite
councillors, being warm with wine, assembled the red-coats of the
governor's guard and made their appearance in the streets of Boston.
The sun was near setting when the march commenced. The roll of the
drum at that unquiet crisis seemed to go through the streets less as the
martial music of the soldiers than as a muster-call to the inhabitants
themselves. A multitude by various avenues assembled in King street,
which was destined to be the scene, nearly a century afterward, of
another encounter between the troops of Britain and a people struggling
against her tyranny.
Though more than sixty years had elapsed since the Pilgrims came, this
crowd of their descendants still showed the strong and sombre features
of their character perhaps more strikingly in such a stern emergency
than on happier occasions. There was the sober garb, the general
severity of mien, the gloomy but