`` What worthies are these ? '' `` If it please Your Excellency , they lived somewhat before my day , '' answered the doctor ; `` but doubtless our friend the colonel has been hand and glove with them . '' `` Their living faces I never looked upon , '' said Colonel Joliffe , gravely ; `` although I have spoken face to face with many rulers of this land , and shall greet yet another with an old man 's blessing ere I die . But we talk of these figures . I take the venerable patriarch to be Bradstreet , the last of the Puritans , who was governor at ninety or thereabouts . The next is Sir Edmund Andros , a tyrant , as any New England schoolboy will tell you , and therefore the people cast him down from his high seat into a dungeon . Then comes Sir William Phipps , shepherd , cooper , sea-captain and governor . May many of his countrymen rise as high from as low an origin ! Lastly , you saw the gracious earl of Bellamont , who ruled us under King William . '' `` But what is the meaning of it all ? '' asked Lord Percy . `` Now , were I a rebel , '' said Miss Joliffe , half aloud , `` I might fancy that the ghosts of these ancient governors had been summoned to form the funeral procession of royal authority in New England . '' Several other figures were now seen at the turn of the staircase . The one in advance had a thoughtful , anxious and somewhat crafty expression of face , and in spite of his loftiness of manner , which was evidently the result both of an ambitious spirit and of long continuance in high stations , he seemed not incapable of cringing to a greater than himself . A few steps behind came an officer in a scarlet and embroidered uniform cut in a fashion old enough to have been worn by the duke of Marlborough . His nose had a rubicund tinge , which , together with the twinkle of his eye , might have marked him as a lover of the wine-cup and good-fellowship ; notwithstanding which tokens , he appeared ill at ease , and often glanced around him as if apprehensive of some secret mischief . Next came a portly gentleman wearing a coat of shaggy cloth lined with silken velvet ; he had sense , shrewdness and humor in his face and a folio volume under his arm , but his aspect was that of a man vexed and tormented beyond all patience and harassed almost to death . He went hastily down , and was followed by a dignified person dressed in a purple velvet suit with very rich embroidery ; his demeanor would have possessed much stateliness , only that a grievous fit of the gout compelled him to hobble from stair to stair with contortions of face and body . When Dr. Byles beheld this figure on the staircase , he shivered as with an ague , but continued to watch him steadfastly until the gouty gentleman had reached the threshold , made a gesture of anguish and despair and vanished into the outer gloom , whither the funeral music summoned him . `` Governor Belcher -- my old patron -- in his very shape and dress ! ''
gasped Dr. XXXXX .
Byles Marlborough Phipps Puritans William contortions sea-captain stateliness tinge wine-cup