A sound of music was heard without the house , as if proceeding from a full band of military instruments stationed in the street , playing , not such a festal strain as was suited to the occasion , but a slow funeral-march . The drums appeared to be muffled , and the trumpets poured forth a wailing breath which at once hushed the merriment of the auditors , filling all with wonder and some with apprehension . The idea occurred to many that either the funeral procession of some great personage had halted in front of the province-house , or that a corpse in a velvet-covered and gorgeously-decorated coffin was about to be borne from the portal . After listening a moment , Sir William Howe called in a stern voice to the leader of the musicians , who had hitherto enlivened the entertainment with gay and lightsome melodies . The man was drum-major to one of the British regiments . `` Dighton , '' demanded the general , `` what means this foolery ? Bid your band silence that dead march , or , by my word , they shall have sufficient cause for their lugubrious strains . Silence it , sirrah ! '' `` Please , Your Honor , '' answered the drum-major , whose rubicund visage had lost all its color , `` the fault is none of mine . I and my band are all here together , and I question whether there be a man of us that could play that march without book . I never heard it but once before , and that was at the funeral of his late Majesty , King George II . '' `` Well , well ! '' said Sir William Howe , recovering his composure ; `` it is the prelude to some masquerading antic . Let it pass . '' A figure now presented itself , but among the many fantastic masks that were dispersed through the apartments none could tell precisely from whence it came . It was a man in an old-fashioned dress of black serge and having the aspect of a steward or principal domestic in the household of a nobleman or great English landholder . This figure advanced to the outer door of the mansion , and , throwing both its leaves wide open , withdrew a little to one side and looked back toward the grand staircase , as if expecting some person to descend . At the same time , the music in the street sounded a loud and doleful summons . The eyes of Sir William Howe and his guests being directed to the staircase , there appeared on the uppermost landing-place , that was discernible from the bottom , several personages descending toward the door . The foremost was a man of stern visage , wearing a steeple-crowned hat and a skull-cap beneath it , a dark cloak and huge wrinkled boots that came halfway up his legs .
Under his arm was a rolled-up banner which seemed XXXXX be the banner of England , but strangely rent and torn ; he had a sword in his right hand and grasped a Bible in his left .
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