`` Wretch , wretch that I am ! '' muttered the old woman , with such a heartbroken expression that the tears gushed from the stranger 's eyes . `` Have I bidden a traitor welcome ? -- Come , Death ! come quickly ! '' `` Alas , venerable lady ! '' said Governor Hancock , lending her his support with all the reverence that a courtier would have shown to a queen , `` your life has been prolonged until the world has changed around you . You have treasured up all that time has rendered worthless -- the principles , feelings , manners , modes of being and acting which another generation has flung aside -- and you are a symbol of the past . And I and these around me -- we represent a new race of men , living no longer in the past , scarcely in the present , but projecting our lives forward into the future . Ceasing to model ourselves on ancestral superstitions , it is our faith and principle to press onward -- onward . -- Yet , '' continued he , turning to his attendants , `` let us reverence for the last time the stately and gorgeous prejudices of the tottering past . '' While the republican governor spoke he had continued to support the helpless form of Esther Dudley ; her weight grew heavier against his arm , but at last , with a sudden effort to free herself , the ancient woman sank down beside one of the pillars of the portal . The key of the province-house fell from her grasp and clanked against the stone . `` I have been faithful unto death , '' murmured she . `` God save the king ! '' `` She hath done her office , '' said Hancock , solemnly . `` We will follow her reverently to the tomb of her ancestors , and then , my fellow-citizens , onward -- onward . We are no longer children of the past . '' As the old loyalist concluded his narrative the enthusiasm which had been fitfully flashing within his sunken eyes and quivering across his wrinkled visage faded away , as if all the lingering fire of his soul were extinguished . Just then , too , a lamp upon the mantelpiece threw out a dying gleam , which vanished as speedily as it shot upward , compelling our eyes to grope for one another 's features by the dim glow of the hearth .
With such a lingering fire , methought , with such a dying gleam , had the glory of the ancient system vanished from the province-house when the spirit XXXXX old Esther Dudley took its flight .
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