Suddenly there was seen the figure of an ancient man who seemed to have emerged from among the people and was walking by himself along the centre of the street to confront the armed band . He wore the old Puritan dress -- a dark cloak and a steeple-crowned hat in the fashion of at least fifty years before , with a heavy sword upon his thigh , but a staff in his hand to assist the tremulous gait of age . When at some distance from the multitude , the old man turned slowly round , displaying a face of antique majesty rendered doubly venerable by the hoary beard that descended on his breast . He made a gesture at once of encouragement and warning , then turned again and resumed his way . `` Who is this gray patriarch ? '' asked the young men of their sires . `` Who is this venerable brother ? '' asked the old men among themselves . But none could make reply . The fathers of the people , those of fourscore years and upward , were disturbed , deeming it strange that they should forget one of such evident authority whom they must have known in their early days , the associate of Winthrop and all the old councillors , giving laws and making prayers and leading them against the savage . The elderly men ought to have remembered him , too , with locks as gray in their youth as their own were now . And the young ! How could he have passed so utterly from their memories -- that hoary sire , the relic of long-departed times , whose awful benediction had surely been bestowed on their uncovered heads in childhood ? `` Whence did he come ? What is his purpose ? Who can this old man be ? '' whispered the wondering crowd . Meanwhile , the venerable stranger , staff in hand , was pursuing his solitary walk along the centre of the street . As he drew near the advancing soldiers , and as the roll of their drum came full upon his ear , the old man raised himself to a loftier mien , while the decrepitude of age seemed to fall from his shoulders , leaving him in gray but unbroken dignity . Now he marched onward with a warrior 's step , keeping time to the military music .
Thus the aged form advanced XXXXX one side and the whole parade of soldiers and magistrates on the other , till , when scarcely twenty yards remained between , the old man grasped his staff by the middle and held it before him like a leader 's truncheon .
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