Such a scene , dimly vanishing from the eye by the ray of here and there a tallow candle glimmering through the small panes of scattered windows , would form a sombre contrast to the street as I beheld it with the gaslights blazing from corner to corner , flaming within the shops and throwing a noonday brightness through the huge plates of glass . But the black , lowering sky , as I turned my eyes upward , wore , doubtless , the same visage as when it frowned upon the ante-Revolutionary New Englanders . The wintry blast had the same shriek that was familiar to their ears . The Old South Church , too , still pointed its antique spire into the darkness and was lost between earth and heaven , and , as I passed , its clock , which had warned so many generations how transitory was their lifetime , spoke heavily and slow the same unregarded moral to myself . `` Only seven o'clock ! '' thought I. `` My old friend 's legends will scarcely kill the hours ` twixt this and bedtime . '' Passing through the narrow arch , I crossed the courtyard , the confined precincts of which were made visible by a lantern over the portal of the Province House . On entering the bar-room , I found , as I expected , the old tradition-monger seated by a special good fire of anthracite , compelling clouds of smoke from a corpulent cigar . He recognized me with evident pleasure , for my rare properties as a patient listener invariably make me a favorite with elderly gentlemen and ladies of narrative propensites . Drawing a chair to the fire , I desired mine host to favor us with a glass apiece of whiskey-punch , which was speedily prepared , steaming hot , with a slice of lemon at the bottom , a dark-red stratum of port wine upon the surface and a sprinkling of nutmeg strewn over all . As we touched our glasses together , my legendary friend made himself known to me as Mr. Bela Tiffany , and I rejoiced at the oddity of the name , because it gave his image and character a sort of individuality in my conception . The old gentleman 's draught acted as a solvent upon his memory , so that it overflowed with tales , traditions , anecdotes of famous dead people and traits of ancient manners , some of which were childish as a nurse 's lullaby , while others might have been worth the notice of the grave historian . Nothing impressed me more than a story of a black mysterious picture which used to hang in one of the chambers of the Province House , directly above the room where we were now sitting . The following is as correct a version of the fact as the reader would be likely to obtain from any other source , although , assuredly , it has a tinge of romance approaching to the marvellous . * * * * * In one of the apartments of the province-house there was long preserved an ancient picture the frame of which was as black as ebony , and the canvas itself so dark with age , damp and smoke that not a touch of the painter 's art could be discerned . Time had thrown an impenetrable veil over it and left to tradition and fable and conjecture to say what had once been there portrayed . During the rule of many successive governors it had hung , by prescriptive and undisputed right , over the mantel piece of the same chamber , and it still kept its place when Lieutenant-governor Hutchinson assumed the administration of the province on the departure of Sir Francis Bernard . The lieutenant-governor sat one afternoon resting his head against the carved back of his stately arm-chair and gazing up thoughtfully at the void blackness of the picture . It was scarcely a time for such inactive musing , when affairs of the deepest moment required the ruler 's decision ; for within that very hour Hutchinson had received intelligence of the arrival of a British fleet bringing three regiments from Halifax to overawe the insubordination of the people . These troops awaited his permission to occupy the fortress of Castle William and the town itself , yet , instead of affixing his signature to an official order , there sat the lieutenant-governor so carefully scrutinizing the black waste of canvas that his demeanor attracted the notice of two young persons who attended him .
One , wearing a military dress XXXXX buff , was his kinsman , Francis Lincoln , the provincial captain of Castle William ; the other , who sat on a low stool beside his chair , was Alice Vane , his favorite niece .
As against between by from of on over that with