The sternness of his countenance gave place to a look of wild amazement , if not horror , while he recoiled several steps from the figure and let fall his sword upon the floor . The martial shape again drew the cloak about his features and passed on , but , reaching the threshold with his back toward the spectators , he was seen to stamp his foot and shake his clenched hands in the air . It was afterward affirmed that Sir William Howe had repeated that selfsame gesture of rage and sorrow when for the last time , and as the last royal governor , he passed through the portal of the province-house . `` Hark ! The procession moves , '' said Miss Joliffe . The music was dying away along the street , and its dismal strains were mingled with the knell of midnight from the steeple of the Old South and with the roar of artillery which announced that the beleaguered army of Washington had intrenched itself upon a nearer height than before . As the deep boom of the cannon smote upon his ear Colonel Joliffe raised himself to the full height of his aged form and smiled sternly on the British general . `` Would Your Excellency inquire further into the mystery of the pageant ? '' said he . `` Take care of your gray head ! '' cried Sir William Howe , fiercely , though with a quivering lip . `` It has stood too long on a traitor 's shoulders . '' `` You must make haste to chop it off , then , '' calmly replied the colonel , `` for a few hours longer , and not all the power of Sir William Howe , nor of his master , shall cause one of these gray hairs to fall . The empire of Britain in this ancient province is at its last gasp to-night ; almost while I speak it is a dead corpse , and methinks the shadows of the old governors are fit mourners at its funeral . '' With these words Colonel Joliffe threw on his cloak , and , drawing his granddaughter 's arm within his own , retired from the last festival that a British ruler ever held in the old province of Massachusetts Bay . It was supposed that the colonel and the young lady possessed some secret intelligence in regard to the mysterious pageant of that night . However this might be , such knowledge has never become general . The actors in the scene have vanished into deeper obscurity than even that wild Indian hand who scattered the cargoes of the tea-ships on the waves and gained a place in history , yet left no names . But superstition , among other legends of this mansion , repeats the wondrous tale that on the anniversary night of Britain 's discomfiture the ghosts of the ancient governors of Massachusetts still glide through the portal of the Province House . And last of all comes a figure shrouded in a military cloak , tossing his clenched hands into the air and stamping his iron-shod boots upon the broad freestone steps with a semblance of feverish despair , but without the sound of a foot-tramp .
* * * * * When the truth-telling accents of the elderly gentleman were hushed , I drew a long breath and looked round the room , striving with the best energy of my imagination XXXXX throw a tinge of romance and historic grandeur over the realities of the scene .
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