But he conies too late . Thank Heaven for this blessed hour ! God save King George ! '' `` That , madam , is a strange prayer to be offered up at such a moment , '' replied the unknown guest of the province-house , and , courteously removing his hat , he offered his arm to raise the aged woman . `` Yet , in reverence for your gray hairs and long-kept faith , Heaven forbid that any here should say you nay . Over the realms which still acknowledge his sceptre , God save King George ! '' Esther Dudley started to her feet , and , hastily clutching back the key , gazed with fearful earnestness at the stranger , and dimly and doubtfully , as if suddenly awakened from a dream , her bewildered eyes half recognized his face . Years ago she had known him among the gentry of the province , but the ban of the king had fallen upon him . How , then , came the doomed victim here ? Proscribed , excluded from mercy , the monarch 's most dreaded and hated foe , this New England merchant had stood triumphantly against a kingdom 's strength , and his foot now trod upon humbled royalty as he ascended the steps of the province-house , the people 's chosen governor of Massachusetts . `` 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 XXXXX his attendants , `` let us reverence for the last time the stately and gorgeous prejudices of the tottering past . ''
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