Although the stage was but a temporary one, built in the hall of Rip Van Dam, it was large, the seating capacity was great and Hallam and his wife were among the best actors of their day, destined to a long career as stars in the colonies, and also afterward, when they ceased to be colonies.  They and an able support soon took the whole audience captive, and all, fashionable and unfashionable alike, hung with breathless attention upon the play.  Robert forgot absolutely everything around him, Willet was carried back to days of his youth, and Master Benjamin Hardy, who at heart was a lover of adventure and romance, responded to the great speeches the author has written for his characters.  Tayoga did not stir, his face of bronze was unmoved, but now and then his dark eyes gleamed.

In reality the influence of the tragedy upon Tayoga was as great as it was upon Robert.  The Onondaga had an unusual mind and being sent at an early age to school at Albany he had learned that the difference between white man and red was due chiefly to environment.  Their hopes and fears, their rivalries and ambitions were, in truth, about the same.  He had seen in some chief a soul much like that of humpbacked Richard, but, as he looked and listened, he also had a certain feeling of superiority.  As he saw it, the great League, the Hodenosaunee, was governed better than England when York and Lancaster were tearing it to pieces.  The fifty old sachems in the vale of Onondaga would decide more wisely and more justly than the English nobles.  Tayoga, in that moment, was prouder than ever that he was born a member of the Clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, and doubtless his patron saint, Tododaho, in his home on the great, shining star, agreed with him.

The first act closed amid great applause, several recalls of smiling and bowing actors followed, and then, during the wait, came a great buzz of talk.  Robert shook himself and returned to the world.

“What do you like best about it, Lennox?” asked Grosvenor.

“The poetry.  The things the people say.  Things I’ve thought often myself, but which I haven’t been able to put in a way that makes them strike upon you like a lightning flash.”

“I think that describes Master Will.  In truth, you’ve given me a description for my own feelings.  Once more I repeat to you, Lennox, that ’tis a fine audience.  I see here much British and Dutch wealth, and people whose lives have been a continuous drama.”

“Truly it’s so,” said Robert, and, as his examining eye swept the crowd, he almost rose in his seat with astonishment, with difficulty suppressing a cry.  Then he charged himself with being a fool.  It could not be so!  The thing was incredible!  The man might look like him, but surely he would not be so reckless as to come to such a place.

Then he looked again, and he could no longer doubt.  The stranger sat near the door and his dress was much like that of a prosperous seafaring man of the Dutch race.  But Robert knew the blue eyes, lofty and questing like those of the eagle, and he was sure that the reddish beard had grown on a face other than the one it now adorned.  It was St. Luc, whom he knew to be romantic, adventurous, and ready for any risk.