“Be sure I am not mistaken.  See now whether Sir Christopher be not of the same opinion.”

Thus appealed to, the knight answered: 

“I fear that your judgment, Master Arundel, is correct, though caring not to enter into the reasons which have forced me to this conclusion.  But we will endeavor to use such caution that any mischievous designs of his shall be defeated.  Happily my homestead is not comprised within the limits of the colony, and the sentence of banishment is complied with, Philip being here.”

Hereupon Sir Christopher rose and entered the house, and the soldier took advantage of his absence to deliver the message of Prudence, which, as he had threatened, he colored a little.  With all his efforts he was unable to conceal the interest which he felt for the girl, but the young man good naturedly allowed him to suppose it unnoticed.  In a short time the knight reappeared, and invited them in to dinner.

The apartment which they entered opened immediately upon the porch, and was a room some twenty feet square, constituting somewhat more than a quarter of the building.  The walls were merely unhewn logs, divested of the bark, and filled in with a tenacious clay resembling mortar.  Against them were nailed, or supported by wooden pegs, in divers places, branching horns of the moose and deer, over which were hung hunting-shirts and skins of various wild animals, tanned with the hair on.  The antlers also, in many instances, supported guns, and swords, and hunting pouches, and powder-horns, and, in short, whatever might be necessary for attack or defence in war, and success in the chase.  In the centre of the room a table for four or five persons was set, and a squaw was busy near a fire preparing the meal.

It was not long before the simple dinner, consisting principally of venison steaks and bread made of Indian corn, was placed by the squaw on the board, and the three men drew up, Philip manifesting some modest reluctance, until pressed thereto by the knight.

“The vain distinctions of the world,” said Sir Christopher, “are out of place here.  My soul sickens at the servile respect paid to stars and garters.  The jewel of the spirit is to be prized, not by the setting, but by the degree of its own splendor it darts around.”

Nor simple though the dinner was, were there wanting draughts of wine like that of which the soldier had drank upon his arrival.  Of the three, he drank the most freely; Arundel moderately, and the knight almost abstemiously.  As the last regarded the pale face of Philip, and marked the kindling lustre of his eyes, he pardoned the poor fellow, in consideration of what he had endured, the freedom of his libations.

At the conclusion of the meal, Arundel, turning to the knight, said: 

“Philip has brought me word, Sir Christopher, which will necessitate the abridgment of a visit I did intend should be longer.  My purpose is to return to Boston in the morning.”