XXIII
GOVERNOR BURNET IS DEFIED'Twas early Autumn when we returned to Albany. The leaves were coloring, and there was a nip of frost in the air. The flag over the battlements of Fort Orange stood out straight from its staff. The citizens who thronged the street leading up to the fort gate must needs hold on to their hat-brims.
"Are the streets usually so crowded?" I asked Peter.
He shook his head, and I accosted a tavernkeeper who stood in his doorway, regarding the passers-by with anticipation of the harvest he would reap later.
"'Tis his Excellency the governor," he explained. "Master Burnet is come up-river from New York town this morning."
"What is toward?"
"I know not, my master. The governor and Master Colden of his Council have summoned certain gentry and merchants and the of
