A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

74 A MAD SCHEME. [1745.of October. The flood tide pours strong and fullaround them, only toebb away and lay bare a desolationof rocks and stones buried in a shock of browndrenched seaweed, broad tracts of glistening mud,sand-banks black with mussel-beds, and half-submergedmeadows of eel-grass, with myriads of minuteshell-fish clinging to its long lank tresses. Beyondall these lies the main, or northern channel, morethan deep enough, even when the tide is out, to floata line-of-battle-ship.On its farther bank stands theold house of the Pepperrell, wearing even now anair of dingy respectability. Looking through itssmall, quaint window-panes, one could see across thewater the rude dwellings of fishermen along the shoreof Newcastle, and the neglected earthwork calledFort William and Mary, that feebly guarded theriver's mouth. In front, the Piscataqua, curvingsouthward, widened to meet the Atlantic betweenrocky headlands and foaming reefs,and in dim distancethe Isles of Shoals seemed floating on the palegray sea.Behind the Pepperrell house was a garden, probablymore useful than ornamental, and atthe foot ofit were the owner's wharves, with storehouses forsaltrfish, naval stores, and imported goods for thecountry trade.Pepperrell was the son of a Welshman ^ who1 " A native of Eavistock Parish, in Wales." Parsons, Life ofPepperrell. Mrs. Adelaide Cilley Waldron, a descendant of Pepperrell,assures me, however, that his father, the emigrant, came, notfrom Wales, but from Devonshire.