“So powerful was the powder, of such noble strength, that e’en its odour caused my daughter to swoon lily-white when I would have administered a dose to her as a preventive against sickness in the future. One man only besides the King was in my confidence. This was my friend and he was my undoing. Whilst I was in attendance upon his Majesty who had been wounded at a boar-hunt, this false friend, having free access to my house, entered and stole the parchment having the recipe. With a wounded heart I set to work, again to recall the intricate formula of the recipe. I was unsuccessful. Papers of value leading to the composing of the cure were left me, but the amount and proper compounding of the ingredients had been set down only in the stolen parchment. To add to my trouble I perceived that the King’s faith in me was shaken, that he regretted the monies put at my disposal. Moreover, he credited not my tale of my false friend’s baseness, but professed to think I had failed, and strove to hide my discomfiture beneath a cloak of lies. I despaired. At last I learned that my enemy had gone to America and landed at ye Town of Boston, whither I followed him. I arrived after a favourable voyage and sought your Governor. To him alone I gave my rightful name and mission. And here with much secrecy I was obliged to work, having no proof by which to confirm my accusation. My only hope lay in surprising my enemy afore he had time to destroy the parchment from fear and malice. My search led me to your town. It was the close of day. I sent my Indian guide to a farmhouse for food, and seated myself on a fallen tree for a resting-minute. I was o’er cautious and determined not to enter the town afore nightfall, desiring that my enemy should not recognize me, if I by any inadvertence happed to cross his path. As I waited, there came tripping along this same little maid whom you would have hanged. “I learned from her of the stranger in your town. Thereat I resolved to go back to Boston Town and obtain assistance to arrest this base traitor. Now, prompted by an unfortunate desire to annoy him and full of triumph, I did whisper in the little maid’s ear tormenting words to say when next she met him, chuckling to myself as I thought of his astonishment that a fair and innocent child should have an inkling of his guilt. So high did my spirits rise after the little maid left me that I could not sit still, but must needs rise and stroll down the path to meet my Indian guide. There I met an old silly, praying. I dropped a black pellet in one of his pails of milk as an idle jest. But I have paid dearly for my malicious chuckling. I have paid well.” The speaker paused to groan and wipe the sweat from his brow.