The minstrels left off playing to listen to him, and the mummers suspended their merry evolutions round the May-pole.

The poor denounced May Queen, who on the rejection of her nosegay had flown back to Jocelyn, now looked doubly disconcerted at this direct attack upon her and her finery, and pouted her pretty lips in vexation.

Dick Taverner, who stood by her side, seemed disposed to resent the affront, and shook his fist menacingly at the Puritan.

Jocelyn himself was perplexed and annoyed, for though inclined to take part with the assemblage, the growing interest he felt in Aveline forbade all interference with her father..