126 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



French Traits 



iohn Alden 

 ''rench 



New Engiaud as the typical Puritan maiden ; and so com- 

 pletely is she identified in thought and imagination with 

 the story of the Pilgrims, that in spite of the record of 

 history it is probable that the picture of John Alden and 

 his fair young bride will remain the popular representa- 

 tion of the peculiarly English ancestors of New England. 



And yet, as a recent writer suggests, it has always been 

 a source of wonder that an English girl could have had 

 the ready wit to give John Alden " the tip" that released 

 him from his ambiguous wooing and herself from the 

 domination of the fierce little captain. "How blind we 

 were to the Gallic coquetry with which she held on to 

 Miles till she had secured John ! She was a worthy pro- 

 genitor of the Yankee girl in her ability to take care of 

 herself. We must blot out, then, from the historic portrait 

 the blue eyes and rosy cheeks of the English maiden whom 

 our fancy has called up whenever we have thought of 

 Priscilla ; and we must jiaint in a slender, graceful, black- 

 haired brunette, with brown-black velvet eyes and long 

 sweeping la.shes, from under which were shot such glances 

 as melted the hearts of all the colony ; and we must adorn the 

 Puritan garb with some dainty ribbon." We can at once 

 see how this different feminine element would exert its 

 powerful influence, and how Priscilla would be a marked 

 character. 



A still greater shock will be given to tradition and 

 family pride when it is said, further, that there are very 

 good grounds for believing that John Alden himself had 

 Huguenot blood in his veins. Let this case be stated by 

 Julien, author of Tales of Old Boston, who made it a mat- 

 ter of careful research, and thought the evidence rather 

 strongly in favour of a Huguenot origin. The Alden 

 genealogies, he says, state vaguely that the name of Alden 

 is not found in England, or mention a certain Mr. Alden 

 of St. John's College, who is referred to as "one who 

 suffered by the tyrannical Bartholomew act" — which 

 suggests that it was a French refugee of 1572 who was 



