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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diff^renis. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. errata to » pelure, on d D 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 "WHY DON'T YOU END IT ? " (page aog) TO HAVE AND TO HOLD BT MARY JOHNSTON AUTHOR OF "prisoners OF HOPE " TORONTO GEORGE N. MORANG & COMPANY, Limitkd 1900 PZ3 I 9oo 146220 Entered according^ to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year nineteen hundred, by Gkorob N. Morang & Company, LiMiTKD.at the Department of Agriculture. TO THE MEMORY OP MY MOTHER CONTENTS OEAPTBB I!40B I. In which I THROW Ambs-ace .... 1 II. In which I MEET Master Jeremy Spabkow 9 III. In WHICH I MARRY IN HaSTE .... 18 IV. In WHICH I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE . 27 V. In WHICH A Woman has her Way . . 89 VI. In which we go to Jamestown ... 47 VII. In which we prepare to fight the Spaniard 57 VIII. In which enters my Lord Carnal . . 67 IX. In which Two drink of One Cup ... 78 X. In which Master Pory gains Time to Some Purpose 92 XI. In which I MEET AN Itauan Doctor . . 100 XII. In which I RECEIVE A Warning and repose A Trust lU XIII. In which the Santa Teresa drops Down- stream 118 XIV. In which we seek a Lost Lady . . . 126 XV. In which we find the Haunted Wood . 188 XVI. In which I am rid of an Unprofitable Ser- vant 142 XVII. In which my Lord and I play at Bowls . 152 XVIII. In which we go out into the Night . 164 XIX. In which we have Unexpected Company . 174 XX. In which we are in Desperate Case . 188 XXI. In which a Grave is digged .... 198 XXII. In which I change my Name and Occupation 202 XXIII. In which we write upon the Sand , . 213 XXIV. In which we choose the Lesser of Two Evils 224 XXV. In which my Lord hath his Day . . 284 XXVI. In which I am brought to Trial . . . 244 XXVII. In which I find an Advocate ... 252 XXVIII. In which the Springtime is at Hakd . . 264 XXIX. In which I keep Tryst 276 ▼I CONTENTS XXX. In which we start upon a Jocrnky . . 289 XXXI. In which Nantauquas combs to our Rescue 299 XXXII. In which we are the Guests of an Emperor 318 XXXIII. In which my Friend becomes my Foe . 326 XXXIV. In which the Race is not to the Swift . 388 XXXV. In which I comb to the Governor's House 347 XXXVI. In which I hear III News .... 368 XXXVII. In wmcH my Lord and I part Company . 369 XXXVIII. In WHICH I go upon a Quest ... 378 XXXIX. In WHICH WK listen to a Sono . , , 888 B9 )9 13 26 ]8 17 >d )9 rs TO HAVE AND TO HOLD CHAPTER I IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE The work of the day being over, I sat down upon ray doorstep, pipe in hand, to rest awhile in the cool of the evening. Death is not more still than is this Virginian land in the hour when the sun has sunk away, and it is black beneath the trees, and the stars brighten slowly and softly, one by one. The birds that sing all day have hushed, and the homed owls, the monster frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fowl it be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) which we English call the whippoorwill, are yet silent. Later the wolf will howl and the panther scream, but now there is no sound. The winds are laid, and the restless leaves droop and are quiet. The low lap of the watjr among the reeds is like the breathing of one who sleeps in his watch beside the dead. I marked the light die from the broad bosom of the river, leaving it a dead man's hue. Awhile ago, and for many evenings, it had been crimson, — a river of blood. A week before, a great meteor had shot through the night, blood-red and bearded, drawing a slow-fading fiery trail across the heavens ; and the moon had risen that same night blood-red, and upon a TO HAVE AND TO HOLD its disk there was drawn in shadow a thing most mar^ velously like a scalping knife. Wherefore, the fol- lowing day being Sunday, good Mr. Stockham, our minister at Weyanoke, exhorted us to be on ou>r guard, and in his prayer besought that no sedition oi rebellion might raise its head amongst the Indian subjects of the Lord's anointed. Afterward, in the churchyard, between the services, the more timorous began to tell of divers portents which they had ob- served, and to recount old tales of how the savages distressed us in the Starving Time. The bolder spirits laughed them to scorn, but the women began to weep and cower, and I, though I laughed too, thought of Smith, and how he ever held the savages, and more especially that Opechancanough who was now their emperor, in a most deep distrust ; telling us that the red men watched while we slept, that they might teach wiliness to a Jesuit, and how to bide its time to a cat crouched before a mousehole. I thought of the terms we now kept with these heathen ; of how they came and went familiarly amongst us, spying out our weakness, and losing the salutary awe which that noblest captain had struck into their souls; of how many were employed as hunters to bring down deer for lazy masters ; of how, breaking the law, and that not secretly, we gave them knives and arms, a sol- dier's bread, in exchange for pelts and pearls ; of how their emperor was forever sending us smooth mes- sages ; of how their lips smiled and their eyes frowned. That afternoon, as I rode home through the lengthen- ing shadows, a hunter, red-brown and naked, rose from behind a fallen tree that sprawled across my path, and made offer to bring me my meat from the moon of corn to the moon of stags in exchange for a IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE 8 gun. There was scant love between the savages and myself, — it was answer enough when I told him my name. I left the dark figure standing, still as a carved stone, in the heavy shadow of the trees, and, spurring my horse (sent me from home, the year be- fore, by my cousin Percy), was soon at my house, — a poor and rude one, but pleasantly set upon a slope of green turf, and girt with maize and the broad leaves of the tobacco. When I had had my supper, I called from their hut the two Paspahegh lads bought by me from their tribe the Michaelmas before, and soundly flogged them both, having in my mind a saying of my ancient captain's, namely, " He who strikes first oft- times strikes last." Upon the afternoon of which I now speak, in the midsummer of the year of grace 1621, as I sat upon my doorstep, my long pipe between ray teeth and my eyes upon the pallid stream below, my thoughts were busy with these matters, — so busy that I did not see a horse and rider emerge from the dimness of the for- est into the cleared space before my palisade, nor knew, until his voice came up the bank, that my good friend. Master John Rolfe, was without and would speak to me. I went down to the gate, and, unbarring it, gave him my hand and led the horse within the inclosure. " Thou careful man ! " he said, with a laugh, as he dismounted. " Who else, think you, in this or any other hundred, now bars his gate when the sun goes down ? " " It is my sunset gun," I answered briefly, fastening his horse as I spoke. He put his arm about my shoulder, for we were old friends, and together we went up the green bank to 4 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the house, and, when I had brought him a pipe, sat down side by side upon the doorstep. " Of what were you dreaming ? " he asked presently, when we bad made for ourselves a great cloud of smoke. " I called you twice." " I was wishing for Dale's times and Dale's laws." He laughed, and touched , my knee with his hand, white and smooth as a woman's, and with a green jewel upon the forefinger. " Thou Mars incarnate ! " he cried. " Thou first, last, and in the meantime soldier I Why, whac wilt thou do when thou gettest to heaven ? Make it too hot to hold thee? Or take out letters of marque against the Enemy ? " " I am not there yet," I said dryly. " In the mean- time I would like a commission against — your rela- tives." He laughed, then sighed, and, sinking his chin into his hand and softly tapping his foot against the ground, fell into a reverie. " I would your princess were alive," I said presently. " So do I," he answered softly. " So do I." Lock- ing his hands behind his head, he raised his quiet face to the evening star. " Brave and wise and gentle," he mused. " If I did not think to meet her again, be- yond that star, I could not smile and speak calmly, Ralph, as I do now." " 'T is a strange thing," I said, as I refilled my pipe. " Love for your brother-in-arms, love for your com- mander if he be a commander worth having, love for your horse and dog, I underptand. But wedded love I to tie a burden around one's neck because 't is pink and white, or clear bronze, and shaped with elegance ' Faugh I »> IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE 6 " Yet I came with half a mind to persuade thee to that very burden ! " he cried, with another laugh. " Thanks for thy pains," I said, blowing blue rings into the air. " I have ridden to-day from Jamestown," he went on. " I was the only man, i' faith, that cared to leave its gates ; and I met the world — the bachelor world — flocking to them. Not a mile of the way but I en- countered Tom, Dick, and Harry, dressed in their Sun- day bravery and making full tilt for the city. And the boats upon the river ! I have seen the Thames less crowded." " There was more passing than usual," I said ; " but I was busy in the fields, and did not attend. What 's the lodestar ? " " The star that draws us all, — some to ruin, some t.. bliss ineffable, — woman." " Humph I The maids have come, then ?" He nodded. " There 's a goodly ship down there, with a goodly lading." " Videlicet, &ome fourscore waiting damsels and milkmaids, warranted honest by my Lord Warwick," I muttered. " This business hath been of Edwyn Sandys' man- agement, as you very well know," he rejoined, with some heat. " His word is good : therefore I hold them chaste. That they are fair I can testify, having seen them leave the ship." " Fair and chaste," I said, " but meanly born." " I grant you that," he answered. " But after all, what of it? Beggars must not be choosers. The land is new and must be peopled, nor will those who come after us look too curiously into the lineage of those to whom a nation owes its birth. What we in 6 TO :!AVE AND TO HOLD these plantations need is a loosening of the bonds which tie us to home, to England, and a tightening of those which bind us to this land in which we have cast our lot. We put our hand to the plough, but we turn our heads and look to our Egypt and its fleshpots. 'T is children and wife — be that wife princess or peasant — that make home of a desert, that bind a man with chains of gold to the country where they abide. Wherefore, when at midday J met good Master Wickham rowing down from Henricus to Jamestown, to offer his aid to Master Bucke in his press of busi- ness to-morrow, I gave the good man Godspeed, and thought his a fruitful errand and one pleasing to the Lord." " Amen," I yawned. " I love the land, and call it home. My withers are unwrung." He rose to his feet, and began to pace the green* sward before the door. My eyes followed his trim figure, richly though sombrely clad, then fell with a sudden dissatisfaction upon my own stained and frayed apparel. " Ralph," he said presently, coming to a stand before me, " have you ever an hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco in hand ? If not, I " — " I have the weed," I replied. " What then ? " "Then at dawn drop down with the tide to the city, and secure for thyself one of these same errant damsels." I stared at him, and then broke into laughter, in which, after a space and unwillingly, he himself joined. When at length I wiped the water from my eyes it was quite dark, the whippoorwills had begun to call, and Kolfe must needs hasten on. I went with him aown to the gate. •i I i IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE 7 " Take my advice, - - it is that of your friend,'* he said, as he swung himself into the saddle. He gathered up the reins and struck spurs into his horse, then turned to call back to me : " Sleep upon my words, Ralph, and the next time I come I look to see a farthingale behind thee 1 " "■ Thou art as like to see one upon me," I answered. Nevertheless, when he had gone, and I climbed the bank and reentered the house, it was with a strange pang at the cheerlessness of my hearth, and an angry and unreasoning impatience at the lack of welcoming face or voice. In God's name, who was there to wel- come me ? None but my hounds, and the flying squirrel 1 had caught and tamed. Groping my way to the corner, I took from my store two torches, lit them, and stuck them into the holes pierced in the mantel shelf ; then stood beneath the clear flame, and looked with a sudden sick distaste upon the disorder which the light betrayed. The fire was dead, and ashes and embers were scattered upon the hearth ; fragments of my last meal littered the table, and upon the unwashed floor lay the bones I had thrown my dogs. Dirt and confusion reigned ; only upon my armor, my sword and gun, my hunting knife and dag- ger, there was no spot or stain. I turned to gaze upon them where they hung against the wall, and in my soul I hated the piping times of peace, and longed for the camp fire and the call to arms. With an impatient sigh, I swept the litter from the table, and, taking f rmn the shelf that held my meagre library a bundle of Master Shakespeare's pl;*^ (gath- ered for me by Rolfe when he was last in London), I began to read ; but my tlioughts wandered, and the tale seemed dull and oft told. I tossed it aside, and, ^ . ^ 8 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD taking dice from my pocket, began to throw. As I cast the bits of bone, idly, and scarce caring to ob- serve what numbers came uppermost, I had a vision of the forester's hut at home, where, when I was a boy, in the days before I ran away to the wars in the Low Countries, I had spent many a happy hour. Again I saw the bright light of the fire reflected in each well-scrubbed crock and pannikin ; again I heard the cheerful hum of the wheel ; again the face of the for- ester's daughter smiled upon me. The old gray manor house, where my mother, a stately dame, sat ever at her tapestry, and an imperious elder brother strode to and fro among his hounds, seemed less of home to me than did that tiny, friendly hut. To-morrow would be my thirty sixth birthday. All the numbers that I cast were high. " If I throw ambs-ace," I said, with a smile for my own caprice, " curse me if I do not take Rolfe's advice ! " I shook the box and clapped it down upon the table, then lifted it, and stared with a I'^ngthening face at what it had hidden ; which done, I diced no more, but put out my lights and went soberly to bed. CHAPTER n IN WHICH I MEET MASTER JEREMY SPARROW Mine are not dicers' oaths. The stars were yet shining when I left the house, and, after a word with my man Diccon, at the servants' huts, strode down the bank and through the gate of the palisade to the wharf, where I loosed my boat, put up her sail, and turned her head down the broad stream. The wind was fresh and favorable, and we went swiftly down the river through the silver mist toward the sunrise. The sky grew pale pink to the zenith ; then the sun rose and drank up the mist. The river sparkled and shone ; from the fresh green banks came the smell of the woods and the song of birds ; above rose the sky, bright blue, with a few fleecy clouds drifting across it. I thought of the day, thirteen years before, when for the first time white men sailed up this same river, and of how noble its width, how enchanting its shores, how gay and sweet their blooms and odors, how vast their trees, how strange the painted savages, had seemed to us, storm-tossed adventurers, who thought we had found a very paradise, the Fortunate Isles at least. How quickly were we undeceived I As I lay back in the stern with half-shut eyes and tiller idle in my hand, our many tribulations and our few joys passed in review before me. Indian attacks ; dissen- S'on and strife amongst our rulers ; true men per- secuted, false kn9 ves elevated ; the weary search for 10 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD gold and the South Sea ; the horror of the pestilence and the blacker horror of the Starving Time ; the arrival of the Patience and Deliverance, whereat we wept like children ; that most joyful Sunday morning when we followed my Lord de la Warre to church; the coming of Dale with that stern but wholesome martial code which was no stranger to me who had fought under Maurice of Nassau ; the good times that followed, when bowl-playing gallants were put down, cities founded, forts built, and the gospel preached ; the marriage of Rolf e and his dusky princess ; Argall's expedition, in which I played a part, and Argall's in- iquitous rule ; the return of Yeardley as Sir George, and the priceless gift he brought us, — all this and much else, old friends, old enemies, old toils and strifes and pleasures, ran, bitter-sweet, through my memory, as the wind and flood bore me on. Of what was before me I did not choose to think, sufficient unto the hour being the evil thereof. The river seemed deserted : no horsemen spurred along the bridle path on the shore ; the boats were few and far between, and held only servants or In- dians or very old men. It was as Rolfe had said, and the free and able-bodied of the plantations had put out, posthaste, for matrimony. Chaplain's Choice appeared unpeopled ; Piersey's Hundred slept in the sunshine, its wharf deserted, and but few, slow-moving figures in the tobacco fields ; even the Indian villages looked scant of all but squaws and children, for the braves were gone to see the palefaces buy their wives. Below Paspahegh a cockleshell of a boat carrying a great white sail overtook me, and I was hailed by young Hamor. " The maids are come I " he cried. " Hurrah 1 '* and stood up to wave his bat, IN WHICH I MEET MASTER SPARROW 11 a by 1" 1 " Humph ! " I said. " I guess thy destination by thy hose. Are they not ' those that were thy peach- colored ones ' ? " " Oons ! yes ! " he answered, looking down with complacency upon his tarnished finery. " Wedding garments, Captain Percy, wedding garments ! " I laughed. " Thou art a tardy bridegroom. I thought that the bachelors of this quarter of the globe slept last night in Jamestown." His face fell. " I know it," he said ruefully ; " but my doublet had more rents than slashes in it, and Martin Tailor kept it until cockcrow. That fellow rolls in tobacco ; he hath grown rich off our impover- ished wardrobes since the ship down yonder passed the capes. After all," he brightened, " the bargain- ing takes not place until toward midday, after solemn service and thanksgiving. There's time enough!" He waved me a farewell, as his great sail and narrow craft carried him past me. I looked at the sun, which truly was not very high, with a secret disquietude ; for I had had a scurvy hope that after all I should be too late, and so the noose which I felt tightening about my neck might unknot itself. Wind and tide were against me, and an hour later saw me nearing the peninsula and mar- veling at the shipping which crowded its waters. It was as if every sloop, barge, canoe, and dugout be- tween Point Comfort and Henricus were anchored off its shores, while above them towered the masts of the Marmaduke and Furtherance, then in port, and of the tall ship which had brought in those doves for sale. The river with its dancing freight, the blue heavens and bright sunshine, the green trees waving in the wind, the stir and bustle in the street and mar- ket place thronged with gayly dressed gallants, made 12 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD a fair and pleasant scene. As I drove my boat in be- tween the sloop of the commander of Shirley Hundred and the canoe of the Nansemond werowance, the two bells then newly hung in the church began to peal and the drum to beat. Stepping ashore, I had a rear view only of the folk who had Cxustered along the banks and in the street, their faces and footsteps be ing with one accord directed toward the market place. I went with the throng, jostled alike by velvet and dowlas, by youths with their estates upon their backs and naked fantastically painted savages, and tram- pling the tobacco with which the greedy citizens had planted the very street. In the square I brought up before the Governor's house, and found myself cheek by jowl with Master Pory, our Secretary, and Speaker of the Assembly. " Ha, Ralph Percy ! " he cried, wagging his gray head, " we two be the only sane younkers in the plan- tations ! All the others are horn-mad! " " I have caught the infection," I said, " and am one of the bedlamites." He stared, then broke into a roar of laughter. "Art in earnest?" he asked, holding his fat sides. " Is Saul among the prophets ? " " Yes," I answered. " I diced last night, — yea or no ; and the ' yea ' — plague on 't — had it." He broke into another roar. "And thou callest that bridal attire, man ! Why, our cow-keeper goes in flaming silk to-day ! " I looked down upon my suit of buff, which had in truth seen some service, and at my great boots, which I had not thought to clean since I mired in a swamp, coming from Henricus the week before ; then shrugged my shoulders. IN WHICH I MEET MASTER SPARROW 13 or "You will go begging," he continued, wiping his eyes. " Not a one of them will so much as look at you." " Then will they miss seeing a man, and not a pop- injay,'* I retorted. " I shall not break my heart." A cheer arose from the crowd, followed by a crash- ing peal of the bells and a louder roll of the drum. The doors of the houses around and to right and left of the square swung open, and the company which had been quartered overnight upon the citizens began to emerge. By twos and threes, some with hurried steps and downcast eyes, others more slowly and with free glances at the staring men, they gathered to the centre of the square, where, in surplice and band, there awaited them godly Master Bucke and Master Wickham of Henricus. I stared with the rest, though I did not add my voice to theirs. Before the arrival of yesterday's ship there had been in this natural Eden (leaving the savages out of the reckoning) several thousand Adams, and but some threescore Eves. And for the most part, the Eves were either portly and bustling or withered and shrewish housewives, of age and experience to defy the serpent. These were different. Ninety slender figures decked in all the bravery they could assume ; ninety comely faces, pink and white, or clear brown with the rich blood showing through ; ninety pair of eyes, laughing and alluring, or downcast with long fringes sweeping rounded cheeks ; ninety pair of ripe red lips, — the crowd shouted itself hoarse and would not be restrained, brushing aside like straws the staves of the marshal and his men, and surging in upon the line of adventurous damsels. 1 saw young men, pant- ing, seize hand or arm and strive to pull toward them i^ 14 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD some reluctant fair ; others snatched kisses, or fell on their knees and began speeches out of Euphues ; others commenced an inventory of their possessions, — acres, tobacco, servants, household plenishing. All was hubbub, protestation, frightened cries, and hysterical laughter. The officers ran to and fro, threatening and commanding ; Master Pory alternately cried " Shame 1 '* and laughed his loudest ; and I plucked away a jackanapes of sixteen who had his hand upon a girl's ruff, and shook him until the breath was well-nigh out of him. The clamor did but increase. " Way for the Governor I " cried the marshal. ♦* Shame on you, my masters I Way for his Honor and the worshipful Council I " The three wooden steps leading down from the door of the Governor's house suddenly blossomed into crimson and gold, as his Honor with the attendant Councilors emerged from the hall and stood staring at the mob below. The Governor's honest moon face was quite pale with passion. " What a devil is this ? " he cried wrathfuUy. "Did you never see a woman before? Where 's the marshal ? I '11 imprison the last one of you for rioters I " Upon the platform of the pillory, which stood in the centre of the market place, suddenly appeared a man of a gigantic frame, with a strong face deeply lined and a great shock of grizzled hair, — a strange thing, for he was not old. I knew him to be one Master Jeremy Sparrow, a minister brought by the Southampton a month before, and as yet without a charge, but at that time I had not spoken with him. Without word of warning he thundered into a psalm m IN WHICH I MEET MASTER SPARROW 16 of thanksgiving, singing it at the top of a powerful and yet sweet and tender voice, and with a fervor and exaltation that caught the heart of the riotous crowd. The two ministers in the throng beneath took up the strain; Master Pory added a husky tenor, eloquent of much sack ; presently we were all singing. The audacious suitors, charmed into rationality, fell back, and the broken line re-formed. The Governor and the Council descended, and with pomp and solemnity took their places between the maids and the two min- isters who were to head the column. The psalm ended, the drum beat a thundering roll, and the pro- cession moved forward in the direction of the church. Master Pory having left me, to take his place among his brethren of the Council, and the mob of those who had come to purchase and of the curious idle having streamed away at the heels of the marshal and his officers, I found myself alone in the square, save for the singer, who now descended from the pil- lory and came up to me. '* Captain Ralph Percy,, if I mistake not ? " he said, in a voice as deep and rich as the bass of an organ. " The same,'* I answered. " And you are Master Jeremy Sparrow ? *' " Yea, a silly preacher, — the poorest, meekest, and lowliest of the Lord's servitors." His deep voice, magnificent frame, and bold and free address so gave the lie to the humility of his words that I had much ado to keep from laughing. He saw, and his face, which was of a cast most mar- tial, flashed into a smile, like sunshine on a scarred cliff. "You laugh in your sleeve," he said good-hu- moredly, "and yet I am but what I profess to be. 16 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD In spirit I am a very Job, though nature hath seen fit to dress me as a Samson. I assure you, I am worse misfitted than is Master Yardstick yonder in those Falstaffian hose. But, good sir, will you not go to church ? *' " If the church were Paul's, I might," I answered. " As it is, we could not get within fifty feet of the door." *' Of the great door, ay, but the ministers may pass through the side door If you please, I will take you in with me. The pretty fools yonder march slowly ; if we turn down this lane, we will outstrip them quite." " Agreed," I said, and we turned into a lane thick planted with tobacco, made a detour of the Governor's house, and outflanked the procession, arriving at the small door before it had entered the churchyard. Here we found the sexton mounting guard. *' I am Master Sparrow, the minister that came in the Southampton," my new acquaintance explained. "I am to sit in the choir. Let us pass, good fellow." The sexton squared himself before the narrow open- ing, and swelled with importance. "You, reverend sir, I will admit, such being my duty. But this gentleman is no preacher; I may not allow him to pass." " You mistake, friend," said my companion gravely. ** This gentleman, my worthy colleague, has but just come from the island of St. Brandon, where he preaches on the witches' Sabbath : hence the disorder of liis apparel. His admittance be on my head: wherefore let us by." " None to enter at the west door save Councilors, commander, and ministers. Any attempting to force IN WHICH I MEET MASTER SPARROW 17 an entrance to be arrested and laid by the heels if they be of the generality, or, if they be of quality, to be duly fined and debarred from the purchase of any maid whatsoever," chanted the sexton. " Then, in God's name, let 's on ! " I exclaimed. " Here, try this ! " and I drew from my purse, which was something of the leanest, a shilling. "Try this," quoth Master Jeremy Sparrow, and knocked the sexton down. We left the fellow sprawling in the doorway, sput- tering threats to the air without, bi.t with one covet- ous hand clutching at the shilling which I threw behind me, and entered the church, which we found yet empty, though through the open great door we heard the drum beat loudly and a deepening sound of footsteps. " I have choice of position," I said. " Yonder win- dow seems a good station. You remain here in the choir?" " Aj'^," he answered, with a sigh ; " the dignity of my calling must be upheld : wherefore I sit in high places, rubbing elbows with gold lace, when of the very truth the humility of my spirit is such that I would feel more at home in the servants' seats or among the negars that we bought last year." Had we not been in church I would have laughed, though indeed I saw that he devoutly believed his own words. He took his seat in the largest and finest of the chairs behind the great velvet one reserved for the Governor, while I went and leaned ajjainst niv win- dow, and we stared at each other across tho flower- decked building in profound silence, until, with one great final crash, the bells ceased, the drum stopped beating, and the procession entered. CHAPTER III m WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE The long service of praise and thanksgiving was well-nigh over when I first saw her. She sat some ten feet from me, in the corner, and so in the shadow of a tall pew. Beyond her was a row of milkmaid beauties, red of cheek, free of eye, deep-bosomed, and beribboned like Maypoles. I looked again, and saw — and see — a rose amongst blowzed poppies and peonies, a pearl amidst glass beads, a Perdita in a ring of rustics, a nonparella of all grace and beauty ! As I gazed with all my eyes, I found more than grace and beauty in that wonderful face, — found pride, wit, fire, determination, finally shame and pnger. For, feeling my eyes upon her, she looked up and met what she must have thought the impudent stare of an appraiser. Her face, which had been without color, pale and clear like the sky about the evening star, went crimson in a moment. She bit her lip and shot at me one withering glance, then dropped her eyelids and hid the lightning. When I looked at her again, covertly, and from under my hand raised as though to push back my hair, she was pale once more, and her dark eyes were fixed upon the water and the green trees without the window. The congregation rose, and she stood up with the other maids. Her dress of dark woolen, severe and unadorned, her close ruff and prim white coif, would IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE 19 have cried " Puritan," had ever Puritan looked like this woman, upon whom the poor apparel had the seeming of purple and ermine. Anon came the benediction. Governor, Councilors, commanders, and ministers left the choir and paced solemnly down the aisle ; the maids closed in behind ; and we who had lined the walls, shifting from one heel to the other for a long two hours, brought up the rear, and so passed from the church to a fair green meadow adjacent thereto. Here the company dis- banded ; the wearers of gold lace betaking themselves to seats erected in the shadow of a mighty oak, and the ministers, of whom there were four, bestowing them- selves within pulpits of turf. For one altar and one clergyman could not hope to dispatch that day's busi- ness. As for the maids, for a minute or more they made one cluster ; then, shyly or with laughter, they drifted apart like the petals of a wind-blown rose, and silk doublet and hose gave chase. Five minutes saw the goodly company of damsels errant and would-be bridegrooms scattered far and near over the smiling meadow. For the most part they went man and maid, but the fairer of the feminine cohort had rings of clamorous suitors from whom to choose. As for me, I walked alone ; for if by chance I neared a maid, she looked (womanlike) at my apparel first, and never reached my face, but squarely turned her back. So disengaged, I felt like a guest at a mask, and in some measure enjoyed the show, though with an uneasy consciousness that I was pledged to become, sooner or later, a part of the spectacle. I saw a shepherdess fresh from Arcadia wave back a dozen importunate gallants, then throw a knot of blue ribbon into their rr 20 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD midst, laugh with glee at the scramble that ensued, and finally march off with the wearer of the favor. I saw a neighbor of mine, tall Jack Pride, who lived twelve miles above me, blush and stammer, and bow again and again to a milliner's apprentice of a girl, not five feet high and all eyes, who dropped a curtsy at each bow. When I had passed them fifty yards or more, and looked back, they were still bobbing and bowing. And I heard a dialogue between Phyllis and Corydon. Says Phyllis, " Any poultry ? " Corydon. " A matter of twalve hens and twa cocks." Phyllis. " A cow ? " Corydon. " Twa." Phyllis. " How much tobacco ? " Corydon. " Three acres, hinny, though I dinna drink the weed mysel'. I 'm a Stewart, woman, an' the King's puir cousin." Phyllis. " What household plenishing? " Corydon. " Ane large bed, ane flock bed, ane trundle bed, ane chest, ane trunk, ane leather cairpet, sax cawfskin chairs an' twa-three rush, five pair o' sheets an' auchteen dowlas napkins, sax alchemy spunes " — Phyllis. " I '11 take you." At the far end of the meadow, near to the fort, I met young Hamor, alone, flushed, and hurrying back to the more populous part of the field. '"■ Not yet mated ? " I asked. " Where are the maids' eyes? " " By ! " he answered, with an angry laugh. " If they 're all like the sample I 've just left, I 'II buy nie a squaw from the Paspahegiis ! " I smiled. " So your wooing has not prospered?" IN WHICH 1 MARRY IN HASTE 21 ane the I'll His vanity took fire. " I have not wooed in ear- nest," he said carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue tuftaffeta with an air. " I sheered off quickly enough, I warrant you, when I found the nature of the commodity I had to deal with." " Ah ! " I said. " When I left the crowd they were going very fast. You had best hurry, if you wish to secure a bargain." " I 'm off," he answered ; then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, " If you keep on to the river and that clump of cedars, you will find Terraagaunt in ruff and farthingale." When he was gone, I stood still for a while and watched the slow sweep of a buzzard high in the blue, after which I unsheathed my dagger, and with it tried to scrape the dried mud from my boots. Succeeding but indifferently, I put the blade up, stared again at the sky, drew a long breath, and marched upon the covert of cedars indicated by Hamor. As I neared it, I heard at first only the wash of the river; but presently there came to my ears the sound of a man's voice, ahd then a woman's angry " Begone, sir ! " " Kiss and be friends," said the man. The sound that followed being something of the loudest for even the most hearty salutation, I was not surprised, on parting the bushes, to find the man nursing his cheek, and the maid her hand. " You shall pay well for that, you sweet vixen 1 " he cried, and caught her by both wrists. She struggled fiercely, bending her head this way and that, but his hot lips had touched her face before I could come between. When I had knocked him down he lay where ho =v 22 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD fell, dazed by the blow, and blinking up at me with his small ferret eyes. I knew him to be one Edward Sharpless, and I knew no good of him. He had been a lawyer in England. He lay on the very brink of the stream, with one arm touching the water. Flesh and blood could not resist it, so, assisted by the toe of my boot, he took a cold bath to cool his hot blood. When he had clambered out and had gone away, cursing, I turned to face her. She stood against the trunk of a great cedar, her head thrown back, a spot of angry crimson in each cheek, one small hand clenched at her throat. I had heard her laugh as Sharpless touched the water, but now there was only defiance in her face. As we gazed at each other, a burst of laughter came to us from the meadow behind. I looked over my shoulder, and beheld young Hamor, — probably disappointed of a wife, — with Giles Allen and Wynne, returning to his abandoned quarry. She saw, too, for the crimson spread and deepened and her bosom heaved. Her dark eyes, glancing here and there like those of a hunted creature, met my own. " Madam," I said, " will you marry me ? '* She looked at me strangely. " Do you live here ? " she asked at last, with a disdainful wave of her hand toward the town. " No, madam," I answered. " I live up river, in Weyanoke Hundred, some miles from here." " Then, in God's name, let us be gone I " she cried, with sudden passion. I bowed low, and advanced to kiss her hand. The finger tips which she slowly and reluctantly resigned to me were icy, and the look with which she favored me was not such an one as poets feign for like \\ ti IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE 23 occasions. I shrugged the shoulders of my spirit, but said nothing. So, hand in hand, though at arms' length, we passed from the shade of the cedars into the open meadow, where we presently met Hamor and his party. They would have barred the way, laugh- ing and making unsavory jests, but I drew her closer to me and laid my hand upon my sword. They stood aside, for I was the best swordsman in Virginia. The meadow was now less thronged. The river, up and down, was white with sailboats, and across the nrck of the peninsula went a line of horsemen, each with his purchase upon a pillion behind him. The Governor, the Councilors, and the commanders had betaken themselves to the Governor's house, where a great dinner was to be given. But Master Piersey, the Cape Merchant, remained to see the Company reimbursed to the last leaf, and the four ministers still found occupation, though one couple trcd not upon the heels of another, as they had done an hour agone. " I must first satisfy the treasurer," I said, coming to a halt within fifty feet of the now deserted high places. She drew her hand from mine, and looked me up and down. " How much is it?" she asked at last. " I will pay it." I stared at her. " Can't you speak? " she cried, with a stamp of her foot. " At what am I valued ? Ten pounds — fifty pounds " — "At one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, madam," I said dryly. "I v/ill pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do you answer?" 24 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Mi !: t . " Patience Worth," she replied. I left her standing there, and went upon my errand with a whirling brain. Her enrollment in that com- pany proclaimed her meanly born, and she bore her- self as of blood royal ; of her own free will she had crossed an ocean to meet this day, and she held in pas. sionate hatred this day and all that it contained ; she was come to Virgin^'a to better her condition, and the purse which she had drawn from her bosom was filled with gold pieces. To another I would have advised caution, delay, application to the Governor, inquiry; for myself I cared not to make inquiries. The treasurer gave me my receipt, and I procured, from the crowd around him, Humfrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Belfield, the perfumer, for wit- nesses. With them at my heels I went back to her, and, giving her my hand, was making for the nearest minister, when a voice at a little distance hailed me, crying out, " This way. Captain Percy ! " I turned toward the voice, and beheld the great figure of Master Jeremy Sparrow sitting, cross-legged like the Grand Turk, upon a grassy hillock, and beck- oning to me from that elevation. " Our acquaintance hath been of the shortest," he said genially, when the maid, the witnesses, and I had reached the foot of the hillock, " but I have taken a liking to you and would fain do you a service. More- over, I lack employment. The maids take me for a hedge parson, and sheer off to my brethren, who truly are of a more clerical appearance. Whereas if they could only look upon the inner man ! You have been long in choosing, but have doubtless chosen " — He glanced from me to tlie woman beside me, and broke off with open mouth and staring eyes. There was m,misiK^t^M for a truly they been I- He broke re was 1* f >.)r IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE 25 excuse, for her beauty was amazing. " A paragon," he ended, recovering himself. " Marry us quickly, friend," I said. " Clouds are gathering, and we have far to go." He came down from his mound, and we went and stood before him. I had around my neck the gold chain given me upon a certain occasion by Prince Maurice, and in lieu of other ring I now twisted off the smallest link and gave it to her. " Your name? " asked Master Sparrow, opening his book. " Ralph Percy, Gentleman." "And yours?" he demanded, staring at her with a somewhat too apparent delight in her beauty. She flushed richly and bit her lip. He repeated the question. She stood a minute in silence, her eyes upon the darkening sky. Then she said in a low voice, " Joce- lyn Leigh." It was not the name I had watched the Cape Mer- chant strike off his list. I turned upon her and made her meet my eyes. " What is your name ? " I de- manded. " Tell me the truth ! " " I have told it," she answered proudly. " It is Jocelyn Leigh." I faced the minister again. " Go on," I said briefly. " The Company commands that no constraint be put upon its i)t)or maids. Wherefore, do you marry this man of your own free will and choice? " " Ay," she said, " of my own free will." Well, we were married, and Master Jeremy Sparrow wished us joy, and Kent would have kissed tlio bride had I not frowned him off. He and Belfield strode Ji r' I h < 26 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD away, and I left her there, and went to get her bundle from the house that had sheltered her overnight. Re- turning, I found her seated on the turf, her chin in her hand and her dark eyes watching the distant play of lightning. Master Sparrow had left his post, and was nowhere to be seen. I gave her my hand and led her to the shore ; then loosed my boat and helped her aboard. I was push- ing off when a voice hailed us from the bank, and the next instant a great bunch of red roses whirled past me and fell into her lap. " Sweets to the sweet, you know," said Master Jeremy Sparrow genially. " Good- wife Allen will never miss them." I was in two minds whether to laugh or to swear, — for I had never given her flowers, — when she settled the question for me by raising the crimson mass and bestowing it upon the flood. A sudden puff of wind brought the sail around, hiding his fallen countenance. The wind freshened, coming from the bay, and the boat was off like a startled deer. When I next saw^ him he had recov- ered his equanimity, and, with a smile upon his rugged features, was waving us a farewell. I looked at the beauty opposite me, and, with a sudden move- ment of pity for him, mateless, stood up and waved to him vigorously in turn. !!v CHAPTER IV IN WHICH I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE When we had passed the mouth of the Chicka- hominy, I broke the silence, now prolonged beyond reason, by pointing to the village upon its bank, and telling her something of Smith's expedition up that river, ending by asking her if she feared the savages. When at length she succeeded in abstracting her attention from the clouds, it was to answer in the negative, in a tone of the supremest indifference, after which she relapsed into her contemplation of the weather. Further on I tried again. " That is Kent's, yonder. He brought his wife from -home last year. What a hedge of sunflowers she has planted ! If you love flowers, you will find those of paradise in these woods." No answer. Below Martin-Brandon we met a canoe full of Paspaheghs, bound upon a friendly visit to some one of the down-river tribes ; for in the bottom of the boat reposed a fat buck, and at the feet of the young men lay trenchers of maize cakes and of late mulberries. I hailed them, and when we were alongside held up the brooch from my hat, then pointed to the purple fruit. The exchange was soon made ; they sped away, and I placed the mulberries upon the thwart beside her. i ! 28 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD " I am not hungry," she said coldly. " Take them »> away I bit my lip, and returned to my place at the tiller. This rose was set with thorns, and already I felt their sting. Presently she leaned back in the nest I had made for her. " I wish to sleep," she said haughtily, and, turning her face from me, pillowed her head upon her arms. I sat, bent forward, the tiUer in my hand, and stared at my wife in some consternation. This was not the tame pigeon, the rosy, humble, domestic crea- ture who was to make me a home and rear me chil- dren. A sea bird with broad white wings swooped down upon the water, now dark and ridged, rested there a moment, then swept away into the heart of the gathering storm. She was liker such an one. Such birds were caught at tia_es, but never tamed and never kept. The lightning, which had played incessantly in pale flashes across the low clouds in the south, now leaped to higher peaks and became more i ivid, and the muttering of the thunder changed to long, boom- ing peals. Thirteen years before, the Virginia storms had struck us with terror. Compared with those of the Old World we had left, they were as cannon to the whistling of arrows, as breakers on an iron coast to the dull wash of level seas. Now they were nothing to me, but as the peals changed to great crashes as of falling cities, I marveled to see my wife sleeping so quietly. The rain began to fall, slowly, in large sullen drops, and I rose to cover her with my cloak. Then I saw that the sleep was feigned, for she wus gazing at the storm with wide eyes, though with no fear in their dark depths. When I moved they closed, i< I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE 29 and when I reached her the lashes still swept her cheeks, and she breathed evenly through parted lips. But, against her will, she shrank from my touch as I put the cloak about her ; and when I had returned to my seat, I bent to one side and saw, as I had expected to see, that her eyes were wide open again. If she had been one whit less beautiful, I would have wished her back at Jamestown, back on the Atlantic, back at whatever outlandish place, where manners were un- known, that had owned her and cast her out. Pride and temper! I set my lips, and vowed that she should find her match. The storm did not last. Ere we had reached Pier- sey's the rain had ceased and the clouds were break- ing ; above Chaplain's Choice hung a great rainbow • we passed Tants Weyanoke in the glory of the sunset, all shattered gold and crimson. Not a word had been spoken. I sat in a humor grim enough, and she lay there before mc, ',r:il? awake, staring at the shifting banks and running water, and thinking that I thought she slept. At last my own wharf rose, bt fore me through the gathering dusk, and beyond it s hone out a light ; for I had told Diccon to set my hovise in order, and to provide fire and torches, that uiy wife might see I wished to do her honor. I looked at that wife, and of a sudden the anger in my heart melted away. It was a wilderness vast and dreadful to which she had come. The mighty stream, the towering forests, the black skies and deafening thunder, the wild cries of bird and beast, the savages, uncouth and terrible, — for a moment I saw my world as the woman at my feet must see it, strange, vnld, and menacing, an evil laud, the other side of the moon. A thing that I had 80 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD If forgotten came to my mind : how that, after our land* ing at Jamestown, years before, a boy whom we had with us did each night fill with cries and lamentations the hut where he lay with my cousin Percy, Gosnold, and myseK, nor would cease though we tried both crying shame and a rope*s end. It was not for home- sickness, for he had no mother or kin or home ; and at length Master Hunt brought him to confess that it was but pure panic terror of the land itself, — not of the Indians or of our hardships, both of which he faced bravely enough, but of the strange trees and the high and long roofs of vine, of the black sliding earth and the white mist, of the fireflies and the whip- poorwills, — a sick fear of primeval Nature and her tragic mask. This was u woman, young, alone, and friendless, unless I, who had sworn to cherish and protect her, should prove myself her friend. Wherefore, when, a few minutes later, I bent over her, it was with all gentleness that I touched and spoke to her. " Our journey is over," I said. " This is home, my dear." She let me help her to her feet, and up the wet and slippery steps to the level of the wharf. It was nosi quite dark, there being no moon, and thin clouds ob- scuring the stars. The touch of her hand, which I perforce held since I must guide her over the long, narrow, and unrailed trestle, chiUed me, and her breathing was hurried, but she moved by my side through the gross darkness unfalteringly enc ;gh. Arrived at the gate of the palisade, I beat upon it with the hilt of my sword, and shouted to my men to open to us. A moment, and a dozen torches came flaring down the bank. Dicoon shot back the bolts, J: 1 AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE 31 and we entered. The men drew up and saluted ; for I held my manor a camp, my servants soldiers, and myself their captain. I have seen worse favored companies, but doubtless the woman beside me had not. Perhaps, too, the red light of the torches, now flaring brightly, now sunk before the wind, gave their countenances a more vil- lainous cast than usual. They were not all bad. Diccon had the virtue of fidelity, if none other ; there were a brace of Puritans, and a handful of honest fools, who, if they drilled badly, yet abhorred mutiny. But the half dozen I had taken off Argall's hands ; the Dutchmen who might have been own brothers to those two Judases, Adam and Francis ; the thief and the highwayman I had bought from the precious crew sent us by the King the year before ; the negro and the Indians — small wonder that she shrank and cow- ered. It was but for a moment. I was yet seeking for words sufficiently reassuring when she was herself again. She did not deign to notice the men*s awk- ward salute, and when Diccon, a handsome rogue enough, advancing to light. us up the bank, brushed by her something too closely, she drew away her skirts as though he had been a lazar. At my own door I turned and spoke to the men, who had followed us r.p the ascent. " This lady," I said, taking her hand as she stood beside me, " is my true and lawi'ul wife, your mistress, to be honored and obeyed as such. Who fails in re- verence to her I hold as mutinous to myself, and will deal with him accordingly. She gives you to-morrow for holiday, with double rations, and to each a mea- sure of rum. Now thank her properly." They cheered lustily, of course, and Diccon, step- w 32 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD & 11^ i i H ping forward, gave us thanks in the name of them aU, and wished us joy. After which, with aiiother cheer, they backed from out our presence, then turned and made for their quarters, while I led my wife within the house and closed the door. Diccon was an ingenious scoundrel. I had told him to banish the dogs, to have the house cleaned and lit, and supper upon the table ; but I had not ordered the floor to be strewn with rushes, the walls draped with flowering vines, a great jar filled with sunflowers, and an illumination of a dozen torches. Nevertheless, it looked well, and I highly approved the capon and maize cakes, the venison pasty and ale, with which the table was set. Through the open doors of the two other rooms were to be seen more rushes, more flowers, and more lights. To the larger of these rooms I now led the way, de- posited her bundle upon the settle, and saw that Dic- con had provided fair water for her face and hands ; which done, I told her that supper waited upon her convenience, and went back to the great room. She was long in coming, so long that I grew impa- tient and went to call her. The door was ajar, and eo I saw her, kneeling in the middle of the floor, her head thrown back, her hands raised and clasped, on her face terror and anguish of spirit written so large that I started to see it. I stared in amazement, and, had I followed my first impulse, would have gone to her, as I would have gone to any other creature in so dire distress. On second thoughts, I went noiselessly back to my station in the great room. She had not seen me, I was sure. Nor had I long to wait. Pre- sently she appeared, and I could have doubted the testimony of my eyes, so changed were the agonized I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE 33 face and figure of a few moments before. Beautiful and disdainful, sbe moved to the table, and took the great chair drawn before it with the air of an empress mounting a throne. I contented myself with the stool. She ate nothing, and scarcely touched the canary I poured for her. I pressed upon her wine and viands, — in vain ; I strove to make conversation, — equally in vain. Finally, tired of " yes " and " no " uttered as though she were reluctantly casting pearls before swine, I desisted, and applied myself to my supper in a silence as sullen as her own. At last we rose from table, and I went to look to the fastenings of door and windows, and returning found her standing in the centre of the room, her head up and her hands clenched at her sides. I saw that we were to have it out then and there, and I was glad of it. " You have something to say," I said. " I am quite at your command," and I went and leaned against the chimneypiece. The low fire upon the hearth burnt lower still before she broke the silence. When she did speak it was slowly, and with a voice which was evidently controlled only by a strong effort of a strong will. She said : — " When — yesterday, to-day, ten thousand years ago — you went from this horrible forest down to that wretched village yonder, to those huts that make your London, you went to buy you a wife ? " " Yes, madam," I answered. " I went with that intention." " You had made your calculation ? In your mind yqu had pitched upon such and such an article, with such and such qualities, as desirable ? Doubtless you meant to get your money's worth ? " -^ 34 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD , 1 /' 1 lu I • 1 " Doubtless," I said dryly. " Will vou tell me what you were inclined to con- sider its equivalent ? " I stared at her, much inclined to laugh. The in- terview promised to be interesting. " I went to Jamestown to get me a wife," I said at length, " because I had pledged my word that I would do so. I was not over-anxious. I did not run all the way. But, as you say, I intended to do the best I could for myself ; one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco being a considerable sum, and not to be lightly thrown away. I went to look for a mistress for my house, a companion for my idle hours, a rosy, humble, docile lass, with no aspirations beyond clean- liness and good temper, who was to order my house- hold and make me a home. I was to be her head and her law, but also her sword and shield. That is what I went to look for." " And you found — me ! " she said, and broke into strange laughter. I bowed. " In God's name, why did you not go further?" I suppose she saw in my face why I went no fur- ther, for into her own the color came flaming. " I am not what I seem ! " she cried out. " I was not in that company of choice I " I bowed again. " You have no need to tell me that, madam," I said. "I have eyes. I desire to know why you were there at all, and why you married me." She turned from me, until I could see nothing but the coiled wealth of her hair and the bit of white neck between it and the ruff. We stood so in silence, she with bent head and fingers clasping and unclasp- ing, I leaning against the wall and staring at her, for I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE 35 what seemed a long time. At least I had time to grow impatient, when she faced me again, and all my irritation vanished in a gasp of admiration. Oh, she was beautiful, and of a sweetness most alluring and fatal ! Had Medea worn such a look, sure Jason had quite forgot the fleece, and with those eyes Circe had needed no other charm to make men what she would. Her voice, when she spoke, was no longer imperious ; it was low pleading music. And she held out entreating hands. " Have pity on me," she said. " Listen kindly, and have pity on me. You are a strong man and wear a sword. You can cut your way through trouble and peril. I am a woman, weak, friendless, helpless. I was in distress and peril, and I had no arm to save, no knight to fight my battle. I do not love deceit. Ah, do not think that I have not hated myself for the lie I have been. But these forest creatures that you take, — will they not bite against springe and snare ? Are they scrupulous as to how they free themselves ? I too was in the toils of the hunter, and I too was not scrupulous. There was a thing of which I stood in danger that would have been bitterer to me, a thou- sand times, than death. I had but one thought, to escape ; how, I did not care, — only to escape. I had a waiting woman named Patience Worth. One night she came to me, weeping. She had wearied of ser- vice, and had signed to go to Virginia as one of Sir Edwyn Sandys' maids, and at the last moment her heart had failed her. There had been pressure brought to bear upon me that day, — I had been angered to the very soul. I sent her away with a heavy bribe, and in her dress and under her name I fled from — I went aboard that ship. No one guessed that I was r^jF I ii W (. I ( 86 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD not the Patience Worth to whose name I answered. No one knows now, — none but you, none but you." " And why am I so far honored, madam ? " I said bluntly. She crimsoned, then went white again. She was trembling now through her whole frame. At last she broke out : " I am not of that crew that came to marry! To me you are the veriest stranger, — you are but the hand at which I caught to draw myself from a pit that had been digged for me. It was ray hope that this hour would never come. When I fled, mad for escape, willing to dare anything but that which I left behind, I thought, ' I may die before that ship with its shameless cargo sets sail.' When the ship set sail, and we met with stormy weather, and there was much sickness aboard, I thought, ' I may drown or I may die of the fever.' When, this after- noon, I lay there in the boat, coming up this dreadful river through the glare of the lightning, and you thought I slept, I was thinking, ' The bolts may strike me yet, and all will be well.' I prayed for that death, but the storm passed. I am not without shame. I know that you must think all ill of me, that you must feel yourself gulled and cheated. I am sorry — that is all I can say — I am sorry. I am your wife — I was married to you to-day — but I know you not and love you not. I ask you to hold me as I hold myself, a guest in your house, nothing more. I am quite at your mercy. I am entirely friendless, entirely alone. I appeal to your generosity, to your honor " — Before I could prevent her she was kneeling to me, and she would not rise, though I bade her do so. I went to the door, unbarred it, and looked out into the night, for the air within the room stifled me. It I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE 37 me, was not much better outside. The clouds had gath- ered again, and were now hanging thick and low. From the distance came a rumble of thunder, and the whole night was dull, heavy, and breathless. Hot anger possessed me : anger against Rolfe for suggest- ing this thing to me ; anger against myself for that unlucky throw ; anger, most of all, against the woman who had so cozened me. In the servants' huts, a hun- dred yards away, lights were still burning, against rule, for the hour was late. Glad that there was something I could rail out against, I strode down upon the men, and caught them assembled in Diccon's cabin, dicing for to-morrow's rum. When I had struck out the light with my rapier, and had rated the rogues to their several quarters, I went back through the gathering storm to the brightly-lit, flower- decked room, and to Mistress Pevcy. She was still kneeling, her hands at her breast, and her eyes, wide and dark, fixed upon the blackness without the open door. I went up to her and took her by the hand. " I am a gentleman, madam," I said. " You need have no fear of me. I pray you to rise." She stood up at that, and her breath came hurriedly through her parted lips, but she did not speak. " It grows late, and you must be weary," I contin- ued. " Your room is yonder. I trust that you will sleep well. Good-night." I bowed low, and she curtsied to me. " Good- night," she said. On her way to the door, she brushed against the rack wherein hnng my weapons. Among them was a small dagger. Her quick eye caught its gloani, and I saw her press closer to the wall, and with her right »- w 1'' \i ii I 38 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD hand strive stealthily to detach the blade from its fastening. She did not understand the trick. Her hand dropped to her side, and she was passing on, when I crossed the room, loosened the dagger, and offered it to her, with a smile and a bow. She flushed scarlet and bit her lips, but she took it. " There are bars to the door within," 1 said. " Again, good-night." "Good-night," she answered, and, entering the room, she shut the door. A moment more, and I heard the heavy bars drop into place. I ji I I If ■: H I CHAPTER V IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAT Ten days later, Rolfe, going down river in his barge, touched at my whai f, and finding me there walked with me toward the house. " I have not seen you since you laughed my advice to scorn — and took it," he said. " Where 's the far- thingale. Benedick the married man ? " " In the house." " Oh, ay ! " he commented. " It 's near to supper time. I trust she 's a good cook ? " " She does not cook," I said dryly. " I have hired old Goody Cotton to do that." He eyed me closely. " By all the gods ! a new doublet ! She is skillful with her needle, then ? " " She may be," I answered. " Having never seen her with one, I am no judge. The doublet was made by the tailor at Flowerdieu Hundred." By this we had reached the level sward at the top of the bank. "Roses!" he exclaimed, — " a long row of them new planted I An arbor, too, and a seat beneath the big walnut I Since when hast thou turned gardner, Ralph ? " " It 's Diccon's doing. He is anxious to please his mistress." " Who neither sews, nor cooks, nor plants I What does she do ? " " She pulls the roses," I said. " Come in." ■ '/ li I f 4 'it I \ 40 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD When we had entered the house he stared about him ; then cried out, " Acrasia's bower ! Oh, thou sometime Guyon I " and began to laugh. It was late afternoon, and the slant sunshine stream- ing in at door and window striped wall and floor with gold. Floor and wall were no longer logs gnarled and stained : upon the one lay a carpet of delicate ferns and aromatic leaves, and glossy vines, purple-berried, tapestried the other. Flowers — purple and red and yellow — were everywhere. As we entered, a figure started up from the hearth. " St. George ! " exclaimed Rolfe. " You have never married a blackamoor ? " " It is the negress, Angela," I said. " I bought her from William Pierce the other day. Mistress Percy wished a waiting damsel." The creature, one of the five females of her kind then in Virginia, looked at us with large, rolling eyes. She knew a little Spanish, and I spoke to her in that tongue, bidding her find her mistress and tell her that company waited. When she was gone I placed a jack of ale upon the table, and Rolfe and I sat down to discuss it. Had I been in a mood for laughter, I could have found reason in his puzzled face. There were flowers upon the table, and beside them a litter of small objects, one of which he now took up. " A white glove," he said, " perfumed and silver- fringed, and of a size to fit Titania." I spread its mate out upon my palm. " A woman's hand. Too white, too soft, and too small." He touched lightly, one by one, the slender fingers of the glove he held. " A woman's hand, — strength in weakness, veiled power, the star in the mist, guid- ing, beckoning, drawing upward I " IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY 41 I laughed and threw the glove from me. " The star, a will-of-the-wisp ; the goal, a slough," I said. As he sat opposite me a change came over his face, . — a change so great that I knew before I turned that she was in the room. The bundle which I had carried for her from James- town was neither small nor light. Why, when she fled, she chose to burden herself with such toys, or whether she gave a thought to the suspicions that might be raised in Virginia if one of Sir Edwyn's maids bedecked herself in silk and lace and jewels, I do not know, but she had brought to the forest and the tobacco fields the gauds of a maid of honor. The Puritan dress in which I first saw her wa^ a thing of the past ; she clothed herself now like the parrakeets in the forest, — or liker the lilies of the field, for ver- ily she toiled not, neither did she spin. Rolfe and I rose from our seats. " Mistress Percy," I said, " let me present to you a right worthy gen- tleman and my very good friend, Master John Rolfe." She curtsied, and he bowed low. He was a man of quick wit and had been at court, but for a time he could find no words. Then : " Mistress Percy's face is not one to be forgotten. I have surely seen it before, though where " — Her color mounted, but she answered him indiffer- ently enough. " Probably in London, amongst the spectators of some pageant arranged in honor of the princess, your wife, sir," she said carelessly. " I had twice the fortune to see the Lady Rebekah passing through the streets." " Not in the streets only," he said courteously. " I remember now : 't was at my lord bishop's dinner. \i ¥ ?■ I ■■/,! ' I I 1 42 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD A very courtly company it was. You were laugh- ing with my Lord Rich. You wore pearls in your hair" — She met his gaze fully and boldly. " Memory plays us strange tricks at times," she told him in a clear, slightly raised voice, " and it hath been three years since Master Rolfe and his Indian princess were in London. His memory hath played him false." She took her seat in the great chair which stood in the centre of the room, bathed in the sunlight, and the negress brought a cushion for her feet. It was not until this was done, and until she had resigned her fan to the slave, who stood behind her slowly waving the plumed toy to and fro, that she turned her lovely face upon us and bade us be seated. An hour later a whippoorwill uttered its cry close to the window, through which now shone the crescent moon. Rolfe started up. " Beshrew me ! but I had forgot that I am to sleep at Chaplain's to-night. I must hurry on." I rose, also. " You have had no supper ! " I cried. " I too have forgotten." He shook his head. " I cannot wait. Moreover, I have feasted, — yea, and drunk deep." His eyes were very bright, with an exaltation in them as of wine. Mine, I felt, had the same light. Indeed, we were both drunk with her laughter, her beauty, and her wit. When he had kissed her hand, and I had followed him out of the house and down the bank, he broke the silence. " Why she came to Virginia I do not know " — " Nor care to ask," I said. "Nor care to ask," he repeated, meeting my gaze. " And I know neither her name nor her rank. But IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY 43 as I stand here, Ralph, I saw her, a guest, at that feast of which I spoke ; and Edwyn Sandys picked not his maids from such assemblies." I stopped him with my hand upon his shoulder. " She is one of Sandys' maids," I asserted, with delib- eration, " a waiting damsel who wearied of service and came to Virginia to better herself. She was landed with her mates at Jamestown a week or more agone, went with them to church and thence to the courting meadow, where she and Captain Ralph Percy, a gen- tleman adventurer, so pleased each other that they were married forthwith. That same day he brought her to his house, where she now abides, his wife, and as such to be honored by those who call themselves his friends. And she is not to be lightly spoken of, nor comment passed upon her grace, beauty, and bearing (something too great for her station, I admit), lest idle tales should get abroad." "Am I not thy friend, Ralph?" he asked with smiling eyes. " I have thought so at times," I answered. " My friend's honor is my honor," he went on. " Where his lips are sealed mine open not. Art con- tent?" " Content," I said, and pressed the hand he held out to me. We reached the steps of the wharf, and descending them he entered his barge, rocking lazily with the advancing tide. His rowers cast loose from the piles, and the black water slowly widened between us. From over my shoulder came a sudden bright gleam of light from the house above, and I knew that Mis- tress Percy was as usual wasting good pine knots. I had a vision of the many lights within, and of the 44 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD I ' i '/ ^ ■f \ if I Ml m I beauty whom the world called my wife, sitting erect, bathed in that rosy glow, in the great armchair, with the turbaned negress behind her. I suppose Rolfe saw the same thing, for he looked from the light to me, and I heard him draw his breath. " Ralph Percy, thou art the very button upon the cap of Fortune," he said. To myself my laugh sounded something of the bit- terest, but to him, I presume, it vaunted my return through the darkness to the lit room and its respleno ent pearl. He waved farewell, and the dusk swal- lowed up him and his boat. I went back to the house and to her. She was sitting as we had left her, with her small feet crossed upon the cushion beneath them, her hands folded in her silken lap, the air from the waving fan blowing tendrils of her dark hair against her delicate standing ru£E. I went and leaned against the window, facing her. " I have been chosen Burgess for this hundred," I said abruptly. " The Assembly meets next week I must be in Jamestown then and for some time i »> ! come. She took the fan from the negress, and waved it lazily to and fro. " When do we go ? " she asked at last. " We / " I answered. " I had thought to go alone." The fan dropped to the floor, and her eyes opened wide. " And leave me here ! " she exclaimed. " Leave me in these woods, at the mercy of Indians, wolves, and your rabble of servants ! " I smiled. " We are at peace with the Indians ; it would be a stout wolf that could leap this palisade ; and the servants know their master too well to care > ■M li (II '' IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY 46 >» to offend their mistress. Moreover, I would leave Diccon in charge." " Diccon ! " she cried. " The old woman in the kitchen hath told me tales of Diccon ! Diccon Bravo I Diccon Gamester ! Diccon Cutthroat ! " " Granted," I said. "But Diccou Faithful as well. I can trust him." "But I do not trust him!" she retorted. "And I wish to go to Jamestown. This forest wearies me." Her tone was imperious. " I must think it over," I said coolly. " I may take you, or I may not. I cannot tell yet." " But I desire to go, sir ! " " And I may desire you to stay." " You are a churl ! " I bowed. " I am the man of your choice, madam." She rose with a stamp of her foot, and, turning her back upon me, took a flower from the table and com- menced to pull from it its petals. I unsheathed my sword, and, seating myself, began to polish away a speck of rust upon the blade. Ten minutes later I looked up from the task, to receive full in my face a red rose tossed from tl ' other side of the room. The missile was followed L an end i anting burst of laughter. " We cannot afford to quarrel, can we ? " cried Mistress Jocelyn Percy. " Life is sad enough in this solitude without that. Nothing but trees and water all day long, and not a soul to speak to ! And I am horribly afraid of the Indians ! What if they were to kill me while you were away ? You know you swore before the minister to protect me. You won't leave me to the mercies of the savages, will you? And I may go to Jamestown, may n't I ? I want to a •« l» 1 M 1 i 1 1 1 i m) 1 ' ii .1 i 1 L if i 46 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD go to church. I want to go to the Governor's house. I want to buy a many things. I have gold in plenty, and but this one decent dress. You '11 take me with you, won't you ? " " There 's not your like in Virginia," I told her. " If you go to town clad like that and with that bear- ing, there will be talk enough. And ships come and go, and there are those besides Rolfe who have been to London." For a moment the laughter died from her eyes and lips, but it returned. " Let them tal:.," she said. " What care I ? And I do not think your ship cap- tains, your traders and adventurers, do often dine with my lord bishop. This barbarous lorest world and another world that I wot of are so far apart that the inhabitants of the one do not trouble those of the other. In that petty village down there I am safe enough. Besides, sir, you wear a sword." " My sword is ever at your service, madam,'' " Then I may go to Jamestov/n ? " " If you will it so." With her bright eyes upon me, and with one hand softly striking a rose against her laughing lips, sh^ extended the other hand. " You may kiss it, if you wish, sir," she said de- murely. I knelt and kissed the white fingers, and four days later we went to Jamestown. CHAPTER VI IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN It was early morning when we set out on horse- back for Jamestown. I rode in front, with Mistress Percy upon a pillion behind me, and Diccon on the brown mare brought up the rear. The negress and the mails I had sent by boat. Now, a ride through the green wood with a noble horse beneath you, and around you the freshness of the morn, is pleasant enough. Each twig had its row of diamonds, and the wet leaves that we pushed aside spilled gems upon us. The horses set their hoofs daintily upon fern and moss and lush grass. In the purple distances deei stood at gaze, the air rang with innumerable bird notes, clear and sweet, squir- rels chattered, bees hummed, and through the thick leafy roof of the forest the sun showered gold dust. And Mistress Jocelyn Percy was as merry as the morning. It was now fourteen days since she and I had first met, and in that time I had found in her thrice that number of moods. She could be as gay and sweet as the morning, as dark and vengeful as the storms that came up of afternoons, pensive as the twilight, stately as the night, — in her there met a hundred minds. Also she could be childishly frank — and tell you nothing. To-day she chose to be gracious. Ten times in an hour Diccon was off his horse to pluck this or that TW ' 1 48 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD 3l, 4 i I . 1 flower that her white forefinger pointed out. She wove the blooms into a chaplet, and placed it upon her head ; she filled her lap with trailers of the vine that swayed against us, and stained her fingers and lips with the berries Diccon brought her ; she laughed at the squirrels, at the scurrying partridges, at the tur- keys that crossed our path, at the fish that leaped from the brooks, at old Jocomb and his sons who fer- ried us across the Chickahominy. She was curious concerning the musket I carried ; and when, in an open space in the wood, we saw an eagle perched upon a blasted pine, she demanded my pistol. I took it from my belt and gave it to her, with a laugh. " I will eat all of your killing," I said. She aimed the weapon. " A wager ! " she declared. " There be mercers in Jamestown ? If I hit, thou 'It buy me a pearl hatband ? " " Two." She fired, and the bird rose with a scream of wrath and sailed away. But two or three feathers came float- ing to the ground, and when Diccon had brought them to her she pointed triumphantly to the blood upon them. " You said two ! " she cried. The sun rose higher, and the heat of the day set in. Mistress Percy's interest in forest bloom and creature flagged. Instead of laughter, we had sighs at the length of way ; the vines slid from her lap, and she took the faded flowers from her head and cast them aside. She talked no more, and by and by I felt her head droop against my shoulder. " Madam is asleep," said Diccon's voice behind me. " Ay," I answered. " She '11 find a jack of mail but a hard pillow. And look to her that she does not fall." lili ■ i IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN 49 " I had best walk beside you, then," he said. I nodded, and he dismounted, and throwing the mare's bridle over his arm strode on beside us, with his hand upon the frame of the pillion. Ten minutes passed, the last five of which I rode with my face over my shoulder. " Diccon ! " I cried at last, sharply. He came to his senses with a start. " Ay, sir ? " he questioned, his face dark red. " Suppose you look at me for a change," I said. " How long since Dale came in, Diccon ? " " Ten years, sir." " Before we enter Jamestown we '11 pass through a certain field and beneath a certain tree. Do you remember what happened there, some years ago ? " " I am not like to forget, sir. You saved me from the wheel." " Upon which you were bound, ready to be broken for drunkenness, gaming, and loose living. I begged your life from Dale for no other reason, I think, than that you had been a horse-boy in my old company in the Low Countries. God wot, the life was scarcely worth the saving ! " " I know it, sir." " Dale would not let you go scot-free, but would sell you into slavery. At your own entreaty I bought you, since when you have served me indifferently well. You have showed small penitence for past misdeeds, and your amendment hath been of yet lesser bulk. A hardy rogue thou wast born, and a rogue thou wilt remain to the end of time. But we have lived and hunted, fought and bled together, and in our own fashion I think we bear each other good will, — even some love. I have winked at much, have shielded you in much, perhaps. In return I have demanded 80 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD lis . I I " 1:\ I i one thing, which if you had not given I would have found you another Dale to deal with." " Have I ever refused it, my captain ? " " Not yet. Take your hand from that pillion and hold it up ; then say after me these words : ' This lady is my mistress, my master's wife, to be by me reverenced as such. Her face is not for my eyes nor her hand for my lips. If I keep not myself clean of all offense toward her, may God approve that which my master shall do ! '" The blood rushed to his face. I watched his fingers slowly loosening their grasp. " Tardy obedience is of the house of mutiny," I said sternly. " Will you, sirrah, or will you not? " He raised his hand and repeated the words. " Now hold her as before," I ordered, and, straight- ening myself in the saddle, rode on, with my eyes once more on the path before me. A mile further on, Mistress Percy stirred and raised her head from my shoulder. " Not at Jamestown yet?" she sighed, as yet but half awake. " Oh, the endless trees I I dreamed I was hawking at Windsor, and then suddenly I was here in this forest, a bird, happy because I was free ; and then a falcon came swooping down upon me, — it had me in its talons, and I changed to myself again, and it changed to — What am I saying ? I am talking in my sleep. Who is that singing ? " In fact, from the woods in front of us, and not a bowshot away, rang out a powerfid voice : — " * In the merry montli of May, In a morn by break of day, With a troop of danisula playing Forth I went, forsootb, a-raaying;' " :M' IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN 51 and presently, the trees thinning in front of us, we came upon a little open glade and upon the singer. He lay on his back, on the soft turf beneath an oak, with his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes upturned to the blue sky showing between leaf and branch. On one knee crossed above the other sat a squirrel with a nut in its paws, and half a dozen others scampered here and there over his great body, like so many frolicsome kittens. At a little distance grazed an old horse, gray and gaunt, springhalt and spavined, with ribs like Death's own. Its saddle and bridle adorned a limb of the oak. The song went cheerfully on : — " ' Much ado there was, God wot : He would love and she would not ; She said, " Never man was true." He said, " None was false to you." * '* " Give you good-day, reverend sir ! " I called. " Art conning next Sunday's hymn ? " Nothing abashed. Master Jeremy Sparrow gently shook o£E the squirrels, and getting to his feet ad- vanced to meet us. " A toy," he declared, with a wave of his hand, " a trifle, a silly old song that came into my mind un- awares, the leaves being so green and the sky so blue. Had you come a little earlier or a little later, you would have lieard the ninetieth psalm. Give you good-day, madam. I must have sung for that the very queen of May was coming by." " Art on your way to Jamestown ? " I demanded. " Come ride with us. Diccon, saddle his reverence's horse." " Saddle him an thou wilt, friend," said Master Sparrow, " for he and I have idled long enough, but I ! , TT- 62 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD i I fear I cannot keep pace with this fair company. I and the horse are footing it together." " He is not long for this world," I remarked, eyeing his ill-favored steed, " but neither are we far from Jamestown. He '11 last that far." Master Sparrow shook his head, with a rueful countenance. " I bought him from one of the French vignerons below Westover," he said. " The fellow was astride the poor creature, beating him with a club because he could not go. I laid Monsieur Cra- paud in the dust, after which we compounded, he for my purse, I for the animal ; since when the poor beast and I have tramped it together, for I could not in conscience ride him. Have you read me ^sop his fables. Captain Percy ? " " I remember the man, the boy, and the ass," I re- plied. " The ass came to grief in the end. Put thy scruples in thy pocket, man, and mount thy pale horse." " Not I ! " he said, with a smile. " 'T is a thousand pities. Captain Percy, that a small, mean, and squeam- ish spirit like mine should be cased like a very Guy of Warwick. Now, if I were slight of body, or even if I were no heavier than your servant there " — I said. " Diccon, give his reverence the do you mount his horse and bring him slowly on to town. If he will not carry you, you can lead him in." Sunshine revisited the countenance of Master Jer- emy Sparrow ; he swung his great body into the saddle, gathered up the reins, and made the mare to caracole across the path for very joy. " Have a care of the poor brute, friend ! " he cried genially to Diccon, whose looks were of the sulkiest. " Oh ! " mare, and IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN 53 *' Bring him gently on, and leave him at Master Bucke's, near to the church." " What do you do at Jamestown ? " I asked, as we passed from out the glade into the gloom of a pine wood. " I was told that you were gone to Henricus, to help Master Thorpe convert the Indians." " Ay," he answered, " I did go. I had a call, — I was sure I had a call. I thought of myself as a very apostle to the Gentiles. I went from Henricus one day's journey into the wilderness, with none but an Indian lad for interpreter, and coming to an Indian village gathered its inhabitants about me, and sitting down upon a hillock read and expounded to them the Sermon on the Mount. I was much edified by the solemnity of their demeanor and the earnestness of their attention, and had conceived great hopes for their spiritual welfare, when, the reading and exhorta- tion being finished, one of their old men arose and made me a long speech, which I could not well under- stand, but took to be one of grateful welcome to my- self and my tidings of peace and good will. He then desired me to tarry with thetn, and to be present at some entertainment or other, the nature of which I could not make out. I tarried ; and toward evening they conducted me witn much ceremony to an open space in the midst of the village. There I found planted in the ground a thick stake, and around it a ring of flaming brushwood. To the stake was fastened an Indian warrior, captured, so my interpreter informed me, from some hostile tribe above the falls. His arms and ankles were secured to the stake by means of thongs passed through incisions in the flesh ; his body was stuck over with countless pine splinters, each burning like a miniature torch : and on his shaven 64 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD i'k m ■\ t ^1 crown was tied a thin plate of copper heaped with red-hot, coals. A little to one side appeared another stake and another circle of brushwood : the one with nothing tied to it as yet, and the other still unlit. My friend, I did not tarry to see it lit. I tore a branch from an oak, and I became as Samson with the jaw bone of the ass. I fell upon and smote those Philis- tines. Their wretched victim was beyond all human help, but I dearly avenged him upon his enemies. And they had their pains for naught when they planted that second stake and laid the brush for their hell fire. At last I dropped into the stream upon which their damnable village was situate, and got safely away. Next day I went to George Thorpe and resigned my ministry, telling him that we were no- where commanded to preach to devils ; when the Com- pany was ready to send shot and steel amongst them, they might count upon me. After which I came down the river to Jamestown, where I found worthy Master Bucke well-nigh despaired of with the fever. Finally he was taken up river for change of air, and, for lack of worthier substitute, the Governor and Captain West constrained me tp remain and minister to the shep- herdless flock. Where will you lodge, good sir ? " " I do not know,*^ I said. " The town will be full, and the guest house is not yet finished." " Why not come to me ? " he asked. " There are none in the minister's house but me and Goodwife Allen who keeps it. There are five fair large rooms and a goodly garden, though the trees do too much shadow the house. If you will come and let the sun shine in," — a bow and smile for madam, — "I shall be your debtor." His plan pleased me well. Except the Governor's IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN 55 and Captain West's, the minister's house was the best in the town. It was retired, too, being set in its own grounds, and not upon the street, and I desired privacy. Goodwife Allen was ♦ stolid and incurious. Moreover, I liked Master Jeremy Sparrow. I accepted his hospitality and gave him thanks. He waved them away, and fell to complimenting Mis- tress Percy, who was pleased to be gracious to us both. Well content for the moment with the world and ourselves, we fared on through the alternating sunshine and shade, and were happy with the careless inhabitants of the forest. Oversoon we came to the peninsula, and crossed the neck of land. Before us lay the town : to the outer eye a poor and mean vil- lage, indeed, but to the inner the stronghold and capi- tal of our race in the western world, the germ from which might spring stately cities, the newborn babe which might in time equal its parent in stature, strength, and comeliness. So I and a few besides, both in Virginia and at home, viewed the mean houses, the poor church and rude fort, and loved the spot which had witnessed much suffering and small joy, but which held within it the future, which was even now a bit in the mouth of Spain, a thing in it- self outweighing all the toil and anguish of our plant- ing. But there were others who saw only the mean- ness of the place, its almost defenselessness, its fluxes and fevers, the fewness of its inhabitants and the number of its graves. Finding no gold and no earthly paradise, and that in the sweat of their brow they must eat their bread, they straightway fell into the dumps, and either died out of sheer perversity, or went yelping home to the Company with all manner of dismal tales, — which tales, through my Lord War- m 66 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD wick's good offices, never failed to reach the sacred ears of his Majesty, and to bring the colony and the Company into disfavor. We came to the paiisade, and found the gates wide open and the warder gone. " Where be the people ? " marveled Master Spar- row, as we rode through into the street. In truth, where were the people ? On either side of the street the doors of the houses stood open, but no person looked out from them or loitered on the doorsteps ; the square was empty ; there were no women at the well, no children underfoot, no gaping crowd before gaol and pillory, no guard before the Governor's house, — not a soul, high or low, to be seen. " Have they all migrated ? " cried Sparrow. " Are they gone to Croatan ? " " They have left one to tell the tale, then," I said, " for here he comes running." Ili CHAPTER VII IN WHICH WE PEEPAEE TO FIGHT THE SPAmARD A MAN came panting down the street. " Captain Ralph Percy ! " he cried. " My master said it was your horse coming across the neck. The Governor commands your attendance at once, sir." " Where is the Governor ? Where are all the peo- pie ? " I demanded. " At the fort. They are all at the fort or on the bank below. Oh, sirs, a woeful day for us all ' " " A woeful day ! " I exclaimed. " What 's the matter ? " The man, whom I recognized as one of the com- mander's servants, a fellow with the soul of a French valet de charabre, was wild with terror. " They are at the guns !"" he quavered. « Alacka- day ! what can a few sakers and demiculverins do against them ? " " Against whom f " I cried. " They are giving out pikes and cutlasses I Woe 's me, the sight of naked steel hath ever made me sick!" I drew my dagger, and flashed it before him. " Does 't make you sick ? " I asked. «« You shall be sicker yet, if you do not speak to some purpose." ^ The fellow shrank back, his eyeballs starting from his head. " It 's a tall ship," he gasped, " a very big ship I I ', r 68 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD •I i It hath ten culverins, beside fowlers and murderers, sakers, falcons, and bases ! " I took him by the collar and shook him off his feet. " There are priests on board ! " he managed to say as I set him down. " This time to-morrrow we '11 all be on the rack ! And next week the galleys will have us I " " It 's the Spaniard at last," I said. " Come on ! " When we reached the river bank before the fort, it was to find confusion worse confounded. The gates of the palisade were open, and through them streamed Councilors, Burgesses, and officers, while the bank itself was thronged with the generality. Ancient planters. Smith's men, Dale's men, tenants and ser- vants, women and children, including the little eyases we imported the year before, negroes, Paspaheghs, French vignerons, Dutch sawmill men, Italian glass- workers, — all seethed to and fro, all talked at once, and all looked down the river. Out of the babel of voices these words came to us over and over : " The Spaniard I" "The Inquisition!" "The galleys?" They were the words oftenest heard at that time, when strange sails hove in sight. But where was the Spaniard ? On the river, hug- ging the shore, were many small craft, barges, shallops, sloops, and pinnaces, and beyond them the masts of the Truelove, the Due Keturn, and the Tiger, then in port ; on these three, of which the largest, the Due Eeturn, was of but eighty tons burthen, the mariners were running about and the masters bawling orders. But there was no other ship, no bark, galleon, or man- of-war, with three tiers of grinning ordnance, ^nd t^ hated yellow flag flannting above. I sprang from my horse, and, leaving >» WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD 59 tress Percy in Sparrow's charge, hastened up to the fort. As I passed through the palisade I heard my name called, and turning waited for Master Pory to come up. He was panting and puffing, his jovial face very red. " I was across the neck of land when I heard the news," he said. " I ran all the way, and am some- what scant of breath. Here 's the devil to pay I " *' It looks another mare's-nest," I replied. " We have cried ' Spaniard ! ' pretty often." " But this time the wolf 's here," he answered. " Da- vies sent a horseman at a gallop from Algernon with the tidings. He passed the ship, and it was a very great one. We may thank this dead calm that it did not catch us unawares." Within the palisade was noise enough, but more order than without. On the half-moons command- ing the river, gunners were busy about our sakers, falcons, and three culverins. In one place. West, the commander, was giving out brigandines, jacks, skulls, muskets, halberds, swords, .and longbows ; in another, his wife, who was a very Mary Ambree, supervised the boiling of a great caldron of pitch. Each loop- hole in palisade and fort had already its marksman. Through the west port came a horde of reluctant in- vaders, — cattle, swine, and poultry, — driven in by yelling boys. I made my way through the press to where I saw the Governor, surrounded by Councilors and Bur- gesses, sitting on a keg of powder, and issuing orders at the top of his voice. " Ha, Captain Percy I " he cried, as I came up. " You are in good time, man 1 You 've served your apprenticeship at the wars. You must teach us how to beat the dons." flO TO HAVE AND TO HOLD r; ( II? " To Englishmen, that comes by nature, sir," I said, " Art sure we are to have the pleasure ? " " Not a doubt of it this time," he answered. " The Bhip slipped in past the Point last night. Davies signaled her to stop, and then sent a ball over her ; but she kept on. True, it was too dark to make out much ; but if she were friendly, why did she not stop for castle duties ? Moreover, they say she was of at least five hundred tons, and no ship of that size hath ever visited these waters. There was no wind, and they sent a man on at once, hoping to outstrip the enemy and warn us. The man changed horses at Basse's Choice, and passed the ship about dawn. All he could tell for the mist was that it was a very great ship, with three tiers of guns." " The flag ? " "She carried none." " Humph ! " I said. " It hath a suspicious look. At least we do well to be ready. We '11 give them a warm welcome." " There are those here who counsel surrender," con- tinued the Governor. " There 's one, at least, who wants the Tiger sent downstream with a white flag and my sword." ** Where ? " I cried. " He 's no Englishman, I war- rant I" " As much an Englishman as thou, sir I " called out a gentleman whom I had encountered before, to wit, Master Edward Sharpless. "It*8 well enough for Bwingebuckler captains. Low Country fire-eaters, to talk of holding out againt a Spanish man-of-war with twice our number of fighting men, and enough ord nance to batter the town out of existence. Wise men know when the odds are too heavy I " L\i WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD 61 ♦' It *8 well enough for lily-livered, goose-fleshed law- yers to hold their tongues when men and soldiers talk," I retorted. " We are not making indentures to the devil, and so have no need of such gentry." There was a roar of laughter from the captains and gunners, but terror of the Spaniard had made Master Edward Sharpless bold to all besides. " They will wipe us off the face of the earth ! " he lamented. " There won't be an Englishman left in America ! They '11 come close In upon us ! They '11 batter down the fort with their culverins ; they '11 turn all their swivels, sakers, and falcons upon us ; they '11 throw into our midst stinkpots and grenades ; they '11 mow us down with chain shot 1 Their gunners never miss ! " His voice rose to a scream, and he shook as with an ague. " Are you mad ? It 's Spain that 's to be fought ! Spain the rich ! Spain the powerful I Spain the lord of the New World I " " It 's England that fights ! " I cried. " For very shame, hold thy tongue I " " If we surrender at once, they '11 let us go I " he whined. " We can take the small boats and get to the Bermudas. They '11 let us go." " Into the galleys," muttered West. The craven tried another feint. "Think of the women and children I " " We do," I said sternly. " Silence, fool I " The Governor, a brave and honest man, rose from the keg of powder. " AU this is foreign to the mat* tei. Master Sharpless. I think our duty is clear, be the odds what they may. This is our post, and we will hold it or die beside it. We are few in number, but we are England in America, and I think we will remain here. This is the King's fifth kingdom, and TO HAVE AND TO HOLD we will keep it for him. We will trust in the Lord and fight it out." " Amen," I said, and " Amen," said the ring of Councilors and Burgesses and the armed men beyond. The hum of voices now rose into excited cries, and the watchman stationed atop the big culverin called out, " Sail ho ! " With one accord we turned our faces downstream. There was the ship, undoubtedly. Moreover, a strong breeze had sprung up, blowing from the sea, filling her white sails, and rapidly less- ening the distance between us. As yet we could only tell that she was indeed a large ship with all sail set. Through the gates of the palisade now came, pell- mell, the crowd without. In ten minutes' time the women were in line ready to load the muskets, the children sheltered as be-^t they might be, the men in ranks, the gunners at their guns, and the flag up. I had run it up with my own hand, and as I stood be- neath the folds Master Sparrow and my wife came to my side. " The women are over there," I said to the latter, " where you had best betake yourself." " I prefer to stay here," she answered. " I am not afraid." Her color was high, and she held her head up. " My father fought the Armada," she said. " Get me a sword from that man who is giving them out." From his coign of vantage the watch now called out : " She 's a long ship, — five hundred tons, any- how I Lord I the metal that she carries I She 's rase- decked I " " Then she *s Spanish, sure enough I " cried the Governor. From the crowd of servants, felons, and foreigners it WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD 63 rose a great clamor, and presently we made out Sharpless perched on a cask in their midst and wildly gesticulating. " The Tiger, the Truelove, and the Due Return have swung across channel I " announced the watch. " They 've trained their guns on the Spaniard t ** The Englishmen cheered, but the bastard crew about Sharpless groaned. Extreme fear had made the law- yer shameless. " What guns have those boats ? " he screamed. "Two falcons apiece and a handful of muskets, and they go out against a man-of-war! She '11 trample them underfoot I She Ml sink them with a shot apiece ! The 1 iger is forty tons, and the Truelove is sixty. You 're all mad I " " Sometimes quality 1 '^ats quantity," said West. " Didst ever hear of the Content ? " sang out a gunner. " Or of the Merchant Royal ? " cried another. " Or of the Revenue ? " quoth Master Jeremy Spar- row. " Go hang thyself, coward, or, if you choose, swim out to the Spaniard, and shift from thy wet doublet and hose into a sanbenito. Let the don come, shoot if he can, and land if he will I We '11 singe his beard in Virginia as we did at Gales ! * The great St. Philip, the pride of the Spaniards, Was burnt to the bottom and sunk in the sea. But the St. Andrew and eke the St. Matthew We took in fight manfully and brought away.' And so we '11 do with this one, my masters I We '11 sink her, or we '11 take her and send her against her own galleons and galleasses ! ' Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, thus strike their drnini, Tantara, tantara, the Englishman comes I ' " H 64 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD m His great voice and great presence seized and held the attention of all. Over his doublet of rusty black he had clapped a yet rustier back and breast ; on his bushy hair rode a headpiece many sizes too small ; by his side was an old broadsword, and over his shoulder a pike. Suddenly, from gay hardihood his counte- nance changed to an expression more befitting his calling. " Our cause is just, my masters ! " he cried. " We stand here not for England alone ; we stand for the love of law, for the love of liberty, for the fear of God, who will not desert his servants and his cause, nor give over to Anti-Christ this virgin world. This plantation is the leaven which is to leaven the whole lump, and surely he will hide it in the hollow of his hand and in the shadow of his wing. God of battles, hear us 1 God of England, God of America, aid the children of the one, the saviors of the other I " He had dropped the pike to raise his clasped hands to the blue heavens, but now he lifted it again, threw back his shoulders, and flung up his head. He laid his hand on the flagstaff, and looked up to the banner streaming in the breeze. " It looks well so high against the blue, doesn't it, friends?" he cried gen- ially. " Suppose we keep it there forever and a day I " A cheer arose, so loud that it silenced, if it did not convince, the craven few. As for Master Edward Sharpless, he disappeared behind the line of women. The great ship came steadily on, her white sails growing larger and larger, moment by moment, her tiers of guns more distinct and menacing, her whole aspect more defiant. Her waist seemed packed with men. But no streamers, no flag. A puff of smok floated up from the deck of the Tiger, and a ball from one of her two tiny falcons m WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD 65 passed through the stranger's rigging. A cheer for the brave little cockboat arose from the English. "David and his pebble I " exclaim jd Master Jeremy- Sparrow. " Now for Goliath's twenty-pounders ! " But no flame and thunder issued from the guns aboard the stranger. Instead, from her deck there came to us what sounded mightily like a roar of laughter. Suddenly, from each masthead and yard shot out streamers of red and blue, up from the poop rose and flaunted in the wind the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, and with a crash trumpet, drum, and fife rushed into " Here 's to jolly good alo and old ! " " By the Lord, she 's English ! " shouted the Gov- ernor. On she came, banners flying, music playing, and inextinguishable laughter rising from her decks. The Tiger, the Truelove, and the Due Return sent no more hailstones against her ; they turned and resolved them- selves into her consort. The watch, a grim old sea dog that had come in with Dale, swung himself down from his post, and came toward the Governor at a run. " I know her now, sir I " he shouted. " I was at the winning of Gales, and she 's the Santa Teresa, that we took and sent home to the Queen. She was Spanish once, sir, but she 's English now." The gates were flung open, and the excited people poured out again upon the river bank. I found my- self beside the Governor, whose honest countenance wore an expression of profound bewilderment. " What d* ye make of her, Percy ? " he said. " The Company does n't send servants, felons, 'prentices, or maids in such craft ; no, nor officers or governors, 1-1 66 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD either. It 's the King's ship, sure enough, but what is she doing here ? — that 's the question. What does she want, and whom does she bring ? " " We '11 soon know," I answered, " for there goes her anchor." Five minutes later a boat was lowered from the ship, and came swiftly toward us. The boat had four rowers, and in the stern sat a tall man, black-bearded, high-colored, and magnificently dressed. It touched the sand some two hundred feet from the spot where Governor, Councilors, officers, and a sprinkling of other sorts stood staring at it, and at the great ship beyond. The man in the stern leaped out, looked around him, and then walked toward us. As he walked slowly, we had leisure to note the richness of his doublet and cloak, — the one slashed, the other lined with scarlet taffeta, — the arrogance of his mien and gait, and the superb full-blooded beauty of his face. " The handsomest man that ever I saw I " ejaculated the Governor. Master Pory, standing beside him, drew in his breath, then puffed it out again. " Handsome enough, your Honor," he said, " unless handsome is as hand some does. That, gentlemen, is my Lord Carnal, — that is the King's latest favorite." 11 CHAPTER VIII IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL I FELT a touch upon my shoulder, and turned to find Mistress Percy beside me. Her cheeks were white, her eyes aflame, her whole frame tense. The passion that dominated her was so clearly anger at white heat that I stared at her in amazement. Her hand slid from my shoulder to the bend of my arm and rested there. " Remember that I am your wife, sir," she said in a low, fierce voice, — " your kind and loving wife. You said that your sword was mine ; now bring your wit to the same service ! " There was not time to question her meaning. The man whose position in the realm had just been an- nounced by the Secretary, and of whom we had all heard as one not unlikely to supplant even Bucking- ham himself, was close at hand. The Governor, headpiece in hand, stepped forward ; the other swept off his Spanish hat ; both bowed profoundly. " I speak to his Honor the Governor of Virginia ? " inquired the newcomer. His tone was offhand, his hat already back upon his head. " I am George Yeardley, at my Lord Carnal's ser- vice," answered the Governor. The favorite raised his eyebrows. " I don't need to introduce myself, it seems," he said. " You 've found that I am not the devil, after all, — at least not the Spanish ApoUyon. Zooks I a hawk above i i |i ' "^ 68 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD u a poultry yard could n't have caused a greater com- motion than did my poor little ship and my few poor birding pieces ! Does every strange sail so put you through your paces ? " The Governor's color mounted. " We are not at home," he answered stiffly. " Here we are few and weak and surrounded by many dangers, and have need to be vigilant, being planted, as it were, in the very grasp of that Spain who holds Europe in awe, and who claims this land as her own. That we are here at all is proof enough of our courage, my lord." The other shrugged his shoulders. " I don't doubt your mettle," he said negligently. " I dare say it matches your armor." His glance had rested for a, moment upon the bat- tered headpiece and ancient rusty breastplate with which Master Jeremy Sparrow was bedight. " It is something antique, truly, something out of fashion," remarked that worthy, — " almost as out of fashion as courtesy from guests, or respect for digni- ties from my-face-is-my-fortune minions and lords on carpet considerations." The hush of consternation following this audacious speech was broken by a roar of laughter from the fa- vorite himself. " Zounds ! " he cried, " your courage is worn on your sleeve, good giant ! I '11 uphold you to face Spaniards, strappado, rack, galleys, and all ! " The bravado with which he spoke, the insolence of his bold glance and curled lip, the arrogance with which he flaunted that King's favor which should be a brand more infamous than the hangman's, his beauty, the pomp of his dress, — all were alike hateful. I hated him then, scarce knowing why, as I hated hi n afterward with reason. IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL 60 He now pulled from the breast of his doublet a packet, which he proffered the Governor. "From the King, sir," he announced, in the half-fierce, half- mocking tone he had made his own. "You may- read it at your leisure. He wishes you to further me in a quest upon which I have come." The Governor took the packet with reverence. " His Majesty's will is our law," he said. " Anything that lies in our power, sir ; though if you come for gold " — The favorite laughed again. " I 've come for a thing a deal more precious, Sir Governor, — a thing worth more to me than all the treasure of the Indies with Manoa and El Dorado thrown in, — to wit, the thing upon which I 've set my mind. That which I determine to do, I do, sir ; and the thing I determine to have, why, sooner or later, by hook or by crook, fair means or foul, I have it ! I am not one to be crossed or defied with impunity." " I do not take your meaning, my lord," said the Governor, puzzled, but courteous. " There are none here who would care to thwarc, in any honorable en- terprise, a nobleman so high in the King's favor. I trust that my Lord Carnal will make my poor house his own during his stay in Virginia — What 's the matter, my lord ? " My lord's face was dark red, his black eyes afire, his mustaches working up and down. His white teeth had closed with a click on the loud oath which had interrupted the Governor's speech. Honest Sir George and his circle stared at this unaccountable guest in amazement not unmixed with dismay. As for myself, I knew before he spoke what had caused the oath and the fierce triumph in that handsome i ; ' 'w 70 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD face. Master Jeremy Sparrow had moved a little to one side, thus exposing to view that which his great body had before screened from observation, — namely, Mistress Jocelyn Percy. In a moment the favorite was before her, hat in hand, bowing to the ground. " My quest hath ended where I feared it but be- gun ! " he cried, flushed and exultant. " I have found my Manoa sooner than I thought for. Have you no welcome for me, lady ? " She withdrew her arm from mine and curtsied to him profoundly ; then stood erect, indignant and defiant, her eyes angry stars, her cheeks carnation, scorn on her smiling lips. " I cannot welcome you as you should be welcomed, my lord," she said in a clear voice. " I have but my bare hands. Manoa, my lord, lies far to the south- ward. This land is quite out of your course, and you will find here but your travail for your pains. My lord, permit me to present to you my husband. Cap- tain Ralph Percy. I think that you know his cousin, my Lord of Northumberland." The red left the favorite's cheeks, and he moved as though a blow had been dealt him by some invisible hand. Recovering himself he bowed to me, and I to him, which done we looked each other in the eyes long enough for each to see the thrown gauntlet. " I raise it," I said. " And I raise it," he answered. " A I'outrance, I think, sir ? " I continued. "A I'outrance," he assented. " And between us two alone," I suggested. His answering smile was not good to see, nor was the tone in which he spoke to the Governor good to hear. IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL 71 " It is now some weeks, sir," he said, " since there disappeared from court a jewel, a diamond of most inestimable worth. It in some sort belonged to the King, and his Majesty, in the goodness of his heart, had promised it to a certain one, — nay, had sworn by his kingdom that it should be his. Well, sir, that man put forth his hand to claim his own — when lo I the jewel vanished ! Where it went no man could tell. There was, as you may believe, a mighty run- ning up and down and looking into dark corners, all for naught, — it was clean gone. But the man to whom that bright gem had been promised was not one easily hoodwinked or baffled. He swore to trace it, follow it, find it, and wear it." His bold eyes left the Governor, to rest upon the woman beside me ; had he pointed to her with his hand, he could not have more surely drawn upon her the regard of that motley throng. By degrees the crowd had fallen back, leaving us three — the King's minion, the masquerading lady, and myself — the centre of a ring of staring faces ; but now she be- came the sole target at which all eyes were directed. In Virginia, at this time, the women of our own race were held in high esteem. During the first years of our planting they were a greater i-arity than the mocking-birds and flying squirrels, or than that weed the eating of which made fools of men. The man whose wife was loving and daring enough, or jealous enough of Indian maids, to follow him into the wilder- ness counted his friends by the score and never lacked for company. The first marriage in Virginia was be- tween a laborer a^'d a waiting maid, and yet there was as great a deal of candy stuff as if it had been the nuptials of a lieutenant of the shire. The brother of r ' 72 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD '*. II ,k\ my Lord de la Warre stood up with the groom, the brother of my Lord of Northumberland gave away the bride and was the first to kiss her, and the Presi- dent himself held the caudle to their lips that night. Since that wedding there had been others. Gentle- women made the Virginia voyage with husband or father ; women signed as servants and came over, to marry in three weeks' time, the husband paying good tobacco for the wife's freedom ; in the cargoes of children sent for apprentices there were many girls. And last, but not least, had come Sir Edwyn's doves. Things had changed since that day — at the memory of which men still held their sides — when Madam West, then the only woman in the town with youth and beauty, had marched down the street to the pillory, mounted it, called to her the drummer, and ordered him to summon to the square by tuck of drum every man in the place. Which done, and the amazed pop- ulation at hand, gaping at the spectacle of the wife of their commander (then absent from home) pilloried before them, she gave command, through the crier, that they should take their fill of gazing, whispering, and nudging then and there, forever and a day, and then should go about their business and give her leave to mind her own. That day was gone, but men still dropped their work to see a woman pass, still cheered when a far- thingale appeared over a ship's side, and at church still devoted their eyes to other service than staring at the minister. In our short but crowded history few things had made a greater stir than the coming in of Sir Edwyn's maids. They were married now, but they were still the observed of all observers ; to be pointed out to strangers, run after by children, gaped I IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL 73 at by the vulgar, bowed to with broad smiles by Bur- gess, Councilor, and commander, and openly con- temned by those dames who had attained to a husband in somewhat more regular fashion. Of the ninety who had arrived two weeks before, the greater num. ber had found husbands in the town itself or in the neighboring hundreds, so that in the crowd that had gathered to withstand the opaniard, and had stayed to welcome the King's favorite, there were farthin- gales not a few. But there were none like the woman whose hand I had kissed in the courting meadow. In the throng, that day, in her Puritan dress and amid the crowd of meaner beauties, she had passed without overmuch comment, and since that day none had seen her save Rolfe and the minister, my servants and myself ; and when " The Spaniard ! " was cried, men thought of other things than the beauty of women ; so that until this moment she had escaped any special notice. Now all that was changed. The Governor, following the pointing of those insolent eyes, fixed his own upon her in a stare of sheer amazement ; the gold-laced quality about him craned necks, lifted eyebrows, and whispered ; and the rabble behind followed their bet- ters' example with an emphasis quite their own. " Where do you suppose that jewel went. Sir Gov- ernor," said the favorite, — "that jewel which was overnice to shine at court, which set up its will against the King's, which would have none of that one to whom it had beeu given ? " " I am a plain man, my lord," replied the Governor bluntly. " An it please you, give me plain words." My lord laughed, his eyes traveling round the ring of greedily intent faces. " So be it, sir," he assented. May I ask who is this lady *? " (( ,^ /*^- 74 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD P " She came in the Bonaventure," answered the Gov- ernor. " Sh€! was one of the treasurer's poor maids." •' Wxth whom I trod a measure at court not long ago," said the favorite. " I had to wait for the honor until the prince had been gratified." The Governor's round eyes grew rounder. Young Hamor, a-tiptoe behind him, drew a long, low whistle. "In so small a community," went on my lord, "sure vou must aU know one another. There can be ft/ no masks worn, no false colors displayed. Everything must be as open as daylight. But v/e all have a past as weU as a present. Now, for instance " — I interrupted him. " In Virginia, my lord, we I've in the present. At present, my lord, I like not the color of your lordship's cloak.' He stared at me, with his black brows drawn together. " It is not of your choosing nor for your wearing, sir," he rejoined haughtily. " And your sword knot is villainously tied," I con- tinued. "And I like not such a fire-oew, bejeweled scabbard. Mine, you see, is out at heel." " I see," he said dryly. ** The pinking of your doublet suits me not, either," I declared. " I could make it more to my liking," and I touched his Genoa three-pile with the point of my rapier. A loud murmur arose from the crov?d, and the GoV' ernor started forward, crying cat, " Captain Percy I Are you mad?" " I was never saner in my life, sir," I answered. " French fashions like me not, — that is all, — nor Englishuen that wear them. To my thinking such are scarcely true-born." That thrust went home. All the world kuow the i »> »» of the IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL 75 gtoiy of my late Lord Carnal and the waiting woman in the service of the French ambassador's wife. A gasp of admiration went up from the crowd. My lord's rapier was out, the hand that held it shaking with passion. I had my blade in my hand, but the point was upon the ground. " I '11 lesson you, you madman ! " he said thickly. Suddenly, without any warning, he thrust at me ; had h been less blind with rage, the long score which each was to run up against the other might have ended where it began. I swerved, and the next instant with my own point sent his rapier whirling. It fell at the Governor''^ feet. " Your lordship may pick it up," I remarked. " Your grasp is as firm as your honor, my lord." He glared at me, fo^^ji upon his lips. Men were between us now, — the Governor, Francis West, fas- ter Pory, Ilamor, Wynne, — and a babel of excited voices arose. The diversion I had aimed to make had been made vith a vengeance. West had mc by the arm. " What a murrain is all this coil about, Ralph Percy? If you hurt hair ot his head, you are lost! " The favorite broke from the Governor's detaining hand and conciliatory speech. " You '11 fight, sir ? " he cried h(»arsely. " You know that I need not now, my lord," I answered. He stamped upon the ground with lage and shame ; not true shame for that foul thrust, but shame for the sword upon the grass, for that which could be read in men's eyes, strive to hide it as they nnght, for the open scorn upon one face. Then, during the minute or more in which we faced each other in silence, he exerted to some effect that will of which he had *^ •I .» » t 1 1 u ,! 76 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD boasted. The scarlet faded from his face, his frame steadied, and he forced a smile. Also he called to his aid a certain soldierly, honest-seeming frankness of speech and manner which he could assume at will. " Your Virginian sunshine dazzleth the eyes, sir," he said. " Of a verity it made me think you on guard. Forgive me my mistake." I bowed. " Your lordship will find me at your ser- vice. I lodge at the minister's house, where your lordship's messenger will find me. I am going there now with my wife, who hath ridden a score of miles this morning and is weary. We give you good-day, my lord." I bowed to him again and to the Governor, then gave my hand to Mistress Percy, The crowd opening before us, we passed through it, and crossed the pa- rade by the west bulwark. At the further end was a bit of rising ground. This we mounted ; then, before descending the other side into the lane leading to the minister's house, we turned as by one impulse and looked back. Life is like one of those endless Italian corridors, painted, picture after picture, by a master hand ; and man is the traveler through it, taking his eyes from one scene but to rest them upon another. Some remain a blur in his mind ; some he remembers not ; for some he has but to close his eyes and he sees them again, line for line, tint for tint, the whole spirit of the piece. I close my eyes, and I see the sunshine hot and bright, the blue of the skies, the sheen of the rive >\ The sails are white again upon boats long lost ; the Santa Teresa, sunk in a fight with an Algerine rover two years afterward, rides at anchor there forever in the James, her crew in the waist and the rigging, her master and his mates on '\' .1 IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL 77 the poop, above them the flag. I see the plain at our feet and the crowd beyond, all staring with upturned faces ; and standing out from the group of perplexed and wondering dignitaries a man in black and scarlet, one hand busy at his mouth, the other clenched upon the newly restored and unsheathed sword. And I see, standing on the green hillock, hand in hand, us two, — myself and the woman so near to me, and yet so far away that a common enemy seemed our only tie. We turned and descended to the green lane and the deserted houses. When we were quite hidden from those we had left on the bank below the fort, she dropped my hand and moved to the other side of the lane ; and thus, with never a word to spare, we walked sedately on until we reached the minister's house. il I! r CHAPTER IX IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP ,: ( Waiting for us in the doorway we found Master Jeremy Sparrow, relieved of his battered armor, his face wreathed with hospitable smiles, and a posy in his hand. " When the Spaniard turned out to be only the King's minior, I slipped away to see that all was in order," he said genially. " Here are roses, madam, that you are not to treat as you did those others." She took them from him with a smile, and we went into the house to find three fair large rooms, some- thing bare of furnishing, but clean and sweet, with here and there a bow pot of newly gathered flowers, a dish of wardens on the table, and a cool air laden with the fragrance of the pine blowing through the open window. " This is your demesne," quoth the minister. " I have worthy Master Bucke's own chamber upstairs. Ah, good man, I wish he may quickly recover his strength and come back to his own, and so relieve me of the burden of all this luxury. I, whom nature meant for an eremite, have no business in kings' chambers such as these." His devout faith in his own distaste for soft living and his longings after a hermit's cell was an edifying spectacle. So was the evident pride which he took in his domain, the complacence with which he pointed IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP 79 out the shady, well-stocked garden, and the delight with which he produced and set upon the table a huge pasty and a flagon of wine. " It is a fast day with me," he said. " I may neither eat nor drink until the sun goes down. The flesh is a strong giant, very full of pride and lust of living, and the spirit must needs keep watch and ward, seiz- ing every opportunity to mortify and deject its adver- sary. Goodwife Allen is still gaping with the crowd at the fort, and your man and maid have not yet come, but I shall be overhead if you need aught. Mistress Percy must want rest after her ride." He was gone, leaving us two alone together. She stood opposite me, beside the window, from which she had not moved since entering the room. The color was still in her cheeks, the light in her eyes, and she still held the roses with which Sparrow had heaped her arms. I was moving to the tal^^ VI "m ."'> ■> ■>/ o ■rf Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 -^^^2^ ^^^ I Ki 86 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD h I m *' May I not have the honor to kiss her hand before I go?" I stared at him. " 1 do not understand you," I said coldly. " There 's none within but Mistress Percy. She is weary, and rests after her journey. We came from Weyanoke this morning." He shook with laughter. " Ay, ay, brave it out I " he cried. " It 's what every man Jack of us said you would do I But all 'b known, man ! The Governor read the King's letters in full Council an hour ago. She 's the Lady Jocelyn Leigh ; she 's a ward of the King^s; she and her lands are to wed my Lord Car- nal ! " " She was all that/' I replied. " Now she 's my wife." " You '11 find that the Court of High Commission will not agree with you.'* My rapier lay across my knees, and I ran my hand down its worn scabbard. " Here 's one that agrees with me," I said. " And up there is Another," and I lifted my hat. He stared. " God and my good sword I " he cried. "A very knightly dependence, but not to be men- tioned nowadays in the same breath with gold and the King's favor. Better bend to the storm, man; sing low while it roars past. You can swear that you did n't know her to be of finer weave than dowlas. Oh, they '11 call it in bome sort a marriage, for the lady's own sake ; but they '11 find flaws enough to crack a thousand such mad matches. The divorce is the thing I There 's precedent, you know. A fair lady was parted from a brave man not a thousand years ago, because a favorite wanted her. True, Frances Howard wanted the favorite, whilst this beauty of yours " — IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP 87 fair sand rue, this " You will please not couple the name of my wife with the name of that adulteress I " I interrupted fiercely. He started; then cried out somewhat hurriedly: " No offense, no offense ! I meant no comparisons ; comparisons are odorous, saith Dogberry. All at court know the Lady Jocelyn Leigh for a very Brito- mart, a maid as cold as Dian I '* I rose, and began to pace up and down the bit of green before the door. "Master Pory," I said at last, coming to a stop before him, " if, without breach of faith, you can tell me what was said or done at the Council to-day anent this matter, you will lay me under an obligation that I shall not forget.*' He studied the lace on his sleeve in silence for a while ; then glanced up at me out of those small, sly, merry eyes. " Why," he answered, " the King de- mands that the ladv be sent home forthwith, on the ship that gave us such a turn to-day, in fact, with a couple of women to attend her, and under the protec- tion of the only other passenger of quality, to wit, my Lord Carnal. His Majesty cannot conceive it possi- ble that she hath so far forgotten her birth, rank, and duty as to have maintained in Virginia this mad mas- querade, throwing herself into the arms of any petty planter or broken adventurer w^o hath chanced to have an hundred and twenty pounds of filthy tobacco with which to buy him a wife. If she hath been so mad, she is to be sent home none the less, where she will be tenderly dealt with as one surely in this sole matter under the spoil of witchcraft. The ship is to bring home also — and in irons — the man who mar- ried her. If he swears to have been ignorant of her quality, and places no straws in the way of the King's I • m 88 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD W i! (ti- 3 h ii Gommissioners, then shall he be sent honorably back to Virginia with enough in his hand to get him an- other wife. Per contra, if he erred with open eyes, and if he remain contumacious, he will have to deal with the King and with the Court of High Commis- sion, to say nothing of the King's favorite. That 's the sum and substance, Ralph Percy." '" Why was my Lord Carnal sent ? " I asked. " Probably because my Lord Carnal would come. He hath a will, hath my Lord, and the King is more indulgent than Eli to those upon whom he dotes. Doubtless, my Lord High Admiral sped him on his way, gave him the King's best ship, wished him i\ favorable wind — to hell." " I was not ignorant that she was other than she seemed, and I remain contumacious." " Then," he said shamelessly, " you '11 forgive me if in public, at least, I forswear your company ? You 're plague-apotted. Captain Percy, and your fr'ends may wish you well, but they must stay at home and burn juniper before their own doors.'* " I '11 forgive you," I said, " when you 've told me what the Governor will do.'* " Why, there 's the rub," he answered. " Yeardley is the most obstinate man of my acquaintance. He who at his first coming, beside a great deal of worth in his person, brought only his sword hath grown to be as very a Sir Oracle among us as ever I saw. It 's * Sir George says this,' and ' Sir George says that,* and so there 's an end on 't. It 's all because of that leave to cut your own throats in your own way that he brought you last year. Sir George and Sir Ed- wyn ! Zooks ! you had better dub them St. George and St. Edwyn at once, and be done with it. Well, on m IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP 89 ■g© on this occapsion Sir George stands up and says roundly, with a good round oath to boot : ' The King's com- mands have always come to us through the Company, The Company obeys the King ; we obey the Company. His Majesty's demand (with reverence I speak it) is out of all order. Let the Company, through the trea- surer, command us to send Captain Percy home in irons to answer for this passing strange offense, or to return, willy nilly, the lady who is now surely his wife, and we will have no choice but to obey. Until the Company commands us we will do nothing ; nay we can do notliing.' And every one of my fellow Coun- cilors (for myself, I was busy with my pens) saith, *My opinion, Sir George.' The upshot of it all is that the Due Return is to sail in two days with our humble representation to his Majesty that though we bow to his lightest word as the leaf bows to the zephyr, yet we are, in this sole matter, handfast, compelled by his Majesty's own gracious charter to refer our slight- est official doing to that noble Company which owes its very being to its rigid adherence to the terms of said charter. Wherefore, if his Majesty will be gra- ciously pleased to command us as usual through the said Company — and so on. Of course, not a soul in the Council, or in Jamestown, or in Virginia dreams of a duel behind the church at sunrise to-morrow." He knocked the ashes from his pipe, and by degrees got his fat body up from the doorstep. " So there 's a reprieve for you, Ralph Percy, unless you kill or are killed to-morrow morning. In the latter case, the problem 's solved ; in the former, the best service you can do yourself, and maybe the Company, is to walk out of the world of your own accord, and that as quickly as possible. Better a cross-roads and a stake {- n i 90 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD II ^ Hi \ i i Pi! through a dead heart than a hangman's hands upon a live one." " One moment," I said. " Doth my Lord Carnal know of this decision of the Governor's ? " " Ay, and a fine passion it put him into. Stormed and swore and threatened, and put the Governor's back up finely. It seems that he thought to 'bout ship to-morrow, lady and all. He ref useth to go with- out the lady, and so remaineth in Virginia until he can have his will. Lord I but Buckingham would be a happy man if he were kept here forever and a day I My lord knows what he risks, and he 's in as black a humor as ever you saw. But I have striven to drop oil on the troubled waters. ' My lord,' I told him, * you have but to possess your soul with patience for a few short weeks, just until the ship the Governor sends can return. Then all must needs be as your lordship wishes. In the meantime, you may find ex- istence in these wilds and away from that good com- pany which is the soul of life endurable, and perhaps pleasant. You may have daily sight of the lady who is to become your wife, and that should count for much with so ardent and determined a lover as your lordship hath shown yourself to be. You may have the pleasure of contemplating your rival's grave, if you kill him. If he kills you, you will care the less about the date of the Santa Teresa's sailing. The land, too, hath inducements to offer to a philosophi- cal and c?'atemplative mind such as one whom his Majesty d^^'ojhteth to honor must needs possess. Be- side these crystal rivers and among these odoriferous woods, my lord, one escapes much expense, envy, con- tempt, vanity, and vexation of mind.' " The hoary sinner laughed and laughed. When ho ii IN WHICPI TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP 91 had gone away, still in huge enjoyment of his own mirth, I, who had seen small cause for mirth, went slowly indoors. Not a yard from the door, in the shadow of the vines that draped the window, stood the woman who was bringing this fate upon me. " I thought that you were in your own room," I said harshly, af ier a moment of dead silence. " I came to the window," she replied. " I listened. I heard all." She spoke haltingly, through dry lips. Her face was as white as her ru£P, but a strange light burned in her eyes, and there was no trembling. " This morning you said that all that you had — your name and your sword — were at my service. You may take them both again, sir. I refuse the aid you offer. Swear what you will, tell them what you please, make your peace whilst you may. I will not have your blood upon my soul." There was yet wine upon the table. I filled a cup and brought it to her. " Drink ! " I commanded. " I have much of forbearance, much of courtesy to thank you for," she said. « I wiU remember it when — Do not think that I shall blame you " — I held the cup to her lips. " Drink ! " I repeated. She touched the red wine with her lips. I took it from her and put it to my own. « We drink of the same cup," I said, with my eyes upon hers, and drained it to the bottom. " I am weary of swords and courts and kings. Let us go into the garden and watch the minister's bees." ,*{ r<^ " if, '\ i 1 i i^'i> i ( 1 n 1 : ; » ,1 ' ^. li ; ; } ,! •■ . i it '- ■ li : h il m ii li w CHAPTER X IN WHICH MASTER PORT GAINS TIME TO SOME PURPOSE RoLFE, coming down by boat from Varina, had reached the town in the dusk of that day which had seen the arrival of the Santa Teresa, and I had gone to him before I slept that night. Early morning found us together again in the field behind the church. We had not long to wait in the chiU air and dew- drenched grass. When the red rim of the sun showed like a fire between the trunks of the pines came my Lord Carnal, and with him Master Pory and Dr. Lawrence Bohun. My lord and I bowed to each other profoundly. Rolfe with my sword and Master Pory with my lord's stepped aside to measure the blades. Dr. Bohun, muttering something about the feverishness of the early air, wrapped his cloak about him, and huddled in among the roots of a gigantic cedar. I stood with my back to the church, and my face to the red water between us and the illimitable forest ; my lord oppo- site me, six feet away. He was dressed again splen- didly in black and scarlet, colors he much affected, and, with the dark beauty of his face and the arro- gant grace with which he stood there waiting for his sword, made a picture worth looking upon. Rolfe and the Secretary came back to us. " If you kill him, Ralph," said the former in a low voice, a8 IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME 93 he took my doublet from me, " you are to put your- self in my hands and do as you are bid." " Which means that you will try to smuggle me north to the Dutch. Thanks, friend, but I '11 see the play out here." "You were ever obstinate, self-willed, reckless — and the man most to my heart," he continued. " Have your way, in God's name, but I wish not to see what will come of it ! All 's ready, Master Secretary." Very slowly that worthy stooped down and exam- ined the ground, narrowly and quite at his leisure. " I like it not, Master Rolfe," he declared at length. " Here is a molehill, and there a fairy ring." " I see neither," said Eolfe. " It looks as smooth as a table. But we can easily shift under the cedars where there is no grass." " Here 's a projecting root," announced the Secre- tary, when tne new ground had been reached. Rolfe shrugged his shoulders, but we moved again. " The light comes jaggedly through the branches," objected my lord's second. "Better try the open again." Rolfe uttered an exclamation of impatience, and my lord stamped his foot on the ground. « What is this foolery, sir?" the latter cried fiercely. "The ground 's well enough, and there 's sufficient light to die by." ^ " Let the light pass, then," said his second resign- edly. " Gentlemen, are you read— Ods blood ! my lord, I had not noticed the roses upon your lordship's shoes I They are so large and have such a fall that they sweep the ground on either side your foot ; you might stumble in all that dangling ribbon and lace. Allow me to remove them." 1 f ■iiMf 94 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD j ! . IP He unsheathed his knife, and, sinking upon his knees, began leisurely to sever the threads that held the roses to the leather. As he worked, he looked neither at the roses nor at my lord's angry face, but beneath his own bent arm toward the church and the town beyond. How long he would have sawed away at the threads there is no telling ; for my lord, amongst whose virtues patience was not one, broke from him, and with an oath stooped and tore away the offending roses with his own hand, then straightened himself and gripped his sword more closely. " I 've learned one thing in this d — d land," he snarled, " and that is where not to choose a second. You, sir," to Rolfe, "give the word." Master Pory rose from his knees, unruffled and unabashed, and still with a curiously absent expres- sion upon his fat face and with his ears cocked in the direction of the church. " One moment, gentlemen," he said. " I have just bethought me " — " On guard I " cried Rolfe, and cut him short. The King's favorite was no mean antagonist. Once or twice the thought crossed my mind that here, where I least desired it, I had met my match. The appre- hension passed. He fought as he lived, with a fierce intensity, a headlong passion, a brute force, bearing down and overwhelming most obstacles. But that I could tire him out I soon knew. The incessant flash and clash of steel, the quick changes in position, the need to bring all powers of body and mind to aid of eye and wrist, the will to win, the shame of loss, the rage and lust of blood, • — there was no sight or sound outside that trampled circle that could force itself upon our brain or make IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME 96 US glance aside. If there was a sudden commotion amongst the three witnesses, if an expression of im- mense relief and childlike satisfaction reigned in Master Pory's face, we knew it not. We were both bleeding, — I from a pin prick on the shoulder, he from a touch beneath the arm. He made a desperate thrust, which I parried, and the blades clashed. A third came down upon them with such force that the sparks flew. " In the King's name ! " commanded the Governor. We fell apart, panting, white with rage, staring at the unexpected disturbers of our peace. They were the Governor, the commander, the Cape Merchant, and the watch. "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ! " exclaimed Master Pory, and retired to the cedar and Dr. Bohun. "This ends here, gentlemen," said the Governor firmly. " You are both bleeding. It is enough." " Out of my way, sir ! " cried my lord, foaming at the mouth. He made a mad thrust over the Govern- or's extended arm at me, who was ready enough to meet him. "Have at thee, thou bridegroom!" he said between his teeth. The Governor caught him by the wrist. " Put up your sword, my lord, or, as I stand here, you shall give it into the commander's hands I " " Hell and furies I " ejaculated my lord. " Do you know who I am, sir ? " " Ay," replied the Governor sturdily, " I do know. It is because of that knowledge, my Lord Carnal, that I interfere in this affair. Were you other than you are, you and this gentleman might fight until dooms- day, and meet with no hindrance from me. Being i'- i i d T 96 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD N i' ' I li what you are, I will prevent any renewal of this duel, by fair means if I m^y, by foul if I must." He left my lord, and came over to me. " Since when have you been upon my Lord Warwick's side, Ralph Percy ? " he demanded, lowering his voice. " I am not so," I said. " Then appearances are mightily deceitful," x^e re- torted. " I know what you mean, Sir George," I answered. " I know that if the King's darling should meet death or maiming in this fashion, upon Virginian soil, the Company, already so out of favor, might find some difficulty in explaining things to his Majesty's satis- faction. But I think my Lord Southampton and Sir Edwyn Sandys and Sir George Yeardley equal to the task, especially if they are able to deliver to his Majesty the man whom his Majesty will doubtless con- sider the true and only rebel and murderer. Let us fight it out, sir. You can all retire to a distance and remain in profound ignorance of any such affair. If I fall, you have nothing to fear. If he falls, — why, I shall not run away, and the Due Return sails to-morrow." He eyed me closely from under frowning brows. " And when your wife 's a widow, what then ? " he asked abruptly. I have not known many better men than this simple, straightforward, soldierly Governor. The manliness of his character begot trust, invited confidence. Men told him of their hidden troubles almost against their will, and afterward felt neither shame nor fear, know- ing the simplicity of his thoughts and the reticence of his speech. I looked him in the eyes, and let him read what I would have shown to no other, and felt no IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME 97 he shame. " The Lord may raise her up a helper," I said. " At least she won't have to marry Aim." He turned on his heel and moved hack to his former station between us two. '' My Lord Carnal," he said, " and you. Captain Percy, heed what I say ; for what I say I will do. You may take your choice : either you will sheathe your swords here in my pre- sence, giving me your word of honor that you will not draw them upon each other before his Majesty shall have made known his will in this matter to the Com- pany, and the Company shall have transmitted it to me, in token of which truce between you you shall touch each other's hands ; or you will pass the time between this and the return of the ship with the King's and the Company's will in strict confinement, — you, Captain Percy, in gaol, and you, my Lord Carnal, in my own poor house, v/here I will use my best endea- vors to make the days pass as pleasantly as possible for your lordship. I have spoken, gentlemen." There was no protest. For my own part, I knew Yeardley too well to attempt any; moreover, had I been in his place, his course should have been mine. For my Lord Carnal, — what black thoughts visited that fierce and sullen brain I know not, but there was acquiescence in his face, haughty, dark, and vengeful though it was. Slowly and as with one motion we sheathed our swords, and more slowly still repeated the few words after the Governor. His Honor's coun- tenance shone with relief. " Take each other by the hand, gentlemen, and then let 's all to breakfast at my own house, where there shall be no feud save with good capon pasty and jolly good ale." In dead silence my lord and 1 touched each other's finger tips. The world was now a flood of sunshine, the mist on 96 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ■' 1 t f 'i the river vanishing, the birds singing, the trees waving in the pleasant morning air. From the town came the roll of the drum summoning all to the week-day service. The bells too began to ring, sounding sweetly through the clear air. The Governor took off his hat. " Let 's all to church, gentlemen," he said gravely. " Our cheeks are flushed as with a fever and our pulses run high this morning. There be some among us, perhaps, that have in their hearts discontent, anger, and hatred. I know no better place to lake such pas- sions, provided we bring them not forth again." We went in and sat down. Jeremy Sparrow wa8 in the pulpit. Singly or in groups tho town folk entered. Down the aisle strode bearded men, old soldiers, adventurers, sailors, scarred body and soul ; young men followed, younger sons and younger bro- thers, prodigals whose portion had been spent, whose souls now ate of the husks ; to the servants' benches came dull laborers, dimly comprehending, groping in the twilight ; women entered softly and slowly, some with children clinging to their skirts. One came alone and knelt alone, her face shadowed by her mantle. Amongst the servants stood a slave or two, blindly staring, and behind them all one of that felon crew sent us by the King. Through the open windows streamed the summer sunshine, soft and fragrant, impartial and unquestion- ing, caressing alike the uplifted face of the minister, the head of the convict, and all between. The min- ister's voice was grave and tender when he read and prayed, but in the hymn it rose above the people's like the voice of some mighty archangel. That tri- umphant singing shook the air, and still rang in thtt heart while we said the Creed. s. IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME 99 When the service was over, the congregation waited for the Governor to pass out first. At the door he pressed me to go with him and his party to his own house, and I gave him thanks, but made excuse to stay away. When he and the nobleman who was his guest had left the churchyard, and the townspeople too were gone, I and my wife and tha minister walked home together through the dewy meadow, with the splendor of the morning about us, and the birds caroling from every tree and thicket. I u,, '.01 /'. ml i i m CHAPTER XI IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR I,, j. The summer slipped away, and autumn came, with the purple of the grape and the yellowing corn, the nuts within the forest, and the return of the countless wild fowl to the marshes and reedy river banks, and still I stayed in Jamestown, and my wife with me, and still the Santa Teresa rode at anchor in the river below the fort. If the man whom she brought knew that by tarrying in Virginia he risked his ruin with the King, yet, with a courage worthy of a better cause, he tarried. Now and then ships came in, but they were small, belated craft. The most had left England before the sailing of the Santa Teresa ; the rest, private ventures, trading for clapboard or sassafras, knew nothing of court affairs. Only the Sea Flower, sailing from London a fortnight after the Santa Teresa, and much delayed by adverse winds, brought a letter from the deputy treasurer to Yeardley and the Council. From Rolfe I learned its contents. It spoke of the stir that was made by the departure from the realm of the King's favorite. " None know where he hath gone. The King looks dour; 't is hinted that the privy coun- cil are as much at sea as the rest of the world ; my Lord of Buckingham saith nothing, but his following — which of late hath somewhat decayed — is so in- creased that his antechambers cannot hold the throngs m WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR 101 that come to wait upon him. Some will have it that my Lord Carnal hath fled the kingdom to escape the Tower ; others, that the King hath sent him on a mis- sion to the King of Spain about this detested Spanish match ; others, that the gadfly hath stung him and he is gone to America, — to search for Raleigh's gold mine, maybe. This last most improbable ; but if 't is so, and he should touch at Virginia, receive him with all honor. If indeed he is not out of favor, the Com- pany may find in him a powerful friend ; of powerful enemies, God knows, there is no lack I " Thus the worthy Master Ferrar. And at the bot- tom of the letter, among other news of city and court, mention was made of the disappearance of a ward of the King's, the Lady Jocelyn Leigh. Strict search had been made, but the unfortunate lady had not been found. " 'T is whispered that she hath killed herself j also, that his Majesty had meant to give her in mar- riage to my Lord Carnal. But that all true love and virtue and constancy have gone from the age, ona might conceive that the said lord had but fled the court for a while, to indulge his grief in some solitude of hill and stream and shady vale, — the lost lady being right worthy of such dole." In sooth she was, but my lord was not given to such fashion of mourning. The summer passed, and I did nothing. What was there I could do? I had written by the Due Return to Sir Edwyn, and to my coupin, the Earl of Northumberland. The King hatr'^ Sir Edwyn as he hated tobacco and witchcraft. " Choose the devil, but not Sir Edwyn Sandys ! " had been his passionate words to the Company the year before. A certain fifth of November had despoiled my Lord of Northum- L 102 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD I I berland of wealth, fame, and influence. Small hope there was in those two. That the Governor and Council, remembering old dangers shared, wished me well I did not doubt, but that was all. Yeardley had done all he could do, more than most men would have dared to do, in procuring this delay. There was no further help in him ; nor would I ha^'e asked it. Al- ready out of favor with the Warwick faction, he had risked enough for me and mine. I could not flee with my wife to the Indians, exposing her, perhaps, to a death by fierce tortures ; moreover, Opechanca- nough had of late strangely taken to returning to the settlements those runaway servants and fugitives from justice '"hich before we had demanded from him in vain. If even it had been possible to run the gaunt- let of the Indian villages, war parties, and hunting bands, what would have been before us but endless forest and a winter which for us would have had no spring ? I could not see her ^ie of hunger and cold, or by the teeth of the wolves. I could not do what I should have liked to do, — take, single-handed, that King's ship with its sturdy crew and sail with her south and ever southwards, before us nothing more formidable than Spanish ships, and beyond them blue waters, spice winds, new lands, strange islands of the blest. There seemed naught that I could do, naught that she could do. Our Fate had us by the hands, and held us fast. We stood still, and the days came and went like dreams. While the Assembly was in session I had my part to act as Burgess from my hundred. Each day I sat with my fellows in the church, facing the Gov- ernor in his great velvet chair, the Council on either IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR 103 the rov- hand, and listened to the droning of old Twine, the clerk, like the droning of the bees without the win- dow ; to the chant of the sergeant-at-arms ; to long and windy discourses from men who planted better than they spoke ; to remarks by the Secretary, witty, crammed with Latin and traveled talk ; to the Gov- ernor's slow, weighty words. At Weyanoke we had had trouble with the Indians. I was one who loved them not and had fought them well, for which rea- son the hundred chose me its representative. In the Assembly it was my part to urge a greater severity toward those our natural enemies, a greater watch- fulness on our part, the need for palisades and senti- nels, the danger that lay in their acquisition of fire- arms, which, in defiance of the law, men gave them in exchange for worthless Indian commodities. This Indian business was the chief matter before the As- sembly. I spoke when I thougjit speech was needed, and spoke strongly ; for my heart foreboded that which was to come upon us too soon and too surely. The Governor listened gravely, nodding his head ; Master Pory, too, the Cape Merchant, and West were of my mind ; but the remainder were besotted by their own conceit, esteeming the very name of Eng- lishman sentinel and palisade enough, or trusting in the smooth words and vows of brotherhood poured forth so plentifully by that red ApoUyon, Opechan- canough. When the day's work was done, and we streamed out of the church, — the Governor and Council first, the rest of us in order, — it was to find as often as not a red and black figure waiting for us among the graves. Sometimes it joined itself to the Governor, Bometimes to Master Pory ; sometimes the whole party, w 104 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD '.■J i ' save one, went o£E with it to the guest house, there to eat, drink, and make merry. If Virginia and all that it contained, save only that jewel of which it had robbed the court, were out of favor with the King's minion, he showed it not. Per- haps he had accepted the inevitable with a good grace ; perhaps it was but his mode of biding his time ; but he had shifted into that soldierly frankness of speech and manner, that genial, hail-fellow-well- met air, behind which most safely hides a villain's mind. Two days after that morning behind the church, he had removed himself, his French vrJets, and his Italian physician from the Governor's house to the newly finished guest house. Here he lived, cock of the walk, taking his ease in his inn, elbowing out all guests save those of his own inviting. If, what with his open face and his open hand, his din- ners and bear-baitings and hunting parties, his tales of the court and the wars, his half hints as to the good he might do Virginia with the King, extending even to the lightening of the tax upon our tobacco and the prohibition of the Spanish import, his known riches and power, and the unknown height to which they might attain if his star at court were indeed in the ascendant, — if with these things he slowly, but surely, won to his following all save a very few of those I had thought my fast friends, it was not a thing marvelous or without precedent. Upon his side was good that might be seen and handled ; on mine was only a dubious right and a not at all dubious danger. I do not think it plagued me much. The going of those who had it in their heart to wish to go left me content, and for those who fawned upon him from the first, or for the rabble multitude who flung up uh n IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR 105 their caps and ran at his heels, I cared not a doit. There were stiU Rolfe and West and the Governor, Jeremy Sparrow and Diccon. My lord and I met, perforce, in the street, at the Governor's house, in church, on the river, in the sad- dle. If we met in the presence of others, we spoke the necessary formal words of greeting or leave-tak- ing, and he kept his countenance ; if none were by, off went the mask. The man himself and I looked each other in the eyes and passed on. Once we en- countered on a late evening among the graves, and I was not alone. Mistress Percy had been restless, and had gone, despite the minister's protests, to sit upon the river bank. When I returned from the assembly and found her gone, I went to fetch her. A storm was rolling slowly up. Returning the long way through the churchyard, we came upon him sitting beside a sunken grave, his knees drawn up to meet his chin, his eyes gloomily regardful of the dark broad river, the unseen ocean, and the ship that could not return for weeks to come. We passed him in silence, — I with a slight bow, she with a slighter curtsj-. An hour later, going down the street in the dusk of the storm, I ran against Dr. Lawrence Bohun. " Don't stop me I " he panted. " The Italian doctor is away in the woods gathering simples, and they found my Lord Carnal in a fit among the graves, half an hour agone." My lord was bled, and the next morning went hunting. The lady whom I had married abode with me in the minister's house, held her head high, and looked the world in the face. She seldom went from home, but when she did take the air it was with pomp and cir- cumstance. When that slender figure and ex(][uisite r i: 106 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD '/ J face, set off by as rich apparel as could be bought from a store of finery brought in by the Southampton, and attended by a turbaned negress and a serving man who had been to the wars, and had escaped the wheel by the skin of his teeth, appeared in the street, small wonder if a greater commotion arose than had been since the days of the Princess Pocahontas and her train of dusky beauties. To this fairer, more imperial dame gold lace doffed its hat and made its courtliest bow, and young planters bent to their sad- dlebows, while the common folk nudged and stared and had their say. The beauty, the grace, the pride, that deigned small response to well-meant words, — all that would have been intolerable in plain Mistress Percy, once a waiting maid, then a piece of merchan- dise to be sold for one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, then the wife of a poor gentleman, was pardoned readily enough to the Lady Jocelyn Leigh, the ward of the King, the bride to be (so soon as the King's Court of High Commission should have snapped in twain an inconvenient and ill-welded fet- ter) of the King's minion. So she passed like a splendid vision through the street perhaps once a week. On Sundays she went with me to church, and the people looked at her instead of at the minister, who rebuked them not, because his eyes were upon the same errand. The early autumn passed and the leaves began to turn, and still all things were as they had been, save that the Assembly sat no longer. My fellow Bur- gesses went back to their hundreds, but my house at Weyanoke knew me no more. In a tone that was apologetic, but firm, the Governor had told me that be wished my company at Jamestown. I was pleased IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR 107 enough to stay, I assured him, — as indeed I was. At Weyanoke, the thunderbolt would fall without warn- ing; at Jamestown, at least I could see, coming up the river, the sails of the Due Return or what other ship the Company might send. The color of the leaves deepened, and there came a season of a beauty singular and sad, like a smile left upon the face of the dead summer. Over all things, near and far, the forest where it met the sky, the nearer woods, the great river, and the streams that empty into it, there hung a blue haze, soft and dream- like. The forest became a painted forest, with an ever thinning canopy and an ever thickening carpet of crimson and gold ; everywhere there was a low rustling underfoot and a slow rain of color. It was neither cold nor hot, but very quiet, and the birds went by like shadows, — a listless and forgetful weather, in which we began to look, every hour of every day, for the sail which we knew we should not see for weeks to come. Good Master Bucke tarried with Master Thorpe at Henricus, recruiting his strength, and Jeremy Spar- row preached in his pulpit, slept in his chamber, and worked in his garden. This garden ran down to the green bank of the river ; and here, sitting idly by the stream, her chin in her hand and her dark eyes watch- ing the strong, free sea birds as they came and went, I found my wife one evening, as I came from the fort, where had been some martial exercise. Thirty feet away Master Jeremy Sparrow worked among the dy- ing flowers, and hummed : — " There is a garden in her face, Where roses and white lilies g^ow." He and I had agreed that when I must needs be ab- 108 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD tlii 'iii M i r Si I. I' ' sent he should be within call of her ; for I believed my Lord Carnal very capable of intruding himself into her presence. That house and garden, her move- ments and mine, were spied upon by his foreign hire- lings, I knew perfectly well. As I sat down upon the bank at her feet, she turned to me with a sudden passion. " I am weary of it all ! " she cried. " I am tired of being pent up in this house and garden, and of the watch you keep upon me. And if I go abroad, it is worse I I hate all those shameless faces that stare at me as if I were in the piUory. I am pilloried before you all, and I find the experience sufficiently bitter. And when I think that that man whom I hate, hate, hate, breathes the air that I breathe, it stifles me ! If I could fly away like those birds, if I could only be gone from this plaee for even a day I " " I would beg leave to take you home, to Weya- noke,*' I said after a pause, "but I cannot go and leave the field to him." " And I cannot go," she answered. " I must watch for that ship and that King's command that my Lord Carnal thinks potent enough to make me his wife. King's commands are strong, but a woman's will is stronger. At the last I shall know what to do. But now why may I not take Angela and cross that strip of sand and go into the woods on the other side? They are so fair and strange, — all red and yellow, — and they look very still and peaceful. I could walk in them, or lie down under the trees and forget awhile, and they are not at all far away." She looked at me eagerly. " You could not go alone," I told her. " There would be danger in that. But to-morrow, if you IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR 109 choose, I and Master Sparrow and Diccon will take you there. A day in the woods is pleasant enough, and will do none of us harm. Then you may wander as you please, fill your arms with colored leaves, and forget the world. We will watch that no harm comes nigh you, but otherwise you shall not be disturbed." She broke into delighted laughter. Of all women the most steadfast of soul, her outward moods were as variable as a child's. " Agreed ! " she cried. " You and the minister and Diccon Demon shall lay your muskets across your knees, and Angela shall witch you into stone with her old, mad, heathen charms. And then — and then — I will gather more gold than had King Midas ; I will dance with the hamadryads ; I will find out Oberon and make Titania jealous ! " "• I do not doubt that you could do so," I said, as she sprang to her feet, childishly eager and radiantly beautiful. I rose to go in with her, for it was supper time, but in a moment changed my mind, and resumed my seat on the bank of turf. " Do you go in," I said. " There 's a snake near by, in those bushes below the bank. I '11 kill the creature, and then I '11 come to supper." When she was gone, I walked to where, ten feet away, the bank dipped to a clump of reeds and willows planted in the mud on the brink of the river. Drop- ping on my knees I leaned over, and, grasping a man by the collar, lifted him from the slime where he belonged to the bank beside me. It was my Lord Carnal's Italian doctor that I had 80 fished up. I had seen him before, and had found in his very small, mean figure clad all in black, and n ] i\ t! 110 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD his narrow face with malignant eyes, and thin white lips drawn tightly over gleaming teeth, something infinitely repulsive, sickening to the sight as are cer- tain reptiles to the touch. " There are no simples or herbs of grace to be found amongst reeds and half -drowned willows," I said. " What did so learned a doctor look for in so unlikely a place ? " He shrugged his shoulders and made play with his clawlike hands, as if he understood me not. It was a lie, for I knew that he and the English tongue were sufficiently acquainted. I told him as much, and he shot at me a most venomous glance, but continued to shrug, gesticulate, and jabber in Italian. At last I saw nothing better to do than to take him, still by the collar, to the edge of the garden next the churchyard, and with the toe of my boot to send him tumbling among the graves. I watched him pick himself up, set his attire to rights, and go away in the gathering dusk, winding in and out among the graves ; and then I went in to supper, and told Mistress Percy that the snake was dead. I CHAPTER Xri IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING AND REPOSE A TRUST Shortly before daybreak I was wakened by a voice beneath my window. " Captain Percy," it cried, « the trovernor wishes you at his house ! " and was gone I dressed and left the house, disturbing no one Hurrying through the chill dawn, I reached the square not niuch behind the rapid footsteps of the watch who had wakened me. About the Governor's door were horses, saddled and bridled, with grooms at their heads, men and beasts gray and indistinct, wrapped m the fog. I went up the steps and into the hall and knocked at the door of the Governor's o-reat room It opened, and J entered to find Sir Georoe with Master Pory, Rolfe, West, and others of tlie Council gathered about the great centre table and taking eagerly. The Governor was but half dressed ; West and Rolfe were in jack boots and coats of mail A man, breathless with hard riding, spattered with swamp mud and torn by briers, stood, cap in hand, staring from one to the other. " In good time, Captain Percy I » cried the Gov- ernor "Yesterday you called the profound peace witn the Indians, of which some of us boasted, the lull before the storm. Faith, it looks to-day as though you were in the right, after all ! " the'tUlT* ' *^' '"''"''' '"' ■ " ^ ^'^'^' advancing to lis ,j I 1(1 I'! 112 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD " Matter enough I " he answered. " This man has come, post haste, from the plantations above Paspa- hegh. Three days ago, Morgan, the trader, was de- coyed into the woods by that Paspahegh fool and bully, Nemattanow, whom they call Jack of the Feather, and there murdered. Yesterday, out of sheer bravado, the Indian turned up at Morgan's house, and Mor- gan's men shot him down. They buried the dog, and thought no more of it. Three hours ago, Chanco the Christian went to the commander and warned him that the Paspaheghs were in a ferment, and that the warriors were painting themselves black. The com- mander sent off at once to me, and I see naught better to do than to dispatch you with a dozen men to bring them to their senses. But there 's to be no harrying nor battle. A show of force is all that 's needed, — I '11 stake my head upon it. Let them see that we are not to be taken unawareLS, but give them fair words. That they may be the sooner placated I send with you Master Rolfe, — they '11 listen to him. See that the black paint is covered with red, give them some beads and a knife or two, then come home. If you like not the look of things, find out where Opechancanough is, and I'll send him an embassy. He loves us well, and will put down any disaffection." " There 's no doubt that he loves us," I said dryly. " He loves us as a cat loves the mouse that it plays with. If we are to start at once, sir, I '11 go get my horse." " Then meet us at the neck of land," said Rolfe. I nodded, and left the room. As I descended the steps into tho growing light outside, I found Master Pory at my side. " I kept late hours last night," he remarked, with a ii IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING 113 portentous yawn. " Now that this business is settled, I 11 go back to bed." * I walked on in silence. i% hil^\ '"' '"^ ^'"^ I"^^"^ ^""^^'" ^« continued, with n his sly, merry, sidelong glance. « You think that I f r was overcareful of the ground, that morning behind !nn1rn '°^ "". unfortunately delayed matters until the Governor happened by and brought things to another guess conclusion." blii'ntl ^^'""^ *^^* ^""^ ^^"""^"^ *^® Governor," I said He shook with laughter. "Warned him? Of course I warned him. Youth would never have seen that molehill and fairy ring and projecting root, but wisdom Cometh with gray hairs, my son. D'ye not think I '11 have the King's thanks ? " " Doubtless " I answered. " An the price contents you, 1 do not know why I should quarrel with it " By this we were halfway down the street, and we now came upon the guest house. A window above us was unshuttered, and" in the room within a light still burned Suddenly it was extinguished. A man's face looked down upon us for a moment, then drew back ; a skeleton hand was put out softly and slowly and the shutter drawn to. Hand and face belonged to the man I had sent tumbling among the graves the evening before. ° o "The Italian doctor," said Master Pory There was something peculiar in his tone. I g anced at him, but his broad red face and twin- khng eyes told me nothing. "The Italian doctor," he repeated. ''If I had a friend in Captain Percy's pmhcament. I should bid him beware of the Italian \\ S', '? 114 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD (( t» I: J t Your friend would be obliged for the warning, I replied. We walked a little further. "And I think," he said, " that I should inform this purely hypothetical friend of mine that the Italian and his patron had their heads mighty close together, last night." "Last night?" " Ay, last night. I went to drink with my lord, and so broke up their tete-a-tete. My lord was bois- terous in his cups and not oversecret. He dropped some hints " — He broke off to indulge in one of his endless silent laughs. " I don't know why I tell you this, Captain Percy. I am on the other side, you know, — quite on the other side. But now I bethink me, I am only telling you what I should tell you were I upon your side. There 's no harm in that, I hope, no disloyalty to my Lord Carnal's interests which happen to be my interests ? " I made no answer. I gave him credit both for his ignorance of the very hornbook of honor and for his large share of the milk of human kindness. " My lord grows restive," he said, when we had gone a little further. " The Francis and John, com- ing in yesterday, brought court news. Out of sight, out of mind. Buckingham is making hay while the sun shines. Useth angel water for his complexion, sleepeth in a medicated mask such as the Valois used, and is grown handsomer than ever ; changeth the fashion of his clothes thrice a week, which mightily pleaseth his Majesty. Whoops on the Spanish match, too, and, wonderful past all whooping, from the prince's detestation hath become his bosom friend. Small wonder if my Lord Carnal thinks it 's time he was back at Whitehall." IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING 115 t^r. k'* ^t 5""' *^"'" ^ '^'^' " Tl^«^« '« 1^« sWp that brought him here." ^ " Ay, there 's his ship," rejoined Master Pory, "A iThTh! p"'''' '>'^ *^' ^"^ ^^^"'-^ -" be here with the Company's commands. D' ye think Can. tenor^'"'^' '^^' '^"""^' '^' '^'^^'''' ^^"^^ ^« *^ *heb " No." " Then my lord has but to possess his soul with " No doubt he 'U do so," I echoed. ^^ By this we had reached the Secretary's own door. ± ortune favor you with the Paspaheghs ! " he said with another mighty yawn. « As for me, I 'U to bed Do you ever dream, Captain Percy ? I don't; mine IS too good a conscience. But if I did, I should dream ot an Italian doctor." The door shut upon his red face and bright eyes^ I walked rapidly on down the street to the minister's house The light was very pale as yet, and house and garden lay beneath a veil of mist. No one was stirring I went on through the gray wet paths to the stable, and roused Diccon. l "» lo "Saddle Black Lamoral quickly," I ordered. "There s trouble with the Paspaheghs, and I am off with Master Rolfe to settle it." " Am I to go with you ? " he asked. I shook my head. " We have a dozen men. Ihere s no need of more." I left him busy with the horse, and went to the house. In the hall I found the negress strewing the floor with fresh rushes, and asked lier if her mistress yet slept. In her soft half English, half SpanTsl X 116 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD I w w •■ >'■ answered in the affirmative. I went to my own room and armed myself ; then ran upstairs to the comfort- able chamber where abode Master Jeremy Sparrow, surrounded by luxuries which his soul contemned. He was not there. At the foot of the stair I was met by Goodwife Allen. " The minister was called an hour ago, sir," she announced. " There 's a man dying of the fever at Archer's Hope, and they sent a boat for him. He won't be back until afternoon." I hurried past her back to the stable. Black I^a- moral was saddled, and Diccon held the stirrup for me to mount. " Good luck with the vermin, sir ! " he said. " I wish I were going, too." His tone was sullen, yet wistful. I knew that he loved danger as 1 loved it, and a sudden remembrance of the dangers we had faced together brought us nearer to each other than we had been for many a day. " I don't take you," I explained, " because I have need of you here. Master Sparrow has gone to watch beside a dying man, and will not be back for hours. As for myself, there 's no telling how long I may be kept. Until I come you are to guard house and gar- den well. You know what I mean. Your mistress is to be molested by no one." " Very well, sir." " One thing more. There was some talk yesterday of my taking her across the neck to the forest. When she awakes, tell her from me that I am sorry for her to lose her pleasure, but that now she could not go even were I here to take her." "There's no danger from the Paspaheghs there," he muttered. The Paspaheghs happen not to be my only foes," i4 ' IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING il7 I said curtly. "Do as I bid you without remark. Tell her that I have good reasons for desiring her to remain within doors until my return. On no account whatever is she to venture without the garden." I gathered up the reins, and he stood back from the horse's head. When I had gone a few paces I drew rein, and, turning in my saddle, spoke to him across the dew-drenched grass. " This is a trust, Diccon," I said. The red came into his tanned face. He raised his hand and made our old military salute. "I under- stand it so, my captain," he answered, and I rode away satisfied. CHAPTER Xin IN WHICH THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWNSTREAM i< : ■ il ' \ . An hour's ride brought us to the block house stand- ing within the forest, midway between the white plan- tations at Paspahegh and the village of the tribe. We found it well garrisoned, spies out, and the men inclined to make light of the black paint and the seething village. Amongst them was Chanco the Christian. I called him to me, and we listened to his report with growing perturbation. " Thirty warriors ! " I said, when he had finished. " And they are painted yellow as well as black, and have dashed their cheeks with puc- coon : it 's a I'outrance, then ! And the war dance is toward ! If we are to pacify this hornets' nest, it 's high time we set about it. Gentlemen of the block house, we are but twelve, and they may beat us back, in which case those that are left of us will fight it out with you here. Watch for us, therefore, and have a sally party ready. Forward, men ! " " One moment. Captain Percy," said Rolfe. " Chan- co, where 's the Emperor ? " " Five suns ago he was with the priests at Utta- mussac," answered the Indian. "Yesterday, at the full sun power, he was in the lodge of the werowance of the Chiokahominies. He feasts there still. The Chickahomiuies and the Powhatans have buried the hatchet." ft^ rA,-,',«H'WSI.l THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWNSTREAM 119 (( I regret to hear it," I remarked. " Whilst they took each other's scalps, mine own felt the safer." " I advise going direct to Opechancanough," said Rolfe. " Since he 's only a league away, so do I," I an- swered. We left the block house and the clearing around it, and plunged into the depths of the forest. In these virgin woods the trees are set well apart, though linked one to the other by the omnipresent grape, and there is little undergrowth, so that we were able to make good speed. Rolfe and I rode well in front of our men. By now the sun was shining through the lower branches of the trees, and the mist was fast vanish- ing. The forest — around us, above us, and under the hoofs of the horses where the fallen leaves lay thick — was as yellow as gold and as red as blood. " Rolfe," I asked, breaking a long silence, " do you credit what the Indians say of Opechancanough ? " " That he was brother to Powhatan only by adop- tion ? " " That, fleeing for his life, he came to Virginia, years and years ago, from some mysterious land far to the south and west ? " "I do not know," he replied thoughtfuUy. "He is like, and yet not like, the people whom he rules. In his eye there is the authority of mind ; his features are of a nobler cast " — " And his heart is of a darker," I said. " It is a Jtrange and subtle savage." " Strange enough and subtle enough, I admit," he answered, " though I believe not with you that his friendliness toward us is but a mask." " Believe it or not, it is so," I said. " That dark, ^tfl 120 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD fl4 cold, still face is a mask, and that simple-seeming amazement at horses and armor, guns and blue beads, is a mask. It is in my mind that some fair day the mask will be dropped. Here 's the village." Until our interview with Chanco the Christian, the village of the Paspaheghs, and not the village of the Chickahominies, had been our destination, and since leaving the block house we had made good speed ; but now, within the usual girdle of mulberries, we were met by the werowance and his chief men with the cus- tomary savage ceremonies. We had long since come to the conclusion that the birds of the air and the iish of the streams were Mercuries to the Indians. The werowance received us in due form, with pre- sents of fish and venison, cakes of chinquapin meal and gourds of pohickory, an uncouth dance by twelve of his young men and a deal of hellish noise ; then, at our command, led us into the village, and to the lodge which marked its centre. Around it were gathered Opechancanough's own warriors, men from Orapax and Uttamussac and Werowocomoco, chosen for their strength and cunning ; while upon the grass beneath a blood-red gum tree sat his wives, painted and tattooed, with great strings of pearl and copper about their necks. Beyond them were the women and children of the Chickahominies, and around us all the red forest. The mat that hung before the door of the lodge was lifted, and an Indian, emerging, came forward, with a gesture of welcome. It was Nantauquas, the Lady Rebekah's brother, and the one Indian — sav- ing always his dead sister — that was ever to my liking ; a savage, indeed, but a savage as brave and chivalrous, as courteous and truthful, as a Christian knight. THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWNSTREAM 121 Kolfe sprang from his horse, and advancing to meet the young chief embraced him. Nantauquas had been much with his sister during those her happy days at Varina, before she went with Rolfe that ill- fated voyage to England, and Rolfe loved him for her sake and for his own. " I thought you at Orapax, Nantauquas ! " he exclaimed. " I was there, my brother," said the Indian, and his voice was sweet, deep, and grave, like that of his sister. " But Opechancanough would go to Uttamus- sac, to the temple and the dead kings. I lead his war parties now, and I came with him. Opechancanough is within the lodge. He asks that my brother and Captain Percy come to him there." He lifted the mat for us, and followed us into the lodge. There was the usual winding entrance, with half a dozen mats to be lifted one after the other, but at last we came to the central chamber and to the man we sought. He sat beside a small fire burning redly in the twi- light of the room. The light shone now upon the feathers in his scalp lock, now upon the triple row of pearls around his neck, now upon knife and tomahawk in his silk grass belt, now on the otterskiu mantle hanging from his shoulder and drawn across his knees. How old he was no man knew. Men said that he was older than Powhatan, and Powhatan was very old when he died. But he looked a man in the prime of life ; his frame was vigorous, his skin unwrinkled, his eyes bright and full. When he rose to welcome us, and Nantauquas stood beside him, there seemed not a score of years between them. The matter upon which we had come was not one that brooked delay. We waited with what patience mm 122 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ^l we might until his long speech of welcome was fin- ished, when, in as few words as possible, Rolfe laid before him our complaint against the Paspaheghs. The Indian listened ; then said, in that voice that al- ways made me think of some cold, still, bottomless pool lying black beneath overhanging rocks : " My brothers may go in peace. The Paspaheghs have washed off the black paint. If my brothers go to the village, they will find the peace pipe ready for their smoking." Rolfe and I stared at each other. "I have sent messengers," continued the Emperor. " I have told the Paspaheghs of my love for the white man, and of the goodwill the white man bears the Indian. I have told them that Nemattanow v. as a murderer, and that his death was just. They are satisfied. Their village is as still as this beast at my feet." He pointed downward to a tame panther crouched against his moccasins. I thought it an ominous comparison. Involuntarily we looked at Nantauquas. "It is true," he said. " I am but come from the village of the Paspaheghs. I took them the word of Opechan- canough." " Then, since the matter is settled, we may go home," I remarked, rising as I spoke. " We could, of course, have put down the Paspaheghs with one hand, giving them besides a lesson which they would not soon forget, but in the kindness of our hearts toward them and to save ourselves trouble we came to Opechancanough. For his aid in this triflinp^ busi- ness the Governor gives him thanks." A smile just lit the features of the Indian. It was gone in a moment. " Does npt Opechancanough love the white men ? " he said. " Some day he will do more than this for them " THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWNSTREAM 123 We left the lodge and the dark Emperor within it, got to horse, and quitted the village, with its painted people, yellowing mulberries, and blood-red gum trees. Nantauquas went with us, keeping pace with Rolfe's horse, and giving us now and then, in his deep musi- cal voice, this or that bit of woodland news. At the block house we found confirmation of the Emperor's statement. An embassy from the Paspaheghs had come with presents, and the peace pipe had been smoked. The spies, too, brought news that all war- like preparations had ceased in the village. It had sunk once more into a quietude befitting the sleepy, dreamy, hazy weather. Rolfe and I held a short consultation. AU ap- peared safe, but there was the poczibility of a ruse. At the last it seemed best that he, who by virtue of his peculiar relations with the Indians was ever our negotiator, should remain with half our troop at the block house, while I reported to the Governor. So I left him, and Nantauquas with him, and rode back to Jamestown, reaching the town some hours sooner than I was expected. It was after nooning when I passed through the gates of the palisade, and an hour later when I fin- ished my report to the Governor. When he at last dismissed me, I rode quickly down the street toward the minister's house. As I passed the guest house. I glanced up at the window from which, at daybreak, the Italian had looked down upon me. No one looked out now; the window was closely shuttered, and at the door beneath my lord's French rascals were con- spicuously absent. A few yards further on I met my lord face to face, as he emerged from a lane that led down to the river. At sight of me he started vio- 124 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD lently, and his hand went to his mouth. I slightly bent my head, and rode on past him. At the gate of the churchyard, a stone's throw from home, I met Master Jeremy Sparrow. " Well met I *' he exclaimed. " Are the Indians quiet ? " " For the nonce. How is your sick man ? " " Very well," he answered gravely. " I closed his eyes two hours ago." " He 's dead, then," I said. " Well, he 's out of his troubles, and hath that advantage over the living. Have you another call, that you travel from home so fast ? " " Why, to tell the truth," he replied, " I could not but feel uneasy when I learned just now of this com- motion amongst the heathen. You must know best, but I should not have thought it a day for madam to walk in the woods ; so I e'en thought I would cross the neck and bring her home." " For madam to walk in the woods ? " I said slowly. »' So she walks there ? With ,/hom ? " " With Diccon and Angela," he answered. " They went before the sun was an hour high, so Goodwife Allen says. I thought that you " — " No," I told him. " On the contrary, I left com- mand that she should not venture outside the garden. There are more than Indians abroad." I was white with anger; but besides anger there was fear in my heart. "I will go at once and bring her home," I said. As I spoke, I happened to glance toward the fort and the shipping in the river beyond. Something seemed wrong with the prospect. I looked again, and saw what hated and familiar object was missing. I THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWNSTREAM 126 " Where is the Santa Teresa ? " I demanded, the fear at my heart tugging harder. " She dropped downstream this morning. I passed her as I came up from Archer's Hope, awhile ago. She 's anchored in midstream off the big spring. Why did she go?" We looked each other in the eyes, and each read the thought that neither cared to put into words. " You can t^ke the brown mare," I said, speaking lightly because my heart was as heavy as lead, " and we '11 ride to the forest. It is all right, I dare say. Doubtless we '11 find her garlanding herself with the grape, or playing with the squirrels, or asleep on the red leaves, with her head in Angela's lap.'* " Doubtless," he said. " Don't lose time. I '11 sad- dle the mare and overtake you in two minutes." CHAPTER XIV IN WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY Beside the miniater and myself, nothing human moved in the crimson woods. Blue haze was there, and the steady drift of colored leaves, and the sun- shine freely falling through bared limbs, but no man or woman. The fallen leaves rustled as the deer passed, the squirrels chattered and the foxes barked, but we heard no sweet laughter or ringing song. We found a bank of moss, and lying upon it a chaplet of red-brown oak leaves ; further on, the mint beside a crystal streamlet had been trodden underfoot ; then, flung down upon the brown earth beneath some pines, we came upon a long trailer of scarlet vine. Beyond was a fairy hollow, a cuplike depression, cur- tained from the world by the red vines that hung from the trees upon its brim, and carpeted with the gold of a great maple ; and here Fear became a giant with whom it was vain to wrestle. There had been a struggle in the hollow. The cur- tain of vines was torn, the boughs of a sumach bent and broken, the fallen leaves groun underfoot. In one place there was blood upon the leaves. The forest seemed suddenly very quiet, — quite soundless save for the beating of our hearts. On every side opened red and yellow ways, sunny glades, labyrinthine paths, long aisles, all dim with the blue h&Ee like the cloudy incense in stone cathedrals, but »f' > IN WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY 127 nothing moved in them save the creatures of the forest. Without the hollow there was no sign. The leaves looked undisturbed, or others, drifting down, had hidden any marks there might have been; no footprints, no broken branches, no token of those who had left the hollow. Down which of the painted ways had they gone, and where were they now ? Sparrow and I sat our horses, and stared now down this alley, now down that, into the blue that closed each vista. " The Santa Teresa is just off the big spring," he said at last. " She must have dropped down there in order to take in water quietly." " The man that came upon her is still in town, or was an hour agone," I replied. " Then she has n't sailed yet," he said. In the distance something grew out of the blue mist. I had not lived thirteen years in the woodland to be dim of sight or dull of hearing. " Some one is coming," I announced. /' Back your horse into this clump of sumach." The sumach grew thick, and was draped, moreover, with some broad-leafed vine. Within its covert we could see with small danger of being seen, unless the approaching figure should prove to be that of an Indian. It was not an Indian ; it was my Lord Car- nal. He came on slowly, glancing from side to side, and pausing now and then as if to listen. He was so little of a woodsman that he never looked underfoot. Sparrow touched my arm and pointed down a glade at right angles with the path my lord was pursuing. Up this glade there was coming toward us another figure, — a small black figure that moved swiftlv, Jooking neither to the right nor to the left. 128 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Black Lamoral stood like a stone ; the brown mare, too, had learned what meant a certain touch upon her shoulder. Sparrow and I, with small shame for our eavesdropping, bent to our saddlebows and looked sideways through tiny gaps in the crimson foliage. My lord descended one side of the hollow, his heavy foot bringing down the dead leaves and loose earth ; the Italian glided down the opposite side, dis- turbing the economy of the forest as little as a snake would have done. " I thought I should never meet you," growled my lord. " I thought I had lost you and her and myself. This d — d red forest and this blue haze are enough to " — He broke off with an oath. " I came as fast as I could," said the other. His voice was strange, thin and dreamy, matching his filmy eyes and his eternal, very faint smile. " Your poor physician congratulates your lordship upon the success that still attends you. Yours is a fortunate star, my lord." " Then you have her safe ? " cried my lord. "Three miles from here, on the river bank, is a ring of pines, in which the trees grow so thick that it is always twilight. Ten years ago a man was murdered there, and Sir Thomas Dale chained the murderer to the tree beneath which his victim was buried, and left him to perish of hunger and thirst. That is the tale they tell at Jamestown. The wood is said to be haunted by murdered and murderer, and no one enters it or comes nearer to it than he can avoid: which makes it an excellent resort for those whom the dead cannot scare. The lady is there, my lord, with your four knaves to guard her. They do not know that the gloom and quiet of the place are due to more than nature." IN WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY 129 My lord began to laugh. Either he had been drinking, or the success of his villainy had served for wine. " You are a man in a thousand, Nicolo ! " he said. " How far above or below the ship is this for- tunate wood ? " " Just opposite, my lord." " Can a boat land easily ? " "A creek runs through the wood to the river. There needs but the appointed signal from the bank, and a boat from the Santa Teresa can be rowed up the stream to the very tree beneath which the ladv sits." ' My lord's laughter rang out again. « You 're a man in ten thousand, Nicolo I Nicolo, the bridegroom 's in town." "Back so soon?" said the Italian. "Then we must change your lordship's plan. With him on the ground, you can no longer wait until nightfall to row downstream to the lady and the Santa Teresa. He '11 come to look for her." "Ay, he'll come to look for her, curse him I" echoed my lord. " Do you think the dead will scare him ? " contin- ued the Italian. "No, I don't!" answered my lord, with an oath. "I would he were among them I An I could have killed him before I went " — • " I had devised a way to do it long ago, had not your lordship's conscience been so tender. And yet, before now, our enemies— -yours and mine, my lord — have met with sudden and mysterious death. Men stared, but they ended by calling it a dispensation of Providence." He broke off to laugh with silent, hate- f ul laughter, as mirthful as the grin of a death's-head. 130 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD " I know, I know ! " said my lord impatiently, " We are not overnice, Nicolo. But between me and those who then stood in my way there had passed no challenge. This is my mortal foe, through whose heart I would drive my sword. I would give my ruby to know whether he 's in the town or in the forest." " He 's in the forest," I said. Black Lamoral and the brown mare were beside them before either moved hand or foot, or did aught but stare and stare, as though men and horses had risen from the dead. All the color was gone from my lord's face, — it looked white, drawn, and pinched ; as for his companion, his countenance did not change, — never changed, I believe, — but the trembling of the feather in his hat was not caused by the wind. Jeremy Sparrow bent down from his saddle, seized the Italian under the armpits, and swung him clean from the ground up to the brown mare's neck. " Di- vinity and medicine," he said genially, " soul healer and body poisoner, we '11 ride double for a time," and proceeded to bind the doctor's hands with his own scarf. The creature of venom before him writhed and struggled, but the minister's strength was as the strength of ten, and the minister's hand held him down. By this I was off Black Lamoral and facing my lord. The color had come back to his lip and cheek, and the flash to his eye. His hand went to his sword hilt. " I shall not draw mine, my lord," I told him. " I keep troth." He stared at me with a frown that suddenly changed into a laugh, forced and unnatural enough. " Then go thy ways, and let me go mine I " he cried. " Be complaisant, worthy captain of trainbands and Bur* m WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY 131 gess from a dozen huts ! The King and I will make it worth your while." " I will not draw my sword upon you," I replied, " but I will try a fall with you," and I seized him by the wrist. He was a good wrestler as he was a good swords- man, but, with bitter anger in my heart and a vision of the haunted wood before my eyes, I think I could have wrestled with Hercules and won. Presently I threw him, and, pinning him down with my knee upon his breast, cried to Sparrow to cut the bridle reins from Black Lamoral and throw them to me. Though he had the Italian upon his hands, he managed to obey. With my free hand and my teeth I drew a thong about my lord's arms and bound them to his sides; then took my knee from his chest and my hand from his throat, and rose to my feet. He rose too with one spring. He was very white, and there was foam on his lips. "What next, captain?" he demanded thickly. " Your score is mounting up rather rapidly. What next ? " " This," I replied, and with the other thong fas- tened him, despite his struggles, to the young maple beneath which we had wrestled. When the task was done, I first drew his sword from its jeweled scabbard and laid it on the ground at his feet, and then cut the leather which restrained his arms, leaving him only tied to the tree. " I am not Sir Thomas Dale," I said, " and therefore I shall not gag y^u and leave you bound for an indefinite length of time, to contem- plate a grave that you thought to dig. One haunted wood is enough for one county. Your lordship will observe that I have knotted your bonds in easy reach 132 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD of your hands, the use of which I have just restored to you. The knot is a peculiar one ; an Indian taught it to me. If you set to work at once, you will get it untied before nightfall. That you may not think it the Gordian knot and treat it as such, I have put your sword where you can get it only when you have worked for it. Your familiar, my lord, may prove of use to us ; therefore we will take him with us to the haunted wood. I have the honor to wish your lord- ship a very good day." I bowed low, swung myself into my saddle, and turned my back upon his glaring eyes and bared teeth. Sparrow, his prize flung across his saddlebow, turned with me. A minute more saw us out of the hollow, and entered upon the glade up which had come the Italian. When we had gone a short dis- tance, I turned in my saddle and looked back. The tiny hollow had vanished ; all the forest looked level, dreamy and still, barren of humanity, given over to its own shy children, nothing moving save the slow- falling leaves. But from beyond a great clump of sumach, set like a torch in the vaporous blue, came a steady stream of words, happily rendered indistin- guishable by distance, and I knew that the King's minion was cursing the Italian, the Governor, the Santa Teresa, the Due Return, the minister, the for- est, the haunted wood, his sword, the knot that I had tied, and myself. I admit that the sound was music in mine ears. CHAPTER XV IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD On the outskirts of the haunted wood we dis- mounted, fastening the horses to two pines. The Italian we gagged and bound across the brown mare's saddle. Then, jxs noiselessly as Indians, we entered the wood. Once within it, it was as though the sun had sud- denly sunk from the heavens. The pines, of magni- ficent height and girth, were so closely set that far overhead, where the branches began, was a heavy roof of foliage, impervious to the sunshine, brooding, dark and sullen as a thundercloud, over the cavernous world beneath. There was no undergrowth, no cling- ing vines, no bloom, no color ; only the dark, innu- merable tree trunks and the purplish-brown, scented, and slippery earth. The air was heavy, cold, and still, like cave air ; the silence as blank and awful as the silence beneath the earth. The minister and I stole through the dusk, and for a long time heard nothing but our own breathing and the beating of our hearts. But coming to a sluggish stream, as quiet as the wood through which it crept, and following its slow windings, we at last heard a voice, and in the distance made out dark forms sit- ting on the earth beside that sombre water. We went on with caution, gliding from tree to tree and making no noise. In the cheerless silence of that place any /, 134 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD F sound would have shattered the stillness like a pistol shot. Presently we came to a halt, and, ourselves hidden by a giant trunk, looked out on stealers and stolen. They were gathered on the bank of the stream, wait- ing for the boat from the Santa Teresa. The lady whom we sought lay like a fallen flower on the dark ground beneath a pine. She did not move, and her eyes were shut. At her head crouched the negress, her white garments showing ghostlike through the gloom. Beneath the next tree sat Diccon, his hands tied behind him, and around him my Lord Carnal's four knaves. It was Diccon's voice that we had heard. He was still speaking, and now we could distinguish the words. " So Sir Thomas chains him there," he said, — " right there to that tree under which you are sitting, Jacky Bonhomme." Jacques incontinently shifted his position. " He chains him there, with one chain around his neck, one around his waist, and one around his ankles. Then he sticks me a bodkin through his tongue." A groan of admiration from his audience. " Then they dig, before his very eyes, a grave, — shal- low enough they make it, too, — and they put into it, uncoffined, with only a long white shroud upon him, the man he murdered. Then they cover the grave. You 're sitting on it now, you other Jacky." " Godam I " cried the rascal addressed, and removed with expedition to a less storied piece of ground. "Then they go away," continued Diccon in grave- yard tones. " They all go away together, — Sir Thomas and Captain Argall, Captain West, Lieuten- ant George Percy and his cousin, my master, and Sir Thomas's men ; they go out of the wood as though M IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD 136 it were accursed, though indeed it was not half so gloomy then as it is now. The sun shone into it then, sometimes, and the birds sang. You would n't think it from the looks of things now, would you ? As the dead man rotted in his grave, and the living man died by inches above him, they say the wood grew darker, and darker, and darker. How dark it 's getting now, and cold, — cold as the dead ! " His auditors drew closer together, and shivered. Sparrow and I were so near that we could see the hands of the ingenious story-teller, bound behind his back, working as he talked. Now they strained this way, and now that, at the piece of rope that bound them. " That was ten years ago," he said, his voice be- coming more and more impressive. " Since that day nothing comes into this wood, — nothing human, that is. Neither white man nor Indian comes, that 's cer- tain. Then why are n't there chains around that tree, and why are there no bones beneath it, on the ground there? Because, Jackies all, the man that did that murder walks ! It is not always deadly still here ; sometimes there 's a clanking of chains ! And a bod- kin through the tongue can't keep the dead from wailing ! And the murdered man walks, too ; in his shroud he follows the other — Is n't that something white in the distance yonder ? " My lord's four knaves looked down the arcade of trees, and saw the something white as plainly as if it had been verily there. Each moment the wood grew darker, — a thing in nature, since the sun outside was swiftly sinking to the horizon. But to those to whom "ihat tale had been told it was a darkening unearthly and portentous, bringing with it a colder air and a deepened silence. w !ii 136 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD " Oh, Sir Thomas Dale, Sir Thomas Dale ! " The voice seemed to come from the distance, and bore in its dismal cadence the melancholy of the damned. For a moment my heart stood still, and the hair of my head commenced to rise ; the next, I knew that Diccon had found an ally, not in the dead, but in the living. The minister, standing beside me, opened his mouth again, and again that dismal voice rang through the wood, and again it seemed, by I know not what art, to come from any spot rather than from that particular tree behind whose trunk stood Master Jeremy Sparrow. "Oh, the bodkin through my tongue I Oh, the bodkin through my tongue ! " Two of the guard sat with hanging lip and lack- lustre eyes, turned to stone ; one, at full length upon the ground, bruised his face against the pine needles and called on the Virgin ; the fourth, panic-stricken, leaped to his feet and dashed off into the darkness, to trouble us no more that day. " Oh, the heavy chains ! " cried the unseen spectre, " Oh, the dead man in his grave I " The man on his face dug his nails into the earth and howled ; his fellows were too frightened for sound or motion. Diccon, a hardy rogue, with little fear of God or man, gave no sign of perturbation beyond a desperate tugging at the rope about his wrists. He was ever quick to take suggestion, and he had prob- ably begun to question the nature of the ghost who was doing him such yeoman service. " D' ye think they 've had enough ? " said Sparrow in my ear. " My invention flaggeth." I nodded, too choked with laughter for speech, and drew my sword. The next moment we were upon the men like wolves upon the fold. IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD 137 They made no resistance. Amazed and shaken as they were, we might have dispatched them with all ease, to join the dead whose lamentations yet rang in their ears ; but we contented ourselves with disarming them and bidding them begone for their lives in the direction of the Pamunkey. They went like fright ened deer, their one goal in life escape from the wood. " Did you meet the Italian ? " I turned to find my wife at my side. The King's ward had a kingly spirit; she was not one that the dead or the living could daunt. To her, as to me, danger was a trumpet call to nerve heart and strengthen soul. She had been in peril of that which she most feared, but the light in her eye was not quenched, and the hand with which she touched mine, though cold, was steady. " Is he dead ? " she asked. « At court they called him the Black Death. They said " — " I did not kill him," I answered, " but I will if you desire it." " And his master?"" she demanded. " What have you done with his master? " I told her. At the vision my words conjured up her strained nerves gave way, and she broke into laughter as cruel as it was sweet. Peal after peal rang through the haunted wood, and increased the eeriness of the place. "The knot that I tied he will untie directly," I. said. " If we would reach Jamestown first, we had best be going." " Night is upon us, too," said the minister, " and this place hath the look of the very valley of the shadow of death. If the spirits walk, it is hard upoo their time — and I prefer to walk eisewheie " 138 TO HAVE AND TO HOLI> l>> " Cease your laughter, madam," I said. " Should a boat be coming up this stream, you would betray us." I went over to Diccon, and in a silence as grim as his own cut the rope which bound his hands, which done we all moved through the deepening gloom to where we had left the horses, Jeremy Sparrr ^ "-oing on ahead to have them in readiness. Pret ./ he came hurrying back. " The Italian is gone I " he cried. " Gone I " I exclaimed. " I told you to tie him fast to the saddle ! " " Why, so I did," he replied. " I drew the thongs so tight that they cut into his flesh. He could not have endured to pull against them." " Then how did he get away ? " " Why," he answered, with a rueful countenance, *' I did bind him, as I x-i,ve said ; but when I had done so, I bethought me of how the leathe.* must cut, and of how pain is dreadful even to a saak .nd of the injunction to do as you would be doi ", and so e'en loosened his bonds. But, as I am a christened man, I thought that they would yet hold him fast ! " I began to swear, but ended in vexed laughter. " The milk 's spilt. There 's no use in crying over it. After all, we must have loosed him before we entered the town." " Will you not bring the matter before the Gov- ernor ? " he asked. I shook my head. " If Yeardley did me right, he would put in jeopardy his office and his person. This is my private quarrel, and I will draw no man into it against his will. Here are the horses, and we had best be gone, for by this time my lord and his physician may have their heads together again." IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD 139 I mounted Black Lamoral, and lifted Mistress Percy to a seat behind me. The brown mare bore the min- ister and the negress, and Diccon, doggedly silent, trudged beside us. We passed through the haunted wood and the painted forest beyond without adventure. We rode in silence : the lady behind me too weary for speech, the minister revolving in his mind the escape of the Italian, and I with my own thoughts to occupy me. It was dusk when we crossed the neck of land, and as we rode down the street torches were being lit in the houses. The upper room in the guest house was brightly illumined, and the window was open. Black Lamoral and the brown mare made a trampling with their hoofs, and I began to whistle a gay old tune I had learnt in the wars. A figure in scarlet and black came to the window, and stood there looking down upon us. The lady riding with me straightened her- self and raised her weary head. " The next time we go to the for st, Ralph," she said in a clear, high voice, " thou show me a certain tree," and she broke into sih y laug iter. She laughed until we had left behind the guest house and the figure in the upper window, and then the laughter changed to something like a sob. If there were pain and anger in her heart, pain and anger were in mine also. She had never called me by my name before. She had only used it now as a dagger with which to stab at that fierce heart above us. At last we reached the minister's house, and dis- mounted before the door. Diccon led the horses away, and I handed my wife into the great room. The minister tarried but for a few words anent some precautions that I meant to take, and then betook r / 140 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD II; himself to his own chamber. As he went out of the door Diccon entered the room. "Oh, I am weary ! " sighed Mistress Jocelyn Percy, " What was the mighty business, Captain Per^y, that made you break tryst with a lady? You should go to court, sir, to be taught gallantry." " Where should a wife go to be taught obedience?" I demanded. " You know where I went and why I could not keep tryst. Why did you not obey my orders ? " She opened wide her eyes. " Your o^-ders ? I never received any, — not that I should have obeyed them If I had. Know where you went? I know neither why nor where you went I " I leaned my hand upon the table, and looked from her to Diccon. "I was sent by the Governor to quell a disturb- ance amongst the nes^rest Indians. The woods to- day have been full of danger. Moreover, the plan that we made yesterday was overheard by the Italian. When I had to go this morning without seeing you, I left you word where I had gone and why, and also my commands that you should not stir outside tb« garden. Were you not told this, ma am? " "No! " she cried. I looked at Diccon. " I told madam that you were called away on business," he said sullenly. " I told her that you were sorry you could not go with her to the woods." " You told her nothing more ? " « No." "May Task why?" He threw back his head. " I did not believe the Paspaheghs would trouble her," he answered, with told ] IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD la hardihood, " and you had n*t seen fit, sir, to tell me of the other danger. Madam wanted to go, and I thought it a pity that she should lose her pleasure for nothinof." I had been hunting the day before, and my whip yet lay upon the table. "I have known you for a hardy rogue," I said, with my hand upon it ; " now I know you for a faithless one as well. If I gave you credit for all the vices of the soldier, I gave you credit also for his virtues. I was the more deceived. The disobedient servant I might pardon, but the soldier who is faithless to his trust " — I raised the whip and brought it down again and again across his shoulders. He stood without a word, his face dark red and his hands clenched at his sides. For a minute or more there was no sound in the room save the sound of the blows ; then my wife suddenly cried out: ^'It is enough! You have beaten him enough I Let him go, sir I '* I threw down the whip. "Begone, sirrah!" I ordered. " And keep out of my sight to-morrow I " With his face still dark red and with a pulse beat- ing fiercely in his cheek, he moved slowly toward the door, turned when he had reached it and saluted, then went out and closed it after him. " Now he too will be your enemy," said Mistress Percy, "and all through me. I have brought you many enemies, have I not ? Perhaps you count me amongst them ? I should not wonder if you did. Do you not wish me gone from Virginia ? " " So I were with you, madam," I said bluntly, and went to call the minister down to supper. CHAPTER XVI m WHICH I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE 8ERVAKT The next day, Governor and Councilors sat to re- ceive presents from the Paspaheghs and to listen to long and affectionate messages from Opechancanough, who, like the player queen, did protest too much. The Council met at Yeardley's house, and I was called before it to make my report of the expedition of the day before. It was lato afternoon when the Governor dismissed us, and I found myself leaving the house in company with Mastc Pory. " I am bound for my lord's," said that worthy as we neared the guest house. " My lord hath Xeres wine that is the very original nectar of the gods, and he drinks it from goblets worth a king's ransom. We have heard a deal to-day about burying hatchets: bury thine for the nonce, Ralph Percy, and come drink with us." " Not I," I said. "I would sooner drink with — some one else." He laughed. *' Here 's my lord himself shall per- suade you." My lord, dressed with his usual magnificence and darkly handsome as ever, was indeed standing within the guest-house door. Pory drew up beside him. 1 was passing on with a slight bow, when the Secretary caught me by the sleeve. At the Governor's house wine had been set forth to revive the jaded Council, I AM RH) OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT 14S and he was already half seas over. " Tarry with us, captain 1 " he cried. " Good wine *s good wine, no matter who pours it 1 'S bud ! in my young days men called a truce and forgot they were foes when the bottle went round I " " If Captain Percy will stay," quoth my lord, " I will give him welcome and good wine. As Master Pory says, men cannot be always fighting. A breath- ing spell to-day gives to-morrow's struggle new zest.' He spoke frankly, with open face and candid eyes. I was not fooled. If yesterday he would have slain me only in fair fight, it was not so to-day. Under the lace that fell over his wrist was a red cirque, the mark of the thong with which I had bound him. As if he had told me, I knew that he had thrown his scruples to the winds, and that he cared not what foul play he used to sweep me from his path. My spirit and my wit rose to meet the danger. Of a sudden I resolved to accept his invitation. " So be it," I said, with a laugh and a shrug of my shoulders. " A cup of wine is no great matter. I '11 take it at your hands, my lord, and drink to our better acquaintance." We all three went up into my lord's room. The King had fitted out his minion bravely for the Vir- ginia voyage, and the riches that had decked the state cabin aboard the Santa Teresa now served to transform the bare room in the guest house at James- town into a corner of Whitehall. The walls wero hung with arras, there was a noble carpet beneath as well as upon the table, and against the wall stood richly carved trunks. On the table, beside a bowl of late flowers were a great silver flagon and a number of goblets, some of chased silver and some of colored -,2,^ 144 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD glass, strangely shaped and fragile as an eggshell. The late sun now shining in at the open window made the glass to glow like precious stones. My lord rang a little silver bell, and a door behind us was opened. " Wine, Giles ! " cried my lord in a raised voice. " Wine for Master Pory, Captain Percy, and myself I And Giles, my two choice gob- lets." Giles, whom I had never seen before, advanced to the table, took the flagon, and went toward the door, which he had shut behind him. I negligently turned in my seat, and so came in for a glimpse, as he slipped through the door, of a figure in black in the next room. The wine was brought, and with it two goblets. My lord broke off in the midst of an account of the morning's bear-baiting which the tediousness of the Indians had caused us to miss. " Who knows if we three shall ever drink together again ? " he said. " To honor this bout I use my most precious cups." Voice and manner were free and unconstrained. " This gold cup " — he held it up — " belonged to the Medici. Master Pory, who is a man of taste, will note the beauty of the graven msenads upon this side, and of the Bacchus and Ariadne upon this. It is the work of none other than Benvenuto Cellini. I pour for you, sir." He filled the gold cup with the ruby wine and set it before the Secretary, who eyed it with all the passion of a lover, and waited not for us, but raised it to his lips at once. My lord took up the other cup. " This glass," he continued, " as green as an emerald, freckled inside and out with gold, and shaped like a lily, was once amongst a convent's trea> Bures. My father brought it frcm Italy, years ago. i I AM RID OP AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT 146 I use it as he used it, only on gala days. I fill to you, sir." He poured the wine into the green and gold and twisted bauble and set it before me, then filled a silver goblet for himself. " Drink, gentlemen," he said. " Faith, I have drunken already," quoth the Secre- tary, and proceeded to fill for himself a second time. " Here 's to you, gentlemen ! " and he emptied half the measure. "Captain Percy does not drink," remarked my lord. I leaned my elbow upon the table, and, holding up the glass against the light, began to admire its beauty. " The tint is wonderful," I said, " as lucent a green as the top of the comber that is to break and over- whelm you. And these knobs of gold, within and without, and the strange shape the tortured glass has been made to take. I find it of a quite sinister beauty, my lord." " It hath been much admired," said the nobleman addressed. " I am strangely suited, my lord," I went on, still dreamily enjoying the beauty of the green gem within my clasp. "I am a soldier with an imagination. Sometimes, to give the rein to my fancy pleases me more than wine. Now, this strange chalice, — might it not breed dreams as strange '( " " When I had drunken, I think," replied my lord. *' The wine would be a potent spur to my fancy." "What saith honest Jack Falstaff?" broke in the maudlin Secretary. "Doth he not bear testimony tliat good sherris maketh the ])rain apprehensive and quick ; filleth it with nimble, fiery, and delectable ahapes, which being delivered by i.he tongue become 146 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD !!,': excellent wit? Wherefore let us drink, gentlemen, and beget fancies." He filled for himself again, and buried his nose in the cup. " 'T is such a cup, methinks," I said, " as Medea may have filled for Theseus. The white hand of Circe may have closed around this stem when she stood to greet Ulysses, and knew not that he had the saving herb in his palm. Goneril may have sent this green and gilded shape to Regan. Fair Kosamond may have drunk from it while the Queen watched her. At some voluptuous feast, Csesar Borgia and his sister, sitting crowned with roses, side by side, may have pressed it upon a reluctant guest, who had, perhaps, a treasure of his own. I dare swear Rene, the Floren- tine, hath fingered many such a goblet before it went to whom Catherine de' Medici delighted to honor." " She had the whitest hands," maundered the Sec- retary. " I kissed them once before she died, in Blois, when I was young. Rene was one of your slow poison- ers. Smell a rose, draw on a pair of perfumed gloves, drink from a certain cup, and you rang your own knell, though your bier might not receive you for many and many a day, — not till the rose was dust, the gloves lost, the cup forgotten." "There's a fashion I have seen followed abroad, that I like," I said. " Host and guest fill to each other, then change tankards. You are my host to-day, my lord, and I am your guest. I will drink to you, my lord, from your silver goblet." With as frank a manner as his own of a while be- fore, I pushed the green and gold glass over to him, and held out my hand for the silver goblet. That a man may smile and smile and be a villain is no new dootrine. My lord's laugh and gesture of oourtesj I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT 147 were as free and ready as if the poisoned splendor he drew toward him had been as innocent as a pearl within the shell. I took the silver cup from before him. " I drink to the King," I said, and drained it to the bottom. " Your lordship does not drink. 'T is a toast no man refuses." He raised the glass to his lips, but set it down be- fore its rim had touched them. " I have a headache," he declared. " I will not drink to-day." Master Pory pulled the flagon toward him, tilted it, and found it empty. His rueful face made me laugh. My lord laughed too, — somewhat loudly, — but or- dered no more wine. " I would I were at the Mer- maid again," lamented the now drunken Secretary. " There we did n't split a flagon in three parts. . . . The Tsar of Muscovy drinks me down a quartern of aqua vitae at a gulp, — I Ve seen him do it. ... I would I were the Bacchus on this cup, with the purple grapes adangle above me. . . . Wine and women — wine and women . . ; good wine needs no bush . . . good sherris sack "... His voice died into unintel- ligible mutterings, and his gray unreverend head sank upon the table. I rose, leaving him to his drunken slumbers, and, bowing to my lord, took my leave. My lord followed me down to the public room below. A party of up- river planters had been drinking, and a bit of chalk lay upon a settle behind the door upon which the landlord had marked their score. I passed it ; then turned back and picked it up. " How long a line shall I draw, my lord ? " I asked with a smile. " How does the length of the door strike you ? " he answered. I drew the chalk from top to bottom of the wood. ■MM 148 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD *' A heavy score makes a heavy reckoning, my lord," I said, and, leaving the mark upon the door, I bowed again and went out into the street. The sun was sinking when I reached the minis- ter's house, and going into the great room drew a stool to the table and sat down to think. Mistress Percy was in her own chamber ; in the room overhead the minister paced up and down, humming a psalm. A fire was burning briskly upon the hearth, and the red light rose and fell, — now brightening all the room, now leaving it to the gathering dusk. Through the door, which I had left open, came the odor of the pines, the fallen leaves, and the damp earth. In the churchyard an owl hooted, and the murmur of the river was louder than usual. I had sat staring at the table before me for perhaps half an hour, when I chanced to raise my eyes to the opposite wall. Now, on this wall, reflecting the fire- light and the open door behind me, hung a small Venetian mirror, which I had bought from a number of such toys brought in by the Southampton, and had given to Mistress Percy. My eyes rested upon it, idly at first, then closely enough as I saw within it a man enter the room. I had heard no footfall ; there was no noise now behind me. The fire was somewhat sunken, and the roo^n was almost in darkness ; I saw him in the glass dimly, as shadow rather than sub* stance. But the light was not so faint that the mir- ror could not show me the raised hand and the dagger within its grasp. I sat without motion, watching the figure in the glass grow larger. When it was nearly upon me, and the hand with the dagger drawn back for the blow, I sprang up, wheeled, and caught it by the wrist. I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT 149 A moment's fierce struggle, and I had the dagger in my own hand and the man at my mercy. The fire upon the hearth seized on a pine knot and blazed up brightly, filling the room with light. " Diccon ! " I cried, and dropped my arm. I had never thought of this. The room was very quiet as, master and man, we stood and looked each other in the face. He fell back to the wall and leaned against it, breathing heavily ; into the space between us the past came thronging. I opened my hand and let the dagger drop to the floor. " I suppose that this was because of last night," I said. " I shall never strike you again." I went to the table, and sitting down leaned my forehead upon my hand. It was Diccon who would have done this thing ! The fire crackled on the hearth as had crackled the old camp fires in Flanders ; the wind outside was the wind that had whistled through the rigging of the Treasurer, one terrible night when we lashed ourselves^ to the same mast and never thought to see the morning. Diccon I Upon the table was the minister's inkhorn and pen. I drew my tablets from the breast of my doublet and began to write. " Diccon 1 " I called, without turn- ing, when I had finished. He came slowly forward to the table, and stood be- side it with hanging head. I tore the leaf from the book and pushed it over to him. " Take it," I ordered. "To the commander?" he asked. " I am to take it to the commander? " I shook my head. " Read it." He stared at it vacantly, turning it now this way, now that. " Did you forget how to read when you forgot aU else?" I said "temly. ua 150 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ^1 :f He read, and the color rushed into his face. " It is your freedom," I said. " You are no longer man of mine. Begone, sirrah I " He crumpled the paper in his hand. " I was mad,** he muttered. " I could almost believe it," I replied. " Begone I '* After a moment he went. Sitting still in my place, I heard him heavily and slowly leave the room, descend the step at the door, and go out into the night. A door opened, and Mistress Jocelyn Percy came into the great room, like a sunbeam strayed back to earth. Her skirt was of flowered satin, her bodice of rich tafiFeta; between the gossamer walls of her French ruff rose the whitest neck to meet tae fairest face. Upon her dark hair sat, as lightly as a kiss, a little pearl-bordered cap. A color was in her cheeks and a laugh on her lips. The rosy light of the burn- ing pine caressed her, — now dwelling on the rich dress, now on the gold chain around the slender waist, now on rounded arms, now on the white fore- head below the pearls. Well, she was a fair lady for a man to lay down his life for. " I held court this afternoon ! " she cried. " Where were you, sir ? Madam West was here, and my Lady Temperance Yeardley, and Master Wynne, and Mas- ter Thorpe from Henricus, and Master Rolfe with his Indian brother, — who, I protest, needs but silk doub- let and hose and a month at Whitehall to make him a very fine gentleman." " If courage, steadfastness, truth, and courtesy make a gentleman," I said, "he is one already. Such an one needs not silk doublet nor court training." She looked at me with her bright eyes. " No," she repeated, "such an one needs not silk doublet nor I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT 151 court training." Going to the fire, she stood with one hand upon the mantelshelf, looking down into the ruddy hollows. Presently she stooped and gathered up something from the hearth. "You waste paper strangely. Captain Percy," she said. "Here is a whole handful of torn pieces." She came over to the table, and with a laugh show- ered the white fragments down upon it, then fell to idly piecing them together. " What were you writ- ing ? " she asked. " ' To all whom it may concern : I, Ralph Percy, Gentleman, of the Hundred of Weya- noke, do hereby set free from all service to me and mine > »> I took from her the bits of paper, and fed the fire with them. "Paper is but paper," I said. "It is easily rent. Happily a man's will is more durable." ■i i_^ CHAPTER XVn IN WHICH MY LORD AND I PLAY AT BOWLS The Governor had brought with him from London, i;he year before, a set of boxwood bowls, and had made, between his house and the fort, a noble green. The generality must still use for the game that portion of the street that was not toba,oco-planted ; but the quality flocked to the Governor's green, and here, one holiday afternoon, a fortnight or more from the day in which I had drunk to the King from my lord's silver goblet, was gathered a very great company. The Governor's match was toward, — ten men to a side, a hogshead of sweet-scented to the victorious ten, and a keg of canary to the man whose bowl should hit the jack. The season had been one of unusual mildness, and the sunshine was still warm and bright, gilding the velvet of the green, and making the red and yellow leaves swept into the trench to glow like a ribbon of flame. The sky was blue, the water bluer still, the leaves bright-colored, the wind blowing ; only the enshrouding forest, wrapped in haze, seeme> saying. That to thwart my lord in this passion would ta honey to him is equally of course. I do not need to tell you that, if tha Company so orders, I shall have no choice but to send you and the lady home to England. When you are in London, make your suit to my Lord of Buckingham, and I earnestly hope that you may find in him an ally powerful enough to bring you and the lady, to whose grace, beauty, and courage we all do homage, out of this coil." " We give you thanks, sir," I said. " As you know," he went on, " I have written to the Company, humbly petitioning that I be graciously relieved from a most thankless task, to wit, the gov- ernorship of Virginia. My health faileth, and I am, moreover, under my Lord Warwick's displeasure. He waxeth ever stronger in the Company, and if I put not myself out, he will do it for me. If I be re- lieved at once, and one of the Council appointed in my place, I shall go home to look after certain of my interests there. Then- shall I be but a private gentle- man, and if I can serve you, Ralph Percy, I shall be blithe to do so ; but now, you understand " — " I understand, and thank you. Sir George," I said. *' May I ask one question ? " "What is it?" " Will you obey to the letter the instructions the Company sends ? " "To the letter," he answered. "I am its sworn officer." " One thing more," I went on : " the parole I gave you, sir, that morning behind the church, is mine own again when you shall have read those letters and know the King's will. I am free from that bond, at least." 162 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD pi; T* y lu! He looked at me with a frown. " Make not bad worse, Captain Percy," he said sternly. I laughed. " It is my aim to make bad better, Sir George. I see through the window that the Due Re- turn hath come to anchor ; I will no longer trespass on your Honor's time." I bowed myself out, leaving him still with the frown upon his face, staring at the fire. Without, the world was bathed in the glow of a magnificent sunset. Clouds, dark purple and dark crimson, reared themselves in the west to dizzy heights, and hung threateningly over the darkening land be- neath. In the east loomed more pallid masses, and from the bastions of the east to the bastions of the west went hurrying, wind-driven cloudlets, dark in the east, red in the west. There was a high wind, and the river, where it was not reddened by the sunset, was lividly green. "A storm, too!" I muttered. As I passed the guest house, there came to me from within a burst of loud and vaunting laughter and a boisterous drinking catch sung by many voices ; and I knew that my lord drank, and gave others to drink, to the orders which the Due Return should bring. The minister's house was in darkness. In the great room I struck a light and fired the fresh torches, and found I was not its sole occupant. On the hearth, the ashes of the dead fire touching her skirts, snt Mistress Joce- lyn Percy, her arms resting upon a low stool, and her head pillowed upon them. Her face was not hidden : it was cold and pure and still, like carven marble. 1 stood and gazed at her a moment ; then, as she did not offer to move, I brought wood to the fire and made the forlorn room bright again. " Where is Rolfe ? " I asked at last. MY LORD AND 1 PLAY AT BOWLS 163 "He would have stayed," she answered, "but I made him go. I wished to be alone." She rose, and going to the window leaned her forehead against the bars, and looked out upon the wild sky and the hur- rymg river. " I would I were alone," she said in a low voice and with a catch of her breath. As she stood there in the twilight by the window, I knew that she was weeping, though her pride strove to keep that knowledge from me. My heart ached for her, and I knew not how to comfort her. At last she turned. A pasty and stoup of wine were upon the table. " You are tired and shaken," I said, " and you may need all your strength. Come, eat and drink." " For to-morrow we die," she added, and broke into tremulous laughter. Her lashes were still wet, but her pride and daring had returned. She drank the wme I poured for her, and we spoke of indifleerent things, — of the game that afternoon, of the Indian Nantauquas, of the wild night that clouds and wind portended. Supper oVer, I called Angela to bear her company, and I myself went out into the night, and down the street toward the guest house. f 'n CHAPTER XVIII H J ■ 1 k 1 i .11 IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT The guest house was aflame with lights. As I neared it, there was borne to my ears a burst of drunken shouts accompanied by a volley of musketry. My lord was pursuing with a vengeance our senseless fashion of wasting in drinking bouts powder that would have been better spent against the Indians. The noise increased. The door was flung open, and there issued a tide of drawers and servants headed by mine host himself, and followed by a hail of such minor breakables as the house contained and by Olympian laughter. I made my way past the indignant host and his staff, and standing upon the threshold looked at the riot within. The long room was thick with the smoke of tobacco and the smoke of powder, through which the many torches burned yellow. Upon the great table wine had been spilt, and dripped to swell a red pool upon the floor. Underneath the table, still grasping his empty tankard, lay the first of my lord's guests to fall, an up-river Burgess with white hair. The rest of the company were fast reeling to a like fate. Young Hamor had a fiddle, and, one foot upon a settle, the other upon the table, drew across it a fast and furious bow. Master Pory, arrived at the maud- lin stage, alternately sang a slow and melancholy ditty and wiped the tears from his eyes with elaborate care. IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT 165 Master Edward Sharpless, now in a high voice, now in an undistinguishable murmur, argued some imagi' nary case. Peaceable Sherwood was drunk, and Gile» Allen, and Pettiplace Clause. Captain John Martin, sitting with outstretched legs, called now for a fresh tankard, which he emptied at a gulp ; now for his pistols, which, as fast as my lord's servants brought them to him new primed, he discharged at the ceiling. The loud wind rattled doors and windows, and made the flame of the torches stream sideways. The music grew madder and madder, the shots more frequent, the drunken voices thicker and louder. The master of the feast carried his wine better than did his guests, or had drunk less, but his spirit too was quite without bounds. A color burned in his cheeks, a wicked light in his eyes ; he laughed to him- self. In the gray smoke cloud he saw me not, or saw me only as one of the many who thronged the door- way and stared at the revel within. He raised his silver cup with a slow and wavering hand. " Drink, you dogs ! " he chanted. " Drink to the Santa Te- resa! Drink to to-morrow night ! Drink to a proud lady within my arms and an enemy in my power ! " The wine that had made him mad had maddened those others, also. In that hour they were dead to honor. With shameless laughter and as little spilling as might be, they raised their tankards as my lord raised his. A stone thrown by some one behind me struck the cup from my lord's hand, sending it clat- tering to the floor and dashing him with the red wine. Master Pory roared with drunken laughter. "Cup and lip missed that time ! " he cried. The man who had thrown the stone was Jeremy Sparrow. For one instant I saw his great figure, and MM f - ' ~ 1 1 1 '1 ' ., ' Is 166 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the wrathful face beneath his shock of grizzled hair ; the next he had made his way through the crowd of gaping, menials and was gone. My lord stared foolishly at the stains upon his hands, at the fallen goblet and the stone beside it. " Cogged dice," he said thickly, " or I had not lost that throw I I '11 drink that toast by myself to-mor- row night, when the ship does n't rock like this d — d floor, and the sea has no stones to throw. More wine, Giles ! To my Lord High Admiral, gentlemen ! To his Grace of Buckingham ! May he shortly howl in hell, and looking back to Whitehall see me upon the King's bosom ! The King 's a good king, gentlemen I He gave me this ruby. D' ye know what I had of him last year ? I " — I turned and left the door and the house. I could not thrust a fight upon a drunken man. Ten yards away, suddenly and without any warning of his approach, I found beside me the Indian Nan- tauquas. " I have been to the woods to hunt," he said, in the slow musical English Rolfe had taught him. " I knew where a panther lodged, and to-day I laid a snare, and took him in it. I brought him to my brother's house, and caged him there. When I have tamed him, I shall give him to the beautiful lady." He expected no answer, and I gave him none. There are times when an Indian is the best company in the world. Just before we reached the market place we had to pass the mouth of a narrow lane leading down to the river. The night was very dark, though the stars still shone through rifts in the ever moving clouds. The Indian and I walked rapidly on, — my footfalls sound- ing clear and sharp on the frosty ground, he as noise- IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT 167 less as a shadow. We had reached the further side of the lane, when he put forth an arm and plucked from the blackness a small black figure. In the middle of the square was kept burning a great brazier filled with pitched wood. It was the duty of the watch to keep it flaming from darkness to dawn. We found it freshly heaped with pine, and its red glare lit a goodly circle. The Indian, pinioning the wrists of his captive with his own hand of steel, dragged him with us into this circle of light. " Looking for simples once more, learned doctor ? ' I demanded. He mowed and jabbered, twisting this way and that in the grasp of the Indian. "Loose him," I said to the latter, "but let him not come too near you. Why, worthy doctor, in so wild and threatening a night, when fire is burning and wine flowing at the guest house, do you choose to crouch here in the cold and darkness ? " He looked at me with his filmy eyes, and that faint smile that had more of menace in it than a panther's snarl. « I laid in wait for you, it is true, noble sir,'* he said in his thin, dreamy voice, " but it was for your good. I would give you warning, sir." He stood with his mean figure bent cringingly for- ward, and with his hat in his hand. « A warning, sir," he went ramblingly on. " Maybe a certain one' has made me his enemy. Maybe I cut myself loose trom his service. Maybe I would do him an ill turn. I can tell you a secret, sir." He lowered his voice and looked around, as if in fear of eavesdroppers. " In your ear, sir," he said. I recoiled. « Stand back," I cried, " or you wiU cull no more simples this side of hell ! " 168 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD "Hell!" he aaswered. "There's no such place. I wUl not tell my secret aloud." " Nicolo the Italian ! Nicolo the Poisoner ! Ni- colo the Black Death ! I am coming for the soul you sold me. There is a hell ! " The thundering voice came from underneath our feet. With a sound that was not a groan and not a screech, the Italian reeled back against the heated iron of the brazier. Starting from that fiery contact with an unearthly shriek, he threw up his arms and dashed away into the darkness. The sound of his madly hur- rying footsteps came back to us until the guest house had swallowed him and his guilty terrors. " Can the preacher play the devil too ? " I asked, as Sparrow came up to us from the other side of the fire. " I could have sworn that that voice came from the bowels of the earth. 'T is the strangest gift ! " " A mere trick," he said, with his great laugh, " but it has served me well on more occasions than one. It is not known in Virginia, sir, but before ever the word of the Lord came to me to save poor silly souls I was a player. Once I played the King's ghost in Will Shakespeare's ' Hamlet,' and then, I warrant you, I spoke from the cellarage indeed. I so frighted players and playgoers that they swore it was witchcraft, and Burbage's knees did knock together in dead earnest. But to the matter in hand. When I had thrown yonder stone, I walked quietly down to the Gov- ernor's house and looked through the window. The Governor hath the Company's letters, and hv and the Council — all save the reprobate Pory — sit there staring at them and drumming with their fingers on the table.' " Is Rolfe of the Council? " I asked. MB IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT 169 t( Ay ; he was speaking, — for you, I suppose, though I heard not the words. They all listened, but they all shook their heads." " We shall know in the morning," I said. " The night grows wilder, and honest folks should be abed. Nantauquas, good-night. When will you have tamed your panther ? " " It is now the moon of cohonks," answered the Indian. " When the moon of blossoms is here, the panther shall roll at the beautiful lady's feet." "The moon of blossoms!" I said. "The moon of blossoms is a long way off. I have panthers myself to tame before it comes. This wild night gives one wild thoughts. Master Sparrow. The loud wind, and the sound of the water, and the hurrying clouds — who knows if we shall ever see the mcon of blos- soms ? " I broke off with a laugh for my own weak- ness. " It 's not often that a soldier thinks of death," I said. " Come to bed, reverend sir. Nantauquas, again, good-night, and iuay you tame your pant'ier ! " In the great room of the minister's house I paced up and down ; now pausing at the window, to look out upon the fast darkening houses of the town, the ever thickening clouds, and the bending trees ; now speaking to my wife, who sat in the chair I had drawn for her before the fire, her haiids idle in her lap, her head thrown back against the wood, her face white and still, with wide dark eyes. We waited for we knew not what, but the light still burned in the Gov- ernor's house, and we could not sleep and leave it there. It grew later and later. The wind howled down the chimney, and I heaped more wood upon the fire. The town lay in darkness now ; only in the distance i;ij jm 170 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD i. burned like an angry star the light in the Govern- or's house. In the lull between the blasts of wind it was so very still that the sound of my footfalls upon the floor, the dropping of the charred wood upon the hearth, the tapping of the withered vines without the window, jarred like thunder. Suddenly madam leaned forward in her chair. " There is some one at the door," she said. As she spoke, the latch rose and some one pushed heavily against the door. I had drawn the bars across. " Who is it ? " I demanded, going to it. " It is Diccon, sir," replied a guarded voice outside. *' I beg of you, for the lady's sake, to let me speak to you." I opened the door, and he crossed the threshold. I had not seen him since the night he would have played the assassin. I had heard of him as being in Martin's Hundred, with which plantation and its tur- bulent commander the debtor and the outlaw often found sanctuary. " What is it, sirrah ? " I inquired sternly. He stood with his eyes upon the floor, twirling his cap in his hands. He had looked once at madam when he entered, but not at me. When he spoke there was the old bravado in liis voice, and he threw up his head with the old reckless gesture. " Though I am no longer your man, sir," he said, " yet I hope that one Christian may warn another. The marshal, with a dozen men at his heels, will be here anon." " How do you know ? " " Why, I was in the shadow by the Governor's win- dow when the parson played eavesdropper. When he was gone I drew myself up to the ledge, and with my knife made a hole in the shutter that fitted my IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT 171 IT his ulam lere his am that with win- len he with 1 my ear well enough. The Governor and the Council sat there, with the Company's letters spread upon the table. I heard the letters read. Sir George Yeard- ley's petition to be released from the governorship of Virginia is granted, but he will remain in office until the new Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, can arrive in Virginia. The Company is out of favor. The King hath sent Sir Edwyn Sandys to the Tower. My Lord Warwick waxeth greater every day. The very life of the Company dependeth upon the pleasure of the King, and it maj-^ not defy him. You are to be taken into custody within six hours of the reading of the letter, to be kept straitly until the sailing of the Santa Teresa, and to be sent home aboard of her in irons. The lady is to go also, with all honor, and with women to attend her. Upon reaching London, you are to be sent to the Tower, the lady to Whitehall. The Court of High Commission will take the matter under con- sideration at once. My Lord of Southampton writes that, because of the urgent entreaty of Sir George Yeardley, he will do for you all that lieth in his power, but that if you prove not yourself conforma- ble, there will be little that any can do." *' When will the marshal be here ? " I demanded. " Directly. The Governor was sending for him when I left the window. Master llolfe spoke vehe- mently for you, and would have left the Council to come to you ; but the Governor, swearing that the Company should not be betrayed by its officers, con- strained him to remain. I 'm not the Company's officer, so I may tell its orders if I please. A master- less man may speak without fear or favor. I have told you all I know." Before I could speak he was gone, closing the door heavily behind him. m 172 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD I I turned to the King's ward. She had risen from the chair, and now stood in the centre of the room, one hand at her bosom, the other clenched at her side, her head thrown up. She looked as she had looked at Weyanoke, that first night. " Madam," I said under my breath. She turned her face upon me. " Did you think," she asked in a low, even voice, — " did you think that I would ever set my foot upon chat ship, — that ship on the river there ? One ship brought me here upon a shameful errand ; another shall not take me upon one more shameful still." She took her hand from her bosom ; in it gleamed in the firelight the small dagger I had given her that night. She laid it on the table, but kept her hand upon it. " You will choose for me, sir," she declared. I went to the door and looked out. " It is a wild night," I said. " I can suit it with as wild an enter- prise. Make a bundle of your warmest clothing, madam, and wrap your mantle about you. Will you take Angela? " "No," she answered. "I will not have her peril too upon me." As she stood there, her hand no longer upon the dagger, the large tears welled into her eyes and fell slowly over her white cheeks. " It is for mine honor, sir," she said. " I know that I ask your death." I could not boar to see her weep, and so I spoke roughly. " I have told you before," I said, " that your honor is my honor. Do you think I would sleep to-morrow night, in the hold of the Santa Teresa, knowing that my wife supped with my Lord Car- nal ? " I oroBsed the room to take my pistols from the ' rom )om, side, )ked nk," that ship ipon ipou med that laud red. wild iter- ling, you aeiil the fell nor, )oke that leep 'esa, Car- the IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT 173 rack. As I passed her she caught my hand in hers, and bending pressed her lips upon it. " You have been very good to me," she murmured. " Do not tiiiuk ine an ingrate." Five minutes later she came from her own room, hooded and mantled, and with a packet of clothing in her hand. I extinguished the torches, then opened the door. As we crossed the threshold, we paused as by one impulse and looked back into the firelit warmth of the room ; then I closed the door softly behind us, and we went out into the night. I r (. CHAPTER XIX IN WHICH WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY !. The wind, which had heretofore come in fierce blasts, was now steadying to a gale. What with the flying of the heaped clouds, the slanting, groaning pines, and the rushing of the river, the whole earth seemed a fugitive, fleeing breathless to the sea. From across the neck of land came the long-drawn howl of wolves, and in the wood beyond the church a cata- mount screamed and screamed. The town before us lay as dark and as still as the grave ; from the garden where we were we could not see the Governor's house. " I will carry madam's bundle," said a voice be- hind us. It was the minister who had spoken, and he now stood beside us. There was a moment's silence, then I said, with a laugh : " We are not going upon a summer jaunt, friend Sparrow. There is a warm fire in the great room, to which your reverence had best betake yourself out of this windy night." As he made no movement to depart, but instead possessed himself of Mistress Percy's bundle, I spoke again, with some impatience : " We are no longer of your fold, reverend sir, but are bound for another parish. We give you hearty thanks for your hospi- tality, and wish yn a very good night." As I spoke I would have taken the bundle from him, but he tucked it under his arm. and, passing us, 1 WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY 175 opened the garden gate. " Did I forget to tell you," he said, "that worthy Master Bucke is well of the fever, and returns to his own to-morrow ? His house and church are no longer mine. I have no charge anywhere. I am free and footloose. May I not go with you, madam? There may be dragons to slay, and two can guard a distressed princess better than one. Will you take me for your squire. Captain Percy ? " He held out his great hand, and after a moment I put my own in it. We left the garden and struck into a lane. " The river, then, instead of the forest? " he asked in a low voice. " Ay," I answered. " Of the two evils it seems the lesser." " How about a boat ? " " My own is fastened to the piles of the old de- serted wharf." ** You have with you neither food nor water." "Both are in the boat. I have kept her victualed for a week or more." He laughed in the darkness, and I heard my wife beside me utter a stifled exclamation. The lane that we were now in ran parallel to the street to within fifty yards of the guest house, when It bent sharply down to the river. We moved silently and with caution, for some night bird might accost us or the watch come upon us. In the guest house all was darkness save one room, — the upper room, — from which came a very pale light. When we had turned with the lane there were no houses to j)ass ; only gaunt pines and copses of sumach. I took my wife by the hand and hurried her on. A hundred I 176 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD f yards before us ran the river, dark and turbulent, and between us and it rose an old, unsafe, and abandoned landing. Sparrow laid his hand upon my arm. " Footsteps behind us," he whispered. Without slackening pace I turned my head and looked. The clouds, high around the horizon, were thinning overhead, and the moon, herself invisible, yet lightened the darkness below. The sandy lane stretched behind us like a ribbon of twilight, — no- thing to be seen but it and the ebony mass of bush and tree lining it on either side. We hastened on. A minute later and we heard behind us a sound like the winding of a small horn, clear, shrill, and sweet. Sparrow and I wheeled — and saw nothing. The trees ran down to the very edge of the wharf, upon whose rotten, loosened, and noisy boards we now trod. Suddenly the clouds above us broke, and the moon shone forth, whitening the mountainous clouds, the ridged and angry river, and the low, tree-fringed shore. Below us, fastened to the piles and rocking with the waves, was the open boat in which we were to embark. A few broken steps led from the boards above to the water below. Descending these I sprang into the boat and held out my arms for Mistress Percy. Sparrow gave her to me, and I lifted her down beside me ; then turned to give what aid I mignt to the minister, who was halfway down the steps — and faced my Lord Carnal. What devil had led him forth on such a night; why he, whom with my own eyes, three hours agone, I had seen drunken, should have ^^»»6en, after his carouse, cold air and his own company rather than sleep ; when and where he first 8})ied ua, how long he had followed us, I have never known. Perhaps he WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY i7? could not sleep for triumph, had heard of my impend- mg arrest, had come forth to add to the bitterness of my cup by his presence, and so had happened upon us. He could only have guessed at those he followed, until he reached the edge of the wharf and looked down upon us in the moonlight. For a moment he stood without moving ; then he raised his hand to his lips, and the shrill call that had before startled us rang out again. At the far end of the lane lights ap- peared. Men were coming down the lane at a run • whether they were the watch, or my lord's own rogues we tarried not to see. There was not time to loosen the rope from the piles, so I drew my knife to cut it. My lord saw the movement, and sprang down the steps, at the same time shouting to the men behind to hasten. Sparrow, grappling with him, locked him in a giant's embrace, lifted him bodily from the steps and flung him into the boat. His head struck against a thwart, and he lay, huddled beneath it, quiet enough. The mmister sprang after him, and I cut the rope. By now the whrrf shook with running feet, and the backward-streaming flame of the torches reddened its boards and the black water beneath ; but each instant the water widened between us and our pursuers. Wind and current swept us out, and at that wharf there were no boats to follow us. Those whom my lord's whistle had brought were now upon the very edge of the wharf. The marshal's voice called upon us in the name of the King to re- turn. Finding that we vouchsafed no answer, he pulled out a pistol and fired, the ball going through my hat ; then whipped out its feUow and fired again Mistress Percy, whose behavior had been that of an angel, stirred in her seat. I did not know until the Uf 178 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD day broke that the ball had grazed her arm, drench- ing her sleeve with blood. " It is time we were away," I said, with a laugh. " If your reverence will keep your hand upon the tiller and your eye upon the gentleman whom you have made our traveling companion, I '11 put up the sail." I was on my way to the foremast, when the boom lying prone before me rose. Slowly and majestically the sail ascended, tapering upward, silvered by the moon, — the great white pinion which should bear us we knew not whither. I stopped short in my tracks, Mistress Percy drew a sobbing breath, and the minis- ter gasped with admiration. We all three stared as though the white cloth had veritably been a monster wing endowed with life. " Sails don't rise of themselves ! " I exclaimed, and was at the mast before the words were out of my lips. Crouched behind it was a man. I should have known him even without the aid of the moon. Often enough, God knows, I had seen him crouched like this beside me, ourselves in ambush awaiting some unwary foe, brute or human ; or ourselves in hiding, holding our breath lest it should betray us. The minister who had been a player, the rival who would have poisoned me, the servant who would have stabbed me, the wife who was wife in name only, — mine were strange shipmates. He rose to his feet and stood there against the mast, in the old half-submissive, half-defiant attitude, with his head thrown back in the old way. " If you order me, sir, I will swim ashore," he said, half sullenly, half — I know not how. " You would never reach the shore," I replied. WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY 179 "And you know that I will never order you again, btay here if you please, or come aft if you please." 1 went back and took the tiller from Sparrow. We were now in mid-river, and the swollen stream and the strong wind bore us on with them like a leaf before the gale. We left behind the lights and the clamor, the dark town and the silent fort, the weary Due Return and the shipping about the lower wharf. Before us loomed the Santa Teresa ; we passed so close beneath her huge black sides that we heard the wmd whistling through her rigging. When she, too, was gone, the river lay bare before us ; silver when the moon shone, of an inky blackness when it was obscured by one of the many flying clouds. My wife wrapped her mantle closer about her, and, leaning back in her seat in the stern beside me, raised her face to the wild and solemn heavens. Diccon sat apart in the bow and held his tongue. The min- ister bent over, and, lifting the man that lay in tb-^ bottom of the boat, laid him at full length upon the thwart before us. The moonlight streamed down upon the prostrate figure. I think it could never have shone upon a more handsome or a more wicked man He lay there in his splendid dress and dark beauty, Endymion-like, beneath the moon. The King s ward turned her eyes upon him, kept them there a moment, then glanced away, and looked at him no more. " Tliere 's a parlous lump upon his forehead where It struck the thwart," said the minister, " but the life 's yet m him. He '11 shame honest men for many a day to come. Your Platonists, who from a goodly out- side argue as fair a soul, could never have been ac quamted with this gentleman." iiilllMI IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // :<° MP. tf 1.0 I.I '- IIIM " llllitt US IS m |40 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ■* 6" 1^ ^a V. .3/'^; />• c-^ "^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ 4C-^ A^ ^> V \ \ ^ 4 V" ,^ "% 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 p ^ CHAPTER XX IN WHICH WE ABE W DESPERATE CASE land, sa.d the mmjster. " The sea is his and we are t h» r/? ':'"'" '* ^^''^ "•»"■*'' his own." As he spoke he looked with a steadfast sonl into the black hollow of the wave that combed above us threatening destraotion. ' The wave broke, and the boat still lived. Borne h.gh upon the shoulder of the next rolling hm we looked north south, east, and west, and Lw onW a waste of hvid, ever forming, ever breaking waves a gray sky streaked with darker gray shifting ~ and a honzon impenetrably veiled. Where le were m the great bay, in what direction we werTblw driven how near we might be to the open sea o tf was that both a ists v.ere gone, that we must bail the m»^Z-tT ^"'"^ '"• Warently impossible wWohlff T7 'f "'"'"' ^'^^''' ""-J "-at the waves which buffeted us from one to the other were hourly swelhng t» a more monstrous bulk. ' We had come into the wider waters at dawn, and stiU under canvas. An hour later, off Point Comf!^ a bare mast contented us ; we had hardly gotten Z :» UrragT """' '"^ ""' '""'"''' ^"^^ -^ H>< 184 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD If I'VJ ( f ■: & m ; I i H. m- A common peril is a mighty leveler of barriers. Scant time was there in that boat to make ilistinction between friend and foe. As one man we fought the element which would devour us. Each took his turn at the bailing, each watched for the next great wave before which we must cower, clinging with numbed hands to gunwale and thwart. We fared alike, toiled alike, and suffered alike, only that the minister and I cared for Mistress Percy, asking no help from the others. The King's ward endured all without a murmur. She was cold, she was worn with watching and terror, she was wounded ; each moment Death raised his arm to strike, but she sat there dauntless, and looked him in the face with a smile upon her own. If, wearied out, we had given up the fight, her look would have spurred us on to wrestle with our fate to the last gasp. She sat between Sparrow and me, and as best we might we shielded her from the drenching seas and the icy wind. Morning had shown me the blood upon her sleeve, and I had cut away the cloth from the white arm, and had washed the wound with wine and bound it up. If, for my fee, I should have liked to press my lips upon the blue-veined marble, still I did it iirt. WhtJi, a week before, I had stored the boat with food and drink and had brought it to that lonely wharf, I had thought that if at the last my wife willed to flee I would attempt to reach the bay, and passing out between the capes would go to the north. Given an open boat and the tempestuous seas of November, there might be one chance out of a hundred of our reaching Manhattan and the Dutch, who might or might not give us refuge. She had willed to ilee, and T IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE 185 we were upon our journey, and the one chance had vanished. That wan, monotonous, cold, and clinging mist had shrouded us for our burial, and our grave yawned beneath us. The day passed and the night came, and still we fought the sea, and still the wind drove us whither it would. The night passed and the second morning came, and found us yet alive. My wife lay now at my feet, her head pillowed upon the bundle she had brought from the minister's house. Too weak for speech, waiting in pain and cold and terror for death to bring her warmth and life, the knightly spirit yet lived in her eyes, and she smiled when I bent over her with wine to moisten her lips. At length she began to wander in her mind, and to speak of sum- mer days and flowers. A hand held my heart in a slowly tightening grip of iron, and the tears ran down the minister's cheeks. The man who had darkened her young life, bringing her to this, looked at her with an ashen face. As the day wore on, the gray of the sky paled to a dead man's hue and the wind lessened, but the waves were still mountain high. One moment we poised, like the guUs that now screamed about us, upon some giddy summit, the sky alone above and around us; the next we sank into dark green and glassy caverns. Suddenly the wind fell away, veered, and rose again like a giant refreshed. Diccon started, put his hand to his ear, then sprang to his feet. " Breakers I " he cried hoarsely. We listened with straining ears. He was right. The low, ominous murmur changed to a distant roar, grew louder yet, and yet louder, and was no longer disttmt. % lii ?! 186 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD " It will be the sand islets off Cape Charles, sir," he said. I nodded. He and I knew there was no need of words. The sky grew paler and paler, and soon upon the woof of He clouds a splash of dull yellow showed where the sun would be. The fog rose, laying bare the desolate ocean. Before us were two very small islands, mere handfuls of sand, lying side by side, and encompassed half by the open sea, half by stiller waters diked in by marshes and sand bars. A coarse, scanty grass and a few stunted trees with branches bending away from the sea lived upon them, but nothing else. Over them and over the marshes and the sand banks circled myriads of great white gulls. Their harsh, unearthly voices came to us faintly, and increased the desolation of earth and sky and sea. To the shell-strewn beach of the outer of the two islets raced long lines of surf, and between us and it lurked a sand bar, against which the great rollers dashed with a bull-like roar. The wind drove us straight upon this bar. A moment of deadly peril and it had us fast, holding us for the waves to beat our life out. The boat listed, then rested, quivering through all its length. The waves pounded against its side, each watery battering-ram dissolving in foam and spray but to give place to another, and yet it held together, and yet we lived. How long it would hold we could not tell ; we only knew it could not be for long. The inclination of the boat was not so great but that, with caution, we might move about. There were on board rope and an axe. With the latter I cut away the thwarts and the decking in the bow, and Diccon and I made a small raft. When it was fin- ished, I lifted my wife in my arms and laid her upon IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE 187 it and lashed her to it with the rope. She smiled like a child, then closed her eyes. "I have gathered primroses until I am tired," she said. " I will sleep here a little in the sunshine, and when I awake I will make you a cowslip ball." Time passed, and the groaning, trembling timbers still held together. The wind feU, the sky became blue, and the sun shone. Another while, and the waves were less mountainous and beat less furiously against the boat. Hope brightened before us. To strong swimmers the distance to the islet was trifling ; if the boat would but last until the sea subsided, we might gain the beach. What we would do upon that barren spot, where was lieither man nor brute, food nor water, was a thing that we had not the time to consider. It was land that we craved. Another hour, and the«ea still fell. Another, and a wave struck the boat with force. " The sea is com- ing in ! " cried the minister. " Ay," I answered. " She will go to pieces now." The minister rose to his feet. " I am no mariner," he said, " but once in the water I can swim you like any fish. There have been times when I have re- proached the Lord for that he cased a poor silly hum- ble preacher like me with the strength and seeming of some mighty man of old, and there have been times when I have thanked him for that strength. I thank him now. Captain Percy, if you will trust the lady to me, I will take her safely to that shore." I raised my head from the figure over which I was bending, and looked first at the still tumultuous sea, and then at the gigantic frame of the minister. When we had made that frail raft no swimmer could have lived in that shock of waves ; now there was a chance If! m 188 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD I.; i i1 if !■ k for all, and for the minister, with his great strength, the greatest I have ever seen in any man, a double chance. I took her from the raft and gave her into his arms. A minute later the boat went to pieces. Side by side Sparrow and I buffeted the sea. He held the King's ward in one arm, and he bore her safely over the huge swells and through the onslaught of the breaking waves. I could thank God for his strength, and trust her to it. For the other three of us, we were all strong swimmers, and though bruised and beat about, we held our own. Each wave, over- come, left us nearer the islet, — a little while and our feet touched bottom. A short struggle with the tre- mendous surf and we were out of the maw of the sea, but out upon a desolate islet, a mere hand's-breadth of sand and shell in a lonely ocean, some three leagues from the mainland of Accomac, and upon it neither food nor water. We had the clothes upon our backs, and my lord and I had kept our swords. I had a knife, and Diccon too was probably armed. The flint and steel and tinder box within my pouch made up our store. The minister laid the woman whom he carried upon the pebbles, fell upon his knees, and lifted his rugged face to heaven. I too knelt, and with my hand upon her heart said my own prayer in my own way. My lord stood with unbent head, his eyes upon that still white face, but Diccon turned abruptly and strode off to a low ridge of sand, from the top of which one might survey the entire island. In two minutes he was back again. " There 's plenty of driftwood further up the beach," he an- nounced, " and a mort of dried seaweed. At least we need n't freeze." inj. IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE 189 The great bonfire that we made roared and crackled, sending out a most cheerful heat and light. Under that genial breath the color came slowly back to madam's cheek and lip, and her heart beat more strongly. Presently she turned under my hand, and with a sigh pillowed her head upon her arm and went to sleep in that blessed warmth like a little child. We who had no mind for sleep sat there beside the fire and watched the sun sink behind the low black line of the mainland, now plainly visible in the cleared air. It dyed the waves blood red, and shot out one long ray to crimson a single floating cloud, no larger than a man's hani, high in the blue. Sea birds, a countless multitude, went to and fro with harsh cries from island to marsh, and marsh to island. The marshes were still green; they lay, a half moon of fantastic shapes, each parted from the other by pink water. Beyond them was the inlet dividing us from the mainland, and that inlet was three leagues in width. We turned and looked seaward. Naught but leaping waves white-capped to the horizon. "We touched here the time we went against the French at Port Royal and St. Croix," I said. "We had heard a rumor that the Bermuda pirates had hidden gold here. Argall and I went over every foot of it." " And found no water ? " questioned the minister. " And found no water." The light died from the west and from the sea beneath, and the night fell. When with the darkness the sea fowl ceased their clamor, a dreadful silence suddenly enfolded us. The rush of the surf made no difference ; the ear heard it, but to the mind there was no sound. The sky was thick with stars ; every ; \' 1 V 1 1 \\ A 190 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD 4 } \ 'ii % Ifi: moment one shot, and the trail of white fire it left be- hind melted into the night silently like snowflakes. There was no wind. The moon rose out of the sea, and lent the sandy isle her own pallor. Here and there, ck amongst the dunes, the branches of a low and leatiess tree writhed upward like dark fingers thrust from out the spectral earth. The ocean, quiet now, dreamed beneath the moon and cared not for the five lives it had cast upon that span of sand. We piled driftwood and tangles of seaweed upon our fire, and it flamed and roared and broke the silence. Diccon, going to the landward side of the islet, found some oysters, which we roasted and ate : but we had nor wine nor water with which to w^ash them down. " At least there are here no foes to fear," quoth my lord. " We may all sleep to-night ; and zooks ! we shall need it ! " He spoke frankly, with an open face. " I will take one watch, if you will take the other," I said to the minister. He nodded. " I will watch until midnight." It was long past that time when he roused me from where I lay at Mistress Percy's feet. " I should have relieved you long ago," I told him. He smiled. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone upon and softened his rugged features. I thought I had never seen a face so filled with tender- ness and hope and a sort of patient power. " I have been with God," he said simply. " The starry skies and the great ocean and the little shells beneath my hand, — how wonderful are thy works, O Lord I What is man that thou art mindful of him ? And yet not a sparrow falleth " — IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE 191 I rose and sat by the fire, and he laid himself down upon the sand beside me. "Master Sparrow," I asked, "have you ever suf- fered thirst ? " " No," he answered. We spoke in low tones, lest we should wake her. Diccon and my lord, upon the other side of the fire, were sleeping heavily. " I have," I said. " Once I lay upon a field of battle throughout a summer day, sore wounded and with my dead horse across my body. I shall forget the horror of that lost field and the torment of that weight before I forget the thirst." " You think there is no hope ? " " What hope should there be ? " He was silent. Presently he turned and looked at the King's ward where she lay in the rosy light ; then his eyes came back to mine. " If it comes to the worst I shall put her out of her torment," I said. He bowed his head and we sat in silence, our gaze upon the ground between us, listening to the low thunder of the surf and the crackling of the fire. " I love her," I said at last. " God help me ! " He pat his finger to his lips. She had stirred and opened her eyes. I knelt beside her, and asked her how she did and if she wanted aught. " It is warm," she said wonderingly. " You are no longer in the boat," I told her. " You are safe upon the land. You have been sleeping here by the fire that we kindled." An exquisite smile just lit her face, and her eyelids drooped again. " I am so tired," she said drowsily, " that I will sleep a little longer. Will you bring me some water, Captain Percy ? I am very thirsty." if'" ■■■'' I I 192 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD After a moment I said gently, " I will go get it, madam." She made no answer; she was already asleep. Nor did Sparrow and I speak again. He laid himself down with his face to the ocean, and 1 sat with my head in my hands, and thought and thought, to no purpose. riiAi T CHAPTER XXI IN WHICH A GRAVE IS DIGGED When the stars had gone out and the moon begun to pale, I raised my face from my hands. Only a few glov/ing embers remained of the fire, and the drift- wood that we had collected was exhausted. I thought that I would gather more, and build up the fire against the time when the others should awake. The drift- wood lay in greatest quantity some distance up the beach, against a low ridge of sand dunes. Beyond these the islet tapered off to a long gray point of sand and shell. Walking toward this point in the first pale light of dawn, I chanced to raise my eyes, and b(^held riding at anchor beyond the spit of sand a ship. I stopped short and rubbed my eyes. She lay there on the sleeping ocean like a dream ship, her masts and rigging black against the pallid sky, the mist that rested upon the sea enfolding half her hull. She might have been of three hundred tons burthen ; she was black and two-decked, and very high at poop and forecastle, and she was heavily armed. My eyes traveled from the ship to the shore, and there dragged up on the point, the oars within it, was a boat. At the head of the beach, beyond the line of shell and weed, the sand lay piled in heaps. With these friendly hillocks between me and the sea, I crept on as silently as I might, until I reached a point just above the boat. Here I first heard voices. I went a MlJtim ntgtt^ 194 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD n 1^ |V ' 1 ^' U'l u p. h little further, then knelt, and, parting the long coarse grass that filled the hollow between two hillocks, looked out upon two men who were digging a grave. They dug in a furious hurry, throwing the sand to left and right, and cursing as they dug. They were powerful men, of a most villainous cast of counte- nance, and dressed very oddly. One with a shirt of coarsest dowlas, and a filthy rag tying up a broken head, yet wore velvet breeches, and wiped the swoat from his face with a wrought handkerchief ; the other topped a suit of shreds and patches with a fine bushy ruff, and swung from one ragged shoulder a cloak of grogram lined with taffeta. On the ground, to one side of them, lay something long and wrapped in white. As they dug and cursed, the light strengthened. The east changed from gray to pale rose, from rose to a splendid crimson shot with gold. The mist lifted and the sea burned red. Two boats were lowered from the ship, and came swiftly toward the point. " Here they are at last," growled the gravedigger with the broken head and velvet breeches. " They 've taken their time," snarled his companion, "and us two here on this d — d island with a dead man the whole ghost's hour. Boarding a ship 's no- thing, but to dig a grave on the land before cockcrow, with the man you 're to put in it looking at you I "Why could n't he be buried at sea, decent and re- spectable, like other folk ? " " It was his will, — that 's all I know," said the first ; " just as it was his will, when he found he was a dying man, to come booming away from the gold seas up here to a land where there is n't no gold, and never will be. Belike he thought he 'd find waiting for him IN WHICH A GRAVE IS DIGGED 195 at the bottom of the sea, all along from the Lucayas to Cartagena, the many he sent there afore he died. And Captain Paradise, he says, says he: 'It's ill crossing a dead man. We '11 obey him this once more » » " Captain Paradise I " cried he of the ruff. " Who made him captain ? — curse him ! " His fellow straightened himself with a jerk. " Who made him captain ? The ship will make him captain. Who else should be captain ? " " Red GUI " "Red Gill" exclaimed the other. "I'd rather have the Spaniard I " " The Spaniard would do well enough, if the rest of us were n't English. If hating every other Span- iard would do it, he 'd be English fast enough." The scoundrel with the broken head burst into a loud laugh. " D'ye remember the bark we took o£E Porto Bello, with the priests aboard ? Oho ! Oho ! " The rogue with the ruff grinned. " I reckon the padres remember it,- and find hell easy lying. This hole 's deep enough, I 'm thinking." They both clambered out, and one squatted at the head of the grave and mopped his face with his deli- cate handkerchief, while the other swung his fine cloak with an air and dug his bare toes in the sand. The two boats now grated upon the beach, and sev- eral of their occupants, springing out, dragged them up on the sand. " We '11 never get another like him that 's gone," said the worthy at the head of the grave, gloomily regarding the something wrapped in white. " That 'g gospel truth," assented the other, with a prodigious sigh. " Ho was a man what was a man. T y fl ' i ? 196 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD { V He never stuck at nothing. Don or priest, man or woman, good red gold or dirty silver, — it was all one to him. But he 's dead and gone I " " Now, if we had a captain like Kirby," suggested the first. " Kirby keeps to the Summer Isles," said the sec- ond. " 'T is n't often now that he swoops down as far as the Indies." The man with the broken head laughed. " When he does, there 's a noise in that part of the world." "And that's gospel truth, too," swore the other, with an oath of admiration. By this the score or more who had come in the two boats were halfway up the beach. In front, side by side, as each conceding no inch of leadership, walked three men : a large man, with a villainous face much scarred, and a huge, bushy, dark red beard ; a tall dark man, with a thin fierce face and bloodshot eyes, the Spaniard by his looks ; and a slight man, with the face and bearing of an English gentleman. The men behind them differed no whit from the two grave- diggers, being as scoundrelly of face, as great of strength, and as curiously attired. They came straight to the open grave, and the dead man beside it. The three who seemed of most importance disposed them- selves, still side by side, at the head of the grave, and their following took the foot. " It 's a dirty piece of work," said Red Gil in a voice like a raven'a, " and the sooner it *s done with, and we are aboard again and booming back to the Indies, the better I '11 like it. Over with him, bravo boys!" " Is it yours to give the word ? " asked the slight man, who was dressed point-device, and with a finical IN WHICH A GRAVE IP DIGGED 197 nicety, in black and silver. His voice viras low and clear, and of a somewhat melancholy cadence, going well with the pensiveness of fine, deeply fringed eyes. "Why shouldn't I give the word?" growled the personage addressed, adding with an oath, " I 've as good a right to give it as any man, — maybe a better right ! " " That would be scanned," said he of the pensive eyes. "Gentlemen, we have here the pick of the ship. For the captain that these choose, those on board will throw up their caps. Let us bury the dead, and then let choice be made of one of us three, each of whom has claims that might be put for- ward " — He broke off and picking up a delicate shell began to study its pearly spirals with a tender, thoughtful, half-pleased, half-melancholy countenance. The gravedigger with the wrought handkerchief looked from him to the rascal crew massed at the foot of the grave, and, seeing his own sentiments mirrored in the countenances of not a few, snatched the bloody clout from his head, waved it and cried out, " Para- dise I " Whereupon arose a great confusion. Some bawled for Paradise, some for Red Gil, a few for the Spaniard. The two gravediggers locked horns, and a brawny devil with a woman's mantle swathed about his naked shoulders drew a knife, and made for a partisan of the Spaniard, who in his turn skillfully interposed between himself and the attack the body of a bawling well-wisher to Red Gil. The man in black and silver tossed aside the shell, rose, and entered the lists. With one hand he seized the gravedigger of the ruff, and hurled him apart from him of the velvet breeches ; with the other he presented a dagger with a jeweled haft at the breast v/fmrnmim*^-. m M 198 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD of the ruffian with the woman's mantle, while in tones that would have befitted Astrophel plaining of his love to rocks, woods, and streams, he poured forth a flood of wild, singular, and filthy oaths, such as would have disgraced a camp follower. His interfer- ence was effectual. The combatants fell apart and the clamor was stilled, whereupon the gentleman of ct