 CHAPTER 1 IN WHICH I THROW EMPHASIS The work of the day being over I sat down upon my doorstep, pipe and hand, to rest a while 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 horned owls, the monster frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl, if followed be and not as some assert a spirit damned, which we English call the whipper-will, are yet silent. Later the wolf will howl and the panthers scream, but now there is no sound. The winds are laid, and the restless leaves droop and are quiet. The low lap of the water 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. A while 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 its disc there was drawn in shadow a thing most marvelously like a scalping knife. Wherefore the following day, being Sunday, good Mr. Stockham, our minister at Wayano, exhorted us to be on our guard, and in his prayer be sought that no sedition or rebellion might raise its head amongst the Indian subjects of the lords anointed. Afterward in the churchyard between the services, the more timorous began to tell of diver's portents which they had observed, 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 Opeconcano, who was now their emperor, in a most in-deep distrust, telling us that the red men watched while we slept, that they might teach wailiness to a Jesuit, and how to bide its time to a cat crouched before a mouse-hole. 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 soldier's bread in exchange for pelts and pearls, of how their emperor was forever sending us smooth passages, of how their lips smiled and their eyes frown. That afternoon, as I rode home through the lengthening 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 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 before 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 Pasphahedge lads bought by me from their tribe, the Macalmas before, and soundly flogged them both, having in my mind a saying of my ancient captains, namely he who strikes first, off-times strikes last. Upon the afternoon of which I now speak in the mid-summer of the year of Grace 1621, as I sat upon my doorstep my long pipe between my teeth and my eyes upon the pallet 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 forest into the cleared space before my palace-sade, nor knew until his voice came up the bank that my good friend, Master John Rolf, was without and would speak to me. I went down to the gate and on barring it gave him my hand and led the horse within the enclosure. 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 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 had 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 in in the meantime soldier, why, what wilt thou do when thou gets to heaven? Make it too hot to hold thee? Or take out letters of mark against the enemy? I am not there yet, I said dryly. In the meantime I would like a commission against your relatives. 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. Locking 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 beyond that star, I could not smile and speak calmly, Ralph, as I do now. It is a strange thing, I said, as I refilled my pipe. Love for your brother in arms, love for your commander, if he be a commander worth having. Love for your horse and dog, I understand. But when it love, to tie a burden around one's neck, because tis pink and white, or clear bronze, and shaped with elegance, fa! 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 of 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 encountered Tom, Dick, and Harry, dressed in their Sunday 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. That's the load-star. The star that draws us all, some to ruin, some to bliss, ineffable, woman. Hmph! The maids have come, then. He nodded. There's a goodly ship down there, with a goodly lading. With daily cat, some poor scour-waiting damsels and milk-mates warrant it honest by my lord warwick, I muttered. This business hath been of Edwin Sandy's management, as you very well know, he rejoined with some he. 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 borne. 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 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 plow, but we turn our heads and look to Egypt and its flesh-pots. Tis 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. Therefore, when at midday I met good Master Wickham rowing down from Henricus to Jamestown to offer his aid to Master Buck in his press of business tomorrow, I gave the good man God's speed, 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 unrung. He rose to his feet and began to pace the grinsward before the door. My eyes followed his trim figure, richly though somberly clad, then fell with a sudden dissatisfaction upon my own stain in frayed apparel. Ralph, he said presently, coming to a stand before me, have you ever and hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco in hand? If not, I have the weed, I replied, what then? Then at dawn dropped down with a tide to the city and secured 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 whipper-wills had begun to call and Ralph must needs hasten on. I went with him down to the gate. 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. Upon my words Ralph, and the next time I come, I look to see a farthing gale behind thee. Thou art as like to see one upon me, I answered. Nevertheless when he had gone and I climbed the bank and re-entered 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 is there to welcome me? Upon but my hounds and the flying squirrel I had caught and tamed. Groving my way to the corner, I took from my store two torches, lit them, and stuck them into the holes pierced in the mental 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. As 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 dagger 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 long for the campfire and the call to arms. With an impatient sigh I swept the litter from the table, and taking from the shelf that held my meager library a bundle of master Shakespeare's plays gathered for me by Rolf when he was last in London. I began to read. But my thoughts wandered and the tales seemed dull and off-told. I tossed it aside, and taking dice from my pocket began to throw. As I cast the bits of bone idly and scarce tearing to observe 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 panicking. Again I heard the cheerful hum of the wheel. Again the face of the forester's daughter smiled upon me. The old grey manor house where my mother, a stately dam, 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. Tomorrow would be my thirty-sixth birthday. All the numbers that I cast were high. If I throw ambassasse, I said, with a smile for my own caprice, curse me if I do not take Rolf's advice. I shook the box and clapped it down upon the table, then lifted it, and stared with a lengthening face at what it had hidden, which done I diced no more, but put out my lights and went soberly to bed. The stars were yet shining when I left the house, and after a word with my man Daikon at the Servant's huts, strode down the bank and threw 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 for 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 if how noble its width, how enchanting its shores, how gay and sweet their blooms and odours, how vast their trees, how strange the painted savages, had seemed to us storm-tossed adventurers who thought we had found the very paradise, the fortunate aisles at least, how quickly were we un-deceived. As I laid back in the stern with half-shut eyes and tiller idle in my hand, are many tribulations in our few joys passed in review before me. Indian attacks, dissension and strife amongst our rulers, true men persecuted, false naves elevated, the weary search for 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, where at we wept like children, that most joyful Sunday morning when we followed my Lord Dilawer 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 bold playing galants were put down, cities found it, forts built, and the gospel preached, the marriage of Rolf and his dusky princess, Argaul's expedition in which I played a part, and Argaul's iniquitous rule, the return of yearly as Sir George and the priceless gift he brought us, all this and much else, old friends, old enemies, old toils and strife 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 bridal path on the shore, the boats were few and far between and held only servants or Indians or very old men. It was, as Rolf had said, and the free and able-bodied of the plantations had put out post-taste for matrimony. Chaplain's choice appeared unpeopled, Piercy'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 braids were gone to see the palefaces by their wives. Below Pasphahedge, a cockleshell of a boat carrying a great white sail overtook me, and I was hailed by young Hamour. The maids are coming, he cried, hurrah, and stood up to wave his hat. I said, I guess thy destination by thy hose. Are they not those that were thy peach-colored ones? Owens yes, he answered, looking down with complacency upon his tarnished finery. Wedding garments, Captain Piercy, wedding garments. I laughed. Thou art a tardy bridegroom. I thought the debauchers 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 Taylor kept it until cock-crow. That fellow rolls in tobacco. He hath grown rich off our impoverished wardrobes since a ship down yonder past the capes. After all, he brightened, the bargaining 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 news 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 marveling at the shipping which crowded its waters. It was as if every sloop, barge, canoe, and dugout between Point Comfort and Henricus were anchored off its shores, while above them towered the mess of the Marmaduke and Fulerance, then in port, and of the tall ship which had brought in those doves for sail. The river with its dancing freight, the blue heavens and bright sunshine, the green trees waving in the wind, the stern bustle in the street and marketplace, thronged with gaily dress galants, made a fair and pleasant scene. As I drove my boat in between the sloop of the commander of surely hundredth and the canoe of Nansamun-Werowans, the two bells then newly hung in the church began to peel and the drum to beat. Stepping ashore, I had a rear view only of the folk who had clustered along the banks and in the street, their faces and footsteps being with one accord directed toward the marketplace. I went with a throng, jostled alike by Velvet and Dallas, by use with their estates upon their backs and naked fantastically painted savages and trampling the tobacco with which the greedy citizens had planted the very street. In this square I brought up before the governor's house, and found myself cheek by jowl with Master Corey, our secretary, and speaker of the assembly. Ha! Ralph Percy, he cried, wagging his gray head. We, too, be the only sane yonkers in the plantations. 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 it, had it. He broke into another roar, and thou callest that bridal attire, man? Why, our cowkeeper goes in flaming silk today. 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. 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 and jay, I retorted. I shall not break my heart. A cheer arose from the crowd, followed by a crashing peel of the bells and a louder roll of the drum. The doors of the houses around and to the 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 center of the square where, in surplies and van, there awaited them godly Master Buck 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 atoms, and but some threes score eaves, and for the most part the eaves were either courtly 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 cumbly faces, pink and white, wore clear brown with the rich blood showing through. Ninety pairs of eyes, laughing and alluring, wore downcast with long fringes sweeping round a cheeks. Ninety pair of ripe red lips. The crowd shouted itself hoarse and would not be restrained, brushing aside light straws the staves of the marshal and his men, and surging in upon the line of adventurous damsels. I saw young men panting, seize hand or arm, and strived to pull toward them some reluctant fare. Others snatched kisses or fell under knees and began speeches out of euphuees. Others commenced an inventory of their possessions, acres, tobacco, servants, household punishing. All was hubbub, protestation, frightened cries, and hysterical laughter. The officers ran to and throw, threatening and commanding. Master Pory alternately cried shame and laughed his loudest, and I plucked away a jack-a-napes of sixteen who had his hand upon a girl's rough, and shook him until the breath was well nigh out of him. The clamor did but increase. Way for the governor? cried the marshal. Shame on you, my masters! Way for his honor and the worshipful council. 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 counselors 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 wrathfully. Did you never see a woman before? Where's the marshals? I'll imprison the last one of you for rioters. Upon the platform of the pillory, which stood in the center of the marketplace, 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 South Ampton 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 of thanksgiving, singing it at the top of a powerful and yet sweet and tender voice, and with a fervor and exultation that caught the heart of the riotous crowd. The two ministers in the throng beneath took up the strain. Master Corey 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 reformed. The governor and the council descended, and with pomp and solemnity took their places between the maids and the two ministers who were to head the column. The psalm ended the drumbeat of thundering roll, and the procession moved forward in the direction of the church. Master Corey, 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 idol having streamed away at the heels of the marshal and his officers, I found myself alone in the square, saved for the singer, who now descended from the pillory, and came up to me. Captain Ralph Percy, if I mistake not, he said, in a voice as deep and rich as the base 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 adieu to keep from laughing. He saw in his face, which was of a cast most marshal, flashed into a smile like sunshine on a scarred cliff. You laugh in your sleeve, he said, good humorly, and yet I am but what I profess to be. In spirit I am a very Job, though nature hath fit to dress me as a Samson. I assure you I am worse misfitted than is Master Yardstick yonder in those false staffy and hoes, 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 I, 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 planet 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 a 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 opening and swelled with importance. You, reverend sir, I will admit such being my duty. But this gentleman is no creature. 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 witch's Sabbath. Hence the disorder of his apparel, his admittance be on my head. Wherefore, let us pine. None to enter at the west door save counselors, commander, and ministers, any attempting to force 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. Janet 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, quote Master Jeremy Sparrow, and knock the sexton down. We left the fellow sprawling in the doorway, sputtering threats to the air without, but with one covetous hand clutching at the shilling which I threw behind me, and entered a 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 window seems a good station. You remain here in the choir? I, 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 servant seats or among the niggers 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 against my window, and we stared at each other across the flower deck building in profound silence, until, with one great final crash, the bell ceased, the drum stopped beating, and the procession entered. Chapter III. In 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 milk-made beauties, red of cheek, free of eye, deep boozoned, and bereaved like maples. I looked again and saw, and see, a rose amongst blouse poppies and peonies, a pearl amidst glass beads, a perdita in a ring of rustics, a nonporella 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 anger. Her feeling my eyes upon her, she looked up and met what she must have thought the impotent 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 eyeballs 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 rough and prim white coiff, would have cried Puritan, had ever Puritan looked like this woman, upon whom the poor apparel had the seeming of purple and ermine. A non came the benediction. Governor, counselors, 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 there too. Here the company disbanded. 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 themselves within pulpits of turf. For one altar and one clergyman could not hope to dismatch that day's business. 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 mass, and in some measure enjoyed the show, though with an easy unconsciousness that I was pledged to become sooner or later a part of the spectacle. I saw a shepherdess fresh from Arcadia way back a dozen important galants, then throw a knot of blue ribbon into their 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 Pryde, 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 in 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 Corridon, says Phyllis, any poultry? Corridon, a matter of twelve hens and twa cocks. Phyllis, a cow? Corridon, twa. Phyllis, how much tobacco? Corridon, three acres hiny, though I did not drink the weed myself. I'm a steward woman, and the king's pure cousin. Phyllis, what household plenishing? Corridon, a large bed, and flak bed, and trundle bed, and chest, and trunk, and leather carapace, sex-calfish chairs, and twa three rush, five pair of sheets, and octene-dollars napkins, sex-alchemy spumes. Phyllis, I'll take you. At the far end of the meadow, near to the fort, I met young Hamour, alone, flushed, and hurrying back to the more populous part of the field. Not made it yet, I asked. Where are the maid's eyes? By, he answered, with an angry laugh. If they're all like that sample I've just left, I'll buy me a squaw from the pasta hedges. I smiled. So your wooing has not prospered. His vanity took fire. I have not wooed in earnest, he said carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue tough tapidope with an air. I sheared 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 wished to secure a garden. 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 termagon in rough 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 Hamour. 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, and then a woman's angry, be gone, sir. Kiss and be friends, said the man. The sound that followed being something of the loudest or 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, 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 he fell, dazed by the blow, and blinking up at me with a 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 clamored out and gone away cursing, I turned to face her. She stood against a 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 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 Hamour, probably disappointed of a wife, with Giles, Allen, and Wynn 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 towards the town. No, madam, I answered. I live up river, in way and oak hundred, some miles from here. Then in God's name let us be gone, she cried with sudden passion. I bowed low and advanced to kiss her hand. The fingertips which she slowly and reluctantly resigned to me were icy, and the look with which she favored me was not such and one as how it's feigned for like occasions. I shrugged the shoulders of my spirit, but said nothing. So, hand in hand, though at arm's length, we passed from the shade of the cedars into the open meadow where we presently met Hamour and his party. They would have barred the way, laughing 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 neck of the peninsula went a line of horsemen, each with his purchase upon a pillion behind him. The governor, the counselors, and the commanders had been taken themselves to the governor's house, where a great dinner was to be given. But Master Piercy, the cape merchant, remained to see the company reimbursed to the last leap, and the four ministers still found occupation, though one couple trod not upon the heels of another, as they had done an hour ago. 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 will pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do you answer? Patience worth, she replied. I left her standing there and went upon my errand with a whirling brain. Her enrollment in that company proclaimed her meanly born, and she bore herself as a blood royal. Of her own free will she had crossed an ocean to meet this day, and she held in passionate hatred this day and all that it contained. She was come to Virginia 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, Humphrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Bellefield, the perfumer for witnesses. 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 beckoning 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 feign do you a service. Moreover I lack employment. The maids take me for a hedge-parsen and shear 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 the woman beside me and broke off with open mouth and staring eyes. There was excuse for her beauty was amazing. A paragon he ended recovering himself. Marius 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 Marius, and in lieu of other ring I now twisted off the smallest link and gave it to her. Your name, asked Master Svarro, opening his book. Ralph Percy, gentlemen, 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 moment in silence, her eyes upon the darkening sky, then she said in a low voice, Jocelyn Lay. It was not the name I had watched the Captain Merchant strike off his list. I turned upon her and made her meet my eyes. What is your name, I demanded. Tell me the truth. I have told it, she answered proudly. It is Jocelyn Lay. I faced the minister again. Go on, I said briefly. The company commands that no constraint be put upon its poor maids, wherefore do you marry this man of your own free will and choice? I, she said, of my own free will. Well, we were married, and Master Jeremy Svarro wished us joy and Kent would have kissed the bride had I not frowned him off. He and Bellefields drove away, and I left her there and went to get her bundle from the house that had sheltered her overnight. Returning I found her seated on the turf, her chin in her hand, and her dark eyes watching the distant play of lightning. Master Svarro 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 pushing off on a voice hail list 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 Svarro genially. Good wife, Ellen, will never miss them. I was in two minds whether to laugh or to swear, or 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 pollen countenance. The wind freshened coming from the bay, and the boat was off like a startled deer. What I next saw him he had recovered 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 movement of pity for him, mate-less stood up and waved to him vigorously in turn. CHAPTER IV In which I am like to repent at leisure. When we had passed a mouth of the Chickahominy, 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 supremist 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 haspa hedges bound upon a friendly visit to someone 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 hell of 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 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 wished to sleep, she said haughtily, and turning her face from me pillowed her head upon her arms. I sat bent forward the tiller in my hand and stared at my wife in some consternation. This was not the tame pigeon, the rosy, humble, domestic creature who was to make me a home, and rear me children. A sea bird with broad white wings swooped down upon the water, now dark and ridged, rested there for a moment, then swept away into the heart of the gathering storm. She was like her such a one. Such birds were caught at times, 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 vivid, and the muttering of the thunder changed to long, booming 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 canon 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 was gazing at the storm with wide eyes, though with no fear in their dark depths. When I moved they closed, 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 wit less beautiful, I would have wished her back at Jamestown, back on the Atlantic, back at whatever outlandish place where manners were unknown, 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. Air we had reached piercys, the rain had ceased, and the clouds were breaking. Above Chaplin's choice hung a great rainbow. We passed Tant's wayanoke 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 me, wide awake, staring at the shifting banks and running water, and thinking that I thought she slept. At last my own wharf rose before me through the gathering dust and beyond it shone out a light, for I had told Dickon to set my house in order, and to provide fire and torches that my wife might see I wish 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 forest, 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, wild, menacing, an evil land, the other side of the moon. A thing that I had forgotten came to my mind. How that after our landing 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. Colesnold and myself nor would cease though we tried both crying shame and a rope's end. It was not for homesickness, 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 whipper-wills, a sick fear of primeval nature and her tragic mask. This was a 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 war. It was now quite dark there being no moon and thin clouds obscuring the stars. The touch of her hand, which I perforce held since I must guide her over the long, narrow and unrailed trestle, chilled me, and her breathing was hurried, but she moved by my side through the gross darkness unfalteringly enough. Arrived at the gate of the palace aid, 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. Dickon shot back the bolts and we entered. The men drew up and saluted, for I held my manner a camp, my servant 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 villainous cast than usual. They were not all bad. Dickon had the virtue of fidelity, if none other. There was 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 Argaul's hands. The Dutchman who might have been own brothers to those judices, 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 cowered. 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 awkward salute, and when Dickon, 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 up the ascent. This lady, I said, taking her hand as she stood beside me, is my true and lawful wife, your mistress, to be honoured and obeyed as such. Who fails in reverence to her I hold as mutinous to myself, and will deal with him accordingly. She gives you tomorrow for holiday, with double rations, and to each a measure of rum. Now, thank her properly. They cheered lustily, of course, and Dickon stepping forward gave us thanks in the name of them all and wished us joy. After which, with another cheer, they back from out our presence, then turned and made for their quarters while I led my wife within the house and closed the door. Dickon 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 maze 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, deposited her bundle upon the settle, and saw that Dickon 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 impatient and went to call her. The door was ajar, and so 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 longed to wait. Presently she appeared, and I could have doubted the testimony of my eyes, so changed were the agonized face and figure of a few moments before. Beautiful and disdainful she moved to the table and took the great chair drawn before it with the air of an empress mounting a throne. I contended myself with the stool. She ate nothing, and scarcely touched the canary I poured for her. I pressed upon her wine and vines 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 the door and windows, and returning found her standing in the center 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 lean against the chimney-piece. 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, today, 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 a wife? Yes, madame, I answered. I went with that intention. You had made your calculation? In your mind you had pitched upon such and such an article, with such and such qualities as desirable? Doubtless you meant to get your money's worth? Doubtless, I said, dryly. Will you tell me what you were inclined to consider its equivalent? I stared at her, much inclined to laugh. The interview 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 overanxious, I did not rung 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 cleanliness and good temper, who was to order my household 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. It God's name, why did you not go further? I suppose she saw in my face why I went no further, 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 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 rough. We stood so in silence, she with bent head and fingers clasping and unclasping, eye leaning against the wall and staring at her for 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 Cersei 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 in treating 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. I do not think that I have not hated myself for the lie I have been. But these farce creatures that you take, will they not bite against springe and snare? Are they scrupulous as to how they freed 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 thousand 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 worried of service and had signed to go to Virginia as one of Sir Edwin Sandy's 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 set 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 not the Patience Worth to whose name I answered. No one knows now. None but you. None but you. And why am I so 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 various stranger. You are but the hand at which I caught to draw myself from a pit that had been digged for me. It was my 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 set 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 afternoon 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 guiled and cheated. I am sorry, that is all I can say. I am sorry. I am your wife. I was married to you today, 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 to do so. I went to the door, unbarded, and looked out into the night, for the air within the room stifled me. It was not much better outside. The clouds had gathered 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 Rolf for suggesting this thing to me. Anger against myself for that unlucky throw. Anger, most of all, against the woman who had so cozen to me. In the servants huts a hundred 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 Dickens cabin, dicing for tomorrow's rum. When I had struck out the light with my rapier, and had raided the robes to their several quarters, I went back through the gathering storm to the brightly lit, flower-decked room, and to Mistress Percy. 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 continued. 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 hung my weapons. Among them was a small dagger. Her quick eye caught its gleam, and I saw her press closer to the wall, and with her right hand strives steadily 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 to 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, I 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. This Lieberbach's recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Weiss. Chapter 5 In Which A Woman Has Her Way Ten days later, Ralph, going down river in his barge, touched at my wharf, 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 farthing-gale Benedict the married man? In the house. Oh, I, 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 goodie Cotton to do that. He eyed me closely, by all the gods. A new doublet? She is skillful with her needle-ben. She may be, I answered. Never having seen her with one, I am no judge. The doublet was made by the tailor at Flower-Dew 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, an arbor, too, and a seat beneath the big walnut, since when has thou turned Gardener Ralph? It's Dickens doing. He is anxious to please his mistress. Who neither sows nor cooks nor plants. What does she do? She pulls the roses, I said. Come in. When we had entered the house, he stared about him, then cried out, A crazy as bower! Oh, thou some-time Guyon! and began to laugh. It was late afternoon and the slant sunshine streaming 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-buried, tapestried the other. Flowers, purple and red and yellow were everywhere. As we entered, a figure started up from the hearth. St. George exclaimed, Ralph, you have never married a black amour. It is the negrous Angela, I said. I bought her from William Pierce the other day. Mistress Percy wished awaiting damsel. The creature, one of the five females of her kind 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 Ralph and I sat down to discuss it. Had I been in a mood per 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 strengthened weakness veiled power, the star in the mist, guiding, beckoning, drawing upward. 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 Jamestown was neither small nor light. Why, when she fled, she chose to burden herself with such toys, or whether she gave a clock to the suspicions that might be raised in Virginia if one of Sir Edwin'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 gods of a maid of honor. The puritan dress in which I first saw her was a thing of the past. She clothed herself now, like the parakeets in the forest. Or like her the lilies of the field, for verily she toiled not. Neither did she spin. Rolf and I rose from our seats. Mistress Percy, I said, let me present to you a right worthy gentleman and my very good friend, Master John Rolf. 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 indifferently enough, probably in London amongst the spectators of a sub-pagent arranged in honor of the princess, your wife's sir, she said carelessly. I had twice the fortune to see the Lady Rebecca passing through the streets. Not in the streets only, he said courteously. I remember now. Twas at my Lord Bishop's dinner. A very courtly company it was. You were laughing with my Lord Rich. You wore pearls in your hair. She met his gaze fully and boldly. Memory plays a strange trick at times. She told him in a clear, slightly raised voice, and it hath been three years since Master Rolf 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 center of the room, bathed in the sunlight, and the negris 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 plume toy, two and fro, that she turned her lovely face upon us and made us be seated. An hour later a whipper wheel uttered its cry close to the window through which now shone the crescent moon. Rolf started up. Be shrew me, but I had forgot that I am to sleep at chaplains tonight. 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, yay, and drunk deep. His eyes were very bright with an exultation 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 as I stand here, Rolf, I saw her, a guest, at that feast of which I spoke, and Edwin 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 deliberation, awaiting Damsel, who worried of service, and came to Virginia to better herself. She was landed with her mates at Jamestown, a week or more ago, went with them to church, and thence to the courting meadow, where she and Captain Ralf Percy, a gentleman 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 is such to be honored by those who called 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, Ralf? 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 opened up. Art content? 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 Mistress Percy was, as usual, wasting good pine nuts. I had a vision of the many lights within, and of the beauty whom the world called my wife, sitting erect bathed in that rosy glow in the great armchair with the turban negris behind her. I suppose Ralf saw the same thing, for he looked from the light to me, and I heard him draw his breath. Ralf Percy, thou art the very button upon the cap of fortune, he said. To myself, my laugh sounded something of the bitterest, but to him, I presume, it vaunted my return through the darkness to the lit room and its resplendent pearl. He waved farewell, and the dust swallowed 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 pulled it in her silken lap, the air from the waving fan blowing tendrils of her dark hair against her delicate standing ruff. I went and leaned against the window facing her. I have chosen Burgess for this hundred, I said abruptly. The assembly meets next week. I must be in Jamestown, then, and for some time to come. She took the fan from the negris 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' wools 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 to offend their mistress. Moreover, I would leave Dickon in charge. Dickon, she cried. The old woman in the kitchen had told me tales of Dickon. Dickon, rabbo. Dickon, gamester. Dickon, cutthroat. Granted, I said. But Dickon, 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 snap of her foot and turning her back upon me, took a flower from the table and commenced to pull from it its petals. I unsheathed my sword and seeding 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 the other side of the room. The missile was followed by an enchanting burst of laughter. We cannot afford to quarrel, can we? cried Mistress Jocelyn Perry. 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 wouldn't lead me to the mercies of the savages, will you? And I may go to Jamestown, may die. I want to go to church. I want to go to the governor's house. I want to buy many things. I have gold in plenty, but this one decent dress. You'll 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 bearing, there will be talk enough. And ships come and go, and there are those besides a rulf who have been to London. For a moment the laughter died from her eyes and lips. But it returned. Let them talk, she said. What care I? And I do not think your ship captains, your traders and adventurers, do often dine with my Lord Bishop. This barbarous forest world and another world that I want 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 Jamestown? If you will it so. With her bright eyes upon me and with one hand softly striking a rose against her laughing lips, she extended the other hand. You may kiss it if you wish, sir, she said demurely. I knelt and kissed the white fingers, and four days later we went to Jamestown. CHAPTER 6 IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN It was early morning when we set out on horseback for Jamestown. I rode in front with Mistress Percy upon a pillion behind me, and Dickon on the brown mare brought up the rear. The negrous and the males 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 moorn 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 hoose dangerly upon fern and moss and lush grass. In the purple distances, deer stood at gaze, the air rang with innumerable bird-notes clear and sweet, squirrels 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 14 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. Today she chose to be gracious. Ten times in an hour Dickon was off his horse to pluck this or that plower 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 Dickon brought her. She laughed at the squirrels, at the scurrying partridges, at the turkeys that crossed our path, at the fish that leaped from the brooks, at old Jacom and his sons who ferried us across the Chickahomani. 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 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 floating to the ground, and when Dickon had brought them to her, she pointed triumphantly to the blood upon them. You said, too, 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 Dickon's voice behind me. I, I answered, she'll find a jack of mail but a hard pillow, and look to her that she does not fall. 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. Dickon, I cried at last sharply. He came to his senses with a start. I, sir, he questioned his face, dark red. Suppose you look at me for a change, I said. How long since Dale came in, Dickon? Ten years, sir. Before we enter Jamestown, we'll 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 hoarse boy in my old company in the Low Countries, God what the life was scarcely worth 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 your past misdeeds, and your amendment hath been of yet lesser bulk. A hardy rogue thou wasst born, and a rogue thou wilt remain till 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 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 from my eyes nor her hand for my lips. If I keep not myself clean of all offence toward her, may God approve that which my master shall do. The blood rushed to his face. I watched his finger slowly loosening their grasp. Tardy obedience is of the house of mutiny, I said sternly. Will you, Sura, or will you not? He raised his hand and repeated the words. Now hold her as before, I ordered, and straightening 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 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 sinking? In fact, from the woods in front of us, and not a bow shot away, rang out a powerful voice. In the merry month of May, in a mourn by break of day, with a troop of densels playing, forth I went, forsooth a mane, 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, spring halt and spabbin' 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, what, would love and she would not, said Neverman 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 off the squirrels and getting to his feet advanced to meet us. A toy he declared with the wave of his hand, a trifle, a silly old song that came into my mind unawares, the leaves being so green and the sky so blue. Had you come a little earlier or a little later, you would have heard the nightiest 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 demented. Come ride with us, Dickon, saddle his reverence's horse. Saddle him as thou wilt, friend, said Master Sparrow, for he and I have idle long enough, but 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'll last that far. Master Sparrow shook his head with a rueful countenance. I bought him from one of the French vinaurans below Westover, he said. The fellow was astride the poor creature, beating him with a club because he could not go. I laid Major Corpaw in the dust, after which we compounded he for my purse, eye for the animal. Since when the poor beast and I have trampled it together, for I could not in conscience ride him. Have you read Asop's fables, Captain Percy? I remember the man, the boy, and the ass, I replied. 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. Tis a thousand pities, Captain Percy, that a small, mean, and squeamish spirit like mine should be cased like a very guy of warwick. Now, if I were sleight of body, or even if I were no heavier than your servant there. Oh, I said, Dickon, give his reverence the mayor, and 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 Jeremy Sparrow. He swung his great body into the saddle, gathered up the reins, and made the mayor to caracall across the path for very joy. Have a care of the poor brute friend, he cried genially to Dickon, whose looks were of the sulkiest. Bring him gently on, and leave him at Master Buck's, nearer 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 Henriquez to help Master Thorpe convert the Indians. I, 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 Henriquez one day's journey into the wilderness, with none but an Indian land 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 exhortation being finished, one of their old men arose and made me a long speech which I could not well understand, but took to be one of grateful welcome to myself and my tidings of peace and goodwill. He then desired me to tarry with them, 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 with 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 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 on lip. My friend, I did not tarry to see it lip. 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 Philistines. Their wretched victim was beyond all human help, but I dearly avenged him upon his enemies, and they had their plans 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 nowhere commanded to preach to devils. When the company 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 Buck 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 to remain and minister to the shepherdless plot. Where will you lodge, good sir? I do not know, I said. The town will be pulled, 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 good wife 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, have thou and smile from Adam, I shall be your debtor. His plea pleased me well, except the Governor's 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. Good wife Allen was stolid and incurious. Moreover, I liked Master Jeremy Smarrow. I accepted his hospitality and gave him thanks. He waved them away, and fell to complimenting Mistress Percy, who was pleased to be gracious to us both. Well content for the moment with the world and our cells, we fared on through the alternating sunshine and shade, and were happy with the careless inhabitants of the forest. Over soon we came to the peninsula and crossed the neck of land. Before us lay the town, to the outer eye of poor and mean village, indeed, but to the inner, the stronghold, and capital 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 cumbliness. 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 itself outweighing all the toil and anguish of our planting. But there were others who saw only the meanness 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 straight away 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 Warwick'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 palisade and found the gates wide open and the water gone. Where be the people? marveled Master Sparrow 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 Gail and Pillary, 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 Croaton? They have left one to tell the tale then, I said, for here he comes running. Chapter 7, in which we prepare to fight the Spaniard. 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 people? 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 explained. What's the matter? The man whom I recognized as one of the commander's servants, a fellow with the soul of a French valet de Chambre, was wild with terror. They are at the guns, he quavered. A lackaday. What can a few sacres and demaculverines do against them? Against who, I cried. They are giving out pikes and cutlasses, woes me the sight of naked steel hath ever made me sick. I drew my dagger and flashed it before him. Just make you sick, I asked. You shall be sicker yet if you do not speak to some purpose. The fellow shrank back, his eyeball starting from his head. It's a tall ship, he gassed, a very big ship. It hath ten culverines, besides pollers and murderers, sabers and 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 tomorrow will all be on the rack, and next week the galleys will have us. 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 thrown open, and through them streamed counselors, burgesses and officers, while the bank itself was thronged with the generality. Ancient planters, smithsmen, dalesmen, tenets and servers, women and children, including the little Ioses we imported the year before, negroes, pospa hedges, French venons, Dutch sawmill men, Italian glass workers, all seeth, two and fro, all talked at once, and all looked down the river. Out of the babble of voices these words came to us over and over. The Spaniard, the Inquisition, the galleys, they were the words often as turd at that time when strange sails hove in sight. But where was the Spaniard? On the river hugging the shore were many small craft, barges, shallops, sloops, and pinnaces, and beyond them the masts of the true love, the dew return, and the tiger then in port. Of these three, of which the largest the dew return was of, but eighty tons verthen, the mariners were running about and the masters balding orders. But there was no other ship, no bark, galleon, or man of war, with three tiers of grinning ordinance, and the hated yellow flag flaunting above. I sprang from my horse and, leaving it, and Mistress 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 Corey to come up. He was panting and puffing, his jovial face very red. I was across the neck of the land when I heard the news, he said. I ran all the way, and am somewhat scant of breath. Here's the devil to pay. It looks another mare's nest, I replied. We have cried Spaniard pretty often. But this time the wolves here, he answered. Davies 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 noisy enough, but more order than without. On the half-moons commanding the river, gunners were busy about our sackers, falcons, and three culverines. In one place, west, the commander was giving out frigantines, jacks, skulls, muskets, halberds, swords, and longbows. In another, his wife, who was a very merry empry, supervised the boiling of a great cauldron of pitch. Each loophole in Palisade and Fort had already its marksmen. Through the west port came a horde of reluctant invaders, cattle, swine, and poultry, driven in by yelling boys. I made my way through the press to where I saw the governor, surrounded by counselors and burgesses, sitting on a keg of powder, and issuing orders at the top of his voice. Ha! Captain Percy, he cried. As I came up, you are in good time. You've served your apprenticeship at the wars. You must teach us how to beat the dons. To Englishmen that comes by nature, sir, I said. Are sure we are to have the pleasure? Not a doubt of it this time, he answered. The ship slipped in past the point last night. Davies signaled her to stop, and then set 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 Bass'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. I said, it hath a suspicious look. At least we do well to be ready. We'll give them a warm welcome. There are those here who council surrender, continued 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 warrant. As much an Englishman as thou, sir, called out a gentleman whom I had encountered before to wit, Master Edward Sharpless. It's well enough for swing-buckler captains, low-country fire-eaters, to talk of holding out against the Spaniard man of war with twice our number of fighting men, and enough ordinates to batter the town out of existence. Wise men know when the odds are too heavy. It's well enough for lily-livered goose-fleshed lawyers 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. They won't be an Englishman left in America. They'll come close in upon us. They'll batter down the fort with their culverines. They'll turn all their swivels, sackers, and falcons upon us. They'll throw into our midst stink-pots and grenades. They'll mow us down with chainshot. Their gunners never miss. His voice rose to a scream, and he shook as with an aigu. Are you mad? It's Spain that's to be fought. Spain the rich. Spain the powerful. Spain the lord of the new world. It's England that fights, I cried, for very shame hold thy tongue. If we surrender it once, they'll let us go, he whined. We can take the small boats and get to the Bermudas. They'll let us go. Into the galley's muttered west. The craven tried another faint. Think of the women and children. We do, I said sternly. Silence, fool! The governor, a brave and honest man, rose from the keg of powder. All this is foreign to the matter, 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 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 counselors and burgesses and the armed men beyond. The hum of voices now rose into excited cries and the watchmen stationed atop the big culverine 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 lessening 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 Pel-Mell, the crowd without. In ten minutes time the women were in line ready to load the muskets. The children sheltered as best 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 beneath 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 we take 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 coin of vantage the watch now called out. She's a long ship, five hundred tons anyhow, lord the metal that she carries. She's raised decked. Then she's Spanish, sure enough, cried the governor. From the crowd of servants, felons, and foreigners rose a great clamor, and presently we made out sharpness perched on a cast in their midst and wildly just stipulating. The tiger, the true love, and the due return have swung across channel, announced the watch. They've trained their guns on the Spaniard. The Englishman cheered, but the bastard crew about sharpness groaned. Extreme fear had made the lawyer 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'll trample them under foot, she'll sink them with a shot apiece. The tiger is forty tons, and the true love is sixty. You're all mad. Sometimes quality beats quantity, said West. It's ever here of the content, saying out a gunner. Or of the merchant royal, cried another. Or of the revenge, both Master Jeremy Sparrow. Go hang thy self-coward, or if you choose, swim out to the Spaniard, and shift from thy wet doublet and hose into a San Benito. Let the dawn come, shoot if he can, and land if he will. We'll cinch his beard in Virginia, as we did at the Calais. The great St. Philip, the pride of the Spaniards, was burnt to the bottom, and sunk in the sea. The St. Andrew, and eat the St. Matthew. We took in fight manfully, and brought away. And so we'll do with this one, my masters. We'll sink her, or we'll take her, and send her against her own galleons and galleuses. Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, thus striked their drums. Tantara, tentara, the Englishman comes. 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 hardy-hood his countenance 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 Antichrist 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, God of England, God of America, aid the children of the one, the saviors of the other. 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 upon the flagstaff and looked up to the banner streaming in the breeze. It looks well so nigh against the blue. Doesn't it, friends? He cried genially. Suppose we keep it there forever and a day. 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 tears 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 smoke floated up from the deck of the tiger, and a ball from one of her two tiny falcons passed through the stranger's rigging. A cheer for the brave little cock boat arose from the English. David and his pebble exclaimed 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 flaunt it in the wind the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew. And with a crash, trumpet, drum, and fight rushed into, here's to jolly good ale and old. By the lord she's English, shouted the governor. On she came banners flying, music playing, an inextinguishable laughter rising from her decks. The tiger, the true love, and the dew return sent no more hailstones against her. They turned and resolved themselves into her consort. The watch, a grim old sea dog that had come in with the dale, swung himself down from his post and came toward the governor at a run. I know her now, sir, he shouted. I was at the winning of Calais 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 riverbank. I found myself beside the governor whose honest countenance wore an expression a profound bewilderment. What do you make of her, Percy, he said. The company does not sense servants, felons, apprentices, or maids in such craft. No, nor officers or governors either. It's the kingship, sure enough. But what is she doing here? That's the question. What does she want and whom does she bring? We'll soon know, I answered, for there goes her anchor. Five minutes later a boat was lowered from the ship and came swiftly towards 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, counselors, officers, and a sprinkling of other sorts stood staring at it and that the great ship beyond. The man in the stern leaped out, looked around him, and then walked towards 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 tapeta, the arrogance of his mienne and gait, and the superb, full-blooded beauty of his face. The handsomest man that I ever saw, ejaculated the governor. Master Corey, standing beside him, drew in his breath, then puffed it out again. Handsome enough, your honor, he said, unless handsome is as handsome does. That gentleman is my lord carnal. That is the king's latest favorite.