initial commit of ebook 4528HEADmain

2 files changed, 7800 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/hrhgw10.txt b/old/hrhgw10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29981cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/hrhgw10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7800 @@
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart's Highway, by Mary E. Wilkins
+#4 in our series by Mary E. Wilkins
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other
+Project Gutenberg file.
+
+We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your
+own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future
+readers.  Please do not remove this.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to
+view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission.
+The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the
+information they need to understand what they may and may not
+do with the etext.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and
+further information, is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+
+
+Title: The Heart's Highway
+
+Author: Mary E. Wilkins
+
+Release Date: October, 2003 [Etext# 4528]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 2, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart's Highway, by Mary E. Wilkins
+*********This file should be named hrhgw10.txt or hrhgw10.zip*********
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hrhgw11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hrhgw10a.txt
+
+This etext was produced by Charles Aldarondo (Aldarondo@yahoo.com).
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts.  We need
+funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain
+or increase our production and reach our goals.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of January, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware,
+Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
+Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon,
+Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
+Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin,
+and Wyoming.
+
+*In Progress
+
+We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+All donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fundraising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fundraising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart
+and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.]
+[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
+of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
+software or any other related product without express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Charles Aldarondo (Aldarondo@yahoo.com).
+
+
+
+
+The Heart's Highway
+
+A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeeth Century
+
+By
+
+Mary E. Wilkins
+
+NEW YORK
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Heart's Highway
+
+I
+
+
+
+
+
+In 1682, when I was thirty years of age and Mistress Mary Cavendish
+just turned of eighteen, she and I together one Sabbath morning in
+the month of April were riding to meeting in Jamestown. We were all
+alone except for the troop of black slaves straggling in the rear,
+blurring the road curiously with their black faces. It seldom
+happened that we rode in such wise, for Mistress Catherine
+Cavendish, the elder sister of Mistress Mary, and Madam Cavendish,
+her grandmother, usually rode with us--Madam Judith Cavendish,
+though more than seventy, sitting a horse as well as her
+granddaughters, and looking, when viewed from the back, as young as
+they, and being in that respect, as well as others, a wonder to the
+countryside. But it happened to-day that Madam Cavendish had a touch
+of the rheumatics, that being an ailment to which the swampy estate
+of the country rendered those of advanced years somewhat liable, and
+had remained at home on her plantation of Drake Hill (so named in
+honour of the great Sir Francis Drake, though he was long past the
+value of all such earthly honours). Catherine, who was a most
+devoted granddaughter, had remained with her--although, I
+suspected, with some hesitation at allowing her young sister to go
+alone, except for me, the slaves being accounted no more company
+than our shadows. Mistress Catherine Cavendish had looked at me
+after a fashion which I was at no loss to understand when I had
+stood aside to allow Mistress Mary to precede me in passing the
+door, but she had no cause for the look, nor for the apprehension
+which gave rise to it. By reason of bearing always my burthen upon
+my own back, I was even more mindful of it than others were who had
+only the sight of it, whereas I had the sore weight and the evil
+aspect in my inmost soul. But it was to be borne easily enough by
+virtue of that natural resolution of a man which can make but a
+featherweight of the sorest ills if it be but put in the balance
+against them. I was tutor to Mistress Mary Cavendish, and I had
+sailed from England to Virginia under circumstances of disgrace;
+being, indeed, a convict.
+
+I knew exceeding well what was my befitting deportment when I set
+out that Sabbath morning with Mistress Mary Cavendish, and not only
+upon that Sabbath morning but at all other times; still I can well
+understand that my appearance may have belied me, since when I
+looked in a glass I would often wonder at the sight of my own face,
+which seemed younger than my years, and was strangely free from any
+recording lines of experiences which might have been esteemed bitter
+by any one who had not the pride of bearing them. When my black
+eyes, which had a bold daring in them, looked forth at me from the
+glass, and my lips smiled with a gay confidence at me, I could not
+but surmise that my whole face was as a mask worn unwittingly over a
+grave spirit. But since a man must be judged largely by his outward
+guise and I had that of a gay young blade, I need not have taken it
+amiss if Catherine Cavendish had that look in her eyes when I set
+forth with her young sister alone save for those dark people which
+some folk believed to have no souls.
+
+I rode a pace behind Mary Cavendish, and never glanced her way, not
+needing to do so in order to see her, for I seemed to see her with a
+superior sort of vision compounded partly of memory and partly of
+imagination. Of the latter I had, not to boast, though it may
+perchance be naught to boast of, being simply a kind of higher
+folly, a somewhat large allowance from my childhood. But that was
+not to be wondered at, whether it were to my credit or otherwise,
+since it was inherited from ancestors of much nobler fame and
+worthier parts than I, one of whom, though not in the direct line,
+the great Edward Maria Wingfield, the president of the first council
+of the Dominion of Virginia, having written a book which was held to
+be notable. This imagination for the setting forth and adorning of
+all common things and happenings, and my woman's name of Maria, my
+whole name being Harry Maria Wingfield, through my ancestor having
+been a favourite of a great queen, and so called for her honour,
+were all my inheritance at that date, all the estates belonging to
+the family having become the property of my younger brother John.
+
+But when I speak of my possessing an imagination which could gild
+all the common things of life, I meant not to include Mistress Mary
+Cavendish therein, for she needed not such gilding, being one of the
+most uncommon things in the earth, as uncommon as a great diamond
+which is rumoured to have been seen by travellers in far India. My
+imagination when directed toward her was exercised only with the
+comparing and combining of various and especial beauties of
+different times and circumstances, when she was attired this way or
+that way, or was grave or gay, or sweetly helpless and clinging or
+full of daring. When, riding near her, I did not look at her, she
+seemed all of these in one, and I was conscious of such a great
+dazzle forcing my averted eyes, that I seemed to be riding behind a
+star.
+
+I knew full well, though, as I said before, not studying the matter,
+just how Mistress Mary Cavendish sat her horse, which was a noble
+thoroughbred from England, though the one which I rode was a nobler,
+she having herself selected him for my use. The horse which she
+rode, Merry Roger, did not belie his name, for he was full of
+prances and tosses of his fine head, and prickings of his dainty
+pointed ears, but Mistress Mary sat him as lightly and truly and
+unswervingly as a blossom sits a dancing bough.
+
+That morning Mistress Mary glowed and glittered and flamed in
+gorgeous apparel, until she seemed to fairly overreach all the
+innocent young flowery beauties of the spring with one rich trill of
+colour, like a high note of a bird above a wide chorus of others.
+Mistress Mary that morning wore a tabby petticoat of a crimson
+colour, and a crimson satin bodice shining over her arms and
+shoulders like the plumage of a bird, and down her back streamed her
+curls, shining like gold under her gauze love-hood. I knew well how
+she had sat up late the night before fashioning that hood from one
+which her friend Cicely Hyde's grandmother had sent her from
+England, and I knew, the first pages of a young maid being easy to
+spell out, that she wondered if I, though only her tutor, approved
+her in it, but I gave no sign. The love-hood was made of such thin
+and precious stuff that the gold of her head showed through.
+
+Mistress Mary wore a mask of black velvet to screen her face from
+the sun, and only her sweet forehead and her great blue eyes and the
+rose-leaf tip of her chin showed.
+
+All that low, swampy country was lush and green that April morning,
+with patches of grass gleaming like emeralds in the wetness of
+sunken places and unexpected pools of marsh water gleaming out of
+the distances like sapphires. The blossoms thrust out toward us from
+every hand like insistent arms of beauty. There was a frequent bush
+by the wayside full of a most beautiful pink-horned flower, so
+exceeding sweet that it harmed the worth of its own sweetness, and
+its cups seemed fairly dripping with honey and were gummed together
+with it. There were patches of a flower of a most brilliant and
+wonderful blue colour, and spreads as of cloth of gold from cowslips
+over the lowlands. The road was miry in places, and then I would
+fall behind her farther still that the water and red mud splashing
+from beneath my horse's hoofs might not reach her. Then, finally,
+after I had done thus some few times, she reined in her Merry Roger,
+and looked over her shoulder with a flash of her blue eyes which
+compelled mine.
+
+"Why do you ride so far away, Master Wingfield?" said she.
+
+I lifted my hat and bent so low in my saddle that the feather on it
+grazed the red mud.
+
+"Because I fear to splash your fine tabby petticoat, Madam," I
+answered.
+
+"I care not for my fine petticoat," said she in a petulant way, like
+that of a spoiled child who is forbidden sweets and the moon, and
+questions love in consequence, yet still there was some little fear
+and hesitation in her tone. Mistress Mary was a most docile pupil,
+seeming to have great respect for my years and my learning, and was
+as gentle under my hand as was her Merry Roger under hers, and yet
+with the same sort of gentleness, which is as the pupil and not as
+the master decides, and let the pull of the other will be felt.
+
+I answered not, yet kept at my distance, but at the next miry place
+she held in Merry Roger until I was forced to come up, and then she
+spoke again, and as she spoke a mock-bird was singing somewhere over
+on the bank of the river.
+
+"Did you ever hear a sweeter bird's song than that, Master
+Wingfield?" said she, and I answered that it was very sweet, as
+indeed it was.
+
+"What do you think the bird is mocking, Master Wingfield?" said she,
+and then I answered like a fool, for the man who meets sweetness
+with his own bitterness and keeps it not locked in his own soul is a
+fool.
+
+"I know not," said I, "but he may be mocking the hope of the spring,
+and he may be mocking the hope in the heart of man. The song seems
+too sweet for a mock of any bird which has no thought beyond this
+year's nest."
+
+I spoke thus as I would not now, when I have learned that the soul
+of man, like the moon, hath a face which he should keep ever turned
+toward the Unseen, and Mistress Mary's blue eyes, as helpless of
+comprehension as a flower, looked in mine.
+
+"But there will be another spring, Master Wingfield," said she
+somewhat timidly, and then she added, and I knew that she was
+blushing under her mask at her own tenderness, "and sometimes the
+hopes of the heart come true."
+
+She rode on with her head bent as one who considers deeply, but I,
+knowing her well, knew that the mood would soon pass, as it did.
+Suddenly she tossed her head and flung out her curls to the breeze,
+and swung Merry Roger's bridle-rein, and was away at a gallop and I
+after her, measuring the ground with wide paces on my tall
+thoroughbred. In this fashion we soon left the plodding blacks so
+far behind that they became a part of the distance-shadows. Then,
+all at once, Mistress Mary swerved off from the main road and was
+riding down the track leading to the plantation-wharf, whence all
+the tobacco was shipped for England and all the merchandise imported
+for household use unladen. There the way was very wet and the mire
+was splashed high upon Mistress Mary's fine tabby skirt, but she
+rode on at a reckless pace, and I also, much at a loss to know what
+had come to her, yet not venturing, or rather, perhaps, deigning to
+inquire. And then I saw what she had doubtless seen before, the
+masts of a ship rising straightly among the trees with that
+stiffness and straightness of dead wood, which is beyond that of
+live, unless, indeed, in a storm at sea, when the wind can so
+inspirit it, that I have seen a mast of pine possessed by all the
+rage of yielding of its hundred years on the spur of a mountain.
+
+When I saw the mast I knew that the ship belonging to Madam
+Cavendish, which was called "The Golden Horn," and had upon the bow
+the likeness of a gilt-horn, running over with fruit and flowers,
+had arrived. It was by this ship that Madam Cavendish sent the
+tobacco raised upon the plantation of Drake Hill to England.
+
+But even then I knew not what had so stirred Mistress Mary that she
+had left her sober churchward road upon the Sabbath day, and judged
+that it must be the desire to see "The Golden Horn" fresh from her
+voyage, nor did I dream what she purposed doing.
+
+Toward the end of the rolling road the wetness increased; there were
+little pools left from the recedence of the salt tide, and the wild
+breath of it was in our faces. Then we heard voices singing together
+in a sailor-song which had a refrain not quite suited to the day,
+according to common opinions, having a refrain about a lad who
+sailed away on bounding billow and left poor Jane to wear the
+willow; but what's a lass's tears of brine to the Spanish Main and a
+flask of wine?
+
+As we came up to the ship lying in her dock, we saw sailors on deck
+grouped around a cask of that same wine which they had taken the
+freedom to broach, in order to celebrate their safe arrival in port,
+though it was none of theirs. The sight aroused my anger, but Mary
+Cavendish did not seem to see any occasion for wrath. She sat her
+prancing horse, her head up, and her curls streaming like a flag of
+gold, and there was a blue flash in her eyes, of which I knew the
+meaning. The blood of her great ancestor, the sea king, Thomas
+Cavendish, who was second only to Sir Francis Drake, was astir
+within her. She sat there with the salt sea wind in her nostrils,
+and her hair flung upon it like a pennant of victory, and looked at
+the ship wet with the ocean surges, the sails stiff with the rime of
+salt, and the group of English sailors on the deck, and those old
+ancestral instincts which constitute the memory of the blood awoke.
+She was in that instant as she sat there almost as truly that ardent
+Suffolkshire lad, Thomas Cavendish, ready to ride to the death the
+white plungers of the sea, and send the Spanish Armada to the
+bottom, as Mary Cavendish of Drake Hill, the fairest maid of her
+time in the Colony of Virginia.
+
+Then as suddenly that mood left her, as she sat there, the sailors
+having risen, and standing staring with shamefaced respect, and
+covertly wiping with the hairy backs of hands their mouths red with
+wine. But the captain, one Calvin Tabor, stood before them with more
+assurance, as if he had some warrant for allowing such license among
+his men; he himself seemed not to have been drinking. Mistress Mary
+regarded them, holding in Merry Roger with her firm little hand,
+with the calm grace of a queen, although she was so young, and all
+the wild fire was gone from her blue eyes. All this time, I being as
+close to her side as might be, in case of any rudeness of the men,
+though that was not likely, they being a picked crew of Suffolkshire
+men, and having as yet not tasted more wine than would make them
+unquestioning of strange happenings, and render them readily
+acquiescent to all counter currents of fate.
+
+They had ceased their song and stood with heavy eyes sheepishly
+averted in their honest red English faces, but Captain Calvin Tabor
+spoke, bowing low, yet, as I said before, with assured eyes.
+
+"I have the honour to salute you, Mistress," he spoke with a grace
+somewhat beyond his calling. He was a young man, as fair as a
+Dutchman and a giant in stature. He bore himself also curiously for
+one of his calling, bowing as steadily as a cavalier, with no
+trembling of the knees when he recovered, and carrying his right arm
+as if it would grasp sword rather than cutlass if the need arose.
+
+"God be praised! I see that you have brought 'The Golden Horn'
+safely to port," said Mistress Mary with a stately sweetness that
+covered to me, who knew her voice and its every note so well, an
+exultant ring.
+
+"Yes, praised be God, Mistress Cavendish," answered Captain Tabor,
+"and with fine head winds to swell the sails and no pirates."
+
+"And is my new scarlet cloak safe?" cried Mistress Mary, "and my
+tabby petticoats and my blue brocade bodice, and my stockings and my
+satin shoes, and laces?"
+
+Mistress Mary spoke with that sweetness of maiden vanity which calls
+for tender leniency and admiration from a man instead of contempt.
+And it may easily chance that he may be as filled with vain delight
+as she, and picture to himself as plainly her appearance in those
+new fallalls.
+
+I wondered somewhat at the length of the list, as not only Mistress
+Mary's wardrobe, but those of her grandmother and sister and many of
+the household supplies, had to be purchased with the proceeds of the
+tobacco, and that brought but scanty returns of late years, owing to
+the Navigation Act, which many esteemed a most unjust measure, and
+scrupled not to say so, being secure in the New World, where
+disloyalty against kings could flourish without so much danger of
+the daring tongue silenced at Tyburn.
+
+It had been a hard task for many planters to purchase the
+necessaries of life with the profits of their tobacco crop, since
+the trade with the Netherlands was prohibited by His Most Gracious
+Majesty, King Charles II, for the supply being limited to the
+English market, had so exceeded the demand that it brought but a
+beggarly price per pound. Therefore, I wondered, knowing that many
+of those articles of women's attire mentioned by Mistress Mary were
+of great value, and brought great sums in London, and knowing, too,
+that the maid, though innocently fond of such things, to which she
+had, moreover, the natural right of youth and beauty such as hers,
+which should have all the silks and jewels of earth, and no
+questioning, for its adorning, was not given to selfish
+appropriation for her own needs, but rather considered those of
+others first. However, Mistress Mary had some property in her own
+right, she being the daughter of a second wife, who had died
+possessed of a small plantation called Laurel Creek, which was a
+mile distant from Drake Hill, farther inland, having no ship dock
+and employing this. Mistress Mary might have sent some of her own
+tobacco crop to England wherewith to purchase finery for herself.
+Still I wondered, and I wondered still more when Mistress Mary,
+albeit the Lord's Day, and the penalty for such labour being even
+for them of high degree not light, should propose, as she did, that
+the goods be then and there unladen. Then I ventured to address her,
+riding close to her side, that the captain and the sailors should
+not hear, and think that I held her in slight respect and treated
+her like a child, since I presumed to call her to account for aught
+she chose to do.
+
+"Madam," said I as low as might be, "do you remember the day?"
+
+"And wherefore should I not?" asked she with a toss of her gold
+locks and a pout of her red lips which was childishness and
+wilfulness itself, but there went along with it a glance of her eyes
+which puzzled me, for suddenly a sterner and older spirit of resolve
+seemed to look out of them into mine. "Think you I am in my dotage,
+Master Wingfield, that I remember not the day?" said she, "and think
+you that I am going deaf that I hear not the church bells?"
+
+"If we miss the service for the unlading of the goods, and it be
+discovered, it may go amiss with us," said I.
+
+"Are you then afraid, Master Wingfield?" asked she with a glance of
+scorn, and a blush of shame at her own words, for she knew that they
+were false.
+
+I felt the blood rush to my face, and I reined back my horse, and
+said no more.
+
+"I pray you have the goods that you know of unladen at once, Captain
+Tabor," said she, and she made a motion that would have been a stamp
+had she stood.
+
+Calvin Tabor laughed, and cast a glance of merry malice at me, and
+bowed low as he replied:
+
+"The goods shall be unladen within the hour, Mistress," said he,
+"and if you and the gentleman would rather not tarry to see them for
+fear of discovery--"
+
+"We shall remain," said Mistress Mary, interrupting peremptorily.
+
+"Then," said Captain Calvin Tabor with altogether too much of
+freedom as I judged, "in case you be brought to account for the work
+upon the Sabbath, 'The Golden Horn' hath wings for such a wind as
+prevails to-day as will outspeed all pursuers, even should they
+borrow wings of the cherubim in the churchyard."
+
+I was glad that Mistress Mary did not, for all her youthfulness of
+temper, laugh in return, but answered him with a grave dignity as if
+she herself felt that he had exceeded his privilege.
+
+"I pray you order the goods unladen at once, Captain Tabor," she
+repeated. Then the captain coloured, for he was quick-witted to
+scent a rebuff, though he laughed again in his dare-devil fashion as
+he turned to the sailors and shouted out the order, and straightway
+the sailors so swarmed hither and thither upon the deck that they
+seemed five times as many as before, and then we heard the hatches
+flung back with claps like guns.
+
+We sat there and waited, and the bell over in Jamestown rang and the
+long notes died away with sweet echoes as if from distant heights.
+All around us the rank, woody growth was full of murmurs and
+movements of life, and perfumes from unseen blossoms disturbed one's
+thoughts with sweet insistence at every gust of wind, and always one
+heard the lapping of the sea-water through all its countless ways,
+for well it loves this country of Virginia and steals upon it, like
+a lover who will not be gainsaid, through meadows and thick woods
+and coarse swamps, until it is hard sometimes to say, when the tide
+be in, whether it be land or sea, and we who dwell therein might
+well account ourselves in a Venice of the New World.
+
+I waited and listened while the sailors unloaded the goods with many
+a shout and repeated loud commands from the captain, and Mistress
+Mary kept her eyes turned away from my face and watched persistently
+the unlading, and had seemingly no more thought of me than of one of
+the swamp trees for some time. Then all at once she turned toward
+me, though still her eyes evaded mine.
+
+"Why do you not go to church, Master Wingfield?" said she in a
+sweet, sharp voice.
+
+"I go when you go, Madam," said I.
+
+"You have no need to wait for me," said she. "I prefer that you
+should not wait for me."
+
+I made no reply, but reined in my horse, which was somewhat restive
+with his head in a cloud of early flies.
+
+"Do you not hear me, Master Wingfield?" said she. "Why do you not
+proceed to church and leave me to follow when I am ready?"
+
+She had never spoken to me in such manner before, and she dared not
+look at me as she spoke.
+
+"I go when you go, Madam," said I again.
+
+Then, suddenly, with an impulse half of mischief and half of anger,
+she lashed out with her riding whip at my restive horse, and he
+sprang, and I had much ado to keep him from bolting. He danced to
+all the trees and bushes, and she had to pull Merry Roger sharply to
+one side, but finally I got the mastery of him, and rode close to
+her again.
+
+"Madam," said I, "I forbid you to do that again," and as I spoke I
+saw her little fingers twitch on her whip, but she dared not raise
+it. She laughed as a child will who knows she is at fault and is
+scared by her consciousness of guilt and would conceal it by a
+bravado of merriment; then she said in the sweetest, wheedling tone
+that I had ever heard from her, and I had known her from her
+childhood:
+
+"But, Master Wingfield, 'tis broad daylight and there are no Indians
+hereabouts, and if there were, here are all these English sailors
+and Captain Tabor. Why need you stay? Indeed, I shall be quite
+safe--and hear, that must be the last stroke of the bell?"
+
+But I was not to be moved by wheedling. I repeated again that I
+should remain where she was. Then she, grown suddenly stern again,
+withdrew a little from me, and made no further efforts to get rid of
+me, but sat still watching the unlading with a gravity which gave me
+a vague uneasiness. I began to have a feeling that here was more
+than appeared on the surface, and my suspicion grew as I watched the
+sailors lift those boxes which were supposed to contain Mistress
+Mary's finery. In the first place there were enough of them to
+contain the wardrobe of a lady in waiting, in the second place they
+were of curious shape for such purposes, in the third place 'twas
+all those lusty English sailors could do to lift them.
+
+"They be the heaviest furbelows that ever maiden wore," I thought as
+I watched them strain at the cases, both hauling and pulling, with
+many men to the ends to get them through the hatch, then ease them
+to the deck, with regard to the nipping of fingers. I noted, too, an
+order given somewhat privately by Captain Tabor to put out the
+pipes, and noted that not one man but had stowed his away.
+
+There was a bridle-path leading through the woods to Laurel Creek,
+and by that way to my consternation Mistress Mary ordered the
+sailors to carry the cases. 'Twas two miles inland, and I marvelled
+much to hear her, for even should nearly all the crew go, the load
+would be a grievous one, it seemed to me. But to my mind Captain
+Calvin Tabor behaved as if the order was one which he expected,
+neither did the sailors grumble, but straightway loaded themselves
+with the case raised upon a species of hurdles which must have been
+provided for the purpose, and proceeded down the bridle-path,
+singing to keep up their hearts another song even more at odds with
+the day than the first. The captain marched at the head of the
+sailors, and Mistress Mary and I followed slowly through the narrow
+aisle of green. I rode ahead, and often pulled my horse to one side,
+pressing his body hard against the trees that I might hold back a
+branch which would have caught her headgear. All the way we never
+spoke. When we reached Laurel Creek, Mistress Mary drew the key from
+her pocket, which showed to me that the visit had been planned
+should the ship have arrived. She unlocked the door, and the
+sailors, no longer singing, for they were well-nigh spent by the
+journey under the heavy burdens, deposited the cases in the great
+room. Laurel Creek had belonged to Mistress Mary's maternal
+grandfather, Colonel Edmond Lane, and had not been inhabited this
+many a year, not since Mary was a baby in arms. The old furniture
+still stood in the accustomed places, looking desolate with that
+peculiar desolateness of lifeless things which have been associated
+with man. The house at Laurel Creek was a fine mansion, finer than
+Drake Hill, and the hall made me think of England. Great oak chests
+stood against the walls, hung with rusting swords and armour and
+empty powder-horns. A carven seat was beside the cold hearth, and in
+a corner was a tall spinning-wheel, and the carven stair led in a
+spiral ascent of mystery to the shadows above.
+
+When the cases were all deposited in the great room, Mistress Mary
+held a short conference apart with Captain Calvin Tabor, and I saw
+some gold pass from her hand to his. Then she thanked him and the
+sailors for their trouble very prettily in that way she had which
+would have made every one as willing to die for her as to carry
+heavy weights. Then we all filed out from the house, and Mistress
+Mary locked the door, and bade good-bye to Captain Tabor; then he
+and his men took again the bridle-path back to the ship, and she and
+I proceeded churchward on the highway.
+
+When we were once alone together I spurred my horse up to hers and
+caught her bridle and rode alongside and spoke to her as if all the
+past were naught, and I with the rights to which I had been born. It
+had come to that pass with me in those days that all the pride I had
+left was that of humility, but even that I was ready to give up for
+her if necessary.
+
+"Tell me, Madam," said I, "what was in those cases?"
+
+"Have I not told you?" said she, and I knew that she whitened under
+her mask.
+
+"There is more than woman's finery in those cases, which weigh like
+lead," said I. "What do they contain?"
+
+Mistress Mary had, after all, little of the feminine power of
+subterfuge in her. If she tried it, it was, as in this case, too
+transparent. Straight to the point she went with perfect frankness
+of daring and rebellion as a boy might.
+
+"It requires not much wit, methinks, Master Wingfield, to see that,"
+said she. Then she laughed. "Lord, how the poor sailor-men toiled to
+lift my gauzes and feathers and ribbons!" said she. Then her blue
+eyes looked at me through her mask with indescribable daring and
+defiance.
+
+"Well, and what will you do?" said she. "You are a gentleman in
+spite--you are a gentleman, you cannot betray me to my hurt, and
+you cannot command me like a child, for I am a child no longer, and
+I will not tell you what those cases contain."
+
+"You shall tell me," said I.
+
+"Make me if you can," said she.
+
+"Tell me what those cases contain," said I.
+
+Then she collapsed all at once as only the citadel of a woman's will
+can do through some inner weakness.
+
+"Guns and powder and shot and partizans," said she. Then she added,
+like one who would fain readjust herself upon the heights of her own
+resolution by a good excuse for having fallen. "Fie, why should I
+not have told you, Master Wingfield? You cannot betray me, for you
+are a gentleman, and I am not a child."
+
+"Why have you had guns and ammunition brought from England?" I
+asked; but in the shock of the discovery I had loosened my grasp of
+her bridle and she was off, and in a minute we were in Jamestown,
+and could not disturb the Sabbath quiet by talk or ride too fast.
+
+We were a good hour and a half late, but there was to my mind enough
+of preaching yet for my soul's good, for I thought not much of
+Parson Downs nor his sermons, but I dreaded for Mistress Mary that
+which might come from her tardiness and her Sabbath-breaking, if
+that were discovered. I dismounted, and assisted Mistress Mary to
+the horse block, and off came her black velvet mask, and she clapped
+a pretty hand to her hair and shook her skirts and wiped off a mud
+splash. Then up the aisle she went, and I after her and all the
+people staring.
+
+I can see that church as well to-day as if I were this moment there.
+Heavily sweet with honey and almond scent it was, as well as sweet
+herbs and musk, which the ladies had on their handkerchiefs, for it
+was like a bower with flowers. Great pink boughs arched overhead,
+and the altar was as white as snow with blossoms. Up the aisle she
+flashed, and none but Mary Cavendish could have made that little
+journey under the eyes of the governor in his pew and the governor's
+lady and all the burgesses, and the churchwarden half starting up as
+if to exercise his authority, and the parson swelling with a vast
+expanse of sable robes over the Book, with no abashedness and yet no
+boldness nor unmaidenly forwardness. There was an innocent gayety on
+her face like a child's, and an entire confidence in good will and
+loving charity for her tardiness which disarmed all. She looked out
+from that gauze love-hood of hers as she came up the aisle, and the
+governor, who had a harsh face enough ordinarily, beamed mildly
+indulgent. His lady eyed her with a sort of pleasant and reminiscent
+wonder, though she was a haughty dame. The churchwarden settled
+back, and as for Parson Downs, his great, red face curved in a
+smile, and his eyes twinkled under their heavy overhang of florid
+brow, and then he declaimed in a hoarser and louder shout than ever
+to cover the fact of his wandering attention. And young Sir Humphrey
+Hyde, sitting between his mother, Lady Betty, and his sister,
+Cicely, turned as pale as death when he saw her enter, and kept so,
+with frequent covert glances at her from time to time, and I saw
+him, and knew that he knew about Mistress Mary's furbelow boxes.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+
+
+
+My profession has been that of a tutor, and it thus befell that I
+was under the necessity of learning as much as I was able, and even
+going out of my way to seek those lessons at which all the pages of
+life are open for us, and even, as it were, turning over wayside
+stones, and looking under wayside weeds in the search for them; and
+it scarcely ever chanced that I did not get some slight savour of
+knowledge therefrom, though I was far enough from the full solution
+of the problems. And through these lessons I seemed to gain some
+increase of wisdom not only of the matters of which the lessons
+themselves treated, such as the courses of the stars and planets,
+the roots of herbs, and Latin verbs and algebraic quantities, and
+evil and good, but of their bearing upon the human heart. That I
+have ever held to be the most important knowledge of all, and the
+only reason for the setting of those lessons which must pass like
+all things mortal, and can only live in so far as they have turned
+that part of the scholar, which has hold of immortality, this or
+that way.
+
+I know not how it may be with other men, but of one branch of
+knowledge, which pertains directly to the human heart, and, when it
+be what its name indicates, to its eternal life, I gained no insight
+whatever from my books and my lessons, nor from my observance of its
+workings in those around me, and that was the passion of love. Of
+that I truly could learn naught except by turning my reflections
+toward my own heart.
+
+And I know not how this also may be with other men, but love with me
+had a beginning, though not an end and never shall have, and a
+completeness of growth which makes it visible to my thought like the
+shape of an angel. I have loved not in one way, but in every way
+which the heart of man could conceive. There is no tone of love
+which the heart holds for the striking which I have not heard like a
+bell through my furthermost silences. I can truly say that when I
+rode to church with Mary Cavendish that morning in April, though I
+loved in my whole life her and her alone, and was a most solitary
+man as far as friends and kinsfolk went, yet not one in the whole
+Kingdom of Virginia had fuller knowledge of love in all its shades
+of meaning than I. For I had loved Mary Cavendish like a father and
+like a lover, like a friend and a brother, like a slave and like a
+master, and such love I had for her that I could see her good beyond
+her pain, and would have had the courage to bear her pain, though
+God knows her every pain was my twenty. And it had been thus with me
+near sixteen years, since I was fourteen and she was a little maid
+of two, and I lived neighbour to her in Suffolkshire. I can see
+myself at fourteen and laugh at the picture. All of us have our
+phases of comedy, our seasons when we are out of perspective and
+approach the grotesque and furnish our own jesters for our after
+lives.
+
+At fourteen I was as ungainly a lad, with as helpless a sprawl of
+legs and arms and as staring and shamefaced a surprise at my
+suddenly realised height of growth, when jostled by a girl or a
+younger lad, and utter discomfiture before an unexpected deepness of
+tone when essaying a polite response to an inquiry of his elders, as
+was ever seen in England. And I remember that I bore myself with a
+wary outlook for affronts to my newly fledging dignity, and
+concealed all that was stirring in me to new life, whether of
+nobility or natural emotion, as if it were a dire shame, and
+whenever I had it in my heart to be tender, was so brusque that I
+seemed to have been provided by nature with an armour of roughness
+like a hedgehog. But, perhaps, I had some small excuse for this,
+though, after all, it is a question in my mind as to what excuse
+there may be for any man outside the motives of his own deeds, and I
+care not to dwell unduly, even to my own consideration, upon those
+disadvantages of life which may come to a man without his cognisance
+and are to be borne like any fortune of war. But I had a mother who
+had small affection for me, and that was not so unnatural nor so
+much to her discredit as it may sound, since she, poor thing, had
+been forced into a marriage with my father when she was long in love
+with her cousin. Then my father having died at sea the year after I
+was born, and her cousin, who was a younger son, having come into
+the estates through the deaths of both his brothers of small-pox in
+one week, she married her first love in less than six months, and no
+discredit to her, for women are weak when they love, and she had
+doubtless been sorely tried. They told me that my poor father was a
+true man and gallant soldier, and my old nurse used to talk to me of
+him, and I used to go by myself to think of him, and my eyes would
+get red when I was but a little boy with reflecting upon my mother
+with her new husband and her beautiful little boy, my brother John,
+a year younger than I, and how my own poor father was forgotten. But
+there was no discredit to my mother, who was only a weak and gentle
+woman and was tasting happiness after disappointment and sorrow, in
+being borne so far out by the tide of it that she lost sight, as it
+were, of her old shores. My mind was never against my mother for her
+lack of love for me. But it is not hard to be lenient toward a lack
+of love toward one's self, especially remembering, as I do, myself,
+and my fine, ruddy-faced, loud-voiced stepfather and my brother
+John.
+
+A woman, by reason of her great tenderness of heart which makes her
+suffer overmuch for those she loves, has not the strength to bear
+the pain of loving more than one or two so entirely, and my mother's
+whole heart was fixed with an anxious strain of loving care upon my
+stepfather and my brother. I have seen her sit hours by a window as
+pale as a statue while my stepfather was away, for those were
+troublous times in England, and he in the thick of it. When I was a
+lad of six or thereabouts they were bringing the king back to his
+own, and some of the loyal ones were in danger of losing their heads
+along his proposed line of march. And I have known her to hang whole
+nights over my brother's bed if he had but a tickling in the throat;
+and what could one poor woman do more?
+
+She was as slender as a reed in this marshy country of Virginia, and
+her voice was a sweet whisper, like the voice of one in a wind, and
+she had a curious gracefulness of leaning toward one she loved when
+in his presence, as if, whether she would or no, her heart of
+affection swayed her body toward him. Always, in thinking of my
+mother, I see her leaning with that true line of love toward my
+stepfather or my brother John, her fair hair drooping over her
+delicate cheeks, her blue eyes wistful with the longing to give more
+and more for their happiness. My brother John looked like my mother,
+being, in fact, almost feminine in his appearance, though not in his
+character. He had the same fair face, perhaps more clearly and less
+softly cut, and the same long, silky wave of fair hair, but the
+expression of his eyes was different, and in character he was
+different. As for me, I was like my poor father, so like that, as I
+grew older, I seemed his very double, as my old nurse used to tell
+me. Perhaps that may have accounted for the quick glance, which
+seemed almost of fear, which my mother used to give me sometimes
+when I entered a room where she sat at her embroidery-work. My
+mother dearly loved fine embroideries and laces, and in thinking of
+her I can no more separate her from them than I can a flower from
+its scalloped setting of petals.
+
+I used to slink away as soon as possible when my mother turned her
+startled blue eyes upon me in such wise, that she might regain her
+peace, and sometimes I used to send my brother John to her on some
+errand, if I could manage it, knowing that he could soon drive me
+from her mind. One learns early such little tricks with women; they
+are such tender things, and it stirs one's heart to impatience to
+see them troubled. However, I will not deny that I may have been at
+times disturbed with some bitterness and jealousy at the sight of my
+brother and my stepfather having that which I naturally craved, for
+the heart of a little lad is a hungry thing for love, and has pangs
+of nature which will not be stilled, though they are to be borne
+like all else of pain on earth. But after I saw Mary Cavendish all
+that passed, for I got, through loving so entirely, such knowledge
+of love in others that I saw that the excuse of love, for its
+weaknesses and its own crimes even, is such as to pass
+understanding. Looking at my mother caressing my brother instead of
+myself, I entered so fully into her own spirit of tenderness that I
+no longer rebelled nor wondered. The knowledge of the weakness of
+one's own heart goes far to set one at rights with all others.
+
+When I first saw Mary Cavendish she was, as I said before, a little
+baby maid of two and I a loutish lad of fourteen, and I was going
+through the park of Cavendish Hall, which lay next ours, one morning
+in May, when all the hedges were white and pink, and the blue was
+full of wings and songs. Cavendish Hall had been vacant, save for a
+caretaker, that many a day. Francis Cavendish, the owner, had been
+for years in India, but he had lately died, and now the younger
+brother, Geoffry, Mary's father, had come home from America to take
+possession of the estate, and he brought with him his daughter
+Catherine by a former marriage, a maid a year older than I; his
+second wife, a delicate lady scarce more than a girl, and his little
+daughter Mary.
+
+And they had left to come thither two fine estates in
+Virginia--namely these two: Laurel Creek, which was Mary's
+mother's in her own right, and Drake Hill; and the second wife had
+come with some misgiving and attended by a whole troop of black
+slaves, which made all our country fall agog at once with awe and
+ridicule and admiration. I was myself full of interest in this
+unwonted folk, and prone to linger about the park for a sight, and
+maybe a chance word with them, having ever from a child had a desire
+to look farther into that which has been hitherto unknown, whether
+it be in books or in the world at large. My lessons had been learned
+that morning, as was easily done, for I was accounted quick in
+learning, though no more so than others, did they put themselves to
+it with the same wish to have it over. My tutor also was not one to
+linger unduly at the task of teaching, since he was given to
+rambling about by himself with a book under one arm and a fish-pole
+over shoulder; a scholar of gentle, melancholy moving through the
+world, with such frequent pauses of abstraction that I used often to
+wonder if he rightfully knew himself whither he was bound.
+
+But my mother was fond of him and so was my brother John, and as for
+my stepfather, Col. John Chelmsford, he had too weighty matters upon
+his mind, matters which pertained to Church and State and life and
+death, to think much about tutors. I myself was not averse to Master
+Snowdon, though he was to my mind, which was ever fain to seize
+knowledge as a man and a soldier should, by the forelock instead of
+dallying, too mild and deprecatory, thereby, perhaps, letting the
+best of her elude him. Still Master Snowdon was accounted, and was,
+a learned man, though scarcely knowing what he knew and easily
+shaken by any bout of even my boyish argument, until, I think, he
+was in some terror of me, and like one set free when he had heard my
+last page construed, and was off with his fish-pole and his book to
+the green side of some quiet pool. So I, with my book-lesson done,
+but my mind still athirst for more knowledge, and, maybe, curious,
+for all thirst is not for the noblest ends, crawled through a gap in
+the snowy May hedge, and was slinking across the park of Cavendish
+Hall with long, loose-jointed lopes like a stray puppy, and maybe
+with some sense of being where I should not, though I could not have
+rightly told why, since there were no warnings up against
+trespassers, and I had no designs upon any hare nor deer.
+
+Be that as it may, I was going along in such fashion through the
+greenness of the park, so deep with rich lights and shadows on it
+that May morning that it seemed like plunging thought-high in a
+green sea, when suddenly I stopped and my heart leapt, for there sat
+in the grass before me, clutching some of it with a tiny hand like a
+pink pearl, the sweetest little maid that ever this world held. All
+in white she was, and of a stuff so thin that her baby curves of
+innocence showed through it, and the little smock slipped low down
+over her rosy shoulders, and her little toes curled pink in the
+green of the grass, for she had no shoes on, having run away, before
+she was dressed, by some oversight of her black nurse, and down from
+her head, over all her tiny body, hiding all save the merest glimmer
+of the loveliness of her face, fell the most wonderful shower of
+gold locks that ever a baby of only two years old possessed. She sat
+there with the sunlight glancing on her through a rift in the trees,
+all in a web of gold, floating and flying on the May wind, and for a
+minute, I, being well instructed in such lore, thought she was no
+mortal child, but something more, as she was indeed, but in another
+sense.
+
+I stood there, and looked and looked, and she still pulled up tiny
+handfuls of the green grass, and never turned nor knew me near, when
+suddenly there burst with a speed like a storm, and a storm indeed
+it was of brute life, with loud stamps of a very fury of sound which
+shook the earth as with a mighty tread of thunder, out of a thicker
+part of the wood, a great black stallion on a morning gallop with
+all the freedom of the spring and youth firing his blood, and one
+step more and his iron hoofs would have crushed the child. But I was
+first. I flung myself upon her and threw her like a feather to one
+side, and that was the last I knew for a while. When I knew myself
+again there was a mighty pain in my shoulder, which seemed to be the
+centre of my whole existence by reason of it, and there was the feel
+of baby kisses on my lips. The courage of her blood was in that tiny
+maid. She had no thought of flight nor tears, though she knew not
+but that black thunderbolt would return, and she knew not what my
+ghastly silence meant. She had crept close to me, though she might
+well have been bruised, such a tender thing she was, by the rough
+fling I had given her, and was trying to kiss me awake as she did
+her father. And I, rude boy, all unversed in grace and tenderness,
+and hitherto all unsought of love, felt her soft lips on mine, and,
+looking, saw that baby face all clouded about with gold, and I loved
+her forever.
+
+I knew not how to talk to a little petted treasure of life like
+that, and I dared not speak, but I looked at her, and she seemed not
+to be afraid, but laughed with a merriment of triumph at seeing me
+awake, and something she said in the sweetest tongue of the world,
+which I yet made poor shift to understand, for her baby speech,
+besides its incompleteness, had also a long-drawn sweetness like the
+slow trickle of honey, which she had caught from those black people
+which she had about her since her birth.
+
+I had great ado to move, though my shoulder was not disjointed, only
+sorely bruised, but finally I was on my feet again, though standing
+rather weakly, and with an ear alert for the return of that wild,
+careering brute, and the little maid was close at my side, with one
+rosy set of fingers clinging around two of my rough brown ones with
+that sweet tenacity of a baby grasp which can hold the strongest
+thing on earth.
+
+And she kept on jabbering with that slow murmur of sweetness, and I
+stood looking down at her, catching my breath with the pain in my
+shoulder, though it was out of my thoughts with this new love of
+her, and then came my father, Col. John Chelmsford, and Capt.
+Geoffry Cavendish, walking through the park in deep converse, and
+came upon us, and stopped and stared, as well they might.
+
+Capt. Geoffry Cavendish was a gaunt man with the hectic colour of a
+fever, which he had caught in the new country, still in the hollows
+of his cheeks. He was quite young, with sudden alertnesses of
+glances in bright black eyes like the new colours in jewels when the
+light shifts. His daughter has the same, though her eyes are blue.
+Moreover, through having been in the royal navy before he got a
+wound which incapacitated him from further service, and was indeed
+in time the cause of his death, he had acquired a swift suppleness
+of silent movement, which his daughter has inherited also.
+
+When he came upon us he stared for but one second, then came that
+black flash into his eyes, and out curved an arm, and the little
+maid was on her father's shoulder, and he was questioning me with
+something of mistrust. I was a gentleman born and bred, but my
+clothes sat but roughly and indifferently on me, partly through lack
+of oversight and partly from that rude tumble I had gotten. Indeed,
+my breeches and my coat were something torn by it. Then, too, I had
+doubtless a look of ghastliness and astonishment that might well
+have awaked suspicion, and Capt. Geoffry Cavendish had never spoken
+with me in the short time since his return. "Who may you be?" he
+asked, and his voice hesitated between hostility and friendliness,
+and my stepfather answered for me with a slight forward thrust of
+his shoulders which might have indicated shame, or impatience, or
+both. "'Tis Master Harry Maria Wingfield," answered he; then in the
+same breath, "How came you here, sir?"
+
+I answered, seeing no reason why I should not, though I felt my
+voice shake, being still unsteady with the pain, and told the truth,
+that I had come thither to see if, perchance, I could get a glimpse
+of some of the black folk. At that Captain Cavendish laughed
+good-humouredly, being used to the excitement his black troop caused
+and amused at it, and called out merrily that I was about to be
+gratified, and indeed at that moment came running, with fat lunges,
+as it were, of tremulous speed, a great black woman in pursuit of
+the little maid, and heaved her high to her dark wave of bosom with
+hoarse chuckles and cooings of love and delight and white rollings
+of terrified eyes at her master if, perchance, he might be wroth at
+her carelessness.
+
+He only laughed, and brushed his dark beard against the tender roses
+of the little maid as he gave her up, but my stepfather, who, though
+not ill-natured, often conceived the necessity of ill-nature, was
+not so easily satisfied. He stood looking sternly at my white face
+and my weak yielding of body at the bend of the knees, and suddenly
+he caught me heavily by my bruised shoulder. "What means all this,
+sirrah?" he cried out, but then I sank away before him, for the pain
+was greater than I could bear.
+
+When I came to myself my waistcoat was off, and both men looking at
+my shoulder, which the horse's hoof must have barely grazed, though
+no more, or I should have been in a worse plight. Still the shoulder
+was a sorry sight enough, and the great black woman with the little
+fair baby in her arms stood aloof looking at it with ready tears,
+and the baby herself made round eyes like stars, though she knew not
+half what it meant. I felt the hot red of shame go over me at my
+weakness at a little pain, after the first shock was over, and I
+presumably steeled to bear it like a man, and I struggled to my
+feet, pulling my waistcoat together and looking, I will venture,
+much like a sulky and ill-conditioned lad.
+
+"What means that hurt on your shoulder, Harry?" asked my
+stepfather, Col. John Chelmsford, and his voice was kind enough
+then. "I would not have laid such a heavy hand on thy shoulder had I
+known of it," he added. My stepfather had never aught against me
+that I wot of, having simply naught for me, and a man cannot in
+justice be held to account for the limitations of his affections,
+especially toward a rival's son. He spoke with all kindness, and his
+great ruddy face had a heavy gleam of pity for my hurt, but I
+answered not one word. "How came it so, Harry?" he asked again with
+growing wonder at my silence, but I would not reply.
+
+Then Captain Cavendish also addressed me. "You need have no fear,
+however you came by the hurt, my lad," he said, and I verily believe
+he thought I had somehow caught the hurt while poaching on his
+preserves. I stood before them quite still, with my knees stiff
+enough now, and I think the colour came back in my face by reason of
+the resistance of my spirit.
+
+"Harry, how got you that wound on your shoulder? Answer me, sir,"
+said Colonel Chelmsford, his voice gathering wrath anew. But I
+remained silent. I do not, to this day, know why, except that to
+tell of any service rendered has always seemed to me to attaint the
+honour of the teller, and how much more when it was a service toward
+that little maid! So I kept my silence.
+
+Then my stepfather's face blazed high, and his mouth straightened
+and widened, and his grasp tightened on a riding-whip which he
+carried, for he had left his horse grazing a few yards away. "How
+came you by it, sir?" he demanded, and his voice was thick. Then,
+when I would not reply, he raised the whip, and swung it over my
+shoulders, but I caught it with my sound arm ere it fell, and at the
+same time the little maid, Mary Cavendish, set up a piteous wail of
+fear in her nurse's arms.
+
+"I pray you, sir, do not frighten her," I said, "but wait till she
+be gone." And then I waved the black woman to carry her away, and
+with my lame arm. When she had fled with the child's soft wail
+floating back, I turned to my stepfather, Col. John Chelmsford, and
+he, holding fiercely to the whip which I relinquished, still eyed me
+with doubt.
+
+"Harry, why will you not tell?" he said, but I shook my head,
+waiting for him to strike, for I was but a boy, and it had been so
+before, and perhaps more justly.
+
+"Let the lad go, Chelmsford," cried Captain Cavendish. "I'll warrant
+he has done no harm." But my stepfather would not heed him.
+
+"Answer me, Harry," said he. Then, when I would not, down came the
+riding-whip, but only thrice, and not hard. "Now go you home," said
+my stepfather, "and show your mother the hurt, however you came by
+it, and have her put some of the cooling lotion on a linen cloth to
+it." Then he and Captain Cavendish went their ways, and I went
+toward home, creeping through the gap in the May hedge. But I did
+not go far, having no mind to show my hurt, though I knew well that
+my mother, being a woman and soft toward all wounds, would make much
+of it, and maybe of me on its account. But I was not of a mind to
+purchase affection by complaints of bodily ills, so I lay down under
+the hedge in the soft grass, keeping my bruised shoulder uppermost,
+and remained there thinking of the little maid, till finally the
+pain easing somewhat, I fell asleep, and was presently awakened by a
+soft touch on my sore shoulder, which caused me to wince and start
+up with wide eyes, and there was Catherine Cavendish.
+
+Catherine Cavendish I had seen afar, though not to speak with her,
+and she being a year my senior and not then a beauty, and I being,
+moreover, of an age to look at a girl and look away again to my own
+affairs, I had thought no more of her, but I knew her at once. She
+was, as I said before, not a beauty at that time, being one of those
+maids which, like some flowers, are slow of bloom. She had grown so
+fast and far that she had outspeeded her grace. She was full of
+triangles instead of curves; her shyness was so intense that it
+became aggressiveness. The greenness and sallowness of immaturity
+that come before the perfection of bloom were on her face, and her
+eyes either shrank before one or else gleamed fiercely with the
+impulse of concealment. There is in all youth and imperfection a
+stage wherein it turns at bay to protect its helplessness with a
+vain show of inadequate claws and teeth, and Catherine Cavendish had
+reached it, and I also, in my different estate as a boy.
+
+Catherine towered over me with her slender height, her sallow hair
+falling in silky ringlets over her dull cheeks, and when she spoke
+her voice rang sharp where mine would have growled with hoarseness.
+
+"Why did you not tell?" said she sharply, and I stared up at her
+speechless, for I saw that she knew.
+
+"Why did you not tell, and why were you whipped for it?" she
+demanded again. Then, when I did not answer: "I saw it all. I hid
+behind a tree for fear of the stallion. The child would have been
+killed but for you. Why were you whipped for a thing like that?"
+Then all at once, before I could answer, had I been minded to do so,
+she burst out almost with violence with a brilliant red, surging up
+from the cords of her thin neck, over her whole face. "Never mind, I
+like you for it. I would not have told. I will never tell as long as
+I live, and I have brought some lotion of cream and healing herbs,
+and a linen cloth, and I will bind up your shoulder for you."
+
+With that, down she was on her knees, though I strove half rudely to
+prevent her, and was binding up my shoulder with a wonderful
+deftness of her long fingers.
+
+When she had done she sprang to her feet with a curious multifold
+undoubling motion by reason of her great height and lack of practice
+with it, and I lumbered heavily to mine, and she asked me again with
+a sharpness that seemed almost venomous, so charged with curiosity
+it was, though she had just expressed her approbation of me:
+
+"Why did you not tell?"
+
+But I did not answer her that. I only thanked her, or tried to thank
+her, I dare say in such surly fashion that it was more like a
+rebuff; then I was off, but I felt her standing there close to the
+white-blooming hedge, staring after me with that inscrutable look of
+an immature girl who questions doubly all she sees, beginning with
+herself.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+
+
+
+Although I was heir to a large estate, I had not much gold and
+silver nor many treasures in my possession. I never knew rightly
+why; but my mother, having control until I was come of age, and
+having, indeed, the whole property at her disposal, doubtless
+considered it best that the wealth should accumulate rather than be
+frittered away in trifles which could be of but passing moment to a
+boy. But I was well equipped enough as regarded comforts, and, as I
+said before, my education was well looked after. Through never
+having much regard for such small matters, it used to gall me not at
+all that my half-brother, who was younger and such a fair lad that
+he became them like a girl, should go clad in silks and velvets and
+laces, with a ready jingle of money in his purse and plenty of
+sweets and trinkets to command. But after I saw that little maid it
+went somewhat hard with me that I had no bravery of apparel to catch
+her sweet eyes and cause her to laugh and point with delight, as I
+have often seen her do, at the glitter of a loop of gold or a
+jewelled button or a flash of crimson sheen from a fold of velvet,
+for she always dearly loved such pretty things. And it went hard
+with me that I had not the wherewithal to sometimes purchase a
+comfit to thrust into her little hand, reaching of her nature for
+sweets like the hands of all young things. Often I saw my brother
+John win her notice in such wise, for he, though he cared in general
+but little for small folk, was ravished by her, as indeed was every
+one who saw her. And once my brother John gave her a ribbon stiff
+with threads of gold which pleased her mightily at the time, though,
+the day after, I saw it gleaming from the wet of the park grass,
+whither she had flung it, for the caprices of a baby are beyond
+those of the wind, being indeed human inclination without rudder nor
+compass. Then I did an ungallant and ungenerous thing, for which I
+have always held myself in light esteem: I gathered up that ribbon
+and carried it to my brother and told him where I had found it, but
+all to small purpose as regarded my jealousy, as he scarce gave it a
+thought, and the next day gave the little maid a silver button,
+which she treasured longer. As for me, I having no ribbons nor
+sweets nor silver buttons to give her, was fain to search the woods
+and fields and the seashore for those small treasures, without money
+and without price, with which nature is lavish toward the poor who
+love her and attend her carefully, such as the first flowers of the
+season, nuts and seed-vessels, and sometimes an empty bird's nest
+and a stray bright feather and bits of bright stones, which might,
+for her baby fancy, be as good as my brother's gold and silver, and
+shells, and red and russet moss. All these I offered her from time
+to time as reverently and shyly as any true lover; though she was
+but a baby tugging with a sweet angle of opposition at her black
+nurse's hand and I near a man grown, and though I had naught to hope
+for save a fleeting grasp of her rosy fingers and a wavering smile
+from her sweet lips and eyes, ere she flung the offering away with
+innocent inconstancy.
+
+Her father, Capt. Geoffry Cavendish, seemed to regard my devotion to
+his daughter with a certain amusement and good-will; indeed, I used
+to fancy that he had a liking for me, and would go out of his way to
+say a pleasant word, but once it happened that I took his kindness
+in ill part, and still consider that I was justified in so doing.
+
+A gentleman should not have pity thrust upon him unless he himself,
+by his complaints, seems to sue for it, and that was ever far from
+me, and I was already, although so young, as sensitive to all
+slights upon my dignity as any full-grown man. So when, one day,
+lying at full length upon the grass under a reddening oak with a
+book under my eyes and my pocket full of nuts if, perchance, my
+little sweetheart should come that way with her black nurse, I heard
+suddenly Captain Cavendish's voice ring out loud and clear, as it
+always did, from his practice on the quarter-deck, with something
+like an oath as of righteous indignation to the effect that it was a
+damned shame for the heir and the eldest son, and a lad with a head
+of a scholar and the arm of a soldier, to be thrust aside so and
+made so little of. Then another voice, smoothly sliding, as if to
+make no friction with the other's opinions, asked of whom he spoke,
+and that smoothly sliding voice I recognised as Mr. Abbot's, the
+attorney's, and Captain Cavendish replied in a fashion which
+astonished me, for I had no idea to whom he had referred--"Harry
+Maria Wingfield, the eldest son and heir of as fine and gallant a
+gentleman as ever trod English soil, who is treated like the son of
+a scullion by those who owe him most, and 'tis a damned shame and I
+care not who hears me."
+
+Then, before I had as yet fairly my wits about me, Mr. Abbot spoke
+again in that voice of his which I so hated in my boyish
+downrightness and scorn of all policy that it may have led me to an
+unjust estimate of all men of his profession. "But Col. John
+Chelmsford hath no meaning to deal otherwise than fairly by the boy,
+and neither, unless I greatly mistake, hath his wife." And this he
+said as if both Colonel Chelmsford and my mother were at his elbow,
+and for that manner of speaking I have ever had contempt, preferring
+downright scurrility, and Captain Cavendish replied with his quick
+agility of wrath, as precipitate toward judgment as a sailor to the
+masthead in a storm:
+
+"And what if she be? The more shame to them that they have not
+enough wit to see what they do! I tell thee this poor Harry hath a
+harder time of it than any slave on my plantation in Virginia,
+I--"
+
+But then I was on my feet, and, facing them both with my head flung
+back and my face, I dare say, red and white with wrath, and
+demanding hotly what that might be to them, and if my treatment at
+the hands of my stepfather and my own mother was not between them
+and me, and none else, and, boy as I was, I felt as tall as Captain
+Cavendish as I stood there. Captain Cavendish stared a moment and
+reddened and frowned, and then his gaunt face widened with his ever
+ready laugh which made it passing sweet for a man.
+
+"Tush, lad," he cried out, "and had I known how fit thou were to
+fight thy own battles I had not taken up the cudgels for thee, and I
+crave thy pardon. I had not perceived that thy sword-arm was grown,
+and henceforth thou shall cross with thy adversaries for all me."
+Then he laughed again, and I stared at him still grimly but
+softened, and he and Mr. Abbot moved on, but the attorney, in
+passing, laid his great white hand on my black mane of hair as if he
+would bless me, and I shrank away from under it, and when he said in
+that voice of his, "'Tis a gallant lad and one to do good service
+for his king and country," I would that he had struck me that I
+might have justly hit back.
+
+When they had passed back on the turf I lay with my boyish heart in
+a rage with the insults, both of pity and of praise, which had been
+offered me; for why should pity be offered unless there be the
+weakness of betrayal of suffering to warrant it, and why should
+there be praise unless there be craving for it, through the weakness
+of wronged conceit? Be that as it may, my book no longer interested
+me, and finally I rose up and went away after having deposited all
+my nuts on the grass in the hope that the little maid might chance
+that way and espy them.
+
+It was both a great and a sad day for me when I came to go to
+Cambridge, great because of my desire for knowledge and the sight of
+the world which has ever been strong within me, and, being so
+strong, should have led to more; and sad because of my leaving the
+little maid without a chance of seeing her for so long a time. She
+was then six years old, and a wonder both in beauty and mind to all
+who beheld her. I saw much more of her in those days, for my mother,
+whose heart had always been sore for a little girl, was often with
+Captain Cavendish's wife, for the sake of the child, though the two
+women were not of the best accord one with another. Often would I
+notice that my mother caressed the child, with only a side attention
+for her mother, though that was well disguised by her soft grace of
+manner, which seemed to include all present in a room, and I also
+noticed that Madam Rosamond Cavendish's sweet mouth would be set in
+a straight line with inward dissent at some remark of the other
+woman's.
+
+Madam Rosamond Cavendish was, I suppose, a beauty, though after a
+strange and curious fashion, being seemingly dependent upon those
+around her for it, as a chameleon is dependent for his colour upon
+his surroundings. I have seen Madam Cavendish, when praised by one
+she loved, or approached by the little maid, her daughter, with an
+outstretch of fair little arms and a coercion of dimples toward
+kisses, flash into such radiance of loveliness that, boy as I was, I
+was dazzled by her. Then, on the other hand, I have seen her as
+dully opaque of any meaning of beauty as one could well be. But she
+loved Captain Cavendish well, and I wot he never saw her but with
+that wondrous charm, since whenever he cast his eyes upon her it
+must have been to awaken both reflection and true life of joy in her
+face. She was so small and exceeding slim that she seemed no more
+than a child, and she was not strong, having a quick cough ready at
+every breath of wind, and she rode nor walked like our English
+women, but lay about on cushions in the sun. Still, when she moved,
+it was with such a vitality of grace and such readiness that no one,
+I suspect, knew how frail she was until she sickened and died the
+second year of my stay in Cambridge. When I returned home I found in
+her stead Madam Judith Cavendish, the mother of Captain Cavendish,
+who had come from Huntingdonshire. She was at that time well turned
+of threescore, but a woman who was, as she had always been, a power
+over those about her. She looked her age, too, except for her
+figure, for her hair was snowy white, and the lines of her face
+fixed beyond influence of further smiles or tears. My imagination
+has always been a mighty factor in my estimation of the characters
+of others, and I have often wondered how true to facts I might be,
+but verily it seemed to me that after Madam Cavendish arrived at
+Cavendish Court the influence of that great strength of character,
+which, when it exists in a woman, intimidates every man, no matter
+who he may be, made itself evident in the very king's highway
+approaching Cavendish Court, and increased as the distance
+diminished, according to some of my mathematical rules.
+
+There were in her no change and shifting to new lights of beauty or
+otherwise at the estimation of those around her; she rather
+controlled, as it were, all the domestic winds. Captain Cavendish
+bowed before his superior on his own deck, though I believe there
+was much love betwixt them, and, as for the little maid, she
+tempered the wilfulness which was then growing with her growth by
+outward meekness at least. I used to think her somewhat afraid of
+her grandmother, and disposed to cling for protection and
+mother-love to her elder sister Catherine. Catherine, in those two
+years, had blossomed out her beauty; her sallowness and green pallor
+had become bloom, though not rosy, rather an ineffable clear white
+like a lily. Her eyes, at once shy and antagonistic, had become as
+steady as stars in their estimation of self and others, and all her
+slender height was as well in her power of graceful guidance as the
+height of a young oak tree. Catherine, in those days, paid very
+little heed to me, for her one year of superior age seemed then
+threefold to both of us, except as she was jealously watchful that I
+win not too much of the love of her little sister. I have never seen
+such love from elder to younger as there was from Catherine
+Cavendish to her half-sister Mary after the little one had lost her
+mother. And all that the little maid did, whether of work or play,
+was with an eye toward the other's approbation, especially after the
+advent of her grandmother. Catherine had lovers, but she would have
+none of them. It seemed as if the maternal love of which most maids
+feel the unknown and unspelled yearning, and which, perchance, may
+draw them all unwittingly to wedlock, had seized upon Catherine
+Cavendish, and she had, as it were, fulfilled it by proxy by this
+love of her young sister, and so had her heart made cold toward all
+lovers. Be that as it may, though she was much sought after by more
+than one of high degree, she remained as she was.
+
+For the last part of my stay at Cambridge I saw but little of her,
+and not so much as I would fain have done of her sister. I was past
+the boyish liberty of lying in wait in the park for a glimpse of
+her; she was not of an age for me to pay my court, and there was
+little intimacy betwixt my mother and Madam Cavendish. But I can
+truly say that never for one minute did I lose the consciousness of
+her in the world with me, and that at a time when my love might well
+be a somewhat anomalous and sexless thing, since she was grown a
+little past my first conception of love toward her, and had not yet
+reached my second.
+
+But oh, the glimpses I used to catch of her at that time,
+slim-legged and swift, and shrilly sweet of voice as a lark, and as
+shyly a-flutter at the motion of a hand toward her, or else seated
+prim as any grown maiden, with grave eyes of attention upon her task
+of sampler or linen stitching!
+
+My heart used to leap in a fashion that none would have believed nor
+understood, at the blue gleam of her gown and the gold gleam of her
+little head through the trees of the park, or through the oaken
+shadows of the hall at Cavendish Court during my scant visits there.
+No maid of my own age drew, for one moment, my heart away from her.
+She had no rivals except my books, for I was ever an eager scholar,
+though it might have been otherwise had the state of the country
+been different. I can imagine that I might in some severe stress
+have had my mind, being a hot-headed youth, diverted by the feel of
+the sword-hilt. But just then the king sat on his throne, and there
+was naught to disturb the public peace except his multiplicity of
+loves, which aroused discussion, which salted society with keenest
+relish, but went no farther.
+
+I took high honours at Cambridge, though no higher than I should
+have done, and so no pride and no modesty in the owning and telling;
+and then I came home, and my mother greeted me something more warmly
+than she was wont, and my stepfather, Col. John Chelmsford, took me
+by the hand, and my brother John played me at cards that night, and
+won, as he mostly did. John was at that time also in Cambridge, but
+only in his second year, being, although of quicker grasp upon
+circumstances to his own gain than I, yet not so alert at book-lore;
+but he had grown a handsome man, as fair as a woman, yet bold as any
+cavalier that ever drew sword--the kind to win a woman by his
+own strength and her own arts.
+
+The night after I returned, there was a ball at Cavendish Court, the
+first since the death of Madam Rosamond, and my brother and I went,
+and my stepfather and my mother, though she loved not Madam
+Cavendish.
+
+And Mary Cavendish, at that time ten years old, was standing, when I
+first entered, with a piece of blue-green tapestry work at her back,
+clad in a little straight white gown and little satin shoes, and a
+wreath of roses on her head, from whence the golden locks flowed
+over her gentle cheeks, delicately rounded between the baby and
+maiden curves, with her little hands clasped before her; and her
+blue eyes, now downcast, now uplifted with utmost confidence in the
+love of all who saw her. And close by her stood her sister
+Catherine, coldly sweet in a splendid spread of glittering brocade,
+holding her head, crowned with flowers and plumes, as still and
+stately as if there were for her in all the world no wind of
+passion; and my brother John looked at her, and I knew he loved her,
+and marvelled what would come of it, though they danced often
+together.
+
+The ball went on till the east was red, and the cocks crew, and all
+the birds woke in a tumult, and then that happened which changed my
+whole life.
+
+Three weeks from that day I set sail for the New World--a
+convict. I will not now say how nor why; and on the same ship sailed
+Capt. Geoffry Cavendish, his mother Madam Judith Cavendish, his
+daughter Catherine, and the little maid Mary.
+
+And on the long voyage Captain Cavendish's old wound broke out anew,
+and he died and was buried at sea, and I, when I arrived in this
+kingdom of Virginia, with the dire uncertainty and hardship of the
+convict before me, yet with strength and readiness to bear it, was
+taken as a tutor by Madam Judith Cavendish for her granddaughter
+Mary, being by education well fitted for such a post, and she
+herself knowing her other reasons for so doing. And so it happened
+that Mistress Mary Cavendish and I rode to meeting in Jamestown that
+Sabbath in April of 1682.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+
+
+
+Albeit I have as faithful a respect for the customs of the Church as
+any man, I considered then, and consider now as well, that it was
+almost beyond the power of any one to observe them according to the
+fashion of the times and gain therefrom a full edification of the
+spirit.
+
+Therefore, that April morning, though filled in my inmost heart with
+love and gratitude toward God, as I had always been since I had seen
+His handiwork in Mary Cavendish, which was my especial lesson of His
+grace to meward, with sweetest rhymes of joy for all my pains, and
+reasons for all my doubts; and though she sat beside me, so near
+that the rich spread of her gown was over my knee, and the shining
+of her beauty warm on my face, yet was I weary of the service and
+eager to be out. As I said before, Parson Downs was not to my mind,
+neither he nor his discourse. Still he spoke with a mighty energy
+and a conviction of the truth of his own words which would have
+moved his hearers to better purpose had they moved himself as
+regarded his daily life. But beyond a great effervescence of the
+spirit, which produced a high mounting froth of piety, like the
+seething top of an ale-tankard, there came naught of it. Still was
+there in him some good, or rather some lack of ill; for he was no
+hypocrite, but preached openly against his own vices, then went
+forth to furnish new texts for his sermon, not caring who might see
+and judge him. A hearty man he was, who would lend his last shilling
+or borrow his neighbour's with equal readiness, forcing one to a
+certain angry liking for him because of his good-will to do that for
+you which you were loth to do for him. Yet if there ever was a man
+in harness to Satan as to the lusts of his flesh and his pride of
+life, it was Parson Downs, in despite of his bold curvets and
+prances of exhortation, which so counterfeited freedom that I doubt
+not that they deceived even himself; and he felt not, the while he
+was expanding his great front over his pulpit, and waving his hands,
+on one of which shone a precious red stone, the strain of his own
+leash. But I have ever had a scorn which I could not cry down for
+any man who was a slave, except by his own will.
+
+Feeling thus, I was glad when Parson Downs was done, and letting
+himself down with stately jolts of ponderosity from his pulpit, and
+the folk were moving out of the church in a soft press of decorously
+veiled eagerness, with a great rustling of silks and satin, and
+jingling of spurs and swords, and waving of plumes, and shaking out
+of stronger odours of flowers and essences and spices.
+
+And gladder still I was when astride my horse in the open, with the
+sweet broadside of the spring wind in my face, and all the white
+flowering trees and bushes bowing and singing with a thousand
+bird-voices, like another congregation before the Lord. I had not
+the honour to assist Mistress Mary to her saddle. Sir Humphrey Hyde
+and Ralph Drake, who was a far-off cousin of hers; and my Lord
+Estes, who was on a visit to his kinsman, Lord Culpeper, the
+Governor of Virginia; and half a score of others pressed before me,
+who was but the tutor, and had no right to do her such service
+except for lack of another at hand. And a fair sight it was for one
+who loved her as I, with no privilege of jealousy, and yet with it
+astir within him, like a thing made but of claws and fangs and
+stinging tongue, to see her with that crowd of gallants about her,
+and the other maids going their ways unattended, with faces of
+averted meekness, or haughty uplifts of brows and noses, as suited
+best their different characters. Mistress Mary was, no doubt, the
+fairest of them all, and yet there was more than that in the cause
+for her advantage over them. She kept all her admirers by the very
+looseness of her grasp, which gave no indication of any eagerness to
+hold, and thus aroused in them no fear of detention nor of wiles of
+beauty which should subvert their wills. And, furthermore, Mary
+Cavendish distributed her smiles as impartially as a flower its
+sweetness, to each the same, though but a scant allotment to each,
+as beseemed a maid. I could not, even with my outlook, observe that
+she favoured one more than another, unless it might have been Sir
+Humphrey Hyde. I knew well that there was some confidence betwixt
+the two, but whether it was of the nature of love I could not tell.
+
+Sir Humphrey kept the road with us for some distance after we had
+left the others, gazing beside the horse-block, all equally desirous
+of following, but knowing well that it would not be a fair deed to
+the maid to attend her homeward on the Sabbath day with a whole
+troop of lovers. But Sir Humphrey Hyde leapt to his saddle and rode
+abreast with no ado, being ever minded to do what seemed good to
+himself, unless, indeed, his mother stood in the way of his
+pleasure. Sir Humphrey's mother, Lady Clarissa Hyde, was one of
+those unwitting tyrants which one sees among women, by reason of her
+exceeding delicacy and gentleness, which made it seem but the
+cruelty of a brute to cross her, and thus had her own way forever,
+and never suspected it were not always the way of others.
+
+Sir Humphrey was a well-set young gentleman, and he was dressed in
+the farthest fashion. The broad back of his scarlet coat, rising to
+the trot of his horse, clashed through the soft gold-green mists and
+radiances of the spring landscape like the blare of a trumpet; his
+gold buttons glittered; the long plume on his hat ruffled to the
+wind over his fair periwig. Wigs were not so long in fashion, but
+Sir Humphrey was to the front in his. Mary Cavendish and Sir
+Humphrey rode on abreast, and I behind far enough to be cleared of
+the mire thrown by their horse-hoofs, and my heart was full of that
+demon of jealousy which possessed me in spite of my love. It is
+passing strange that I, though loving Mary Cavendish better than
+myself, and having the strength to prefer her to myself in all
+things, yet had not the power to do it without pain, and must hold
+that ravening jealousy to my breast. But not once did it get the
+better of me, and all the way was I, even then, thinking that Sir
+Humphrey Hyde might be good man and true for Mary Cavendish to wed,
+except for a few faults of his youth, which might be amended, and
+that if such be her mind I might help her to her happiness, since I
+knew that, for some reason, Madam Cavendish had small love for Sir
+Humphrey, and I knew also that I had some influence with her.
+
+Behind us straggled the black slaves, as on our way thither, moving
+unhaltingly, yet with small energy, as do folk urged hither and yon
+only by the will of others and not by their own; but, presently,
+through them, scattering them to the left and right, galloped a
+black lad on a great horse after Sir Humphrey, with the word that
+his mother would have him return to the church and escort her
+homeward. Then Sir Humphrey turned, after a whispered word or two
+with Mistress Mary, and rode back to Jamestown; and the black lad,
+bounding in the saddle like a ball, after him.
+
+I still kept my distance behind Mistress Mary, though often I saw
+her head turn, and caught a blue flash of an eye over her mask.
+
+Then passed us, booted and spurred, for he had gotten his priestly
+robes off in a hurry, Parson Downs on the fastest horse in those
+parts, and riding like a jockey in spite of his heavy weight. His
+horse's head was stretched in a line with his neck, and after him
+rode, at near as great speed, Capt. Noel Jaynes, who, as report had
+it, had won wealth on the high seas in unlawful fashion. He was a
+gray old man, with the eye of a hot-headed boy, and a sabre-cut
+across his right cheek.
+
+The parson saluted Mistress Mary as he passed, and so did Captain
+Jaynes, with a glance of his bright eyes at her that stirred my
+blood and made me ride up faster to her side.
+
+But the two men left the road abruptly, plunging into a bridle-path
+at the right, and the green walls of the wood closed behind them,
+though one could still hear for long the galloping splash of their
+horse's hoofs in the miry path.
+
+Mistress Mary turned to me, and her voice rang sharp, "'Tis a pretty
+parson," said she; "he is on his way to Barry Upper Branch with
+Captain Jaynes, and who is there doth not know 'tis for no good, and
+on the Sabbath day, too?"
+
+Now Barry Upper Branch belonged to brothers of exceeding ill repute,
+except for their courage, which no one doubted. They had fought well
+against the Indians, and also against the Government with Nathaniel
+Bacon some half dozen years before. There had been a prize on their
+heads and they had been in hiding, but now lived openly on their
+plantation and were in full feather, and therein lay in a great
+measure their ill repute.
+
+When my Lord Culpeper had arrived in Virginia, succeeding Berkeley,
+Jeffries, and Chichely, then returned the brothers Richard and
+Nicholas Barry, or Dick and Nick, as they were termed among the
+people; and as my Lord Culpeper was not averse to increasing his
+revenues, there were those who whispered, though secretly and
+guardedly, that the two bold brothers purchased their safety and
+peaceful home-dwelling.
+
+Barry Upper Branch was a rich plantation and had come into full
+possession of the brothers but lately, their father, Major Barry,
+who had been a staunch old royalist, having died. There were acres
+of tobacco, and whole fields of locust for the manufacture of
+metheglin, and apple orchards from which cider enough to slack the
+thirst of the colony was made. But the brothers were far from
+content with such home-made liquors for their own drinking, but
+imported from England and the Netherlands and Spain great stores of
+ale and rum and wines, and held therewith high wassail with some
+choice and kindred spirits, especially on the Sabbath.
+
+Not a woman was there at Barry Upper Branch, except for slaves, and
+such stories were told as might cause a modest maid to hesitate to
+speak of the place; but Mary Cavendish was as yet but a child in her
+understanding of certain things. Her blue eyes fixed me with the
+brave indignation of a boy as she went on, "'Tis a pretty parson,"
+said she again, "and it would be the tavern, just as openly, were it
+on a week day."
+
+I put my finger to my lip and cast a glance about, for it was
+enjoined upon the people under penalty that they speak not ill of
+any minister of the gospel. While I cared not for myself, having
+never yet held my tongue, except from my own choice, yet was I
+always concerned for this young thing, with her utter recklessness
+of candour, lest her beauty and her charm might not protect her
+always against undesirable results; and not only were the slaves
+within hearing of her voice, but none knew how many others, for
+those were brave days for tale-bearers. But Mary spoke again, and
+more sweetly and shrilly than ever. "A pretty parson, forsooth! And
+to keep company with a pirate captain! Fie! When he looks at me, I
+clutch my gold chain and turn the flash of my rings from sight, and
+Dick and Nick Barry are the worst rakes in the colony! Naught was
+ever heard good of them, except their following of General Bacon,
+but a good cause makes not always worthy adherents." This last she
+said with a toss of her head and a proud glance, for Nathaniel Bacon
+was to this maid a hero of heroes, and naught but her sex and her
+tender years, she being but twelve or so at the time, had kept her
+from joining his ranks. But, indeed, in this I had full sympathy
+with her, though chary of expressing it. Had it not been for my
+state of disgrace and my outlook for the welfare of the Cavendishes,
+I should most assuredly have fought with that brave man myself, for
+'twas a good cause, and one which has been good since the beginning
+of things, and will hold good till the end--the cause of the
+poor and down-trod against the tyranny of the rich and great. No
+greater man will there ever be in this new country of America than
+Nathaniel Bacon, though he had but twenty weeks in which to prove
+his greatness; had he been granted more he might well have changed
+history. I can see now that look of high command which none could
+withstand, for leaders of men are born, as well as poets and kings,
+and are invincible. But it may be that the noble wave of rebellion
+which he raised is even now going on, never to quite cease in all
+time, for I know not the laws that govern such things. It may be
+that, in consequence of that great and brief struggle of Nathaniel
+Bacon, this New World will never sit. quietly for long at the foot
+of any throne, but that I know not, being no prophet. However, this
+I do know, that his influence was not then ceased in Virginia,
+though he was six years dead, and has not yet.
+
+Mistress Mary Cavendish had framed in black, in her chamber, a
+silhouette of this hero, and she wore in a locket a lock of his
+hair, by which she had come, in some girlish fashion, through a
+young gossip of hers, a kinswoman of Bacon's, from whose head I
+verily believe she had pilfered it while asleep. And, more than
+that, I knew of her and Cicely Hyde strewing fresh blossoms on the
+tide of the York River, in which Bacon had been buried, on the
+anniversary of his death, and coming home with sweet eyes red with
+tears of heroic sentiment, which surely be not the most ignoble shed
+by mankind.
+
+"'Twas the only good ever heard of them," repeated Mistress Mary,
+"and even that they must need spoil by coming home and paying tithes
+to my Lord Culpeper that he wink at their disaffection. I trow had I
+been a man and fought with General Bacon, as I would have fought,
+had I been a man, I would have paid no price therefore to the king
+himself, but would have stayed in hiding forever."
+
+With that she touched Merry Roger with her whip and was off at a
+gallop, and I abreast, inwardly laughing, for I well understood that
+this persistency on other and stirring topics, and sudden flight
+when they failed, was to keep me from the subject of the powder and
+ammunition unladen that morning from the "Golden Horn." But she need
+not have taken such pains, for I, while in church, had resolved
+within myself not to question her further, lest she tell me
+something which might do her harm were I forced, for her good, to
+reveal it, but to demand the meaning of all this from Sir Humphrey
+Hyde, who, I was convinced, knew as much as she.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+
+
+
+Thus we rode homeward, and presently came in sight of the Cavendish
+tobacco-fields overlapped with the fresh green of young leaves like
+the bosses of a shield, and on the right waxed rosy garlands of the
+locust grove, and such a wonderful strong sweetness of honey came
+from it that we seemed to breast it like a wave, and caught our
+breaths, and there was a mighty hum of bees like a hundred
+spinning-wheels. But Mistress Mary and I regarded mostly that green
+stretch of tobacco, and each of us had our thoughts, and presently
+out came hers--"Master Wingfield, I pray you, whose tobacco may
+that be?" she inquired in a sudden, fierce fashion.
+
+"Madam Cavendish's and yours and your sister's," said I.
+
+"Nay," said she, "'tis the king's." Then she tossed her head again
+and rode on, and said not another word, nor I, but I knew well what
+she meant. Since the Navigation Act, it was, indeed, small profit
+any one had of his own tobacco, since it all went into the exchequer
+of the king, and I did not gainsay her.
+
+When we had passed the negro huts, swarming with black babies
+shining in the sun as sleek as mahogany, and all turning toward us
+with a marvellous flashing of white eyeballs and opening of red
+mouths of smiles, all at once, like some garden bed of black
+flowers, at the sight of our gay advance, we reached the great
+house, and Mistress Catherine stood in the door clad in a green
+satin gown which caught the light with smooth shimmers like the
+green sheath of a marsh lily.
+
+Her bare, slender arms were clasped before her, and her long, white
+neck was bent into an arch of watchful grace. Her face was the
+gravest I ever saw on maid, and not to be reconciled with my first
+acquaintance with her, thereby giving me always a slight doubt as of
+a mask, but her every feature was as clear and fine as ivory, and
+her head proudly crowned with great wealth of hair. Catherine
+Cavendish was esteemed a great beauty, by both men and women, which
+shows, perchance, that her beauty availed her little in some ways,
+else it had not been so freely admitted by her own sex. However that
+may be, Catherine Cavendish had had few lovers as compared with many
+a maid less fair and less dowered, and at this time she seemed to
+have settled into an expectation and contentment of singleness.
+
+She stood looking at her sister and me as we rode toward her, and
+the sun was full on her face, which had the cool glimmer of a pearl
+in the golden light, and her wide-open eyes never wavered. As she
+stood there she might have been the portrait of herself, such a look
+had she of unchanging quiet, and the wonder and incredulity which
+always seized me at the sight of her to reconcile what I knew with
+what she seemed, was strong upon me.
+
+When her young sister had dismounted and had gone up the steps, she
+kissed her, and the two entered the hall, clinging together in a way
+which was pretty to see. I never saw such love betwixt two where
+there was not full sympathy, and that was lacking always and lacked
+more in the future, through the difference in their two temperaments
+gotten from different mothers.
+
+Madam Cavendish was still in her bedchamber, and the two sisters and
+I dined together in the great hall. Then, after the meal was over, I
+went forth with my book of Sir William Davenant's plays, and sought
+a favourite place of mine in the woods, and stayed there till
+sundown. Then, rising and going homeward when the mist floated over
+the marshlands like veils of silver gauze, and the frogs chorused
+through it in waves of sound, and birds were circling above it,
+calling sweetly with fluting notes or screaming with the harsh
+trumpet-clang of sea-fowl, I heard of a sudden, just as the sun sank
+below the western sky, a mighty din of horns and bells and voices
+from the direction of Jamestown. I knew that the sports which a
+certain part of the community would have on a Sabbath after sundown,
+when they felt so inclined, had begun. Since the king had been
+restored such sports had been observed, now and then, according to
+the humour of the governor and the minister and the others in
+authority. Laws had been from time to time set forth that the night
+after the Sabbath, the Sabbath being considered to cease at sundown,
+should be kept with decorum, but seldom were they enforced, and
+often, as now, a great din arose when the first gloom overspread the
+earth. However, that night was the 30th of April, the night before
+May day; and there was more merrymaking in consequence, though May
+was not here as in England, and even in England not what it had been
+in the first Charles's reign.
+
+But they kept up their rollicking late that night, for the window of
+my chamber being toward Jamestown, and the wind that way, I could
+hear them till I fell asleep. At midnight I wakened suddenly at the
+sound of a light laugh, which I knew to be Mary Cavendish's. There
+was never in the maid any power of secrecy when her humour overcame
+her. She laughed again, and I heard a hushing voice, which I knew to
+be neither her sister's nor grandmother's, but a man's.
+
+I was up and dressed in a trice, and sword in hand, and out of my
+window, which was on the first floor, and there was Mistress Mary
+and Sir Humphrey Hyde. I stepped between them and thrust aside Sir
+Humphrey, who would have opposed me. "Go into the house, madam,"
+said I to her, and pointed to the door, which stood open. Then while
+she hesitated, half shrinking before me, with her old habit of
+obedience strong upon her, yet with angry wilfulness urging her to
+rebellion, forth stepped her distant cousin Ralph Drake from behind
+a white-flowering thicket, and demanded to know what that cursed
+convict fellow did there, and had he not a right to parley with his
+cousin, and was her honour not safe with her kinsman and he an
+English gentleman? I perceived by Ralph Drake's voice that he had
+perchance been making gay with the revellers at Jamestown, and stood
+still when he came bullyingly toward me, but at that minute Mistress
+Mary spoke.
+
+"I will not have such language to my tutor, Cousin Ralph," said she,
+"and I will have you to understand it. He is a gentleman as well as
+yourself, and you owe him an apology." So saying, she stamped her
+foot and looked at Ralph Drake, her eyes flashing in the moonlight.
+But Ralph Drake, whose face I could see was flushed, even in that
+whiteness of light, flung away with an oath muttered under his
+breath, and struck out across the lawn, his black shadow stalking
+before him.
+
+Then Mistress Mary turned and bade me goodnight in the sweetest and
+most curious fashion, as if nothing unusual had happened, and yet
+with a softness in voice as if she would fain make amends for her
+cousin's rough speech, and fluttered in through the open door like a
+white moth, and left me alone with Sir Humphrey Hyde.
+
+Sir Humphrey was but a lad to me, scarcely older than Mistress Mary,
+for all his great stature. He stood before me scraping the shell
+walk with the end of his riding whip. Both men had ridden hither,
+and I at that moment heard Ralph Drake's horse's hard trot.
+
+"If you come courting Mistress Mary Cavendish, 'tis for her
+guardians, her grandmother, and elder sister to deal with you
+concerning the time and place you choose," said I, "but if it be on
+any other errand--"
+
+"Good God, Harry," broke in Sir Humphrey, "do you think I am come
+love-making in such fashion, and with Ralph Drake in his cups,
+though I swear he fastened himself to me against my will?"
+
+I waited a moment. Sir Humphrey had been much about the place since
+he was a mere lad, and had had, I believe, a sort of boyish
+good-will toward me. Not much love had he for books, but I was
+accounted a fair shot, and had some knowledge of sports of hunting
+and fishing, and had given him some lessons, and he had followed me
+about some few years before, somewhat to the uneasiness of his
+mother, who could not forget that I was a convict.
+
+I cast about in my mind what to say, being resolved not to betray
+Mary Cavendish, even did this man know what I could betray, and yet
+being resolved to have some understanding of what was afoot.
+
+"A man of honour includes not maidens in plots, Sir Humphrey," said
+I finally.
+
+Sir Humphrey stammered and looked at me, and looked away again. Then
+suddenly spake Mistress Mary from her window overhead, set in a
+climbing trumpet-vine, and so loudly and recklessly that had not her
+grandmother and sister been on the farther side of the house they
+must have heard her. "'Tis not Sir Humphrey included the maid in the
+plot, but the maid who included Sir Humphrey," said she. Then she
+laughed, and at the same moment a mock-bird trilled in a tree.
+
+"Why do you not tell Master Wingfield that the maid, and not you nor
+Cousin Ralph, is the prime mover in this mystery of the cargo of
+furbelows on the Golden Horn?" said she, and laughed again.
+
+"I shield not myself behind a maiden's skirts," said Sir Humphrey,
+grimly.
+
+"Then," tried Mary, "will I tell thee, Master Wingfield, what it
+means. He cannot betray us, Humphrey, for his tongue is tied with
+honour, even if he be not on our side. But he is on our side, as is
+every true Englishman." Then Mary Cavendish leaned far out the
+window, and a white lace scarf she wore floated forth, and she cried
+with a great burst of triumph and childish enthusiasm: "I will tell
+thee what it means, Master Wingfield, I will tell thee what it
+means; I am but a maid, but the footsteps of General Bacon be yet
+plain enough to follow in this soil of Virginia,
+and--and--the king gets not our tobacco crops!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+
+
+
+I have always observed with wonder and amusement and a tender
+gladness the faculty with which young creatures, and particularly
+young girls, can throw off their minds for the time being the weight
+of cares and anxieties and bring all of themselves to bear upon
+those exercises of body or mind, to no particular end of serious
+gain, which we call play and frivolity. It may be that faculty is so
+ordained by a wise Providence, which so keeps youth and the bloom of
+it upon the earth, and makes the spring and new enterprises
+possible. It may be that without it we should rust and stick fast in
+our ancient rivets and bolts of use.
+
+That very next morning, after I had learned from Mary Cavendish,
+supplemented by a sulky silence of assent from Sir Humphrey Hyde,
+that she had, under presence of ordering feminine finery from
+England, spent all her year's income from her crops on powder and
+shot for the purpose of making a stand in the contemplated
+destruction of the new tobacco crops, and thereby plunged herself
+and her family in a danger which were hard to estimate were it
+discovered, I heard a shrill duet of girlish laughs and merry
+tongues before the house. Then, on looking forth, whom should I see
+but Mary Cavendish and Cicely Hyde, her great gossip, and a young
+coloured wench, all washing their faces in the May dew, which lay in
+a great flood as of diamonds and pearls over everything. I minded
+well the superstition, older than I, that, if a maid washed her face
+in the first May dew, it would make her skin wondrous fair, and I
+laughed to myself as I peeped around the shutter to think that Mary
+Cavendish should think that she stood in need of such amendment of
+nature. Down she knelt, dragging the hem of her chintz gown, which
+was as gay with a maze of printed posies as any garden bed, and she
+thrust her hollowed hands into the dew-laden green and brought them
+over her face and rubbed till sure there was never anything like it
+for sweet, glowing rosiness. And Cicely Hyde, who must have come
+full early to Drake Hill for that purpose, did likewise, and with
+more need, as I thought, for she was a brown maid, not so fair of
+feature as some, though she had a merry heart, which gave to her
+such a zest of life and welcome of friends as made her a favourite.
+Up she scooped the dew and bathed her face, turning ever and anon to
+Mary Cavendish with anxious inquiries, ending in trills of laughter
+which would not be gainsaid in May-time and youth-time by aught of
+so little moment as a brown skin. "How look I now?" she would cry
+out. "How look I now, sweetheart? Saw you ever a lily as fair as my
+face?" Then Mary, with her own face dripping with dew, with that
+wonderful wet freshness of bloom upon it, would eye her with
+seriousness as to any improvement, and bid her turn this way and
+that. Then she would give it as her opinion that she had best
+persevere, and laugh somewhat doubtfully at first, then in a full
+peal when Cicely, nothing daunted by such discouragement in her
+friend's eyes, went bravely to work again, all her slender body
+shaking with mirth. But the most curious sight of all, and that
+which occasioned the two maids the most merriment, though of a
+covert and even tender and pitying sort, was Mary's black
+serving-wench Sukey, a half-grown girl, who had been bidden to
+attend her mistress upon this morning frolic. She was seated at a
+distance, square in the wet greenness, and was plunging both hands
+into the May dew and scrubbing her face with a fierce zeal, as if
+her heart was in that pretty folly, as no doubt it was. And ever and
+anon as she rubbed her cheeks, which shone the blacker and glossier
+for it, she would turn the palms of her hands, which be so curiously
+pale on a negro's hands, to see if perchance some of the darkness
+had stirred. And when she saw not, then would she fall to scrubbing
+again.
+
+Presently up stood Mary and Cicely, and Cicely flashed in the sun a
+little silver mirror which she had brought and which had lain
+glittering in the grass a little removed, and looked at herself, and
+saw that her brown cheeks were as ever, with the exception of the
+flush caused by rubbing, and tossed it with her undaunted laugh to
+Mary. "The more fool be I!" she cried out, "instead of washing mine
+own face in the May dew, better had it been had I locked thee in the
+clothes-press, Mary Cavendish, and not let thee add to thy beauty,
+while I but gave my cheeks the look of fever or the small-pox. I
+trow the skin be off in spots, and all to no purpose! Look at
+thyself, Mary Cavendish, and blush that thou be so much fairer than
+one who loves thee!"
+
+And verily Mary Cavendish did for a minute seem to blush as she cast
+a glance at herself in the mirror and saw her marvellous rose of a
+face, but the next minute the mirror flashed in the grass and her
+arms were about Cicely Hyde's neck. "'Tis the dearest face in
+Virginia, Cicely," said she, in her sweet, vehement way, and laid
+her pink cheek against the other's plain one. And Cicely laughed,
+and took her face in her two hands and held it away that she might
+see it.
+
+"What matters it to poor Cicely whether her own face be fair or not,
+so long as it is dear to thee, and so long as she can see thine!"
+she cried as passionately as a lad might have done, and I frowned,
+not with jealousy, but with a curious dislike to such affection from
+one maid to another, which I could never understand in myself. Had
+Cicely Hyde had a lover, she would have said that fond speech to him
+instead of Mary Cavendish, but lover she had none.
+
+But all at once the two maids nudged one another, and turned their
+faces, all convulsed with merriment, and I looked and saw that the
+poor little black lass had crept on hands and knees to where the
+mirror flashed in the grass, and was looking at her face therein
+with such anxiety as might move one at once to tears and laughter,
+to see if the dew had washed her white.
+
+But Mary Cavendish ceased all in a minute her mirth, and went up to
+the black child and took the mirror from her, and said, in the
+sweetest voice of pity I ever heard, "'Tis not in one May dew nor
+two, nor perchance in the dews of many years, you can wash your face
+white, but sometime it will be."
+
+Then the black wench burst into tears, and begged in that thick,
+sluggishly sweet tongue of hers to know if ever the May dew would
+wash her black away, and Mistress Mary answered as seriously as if
+she were in the pulpit on the Sabbath day that it would sometime
+most surely and she should see her face in the glass as fair as any.
+
+Then the two maids, Mary Cavendish and Cicely Hyde, went into the
+house, and left me, as I said before, to wonder at that spirit of
+youth which can all in a minute disregard care and anxiety and risk
+of death for the play of vanity. But, after all, which be stronger,
+wars and rumours of wars or vanity? And which be older, and which
+fathered the other?
+
+After the house door had shut behind the maidens, I too went out,
+but not to wash my grim man's face in May dew, but rather for a
+stroll in the morning air, and the clearing of my wits for
+reflection; for much I wondered what course I should take regarding
+my discovery of the night before. I went down the road toward
+Jamestown, and struck into the path to the wharf, the same that we
+had taken the day before, but there were no masts of the Golden Horn
+rising among the trees with a surprise of straightness. She had
+weighed anchor and sailed away over night, and possibly before. The
+more I reflected the more I understood that Mistress Mary Cavendish,
+with her ready wit and supply of money through her inheritance from
+her mother, might have concocted the scheme of bringing over
+ammunition from England to enable us to make a stand against the
+government; but the plot in the first of it could not have been hers
+alone. Assuredly Ralph Drake was concerned in it, and Sir Humphrey
+Hyde, and no one knew how many more. The main part for Mistress Mary
+might well have been the furnishing of the powder and shot, for
+Ralph Drake was poor, and lived, it was said, by his good luck at
+cards; and as for Sir Humphrey Hyde, his mother held the reins in
+those soft hands of hers, which would have been sorely bruised had
+they been withdrawn too roughly.
+
+I sat me down on a glittering ridge of rock near the river-bank, and
+watched the blue run of the water, and twisted the matter this and
+that way in my mind, for I was sorely perplexed. Never did I feel as
+then the hamper of my position, for a man who was held in such
+esteem as I by some and contempt by others, and while having voice
+had no authority to maintain it, was neither flesh nor fowl nor
+slave nor master. Madam Cavendish treated me in all respects as the
+equal of herself and her family--nay, more than that, she
+deferred to me in such fashion as I had never seen in her toward any
+one, but Catherine treated me ever with iciness of contempt, which I
+at that time conceived to be but that transference of blame from her
+own self to a scapegoat of wrong-doing which is a resort of ignoble
+souls. They will have others not only suffer for their own sin, but
+even treat them with the scorn due themselves. And not one man was
+there in the colony, excepting perhaps Sir Humphrey Hyde and Parson
+Downs and the brothers Nicholas and Richard Barry, which last were
+not squeamish, and would have had me as boon companion at Barry
+Upper Branch, having been drawn to me by a kindred boldness of
+spirit and some little passages which I had had with the Indians,
+which be not worth repeating. I being in such a position in the
+colony, and considering the fact that Madam Cavendish and Catherine
+were staunch loyalists, and would have sent all their tobacco to the
+bottom of the salt sea had the king so ordained, and regarded all
+disaffection from the royal will as a deadly sin against God and the
+Church, as well as the throne, and knowing the danger which Mary
+Cavendish ran, I was in a sore quandary. Could I have but gone to
+those men whom I conceived to be in the plot, and talked with them
+on an equal footing, I would have given my right hand. But I
+wondered, and with reason, what hearing they would accord me, and I
+wondered how to move in the matter at all without doing harm to
+Mistress Mary, yet feared greatly that the non-movement would harm
+her more. As I sat there I fell to marvelling anew, as I had
+marvelled many times before, at that yielding on the part of the
+strong which makes the power of those in authority possible. At the
+yielding of the weak we marvel not, but when one sees the bending of
+staunch, true men, with muscles of iron and hearts of oak, to
+commands which be manifestly against their own best interests, it is
+verily beyond understanding, and only to be explained by the working
+of those hidden springs of nature which have been in men's hearts
+since the creation, moving them along one common road of herding to
+one common end. As I sat there I wondered not so much at the plot
+which was simply to destroy all the young tobacco plants, that there
+be not an over-supply and ruinous prices therefor next year, as at
+the fact that the whole colony to a man did not arise and rebel
+against the order of the king in that most infamous Navigation Act
+which forbade exportation to any place but England, and load their
+ships for the Netherlands, and get the full worth of their crops.
+Well I knew that some of the burgesses were secretly in favour of
+this measure, and why should one man, Governor Culpeper, for the
+king, hold for one minute the will of this strong majority in
+abeyance?
+
+I reasoned it out within myself that one cause might lie in that
+distrust and suspicion of his neighbour as to his good-will and
+identical interest with himself which is inborn with every man, and
+in most cases strengthens with his growth. When a movement of
+rebellion against authority is on foot, he eyes all askance, and
+speaks in whispering corners of secrecy, not knowing when he strikes
+his first blow whether his own brother's hand will be with him
+against the common tyrant, or against himself.
+
+Were it not for this lamentable quality of the human heart, which
+will prevent forever the perfect concerting of power to one end,
+such a giant might be made of one people that it could hold all the
+world and all the nations thereof at its beck and call. But that
+cannot be, even in England, which had known and knows now and will
+know again that division of interest and doubts, every man of his
+brother's heart, which weaken the arm against the common foe.
+
+But, reflecting in such wise, I came no nearer to the answer to my
+quandary as to my best course for the protection of Mary Cavendish.
+
+I sat there on that rock glittering like frost-work in the May
+sunlight and watched the river current until it seemed to me that my
+rock and all Virginia were going out on the tide to sea and back to
+England, where, had I landed then, I would have lost my head and all
+my wondering with it, and my old astonishment, which I had had from
+a boy, was upon me, that so many things that be, according to the
+apparent evidence of our senses are not, and how can any man ever be
+sure that he is on sea or land, or coming or going? And comes there
+not to all of us some day a great shock of knowledge of the slipping
+past of this world, and all the history thereof which we think of so
+much moment, and that we only are that which remains? But then
+verily it seemed to me that the matter of the tobacco plot and Mary
+Cavendish's danger was of more moment than aught else in the
+century.
+
+"Master Wingfield," said a voice so gently and sweetly repellent and
+forbidding, even while it entreated, that it shivered the air with
+discord, and I looked around, and there stood Catherine Cavendish.
+She stood quite near the rock where I sat, but she kept her head
+turned slightly away as if she could not bear the sight of my face,
+though she was constrained to speak to me. But I, and I speak the
+truth, since I held it unworthy a man and a gentleman to feel aught
+of wrath or contempt when he was sole sufferer by reason of any
+wrong done by a woman, had nothing but that ever recurrent surprise
+and unbelief at the sight of her, to reconcile what I knew, or
+thought I knew, with what she seemed.
+
+I rose and stepped from my rock to the green shore, and she moved a
+little back with a slight courtesy. "Good-morning, Mistress
+Catherine," I said.
+
+"What know you of what my sister hath done and the cargo that came
+yesterday on the Golden Horn?" she demanded with no preface and of a
+sudden; her voice rang sharp as I remembered it when she first spoke
+to me by that white hedge of England, and I could have sworn that
+the tide had verily borne us thither, and she was again that sallow
+girl and I the blundering lout of a lad.
+
+"That I cannot answer you, madam," said I, and bowed and would have
+passed, but she stood before me. So satin smooth was her hair that
+even the fresh wind could not ruffle it, and in such straight lines
+of maiden modesty hung her green gown--always she wore green,
+and it became her well, and 'twas a colour I always
+fancied--that it but fluttered a little around her feet in the
+marsh grass, but her face looked out from a green gauze hood with an
+expression that belied all this steadfastness of primness and
+decorum. It was as if a play-actress had changed her character and
+not her attire, which suited another part. Out came her slim arm, as
+if she would have caught me by the hand for the sake of compelling
+my answer; then she drew it back and spoke with all the sharp
+vehemence of passion of a woman who oversteps the bounds of
+restraint which she has set herself, and is a wilder thing than if
+she had been hitherto unfettered by her will.
+
+"I command you to tell me what I wish to know, Harry Wingfield;"
+said she, and now her eyes fixed mine with no shrinking, but a
+broadside of scorn and imperiousness.
+
+"And I refuse to tell you, madam," said I.
+
+Then indeed she caught my arm with a little nervous hand, like a
+cramp of wire. "You shall tell me, sir," she declared. "This much I
+know already. Yesterday the Golden Horn came in and was unladen of
+powder and shot instead of the goods that my sister pretended to
+order, and the cases are stored at Laurel Creek. This much do I
+know, but not what is afoot, nor for what Mary had conference with
+Sir Humphrey Hyde and Ralph last night, and you later on with Sir
+Humphrey. I demand of you that you tell me, Harry Wingfield."
+
+"That I cannot do, madam," said I.
+
+She gave me a look with those great black eyes of hers, and how it
+came to pass I never knew, but straight to the root of the whole she
+went as if my face had been an open book.
+
+Such quickness of wit I had often heard ascribed to women, but never
+saw I aught like that, and I trow it seemed witchcraft. "'Tis
+something about the young tobacco plants," quoth she. "The king
+would not pass the measure to cease the planting, and the assembly
+of this spring broke up with no decision. Major Beverly, who is
+clerk of the assembly, hath turned against the government since
+Bacon died, and all the burgesses are with him, and Governor
+Culpeper sails for England soon, and what, is the
+lieutenant-governor to hold the reins? There is a plot hatching to
+cut down the young tobacco plants." I could but stare at her. "There
+is a plot to cut down the young tobacco plants as soon as the
+governor hath sailed," she said, "and my sister Mary hath sent to
+England for arms, knowing that the militia will arise and there will
+be fighting."
+
+I still stared at her, not knowing in truth what to say. Then
+suddenly she caught at my hands with hers, and cried out with that
+energy that I saw all at once the fire of life beneath that fair
+show of maiden peace and calm of hers, "Harry, Harry Wingfield, if
+my grandmother, Madam Cavendish, knows this, my sister is undone; no
+pity will she have. Straight to the governor will she go, though she
+hobble on crutches to Jamestown! She would starve ere she would move
+against the will of the king and his representative, and so would I,
+but I will not have my little sister put to suffering and shame. God
+save her, Harry Wingfield, but she might be thrown into prison, and
+worse--I pray thee, save her, Harry! Whatever ill you have done,
+and however slightingly I have held you for it, I pray you do this
+good deed by way of amends, and I will put the memory of your
+misdeeds behind me."
+
+Even then my bewilderment at her mention of my misdeeds, when I
+verily considered that she, as well as I, knew more of her own, was
+strong, but I grasped her two little hands hard, then relinquished
+them, and bowed and said, "Madam, I will save your sister at
+whatever cost."
+
+"And count it not?" said she.
+
+"No more than I have done before, madam," said I, and maybe with
+some little bitterness, for sometimes a woman by persistent goading,
+may almost raise herself to the fighting level of a man.
+
+"But how?" said she.
+
+"That I must study."
+
+"But I charge you to keep it from Madam Cavendish."
+
+"You need have no fear."
+
+"May God forgive me, but I told Madam Cavendish that the Golden Horn
+had not arrived," said she, "but what have they done with the rest
+of the cargo, pray?"
+
+I started. I had, I confess, not given that a thought, though it was
+but reasonable that there was more beside those powder casks, if the
+revenue from the crops had been so small.
+
+But Catherine Cavendish needed but a moment for that problem.
+"'Twill return," said she. "Captain Tabor hath but sailed off a
+little distance that he may return and make port, as if for the
+first time since he left England, and so put them off the scent of
+the Sabbath unlading of those other wares." She looked down the
+burnished flow of the river as she spoke, and cried out that she
+could see a sail, but I, looking also, could not see anything save
+the shimmer of white and green spring boughs into which the river
+distance closed.
+
+"'Tis the Golden Horn," said Catherine.
+
+"I can see naught of white save the locust-blooms," said I.
+
+"Locusts stand not against the wind in stiff sheets," said she.
+"'Tis the sail of the Golden Horn; but that matters not. Harry,
+Harry Wingfield, can you save my sister?"
+
+"I know not whether I can, madam, but I will," said I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+
+
+
+Mistress Catherine and I returned together to Drake Hill, she
+bearing herself with a sharp and anxious conciliation, and I with
+little to say in response, and walking behind her, though she moved
+more and more slowly that I might gain her side.
+
+We were not yet in sight of Drake Hill, but the morning smoke from
+the slave cabins had begun to thrust itself athwart the honeyed
+sweetness of blossoms, and the salt freshness of the breath of the
+tidal river, as the homely ways of life will ever do athwart the
+beauty and inspiration of it, maybe to the making of its true
+harmony, when of a sudden we both stopped and listened. Mistress
+Catherine turned palely to me, and I dare say the thought of Indians
+was in her mind, though they had long been quiet, then her face
+relaxed and she smiled.
+
+"'Tis the first day of May," said she. "And they are going to set up
+the May-pole in Jarvis Field."
+
+This did they every May of late, because some of the governors and
+some of the people had kept to those prejudices against the May
+revelries which had existed before the Restoration, and frowned upon
+the May-pole set up in the Jamestown green as if it had been, as the
+Roundheads used to claim, the veritable heathen god Baal.
+
+Jarvis Field was a green tract, clear of trees, not far from us, and
+presently we met the merry company proceeding thither. First came a
+great rollicking posse of lads and lasses linked hand in hand, all
+crowned with flowers, and bearing green and blossomy boughs over
+shoulder. And these were so swift with the wild spirit and jollity
+of the day that they must needs come in advance, even before the
+horses which dragged the May-pole. Six of them there were, so
+bedecked with ribbons and green garlands that I marvelled they could
+see the road and were not wild with fear. But they seemed to enter
+into the spirit of it all, and stepped highly and daintily with
+proud archings of necks and tossings of green plumed heads, and
+behind them the May-pole rasped and bumped and grated, the trunk of
+a mighty oak yet bristling with green, like the stubble of a shaggy
+beard of virility. And after the May-pole came surely the queerest
+company of morris dancers that ever the world saw, except those of
+which I have heard tell which danced in Herefordshire in the reign
+of King James, those being composed of ten men whose ages made up
+the sum of twelve hundred years. These, while not so ancient as
+that, were still of the oldest men to be come at who could move
+without crutches and whose estate was not of too much dignity for
+such sports. And Maid Marion was the oldest and smallest of them
+all, riding her hobby-horse, dressed in a yellow petticoat and a
+crimson stomacher, with a great wig of yellow flax hanging down
+under her gilt crown, and a painted mask to hide her white beard.
+And after Maid Marion came dancing, with stiff struts and gambols,
+old men as gayly attired as might be, with garlands of
+peach-blossoms on their gray heads, bearing gad-sticks of peeled
+willow-boughs wound with cowslips, and ringing bells and blowing
+horns with all their might. And after them trooped young men and
+maids, all flinging their heels aloft and waving with green and
+flowers, and shouting and singing till it seemed the whole colony
+was up and mad.
+
+Mistress Catherine and I stood well to one side to let them pass by,
+but when the morris dancers reached us, and caught sight of
+Catherine in her green robes standing among the green bushes, above
+which her fair face looked, half with dismay, half with a quick leap
+of sympathy with the merriment, for there was in this girl a strange
+spirit of misrule beneath all her quiet, and I verily believe that,
+had she but let loose the leash in which she held herself, would
+have joined those dancing and singing lasses and been outdone by
+none, there was a sudden halt; then, before I knew what was to
+happen, around her leapt a laughing score of them, shouting that
+here was the true Maid Marion, and that old John Lubberkin could now
+resign his post. Then off the hobbyhorse they tumbled him, and the
+lads and lasses gathering around her, and the graybeards standing
+aloof with some chagrin, would, I believe, in spite of me, since
+they outnumbered me vastly, have forced Catherine into that rude
+pageant as Maid Marion. But while I was thrusting them aside,
+holding myself before her as firmly as I might, there came a quick
+clatter of hoofs, and Mistress Mary had dashed alongside on Merry
+Roger. She scattered the merry revellers right and left, calling out
+to her sister to go homeward with a laugh. "Fie on thee, Catherine!"
+she cried out. "If thou art abroad on a May morning dressed like the
+queen of it, what blame can there be to these good folk for giving
+thee thy queendom?"
+
+Catherine did not move to go when the people drew away from her, but
+rather stood looking at them with that lurking fire in her eyes and
+a flush on her fair cheeks. Mistress Mary sat on her horse, curbing
+him with her little hand, and her golden curls floated around her
+like a cloud, for she had ridden forth without her hood on hearing
+the sound of the horns and bells, eager to see the show like any
+child, and the merrymakers stared at her, grinning with uncouth
+delight and never any resentment. There was that in Mary Cavendish's
+look, when she chose to have it so, that could, I verily believe,
+have swayed an army, so full of utter good-will and lovingkindness
+it was, and, more than that, of such confidence in theirs in return
+that it would have taken not only knaves, but knaves with no conceit
+of themselves, to have forsworn her good opinion of them. Suddenly
+there rose a great shout and such a volley of cheering and hallooing
+as can come only from English throats. A tall lad cast a great
+wreath over Mistress Mary's own head, and cried out with a shout
+that here, here was Maid Marion. And scores of voices echoed his
+with "Maid Marion, Marion!" And then, to my great astonishment and
+dismay, for a man is with no enemy so much at a loss as with a
+laughing one, since it wrongs his own bravery to meet smiles with
+blows, they gave forth that I was Robin Hood; that the convict
+tutor, Harry Wingfield, was Robin Hood!
+
+I felt myself white with wrath then, and was for blindly wrestling
+with a great fellow who was among the foremost, shaking with mirth,
+an oak wreath over his red curls making him look like a satyr, when
+Mistress Mary rode between us. "Back, Master Wingfield," said she,
+"I pray thee stand back." Then she looked at the folk, all smiles
+and ready understanding of them, until they hurrahed again and rang
+their bells and blew their horns, and she looked like a blossom
+tossed on the wave of pandemonium.
+
+I had my hand on her bridle-rein, ready to do my best should any
+rudeness be offered her, when suddenly she raised her hand and made
+a motion, and to my utter astonishment the brawling throng, save for
+some on the outskirts, which quieted presently, became still. Then
+Mistress Mary's voice arose, clear and sweet, with a childish note
+of innocence in it:
+
+"Good people," said she, "fain would I be your Maid Marion, and fain
+would I be your queen of May, if you would hold with me this Kingdom
+of Virginia against tyrants and oppressors."
+
+I question if a dozen there grasped her meaning, but, after a
+second's gaping stare, such a shout went up that it seemed to make
+the marshes quiver. I know not what mad scheme was in the maid's
+head, but I verily believe that throng would have followed her
+wherever she led, and the tobacco plants might have been that
+morning cut had she so willed.
+
+But I pulled hard at her bridle, and I forgot my customary manner
+with her, so full of terror for her I was. "For God's sake, child,
+have done," I said, and she looked at me, and there came a strange
+expression, which I had never seen before, into her blue eyes, half
+of yielding as to some strength which she feared, and half of that
+high enthusiasm of youth and noble sentiment which threatened to
+swamp her in its mighty flow as it had done her hero Bacon before
+her. I know not if I could have held her; it all passed in a second
+the while those wild huzzas continued, and the crowd pressed closer,
+all crowned and crested with green, like a tidal wave of spring, but
+another argument came to me, and that moved her. "'Tis not yourself
+alone, but your sister and Madam Cavendish to suffer with you," I
+said. Then she gave a quick glance at Catherine, who was raising her
+white face and trying to get near enough to speak to her, for her
+sister's speech had made her frantic with alarm, and hesitated. Then
+she laughed, and the earnest look faded from her face, and she
+called out with that way of hers which nobody and nothing could
+withstand, "Nay," she said, "wait till I be older and have as much
+wisdom in my head as hath the Maid Marion whom you have chosen. The
+one who hath seen so many Mays can best know how to queen it over
+them." So saying, she snatched the wreath with which they had
+crowned her from her head and cast it with such a sweep of grace as
+never I saw over the head of flax-headed and masked Maid Marion, and
+reined her horse back, and the crowd, with worshipful eyes of
+admiration of her and her sweetness and wit and beauty, gave way,
+and was off adown the road toward Jarvis Field, with loud clamour of
+bells and horns and wild dancing and wavings of their gad-sticks and
+green branches. Mistress Mary rode before us at a gallop, and
+presently we were all at the breakfast table in the great hall at
+Drake Hill, with foaming tankards of metheglin and dishes of honey
+and salmon and game in plenty. For, whatever the scarcity of the
+king's gold, there was not much lack of food in this rich country.
+
+Madam Cavendish was down that morning, sitting at table with her
+stick beside her, her head topped with a great tower of snowy cap,
+her old face now ivory-yellow, but with a wonderful precision of
+feature, for she had been a great beauty in her day, so alert and
+alive with the ready comprehension of her black eyes, under slightly
+scowling brows, that naught escaped her that was within her reach of
+vision. Somewhat dull was she of hearing, but that sharpness of eye
+did much to atone for it. She looked up, when we entered, with such
+keenness that for a second my thought was that she knew all.
+
+"What were the sounds of merrymaking down the road?" said she.
+
+"'Twas the morris dancers and the May-pole; 'tis the first of May,
+as you know, madam," said Mary in her sweet voice, made clear and
+loud to reach her grandmother's ear; then up she went to kiss her,
+and the old woman eyed her with pride, which she was fain to conceal
+by chiding. "You will ruin your complexion if you go out in such a
+wind without your mask," she said, and looked at the maiden's roses
+and lilies with that rapture of admiration occasioned half by memory
+of her own charms which had faded, and half by understanding of the
+value of them in coin of love, which one woman can waken only in
+another.
+
+For Catherine, Madam Cavendish had no glance of admiration nor word,
+though she had tended her faithfully all the day before and half the
+night, rubbing her with an effusion of herbs and oil for her
+rheumatic pains. Yet for her, Madam Cavendish had no love, and
+treated her with a stately toleration and no more. Mary understood
+no cause for it, and often looked, as she did then, with a
+distressful wonder at her grandmother when she seemed to hold her
+sister so slightingly.
+
+"Here is Catherine, grandmother," said she, "and she has had a
+narrow escape from being pressed as Maid Marion by the morris
+dancers." Madam Cavendish made a slight motion, and looked not at
+Catherine, but turned to me with that face of anxious kindness which
+she wore for me alone. "Saw you aught of the Golden Horn this
+morning, Master Wingfield?" asked she, and I replied truthfully
+enough that I had not.
+
+Then, to my dismay, she turned to Mary and inquired what were the
+goods which she had ordered from England, and to my greater dismay
+the maid, with such a light of daring and mischief in her blue eyes
+as I never saw, rattled off, the while Catherine and I stared aghast
+at her, such a list of women's folderols as I never heard, and most
+of them quite beyond my masculine comprehension.
+
+Madam Cavendish nodded approvingly when she had done. "'Tis a wise
+choice," said she, "and as soon as the ship comes in have the goods
+brought here and unpacked that I may see them." With that she rose
+stiffly, and, beckoning Catherine, who looked as if she could
+scarcely stand herself, much less serve as prop for another, she
+went out, tapping her stick heavily on one side, on the other
+leaning on her granddaughter's shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+
+
+
+I looked at Mistress Mary and she at me. We had withdrawn to the
+deepness of a window, while the black slaves moved in and out,
+bearing the breakfast dishes, as reasonably unheeded by us as the
+cup-bearers in a picture of a Roman banquet in the time of the
+Caesars which I saw once. Mistress Mary was pale with dismay, and
+yet her mouth twitched with laughter at the notion of displaying,
+before the horrified eyes of Madam Cavendish, those grim adornments
+which had arrived in the Golden Horn.
+
+"La," said she, "when they come a-trundling in a powder-cask and I
+courtesy and say, 'Madam, here is my furbelowed and gold-flowered
+sacque,' I wonder what will come to pass." Then she laughed.
+
+"My God, madam," said I, "why did you give that list?" She laughed
+again, and her eyes flashed with the very light of mischief.
+
+"I grant 'twas a fib," said she; "but I was taken unawares, and, la,
+how could I recite to her the true list of my rare finery which came
+to port yesterday? So I but gave the list of goods for which my Lady
+Culpeper sent to England for the replenishing of her wardrobe and
+her daughter's, and which is daily expected by ship. I had it from
+Cicely Hyde, who had it from Cate Culpeper. The ship is due now, and
+may be even now in port, and so I worded what I said, that 'twas
+not, after all, a fib, except the hearer chose to make it so. I
+said, 'Such goods as these are due, madam.'" Then she gave the list
+anew, like a parrot, while Catherine, who had returned, stood
+staring at her, white with terror, though Mary did not see her until
+she had finished. Then, when she turned and caught her keenly
+anxious eyes, she started. "You here, Catherine?" said she. Then,
+knowing not how much her sister knew already, she tried to cover her
+confusion, like a child denying its raid on the jam pots, while its
+lips and fingers are still sticky with the stolen sweet. "What think
+you of my list, sweetheart?" cried she, merrily. "A pair of the silk
+stockings and two of the breast-knots and a mask and a flowered
+apron shall you have." Then out of the room she whisked abruptly,
+laughing from excess of nervous confusion, and not being able to
+keep up the farce longer.
+
+Then Catherine turned to me. "She has undone herself, for Madam
+Cavendish will see those goods when the Golden Horn comes in, or
+ferret the mystery to its farthest hole of hiding," said she. Then
+she wrung her hands and cried out sharply, "My God, Harry Wingfield,
+what is to be done?"
+
+"Madam Cavendish would surely never betray her own flesh and blood,"
+said I, though doubtfully, when I reflected upon her hardness to
+Catherine herself, for Madam Judith Cavendish was not one for whom
+love could change the colour of the clear light of justice, and she
+would see forever her own as they were.
+
+"There is to her no such word as betray except in the service of the
+king," said Catherine. Then she added in a whisper, "Know you the
+story of her youngest son, my uncle Ralph Cavendish, who went over
+to Cromwell?"
+
+I nodded. I knew it well, and had heard it from a lad how Ralph
+Cavendish's own mother had turned him from her door one night with
+the king's troops in the neighbourhood, though it was afterward
+argued that she did not know of that, and he had been taken before
+morning and afterwards executed, and she had never said a word nor
+shed a tear that any one saw.
+
+"When the Golden Horn comes in she will demand to see the goods,"
+Catherine repeated.
+
+"Then--the Golden Horn must not come in," said I.
+
+Catherine looked at me with that flash of ready wit in her eyes
+which was like to the flash of fire from gunpowder meeting tinder.
+Then she cried out, "Quick, then, quick, I pray thee, Harry
+Wingfield, to the wharf! For if ever I saw sail, I saw that, and the
+tide will have turned 'm. Quick, quick!"
+
+She waited not for any head-gear, but forth into the May sunlight
+she rushed, and I with her, and shouted at the top of my lungs to
+the slaves for my horse, then went myself, having no mind to wait,
+and hustled the poor beast from his feed-bin, and was on his back
+and at a hard gallop to the wharf, with Mistress Catherine following
+as fast as she was able. Now and then, when I turned, I saw her slim
+green shape advancing, looking for all the world to my fancy like
+some nymph who had been changed into a river-reed and had gotten
+life again.
+
+When I reached the wharf, with my horse all afoam, there was indeed
+the Golden Horn down the river, coming in. The tide and the wind had
+been against her, or she would have reached shore ere now. Then
+along the bank I urged my horse, and in some parts, where there was
+no footing and the tangle of woods too close, into the stream we
+plunged and swam, then up bank again, and so on with a mighty
+splatter of mire and water and rain of green leaves and blossoms
+from the low hang of branches through which we tore way, till we
+came abreast of the Golden Horn. Then I hallooed, first making sure
+that there was no one lurking near to overhear, and waved my
+handkerchief, keeping my horse standing to his fetlocks in the
+current, until over the water came an answering halloo from the
+Golden Horn, and I could plainly see Captain Calvin Tabor on the
+quarter-deck. The ship was not far distant, and I could have swam to
+her, and would have, though the tide was strong, had there been no
+other way.
+
+"Halloo," shouted Captain Tabor, and two more men came running to
+the side, then more still, till it was overhung by a whole row of
+red English faces.
+
+"Halloo!" shouted I.
+
+"What d'ye lack? What's afoot? Halloo!"
+
+"Send a boat, for God's sake," I shouted back. "News, news; keep
+where ye be. Do not land. Send a boat!"
+
+"Is it the convict tutor, Wingfield?" shouted the captain.
+
+I called back yes, and repeated my demand that he send a boat for
+God's sake.
+
+Then I saw a great running hither and thither, and presently a boat
+touched water from the side of the Golden Horn with a curious
+lapping dip, and I was off my horse and tied him fast to a tree on
+the bank, with loose rein that he might crop his fill of the sweet
+spring herbage, and when the boat touched bank was in her and
+speedily aboard the ship.
+
+Captain Tabor was leaning over the bulwarks, and his ruddy face was
+pale, and his look of devil-may-care gayety somewhat subdued.
+
+When I gained the deck forward he came and grasped me by the arm,
+and led me into his own cabin, having first shouted forth to his
+mate an order to drop anchor and keep the ship in midstream.
+
+"Now, in the name of all the fiends, what is afoot?" he cried out,
+though with a cautious cock of his eyes toward the deck, for English
+sailors are not black slaves when it comes to discussing matters of
+weight.
+
+"There is a plot afoot against His Majesty King Charles, and you but
+yesterday, that being also a day on which it is unlawful to unload a
+ship, discharged a portion of your cargo, toward its furtherance and
+abetting," said I.
+
+"Hell and damnation!" he cried out, "when I trust a woman's tongue
+again may I swing from my own yard-arms. What brought that
+fair-faced devil into it, anyway? Be there not men enough in this
+colony?"
+
+"And you keep not a civil tongue in your head when you speak of
+Mistress Mary Cavendish; you will find of a surety that there be one
+man in this colony, sir," said I.
+
+He laughed in that mocking fashion of his which incensed me still
+further. Then he spoke civilly enough, and said that he meant no
+disrespect to one of the fairest ladies whom he had ever had the
+good fortune to see, but that it was so well known as to be no more
+slight in mentioning than the paint and powder wherewith a woman
+enhanced her beauty, that a woman's tongue could not be trusted like
+a man's, and that it were a pity that money, which were much better
+spent by her for pretty follies, should be put to such grim uses,
+and where were the gallants of Virginia that they suffered it, but
+did not rather empty their own purses?
+
+I explained, being somewhat mollified, and also somewhat of his way
+of thinking, that men there were, but there was little gold since
+the Navigation Act. And I informed Captain Tabor how Mistress Mary
+Cavendish, having an estate not so heavily charged with expenses as
+some, and being her own mistress with regard to the disposal of its
+revenues, had the means which the men lacked.
+
+"But what was the news which brought you thither, sir?" demanded
+Captain Tabor.
+
+"You know of the plot--" I begun, but he broke in upon me
+fiercely.
+
+"May the fiends take me, but what know I of a plot?" he cried.
+
+"Can I not bring over gowns and kerchiefs and silken ribbons for a
+pretty maid without a plot? How knew you that? There is the woman's
+tongue again. But can I not bring over goods even of such sort;
+might I not with good reason suppose them to be for the defence of
+the cause of his most gracious Majesty King Charles against the
+savages, or any malcontents in his colonies? What plot, sirrah?"
+
+"The plot for the cutting down of the young tobacco plants, Captain
+Tabor," said I.
+
+His eyes blazed at me, while his face was pale and grim.
+
+"How many know of the goods I discharged from the Golden Horn
+yesterday?" he asked.
+
+"Three men, and I know not how many more, and two women," said I.
+
+"Two women!" he groaned out. "Pestilence on these tide-waters which
+hold a ship like a trap! Two women!"
+
+"But the concern is lest a third woman know," said I.
+
+"If three women know, then God save us all, for their triple tongues
+will carry as far as the last trump!" cried Captain Tabor. Perturbed
+as he was, he never lost that air of reckless daring which compelled
+me to a sort of liking for him. "Out with the rest of it, sir," he
+said.
+
+Then I told my story, to which he listened, scowling, yet with that
+ready laugh at his mouth. "'Tis a scurvy trick to serve a woman,
+both for her sake and the rest of us, to let her meddle with such
+matters," he said, "and so I told that cousin of hers, Master Drake,
+who came with her to give the order ere I sailed for England."
+
+"Came any man save Ralph Drake with her then?" I asked.
+
+"The saints forbid," he replied. "A secret is a secret only when in
+the keeping of one; with two it findeth legs, but with three it
+unfoldeth the swiftest wings of flight in all creation, and is
+everywhere with no alighting. Had three come to me with that mad
+order to bring powder and shot in the stead of silk stockings and
+garters and cambric shifts and kerchiefs, I would have clapped full
+sail on the Golden Horn, though--" he hesitated, then spoke in a
+whisper--"my mind is against tyranny, to speak you true, though
+I care not a farthing whether men pray on their knees or their feet,
+or in gowns or the fashion of Eden. And I care not if they pray at
+all, nor would I for the sake of that ever have forsaken, had I
+stood in my grandfather's shoes, the flesh-pots of old England for
+that howling wilderness of Plymouth. But for the sake of doing as I
+willed, and not as any other man, would I have sailed or swam the
+seas had they been blood instead of water. And so am I now with a
+due regard to the wind and the trim of my sails and the ears of
+tale-bearers, for a man hath but one head to lose with you of
+Virginia. But, the Lord, to make a little maid like that run the
+risk of imprisonment or worse, knew you aught of it, sir?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+Captain Tabor laughed. "And yet she rode straight to the wharf with
+you yesterday," said he. "Lord, what hidden springs move a woman!
+I'll warrant, sir, had you known, you might have battened down the
+hatches fast enough on her will, convict though you be, and, faith,
+sir, but you look to me like one who is convict or master at his own
+choosing and not by the will of any other." So saying, he gave me a
+look so sharp that for a second I half surmised that he guessed my
+secret, but knew better at once, and said that our business was to
+deal not with what had been, but with what might be.
+
+"Well," said he, "and what may that be, Master Wingfield, in your
+opinion? You surely do not mean to hold the Golden Horn in midstream
+with her cargo undischarged until the day of doom, lest yon old
+beldame offer up her fair granddaughter on the altar of her loyalty,
+with me and my hearties for kindling, to say naught of yourself and
+a few of the best gentlemen of Virginia. I forfeit my head if I set
+sail for England; naught is left for me that I see that shall save
+my neck but to turn pirate and king it over the high seas. Having
+swallowed a small morsel of my Puritan misgivings, what is to hinder
+my bolting the whole, like an exceeding bitter pill, to my complete
+purging of danger? What say you, Master Wingfield? Small reputation
+have you to lose, and sure thy reckoning with powers that be leaves
+thee large creditor. Will you sail with me? My first lieutenant
+shall you be, and we will share the booty."
+
+He laughed, and I stared at him that he should stoop to jest, yet
+having a ready leap of comradeship toward him for it; then suddenly
+his mood changed. Close to me he edged, and began talking with a
+serious shrewdness which showed his mind brought fully to bear upon
+the situation. "You say, sir," said he, "that Mistress Mary
+Cavendish, in a spirit of youthful daring and levity, gave her
+grandmother a list of the goods which my Lady Culpeper ordered from
+England, and which even now is due?" I nodded.
+
+"Know you by what ship?"
+
+"The Earl of Fairfax," I replied, and recalled as I spoke a rumour
+that my Lord Culpeper designed his daughter Cate for the eldest son
+of the earl, and had so named his ship in honour of him.
+
+"You say that the Earl of Fairfax is even now due?" said Captain
+Tabor.
+
+I replied that she was hourly expected by what I had learned; then
+Captain Tabor, sitting loosely hunched with that utter abandon of
+all the muscles which one sees in some when they are undergoing a
+fierce strain of thought, remained silent for a space, his brows
+knitted. Then suddenly my shoulder tingled with the clap which he
+gave it, and the cabin rang and rang again with a laugh so loud and
+gay that it seemed a very note of the May day. "You are merry," I
+said, but I laughed myself, though somewhat doubtfully, when he
+unfolded his scheme to me, which was indeed both bold and humorous.
+He knew well the captain of the Earl of Fairfax, who had been
+shipmate with him.
+
+"Many a lark ashore have we had together," said Calvin Tabor, "and,
+faith, but I know things about him now which compel him to my turn;
+the devil's mess have we both been in, but I need not use such means
+of persuasion, if I know honest Dick Watson." The scheme of which
+Captain Tabor delivered himself, with bursts of laughter enough to
+wake the ship, was, to speak briefly, that he should go with a boat,
+rowing against the current, by keeping close to bank and taking
+advantage of eddies, and meet the Earl of Fairfax before she reached
+Jamestown, board her, and persuade her captain to send the cases of
+my Lady Culpeper's goods under cover of night to the Golden Horn,
+whence he would unload them next morning, and Mistress Mary could
+show them to her grandmother, and then they were to be reshipped
+with all possible speed and secrecy, the Earl of Fairfax meanwhile
+laying at anchor at the mouth of the river, and then delivered to my
+Lady Culpeper.
+
+There was but one doubt as to the success of this curious scheme in
+my mind, and that was that Mistress Mary might not easily lend
+herself to such deception. However, Captain Tabor, with a skill of
+devising concerning which I have often wondered whether it may be
+more common in the descendants of those who settled in New England,
+who were in such sore straits to get their own wills, than with us
+of Virginia, provided a way through that difficulty.
+
+"'Tis full easy," said he. "You say that the maid's sister will say
+naught against it--and you?"
+
+"I will say naught against her safety," said I. "What think you I
+care for any little quibbles of the truth when that be in question?"
+
+"Well," said Captain Tabor, "then must you and Mistress Catherine
+Cavendish show the goods to the maid, and say naught as to the means
+by which you came by them; tell her they are landed from the Golden
+Horn, as indeed they will be; let her think aught she chooses, that
+they are indeed her own, purchased for her by her sister or her
+lovers, if she choose to think so, and bid her display them with no
+ado to Madam Cavendish, if she value the safety of the others who
+are concerned in this. Betwixt the mystery and the fright and the
+sight of the trinkets, if she be aught on the pattern of any other
+maid, show them she will, and hold her tongue till she be out of her
+grandmother's presence."
+
+"It can be but tried," said I.
+
+Then the captain sprang out on deck, and ordered a boat lowered, and
+presently had set me ashore, and was himself, with a half-dozen
+sailors, fighting way down-stream.
+
+I found my horse on the bank where I had left him, and by him,
+waiting anxiously, Catherine Cavendish. She listened with deepening
+eyes while I told her Captain Tabor's scheme, and when I had done
+looked at me with her beautiful mouth set and her face as white as a
+white flower on a bush beside her. "Mary shall show the goods," said
+she. "Such a story will I tell her as will make her innocent of
+aught save bewilderment, and as for you and me, we are both of us
+ready to burn for a lie for the sake of her."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+
+
+
+I know not how Capt. Calvin Tabor managed his part to tranship those
+goods without discovery, but he had a shrewd head, and no doubt the
+captain of the Earl of Fairfax another, and by eight o'clock that
+May day the Golden Horn lay at her wharf discharging her cargo right
+lustily with such openness of zeal and shouts of encouragement and
+groans of labour 'twas enough to acquaint all the colony. And
+straightway to the great house they brought my Lady Culpeper's
+fallals, and clamped them in the hall where we were all at supper.
+Mistress Mary sprang to her feet, and ran to them and bent over
+them. "What are these?" she said, all in a quiver.
+
+"The goods which you ordered, madam," spoke up one of the sailors,
+with a grin which he had copied from Captain Tabor, and pulled a
+forelock and ducked his head.
+
+"The goods," said she, speaking faintly, for hers was rather the
+headlong course of enthusiasm than the secret windings of diplomacy.
+
+"Art thou gone daft, sweetheart? The goods of which you gave the
+list this morning, which have but now come in on the Golden Horn,"
+spake up Catherine, sharply. I marvelled as I heard her whether it
+be ease or tenderness of conscience which can appease a woman with
+the letter and not the substance of the truth, for I am confident
+that her keeping to the outward show of honesty in her life was no
+small comfort to Catherine Cavendish.
+
+Madam Cavendish was at table that night, though moving with grimaces
+from the stiffness of her rheumatic joints, and she ordered that the
+sailors be given cider, the which they drank with some haste, and
+were gone. Then Madam Cavendish asked Mistress Mary, with her
+wonderful keenness of gaze, which I never saw excelled, "Are those
+the goods which you ordered by the Golden Horn?" But I answered for
+her, knowing that Madam Cavendish would pardon such presumption from
+me. "Madam, those are the goods. I have it from Capt. Calvin Tabor
+himself." I spoke with no roundings nor glossings of subterfuge,
+having ever held that all the excuse for a lie was its boldness in a
+good cause, and believing in slaying a commandment like an enemy
+with a clean cut of the sword.
+
+Mistress Mary gave a little gasp, and looked at me, and looked at
+her sister Catherine, and well I knew it was on the tip of her
+tongue to out with the whole to her grandmother. And so she would
+doubtless have done had not her wonderment and suspicion that maybe
+in some wise Catherine had conspired to buy for her in England the
+goods of which she had cheated herself, and the terror of doing harm
+to her sister and me. But never saw I a maid go so white and red and
+make the strife within her so evident.
+
+We were well-nigh through supper when the goods arrived, and Madam
+Cavendish ordered some of the slaves to open the cases, which they
+did forthwith, and all my Lady Culpeper's finery was displayed.
+
+Never saw I such a rich assortment, and calling to mind my Lady
+Culpeper's thin and sour visage, I wondered within myself whether
+such fine feathers might in her case suffice to make a fine bird,
+though some of them were for her daughter Cate, who was fair enough.
+Nothing would do but Mistress Mary, with her lovely face still
+strange to see with her consternation of puzzlement, should
+severally display every piece to her grandmother, and hold against
+her complexion the rich stuffs to see if the colours suited her.
+Madam Cavendish was pleased to express her satisfaction with them
+all, though with some demur at the extravagance. "'Tis rich enough a
+wardrobe for my Lady Culpeper," said she, at which innocent
+shrewdness I was driven to hard straits to keep my face grave, but
+Mistress Catherine was looking on with a countenance as calm as the
+moon which was just then rising.
+
+Madam Cavendish was pleased especially with one gown of a sky
+colour, shot with silver threads, and ordered that Mistress Mary
+should wear it to the ball which was to be given at the governor's
+house the next night.
+
+When I heard that I started, and Catherine shot a pale glance of
+consternation at me, but Mistress Mary flushed rosy-red with
+rebellion.
+
+"I have no desire to attend my Lord Culpeper's ball, madam," said
+she.
+
+"Lord Culpeper is the representative of his Majesty here in
+Virginia," said Madam Cavendish, with a high head, "and no
+granddaughter of mine absents herself with my approval. To the ball
+you go, madam, and in that sky-coloured gown, and no more words.
+Things have come to a pretty pass." So saying, she rose and, leaning
+heavily on her stick, with her black maid propping her, she went
+out. Then turned Mistress Mary imperiously to us and demanded to
+know the meaning of it all. "Whence came these goods?" said she to
+Catherine.
+
+"On the Golden Horn, sweetheart; 'tis the list you gave this
+morning," replied Catherine, without a change in the fair resolve of
+her face.
+
+"Pish!" cried Mary Cavendish. "The list I gave this morning was my
+Lady Culpeper's, and you know it. Whence came these?" and she
+spurned at a heap of the rich gleaming things with the toe of her
+tiny foot.
+
+"I tell you, sweetheart, on the Golden Horn," replied Catherine.
+Then she turned to me in a rage. "The truth I will have," she cried
+out. "Whence came these goods?"
+
+"On the Golden Horn, madam," I said.
+
+She stamped her foot, and her voice rang so shrill that the black
+slaves, carrying out the dishes, rolled alarmed eyes at her. "Think
+you I will be treated like a child?" she cried out. "What means all
+this?"
+
+Then close to her went Catherine, and flung an arm around her, and
+leaned her smooth, fair head against her sister's tossing golden
+one. "For the sake of those you love and who love thee, sweetheart,"
+she whispered.
+
+But Mistress Mary pushed her away and looked at her angrily. "Well,
+what am I to do for their sakes?" she demanded.
+
+"Seek to know no more than this. The goods came on the Golden Horn
+but now, and 'tis the list you gave this morning."
+
+"But it was not my list, and I deceived my grandmother, and I will
+go to her now and out with the truth. Think you I will have such a
+falsehood on my soul?"
+
+Catherine leaned closer to her and whispered, and Mary gave a quick,
+wild glance at me, but I know not what she said. "I pray thee seek
+to know no more than that the goods came but now in a boat from the
+Golden Horn, and 'tis the list you gave this morning," said
+Catherine aloud.
+
+"They are not mine by right, and well you know it." Then a thought
+struck me, and I said with emphasis, "Madam, yours by right they are
+and shall be, and I pray you to have no more concern in the matter."
+
+Then so saying, I hastened out and went through the moonlight to the
+wharf to seek Captain Tabor and the captain of the Earl of Fairfax,
+who had come with his goods to see to their safety. Both men were
+pacing back and forth, smoking long pipes, and Captain Watson, of
+the Earl of Fairfax, a small and eager-spoken man, turned on me the
+minute I came within hearing. "Where be my Lady Culpeper's goods?"
+said he; "'tis time they were here and I on my way to the ship.
+Devil take me if I run such a risk again for any man."
+
+Then I made my errand known. I had some fifty pounds saved up from
+the wreck of my fortunes; 'twas a third more than the goods were
+worth. Would he but take it, pay the London merchant who had
+furnished them, and have the remainder for his trouble?
+
+"Trouble, trouble!" he shouted out, "trouble! By all the foul
+fiends, man, what am I to say to my Lady Culpeper? Have you ever
+had speech with her that you propose such a game with her?"
+
+Captain Tabor burst out with a loud guffaw of laughter. "You have
+not seen the maid for whom you run the risk, Dick," said he. "'Tis
+the fairest--"
+
+"What care I for fair maids?" demanded the other. "Have I not a
+wife and seven little ones in old England? What think you a dimple
+or a bright eye hath of weight with me?"
+
+"Time was, Dick," laughed Captain Tabor.
+
+"Time that was no longer is," answered the other, crossly; then to
+me, "Send down my goods by some of those black fellows, and no more
+parleying, sir."
+
+"But, sir," I said, "'twill be a good fifteen pound for Mistress
+Watson and the little ones when the merchant be paid."
+
+"Go to," he growled out, "what will that avail if I be put in
+prison? What am I to say to my Lady Culpeper for the non-deliverment
+of her goods? Answer me that." Then came Captain Tabor to my aid
+with his merry shrewdness. "'Tis as easy as the nose on thy face,
+Dick," said he. "Say but to my lady that you have searched and the
+goods be not in the hold of the Earl of Fairfax, and must have
+miscarried, as faith they have, and say that next voyage you will
+deliver them and hold thyself responsible for the cost, as you well
+can afford with Master Wingfield's money."
+
+"Hast ever heard my Lady Culpeper's tongue?" demanded the other.
+"'Tis easy to advise. Would you face her thyself without the goods
+in hand, Calvin Tabor?"
+
+"Faith, and I'd face a dozen like her for fifteen pound," declared
+Captain Tabor. Then, with another great laugh. "I have it; send thy
+mate, send thy deaf mate, Jack Tarbox, man."
+
+"But she will demand to see the captain."
+
+"Faith, and the captain will be on board the Earl of Fairfax seeing
+to a leak which she hath sprung, and cannot leave her," said Tabor.
+
+"But in two days' time the governor sails in my ship for England."
+
+"Think ye the governor will concern himself about my lady's
+adornments when he be headed for England and out of reach of her
+complaints?"
+
+"But how to dodge her for so long?"
+
+"Dick," said the other, solemnly, "much I have it in mind that a
+case of fever will break out upon the Earl of Fairfax by to-morrow
+or next day."
+
+"Then think you that my lady will allow her lord the governor to
+sail?"
+
+"Dick," laughed Captain Tabor, "governors be great men and you but a
+poor sailor, but when it comes to coin in wifely value, thy weight
+in the heart of thy good Bridget would send the governor of Virginia
+higher than thy masthead. None but my Lady Culpeper need have hint
+of the fever."
+
+"I have a sailor ailing," said the other, doubtfully, "but he hath
+no sign of fever."
+
+"'Tis enough," cried the other, gayly. "His fever will rage in
+twelve hours enough to heat the 'tween decks."
+
+"But," said Captain Watson, speaking angrily, and yet with a certain
+timidity, as men will do before a scoffing friend and their own
+accusing conscience, "you ask me to forswear myself."
+
+"Nay, that I will not," cried the other. "By the Lord, I forgot thy
+conscience, good Dick. Well, I have enough from my ancestors of
+Plymouth to forswear and forswear again, and yet have some to spare.
+I--I will go to my Lady Culpeper with the tale and save thy soul
+thy scruples, and thy ears the melody of her tongue. I will acquaint
+her with the miscarriage of the goods, and whisper of the sick
+sailor, and all thou hast to do is to loiter about Jamestown,
+keeping thy Bridget well in mind the while, and load thy ship with
+the produce of the soil which the beggars of Virginia give of their
+loyalty to His Majesty King Charles, and then to take on board my
+Lord Culpeper and set sail."
+
+"'Tis a fearful risk," groaned the other, "though I am a poor man,
+and I will admit that my Bridget--"
+
+"'Tis a fearful risk for you, Captain Tabor, and through you for my
+mistress," I interrupted, for I did not half like the plan.
+
+"Our ships lay alongside, and I am hailed by a brother mariner in
+distress both at the prospect of the displeasure of a great and
+noble lady and the suspicion of his honesty; but for that latter
+will I vouch with my own, and, if needs be, will give surety that
+the list of goods which she ordered shall be delivered next voyage,"
+said Calvin Tabor.
+
+"Her tongue, you know not her tongue," groaned the other.
+
+"Even that will I dare for thee, Dick, for thee and that fair little
+maid who is dabbling her pretty fingers in that flaming pudding with
+which only the tough ones of a man should meddle," said Captain
+Tabor. "And as for risk for me, my sailormen be as much in the toils
+for Sabbath-breaking as their captain, should yesterday's work leak
+out; and not a man of them knoweth the contents of those cases,
+though, faith, and I heard them marvelling among themselves at the
+weight of feathers and silken petticoats, and I made port in the
+night-time before, and not a soul knew of it nor the unlading, save
+those which be bound to keep the secret for their own necks, and,
+and--well, Captain Tabor be not averse to somewhat of risk; it
+gives a savour to life." So saying, he rolled his bright-blue eyes
+at me and Captain Watson with such utter good-nature and
+dare-deviltry as I have never seen equalled.
+
+It was finally agreed that Captain Tabor's plan should be carried
+out, and I wended my way back to Drake Hill with a feeling of
+triumph, to which I of late years had been a stranger. I know of
+nothing in the poor life of a man equal to that great delight of
+being of service to one beloved.
+
+I reflected with such ever-increasing joy that it finally became an
+ecstasy, and I could almost, it seemed, see the colours of it in my
+path; how, had it not been for me, Mary Cavendish might have been in
+sore straits; and I verily believe I was as happy for the time as if
+she had been my promised sweetheart and was as proud of myself.
+
+When about half-way to Drake Hill I heard afar off a great din of
+bells and horns and voices, which presently came nearer. Then the
+road was filled up with the dancing May revellers, and verily I
+wondered not so much at those decrees against such practices before
+the Restoration, for it was as if the savages which they do say are
+underneath the outer gloss of the best of us had broke loose, and I
+wondered if it might not be like those mad and unlawful orgies which
+it was said the god Pan led himself in person through Thessalian
+groves. Those honest country maids, who in the morning had advanced
+with rustic but innocent freedom, with their glossy heads crowned
+with flowers, and those lusty youths, who were indeed something
+boisterous, yet still held in a tight rein by decency, had seemingly
+changed their very natures, or rather, perhaps, had come to that
+pass when their natures could be no longer concealed. Along the road
+in the white moonlight they stamped as wantonly as any herd of kine;
+youths and maids with arms about each other, and all with faces
+flushed with ale-drinking, and the maids with tossing hair and
+draggled coats, and all the fresh garlands withered or scattered.
+And the old graybeard who was Maid Marion was riotously drunk, and
+borne aloft with mad and feeble gesturings on the shoulders of two
+staggering young men, and after him came the aged morris dancers,
+only upheld from collapse in the mire by mutual upholdings, until
+they seemed like some monstrous animal moving with uncouth sprawls
+of legs as multifold as a centipede, and wavering drunkenly from one
+side of the road to the other, lurching into the dewy bushes, then
+recovering by the joint effort of the whole.
+
+I stood well back to let them pass, being in that mood of
+self-importance, by reason of my love and the service rendered by
+it, that I could have seen the whole posse led to the whipping-block
+with a relish, when suddenly from their tipsy throats came a shout
+of such import that my heart stood still. "Down with the king!"
+hallooed one mad reveller, in a voice of such thickness that the
+whole sentence seemed one word; then the others took it up, until
+verily it seemed to me that their heads were not worth a farthing.
+Then, "Down with the governor! down with Lord Culpeper!" shouted
+that same thick voice of the man who was leading the wild crew like
+a bell-wether. He forged ahead, something more steady on his legs,
+but all the madder of his wits for that, with an arm around the
+waist of a buxom lass on either side, and all three dancing in time.
+Then all the rest echoed that shout of "Down with the governor!"
+Then out he burst again with, "Down, down with the tobacco, down
+with the tobacco!" But the volley of that echo was cut short by five
+horsemen galloping after the throng and scattering them to the right
+and left. Then a great voice of authority, set out with the
+strangest oaths which ever an imagination of evil compassed, called
+out to them to be still if they valued their heads, and cursed them
+all for drunken fools, and as he spoke he lashed with his whip from
+side to side, and his face gleamed with wrath like a demon's in the
+full light, and I saw he was Captain Noel Jaynes, and well
+understood how he had made a name for himself on the high seas.
+After him rode the brothers, Nicholas and Richard Barry, two great
+men, sticking to their saddles like rocks, with fair locks alike on
+the head of each flung out on the wind, and then came Ralph Drake
+rising in his stirrups and laughing wildly, and last Parson Downs,
+but only last because the road was blocked, for verily I thought his
+plunging horse would have all before him under his feet. They were
+all past me in a trice like a dream, the May revellers scattering
+and hastening forward with shrieks of terror and shouts of rage and
+peals of defiant laughter, and Captain Jaynes' voice, like a
+trumpet, overbearing everything, and shouts from the Barry brothers
+echoing him, and now and then coming the deep rumble of
+expostulations from the parson's great chest, and Ralph Drake's
+peals of horse-laughter, and I was left to consider what a
+tinder-box this Colony of Virginia was, and how ready to leap to
+flame at a spark even when seemingly most at peace, and to regard
+with more and more anxiety Mary Cavendish's part in this brewing
+tumult.
+
+After the shouting and hallooing throng had passed I walked along
+slowly, reflecting, as I have said, when I saw in the road before me
+two advancing--a woman, and a man leading a horse by the bridle,
+and it was Mary Cavendish and Sir Humphrey Hyde.
+
+And when I came up with them they stopped, and Humphrey addressed me
+rudely enough, but as one gentleman might another when he was
+angered with him, and not contemptuously, for that was never the
+lad's way with me. "Master Wingfield," he said, standing before me
+and holding his champing horse hard by the bits, "I pray you have
+the grace to explain this matter of the goods."
+
+I saw that Mistress Mary had been acquainting him with what had
+passed and her puzzlement over it.
+
+"There is naught to explain, Sir Humphrey," said I. "'Tis very
+simple: Mistress Mary hath the goods for which she sent to England."
+
+"Master Wingfield, you know those are my Lady Culpeper's goods, and
+I have no right to them," cried Mary. But I bowed and said, "Madam,
+the goods are yours, and not Lady Culpeper's."
+
+"But I--I lied when I gave the list to my grandmother," she
+cried out, half sobbing, for she was, after all, little more than a
+child tiptoed to womanhood by enthusiasm.
+
+"Madam," said I, and I bowed again. "You mistake yourself; Mistress
+Mary Cavendish cannot lie, and the goods are in truth yours."
+
+She and Sir Humphrey looked at each other; then Harry made a stride
+forward, and forcing back his horse with one hand, grasped me with
+the other. "Harry, Harry," he said in a whisper. "Tell me, for God's
+sake, what have you done."
+
+"The goods are Mistress Mary Cavendish's," said I. They looked at me
+as I have seen folk look at a page of Virgil.
+
+"Were they, after all, not my Lady Culpeper's?" asked Sir Humphrey.
+
+"They are Mistress Mary Cavendish's," said I.
+
+Mary turned suddenly to Sir Humphrey. "'Tis time you were gone now,
+Humphrey," she said, softly. "'Twas only last night you were here,
+and there is need of caution, and your mother--"
+
+But Humphrey was loth to go. "'Tis not late," he said, "and I would
+know more of this matter."
+
+"You will never know more of Master Wingfield, if that is what you
+wait for," she returned, with a half laugh, "and, Humphrey, your
+sister Cicely said but this morning that your mother was
+over-curious. I pray you, go, and Master Wingfield will take me
+home. I pray you, go!"
+
+Sir Humphrey took her hand and bent low over it, and murmured
+something; then, before he sprang to his saddle, he came close to me
+again. "Harry," he whispered, "she should not be in this business,
+and I would have not had it so could I have helped it, and, I pray
+you, have a care to her safety." This he spoke so low that Mary
+could not hear, and, moreover, she, with one of those sudden turns
+of hers that made her have as many faces of delight as a diamond in
+the sun, had thrown an arm around the neck of Sir Humphrey's mare,
+and was talking to her in such dulcet tones as her lovers would have
+died for the sake of hearing in their ears.
+
+"Have no fears for her safety," I whispered back. "So far as the
+goods go, there is no more danger."
+
+"What did you, Harry?"
+
+"Sir Humphrey," I whispered back, while Mary's sweet voice in the
+mare's delicate ear sounded like a song, "sometimes an unguessed
+riddle hath less weight than a guessed one, and some fish of
+knowledge had best be left in the stream. I tell thee she is safe."
+So saying, I looked him full in his honest, boyish face, which was
+good to see, though sometime I wished, for the maid's sake, that it
+had more shrewdness of wit in it. Then he gave me a great grasp of
+the hand, and whispered something hoarsely. "Thou art a good fellow,
+Harry, in spite of, in spite of--" then he bent low over Mary's
+hand for the second time, and sprang to his saddle, and was off
+toward Jamestown on his white mare, flashing along the moonlit road
+like a whiter moonbeam.
+
+Then Mary came close to me, and did what she had never before done
+since she was a child. She laid her little hand on my arm of her own
+accord. "Master Wingfield," said she, softly, "what about the goods?"
+
+"The goods for which you sent to England are yours and in the great
+house," said I, and I heard my voice tremble.
+
+She drew her hand away and stood looking at me, and her sweet
+forehead under her golden curls was all knitted with perplexity.
+
+"You know, you know I--lied," she whispered like a guilty child.
+
+"You cannot lie," I answered, "and the goods are yours."
+
+"And not my Lady Culpeper's?"
+
+"And not my Lady Culpeper's."
+
+Mary continued looking at me, then all at once her forehead cleared.
+
+"Catherine, 'twas Catherine," she cried out. "She said not, but well
+I know her; she would not own to it--the sweetheart. Sure a
+falsehood to hide a loving deed is the best truth of the world.
+'Twas Catherine, 'twas Catherine, the sweetheart, the darling. She
+sent for naught for herself, and hath been saving for a year's time
+and maybe sold a ring or two. Somehow she discovered about the plot,
+what I had done. And she hath heard me say, that I know well, that I
+thought 'twas a noble list of Lady Culpeper's, and I wished I were a
+governor's wife or daughter, that I could have such fine things. I
+remember me well that I told her thus before ever the Golden Horn
+sailed for England, that time after Cicely Hyde slept with me and
+told me what she had from Cate Culpeper. A goodly portion of the
+goods were for Cate. 'Twas Catherine. Oh, the sweetheart, the
+darling! Was there ever sister like her?"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+
+
+
+It was an industrious household at Drake Hill both as to men and
+women folk. The fields were full of ebony backs and plying arms of
+toil at sunrise, and the hum and whir of loom and spinning-wheels
+were to be heard in the negro cabins and the great house as soon as
+the birds.
+
+Madam Judith Cavendish was a stern task-mistress, and especially for
+these latter duties. Had it not been for the stress of favour in
+which she held me, I question if my vocation as tutor to Mistress
+Mary would have had much scope for the last year, since her
+grandmother esteemed so highly the importance of a maid's being
+versed in all domestic arts, such as the spinning and weaving of
+flax and wool, and preserving and distilling and fine needlework.
+She set but small store by Latin and arithmetic for a maid, not even
+if she were naturally quick at them, as was Mistress Mary; and had
+it not been that she was bent upon keeping me in her service at
+Drake Hill, I doubt not that she would have clapped together the
+maid's books, whether or no, and set her to her wheel. As it was, a
+goodly part of every day was passed by her in such wise, but so fond
+was my pupil of her book that often I have seen her with it propped
+open, for her reference, on a chair at her side.
+
+It was thus the next morning, the morning of the day of my Lord
+Culpeper's ball. It was a warm morning, and the doors and windows of
+the hall were set wide open, and all the spring wind and scent
+coming in and dimity curtains flying like flags, and the gold of
+Mistress Mary's hair tossing now and then in a stronger gust, and
+she and Catherine cramming down their flax baskets, lest the flax
+take wings to itself and fly away. Both Mary and Catherine were at
+their flax-wheels, but Madam Cavendish was in the loom-room with
+some of the black women. Mary had her Latin book open, as I have
+said before, on a chair at her side, but Catherine span with her
+fair face set to some steady course of thought, though she too was
+fond of books. Never a lesson had she taken of me, holding me in
+such scorn, but I questioned much at the time, and know now, that
+she was well acquainted with whatever knowledge her sister had got,
+having been taught by her mother and then keeping on by herself with
+her tasks. When I entered the hall, having been to Jamestown after
+breakfast and just returned, both maids looked up, and suddenly one
+of the wheels ceased its part in the duet, and Catherine was on her
+feet and her thread fallen whither it would. "Master Wingfield,"
+said she, "I would speak with you."
+
+"Madam, at your service," said I, and followed her, leading out on
+the green before the house. "What means this, what means this, sir?"
+she began when she was scarcely out of hearing of her sister.
+
+"What did you about the goods? Did you, did you--?"
+
+She gasped for further speech, and looked at me with such a
+haughtiness of scorn as never I had seen. It is hard for any man to
+be attacked in such wise by a woman, and be under the necessity of
+keeping his weapons sheathed, though he knoweth full well the
+exceeding convincing of them and their fine point to the case in
+hand. I bowed.
+
+"Did you, did you--" she went on--"did you purchase those
+goods yourself for my sister? Did you?"
+
+I bowed again. "Madam," said I, "whatever I have, and my poor flesh
+and blood and soul also, are at the service of not only your sister
+but her family."
+
+I marvelled much as I spoke thus to see no flush of shameful
+consciousness overspread the maid's face, but none did, and she
+continued speaking with that sharpness of hers, both as to pale look
+and voice, which wounded like cold steel, which leaves an additional
+sting because of the frost in it. "Know you not, sir," said she,
+"that we cannot suffer a man in your position, a--a--to
+purchase my sister's wardrobe?" Then, before I knew what she was
+about to do, in went her hand to a broidered pocket which hung at
+her girdle, and out she drew a flashing store of rings and brooches,
+and one long necklace flashing with green stones. "Here, take
+these," she cried out. "I have no money, but such an insult I will
+not suffer, that my sister goes clad at your expense to the ball
+to-night. Take these; they are five times the value of the goods."
+
+I would in that minute have given ten years of my life had Mistress
+Catherine Cavendish been a man and I could have felled her to the
+ground, and no man knowing what I believed I knew could have blamed
+me. The flashes of red and green from those rings and gewgaws which
+she held out seemed to pass my eyes to my very soul.
+
+"Take them," she said. "Why do you not take them, sir?"
+
+"I have no need of jewels, madam," I said, "and whatever the servant
+hath is his master's by right, and his master doth but take his own,
+and no discredit to him."
+
+She fairly wrung her hands in her helpless wrath, and the gems
+glittered anew. "But, but," she stammered out, "know you the full
+result of this, Harry Wingfield? She, my sister Mary, thinks that
+I--I--sent to England for the goods for her; she knows that
+I have some acquaintance with what she hath done, and she--she
+is blessing me for it, and I cannot deny what she thinks.
+I--I--cannot tell her what you, you have done, lest,
+lest--" To my great astonishment she stopped short with such a
+flame of blushes as I had never seen on her face before, and I was
+at a loss to know what she might mean, but supposed that she
+considered that the shame of Mistress Mary's wearing finery which
+had been paid for out of a convict's purse would be more than she
+could put upon her, and yet that she dared not inform her, lest she
+refuse to wear the sky-blue robe to the governor's ball, and so
+anger Madam Cavendish.
+
+"Madam," I said, "your sister is but blessing you for what you would
+have done, and wherefore need you fret?"
+
+"God knows I would," she broke out, passionately. "Every jewel I
+possess, the very gown from my back, would I have sold to save her
+this, had I but known. Why did she not tell me, why did not she tell
+me? Oh, Harry, I pray you to take these jewels."
+
+"I cannot take them, madam," I said. Yet such was her distress I was
+sorry for her, though I believed it to be rooted and grounded in
+falsity, and that she had no need to regard with such disapprobation
+her sister's being indebted to an English gentleman who gave her in
+all honour the best he had. Yet could I not yield and take those
+jewels, for more reasons than one; not only should I have lost the
+dear delight of having served Mary Cavendish, but I had a memory of
+wrong which would not suffer me to touch those rings, nor to allow
+that innocent maid to be benefited by them, since I cannot say what
+dark suspicions seized me when I looked at them.
+
+"My God!" she said, "was ever such a web of falsehood as this? Here
+must I hear my sister's blessings upon me for what I have done, and
+I knowing all the time that 'twas you, and yet she must not know."
+Then again that flame of red overspread her face and neck to the
+meet of her muslin kerchief, and I knew not why.
+
+"Madam," I said, "one deception opens the way for a whole flock,"
+and I spoke with something of a double meaning, but she only cried
+out, with apparently no understanding of it, that things had come to
+a cruel pass, and back to the house she went; and I presently
+followed her to get my gun, having a mind to shoot a few wild fowl,
+since my pupil was at her wheel. And there the two sat, keeping up
+that gentle drone of industry which I have come to think of as a
+note of womanhood, like the hum of a bee or the purr of a cat or the
+call of a bird. They sat erect, the delicate napes of their necks
+showing above their muslin kerchiefs under their high twists of
+hair, for even Mary had her golden curls caught up that morning on
+account of the flax-lint, and from their fair, attentive faces
+nobody would have gathered what stress of mind both were in. Of a
+surety there must be a quieting and calming power in some of the
+feminine industries which be a boon to the soul.
+
+But, as I passed through the hall, up looked Mary, and her beautiful
+face flashed out of peace into a sunlight of love and enthusiasm.
+
+"Oh," she cried out, "oh, was there ever anyone like my sweetheart
+Catherine? To think what she hath done for me, to think, to think!
+And she, dear heart, loving the king! But better she loves her
+little sister, and will stand by her in her disloyalty, for the love
+of her. Was there ever any one like her, Master Wingfield?"
+
+And I laughed, though maybe with some slight bitterness, for I was
+but human, and that outburst of loving gratitude toward another, and
+another whom I held in slight esteem, when it was I who had given
+the child my little all, and presently, when my term was expired,
+would have to return to England without a farthing betwixt me and
+starvation, and maybe working my way before the mast to get there at
+all, had a sting in it. 'Twas a strange thing that anything so noble
+and partaking of the divine as the love of an honest man for a woman
+should have any tincture of aught ignoble in it, and one is caused
+thereby to decry one's state of mortality, which seems as
+inseparable from selfish ends as the red wings of a rose from the
+thorny stem which binds it to earth. Truly the longer I live the
+more am I aware of the speck which mars the completeness of all in
+this world, and ever the desire for a better, and that longing which
+will not be appeased groweth in my soul, until methinks the very
+keenness of the appetite must prove the food.
+
+"Was there ever one like her?" repeated Mary Cavendish, and as she
+spoke, up she sprang and ran to her sister and flung a fair arm
+around her neck, and drew her head to her bosom, and leaned her
+cheek against it, and then looked at me with a sidewise glance which
+made my heart leap, for curious meanings, of which the innocent
+thing had no reckoning, were in it.
+
+I know not what I said. Truly not much, for the mockery of it all
+was past my power of dealing with and keeping my respect of self.
+
+I got my fowling-piece from the peg on the wall, and was forth and
+ranging the wooded shores, with my eyes intent on the whirring
+flight of the birds, and my mind on that problem of the times which
+always hath, and doth, and always will, encounter a man who lives
+with any understanding of what is about him, but not always as
+sorely as in my case, who faced, as it were, an army of
+difficulties, bound hand and foot. But after a while the sport in
+which I was fairly skilled, and that sense of power which cometh to
+one from the proving of his superiority over the life and death of
+some weaker creation, and the salt air in my nostrils, gave me, as
+it were, a glimpse of a farther horizon than the present one of
+Virginia in 1682, and mine own little place in it. Then verily I
+could seem to see and scent like some keen hound a smoothness which
+should later come from the tangled web of circumstances, and a
+greatness which should encompass mine own smallness of perplexity.
+
+When I was wending my way back to Drake Hill, with my gun over
+shoulder and some fine birds in hand, I met Sir Humphrey Hyde.
+
+We were near Locust Creek, and the great house stood still and white
+in the sunlight, and there was no life around it except for the
+distant crawl of toil over the green of the tobacco fields and the
+great hum of the bees in the flowering honey locusts which gave,
+with the creek, the place its name. Sir Humphrey was coming from the
+direction of the house, riding slowly, stooping in the saddle as if
+with thought, and I guessed that he had been to see to the safety of
+the contraband goods. When he saw me he halted and shouted, in his
+hearty, boyish way, "Halloo, halloo, Harry, and what luck?" as if
+all there was of moment in the whole world, and Virginia in
+particular, was the shooting of birds on a May morning. But then his
+face clouded, and he spoke earnestly enough. "Harry, Harry," he
+said, in a whisper, though there was no life nearer than the bees,
+and they no bearers of secrets, except those of the flowers, "I pray
+thee, come back to the hall with me, and let us consult together."
+
+I followed him back to the house, and he sprang from his saddle, had
+a shutter unhasped in a twinkling, knowing evidently the secret of
+it, and we were inside, standing amongst the litter of casks and
+cases in the great silent desertion of the hall of Locust Creek.
+Then he grasped me hard by both hands, and cried out, "Harry, Harry
+Wingfield, come to thee I must, for, convict though thou be, thou
+art a man with a head packed with wit, and Ralph Drake is half the
+time in his cups, and Parson Downs riding his own will at such a
+hard gallop that 'twill surprise me not if he leave his head behind,
+and as for Dick and Nick Barry, and Captain Dickson, and--and
+Major Robert Beverly, and all the others, what is it to them about
+this one matter which is more to me than the whole damned hell-broth?"
+
+"You mean?" I said, and pointed to the litter on the hall floor.
+
+"Yes," and then, with a great show of passion, "My God, Harry
+Wingfield, why, why did we gentlemen and cavaliers of Virginia allow
+a woman to be mixed in this matter? If, if--these goods be
+traced to her--"
+
+"And, faith, and I see no reason why they should not be, with a
+whole colony in the secret of it," I said, coldly.
+
+"Nay, none but me and Nick and Dick Barry, and the parson since
+yesterday, and Major Beverly and Capt. Noel Jaynes and you and the
+captain and sailors on the Golden Horn, who value their own necks.
+As God is my witness, none beside, Harry."
+
+I could scarcely help laughing at the length of the list and the
+innocence of the lad. "Her sister Catherine, Sir Humphrey," said I.
+
+"Hath she told her, Harry?"
+
+"And the captain of the Earl of Fairfax."
+
+"The governor's ship? Well, then, let us go through Jamestown
+proclaiming it with a horn," he gasped out, and made more of the two
+last than his own long list.
+
+"Nay, the two last are as safe as we," said I. "Mistress Catherine
+holds her sister dearer than herself, and as for the captain of the
+governor's ship, lock a man's tongue with the key of his own
+interest if you wish it not to wag. But these goods must be moved
+from here."
+
+"That is what I well know, Harry," he said, eagerly. "All night did
+I toss and study the matter. But where?"
+
+"Not in any place on Madam Cavendish's plantation," I said, and did
+not say, as I might have, for 'twas the truth, that I had also
+tossed and studied, but as yet to no result.
+
+"No, nor on mine, though I swear to thee, were I the only one to
+consider, I would have them there in a twinkling, but I cannot put
+my mother and sister in jeopardy even for--"
+
+"Barry Upper Branch?"
+
+"Nick and Dick swear they will not run the risk; that they have but
+too lately escaped with their lives, and are too close watched, and
+as for the parson, 'tis out of the question, and Ralph Drake hath no
+hiding-place, and as for the others, they one and all refuse, and
+say this is the safest place in the colony, it being a household of
+women, and Madam Cavendish well known for her loyalty."
+
+He looked at me and I at him, and again the old consideration, as I
+saw his handsome, gallant young face that perchance Mary Cavendish
+might love him and do worse than to wed him, came over me.
+
+"I will find a place for the goods," said I.
+
+"You, Harry?"
+
+"Yes, I," I said.
+
+"But where, Harry?"
+
+"Wait till the need for them come, lad." Then I added, for often in
+my perplexity the wish that the whole lot were at the bottom of the
+river had seized me, "There is need of them, I suppose?"
+
+But Sir Humphrey said yes, with a great emphasis to that.
+
+"There is sure to be fighting," he said, "and never were powder and
+shot so scarce. 'Tis well the Indians are quiet. This poor Colony of
+Virginia hath not enough powder to guard her borders, nor, were it
+not for her rich soil, enough of food to feed her children since the
+Navigation Act.
+
+"Oh, God, Harry, if but Nathaniel Bacon had lived!"
+
+"Amen," I said, and felt as I said it, that if indeed that hero were
+alive, this plot for the destroying of the young tobacco plants
+might be the earthquake which threw off a new empire; but as it
+were, remembering the men concerned, who had none of the stuff of
+Bacon in them, I wondered if it would prove aught more than a wedge
+in the scheme of liberty.
+
+"There are those who would be ready to say that we gentlemen of
+Virginia, like Bacon, are all ready to shelter ourselves behind
+women's aprons," said Sir Humphrey Hyde, with a shamed glance at the
+goods, referring to that stationing of the ladies of the Berkeley
+faction, all arrayed in white aprons, on the earthworks before the
+advance of the sons and husbands and brothers in the Bacon uprising.
+
+"And if you hear any man say that, shoot him dead, Sir Humphrey
+Hyde," I said, for, through liking not that story about Bacon, I was
+fiercer in defence of it.
+
+"Faith, and I will, Harry," cried Sir Humphrey, "and Bacon was a
+greater man than the king, if I were to swing for it; but, Harry,
+you cannot by yourself move these. What will you do?"
+
+But I begged him to say no more, and started toward the window, the
+door being fast locked as Mistress Mary had left it, when suddenly
+the boy stopped me and caught me by the hand, and begged me to tell
+him if I thought there might be any hope for him with Mary
+Cavendish, being moved to do so by her sending him away so
+peremptorily the night before, which had put him in sore doubt.
+"Tell me, Harry," he pleaded, and the great lad seemed like a child,
+with his honest outlook of blue eyes, "tell me what you think, I
+pray thee, Harry; look at me, and tell me, if you were a maid, what
+would you think of me?"
+
+Loving Mary Cavendish as I did, and striving to look at him with her
+eyes, a sort of tenderness crept into my heart for this simple
+lover, who was as brave as he was simple, and I clapped a hand on
+his fair curls, for though he was so tall I was taller, and laughed
+and said, "If I were a maid, though 'tis a fancy to rack the brain,
+but, if I were a maid, I would love thee well, lad."
+
+"My mother thinketh none like me, and so tells me every day, and
+says that I am like my father, who was the handsomest man in
+England; but then mothers be all so, and I know not how much of it
+to trust, and my sister Cicely loves Mary so well herself that she
+is jealous, and often tells me--" then the lad stopped and
+stared at me, and I at him, perplexed, not dreaming what was in his
+mind.
+
+"Tells you what, Sir Humphrey?" said I.
+
+"That, that--oh, confound it, Harry, there is no harm in saying
+it, for you as well as I know the folly of it, and that 'tis but the
+jealous fancy of a girl. Faith, but I think my sister Cicely is as
+much in love with Mary Cavendish as I. 'Tis but--my sister
+Cicely, when she will tease me, tells me 'tis not I but you that
+Mary Cavendish hath set her heart upon, Harry."
+
+I felt myself growing pale at that, and I could not speak because of
+a curious stiffness of my lips, and I heard my heart beat like a
+clock in the deserted house. Sir Humphrey was looking at me with an
+anxiety which was sharpening into suspicion. "Harry," he said, "you
+do not think--"
+
+"'Tis sheer folly, lad," I burst out then, "and let us have no more
+of it. 'Tis but the idle prating of a lovesick girl, who should have
+a lover, ere she try to steal a nest in the heart of one of her own
+sex. 'Tis folly, Sir Humphrey Hyde."
+
+"So said I to Cicely," Sir Humphrey cried, eagerly, too interested
+in his own cause to heed my slighting words for his sister. "'Tis
+the rankest folly, I told her. Here is Harry Wingfield, old enough
+almost to be Mary's father, and beside, beside--oh, confound it,
+Harry," the generous lad burst out. "I would not like you for a
+rival, for you are a good half foot taller than I, and you have that
+about you which would make a woman run to you and think herself safe
+were all the Indians in Virginia up, and you are a dark man, and I
+have heard say they like that, but, but--oh, I say, Harry, 'tis
+a damned shame that you are here as you are, and not as a gentleman
+and a cavalier with the rest of us, for all the evidence to the
+contrary and all the government to the contrary, 'tis, 'tis the way
+you should be, and not a word of that charge do I believe. May the
+fiends take me if I do, Harry!" So saying, the lad looked at me, and
+verily the tears were in his blue eyes, and out he thrust his honest
+hand for me to grasp, which I did with more of comfort than I had
+had for many a day, though it was the hand of a rival, and the next
+minute forth he burst again: "Say, Harry, if it be true that thou
+art out of the running, and I believe it must be so, for how could?--
+say, Harry, think you there is any chance for me?"
+
+"I know of no reason why there should not be, Sir Humphrey," I said.
+
+"Only, only--that she is what she is, and I but myself. Oh,
+Harry, was there ever one like that girl? All the spirit of daring
+of a man she has, and yet is she full of all the sweet ways of a
+maid. Faith, she would draw sword one minute and tie a ribbon the
+next. She would have followed Bacon to the death, and sat up all
+night to broider herself a kerchief. Comrade and sweetheart both she
+is, and was there ever one like her for beauty? Harry, Harry, saw
+you ever such a beauty as Mary Cavendish?"
+
+"No, and never will," cried I, so fervently and so echoing to the
+full his youthful enthusiasm that again that keen look flashed into
+his eyes. "Harry," he stammered out, "you do not--say, for God's
+sake, Harry, you are a man if you are a--a--, and every day
+have you seen that angel, and--and--Harry, may the devil
+take me if I would go against thee if she--you know I would not,
+Harry, for I remember well how you taught me to shoot, and,
+and--I love thee, Harry, not in such fool fashion as my sister
+loveth Mary, but I love thee, and never would I cross thee."
+
+"Sir Humphrey," said I, "it is not what you would, nor what I would,
+nor what any other man would, but what be best for Mary Cavendish,
+and her true happiness of life, that is to consider, whether you
+love her, or I love her, or any other man love her."
+
+"Faith, and a score do," he said, gloomily. "There be my Lord Estes
+and her cousin Ralph, and I know not how many more. Faith, I would
+not have her less fair, but sometimes I would that a few were
+colour-blind. But 'tis different when it comes to thee, Harry. If
+she--"
+
+"Sir Humphrey," I said, "were Mary Cavendish thy sister and I
+myself, and loving her and she me, and you having that affection
+which you say you have for me, would you yet give her to me in
+marriage and think it for her good?"
+
+Then the poor lad coloured and stammered, and could not look me in
+the face, but it was enough. "Let there be no more talk betwixt you
+and me as to that matter, Sir Humphrey," I said. "There is never now
+nor at any other time any question of marriage betwixt Mistress Mary
+Cavendish and her convict tutor, and if he perchance had been not
+colour-blind and had learned to appraise her at her rare worth, the
+more had he been set against such. And all that he can do for thee,
+lad, he will do."
+
+Sir Humphrey was easily pacified, having been accustomed from his
+babyhood to masterly soothing of his mother into her own ways of
+thought. Again, in spite of his great stature, he looked up at me
+like a very child. "Harry," he whispered, "heard you her ever say
+anything pleasant concerning me?"
+
+"Many a time," I answered, quite seriously, though I was inwardly
+laughing, and could not for the life of me remember any especial
+favour which she had paid him in her speech. But I have ever held
+that a bold lover hath the best chance, and knowing that boldness
+depends upon assurance of favour, I set about giving it to Sir
+Humphrey, even at some small expense of truth.
+
+"When, when, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, many a time, Sir Humphrey."
+
+"But what? I pray thee, tell me what she said, Harry."
+
+"I have not charged my mind, lad."
+
+"But think of something. I pray thee, think of something, Harry." He
+looked at me with such exceeding wistfulness that I was forced to
+cudgel my brains for something which, having a slight savour of
+truth, might be seasoned to pungency at fancy. "Often have I heard
+her say that she liked a fair man," I replied, and indeed I had, and
+believed her to have said it because I was dark, and seemingly
+inattentive to some new grace of hers as to the tying of her hair or
+fastening of her kerchief.
+
+"Did she indeed say that, Harry, and do you think she had me in mind?"
+cried Sir Humphrey.
+
+"Are you not a fair man?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I am a fair man, am I not, Harry? What else? Sure you
+have heard her say more than that."
+
+"I have heard her say she liked a hearty laugh, and one who counted
+not costs when his mind were set on aught, but rode straight for it
+though all the bars were up."
+
+"That sure is I, Harry, unless my mother stand in the way. A man
+cannot bring his mother's head low, Harry, but sure if she forbid
+nor know not, as in this case of this tobacco plot, I stop for
+naught. Sure she meant me, then, Harry."
+
+"And I have heard her say that she liked a young man, a man no older
+than she."
+
+"Sure, sure she meant me by that, Harry, for I am the youngest of
+them all--not yet twenty. Oh, dear Harry, she had me in mind by
+that. Do you not think so?"
+
+"I know of no one else whom she could have had in mind," I answered.
+
+The lad was blushing with delight and confusion like a girl. He cast
+down his eyes before me; he stammered when he spoke. "Harry, if she
+but love me, I swear I could do as brave deeds as Bacon," he said.
+"I would die would she but carry about a lock of my hair on her
+bosom as she does his. I would, Harry. And you think I have some
+chance?"
+
+My heart smote me lest I had misled him, for I knew with no
+certainty the maid's mind. "As much chance as any, and more than
+many, lad," I said, "and I will do what I can for thee."
+
+"Harry," he said, then paused and blushed and twisted his great body
+about as modestly as a girl, "Harry."
+
+"What, Sir Humphrey?"
+
+"Once, once--I never told of it, and no one ever knew since I
+was alone, and it would have been boasting--but
+once--I--fought single-handed with that great Christopher
+Little, whom I met by chance when I was out in the woods, and 'twas
+two years since, and I, with scarce my full growth, and he pleading
+for mercy at the second round, with an eye like a blackberry and a
+nose like a gillyflower, and--and--Harry, you might tell her
+of it, and say not where you got the news, if you thought it no
+harm. And, Harry, you will mind the time when I killed the wolf with
+naught but an oak club for weapon, and she, maybe, hath not heard of
+that. And should have been to the front with Bacon, boy as I was,
+had it not been for my mother--that you know well and could make
+her sure of. And, and--oh, confound it, Harry, little book wit
+have I in my head, and she is so clever as never was, and all I have
+to win her notice be in my hands and heels, for, Harry, you will
+remember the race I ran with Tom Talbot that Mayday; think you she
+knows of that? And--but she must know how I rode against Nick
+Barry last St. Andrew's, and, and--oh, Lord, Harry, what am I
+that she should think of me? But at all odds, whether it be me or
+you or any other man, see to it that these goods be moved and she
+not be drawn into this which is hatching, for it may be as big a
+blaze as Bacon started before we be done with it; but shall I not
+help thee, Harry, and when will you move them and where?"
+
+"I want no help, lad," I said, and was indeed firmly set in my mind
+that he should know nothing about the disposal of the goods lest
+Mistress Mary come to grief through her love for him, and reasoning
+that ignorance was his best safeguard and hers.
+
+We went forth from Locust Creek, I having promised that I would do
+all that I could to further his suit with Mary Cavendish, and when
+we reached the bend of the road, he having walked beside me,
+hitherto leading his horse, he was in his saddle and away, having
+first acquainted me anxiously with the fact that he was to wear that
+night to the governor's ball a suit of blue velvet with silver
+buttons, and asking me if I considered that it would become him in
+Mistress Mary's eyes. Then I went home to Drake Hill, passing along
+such a wonderful aisle of bloom of locust and peach and mulberry and
+honeysuckle and long trails of a purple vine of such a surprise of
+beauty as to make one incredible that he saw aright--bushes
+pluming white to the wind, and over all a medley of honey and almond
+and spicy scents seeming to penetrate the very soul, that I was set
+to reflecting in the midst of my sadness of renunciation of my love,
+and my anxiety for her if, after all, such roads of blessing which
+were set for our feet at every turn led not of a necessity to
+blessed ends, and if our course tended not to happiness, whether we
+knew it or not, and along whatever byways of sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+
+
+
+I have seen many beautiful things in my life, as happens to every
+one living in a world which hath little fault as to its appearance,
+if one can outlook the shadow which his own selfishness of sorrow
+and disappointment may cast before him; but it seemed that evening,
+when I saw Mary Cavendish dressed for the governor's ball, that she
+was the crown of all. I verily believe that never since the world
+was made, not even that beautiful first woman who comprehended in
+herself all those witcheries of her sex which have been ever since
+to our rapture and undoing, not even Eve when Adam first saw her in
+Paradise, nor Helen, nor Cleopatra, nor any of those women whose
+faces have made powers of them and given them niches in history,
+were as beautiful as Mary Cavendish that night. And I doubt if it
+were because she was beheld by the eyes of a lover. I verily believe
+that I saw aright, and gave her beauty no glamour because of my
+fondness for her, for not one whit more did I love her in that
+splendour than in her plainest gown. But, oh, when she stood before
+her grandmother and me and a concourse of slaves all in a ferment of
+awe and admiration, with flashings of white teeth and upheavals of
+eyes and flingings aloft of hands in half-savage gesticulation, and
+courtesied and turned herself about in innocent delight at her own
+loveliness, and yet with the sweetest modesty and apology that she
+was knowing to it! That stuff which had been sent to my Lady
+Culpeper and which had been intercepted ere it reached her was of a
+most rich and wonderful kind. The blue of it was like the sky, and
+through it ran the gleam of silver in a flower pattern, and a great
+string of pearls gleamed on her bosom, and never was anything like
+that mixture of triumph in, and abashedness before, her own
+exceeding beauty and her perception of it in our eyes in her dear
+and lovely face. She looked at us and actually shrank a little, as
+if our admiration were something of an affront to her maiden
+modesty, and blushed, and then she laughed to cover it, and swept a
+courtesy in her circling shimmer of blue, and tossed her head and
+flirted a little fan, which looked like the wing of a butterfly,
+before her face.
+
+"Well, how do you like me, madam?" said she to her grandmother, "and
+am I fine enough for the governor's ball?"
+
+Madam Cavendish gazed at her with that rapture of admiration in a
+beloved object which can almost glorify age to youth. She called
+Mary to her and stroked the rich folds of her gown; she straightened
+a flutter of ribbon. "'Tis a fine stuff of the gown," she said, "and
+blue was always my colour. I was married in it. 'Tis fine enough for
+the governor's wife, or the queen for that matter." She pulled out a
+fold so that a long trail of silver flowers caught the light and
+gleamed like frost. No misgivings and no suspicions she had, and
+none, by that time, had Mary, believing as she did that her sister
+had bought all that bravery for her, and that it was hers by right,
+and only troubled by the necessity of secrecy with her grandmother
+lest she discover for what purpose her own money had been spent. But
+Catherine eyed her with such exceedingly worshipful love,
+admiration, and yet distress that even I pitied her. Catherine
+herself that night did no discredit to her beauty, her dress being,
+though it was an old one, as rich as Mary's, of her favourite green
+with a rose pattern broidered on the front of it, and a twist of
+green gauze in her fair hair, and that same necklace of green stones
+which she had shown me in the morning around her long throat, and
+her long, milky-white arms hanging at her sides in the green folds
+of her gown, and that pale radiance of perfection in her every
+feature that made many call her the pearl of Virginia, though, as I
+have said before, she had no lovers. She and Mary were going to the
+ball, and a company of black servants with them. As for me, balls
+were out of the question for a convict tutor, and I knew it, and so
+did they. But suddenly, to my great amazement, Madam Cavendish
+turned to me: "And wherefore are you not dressed for the ball,
+Master Wingfield?" she said.
+
+I stared at her, as did also Catherine and Mary, almost as if they
+suspected she had gone demented. "Madam," I stammered, scarce
+thinking I had understood her rightly.
+
+"Why are you not dressed for the ball?" she repeated.
+
+"Madam," I said, "pardon me, but you are well acquainted with the
+fact that I am not a welcome guest at the governor's ball."
+
+"And wherefore?" cried she imperiously.
+
+"Wherefore, madam?"
+
+Mary and Catherine both looked palely at their grandmother, not
+knowing what had come to her.
+
+"Madam," I said, "do you forget?"
+
+"I forget not that you are the eldest son and heir of one of the
+best families in England, and as good a gentleman as the best of
+them," she cried out. "That I do not forget, and I would have you go
+to the ball with my granddaughters. Put on thy plum-coloured velvet
+suit, Harry, and order thy horse saddled."
+
+For the first time I seemed to understand that Madam Judith
+Cavendish had, in spite of her wonderful powers of body and mind,
+somewhat of the childishness of age, for as she looked at me the
+tears were in her stern eyes and a flush was on the ivory white of
+her face, and her tone had that querulousness in it which we
+associate with childhood which cannot have its own will.
+
+"Madam, '' I said, gently, "you know that it is not possible for me
+to do as you wish, and also that my days of gayeties are past,
+though not to my regret, and that I am looking forward to an evening
+with my books, which, when a man gets beyond his youth, yield him
+often more pleasure than the society of his kind."
+
+"But, Harry," she said piteously, and still like a child, "you are
+young, and I would not have--" Then imperiously again: "Get into
+thy plum-coloured velvet suit, Master Wingfield, and accompany my
+granddaughters."
+
+But then I affected not to hear her, under pretence of seeing that
+the sedan chairs were ready, and hallooed to the slaves with such
+zeal that Madam Cavendish's voice was drowned, though with no
+seeming rudeness, and Mary and Catherine came forth in their
+rustling spreads of blue and green, and the black bearers stood
+grinning whitely out of the darkness, for the moon was not up yet,
+and I aided them both into the chairs, and they were off. I stood a
+few moments watching the retreating flare of flambeaux, for runners
+carrying them were necessary on those rough roads when dark, and the
+breath of the dewy spring night fanned my face like a wing of peace,
+and I regretted nothing very much which had happened in this world,
+so that I could come between that beloved girl and the troubles
+starting up like poisonous weeds on her path.
+
+But when I entered the hall Madam Cavendish, having sent away the
+slaves, even to the little wench who had been fanning her, with
+verily I believe no more of consciousness as to what was going on
+about her than a Jimson weed by the highway, called me to her in a
+voice so tremulous that I scarce knew it for hers.
+
+"Harry, Harry," she said, "I pray thee, come here." Then, when I
+approached, hesitating, for I had a shrinking before some outburst
+of feminine earnestness, which has always intimidated me by its fire
+of helplessness and futility playing against some resolve of mine
+which I could not, on account of my masculine understanding of the
+requirements of circumstances, allow to melt, she reached up one
+hand like a little nervous claw of ivory, and caught me by the
+sleeve and pulled me down to a stool by her side. Then she looked at
+me, and such love and even adoration were in her face as I never saw
+surpassed in it, even when she regarded her granddaughter Mary, yet
+withal a cruel distress and self-upbraiding and wrath at herself and
+me. "Harry, Harry," she said, "I can bear no more of this."
+
+Then, to my consternation, up went her silken apron with a fling to
+her old face, and she was weeping under it as unrestrainedly as any
+child.
+
+I did not know what to do nor say. "Madam," I ventured, finally, "if
+you distress yourself in such wise for my sake, 'tis needless, I
+assure, 'tis needless, and with as much truth as were you my own
+mother."
+
+"Oh, Harry, Harry," she sobbed out, "know you not that is why I
+cannot bear it longer, because you yourself bear it with no
+complaint?" Then she sobbed and even wailed with that piteousness of
+the grief of age exceeding that of infancy, inasmuch as the weight
+of all past griefs of a lifetime go to swell it, and it is enhanced
+by memory as well as by the present and an unknown future. I knew
+not what to do, but laid a hand somewhat timidly on one of her thin
+silken arms, and strove to draw it gently from her face; "Madam
+Cavendish," I said, "indeed you mistake if you weep for me. At this
+moment I would change places with no man in Virginia."
+
+"But I would have--I would have you!" she cried out, with the
+ardour of a girl, and down went her apron, and her face, like an
+aged mask of tragedy, not discoloured by her tears, as would have
+happened with the tender skin of a maid, confronted me. "I would
+have you the governor himself, Harry. I would have you--I would
+have--" Then she stopped and looked at me with a red showing
+through the yellow whiteness of her cheeks. "You know what I would
+have, and I know what you would have, and all the rest of my old
+life would I give could it be so, Harry," she said, and I saw that
+she knew of my love for her granddaughter Mary. Then suddenly she
+cried out, vehemently: "Not one word have I said to you about it
+since that dreadful time, Harry Wingfield, for shame and that pride
+as to my name, which is a fetter on the tongue, hath kept me still,
+but at last I will speak, for I can bear it no longer. Harry, Harry,
+I know that you are what you are, a convict and an exile, to shield
+Catherine, to shield a granddaughter of mine, who should be in your
+place. Harry Wingfield, I know that Catherine Cavendish is guilty of
+the crime for which you are in punishment, and, woe is me, such is
+my pride, such is my wicked pride, that I have let you suffer and
+said never one word."
+
+I put her hand to my lips. "Madam," I said, "you mistake; I do not
+suffer. That which you think of as my suffering and my disgrace is
+my glory and happiness."
+
+"Yes, and why, and why? Oh, Harry, 'tis that which is breaking my
+heart. 'Tis because you love Mary, 'tis because, I verily believe,
+you have loved her from the first minute you set eyes on her, though
+she was but a baby in arms. At first I thought it was Catherine, in
+spite of her fault, but now I know it was for the sake of Mary that
+you sacrificed yourself--for her sister, Harry, I know, I know,
+and I would to God that I could give you your heart's desire, for
+'tis mine also!"
+
+Then, so saying, this old woman, who had in her such a majesty of
+character and pride that it held folk aloof at a farther distance
+than loud swaggerings of importance of men high in office, drew down
+my head to her withered shoulder and touched my cheek with a hand of
+compassionate pity and blessing, as if I had been in truth her son,
+and caught her breath again and again with a sobbing sigh. All that
+I could say to comfort her I said, assuring her, as was indeed the
+truth, that no woman could justly estimate the view which a man
+might take of such a condition as mine, and how the power of service
+to love might be enough to content one, and he stand in no need of
+pity, but she was not much consoled. "Harry," she said, "Harry, thou
+art like a knight of olden times about whom a song was written,
+which I heard sung in my girlhood, and which used to bring the
+tears, though I was never too ready with them. Woe be to me that I,
+knowing what I know, have yet not the courage to sacrifice my pride
+and my unworthy granddaughter, and see you free. Oh, Harry, that
+thou shouldst sit at home when thou art fitted by birth and breeding
+to go with the best of them! Harry, I pray thee, put on thy
+plum-coloured suit and go to the ball."
+
+"Dear Madam Cavendish," I said, half laughing, for she seemed more
+and more like a child, "you know that it cannot be, and that I have
+no desire for balls."
+
+"But I would have thee go, Harry."
+
+"But I am not asked," I said.
+
+"What matters that? 'Tis almost with open doors, since it is a
+farewell of my Lord Culpeper before sailing for England. Harry, go,
+and--a--and--I swear if any exception be taken to it,
+I--I--will tell the truth."
+
+"Dear madam, it cannot be," I said, "and the truth is to be
+concealed not only for your sake, but for that of others."
+
+Then she broke out in another paroxysm of childish wailing that
+never was such a wretched state of matters, such a wretched old
+woman handicapped from serving one by her love for another. "Harry,
+I cannot clear thee unless I convict my own granddaughter
+Catherine," she said, piteously, "and if I spared her not, neither
+her nor my pride, what of Mary? Catherine hath been like a mother to
+the child, and she loves her better than she loves me. 'Twould kill
+her, Harry. And, Harry, how can I give Mary to thee, and thou under
+this ban? Mary Cavendish cannot wed a convict."
+
+"That she cannot and shall not," I said; "she shall wed a much
+worthier man and be happy, and sure 'tis her happiness that is the
+question."
+
+But Madam Cavendish stared at me with unreasoning anger, not
+understanding, since she was a woman, and unreasoning as a woman
+will be in such matters. "If you love not my granddaughter, Harry
+Wingfield," she cried out, "'tis not her grandmother will fling her
+at your head. I will let you know, sir, that she could have her pick
+in the colony if she so chose, and it may be that she might not
+choose you, Master Harry Wingfield."
+
+I laughed. "Madam Cavendish," I said, rising and bowing, "were I a
+king instead of a convict, then would I lay my crown at Mary
+Cavendish's feet; as it is, I can but pave, if I may, her way to
+happiness with my heart."
+
+"Then you love her as I thought, Harry?"
+
+"Madam," I said, "I love her to my honour and glory and never to my
+discontent, and I pray you to believe with a love that makes no
+account of selfish ends, and that I am happier at home with my books
+than many a cavalier who shall dance with her at the ball."
+
+"But, Harry," she said, piteously, "I pray thee to go."
+
+I laughed and shook my head, and went away to my own quarters and
+sat down to my books, but, at something past midnight, Madam
+Cavendish sent for me in all haste. She had gone to bed, and I was
+ushered to her bedroom, and when I saw her thin length of age scarce
+rounding the coverlids, and her face frilled with white lace, and
+her lean neck stretching up from her pillows with the piteous
+outreaching of a bird, a great tenderness of compassion for
+womanhood, both in youth and beauty and age and need, beyond which I
+can express, came over me. It surely seems to me the part of man to
+deal gently with them at all times, even when we suffer through
+them, for there is about them a mystery of helplessness and
+misunderstanding of themselves which should give us an exceeding
+patience. And it seems to me that, even in the cases of those women
+who are perhaps of greater wit and force of character than many a
+man, not one of them but hath her helplessness of sex in her heart,
+however concealed by her majesty of carriage. So, when I saw Madam
+Cavendish, old and ill at ease in her mind because of me, and
+realised all at once how it was with her in spite of that clear head
+of hers and imperious way which had swayed to her will all about her
+for near eighty years, I went up to her, and, laying a gentle hand
+upon her head, laid it back upon the pillow, and touched her poor
+forehead, wrinkled with the cares and troubles of so many years, and
+felt all the pity in me uppermost. "'Tis near midnight, and you have
+not slept, madam," I said. "I pray you not to fret any longer about
+that which we can none of us mend, and which is but to be borne as
+the will of the Lord."
+
+"Nay, nay, Harry," she cried out, with a pitiful strength of anger.
+"I doubt if it be the will of the Lord. I doubt if it be not the
+devil--Catherine, Catherine--Harry, my brain reels when I
+think that she should have done it--a paltry ring, and to let
+you--"
+
+"It may be that she had not her wits," I said. "Such things have
+been, I have heard, and especially in the case of a woman with
+jewels. It may be that she knew not what she did, and in any case I
+pray you to think no more of it, dear madam." And all the time I
+spoke I was smoothing her old forehead under the flapping frills of
+her cap.
+
+One black woman was there in the room, sitting in the shadow of the
+bed-curtains, fast asleep and making a strange purring noise like a
+cat as she slept.
+
+Suddenly Madam Cavendish clutched hard at my hand. "Harry," she
+said, "I sent for you because I have lain here fretting lest Mary
+and Catherine get not home in safety with only the black people to
+guard them. I fear lest the Indians may be lurking about."
+
+"Dear Madam Cavendish," I said, "you know that we stand in no more
+danger from the Indians."
+
+"Nay," she persisted, "we can never tell what plans may be brewing
+in such savage brains. I pray thee, Harry, ride to meet them and see
+if they be safe."
+
+I laughed, for the danger from Indians was long since past, but said
+readily enough that I would do as she wished, being, in fact, glad
+enough of a gallop in the moonlight, with the prospect of meeting
+Mary. So in a few minutes I was in the saddle and riding toward
+Jamestown. The night was very bright with the moon, and there was a
+great mist rising from the marshy lands, and such strangely pale and
+luminous developments in the distances of the meadows, marshalling
+and advancing and retreating, like companies of spectres, and
+lingering as if for consultation on the borders of the woods, with
+floating draperies caught in the boughs thereof, that one might have
+considered danger from others than Indians. And, indeed, I often
+caught the note of an owl, and once one flitted past my face and my
+horse shied at the evil bird, which is thought by the ignorant to be
+but a feathered cat and of ill omen, and indeed is considered by
+many who are wise to have presaged ill oftentimes, as in the cases
+of the deaths of the emperors Valentinian and Commodus. Be that as
+it may, I, having a pistol with me, shot at the bird, and, though I
+was as good a shot as any thereabouts, missed, and away it flew,
+with a great hoot as of laughter, which I am ready to swear I heard
+multiplied in a trice, as if the bird were joined by a whole
+company, and my horse shied again and would have bolted had I not
+held him tightly. Now, this which I am about to relate I am ready to
+swear did truly happen, though it may well be doubted. I had come
+within a short distance of Jamestown when I reached two houses of a
+small size, not far apart, not much removed from the fashion of the
+negro cabins, but inhabited by English folk. In the one dwelt a man
+who had been transported for a grievous crime, whether justly or not
+I cannot say, but his visage was such as to condemn him, and he was
+often in his cups and had spent many days in the stocks, and had
+made frequent acquaintance with the whipping-post, and with him
+dwelt his wife, an old dame with a tongue which had once earned her
+the ducking-stool in England. As I passed the house I saw over the
+door a great bunch of dill and vervain and white thorn, which is
+held to keep away witches from the threshold if gathered upon a May
+day. And I knew well the reason, for not many rods distant was the
+hut where dwelt one Margery Key, an ancient woman, who had been
+verily tied crosswise and thrown in a pond for witchcraft and been
+weighed against the church Bible, and had her body searched for
+witch-marks and the thatch of her house burned. I know not why she
+had not come to the stake withal, but instead she had fled to
+Virginia, where, witches being not so common, were treated with more
+leniency. It may have been that she had escaped the usual fate of
+those of her kind by being considered by some a white witch, and one
+who worked good instead of ill if approached rightly, though many
+considered that they who approached a white witch for the purpose of
+profiting by her advice or warning, were of equal guilt, and that it
+all led in the end to mischief. Be that as it may, this old dame
+Margery Key dwelt there alone in her little hut so over-thatched and
+grown by vines, and scarce showing the shaggy slant of its roof
+above the bushes, that it resembled more the hole of some timid and
+wary animal than a human habitation. And if any visited her for
+consultation it was by night and secretly, and no one ever caught
+sight of her except now and then the nodding white frill of her cap
+in the green gloom of a window or the painful bend of her old back
+as she gathered sticks for her fire in the woods about. How she
+lived none knew. A little garden-patch she had, and a hive or two of
+bees, and a red cow, which many affirmed to have the eye of a demon,
+and there were those who said that her familiars stole bread for her
+from the plantation larders, and that often a prime ham was missed
+and a cut of venison, with no explanation, but who can say? Without
+doubt there are strange things in the earth, but we are all so in
+the midst of them, and even a part of their workings, that we can
+have no outside foothold to take fair sight thereof. Verily a man
+might as well strive to lift himself by his boot-straps over a
+stile.
+
+But this much I will say, that, as I was riding along, cogitating
+something deeply in my mind as to the best disposal of the powder
+and the shot which Mary Cavendish had ordered from England, I,
+coming abreast of Margery Key's house, saw of a sudden a white cat,
+which many affirmed to be her familiar, spring from her door like a
+white arrow of speed and off down a wood-path, and my horse reared
+and plunged, and then, with my holding him of no avail, though I had
+a strong hand on the bridle, was after her with such a mad flight
+that I had hard work to keep the saddle. Pell-mell through the wood
+we went, I ducking my head before the mad lash of the branches and
+feeling the dew therefrom in my face like a drive of rain, until we
+came to a cleared space, then a great spread of tobacco fields,
+overlapping silver-white in the moonlight, and hamlet of negro
+cabins, and then Major Robert Beverly's house, standing a mass of
+shadow except for one moonlit wall, for all the family were gone to
+the governor's ball. Then, as I live, that white cat of Margery
+Key's led me in that mad chase around Beverly's house, and when I
+came to the north side of it I saw a candle gleam in a window and
+heard a baby's wail, and knew 'twas where his infant daughter was
+tended, and as we swept past out thrust a black head from the
+window, and a screech as savage as any wild cat's rent the peace of
+the night, and I believe that the child's black nurse took us, no
+doubt, for the devil himself. Then all the dogs howled and bayed,
+though not one approached us, and a great bat came fanning past,
+like a winged shadow, and again I heard the owl's hoot, and ever
+before us, like a white arrow, fled that white cat, and my horse
+followed in spite of me. Then, verily I speak the truth, though it
+may well be questioned, did that white cat lead us straight to the
+tomb which Major Beverly had made upon his plantation at the death
+of his first wife, and in which she lay, and 'twas on a rising above
+the creek, and then the cat, with a wail which was like nothing I
+ever heard in this world, was away in a straight line toward the
+silver gleam of the creek, though every one knows well how cats hate
+water, and had disappeared. But, though to this I will not swear, I
+thought I saw a white gleam aloft, and heard a wail of a cat skyward
+along with the owl-hoots. And then my horse stood and trembled in
+such wise that I thought he would fall under me, and I dismounted
+and stroked his head and tried as best I could to soothe him, and we
+were all the time before the tomb, which was a large one. Then of a
+sudden it came to me that here was the hiding-place for the powder
+and shot, for what safer hiding-place can there be than the tomb of
+the first wife, when the second hath reigned but a short time, and
+is fair, and hath but just given her lord that little darling whose
+cries of appealing helplessness I could hear even there? So I gave
+the tomb-door a pull, knowing that I should not, by so doing,
+disturb the slumbers of the poor lady within, and decided with
+myself that it would be easy enough to force it, and mounted and
+rode back as best I might to the road. And when I came to the little
+dwelling of Margery Key a thought struck me, and I rode close,
+though my horse shuddered as if with some strange fright of
+something which I could not see. I bent in my saddle and looked in
+the door, but naught could I see. Then I dismounted and tied my
+horse to a tree near by, and entered the house and looked about the
+sorry place as well as I could in the pale sift of moonlight,
+and--the old woman was not there. But one room there was, with a
+poor pallet in a corner and a chest against the wall and a stool,
+and a kettle in the fireplace, with a little pile of sticks and a
+great scattering of ashes, but no one there, and also, if I may be
+believed, _no broom._ All this I tell for what it may be worth to
+the credulity of them who hear; the facts be such as I have said.
+But whether believing it myself or not, yet knowing that that white
+cat, though it had been Margery Key in such guise, or her familiar
+imp on his way to join her at some revel whither she had ridden her
+broom, had done me good service, and, seeing the piteous smallness
+of the pile of sticks on the hearth, and reflecting upon the
+distressful bend of the old soul's back, whether she had sold
+herself to Satan or not, I lingered a minute to break down a goodly
+armful of brush in the wood outside and carry inside for the
+replenishment of her store. And as I came forth, having done so, I
+heard the door of the nearby house open, and saw two white faces
+peering out at me, and heard a woman's voice shriek shrilly that
+here was the devil seeking the witch, and though I called out to
+reassure them, the door clapped to with a bang like a pistol-shot,
+and my horse danced about so that I could scarcely mount. Then I
+rode away, something wondering within myself, since I had been taken
+for the devil, how many others might have been, and whether men made
+their own devils and their own witches, instead of the Prince of
+Evil having a hand in it, and yet that happened which I have
+related, and I have told the truth.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+
+
+
+Such a blaze of light as was the governor's mansion house that night
+I never saw, and I heard the music of violins, and hautboys, and
+viola da gambas coming from within, and a silvery babble of women's
+tongues, with a deeper undertone of men's, and the tread of dancing
+feet, and the stamping of horses outside, with the whoas of the
+negro boys in attendance, and through the broad gleam of the
+moonlight came the flare and smoke of the torches. It seemed as if
+the whole colony was either dancing at the governor's ball or
+standing outside on tiptoe with interest. I sat waiting for some
+time, holding my restive horse as best I might, but there coming no
+cessation in the music, I dismounted, and seeing one of Madam
+Cavendish's black men, gave him the bridle to hold, and went up to
+the house and entered, though not in my plum-coloured velvet, and,
+indeed, being not only in my ordinary clothes, but somewhat splashed
+with mire from my mad gallop through the woods. But I judged rightly
+that in so much of a crowd I should pass unnoticed both as to myself
+and my apparel. I stood in the great room near the door and watched
+the dance, and 'twas as brilliant a scene as ever I had seen
+anywhere even in England. The musicians in the gallery were sawing
+away for their lives on violins, and working breathlessly at the
+hautboys, and all that gay company of Virginia's best, spinning
+about in a country dance of old England. Such a brave show of velvet
+coats, and breeches, and flowered brocade waistcoats, and powdered
+wigs, and feathers, and laces, and ribbons, and rich flaunts of
+petticoats revealing in the whirl of the dance clocked hose on
+slender ankles, and high-heeled satin shoes, would have done no
+discredit to the court. But of them all, Mistress Mary Cavendish was
+the belle and the star. She was dancing with my Lord Estes when I
+entered, and such a goodly couple they were, that I heard many an
+exclamation of delight from the spectators, who stood thickly about
+the walls, the windows even being filled with faces of black and
+white servants. My Lord Estes was a handsome dark man, handsomer and
+older than Sir Humphrey Hyde, who, though dancing with the
+governor's daughter Cate, had, I could see, a rueful eye of
+watchfulness toward Mary Cavendish. As he and Cate Culpeper swung
+past me, Sir Humphrey's eyes fell on my face and he gave a start and
+blush, and presently, when the dance was over and his partner
+seated, came up to me with hand extended, as if I had been the
+noblest guest there. "Harry, Harry," he whispered eagerly, "she hath
+danced with me three times tonight, and hath promised again, and
+Harry, saw you ever any one so beautiful as she in that blue dress?"
+
+I answered truthfully that I never had. Sir Humphrey, in his blue
+velvet suit with the silver buttons, with his rosy face and powdered
+wig, was one to look at twice and yet again, and I regarded him as
+always, with that liking for him and that fury of jealousy.
+
+I looked at him and loved him as I might have loved my son, with
+such a sweet and brave honesty of simplicity he eyed me, and for the
+sake of Mary Cavendish, who might find his love for her precious,
+and I wished with all my heart that I might fling him to the floor
+where he stood; every nerve and muscle in me tingled with the
+restraint of the desire, for such an enhancement of a woman's beauty
+as was Mary Cavendish's that night, will do away with the best
+instincts of men, whether they will or not.
+
+The next dance was the minuet, and Mary Cavendish danced it with my
+Lord Culpeper, the Governor of Virginia. The governor, though I
+liked him not, was a most personable man with much grace of manner,
+which had additional value from a certain harshness of feature which
+led one not to expect such suavity, and he was clad most richly in
+such a dazzle of gold broidery and fling of yellow laces, and
+glitter of buttons, as could not be surpassed.
+
+My Lord was in fact clad much more richly than his wife and
+daughter, whose attire, though fair enough, was not of the freshest.
+It was my good luck to overhear my Lady Culpeper telling in no very
+honeyed tones, a gossip of hers, the lady of one of the burgesses,
+that her goods, for which she had sent to England, had miscarried,
+and were it not for the fact that there was a whisper of fever on
+the ship, she would have had the captain herself for a good rating,
+and had my Lord Culpeper not been for him, saying that the man was
+of an honest record, she would have had him set in the stocks for
+his remissness, that he had not seen to it that her goods were on
+board when the ship sailed. "And there goes poor Cate in her old
+murrey-coloured satin petticoat," said my lady with a bitter
+lengthening of her face, "and there is Mary Cavendish in a
+blue-flowered satin with silver, which is the very twin of the one I
+ordered for Cate, and which came in on the Cavendish ship."
+
+"Well," said the other woman, who was long and lean, and had wedded
+late in life a man she would have scorned in her girlhood, and could
+not forgive the wrong she had done herself, and was filled with an
+inconsistency of spleen toward all younger and fairer than she, and
+who, moreover, was a born toad-eater for all in high places, "'tis
+fine feathers make fine birds, and were thy Cate arrayed in that
+same gown in Mistress Cavendish's stead--"
+
+"As I believe, she would not have had the dress had not Cate told
+Cicely Hyde, who is so intimate with Mary Cavendish," said my Lady
+Culpeper. "I had it from my lord's sister that 'twas the newest
+fashion in London. How else would the chit have heard of it, I pray?"
+
+"How else, indeed?" asked the burgess's wife.
+
+"And here my poor Cate must go in her old murrey-coloured
+petticoat," said my lady.
+
+"But even thus, to one who looks at her and not at her attire, she
+outshines Mary Cavendish," said the other. That was, to my thinking,
+as flagrant hypocrisy as was ever heard, for if those two maids had
+been clad alike as beggars, Mary Cavendish would have carried off
+the palm, with no dissenting voice, though Cate Culpeper was fair
+enough to see, with her father's grace of manner, and his harshness
+of feature softened by her rose-bloom of youth.
+
+Catherine Cavendish was dancing as the others, but seemingly with no
+heart in it, whereas her sister was all glowing with delight in the
+merriment of it, and her sense of her own beauty, and the admiration
+of all about her, and smiling as if the whole world, and at life
+itself, with the innocent radiance of a child.
+
+As I stood watching her, I felt a touch on my arm, and looked, and
+there stood Mistress Cicely Hyde, and her brown face was so puckered
+with wrath and jealousy that I scarcely knew her. "Did not Mary's
+grandmother send you to escort her home, Master Wingfield?" said she
+in a sharp whisper, and I stared at her in amazement. "When the ball
+is over, Mistress Hyde," I said.
+
+"'Tis time the ball was over now," said she. "'Tis folly to keep it
+up so late as this, and Mary hath not had a word for me since we
+came."
+
+"But why do you not dance yourself, Mistress Hyde?"
+
+"I care not to dance," said she pettishly, and with a glance of
+mingled wrath and admiration at Mary Cavendish that might have
+matched mine or her brother's, and I marvelled deeply at the
+waywardness of a maid's heart. But then came Ralph Drake, who had
+not drunken very deeply, being only flushed, and somewhat lost to
+discrimination, and disposed to dance with another since he could
+not have his cousin Mary, and he and Cicely went away together, and
+presently, when the minuet was over and another dance on, I saw them
+advancing in time, but always Cicely had that eye of watchful injury
+upon Mary.
+
+It was late when the ball was done, but Mary would have stayed it
+out had it not been for Catherine, who almost swooned in the middle
+of a dance and had to be revived with aromatic vinegar, and lie for
+a while in my Lady Culpeper's bedchamber, with a black woman fanning
+her, until she was sufficiently recovered to go home. Mary did not
+espy me until, returning from her sister's side to order the sedan
+chairs, she jostled against me. Then such a blush of delight and
+relief came over her face as made my heart stand still with rapture
+and something like fear. "You here, you here, Harry?" she cried, and
+stammered and blushed again, and Sir Humphrey and Cicely, who were
+pressing up, looked at me jealously.
+
+"I am here at your grandmother's request, Mistress Mary," I said.
+
+Then my Lord Estes came elbowing me aside, and made no more of me
+than if I were a black slave, and hoarsely shouting for the sedan
+chairs and the bearers, and after him Ralph Drake and half a score
+of others, and all cursing at me for a convict tutor and thrusting
+at me. Then truly that temper of mine, which I have had some cause
+to lament, and yet I know not if it be aught I can help, it being
+seemingly as beyond the say of my own will as the recoil of a musket
+or the rebound of a ball, sent me forth into the midst of that
+gallant throng, and I would not say for certain, but at this late
+date I am inclined to believe that I saw Ralph Drake, who came in my
+way with a storm of curses, raising himself sorely from a pool of
+mud, which must have worked havoc with his velvets, and my Lord
+Estes struggling forth from a thorny rose bush at the gate, with
+much rending of precious laces. Then I, convict though I was, yet
+having, when authorised by the very conditions of my servitude, that
+resolution to have my way, that a king's army could not have stopped
+me, had the sedan chairs, and the bearers to the fore, and presently
+we were set forth on the homeward road, I riding alongside. All the
+road was white with moonlight, and when we came alongside Margery
+Key's house, as I live, that white cat shot through the door, and
+immediately after, I, looking back, saw the old dame herself
+standing therein, though it was near morning, and she quavered forth
+a blessing after me. "God bless thee, Master Wingfield, in life and
+death, and may the fish of the sea come to thy line, may the birds
+of the air minister to thee, and all that hath breath of life,
+whether it be noxious or guileless, do thy bidding. May even He who
+is nameless stand from the path of thy desire, and hold back from
+thy face the boughs of prevention whither thou wouldst go." This
+said old Margery Key in a strange, chanting-like tone, and withdrew,
+and a light flashed out in the next house, and the woman who dwelt
+therein screamed, and Mistress Mary, thrusting forth her head from
+the chair, called me to come close.
+
+As for Catherine, she was borne along as silently as though she
+slept, being, I doubt not, still exhausted with her swoon. When I
+came close to Mistress Mary's chair, forth came her little hand,
+shining with that preciousness of fairness beyond that of a pearl,
+and "Master Wingfield," said she in a whisper, lest she disturb
+Catherine, "what, what, I pray thee, was it the witch-woman said?"
+
+I laughed. "She was calling down a blessing upon my head, Madam," I
+said.
+
+"A blessing and not a curse?"
+
+"As I understood it, though I know not why she should have blessed
+me."
+
+"They say she is a white witch, and worketh good instead of harm,
+and yet--" said Mistress Mary, and her voice trembled, showing
+her fear, and I could see the negroes rolling eyes of wide alarm at
+me, for they were much affected by all hints of deviltry.
+
+"I pray you, Madam, to have no fear," I said, and thought within
+myself that never should she know of what had happened on my way
+thither.
+
+"They say that her good deeds work in the end to mischief," said
+Mary, "and, and--'tis sure no good whatever can come from
+unlawful dealing with the powers of evil even in a good cause. I
+wish the witch-woman had neither cursed thee nor blessed thee,
+Harry."
+
+I strove again to reassure her, and said, as verily I begun to
+believe, that the old dame's words whether of cursing or blessing
+were of no moment, but presently Mistress Mary declared herself
+afraid of riding alone shut within her sedan chair, and would
+alight, and have one of the slaves lead my horse, and walk with me,
+taking my arm the remainder of the way.
+
+I had never known Mistress Mary Cavendish to honour me so before,
+and knew not to what to attribute it, whether to alarm as she said,
+or not. And I knew not whether to be enraptured or angered at my own
+rapture, or whether I should use or not that authority which I had
+over her, and which she could not, strive as best she could,
+gainsay, and bid her remain in her chair.
+
+But being so sorely bewildered I did nothing, but let her have her
+way, and on toward Drake Hill we walked, she clinging to my arm, and
+seemingly holding me to a slow pace, and the slaves with the chairs,
+and my horse, forging ahead with ill-concealed zeal on account of
+that chanting proclamation of Margery Key, which, I will venture to
+say, was considered by every one of the poor fellows as a special
+curse directed toward him, instead of a blessing for me.
+
+As we followed on that moonlight night, she and I alone, of a sudden
+I felt my youth and love arise to such an assailing of the joy of
+life, that I knew myself dragged as it were by it, and had no more
+choosing as to what I should not do. Verily it would be easier to
+lead an army of malcontents than one's own self. And something there
+was about the moonlight on that fair Virginian night, and the
+heaviness of the honey-scents, and the pressure of love and life on
+every side, in bush and vine and tree and nest, which seemed to
+overbear me and sweep me along as on the crest of some green tide of
+spring. Verily there are forces of this world which are beyond the
+overcoming of mortal man so long as he is encumbered by his
+mortality.
+
+Mary Cavendish gathered up her blue and silver petticoats about her
+as closely as a blue flower-bell at nightfall, and stepped along
+daintily at my side, and the feel of her little hand on my arm
+seemed verily the only touch of material things which held me to
+this world. We came to a great pool of wet in our way, and suddenly
+I thought of her feet in her little satin shoes. "Madam, you will
+wet your feet if you walk through that pool in your satin shoes," I
+said, and my voice was so hoarse with tenderness that I would not
+have known it for my own, and I felt her arm tremble. "No," she said
+faintly. But without waiting for any permission, around her waist I
+put an arm, and had her raised in a twinkling from the ground, and
+bore her across the pool, she not struggling, but only whispering
+faintly when I set her down after it was well passed. "You--you
+should not have done that, Harry."
+
+Then of a sudden, close she pressed her soft cheek against my
+shoulder as we walked, and whispered, as though she could keep
+silent no longer, and yet as if she swooned for shame in breaking
+silence: "Harry, Harry, I liked the way you thrust them aside when
+they were rude with you, to do me a service, and Harry, you are
+stronger, and--and--than them all."
+
+Then I knew with such a shock of joy, that I wonder I lived, that
+the child loved me, but I knew at the same time as never I had known
+it before, my love for her.
+
+"Mistress Mary," I said, "I but did my duty and my service, which
+you can always count upon, and I did no more than others would have
+done. Sir Humphrey Hyde--"
+
+But she flung away from me at that with a sudden movement of
+amazement and indignation and hurt, which cut me to the quick.
+"Yes," she said, "yes, Master Wingfield, truly I believe that Sir
+Humphrey Hyde would do me any service that came in his way, and
+truly he is a brave lad. I have a great esteem for Humphrey--I
+have a greater esteem for Humphrey than for all the rest--and I
+care not if you know it, Master Wingfield."
+
+So saying she called to the bearers of her chair, and would have a
+slave assist her to it instead of me, and rode in silence the rest
+of the way, I following, walking my horse, who pulled hard at his
+bits.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+
+
+
+It was dawn before we were abed, but I for one had no sleep, being
+strained to such a pitch of rapture and pain by what I had
+discovered. The will I had not, to take the joy which I seemed to
+see before me like some brimming cup of the gods, but not yet, in
+the first surprise of knowing it offered me, the will to avoid the
+looking upon it, and the tasting of it in dreams. Over and over I
+said to myself, and every time with a new strengthening of
+resolution, that Mary Cavendish should not love me, and that in some
+way I would force her to obey me in that as in other things, never
+doubting that I could do so. Well I knew that she could not wed a
+convict, nor could I clear myself unless at the expense of her
+sister Catherine, and sure I was that she would not purchase love
+itself at such a cost as that. There remained nothing but to turn
+her fancy from me, and that seemed to me an easy task, she being but
+a child, and having, I reasoned, but little more than a childish
+first love for me, which, as every one knows, doth readily burn
+itself out by its excess of wick, and lack of substantial fuel. And
+yet, as I lay on my bed with the red dawn at the windows, and the
+birds calling outside, and the scent of the opening blossoms
+entering invisible, such pangs of joy and ecstasy beyond anything
+which I had ever known on earth overwhelmed me that I could not
+resist them. Knowing well that in the end I should prove my
+strength, for the time I gave myself to that advance of man before
+the spur of love, which I doubt not is after the same fashion as the
+unfolding of the flowers in the spring, and the nesting of the
+birds, and the movement of the world itself from season to season,
+and would be as uncontrollable were it not that a man is mightier
+even than that to which he owes his own existence, and hath the
+power of putting that which he loves before his own desire of it.
+But for the time, knowing well that I could at any time take up the
+reins to the bridling of myself, I let them hang loose, and over and
+over I whispered what Mary Cavendish had said, and over and over I
+felt that touch of delicate tenderness on my arm, and I built up
+such great castles that they touched the farthest skies of my fancy,
+and all the time braving the knowledge that I should myself dash
+them into ruins.
+
+But when I looked out of my window that May morning, and saw that
+wonderful fair world, and that heaven of blue light with rosy and
+golden and green boughs blowing athwart it, and heard the whir of
+looms, the calls and laughs of human life, the coo of dove, the hum
+of bees, the trill of mock birds, outreaching all other heights of
+joy, the clangour of the sea-birds, and the tender rustle of the
+new-leaved branches in the wind, that love for me which I had seen
+in the heart of the woman I had loved since I could remember, seemed
+my own keynote of the meaning of life sounding in my ears above all
+other sounds of bane or blessing.
+
+But the strength I had to act in discord with it, and thrust my joy
+from me, and I went to planning how I could best turn the child's
+fancy from myself to some one who would be for her best good. And
+yet I was not satisfied with Sir Humphrey Hyde, and wished that his
+wits were quicker, and wondered if years might improve them, and if
+perchance a man as honest might be found who had the keenness of
+ability to be the worst knave in the country. But the boy was brave,
+and I loved his love for Mary Cavendish, and I could think of no one
+to whom I would so readily trust her, and it seemed to me that
+perchance I might, by some praising of him, and swerving her
+thoughts to his track, lead her to think favourably of his suit. But
+a man makes many a mistake as to women, and one of the most frequent
+is that the hearts of them are like wax, to be moulded into this and
+that shape. That morning, when I met Mistress Mary at the breakfast
+table, she was pale and distraught, and not only did not speak to me
+nor look at me, but when I ventured to speak in praise of Sir
+Humphrey's gallant looks at the ball, she turned upon me so fiercely
+with encomiums of my Lord Estes, whom I knew to be not worthy of
+her, that I held my tongue. But when Sir Humphrey came riding up a
+little later, she greeted him with such warmth as at once put me to
+torture, and aroused that spirit of defence of her against myself
+which hath been the noblest thing in my poor life.
+
+So I left them, Mistress Catherine at the flax-wheel, and Mary out
+in the garden with Sir Humphrey, gathering roses for the potpourri
+jars, and the distilling into rosewater, for little idleness was
+permitted at Drake Hill even after a ball. I got my horse, but as I
+started forth Madam Cavendish called--a stiffly resolute old
+figure standing in the great doorway, and I dismounted and went to
+her, leading my horse, which I had great ado to keep from nibbling
+the blossoms of a rose tree which grew over the porch. "Harry," she
+said in a whisper, "where is Mary?"
+
+"In the garden with Sir Humphrey Hyde," I answered.
+
+Then Madam Cavendish frowned. "And why is she not at her lessons?"
+she asked sternly.
+
+"The lessons are set for the afternoon, and this morning she is
+gathering rose leaves, Madam," I answered; but that Madam Cavendish
+knew as well as I, having in truth so ordered the hours of the
+lessons.
+
+"But," she said, hesitating, then she stopped, and looked at me with
+an angry indecision, and then at the garden, where the top of Mary's
+golden head was just visible above the pink mist of the roses, and
+Sir Humphrey's fair one bending over it. "Harry," she said,
+frowning, and yet with a piteous sort of appeal. "Why do you not go
+out into the garden and help to gather the rose leaves?" Then,
+before I could answer, as if angry with herself at her own folly,
+she called out to Mary's little black maid, Sukey, to bid her
+mistress come in from the garden and spin. But before the maid
+started I said low in Madam Cavendish's ear: "Madam, think you not
+that the sweet air of the garden is better for her after the ball,
+than the hot ball and the labour at the wheel?" And she gave one
+look at me, and called out to Sukey that she need not speak to her
+mistress, and went inside to her own work and left me to go my way.
+I was relieved in my mind that she did not ask me whither, since, if
+she had, I should have been driven to one of those broadsides of
+falsehood in a good cause for which I regret the necessity, but
+admit it, and if it be to my soul's hurt, I care not, so long as I
+save the other party by it.
+
+I was bound for Barry Upper Branch, and rode thither as fast as I
+could, for I contemplated asking the Barry brothers to aid me in the
+removal of Mistress Mary's contraband goods, and was anxious to lose
+no more time about that than I could avoid.
+
+I was set upon Major Robert Beverly's tomb as a most desirable
+hiding place for them, and knowing that there was a meeting of the
+Assembly that evening at the governor's, to discuss some matters in
+private before he sailed for England, Major Beverly being clerk, I
+thought that before the moon was up would be a favourable time for
+the removal, but I could not move the goods alone, remembering how
+those sturdy sailors tugged at them, and not deeming it well to get
+any aid from the slaves.
+
+So I rode straight to Barry Upper Branch, and a handsome black woman
+in a flaunting gown, with a great display of beads, and an orange
+silk scarf twisted about her head, came to parley with me, and told
+me that both the brothers were away, and added that she thought I
+should find them at the tavern.
+
+The tavern was a brick building abounding in sharp slants of roof,
+and dimmed in outline by a spreading cloud of new-leaved branches,
+and there was one great honey-locust which was a marvel to be seen,
+and hummed with bees with a mighty drone as of all the
+spinning-wheels in the country, and the sweetness of it blew down
+upon one passing under, like a wind of breath. And before the tavern
+were tied, stamping and shaking their heads for the early flies,
+many fine horses, and among them Parson Downs' and the Barry
+brothers', and from within the tavern came the sound of laughter in
+discordant shouts, and now and then a snatch of a song. Then a great
+hoarse rumble of voice would cap the rest, telling some loose story,
+then the laughter would follow--enough, it seemed, to make the
+roof shake--and all the time the hum of the bees in the
+honey-locust outside went on. Verily at that time in Virginia, with
+all the spirit of the people in a ferment of rebellion against the
+established order of things, being that same ferment which the
+ardour of Nathaniel Bacon had set in motion, and which, so far as I
+see now, was the beginning of an epoch of history, there was nothing
+after all, no plotting nor counterplotting, no fierce inveighing
+against authority, nor reckless carousing on the brinks of
+precipices, which could for a second stay the march of the mightiest
+force of all--the spring which had returned in its majesty of
+victory, for thousands of years, and love which had come before
+that.
+
+I tied my horse with the others, with a tight halter, for he was apt
+to pick quarrels, having always a theory that such discomforts as
+flies or a long weariness of standing were in some fashion to be
+laid to the doors of other horses, and indeed made always of his own
+kind his special scapegoat of the dispensation of Providence. 'Tis
+little I know about that great mystery of the animal creation and
+its relation toward the human race, but verily I believe that that
+fine horse of mine, from his propensity for kicking and lashing out
+from his iron-bound hoofs at whatever luckless steed came within his
+reach whenever the world went not to his liking, could not see an
+inch beyond the true horizon limit of the horse race, and attributed
+all that happened on earth, including man, to the agency of his own
+sort. Sure I was, from the backward glance of viciousness which he
+cast at the other stamping steeds as soon as I dismounted, that he
+concluded with no hesitation they had in some way led me to ride him
+thither instead of to his snug berth in the Cavendish stables, with
+his eager nose in his feed trough.
+
+Before I entered the tavern, out burst Parson Downs, and caught hold
+of me, with a great shout of welcome. Half-drunk he was, and yet
+with a marvellous steadiness on his legs, and a command of his voice
+which would have done him credit in the pulpit. It was said that
+this great parson could drink more fiery liquor and not betray it
+than any other man in the colony, and Nick Barry, who was something
+of a wag, said that the parson's wrestlings with spirits of another
+sort had rendered him powerful in his encounters with these also. Be
+that as it may, though I doubt not Parson Downs had drunk more than
+any man there, no sign of it was in his appearance, except that his
+boisterousness was something enhanced, and his hand on my shoulder
+fevered. "Good day, good day, Master Harry Wingfield," he shouted.
+"How goes the time with ye, sir? And, I say, Master Wingfield, what
+will you take for thy horse there? One I have which can beat him on
+any course you will pick, with all the creeks in the country to
+jump, and the devil himself to have a shy at, and even will I trade
+and give thee twenty pounds of tobacco to boot. 'Tis a higher horse
+than thine, Harry, and can take two strides to one of his; and mine
+hath four white feet, and thine but one, which, as every one knoweth
+well, is not enough. What say you, Harry?"
+
+"Your reverence," I said, laughing, "the horse is not mine, as you
+know."
+
+"Nay, Harry," he burst forth, "that we all know, and you know that
+we all know, is but a fable. Doth not Madam Cavendish treat you as a
+son, and are you not a convict in name only, so far as she is
+concerned? I say, Harry, you can ride my horse to the winning on
+Royal Oak Day, at the races. What think you, Harry?"
+
+"Your reverence," I said, "I pray you to give me time," for well I
+knew there was no use in reasoning with the persistency to which
+frequent potations had given rise.
+
+Up to my horse he went with that oversteadiness of the man in his
+cups, who moves with the stiffness of a tree walking, as if every
+lift of a heavy foot was the uplifting of a root fast in the ground,
+and went to stroking his head; when straightway, my horse either not
+liking his touch or the smell of his liquored breath, and judging as
+was his wont that the fault must by some means lie with his own
+race, straightway lashed out a vicious hind leg like a hammer, and
+came within an ace of the parson's own valuable horse--not the
+one which he proposed trading for mine--and the wind of the lash
+frighted the parson's horse, and he in his turn lashed out, and
+another horse at his side sprang aside; and straightway there was
+such a commotion in the tavern yard as never was, and slaves and
+white servants shouting, and forcing rearing horses to their regular
+standing, and I stroking my beast, and striving as best I could to
+bring his pure horse wits to comprehend the strong pressure and
+responsibility of humanity for the situation; and the Barry brothers
+and Captain Jaynes came running forth, Captain Jaynes swearing in
+such wise that it was beyond the understanding of any man unversed
+in that language of the high seas; and Nick Barry, laughing wildly,
+and Dick, glooming, as was the difference with the two brothers when
+in liquor. And the landlord, one John Halpin, stood in his tavern
+doorway with his eyebrows raised, but no other sign of
+consternation, knowing well enough that all this could not affect
+his custom, and being one of the most toughly leather-dried little
+men whom I have ever seen, and his face so hardened into its final
+lines of experience, that it had no power of changing under new
+ones. And behind him stood peering, some with wide eyes of terror,
+and some with ready laughs at nothing, the few other roisters in the
+tavern at that hour. 'Twas not the best time of day for the meeting
+of those choice spirits for the discussion of the other spirits
+which be raised, willy-nilly, from the grape and the grain, for the
+enhancing of the joy of life, and defiance of its miseries; but the
+Barrys and Captain Jaynes and the parson were nothing particular as
+to the time of day.
+
+When the horses were something quieted, I, desiring not to unfold my
+errand in the tavern, got hold of Parson Downs by his mighty arm,
+and elbowed Dick Barry, who cursed at me for it, and cut short
+Captain Jaynes's last string of oaths, and hallooed to Nick Barry,
+and asked if I could have a word with them. Captain Jaynes, though,
+as I have said, being in the main curiously well disposed toward me,
+swore at first that he would be damned if he would stop better
+business to parley with a damned convict tutor; but the end of it
+was that he and the Barry brothers and Parson Downs and I stood
+together under that mighty humming locust tree, and I unfolded my
+scheme of moving the powder and shot from Locust Creek to Major
+Robert Beverly's tomb. Noel Jaynes stared at me a second, with his
+hard red face agape, and then he clapped me upon the shoulder, and
+shouted with laughter, and swore that it should be done, and that it
+was a burning hell shame that the goods had been put where they were
+to the risk of a maid of beauty like Mary Cavendish, and that he and
+the Barrys would be with me that very night before moonrise to move
+them.
+
+Then the parson, who had a poetical turn, especially when in his
+cups, added, quite gravely, that no safer place could there be for
+powder than the tomb of love whose last sparks had died out in
+ashes; and Dick Barry cried with an oath that it would serve Robert
+Beverly rightly for his action against them in the Bacon rising, for
+though he was to the front with the oppressed people in this, his
+past foul treachery against them was not forgot, and well he
+remembered that when he was in hiding for his life--
+
+But then his brother hushed him and said, with a shout of dry
+laughter, that the past was past, and no use in dwelling upon it,
+but that when it came to a safe hiding-place for goods which were to
+set the kingdom in a blaze, and maybe hang the ringleaders, he knew
+of none better than the tomb of a first wife, which, when the second
+was in full power, was verily back of the farthest back door of a
+man's memory.
+
+So it was arranged that the four were to meet me that very night
+after sunset and before moonrise, and move the goods, and I mounted
+and rode away, with Parson Downs shouting after me his proposition
+to trade horses, and even offering ten pounds to boot when he saw
+the splendid long pace of my thoroughbred flinging out his legs with
+that freest motion of anything in the world, unless it be the swift
+upward cleave of a bird when the fluttering of wing wherewith he
+hath gained his impetus hath ceased, and nothing except that
+invincible rising is seen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+
+
+
+The first man my eyes fell upon was Parson Downs, lolling in a chair
+by the fireless hearth, for there was no call for fire that May
+night. His bulk of body swept in a vast curve from his triple chin
+to the floor, and his great rosy face was so exaggerated with
+merriment and good cheer that it looked like one seen in the shining
+swell of a silver tankard. When Nick Barry finished a roaring song,
+he stamped and clapped and shouted applause till it set off the
+others with applause of it, and the place was a pandemonium. Then
+that same coloured woman who had parleyed with me the other day, and
+was that night glowing like a savage princess--as in truth she
+may have been, for she had a high look as of an unquenched spirit,
+in spite of her degradation of body and estate--went about with
+a free swinging motion of hips, bearing a tray filled with pewter
+mugs of strong spirits. Around this woman's neck glittered row on
+row of beads, and she wore a great flame-coloured turban, and long
+gold eardrops dangled to her shoulders against the glossy blackness
+of her cheeks, and bracelets tinkled on her polished arms, which
+were mighty shapely, though black. In faith, the wench, had she but
+possessed roses and lilies for her painting, instead of that
+duskiness as of the cheek of midnight, had been a beauty such as was
+seldom seen. Her dark face was instinct with mirth and jollity, and,
+withal, a fierce spark in the whitening roll of her eyes under her
+flame-coloured turban made one think of a tiger-cat, and roused that
+knowledge of danger which adds a tingle to interest. A man could
+scarce take his eyes from her. though there were other women there
+and not uncomely ones. Another black wench there was, clad as gayly,
+but sunk in a languorous calm like a great cat, with Nick Barry, now
+his song was done, lolling against her, and two white women, one
+young and well favoured, and the other harshly handsome, both with
+their husbands present, and I doubt not decent women enough, though
+something violent of temper. As I entered, Mistress Allgood, one of
+them, begun a harangue at the top of a shrill voice, with her
+husband plucking vainly at her sleeve to temper her vehemence.
+Mistress Allgood was long and lean, and gaunt, with red fires in the
+hollows of her cheeks and a compelling flash of black eyes under
+straight frowning brows. "Gentlemen," said she--"be quiet, John
+Allgood, my speech I will have, since thou being a man hath not the
+tongue of one. I pray ye, gentlemen listen to my cause of complaint.
+Here my goodman and me did come to this oppressed colony of
+Virginia, seven years since, having together laid by fifty pound
+from the earnings of an inn called the Jolly Yeoman in Norfolkshire,
+in which for many years we had run long scores with little return,
+and we bought a small portion of land and planted tobacco, and set
+out trees. Then came the terror of the Indians, and Governor
+Berkeley, always in wait for the word of the king, and doing
+nothing, and once was our house burned, and we escaped barely with
+our lives, and then came Nat Bacon, and blessings upon him, for he
+made the beginning of a good work. And then did the soldiers riding
+to meet him, so trample down our tobacco fields with horse hoofs,
+that the leaves lay in a green pumice, and that crop lost. And then
+this Navigation Act, which I understand but little of except that it
+be to fill the king's pockets and empty ours, has made our crops of
+no avail, since we but sent the tobacco as a gift to the king, so
+little we have got in return. And look, look!" she shrieked, "I pray
+ye look, and sure this is the best I have, and me always going as
+well attired as any of my station in England. I pray ye look! Sure
+'tis past mending, and the stitches and the cloth go together, as
+will the colony, unless somewhat be done in season to mend its
+state." So saying, up she flung her arm, and all the under side of
+the body of her gown was in rags, and up she flung the other, and
+that was in like case.
+
+Then the other woman, who was a strapping lass, and had been a
+barmaid ere she came to Virginia in search of a husband, where she
+had found one Richard Longman afraid not to do her bidding and wed
+her, since he was as small and mild a man as ever was, joined in: "I
+say with Mistress Allgood," she shrieked out, and flung her own
+buxom arms aloft with such disclosures that a roar of laughter
+spread through the hall, and her husband blushed purple, and a
+protest gurgled in his throat. But at that his wife, who verily was
+a shrew, seized upon him by both of his little shoulders, and shook
+him until his face wagged like a rag baby with an utter limpness of
+helplessness, and shouted out, amid peals of laughter that seemed to
+shake the roof, that here was a pretty man, here forsooth was a
+pretty man. Here was her own husband, who let his own lawful wife go
+clad in such wise and lifted not a finger! Yes, lifted not a finger,
+and had to be dragged into the present doings by the very hair of
+his head by his wife, and that was not all. Yes, that was not all.
+Then, with that, up she flung one stout foot, and lo, a great hole
+was in the heel of her stocking, and the other, and then she flirted
+the hem of her petticoat into sight, and that was all of a fringe
+with rags. "Look, look!" she shrieked out. "I tell ye, Thomas
+Longman, I will have them look, and see to what a pass that cursed
+Navigation Act and the selling of the tobacco for naught, hath
+brought a decent woman. How long is it since I had a new petticoat?
+How long, I pray? Oh, Lord, had the men of this colony but the
+spirit of the women! Had but brave Nat Bacon lived!" With that, this
+woman, who had been perchance drinking too much beer for her head,
+though she was well used to it, burst into a storm of tears, and
+sprang to her feet, and cried out in a wild voice like a furious
+cat's: "Up with ye, I say! And why do ye stop and parley? And why do
+ye wait for my Lord Culpeper to sail? I trow the women be not
+afraid of the governor, if the men be! Up with ye, and this very
+night cut down the young tobacco-plants, and cheat the king of
+England, who reigns but to rob his subjects. Who cares for the
+Governor of Virginia? Who cares for the king? Up with ye, I say!"
+With that she snatched a sword from a peg on the wall and swung it
+in a circle of flame around her head, and what with her glowing eyes
+and streaming black locks, and burning beauty of cheeks, and
+cat-like shriek of voice, she was enough to have made the governor,
+and even the king himself, quail, had he been there, and all the
+time that mild husband of hers was plucking vainly at her gown. But
+the men only shouted with laughter, and presently the woman, with a
+savage glare at them, sank into her chair again, and Mistress
+Allgood went up to her, and the two whispered with handsome,
+fiercely wagging heads. Then entered another woman, after a clatter
+of horse's hoofs in the drive, and she had a presence that compelled
+all the men except one to their feet, though there was about her
+that foolishness which, in my mind, doth always hamper the extreme
+of enthusiasm. This woman, Madam Tabitha Story, was a widow of
+considerable property, owning a plantation and slaves, and she had,
+as was well known, gone mad with zeal in the cause of Nathaniel
+Bacon, and had furnished him with money, and would herself have
+fought for him had she been allowed. But Bacon, though no doubt with
+gratitude for her help, had, as I believe is the usual case with
+brave men, when set about with adoring women, but little liking for
+her. It was, in faith, a curious sight she presented as she entered
+that hall of Barry Upper Branch with the men rising and bowing low,
+and the other women eyeing her, half with defiant glares as of
+respectability on the defence, and half with admiration and
+comradeship, for she was to the far front in this rebellion as in
+the other. Madam Story was a woman so tall that she exceeded the
+height of many a man, and she was clad in black, and crowned with a
+great hat feathered with sable like a hearse, and her skin was of a
+whiteness more dazzling against the black than any colour. Her face
+had been handsome had it not been so elongated and strained out of
+its proper lines of beauty, and her forehead was of a wonderful
+height, a smooth expanse between bunches of black curls, and in the
+midst was set that curious patch which she had worn ever since
+Bacon's untimely death, it being, as I live, nothing more nor less
+than a mourning coach and four horses, cut so cunningly out of black
+paper that it was a marvel of skill.
+
+She stared with scorn at the one black woman approaching her with
+the silver tray, then she turned and stared at Nick Barry, sitting
+half overcome with drink, lolling against the other. He cast a look
+of utter sheepishness at her, and then straightened himself, and
+rose like the other men, and Dick Barry motioned to both of the
+black women to withdraw, which they did, slinking out darkly, both
+with a fine rustle of silks. Then Madam Story saluted the other
+women, though somewhat stiffly, and Dick Barry, who was never
+lacking in a certain gloomy dignity, though they said him to be the
+worse of the two brothers, stepped forward. "Madam," he said, "I
+pray you to be seated." With that he led her with a courtly air to a
+great carved chair, in which his father had been used to sit, and
+she therein, somewhat mollified, her black length doubled on itself,
+and that mourning coach on her forehead was a wonderful sight.
+
+Then arrived Major Robert Beverly and an other notable man, one of
+the burgesses, whose name I do to this day conceal, in consequence
+of a vow to that effect, and then two more. Then Major Beverly, who
+was in fact running greater risks than almost any, inasmuch as he
+was Clerk of the Assembly, and was betraying more of trust, after he
+had saluted Madam Story conferred privately with Dick Barry, and my
+Lord Estes, and Parson Downs, with this effect. Dick Barry, with
+such a show of gallantry and seriousness as never was, prevailed
+upon the three ladies to forgive him his discourtesy, but hinted
+broadly that in an enterprise fraught with so much danger, it were
+best that none but the ruder sex should confer together, and they
+departed; Mistress Longman enjoining upon her husband to remain and
+deport himself like a man of spirit, and Mistress Allgood whispering
+with a sharp hiss into her goodman's alarmed ear, he nodding the
+while in token of assent.
+
+But Madam Tabitha Story paused on the threshold ere she departed,
+standing back on her heels with a marvellous dignity, and waving one
+long, black-draped arm. "Gentlemen of Virginia," said she, in a
+voice of such solemnity as I had never heard excelled, "I beseech
+you to remember the example which that hero who has departed set
+you. I beseech you to form your proceedings after the fashion of
+those of the immortal Bacon, and remember that if the time comes
+when a woman's arm is needed to strike for freedom, here is one at
+your service, while the heart which moves it beats true to liberty
+and the great dead!"
+
+Nick Barry was chuckling in a maudlin fashion when the door closed
+behind her, and Parson Downs' great face was curving upward with
+smiles like a wet new moon, but the rest were sober enough in spite
+of some over-indulgence, for in truth it was a grave matter which
+they had met to decide, and might mean the loss of life and liberty
+to one and all.
+
+Major Robert Beverly turned sharply upon me as soon as the women
+were gone, and accosted me civilly enough, though the memory of my
+convict estate was in his tone. "Master Wingfield," said he, "may I
+inquire--" "Sir," I replied, for I had so made up my mind, "I am
+with you in the cause, and will so swear, if my oath be considered
+of sufficient moment."
+
+I know not how proudly and bitterly I said that last, but Major
+Beverly looked at me, and a kindly look came into his eyes. "Master
+Wingfield," he said, "the word of any English gentleman is
+sufficient," and I could have blessed him for it, and have ever
+since had remorse for my taking advantage of his dark closet of an
+old love for the hiding of the secret of the ammunition.
+
+Then as we sat there, in a blue cloud of tobacco-smoke, through
+which the green bayberry candles gleamed faintly, and which they
+could not overcome with their aromatic breath of burning, the plot
+for the rooting up of the young crop was discussed in all its
+bearings.
+
+I wondered somewhat to see Major Beverly, and still others of the
+burgesses who presently arrived, placing their lives in jeopardy
+with men of such standing as some present. But a common cause makes
+common confidence, and it might well have been, hang one, hang all.
+Major Robert Beverly spoke at some length, and his speech was,
+according to my mind, both wise and discreet, though probably
+somewhat inflamed by his own circumstances. The greatest store of
+tobacco of any one in the colony had Major Robert Beverly, and a
+fair young wife who loved that which the proceeds could buy. And as
+he spoke there was a great uproar outside, and the tramp of horses
+and jingle of swords and spurs, and a whole troop of horse came
+riding into the grounds of Barry Upper Branch. And some of those in
+the hall turned pale and looked about for an exit, and some grasped
+their swords, and some laughed knowingly, and Major Beverly strode
+to the door, and behind him Parson Downs, and Capt. Noel Jaynes, and
+the Barry brothers, and some others, and I, pressing close, and
+there was a half-whispered conference between Major Beverly and the
+leader of the horse.
+
+Then Major Beverly turned to us. "Gentlemen," he said, "I am assured
+that in case of a rising we have naught to fear from the militia,
+who are in like case with the other sufferers from the proceedings
+of the government, being about to be disbanded in arrears of their
+pay. Gentlemen, I am assured by Capt. Thomas Marvyn that his men are
+with us in heart and purpose, and though they may not help, unless
+the worse come to the worse, they will not hinder."
+
+Then such a cheer went up from the conspirators in the hall of Barry
+Upper Branch, and the troop of horse outside, as it seemed, might
+have been heard across the sea which divided us from that tyranny
+which ruled us, and Nick Barry shouted to some of his black slaves,
+and presently every man of the soldiers was drinking cider made from
+the apples of Virginia, and with it, treason to the king and success
+to the rebels.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+
+
+
+I had not formed my plan of taking part in the coming insurrection
+without many misgivings lest I should by so doing bring harm upon
+the Cavendishes. But on discussing the matter in all its bearings
+with Major Robert Beverly, whom I had ever held to be a man of
+judgment, he assured me that in his opinion there could no possible
+ill result come to such a household of women, especially when the
+head of it was of such openly-avowed royalist leanings. Unless,
+indeed, he admitted, the bringing over of the arms and the powder
+was to be traced to Mistress Mary Cavendish. This he said, not
+knowing the secret of his first wife's tomb, and I feeling, as
+indeed I was, an arch deceiver. But what other course is left open
+to any man, when he can shield the one he loves best in the whole
+world only at the expense of some one else? Can he do otherwise but
+let the other suffer, and even forfeit his sense of plain dealing? I
+have lived to be an old man, and verily nothing hath so grown in the
+light of my experience as the impossibility of serving love except
+at a loss, not only to others, but to oneself. But that truth of the
+greatest importance in the whole world hath also grown upon me, that
+love should be served at whatever cost. I cared not then, and I care
+not now, who suffered and who was wronged, if only that beloved one
+was saved.
+
+I went home that night from Barry Upper Branch riding a horse which
+Dick Barry lent me, on learning that I had come thither without one,
+though not in what mad fashion, and Sir Humphrey rode with me until
+our roads parted. Much gaming was there that night after we left; we
+leaving the Barrys and my Lord Estes and Drake and Captain Jaynes
+and many others intent upon the dice, but Humphrey and I did not
+linger, I having naught to stake, and he having promised his mother
+not to play. "Sometimes I wish that I had not so promised my
+mother," he said, looking back at me over his great boyish shoulder
+as he rode ahead, "for sometimes I think 'tis part of the estate of
+a man to put up stakes at cards, and to win or lose as beseems a
+gentleman of Virginia and a cavalier. But, sure, Harry, a promise to
+a man's mother is not to be broke lightly, and indeed she doth ask
+me every night when I return late, and I shall see her face at the
+window when I ride in sight of the great house; but faith, Harry, I
+would love to win in something, if not in hearts, in a throw of the
+dice. For sure I am a man grown, and have never had my own will in
+aught that lies near my heart."
+
+With that he gave a great sigh, and I striving to cheer him, and
+indeed loving the lad, replied that he was but young, and there was
+still time ahead, and the will of one's heart required often but a
+short corner of turning. But he was angry again at me for that, and
+cried out I knew not for all I was loved in return, the heart of a
+certain maid as well as he who was despised, and spurred his horse
+and rode on ahead, and when we had come to the division of the road,
+saluted me shortly, and was gone, and the sound of his galloping
+died away in the distance, and I rode home alone meditating.
+
+And when I reached Drake Hill a white curtain fluttered athwart a
+window, and I caught a gleam of a white arm pulling it to place, and
+knew that Mistress Mary had been watching for me--I can not say
+with what rapture and triumph and misgivings.
+
+It was well toward morning, and indeed a faint pallor of dawn was in
+the east, and now and then a bird was waking. Not a slave on the
+plantation was astir, and the sounds of slumber were coming from the
+quarters. So I myself put my borrowed horse in stable, and then was
+seeking my own room, when, passing through the hall, a white figure
+started forth from a shadow and caught me by the arm, and it was
+Catherine Cavendish. She urged me forth to the porch, I being
+bewildered and knowing not how, nor indeed if it were wise, to
+resist her. But when we stood together there, in that hush of
+slumber only broken now and then by the waking love of a bird, and
+it seemed verily as if we two were alone in the whole world, a sense
+of the situation flashed upon me. I turned on my heel to reenter the
+house. "Madam," I said, "this will never do. If you remain here with
+me, your reputation--"
+
+"What think you I care for my reputation?" she whispered. "What
+think you? Harry Wingfield, you cannot do this monstrous thing. You
+cannot be so lost to all honour as to let my sister--You cannot,
+and you a convict--"
+
+Then, indeed, for the first time in my life and the last I answered
+a woman as if she were a man, and on an equal footing of antagonism
+with me. "Madam," I replied, "I will maintain my honour against your
+own." But she seemed to make no account of what I said. Indeed I
+have often wondered whether a woman, when she is in pursuit of any
+given end, can progress by other methods than an ant, which hath no
+power of circuitousness, and will climb over a tree with long labour
+and pain rather than skirt it, if it come in her way. Straight at
+her purpose she went. "Harry, Harry," she said, still in that sharp
+whisper, "you will not, you cannot--she is but a child."
+
+Before I could reply, out ran Mary Cavendish herself, and was close
+at my side, turning an angry face upon her sister.
+
+"Catherine," she cried out, "how dare you? I am no child. Think you
+that I do not know my own mind? How dare you? You shall not come
+between Harry and me! I am his before the whole world. I will not
+have it, Catherine!"
+
+Then Catherine Cavendish, awakening such bewilderment and dismay in
+me as I had never felt, looked at her sister, and said in a voice
+which I can hear yet: "Have thy way then, sister; but 'tis over thy
+own sister's heart."
+
+"What mean you?" Mary asked breathlessly.
+
+"I love him!" said Catherine.
+
+I felt the hot blood mount to my head, and I knew what shame was. I
+turned to retreat. I knew not what to do, but Mary's voice stopped
+me. It rang out clear and pitiless, with that pitilessness of a
+great love.
+
+"And what is that to me, Catherine?" she cried out. "Sure it is but
+to thy shame if thou hast loved unsought and confessed unasked. And
+if I had ten thousand sisters, and they all in love with him, as
+well they might be, for there is no one like him in the whole world,
+over all their hearts would I go, rather than he should miss me for
+but a second, if he loved me. Think you that aught like that can
+make a difference? Think you that one heart can outweigh two, and
+the misery of one be of any account before that of three?"
+
+Then suddenly she looked sharply at her sister and cried out
+angrily:
+
+"Catherine Cavendish, I know what this means. 'Tis but another
+device to part us. You love him not. You have hated him from the
+first. You have hated him, and he is no more guilty than you be.
+'Tis but a trick to turn me from him. Fie, think you that will avail?
+Think you that a sister's heart counts with a maid before her
+lover's? Little you know of love and lovers to think that."
+
+Then to my great astonishment, since I had never seen such weakness
+in her before, Catherine flung up her hands before her face and
+burst into such a storm of wild weeping as never was, and fled into
+the house, and Mary and I stood alone together, but only for a
+second, for Mary, also casting a glance at me, then about her at the
+utter loneliness and silence of the world, fled in her turn. Then I
+went to my room, but not to sleep nor to think altogether of love,
+for my Lord Culpeper was to sail that day, and the next night was
+appointed for the beginning of the plant cutting.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+
+
+
+I know not if my Lord Culpeper had any inkling of what was about to
+happen. Some were there who always considered him to be one who
+feathered his own nest with as little risk as might be, regardless
+of those over and under him, and one who saw when it behooved him to
+do so, and was blind when it served his own ends, even with the
+glare of a happening in his eyes. And many considered that he was in
+England when it seemed for his own best good without regard to the
+king or the colony, but that matters not, at this date. In truth his
+was a ticklish position, between two fires. If he remained in
+Virginia it was at great danger to himself, if he sided not with the
+insurgents; and on the other hand there was the certainty of his
+losing his governorship and his lands, and perhaps his head, if he
+went to tobacco-cutting with the rest of us. He was without doubt
+better off on the high sea, which is a sort of neutral place of
+nature, beyond the reach for the time, of mobs or sceptres, unless
+one falls in with a black flag. At all events, off sailed my Lord
+Culpeper, leaving Sir Henry Chichely as Lieutenant-Governor, and
+verily he might as well have left a weather-cock as that
+well-intentioned but pliable gentleman. Give him but a head wind
+over him and he would wax fierce to order, and well he served the
+government in the Bacon uprising, but leave him to his own will and
+back and forth he swung with great bluster but no stability. None of
+the colony, least of all the militia, stood in awe of Sir Henry
+Chichely, nor regarded him as more than a figure-head of authority
+when my Lord Culpeper had set sail.
+
+The morning of the day after the sailing, the people of Jamestown
+whom one happened to meet on the road had a strange expression of
+countenance, and I doubt not that a man skilled in such matters
+could have read as truly the signs of an eruption of those forces of
+human passion in the hearts of men, as of an earthquake by the
+belching forth of smoke and fire from the mouth of a volcano.
+Everybody looked at his neighbour with either a glare of doubt and
+wariness, or with covert understanding, and some there were who had
+a pale seriousness of demeanour from having a full comprehension of
+the situation and of what might come of it, though not in the least
+drawing back on that account, and some were all flushed and glowing
+with eagerness and laughing from sheer delight in danger and daring,
+and some were like stolid beasts of the field watching the eye of a
+master, ready at its wink to leap forth to the strain of labour or
+fury. Many of these last were of our English labourers, whom I held
+in some sort of pity, and doubt as to whether it were just and
+merciful to draw them into such a stew kettle, for in truth many of
+them had not a pound of tobacco to lose by the Navigation Act, and
+no more interest in the uprising than had the muskets stacked in
+Major Robert Beverly's first wife's tomb. Yet, I pray, what can men
+do without tools, and have not tools some glory of their own which
+we take small account of, and yet which may be a recompense to them?
+
+Nevertheless, I saw with some misgivings these honest fellows
+plodding their ways, ready to leap to their deaths maybe at the word
+of command, when it did not concern their own interests in the
+least, and especially when they had not that order of mind which
+enables a man to have a delight in glory and in serving those broad
+ends of humanity which include a man to his own loss.
+
+Early that morning the news spread that Colonel Kemp of the
+Gloucester militia and a troop of horse and foot had been sent
+secretly against some plant-cutters in Gloucester County who had
+arisen before us, and had taken prisoners some twenty-two caught in
+the act. The news of the sending came first, I think, from Major
+Robert Beverly, the Clerk of the Assembly, who had withheld the
+knowledge for some time, inasmuch as he disliked the savour of
+treachery, but being in his cups that night before at Barry Upper
+Branch, out it came. 'Twas Dick Barry who told me. I fell in with
+him and Captain Jaynes on the Jamestown road that morning. "Colonel
+Kemp hath ridden against the rioters in Gloucester with foot and
+horse, by order of the general court, and Beverly hath been knowing
+to it all this time," he said gloomily. Then added that a man who
+served on two sides had no strength for either, and one who had
+raised his hand against Bacon had best been out of the present
+cause. But Captain Jaynes swore with one of his broadsides of mighty
+oaths that 'twas best as 'twas, since Beverly had some influence
+over the militia, and that he was safe enough not to turn traitor
+with his great store of tobacco at stake, and that should the court
+proceed to extremes with the Gloucester plant-cutters, such a flame
+would leap to life in Virginia as would choke England with the smoke
+of its burning.
+
+We knew no more than the fact of the sending, but that afternoon
+came riding into Jamestown colonel Kemp with a small body of horse,
+having left the rest and the foot in Gloucester, there to suppress
+further disorder, and with him, bound to their saddles, some
+twenty-two prisoners, glaring about them with defiant faces and
+covered with dust and mire, and some with blood.
+
+Something there was about that awful glow of red on face, on hand,
+or soaking through homespun sleeve or waistcoat, that was like the
+waving of a battle-flag or the call of a trumpet. Such a fury awoke
+in us who looked on, as never was, and the prisoners had been then
+and there torn from their horses and set free, had it not been for
+the consideration that undue precipitation might ruin the main
+cause. But the sight of human blood shed in a righteous cause is the
+spur of the brave, and goads him to action beyond all else. Quite
+silent we kept when that troop rode past us on their way to prison,
+though we were a gathering crowd not only of some of the best of
+Virginia, but some of her worst and most uncontrolled of indenture
+white slaves, and convicts, but something there must have been in
+our looks which gave heart to those who rode bound to their horses,
+for one and then another turned and looked back at us, and I trow
+got some hope.
+
+However, before the night fairly fell, twenty of the prisoners, upon
+giving assurance of penitence, were discharged, and but two, the
+ringleaders, were committed and were in the prison. The twenty-two,
+being somewhat craven-hearted, and some of them indisposed by
+wounds, were on their ways homeward when we were afield.
+
+We waited for the moon to be up, which was an hour later that night.
+I was all equipped in good season, and was stealing forth secretly,
+lest any see me, for I wished not to alarm the household, nor if
+possible to have any one aware of what I was about to do, that they
+might be acquit of blame through ignorance, when I was met in the
+threshold of an unused door by Mary Cavendish. And here will I say,
+while marvelling at it greatly, that the excitement of a great
+cause, which calls for all the enthusiasm and bravery of a man,
+doth, while it not for one moment alters the truth and constancy of
+his love, yet allay for the time his selfish thirst for it. While I
+was ready as ever to die for Mary Cavendish, and while the thought
+of her was as ever in my inmost soul, yet that effervescence of
+warlike spirit within me had rendered me not forgetful, but somewhat
+unwatchful of a word and a look of hers. And for the time being that
+sad question of our estates, which forbade more than our loves, had
+seemed to pale in importance before this matter of maybe the rising
+or falling of a new empire. Heart and soul was I in this cause, and
+gave myself the rein as I had longed to do for the cause of
+Nathaniel Bacon.
+
+But Mary met me at the northern door, which opened directly on a
+locust thicket and was little used, and stood before me with her
+beautiful face as white as a lily but a brave light in her eyes.
+"Where go you, Harry?" she whispered.
+
+Then I, not knowing her fully, and fearing lest I disquiet her,
+answered evasively somewhat about hunting and Sir Humphrey. Some
+reply of that tenor was necessary, as I was, beside my knife for the
+tobacco cutting, armed to the teeth and booted to my middle. But
+there was no deceiving Mary Cavendish. She seized both my hands, and
+I trow for the minute, in that brave maiden soul of hers, the
+selfishness of our love passed as well as with me.
+
+"I pray thee, Harry, cut down the tobacco on Laurel Creek first,"
+she whispered, "as I would, were I a man. Oh! I would I were a man!
+Harry, promise me that thou wilt cut down first the tobacco on my
+plantation of Laurel Creek."
+
+But I had made up my mind to touch neither that nor the tobacco on
+Drake Hill, lest in some way the women of the Cavendish family be
+implicated.
+
+"There be enough, and more than enough, for to-night," I answered,
+and would have passed, but she would not let me.
+
+"Harry," she cried, so loud that I feared for listening ears, "if
+you cut not down my tobacco, then will I myself! Harry, promise me!"
+
+No love nor fear for me was in her eyes as she looked at me, only
+that enthusiasm for the cause of liberty, and I loved her better for
+it, if that could be. A man or woman who is but a bond slave to love
+and incapable of aught but the longing for it, is but a poor lover.
+
+"I tell thee, Harry, cut down the plants on Laurel Creek!" she cried
+again, and I answered to appease her, not daring violent
+contradiction lest I rouse her to some desperate act, this wild,
+young maid with Nathaniel Bacon's hair in the locket against her
+heart, and as fiery blood as his in her veins, that it should come
+in good time, but that I was under the leadership of others and not
+my own.
+
+"Then as soon as may be, Harry," she persisted, "for sure I should
+die of shame were my plants standing and the others cut, and Harry,
+sure it could not be at all, were it not for my fine gowns which the
+'Golden Horn' brought over from England!"
+
+With that she laughed, and stood aside to let me pass, but suddenly,
+as I touched her in the narrow way, her mood changed, and the woman
+in her came uppermost, though not to her shaking. But she caught
+hold of my right arm with her two little hands and pressed her fair
+cheek against my shoulder with that modest boldness of a maid when
+she is assured of love, and whispered: "Harry, if the militia is
+ordered out they say they will not fire, but--if thou be
+wounded, Harry, 'tis I will nurse thee, and no other,
+and--Harry, cut all the plants that thou art able, before they
+come."
+
+Then she let me go, and I went forth thinking that here was a
+helpmeet for a soldier in such times as these, and how I gloried in
+her because she held her love as one with glory. Round to the stable
+for my horse I stole, and it was very dark, with a soft smother of
+darkness because of a heavy mist, and the moon not up, and I had
+backed my horse out of his stall and was about to mount him, before
+I was aware of a dark figure lurking in shadow, and made out by the
+long sweep of the garments that it was a woman. I paused, and looked
+intently into the shadow, where she stood so silently that she might
+have deceived me had it not been for a flutter of her cloak in a
+stray wind.
+
+"Who goes there?" I called out softly, but I knew well enough. 'Tis
+sometimes a stain on a man's manhood, the hatred he can bear to a
+woman who is continually between him and his will, and his keen
+apprehension of her as a sort of a cat under cover beside his path.
+So I knew well enough it was Catherine Cavendish, and indeed I
+marvelled that I had gotten thus far without meeting her. She
+stepped forward with no more ado when I accosted her, and spoke, but
+with great caution.
+
+"What do you, Master Wingfield?" she whispered. "I go on my own
+business, an it please you, Madam," I answered something curtly, and
+I have since shamed myself with the memory of it, for she was a
+woman.
+
+"It pleases me not, nor my grandmother, that one of her household
+should go forth on any errand of mystery at such a time as this,
+when whispers have reached us of another insurrection," she replied.
+"Master Wingfield, I demand to know, in the name of my Grandmother
+Cavendish, the purpose of your riding forth in such fashion?"
+
+"And that, Madam, I refuse to tell you," I replied, bowing low. "You
+presume too greatly on your privileges," she burst out. "You think
+because my grandmother holds you in such strange favour that she
+seems to forget, to forget--"
+
+"That I am a convict, Madam," I finished for her, with another low
+bow.
+
+"Finish it as you will, Master Wingfield," she said haughtily, "but
+you think wrongly that she will countenance treason to the king in
+her own household, and 'tis treason that is brewing tonight."
+
+"Madam," I whispered, "if you love your grandmother and value her
+safety, you will remain in ignorance of this."
+
+Then she caught me by the arm, with such a nervous ardour that never
+would I have known her for the Catherine Cavendish of late years.
+
+"My God, Harry, you shall not go," she whispered. "I say you shall
+not! I--I--will go to my grandmother. I will have the
+militia out. Harry, I say you shall not go!"
+
+But then my blood was up. "Madam," I said, "go I shall, and if you
+acquaint your grandmother, 'twill be to her possible undoing, and
+yours and your sister's, since the having one of the rioters in your
+own household will lay you open to suspicion. Then besides, your
+sister's bringing over of the arms may be traced to her if the
+matter be agitated."
+
+Then truly the feminine soul of this woman leapt to the surface with
+no more ado.
+
+"Oh, my God, Harry!" she cried out. "I care not for my grandmother,
+nor my sister, nor the king, nor Nathaniel Bacon, nor aught, nor
+aught--I fear, I fear--Oh, I fear lest thou be killed,
+Harry!"
+
+"Lest my dead body be brought home to thy door, and the accusation
+of having furnished a traitor to the king be laid to thee, Madam?" I
+said, for not one whit believed I in her love for me. But she only
+sobbed in a distracted fashion.
+
+"Fear not, Madam," I said, "if the militia be out, and I fall, it
+will go hard that I die before I have time to forswear myself yet
+again for the sake of thy family. But, I pray thee, keep to thyself
+for the sake of all."
+
+With that I was in my saddle and rode away, for I had lingered, I
+feared, too long, and as God is my witness I had no faith that
+Catherine Cavendish did more than assume such interest in me for her
+own ends, for love, as I conceived it, was not thus.
+
+I hastened on my way to Barry Upper Branch, where was the
+rendezvous, and on my way had to pass the house where dwelt that
+woman of strange repute, Margery Key, and it was naught but a
+solidity of shadow beside the road except for a glimmer of white
+from the breast of her cat in the doorway. But as I live, as I rode
+past, a voice came from that house, though how she knew me in that
+gloom I know not.
+
+"Good speed to thee, Master Wingfield, and the fagots that thou
+didst gather for the despised and poor shall turn into blessings,
+like bars of silver. That which thou hast given, hast thou forever.
+Go on and fear not, and strike for liberty, and no harm shall come
+nigh thee." As she spoke I saw the bent back of the poor old crone
+in the doorway beside her cat, and partly because of her blessing,
+and partly because, as I said before, whether witch or not, she was
+aged and feeble, and ill fitted for such work, I leapt from my
+saddle and gathered her another armful of fagots, and laid them on
+her hearth. I left the old soul shedding such tears of gratitude
+over that slight service and calling down such childish blessings
+upon my head that I began to have little doubt that she was no
+witch, but only a poor and solitary old woman, which to my mind is
+the forlornest state of humanity. How a man fares without those of
+his own flesh and blood I can understand, since a man must needs
+have some comfort in his own endurance of hardships, but what a
+woman can do without chick or child, and no solace in her own
+dependency, I know not. Verily I know not that such be to blame if
+they turn to Satan himself for a protector, as they suspected
+Margery Key of doing.
+
+I rode away from Margery Key's, having been delayed but a moment,
+and the quaver of her blessings was yet in my ears, when verily I
+did see that which I have never understood. As I live, there passed
+from the house of that ne'er-do-well next door, which was closed
+tightly as if to assure folk that all therein were sound asleep, a
+bright light like a torch, but no man carried it, and it crossed the
+road and was away over the meadows, and no man whom I saw carried
+it, and it waved in the wind like a torch streaming back, and I knew
+it for a corpse candle. And that same night the man who dwelt in
+that house was slain while pulling up the tobacco plants.
+
+I rode fast, marvelling a little upon this strange sight, yet,
+though marvelling, not afraid, for things that I understand not, and
+that seem to savour of something outside the flesh, have always
+rather aroused me to rage as of one who was approached by other than
+the given rules of warfare rather than fear. I have always argued
+that an apparition should attack only his own kind, and hath no
+right to leave his own battlefield for ours, when we be at a
+disadvantage by our lack of understanding as to weapons. So if I had
+time I would have ridden after that corpse candle and gotten, if I
+could, a sight of the bearer had he been fiend or spook, but I knew
+that I had none to lose. So I rode on hard to Barry Upper Branch.
+
+There was an air of mystery about the whole place that night, though
+it were hard to see the use of it. Whereas, generally speaking,
+there was a broad blazon of light from all the windows often to the
+revealing of strange sights within, the shutters were closed, and
+only by the lines of gold at top and bottom would one have known the
+house was lit at all. And whereas there were always to be seen
+horses standing openly before the porch, this night one knew there
+were any about only by the sound of their distant stamping. And yet
+this was the night when all mystery of plotting was to be resolved
+into the wind of action.
+
+I entered and found a great company assembled in the hall, and all
+equipped with knives for the cutting of the tobacco plants, and
+arms, for the militia, as was afterwards proved, was an uncertain
+quantity. One minute the soldiers were for the government, when the
+promises as to their pay were specious, and the next, when the pay
+was not forthcoming, for the rioters, and there was no stability
+either for the one cause or the other in them.
+
+There was a hushed greeting from one or two who stood
+nearest--Sir Humphrey Hyde among them--as I entered, then
+the work went on. Major Robert Beverly it was who was taking the
+lead of matters, though it was not fully known then or afterward,
+but sure it can do no harm at this late date to divulge the truth,
+for it was a glorious cause, and to the credit of a man's honour, if
+not to his purse, and his standing with the government.
+
+Major Beverly stood at the head of the hall with a roll of parchment
+in his hand, wherefrom he read the names of those present, whom he
+was dividing into parties for the purpose of the plant-cutting,
+esteeming that the best plan to pursue rather than to march out
+openly in a great mob. Thus the whole company there assembled was
+divided into small parties, and each put under a leader, who was to
+give directions as to the commencement of the work of destruction.
+
+My party was headed by Capt. Noel Jaynes, something to my
+discontent, for the hardest luck of choosing in the world to my mind
+is that of choosing a leader, for the leader is in himself a very
+gall-stone. Never had it pleased me to follow any man's bidding, and
+in one way only could I comfort myself and retain my respect of
+self, and that was by the consideration that I followed by my own
+will, and so in one sense led myself.
+
+When at last we set forth, some of us riding, and some on foot, with
+that old pirate captain to the front hunched to his saddle, for he
+never could sit a horse like a landsman, but clung to him as if he
+were a swaying mast, and worked his bridle like a wheel with the
+result of heavy lunges to right or left, I felt for the first time
+since I had come to Virginia like my old self.
+
+We hurried along the moonlit road, then struck into a bridle-path,
+being bound for Major Robert Beverly's plantation, he being supposed
+to know naught of it, and indeed after his issuing of orders he had
+ridden to Jamestown, to see Sir Henry Chichely, and keep him quiet
+with a game at piquet, which he much affected.
+
+As we rode along in silence, if any man spoke, Captain Jaynes
+quieted him with a great oath smothered in his chest, as if by a bed
+of feathers, and presently I became aware that there were more of us
+than when we started. We swarmed through the woods, our company
+being swelled invisibly from every side, and not only men but women
+were there. Both Mistress Allgood and Mistress Longman were pressing
+on with their petticoats tucked up, and to my great surprise both of
+the black women who lived at Barry Upper Branch. They slunk along
+far to the rear, with knives gleaming like white fire at their
+girdles, keeping well out of sight of the Barry brothers, who were
+both of our party, and looking for all the world like two female
+tigers of some savage jungle in search of prey, since both moved
+with a curious powerful crouch of secrecy as to her back and hips,
+and wary roll of fierce eyes.
+
+When we were fairly in the open of Major Beverly's plantation some
+few torches were lit, and then I saw that we were indeed a good
+hundred strong, and of the party were that old graybeard who had
+played Maid Marion on Mayday, and many of the Morris dancers, and
+those lusty lads and lasses, and they had been at the cider this
+time as at the other, but all had their wits at their service.
+
+Not a light was in Major Beverly's great house, not a stir in the
+slave quarters. One would have sworn they were all asleep or dead.
+But Captain Jaynes called a halt, and divided us into rank and file
+like a company of reapers, and to work we went on the great tobacco
+fields.
+
+I trow it seemed a shame, as it ever does, to invoke that terrible
+force of the world which man controls, whether to his liberty or his
+slavery 'tis the question, and bring destruction upon all that fair
+inflorescence of life. But sometimes death and destruction are the
+means to life and immortality. Those great fields of Major Robert
+Beverly's lay before us in the full moonlight, overlapping with the
+lusty breadth of the new leaves gleaming with silver dew, and upon
+them we fell. We hacked and cut, we tore up by the roots. In a trice
+we were bedlam loosened--that is, the ruder part of us. Some of
+us worked with no less fury, but still with some sense of our own
+dignity as destroyers over destruction. But the rabble who had
+swelled our ranks were all on fire with rage, and wasted themselves
+as well as the tobacco. They filled the air with shouts and wild
+screams and peals of laughter. That fiercest joy of the world, the
+joy of destruction, was upon them, and sure it must have been one of
+the chiefest of the joys of primitive man, for all in a second it
+was as if the centuries of civilisation and Christianity had gone
+for naught, and the great gulf which lies back of us to the past had
+been leapt. One had doubted it not, had he seen those old men
+tearing up the tobacco plants, their mouths dribbling with a slow
+mutter of curses, for they had drunk much cider, and being aged, and
+none too well fed, it had more hold on them than on some of the
+others; and to see the women lost to all sense of decency, with
+their petticoats girded high on account of the dew, striding among
+the plants with high flings of stalwart legs, then slashing right
+and left with an uncertainty of fury which threatened not only
+themselves but their neighbours as well as the tobacco, and
+shrieking now and then, regardless of who might hear, "Down with the
+king!"
+
+Often one cut a finger, but went on with blood flowing, and their
+hair begun to fly loose, and they smeared their faces with their cut
+hands, and as for the two black women, they pounced upon those green
+plants with fierce swashes of their gleaming knives, and though they
+could have sensed little about the true reason for it all, worked
+with a fury of savagery which needed no motive only its first
+impetus of motion.
+
+Captain Jaynes rode hither and thither striving to keep the mob in
+order, and enjoining silence upon them, and now and then lashing out
+with his long riding whip, but he had set forces in motion which he
+could not stop. Fire and flood and wind and the passions of men,
+whether for love or rage, are beyond the leading of them who invoke
+them, being the instruments of the gods.
+
+Sir Humphrey Hyde, who was beside me, slashing away at the plants,
+whispered: "My God, Harry, how far will this fire which we have
+kindled spread?" but not in fear so much as amazement.
+
+And I, bringing down a great ring of the green leaves, replied, and
+felt as I spoke as if some other than I had my tongue and my voice:
+
+"Maybe in the end, before it hath quite died out, to the destroying
+of tyranny and monarchy, and the clearing of the fields for a new
+government of equality and freedom."
+
+But Sir Humphrey stared at me.
+
+"Sure," he said, "it can do no more than to force the king to see
+that his colony hath grown from infancy to manhood, and hath an arm
+to be respected, and compel him to repeal the Navigation Act. What
+else, Harry?"
+
+Then I, speaking again as if some other moved my tongue, replied
+that none could say what matter a little fire kindleth, but those
+that came after us might know the result of that which we that night
+begun.
+
+But Sir Humphrey shook his head.
+
+"If but Nat Bacon were alive!" he sighed. "No leader have we, Harry.
+Oh, Harry, if thou wert not a convict! Captain Jaynes is sure out of
+his element in defending the rights of the oppressed, and should be
+on his own quarter-deck with his cutlass in hand and his
+rapscallions around him, slaying and robbing, to be in full feather.
+Naught can he do here. Lord, hear those women shriek! Why did they
+let women come hither, Harry? Sure Nick Barry is in his cups. Not
+thus would matters have been were Bacon alive. The women would have
+been at home in their beds, and no man in liquor at work, for I
+trust not the militia. Would Captain Bacon were alive, as he would
+have been, had he not been foully done to death."
+
+This he said believing, as did many, that Bacon's death was due to
+treachery and not fever, nor, as many of his enemies affirmed, from
+over-indulgence in strong spirits, and I must say that I,
+remembering Bacon's greatness of enthusiasm and fixedness of
+purpose, was of the same belief.
+
+As he spoke I seemed to see that dead hero as he would have looked
+in our midst with the moonlight shining on the stern whiteness of
+his face, and that look of high command in his eyes which none dared
+gainsay. And I answered again and again, as with an impulse not my
+own, "And maybe Bacon in truth leads us still, if not by his own
+chosen ways, to his own ends."
+
+"Truly, Harry," Sir Humphrey agreed, "had it not been for Bacon, I
+doubt if we had been at this night's work."
+
+All the time we talked, we advanced in our slashing swath up the
+field, and all the time that chorus of wild laughter and shrieks of
+disloyalty kept time with the swash of the knives, and all the time
+rose Captain Jaynes' storm of fruitless curses and commands, and now
+and then the stinging lash of his riding whip, and also Dick
+Barry's. As for Nick Barry, he lay overcome with sleep on a heap of
+the cut tobacco.
+
+And all the time not a light shone in any of Major Robert Beverly's
+windows, and the slave quarters were as still as the tomb.
+
+The store of ammunition in the tomb had been secretly removed and
+portioned out to the plant-cutters at nightfall.
+
+It was no slight task for even a hundred to cut such a wealth of
+tobacco as Major Robert Beverly had planted, work as fast as they
+might, and proceed over the fields in a fierce crawl of destruction,
+like an army of locusts, and finally they begun to wax impatient.
+And finally up rose that termagant, Mistress Longman, straightening
+her back with a spring as if it were whalebone, showing us her face
+shameless with rage, and stained green with tobacco juice, and here
+and there red with blood, for she had slashed ruthlessly. She flung
+back her coarse tangle of hair, threw up her arms with a wild
+hurrahing motion, and screamed out in such a volume of shrillness
+that she overcapped all the rest of the tumult:
+
+"To the stables, to the stables! Let out Major Beverly's horses, and
+let them trample down the tobacco."
+
+Then such a cry echoed her that I trow it might have proceeded from
+a thousand throats instead of one hundred odd, and in spite of all
+that Captain Jaynes could do, seconded by some few of us gentlemen
+who rallied about him, but were helpless since we could not fire
+upon our coadjutors, that mob swept into Beverly's stables, and
+presently out leapt, plunging with terror, all his fine
+thoroughbreds, the mob riding them about the fields in wild career.
+And one of the maddest of the riders, sitting astride and flogging
+her steed with a locust branch, was Mistress Longman, while her
+husband vainly fled after her, beseeching her to stop, and those
+around were roaring with laughter.
+
+Then some must let out the major's hogs, and they came rooting and
+tumbling with unwieldy gambols. And with this wild troop of animals,
+and the mob shrieking in a frenzy of delight, and now and then a
+woman in terror before the onslaught of a galloping horse, and now
+and then a whole group of cutters overset by a charging hog, and up
+and after him, and slaying him, and his squeals of agony, verily I
+had preferred a battlefield of a different sort. And all this time
+Major Robert Beverly's house stood still in the moonlight, and not a
+noise from the slave quarters, and the fields were all in a pumice
+of wasted plant life, and we were about to go farther when I heard
+again the cry of the little child coming from a chamber window. I
+trow they had given her some quieting potion or she had broken
+silence before.
+
+With all our efforts the mob could not be persuaded to return Major
+Beverly's horses to his stables, which circumstance was afterward to
+the saving of his neck, since it was argued that he would not have
+abetted the using of his fine stud in such wise, some of the horses
+being recovered and some being lamed and cut.
+
+So out of the Beverly plantation we swept; those on horseback at a
+gallop and those on foot tramping after, and above the tumult came
+that farthest-reaching cry of the world--the cry of a little
+child frantic with terror.
+
+Then they were for going to another large plantation belonging to
+one Richard Forster, who had gone in Ralph Drake's party, when all
+of a sudden the horses of us who were leading swerved aside, and
+there was Mistress Mary Cavendish on her Merry Roger, and by her
+side, pulling vainly at her bridle, her sister Catherine.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+
+
+
+Mary Cavendish raised her voice high until it seemed to me like a
+silver trumpet, and cried out with a wave of her white arm to them
+all: "On to Laurel Creek, I pray you! Oh, I pray you, good people,
+on to Laurel Creek, and cut down my tobacco for the sake of Virginia
+and the honour of the Colony."
+
+It needed but a puff of any wind of human will to send that fiery
+mob leaping in a new direction. Straightway, they shouted with one
+accord: "To Laurel Creek, to Laurel Creek! Down with the tobacco,
+down with the governor, down with the king! To Laurel Creek!" and
+forged ahead, turning to the left instead of the right, as had been
+ordered, and Mary was swept along with them, and Catherine would
+have been crushed, had not a horseman, whom I did not recognise,
+caught her up on the saddle with him with a wonderful swing of a
+long, lithe arm, and then galloped after, and as for myself and
+Captain Jaynes, and Sir Humphrey, and others of the burgesses, whom
+I had best not call by name, we went too, since we might as well
+have tried to hold the current of the James River, as that headlong
+company.
+
+But as soon as might be, I shouted out to Sir Humphrey above the din
+that our first duty must be to save Mary and Catherine. And he
+answered back in a hoarse shout, "Oh, for God's sake, ride fast,
+Harry, for should the militia come, what would happen to them?"
+
+But I needed no urging. I know not whom I rode down, I trust not
+any, but I know not; I got before them all in some wise, Sir
+Humphrey following close behind, and Ralph Drake also, swearing that
+he knew not what possessed the jades to meddle in such matters, and
+shouting to the rabble to stop, but he might as well have shouted to
+the wind. And by that time there were more than a hundred of us,
+though whence they had come, I know not.
+
+We gentlemen kept together in some wise, and gradually gained on
+Mary, who had had the start, and there were some seven of us, one of
+the Barrys, Sir Humphrey Hyde, Ralph Drake, Parson Downs, in such
+guise for a parson that no one would have known him, booted and
+spurred, and riding harder than any by virtue of his best horse in
+the Colony, myself, and two of the burgesses. We seven gaining on
+the rabble, in spite of the fact that many of them were mounted upon
+Major Robert Beverly's best horses, through their having less
+knowledge of horsemanship, closed around Mary Cavendish on Merry
+Roger, clearing the ground with long galloping bounds, and Catherine
+with the strange horseman was somewhat behind.
+
+As we came up with Mary, she looked at us over her shoulder with a
+brightness of triumph and withal something of merriment, like a
+child successful in mischief, and laughed, and waved her hand in
+which, as I live, she held a sword which had long graced the hall at
+Drake Hill, and I believe she meditated cutting the tobacco herself.
+
+Then a great cheer went up for her, in which we, in spite of our
+misgivings, joined. Something so wonderful and innocent there was in
+the fresh enthusiasm of the maid. Then again her sweet voice rang
+out:
+
+"Down with the tobacco, gentlemen of Virginia, and down with all
+tyranny. Remember Nathaniel Bacon, remember Nathaniel Bacon!"
+
+Then we all caught up that last cry of hers, and the air rang with
+"Remember Nathaniel Bacon!"
+
+But as soon as might be, I rode close enough to speak with Mary
+Cavendish, and Sir Humphrey, who was on the other side, each with
+our jealousy lost sight of, in our concern for her.
+
+"Child, thou must turn and go home," I said, and I fear my voice
+lost its firmness, for I was half mad with admiration, and love, and
+apprehension for her.
+
+Then Sir Humphrey echoed me.
+
+"The militia will be upon us presently," he shouted in her ear above
+the din. "Ride home as fast as you may."
+
+She looked from one to the other of us, and laughed gayly and shook
+her head, and her golden curls flew to the wind, and she touched
+Merry Roger with her whip and he bounded ahead, and we had all we
+could do to keep pace, he being fresh. Then Parson Downs pelted to
+her side and besought her to turn, and so did Captain Jaynes, though
+he was half laughing with delight at her spirit, and his bright eyes
+viewed her in such wise that I could scarce keep my fingers from his
+throat. But Mary Cavendish would hear to none, and no way there was
+of turning her, lest we dragged her from her saddle.
+
+Again I rode close and spoke so that no one beside her could hear.
+
+"Go home, I pray you, if you love me," I said.
+
+But she looked at me with a proud defiance, and such a spirit of a
+man that I marvelled at her.
+
+"'Tis no time to talk of love, sir," said she. "When a people strike
+for liberty, they stop not for honey nor kisses."
+
+Then she cried again, "Remember Nathaniel Bacon!" And again that
+wild shout echoed her silver voice.
+
+But then I spoke again, catching her bridle rein as I rode.
+
+"Then go, if not because you love me, because I love thee," I said
+close to her ear with her golden hair blowing athwart my face.
+
+"I obey not the man who loves me, but the man who weds me, and that
+you will not do, because you hold your pride dearer than love," said
+she.
+
+"Nay, because I hold thee dearer than my love," said I.
+
+"'Tis a false principle you act upon, and love is before all else,
+even that which may harm it, and thou knowest not the heart of a
+woman if thou dost love one, sir," said she. Then she gave a quick
+glance at my face, so close to hers in the midst of that hurrying
+throng, and her blue eyes gleamed into mine, and she said, with a
+bright blush over her cheeks and forehead and neck, but proudly as
+if she defied even her maiden shame in the cause of love, "But thou
+shalt yet know one, Harry."
+
+Then, as if she had said too much, she pulled her bridle loose from
+my detaining hand with a quick jerk, and touched her horse, and we
+were on that hard gallop to Locust Creek.
+
+Locust Creek was not a large plantation, but the fields of tobacco
+were well set, and it was some task to cut them. Captain Jaynes
+essayed to form the cutters into ranks, but with no avail, though he
+galloped back and forth, shouting like a madman. Every man set to
+work for himself, and it was again bedlam broke loose as at the
+other plantation. Then indeed for the first time I saw Mary
+Cavendish shrink a little, as if she were somewhat intimidated by
+the fire which she had lighted, and she resisted not, when Sir
+Humphrey, and her Cousin Ralph and I, urged her into the house. And
+as she entered, there was Catherine, having been brought thither by
+that stranger who had disappeared. And we shut the door upon both
+women, and then felt freer in our minds. Capt. Noel Jaynes swore
+'twas a jade fit to lead an army, then inquired what in hell brought
+her thither, and why women were to the front in all our Virginian
+wars, whether they wore white aprons or not?
+
+As he spoke Ralph Drake shouted out with a great laugh, that maybe
+'twas for the purpose of carrying the men, and pointed, and there
+was one of the black wenches bringing Nick Barry, who else had
+fallen, upon her back to the field. Then she set him down in the
+tobacco and gave him a knife, and he went to cutting, having just
+enough wit to do that for which his mind had been headed, and naught
+else.
+
+The mob took a fancy to that new cry of Mary Cavendish's, and every
+now and then the field rang with it. "Remember Nathaniel Bacon,
+remember Nathaniel Bacon!" It had a curious effect, through starting
+in a distant quarter, where some of the fiercest of the workers were
+grouped, then coming nearer and nearer, till the whole field rang
+with that wide overspread of human voice, above the juicy slashing
+of the tobacco plants.
+
+We had been at work some little time when a tall woman in black on a
+black horse came up at a steady amble, her horse being old. She
+dismounted near me and her horse went to nibbling the low-hanging
+boughs of a locust nearby, and the moon shone full on her face, and
+I saw she was the Widow Tabitha Story, with that curious patch on
+her forehead. Down to the tobacco she bent and went to work stiffly
+with unaccustomed hands to such work, and then again rang that cry
+of "Remember Nathaniel Bacon!" And when she heard that, up she
+reared herself, and raised such a shrill response of "Remember
+Nathaniel Bacon!" in a high-sobbing voice, as I never heard.
+
+And after that for a minute the field seemed to fairly howl with
+that cry of following, and memory for the dead hero, always Madam
+Tabitha Story's voice in the lead, shrieking over it like a cat's.
+
+"Lord, have mercy on us," said Parson Downs at my elbow. "She will
+have all England upon us, and wherefore could not the women have
+kept out of this stew?"
+
+With that he went over to the widow and strove to quiet her, but she
+only shrieked with more fury, with Mistresses Longman and Allgood to
+aid her, and then--came in a mad rush upon us of horse and foot,
+the militia, under Capt. Robert Waller.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+
+
+
+I have seen the same effect when a stone was thrown into a boil of
+river-rapids; an enhancement and marvellous entanglement of
+swiftness and fury, and spread of broken circles, which confused the
+sight at the time and the memory afterwards.
+
+It was but a small body of horse and foot, which charged us whilst
+we were cutting the tobacco on the plantation of Laurel Creek, but
+it needed not a large one to put to rout a company so overbalanced
+by enthusiasm, and cider, and that marvellous greed of destruction.
+No more than seven gentlemen of us there were to make a stand, and
+not more than some twenty-five of the rabble to be depended upon.
+
+As for me, the principal thought in my mind when the militia burst
+upon us, was the safety of Mary Cavendish. Straight to the door of
+the great house I rushed, and Sir Humphrey Hyde was with me. As for
+the other gentlemen, they were fighting here and there as they
+could, Captain Jaynes making efforts to keep the main body of the
+defenders at his back, but with little avail. I stood against the
+door of the house, resolved upon but one course--that my dead
+body should be the threshold over which they crossed to Mary
+Cavendish. It was but a pitiful resolve, for what could I do
+single-handed, except for the boy Humphrey Hyde, against so many.
+But it was all, and a man can but give his all. I knew if the
+militia were to find Mary and Catherine Cavendish in that house,
+grave harm might come to them, if indeed it came not already without
+that. So I stood back against the door which I had previously tried,
+and found fast, and Sir Humphrey was with me. Then came a hush for a
+moment whilst the magistrate with Captain Waller, and others sitting
+on their horses around him, read the Riot Act, and bade us all
+disperse and repair to our homes, and verily I wonder, if ever there
+hath been in all the history of England such a farce and mummery as
+that same Riot Act, and if ever it were read with much effect when a
+riot were well under way.
+
+Scarcely time they gave the worthy man to finish, and indeed his
+voice trembled as if he had the ague, and he seemed shrinking for
+shelter under his big wig, but they drowned out his last words with
+hisses, then there was a wild rush of the rabble and a cry of "Down
+with the tobacco!" and "A Bacon, A Bacon!" Then the militia charged,
+and there were the flashes of swords and partisans and the thunder
+of firearms.
+
+I stood there, feeling like a deserter from the ranks, yet bound to
+keep the door of Laurel Creek, and I had a pistol in either hand and
+so had Sir Humphrey Hyde, but for a minute nobody seemed to heed us.
+Then as I stood there, I felt the door behind me yield a bit and a
+hand was thrust out, and a voice whispered, "Harry, Harry, come in
+hither; we can hold the house against an army."
+
+My heart leapt, for it was Mary, and, quicker than a flash, I had my
+mind made up. I turned upon Sir Humphrey and thrust him in before he
+knew it, through the opening of the door, and called out to him to
+bar and bolt as best he could inside, while I held the door. He,
+whether he would or not, was in the house, and seeing some of the
+soldiers riding our way with Captain Waller at their head, was
+forced to clap to the door, and shoot the bolts, but as he did so I
+heard a woman's shrill cry of agony ring out.
+
+I stood there, and Captain Waller rode up with his soldiers, and
+flashing his sword before my face like a streak of fire, bade me
+surrender in the name of his Majesty, and stand aside. But I stood
+still with my two pistols levelled, and had him full within range.
+Captain Waller was a young man, and a brave one, and never to my
+dying day shall I forget that face which I had the power to still
+with death. He looked into the muzzles of my two pistols, and his
+rosy colour never wavered, and he shouted out again to me his
+command to surrender and stand aside in the name of the King, and I
+stood still and made no reply. I knew that I could take two lives
+and then struggle unarmed for perhaps a moment's space, and that all
+the time saved might be precious for those in the house. At all
+events, it was all that I could do for Mary Cavendish.
+
+I held my pistols and watched his eyes, knowing well that all action
+through having its source in the brain of man, gives first evidence
+in the eyes. Then the time came when I saw his impulse to charge
+start in his eyes, and I fired, and he fell. Then I fired again, but
+wildly, for everything was in motion, and I know not whom I hit, if
+any one, then I felt my own right leg sink under me and I knew that
+I was hit. Then down on my knees I sank and put one arm through the
+great latch of the door, and thrust out with my knife with the free
+hand, and stout arms were at my shoulders striving to drag me away,
+but they might as well for a time have tried to drag a bar of steel
+from its fastenings. I thrust out here and there, and I trow my
+steel drew blood, and I suppose my own flowed, for presently I was
+kneeling in a widening circle of red. I cut those forcing hands from
+my arm, and others came. It was one against a multitude, for the
+rabble after hitting wild blows as often at their friends as at
+their enemies had broken and fled, except those who were taken
+prisoners. But the women stayed until the last and fought like wild
+cats, with the exception of Madam Tabitha Story, who quietly got
+upon her old horse, and ambled away, and cut down her own tobacco
+until daybreak, pressing her slaves into service.
+
+As for the other gentlemen, they were fighting as best they could,
+and all the time striving vainly to gather the mob into a firm body
+of resistance. None of them saw the plight I was in, nor indeed
+could have helped me had they done so, since there were but seven
+gentlemen of us in all, and some by this time wounded, and one dead.
+
+I knelt there upon the ground before the door, slashing out as best
+I could with one hand, and they closed faster and thicker upon me,
+and at last I could no more. I felt a stinging pain in my right
+shoulder, and then for a minute my senses left me. But it was only
+for a moment.
+
+When I came to myself I was lying bound with a soldier standing
+guard over me, though there was small need of it, and they were
+raining battering blows upon the door of Laurel Creek. Somehow they
+had conceived the idea that there was something of great import
+therein, by my mad and desperate defence. I know not what they
+thought, but gradually all the militia were centred at that point
+striving to force the door. As for the shutters, they were heavily
+barred, and offered no easier entrance. Indeed the whole house had
+been strengthened for defence against the Indians before the Bacon
+uprising, and was near as strong as a fort. It would have been well
+had we all entered and defended it, though we could not have held
+out for long, through not being provisioned.
+
+At last Captain Jaynes and the other gentlemen begun to conceive the
+situation and I caught sight of them forcing their way toward me,
+and shouted to them with a failing voice, for I had lost much blood,
+to come nearer and assist me to hold the door. Then I saw Captain
+Jaynes sink in his saddle, and I caught a glimpse of a mighty
+retreat of plunging haunches of Parson Downs' horse, and indeed the
+gist of the blame for it all was afterward put upon the parson's
+great fiery horse, which it was claimed had run away with him first
+into the fight, then away from it, such foolish reasons do men love
+to give for the lapses of the clergy.
+
+As for me, I believe in coming out with the truth about the clergy
+and laymen, and King and peasant, alike, whether it be Cain or King
+David, or Parson Downs or his Majesty King Charles the Second.
+
+However, to do the parson justice, he did not fly until he saw the
+day was lost, and I trow did afterward better service to me than he
+might have done by staying. As for the burgesses, I know not whither
+nor when they had gone, for they had melted away like shadows, by
+reason of the great obloquy which would have attached to them,
+should men in their high office have been discovered in such work.
+Ralph Drake was left, who made a push toward me with a hoarse shout,
+and then he fell, though not severely wounded, and then the soldiers
+pressed closer. And then I felt again the door yield at my back, and
+before I knew it I was dragged inside, and, in spite of the pressure
+of the mob, the door was pushed to with incredible swiftness by
+Humphrey Hyde's great strength, and the bolt shot.
+
+There I lay on the floor of the hall well-nigh spent, and Mary
+Cavendish was chafing my hands, bandaging my wounds with some linen
+got, I knew not whence, and Catherine was there, and all the time
+the great battering blows upon the door were kept up, and also on
+the window-shutters, and the door began to shake.
+
+Then I remembered something. There was behind the house a creek
+which was dry in midsummer, but often, as now, in springtime,
+swollen with rains, and of sufficient depth and force to float a
+boat. And when it was possible it had been the custom to send stores
+of tobacco for lading on shipboard to England, by this short cut of
+the creek which discharged itself into the river below, and there
+was for that purpose a great boat in the cellar, and also a door and
+a little landing.
+
+I, remembering this, whispered to Mary Cavendish with all the
+strength which he could muster.
+
+"For God's sake," I cried, "go you to the cellar, the boat, the
+boat, the creek."
+
+But Mary looked at me, and I can see her face now.
+
+"Think you I did not know of that way?" she said, "and think you I
+would leave you here to die? No, let them come in and do their
+worst."
+
+Then I turned to Catherine and pleaded with her as well as I could
+with those thundering blows upon the door, and I well-nigh fainting
+and my blood flowing fast, and she did not answer at all but looked
+at me.
+
+Then I turned to Sir Humphrey Hyde. "For God's sake, lad," I cried,
+"if you love her, save her. Only a moment and they will be in here.
+Hear the door tremble, and then 'twill be arrest and imprisonment,
+and--I tell thee, lad, leave me, and save them."
+
+"They can do as they choose," cried Mary. Then she turned to Sir
+Humphrey. "Take Catherine, and she will show you the way out by the
+creek," she said. "As for me, I remain here."
+
+Catherine bent over me and tightened a bandage, but she did not
+speak. Sir Humphrey looked at me palely and doubtfully.
+
+"Harry," he said, "I can carry thee to the boat and we can all
+escape in that way."
+
+"Yes," I replied, "but if I escape through them, 'twill serve to
+convict them, and--and--besides, lad, I cannot be moved for
+the bleeding of my wounds, such a long way; and besides, it is at
+the best arrest for me, since I have been seen by the whole posse
+and have shot down Captain Waller. Whither could I fly, pray? Not
+back to England. Me they will take in custody in any case, and they
+will not shoot a wounded captive. My life is safe for the time
+being. Humphrey--" With that I beckoned him to lean over me,
+which he did, putting his ear close.
+
+"Seize Mary by force and bear her away, lad," I whispered, "down
+cellar to the boat. Catherine will show thee the way."
+
+"I cannot, Harry," he whispered back, and as I live the tears were
+in the boy's eyes. "I cannot leave thee, Harry."
+
+"You must; there is no other way, if you would save her," I
+whispered back. "And what good can you do by staying? The four of
+us will be taken, for you can do nothing for me single-handed.
+Captain Jaynes is killed--I saw him fall--and the parson has
+fled, and--and--I know not where be the others. For God's
+sake, lad, save her!"
+
+Then Sir Humphrey with such a look at me as I never forgot, but have
+always loved him for, with no more ado, turned upon Mary Cavendish,
+and caught her, pinioning both arms, and lifted her as if she had
+been an infant, and Catherine would have gone to her rescue, but I
+caught at her hand, which was still at work on my bandage.
+
+"Go you with them and show the way to the boat," I whispered. She
+set her mouth hard and looked at me. "I will not leave thee," she
+said.
+
+"If you go not, then they will be lost," I cried out in desperation.
+For Mary was shrieking that she would not go, and I knew that
+Humphrey did not know the way, and could not find it and launch the
+boat in time with that struggling maid to encumber him, for already
+the door trembled as if to fall.
+
+"I tell you they will not harm a wounded man," I cried. "If you
+leave me I am in no more worse case than now, and if you remain,
+think of your sister. You know what she hath done to abet the
+rebellion. 'Twill all come out if she be found here. Oh, Catherine,
+if you love her, I pray thee, go."
+
+Then Catherine Cavendish did something which I did not understand at
+the time, and perhaps never understood rightly. Close over me she
+bent, and her soft hair fell over my face and hers, hiding them, and
+she kissed me on my forehead, and she said low, but quite clearly,
+"Whatever thou hast done in the past, my scorn henceforth shall be
+for the deed, not for thee, for thou art a man."
+
+Then to her feet she sprang and caught hold of Mary's struggling
+right arm, though it might as well have struggled in a vise as in
+Sir Humphrey Hyde's reluctant, but mighty grasp.
+
+"Mary," she said, "listen to me. 'Tis the best way to save him, to
+leave him."
+
+Then Mary rolled her piteous blue eyes at her over Sir Humphrey's
+shoulder from her gold tangle of hair.
+
+"What mean you?" she cried. "I tell you, Catherine, I will never
+leave him!"
+
+"If we remain, we shall all be in custody," replied Catherine in her
+clear voice, though her face was white as if she were dead, "and our
+estates may be forfeited, and we have no power to help him. And he
+must be taken in the end in any case. And if we be free, we can save
+him."
+
+"I will not go without him," cried Mary. "Set me down, Humphrey, and
+take up Harry, and I will help thee carry him. Do as I tell thee,
+Humphrey."
+
+"Harry will be taken in any case," replied Catherine, "and if you
+take him, you will be arrested with him, and then we can do nothing
+for him. I tell thee, sweet, the only way to save him is to leave
+him."
+
+Then Mary gave one look at me.
+
+"Harry, is this the truth they tell me?" she cried.
+
+"As God is my witness, dear child," I replied. Then she twisted her
+white face around toward Sir Humphrey's, who stood pinioning her
+arms with a look himself as if he were dying.
+
+"Let me loose, Humphrey," she said, "let me loose, then I swear I
+will go with you and Catherine."
+
+Then Sir Humphrey loosed her, and straight to me she came and bent
+over me and kissed me. "Harry," she said in a whisper which was of
+that strange quality that it seemed to be unable to be heard by any
+in the whole world save us two, though it was clear enough--"I
+leave thee because thou tellest me that this is the only way to save
+thee, but I am thine for life and for death, and nothing shall ever
+come forever between thee and me, not even thine own self, nor the
+grave, nor all the wideness of life."
+
+Then she rose and turned to Sir Humphrey and Catherine.
+
+"I am ready," said she, and Sir Humphrey gave my hand one last
+wring, and said that he would stand by me. Then they fled and, as I
+lay there alone, I heard their footsteps on the cellar stairs, and
+presently the dip of the boat as she was launched, and heard it
+above all the din outside, so keen were my ears for aught that
+concerned her.
+
+Then that sound and all others grew dim, for I was near swooning,
+and when the door fell with a mighty crash near me, it might have
+been the fall of a rose leaf on velvet, and I had small heed of the
+fierce faces which bent over me, yet the hands extended toward my
+wounds were tender enough. And I saw as in a dream, Capt. Robert
+Waller, with his arm tied up, and wondered dimly if we were both
+dead, for I verily believed that I had killed him, and I heard him
+say, and his voice sounded as if a sea rolled between us, "'Tis the
+convict tutor, Wingfield, who held the door, and unless I be much
+mistaken, he hath his death-wound. Make a litter and lift him
+gently, and five of you search the house for whatever other rebels
+be hid herein."
+
+And as I live, in the midst of my faintness, which made all sounds
+far away as from beyond the boundary of the flesh, and beyond the
+din of battle, which was still going on, though feebly, like a fire
+burning to its close, I heard the dip of oars on the creek, and knew
+that Mary Cavendish was safe.
+
+A litter they fashioned from a lid of a chest while the search was
+going on, and I was lifted upon it with due regard to my wounds,
+which I thought a generous thing of Captain Waller, inasmuch as his
+own face was frowning with the pain of the wound which I had given
+him, but he was a brave man, and a brave man is ever a generous foe.
+
+But when I was on the litter, breathing hard, yet with some
+consciousness, he bent close over me, and whispered "Sir, your
+wounds are bound up with strips torn from a woman's linen. I have a
+wife, and I know. Who was in hiding here, sir?"
+
+My eyes flew wide open at that.
+
+"No one," I gasped out. "No one as I live."
+
+But he laughed, and bending still lower, whispered, "Have no fear as
+to that, Master Wingfield. Convict or not, you are a brave man, and
+that which you perchance gave your life to hide, shall be hidden for
+all Robert Waller."
+
+So saying he gave the order to carry me forth with as little jolting
+as might be, and stationed himself at my side lest I come to harm
+from some over-zealous soldier. But in truth the militia and the
+officers in those days were apparently of somewhat uncertain
+quantity as regarded their allegiance to the King or the Colony.
+
+The sympathy of many of them was with the colonists who made a stand
+against tyranny, and they were half-hearted, if whole-handed, for
+the King.
+
+Just before they bore me across the threshold of Laurel Creek, those
+troopers who had been sent to search the house, clattered down the
+stair and swore that not so much as a mouse was in hiding there,
+then we all went forth.
+
+Captain Waller, though walking somewhat weakly himself, kept close
+to my side. And he did not mount horse until we were out in the
+highway.
+
+The grounds of Laurel Creek and the tobacco fields were a most
+lamentable sight, though I seemed to see everything as through a
+mist. Here and there one lay sprawled with limbs curled like a dead
+spider, or else flung out at a stiff length of agony. And Capt. Noel
+Jaynes lay dead with a better look on his gaunt old face in death
+than in life. In truth Capt. Noel Jaynes might almost have been
+taken for a good man as he lay there dead. And the outlaw who lived
+next door to Margery Key was doubled up where he fell in a sulky
+heap of death, and by his side wept his shrewish wife, shrilly
+lamenting as if she were scolding rather than grieving, and I trow
+in the midst of it all, the thought passed through my mind that it
+was well for that man that he was past hearing, for it seemed as if
+she took him to task for having died.
+
+Of Dick Barry was no sign to be seen, but Nick lay not dead, but
+dead drunk, and over him was crouched one of those black women with
+a knife in her hand, and no one molested her, thinking him dead, but
+dead he was not, only drunk, and she was wounded herself, with the
+blood trickling from her head, unable to carry him from the field as
+she had brought him.
+
+They carried me past them, and the black woman's eyes rolled up at
+us like a wild beast's in a jungle defending her mate, and I
+remember thinking, though dimly, as a man will do when he has lost
+much blood, that love was love, and perhaps showed forth the
+brighter and whiter, the viler and blacker the heart which held it,
+and then I knew no more for a space.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+
+
+
+When I came to a consciousness of myself again, the first thing of
+which I laid hold with my mind as a means whereby to pull my
+recollections back to my former cognisance of matters was a broad
+shaft of sunlight streaming in through the west window of the prison
+in Jamestown. And all this sunbeam was horribly barred like the body
+of a wasp by the iron grating of the window, and had a fierce sting
+of heat in it, for it was warm though only May, and I was in a high
+fever by reason of my wounds. And another thing which served to hale
+me back to acquaintance with my fixed estate of life was a great
+swarm of flies which had entered at that same window, and were
+grievously tormenting me, and I was too weak to disperse them. All
+my wounds were dressed and bandaged and I was laid comfortably
+enough upon a pallet, but I was all alone except for the flies which
+settled upon me blackly with such an insistence of buzzing that that
+minor grievance seemed verily the greatest in the world, and for the
+time all else was forgot.
+
+For some little time I did not think of Mary Cavendish, so hedged
+about was I as to my freedom of thought and love by my physical
+ills, for verily after a man has been out of consciousness with a
+wound, it is his body which first struggles back to existence, and
+his heart and soul have to follow as they may.
+
+So I lay there knowing naught except the weary pain of my wounds,
+and that sense of stiffness which forbade me to move, and the
+fretful heat of that fierce west sunbeam, and the buzzing swarm of
+flies, for some little time before the memory of it all came to me.
+
+Then indeed, though with great pain, I raised myself upon my elbow,
+and peered about my cell, and called aloud for some one to come,
+thinking some one must be within hearing, for the sounds of life
+were all about me: the tramp of horses on the road outside, the even
+fall of a workman's hammer, the sweet husky carol of a slave's song,
+and the laughter of children at play.
+
+So I shouted and waited and shouted again, and no one came. There
+was in my cell not much beside my pallet, except a little stand
+which looked like one from Drake Hill, and on the stand was a china
+dish like one which I had often seen at Drake Hill, with some mess
+therein, what, I knew not, and a bottle of wine and some medicine
+vials and glasses. I was not ironed, and, indeed, there was no need
+of that, since I could not have moved.
+
+Between the wound in my leg and various sword-cuts, and a general
+soreness and stiffness as if I had been tumbled over a precipice, I
+was well-nigh as helpless as a week-old babe.
+
+I called again, but no one came, and presently I quit and lay with
+the burning eye of the sun in my face and that pestilent buzz of
+flies in my ears, and my weakness and pain so increasing upon my
+consciousness, that I heeded them not so much. I shut my eyes and
+that torrid sunbeam burned red through my lids, and I wondered if
+they had found out aught concerning Mary Cavendish, and I wondered
+not so much what they would do with me, since I was so weak and
+spent with loss of blood that nothing that had to do with me seemed
+of much moment.
+
+But as I lay there I presently heard the key turn in the lock, and
+one Joseph Wedge, the jailor, entered, and I saw the flutter of a
+woman's draperies behind him, but he shut the door upon her, and
+then without my ever knowing how he came there, was the surgeon,
+Martyn Jennings, and he was over me looking to my wounds, and
+letting a little more blood to decrease my fever, though I had
+already lost so much, and then, since I was so near swooning, giving
+me a glass of the Burgundy on the stand. And whilst that was
+clouding my brain, since my stomach was fasting, and I had lost so
+much blood, entered that woman whom I had espied, and she was not
+Mary, but Catherine Cavendish, and there was a gentleman with her
+who stood aloof, with his back toward me, gazing out of the window,
+and of that I was glad since he screened that flaming sunbeam from
+me, and I concerned myself no more about him.
+
+But at Catherine I gazed, and motioned to her to bend over me, and
+whispered that the jailor might not hear, what had become of Mary.
+Then I saw the jailor had gone out, though I had not seen him go,
+and she making a sign to me that the gentleman at the window was not
+to be minded, went on to tell me what I thirsted to know; that she
+and Mary and Sir Humphrey had escaped that night with ease, and she
+and Mary had returned to Drake Hill before midnight, and had not
+been molested.
+
+If Mary were suspected she knew not, but Sir Humphrey was then under
+arrest and was confined on board a ship in the harbour with Major
+Beverly, and his mother was daily sending billets to him to return
+home, and blaming him, and not his jailors, for his disobedience.
+She told me, furthermore, that it was Cicely Hyde who had led the
+militia to our assembly at Laurel Creek that night, and was now in a
+low fever through remorse, and though she told me not, I afterward
+knew why that mad maid had done such a thing--'twas because of
+jealousy of me and Mary Cavendish, and she pulled down more upon her
+own head thereby than she wot of.
+
+All this Catherine Cavendish told me in a manner which seemed
+strangely foreign to her, being gentle, and yet not so gentle as
+subdued, and her fair face was paler than ever, and when I looked at
+her and said not a word, and yet had a question in my eyes which she
+was at no loss to interpret, tears welled into her own, and she bent
+lower and whispered lest even the stranger at the window should
+hear, that Mary "sent her dear love, but, but--"
+
+I raised myself with such energy at that that she was startled, and
+the gentleman at the window half turned.
+
+"What have they done with her?" I cried. "If they dare--"
+
+"Hush," said Catherine. "Our grandmother hath but locked her in her
+chamber, since she hath discovered her love for thee, and frowns
+upon it, not since thou art a convict, but since thou hast turned
+against the King. She says that no granddaughter of hers shall wed a
+rebel, be he convict or prince. But she is safe, Harry, and there
+will no harm come to her, and indeed I think that if they in
+authority have heard aught of what she hath done, they are minded to
+keep it quiet, and--and--"
+
+Then to my exceeding bewilderment down on her knees beside me went
+that proud maid and begged my pardon for her scorn of me, saying
+that she knew me guiltless, and knew for what reason I had taken
+such obloquy upon myself.
+
+Then the gentleman at the window turned when she appealed to him,
+and came near, and I saw who he was--my half-brother, John
+Chelmsford.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+
+
+
+It was six years and more since I had seen my half-brother, and I
+should scarcely have known him, for time had worked great changes in
+both his face and form. He was much stouter than I remembered him,
+and wore a ruddy point of beard at his chin, and a great wig,
+whereas I recalled him as smooth of face, with his own hair.
+
+But he was a handsome man, as I saw even then, lying in so much pain
+and weakness, and he came and stood over me, and looked at me more
+kindly than I should have expected, and I could see something of our
+common mother in his blue eyes. He reached down his hand and shook
+the one of mine which I could muster strength to raise, and called
+me brother, and hoped that I found myself better, and gave me very
+many tender messages of our mother, and of his father likewise,
+which puzzled me exceedingly, until matters were explained. Colonel
+Chelmsford had parted with me when I left England with but scant
+courtesy, and as for my poor mother, I had not seen her at all, she
+being confined to her chamber with grief over my disgrace, and not
+one word had I received from them since that time. So when John
+Chelmsford said that our mother sent her dear love to her son Harry,
+and that nothing save her delicate health had prevented her from
+sailing to Virginia in the same ship to see the son from whom she
+had been so long parted, I gasped, and felt my head reel, and I
+called up my mother's face, and verily I felt the tears start in my
+eyes, but I was very weak.
+
+Then forth from her pocket Catherine drew a ring, and it flashed
+green with a great emerald, and particoloured with brilliants,
+before my eyes, and I was well-nigh overcome by the sight of that
+and everything turned black before me, for it was my Lord Robert
+Ealing's great ring of exceeding value, for the theft of which I had
+been transported.
+
+Straightway Catherine saw that it was too much for me, for she knelt
+down beside me and called John to give her a flask of sweet waters
+which stood on the table, and began bathing my forehead, the while
+my brother looked on with something of a jealous frown.
+
+"'Twas thoughtless of me, Harry," she whispered, "but they say joy
+does not kill, and--and--dost thou know the ring?"
+
+I nodded. It seemed to me that no jewels could ever be mined which I
+would know as I knew that green star of emerald and those encircling
+brilliants. That ring I knew to my cost.
+
+"My Lord Ealing is dead," she said, "and thou knowest that he was a
+kinsman of the Chelmsfords, and after his funeral came this ring and
+a letter, and--and--thou art cleared, Harry.
+And--and--now I know why thou didst what thou did, Harry,
+'twas--'twas--to shield me." With that she burst into a
+great flood of tears, even throwing herself upon the floor of my
+cell in all her slim length, and not letting my brother John raise
+her, though he strove to do so.
+
+"'Tis here, 'tis here I belong, John," she cried out wildly, "for
+you know not, you know not what injustice I have done this innocent
+man. Never can I make it good with my life."
+
+It is here that I shall stop the course of my story to explain the
+whole matter of the ring, which at the time I was too weak and spent
+with pain to comprehend fully as Catherine Cavendish related it. It
+was a curious and at the same time a simple tale, as such tales are
+wont to be, and its very simplicity made it seem then, and seem now,
+well-nigh incredible. For it is the simple things of this world
+which are always most unbelievable, perhaps for this reason: that
+men after Eden and the Serpent, expect some subtlety of reasoning to
+account for all happenings, and always comes the suspicion that
+somewhat beside two and two go to make four.
+
+My Lord Robert Ealing who had come to the ball at Cavendish Court
+that long last year, was a distant kinsman of our family, and
+unwedded, but a man who went through the world with a silly leer of
+willingness toward all womenkind. And 'twas this very trait,
+perhaps, which accounted for his remaining unwedded, although a
+lord, though the fact that his estates were incumbered may have had
+somewhat to do with it. Be that as it may, he lived alone, except
+for a few old servants, and was turned sixty, when, long after my
+transportation, he wedded his cook, who gave him three daughters and
+one son, to whom the estate went, but the ring and the letter came
+to the Chelmsfords. The letter, which I afterwards saw, was a most
+curious thing, both as to composition and spelling and chirography,
+for his lordship was no scholar. And since the letter is but short,
+I may perhaps as well give it entire. After this wise it ran, being
+addressed to Col. John Chelmsford, who was his cousin, though
+considerably younger.
+
+"Dear Cousin.--(So wrote my Lord Ealing.) When this reaches you
+I shall be laid in silent tomb, where, perchance, I shall be more at
+peace than I have ever ben in a wurld, which either fitted me not,
+or I did not fit. At all odds there was a sore misfit betwixt us in
+some way. If it was the blam of the world, good ridance and parden,
+if it was my blam, let them which made me come to acount for't. I
+send herewith my great emruld ringg, with dimends which I suspect
+hath been the means of sending an inosent man into slavery. I had a
+mind some years agone to wed with Caterin Cavendish, and she bein a
+hard made to approche, having ever a stiff turn of the sholder
+toward me, though I knew not why, I was not willin to resk my sute
+by word of mouth, nor having never a gift in writin by letter. And
+so, knowin that mades like well such things, I bethought me of my
+emruld ring, and on the night of the ball, I being upstair in to lay
+off my hatt and cloak, stole privily into Catherin's chamber, she
+being a-dancin below, and I laid the ring on her dresing table,
+thinkin that she would see it when she entered, and know it for a
+love token.
+
+"And then I went myself below, and Caterin, she would have none of
+me, and made up such a face of ice when I approached, that methought
+I had maybe wasted my emruld ring. So after a little up the stare I
+stole, and the ring was not where I had put it. Then thinkin that
+the ring had been stole, and I had neither that nor the made, I
+raised a great hue and cry, and demanded that a search be maid, and
+the ring was found on Master Wingfield, and he was therefor
+transported, and I had my ring again, and myself knew not the true
+fact of the case until a year agone. Then feeling that I had not
+much longer to live, I writ this, thinking that Master Wingfield was
+in a rich country, and not in sufferin, and a few months more would
+make not much odds to him. The facs of the case, cousin, I knew from
+Madam Cavendish's old servant woman Charlotte who came to my sister
+when the Cavendishs left for Virginia, having a fear of the sea, and
+later when my sister died, to my wife, and died but a year agone,
+and in her deathbed told me what she knew. She told me truly, that
+she did see Madam Cavendish on the night of the ball go into
+Caterin's chamber, and espying my emruld ring on her dressing-table,
+take it up and look at it with exceeding astonishment, and then lay
+it down not on the spot whereon I had left it, but on the
+prayer-book on the little stand beside her bed, and then go down
+stairs, frowning. Then this same Charlotte, having litle interest in
+life as to her own affairs, and forced to suck others, if she would
+keep her wits nourished, being watchful, saw me enter, and miss the
+ring, and heard the hue and cry which I raised. And then she, still
+watching, saw Master Harry Wingfield, who with others was searching
+the house for the lost treasure, stop as he was passing the open
+door of Caterin's chamber, because the green light of the emruld
+fixed his eyes, and rush in and secrete the ring upon his person.
+This Charlotte saw, and told Madam Cavendish, who bound her over to
+secresy to save the honour of the family, believing that her own
+granddaughter Caterin was the thief. This epistle, cousin, is to
+prove to you that Caterin was no thief, but simply a cold maid, who
+hath no love for either hearts or gems, but of that I complain not,
+havin as I believe, wedded wisely, if not to please my famly, and
+three daughters and a son, hath my Betty given me, and most exceedin
+fine tarts hath she made, and puddens, and I die content, with this
+last writ to thee, cousin to clear Caterin Cavendish, and may be of
+an innosent gentleman likewise.
+
+"No more from thy cousin,
+
+"Ealing."
+
+One strange feature was there about this letter, which the writer
+had not foreseen, while it cleared me well enough in the opinion of
+the family, to strangers it cleared me not at all, for who was to
+know for what reason I had entered Catherine's chamber, and took and
+secreted that ring of his lordship's? Strict silence had I
+maintained, and so had Madam Cavendish all these years, and naught
+in that letter would clear me before any court of law. Catherine
+being the only one whose innocence was made plain, I could now tell
+my story with no fear of doing her harm, but let those believe my
+part of it who would! Still I may say here, that I verily believe
+that I was at last cleared in the minds of all who knew me well, and
+for others I cared not. My term expired soon after that date, and
+though I chose to remain in Virginia and not return to England, yet
+my property was restored to me, for my half-brother, John
+Chelmsford, when confronted by any gate of injustice leapt it like
+an English gentleman, with no ado. And yet after I heard that
+letter, I knew that I was a convict still, and knew that for some I
+would be until the end of the chapter, and when I grew a little
+stronger, that wild hope that now I might have Mary, dimmed within
+me, for how could I allow her to wed a man with a stain upon his
+honour? And even had I been pardoned, the fact of the pardon had
+seemed to prove my guilt.
+
+It was three days after this, my brother and various others striving
+all the time, but with no effect, to secure my release, that Mary
+herself came to see me. Catherine, as I afterward discovered, had
+unlocked her chamber door and set her free while her grandmother
+slept, and the girl had mounted Merry Roger, and come straight to
+me, not caring who knew.
+
+I heard the key grate in the lock, and turned my eyes, and there she
+was: the blessing of my whole life, though I felt that I must not
+take it. Close to me she came and knelt, and leaned her cheek
+against mine, and stroked back my wild hair.
+
+"Harry, Harry," she whispered, and all her dear face was tremulous
+with love and joy.
+
+"Thou art no convict, Harry," she said. "Thou didst not steal the
+ring, but that I knew before, and I know not any better now, and I
+love thee no better now. And I would have been thine in any case."
+
+"I am still a convict, sweetheart," I said, but I fear weakly.
+
+"Harry," she cried out, "thou wilt not let that stand betwixt us
+now?"
+
+"How can I let thee wed with a convict, if I love thee?" I said.
+"And know you not that this letter of my Lord Ealing's clears me not
+legally?"
+
+"That I know," she answered frowning, "because thy brother hath
+consulted half the lawyers in England ere he came. I know that, my
+poor Harry, but what is that to us?"
+
+"I cannot let thee wed a convict; a man with his honour stained,
+dear heart," I said.
+
+Then she fixed her blue eyes upon mine with such a look as never I
+saw in mortal woman. She knew at that time what sentence had been
+fixed upon me for my share in the tobacco riot, but I did not know,
+and then and there she formed such a purpose, as sure no maid,
+however great her love for a man, formed before.
+
+"Wait and see what manner of woman she is who loves thee, Harry,"
+she said.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+
+
+
+
+I lay in prison until the twenty-ninth day of May, Royal Oak Day. I
+know not quite how it came to pass, but none of my brother's efforts
+toward my release met with any success. I heard afterward some
+whispers as to the cause, being that so many of high degree were
+concerned in the riots, and that if I, a poor devil of a convict
+tutor, were let off too cheaply, why then the rest of them must be
+let loose only at a rope's end, and that it would never do to send
+me back to Drake Hill scot free, while Sir Humphrey Hyde and Major
+Robert Beverly and my Lord Estes, and others, were in durance, and
+some high in office in great danger of discovery. At all events,
+whatever may have been the reason, my release could not be effected,
+and in prison I lay for all those days, but with more comfort, since
+either Catherine or Mary--Mary I think it must have been--made a
+curtain for my window, which kept out that burning eye of the
+western sun, and also fashioned a gnat veil to overspread my pallet,
+so the flies could not get at me. I knew there were others in
+prison, but knew not that three of them were led forth to be hung,
+which might have been my fate, had I been a free man, nor knew that
+another was released on condition that he build a bridge over
+Dragon's Swamp. This last chance, my friends had striven sorely to
+get for me, but had not succeeded, though they had offered large
+sums, my brother being willing to tax the estate heavily. Some
+covert will there was at work against me, and it may be I could
+mention it, but I like not mentioning covert wills, but only such as
+be downright, and exercised openly in the faces of all men. I lay
+there not so uncomfortably, being aware of a great delight that the
+tobacco was cut, whether or no, as indeed it was on many
+plantations, and the King cheated out of great wealth.
+
+This end of proceedings, with no Bacon to lead us, did not surprise
+nor disappoint me. Then, too, the fact that I was cleared of
+suspicion of theft in the eyes of her I loved and her family, at
+least, filled me with an ecstasy which sometimes awoke me from
+slumber like a pain. And though I was quite resolved not to let that
+beloved maid fling away herself upon me, unless my innocence was
+proven world-wide, and to shield her at all costs to myself, yet
+sometimes the hope that in after years I might be able to wed her
+and not injure her, started up within me. She came to see me
+whenever she could steal away, Madam Cavendish being still in that
+state of hatred against me, for my participation in the riot, though
+otherwise disposed enough to give her consent to our marriage on the
+spot. And every day came my brother John and Catherine, and now and
+then Parson Downs. And the parson used to bring me choice spirits in
+his pocket, and tobacco, though I could touch only the latter for
+fear of inflaming my wounds, and he used to sit and read me some of
+Will Shakespeare's Plays, which he bore under his cassock, and a
+prayer-book openly in hand, that being the only touch of hypocrisy
+which ever I saw about Parson Downs.
+
+"Lord, Harry, thou dost not want prayers," he would say, "but rather
+being fallen as thou art, in an evil sink of human happenings,
+somewhat about them, and none hath so mastered the furthest roots of
+men's hearts as Will Shakespeare. 'Tis him and a pipe thou needst,
+lad." So saying, down he would sit himself betwixt me and the fiery
+western window, and I got to believe more in his Christianity, than
+ever I had done when I had heard him hold forth from the pulpit.
+
+'Twas from him I knew the sad penalty which they fixed upon for me,
+for the 29th of May, that being Royal Oak Day, when they celebrated
+the Restoration in England, and more or less in the colonies, and on
+which a great junketing had been arranged, with races, and
+wrestling, and various sports.
+
+Parson Downs came to me the afternoon of the 28th, and sat gazing at
+me with a melancholy air, nor offered to read Will Shakespeare,
+though he filled my pipe and pressed hard upon me a cup of Burgundy.
+
+"'Twill give thee heart, Harry," he said, "and surely now thy wounds
+be so far healed, 'twill not inflame them, and in any case, why
+should good spirit inflame wounds? Faith, and I believe not in so
+much bleeding and so little stimulating. I'll be damned, Harry, if I
+see what is left to inflame in thee, not a hint of colour in thy
+long face. Stands it not to reason, that if no blood be left in thee
+for the wounds to work upon, they must even take thy vitals? But I
+am no physician. However, smoke hard as thou canst, poor Harry, if
+thou wilt not drink, for I have something to tell thee, and there is
+that about our good tobacco of Virginia--now we have rescued it,
+betwixt you and me, from royal freebooters--which is soothing to
+the nerves and tending to allay evil anticipations."
+
+Then, as I lay puffing away something feebly at my pipe, still with
+enjoyment, he unfolded his evil news to me. It seemed that my
+brother had commissioned him so to do.
+
+"'Tis a shame, Harry," he said, "and I will assure thee that all
+that could be done hath been, and if now there were less on guard,
+and a place where thou couldst hide with safety, the fleetest horse
+in the Colony is outside, if thou wert strong enough to sit him. And
+so thou escaped, I would care not if never I saw him again, though I
+paid a pretty penny for him and love him better than ever I loved
+any woman, since he springs to order and stands without hitching,
+and with never a word of nagging in my ears to make me pay penance
+for the service. What a man with a good horse, and good wine, and
+good tobacco, wanteth a wife for, passeth my understanding, but I
+know thou art young, and the maid is a fair one. Faith, and she was
+in such sore affliction this morning because of thee, Harry, as
+might well console any man. Had she been Bacon's widow, she had not
+wedded again, but gone widow to her death. Thou shouldst have seen
+her, lad, when I ventured to strive to comfort her with the
+reflection that her suffering in thy behalf was not so grievous as
+was Bacon's wife's for his death, for thou art to have thy life, my
+poor Harry, and no great hurt, though it may be somewhat wearisome
+if the sun be hot. But Mistress Mary Cavendish flew out at me in
+such wise, though she hath known all along to what fate thou wert
+probably destined, and said such harsh things of poor Madam Bacon,
+that I was minded to retreat. Keep Mary Cavendish's love, when she
+be wedded to thee, Harry, for there is little compromise with her
+for faults, unless she loveth, and she hath found out that Cicely
+Hyde betrayed the plans of the plant-cutters, and for her and Madam
+Bacon her sweet tongue was like a fiery lash, and Catherine was as
+bad, though silent. Catherine, unless I be greatly mistaken, will
+wed thy brother John, but unless I be more greatly mistaken, she
+loveth thee, and now, my poor Harry, wouldst know what they will do
+to thee to-morrow?"
+
+I nodded my head.
+
+"They will even set thee in the stocks, Harry, at the new field,
+before all the people at the sports," said Parson Downs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+
+
+
+I truly think that if Parson Downs had informed me that I was to be
+put to the rack or lose my head it would not have so cut me to the
+heart. Something there was about a gentleman of England being set in
+the stocks which detracted not only from the dignity of the
+punishment, but that of the offence. I would not have believed they
+would have done that to me, and can hardly believe it now. Such a
+punishment had never entered into my imagination, I being a
+gentleman born and bred, and my crime being a grave one, whereas the
+stocks were commonly regarded for the common folk, who had committed
+petty offences, such as swearing or Sabbath-breaking. I could not
+for some time realise it, and lay staring at Parson Downs, while he
+tried to force the Burgundy upon me and stared in alarm at my
+paleness.
+
+"Why, confound it, Harry," he cried, "I tell thee, lad, do not look
+so. Hadst thou killed Rob Waller instead of wounding him, it would
+have been thy life instead of thy pride thou hadst forfeited."
+
+"I wish to God I had!" I burst out, yet dully, for still I only half
+realised it all.
+
+"Nay, Harry," declared the parson, "thy life is of more moment than
+thy pride, and as to that, what will it hurt thee to sit in the
+stocks an hour or so for such a cause? 'Twill be forgot in a week's
+time. I pray thee have some Burgundy, Harry, 'twill put some life
+into thee."
+
+"'Twill never be forgot by me," said I, and indeed it never has
+been, and I know not why it seemed then, and seems now, of a finer
+sting of bitterness than my transportation for theft.
+
+Presently I, growing fully alive to the state of the matters,
+wrought up myself into such a fever of wrath and remonstrance that
+it was a wonder that my wounds did not open. I swore that submit to
+such an indignity I would not, that all the authorities in the
+Colony should not force me to sit in the stocks, that I would have
+my life first, and I looked about wildly for my own sword or
+pistols, and seeing them not, besought the parson for his. He strove
+in vain to comfort me. I was weakened by my wounds, and there was, I
+suppose, something of fever still lingering in my veins for all the
+bleeding, and for a space I was like a madman at the thought of the
+ignominy to which they would put me. I besought that the
+lieutenant-governor should be summoned and be petitioned to make my
+offence a capital one. I strove to rise from my couch, and the vague
+thought of finding a weapon and committing some crime so grave that
+the stocks would be out of the question as a punishment for it, was
+in my fevered brain.
+
+"As well go to a branch of a locust-tree blown by the May wind with
+honey for all seeking noses, as to Chichely," said Parson Downs.
+"And as for the burgesses, they are afraid of their own necks, and
+some of us there be would rather have thee sit in stocks than lose
+thy life, for we hold thy life dear, Harry, and some punishment it
+must be for thee, for thou didst shoot a King's officer, though with
+a damned poor aim, Harry."
+
+Then I said again, with my heart like a drum in my ears, that I
+wished it had been better, though naught I had against Robert
+Waller, and as I learned afterward he had striven all he dared for
+my release, but the militia, being under some suspicion themselves,
+had to act with caution in those days.
+
+Presently, while the parson was yet with me, my brother John came
+in, and verily, for the first time, I realised that we were of one
+blood. Down on his knees beside me he went.
+
+"Oh, my God, Harry," he cried, "I have done all that I could for
+thee, and vengeance I will have of some for this, and they shall
+suffer for it, that I promise thee. To fix such a penalty as this
+upon one of our blood!"
+
+"John," I whispered, grasping his hand hard, "I pray thee--"
+
+But he guessed my meaning. "Nay, Harry," he cried, "better this, for
+if I went back to our mother and told her that thou wert dead, after
+her long slight of thee and the long wrong we have all done thee, it
+would be a sorer fate for her than the stocks for thee."
+
+But I pleaded with him by the common blood in our veins to save me
+from this ignominy, and my fever increased, and he knew not how to
+quiet me. Then in came Catherine Cavendish, and what she said had
+some weight with me.
+
+"For shame!" she said, standing over me, with her face as white as
+death, but with resolution in her eyes, "for shame, Harry Wingfield!
+Full easy it is to be brave on the battlefield, but it takes a hero
+to quail not when his vanity be assailed. Have not as good men as
+thou, and better, sat in the stocks? And think you that it will make
+any difference to us, except as we suffer with you? And 'tis harder
+for my poor sister than for thee, but she makes no complaint, nor
+sheds a tear, but goes about with her face like the dead, and such a
+look in her eyes as never I saw there before. And she told me to say
+to thee that she could not come to-day, but that she would make
+amends, and that thou hadst no cause to overworry, and I know not
+what she meant, but this much I do know, a brave man is a brave man
+whether it be the scaffold or the stocks, and--and--thou
+hast gotten thyself into a fever, Harry."
+
+With that she bade my brother John get some cool water from the
+jailer, and she bathed my head and arranged my bandages with that
+same skill which she had showed at the time when I was bruised by
+the mad horse, and my brother looked on as if only half pleased, yet
+full of pity. And Catherine, as she bathed my head, told me how
+Major Beverly and Sir Humphrey were yet confined on shipboard, and
+Dick Barry was in the prison not far from me, and Nick and Ralph
+Drake were in hiding, but my Lord Estes was scot-free on account of
+his relationship to Governor Culpeper and had been to Drake Hill,
+but Mary would not see him. And she said, furthermore, that her
+grandmother did not know that I was to be set in the stocks, and
+they dared not tell her, as she was grown so feeble since the
+riot--at one time inveighing against me for my disloyalty, and
+saying that I should never have Mary, though I was cleared of my
+disgrace and no more a convict, and at another time weeping like a
+child over her poor Harry, who had already suffered so much and was
+now in prison.
+
+Catherine in that way, which none but a woman hath, since it
+pertains both to love and authority, brought me to my senses, and I
+grew both brave and shamed at the same time, and yet after she had
+gone, never was anything like the sting of that ignominy which was
+prepared for me on the morrow. Many a time had I seen men in the
+stocks, and passed them by with no ridicule, for that, it seemed to
+me, belonged to the same class of folk as the culprits, but with a
+sort of contempt which held them as less than men and below pity
+even. The thought that some day I, too, was to sit there, had never
+entered my head. I looked at my two feet upholding the coverlid, and
+pictured to myself how they would look protruding from the boards of
+the stocks. I recalled the faces of all I had ever seen therein, and
+wondered whether I would look like this or that one. I remembered
+seeing them pelted by mischievous boys, and as the dusk thickened,
+it seemed alive with jeering faces and my ears rang with jibes. I
+said to myself that now Mary Cavendish was farther from me than ever
+before. Some dignity of wretchedness there might be in the fate of a
+convict condemned unjustly, but none in the fate of a man who sat in
+the stocks for all the people to gaze and laugh at.
+
+I said to myself that that cruelest fate of any--to be made
+ridiculous in the eyes of love--was come to me, and love
+henceforth was over and gone. And thinking so, those grinning and
+jibing faces multiplied, and the air rang with laughter, and I trow
+I was in a high fever all night.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+
+
+
+
+The sports and races of Royal Oak Day were to be held on the "New
+Field" (so called), adjoining the plantation of Barry Upper Branch.
+The stocks had been moved from their usual station to this place to
+remind the people in the midst of their gayety that the displeasure
+of the King was a thing to be dreaded, and that they were not their
+own masters, even when they made merry.
+
+On the morning of that day came my brother John's man-servant to
+shave and dress me, and the physician to attend to my wounds. It was
+a marvel that I was able to undergo the ordeal, and indeed, my
+brother had striven hard to urge my wounds as a reason for my being
+released. But such a naturally strong constitution had I, or else so
+faithfully had the physician tended me, with such copious lettings
+of blood and purges, that except for an exceeding weakness, I was
+quite myself. Still I wondered, after I had been shaven and put into
+my clothes, which hung somewhat loosely upon me, as I sat on a bench
+by the window, however I was to reach the New Field.
+
+It was a hot and close day, with all the heaviness of sweetness of
+the spring settling upon the earth, and my knees had knocked
+together when my brother's man-servant and the physician, one on
+each side of me, led me from the bed to the bench.
+
+So very weak was I that morning, after my feverish night, that,
+although the physician had let a little more blood to counteract it,
+I verily seemed almost to forget the stocks and what I was to
+undergo of disgrace and ignominy, being principally glad that the
+window was to the west, and that burning sun which had so fretted
+me, shut out.
+
+The physician, long since dead, and an old man at that date, was
+exceeding silent, eyeing everybody with an anxious corrugation of
+brows over sharp eyes, and he had always a nervous clutch of his
+hands to accompany the glance, as if for lancets or the necks of
+medicine-flasks, never leaving a patient, unless he had killed or
+cured. He had visited me with as much faithfulness as if I had been
+the governor, and yet with no kindness, and I know not to this day,
+whether he was for or against the King, or bled both sides
+impartially. He looked at me with no compassion, and I might, from
+his manner, as well have been going to be set on a throne as in the
+stocks, but he counted my pulse-beats, and then bled me.
+
+My brother John's man, however, whom he had brought from England,
+and whom I had known as a boy, and sometimes stolen away to hunt
+with, he being one of the village-lads, shaved me as if it had been
+for my execution, and often I, somewhat dazed by the loss of blood,
+looking at him, saw the great tears trickling down his cheeks. A
+soft-hearted man he was, who had met with sore troubles, having lost
+his family, a wife and three little ones, after which he returned to
+England and entered my brother's service, though he had been brought
+up independently, being the son of an inn-keeper.
+
+Something there was about this gentle, downcast man, adding the
+weight of my sorrow to his own, which would have aroused me to
+courage, if, as I said before, I had not been in such a state of
+body, that for the time my consciousness of what was to come was
+clouded.
+
+There I sat on my bench, leaning stiffly back against the prison
+wall, a strange buzzing in my ears, and I scarcely knew nor sensed
+it when Parson Downs entered hurriedly, and leant over me,
+whispering that if I would, and could, my chance to escape was
+outside.
+
+"The fleetest horse in the Colony," said he, "and, Harry, I have
+seen Dick Barry, and if thou canst but ride to the turn of the road,
+thou wilt be met by Black Betty and guided to a safe place; and the
+jailer hath drank over much Burgundy to which I treated him,
+and--and if thou canst, Harry--"
+
+Then he stopped and looked at me and turned angrily to the physician
+who was packing up his lancets and vials to depart. "My God, sir,"
+he cried, "do you kill or cure? You have not bled him again? Lord,
+Lord, had I but a lancet and a purge for the spirit as you for the
+flesh, there would be not only no sin but no souls left in the
+Colony! You have not bled him again, sir?"
+
+But Martyn Jennings paid no more heed to him than if he had been a
+part of the prison wall, and, indeed, I doubt if he ever heeded any
+one who had not need of either his nostrums or his lancet, and after
+a last look at my bandages he went away.
+
+Then Parson Downs and my brother's man looked at each other.
+
+"It is of no use, sir," said the man, whose name was Will Wickett.
+"Poor Master Wingfield cannot ride a horse; he is far too weak." And
+with that verily the tears rolled down his cheeks, so womanish had
+he grown by reason of the sore trials to which he had been put.
+
+"Faith, and I believe he would fall off at the first motion of the
+horse," agreed Parson Downs with a great scowl. I looked at, and
+listened to them both, with a curious feeling that they were talking
+about some one else, such was my weakness and giddiness from that
+last blood-letting.
+
+Then Parson Downs, with an exclamation which might have sounded
+oddly enough if heard from the pulpit, but which may, after all,
+have done honour to his heart, fetched out a flask of brandy from
+his pocket, and bade Will Wickett find a mug somewhere, which he did
+speedily, and he gave me a drink which put new life into me, though
+it was still out of the question for me to ride that fiery horse
+which stood pawing outside the prison. And just here I would like to
+say that I never forgot, nor ceased to be grateful for the kindly
+interest in me, and the risk which the parson was disposed to take
+for my sake that day. A great risk indeed it would have been, and
+would doubtless have cost him his living, had I ridden across
+country on that famous horse of his; but he seemed not to think of
+that, but shook his head sadly after I had swallowed the brandy, and
+then my brother John came in and he turned to him.
+
+"A fine plan for escape I had with the jailer drunk and the sentries
+blinded by my last winnings at cards, but Harry is too weak to
+ride," he said.
+
+Then I, being somewhat restored by the brandy, mustered up strength
+enough to have a mind and speak it, and declared that I would not in
+any case avail myself of his aid to escape, since I should only
+bring trouble upon him who aided me, and should in the end be
+caught. And just as I spoke came a company of soldiers to escort me
+to the stocks, and the chance, for what it was worth, was over.
+
+This much however had my brother gained for me, since I was
+manifestly unable to walk or ride: one of the Cavendish chairs which
+they had brought from England, was at the prison door, and some of
+our black men for bearers, half blubbering at the errand upon which
+they were bound.
+
+Somebody had rigged a curtain of thin silk for the chair, so that I,
+when I was set therein, had great privacy, though I knew by the
+sounds that I was attended by the motley crowd which usually is in
+following at such affairs, beside the little troop of horse which
+was my escort, and my brother and Parson Downs riding on either
+side. Parson Downs, though some might reckon him as being somewhat
+contumelious in his manner of leaving the tobacco-cutting, yet was
+not so when there was anything to be gained by his service. He was
+moreover quit of any blame by his office of spiritual adviser,
+though it was not customary for a criminal to be attended to the
+stocks by a clergyman, but only to the scaffold. But, as I began to
+gather some strength through that fiery draught which I had
+swallowed, and the fresh air, it verily seemed to me, though I had
+done with any vain complaints and was of a mind to bear my ignominy
+with as much bravery as though it were death, that it was as much of
+an occasion for spiritual consolation. I could not believe--when
+we were arrived at the New Field, and I was assisted from my chair
+in the midst of that hooting and jeering throng, which even the
+soldiers and the threatening gestures of the parson and my brother
+served but little to restrain--that I was myself, and still more
+so, when I was at last seated in that shameful instrument, the
+stocks.
+
+Ever since that time I have wondered whether mankind hath any bodily
+ills which are not dependent upon the mind for their existence, and
+are so curable by some sore stress of it. For verily, though my
+wounds were not healed, and though I had not left my bed for a long
+time, and my seat was both rough and hard, and my feet were rudely
+pinioned between the boards, and the sun was blistering with that
+damp blister which frets the soul as well as the flesh, I seemed to
+sense nothing, except the shame and disgrace of my estate. As for my
+bodily ailments, they might have been cured, for aught I knew of
+them. To this time, when I lay me down to sleep after a harder day's
+work than ordinary, I can see and hear the jeers of that rude crowd
+around the stocks. Truly, after all, a man's vanity is his point of
+vantage, and I wonder greatly if that be not the true meaning of the
+vulnerable spot in Achilles's heel. Some slight dignity, though I
+had not so understood it, I had maintained in the midst of my
+misfortunes. To be a convict of one's free will, to protect the maid
+of one's love from grief, was one thing, but to sit in the stocks,
+exposed to the jibes of a common crowd, was another. And more than
+aught else, I felt the sting of the comedy in it. To sit there with
+my two feet straight out, soles to the people, through those rude
+holes in the boards, and all at liberty to gaze and laugh at me, was
+infinitely worse than to welter in my blood upon the scaffold. How
+many times, as I sat there, it came to me that if it had been the
+scaffold, Mary Cavendish could at least have held my memory in some
+respect; as it was, she could but laugh. Full easy it may be for any
+man with the courage of a man to figure in tragedy, but try him in
+comedy, if you would prove his mettle.
+
+Shortly after I arrived there in the New Field, which was a wide,
+open space, the sports began, and I saw them all as in a dream, or
+worse than a dream, a nightmare. First came Parson Downs, whispering
+to me that as long as he could do me no good, and was in sore need
+of money, and, moreover, since he would by so doing divert somewhat
+the public attention from me, he would enter the race which was
+shortly to come off for a prize of five pounds.
+
+Then came a great challenge of drums, and the parson was in his
+saddle and the horses off on the three-mile course, my eyes
+following them into the dust-clouded distance, and seeing the parson
+come riding in ahead to the winning post, with that curious
+uncertainty as to the reality, which had been upon me all the
+morning. That is, of the uncertainty of aught save my shameful
+abiding in the stocks.
+
+As I said before, it was a hot day, and all around the field waved
+fruit boughs nearly past their bloom, with the green of new leaves
+overcoming the white and red, and the air was heavy with
+honey-sweet, and, as steady as a clock-tick through all the roaring
+of the merrymakers, came the hum of the bees and the calls of the
+birds. A great flag was streaming thirty feet high, and the gay
+dresses of the women who had congregated to see the sports were like
+a flower-garden, and the waistcoats of the men were as brilliant as
+the breasts of birds, and nearly everybody wore the green oak-sprig
+which celebrated the Restoration.
+
+Then again, the horses, after the challenge of the drums, sped
+around the three-mile course, and attention was diverted somewhat
+from me. There had been mischievous boys enough for my torment, had
+it not been for my brother John, who stood beside the stocks, his
+face white and his hand at his sword. Many a grinning urchin drew
+near with a stone in hand and looked at him, and looked again, then
+slunk away, and made as if he had no intention of throwing aught at
+me.
+
+After the horse-racing came music of drums, trumpets, and hautboys,
+and then in spite of my brother, the crowd pressed close about me,
+and many scurrilous things were said and many grinning faces thrust
+in mine, and thinking of it now, I would that I had them all in open
+battlefield, for how can a man fight ridicule? Verily it is like
+duelling with a man of feathers. Quite still I sat, but felt that
+dignity and severity of bearing but made me more vulnerable to
+ridicule. Utterly weaponless I was against such odds.
+
+I was glad enough when the drums challenged again for a race of
+boys, who were to run one hundred and twelve yards for a hat.
+Everybody turned from me to see that, and I watched wearily the
+straining backs and elbows of the little fellows, and the shouts of
+encouragement and of triumph when the winner came in smote my ears
+as through water, with curious shocks of sound.
+
+Then ten fiddlers played for a prize, and while they played, the
+people gathered around me again, for races more than music have the
+ability to divert the minds of English folk; but they left me again,
+when there was a wrestling for a pair of silver knee-buckles. I
+remember to this day with a curious dizziness of recollection, the
+straining of those two stout wrestlers over the field, each forcing
+the other with all his might, and each scarce yielding a foot, and
+finally ending the strife in the same spot as where begun. I can see
+now those knotted arms and writhing necks of strength, and hear
+those quick pants of breath, and again it seems as then, a picture
+passing before my awful reality of shame. Then two young men danced
+for a pair of shoes, and the crowd gathered around them, and I was
+quite deserted, and could scarcely see for the throng the rhythmic
+flings of heels and tosses of heads. But when that sport was over,
+and the winner dancing merely away in his new shoes, the crowd
+gathered about me again, and in spite of my brother, clods of mud
+began to fly, and urchins to tweak at my two extended feet.
+
+Then that happened, which verily never happened before nor since in
+Virginia, and can never happen again, because a maid like Mary
+Cavendish can never live again.
+
+Slow pacing into the New Field in that same blue and silver gown
+which she had worn to the governor's ball, with a wonderful plumed
+hat on her head, and no mask, and her golden hair flowing free,
+behind her Catherine and Cicely Hyde, like two bridesmaids, came my
+love, Mary Cavendish.
+
+And while I shrank back, thinking that here was the worst sting of
+all, like the sting of death, that she should see me thus, straight
+up to the stocks she came, and gathering her blue and silver gown
+about her, made her way in to my side, and sat there, thrusting her
+two tiny feet, in their dainty shoes, through the apertures next
+mine, for the stocks were made to accommodate two criminals.
+
+And then I looked at her, and would have besought her to go, but the
+words died on my lips, for in that minute I knew what love was, and
+how it could triumph over, not only the tragedy, but that which is
+more cruel, the comedy of life. Surely no face of woman was ever
+like Mary Cavendish's, as she sat there beside me, with such an
+exaltation of love, which made it like the face of an angel. Not one
+word she said, but looked at me, and I knew that after that she was
+mine forever, in spite of my love, which would fain shield her from
+me lest I be for her harm, and I realised that love, when it is at
+its best, is past the consideration of any harm, being sufficient
+unto itself for its own bliss and glory.
+
+But presently, I, looking at her, felt my strength failing me again,
+and her face grew dim, and she drew my head to her shoulder and sat
+so facing the multitude, and such a shout went up as never was.
+
+And first it was half derision, and Catherine and Cicely Hyde stood
+near us like bridesmaids, and my brother John kept his place. Then
+came Madam Judith Cavendish in a chair, and she was borne close to
+us through the throng and was looking forth with the tears running
+over her old cheeks, and extending her hands as if in blessing, and
+she never after made any opposition to our union. Then came
+blustering up Parson Downs and Ralph Drake, who afterward wedded
+Cicely Hyde, and the two Barrys who had braved leaving hiding, and
+the two black wenches who dwelt with them, one with a great white
+bandage swathing her head, and Sir Humphrey Hyde, who had just been
+released, and who, while I think of it, wedded a most amiable
+daughter of one of the burgesses within a year. And Madam Tabitha
+Storey, with that mourning patch upon her forehead, was there, and
+Margery Key, with--marvellous to relate in that crowd--the
+white cat following at heel, and Mistresses Allgood and Longman with
+their husbands in tow. All these, with others whom I will not
+mention, who were friendly, gathered around me, the while Mary
+Cavendish sat there beside me, and again that half-derisive shout of
+the multitude went up.
+
+But in a trice it all changed, for the temper of a mob is as subject
+to unexplained changes as the wind, and it was a great shout of
+sympathy and triumph instead of derision. Then they tore off the
+oak-sprigs with which they had bedecked themselves in honour of the
+day, and by so doing showed disloyalty to the King, and the militia
+making no resistance, and indeed, I have always suspected, secretly
+rejoicing at it, they had me released in a twinkling, and foremost
+among those who wrenched open the stocks was Capt. Calvin Tabor.
+Then Mary Cavendish and I stood together there before them all.
+
+It was all many years ago, but never hath my love for her dimmed,
+and it shall live after Jamestown is again in ashes, when the
+sea-birds are calling over the sunset-waste, when the reeds are tall
+in the gardens, when even the tombs are crumbling, and maybe hers
+and mine among them, when the sea-gates are down and the water
+washing over the sites of the homes of the cavaliers. For I have
+learned that the blazon of love is the only one which holds good
+forever through all the wilderness of history, and the path of love
+is the only one which those that may come after us can safely follow
+unto the end of the world.
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart's Highway, by Mary E. Wilkins
+
diff --git a/old/hrhgw10.zip b/old/hrhgw10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a06e81f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/hrhgw10.zip