CHAPTER XVIII IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT
THE guest house was aflame with lights. As I neared it, there wasborne to my ears a burst of drunken shouts accompanied by a volley ofmusketry. My lord was pursuing with a vengeance our senseless fashionof wasting in drinking bouts powder that would have been better spentagainst the Indians. The noise increased. The door was flung open, andthere issued a tide of drawers and servants headed by mine host himself,and followed by a hail of such minor breakables as the house containedand by Olympian laughter.
I made my way past the indignant host and his staff, and standing uponthe threshold looked at the riot within. The long room was thick withthe smoke of tobacco and the smoke of powder, through which the manytorches burned yellow. Upon the great table wine had been spilt, anddripped to swell a red pool upon the floor. Underneath the table, stillgrasping his empty tankard, lay the first of my lord's guests to fall,an up-river Burgess with white hair. The rest of the company were fastreeling to a like fate. Young Hamor had a fiddle, and, one foot upon asettle, the other upon the table, drew across it a fast and furious bow.Master Pory, arrived at the maudlin stage, alternately sang a slow andmelancholy ditty and wiped the tears from his eyes with elaboratecare. Master Edward Sharpless, now in a high voice, now in anundistinguishable murmur, argued some imaginary case. Peaceable Sherwoodwas drunk, and Giles Allen, and Pettiplace Clause. Captain John Martin,sitting with outstretched legs, called now for a fresh tankard, whichhe emptied at a gulp; now for his pistols, which, as fast as my lord'sservants brought them to him new primed, he discharged at the ceiling.The loud wind rattled doors and windows, and made the flame of thetorches stream sideways. The music grew madder and madder, the shotsmore frequent, the drunken voices thicker and louder.
The master of the feast carried his wine better than did his guests,or had drunk less, but his spirit too was quite without bounds. A colorburned in his cheeks, a wicked light in his eyes; he laughed to himself.In the gray smoke cloud he saw me not, or saw me only as one of the manywho thronged the doorway and stared at the revel within. He raised hissilver cup with a slow and wavering hand. "Drink, you dogs!" he chanted."Drink to the Santa Teresa! Drink to to-morrow night! Drink to a proudlady within my arms and an enemy in my power!"
The wine that had made him mad had maddened those others, also. In thathour they were dead to honor. With shameless laughter and as littlespilling as might be, they raised their tankards as my lord raised his.A stone thrown by some one behind me struck the cup from my lord's hand,sending it clattering to the floor and dashing him with the red wine.Master Pory roared with drunken laughter. "Cup and lip missed thattime!" he cried.
The man who had thrown the stone was Jeremy Sparrow. For one instantI saw his great figure, and the wrathful face beneath his shock ofgrizzled hair; the next he had made his way through the crowd of gapingmenials and was gone.
My lord stared foolishly at the stains upon his hands, at the fallengoblet and the stone beside it. "Cogged dice," he said thickly, "orI had not lost that throw! I'll drink that toast by myself to-morrownight, when the ship does n't rock like this d--d floor, and the seahas no stones to throw. More wine, Giles! To my Lord High Admiral,gentlemen! To his Grace of Buckingham! May he shortly howl in hell, andlooking back to Whitehall see me upon the King's bosom! The King 's agood king, gentlemen! He gave me this ruby. D' ye know what I had of himlast year? I"--
I turned and left the door and the house. I could not thrust a fightupon a drunken man.
Ten yards away, suddenly and without any warning of his approach, Ifound beside me the Indian Nantauquas. "I have been to the woods tohunt," he said, in the slow musical English Rolfe had taught him. "Iknew where a panther lodged, and to-day I laid a snare, and took himin it. I brought him to my brother's house, and caged him there. When Ihave tamed him, I shall give him to the beautiful lady."
He expected no answer, and I gave him none. There are times when anIndian is the best company in the world.
Just before we reached the market place we had to pass the mouth of anarrow lane leading down to the river. The night was very dark, thoughthe stars still shone through rifts in the ever moving clouds. TheIndian and I walked rapidly on,--my footfalls sounding clear and sharpon the frosty ground, he as noiseless as a shadow. We had reached thefurther side of the lane, when he put forth an arm and plucked from theblackness a small black figure.
In the middle of the square was kept burning a great brazier filledwith pitched wood. It was the duty of the watch to keep it flaming fromdarkness to dawn. We found it freshly heaped with pine, and its redglare lit a goodly circle. The Indian, pinioning the wrists of hiscaptive with his own hand of steel, dragged him with us into this circleof light.
"Looking for simples once more, learned doctor?" I demanded.
He mowed and jabbered, twisting this way and that in the grasp of theIndian.
"Loose him," I said to the latter, "but let him not come too near you.Why, worthy doctor, in so wild and threatening a night, when fire isburning and wine flowing at the guest house, do you choose to crouchhere in the cold and darkness?"
He looked at me with his filmy eyes, and that faint smile that had moreof menace in it than a panther's snarl. "I laid in wait for you, it istrue, noble sir," he said in his thin, dreamy voice, "but it was foryour good. I would give you warning, sir."
He stood with his mean figure bent cringingly forward, and with his hatin his hand. "A warning, sir," he went ramblingly on. "Maybe a certainone has made me his enemy. Maybe I cut myself loose from his service.Maybe I would do him an ill turn. I can tell you a secret, sir." Helowered his voice and looked around, as if in fear of eavesdroppers.
"In your ear, sir," he said.
I recoiled. "Stand back," I cried, "or you will cull no more simplesthis side of hell!"
"Hell!" he answered. "There's no such place. I will not tell my secretaloud."
"Nicolo the Italian! Nicolo the Poisoner! Nicolo the Black Death! I amcoming for the soul you sold me. There is a hell!"
The thundering voice came from underneath our feet. With a sound thatwas not a groan and not a screech, the Italian reeled back against theheated iron of the brazier. Starting from that fiery contact withan unearthly shriek, he threw up his arms and dashed away into thedarkness. The sound of his madly hurrying footsteps came back to usuntil the guest house had swallowed him and his guilty terrors.
"Can the preacher play the devil too?" I asked, as Sparrow came up tous from the other side of the fire. "I could have sworn that that voicecame from the bowels of the earth. 'T is the strangest gift!"
"A mere trick," he said, with his great laugh, "but it has served mewell on more occasions than one. It is not known in Virginia, sir, butbefore ever the word of the Lord came to me to save poor silly soulsI was a player. Once I played the King's ghost in Will Shakespeare's'Hamlet,' and then, I warrant you, I spoke from the cellarage indeed. Iso frighted players and playgoers that they swore it was witchcraft, andBurbage's knees did knock together in dead earnest. But to the matterin hand. When I had thrown yonder stone, I walked quietly down to theGovernor's house and looked through the window. The Governor haththe Company's letters, and he and the Council--all save the reprobatePory--sit there staring at them and drumming with their fingers on thetable."
"Is Rolfe of the Council?" I asked.
"Ay; he was speaking,--for you, I suppose, though I heard not the words.They all listened, but they all shook their heads."
"We shall know in the morning," I said. "The night grows wilder, andhonest folks should be abed. Nantauquas, good-night. When will you havetamed your panther?"
"It is now the moon of cohonks," answered the Indian. "When the moon ofblossoms is here, the panther shall roll at the beautiful lady's feet."
"The moon of blossoms!" I said. "The moon of blossoms is a long way off.I have panthers myself to tame before it comes. This wild night givesone wild thoughts, Master Sparrow. The loud wind, and the sound of thewater, and the hurrying clouds-
-who knows if we shall ever see the moonof blossoms?" I broke off with a laugh for my own weakness. "It's notoften that a soldier thinks of death," I said. "Come to bed, reverendsir. Nantauquas, again, good-night, and may you tame your panther!"
In the great room of the minister's house I paced up and down; nowpausing at the window, to look out upon the fast darkening houses of thetown, the ever thickening clouds, and the bending trees; now speaking tomy wife, who sat in the chair I had drawn for her before the fire, herhands idle in her lap, her head thrown back against the wood, her facewhite and still, with wide dark eyes. We waited for we knew not what,but the light still burned in the Governor's house, and we could notsleep and leave it there.
It grew later and later. The wind howled down the chimney, and I heapedmore wood upon the fire. The town lay in darkness now; only in thedistance burned like an angry star the light in the Governor's house. Inthe lull between the blasts of wind it was so very still that the soundof my footfalls upon the floor, the dropping of the charred wood uponthe hearth, the tapping of the withered vines without the window, jarredlike thunder.
Suddenly madam leaned forward in her chair. "There is some one at thedoor," she said.
As she spoke, the latch rose and some one pushed heavily against thedoor. I had drawn the bars across. "Who is it?" I demanded, going to it.
"It is Diccon, sir," replied a guarded voice outside. "I beg of you, forthe lady's sake, to let me speak to you."
I opened the door, and he crossed the threshold. I had not seen himsince the night he would have played the assassin. I had heard of himas being in Martin's Hundred, with which plantation and its turbulentcommander the debtor and the outlaw often found sanctuary.
"What is it, sirrah?" I inquired sternly.
He stood with his eyes upon the floor, twirling his cap in his hands. Hehad looked once at madam when he entered, but not at me. When he spokethere was the old bravado in his voice, and he threw up his head withthe old reckless gesture. "Though I am no longer your man, sir," hesaid, "yet I hope that one Christian may warn another. The marshal, witha dozen men at his heels, will be here anon."
"How do you know?"
"Why, I was in the shadow by the Governor's window when the parsonplayed eavesdropper. When he was gone I drew myself up to the ledge, andwith my knife made a hole in the shutter that fitted my ear well enough.The Governor and the Council sat there, with the Company's lettersspread upon the table. I heard the letters read. Sir George Yeardley'spetition to be released from the governorship of Virginia is granted,but he will remain in office until the new Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt,can arrive in Virginia. The Company is out of favor. The King hath sentSir Edwyn Sandys to the Tower. My Lord Warwick waxeth greater every day.The very life of the Company dependeth upon the pleasure of the King,and it may not defy him. You are to be taken into custody within sixhours of the reading of the letter, to be kept straitly until thesailing of the Santa Teresa, and to be sent home aboard of her in irons.The lady is to go also, with all honor, and with women to attend her.Upon reaching London, you are to be sent to the Tower, the lady toWhitehall. The Court of High Commission will take the matter underconsideration at once. My Lord of Southampton writes that, because ofthe urgent entreaty of Sir George Yeardley, he will do for you all thatlieth in his power, but that if you prove not yourself conformable,there will be little that any can do."
"When will the marshal be here?" I demanded.
"Directly. The Governor was sending for him when I left the window.Master Rolfe spoke vehemently for you, and would have left the Councilto come to you; but the Governor, swearing that the Company should notbe betrayed by its officers, constrained him to remain. I'm not theCompany's officer, so I may tell its orders if I please. A masterlessman may speak without fear or favor. I have told you all I know." BeforeI could speak he was gone, closing the door heavily behind him.
I turned to the King's ward. She had risen from the chair, and now stoodin the centre of the room, one hand at her bosom, the other clenched ather side, her head thrown up. She looked as she had looked at Weyanoke,that first night.
"Madam," I said under my breath.
She turned her face upon me. "Did you think," she asked in a low,even voice,--"did you think that I would ever set my foot upon thatship,--that ship on the river there? One ship brought me here upona shameful errand; another shall not take me upon one more shamefulstill."
She took her hand from her bosom; in it gleamed in the firelight thesmall dagger I had given her that night. She laid it on the table, butkept her hand upon it. "You will choose for me, sir," she declared.
I went to the door and looked out. "It is a wild night," I said. "Ican suit it with as wild an enterprise. Make a bundle of your warmestclothing, madam, and wrap your mantle about you. Will you take Angela?"
"No," she answered. "I will not have her peril too upon me."
As she stood there, her hand no longer upon the dagger, the large tearswelled into her eyes and fell slowly over her white cheeks. "It is formine honor, sir," she said. "I know that I ask your death."
I could not bear to see her weep, and so I spoke roughly. "I have toldyou before," I said, "that your honor is my honor. Do you think I wouldsleep to-morrow night, in the hold of the Santa Teresa, knowing that mywife supped with my Lord Carnal?"
I crossed the room to take my pistols from the rack. As I passed her shecaught my hand in hers, and bending pressed her lips upon it. "You havebeen very good to me," she murmured. "Do not think me an ingrate."
Five minutes later she came from her own room, hooded and mantled, andwith a packet of clothing in her hand. I extinguished the torches,then opened the door. As we crossed the threshold, we paused as by oneimpulse and looked back into the firelit warmth of the room; then Iclosed the door softly behind us, and we went out into the night.
To Have and to Hold Page 18
