CHAPTER XXXVI
In which I hear Ill News
When I awoke from the sleep or stupor into which I must have passed fromthat swoon, it was to find myself lying upon a bed in a room floodedwith sunshine. I was alone. For a moment I lay still, staring at theblue sky without the window, and wondering where I was and how I camethere. A drum beat, a dog barked, and a man's quick voice gave acommand. The sounds stung me into remembrance, and I was at the windowwhile the voice was yet speaking.
It was West in the street below, pointing with his sword now to thefort, now to the palisade, and giving directions to the armed men abouthim. There were many people in the street. Women hurried by to the fortwith white, scared faces, their arms filled with household gear;children ran beside them, sturdily bearing their share of the goods, butpressing close to their elders' skirts; men went to and fro, the mostgrimly silent, but a few talking loudly. Not all of the faces in thecrowd belonged to the town: there were Kingsmell and his wife from themain, and John Ellison from Archer's Hope, and the Italians Vincencioand Bernardo from the Glass House. The nearer plantations, then, hadbeen warned, and their people had come for refuge to the city. A negropassed, but on that morning, alone of many days, no Indian aired hispaint and feathers in the white man's village.
I could not see the palisade across the neck, but I knew that it wasthere that the fight--if fight there were--would be made. Should theIndians take the palisade, there would yet be the houses of the town,and, last of all, the fort in which to make a stand. I believed not thatthey would take it. Long since we had found out their method of warfare.They used ambuscade, surprise, and massacre; when withstood in force andwith determination they withdrew to their stronghold, the forest, thereto bide their time until, in the blackness of some night, they couldagain swoop down upon a sleeping foe.
The drum beat again, and a messenger from the palisade came down thestreet at a run. "They're in the woods over against us, thicker thanants!" he cried to West as he passed. "A boat has just drifted ashoreyonder, with two men in it, dead and scalped!"
I turned to leave the room, and ran against Master Pory coming in ontip-toe, with a red and solemn face. He started when he saw me.
"The roll of the drum brought you to your feet, then!" he cried. "You'velain like the dead all night. I came but to see if you were breathing."
"When I have eaten, I shall be myself again," I said. "There's no attackas yet?"
"No," he answered. "They must know that we are prepared. But they havekindled fires along the river bank, and we can hear them yelling.Whether they'll be mad enough to come against us remains to be seen."
"The nearest settlements have been warned?"
"Ay. The Governor offered a thousand pounds of tobacco and the perpetualesteem of the Company to the man or men who would carry the news. Sixvolunteered, and went off in boats, three up river, three down. How manythey reached, or if they still have their scalps, we know not. And awhile ago, just before daybreak, comes with frantic haste Richard Pace,who had rowed up from Pace's Pains to tell the news which you hadalready brought. Chanco the Christian had betrayed the plot to him, andhe managed to give warning at Powel's and one or two other places as hecame up the river."
He broke off, but when I would have spoken interrupted me with: "And soyou were on the Pamunkey all this while! Then the Paspaheghs fooled uswith the simple truth, for they swore so stoutly that their absent chiefmen were but gone on a hunt toward the Pamunkey that we had no choicebut to believe them gone in quite another direction. And one and all ofevery tribe we questioned swore that Opechancanough was at Orapax. SoMaster Rolfe puts off up river to find, if not you, then the Emperor,and make him give up your murderers; and the Governor sends a partyalong the bay, and West another up the Chickahominy. And there you were,all the time, mewed up in the village above the marshes! And Nantauquas,after saving our lives like one of us, is turned Indian again! And yourman is killed! Alackaday! there's naught but trouble in the world. 'Asthe sparks fly upwards,' you know. But a brave man draws his breath andsets his teeth."
In his manner, his rapid talk, his uneasy glances toward the door, Ifound something forced and strange. "I thought Rolfe was behind me," hesaid, "but he must have been delayed. There are meat and drink set outin the great room, where the Governor and those of the Council who aresafe here with us are advising together. Let's descend; you've noteaten, and the good sack will give you strength. Wilt come?"
"Ay," I answered; "but tell me the news as we go. I have been gone tendays,--faith, it seems ten years! There have no ships sailed, MasterPory? The _George_ is still here?" I looked him full in the eye, for asudden guess at a possible reason for his confusion had stabbed me likea knife.
"Ay," he said, with a readiness that could scarce be feigned. "She wasto have sailed this week, it is true, the Governor fearing to keep herlonger. But the _Esperance_, coming in yesterday, brought news whichremoved his Honour's scruples. Now she'll wait to see out this hand atthe cards, and to take home the names of those who are left alive inVirginia. If the red varlets do swarm in upon us, there are hertwelve-pounders; they and the fort guns----"
I let him talk on. The _George_ had not sailed. I saw again a firelithut, and a man and a panther who went down together. Those claws had dugdeep; the man across whose face they had torn their way would keep hisroom in the guest house at Jamestown until his wounds were somewhathealed. The _George_ would wait for him, would scarcely dare to sailwithout him, and I should find the lady whom she was to carry away toEngland in Virginia still. It was this that I had built upon, the grainof comfort, the passionate hope, the sustaining cordial of thoseyear-long days in the village above the Pamunkey.
My heart was sore because of Diccon; but I could speak of that grief toher, and she would grieve with me. There were awe and dread and sternsorrow in the knowledge that even now in the bright spring morning bloodfrom a hundred homes might be flowing to meet the shining, carelessriver; but it was the springtime, and she was waiting for me. I strodeon toward the stairway so fast that when I asked a question Master Pory,at my side, was too out of breath to answer it. Halfway down the stairsI asked it again, and again received no answer save a "Zooks! you go toofast for my years and having in flesh! Go more slowly, Ralph Percy;there's time enough, there's time enough!"
There was a tone in his voice that I liked not, for it savoured of pity.I looked at him with knitted brows; but we were now in the hall, andthrough the open door of the great room I caught a glimpse of a woman'sskirt. There were men in the hall, servants and messengers, who made wayfor us, staring at me as they did so, and whispering. I knew that myclothing was torn and muddied and stained with blood; as we paused atthe door there came to me in a flash that day in the courting meadowwhen I had tried with my dagger to scrape the dried mud from my boots. Ilaughed at myself for caring now, and for thinking that she would carethat I was not dressed for a lady's bower. The next moment we were inthe great room.
She was not there. The silken skirt that I had seen, and--there beingbut one woman in all the world for me--had taken for hers, belonged toLady Wyatt, who, pale and terrified, was sitting with clasped hands,mutely following with her eyes her husband as he walked to and fro. Westhad come in from the street and was making some report. Around the tablewere gathered two or three of the Council; Master Sandys stood at awindow, Rolfe beside Lady Wyatt's chair. The room was filled withsunshine, and a caged bird was singing, singing. It made the only soundthere when they saw that I stood amongst them.
When I had made my bow to Lady Wyatt and to the Governor, and hadclasped hands with Rolfe, I began to find in the silence, as I had foundin Master Pory's loquaciousness, something strange. They looked at meuneasily, and I caught a swift glance from the Treasurer to Master Pory,and an answering shake of the latter's head. Rolfe was very white, andhis lips were set; West was pulling at his mustaches and staring at thefloor.
"With all our hearts we welcome you back to life and to the service ofVirginia, Captain Percy
," said the Governor, when the silence had becomeawkward.
A murmur of assent went round the room.
I bowed. "I thank you, sir, and these gentlemen very heartily. You havebut to command me now. I find that I have to-day the best will in theworld toward fighting. I trust that your Honour does not deem itnecessary to send me back to gaol?"
"Virginia has no gaol for Captain Percy," he answered gravely. "She hasonly grateful thanks and fullest sympathy."
I glanced at him keenly. "Then I hold myself at your command, sir, whenI shall have seen and spoken with my wife."
He looked at the floor, and they one and all held their peace.
"Madam," I said to Lady Wyatt, "I have been watching your ladyship'sface. Will you tell me why it is so very full of pity, and why there aretears in your eyes?"
She shrank back in her chair with a little cry, and Rolfe stepped towardme, then turned sharply aside. "I cannot!" he cried. "I that know----"
I drew myself up to meet the blow, whatever it might be. "I demand ofyou my wife, Sir Francis Wyatt," I said. "If there is ill news to betold, be so good as to tell it quickly. If she is sick, or hath beensent away to England----"
The Governor made as if to speak, then turned and flung out his hands tohis wife. "'Tis woman's work, Margaret!" he cried. "Tell him!"
More merciful than the men, she came to me at once, the tears runningdown her cheeks, and laid one trembling hand upon my arm. "She was abrave lady, Captain Percy," she said. "Bear it as she would have had youbear it."
"I am bearing it, madam," I answered at length. "'She _was_ a bravelady.' May it please your ladyship to go on?"
"I will tell you all, Captain Percy; I will tell you everything.... Shenever believed you dead, and she begged upon her knees that we wouldallow her to go in search of you with Master Rolfe. That could not be;my husband, in duty to the Company, could not let her have her will.Master Rolfe went, and she sat in the window, yonder, day after day,watching for his return. When other parties went out, she besought themen, as they had wives whom they loved, to search as though those lovedones were in captivity and danger; when they grew weary andfainthearted, to think of her face waiting in the window.... Day afterday she sat there watching for them to come back; when they were come,then she watched the river for Master Rolfe's boats. Then came word downthe river that he had found no trace of you whom he sought; that he wason his way back to Jamestown; that he too believed you dead.... We put awatch upon her after that, for we feared we knew not what--there wassuch a light and purpose in her eyes. But two nights ago, in the middleof the night, the woman who stayed in her chamber fell asleep. When sheawoke before the dawn, it was to find her gone."
"To find her gone?" I said dully. "To find her dead?"
She locked her hands together, and the tears came faster. "Oh, CaptainPercy, it had been better so!--it had been better so! Then would shehave lain to greet you, calm and white, unmarred and beautiful, with thespring flowers upon her.... She believed not that you were dead; she wasdistraught with grief and watching; she thought that love might findwhat friendship missed; she went to the forest to seek you. They thatwere sent to find and bring her back have never returned----"
"Into the forest!" I cried. "_Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Jocelyn, come back!_"
Some one pushed me into a chair, and I felt the warmth of wine within mylips. In the moment that the world steadied I rose and went toward thedoor, to find my way barred by Rolfe.
"Not you, too, Ralph!" he cried. "I will not let you go. Look foryourself!"
He drew me to the window, Master Sandys gravely making place for us.From the window was visible the neck of land and the forest beyond, andfrom the forest, up and down the river as far as the eye could reach,rose here and there thin columns of smoke. Suddenly, as we stared, threeor four white smoke puffs, like giant flowers, started out of theshadowy woods across the neck. Following the crack of the muskets--firedout of pure bravado by their Indian owners--came the yelling of thesavages. The sound was prolonged and deep, as though issuing from manythroats.
I looked and listened, and knew that I could not go--not now.
"She was not alone, Ralph," said Rolfe, with his arm about me. "On themorning that she was missed, they found not Jeremy Sparrow either. Theytracked them both to the forest by the footprints upon the sand, thoughonce in the wood the trail was lost. The minister must have beenwatching, must have seen her leave the house, and must have followedher. How she, and he after her, passed through the gates, none know. Socareless and confident had we grown--God forgive us!--that they may havebeen left open all that night. But he was with her, Ralph; she had notto face it alone----" His voice broke.
For myself, I was glad that the minister had been there, though I knewthat for him also I should grieve after a while.
At the firing and the shouting West had rushed from the room, followedby his fellow Councillors, and now the Governor clapped on his headpieceand called to his men to bring his back-and-breast. His wife hung aroundhis neck, and he bade her good-bye with great tenderness. I looked dullyon at that parting. I too was going to battle. Once I had tasted such afarewell, the pain, the passion, the sweetness; but never again--neveragain.
He went, and the Treasurer, after a few words of comfort to Lady Wyatt,was gone also. Both were merciful, and spoke not to me, but only bowedand turned aside, requiring no answering word or motion of mine. Whenthey were away, and there was no sound in the room save the caged bird'ssinging and Lady Wyatt's low sobs, I begged Rolfe to leave me, tellinghim that he was needed, as indeed he was, and that I would stay in thewindow for a while, and then would join him at the palisade. He wasloath to go; but he too had loved and lost, and knew that there isnothing to be said, and that it is best to be alone. He went, and onlyLady Wyatt and I kept the quiet room with the singing bird and thesunshine on the floor.
I leaned against the window and looked out into the street--which wasnot crowded now, for the men were all at their several posts--and at thebudding trees, and at the smoke of many fires going up from the forestto the sky, from a world of hate and pain and woe to the heaven whereshe dwelt; and then I turned and went to the table, where had been setbread and meat and wine.
At the sound of my footstep Lady Wyatt uncovered her face. "Is thereaught that I can do for you, sir?" she asked timidly.
"I have not broken my fast for many hours, madam," I answered. "I wouldeat and drink, that I may not be found wanting in strength. There is athing that I have yet to do."
Rising from her chair, she brushed away her tears, and coming to thetable with a little house--wifely eagerness, would not let me wait uponmyself, but carved and poured for me, and then sat down opposite me andcovered her eyes with her hand.
"I think that the Governor is quite safe, madam," I said. "I do notbelieve that the Indians will take the palisade. It may even be that,knowing we are prepared, they will not attack at all. Indeed, I thinkthat you may be easy about him."
She thanked me with a smile. "It is all so strange and dreadful to me,sir," she said. "At my home in England, it was like a Sunday morning allthe year round--all stillness and peace; no terror, no alarm. I fearthat I am not yet a good Virginian."
When I had eaten, and had drunk the wine she gave me, I rose, and askedher if I might not see her safe within the fort before I joined herhusband at the palisade. She shook her head, and told me that there werewith her faithful servants, and that if the savages broke in upon thetown she would have warning in time to flee, the fort being so close athand. When I thereupon begged her leave to depart, she first curtsied tome, and then, again with tears, came to me and took my hand in hers. "Iknow that there is naught that I can say.... Your wife loved you, sir,with all her heart." She drew something from the bosom of her gown."Would you like this? It is a knot of ribbon that she wore. They foundit caught in a bush at the edge of the forest."
I took the ribbon from her and put it to my lips, then unknotted it andtied it around my arm; and then, wearing my wife's colou
rs, I wentsoftly out into the street, and turned my face toward the guest houseand the man whom I meant to kill.
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