Prisoners of Hope: A Tale of Colonial Virginia

by Mary Johnston

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  THE LAST FIGHT

  Out from the forest rushed the remnant of that band which had smoked thepeace pipe with the Governor one sunny afternoon on the banks of thePamunkey. Tall and large of limb, painted with all fantastic and ghastlydevices, and decorated with hideous mementoes of nameless deeds; withthe lust of blood written large in every fierce lineament and dark androlling eye; with raised hands grasping knife and tomahawk, and lipsuttering cries that seemed not of earth--a more appalling vision couldnot have issued from out the beautiful, treacherous forest, a morecrashing discord have come into the music of the golden evening.

  For the two in their rocky fortress beneath the crags the apparition hadno terrors. All the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness of the world waspassing from them--the cry that swelled through the forest was itsknell. They smiled to hear it, and with raised faces looked beyond themany-tinted evening skies into clear spaces where Love was all. Theintoxication of the moment when hidden and despairing love became lovetriumphant and acknowledged abode with them. In the very grasp of deathineffable bliss possessed them. Their countenances changed; the lines ofcare and pain, the marks of tears, were all gone and the beauty of thehappy soul shone out. For that brief space of time transcendent youthand loveliness was theirs. About them, as about the sun now sinkingbehind the low hills, there breathed a glory, a dying splendor as brightas it was fleeting. They felt, too, a lightness and gaiety ofspirit--they had drunk of the nectar of the gods, and no leaden weightof care, no heavy sorrow, could ever touch them, ever drag them downagain to the sad earth.

  "You are beautiful," said Landless, gazing at her, even in the act ofraising his gun to his shoulder; "as beautiful as you were the day Ifirst saw you. I hear the drone of the bees in the vines at VerneyManor. I smell the roses. I look up and see the Rose of the World. Myeyes were dazzled then, are dazzled now, my Rose of the World."

  "That day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around mythroat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge upon mycheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggar maid,in rags, burnt by the sun--"

  "The nut-brown maid," he said.

  "Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid--'For in my mind of allmankind'--you may e'en finish it yourself, sir."

  The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council.It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steepand upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless,kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he andPatricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw uphis arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of hisfellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came,yelling furiously and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired andmissed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior,bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, thenturning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight.

  "They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They willtry now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, myqueen, while I face them, coming over the rocks."

  "I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows tome."

  "His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart."

  "I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love."

  Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark redline--the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, very slowlyand cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then a coarse blackscalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo of Landless'sshot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smoke cleared onlythe bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came a derisiveyell.

  "Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as hereloaded his musket. "I have missed again."

  "It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds."

  "I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked ather with shining eyes.

  The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The evening starwas brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landless saidquietly: "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which for oneincautious moment had waved above the rocks.

  "It is the end, then," said Patricia.

  "Yes, it is the end. We have beaten them back for the moment, butpresently they will find that all we could do we have done, and then--"

  She left her post beside the gap in the front, and came and knelt besidehim, and he took her in his arms.

  "It is not Death before us, but Life," she said in a low voice.

  "It is God and Love, naught else," he answered. "But the river betweenwill be bitter for you to cross, sweetheart."

  "We cross it together," she said, "and so--" She raised her head that hemight see her radiant smile, and their lips met.

  "Hark!" she said directly with her hand on his. "What is that sound?"

  He shook his head. "The wind has risen, and the forest rustles andsighs. There is nothing more."

  "It is far off," she answered, "but it is like the dip of oars. Ah!"

  Over against them, framed in the narrow opening between the rocks, hislithe, half-nude figure dark against the crimson west, and with a smileupon his evil lips and in his evil eyes, stood Luiz Sebastian. In thedead silence that succeeded he looked with a smiling; countenance fromthe musket, now useless and thrown aside, to his enemy, wounded andunarmed save for a knife, and to the woman in that enemy's arms; then,without turning, he said a few words in an Indian tongue. From the duskymass behind him came one short, wild cry of savage triumph, followed byanother dead silence.

  Still holding Patricia in one arm, Landless rose from his knee, andstood confronting him.

  "We are met again, Senor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian smoothly.Receiving no answer, he spoke again with a tigerish expansion of histhick lips. "You have had an accident, I see. Mother of God! that footmust pain you! But you will forget it presently in the pleasure of thepine splinters."

  "I will forget it in the pleasure of this," said Landless, releasingPatricia, and springing upon the mulatto with a suddenness and violencethat sent them both staggering through the opening between the rocks,out upon the narrow plateau and into the ring of Ricahecrians. LuizSebastian was strong, with the easy masked strength of the panther, butLandless had the strength of despair. The mulatto, thrown heavily to theground, and pinned there by his adversary's knee, saw the gleam of thelifted knife, and would have seen nothing more in this life, but that awoman's cry rang out and saved him. Landless heard, turned, saw Patriciadragged from the shelter of the rocks, leaped to his feet, leaving hiswork undone, and rushed upon the knot of savages with whom she wasstruggling. A moment saw him beside her with the Indian who had held herdead at his feet. Behind them was the great boulder which had formed thefront wall of their chamber of defense. He put his arm around her, anddrew her back with him until they stood against this rock, then facedthe advancing savages with uplifted knife.

  So determined was his attitude, so terribly had they proved his power,so certain it was that before he should be taken one at least of theirnumber would taste that knife, that the Ricahecrians paused, swaying toand fro, yelling, working themselves into a fury that should send themon like maddened brutes, blind and deaf to all things but their lust forblood.

  "I hear a sound of footsteps over the leaves," said Patricia.

  "The wind rustles in them, or the deer pass," answered Landless. "Oh, mylife! are you content?"

  She answered with a low, clear laugh. "I hold happiness fast," she said."It cannot escape us now."

  "They are coming," he said. "The last kiss, heart of my heart."

  Their lips met, and their eyes with a smile in them met, and then he puther gently behind him, and turned to again face Luiz Sebastian.

  With his eyes fixed upon the yellow face, he had raised his hand tostrike at the yel
low breast, spotted and barred with the black of thewar paint, when an Indian, gliding between, struck up his arm, and sentthe knife tinkling down upon the rocks. With a yell of triumph thesavage snatched up the weapon, and brandished it, showing it to hisfellows, who, seeing their work accomplished, and the two whom they hadtracked so far actually in their hands, made the forest ring with theirexultant shouts. A few closed in around the devoted pair, directing atthem fiendish cries and no less fiendish laughter, and menacing themwith knife and tomahawk, but the majority streamed down the steep andinto the forest at its base.

  "They go to gather wood," said the still smiling Luiz Sebastian. "By andby we are to have a bonfire. Senor Landless has often carried wood, Ithink, in those old times when he was a slave, and when the prettymistress behind him there treated him as such--unless she gave himfavors in secret. But, Mother of God! now that she has made him master,we must carry the wood for him!"

  Landless, standing with folded arms, looked at him with quiet scorn. "Itis the nature of the viper to use his venom," he said calmly. "Such athing cannot anger me."

  "At the same time it is as well to crush the viper," said a voice at hiselbow.

  The speaker, who was Sir Charles Carew, had come from behind theboulders which ran in a straggling line down the hillside toward theriver. He had his drawn sword in his hand, and as he spoke, he ran themulatto through the body. The wretch, his oath of rage and astonishmentstill upon his lips, fell to the ground without a groan, writhed there amoment or two, and then lay still forever.

  From the forest below rose a loud confusion of shouts and cries,followed by a volley of musketry. At the sound the half dozen savagesupon the plateau turned and plunged down the hillside, to be met beforethey reached the bottom by the upward rush of a portion of the rescuingparty. For a short while the twilight glades, low hills and frowningcrags rang to the sound of a miniature battle, to the quick crack ofmuskets, the clear shouts of the whites, and the whoops of the savages.But by degrees these latter became fainter, further between, diedaway--a short ten minutes, and there were no warriors left to return tothe village in the Blue Mountains. Fierce shedders of blood, they werepaid in their own coin.

  On the hilltop Sir Charles shot his rapier into its scabbard, andstrode over to Patricia, standing white and still against the rock. "Iwas in time," he said. "Thank God!"

  She made no motion to meet his extended hands, but stood looking pasthim at Landless. Her face was like marble, her eyes one dumb question.Landless met their gaze, and in his own she read despair, renunciation,strong resolve--and a long farewell.

  "You are come in time, Sir Charles Carew," he said. "A little more, andwe should have been beyond your reach. You will find the lady safe andwell, though shaken, as you see, by this last alarm. She will speak forme, I trust, will tell you that I have used her with all respect, that Ihave done for her all that I could do.... Madam, all danger is past.Will you not collect yourself and speak to your kinsman and savior?"

  He spoke with a certain calm stateliness of voice and manner, as of onewho has passed beyond all emotion, whether of hope or fear, and in hiseyes which he kept fixed upon her there was a command.

  "Speak to me, my cousin; tell me that I am welcome," said Sir Charles,flinging himself upon his knee before her.

  With a strong shudder she looked away from the still, white, and sternlycomposed face opposite to the darkening river and the evening starshining calmly down upon a waste world.

  At length she spoke. "I was all but beyond this world, cousin, so pardonme if I seem to come back to it somewhat tardily. You have my thanks, ofcourse--my dear thanks--for saving my life--my life which is so preciousto me."

  She gave him her hand with a strange smile, and he pressed his lipsupon it. "Your father is below, dearest cousin. Shall we descend to meethim? As to this--gentleman," turning with a smile that was like a frownto Landless, "I regret that circumstances combine to prevent ourrewarding him as the guardian (a trusty one, I am sure) of so precious ajewel should be rewarded. But Colonel Verney will do--I will do--allthat is possible. In the mean time I observe with regret that he iswounded. If he will allow me, I will send him my valet, who is below,and is the best barber surgeon in the three kingdoms. Come, dearestmadam."

  He bowed low and ceremoniously to Landless, who returned the salute withgrave courtesy, and gave his hand to Patricia. For one moment she lookedat Landless with wide, dark eyes, then, her spirit obedient to hisspirit, she turned and went from him without one word or backward look.

  The color had quite faded from the west, and the stars were thickeningwhen Landless became conscious that the overseer was standing besidehim. "You are the hardest one to hold that ever I saw," said that worthygrimly, and yet with a certain appreciation of the qualities that madethe man at his feet hard to hold showing in his tone, "but I fancy we'vegot you at last. You've gone and put yourself in bilboes."

  Landless smiled. "This time you may keep me. I shall not interfere. Buttell me how you come here. You were sent back to the Plantations."

  "Ay," said the other, "and there was the devil to pay, I can tell you,when I had to report you missing to Sir William. But Major Carringtonstood my friend, and I got off with a tongue-drubbing. Well, after aboutthree weeks or so, during which time the dogs and the searchers broughtback most all of the runaway niggers, and Mistress Lettice had hystericsevery day, back comes the Colonel and Sir Charles with ten of the twentymen who had rowed them up the Pamunkey. The rest had fallen in a brushwith the Monacans. They hadn't come up with the Ricahecrians, hadn'tseen hair nor hide of them, had but one report from the Indian villagesalong the river, and that was that no Ricahecrians had passed that way.So after a while they were forced to believe that they were upon a falsescent, and back they comes post haste to the Plantations to get moremen, and go up the Rappahannock. Well, they went up the Rappahannock,and found nothing to their purpose, so back they came again to try theJames and the country above the Falls. This time they found theSettlements, which had been before like an overturned hive, prettyquiet, the ringleaders of your precious plot having all been strung up,and the rest made as mild as sheep with branding and whipping anddoubling of times. So, the tobacco being in and the plantation quiet,things were left to Haines, and I came along with the Colonel. MajorCarrington, too, who they say is in the Governor's black books, thoughLord knows he was active enough in stamping out this insurrection, askedto be allowed to join in the search for his old friend's daughter, andso he's down in the woods yonder. And Mr. Cary is there, and Mr. Peyton(Mistress Betty Carrington made _him_ come) and Mr. Jaclyn Carter. Fegs!half the young gentry in the colony pressed their services on theColonel. It got to be the fashion to volunteer to run their heads intothe wolf's mouth for Mistress Patricia. But Sir Charles choked most ofthem off. 'Gentlemen,' he says, says he, 'despite the saying that therecannot be too much of a good thing, I beg to remind you that thedisastrous fortunes of those who first struggled with the forest and theIndians in this western paradise are attributed to the fact that theywere two thirds gentlemen. Wherefore let us shun the rock upon whichthey split'--"

  "How many of my fellow conspirators were put to death?" interruptedLandless.

  "All the principal ones--them that Trail denounced as leaders. The restwe pardoned after giving them a lesson they won't soon forget. We letbygones be bygones with the redemptioners and slaves--all but thosedevils who got away that night at Verney Manor, and with Trail at theirhead, made for Captain Laramore's ship which was going to turn pirate.Well, they got to the boats, and one lot got off safe to the ship whichhoisted the black flag, and sailed away to the Indies, and is sailingthere, murdering and ruining, to this day, I reckon. But the other boatwas over full, and the steersman was drunken, and she capsized beforeshe got to the middle of the channel. Some were drowned, and those thatgot ashore we hung next morning. But Trail was in the first boat."

  "When do you--do we--start down the river?"

  "At midnight. And it's the Colonel's orders tha
t until then you stayhere among the rocks and not show yourself to the men below. He'll seeyou before we start. In the mean time I'll keep you company." And theoverseer took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filled the former, lightedit, and leaning back against the rock fell to smoking in contentedsilence.

  Landless too sat in silence, with his head thrown back against the rockand his face uplifted to the growing splendor of the skies. The nightwind, blowing mournfully around the bare hill and the broken crag,struck upon his brow with a hint of winter in its touch. With it camethe tide of forest sounds--the sough of the leaves, the dull creaking ofbranch against branch, the wash of the water in the reeds, the whirr ofwings, the cries of night birds--all the low and stealthy notes of theearth chant which had become to him as old and tenderly familiar as thelullabies of his childhood. Below him, at the foot of the hill, a squareof dark and stately pines was irradiated by a great fire which burntredly, casting flickering shadows far across the smooth brown earth, andaround which sat or moved many figures. Laughter and jest, oaths andscraps of song floated up to the lonely watcher upon the hilltop. Heheeded them not--he was above that world--and no sound came from thatother and smaller fire blazing at some distance from the first--and thetree trunks between were so many and so thick that he could see naughtbut the light.