To Have and to Hold

V.

IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY.

TEN days later, Rolfe, going down river in his barge, touched at my wharf, and finding me there walked with me toward the house.

“ I have not seen you since you laughed my advice to scorn — and took it,” he said. “ Where’s the farthingale, Benedict the married man ? ”

“In the house.”

“ Oh, ay! ” he commented. “ It’s near to supper time. I trust she’s a good cook ? ”

“She does not cook,” I said dryly. “ I have hired old Goody Cotton to do that.”

He eyed me closely. “ By all the gods! a new doublet! She is skillful with her needle, then ? ”

“ She may be,” I answered. “ Having never seen her with one, I am no judge. The doublet was made by the tailor at Flowerdieu Hundred.”

By this we had reached the level sward at the top of the bank. “ Roses ! ” he exclaimed, — “a long row of them new planted! An arbor, too, and a seat beneath the big walnut! Since when hast turned gardener, Ralph ? ”

“ It’s Diccon’s doing. He is anxious to please his mistress.”

“ Who neither sews, nor cooks, nor plants ! What does she do ? ”

“ She pulls the roses,” I said. “ Come in.”

When we had entered the house he stared about him ; then cried out, “ Acrasia’s bower ! Oh, thou sometime Guyon ! ” and began to laugh.

It was late afternoon, and the slant sunshine streaming in at door and window striped wall and floor with gold.

Floor and wall were no longer logs gnarled and stained: upon the one lay a carpet of delicate ferns and aromatic leaves, and glossy vines, purple-berried, tapestried the other. Flowers — purple and red and yellow — were everywhere. As we entered, a figure started up from the hearth.

“ St. George! ” exclaimed Rolfe. “ You have never married a blackamoor ? ”

“It is the negress, Angela,” I said. “ I bought her from William Pierce the other day. Mistress Percy wished a waiting damsel.”

The creature, one of the five females of her kind then in Virginia, looked at us with large, rolling eyes. She knew a little Spanish, and I spoke to her in that tongue, bidding her find her mistress and tell her that company waited. When she was gone I placed a jack of ale upon the table, and Rolfe and I sat down to discuss it. Had I been in a mood for laughter, I could have found reason in his puzzled face. There were flowers upon the table, and beside them a litter of small objects, one of which he now took up.

“ A white glove,” he said, “ perfumed and silver-fringed, and of a size to fit Titania.”

I spread its mate out upon my palm. “ A woman’s hand. Too white, too soft, and too small.”

He touched lightly, one by one, the slender fingers of the glove he held. “ A woman’s hand. — strength in weakness, veiled power, the star in the mist, guiding, beckoning, drawing upward! ”

I laughed and threw the glove from me. “ The star, a will-of-the-wisp ; the goal, a slough,” I said.

As he sat opposite me a change came over his face, — a change so great that I knew before I turned that she was in the room.

The bundle which I had carried for her from Jamestown was neither small nor light. Why, when she fled, she chose to burden herself with such toys, or whether she gave a thought to the suspicions that might be raised in Virginia if one of Sir Edwyn’s maids bedecked herself in silk and lace and jewels, I do not know, but she had brought to the forest and the tobacco fields the gauds of a maid of honor. The Puritan dress in which I first saw her was a thing of the past; she clothed herself now like the parrakeets in the forest, — or liker the lilies of the field, for verily she toiled not, neither did she spin.

Rolfe and I rose from our seats. “ Mistress Percy,” I said, “ let me present to you a right worthy gentleman and my very good friend. Master John Rolfe.”

She curtsied, and he bowed low. He was a man of quick wit and had been a courtier, but for a time he could find no words. Then : “ Mistress Percy’s face is not one to be forgotten. I have surely seen it before, though where " —

Her color mounted, but she answered him indifferently enough. " Probably in London, amongst the spectators of some pageant arranged in honor of the princess, your wife, sir,” she said carelessly. “ I had twice the fortune to see the Lady Rebekah passing through the streets.”

“ Not in the streets only,” he said courteously. “ I remember now : ’t was at my lord bishop’s dinner. A very courtly company it was. I think I heard it whispered that I was the only commoner there.”

She met his gaze fully and boldly. “ Memory plays us strange tricks at times,” she told him in a clear, slightly raised voice, “ and it hath been three years since Master Rolfe and his Indian princess were in London. His memory hath played him false.”

She took her seat in the great chair which stood in the centre of the room, bathed in the sunlight, and the negress brought a cushion for her feet. It was not until this was done, and until she had resigned her fan to the slave, who stood behind her slowly waving the plumed toy to and fro, that she turned her lovely face upon us and bade us be seated.

An hour later a whippoorwill uttered its cry close to the window, through which now shone the crescent moon. Rolfe started up. “ Beshrew me ! but I had forgot that, I am to sleep at Chaplain’s to-night. I must hurry on.”

I rose, also. “ You have had no supper ! ” I cried. “ I too have forgotten.”

He shook his head. “ I cannot wait. Moreover, I have feasted, — yea, and drunk deep.”

His eyes were very bright, with an exaltation in them as of wine. Mine, I felt, had the same light. Indeed, we were both drunk with her laughter, her beauty, and her wit. When he had kissed her hand, and I had followed him out of the house and down the bank, he broke the silence.

“ Why she came to Virginia I do not know” —

“ Nor care to ask,” I said.

“ Nor care to ask,” he repeated, meeting my gaze. “ And I know neither her name nor her rank. But as I stand here, Ralph, I saw her, a guest, at that feast of which I spoke ; and Edwyn Sandys picked not his maids from such assemblies?.”

I stopped him with my hand upon his shoulder. " She is one of Sandys’ maids,” I asserted, with deliberation, “ a waiting damsel who wearied of service and came to Virginia to better herself. She was landed with her mates at Jamestown a week or more agone, went with them to church and thence to the courting meadow, where she and Captain Ralph Percy, a gentleman adventurer, so pleased each other that they were married forthwith. That same day he brought her to his house, where she now abides, his wife, and as such to be honored by those who call themselves his friends. And she is not to be lightly spoken of, nor comment passed upon her grace, beauty, and bearing (something too great for her station, I admit), lest idle tales should get abroad.”

“Am I not thy friend, Ralph ? ” he asked, with smiling eyes.

“I have thought so betimes,” I answered.

“ My friend’s honor is my honor,” he went on. “ Where his lips are sealed mine open not. Art content? ”

“ Content,” I said, and pressed the hand he held out to me.

We reached the steps of the wharf, and descending them he entered his barge, rocking lazily with the advancing tide. His rowers cast loose from the piles, and the black water slowly widened between us. From over my shoulder came a sudden bright gleam of light from the house above, and I knew that Mistress Percy was as usual wasting good pine knots. I had a vision of the many lights within, and of the beauty whom the world called my wife, sitting erect, bathed in that rosy glow, in the great armchair, with the turbaned negress behind her. I suppose Rolfe saw the same thing, for he looked from the light to me, and I heard him draw his breath.

“ Ralph Percy, thou art the very button upon the cap of Fortune,” he said.

To myself my laugh sounded something of the bitterest, but to him, I presume, it vaunted my return through the darkness to the lit room and its resplendent pearl. He waved farewell, and the dusk swallowed up him and his boat. I went back to the house and to her.

She was sitting as we had left her, with her small feet crossed upon the cushion beneath them, her hands folded in her silken lap, the air from the waving fan blowing tendrils of her dark hair against her delicate standing ruff. I went and leaned against the window, facing her.

“ I have been chosen Burgess for this hundred,” I said abruptly. “ The Assembly meets next week. I must be in Jamestown then and for some time to come.”

She took the fan from the negress, and waved it lazily to and fro. “ When do we go ? ” she asked at last.

“ We ! ” I answered. “ I had thought to go alone.”

The fan dropped to the floor, and her eyes opened wide. “ And leave me here ! ” she exclaimed. “ Leave me in these woods, at the mercy of Indians, wolves, and your rabble of servants! ”

I smiled. “ We are at peace with the Indians; it would be a stout wolf that could leap this palisade ; and the servants know their master too well to care to offend their mistress. Moreover, I would leave Diccon in charge.”

“ Diccon ! ” she cried. “ The old woman in the kitchen hath told me tales of Diccon ! Diccon Bravo ! Diccon Gamester ! Diccon Cutthroat ! ”

“ Granted,” I said. “ But Diccon Faithful as well. I can trust him.”

“ But I do not trust him ! ” she retorted. “ And I wish to go to Jamestown. This forest wearies me.” Her tone was imperious.

“ I must think it over,” I said coolly. “ I may take you, or I may not. I cannot tell yet.”

“ But I desire to go, sir! ”

“ And I may desire you to stay.”

“ You are a churl ! ”

I bowed. “ I am the man of your choice, madam.”

She rose with a stamp of her foot, and, turning her back upon me, took a flower from the table and began to pull from it its petals. I unsheathed my sword, and, seating myself, began to polish away a speck of rust upon the blade. Ten minutes later I looked up from the task, to receive full in my face a red rose tossed from the other side of the room. The missile was followed by an enchanting burst of laughter.

“ We cannot afford to quarrel, can we ? ” cried Mistress Jocelyn Percy. “ Life is sad enough in this solitude without that. Nothing but trees and water all day long, and not a soul to speak to ! And I am horribly afraid of the Indians ! What if they were to take my scalp while you were away ? You know you swore before the minister to protect me. You won’t leave me to the mercies of the savages, will you ? And I may go to Jamestown, may n’t I ? I want to go to church. I want to go to the Governor’s house. I want to buy a many things. I have gold in plenty, and but this one decent dress. You ’ll take me with you, won’t you ? ”

“ There’s not your like in Virginia,” I told her. " If you go to town clad like that and with that hearing, there will be talk enough. And ships come and go, and there are those besides Rolfe who have been to London.”

For a moment the laughter died from her eyes and lips, but it returned. “ Let them talk,” she said. " What care I ? And I do not think your ship captains, your traders and adventurers, do often dine with ray lord bishop. This barbarous forest world and another world that I wot of are so far apart that the inhabitants of the one do not trouble those of the other. In that petty village down there I am safe enough. Besides, sir, you wear a sword.”

“ My sword is ever at your service, madam.”

“ Then I may go to Jamestown ? ”

“ If you will it so.”

With her bright eyes upon me, and with one hand softly striking a rose against her laughing lips, she extended the other hand.

“ You may kiss it, if you wish, sir,” she said demurely.

I knelt and kissed the white fingers, and four days later we went to Jamestown.

VI.

IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN.

It was early morning when we set out on horseback for Jamestown, I rode in front, with Mistress Percy upon a pillion behind me, and Diccon on the brown mare brought up the rear. The negress and the mails I had sent by boat.

Now, a ride through the green wood with a noble horse beneath you, and around you the freshness of the morn, is pleasant enough. Each twig had its row of diamonds, and the wet leaves that we pushed aside spilled gems upon us. The horses set their hoofs daintily upon fern and moss and lush grass. In the purple distances deer stood at gaze, the air rang with innumerable bird notes, clear and sweet, squirrels chattered, bees hummed, and through the thick leafy roof of the forest the sun showered gold dust. And Mistress Jocelyn Percy was as merry as the morning. It was now fourteen days since she and I had first met, and in that time I had found in her thrice that number of moods. She could he as gay and sweet as the morning, as dark and vengeful as the storms that came up of afternoons, pensive as the twilight, stately as the night, — in her there met a hundred minds. Also she could he childishly frank — and tell you nothing.

To-day she chose to be gracious. Ten times in an hour Diccon was off his horse to pluck this or that flower that her white forefinger pointed out. She wove the blooms into a chaplet, and placed it upon her head ; she filled her lap with trailers of the vine that swayed against us, and stained her fingers and lips with the berries Diccon brought her ; she laughed at the squirrels, at the scurrying partridges, at the turkeys that crossed our path, at the fish that leaped from the brooks, at old Jocomb and his sons who ferried us across the Chickahominy. She was curious concerning the musket I carried; and when, in an open space in the wood, we saw an eagle perched upon a blasted pine, she demanded my pistol. I took it from my belt and gave it to her, with a laugh. “ I will eat all of your killing,” I said.

She aimed the weapon. “ A wager ! " she declared. “ There be mercers in Jamestown ? If I hit, thou 'It buy me a pearl hatband ? ”

“ Two.”

She fired, and the bird rose with a scream of wrath and sailed away. But two or three feathers came floating to the ground, and when Diccon had brought them to her she pointed triumphantly to the blood upon them. “ You said two ! ” she cried.

The sun rose higher, and the heat of the day set in. Mistress Percy’s interest in forest bloom and creature flagged. Instead of laughter, we had sighs at the length of way ; the vines slid from her lap, and she took the faded flowers from her head and cast them aside. She talked no more, and by and by I felt her head droop against my shoulder.

“ Madam is asleep,” said Diccon’s voice behind me.

“Ay,” I answered. “She’ll find a jack of mail but a hard pillow. And look to her that she does not fall.”

“ I had best walk beside you, then,” he said.

I nodded, and he dismounted, and throwing the mare’s bridle over his arm strode on beside us, with his hand upon the frame of the pillion. Ten minutes passed, the last five of which I rode with my face over my shoulder. “ Diccon ! ”

I cried at last, sharply.

He came to his senses with a start. “ Ay, sir? ” he questioned, his face dark red.

“ Suppose you look at me for a change,” I said. “ How long since Dale came in, Diccon ? ”

“ Ten years, sir.”

“ Before we enter Jamestown we ’ll pass through a certain field and beneath a certain tree. Do you remember what happened there, some years ago?”

“I am not like to forget, sir. You saved me from the wheel.”

“ Upon which you were bound, ready to be broken for drunkenness, gaming, and loose living. I begged your life from Dale for no other reason, I think, than that you had been a horse-boy in my old company in the Low Countries. God wot, the life was scarcely worth the saving! ”

“ I know it, sir.”

“ Dale would not let you go scot-free, but would sell you into slavery. At your own entreaty I bought you, since when you have served me indifferently well. You have showed small penitence for past misdeeds, and your amendment hath been of yet lesser bulk. A hardy rogue thou wast born, and a rogue thou wilt remain to the end of time. But we have lived and hunted, fought and bled together, and in our own fashion I think we bear each other good will, — even some love. I have winked at much, have shielded you in much, perhaps. In return I have demanded one thing, which if you had not given I would have found you another Dale to deal with.”

“ Have I ever refused it, my captain ? ”

“ Not yet. Take your hand from that pillion and hold it up ; then say after me these words : ‘ This lady is my mistress, my master’s wife, to be by me reverenced as such. Her face is not for my eyes nor her hand for my lips. If I keep not myself clean of all offense toward her, may God approve that which my master shall do ! ’ ”

The blood rushed to his face. I watched his fingers slowly loosening their grasp.

“Tardy obedience is of the house of mutiny,” I said sternly. “ Will you, sirrah, or will you not ? ” He raised his hand and repeated the words.

“ Now hold her as before,” I ordered, and, straightening myself in the saddle, rode on, with my eyes once more on the path before me.

A mile further on, Mistress Percy stirred and raised her head from my shoulder. “Not at Jamestown yet?” she sighed, as yet but half awake. “ Oh, the endless trees ! I dreamed I was hawking at Windsor, and then suddenly I was here in this forest, a bird, happy because I was free ; and then a falcon came swooping down upon me, — it had me in its talons, and I changed to myself again, and it changed to — What ami saying? I am talking in my sleep. Who is that singing ? ”

In fact, from the woods in front of us, and not a bowshot away, rang out a powerful voice : —

and presently, the trees thinning in front of us, we came upon a little open glade and upon the singer. He lay on his back, on the soft turf beneath an oak, with his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes upturned to the blue sky showing between leaf and branch. On one knee crossed above the other sat a squirrel with a nut in its paws, and half a dozen others scampered here and there over his great body, like so many frolicsome kittens. At a little distance grazed an old horse, gray and gaunt, springhalt and spavined, with ribs like Death’s own. Its saddle and bridle adorned a limb of the oak.

The song went cheerfully on : —

“ Give you good-day, reverend sir ! ” I called. “ Art conning next Sunday’s hymn ? ” Nothing abashed, Master Jeremy Sparrow gently shook off the squirrels, and getting to his feet advanced to meet us.

“ A toy,” he declared, with a wave of his hand, “ a trifle, a silly old song that came into my mind unawares, the leaves being so green and the sky so blue. Had you come a little earlier or a little later, you would have heard the ninetieth psalm. Give you good-day, madam. I must have sung for that the very queen of May was coming by.”

“ Art on your way to Jamestown ? ” I demanded. “ Come ride with us. Diccon, saddle his reverence’s horse.”

“ Saddle him an thou wilt, friend,” said Master Sparrow, “ for he and I have idled long enough, but I fear I cannot keep pace with this fair company. I and the horse are footing it together.”

“ He is not long for this world,” I remarked, eying his ill - favored steed,

“ but neither are we far from Jamestown. He ’ll last that far.”

Master Sparrow shook his head, with a rueful countenance. “ I bought him from one of the French vignerons below Westover,” he said. “ The fellow was astride the poor creature, beating him with a club because he could not go. I laid Monsieur Crapaud in the dust, after which we compounded, he for my purs,

I for the animal ; since when the poor beast and I have tramped it together, for I could not in conscience ride him. Have you read me Æsop his fables, Captain Percy ? ”

“ I remember the man, the boy, and the ass,” I replied. “The ass came to grief in the end. Put thy scruples in thy pocket, man, and mount thy pale horse.”

“ Not I ! ” he said, with a smile. “ 'T is a thousand pities, Captain Percy, that a small, mean, and squeamish spirit like mine should be eased like a very Guy of Warwick. Now, if I were slight of body, or even if I were no heavier than your servant there ” —

“ Oh ! ” I said. “ Diccon, give his reverence the mare, and do you mount his horse ancl bring him slowly on to town. If he will not carry you, you can lead him in.”

Sunshine revisited the countenance of Master Jeremy Sparrow ; he swung his great body into the saddle, gathered up the reins, and made the mare to caracole across the path for very joy.

“ Have a care of the poor brute, friend ! ” he cried genially to Diccon, whose looks were of the sulkiest. “ Bring him gently on, and leave him at Master Bucke’s, near to the church.”

“ What do you do at Jamestown ? ” I asked, as we passed from out the glade into the gloom of a pine wood. “ I was told that you were gone to Henricus. to help Master Thorpe convert the Indians.”

“ Ay,” he answered, “ I did go. I had a call, — I was sure I had a call. I thought of myself as a very apostle to the Gentiles. I went from Henricus one day’s journey into the wilderness, with none but an Indian lad for interpreter, and coming to an Indian village gathered its inhabitants about me, and sitting down upon a hillock read and expounded to them the Sermon on the Mount. I was much edified by the solemnity of their demeanor and the earnestness of their attention, and had conceived great hopes for their spiritual welfare, when, the reading and exhortation being finished, one of their old men arose and made me a long speech, which I could not well understand, but took to be one of grateful welcome to myself and my tidings of peace and good will. He then desired me to tarry with them, and to be present at some entertainment or other, the nature of which I could not make out. I tarried ; and toward evening they conducted me with much ceremony to an open space in the midst of the village. There I found planted in the ground a thick stake, and around it a ring of flaming brushwood. To the stake was fastened an Indian warrior, captured, so my interpreter informed me, from some hostile tribe above the falls. His arms and ankles were secured to the stake by means of thongs passed through incisions in the flesh; his body was stuck over with countless pine Splinters, each burning like a miniature torch ; and on his shaven crown was tied a thin plate of copper heaped with red-hot coals. A little to one side appeared another stake and another circle of brushwood ; the one with nothing tied to it as yet, and the other still unlit. My friend, I did not tarry to see it lit. I tore a branch from an oak, and I became as Samson with the jawbone of the ass. I fell upon and smote those Philistines. Their wretched victim was beyond all human help, but I dearly avenged him upon his enemies. And they had their pains for naught when they planted that second stake and laid the brush for their hell fire. At last I dropped into the stream upon which their damnable village was situate, and got safely away. Next day I went to George Thorpe and resigned my ministry, telling him that we were nowhere commanded to preach to devils; when the Company was ready to send shot and steel amongst them, they might count upon me. After which I came down the river to Jamestown, where I found worthy Master Bucke well-nigh despaired of with the fever. Finally he was taken up river for change of air, and, for lack of worthier substitute, the Governor and Captain West constrained me to remain and minister to the shepherdless flock. Where will you lodge, good sir ? ”

“ I do not know,” I said. “ The town will be full, and the guest house is not yet finished.”

“ Why not come to me ? ” he asked. " There are none in the minister’s house but me and Goodwife Allen who keeps it. There are five fair large rooms and a goodly garden, though the trees do too much shadow the house. If you will come and let the sunshine in,” —a bow and smile for madam, — “ I shall be your debtor.”

His plan pleased me well. Except the Governor’s and Captain West’s, the minister’s house was the best in the town. It was retired, too, being set in its own grounds, and not upon the street, and I desired privacy. Goodwife Allen was stolid and incurious. Moreover, I liked Master Jeremy Sparrow.

I accepted his hospitality and gave him thanks. He waved them away, and fell to complimenting Mistress Percy, who was pleased to be gracious to us both. Well content for the moment with the world and ourselves, we fared on through the alternating sunshine and shade, and were happy with the careless habitants of the forest. Oversoon we came to the peninsula, and crossed the neck of land. Before us lay the town : to the outer eye a poor and mean village, indeed, but to the inner the stronghold and capital of our race in the western world, the germ from which might spring stately cities, the newborn babe which might in time equal its parent in stature, strength, and comeliness. So I and a few besides, both in Virginia and at home, viewed the mean houses, the poor church and rude fort, and loved the spot which had witnessed much suffering and small joy, but which held within it the future, which was even now a bit in the mouth of Spain, a thing in itself outweighing all the toil and anguish of our planting. But there were others who saw only the meanness of the place, its almost defenselessness, its fluxes and fevers, the fewness of its inhabitants and the number of its graves. Finding no gold and no earthly paradise, and that in the sweat of their brow they must eat their bread, they straightway fell into the dumps, and either died out of sheer perversity, or went yelping home to the Company with all manner of dismal tales, — which tales, through my Lord Warwick’s good offices, never failed to reach the sacred ears of his Majesty, and to bring the colony and the Company into disfavor.

We came to the palisade, and found the gates wide open and the warder gone. “ Where be the people ? ” marveled Master Sparrow, as we rode through into the street. In truth, where were the people ? On either side of the street the doors of the houses stood open, but no person looked out from them or loitered on the doorsteps ; the square was empty ; there were no women at the well, no children underfoot, no gaping crowd before jail and pillory, no guard before the Governor’s house, — not a soul, high or low, to be seen.

“ Have they all migrated ? ” cried Sparrow. “ Are they gone to Croatan ? ” “ They have left one to tell the tale, then,” I said, “ for here he comes running.”

VII.

IN WHICH WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD.

A man came panting down the street. “ Captain Ralph Percy ! ” he cried. “ My master said it was your horse coming across the neck. The Governor commands your attendance at once, sir.”

“ Where is the Governor ? Where are all the people ? ” I demanded.

“ At the fort. They are all at the fort or on the bank below. Oh, sirs, a woeful day for us all! ”

“ A woeful day ! ” I exclaimed. “ What’s the matter ? ”

The man, whom I recognized as one of the commander’s servants, a fellow with the soul of a French valet de chamhre, was wild with terror.

“ They are at the guns ! ” he quavered. “ Alackaday ! what can a few sakers and demiculverins do against them ? ”

“ Against whom ? ” I cried.

“They are giving out pikes and cutlasses! Woe’s me, the sight of naked steel hath ever made me sick! ”

I drew my dagger, and flashed it before him. “ Does’t make you sick ? ” I asked. “ You shall be sicker yet, if you do not speak to some purpose.”

The fellow shrank back, his eyeballs starting from his head.

“ It ’s a tall ship,” he gasped, “ a very big ship ! It hath ten culverins, beside fowlers and murderers, sakers, falcons, and bases ! ”

I took him by the collar and shook him off his feet.

“ There are priests on board ! ” he managed to say as I set him down. “ This time to-morrow we 'll all be on the rack! And next week the galleys will have us ! ”

“ It’s the Spaniard at last,” I said. “ Come on ! ”

When we reached the river bank before the fort, it was to find confusion worse confounded. The gates of the palisade were open, and through them streamed Councilors, Burgesses, and officers, while the bank itself was thronged with the generality. Ancient planters, Smith’s men, Dale’s men, tenants and servants, women and children, including the little eyases we imported the year before, negroes, Paspaheghs, French vignerons, Dutch sawmill men, Italian glassworkers, — all seethed to and fro, all talked at once, and all looked down the river. Out of the babel of voices these words came to us over and over: “ The Spaniard ! ” “ The Inquisition ! ” “The galleys ! ” They were the words oftenest heard at that time, when strange sails hove in sight.

But where was the Spaniard ? On the river, hugging the shore, were many small craft, barges, shallops, sloops, and pinnaces, and beyond them the masts of the Truelove, the Due Return, and the Tiger, then in port; on these three, of which the largest, the Due Return, was of but eighty tons burthen, the mariners were running about and the masters bawling orders. But there was no other ship, no bark, galleon, or man-of-war, with three tiers of grinning ordnance, and the hated yellow flag flaunting above.

I sprang from my horse, and, leaving it and Mistress Percy in Sparrow’s charge, hastened up to the fort. As I passed through the palisade I heard my name called, and turning waited for Master Pory to come up. He was panting and puffing, his jovial face very red.

“ I was across the neck of land when I heard the news,” he said. “ I ran all the way, and am somewhat scant of breath. Here’s the devil to pay ! ”

“ It looks another mare’s-nest,” I replied. “ We have cried ‘ Spaniard ! ’ pretty often.”

“ But this time the wolf’s here,” he answered. “ Davies sent a horseman at a gallop from Algernon with the tidings. He passed the ship, and it was a very great one. We may thank this dead calm that it did not catch us unawares.”

Within the palisade was noise enough, but more order than without. On the half-moons commanding the river, gunners were busy about our sakers, falcons, and three culverins. In one place, West, the commander, was giving out brigandines, jacks, skulls, muskets, halberds, swords, and longbows ; in another, his wife, who was a very Mary Ambree, supervised the boiling of a great caldron of pitch. Each loophole in palisade and fort had already its marksman. Through the west port came a horde of reluctant invaders, — cattle, swine, and poultry, — driven in by yelling boys. Behind them men rolled in water casks.

I made my way through the press to where I saw the Governor, surrounded by Councilors and Burgesses, sitting on a keg of powder, and issuing orders at the top of his voice. “ Ha, Captain Percy ! ” he cried, as I came up. “ You are in good time, man ! You ’ve served your apprenticeship at the wars. You must teach us how to beat the dons.”

“ To Englishmen, that comes by nature, sir,” I said. “ Art sure we are to have the pleasure ? ”

“ Not a doubt of it this time,” he answered. “ The ship slipped in past the Point last night. Davies signaled her to stop, and then sent a ball over her; but she kept on. True, it was too dark to make out much; but if she were friendly, why did she not stop for castle duties ? Moreover, they say she was of at least five hundred tons, and no ship of that size hath ever visited these waters. There was no wind, and they sent a man on at once, hoping to outstrip the enemy and warn us. The man changed horses at Basse’s Choice, and passed the ship about dawn. All he could tell for the mist was that it was a very great ship, with three tiers of guns.”

“ The flag ? ”

“ She carried none.”

“ Humph ! ” I said. “ It hath a suspicious look. At least we do well to be ready. We’ll give them a warm welcome.”

“ There are those here who counsel surrender,” continued the Governor. “ There’s one, at least, who wants the Tiger sent downstream with a white flag and my sword.”

“ Where ? ” I cried. “ He’s no Englishman, I warrant! ”

“ As much an Englishman as thou, sir ! ” called out a gentleman whom I had encountered before, to wit, Master Edward Sharpless. “ It’s well enough for swingebuckler captains, Low Country fire-eaters, to talk of holding out against a Spanish man - of - war with twice our number of fighting men, and enough ordnance to blow this island into space ! Wise men know when the odds are too heavy! ”

“ It’s well enough for lily - livered, goose - fleshed lawyers to hold their tongues when men and soldiers talk,” I retorted. “ We are not making indentures to the devil, and so have no need of such gentry.”

There was a roar of laughter from the captains and gunners, but terror of the Spaniard had made Master Edward Sharpless bold to all besides. “ They will wipe us off the face of the earth ! ” he lamented. “ There won’t be an Englishman left in America! They 'll come close in upon us! They ’ll batter down the fort with their culverins; they ’ll turn all their swivels, sakers, and falcons upon us; they ’ll throw into our midst stinkpots and grenades ; they ’ll mow us down with chain shot! Their gunners never miss ! ” his voice rose to a scream, and he shook as with an ague. “Are you mad? It’s Spain that’s to be fought! Spain the rich ! Spain the powerful ! Spain the lord of the New World! ”

“ It’s England that fights ! ” I cried. “ For very shame, hold thy tongue ! ”

“ If we surrender at once, they ’ll let us go ! ” he whined. “ We can take the small boats and get to the Bermudas. They '11 let us go.”

“Into the galleys,” muttered West.

The base craven tried another feint. “ Think of the women and children ! ”

“ We do,” I said sternly. “ Silence, fool! ”

The Governor, a brave and honest man, though of mean descent, rose from the keg of powder. “ All this is foreign to the matter, Master Sharpless. I think our duty is clear, be the odds what they may. This is our post, and we will hold it or die beside it. We are few in number, but we are England in America, and I think we will remain here. This is the King’s fifth kingdom, and we will keep it for him. We will trust in the Lord and fight it out.”

“ Amen,” I said, and “ Amen,” said the ring of Councilors and Burgesses and the armed men beyond.

The hum of voices now rose into excited cries, and the watchman stationed atop the big culverin called out, “ Sail ho ! ” With one accord we turned our faces downstream. There was the ship, undoubtedly. Moreover, a strong breeze had sprung up, blowing from the sea, filling her white sails, and rapidly lessening the distance between us. As yet we could only tell that she was indeed a large ship with all sail set.

Through the gates of the palisade now came, pellmell, the crowd without. In ten minutes’ time the women were in line ready to load the muskets, the children sheltered as best they might be, the men in ranks, the gunners at their guns, and the flag up. I had run it up with my own hand, and as I stood beneath the folds Master Sparrow and my wife came to my side.

“ The women are over there,” I said to the latter, “ where you had best betake yourself.”

“ I prefer to stay here,” she answered. “ I am not afraid.” Her color was high, and she held her head up. “ My father fought the Armada,” she said. “ Get me a sword from that man who is giving them out.”

From his coign of vantage the watch now called out: “ She ’s a long ship, — five hundred tons, anyhow ! Lord ! the metal that she carries ! She’s rasedecked! ”

“ Then she ’s Spanish, sure enough ! ” cried the Governor.

From the crowd of servants, felons, and foreigners rose a great clamor, and presently we made out Sharpless perched on a cask in their midst and wildly gesticulating.

“ The Tiger, the Truebve, and the Due Return have swung across channel!” announced the watch. “They’ve trained their guns on the Spaniard! ”

The Englishmen cheered, but the bastard crew about Sharpless groaned. Extreme fear had made the lawyer shameless. “ What guns have those boats ? ” he screamed. “Two falcons apiece and a handful of muskets, and they go out against a man-of-war ! She ’ll trample them underfoot! She ’ll sink them with a shot apiece ! The Tiger is forty tons, and the Truelove is sixty. You ’re all mad! ”

“ Sometimes quality beats quantity,” said West.

“ Didst ever hear of the Content ? ” sang out a gunner.

“ Or of the Merchant Royal ? ” cried another.

” Or of the Revenge ?” quoth Master Jeremy Sparrow. “ Go hang thyself, coward, or, if you choose, swim out to the Spaniard, and shift from thy wet doublet and hose into a sanbenito. Let the don come, shoot if he can, and land if he will ! We “ll singe his beard in Virginia as we did at Cales !

And so we ’ll do with this one, my masters ! We ’ll sink her, or we ’ll take her and send her against her own galleons and galleasses !

His great voice and great presence seized and held the attention of all. Over his doublet of rusty black he had clapped a yet rustier back and breast; on his bushy hair rode a headpiece many sizes too small ; by his side was an old broadsword, and over his shoulder a pike. Suddenly, from gay hardihood his countenance changed to an expression more befitting his calling. “ Our cause is just, my masters ! ” he cried. “ We stand here not for England alone ; we stand for the love of law, for the love of liberty, for the fear of God, who will not desert his servants and his cause, nor give over to Anti-Christ this virgin world. This plantation is the leaven which is to leaven the whole lump, and surely he will hide it in the hollow of his hand and in the shadow of his wing. God of battles, hear us ! God of England, God of America, aid the children of the one, the saviors of the other! ”

He had dropped the pike to raise his clasped hands to the blue heavens, but now he lifted it again, threw back his shoulders and flung up his head. He laid his hand on the flagstaff, and looked up to the banner streaming in the breeze. “ It looks well so high against the blue, does n’t it, friends ? ” he cried genially. “ Suppose we keep it there forever and a day ! ”

A cheer arose, so loud that it silenced, if it did not convince, the craven few. As for Master Edward Sharpless, he disappeared immediately behind the line of women.

The great ship came steadily on, her white sails growing larger and larger, moment by moment, her tiers of guns more distinct and menacing, her whole aspect more defiant. Her waist seemed packed with men. But no streamers, no flag.

A puff of smoke floated up from the deck of the Tiger, and a ball from one of her two tiny falcons passed through the stranger’s rigging. A cheer for the brave little cockboat arose from the English. “ David and his pebble ! ” exclaimed Master Jeremy Sparrow. “ Now for Goliath’s twenty-pounders ! ”

But no flame and thunder issued from the large guns aboard the stranger. Instead, from her crowded deck there came to us what sounded mightily like a roar of laughter. Suddenly, from each masthead and yard shot out streamers of red and blue, up from the poop rose and flaunted in the wind the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, and with a crash trumpet, drum, and fife rushed into

“ By the Lord, she ’s English ! ” shouted the Governor.

On she came, banners flying, music playing, and inextinguishable laughter rising from her decks. The Tiger, the Truelove, and the Due Return sent no more hailstones against her ; they turned and resolved themselves into her consort. The watch, a grim old sea dog that had come in with Dale, swung himself down from his post, and came toward the Governor at a run. “ I know her now, sir ! ” he shouted. “ I was at the winning of Cales, and she’s the Santa Teresa, that we took and sent home to the Queen. She was Spanish once, sir, but she s English now.”

The gates were flung open, and the excited people poured out again upon the river bank. I found myself beside the Governor, whose honest countenance wore an expression of profound bewilderment.

“ What d’ ye make of her, Percy ? ” he said. “ The Company does n’t send servants, felons, ’prentices, or maids in such craft ; no, nor officers or governors, either. It’s the King’s ship, sure enough, but what is she doing here ? — that’s the question. What does she want, and whom does she bring ? ”

“ We ’ll soon know,” I answered, “ for there goes her anchor.”

Five minutes later a boat was lowered from the ship, and came swiftly toward us. The boat had four rowers, and in the stern sat a tall man, black-bearded, high-colored, and magnificently dressed. It touched the sand some two hundred feet from the spot where Governor, Councilors, officers, and a sprinkling of other sorts stood staring at it, and at the great ship beyond. The man in the stern leaped out, looked around him, and then walked toward us. As he walked slowly, we had leisure to note the richness of his doublet and cloak, — the one slashed, the other lined with scarlet taffeta, — the arrogance of his mien and gait, and the superb full-blooded beauty of his face.

The handsomest man that ever I saw ! ” ejaculated the Governor.

Master Pory, standing beside him, drew in his breath, then puffed it out again. “ Handsome enough, your Honor,” he said, “ unless handsome is as handsome does. That, gentlemen, is my Lord Carnal, — that is the King’s latest favorite.”

VIII.

IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL.

I felt a touch upon my shoulder, and turned to find Mistress Percy beside me. Her cheeks were white, her eyes aflame, her whole frame tense. The passion that dominated her was so clearly anger at white heat that I stared at her in amazement. Her hand slid from my shoulder to the bend of my arm and rested there. “ Remember that I am your wife, sir,” she said in a low, fierce voice, — “your kind and loving wife. You said that your sword was mine ; now bring your wit to the same service ! ”

There was not time to question her meaning. The man whose position in the realm had just been announced by the Secretary, and of whom we had all heard as one not unlikely to supplant even Buckingham himself, was close at hand. The Governor, headpiece in hand, stepped forward ; the other swept off his Spanish hat ; both bowed profoundly.

“ I speak to his Honor the Governor of Virginia ? ” inquired the newcomer. His tone was offhand, his hat already back upon his head.

“ I am George Yeardley, at my Lord Carnal’s service,” answered the Governor.

The favorite raised his eyebrows. “ I don’t need to introduce myself, it seems,” he said. “ You’ve found that I am not the devil, after all, — at least not the Spanish Apollyon. Zooks! a hawk above a poultry yard could n’t have caused a greater commotion than did my poor little ship and my few poor birding pieces ! Does every strange sail so put you through your paces ? ”

The Governor’s color mounted. “ We are not at home,” he answered stiffly. “ Here we are few and weak and surrounded by many dangers, and have need to be vigilant, being planted, as it were, in the very grasp of that Spain who holds Europe in awe, and who claims this land as her own. That we are here at all is proof enough of our courage, my lord.”

The other shrugged his shoulders. “ I don’t doubt your mettle,” he said negligently. “ I dare say it matches your armor.”

His glance had rested for a moment upon the battered headpiece and ancient rusty breastplate with which Master Jeremy Sparrow was bedight.

“ It is something antique, truly,something out of fashion,” remarked that worthy, — “ almost as out of fashion as courtesy from guests, or respect for dignities from my-face-is-my-fortune minions and lords on carpet considerations.”

The hush of consternation following this audacious speech was broken by a roar of laughter from the favorite himself. “ Zounds ! ” he cried, “ your courage is worn on your sleeve, good giant! I 'll uphold you to face Spaniards, strappado, rack, galleys, and all! ”

The bravado with which he spoke, the insolence of his bold glance and curled lip, the arrogance with which he flaunted that King’s favor which should be a brand more infamous than the hangman’s, his beauty, the pomp of his dress, — all were alike hateful. I hated him then, scarce knowing why, as I hated him afterward with reason.

He now pulled from the breast of his doublet a packet, which he proffered the Governor. “ From the King, sir,” lie announced, in the half-fierce, half-mocking tone he had made his own. “ You may read it at your leisure. He wishes you to further me in a quest upon which I have come.”

The Governor took the packet with reverence. " His Majesty’s will is our law,” he said. " Anything that lies in our power, sir; though if you come for gold ” —

The favorite laughed again. I’ve come for a thing a deal more precious, Sir Governor, — a thing worth more to me than all the treasure of the Indies with Manoa and El Dorado thrown in, — to wit, the thing upon which I ’ve set my mind. That which I determine to do, I do, sir; and the thing I determine to have, why, sooner or later, by hook or by crook, fair means or foul, I have it! I am not one to be crossed or defied with impunity.”

“ I do not take your meaning, my lord,” said the Governor, puzzled, but courteous. “ There are none here who would care to thwart, in any honorable enterprise, a nobleman so high in the King’s favor. I trust that my Lord Carnal will make my poor house his own during his stay in Virginia — What’s the matter, my lord ? ”

My lord’s face was dark red, his black eyes afire, his mustaches working up and down. His white teeth had closed with a click on the loud oath which had interrupted the Governor’s speech. Honest Sir George and his circle stared at this unaccountable guest in amazement not unmixed with dismay. As for myself, I knew before he spoke what had caused the oath and the fierce triumph in that handsome face. Master Jeremy Sparrow had moved a little to one side, thus exposing to view that which his great body had before screened from observation, — namely, Mistress Jocelyn Percy.

In a moment the favorite was before her, bat in hand, bowing to the ground.

“ My quest hath ended where I feared it but begun ! ” he cried, flushed and exultant. I have found my Manoa sooner than I thought for. Have you no welcome for me, lady ? ”

She withdrew her arm from mine and curtsied to him profoundly; then stood erect, indignant and defiant, her eyes angry stars, her cheeks carnation, scorn on her smiling lips.

“ I cannot welcome you as you should be welcomed, my lord,” she said in a clear voice. “ I have but my bare hands.

Manoa, my lord, lies far to the southward. This land is quite out of your course, and you will find here but your travail for your pains. My lord, permit me to present to you my husband, Captain Ralph Percy. I think that you know his cousin, my Lord of Northumberland.”

The red left the favorite’s cheeks, and he moved as though a blow had been dealt him by some invisible hand. Recovering himself he bowed to me, and I to him, which done we looked each other in the eyes long enough for each to see the thrown gauntlet.

“ I raise it,” I said.

“ And I raise it,” he answered.

A l’outranee, I think, sir ? ” I continued.

“A l’outrance,” he assented.

“ And between us two alone,” I suggested.

His answering smile was not good to see, nor was the tone in which he spoke to the Governor good to hear.

“ It is now some weeks, sir,” he said, " since there disappeared from court a jewel, a diamond of most inestimable worth. It in some sort belonged to the King, and his Majesty, in the goodness of his heart, had promised it to a certain one, — nay, had sworn by his kingdom that it should be his. Well, sir, that man put forth his hand to claim his own — whe lo ! the jewel vanished ! Where it went no man could tell. There was, as you may believe, a mighty running up and down and looking into dark corners, all for naught, — it was clean gone. But the man to whom that bright gem had been promised was not one easily hoodwinked or baffled. He swore to trace it, follow it, find it, and wear it.”

His bold eyes left the Governor, to rest upon the woman beside me ; had he pointed to her with his hand, he could not have more surely drawn upon her the regard of that motley throng. By degrees the crowd had fallen back, leaving us three — the King’s minion, the masquerading lady, and myself — the centre of a ring of staring faces ; but now she became the sole target at which all eyes were directed.

In Virginia, at this time, the women of our own race were held in high esteem. During the first years of our planting they were a greater rarity than the mocking - birds and flying squirrels, or than that weed the eating of which made fools of men. The man whose wife was loving and daring enough, or jealous enough of Indian maids, to follow him into the wilderness counted his friends by the score and never lacked for company. The first marriage in Virginia was between a laborer and a waiting maid, and yet there was as great a deal of candy stuff as if it had been the nuptials of a lieutenant of the shire. The brother of my Lord de la Warre stood up with the groom, the brother of ray Lord of Northumberland gave away the bride and was the first to kiss her, and the President himself held the caudle to their lips that night. Since that wedding there had been others. Gentlewomen made the Virginia voyage with husband or father ; women signed as servants and came over, to marry in three weeks’ time, the husband paying good tobacco for the wife’s freedom ; in the cargoes of children sent for apprentices there were many girls. And last, but not least, had come Sir Edwyn’s doves. Things had changed since that day — at the memory of which men still held their sides — when Madam West, then the only woman in the town with youth and beauty, had marched down the street to the pillory, mounted it, called to her the drummer, and ordered him to summon to the square by tuck of drum every man in the place. Wich done, and the amazed population at hand, gaping at the spectacle of the wife of their commander (then absent from home) pilloried before them, she gave command, through the crier, that they should take their fill of gazing, whispering, and nudging then and there, forever and a day, and then should go about their own business and give her leave to mind her own.

That day was gone, but men still dropped their work to see a woman pass, still cheered when a farthingale appeared over a ship’s side, and at church still devoted their eyes to other service than staring at the minister. In our short but crowded history few things had made a greater stir than the coming in of Sir Edwyn’s maids. They were married now, but they were still the observed of all observers ; to be pointed out to strangers, run after by children, gaped at by the vulgar, bowed to with broad smiles by Burgess, Councilor, and commander, and openly contemned by those dames who had attained to a husband in somewhat more regular fashion. Of the ninety who had arrived two weeks before, the greater number had found husbands in the town itself or in the neighboring hundreds, so that in the crowd that had gathered to withstand the Spaniard, and had stayed to welcome the King’s favorite, there were farthingales not a few.

But there were none like the woman whose hand I had kissed in the courting meadow. In the throng, that day, in her Puritan dress and amid the crowd of meaner beauties, she had passed without overmuch comment, and since that day none had seen her save Rolfe and the minister, my servants and myself; and when " The Spaniard ! ” was cried, men thought of other things than the beauty of women ; so that until this moment she had escaped any special notice. Now all that was changed. The Governor, following the pointing of those insolent eyes, fixed his own upon her in a stare of sheer amazement; the gold-laced quality about him craned necks, lifted eyebrows, and whispered ; and the rabble behind followed their betters’ example with an emphasis quite their own.

“ Where do you suppose that jewel went, Sir Governor,” said the favorite, — “ that jewel which was overnice to shine at court, which set up its will against the King’s, which would have none of that one to whom it had been given ? ”

“I am a plain man, my lord,” replied the Governor bluntly. “ An it please you, give me plain words.”

My lord laughed, his eyes traveling round the ring of greedily intent faces. “ So be it, sir,” he assented. “ May I ask who is this lady ? ”

“ She came in the Bonaventure,” answered the Governor. “ She was one of the treasurer’s poor maids.”

“With whom I trod a measure at court not long ago,” said the favorite. “I had to wait for the honor until the prince had been gratified.”

The Governor’s round eyes grew rounder. Young Hamor, a-tiptoe behind him, drew a long, low whistle.

“ In so small a community,” went on my lord, “ sure you must all know one another. There can be no masks worn, no false colors displayed. Everything must be as open as daylight. But we all have a past as well as a present. Now, for instance ” —

I interrupted him. “ In Virginia, my lord, we live in the present. At present, my lord, I like not the color of your lordship’s cloak.”

He stared at me, with his black brows drawn together. “ It is not of your choosing nor for your wearing, sir,” lie rejoined haughtily.

“And your sword knot is villainously tied,” I continued. “ And I like not such a fire-new, bejeweled scabbard. Mine, you see, is out at heel.”

“ I see,” he said dryly.

“ The pinking of your doublet suits me not, either,” I declared. “ I could make it more to my liking,” and I touched his Genoa three-pile with the point of my rapier.

A loud murmur arose from the crowd, and the Governor started forward, crying out, “ Captain Percy ! Are you mad ? ”

“ I was never saner in my life, sir,” I answered. “ French fashions like me not, — that is all, — nor Englishmen that wear them. To my thinking such are scarcely true-born.”

That thrust went home. All the world knew the story of my late Lord Carnal and the waiting woman in the service of the French ambassador’s wife. A gasp of admiration went up from the crowd. My lord’s rapier was out, the hand that held it shaking with passion. I had my blade in my hand, but the point was upon the ground. “ I ’ll lesson you, you madman ! ” he said thickly. Suddenly, without any warning, he thrust at me; had he been less blind with rage, the long score which each was to run up against the other might have ended where it began. I swerved, and the next instant with my own point sent his rapier whirling. It fell at the Governor’s feet.

“ Your lordship may pick it up,” I remarked. “ Your grasp is as firm as your honor, my lord.”

He glared at me, foam upon his lips. Men were between us now, — the Governor, Francis West, Master Pory, Hamor, Wynne, — and a babel of excited voices arose. The diversion I had aimed to make had been made with a vengeance. West had me by the arm. “ What a murrain is all this coil about, Ralph Percy ? If you hurt hair of his head, you are lost! ”

The favorite broke from the Governor’s detaining hand and conciliatory speech.

“ You 'll fight, sir ?” he cried hoarsely.

“You know that I need not now, my lord,” I answered.

He stamped upon the ground with rage and shame ; not true shame for that foul thrust, but shame for the sword upon the grass, for that which could be read in men’s eyes, strive to hide it as they might, for the open scorn upon one face. Then, during the minute or more in which we faced each other in silence, he exerted to some effect that will of which he had boasted. The scarlet faded from his face, his frame steadied, and he forced a smile. Also he called to his aid a certain soldierly, honest-seeming frankness of speech and manner which he could assume at will.

“Your Virginian sunshine dazzleth the eyes, sir,” he said. “ Of a verity it made me think you on guard. Forgive me my mistake.”

I bowed. “ Your lordship will find me at your service. I lodge at the minister’s house, where your lordship’s messenger will find me. I am going there now with my wife, who hath ridden a score of miles this morning and is weary. We give you good-day, my lord.

I bowed to him again and to the Governor, then gave my hand to Mistress Percy. The crowd opening before us, we passed through it, and crossed the parade by the west bulwark. At the further end was a bit of rising ground. This we mounted ; then, before descending the other side into the lane leading to the minister’s house, we turned as by one impulse and looked back. Life is like one of those endless Italian corridors, painted, picture after picture, by a master hand ; and man is the traveler through it, taking his eyes from one scene but to rest them upon another. Some remain a blur in his mind ; some he remembers not ; for some he has but to close his eyes and he sees them again, line for line, tint for tint, the whole spirit of the piece. I close my eyes, and I see the sunshine hot and bright, the blue of the skies, the sheen of the river. The sails are white again upon boats long lost ; the Santa Teresa, sunk in a fight with an Algerine rover two years afterward, rides at anchor there forever in the James, her crew in the waist and the rigging, her master and his mates on the poop, above them the flag. I see the plain at our feet and the crowd beyond, all staring with upturned faces ; and standing out from the group of perplexed and wondering dignitaries a man in black and scarlet, one hand busy at his mouth, the other clenched upon the newly restored and unsheathed sword. And I see, standing on the green hillock, hand in hand, us two, — myself and the woman so near to me, and yet so far away that a common enemy seemed our only tie.

We turned and descended to the green lane and the deserted houses. When we were quite hidden from those we had left on the bank below the fort, she dropped my hand and moved to the other side of the lane ; and thus, with never a word to spare, we walked sedately on until we reached the minister’s house.

Mary Johnston.

(To be continued.)