AN ORDER FROM THE KING.
I was half way on the road to the block house, to see if I could muster
up a guard, with which to go down and meet the Captain, when I spied him
coming along at a quick pace.
“Well-a-day,” he cried, when he had caught sight of me. “This is quite a
change, since I last saw you. Come, man, your hand.
“Why,” he exclaimed, when I had gripped his palm, “you have some of your
strength back again, I see--and feel.”
“A little,” I replied, as I grasped his other hand, in heartiness to
have him back once more.
There were tears in my eyes. I did not try to hide them, for Carteret
had been more than a brother to me; his good wife a very mother to
Lucille. I think he felt my gratitude, for he did not speak, only
returning my hand pressure.
“Well,” he said again, after a little pause, while we walked on together
toward his house, “this is better than being cooped up in the block,
with those devils howling on the outside. Though,” he added, with a
laugh, “we soon made them change their tune.”
He asked me how long I had suffered from the attack of Simon, and what
had become of the sailor. I told him what I had heard.
“I did not like to leave you,” he said, “but the call for me was urgent.
I thought I left you in safe hands, when Mistress Lucille took charge of
the nursing.”
“You did, indeed,” I replied.
“How is she; and how progresses your courtship?”
“Very well, to both questions. Since your kindness in turning this
command over to me I have been assured of a livelihood; quiet, perhaps,
compared to what I hoped for, but a sure one. ’Tis a place befitting a
man who is about to take unto himself a wife.”
“Then you are soon to wed?”
“Within a fortnight. Lucille is busy now, preparing what she is pleased
to term her linen. As for me I have little to get. I trust that from my
wage here I can fit up some small house that will do for a time. I had
hopes of taking her to a place befitting her station, to a fine home.
But poverty is a hard taskmaster.”
“Yet he drives light when love holds the reins.”
“True,” I assented. “We shall not fare so badly, I hope.”
“Then Mistress Lucille is prepared to face poverty with you?”
“She is,” I said, “and seems happy in the prospect.”
The Captain was laughing now. I looked at him to find the cause, but was
at a loss.
“You know I have been to London?” he inquired, after his merriment had
spent itself.
“Aye, so I heard.”
“And to Colchester also.”
“Nay; were you?” I asked, suddenly. That had been the home of the Danes
for centuries.
“To Colchester?”
“Aye. And while there I heard somewhat of you.”
“’Twas likely,” I answered, “seeing that my father, Sir Edward Dane,
owned quite an estate there.”
“It is of that same estate I would speak,” went on Carteret. “I found
out more of your story than you had time to tell me hurriedly ere I
sailed. Your offense against the crown had been nearly forgotten at
court. Learning which, while I was in London, I set certain influences
to work. I am not without friends in the King’s circles, and, between us
we began planning to get back what of your father’s wealth we could,
that you might enjoy it.
“First, and it was a matter of no little difficulty, we had you granted
a full and free pardon for all acts of treason of whatever nature. To
bring this about after the way had been paved, I sought an audience with
His Majesty. I have a little gift of eloquence, so I described to the
King how you blew the heathen into the air. He listened to me more
kindly after that. Being fond of fighting he made me tell him the whole
circumstance, which I flatter myself I did with some credit to you. When
I had finished the King clapped his hand down on his thigh, bursting out
with:
“‘By my sword, Carteret, but I could hardly have planned or executed it
better myself,’ which you may take as a fine compliment, for His Majesty
thinks himself a great soldier.”
“’Twas as much your credit as mine,” I said to the Captain.
“Well, never mind that. The King inquired all about you, also of Sir
George Keith, whose acts I in no way glossed over, though he was my
friend. His Majesty cut me short with: ‘Enough, enough, Carteret.’
Calling for a quill and ink horn, he had signed a pardon ere I knew what
he was about. There it is,” exclaimed Carteret, thrusting a legal
looking paper, covered with red seals, into my hand. I took it, hardly
able to speak a word.
“Once that was done I breathed easier,” continued the Captain. “But His
Majesty did not stop there. He called his secretary, who told the King,
in answer to a question, that your father’s lands had been confiscated
to the crown.
“‘It is needful that we recompense your bold soldier somewhat,’ said His
Majesty to me, when he had whispered for a time with his officers. ‘I
have signed an order on my treasurer for ten thousand pounds, which you
will convey to Sir Francis Dane, with my best wishes.’
“I must have shown some surprise when His Majesty gave you the ‘sir,’
for he said:
“‘I have restored his title to him, Carteret. As for his estates, it is
not likely that he would come back to claim them now, so I have given
you, for him, what they are considered by my treasurer to be worth--ten
thousand pounds. If, when you reach America, you find that he desires
more----’
“‘Oh, ’tis enough, Your Majesty,’ I said quickly, lest he might change
his mind.
“Then I bowed myself out, after thanking him most warmly in my name and
your own.
“I lost little time in hastening to the treasury in the palace where the
King’s order was honored. I soon transacted what business I had in
London, set sail again, and, after a pleasant voyage, here I am. As for
the money, it is safe in my strong box at home. I stopped there ere I
went in search of you. Mistress Lucille told me where you had started
for.
“Now, is not that good news?”
I was beyond speaking, though I tried to thank him. I could only hold
out my hand.
“I’ll not grasp it until you promise to remember that it is a hand and
not a sword hilt,” said the Captain, so earnestly, that I laughed ere I
assured him that I would not grip him as hard as I did at first.
Joy lent me such speed as we walked to the house, where I knew I would
find Lucille, that Carteret called on me several times to halt, and to
walk more slowly.
“When you get as old as I am,” he said, “you will be glad to travel less
speedily.”
“Not with such good news as I carry,” was my answer.
“I found him,” cried the Captain, as we entered the room where Lucille
and Madame Carteret were seated.
He went out for a minute. When he returned he had in each hand a stout
sack. It was the money, some of it in gold, that clinked right merrily.
Carteret came over, holding out the bags to me.
I took one, laid it at Lucille’s feet, saying, as I smiled at her:
“With all my worldly goods I thee endow.”
The other sack I held out to Carteret.
“It is yours,” I said, “according to all the laws of arms. Take it.”
“Law or no law, I’ll have none of it,” he answered gruffly, I believe,
to hide his feelings. “Begone with it. Place it with the other beside
Mistress Lucille. Why,” he went on, “I have enough now to do the good
wife and myself as long as we live, and there’s not a soul I care to
leave any wealth to. Put it with the other. You will find a use for all
of it--when you are wed.”
I was forced to obey him, though I felt that he should have had a half
share of what he got for me, but all my argument was in vain.
Lucille and I were left alone in the room. She looked down on the sacks
of gold, then up at me.
“So you are Sir Francis, after all?” she asked.
“It seems so,” was my reply. “How do you like the name?”
“It has a wholesome sound,” she answered, repeating it over and over
again. “But Edward was not so poor a one. It did much for me.”
“So will Sir Francis, sweetheart,” I said.
“However, since the King has given it back to you, I suppose you will
keep it?”
“I will, indeed. It is a proud name, and many brave men and fair women
have been known by it.”
It was getting late when we ceased talking, though we had said scarce
half of what was in our minds.
A week passed. There were but seven days more ere we would be wed. The
block house had been fixed on as the place where the brief ceremony
might fittingly be held. We had decided to make it a merry gathering,
where all who would, might come and be happy.
The weather was now that of a mild early spring. The tender green of the
trees and shrubs, made the land a mass of verdure. Gardens were being
made, farms plowed, sheep let out to pasture, and the colonists all
around were busy. The town was prospering under the hand of Providence.
All that remained to bring to mind the late Indian uprising were the
ruins of a burned dwelling here and there. Back on the hillside was a
sadder recollection; a few rough stones to mark the graves of those who
had fallen in the great battle. To me there remained the scars on my arm
and side, where Simon’s knife had entered, and the furrow of a bullet
across one cheek.
I would that some other pen could set down what is to follow. For,
though I can tell poorly enough, perhaps, concerning battles, sieges and
fighting, with which I am somewhat familiar, it is hard to tell of
scenes of baking, stewing, cooking and sewing, which now seemed to
centre about me. Verily it appeared, that last week, as if I might as
well bid my sword farewell, to take up a bodkin or a ladle in its place,
so little use did I seem to have for the weapon.
Every time I went to Captain Carteret’s house, to have a few minutes
with Lucille, I found her busy with either a stew-pan or a needle. From
a maid, that had been wont to pay some small heed to what I said, she
had come, almost, to hold me in as little importance as any man in the
Colony. She would leave me in a moment, no matter what we were talking
of, if Madame Carteret, or one of the women, called her.
What I did say she either heard not, or forgot as speedily as I had
spoken.
Such bustling about as there was in the kitchen. I made bold to poke
myself in, once, but quickly drew out again. For in that short space I
nearly received a blow, accidental though it was, with a wooden pestle
on one side of my head, while another woman was within an ace of dousing
me with a jar of molasses she carried.
It seemed that Lucille’s wedding (I dared not call it mine) was the
first one in the Colony in a number of years, and the women folk were so
distracted by the thoughts of it, that they were at their wits’ end.
They made plans by the dozens, as they did cakes, only to unmake them
ere night. Indeed, next to myself, whom nobody consulted, Lucille had as
little to say as if she was but to be an onlooker. I was hard put, at
times, when I was ordered around like a school boy by the women. But
Lucille, who had more of it than I did, took it with good grace, just as
if she had been used to it all her life.
While the women were thus making ready the kitchen and gown part of the
affair, the men, who were pleased to call me Captain, had taken such
command of the block house, that I was hardly welcome there. The main
room I was by no means allowed to enter. It was the largest in the
place, and the door was kept carefully barred to me. There was much
coming and going, bringing in of evergreen boughs, foliage, and small
branches of trees, covered with bright red berries.
Several friendly Indians were seen about the town, bearing bundles, that
I could note, by an occasional glimpse, contained goods of their
workmanship. Stag horns polished until they glistened in the sun, soft
tanned skins of the deer, furry hides of the bear and wild-cat, all
these were carried into the block, and hidden in the room that was
closed to me.
So busy was every one but myself that I wandered about the settlement,
like a man without friends. I had a few matters to look after, though.
With my wealth, so strangely restored to me, I purchased a roomy and
comfortable house, the best in the town, save Carteret’s, which one of
the settlers was anxious to sell. There was a cunning cabinet maker and
carpenter in the village, and I had them alter the dwelling to suit my
ideas. I sent privately to New York for some furnishings, hired a man
and maid servant, and the place began to look like a home, only lacking
a mistress. I laid out a good-sized garden, had the farm plowed and
sowed, and supplied with horses and cows, so that there was a promise of
plenty to eat and drink. On the day before the one set for the ceremony,
I sat down, tired but happy, to spend the last few hours of my life as a
lone man. I was glad that the time was so short.