CHAPTER

I. A Sloop comes in

II. Its Cargo

III. A Colonial Dinner Party

IV. The Breaking Heart

V. In the Three-Mile Field

VI. The Hut on the Marsh

VII. A Mender of Nets

VIII. The New Secretary

IX. An Interrupted Wooing

X. Landless pays the Piper

XI. Landless becomes a Conspirator

XII. A Dark Deed

XIII. In the Tobacco House

XIV. A Midnight Expedition

XV. The Waters of Chesapeake

XVI. The Face in the Dark

XVII. Landless and Patricia

XVIII. A Capture

XIX. The Library of the Surveyor-General

XX. Wherein the Peace Pipe is smoked

XXI. The Duel

XXII. The Tobacco House again

XXIII. The Question

XXIV. A Message

XXV. The Road to Paradise

XXVI. Night

XXVII. Morning

XXVIII. Bread cast upon the Waters

XXIX. The Bridge of Rock

XXX. The Backward Track

XXXI. The Hut in the Clearing

XXXII. Attack

XXXIII. The Fall of the Leaf

XXXIV. An Accident

XXXV. The Boat that was not

XXXVI. The Last Fight

XXXVII. Vale

*CHAPTER I*

*A SLOOP COMES IN*

"She will reach the wharf in half an hour."

The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted

silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and

expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity

to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with

pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of

yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as

described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and

its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay

of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of

Virginia.

The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and

was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw

fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes.

The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of

shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out

among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following

its curves, tacked continually its great sail, intensely white against

the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes,

zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who

had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little

foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the

floor of the wide porch in which she stood.

Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to a

pillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes.

"Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining for

your father when 't is scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Do

the Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves with

such impatience?"

"The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three cases

from England."

"Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?"

"One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party at

Green Spring which the governor is to give in your honor--if you ask me,

sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us your

protestations. 'T is to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdress

of white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. The

stockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in Covent

Garden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze, and the shoes, gallooned

with silver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red

satin bodice, a scarlet taffetas mantle, a plumed hat, a pair of clasped

garters, a riding mask, a string of pearls, and the latest romances."

"A pretty list! Is that all?"

"There are things for aunt Lettice, petticoats and ribbons, a gilt

stomacher and a China monster, and for my father, lace ruffles and

bands, a pair of French laced boots, a periwig, a new scabbard for his

rapier, and so on."

The young man laughed. "'T is a curious life you Virginians lead," he

said. "The embroidered suits and ruffles, the cosmetics and perfumes of

Whitehall in the midst of oyster beds and tobacco fields, savage Indians

and negro slaves."

The girl put on a charming look of mock offense. "We _are_ a little bit

of England set down here in the wilderness. Why should we not clothe

ourselves like gentlefolk as well as our kindred and friends at home?

And sure both England and Virginia have had enough of sad colored

raiment. Better go like a peacock than like a horrid Roundhead."

Her companion laughed musically and sang a stave of a cavalier love

song. He was a slender, well-made man, dressed in the extreme of the

mode of the year of grace, sixteen hundred and sixty-three, in a richly

laced suit of camlet with points of blue ribbon, and the great scented

periwig then newly come into fashion. The close curled rings of hair

descending far over his cravat of finest Holland framed a handsome,

lazily insolent face, with large steel-blue eyes and beautifully cut,

mocking lips. A rapier with a jeweled hilt hung at his side, and one

white hand, half buried in snowy ruffles, held a beribboned cane with

which, as he talked, he ruthlessly decapitated the pink and white

morning-glories with which the porch was trellised.

The house to which the porch belonged was long and low, built of wood,

with many small windows, and at either end a great brick chimney. From

the porch to the water, a hundred yards away, stretched a walk of

crushed shells bisecting an expanse of green turf dotted with noble

trees--the cedar and the cypress predominating. Diverging from this

central walk were two narrower paths which, winding in and out in

eccentric figures, led, on the one hand, to a rustic summer-house

overgrown with honeysuckle and trumpet-vine, and on the other to a tiny

grotto constructed of shells and set in a tangle of periwinkle. Along

one side of the house, and protected by a stout locust paling overrun

with grape-vines, lay the garden, where flowers and vegetables

flourished contentedly side by side, the hollyhocks and tall white

lilies, the hundred-leaved roses and scarlet poppies showing like gilded

officers amidst the rank and file of sober essuculents. Behind the

house were clustered various offices, then came an orchard where the

June apples and the great red cherries were ripening in the hot

sunshine, then on the shore of a second and narrower creek rose the

quarters for the plantation servants, white and black--a long double row

of cabins, dominated by the overseer's house and shaded by ragged yellow

pines. Along one shore of this inlet was planted the Indian corn

prescribed by law, and from the other gleamed the soft yellow of

ripening wheat, but beyond the water and away to the westward stretched

acre after acre of tobacco, a sea of vivid green, broken only by an

occasional shed or drying house, and merging at last into the darker hue

of the forest. Over all the fair scene, the flashing water, the velvet

marshes, the smiling fields, the fringe of dark and mysterious woodland,

hung a Virginia heaven, a cloudless blue, soft, pure, intense. The air

was full of subdued sound--the distant hum of voices from the fields of

maize and tobacco, the faint clink of iron from the smithy, the wash and

lap of the water, the drone of bees from the hives beneath the eaves of

the house. Great bronze butterflies fluttered in the sunshine,

brilliant humming-birds, plunged deep into the long trumpet-flowers;

from the topmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid

trill of a mock bird.

It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certain

appalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted through

his brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads of

Orenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And the

girl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to be

berhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery.

He set his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and

turned to his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail

grow slowly larger.

"How long, now, cousin?"

"But a few minutes unless the wind should fail."

"And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you have

assumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms 't

will be but to 'gild refined gold or paint the lily.' The Aphrodite of

this western ocean needs no adornment."

The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too many

pretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of the

fine things you court gallants are perpetually saying."

"Upon my soul, madam, I swear"--

"Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing, Sir Charles? See how

large the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she will

come more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave his

handkerchief."

The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam,

but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for Colonel

Verney's handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?"

She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be several

redemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them."

"Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for their

passage money. I thank you, madam, but _my_ servitude is for life."

"The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who come

here to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batch

of felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown until

word could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the ship

captains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It is

different with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor silly

things that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to us

and we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too.

There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaol

birds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and

murderers every one!"

"I should not think the colony served by their importation."

"It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my

father not to buy them, but he says that one man cannot stop an

abuse--that as long as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do

so too."

Sir Charles Carew delicately smothered a yawn. "The ship that brought me

over a fortnight ago," he said lazily, "had a consignment of such

rascals. It was amusing to watch their antics, crowded together as they

were in the hold. There were two wild Irishmen whom we used to have on

deck to dance for us. Gad! what figures they cut! The captain and I

had a standing wager of five of the new guineas as to which of the

rascals could hold out longest, promising a measure of rum to the

victorious votary of Terpsichore. When I had lost a score of guineas I

found that the captain was in the habit of priming his man before he

came upon deck. Naturally, being filled with Dutch courage, he won."

"Poor Sir Charles! What did you do?"

"Sent the captain a cartel and fought him on his own deck. There was

one man in the villainous company whom, I protest, I almost pitied,

though of course the rogue had but his deserts."

"What was he?"

"A man of about thirty. A fellow with a handsome face and a lithe

well-made figure which he managed with some grace. He had the air of

one who had seen better days. I remember, one day when the captain was

bestowing upon him some especially choice oaths, seeing him clap his

hand to his side as though he expected to touch a rapier hilt. He was

cleanly too; kept his rags of clothing as decent as circumstances

allowed, and looked less like a wild beast in a litter of foul straw

than did his fellows. But he was an ill-conditioned dog. We had some

passages together, he and I. He took it upon himself to defend what he

was pleased to call the honor of one of his precious company. It was

vastly amusing.... After that I fell into the habit of watching him

through the open hatches. A little thing provides entertainment at sea,

Mistress Patricia. He would sit or stand for hours looking past me with

a perfectly still face. The other wretches were quick to crowd up,

whining to me to pitch them half pence or tobacco, but try as I would, I

could not get word or look from him. Sink me! if he did n't have the

impudence to resent my being there!"

"It was cruel to stare at misery."

"Lard, madam! such vermin are used to being stared at. In London,

Newgate, and Bridewell are theatres as well as the Cockpit or the King's

House, and the world of mode flock to the one spectacle as often as to

the other. But see! the sloop has passed the marsh and has a clean

sweep of water between her and the wharf."

"Yes, she is coming fast now."

"What is coming?" asked a voice from the doorway.

"The Flying Patty, Aunt Lettice," the girl answered over her shoulder.

"Get your hood and come with us to the wharf."

Mistress Lettice Verney emerged from the hall, two red spots burning in

her withered cheeks, and her tall thin figure quivering with excitement.

"I am all ready, child," she quavered. "But, mark my words, Patricia,

there will be something wrong with my paduasoy petticoat, or Charette

will not have sent the proper tale of green stockings or Holland smocks.

Did you not hear the screech owl last night?"

"No, Aunt Lettice."

"It remained beneath my window the entire night. I did not sleep a wink.

And this morning Chloe upset the salt cellar, and the salt fell towards

me." Mistress Lettice rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed

lugubriously. Patricia laughed.

"I dreamed of flowers last night, Aunt Lettice; miles and miles of them,

waxen and cold and sweet, like those they strew over the dead."

Mistress Lettice groaned. "'T is a dreadful sign. Captain Norton's wife

(she that was Polly Wilson) dreamed of flowers the night before the

massacre of 'forty-four. The only thing the poor soul said when the

warwhoop wakened them in the dead of the night and the door came

crashing in, was, 'I told you so.' They were her last words. Then

Martha Westall dreamed of flowers, and two days later her son James

stepped on a stingray over at Dale's Gift. And I myself dreamed of

roses the week before those horrid Roundhead commissioners with the

rebel Claiborne at their head and a whole fleet at their back, compelled

us to surrender to their odious Commonwealth."

"At least that evil is past," said the girl with a gay laugh. "And ill

fortune will never come to me aboard the Flying Patty, so I shall go

down to the wharf to see her in. Darkeih! my scarf!"

A negress appeared in the doorway with a veil of tissue in her hand.

Sir Charles took it from her and flung it over Patricia's golden head,

then offered his arm to Mistress Lettice.

The wharf was but a stone's throw from the wooden gates, and they were

soon treading the long stretch of gray, weather-beaten boards. Others

were before them, for the news that the sloop was coming in had drawn a

small crowd to the wharf to welcome the master.

The dozen or so of boatmen, white and black, who had been tinkering

about in the various barges, shallops and canoes tied to the mossy

piles, left their employments and scrambled up upon the platform, and a

trio of youthful darkies, fishing for crabs with a string and a piece of

salt pork, allowed their lines to fall slack and their intended victims

to walk coolly off with the meat, so intense was their interest in the

oncoming sail. A knot of negro women had left the great house kitchen

and stood, hands on hips, chatting volubly with a contingent from the

quarters, their red and yellow turbans nodding up and down like

grotesque Dutch tulips. The company was made up by an overseer with a

broadleafed palmetto hat pulled down over his eyes and a clay pipe stuck

between his teeth, a pale young man who acted as secretary to the master

of the plantation, and by three or four small land-owners and tenants

for whom Colonel Verney had graciously undertaken various commissions in

Jamestown, and who were on hand to make their acknowledgments to the

great man.

They all made deferential way for the two ladies and Sir Charles Carew.

Mistress Lettice commenced a condescending conversation with one of the

tenants, Darkeih added a white tulip to the red and yellow ones, and

Patricia, followed by Sir Charles, walked to the edge of the wharf, and

leaning upon the rude railing looked down the glassy reaches of the

water to the approaching boat.

The wind had sunk into a fitful breeze and the white sail moved very

slowly. The tide was in, and the water lapped with a cooling sound

against the dark green piles. In the distance the blue of the bay

melted into the blue of the sky, while the nearer waters mirrored every

passing gull, the masts of the fishing boats, the tall marsh grass, the

dead twigs marking oyster beds--each object had its double. On a point

of marshy ground stood a line of cranes, motionless as soldiers on

parade, until, taking fright as the great sail glided past, they whirred

off, uttering discordant cries and with their legs sticking out like

tail feathers. Slowly, and keeping to the middle of the channel, the

boat came on. Upon the long low deck men were preparing to lower the

sail, and a portly gentleman standing in the bow was vigorously waving

his handkerchief. The sail came down with a rush, the anchor swung

overboard, and half a dozen canoes and dugouts shot from under the

shadow of the wharf and across the strip of water between it and the

sloop. The gentleman with the handkerchief, followed by a man plainly

dressed in brown, sprang into the foremost; the others waited for their

lading of merchandise.

Before the boat had touched the steps the master of the plantation began

to call out greetings to his expectant family.

"Patricia, my darling, are you in health? Charles, I am happy to see

you again! Sister Lettice, Mr. Frederick Jones sends you his humble

services."

"La, brother! and how is the dear man?" screamed Mistress Lettice.

"As well as't is in nature to be, with his heart at Verney Manor and his

body at Flowerdieu Hundred."

The boat jarred against the piles and the planter stepped out, grasping

Sir Charles's extended hand.

"Again, I am happy to see you, Charles," he cried in a round and jovial

voice. "I have been telling my up-river good friends that I have the

most topping fellow in all London for my guest, and you will have

company enough anon."

Sir Charles smiled and bowed. "I hope, sir, that you were successful in

the business that took you to Jamestown?"

"Fairly so, fairly so. Haines here," with a wave of the hand towards

the man in brown, "had a lot picked out for me to choose from. I have

six negroes and three of those blackguards from Newgate--mighty poor

policy to shoulder ourselves with such gaol sweepings. I doubt we 'll

repent it some day. The blacks come by way of Boston, which means that

they will have to be cockered up considerably before they are fit for

work. Is that you, Woodson? How have things gone on?"

The overseer took his pipe from between his teeth and made an awkward

bow.

"Glad to see your Honor back," he said deferentially. "Everything 's all

right, sir. The last rain helped the corn amazingly, and the tobacco 's

prime. The lightning struck a shed, but we got the flames out before

they reached the hogsheads. The Nancy got caught in a squall; lost both

masts and ran aground on Gull Marsh. The tide will take her off at the

full of the moon. Sambo 's been playing 'possum again. Said he 'd cut

his foot with his hoe so badly that he could n't stand upon it. Said I

could see that by the blood on the rag that tied it up. I made him take

off the rag and wash the foot, and there wa'n't no cut there. The blood

was puccoon. If he 'd waited a bit he could 'a' had all he wanted to

paint with, for I gave him the rope's end lively, until Mistress

Patricia heard him yelling and made me stop."

"All right, Woodson. I reckon the plantation knows by this time that

what Mistress Patricia says is law. Here come the boats with the boxes.

Tell the men to be careful how they handle them."

After a hearty word or two to tenants and land owners the worthy Colonel

joined his daughter and sister; and together with Sir Charles Carew they

watched the precious boxes conveyed up the slippery steps, the overseer

shouting directions, plentifully sprinkled with selected, unfinable

oaths to the panting boatmen. When all were safely piled upon the wharf

ready to be wheeled to the great house, the empty boats swung off to

make room for others, laden with the colonel's Jamestown purchases.

One by one the articles climbed the stairs, each as it reached the level

being claimed by the overseer and told off into a lengthening line. Six

were negroes, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but smiling widely. They gazed

around them, at the heap of clams and oysters piled upon the wharf, at

the marshes, alive with wild fowl, at the distant green of waving corn,

the flower-embowered great house, the white quarters from which arose

many little spirals of savory smoke, and a bland and child-like content

took possession of their souls. With eager and obsequious "Yes Mas'rs"

they obeyed the overseer's objurgatory indications as to their

disposition.

There next arose above the landing the head of a white man--a

countenance of sullen ferocity, with a great scar running across it, and

framed in elf locks of staring red. The body belonging to this

prepossessing face was swollen and unshapely, and its owner moved with a

limp and a muttered curse towards the place assigned him. He was

followed by a sallow-faced, long-nosed man, with black oily hair and an

affected smirk which twitched the corners of his thin lips. Singling

out his master's family with a furtive glance from a pair of sinister

greenish eyes, he made a low bow and stepped jauntily into line.

The third man rose above the landing. Sir Charles, standing by

Patricia, laughed.

"This world is a place of fantastic meetings, cousin," he said, airily.

"Now who would suppose that I would ever again see that chipping from a

London gaol I told you of--my shipmate of cleanly habit and unsocial

nature. Yet there he is."

*CHAPTER II*

*ITS CARGO*

The afternoon sunshine lay hot upon the house and garden of Verney

Manor--the leaves drooped motionless, the glare of the white paths hurt

the eye, the flowers seemed all to be red. The odor of rose and

honeysuckle was drowned in the heavy cloying sweetness of the pendant

masses of locust bloom. Down in the garden the bees droned in the vines,

and on the steps the flies buzzed undisturbed about the sleeping hounds.

Above the long, deserted wharf and the green velvet of the marshes

quivered the heated air, while to look upon the water was like gazing

too closely at blue flame. From the tobacco fields floated the notes of

a monotonous many-versed chant, and a soft, uninterrupted cooing came

from the dove cot. Heat and fragrance and drowsy sound combined to give

a pleasant somnolence to the wide sunny scene.

Deep in the cavernous shade of the porch lounged the master of the

plantation, his body in one chair, his legs in another, and a silver

tankard of sack standing upon a third, over the back of which had been

flung his great peruke and his riding coat of green cloth, discarded

because of the heat. Thin, blue clouds curled up from his long pipe,

and obscured his ruddy countenance.

His shrewd gray eyes under their tufts of grizzled hair were half closed

in a lazy contentment, born of the hour, the pipe, and the drink. The

world went very well just then in Colonel Verney's estimation. His crop

of the preceding year had been a large and profitable one: this year it

bid fair to be still more satisfactory. During the past few months he

had acquired a number of servants and slaves, and his head rights would

add a goodly number of acres to his already enormous holdings; land,

land, always more land! being the ambition and the necessity of the

seventeenth century Virginia planter. Trader, planter, magistrate,

member of the council of state, soldier, author on occasion, and fine

gentleman all rolled into one, after the fashion of the times; Cavalier

of the Cavaliers, hand in glove with Governor Berkeley, and possessed of

a beautiful daughter, for whose favor one half of the young gentlemen of

the counties of York and Gloucester were ready to draw rapier on the

other half,--Colonel Verney's world was a fair and stirring one, and

gave him plentiful food for meditation on a fine afternoon.

Opposite him sat his kinsman and guest, Sir Charles Carew. He was

similarly equipped with pipe and sack, but there the resemblance to his

host ended, Sir Charles Carew being a man who made it a point of honor

to be clad like the lilies of the field on every possible occasion in

life, from the carrying a breach to the ogling a milkmaid. The sultry

afternoon had no power to affect the scrupulous elegance of his attire,

or to alter the careful repose of his manner. In his hand he held a

volume of "Hudibras," but his thoughts were not upon the book, wandering

instead, with those of his kinsman, over the fertile fields of Verney

Manor.

"You have a princely estate, sir, in this fair, new world," he said at

last, in a sweetly languid voice.

The planter roused himself from considering at what point of his newly

acquired land he should begin the attack upon the forest. "It 's a fair

enough home for a man to end his days in," he said with complacence.

"We of the court have very erroneous ideas as to Virginia. I confess

that my expectation of finding a courteous and loving kinsman," a

gracious smile and inclination of the head towards the older man, "is

the only one in which I have not been disappointed. I thought to see a

rude wilderness, and I find, to borrow the language of our Roundhead

friends, a very land of Beulah."

"Ay, ay. D' ye remember what old Drayton sings?

'Virginia!

Earth's only paradise!'

And a paradise it is, with mighty few drawbacks, now that the King has

come to his own again, if you except these d--d canting Quakers and

Anabaptists, and those yelling red devils on the frontier, and the

danger of a servant insurrection, and the fact that his Majesty (God

bless him!) and the Privy Council fleece us more mercilessly than did

old Noll himself. I verily think they believe our tobacco plants made of

gold like those they say Pizarro saw in Peru. But 'tis a sweet land!

Why, look around you!" he cried, warming to his subject. "The waters

swarm with fish, the marshes with wild fowl. In the winter the air

rings with the _cohonk! cohonk!_ of the wild geese. They darken the air

when they come and go. There in the forest stand the deer, waiting for

your bullet; badgers and foxes, bears, wolves, and catamounts are more

plentiful than are hares in England. You taste pleasure indeed when you

ride full tilt through the frosty moonlight, down the ringing glades of

the forest, and hear the hounds in full cry, and see before you, black

against the silver snow, a pack of yelling wolves. Then in summer the

woods are full of singing birds and of such flowers as you in England

only dream of. Strawberries make the ground red, and there are wild

melons and grapes and mulberries, and more nuts than squirrels, which is

saying much for the nuts. Everything grows here. 'T is the garden of

the world. And what is there fairer than the green of the tobacco and

the golden corn tassels? And the noble rivers, whose head waters no man

has ever found, hidden by the Lord in the Blue Mountains near to the

South Sea! Sir, Virginia is God's country!"

"You in these lowlands have no trouble with the Indians?"

"None to speak of since 'forty-four, when Opechancanough came down upon

us. The brush with the Ricahecrians seven years ago was nothing. They

are utterly broken, both here and in Accomac. Further up the rivers the

devil still holds his own, we hearing doleful tales of the butchery of

pioneers with their wives and children; and above the falls of the far

west, in the Monacan country, and towards the Blue Mountains, is his

stronghold and capitol; but here in the lowlands all's safe enough.

There is no fear of the savages. Would we could say as much of the

servants!"

"Why, what do you fear from them?"

"It 's hard to say; but an uneasy feeling has prevailed for a year or

more. It's this d--d Oliverian element among them. You see, ever since

his Majesty's blessed restoration, gang after gang of rebels have been

sent us--Independents, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchy men, dour Scotch

Whigamores--dangerous fanatics all! Many are Naseby or Worcester

rogues, Ironsides who worship the memory of that devil's lieutenant,

Oliver. All have the gift of the gab. We disperse them as much as

possible, not allowing above five or six to any one plantation, we of

the Council realizing that they form a dangerous leaven. Should there

be trouble, which heaven forbid! they would be the instigators, restless

mischief-makers and overturners of the established order of things that

they are! Then there are their fellow criminals, the highwaymen,

forgers, cutpurses and bullies of whom we relieve his Majesty's

government. They are few in number, but each is a very plague spot,

infecting honester men. The slaves, always excepting the Portuguese and

Spanish mulattoes from the Indies, who are devils incarnate, have not

brain enough to conspire. But in the actual event of a rising they

would be fiends unchained."

"A pleasant state of affairs!"

"Oh, it is not so serious! We who govern the Colony have to take all

possibilities, however unpleasant, into consideration. I myself do not

think the danger imminent, and many in the Council and among the

Burgesses, and well-nigh all outside will not allow that there is danger

at all. We passed more stringent servant laws last year, and we depend

upon them, and upon the great body of indented servants, who are, for

the most part, honest and amenable and know upon which side their bread

is buttered, to repress the unruly element."

"What will you do with the convicts you brought with you this morning?"

"Use them in the tobacco fields just now when all hands are needed to

weed and sucker the plants, and afterwards put them to hewing down the

forest. I told Woodson to bring them around to me this afternoon when

they had been decently clothed. I always give the scoundrels a piece of

my mind to begin with. It saves trouble."

"Do they give you much trouble?"

"Not on this plantation. Woodson and Haines are excellent overseers."

The planter refilled his pipe, struck a light with his flint and steel,

and leaning back amidst the fragrant clouds, allowed his eyelids to

droop and his mind to wander over a pleasant sunshiny tract of nothing

in particular.

Sir Charles tasted his sack, adjusted his ruffles, and resumed his

reading. But even the delectable adventures of the Presbyterian knight,

over whom all London was laughing, palled on such an afternoon, and the

young gentleman, after listlessly turning a page or two, laid the book

across his knee, and with closed eyes commenced the construction of an

air castle of his own.

He was roused by the sound of approaching footsteps upon the shell path

leading to the back of the house, and by the harsh voice of the

overseer.

"Here come your hopeful purchases, sir," he said lazily.

The overseer turned the corner of the house and came forward with the

three convicts at his heels. He doffed his hat to the two gentlemen,

then turned to his charges. "Fall into line, you dogs, and salute his

Honor!"

The first man, he of the long nose and the twitching lip, smiled

sweetly, and bent so low that his fell of greasy hair well-nigh swept

the steps; the second, with a brow like a thunder cloud, gave a vicious

nod; the third, with as impassive a countenance as Sir Charles's own,

bowed gravely, and stood with folded arms and a quietly attentive mien.

The planter gathered himself up from his chair and came forward to the

top of the steps, his tall, corpulent figure towering above the men

below much as his fortunes towered above theirs.

"Now, men," he said, speaking sternly and with slow emphasis. "I have

just one word to say to you. Listen well to it. I am your master; you

are my servants. I reckon myself a good master, it not being my way to

treat those belonging to me, whether white or black, like dumb beasts.

Give me obedience and the faithful work of your hands, and you shall

find me kind. But if you are stubborn or rebellious, by the Lord, you

will rue the day you left Newgate! Whipping-post and branding-irons are

at hand, and death is something closer to a felon in Virginia than in

England. Be careful! Now, Woodson, what have you put these men to?"

"They 'll go into the three-mile field to-morrow morning, your honor,

unless you wish other disposition made of them."

"No, that will do. Take them away."

The overseer faced about and was marching off with the recruits for the

three-mile field when his master's voice arrested him.

"Take those two in front on with you, Woodson, and send me back the

brown-haired one."

The "brown-haired one" turned as his companions disappeared around a

hedge of privet and came slowly back to the steps.

"You wished to speak to me, sir?" he said quietly.

"Yes. You are the man who was tolerably helpful in the squall last

night?"

"I was so fortunate as to be of some small service, sir."

"You understand the handling of a boat?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hum. I will tell Woodson to try you with a sloop when the press of

work in the fields is past. What is your name?"

"Godfrey Landless."

"Chevalier d'Industrie and frequenter of the Newgate Ordinary," put in

Sir Charles lazily. "Of the Roundhead persuasion too, if I mistake

not,--from robbery in the large, descended to thievery in the small;

from the murder of a King to knives and a black alley mouth. Commend me

to these grave rogues for real knaves! Pray inform us to what little

mishap we owe the honor of your company. Did you mercifully incline to

relieve weary travelers over Hounslow Heath by disburdening them of

their heavy purses? Or did you mistake your own handwriting for that of

some one else? Or did you woo a mercer's wife a thought too roughly?

Or perhaps--"

The man shot a fiery upward glance at the slim, elegant figure and

mocking lips of his tormentor, but kept silence. Colonel Verney, who

had returned to his pipe, interposed. "What is all this, Charles? What

are you saying to the man?"

"Oh, nothing, sir! This gentleman and I were shipmates, and I did but

ask after his health since the voyage."

"Sir Charles Carew is very good," the man said proudly. "I assure him

that the object of his solicitude is well, and only desires an

opportunity to repay, with interest, those little attentions shown him

by his courteous fellow voyager."

The planter looked puzzled: Sir Charles laughed.

"Our liking is mutual, I see," he said coolly. "I--but what is this,

Colonel Verney! Venus descending from Olympus?"

Out of the doorway fluttered a brilliant vision, all blue and white like

the great butterflies hovering over the clove pinks. Behind it appeared

the faded countenance of Mrs. Lettice, and a group of turbaned heads

peered, grinning, from out the cool darkness of the hall.

"Papa!" cried the vision. "I want to show you my new dress! Cousin

Charles, you are to tell me if it is all as it should be!"

Sir Charles bowed, with his hand upon his heart. "Alas, madam! I could

as soon play critic to the choir of angels. My eyes are dazzled."

"Stand out, child," said her father gazing at her with eyes of love and

pride, "and let us see your finery. D' ye know what the extravagant

minx has upon her back, Charles? Just five hogsheads of prime tobacco!"

Mistress Lettice struck in: "Well, I 'm sure, brother, 't is much the

prettiest use to put tobacco to, to turn it into lace and brocade and

jewels,--much better, say I, than to be forever using it to accumulate

filthy slaves."

Patricia floated to the centre of the porch and stood sunning herself in

a stray shaft of light, like a very bird of paradise. The "tempestuous

petticoat," sky-blue and laced with silver, swelled proudly outwards,

the gleaming satin bodice slipped low over the snowy shoulders and the

heaving bosom, and the sleeves, trimmed with magnificent lace and looped

with pearls, showed the rounded arms to perfection. Around the slender

throat was wound a double row of pearls, and the golden ringlets were

partially confined by a snood of blue velvet. She unfurled a wonderful

fan, and lifted her skirts to show the tiny white and silver shoes and

the silken silver-clocked ankles. Her eyes shone like stars, faint wild

roses bloomed in her cheeks, charming half smiles chased each other

across her dainty mouth. Such a picture of radiant youth and loveliness

did she present that the Englishman's pulses quickened, and he swore

under his breath. "Surely," he muttered, "this is the most beautiful

woman in the world, and my lucky stars have sent me to this No Man's

Land to win her."

"How do you like me?" she cried gayly. "Is't not worth the five

hogsheads?"

Her father drew her to him and kissed the smooth forehead.

"You look just as your mother did, child, the day that we were

betrothed. I could not give you higher praise than that, sweetheart."

"And does it really lack nothing, cousin?" she cried anxiously. "Is it

in truth such a dress as they wear at Court?"

"Not at Whitehall, madam, nor at Brussels, nor even at St. Germains have

I seen anything more point device than the dress,--nor as beautiful as

the wearer," he added in a lower voice and with a lulling look.

The girl's face dimpled with pleasure and innocent, gratified vanity.

She swept him a magnificent courtesy, and he bent low over the slender

fingers she gave him. Suddenly he felt them stiffen in his clasp, and

looking up, saw a curious expression of fear and aversion pass like a

shadow across her face. She spoke abruptly. "That man! I did not see

him! What does he here?"

Sir Charles wheeled. The convict, forgotten by the two gentlemen, had

been left standing at the foot of the steps, and his sombre eyes were

now fixed upon the girl in a look so strange and intent as fully to

explain her perturbation. Through his parted lips the breath came

hurriedly, in his eyes was a mournful exaltation as of one who looks

from a desert into Paradise. He stood absorbed, unconscious of aught

save the splendid vision above him. For a moment she stared at him in

return, her eyes, held by his, slowly widening and the color quite gone

from her face. With a slow, involuntary movement one white arm rose,

and stiffened before her in a gesture of repulsion. The fan fell from

her hand upon the floor with a click of breaking tortoise shell. The

sound broke the spell, and with a strong shudder she turned her eyes

away. "Make him go," she said in a trembling voice. "He frightens me."

Sir Charles sprang forward with an oath. "Curse you, you dog! Take

your ill-omened eyes from the lady! Colonel Verney, do you not see that

the fellow is annoying your daughter?"

The planter had fallen into a reverie born of recollections of the

Patricia of his youth, long laid in her grave, but he roused himself at

the words of his guest.

"What's that?" he cried. "Annoying Patricia!" He walked to the head of

the steps and raised his cane threateningly.

"Hark ye, sirrah! The servants of Verney Manor, white or black, felon

or indented, need all their eyesight for their work. They have none to

waste in idle gazing at their betters. Begone to your mates!"

The man who, at Sir Charles's intervention, had started as from a dream,

colored deeply and compressed his lips, then glanced from one to the

other of the group above him. There was pain, humiliation, almost

supplication in the look which he directed to the girl who had brought

this rating upon him. He glanced at his master with a countenance

studiously devoid of expression, at Mistress Lettice with indifference,

at Sir Charles Carew with chill defiance. Then, with a grave

inclination of his head, he turned, and a moment later had disappeared

behind the hedge.

*CHAPTER III*

*A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY*

Three days later the master of Verney Manor gave a dinner party.

At Jamestown, twenty miles away, the Assembly had just adjourned after a

busy session. A law debarring that "turbulent people" the Quakers from

further admittance into the colony, and providing cold comfort for those

already within its doors, was passed with acclamation, as was another

against Anabaptists, and a third concerning the hue and cry for

absconding servants and slaves. The selling rates for wines and strong

waters were fixed, a proper penalty attached to the planting of tobacco

contrary to the statute, a regulation for the mending of the highways

adopted, a fine imposed for non-attendance at church, the Navigation Act

formally protested against, the trainbands strengthened, an

appropriation made for the erection of new whipping-posts and pillories,

a cruel mistress deprived of the slave she had mistreated, a harborer of

schismatics publicly reproved, and a conciliatory message and present

sent to the up-river Indians--when the Assembly adjourned with the

consciousness of having nobly done its duty. The only measure upon

which there was not unanimity of opinion was one proposing the erection

of schoolhouses at convenient cross-roads, and the Governor's weight

being thrown into the balance against it, it was promptly quashed.

The burgesses from the fourteen counties filled the twenty houses that

constituted the town to suffocation. Up-river planters, too, had come

in, choosing the time the Assembly was in session to attend to their

interests in the "city." Several ships were in harbor, and their

captains, professing themselves tired of salt water, threw themselves

upon the hospitality of their friends ashore. The crowded population

overflowed into the houses of the neighboring planters, who, after the

manner of their kind, entertained profusely, giving jovial welcome and

good liquor to all comers. There was a constant jingling of reins along

the bridle paths, a constant passing of white-sailed sloops upon the

river, as gentlemen in riding coats and jack boots, or in laced coats

and silk stockings, fared to and fro between plantation and town. In

the intervals of business the worthy burgesses and their fellow planters

made merry. They were good times--for king's men--and it behooved every

loyal subject to follow (at a respectful distance) his Majesty's

example, and get all possible enjoyment from a laughing world. So there

were horse-races and cock-fights and bear-baitings, as well as dinners

and suppers, at which much sack and aqua vitae was drunk to king,

church, and reigning beauties. And if a quarrel sprung, full armed,

from the heated brains of young gallants, crossed rapiers did but add a

piquancy, a dash of cayenne, to life.

Popular with the elder gentlemen because of his excellent Madeira, quick

wit, jovial soul, and friendship with the Governor, and with the younger

by virtue of being father to Mistress Patricia Verney, Colonel Richard

Verney had no difficulty in securing a score of guests for a day's

entertainment at Verney Manor.

About ten in the morning of the appointed day the guests began to

arrive, some by water, some on horseback, Colonel Verney meeting each

arrival with a stately bow and a high-flown speech of welcome, and

handing him on to the hall where stood Sir Charles Carew and the ladies

of the household.

Upon a pillion behind her father, Major Miles Carrington,

Surveyor-General to the Colony, came Mistress Betty Carrington, bosom

friend to Mistress Patricia Verney. Her sweetly serious face, pensive

eyes, and smooth, dark hair, with her dress of sober silk and kerchief

of finest lawn, demurely crossed over her bosom, contrasted finely with

Patricia's radiant beauty, decked in shimmering satin and rich lace, and

heightened by a tinge of vermilion upon the smooth cheek, and a long

black patch beneath the left temple. The two met like friends whom

weary years have parted, and indeed they had not seen each other for

nearly a week.

All the guests, save one, had arrived. Colonel Verney fidgeted, sent a

servant wench to look at the kitchen clock, and dispatched his secretary

to an upstairs window, whence was visible a long stretch of what

courtesy called the highroad.

The secretary returned and whispered his master. "God be thanked!"

exclaimed the latter. "I feared that his machine had mired in the

Two-Mile Swamp, or had toppled into a gully coming through the Devil's

Strip. Gentlemen, the Governor's coach is in sight. Shall we adjourn to

the porch and there await his Excellency?"

A mighty straining, jingling and lumbering came with the breeze down the

road and proceeded from a pillar of dust which was approaching the house

with reasonable rapidity. Presently the road changed from a trough of

dust into a ribbon of greensward. The cloud dissipated itself, streaming

away like the tail of a comet, and a ponderous and much begilt coach,

drawn by six horses, their manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and

outriders in gorgeous livery at the heads of each pair, rolled, or

rather bumped into sight. With a seasick motion it undulated over the

green acclivities of the road, and finally drew up beside the great

horse-block at the gate.

Two lackeys sprang from their perch behind the vehicle, flung open the

door, and lowered a short flight of steps. A very stately gentleman,

richly dressed, with a handkerchief of point in one hand and a jeweled

snuff-box in the other, descended the steps, placing one shapely leg in

its maroon-colored stocking before the other with the mannered grace of

the leader of a Coranto.

Colonel Verney met him with a low bow and smiling face, after which the

two embraced, for they were old friends.

"My dear Governor!"

"My dear Colonel!"

"I am charmed to welcome your Excellency to my poor house."

"My dear Colonel, I am charmed to be here. Gad! the possession of the

only chariot in the Colony is a burdensome honor! I thought dinner

would be over, and the stirrup cup in order while I was creeping, like a

snail with his house on his back, over these 'fair and pleasant

roads'--as I call them in my book, eh, Dick! But you have a goodly

company, I see; Ludwell, Fitzhugh, Carey, Anthony Nash, mine ancient

enemy Lawrence, Wormeley, Carrington our Puritan convert and his pretty

daughter, young Peyton, and that pretty fellow, your nephew or cousin,

is he? Odzooks! he is much what I was at his age, begotten of Delilah

and Lucifer, hand of iron in glove of velvet, eh, Dick! I hear he is

hail-fellow-well-met with the King and with Buckingham and Killigrew and

their wild set. Ah, boys will be boys! 'We have heard the chimes at

midnight,' eh, Dick?"

And the Governor in high good humor skipped up the steps with the

agility of youth, bent low with sugared compliments over the hands of

his hostesses and of Mistress Betty Carrington, and gave courteous

greeting to the assembled gentlemen, after which the company flowed back

into the grateful twilight of hall and "great room," where the weather,

the state of the crops, and the last horse-race engaged them until the

announcement of dinner.

With a flourish of his costly handkerchief, the Governor offered his arm

to the young mistress of the house, and led the way to the dining-room,

where old Humfrey, the butler, marshaled the guests to their seats.

Mistress Betty Carrington had for her cavalier Sir Charles Carew, to

whose honeyed words she listened with a species of awe, wondering in her

innocent soul if all the wild tales they told of this very fine,

smooth-tongued, handsome gentleman could be true.

Doctor Anthony Nash made a long and fluent grace wherein much latinity

was aired, a neat allusion made to the _jus divinum_, and an anathema

hurled against those "who break down the carved work of the sanctuary."

Then was uncovered the mighty saddle of mutton, reposing in the dish of

honor, the roast pig, the haunch of venison, the sirloin of beef, the

breast of veal, the powdered goose, the noble dish of sheeps-head and

bluefish, and the pasty in which was entombed a whole flock of pigeons.

These _pieces de resistance_ were flanked by bowls of oysters, by rows

of wild fowl skewered together, by mince pies and a grand salad, while

upon the outskirts of the damask plain were stationed trenchers piled

with wheat bread, platters of pease and smoking potatoes, cauliflower

and asparagus, and a concoction of rice and prunes, seasoned with mace

and cinnamon and a pinch of assafoetida. A great silver salt-cellar

stood in the centre of the table, and smaller receptacles of the same

metal held pepper and spices. Silver flagons of cider and ale were

placed at intervals, the Madeira, Fayal and Rhenish awaiting upon the

sideboard the moment when, the cloth drawn and the ladies gone, a

gentlemanly carousal should be inaugurated.

The company drew their Russian leather chairs closer to the table,

spread over their silken knees the fringed damask napkins, and for a

space little was to be heard but the sound of knife and spoon (forks

there were none), for the morning ride had sharpened appetites. The

servants passed from chair to chair; the master, seconded by his

daughter and sister, pricked his guests on to fresh attacks, pressing a

third slice of mutton on one, a fresh helping of capon upon another,

protesting that a third ate as though it were a fast day, and that a

fourth drank as though the October were sea-water.

When the cloth was drawn and the banquet put on, tongues were loosened.

The Governor quoted passages from his "Lost Lady" to Patricia, lifting

her lovely flushed face from the carving of a tart with wonderfully

constructed towering walls. Behind a second turreted marvel of pastry,

Mistress Lettice and Mr. Frederick Jones sighed and ogled with antique

grace. Sir Charles Carew, fingering his cherries, told a piquant little

court anecdote to Mistress Betty Carrington, and was lazily amused at

the blush and veiled eyelids with which the young lady received it.

Young Mr. Peyton, on her other side, looked very black.

The wine was put on and the toast to King and Church drunk standing,

after which the ladies dipped their white fingers into the basin of

perfumed water, dried them on the silver-fringed napkin, and sailed to

the door, through which, after the profoundest of courtesies on the one

side and the lowest of bows upon the other, they vanished, leaving the

gentlemen to wine and wassail.

Colonel Verney drank to the Governor; the Governor to Colonel Verney;

Sir Charles to the author of the "Lost Lady" and the "Discourse and View

of Virginia," so tickling the Governor's vanity thereby that he became

altogether charming. Mr. Peyton toasted Mistress Betty Carrington, and

Mr. Frederick Jones, Mistress Lettice Verney, "fairest and most discreet

of ladies." They drank to Captain Laramore's next voyage, to Mr.

Wormeley's success in vine planting, to Major Carrington's conversion.

They drank confusion to Quakers, Independents, Baptists and infidels, to

the heathen on the frontier and the Papists in Maryland, the Dutch on

the Hudson and the French on the St. Lawrence,--"Quebec in exchange for

Dunkirk!" In short, there were few things in heaven or earth but

justified draughts of Madeira.

The room filled with a blue and fragrant mist proceeding from twenty

pipe-bowls. Mr. Peyton sang a pretty song of his own composing. The

company applauded. Sir Charles Carew, in a richly plaintive tenor

voice, sang a lyric of Rochester's. Several of the gentlemen looked

askance (the clergyman had left the room with the ladies), but on the

Governor's crying out "Excellent!" they considered themselves

over-squeamish, and clapped loudly.

Sir Charles, being dry after his song, drank to Hospitality,--"A duty,"

he said, smiling, "that you gentlemen make so paramount that you must

wonder at the omission of 'Thou shalt be hospitable' from the

Decalogue."

"Faith, sir!" cried Mr. Peyton, "God is too good a Virginian not to

consider such a commandment superfluous."

The Governor commenced a story which all present, but one, had heard a

dozen times. It mattered the less, as it was a good one. Sir Charles

capped it with a better. The Governor told a weird tale of Lunsford's

men, the "babe-eating" regiment. Sir Charles recounted a little

adventure of His Grace of Buckingham with a quack astrologer, a Court

lady, and an orange girl, which made the company die of laughter.

"Rat me! but you tell a story well, sir!" said the Governor, wiping his

eyes.

"I serve King Charles the Second, your Excellency."

"And so have to live by your wit, eh, sir?"

"Precisely, your Excellency."

"Emigrate to Virginia, man! to the land of good eating, good drinking,

good fighting, stout men, and pretty women--who make angelic wives."

And the Governor, who loved his own wife with chivalric devotion, kissed

a locket which he wore at his neck. "Come to Virginia where we need

loyal men and true. Lord! we all thought the millennium was come with

the king, but damme! if it doesn't seem as far off as ever! Not that

his Majesty is to blame," he added quickly, as though fearing that his

words might be taken as an aspersion upon Charles's ability to conduct

the millennium single-handed. "The naughty spirit of the age sets

itself against the Lord's Anointed. The Puritan snake is but scotched,

not killed. It's the old prate of freedom of conscience, government by

the people, and the like disgusting stuff (no offense to you, Major

Carrington) that makes the trouble of the times both here and at home.

I sigh for the good old days when, for eleven sweet years, no Parliament

sat to meddle in affairs of state, when Wentworth kept down faction and

the saintly Laud built up the Church which he adorned." And the

Governor buried his woes in the Rhenish.

"Sir William Berkeley's loyalty is proverbial," said Sir Charles

suavely. "The King knows that while he is at the helm in Virginia, the

colony is on the high road to that era of peace and prosperity which his

majesty so ardently desires--for his tax-paying people. And I have

thought more than once of late that I might do worse than to dispose of

my majority in the 'Blues,' bid the Court adieu, and obtaining from his

Majesty a grant of land, retire here to Virginia to pass my days on my

own land and amid a little court of my own, in the patriarchal fashion

you gentlemen affect. Under certain circumstances it is a course I

might possibly pursue." He glanced at his kinsman, whose countenance

showed high approval of a plan which dovetailed nicely with one of his

own making.

"Can you guess the 'certain circumstances' which are to give us the

pleasure of his confounded company?" whispered Mr. Peyton to Mr. Carey.

"An easy riddle, Jack. Damn the insolent, smooth-spoken knave of

hearts, and confound the women! They all drop to a court card."

"Not Mistress Betty Carrington. She looks below the surface."

"Humph! What does she see below thine? An empty gourd with a few

madrigals and sonnets, and fine images, conned from the 'Grand Cyrus,'

rattling about like dried seeds?"

"Hush, thou green persimmon! the Governor is speaking."

The governor rose with care to his feet. His wig was awry, his cravat

of fine mechlin under one ear. Benevolent smiles played like summer

lightning across his flushed face. He raised his tankard slowly and

with attentive steadiness. "Gentlemen," he said in a high voice, "we

have eaten and we have drunken. Dick Verney's wine is as old as the

hills and as mellow as sunlight. It groweth late, gentlemen, and some

of you have miles to travel, and it takes cool heads to ride the

'planter's pace.' For William Berkeley, gentlemen, Governor of Virginia

by the grace of God and his Majesty, King Charles the Second, it takes

more than Dick Verney's wine to fluster him. I call a final toast. I

drink again to our loving friend and host, the worshipful Colonel

Richard Verney, to his beauteous daughter and sister, to his man-servant

and his maid-servant, his ox and his ass, and the stranger which is

within his gates." He smiled benignly at a reflection of Sir Charles in

a distant mirror. "Gentlemen, the devil, you see, can quote scripture.

Let the cup go roun' go roun', go roun'."

The toast was drunk with fervor, and the party broke up.

The Governor, with Colonel Ludlow and Captain Laramore, was to sleep at

Verney Manor, and Mistress Betty Carrington was left by her father to

bear Patricia company for a day or two. One by one the remainder of the

company rode or sailed away, those who had an even keel beneath them

being in much better case than their brethren on horseback.

When the last sail showed a white speck in the distance, Patricia and

Betty came out upon the porch and sat them down, one on either side of

the Governor, with whom they were great favorites. Colonel Ludlow and

Captain Laramore were at dice at a table within the hall, and Colonel

Verney had excused himself in order to hear the evening report from his

overseers. Sir Charles Carew, very idle and purposeless-looking,

lounged in a great chair, and studied the miniature upon his snuff-box.

The Governor, whom the wine had mellowed into a genial softness, a kind

of sunset glow, alternately puffed wide rings of smoke into the air, and

paid compliments to the young ladies. The evening breeze had sprung up,

rustling the leaves of the trees, and bringing with it the sound of the

water. In the western sky crimson islets forever shifted shapes in a

sea of gold. A rosy light suffused the earth. In it the water turned

to the pink of a shell, the marshes became ethereal and far away, earth

and sky seemed one. The flashing wings of gull and curlew were like

fairy sails faring to and fro.

"If I had wings," said Patricia dreamily, her hands clasped over her

knees, "I would fly straight to that highest island of cloud. The one,

Betty, that looks like a field of daffodils, with those beautiful peaks

rising from it, and the violet light in the hollows. I would set up my

standard there, Sir William, and the island should be mine, and I would

rule the fairies that must inhabit it, with a rod of iron--as you rule

Virginia," she ended with a laugh.

The Governor laughed with her. "You would have no such stiff-necked

folk to deal with, my love, as have I."

"No, they should all be good Cavaliers and Churchmen--no Roundheads, no

servants--and if Indians on neighboring isles threatened we would pray

for a wind and sail away from them, around and around the bright blue

sky."

"And when you are gone to take possession of your castle in the air what

will poor Virginia do?" gallantly demanded the governor.

"Oh, she would still exist! But I am not going to-night. The princess

of the castle in the air is engaged to his Excellency the Governor of

Virginia for a game of chess. In the mean time here comes my father,

who shall entertain your Excellency while Betty and I go for a walk.

Come, Lady-bird."

The two graceful figures twined arms and moved off down the walk. Sir

Charles looked after them a moment, then, with a "Permit me, sir," to

the Governor, he snapped the lid of his snuff-box and started down the

steps. The Governor laughed. "We will excuse you, sir," he said

graciously. "Dick," to Colonel Verney, as the young gentleman hastened

after the ladies, "that fine spark is to be your son-in-law, eh?"

"It is the wish of my heart, William."

"Humph!"

"He has birth and breeding. His father was my good friend and kinsman,

and as loyal a Cavalier as ever gave life and lands for the blessed

Martyr. He died in my arms at Marston Moor, and with his last breath

commended his son to me. My dear wife was then expecting the birth of

our child, of Patricia. I can see him now as he smiled up at me (he was

ever gay) and said, 'If it's a girl, Dick, marry her to my boy.' Well!

he died, and his brother took the boy, and my wife and I came over seas,

and I never saw the lad from that day to this, when he comes at my

invitation to visit us."

"Well, he is a very pretty fellow! And what does Patricia say to him?"

"Patricia is a good daughter," said the Colonel sedately, "and is

possessed of sense beyond the average of womenkind. She knows the

advantages this match offers. Sir Charles Carew can give her a title,

and a name that's as old as her own. He is a man of parts and

distinction, has served the King, is familiar with the courts of Europe.

I do not pin my faith to the tales that are told of him. His father was

a gallant gentleman, and I am not the man to believe ill of his son.

Moreover, if, as he hath half promised, he will come to Virginia, he

will throw off here the vices of the Court, the faults of youth, and

become an honest Virginia gentleman, God-fearing, law-abiding,

reverencing the King, but not copying him too closely--such an one as

them or I, William. The king should give him large grants of land, and

so, with what Patricia will have when I am gone, there will be laid the

foundation of a great and noble estate, which, please God, will belong

in the fair future of this fair land to a great and noble family sprung

from the union of Verney and Carew. Patricia, trust me, sees all this

with my eyes."

"Humph!" said the Governor again.

*CHAPTER IV*

*THE BREAKING HEART*

Sir Charles was up with the two girls before they reached the garden;

and they passed together through the gate and into the spicy wilderness.

The dew was falling and as they sauntered through the narrow paths,

Betty held back her skirts that the damp leaves of sage and marjoram

might not brush them; but Patricia, gathering larkspur and

sweet-william, was heedless of her finery. At the further end of the

garden was a wicket leading into a grove of mulberries. The three

walked on beneath the spreading branches and the broad, heart-shaped

leaves, until they came to a tree of extraordinary height and girth

whose roots bulged out into great, smooth excrescences like inverted

bowls. Patricia stopped. "Betty is tired," she said kindly, "and she

shall sit here and rest. Betty is a windflower, Sir Charles, a little

tender timid flower, frail and sweet--are you not, Betty?" She sat down

upon one of the bowls, and pulled her friend down beside her. Sir

Charles leaned against the trunk of the tree. "Betty is a little

Puritan," continued Patricia; "she would not wear the set of ribbons I

had for her; and that hurt me very much."

"O Patricia!" cried Betty, with tears in her eyes. "If I thought you

really cared! But even then I could not wear them!"

"No, you little martyr," said the other, with a kiss. "You would go to

the stake any day for what you call your 'principles.' And I honor you

for it, you know I do. Cousin Charles, do you know that Betty thinks it

wrong to hold slaves?"

Sir Charles laughed, and Betty's delicate face flushed.

"O Patricia!" she cried. "I did not say that! I only said that we

would not like it ourselves."

"'Pon my soul, I don't suppose we would," said Sir Charles coolly.

"But, Mistress Betty, the negroes have neither thin skins nor nice

feelings."

"I know that," said Betty bravely; "and I know that our divines and

learned men cannot yet decide whether or not they have souls. And, of

course, if they have not, they are as well treated as other animals; but

all the same I am sorry for them, and I am sorry for the servants too."

"For the servants!" cried Patricia, arching her brows.

"Yes," said Betty, standing to her guns. "I am sorry for the servants,

for those who must work seven years for another before they can do aught

for themselves. And often when their time is out they are bowed and

broken; and those whom they love at home, and would bring over, are

dead: and often before the seven years have passed they die themselves.

And I am sorry for those whom you call rebels, for the Oliverians; and

for the convicts, despised and outcast. And for the Indians about us,

dispossessed and broken, and--yes, I am sorry for the Quakers."

"I waste no pity on the under dog," said Sir Charles. "Keep him

down--and with a heavy hand--or he will fly at your throat."

"Hark!" said Patricia.