In which I meet Master Jeremy Sparrow
Mine are not dicers' oaths. The stars were yet shining when I left the
house, and, after a word with my man Diccon, at the servants' huts,
strode down the bank and through the gate of the palisade to the wharf,
where I loosed my boat, put up her sail, and turned her head down the
broad stream. The wind was fresh and favourable, and we went swiftly
down the river through the silver mist toward the sunrise. The sky grew
pale pink to the zenith; then the sun rose and drank up the mist. The
river sparkled and shone; from the fresh green banks came the smell of
the woods and the song of birds; above rose the sky, bright blue, with a
few fleecy clouds drifting across it. I thought of the day, thirteen
years before, when for the first time white men sailed up this same
river, and of how noble its width, how enchanting its shores, how gay
and sweet their blooms and odours, how vast their trees, how strange the
painted savages, had seemed to us, storm-tossed adventurers, who thought
we had found a very paradise, the Fortunate Isles at least. How quickly
were we undeceived! As I lay back in the stern with half-shut eyes and
tiller idle in my hand, our many tribulations and our few joys passed in
review before me. Indian attacks; dissension and strife amongst our
rulers; true men persecuted, false knaves elevated; the weary search for
gold and the South Sea; the horror of the pestilence and the blacker
horror of the Starving Time; the arrival of the _Patience_ and
_Deliverance_, whereat we wept like children; that most joyful Sunday
morning when we followed my Lord de la Warre to church; the coming of
Dale with that stern but wholesome martial code which was no stranger to
me who had fought under Maurice of Nassau; the good times that followed,
when bowl-playing gallants were put down, cities founded, forts built,
and the gospel preached; the marriage of Rolfe and his dusky princess;
Argall's expedition, in which I played a part, and Argall's iniquitous
rule; the return of Yeardley as Sir George, and the priceless gift he
brought us,--all this and much else, old friends, old enemies, old toils
and strifes and pleasures, ran, bitter-sweet, through my memory, as the
wind and flood bore me on. Of what was before me I did not choose to
think, sufficient unto the hour being the evil thereof.
The river seemed deserted: no horsemen spurred along the bridle path on
the shore; the boats were few and far between, and held only servants or
Indians, or very old men. It was as Rolfe had said, and the free and
able-bodied of the plantations had put out, posthaste, for matrimony.
Chaplain's Choice appeared unpeopled; Piersey's Hundred slept in the
sunshine, its wharf deserted, and but few, slow-moving figures in the
tobacco fields; even the Indian villages looked scant of all but squaws
and children, for the braves were gone to see the palefaces buy their
wives. Below Paspahegh a cockleshell of a boat carrying a great white
sail overtook me, and I was hailed by young Hamor.
"The maids are come!" he cried. "Hurrah!" and stood up to wave his hat.
"Humph!" I said. "I guess thy destination by thy hose. Are they not
'those that were thy peach-coloured ones'?"
"Oons! yes!" he answered, looking down with complacency upon his
tarnished finery. "Wedding garments, Captain Percy, wedding garments!"
I laughed. "Thou art a tardy bridegroom. I thought that the bachelors of
this quarter of the globe slept last night in Jamestown."
His face fell. "I know it," he said ruefully; "but my doublet had more
rents than slashes in it, and Martin Tailor kept it until cockcrow. That
fellow rolls in tobacco; he hath grown rich off our impoverished
wardrobes since the ship down yonder passed the capes. After all," he
brightened, "the bargaining takes not place until toward midday, after
solemn service and thanksgiving. There's time enough!" He waved me a
farewell, as his great sail and narrow craft carried him past me.
I looked at the sun, which truly was not very high, with a secret
disquietude; for I had had a scurvy hope that after all I should be too
late, and so the noose which I felt tightening about my neck might
unknot itself. Wind and tide were against me, and an hour later saw me
nearing the peninsula and marvelling at the shipping which crowded its
waters. It was as if every sloop, barge, canoe, and dugout between
Point Comfort and Henricus were anchored off its shores, while above
them towered the masts of the _Marmaduke_ and _Furtherance_, then in
port, and of the tall ship which had brought in those doves for sale.
The river with its dancing freight, the blue heavens and bright
sunshine, the green trees waving in the wind, the stir and bustle in the
street and market-place thronged with gaily dressed gallants, made a
fair and pleasant scene. As I drove my boat in between the sloop of the
commander of Shirley Hundred and the canoe of the Nansemond werowance,
the two bells then newly hung in the church began to peal and the drum
to beat. Stepping ashore, I had a rear view only of the folk who had
clustered along the banks and in the street, their faces and footsteps
being with one accord directed towards the market-place. I went with the
throng, jostled alike by velvet and dowlas, by youths with their estates
upon their backs and naked fantastically painted savages, and trampling
the tobacco with which the greedy citizens had planted the very street.
In the square I brought up before the Governor's house, and found myself
cheek by jowl with Master Pory, our Secretary, and Speaker of the
Assembly.
"Ha, Ralph Percy!" he cried, wagging his grey head, "we two be the only
sane younkers in the plantations! All the others are horn-mad!"
"I have caught the infection," I said, "and am one of the bedlamites."
He stared, then broke into a roar of laughter. "Art in earnest?" he
asked, holding his fat sides. "Is Saul among the prophets?"
"Yes," I answered. "I diced last night,--yea or no; and the
'yea'--plague on't--had it."
He broke into another roar. "And thou callest that bridal attire, man!
Why, our cow-keeper goes in flaming silk to-day!"
I looked down upon my suit of buff, which had in truth seen some
service, and at my great boots, which I had not thought to clean since I
mired in a swamp, coming from Henricus the week before, then shrugged my
shoulders.
"You will go begging," he continued, wiping his eyes. "Not a one of them
will so much as look at you."
"Then will they miss seeing a man, and not a popinjay," I retorted. "I
shall not break my heart."
A cheer arose from the crowd, followed by a crashing peal of the bells
and a louder roll of the drum. The doors of the houses around and to
right and left of the square swung open, and the company which had been
quartered overnight upon the citizens began to emerge. By twos and
threes, some with hurried steps and downcast eyes, others more slowly
and with free glances at the staring men, they gathered to the centre of
the square, where, in surplice and band, there awaited them godly Master
Bucke and Master Wickham of Henricus. I stared with the rest, though I
did not add my voice to theirs.
Before the arrival of yesterday's ship there had been in this natural
Eden (leaving the savages out of the reckoning) several thousand Adams,
and but some threescore Eves. And for the most part, the Eves were
either portly and bustling or withered and shrewish housewives, of age
and experience to defy the serpent. These were different. Ninety slender
figures decked in all the bravery they could assume; ninety comely
faces, pink and white, or clear brown with the rich blood showing
through; ninety pair of eyes, laughing and alluring, or downcast with
long fringes sweeping rounded cheeks; ninety pair of ripe red lips,--the
crowd shouted itself hoarse and would not be restrained, brushing aside
like straws the staves of the marshal and his men, and surging in upon
the line of adventurous damsels. I saw young men, panting, seize hand or
arm and strive to pull toward them some reluctant fair; others snatched
kisses, or fell on their knees and began speeches out of Euphues; others
commenced an inventory of their possessions,--acres, tobacco, servants,
household plenishing. All was hubbub, protestation, frightened cries,
and hysterical laughter. The officers ran to and fro, threatening and
commanding; Master Pory alternately cried "Shame!" and laughed his
loudest; and I plucked away a jackanapes of sixteen who had his hand
upon a girl's ruff, and shook him until the breath was well-nigh out of
him. The clamour did but increase.
"Way for the Governor!" cried the marshal. "Shame on you, my masters!
Way for his Honour and the worshipful Council!"
The three wooden steps leading down from the door of the Governor's
house suddenly blossomed into crimson and gold, as his Honour with the
attendant Councillors emerged from the hall and stood staring at the mob
below.
The Governor's honest moon face was quite pale with passion. "What a
devil is this?" he cried wrathfully. "Did you never see a woman before?
Where's the marshal? I'll imprison the last one of you for rioters!"
Upon the platform of the pillory, which stood in the centre of the
market place, suddenly appeared a man of a gigantic frame, with a strong
face deeply lined and a great shock of grizzled hair,--a strange thing,
for he was not old. I knew him to be one Master Jeremy Sparrow, a
minister brought by the _Southampton_ a month before, and as yet without
a charge, but at that time I had not spoken with him. Without word of
warning he thundered into a psalm of thanksgiving, singing it at the top
of a powerful and yet sweet and tender voice, and with a fervour and
exaltation that caught the heart of the riotous crowd. The two ministers
in the throng beneath took up the strain; Master Pory added a husky
tenor, eloquent of much sack; presently we were all singing. The
audacious suitors, charmed into rationality, fell back, and the broken
line reformed. The Governor and the Council descended, and with pomp and
solemnity took their places between the maids and the two ministers who
were to head the column. The psalm ended, the drum beat a thundering
roll, and the procession moved forward in the direction of the church.
Master Pory having left me, to take his place among his brethren of the
Council, and the mob of those who had come to purchase and of the
curious idle having streamed away at the heels of the marshal and his
officers, I found myself alone in the square, save for the singer, who
now descended from the pillory and came up to me.
"Captain Ralph Percy, if I mistake not?" he said, in a voice as deep and
rich as the bass of an organ.
"The same," I answered. "And you are Master Jeremy Sparrow?"
"Yea, a silly preacher,--the poorest, meekest, and lowliest of the
Lord's servitors."
His deep voice, magnificent frame, and bold and free address so gave the
lie to the humility of his words that I had much ado to keep from
laughing. He saw, and his face, which was of a cast most martial,
flashed into a smile, like sunshine on a scarred cliff.
"You laugh in your sleeve," he said good-humouredly, "and yet I am but
what I profess to be. In spirit I am a very Job, though nature hath seen
fit to dress me as a Samson. I assure you, I am worse misfitted than is
Master Yardstick yonder in those Falstaffian hose. But, good sir, will
you not go to church?"
"If the church were Paul's, I might," I answered. "As it is, we could
not get within fifty feet of the door."
"Of the great door, ay, but the ministers may pass through the side
door. If you please, I will take you in with me. The pretty fools yonder
march slowly; if we turn down this lane, we will outstrip them quite."
"Agreed," I said, and we turned into a lane thick planted with tobacco,
made a detour of the Governor's house, and outflanked the procession,
arriving at the small door before it had entered the churchyard. Here we
found the sexton mounting guard.
"I am Master Sparrow, the minister that came in the _Southampton_," my
new acquaintance explained. "I am to sit in the choir. Let us pass, good
fellow."
The sexton squared himself before the narrow opening, and swelled with
importance.
"You, reverend sir, I will admit, such being my duty. But this gentleman
is no preacher; I may not allow him to pass."
"You mistake, friend," said my companion gravely. "This gentleman, my
worthy colleague, has but just come from the island of St. Brandon,
where he preaches on the witches' Sabbath: hence the disorder of his
apparel. His admittance be on my head; wherefore let us by."
"None to enter at the west door save Councillors, commander, and
ministers. Any attempting to force an entrance to be arrested and laid
by the heels if they be of the generality, or, if they be of quality, to
be duly fined and debarred from the purchase of any maid whatsoever,"
chanted the sexton.
"Then, in God's name, let's on!" I exclaimed. "Here, try this!" and I
drew from my purse, which was something of the leanest, a shilling.
"Try this," quoth Master Jeremy Sparrow, and knocked the sexton down.
We left the fellow sprawling in the doorway, sputtering threats to the
air without, but with one covetous hand clutching at the shilling which
I threw behind me, and entered the church, which we found yet empty,
though through the open great door we heard the drum beat loudly and a
deepening sound of footsteps.
"I have choice of position," I said. "Yonder window seems a good
station. You remain here in the choir?"
"Ay," he answered, with a sigh; "the dignity of my calling must be
upheld: wherefore I sit in high places, rubbing elbows with gold lace,
when of the very truth the humility of my spirit is such that I would
feel more at home in the servants' seats or among the negars that we
bought last year."
Had we not been in church I would have laughed, though indeed I saw that
he devoutly believed his own words. He took his seat in the largest and
finest of the chairs behind the great velvet one reserved for the
Governor, while I went and leaned against my window, and we stared at
each other across the flower-decked building in profound silence, until,
with one great final crash, the bells ceased, the drum stopped beating,
and the procession entered.