In which I hear Ill News
When I awoke from the sleep or stupor into which I must have passed from
that swoon, it was to find myself lying upon a bed in a room flooded
with sunshine. I was alone. For a moment I lay still, staring at the
blue sky without the window, and wondering where I was and how I came
there. A drum beat, a dog barked, and a man's quick voice gave a
command. The sounds stung me into remembrance, and I was at the window
while the voice was yet speaking.
It was West in the street below, pointing with his sword now to the
fort, now to the palisade, and giving directions to the armed men about
him. There were many people in the street. Women hurried by to the fort
with white, scared faces, their arms filled with household gear;
children ran beside them, sturdily bearing their share of the goods, but
pressing close to their elders' skirts; men went to and fro, the most
grimly silent, but a few talking loudly. Not all of the faces in the
crowd belonged to the town: there were Kingsmell and his wife from the
main, and John Ellison from Archer's Hope, and the Italians Vincencio
and Bernardo from the Glass House. The nearer plantations, then, had
been warned, and their people had come for refuge to the city. A negro
passed, but on that morning, alone of many days, no Indian aired his
paint and feathers in the white man's village.
I could not see the palisade across the neck, but I knew that it was
there that the fight--if fight there were--would be made. Should the
Indians take the palisade, there would yet be the houses of the town,
and, last of all, the fort in which to make a stand. I believed not that
they would take it. Long since we had found out their method of warfare.
They used ambuscade, surprise, and massacre; when withstood in force and
with determination they withdrew to their stronghold, the forest, there
to bide their time until, in the blackness of some night, they could
again swoop down upon a sleeping foe.
The drum beat again, and a messenger from the palisade came down the
street at a run. "They're in the woods over against us, thicker than
ants!" he cried to West as he passed. "A boat has just drifted ashore
yonder, with two men in it, dead and scalped!"
I turned to leave the room, and ran against Master Pory coming in on
tip-toe, with a red and solemn face. He started when he saw me.
"The roll of the drum brought you to your feet, then!" he cried. "You've
lain like the dead all night. I came but to see if you were breathing."
"When I have eaten, I shall be myself again," I said. "There's no attack
as yet?"
"No," he answered. "They must know that we are prepared. But they have
kindled fires along the river bank, and we can hear them yelling.
Whether they'll be mad enough to come against us remains to be seen."
"The nearest settlements have been warned?"
"Ay. The Governor offered a thousand pounds of tobacco and the perpetual
esteem of the Company to the man or men who would carry the news. Six
volunteered, and went off in boats, three up river, three down. How many
they reached, or if they still have their scalps, we know not. And a
while ago, just before daybreak, comes with frantic haste Richard Pace,
who had rowed up from Pace's Pains to tell the news which you had
already brought. Chanco the Christian had betrayed the plot to him, and
he managed to give warning at Powel's and one or two other places as he
came up the river."
He broke off, but when I would have spoken interrupted me with: "And so
you were on the Pamunkey all this while! Then the Paspaheghs fooled us
with the simple truth, for they swore so stoutly that their absent chief
men were but gone on a hunt toward the Pamunkey that we had no choice
but to believe them gone in quite another direction. And one and all of
every tribe we questioned swore that Opechancanough was at Orapax. So
Master Rolfe puts off up river to find, if not you, then the Emperor,
and make him give up your murderers; and the Governor sends a party
along the bay, and West another up the Chickahominy. And there you were,
all the time, mewed up in the village above the marshes! And Nantauquas,
after saving our lives like one of us, is turned Indian again! And your
man is killed! Alackaday! there's naught but trouble in the world. 'As
the sparks fly upwards,' you know. But a brave man draws his breath and
sets his teeth."
In his manner, his rapid talk, his uneasy glances toward the door, I
found something forced and strange. "I thought Rolfe was behind me," he
said, "but he must have been delayed. There are meat and drink set out
in the great room, where the Governor and those of the Council who are
safe here with us are advising together. Let's descend; you've not
eaten, and the good sack will give you strength. Wilt come?"
"Ay," I answered; "but tell me the news as we go. I have been gone ten
days,--faith, it seems ten years! There have no ships sailed, Master
Pory? The _George_ is still here?" I looked him full in the eye, for a
sudden guess at a possible reason for his confusion had stabbed me like
a knife.
"Ay," he said, with a readiness that could scarce be feigned. "She was
to have sailed this week, it is true, the Governor fearing to keep her
longer. But the _Esperance_, coming in yesterday, brought news which
removed his Honour's scruples. Now she'll wait to see out this hand at
the cards, and to take home the names of those who are left alive in
Virginia. If the red varlets do swarm in upon us, there are her
twelve-pounders; they and the fort guns----"
I let him talk on. The _George_ had not sailed. I saw again a firelit
hut, and a man and a panther who went down together. Those claws had dug
deep; the man across whose face they had torn their way would keep his
room in the guest house at Jamestown until his wounds were somewhat
healed. The _George_ would wait for him, would scarcely dare to sail
without him, and I should find the lady whom she was to carry away to
England in Virginia still. It was this that I had built upon, the grain
of comfort, the passionate hope, the sustaining cordial of those
year-long days in the village above the Pamunkey.
My heart was sore because of Diccon; but I could speak of that grief to
her, and she would grieve with me. There were awe and dread and stern
sorrow in the knowledge that even now in the bright spring morning blood
from a hundred homes might be flowing to meet the shining, careless
river; but it was the springtime, and she was waiting for me. I strode
on toward the stairway so fast that when I asked a question Master Pory,
at my side, was too out of breath to answer it. Halfway down the stairs
I asked it again, and again received no answer save a "Zooks! you go too
fast for my years and having in flesh! Go more slowly, Ralph Percy;
there's time enough, there's time enough!"
There was a tone in his voice that I liked not, for it savoured of pity.
I looked at him with knitted brows; but we were now in the hall, and
through the open door of the great room I caught a glimpse of a woman's
skirt. There were men in the hall, servants and messengers, who made way
for us, staring at me as they did so, and whispering. I knew that my
clothing was torn and muddied and stained with blood; as we paused at
the door there came to me in a flash that day in the courting meadow
when I had tried with my dagger to scrape the dried mud from my boots. I
laughed at myself for caring now, and for thinking that she would care
that I was not dressed for a lady's bower. The next moment we were in
the great room.
She was not there. The silken skirt that I had seen, and--there being
but one woman in all the world for me--had taken for hers, belonged to
Lady Wyatt, who, pale and terrified, was sitting with clasped hands,
mutely following with her eyes her husband as he walked to and fro. West
had come in from the street and was making some report. Around the table
were gathered two or three of the Council; Master Sandys stood at a
window, Rolfe beside Lady Wyatt's chair. The room was filled with
sunshine, and a caged bird was singing, singing. It made the only sound
there when they saw that I stood amongst them.
When I had made my bow to Lady Wyatt and to the Governor, and had
clasped hands with Rolfe, I began to find in the silence, as I had found
in Master Pory's loquaciousness, something strange. They looked at me
uneasily, and I caught a swift glance from the Treasurer to Master Pory,
and an answering shake of the latter's head. Rolfe was very white, and
his lips were set; West was pulling at his mustaches and staring at the
floor.
"With all our hearts we welcome you back to life and to the service of
Virginia, Captain Percy," said the Governor, when the silence had become
awkward.
A murmur of assent went round the room.
I bowed. "I thank you, sir, and these gentlemen very heartily. You have
but to command me now. I find that I have to-day the best will in the
world toward fighting. I trust that your Honour does not deem it
necessary to send me back to gaol?"
"Virginia has no gaol for Captain Percy," he answered gravely. "She has
only grateful thanks and fullest sympathy."
I glanced at him keenly. "Then I hold myself at your command, sir, when
I shall have seen and spoken with my wife."
He looked at the floor, and they one and all held their peace.
"Madam," I said to Lady Wyatt, "I have been watching your ladyship's
face. Will you tell me why it is so very full of pity, and why there are
tears in your eyes?"
She shrank back in her chair with a little cry, and Rolfe stepped toward
me, then turned sharply aside. "I cannot!" he cried. "I that know----"
I drew myself up to meet the blow, whatever it might be. "I demand of
you my wife, Sir Francis Wyatt," I said. "If there is ill news to be
told, be so good as to tell it quickly. If she is sick, or hath been
sent away to England----"
The Governor made as if to speak, then turned and flung out his hands to
his wife. "'Tis woman's work, Margaret!" he cried. "Tell him!"
More merciful than the men, she came to me at once, the tears running
down her cheeks, and laid one trembling hand upon my arm. "She was a
brave lady, Captain Percy," she said. "Bear it as she would have had you
bear it."
"I am bearing it, madam," I answered at length. "'She _was_ a brave
lady.' May it please your ladyship to go on?"
"I will tell you all, Captain Percy; I will tell you everything.... She
never believed you dead, and she begged upon her knees that we would
allow her to go in search of you with Master Rolfe. That could not be;
my husband, in duty to the Company, could not let her have her will.
Master Rolfe went, and she sat in the window, yonder, day after day,
watching for his return. When other parties went out, she besought the
men, as they had wives whom they loved, to search as though those loved
ones were in captivity and danger; when they grew weary and
fainthearted, to think of her face waiting in the window.... Day after
day she sat there watching for them to come back; when they were come,
then she watched the river for Master Rolfe's boats. Then came word down
the river that he had found no trace of you whom he sought; that he was
on his way back to Jamestown; that he too believed you dead.... We put a
watch upon her after that, for we feared we knew not what--there was
such a light and purpose in her eyes. But two nights ago, in the middle
of the night, the woman who stayed in her chamber fell asleep. When she
awoke before the dawn, it was to find her gone."
"To find her gone?" I said dully. "To find her dead?"
She locked her hands together, and the tears came faster. "Oh, Captain
Percy, it had been better so!--it had been better so! Then would she
have lain to greet you, calm and white, unmarred and beautiful, with the
spring flowers upon her.... She believed not that you were dead; she was
distraught with grief and watching; she thought that love might find
what friendship missed; she went to the forest to seek you. They that
were sent to find and bring her back have never returned----"
"Into the forest!" I cried. "_Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Jocelyn, come back!_"
Some one pushed me into a chair, and I felt the warmth of wine within my
lips. In the moment that the world steadied I rose and went toward the
door, to find my way barred by Rolfe.
"Not you, too, Ralph!" he cried. "I will not let you go. Look for
yourself!"
He drew me to the window, Master Sandys gravely making place for us.
From the window was visible the neck of land and the forest beyond, and
from the forest, up and down the river as far as the eye could reach,
rose here and there thin columns of smoke. Suddenly, as we stared, three
or four white smoke puffs, like giant flowers, started out of the
shadowy woods across the neck. Following the crack of the muskets--fired
out of pure bravado by their Indian owners--came the yelling of the
savages. The sound was prolonged and deep, as though issuing from many
throats.
I looked and listened, and knew that I could not go--not now.
"She was not alone, Ralph," said Rolfe, with his arm about me. "On the
morning that she was missed, they found not Jeremy Sparrow either. They
tracked them both to the forest by the footprints upon the sand, though
once in the wood the trail was lost. The minister must have been
watching, must have seen her leave the house, and must have followed
her. How she, and he after her, passed through the gates, none know. So
careless and confident had we grown--God forgive us!--that they may have
been left open all that night. But he was with her, Ralph; she had not
to face it alone----" His voice broke.
For myself, I was glad that the minister had been there, though I knew
that for him also I should grieve after a while.
At the firing and the shouting West had rushed from the room, followed
by his fellow Councillors, and now the Governor clapped on his headpiece
and called to his men to bring his back-and-breast. His wife hung around
his neck, and he bade her good-bye with great tenderness. I looked dully
on at that parting. I too was going to battle. Once I had tasted such a
farewell, the pain, the passion, the sweetness; but never again--never
again.
He went, and the Treasurer, after a few words of comfort to Lady Wyatt,
was gone also. Both were merciful, and spoke not to me, but only bowed
and turned aside, requiring no answering word or motion of mine. When
they were away, and there was no sound in the room save the caged bird's
singing and Lady Wyatt's low sobs, I begged Rolfe to leave me, telling
him that he was needed, as indeed he was, and that I would stay in the
window for a while, and then would join him at the palisade. He was
loath to go; but he too had loved and lost, and knew that there is
nothing to be said, and that it is best to be alone. He went, and only
Lady Wyatt and I kept the quiet room with the singing bird and the
sunshine on the floor.
I leaned against the window and looked out into the street--which was
not crowded now, for the men were all at their several posts--and at the
budding trees, and at the smoke of many fires going up from the forest
to the sky, from a world of hate and pain and woe to the heaven where
she dwelt; and then I turned and went to the table, where had been set
bread and meat and wine.
At the sound of my footstep Lady Wyatt uncovered her face. "Is there
aught that I can do for you, sir?" she asked timidly.
"I have not broken my fast for many hours, madam," I answered. "I would
eat and drink, that I may not be found wanting in strength. There is a
thing that I have yet to do."
Rising from her chair, she brushed away her tears, and coming to the
table with a little house--wifely eagerness, would not let me wait upon
myself, but carved and poured for me, and then sat down opposite me and
covered her eyes with her hand.
"I think that the Governor is quite safe, madam," I said. "I do not
believe that the Indians will take the palisade. It may even be that,
knowing we are prepared, they will not attack at all. Indeed, I think
that you may be easy about him."
She thanked me with a smile. "It is all so strange and dreadful to me,
sir," she said. "At my home in England, it was like a Sunday morning all
the year round--all stillness and peace; no terror, no alarm. I fear
that I am not yet a good Virginian."
When I had eaten, and had drunk the wine she gave me, I rose, and asked
her if I might not see her safe within the fort before I joined her
husband at the palisade. She shook her head, and told me that there were
with her faithful servants, and that if the savages broke in upon the
town she would have warning in time to flee, the fort being so close at
hand. When I thereupon begged her leave to depart, she first curtsied to
me, and then, again with tears, came to me and took my hand in hers. "I
know that there is naught that I can say.... Your wife loved you, sir,
with all her heart." She drew something from the bosom of her gown.
"Would you like this? It is a knot of ribbon that she wore. They found
it caught in a bush at the edge of the forest."
I took the ribbon from her and put it to my lips, then unknotted it and
tied it around my arm; and then, wearing my wife's colours, I went
softly out into the street, and turned my face toward the guest house
and the man whom I meant to kill.