THE SUNSET GUN.
The town meeting was over, and its decisions if important were
unanimous, even Elder Brewster, converted perhaps by Standish's Biblical
references, giving his voice for the stringent measures rendered
necessary by the growth and magnitude of the conspiracy.
Captain Standish with what force he might select was to take the
pinnace, and under cover of a trading expedition make a landing at
Weymouth, and first of all discover from the colonists themselves the
truth of their condition. If it should prove as represented he was to at
once attack whatever leaders of the conspiracy might be found, and in
especial he was to slay Wituwamat, of whom Massasoit had spoken as the
heart of the conspiracy, and to bring his head to Plymouth to be set
over the gate of the Fort as a proof and a warning to their neighbors on
the east, whom they would not now punish, but hoped rather to persuade.
"And now, Captain Standish, it were well that you should select those
whom you will have of your company, while we are all gathered together
here," said the governor when the primary question had been finally
decided.
Standish rose and looked thoughtfully from face to face.
"'T is a hard matter," said he at last with a gleam of pride in his
eye. "Here be fifty good men and true, and I need no more than half a
dozen."
"The Neponsets number forty warriors," suggested Winslow.
"Yes, but they will not be gathered together, having no knowledge of our
purpose, and if the shallop is watched from shore, as belike it will be,
a large force of armed men would bewray our intent, and runners would
gather the braves in a few hours and so bring down a great slaughter
upon the tribe," replied the captain in confident simplicity. "But if we
go no more in number than ordinary, no more than in our late voyage to
Nauset for corn, they will suspect nothing, and the matter may be well
concluded with no more than five or six examples, Wituwamat being the
principal."
"And glad am I, brother, to see a certain tenderness of human life in
your counsels," said the elder approvingly.
"Nay, elder, I am not all out a cannibal and ogre," replied the captain.
"So now I will choose me Hopkins and Howland and Billington, and Eaton
and Browne and Cooke and Soule, seven hearts of oak and arms of steel:
it is enough."
"And not one of us Fortune men, Captain?" demanded Robert Hicks, a
stalwart fellow who afterward became almost a rebel to the colony's
authority.
"Nay, Master Hicks," replied the captain gravely. "I mean no discredit
to the courage or the good will of the new-comers, of whom you are a
principal; but this service is one of strategy as well as daring, and so
soon as the pinnace leaves yon Rock, there must be but one mind and one
will in her, and that is mine. The men whom I have chosen, my comrades
of the Mayflower, I know as I know mine own sword, and I can trust them
as I do him. There's no offense Master Hicks, but a stricken field is no
place to learn to handle a new sword or a new comrade."
"And not me, Master," said a low voice as the captain stepped out of the
Common house and turned his face homeward.
"Nay, Jack, I've a text for thee too. 'I have married a wife and cannot
come.'" And with a somewhat bitter laugh he strode on up the hill,
leaving John Alden looking sadly after him.
That night as Standish slowly entered the Fort to fire his sunset gun,
he was startled at seeing a muffled figure seated upon an empty powder
keg in an angle of the works. As he appeared she rose, and pushing back
her hood showed the beautiful face of Priscilla Molines, now strangely
pale and distraught.
"You here, Mistress Molines," exclaimed the captain somewhat sternly.
"Alden is not coming."
"It is not Alden but Captain Standish I fain would speak withal, and I
hope he will pardon my forwardness in seeking him here."
The captain briefly waved the apology aside. "Your commands, madam?"
inquired he.
"Nay, nay sir, my father's dear loved friend, my brother's tender
nurse,--mine--oh what shall I say, how shall I plead for a little
kindness. Have pity on a froward maid's distress"--
"What Priscilla, thou canst weep!"
"And why not when my heart is sorrowful unto death."
"But--there then, child, wipe thine eyes and look up and let me see thee
smile as thou art wont. What is it, maid? What is thy sorrow?"
"That you will not forgive me, sir."
"Forgive thee for what?" But the captain dropped the hand he had seized
in his sympathy, and the dark look crept back to his face.
"Thou 'rt going to a terrible danger--my friend--and it may be to thy
death."
"Well girl, 't is not worth crying for if I am. Life is not so sweet to
me that I should over much dread to lay it down with honor."
"Oh, oh, and it is my fault!"--sobbed Priscilla.
The captain strode up and down the narrow space pulling at his red beard
and frowning thoughtfully; then stopping before the girl who stood as he
had left her, he quietly said,--
"Priscilla, I was indeed thy father's friend, and I am thine, and I fain
would have wed thee, and thou didst refuse, preferring John Alden, who
also is my friend, even as my younger brother, whose honor and well
being are dear to me as mine own. What then is the meaning of thy grief,
and what is thy request?"
"My grief is that since the day I gave John Alden my promise, you, sir,
have been no more my friend, but ever looked upon me with coldness and
disdain; and now that you go, it may be to your death, it breaketh my
heart to have it so, and I fain would beg your forgiveness for aught I
have done to offend you, though I know not what it may be."
"Know not--well, well, let it pass--'t is but one more traverse. Yes
child, I forgive thee for what to me seemed like something of scorn and
slight, something of double dealing and treachery--nay, we'll say no
more on 't. Here is my hand, Priscilla--and surely thy father's friend
may for once taste thy cheek. Now child, we're friends and dear friends,
and if yon savage sheathes his knife in my heart perhaps thou 'lt shed
a tear or two, and say a prayer for the soul of--thy father's friend.
And now thy petition, for time presses."
"That thou wilt take John Alden with thee."
"What then! Who shall read a woman's will aright! I left him at home for
thy sake, Priscilla."
"So I guessed and I thank you--nay, I thank you not for so misjudging
me." And the fire in the hazel eyes upraised to his, dried the tears
sharply.
"Why, what now! Dost want thy troth-plight lover slain?"
"No in truth, nor do I want my troth-plight friend, for thou art that
now, slain; but neither do I want the one nor the other to lurk safely
at home when his brothers are at the war. There's no coward's blood in
my heart more than in yours, Captain Standish, and I care not to shelter
any man behind my petticoats. I have not wed John Alden all this long
year and more, because I would not wed with your frown black upon my
heart, and I will not wed him now until he hath showed himself a man
upon that same field whence you do not greatly care to come alive."
"Nay, Priscilla, I care more now for life than I did an hour since, for
I have a friend."
"And you will take John, and if he comes home alive you'll smile upon
our marriage?"
"Yes girl, yes to both. God bless you, Priscilla, for a brave and true
woman. And now--good-night."
A moment later as the dark clad figure flitted down the hill Standish
stood with bared head and fixed eyes silent for a little space, and then
the boom of the sunset gun sounded in solemn Amen to the soldier's
silent prayer.