"And here I am," said I to myself, on waking, and finding the high sun
dancing the hays over the floor, as his beams stole in through the
_jalousies_ of my windows.
"Here I am in Virginia, the scene of so much suffering and so much
gallantry,--the Eldorado of Raleigh, the refuge of the Cavalier, and the
birth-place of George Washington."
After walking through the little city, I next betook me to the bank of
the gentle Apotomax, up which stream, we read, Captain Smith was first
conveyed by his captors, and close by high-water mark was he landed,
preparatory to his being burned _pour amuser le roi_.
The tide flows just above the town; and to this spot I strolled, and sat
me down where the velvet sward rests on the stream. "And to this very
spot, perchance," said I, "did the canoes of the warriors of Powhatan
bring their most dreaded, and, consequently, best esteemed enemy, to
die the death of a thrice-honoured Brave, or, in terms more homely, to
be put to as much torture as the utmost of savage ingenuity could
devise; and this prolonged as far as the nature of the captive might
endure."