Part 38 (1/2)
Not two minutes had elapsed, when an answering whoop was heard from the cl.u.s.ter of huts forming the village of Namasket, now the town of Middleboro', and an irregular stream of warriors, headed by Tisquantum in person, came running toward the beleaguered hut.
The struggle was now over, for so soon as the _casus belli_ was disproved by Squanto's appearance, the capture of Corbitant was no longer desirable, and Standish ordered his men to sheathe their swords and release their prisoners. Those who had been wounded by persisting in trying to escape were attended to by Surgeon Fuller, and by Standish's invitation returned to Plymouth with their friendly conquerors to receive a certain amount of petting by way of compensation for their wounds, although the captain did not fail to point out that if they had believed and obeyed him, they need not have been hurt at all.
Tisquantum shrewdly flattered at the importance set upon his life by his white friends, seated himself with them around the new-fed fire, and with much gesticulation and flowery forms of speech related how, by his combined prowess and subtlety, he had forced Corbitant to release him, and finally to leave Namasket with his warriors, not, however, without hideous threats of what should befall that village if it persisted in an alliance with the white men, who were soon to be exterminated with all their friends.
”Ha! We will send an emba.s.sage to this haughty sachem, with some counter promises and warnings,” exclaimed Standish in hearing this part of the report; and at the last moment, before the little army with its captives left the place upon the following morning, a runner was dispatched to follow Corbitant, and a.s.sure him from The-Sword-of-the-White-Men, as Standish now began to be called among the Indians, that unless Ma.s.sasoit returned in safety from the country of the Narragansetts, whither he had been beguiled, the death of the great sachem should be visited upon Corbitant and all his tribe to the uttermost, and that if anything more was heard of sedition and treachery as preached either among the Namaskets or elsewhere, Corbitant should find that no distance and no concealment should avail to save him from punishment.
The message was duly delivered, and so convincing did its terrors, combined with the prompt action of the white men prove, that various sachems who had hitherto held aloof, even those of the Isles of Capawack, now called Martha's Vineyard, sent to beg for a treaty of peace and mutual support; and in the end Corbitant prayed the kind offices of Ma.s.sasoit, now restored to his kingdom, to make his submission to the white men.
But though so fair in outward seeming, this peace was but a hollow one, and one more lesson was needed before the Indians became in very truth the friends and allies of the white men.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY OF NEW ENGLAND.
”Oh Priscilla, girl, what thinkst thou is toward now?” demanded Mary Chilton, running down to the spring where her friend was sprinkling and turning a piece of coa.r.s.e linen spun and woven by her own hands for domestic use; but straightening herself at the merry summons, her dark eyes lighted with animation as she responded in the same tone,--
”The governor is fain to marry thee, and the elder is ready to give his blessing. Is 't so?”
”Thou foolish girl! It's not at me Master Bradford looks oftenest, not nigh as often as the captain looks at thee, nay but John Alden”--
”What is it! What's thy news! Speak quick or I'll sprinkle thee rather than the linen!” and raising the wooden dipper Priscilla whirled it so rapidly round her head that not a drop was spilled, while Mary shrieking and laughing darted back and crouched behind an alder bush.
”Maids! Maids! Whence this unseemly mirth! Know ye not that the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under the pot, a sure sign of the fire they are hasting to? The devil goeth about like a roaring lion”--
”Sometimes methinks he seemeth more like an a.s.s,” murmured Priscilla in Mary's ear, setting her off into convulsions of repressed laughter, while her naughty tormentor looked demurely up the bank to the angular figure defined against the evening sky and said,--
”We are beholden to you for the admonition, Master Allerton, and it must be a marvelous comfort to you that Mary and Remember Allerton weep so much oftener than they laugh.”
”I would, thou froward wench, that I had the training of thee for a while. Mayhap thou wouldst find cause for weeping”--
”Nay, I'm sure on 't. The very thought well-nigh makes me weep now,”
retorted Priscilla blithely, as the sour-visaged Councilor went on his way, and Mary half frightened, half delighted, came forward saying,--
”Oh Priscilla, how dost thou dare flout Master Allerton in that style!
He'll have thee before the Church.”
”Not he!” replied Priscilla coolly. ”Hist now, poppet, and I'll tell thee something--thou 'lt not repeat it though?”
”Not I,” replied Mary stoutly.
”Well, then, dost think I should make a fitting stepdame for Bartholomew and Mary and Remember?”
”Dost mean”--
”Ay do I, just that. And because I could not but laugh merrily at the notion when 't was placed before me last Sunday night, the a.s.sistant looketh sourly enough but dareth not meddle with me lest I make others laugh as well as myself.”
”Priscilla! Mary!” called Elizabeth Tilley's voice from the doorstep.