Part 41 (1/2)
”Peace, shameless wench!” thundered the elder, striking the table with his hand. ”Profane not the ears of a decent matron with such talk. John Howland, it is my rede that thou art free of thy pledge to marry this woman. What say you, Governor?”
”I agree with you, Elder Brewster, that since both man and maid desire to render back their troth that they should be permitted so to do; and I further suggest that by the first occasion presenting, Desire Minter be sent back to her friends in England, who will, as Mistress Carver told me, be content to receive her.”
”Amen!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed John Howland with such unction that Bradford gravely smiled as he followed him from the room, and murmured under his breath,--”He will wed Elizabeth Tilley, an' I'm not mistaken.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PHILIP DE LA NOYE.
”'T is a year agone to-day since we in the Mayflower sighted land in this place,” said Bradford to Standish, as the two stood beside the gun just fired for sunset when all obligatory labor ended in the village.
”Ay, is it so? Well, it hath been a year of note in more ways than one, and the next is like to be as adventurous. Ha! Look you there, Bradford!
Dost see that Indian runner breasting the hill. Some great news, surely,--come, let us go to meet him.”
”Squanto is before us. See him leap the brook”--
But Standish was already half way down the hill, and presently in the open s.p.a.ce already spoken of as the Town Square he and two or three of the other leaders met the runner, who escorted by Squanto came panting up the hill from the brook, and after the usual salutations informed the governor that he was sent from Aspinet, sachem of the Nausets, to inform the white men that a vessel had been watched feeling her way through the shoals around Cape Cod, and was now laying her course apparently for Plymouth. Not knowing whether this might be good or bad news, the sachem had felt it a friendly act to convey it to his new allies with the greatest possible dispatch.
”And he did well, and both he and thou shall see that we are not ungrateful,” replied Bradford courteously. ”Tisquantum, take this man to the Common house, and see that he is suitably refreshed. And now, brethren, what meaneth this? Is it indeed good news or bad?”
”Bad,” replied Standish promptly. ”For well do we know that no relief was to be sent us until our friends the traders had seen the first fruits of their Adventure, and as we perforce sent home the Mayflower empty, I for one expect to hear no more from Cheapside unless it be a rating.”
”There hath not been time for the Mayflower to go and return, were our friends never so willing to aid us,” suggested the elder pacifically.
”Then what think you, men?” persisted Bradford. ”Allerton, Winslow, Warren, what say ye all?”
”We know that the French are at war with England,” suggested Winslow.
”And this may be a privateer coming to harry the settlement.”
”In that case it were well to hide whatever we have of value and retreat to the woods with the women and children,” said Allerton turning pale.
”And leave our housen, and the Fort and its armament, and our boats!”
exclaimed Standish contemptuously. ”Nay, Governor, my counsel is that we at once arm ourselves, train what guns we can upon the offing, and if these indeed be buccaneers, French, Spanish, or Turks, receive them with a volley that shall leave little work for a second one. The women and children may retreat to the woods, and he who has any pots, or cups, or pans of value may bury them an' he chooses. My best treasures are Gideon and my snaphance, and I cannot spare them so long as I live to wield them.”
”That's the chat that suits me, neighbor,” declared Hopkins in his usual rough, hearty fas.h.i.+on, while Allerton, an unwonted tinge of color upon his sallow cheek, hastened to avow himself as ready for fighting as any man since fighting was decided to be the best policy.
And now Standish a.s.sumed control of the occasion and showed himself in his most becoming att.i.tude. His quick eyes and ready hands were everywhere, and the somewhat sharp and terse military orders that sometimes had seemed a thought arbitrary now carried a.s.surance in their tone, and strengthened the hearts of some and supported the determination of others, who left to themselves would have scattered like sheep without a leader.
”Let each man arm and harness himself and report for inspection in the Town Square,” was the first order, and while it was obeyed the Captain climbed the hill carrying the ”perspective gla.s.s” made by Galileo himself during his exile in Holland, and brought to the new world by Governor Carver, whose widow bequeathed it to the colony as one of its chief treasures.
He was followed by William Trevor, one of the seamen hired by the colony for a year, a fellow of quick eyesight and undaunted courage. The Captain silently and carefully adjusted his lenses, and then handed the gla.s.s to Trevor.
”Now you, Bill, clap your eye to that and get it on yon headland, Farther Manomet, d' ye see?”
”Ay, Captain, I have it, and can count the squirrels on the tree tops.”
”Canst tell a s.h.i.+p's topmast from a squirrel if one should heave in sight?”