Part 17 (2/2)
It was borne in upon me that our task was scarcely begun, and that the peril that threatened us was far darker than we had dreamed. Ringan's tale of a white leader among the tribes was always in my head. The hall where we sat was lined with portraits of men who had borne rule in Virginia. There was Captain John Smith, trim-bearded and bronzed; and Argall and Dale, grave and soldierly; there was Francis Wyat, with the scar got in Indian wars; there hung the mean and sallow countenance of Sir John Harvey. There, too, was Berkeley, with his high complexion and his love-locks, the great gentleman of a vanished age; and the gross rotundity of Culpepper; and the furtive eye of my lord Howard, who was even now the reigning Governor. There was a n.o.ble picture of King Charles the Second, who alone of monarchs was represented. Soft-footed lackeys carried viands and wines, and the table was a mingling of silver and roses. The afternoon light came soft through the trellis, and you could not have looked for a fairer picture of settled ease. Yet I had that in my mind which shattered the picture. We were feasting like the old citizens of buried Pompeii, with the lava even now, perhaps, flowing hot from the mountains. I looked at the painted faces on the walls, and wondered which I would summon to our aid if I could call men from the dead. Smith, I thought, would be best; but I reflected uneasily that Smith would never have let things come to such a pa.s.s. At the first hint of danger he would have been off to the West to scotch it in the egg.
I was so filled with sober reflections that I talked little; but there was no need of me. Youth and beauty reigned, and the Governor was as gay as the youngest. Many asked me to take wine with them, and the compliment pleased me. There was singing, likewise--Sir William Davenant's song to his mistress, and a Cavalier rant or two, and a throat ditty of the seas; and Elspeth sang very sweetly the old air of ”Greensleeves.” We drank all the toasts of fas.h.i.+on--His Majesty of England, confusion to the French, the health of Virginia, rich harvests, full cellars, and pretty dames. Presently when we had waxed very cheerful, and wine had risen to several young heads, the Governor called on us to brim our gla.s.ses.
”Be it known, gentlemen, and you, fair ladies,” he cried, ”that to-day is a more auspicious occasion than any Royal festival or Christian holy day. To-day is Dulcinea's birthday. I summon you to drink to the flower of the West, the brightest gem in Virginia's coronal.”
At that we were all on our feet. The gentlemen snapped the stems of their gla.s.ses to honour the sacredness of the toast, and there was such a shouting and pledging as might well have turned a girl's head.
Elspeth sat still and smiling. The mockery had gone out of her eyes, and I thought they were wet. No Queen had ever a n.o.bler salutation, and my heart warmed to the generous company. Whatever its faults, it did due homage to beauty and youth.
Governor Francis was again on his feet.
”I have a birthday gift for the fair one. You must know that once at Whitehall I played at cartes with my lord Culpepper, and the stake on his part was one-sixth portion of that Virginian territory which is his freehold. I won, and my lord conveyed the grant to me in a deed properly attested by the attorneys. We call the place the Northern Neck, and 'tis all the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac as far west as the sunset. It is undivided, but my lord stipulated that my portion should lie from the mountains westward. What good is such an estate to an aging bachelor like me, who can never visit it? But 'tis a fine inheritance for youth, and I propose to convey it to Dulcinea as a birthday gift. Some day, I doubt not, 'twill be the Eden of America.”
At this there was a great crying out and some laughter, which died away when it appeared that the Governor spoke in all seriousness.
”I make one condition,” he went on. ”Twenty years back there was an old hunter, called Studd, who penetrated the mountains. He travelled to the head-waters of the Rapidan, and pierced the hills by a pa.s.s which he christened Clearwater Gap. He climbed the highest mountain in those parts, and built a cairn on the summit, in which he hid a powder-horn with a writing within. He was the first to make the journey, and none have followed him. The man is dead now, but he told me the tale, and I will pledge my honour that it is true. It is for Dulcinea to choose a champion to follow Studd's path and bring back his powder-horn. On the day I receive it she takes sasine of her heritage. Which of you gallants offers for the venture?”
To this day I do not know what were Francis Nicholson's motives. He wished the mountains crossed, but he cannot have expected to meet a pathfinder among the youth of the Tidewater. I think it was the whim of the moment. He would endow Elspeth, and at the same time test her cavaliers. To the ordinary man it seemed the craziest folly. Studd had been a wild fellow, half Indian in blood and wholly Indian in habits, and for another to travel fifty miles into the heart of the desert was to embrace destruction. The company sat very silent. Elspeth, with a blus.h.i.+ng cheek, turned troubled eyes on the speaker.
As for me, I had found the chance I wanted. I was on my feet in a second. ”I will go,” I said; and I had hardly spoken when Grey was beside me, crying, ”And I.”
Still the company sat silent. 'Twas as if the shadow of a sterner life had come over their young gaiety. Elspeth did not look at me, but sat with cast-down eyes, plucking feverishly at a rose. The Governor laughed out loud.
”Brave hearts!” he cried. ”Will you travel together?”
I looked at Grey. ”That can hardly be,” he said.
”Well, we must spin for it,” said Nicholson, taking a guinea from his pocket. ”Royals for Mr. Garvald, quarters for Mr. Grey,” he cried as he spun it.
It fell Royals. We had both been standing, and Grey now bowed to me and sat down. His face was very pale and his lips tightly shut.
The Governor gave a last toast ”Let us drink,” he called, ”to Dulcinea's champion and the fortunes of his journey.” At that there was such applause you might have thought me the best-liked man in the dominion. I looked at Elspeth, but she averted her eyes.
As we left the table I stepped beside Grey. ”You must come with me,” I whispered. ”Nay, do not refuse. When you know all you will come gladly.” And I appointed a meeting on the next day at the Half-way Tavern.
I got to my house at the darkening, and found Ringan waiting for me.
This time he had not sought a disguise, but he kept his fiery head covered with a broad hat, and the collar of his seaman's coat enveloped his lower face. To a pa.s.ser-by in the dusk he must have seemed an ordinary s.h.i.+p's captain stretching his legs on land.
He asked for food and drink, and I observed that his manner was very grave.
”Are things in train, Andrew?” he asked.
I told him ”to the last stirrup buckle.”
”It's as well,” said he, ”for the trouble has begun.”
Then he told me a horrid tale. The Rapidan is a stream in the north of the dominion, flowing into the Rappahannock on its south bank. Two years past a family of French folk--D'Aubigny was their name--had made a home in a meadow by that stream and built a house and a strong stockade, for they were in dangerous nearness to the hills, and had no neighbours within forty miles. They were gentlefolk of some substance, and had carved out of the wilderness a very pretty manor with orchards and flower gardens. I had never been to the place, but I had heard the praise of it from dwellers on the Rappahannock. No Indians came near them, and there they abode, happy in their solitude--a husband and wife, three little children, two French servants, and a dozen negroes.
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