CHAPTER IV.
MAKERS OF EMPIRE.
As the days passed, and Van Vuren's attitude of diffident friendlinessremained unaltered, Roussilac's suspicions began to leave him; and evenLa Salle modified his former opinions when he again walked abroad anddiscovered that out of the seventy-five fighting men who made up themilitary complement of the Dutch man-of-war, no less than thirty hadbeen sent out upon a hunting expedition in the western forests. These,and other circumstances, tended to impress the minds of the Frenchofficers that their ally was acting in good faith; thus the commandantrelaxed his vigilance, and Van Vuren was permitted to go upon his wayunwatched. The Dutchman came seldom to the fortress, because he feareda second meeting with La Salle; but he frequently stole under cover ofnight into the forest to the north, where the Cayugas had their camp,little guessing that these visits were known, not indeed to the French,but to a company of five Englishmen, who had been thrown upon the coastto the west of the settlement of Acadie during a storm of the previousOctober, and had wintered in a cave among the rugged cliffs some littledistance beyond the falls of Montmorenci, believing themselves to bethe sole representatives of their country in all that land.
These men--the sole survivors of an expedition which had set forth withthe object of establishing a small colony in the north--wasted no timein repining over their ill-fortune, or considering the hopeless natureof their position. They engaged themselves in mastering the topographyof the fortress and ascertaining the strength of its garrison; theywatched the river, and noted the coming and going of each ship; theymade themselves friendly with the Iroquois, and from Shuswap, the chiefof the Cayugas, a man who loved the English, they obtained from time totime much information of value. It was one of their number, JeremiahHough the Puritan, who had followed Van Vuren to the Indian camp-fire;and when he discovered that the Dutchman was indeed faithless to hisallies and was endeavouring to stir up the Iroquois to strike a blowagainst the French position, he returned with the tidings to hiscomrades, and the little council of five sat for a long night anddiscussed this Dutch policy with the cool shrewdness of their race.
As a result of their debate, one of the little band was deputed eachnight to lie concealed upon the shore and watch the Dutch ship. SimonPenfold, the leader, a spare, grey man of two score years and ten, buthard and hale as any oak in his home meadows, played spy on the firstnight; Jesse Woodfield, a yeoman scarce thirty years of age, did dutyon the second, and handsome young Geoffrey Viner, the boy of the party,beloved by his comrades for the sake of his long fair hair and comelyface, kept watch on the third. On the fourth night the task devolvedupon George Flower, a middle-aged, sad-featured man, the captain'sfaithful friend since the days of boyhood; and the next night foundstern Hough the Puritan lying among the willows above the shingle, withhis cold eyes fixed upon a single star of light which marked theposition of the Dutch ship.
These five men, who made up the little company of Englishmen venturinginto the French colony, were yeomen of Berks, farmers of the valleysand fields watered by the Thames, men of good repute, who had beendriven to leave their native shore and seek another home in the widenew world through the oppression of the agents of the greedy Englishking.
The man who had discovered Van Vuren's plans had indeed delayed hisflight too long. Scarred and lined as were the faces of Flower andPenfold, their features had at least escaped the terrible mutilationwhich had been inflicted upon Hough as an outward and visible sign ofthe royal displeasure. His ears had been cropped close to the skull,his nostrils slit, his cheeks branded, as a penalty for having stoutlyrefused to supply any portion of the necessities of King Charles,according to the demand of the most honourable Court of Star Chamber.The strong black hair which spread thickly over the Puritan's face, yetwithout hiding the trail of the branding iron and the primings of theexecutioner's knife, added a terrible touch to his dehumanisedappearance.
It was on the fifth night after the watch had been appointed that VanVuren played for his big stake. From a safe shelter among the willows,Hough observed a small fire upon the shore, and two men, one of whomappeared to be a native, watching beside the flames. Presently heheard a voice hailing softly from the darkness which overhung theriver, and soon a black hulk loomed beside the shore.
Hough counted six men as they disembarked one by one, he saw the boatdrawn up, and the beacon fire extinguished. That fire was stillhissing under the water which had been thrown upon it when the Puritancrawled out of the thicket of red willow, and stood, leaning forward,listening attentively. When the sound of footfalls died away, hescaled the cliff behind, ran over the flat to the little river ofMontmorenci, which was flecked with foam and shivering as it neared itslong straight plunge, pulled a canoe from beneath the bushes, and shotacross that dangerous passage as though it had been no whit moreformidable than some sluggish reach of his native Thames. Had hedropped his paddle, death would have been inevitable; had he allowedhimself to drift beyond a certain point the current would have draggedhim down to the white bar of foam which marked a phosphorescent lineacross the darkness beyond.
Plunging again into the forest, he proceeded in the same headlongfashion, bearing to the right, always descending, until he struck apath through the interlacing trees, and finally reached rock-land and acave cunningly concealed behind a screen of willow.
He whistled softly, and when his signal was answered pushed inward,drawing away a sheet of canvas which had been stretched across theentry to imprison more effectually the light. A fire burnt within, thesmoke escaping from a shaft two hundred feet above; and round this firewere grouped his four companions, who started up with eager faces whenthe Puritan made his entry.
"Good news, I wot," cried old Penfold. "'Tis spoken already by youreyes, friend Hough."
"My eyes lie not," the Puritan answered. "Comrades, the Dutch haveshown their hand. If we strike at once we shall assuredly kill theirplan, and may perchance seize their leader."
In a few words he disclosed what he had seen.
"They go to hold council with the sachems," said Penfold, addingthoughtfully, "There will be no light until the dawn."
"Let us lie in wait for them beside their boat," the Puritan advised.
"Nay, let us fall upon them in the forest," cried Wood field.
"Not so," answered the leader. "A man cannot use his sword for thebush and the splintered growth from the pines."
"An Iroquois guide will accompany them," said Flower.
"The boat! the boat!" shouted young Viner. "That is the place."
"Peace, lads," cried Penfold, stroking his beard. "Let us discuss withreason. Why has this Dutch vessel made her way up the river?Roussilac would tell us that she has come to strengthen the hands ofthe French. Is it so? I trow not. It has ever been the policy of theDutch to dissemble. Holland intends to keep the English from thiscoast if she may. Surely she desires also to drive out the French, inorder that she may make herself mistress of the North American land.She is eager to make colonies, and she knows full well that thefortress may easily be defended once it be captured."
"She is, then, a privateer," exclaimed Hough.
"Not so. She is commissioned by the Government of the Netherlands toseize North America. The French are only a handful here. England hasno fleet. Now is the crafty Dutchman's opportunity. Look upon this,my lads."
Penfold pulled a flaming stick from the fire and walked across thecave. He stopped where the side sloped as smoothly as a wall, and heldthe torch above his head, pointing to a map of the American coloniestraced upon the wall of silica by charcoal. The design was roughly andincorrectly made; rivers were placed where mountains should have shown,and the scale was entirely inaccurate; but politically it was correct.
"See!" cried the leader, passing a finger through Chesapeake Bay, andlaying his hand lovingly upon the province of Virginia. "There liesthe fairest of England's colonies. Here, mark you, flows the Potomac,and here to the north behold the province of Maryland.
What countrylies back in the beyond we do not know, because the Mohawks are mastersthere; but pass north along the coast and we reach New England, theprovinces of Connecticut and Massachusetts, with the king's towns ofBoston and Plymouth. Between lie our enemies."
He passed his fingers across the words written on the wall, "NewNetherlands," while the four men murmured behind.
"Did the Hollanders acquire their colonies in fair fight?" demandedPenfold, returning to the fire.
He flung down the brand, and as the sparks showered upward he went on,"I say it was through deceit. During the glorious reign of ourElizabeth, of blessed memory, our men of Devon, our Grenville, ourDrake, our Hawkins smoked out the Spaniards, and wrested these coloniesof the new world from the King of Spain in fair fight. Fair do I say?Ay, surely one tight English ship was ever a match for three popishgalleons. But mark you how the jackals followed the lion, even astravellers from the Indies tell us they follow to take of that whichthe lion shall leave. Where the land was free, where there was notyranny of the church to dread, mark you how the Dutch jackals creptin, to find a home and found a colony under the protection of thegolden lions of England."
"Come, old Simon," broke in Woodfield. "Enough of talk."
"Ay, ay. Put out the fire, my lads. Rub out yon map. We have a planwhich, with God's help, shall perchance furnish us with better quartersthan this poor hole in the rock."
Young Geoffrey stepped back, spat upon the white wall where the words"New Netherlands" appeared, and obliterated the Dutch colonies with theflat of his hand.
"Let the map now stand!" he cried, and the others gathered round theboy whom they loved, clashing their swords, and taking courage from thethoughtless prophecy which was in God's good time to be fulfilled.
Then the Englishmen went on their way through the dark night.