CHAPTER VIII IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL
I FELT a touch upon my shoulder, and turned to find Mistress Percybeside me. Her cheeks were white, her eyes aflame, her whole frametense. The passion that dominated her was so clearly anger at white heatthat I stared at her in amazement. Her hand slid from my shoulder to thebend of my arm and rested there. "Remember that I am your wife, sir,"she said in a low, fierce voice,--"your kind and loving wife. You saidthat your sword was mine; now bring your wit to the same service!"
There was not time to question her meaning. The man whose position inthe realm had just been announced by the Secretary, and of whom we hadall heard as one not unlikely to supplant even Buckingham himself, wasclose at hand. The Governor, headpiece in hand, stepped forward; theother swept off his Spanish hat; both bowed profoundly.
"I speak to his Honor the Governor of Virginia?" inquired the newcomer.His tone was offhand, his hat already back upon his head.
"I am George Yeardley, at my Lord Carnal's service," answered theGovernor.
The favorite raised his eyebrows. "I don't need to introduce myself, itseems," he said. "You've found that I am not the devil, after all,--atleast not the Spanish Apollyon. Zooks! a hawk above a poultry yard couldn't have caused a greater commotion than did my poor little ship and myfew poor birding pieces! Does every strange sail so put you through yourpaces?"
The Governor's color mounted. "We are not at home," he answered stiffly."Here we are few and weak and surrounded by many dangers, and have needto be vigilant, being planted, as it were, in the very grasp of thatSpain who holds Europe in awe, and who claims this land as her own. Thatwe are here at all is proof enough of our courage, my lord."
The other shrugged his shoulders. "I don't doubt your mettle," he saidnegligently. "I dare say it matches your armor."
His glance had rested for a moment upon the battered headpiece andancient rusty breastplate with which Master Jeremy Sparrow was bedight.
"It is something antique, truly, something out of fashion," remarkedthat worthy,--"almost as out of fashion as courtesy from guests, orrespect for dignities from my-face-is-my-fortune minions and lords oncarpet considerations."
The hush of consternation following this audacious speech was broken bya roar of laughter from the favorite himself. "Zounds!" he cried, "yourcourage is worn on your sleeve, good giant! I'll uphold you to faceSpaniards, strappado, rack, galleys, and all!"
The bravado with which he spoke, the insolence of his bold glance andcurled lip, the arrogance with which he flaunted that King's favor whichshould be a brand more infamous than the hangman's, his beauty, the pompof his dress,--all were alike hateful. I hated him then, scarce knowingwhy, as I hated him afterward with reason.
He now pulled from the breast of his doublet a packet, which heproffered the Governor. "From the King, sir," he announced, in thehalf-fierce, half--mocking tone he had made his own. "You may read it atyour leisure. He wishes you to further me in a quest upon which I havecome."
The Governor took the packet with reverence. "His Majesty's will is ourlaw," he said. "Anything that lies in our power, sir; though if you comefor gold"--
The favorite laughed again. "I've come for a thing a deal more precious,Sir Governor,--a thing worth more to me than all the treasure of theIndies with Manoa and El Dorado thrown in,--to wit, the thing upon whichI've set my mind. That which I determine to do, I do, sir, and the thingI determine to have, why, sooner or later, by hook or by crook, fairmeans or foul, I have it! I am not one to be crossed or defied withimpunity."
"I do not take your meaning, my lord," said the Governor, puzzled,but courteous. "There are none here who would care to thwart, in anyhonorable enterprise, a nobleman so high in the King's favor. I trustthat my Lord Carnal will make my poor house his own during his stay inVirginia--What's the matter, my lord?"
My lord's face was dark red, his black eyes afire, his mustaches workingup and down. His white teeth had closed with a click on the loud oathwhich had interrupted the Governor's speech. Honest Sir George and hiscircle stared at this unaccountable guest in amazement not unmixed withdismay. As for myself, I knew before he spoke what had caused the oathand the fierce triumph in that handsome face. Master Jeremy Sparrow hadmoved a little to one side, thus exposing to view that which his greatbody had before screened from observation,--namely, Mistress JocelynPercy.
In a moment the favorite was before her, hat in hand, bowing to theground.
"My quest hath ended where I feared it but begun!" he cried, flushed andexultant. "I have found my Manoa sooner than I thought for. Have you nowelcome for me, lady?"
She withdrew her arm from mine and curtsied to him profoundly; thenstood erect, indignant and defiant, her eyes angry stars, her cheekscarnation, scorn on her smiling lips.
"I cannot welcome you as you should be welcomed, my lord," she said in aclear voice. "I have but my bare hands. Manoa, my lord, lies far to thesouthward. This land is quite out of your course, and you will find herebut your travail for your pains. My lord, permit me to present to you myhusband, Captain Ralph Percy. I think that you know his cousin, my Lordof Northumberland."
The red left the favorite's cheeks, and he moved as though a blow hadbeen dealt him by some invisible hand. Recovering himself he bowedto me, and I to him, which done we looked each other in the eyes longenough for each to see the thrown gauntlet.
"I raise it," I said.
"And I raise it," he answered.
"A l'outrance, I think, sir?" I continued.
"A l'outrance," he assented.
"And between us two alone," I suggested.
His answering smile was not good to see, nor was the tone in which hespoke to the Governor good to hear.
"It is now some weeks, sir," he said, "since there disappeared fromcourt a jewel, a diamond of most inestimable worth. It in some sortbelonged to the King, and his Majesty, in the goodness of his heart,had promised it to a certain one,--nay, had sworn by his kingdom thatit should be his. Well, sir, that man put forth his hand to claim hisown--when lo! the jewel vanished! Where it went no man could tell. Therewas, as you may believe, a mighty running up and down and looking intodark corners, all for naught,--it was clean gone. But the man to whomthat bright gem had been promised was not one easily hoodwinked orbaffled. He swore to trace it, follow it, find it, and wear it."
His bold eyes left the Governor, to rest upon the woman beside me; hadhe pointed to her with his hand, he could not have more surely drawnupon her the regard of that motley throng. By degrees the crowd hadfallen back, leaving us three--the King's minion, the masquerading lady,and myself--the centre of a ring of staring faces; but now she becamethe sole target at which all eyes were directed.
In Virginia, at this time, the women of our own race were held in highesteem. During the first years of our planting they were a greaterrarity than the mocking-birds and flying squirrels, or than that weedthe eating of which made fools of men. The man whose wife was loving anddaring enough, or jealous enough of Indian maids, to follow him intothe wilderness counted his friends by the score and never lacked forcompany. The first marriage in Virginia was between a laborer and awaiting maid, and yet there was as great a deal of candy stuff as if ithad been the nuptials of a lieutenant of the shire. The brother of myLord de la Warre stood up with the groom, the brother of my Lord ofNorthumberland gave away the bride and was the first to kiss her, andthe President himself held the caudle to their lips that night. Sincethat wedding there had been others. Gentlewomen made the Virginia voyagewith husband or father; women signed as servants and came over, to marryin three weeks' time, the husband paying good tobacco for the wife'sfreedom; in the cargoes of children sent for apprentices there were manygirls. And last, but not least, had come Sir Edwyn's doves. Things hadchanged since that day--at the memory of which men still held theirsides--when Madam West, then the only woman in the town with youth andbeauty, had marched down the street to the pillory, mounted it, calledto her the drummer, and ordered him to summon to the s
quare by tuck ofdrum every man in the place. Which done, and the amazed populationat hand, gaping at the spectacle of the wife of their commander (thenabsent from home) pilloried before them, she gave command, throughthe crier, that they should take their fill of gazing, whispering, andnudging then and there, forever and a day, and then should go abouttheir business and give her leave to mind her own.
That day was gone, but men still dropped their work to see a woman pass,still cheered when a farthingale appeared over a ship's side, and atchurch still devoted their eyes to other service than staring at theminister. In our short but crowded history few things had made a greaterstir than the coming in of Sir Edwyn's maids. They were married now,but they were still the observed of all observers; to be pointed out tostrangers, run after by children, gaped at by the vulgar, bowed to withbroad smiles by Burgess, Councilor, and commander, and openly contemnedby those dames who had attained to a husband in somewhat more regularfashion. Of the ninety who had arrived two weeks before, the greaternumber had found husbands in the town itself or in the neighboringhundreds, so that in the crowd that had gathered to withstand theSpaniard, and had stayed to welcome the King's favorite, there werefarthingales not a few.
But there were none like the woman whose hand I had kissed in thecourting meadow. In the throng, that day, in her Puritan dress and amidthe crowd of meaner beauties, she had passed without overmuch comment,and since that day none had seen her save Rolfe and the minister, myservants and myself; and when "The Spaniard!" was cried, men thought ofother things than the beauty of women; so that until this moment shehad escaped any special notice. Now all that was changed. The Governor,following the pointing of those insolent eyes, fixed his own upon herin a stare of sheer amazement; the gold-laced quality about him cranednecks, lifted eyebrows, and whispered; and the rabble behind followedtheir betters' example with an emphasis quite their own.
"Where do you suppose that jewel went, Sir Governor," said thefavorite,--"that jewel which was overnice to shine at court, which setup its will against the King's, which would have none of that one towhom it had been given?"
"I am a plain man, my lord," replied the Governor bluntly. "An it pleaseyou, give me plain words."
My lord laughed, his eyes traveling round the ring of greedily intentfaces. "So be it, sir," he assented. "May I ask who is this lady?"
"She came in the Bonaventure," answered the Governor. "She was one ofthe treasurer's poor maids."
"With whom I trod a measure at court not long ago," said the favorite."I had to wait for the honor until the prince had been gratified."
The Governor's round eyes grew rounder. Young Hamor, a-tiptoe behindhim, drew a long, low whistle.
"In so small a community," went on my lord, "sure you must all knowone another. There can be no masks worn, no false colors displayed.Everything must be as open as daylight. But we all have a past as wellas a present. Now, for instance"--
I interrupted him. "In Virginia, my lord, we live in the present. Atpresent, my lord, I like not the color of your lordship's cloak."
He stared at me, with his black brows drawn together. "It is not of yourchoosing nor for your wearing, sir," he rejoined haughtily.
"And your sword knot is villainously tied," I continued. "And I like notsuch a fire-new, bejeweled scabbard. Mine, you see, is out at heel."
"I see," he said dryly.
"The pinking of your doublet suits me not, either," I declared. "I couldmake it more to my liking," and I touched his Genoa three-pile with thepoint of my rapier.
A loud murmur arose from the crowd, and the Governor started forward,crying out, "Captain Percy! Are you mad?"
"I was never saner in my life, sir," I answered. "French fashions likeme not,--that is all,--nor Englishmen that wear them. To my thinkingsuch are scarcely true-born."
That thrust went home. All the world knew the story of my late LordCarnal and the waiting woman in the service of the French ambassador'swife. A gasp of admiration went up from the crowd. My lord's rapier wasout, the hand that held it shaking with passion. I had my blade in myhand, but the point was upon the ground. "I'll lesson you, you madman!"he said thickly. Suddenly, without any warning, he thrust at me; hadhe been less blind with rage, the long score which each was to run upagainst the other might have ended where it began. I swerved, and thenext instant with my own point sent his rapier whirling. It fell at theGovernor's feet.
"Your lordship may pick it up," I remarked. "Your grasp is as firm asyour honor, my lord."
He glared at me, foam upon his lips. Men were between us now,--theGovernor, Francis West, Master Pory, Hamor, Wynne,--and a babel ofexcited voices arose. The diversion I had aimed to make had been madewith a vengeance. West had me by the arm. "What a murrain is all thiscoil about, Ralph Percy? If you hurt hair of his head, you are lost!"
The favorite broke from the Governor's detaining hand and conciliatoryspeech.
"You'll fight, sir?" he cried hoarsely.
"You know that I need not now, my lord," I answered.
He stamped upon the ground with rage and shame; not true shame for thatfoul thrust, but shame for the sword upon the grass, for that whichcould be read in men's eyes, strive to hide it as they might, for theopen scorn upon one face. Then, during the minute or more in which wefaced each other in silence, he exerted to some effect that willof which he had boasted. The scarlet faded from his face, his framesteadied, and he forced a smile. Also he called to his aid a certainsoldierly, honest-seeming frankness of speech and manner which he couldassume at will.
"Your Virginian sunshine dazzleth the eyes, sir," he said. "Of a verityit made me think you on guard. Forgive me my mistake."
I bowed. "Your lordship will find me at your service. I lodge at theminister's house, where your lordship's messenger will find me. I amgoing there now with my wife, who hath ridden a score of miles thismorning and is weary. We give you good-day, my lord."
I bowed to him again and to the Governor, then gave my hand to MistressPercy. The crowd opening before us, we passed through it, and crossedthe parade by the west bulwark. At the further end was a bit of risingground. This we mounted; then, before descending the other side into thelane leading to the minister's house, we turned as by one impulseand looked back. Life is like one of those endless Italian corridors,painted, picture after picture, by a master hand; and man is thetraveler through it, taking his eyes from one scene but to rest themupon another. Some remain a blur in his mind; some he remembers not; forsome he has but to close his eyes and he sees them again, line for line,tint for tint, the whole spirit of the piece. I close my eyes, and Isee the sunshine hot and bright, the blue of the skies, the sheen of theriver. The sails are white again upon boats long lost; the Santa Teresa,sunk in a fight with an Algerine rover two years afterward, ridesat anchor there forever in the James, her crew in the waist and therigging, her master and his mates on the poop, above them the flag.I see the plain at our feet and the crowd beyond, all staring withupturned faces; and standing out from the group of perplexed andwondering dignitaries a man in black and scarlet, one hand busy at hismouth, the other clenched upon the newly restored and unsheathed sword.And I see, standing on the green hillock, hand in hand, us two, myselfand the woman so near to me, and yet so far away that a common enemyseemed our only tie.
We turned and descended to the green lane and the deserted houses. Whenwe were quite hidden from those we had left on the bank below the fort,she dropped my hand and moved to the other side of the lane; and thus,with never a word to spare, we walked sedately on until we reached theminister's house.