The Cavaliers of Virginia vol. 2 of 2 Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  "The several causes of discontent in the colony of Virginia longnourished in secret, or manifesting themselves in partial riots andinsurrections, were now rapidly maturing, and only the slightestincident was wanting to precipitate them into open rebellion.

  "Since the death of Opechancanough, the Indians, deprived of thebenefits of federative concert, had made but few attempts to disturb thetranquillity of the colony. Several of the tribes had retired westward,and those which remained, reduced in their numbers and still more instrength by the want of a common leader, lingered on the frontiers,exchanging their superfluous productions at stated marts with theirformer enemies. A long peace, added to a deportment almost invariablypacific, had in a great measure relaxed the vigilance of the colonists,and the Indians were admitted to a free intercourse with the people ofall the counties. It was scarcely to be expected that during anintercourse so irregular and extensive no grounds of uneasiness shouldarise. Several thefts had been committed upon the tobacco, corn, andother property of the colonists."

  These depredations were becoming daily more numerous and alarming, andrepeated petitions had been sent in from all parts of the colony callingupon Sir William Berkley in the most urgent terms to afford themprotection. The Governor remained singularly deaf to these reasonabledemands, and took no steps to afford that protection to the citizens forwhich government was in a great measure established. Some excuse wasoffered by his friends and supporters by pleading his great age and longservices. Sir H. Chicerly, who had some time before arrived in thecolony, clothed with the authority of Lieutenant Governor, and who hadtill now remained an inactive participator of the gubernatorial honours,began to collect the militia of the state; but Sir William was no soonerinformed of these proceedings, so well calculated to allay the risingpopular ferment, than he at once construed it into an attempt tosupersede his authority, and forthwith disbanded the troops alreadycollected, and countermanded the orders for raising more, which had beensent by his subordinate through the several counties. These high-handedmeasures of an obstinate and superannuated man, inflamed the publicmind. Meetings were called without any previous concert in almost everycounty in the province, and the most indignant remonstrances were sentin to the Governor. These, however, only served to stimulate hisobstinacy, while the continued depredations of the Indians wrought upthe general feeling of dissatisfaction into a blaze of discontent.While these things were in progress, a circumstance happened, which,while it brought the contest to an immediate issue, had at the same timean important bearing upon all the principal personages of our narrative.On the night succeeding the melancholy catastrophe at the chapel,related in the last chapter, the tribes of Indians which had formerlybeen leagued together in the Powhatan confederacy, simultaneously roseat dead of night and perpetrated the most horrid butcheries upon men,women, and children, in every part of the colony. The council hadscarcely convened on the next morning before couriers from everydirection arrived with the dreadful tidings. Among others, there cameone who announced to the Governor that his own country seat had beenconsumed by the fires of the savage incendiaries, and that Mrs. Fairfax,who had been removed thither for change of scene by the advice of herphysician, was either buried in its ruins or carried away captive by theIndians. Public indignation was roused to its highest pitch, but it wasconfidently expected, now that his excellency himself was a suffererboth in property and feelings, that he would recede from his obstinaterefusal to afford relief. But strange to say, in defiance of enemies,and regardless of the remonstrances of his friends, he still persisted.The result ensued which might have been expected; meetings of thepeople, which had before been called from the impulse of the moment, andwithout concert, were now regularly organized, and immediate stepstaken to produce uniformity of action throughout the different counties.

  While these elements of civil discord are fermenting, we will pursue theadventures of our hero, whom we left just rescued from the hands of therelentless savages. The new queen of the Chickahominies, after havingconducted Bacon to her own rude palace, retired for a short period inorder to allow him just time to prepare himself for her reception. AnIndian doctor was immediately summoned and directed to extract thesplinters and dress the wounds. The departure of this wild andfantastical practitioner of the healing art was the signal for her ownentrance. Slowly and doubtfully she approached her visiter, who wasreclining almost exhausted upon a mat. Upon her entrance he attempted torise and profess his gratitude, but overcome with pain, sorrow, andweakness, he fell back upon his rude couch, a grim smile and wildexpression crossing his features. She gracefully and benignantlymotioned him to desist, and at once waived all ceremony by seatingherself on a mat beside him. Both remained in a profound and painfulsilence for some moments. Bacon's mind could dwell upon nothing but thehorrid images of the preceding hours of the night. Regardless of herpresence and her ignorance of those circumstances which dwelt sopainfully upon his memory, he remained in a wild abstraction, now andthen casting a glance of startled recognition and surprise at his royalhostess.

  She examined him far more intently and with not less surprise, after thesubsidence of her first embarrassment. Her sparkling eyes ran over hisstrange dress and condition, with the rapidity of thought, but evidentlywith no satisfactory result. She was completely at a loss to understandthe cause of his visit, and the singular time and appearance in which hehad chosen to make it. It is not improbable that female vanity, or thewhisperings of a more tender passion, connected it in some way with herown recent flight. These scarcely recognised impressions producedhowever an evident embarrassment in her manner of proceeding. She longedto ask if Virginia was his bride, yet dreaded to do so both on her ownaccount and his. She had lived long enough in civilized society tounderstand the signification of his bridal dress, but she was utterly ata loss to divine why he should appear in such a garb covered with mud,as if he had ridden in haste, in the midst of a warlike nation, and onthe very night appointed for the celebration of his nuptials, unlessindeed she might solve the mystery in the agreeable way beforesuggested. Catching one of the originally white bridal flowers of hisattire between her slender fingers, she said with a searching glance;"Faded so soon?" He covered his face with his hands, and threw himselfprostrate upon the mat, writhing like one in the throes of expiringagony.

  His benevolent hostess immediately called a little Indian attendant, inorder to despatch him for the doctor; but her guest shook his head andmotioned with his uplifted hand for her to desist. She reseated herself,more at a loss than ever to account for his present appearance andconduct. She had supposed that he was suffering from the pain of hiswounds, but she now saw that of these he was entirely regardless. Shebecame aware that a more deeply seated pain afflicted him. Again heturned his face toward the roof of the hut, his hands crossed upon hisbreast, and his bosom racked with unutterable misery.

  "Is the pretty Virginia dead?"

  The blackness of hell and horror was in his face as he turned a scowlupon his interrogator, and replied, "Is this a new method of savagetorture? If so, call in the first set, they are kind and benignantcompared to you." But seeming suddenly to recollect that she wasignorant of the pain she inflicted, he took her hand kindly andrespectfully, and continued, "Yes, Wyanokee, she is indeed dead to me.If you regard the peace of my soul, or the preservation of my senses,never whisper her name to the winds where it will be wafted to my ears.Never breathe what she has taught you. Be an Indian princess, but forGod's sake look, speak, or act not in such a way as to remind me ofpassed days. Tear open these wounds, inflict fresh tortures--yea,torture others if you will, so I but horrify my mind with any otherpicture than hers. O God, did ever sister rise before man's imaginationin such a damning form of loveliness? With most men, that little wordwould suffice to dispel the horrid illusion! but with me, cursed as Ihave been from my birth, and as I still am deeper cursed, the further Ipursue this wretched shadow called happiness, I would wed her to-morrow,yea were the curse of the unpardonable
sin denounced upon me from thealtar instead of the benediction. For her I would go forth to the world,branded with a deeper damnation than ever encircled the brows of thefirst great murderer. I would be the scorn, the jest, the by-word ofpresent generations, and a never dying beacon to warn those who comeafter me."

  As he proceeded, Wyanokee fixed her dark penetrating eyes upon his face,until her own countenance settled into the expression of reverentialawe, with which the Indian invariably listens to the ravings of themaniac. At every period she moved herself backward on the mat, until atthe conclusion, she had arrived at a respectful distance, and crossedher hands in superstitious dread. A single glance conveyed herimpressions to his mind, and he resumed, "No, no, my gentle preserver,reason is not dethroned, she still presides here, (striking hisforehead,) a stern spectator of the unholy strife which is kept upbetween her sister faculties." Leaning toward her upon his elbow, hecontinued in a thrilling whisper, "You have heard me read from thesacred volume of the tortures prepared for the damned! of a futureexistence, in which the torments of ten thousand deaths shall beinflicted, and yet the immortal sufferer find no death! His soul willbe prepared for the endurance! I have already a foretaste of thathorrible eternity! And yet you see I preserve the power to know and toendure! Is it not a dread mystery in this frail compound of ours--andportentous of evil to come, that this faculty of supporting misery solong outlives the good? The wise men of our race teach us that everypain endured is a preparation of the opposite faculty to enjoy pleasure!that our torpid fluids would stagnate without these contrastedstimulants; 'tis all a delusion, a miserable invention of the enemy. Mancan suffer in this life a compound of horrors, for which its pleasuresand allurements have no equivalent; yea, and he suffers them after allchance for happiness has vanished for ever. The pleasures of the worldare like the morning glories of a sea of ice. The sun rises and sparklesin glittering rainbows for an hour, and then sinks behind the dark bluehorizon, and leaves the late enraptured beholder, to feel the chill ofdeath creeping along his veins, until his heart is as cold and dead asthe icebergs around 'an atom of pleasure, and a universe of pain.'"

  His hearer sat in the most profound bewilderment; much of his discoursewas to her unintelligible, and notwithstanding his protestations to thecontrary, she still retained her first impressions as to the state ofhis mind. She knew something of the various relations existing betweenthe most important personages of our story, and in her own mind, hadalready begun to account for his present state. She supposed him to havebeen rudely torn from his bride. Her object therefore in the followingwords, was to learn something more of these particulars, and at the sametime to soothe the excited feelings of her guest.

  "The great Father of the white man at Jamestown will restore your bride.Does not your good book say, 'whom the' Great Spirit 'has joinedtogether let no man put asunder?'"

  "Ay!" replied Bacon, "but what does it say when they are first joinedtogether by the ties of blood? Besides, he never did join us together inthe holy covenant. He stamped it with his curse? He denounced his vetoagainst it at the very foot of the altar. The same voice which thunderedupon mount Sinai spoke there. His servant stood up before him and asked,'If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joinedtogether let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.'And lo, both heaven and earth interposed at the same moment. Thethunders of heaven rent the air, and that most fearful man appeared asif by miracle." Again lowering his voice to a whisper, he continued, "AsI rode upon the storm last night, and communed with the spirits of theair, some one whispered in my ear, that the heavens were rent asunderand he came upon a thunderbolt. And then again as I walked upon thewaves, and the black curtains gathered around, a bright light dartedinto my brain and I saw the old Roundheads who were executed the otherday, sitting upon a glorious cloud, mocking at my misery! yea, theymouthed at me. Ha, ha, ha!" The sound of his own unnatural laughterstartled him like an electric shock--and instantly he seemed torecollect himself.

  He covered his face with his hands, and rested them upon his knees insilence. Some one entered and spoke to the queen in a low voice, and sheimmediately informed her guest that his horse was dead. "Dead!" said he,as he sprang upon his feet. "His last--best--most highly prized giftdead! All on the same night--am I indeed cursed--in going out and incoming in? Are even the poor brutes that cling to me with affection,thus cut down? but I would see him ere he is cold."

  A torch-bearer soon appeared at the summons of his mistress, and theroyal hostess and her guest proceeded to the spot. There lay the nobleanimal, his once proud neck straightened in the gaunt deformity ofdeath. His master threw himself upon his body and wept like an infant.The tears, the first he had shed, humanized and soothed his harrowedfeelings. Slowly he arose, and gazing upon the lifeless beast, exclaimedwith a piteous voice, "Alas poor Bardolph, thy lot is happier than thymaster's!"

  The day was now dawning, and the morning air came fresh and invigoratingto the senses, redolent of the wild perfumes blown upon the moor andforest, from the influence of a humid night. These reviving influenceshowever fell dead upon the benumbed faculties of our hero. In accordancewith the urgent solicitations of his hostess, he agreed to swallow anIndian soporific, and try to lose his sorrows and his memory in thatnearest semblance of death. He did not fail, as he re-entered thewigwam, to observe that the whole village (called Orapacs) was busilypreparing for some imposing ceremony, and that great accessions had beenmade to the numbers of the previous night.

  Long and soundly he slept; when he awoke the sun was coursing high inthe heavens. The air was balmy and serene, and his own monomaniacalhallucinations were dissipated, partly worn out by their own violenceand partly dispelled by many hours of uninterrupted repose. Dreadful isthat affliction which sleep will not alleviate. It is true that onesuffering under a weight of misery which no hope lightens, no reasoningassuages, wakes to a present sense of his condition with a startling andmiserable consciousness, yet upon the whole, the violence of grief hasbeen soothed and moderated. So it was with our hero, and he walked fortha new and revived creature.

  But as he stepped from the wigwam, a spectacle greeted his eye more akinto the fantasies of the previous night than to stern reality. Thevillage was situated on a plain near the banks of the river. The forestremained much as it first grew, save that the undergrowth had beenburned away and the ground afterwards overgrown with a luxuriant coatof grass. This summary method of trimming the primitive forest gives itmuch the resemblance of a noble park, cleared of its shrubs,undergrowth, and limbs, by the careful hands of the woodman. The scene,as Bacon looked along the woodland vista, had a wild novelty, and itsaspect would doubtless have been sedative in its effect had it not beenfor the spectacle already alluded to, which we shall now endeavour todescribe. An immense concourse of Indians was collected just without theexternal range of wigwams. They were seated in groups, in each of whichhe recognised the distinguishing marks of separate tribes, therepresentatives of each distinct nation of the peninsula having adistinct and separate place. At the head of this warlike assemblage, ona rude throne sat the youthful Queen of the Chickahominies. Immediatelyaround the foot of this elevation were seated the few grim warriors yetremaining of that once powerful nation, and on her right hand thePowhatans. A fantastically dressed prophet of the latter tribe, with acuriously coloured heron's feather run through the cartilage of his nosestood in the centre of the assembled nations, and harangued the deputieswith the most violent gesticulations, every now and then pointing in thedirection first of Jamestown, and then of Middle Plantations, (nowWilliamsburg,) and in succession after these, to the other most thicklypeopled settlements of the whites. His rude eloquence seemed to have apowerful effect upon his warlike audience, from the repeated yells ofsavage cheering by which each appeal was followed. He concluded hisharangue by brandishing a bloody tomahawk over his head, and thenstriking it with great dexterity into a pole erected in the centre ofthe area. Numerous warriors and prophets from other tribes followed
withsimilar effect and like purpose, to all of whom the stern savageslistened with an eager yet respectful attention. When they hadconcluded, the youthful queen of the Chickahominies descended one stepfrom her throne, and addressed the assembled nations; but her discoursewas received in a far different spirit from that which had attended theeloquence of her predecessors. She was evidently maintaining theopposite side of the question which occupied the grave assembly, and itwas apparent that the feelings of her auditors were hostile to herwishes and opinions. No evidences of delight greeted her benevolentcounsels, and she resumed her seat almost overpowered by the loud andgeneral murmurs of discontent which arose at the conclusion of her"talk." She felt herself a solitary advocate of the plainest dictates ofjustice and humanity--she felt the difficulty and embarrassment ofaddressing enlightened arguments to savage ears and uncultivatedunderstandings, and a painful sense of her own responsibility, and ofregret for having assumed her present station, pressed heavily uponheart.

  Bacon saw only the eloquent language of their signs and gestures; butsome knowledge of the outrages already perpetrated easily enabled him tointerpret their intentions. He knew that bloodshed and murder were theobjects of their meeting, and he resolved to seize the earliestopportunity to escape, in order to take part in the defence of hiscountry. His mind turned eagerly to this wholesome excitement, as thebest outlet which was now left for the warring impulses within hisbreast.