Prisoners of Hope: A Tale of Colonial Virginia Read online

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  "WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)]

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  PRISONERS OF HOPE

  A Tale of Colonial Virginia

  BY

  MARY JOHNSTON

  AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD," "AUDREY," ETC.

  NEW YORK

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  PUBLISHERS

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  COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MARY JOHNSTON

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINTH THOUSAND

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  TO MY FATHER

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  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. A SLOOP COMES IN 1 II. ITS CARGO 15 III. A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY 27 IV. THE BREAKING HEART 40 V. IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD 50 VI. THE HUT ON THE MARSH 60 VII. A MENDER OF NETS 71 VIII. THE NEW SECRETARY 86 IX. AN INTERRUPTED WOOING 91 X. LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER 100 XI. LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 108 XII. A DARK DEED 117 XIII. IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE 129 XIV. A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION 137 XV. THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE 150 XVI. THE FACE IN THE DARK 162 XVII. LANDLESS AND PATRICIA 173 XVIII. A CAPTURE 185 XIX. THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL 193 XX. WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED 205 XXI. THE DUEL 219 XXII. THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN 226 XXIII. THE QUESTION 239 XXIV. A MESSAGE 247 XXV. THE ROAD TO PARADISE 252 XXVI. NIGHT 267 XXVII. MORNING 273XXVIII. BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS 282 XXIX. THE BRIDGE OF ROCK 295 XXX. THE BACKWARD TRACK 306 XXXI. THE HUT IN THE CLEARING 315 XXXII. ATTACK 326XXXIII. THE FALL OF THE LEAF 335 XXXIV. AN ACCIDENT 343 XXXV. THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT 349 XXXVI. THE LAST FIGHT 357XXXVII. VALE 369

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  PRISONERS OF HOPE

  CHAPTER I

  A SLOOP COMES IN

  "She will reach the wharf in half an hour."

  The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and paintedsilk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape andexpression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinityto whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered withpink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall ofyellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, asdescribed in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, andits wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bayof Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion ofVirginia.

  The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay andwas sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screwfashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes.The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse ofshoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and outamong the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, followingits curves, tacked continually, its great sail intensely white againstthe blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes,zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl whohad spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one littlefoot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon thefloor of the wide porch in which she stood.

  Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to apillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes.

  "Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining foryour father when 'tis scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Dothe Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves withsuch impatience?"

  "The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three casesfrom England."

  "Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?"

  "One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party atGreen Spring which the governor is to give in your honor--if you ask me,sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us yourprotestations. 'Tis to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdressof white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. Thestockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in CoventGarden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze and the shoes, gallooned withsilver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red satinbodice, a scarlet taffetas mantle, a plumed hat, a pair of claspedgarters, a riding mask, a string of pearls, and the latest romances."

  "A pretty list! Is that all?"

  "There are things for aunt Lettice, petticoats and ribbons, a giltstomacher and a China monster, and for my father, lace ruffles andbands, a pair of French laced boots, a periwig, a new scabbard for hisrapier, and so on."

  The young man laughed. "'Tis a curious life you Virginians lead," hesaid. "The embroidered suits and ruffles, the cosmetics and perfumes ofWhitehall in the midst of oyster beds and tobacco fields, savage Indiansand negro slaves."

  The girl put on a charming look of mock offense. "We _are_ a little bitof England set down here in the wilderness. Why should we not clotheourselves like gentlefolk as well as our kindred and friends at home?And sure both England and Virginia have had enough of sad coloredraiment. Better go like a peacock than like a horrid Roundhead."

  Her companion laughed musically and sang a stave of a cavalier lovesong. He was a slender, well-made man, dressed in the extreme of themode of the year of grace sixteen hundred and sixty-three, in a richlylaced suit of camlet with points of blue ribbon, and the great scentedperiwig then newly come into fashion. The close curled rings of hairdescending far over his cravat of finest Holland framed a handsome,lazily insolent face, with large steel-blue eyes and beautifully cut,mocking lips. A rapier with a jeweled hilt hung at his side, and onewhite hand, half buried in snowy ruffles, held a beribboned cane withwhich, as he talked, he ruthlessly decapitated the pink and whitemorning-glories with which the porch was trellised.

  The house to which the porch belonged was long and low, built of wood,with many small windows, and at either end a great brick chimney. Fromthe porch to the water, a hundred yards away, stretched a walk ofcrushed shells bisecting an expanse of green turf dotted with nobletrees--the cedar and the cypress predominating. Diverging from thiscentral walk were two narrower paths which, winding in and out ineccentric figures, led, on the one hand, to a rustic summer-houseovergrown with honeysuckle and trumpet-vine, and on the other to a tinygrotto constructed of shells and set in a tangle of periwinkle. Alongone side of the house, and protected by a stout locust paling overrunwith grape-vines, lay the garden, where flowers and vegetablesflourished contentedly side by side, the hollyhocks and tall whitelilies, the hundred-leaved roses and scarlet poppies showing like gildedofficers amidst the rank and file of sober esculents. Behind the housewere clustered various office
s, then came an orchard where the Juneapples and the great red cherries were ripening in the hot sunshine,then on the shore of a second and narrower creek rose the quarters forthe plantation servants, white and black--a long double row of cabins,dominated by the overseer's house and shaded by ragged yellow pines.Along one shore of this inlet was planted the Indian corn prescribed bylaw, and from the other gleamed the soft yellow of ripening wheat, butbeyond the water and away to the westward stretched acre after acre oftobacco, a sea of vivid green, broken only by an occasional shed ordrying house, and merging at last into the darker hue of the forest.Over all the fair scene, the flashing water, the velvet marshes, thesmiling fields, the fringe of dark and mysterious woodland, hung aVirginia heaven, a cloudless blue, soft, pure, intense. The air wasfull of subdued sound--the distant hum of voices from the fields ofmaize and tobacco, the faint clink of iron from the smithy, the wash andlap of the water, the drone of bees from the hives beneath the eaves ofthe house. Great bronze butterflies fluttered in the sunshine, brillianthumming-birds plunged deep into the long trumpet-flowers; from thetopmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid trill of amock-bird.

  It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certainappalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted throughhis brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads ofOrenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And thegirl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to beberhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery. Heset his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and turnedto his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail growslowly larger.

  "How long, now, cousin?"

  "But a few minutes unless the wind should fail."

  "And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you haveassumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms 'twillbe but to 'gild refined gold or paint the lily.' The Aphrodite of thiswestern ocean needs no adornment."

  The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too manypretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of thefine things you court gallants are perpetually saying."

  "Upon my soul, madam, I swear--"

  "Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing, Sir Charles? See howlarge the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she willcome more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave hishandkerchief."

  The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam,but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for ColonelVerney's handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?"

  She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be severalredemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them."

  "Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for theirpassage money. I thank you, madam, but _my_ servitude is for life."

  "The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who comehere to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batchof felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown untilword could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the shipcaptains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It isdifferent with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor sillythings that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to usand we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too.There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaolbirds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and murderersevery one!"

  "I should not think the colony served by their importation."

  "It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my fathernot to buy them, but he says that one man cannot stop an abuse--that aslong as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do so too."

  Sir Charles Carew delicately smothered a yawn. "The ship that brought meover a fortnight ago," he said lazily, "had a consignment of suchrascals. It was amusing to watch their antics, crowded together as theywere in the hold. There were two wild Irishmen whom we used to have ondeck to dance for us. Gad! what figures they cut! The captain and I hada standing wager of five of the new guineas as to which of the rascalscould hold out longest, promising a measure of rum to the victoriousvotary of Terpsichore. When I had lost a score of guineas I found thatthe captain was in the habit of priming his man before he came upondeck. Naturally, being filled with Dutch courage, he won."

  "Poor Sir Charles! What did you do?"

  "Sent the captain a cartel and fought him on his own deck. There was oneman in the villainous company whom, I protest, I almost pitied, thoughof course the rogue had but his deserts."

  "What was he?"

  "A man of about thirty. A fellow with a handsome face and a lithewell-made figure which he managed with some grace. He had the air of onewho had seen better days. I remember, one day when the captain wasbestowing upon him some especially choice oaths, seeing him clap hishand to his side as though he expected to touch a rapier hilt. He wascleanly too; kept his rags of clothing as decent as circumstancesallowed, and looked less like a wild beast in a litter of foul strawthan did his fellows. But he was an ill-conditioned dog. We had somepassages together, he and I. He took it upon himself to defend what hewas pleased to call the honor of one of his precious company. It wasvastly amusing.... After that I fell into the habit of watching himthrough the open hatches. A little thing provides entertainment at sea,Mistress Patricia. He would sit or stand for hours looking past me witha perfectly still face. The other wretches were quick to crowd up,whining to me to pitch them half pence or tobacco, but try as I would, Icould not get word or look from him. Sink me! if he didn't have theimpudence to resent my being there!"

  "It was cruel to stare at misery."

  "Lard, madam! such vermin are used to being stared at. In London,Newgate and Bridewell are theatres as well as the Cockpit or the King'sHouse, and the world of _mode_ flock to the one spectacle as often as tothe other. But see! the sloop has passed the marsh and has a clean sweepof water between her and the wharf."

  "Yes, she is coming fast now."

  "What is coming?" asked a voice from the doorway.

  "The Flying Patty, Aunt Lettice," the girl answered over her shoulder."Get your hood and come with us to the wharf."

  Mistress Lettice Verney emerged from the hall, two red spots burning inher withered cheeks, and her tall thin figure quivering with excitement.

  "I am all ready, child," she quavered. "But, mark my words, Patricia,there will be something wrong with my paduasoy petticoat, or Charettewill not have sent the proper tale of green stockings or Holland smocks.Did you not hear the screech owl last night?"

  "No, Aunt Lettice."

  "It remained beneath my window the entire night. I did not sleep a wink.And this morning Chloe upset the salt cellar, and the salt fell towardsme." Mistress Lettice rolled her eyes heavenward and sighedlugubriously. Patricia laughed.

  "I dreamed of flowers last night, Aunt Lettice; miles and miles of them,waxen and cold and sweet, like those they strew over the dead."

  Mistress Lettice groaned. "'Tis a dreadful sign. Captain Norton's wife(she that was Polly Wilson) dreamed of flowers the night before themassacre of 'forty-four. The only thing the poor soul said when thewar-whoop wakened them in the dead of the night and the door camecrashing in, was, 'I told you so.' They were her last words. Then MarthaWestall dreamed of flowers, and two days later her son James stepped ona stingray over at Dale's Gift. And I myself dreamed of roses the weekbefore those horrid Roundhead commissioners with the rebel Claiborne attheir head and a whole fleet at their back, compelled us to surrender totheir odious Commonwealth."

  "At least that evil is past," said the girl with a gay laugh. "And illfortune will never come to me aboard the Flying Patty, so I shall godown to the wharf to see her in. Darkeih! my scarf!"

  A negress appeared in the doorway with a veil of tissue in her hand. SirCharles took it from her and flung it over Patrici
a's golden head, thenoffered his arm to Mistress Lettice.

  The wharf was but a stone's throw from the wooden gates, and they weresoon treading the long stretch of gray, weather-beaten boards. Otherswere before them, for the news that the sloop was coming in had drawn asmall crowd to the wharf to welcome the master.

  The dozen or so of boatmen, white and black, who had been tinkeringabout in the various barges, shallops and canoes tied to the mossypiles, left their employments and scrambled up upon the platform, and atrio of youthful darkies, fishing for crabs with a string and a piece ofsalt pork, allowed their lines to fall slack and their intended victimsto walk coolly off with the meat, so intense was their interest in theoncoming sail. A knot of negro women had left the great house kitchenand stood, hands on hips, chatting volubly with a contingent from thequarters, their red and yellow turbans nodding up and down likegrotesque Dutch tulips. The company was made up by an overseer with abroadleafed palmetto hat pulled down over his eyes and a clay pipe stuckbetween his teeth, a pale young man who acted as secretary to the masterof the plantation, and by three or four small land-owners and tenantsfor whom Colonel Verney had graciously undertaken various commissions inJamestown, and who were on hand to make their acknowledgments to thegreat man.

  They all made deferential way for the two ladies and Sir Charles Carew.Mistress Lettice commenced a condescending conversation with one of thetenants, Darkeih added a white tulip to the red and yellow ones, andPatricia, followed by Sir Charles, walked to the edge of the wharf, andleaning upon the rude railing looked down the glassy reaches of thewater to the approaching boat.

  The wind had sunk into a fitful breeze and the white sail moved veryslowly. The tide was in, and the water lapped with a cooling soundagainst the dark green piles. In the distance the blue of the baymelted into the blue of the sky, while the nearer waters mirrored everypassing gull, the masts of the fishing boats, the tall marsh grass, thedead twigs marking oyster beds--each object had its double. On a pointof marshy ground stood a line of cranes, motionless as soldiers onparade, until, taking fright as the great sail glided past, they whirredoff, uttering discordant cries and with their legs sticking out liketail feathers. Slowly, and keeping to the middle of the channel, theboat came on. Upon the long low deck men were preparing to lower thesail, and a portly gentleman standing in the bow was vigorously wavinghis handkerchief. The sail came down with a rush, the anchor swungoverboard, and half a dozen canoes and dugouts shot from under theshadow of the wharf and across the strip of water between it and thesloop. The gentleman with the handkerchief, followed by a man plainlydressed in brown, sprang into the foremost; the others waited for theirlading of merchandise.

  Before the boat had touched the steps the master of the plantation beganto call out greetings to his expectant family.

  "Patricia, my darling, are you in health? Charles, I am happy to see youagain! Sister Lettice, Mr. Frederick Jones sends you his humbleservices."

  "La, brother! and how is the dear man?" screamed Mistress Lettice.

  "As well as 'tis in nature to be, with his heart at Verney Manor and hisbody at Flowerdieu Hundred."

  The boat jarred against the piles and the planter stepped out, graspingSir Charles's extended hand.

  "Again, I am happy to see you, Charles," he cried in a round and jovialvoice. "I have been telling my up-river good friends that I have themost topping fellow in all London for my guest, and you will havecompany enough anon."

  Sir Charles smiled and bowed. "I hope, sir, that you were successful inthe business that took you to Jamestown?"

  "Fairly so, fairly so. Haines here," with a wave of the hand towards theman in brown, "had a lot picked out for me to choose from. I have sixnegroes and three of those blackguards from Newgate--mighty poor policyto shoulder ourselves with such gaol sweepings. I doubt we'll repent itsome day. The blacks come by way of Boston, which means that they willhave to be cockered up considerably before they are fit for work. Isthat you, Woodson? How have things gone on?"

  The overseer took his pipe from between his teeth and made an awkwardbow.

  "Glad to see your Honor back," he said deferentially. "Everything's allright, sir. The last rain helped the corn amazingly, and the tobacco'sprime. The lightning struck a shed, but we got the flames out beforethey reached the hogsheads. The Nancy got caught in a squall; lost bothmasts and ran aground on Gull Marsh. The tide will take her off at thefull of the moon. Sambo 's been playing 'possum again. Said he'd cut hisfoot with his hoe so badly that he couldn't stand upon it. Said I couldsee that by the blood on the rag that tied it up. I made him take offthe rag and wash the foot, and there wa'n't no cut there. The blood waspuccoon. If he'd waited a bit he could 'a' had all he wanted to paintwith, for I gave him the rope's end, lively, until Mistress Patriciaheard him yelling and made me stop."

  "All right, Woodson. I reckon the plantation knows by this time thatwhat Mistress Patricia says is law. Here come the boats with the boxes.Tell the men to be careful how they handle them."

  After a hearty word or two to tenants and land owners the worthy Coloneljoined his daughter and sister; and together with Sir Charles Carew theywatched the precious boxes conveyed up the slippery steps, the overseershouting directions, plentifully sprinkled with selected, unfinableoaths to the panting boatmen. When all were safely piled upon the wharfready to be wheeled to the great house, the empty boats swung off tomake room for others, laden with the colonel's Jamestown purchases.

  One by one the articles climbed the stairs, each as it reached the levelbeing claimed by the overseer and told off into a lengthening line. Sixwere negroes, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but smiling widely. They gazedaround them, at the heap of clams and oysters piled upon the wharf, atthe marshes, alive with wild fowl, at the distant green of waving corn,the flower-embowered great house, the white quarters from which arosemany little spirals of savory smoke, and a bland and childlike contenttook possession of their souls. With eager and obsequious "Yes, Mas'rs"they obeyed the overseer's objurgatory indications as to theirdisposition.

  There next arose above the landing the head of a white man--acountenance of sullen ferocity, with a great scar running across it, andframed in elf locks of staring red. The body belonging to thisprepossessing face was swollen and unshapely, and its owner moved witha limp and a muttered curse towards the place assigned him. He wasfollowed by a sallow-faced, long-nosed man, with black oily hair and anaffected smirk which twitched the corners of his thin lips. Singling outhis master's family with a furtive glance from a pair of sinistergreenish eyes, he made a low bow and stepped jauntily into line.

  The third man rose above the landing. Sir Charles, standing by Patricia,laughed.

  "This world is a place of fantastic meetings, cousin," he said, airily."Now who would suppose that I would ever again see that chipping from aLondon gaol I told you of--my shipmate of cleanly habit and unsocialnature. Yet there he is."