Heralds of Empire Read online

  CHAPTER III

  TOUCHING WITCHCRAFT

  That interrupted lesson with Rebecca finished my schooling. I was setto learning the mysteries of accounts in Eli Kirke's warehouse.

  "How goes the keeping of accounts, Ramsay?" he questioned soon after Ihad been in tutelage.

  I had always intended to try my fortune in the English court when Icame of age, and the air of the counting-house ill suited a royalist'shealth.

  "Why, sir," I made answer, picking my words not to trip hisdispleasure, "I get as much as I can--and I give as little as I can;and those be all the accounts that ever I intend to keep."

  Aunt Ruth looked up from her spinning-wheel in a way that had become analarm signal. Eli Kirke glanced dubiously to the blasphemy box, asthough my words were actionable. There was no sound but the drone ofthe loom till I slipped from the room. Then they both began to talk.Soon after came transfer from the counting-house to the fur trade.That took me through the shadowy forests from town to town, and when Ireturned my old comrades seemed shot of a sudden from youth to manhood.

  There was Ben Gillam, a giff-gaffing blade home from the north sea, sotopful of spray that salt water spilled over at every word.

  "Split me fore and aft," exclaims Ben, "if I sail not a ship of my ownnext year! I'll take the boat without commission. Stocking and myfather have made an offer," he hinted darkly. "I'll go withoutcommission!"

  "And risk being strangled for't, if the French governor catch you."

  "Body o' me!" flouts Ben, ripping out a peck of oaths that had costdear and meant a day in the stocks if the elders heard, "who's going toinform when my father sails the only other ship in the bay? Devil sinkmy soul to the bottom of the sea if I don't take a boat to Hudson Bayunder the French governor's nose!"

  "A boat of your own," I laughed. "What for, Ben?"

  "For the same as your Prince Rupert, Prince Robber, took his. Go outlight as a cork, come back loaded with Spanish gold to the water-line."Ben paused to take a pinch of snuff and display his new embroideredwaist-coat.

  "Look you at the wealth in the beaver trade," he added. "M. Radissonwent home with George Carteret not worth a curse, formed the FurCompany, and came back from Hudson Bay with pelts packed to thequarter-deck. Devil sink me! but they say, after the fur sale, thegentlemen adventurers had to haul the gold through London streets withcarts! Bread o' grace, Ramsay, have half an eye for your own purse!"he urged. "There is a life for a man o' spirit! Why don't you jointhe beaver trade, Ramsay?"

  Why not, indeed? 'Twas that or turn cut-purse and road-lifter for ayouth of birth without means in those days.

  Of Jack Battle I saw less. He shipped with the fishing boats in thesummer and cruised with any vagrant craft for the winter. When he cameashore he was as small and eel-like and shy and awkward as ever, withthe same dumb fidelity in his eyes.

  And what a snowy maid had Rebecca become! Sitting behind herspinning-wheel, with her dainty fingers darting in the sunlight, sheseemed the pink and whitest thing that ever grew, with a look on herface of apple-blossoms in June; but the sly wench had grown mightydemure with me. When I laughed over that ending to our last lesson,she must affect an air of injury. 'Twas neither her fault nor mine, Ideclare, coaxing back her good-humour; 'twas the fault of the face. Iwanted to see where the white began and the pink ended. Then Rebecca,with cheeks a-bloom under the hiding of her bonnet, quickens steps tothe meeting-house; but as a matter of course we walk home together, forbehind march the older folk, staidly discoursing of doctrine.

  "Rebecca," I say, "you did not take your eyes off the preacher for oneminute."

  "How do you know, Ramsay?" retorts Rebecca, turning her face away witha dimple trembling in her chin, albeit it was the Sabbath.

  "That preacher is too handsome to be sound in his doctrine, Rebecca."

  Then she grows so mighty prim she must ask which heading of the sermonpleases me best.

  "I liked the last," I declare; and with that, we are at the turnstile.

  Hortense became a vision of something lost, a type of what I had knownwhen great ladies came to our country hall. M. Picot himself took heron the grand tour of the Continent. How much we had been hoping to seemore of her I did not realize till she came back and we saw less.

  Once I encountered M. Picot and his ward on the wharf. Her curls weremore wayward than of old and her large eyes more lustrous, full ofdeep, new lights, dark like the flash of a black diamond. Her formappeared slender against the long, flowing mantilla shot with gold likeany grand dame's. She wore a white beaver with plumes sweeping down onher curls. Indeed, little Hortense seemed altogether such a great ladythat I held back, though she was looking straight towards me.

  "Give you good-e'en, Ramsay," salutes M. Picot, a small, thin man withpointed beard, eyebrows of a fierce curlicue, and an expression underhalf-shut lids like cat's eyes in the dark. "Give you good-e'en! Canyou guess who this is?"

  As if any one could forget Hortense! But I did not say so. Instead, Ibegged leave to welcome her back by saluting the tips of her glovedfingers. She asked me if I minded that drowning of Ben long ago. Thenshe wanted to know of Jack.

  "I hear you are fur trading, Ramsay?" remarks M. Picot with theinflection of a question.

  I told him somewhat of the trade, and he broke out in almost the samewords as Ben Gillam. 'Twas the life for a gentleman of spirit. Whydidn't I join the beaver trade of Hudson Bay? And did I know of anysecret league between Captain Zachariah Gillam and Mr. Stocking totrade without commission?

  "Ah, Hillary," he sighed, "had we been beaver trading like Radissoninstead of pounding pestles, we might have had little Hortenserestored."

  "Restored!" thought I. And M. Picot must have seen my surprise, for hedrew back to his shell like a pricked snail. Observing that the windwas chill, he bade me an icy good-night.

  I had no desire to pry into M. Picot's secrets, but I could not helpknowing that he had unbended to me because he was interested in the furtrade. From that 'twas but a step to the guess that he had come to NewEngland to amass wealth to restore Mistress Hortense. Restore her towhat? There I pulled up sharp. 'Twas none of my affair; and yet, inspite of resolves, it daily became more of my affair. Do what I would,spending part of every day with Rebecca, that image of lustrous eyesunder the white beaver, the plume nodding above the curls, the slenderfigure outlined against the gold-shot mantilla, became a hauntingmemory. Countless times I blotted out that mental picture with a sweepof common sense. "She was a pert miss, with her head full of Frenchnonsense and a nose held too high in air." Then a memory of the eyesunder the beaver, and fancy was at it again spinning cobwebs inmoonshine.

  M. Picot kept more aloof than formerly, and was as heartily hated forit as the little minds of a little place ever hate those apart.

  Occasionally, in the forest far back from the settlement, I caught aflying glimpse of Lincoln green; and Hortense went through the woods,hard as her Irish hunter could gallop, followed by the blackamoor,churning up and down on a blowing nag. Once I had the good luck torestore a dropped gauntlet before the blackamoor could come. With eyesalight she threw me a flashing thanks and was off, a sunbeam throughthe forest shades; and something was thumping under a velvet waistcoatfaster than the greyhound's pace. A moment later, back came the houndin springy stretches, with the riders at full gallop.

  Her whip fell, but this time she did not turn.

  But when I carried the whip to the doctor's house that night, M. Picotreceived it with scant grace!

  Whispers--gall-midges among evil tongues--were raising a buzz thatboded ill for the doctor. France had paid spies among the English,some said. Deliverance Dobbins, a frumpish, fizgig of a maid, evercomplaining of bodily ills though her chuffy cheeks were red aspippins, reported that one day when she had gone for simples she hadseen strange, dead things in the jars of M. Picot's dispensary. Atthis I laughed as Rebecca told it me, and old Tibbie winked behind thelittle Puritan maid's head; f
or my father, like the princes, had knownthat love of the new sciences which became a passion among gentlemen.Had I not noticed the mole on the French doctor's cheek? Rebecca asked.I had: what of it?

  "The crops have been blighted," says Rebecca; though what connectionthat had with M. Picot's mole, I could not see.

  "Deliverance Dobbins oft hath racking pains," says Rebecca, with thatair of injury which became her demure dimples so well.

  "Drat that Deliverance Dobbins for a low-bred mongrel mischief-maker!"cries old Tibbie from the pantry door.

  "Tibbie," I order, "hold your tongue and drop an angel in the blasphemybox."

  "'Twas good coin wasted," the old nurse vowed; but I must needs putsome curb on her royalist tongue, which was ever running a-riot in thatPuritan household.

  It was an accident, in the end, that threw me across M. Picot's path.I had gone to have him bind up a splintered wrist, and he invited me tostay for a round of piquet. I, having only one hand, must beg MistressHortense to sort the cards for me.

  She sat so near that I could not see her. You may guess I lost everygame.

  "Tut! tut! Hillary dear, 'tis a poor helper Ramsay gained when heasked your hand. Pish! pish!" he added, seeing our faces crimson;"come away," and he carried me off to the dispensary, as though hispreserved reptiles would be more interesting than Hortense.

  With an indifference a trifle too marked, he brought me round to thefur trade and wanted to know whether I would be willing to risk tradingwithout a license, on shares with a partner.

  "Quick wealth that way, Ramsay, an you have courage to go to the north.An it were not for Hortense, I'd hire that young rapscallion of aGillam to take me north."

  I caught his drift, and had to tell him that I meant to try my fortunein the English court.

  But he paid small heed to what I said, gazing absently at the creaturesin the jars.

  "'Twould be devilish dangerous for a girl," he muttered, pullingfiercely at his mustache.

  "Do you mean the court, sir?" I asked.

  "Aye," returned the doctor with a dry laugh that meant the opposite ofhis words. "An you incline to the court, learn the tricks o' thefoils, or rogues will slit both purse and throat."

  And all the while he was smiling as though my going to the court werean odd notion.

  "If I could but find a master," I lamented.

  "Come to me of an evening," says M. Picot. "I'll teach you, and youcan tell me of the fur trade."

  You may be sure I went as often as ever I could. M. Picot took meupstairs to a sort of hunting room. It had a great many ponderous oakpieces carved after the Flemish pattern and a few little bandy-leggedchairs and gilded tables with courtly scenes painted on top, which hesaid Mistress Hortense had brought back as of the latest Frenchfashion. The blackamoor drew close the iron shutters; for, thoughthose in the world must know the ways of the world, worldling practiceswere a sad offence to New England. Shoving the furnishings aside, M.Picot picked from the armory rack two slim foils resembling Spanishrapiers and prepared to give me my lesson. Carte and tierce, low carteand flanconnade, he taught me with many a ringing clash of steel tillbeads were dripping from our brows like rain-drops.

  "Bravo!" shouted M. Picot in a pause. "Are you son o' the Stanhopethat fought on the king's side?"

  I said that I was.

  "I knew the rascal that got the estate from the king," says M. Picot,with a curious look from Hortense to me; and he told me of Blood, thefreebooter, who stole the king's crown but won royal favour by hisbravado and entered court service for the doing of deeds that bore notthe light of day.

  Nightly I went to the French doctor's house, and I learned every wickedtrick of thrust and parry that M. Picot knew. Once when I bungled afoul lunge, which M. Picot said was a habit of the infamous Blood, hisweapon touched my chest, and Mistress Hortense uttered a sharp cry.

  "What--what--what!" exclaims M. Picot, whirling on her.

  "'Twas so real," murmurs Hortense, biting her lip.

  After that she sat still enough. Then the steel was exchanged forcards; and when I lost too steadily M. Picot broke out: "Pish, boy,your luck fails here! Hillary, child, go practise thy songs on thespinet."

  Or: "Hortense, go mull us a smack o' wine!"

  Or: "Ha, ha, little witch! Up yet? Late hours make old ladies."

  And Hortense must go off, so that I never saw her alone but once.'Twas the night before I was to leave for the trade.

  The blackamoor appeared to say that Deliverance Dobbins was "a-goin' infits" on the dispensary floor.

  "Faith, doctor," said I, "she used to have dumps on our turnstile."

  "Yes," laughed Hortense, "small wonder she had dumps on that turnstile!Ramsay used to tilt her backward."

  M. Picot hastened away, laughing. Hortense was in a great carvedhigh-back chair with clumsy, wooden cupids floundering all about thetall head-rest. Her face was alight in soft-hued crimson flaming froman Arabian cresset stuck in sockets against the Flemish cabinet.

  "A child's trick," began Hortense, catching at the shafts of light.

  "I often think of those old days on the beach."

  "So do I," said Hortense.

  "I wish they could come back."

  "So do I," smiled Hortense. Then, as if to check more: "I suppose,Ramsay, you would want to drown us all--Ben and Jack and Rebecca andme."

  "And I suppose you would want to stand us all on our heads," I retorted.

  Then we both laughed, and Hortense demanded if I had as much skill withthe lyre as with the sword. She had heard that I was much given tochanting vain airs and wanton songs, she said.

  And this is what I sang, with a heart that knocked to the notes of theold madrigal like the precentor's tuning-fork to a meeting-house psalm:

  "Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting, Which, clad in damask mantles, deck the arbours, And then behold your lips where sweet love harbours, My eyes perplex me with a double doubting, Whether the roses be your lips, or your lips the roses."

  Barely had I finished when Mistress Hortense seats herself at thespinet, and, changing the words to suit her saucy fancy, trills offthat ballad but newly writ by one of our English courtiers:

  "Shall I, wasting in despair, Die because--_Rebecca's_--fair? Or make pale my cheeks with care 'Cause _Rebecca's_ rosier are?"

  "Hortense!" I protested.

  "Be _he_ fairer than the day Or the _June-field coils of hay_; If _he_ be not so to me, What care I how _fine_ he be?"

  There was such merriment in the dark-lashed eyes, I defy Eli Kirkehimself to have taken offence; and so, like many another youth, I wasall too ready to be the pipe on which a dainty lady played her stops.As the song faded to the last tinkling notes of the spinet her fingerstook to touching low, tuneless melodies like thoughts creeping intothoughts, or perfume of flowers in the dark. The melting airs slippedinto silence, and Hortense shut her eyes, "to get the memory of it,"she said. I thought she meant some new-fangled tune.

  "This is memory enough for me," said I.

  "Oh?" asked Hortense, and she uncovered all the blaze of the darklights hid in those eyes.

  "Faith, Hortense," I answered, like a moth gone giddy in flame, "yournaughty music wakes echoes of what souls must hear in paradise."

  "Then it isn't naughty," said Hortense, beginning to play fiercely,striking false notes and discords and things.

  "Hortense," said I.

  "No--Ramsay!" cried Hortense, jangling harder than ever.

  "But--yes!--Hortense----"

  And in bustled M. Picot, hastier than need, methought.

  "What, Hillary? Not a-bed yet, child? Ha!--crow's-feet under eyesto-morrow! Bed, little baggage! Forget not thy prayers! Pish! Pish!Good-night! Good-night!"

  That is the way an older man takes it.

  "Now, devil fly away with that prying wench of a Deliverance Dobbins!"ejaculated M. Picot, stamping about. "Oh, I'll cure her fanciful fits!Pish! Pish! That frump and her fits!
Bad blood, Ramsay; low-bred,low-bred! 'Tis ever the way of her kind to blab of aches and stuffedstomachs that were well if left empty. An she come prying into mychemicals, taking fits when she's caught, I'll mix her a pill o'Deliverance!" And M. Picot laughed heartily at his own joke.

  The next morning I was off to the trade. Though I hardly acknowledgedthe reason to myself, any youth can guess why I made excuse to comeback soon. As I rode up, Rebecca stood at our gate. She had no smile.Had I not been thinking of another, I had noticed the sadness of herface; but when she moved back a pace, I flung out some foolishnessabout a gate being no bar if one had a mind to jump. Then she broughtme sharp to my senses as I sprang to the ground.

  "Ramsay," she exclaimed, "M. Picot and Mistress Hortense are in jailcharged with sorcery! M. Picot is like to be hanged! An they do notconfess, they may be set in the bilboes and whipped. There is talk ofputting Mistress Hortense to the test."

  "The test!"

  'Twas as if a great weight struck away power to think, for the testmeant neither more nor less than torture till confession were wrungfrom agony. The night went black and Rebecca's voice came as from somefar place.

  "Ramsay, you are hurting--you are crushing my hands!"

  Poor child, she was crying; and the words I would have said stuck fastbehind sealed lips. She seemed to understand, for she went on:

  "Deliverance Dobbins saw strange things in his house. She went to spy.He hath crazed her intellectuals. She hath dumb fits."

  Now I understood. This trouble was the result of M. Picot's threat;but little Rebecca's voice was tinkling on like a bell in a dome.

  "My father hath the key to their ward. My father saith there is liketo be trouble if they do not confess--"

  "Confess!" I broke out. "Confess what? If they confess the lie theywill be burned for witchcraft. And if they refuse to confess, theywill be hanged for not telling the lie. Pretty justice! And your holymen fined one fellow a hundred pounds for calling their justices a packof jackasses----"

  "Sentence is to be pronounced to-morrow after communion," said Rebecca.

  "After communion?" I could say no more. On that of all days fortyranny's crime!

  God forgive me for despairing of mankind that night. I thought freedomhad been won in the Commonwealth war, but that was only freedom ofbody. A greater strife was to wage for freedom of soul.