Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims Page 4

  CHAPTER III.

  THE SWORD OF STANDISH.

  The "little bird," probably John Alden, constant companion of Standish,had sung truly in Priscilla's ear of a second exploring party about toleave the Mayflower in quest of a favorable site for the town and colonythe Pilgrims had come forth to found.

  To this step they were urged not only by their own wishes, but by theimportunities of Captain Jones, who having obeyed his Dutch employersand brought his passengers to a point well removed from the Virginian orManhattan shores whereon they intended to land, was now only desirous toput them ashore almost anywhere, and make sail for England while thewinter storms held off and his provisions lasted. His own interest,therefore, made him zealous in the Pilgrims' service, and so heartilyhad he offered his men, boats, and provisions for the expedition thatthe Pilgrims had made him its leader, some of them still believing inhis honesty and friendliness, and some others feeling that the surestway to effect their plans was to induce the surly commander to make themhis own. The event proved their shrewdness, for Jones accepted theappointment with great satisfaction, and told off ten of his best seamento add to the four-and-twenty sound men who were nearly all that thePilgrims could muster, since, thanks to the secret councils of RoseStandish and her associates, all sick or weakly candidates were weededout from the volunteers, and the Tilley brothers, William Molines,James Chilton, William White, and several others were kindly bidden toremain on board and nurse their strength for the next expedition.

  About noon the tide serving, the four-and-thirty adventurers, dividedbetween the ship's long-boat and their own pinnace, took the sea inteeth of a freezing northeasterly gale, and under low-lying clouds whosegray bosoms teemed with snow and sleet.

  Thomas English, a mariner engaged as master of the shallop, held thehelm, while as many willing hands as could grasp the oars pulled lustilyin the direction of what is now called the Pamet River, a streamdiscovered some days previously by a foot expedition under charge ofStandish, and considered as a possible seat for their colony. Thecrowded state of the boats and the head wind rendered the sails useless,and oars proved inefficient to propel so large a boat as the pinnace,while the sea, rapidly rising with the rising wind, broke so dangerouslyover the quarter that English refused to proceed, and it was hastilyresolved to run into what is now called East Harbor, land thepassengers, and allow the long-boat to return to the ship, while thepinnace lay to until the gale moderated. This was done, but owing to theshoals, the men were obliged to wade knee-deep to reach land, and thecold was now so intense that their clothes froze upon them as theyresumed their journey on foot. Well may we believe what William Bradfordlater said: "Some of our people who are dead took the original of theirdeath on that day."

  Marching six or seven miles on foot, the party encamped, building abarricade, or as they called it a "randevous," of pine boughs to protectthem from savage beasts or men, and within it kindling a fire besidewhich they sat down to eat such provisions as they had brought, and tosolace themselves with modest draughts of the strong waters they usedbut not abused.

  The next day the exploration was continued both by sea and land, thehardy adventurers marching through snow six inches deep, or upon theloose sands of the beach where the wind flogged them with lashes of icyspray and stinging shards. In passing through a belt of woods traces ofhuman presence were to be seen, especially certain young trees bent downand their tops made fast to the earth. Stepping aside to examine one ofthese, William Bradford suddenly found his leg inclosed in a noose,while the tree, released and springing upward, would have carried himignominiously with it had not he seized the trunk of another sapling,and lustily shouted for help. His comrades came running back, and notwithout laughter and some grim pleasantries released him. StephenHopkins alone understood the trap, and cutting from it a piece of smoothfine cord twisted of wood fibres handed it to Bradford, saying,--

  "Here, man, keep it by way of horn-book to teach thee wood-lore in thesesalvage countries. It is the moral of what we used to see among theBermoothes some ten years gone by. Ay, and the traps too. I've seen manya wild thing, deer or what not, jerked up by the leg and hanging from atree like Absalom, until its master came along to cut its throat anddress it, as it hung."

  "Glad am I that no such master came to release me," said Bradfordlaughing ruefully as he rubbed his leg and limped along.

  "So thou wert in the Bermudas, Hopkins?" asked Standish who was of thewalking party; "wast buccaneering?"

  "Nay, Captain, all men do not follow thy trade," replied Hopkins withhis boisterous laugh. "Mine was quite another office, for I waslay-reader to Parson Buck, and he was chaplain to Gates who was to begovernor of a Virginia colony an' he could have reached it. But like ourown adventure it miscarried, and we were wrecked on the Bermoothes. Weabode there six months, and the Indians showed us how to trap deer justas Bradford was trapped but now, ho, ho!"

  "Lay-reader wast thou?" asked Standish surveying the burly veteran withwhimsical interest. "Well, now, I'd never take thee for a parson'slieutenant, Hopkins! I can hardly fancy thee meek and mild with bandsunder that unkempt beard, and a gown over thy buff jacket. Wert meek andmild in those days, Hopkins, and thy tongue, was 't innocent of strangeoaths?"

  "A truce to thy jibes, master Captain," retorted Hopkins not halfpleased at receiving the jests he so freely offered. "If thou didst butknow, my voice was more for war than peace, sith it seemed to me theneven as it did before we landed here, that an expedition gone astray isan expedition ended, and that all compacts cease when their conditionscannot be fulfilled. We shipped to go to Virginia, and Gates was to beour governor; well and good, but here we were wrecked on Bermuda, and myrede was that every man was thus released from his promises and free toset forth anew for himself."

  "So! Yonder threatening on the Mayflower was not thy first experience inraising sedition and discontent, and trying to turn a God-fearingcommunity into a nest of pirates!" exclaimed Standish scornfully."Well, what came of it in that instance?"

  "Why, Gates called a court-martial, tried me for treason by an authorityI denied, and sentenced me to death."

  "Ay, and what then?"

  "Then Parson Buck who could ill spare me, since I writ half hisdiscourses, and the admiral who would not see murder done under cloak oflaw, they went to Gates and so wrought upon his temper that he set mefree and bade me begone, and I went right merrily."

  "Thou mindst me of an officer under me, down there by Utrecht," saidStandish meditatively. "He, too, was for setting up every man forhimself in the plunder of a village we had taken, and I had given ordersabout."

  "And what became of him?" asked Hopkins, as the captain seemed to havefinished.

  "Oh, there was no parson just there to make use of him, and no admiralto judge about my authority, and he was shot," replied Standish quietly.Hopkins scowled and laid his hand upon his sword hilt, but Bradford, whohad listened with both interest and amusement to the conversation,deftly interposed with some question about the route, and Hopkins, whoprided himself upon his wood-lore, took the lead, and conducted theparty by the easiest route to the spot where they would rejoin theirbrethren of the boat.

  The Pamet River, reached at length, proved unsatisfactory for asettlement, but at its mouth were found sundry matters of interest,--theremains of a palisade formed apparently by civilized hands, the ruins ofa log hut, quite different from the wigwams of the savages, and a largemound which when opened proved full of Indian corn, some shelled, someon the ear, the yellow kernels variegated with red and blue ones, likethe maize still grown in that vicinity. The snow upon the ground wouldhave concealed this "barn," as rustic John Rigdale called it, had notthe previous expedition noted and marked it, and the ground was so hardfrozen that it must be hewed with the stout cutlasses and axes of thePilgrims, and the clods pried up with levers. Standish drew his swordwith the rest, but after watching for a moment thrust it back into thesheath, saying to Alden who as usual was close beside him,--

  "Nay, I'll
none of it! What mine own thews and sinews may compass, I'llundertake right joyfully, but I'll never ask Gideon to risk his edge orhis backbone in such rude labors as yon. Every man to his trade, andthese are the sappers and miners with whom he has no concern."

  "Is Gideon the name of your sword then, Master?" asked Alden halftimidly, for Standish had the habit of command and was impatient of muchquestioning.

  Alden however was a favorite, and the captain, like a lover, was won bythe admiring glance the young man threw at the sword, as its ownerunsheathed it and laid the blade fondly across his palm.

  "Why ay," replied he smiling down at it, "I have christened him so; butmethinks, like other converts, he finds the new name sit uneasily attimes, and would fain hear the old one."

  "And what might that be?"

  "Ah, that is what no man alive can tell. He who forged it of that raremetal which now and again falls from the skies, and he who firstwielded and named it, have lain in the dust well nigh a thousand years,if old tales be true."

  "A thousand years! But what is its story,--if you will tell it, MasterStandish?" and the young man's face grew bright with excitement as heglanced from the soldier's face to the blade glittering across his palm,and seeming to laugh in the wintry sunshine.

  "Well, it was an old armorer in Ghent for whom I had done some servicein protecting his daughter and saving some mails which my men would haveplundered, and the old man was more grateful than need be, and came onenight to my lodgings bringing this sword wrapped in his mantle, to offerme as a gift, for he said he would not sell it, valuing it above allprice."

  "And still you would have him take a price," suggested Alden exultantly,but Standish answered gently,--

  "Nay, John, that is but poor pride that cannot allow another to be itsbenefactor. I took the old man's gift and thanked him heartily. Lateron, as chance befell, I did him a good turn in a contract for arms,while he knew it not. But that is beside the matter, which is the sword.He told me, that old man did, a story fit to set in the ancient romauntsof chivalry, how he as a young fellow full of heart and lustihood wentout to fight the Turks or some other heathen of those parts, and was aprisoner, and a lady loved him and he loved her not, having a sweetheartwaiting for him at home. And she had a noble heart and forgave him hisdespite, and set him free at risk of her own life, nor gave him freedomonly, but a purse of gold and this sword, which she averred had beencaptured from the Persian people hundreds of years before, and was atrue Damascus blade forged from meteor iron, and of the curioustempering now forgotten. And she said, moreover, that there was a charmupon it that made him who carried it invincible and scathless, and she,poor maid, had robbed her father's house of this great treasure, andbrought it to him who loved another woman better than her, and so withtears and smiles she gave it over, and he for very ruth gave her atender kiss, and thus they parted."

  "Nay, I pity her not. She was overbold to offer her love before it hadbeen asked," said Alden hastily.

  "Ah, boy, thou 'rt in all the hardness of thy callow youth, and nought'smore hard. Wait some fifteen years till thou comest to my age, andthou 'lt pity the poor heathen maid as I do to-day. Well, my armorertook the sword and played it some forty years or more, and then, too oldto wield arms, he took to dealing in them, but never sold this, for ithad proved all that the lady claimed for it, and had slain his enemies,and fended his friends, and saved his own head more times than he couldnumber, and now he gave it to me who had, he said, saved more than hislife."

  "And these outlandish signs and marks upon the blade?" asked Alden,peering down at the sword.

  "There, now, thou callest for another tale," replied Standish smilinggood-naturedly. "But as they seem to need us not in disemboweling yongranary, and here we are guard against surprise from whoever may rightlyown the treasure and come to claim it, I will e'en tell thee the rest.

  "Thou knowest Pastor Robinson of Leyden, though thou wast never out ofEngland thyself?"

  "I know his fame as a pious teacher and a learned man, well beloved ofhis people."

  "Beloved? Ay, none more so," exclaimed Standish heartily. "I ever wishedI might see him in some great peril and prove my love by cutting down around dozen of his foes. And learned! Why, man, he disputed with themost learned among their Dutch scholars openly in the big church, andleft them not a leg to stand on, or a tongue to wag. Why, 't is no moreto him to read Hebrew than for me to spell out my Bible. So then,knowing his learning and his love of all that is old and curious, I oneday showed him my sword and asked if he could rede me fairly themystical texts or whatever they might be upon the blade. But mind thee Isaid naught to him of any charm or amulet about it, lest I might woundhis conscience, which is tender as a maid's. Thou shouldst have seen thedear old man, barnacles on nose, peering and peeping and muttering overthe queer device, all at one as he were a wizard himself and workingsome spell. But at the last he heaved a mighty sigh, and gave me backthe sword saying, nay, he could not make out more than that there weretwo legends in two different tongues and by different hands, and thatthe effigies of the sun and moon and stars pointed, he feared, toidolatrous emblems, and were not such as a Christian man might safelydeal withal. So I asked him would it be better should I have the HolyRood wrought above them as did the Crusaders of old, and beshrew me, butthis device seemed to please him less than the other."

  "Nay, our teachers like not the look of the Cross, nor use it as ourfathers used. It savoreth of Popery, they say," interposed Aldenglancing at the captain's face for sure approval, but to his surprise hesaw it overcast and frowning.

  "Thou knowest," replied he a little haughtily, "that I am not of theSeparatist Church, nor agree in all its teachings. The Standishes wereever good Catholics, since they came over from Normandy with William theBaseborn, and if I hold not to the religion of my fathers I accept noother, nor can I ever esteem lightly those things my mother venerated."

  The younger man, perplexed and mortified, remained silent, but in amoment Standish smiled and resumed his story.

  "So, Pastor Robinson confessed his own want of skill, as so wise a manneed not shame to do, but told me of a certain aged scholar inAmsterdam, well versed in Eastern lore, and able, if any man alive coulddo it, to rede me the riddle aright, and he wrote down his name andlodging and a line to recommend me to his kindly attention, and so gaveme fair good-night.

  "Not long after, my occasions called me to Amsterdam, and be sure I tookthe time to find the old ancient scholar, a queer, dried-up graybeard,with skin like the parchment covers of his folios; but he gave mecourteous welcome, and I laid the sword upon the table under his nose.Faith, John, I thought that same nose would grow to my blade, for a goodhalf hour passed away, or ever he stirred or spoke. Then he lookedaskance at me and said,--

  "'How old art thou in very truth?'"

  "I told him some thirty years, and he stared and stared until had hebeen a young man and a soldier I had asked him his intent. But as itwas, I did but stare back again, until at the last his parchment cheekscreased and crackled in what may have been meant for a smile, and hesaid,--

  "'Thou mightst have been a score of thirties if thou hadst been bornwhen this blade was forged.'

  "'And why?' asked I, wondering if Pastor Robinson could have known theman was an old wizard.

  "'Because there's that on this blade would have kept thee from all harmif thou hadst made it thine own,' said he, tapping that circle."

  And turning the blade, Standish showed upon the reverse from the sun,moon, and stars, an ornamented medallion close to the hilt, containingcertain cabalistic signs and marks. Below this was an inscription ofseveral lines in totally different characters.[1]

  [1] This sword may still be seen in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth,Massachusetts.

  "And that is a charm to keep a man alive?" asked Alden with bated breathand eager eyes.

  "So that old man said," replied Standish, "but I concern myself littlewith such matters, having ever found my own right arm enough to keep myhead, and the grace
of God better than any heathen charm."

  "And did he read it, and the rest?" pursued Alden.

  "Yes, he read it, or at the least he muttered something in someoutlandish gibberish," replied the captain, laughing a littleshamefacedly. "And he told me its meaning, partly in Latin, for we spoketogether in that tongue, but I am such a dullard that I forgot the wordsas soon as he spoke them, and so asked him to write them down. Then hefell a pondering again, and said like the pastor, that the twoinscriptions differed in every way, and he must muse awhile and look inhis books before he could read them fairly, and he asked me to leavethe sword with him. So seeing him so venerable and honorable a man Iconsented, although not willingly, and went my way. The next morning Isought him again not certain but that in the night he and my sword andthe charm had all flown out of window together and gone to join theWitch of Endor. But no, there he sat, and the sword before him, as ifthey never had stirred since I left. And the old man gave me a bit ofparchment covered with crabbed Latin script, and told me I should findtherein the sense of my two inscriptions, though there were words evenhe could not decipher. So I put the parchment in my pouch, and reachedmy hand to the sword, when he withheld it and said,--

  "'This charm avails nothing for thee, my son, because it was not framedfor thee, nor dost thou swear by the powers therein invoked; but I canframe one that will avail, and will protect thee from any weapon raisedagainst thee. I have learned somewhat I never knew, in studying thysword, and I would fain repay thee in kind.'

  "Now lad, as he spoke, a certain terror seized me lest I should be founddabbling in the black art, and I said, with more than enough vehemence,that I wanted no charm, nor did I fear mortal weapon or mortal foe, forin God was my trust, and He was able to hold me scathless, or to take mewhen He would. And then, John, a fancy seized me, a foolish fancy ofromance perhaps, but still I mind not thy knowing, so thou 'lt notbabble of it to others. I asked the old man could he put what I had justsaid into the same tongue with that heathen charm, and so shape it thatI could have it carved upon my blade above the sun and moon and stars,which those Persian idolaters worship and had graved there almost asidols. And he smiled again in that grewsome fashion of his, and said ayhe could do that much, and that as three possessors had already putinvocations to their gods upon the blade it was but fit I should do soin my turn.

  "I liked not the quip, nor the evening of a Christian man's belief toidolatrous worship, but yet the idea of the Christian charm, if onemight call it so, had taken fast possession of my mind, and I felt asthough it were snatching the good blade from the powers of heathenesseand giving it to God. So I put what I would say in few words, and theold man wrought upon it till he had it to his mind, and at the last tooka pencil dipped in some wizard's ink or other and drew these signs uponthe sword as you see them, bidding me take it to an armorer and havethem cut in just as they stood. So I did, choosing, you may be sure, thearmorer who had given me the sword, and showing him, as I have you, thatthis is no heathen charm, but the sign of a Christian man's faith."

  "And what do they mean, all three of them?" asked Alden reverently. "Isee the figures 1149 graved clearly enough, but what mean the other tworows?"

  "My lad, thou seest wrong. The 1 and 4 and 9 are but symbols of lettersnot there set down, and the whole, partly from that same foolish fancy Itold thee of, and partly because the old scholar bade me never tell itlest some other man should steal his learning, and partly because Gideonhath kept the first secret so many years that I feel like trusting himwith another, for all these reasons I promised myself and the scholarand Gideon that I would never tell the thing to mortal man, nor eventhe rendering of the other devices; and lest I should be tempted toforego my word, sith I claim to be no stronger than Samson, or lest someone should surprise the secret unawares, I cut the piece of parchment intwo pieces, and handed them back to the old scholar, who disguised nothis huge content thereat. So thou seest, John, two of the threeinscriptions I could not unravel to thee if I would, and of the thirdthou wilt not ask me, since it is guarded by a promise."

  "Surely, Master, it is not I who would ask you to break it," said Johnsimply. "But the name of Gideon?"

  "Didst never read of Gideon in Holy Writ, John? A mighty soldier beforethe Lord who hewed down his father's idol-grove and came out from amonghis own people and carved his own way in the world. Ever as I read hisstory, I mind me of a man I knew in Lancashire who went to the house ofhis fathers to claim what was his own, and when he gat it not, he threwdown the idols he had been trained to worship, and shook off the dust ofthat idol-grove where Mammon and Rank and the world's opinion were setup as gods, and went out into the world to hew out his own fortunes bythe might of his own right arm, and his trust in the God of Israel. Sonow, John Alden, thou knowest more about my good sword than any manalive, for I doubt me if the scholar remembereth, and the armorer isdead. And when we go into battle, if such good luck await us, and thouhearest me cry, The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon! thou 'lt know mymeaning."