Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims Page 5

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE LILIES OF FRANCE.

  "Ho Captain Standish, thou 'rt wanted here!" cried the coarse voice ofThomas Jones as the two men approached the group gathered about the cornheap. "Come hither and teach these gentle maids the usages of war. Theyspeak forsooth of making payment to these unbreeched salvages for thecorn we are taking from this hole in the ground. Was it the way of yourbold fellows in Flanders to make payment to the Spaniards if yousurprised and sacked their camp?"

  "The Spaniards were our declared enemies," replied Standish coldly; "andnot only their gear but their lives were ours if we could take them, andso were ours theirs an' they approved themselves the better men. Buthere it is not so; we have no quarrel as yet with the salvages, nor isit wise to provoke one. We are but a handful, and they in their owncountry of unknown strength. Besides, why should we harm those who havedone us no wrong? Is it not wiser to make friends and allies if we may?So Master Jones you must e'en rank me with the gentle maids who speakfor honesty and justice in this matter."

  "As you will, it is no concern of mine," retorted Jones with a surlylaugh; "but never before did I sail in such saintly company, or findbearded men with swords at their sides carrying themselves like milk-fedbabes."

  "And in sad seriousness, good Master Jones, do you intend to cast a slurupon our courage?" demanded Standish, a cold smile upon his lips, whilehis right hand toyed with Gideon's hilt, and his right foot planteditself more firmly.

  "Nay, he's no such ass," interposed Hopkins hastily. "He did but mean amerry joke, and we would have you Captain Standish tell off such men ashad best remain on shore for further exploration while the rest shallreturn to the ship with Master Jones, who is in mind to go back beforenight."

  "Oh, he is overdone with the work we babes have scarce begun," mutteredStandish with a wrathful laugh. "Glad am I to spare him."

  "And I," said Bradford joining them. "And we are all of one mind thatCaptain Standish shall take command of those who remain, since thegovernor and several others find themselves but ailing and will returnwith Jones, who forebodes foul weather and needs must take his menaboard to meet it."

  "Why, that's no more than his duty, and mayhap I wronged him," saidStandish generously. "Well, who tarries with me?"

  The division was soon made, and as the boats left the shore, beneath thesame cold and stormy sky that had led them forth, and feebly breastedthe hissing waves which seemed to sneer at their puny efforts, theeighteen men who remained on shore drew closer together.

  "Methinks our men are to be sifted like Gideon's army at Mount Moreh,"said Edward Winslow running his eye over the little group as he linkedhis arm with Bradford's. "They went forth twenty-and-two hundred andfell away to three hundred."

  "By the three hundred who lap the water with their hands will I conquerMidian," quoted Bradford in a clear and ringing voice.

  "Hear you that, John?" asked Standish of the young man who followed himclosely. "It is a good omen that the grand old story should have comeinto Winslow's head. And now, men, my opinion is that we should strikeinland, and see if we cannot come upon some settlement or stronghold ofthe natives, for certes, these barns and graves were not made withouthands, nor were the stubble-fields reaped by ghosts. The tract lyingnorth and east of this river is yet new to us, and, since you will beled by me, we will march for some hours hither and yon through itslength and breadth, making our randevous where night may overtake us,and returning hither to meet the shallop to-morrow."

  "It is good counsel, and we will follow you, Captain," said Winslow,while a consenting murmur stirred the russet beards around, and Hopkinssaid, "He among us who best knows the ways of woodlands, and how tosteer the plainest course through these swamps and thickets, should beon the lead, it seemeth to me, Captain."

  "Ay, Hopkins, I have thought of all that," interrupted Standish rathercurtly; "and I have chosen my scout already. Billington, where art thou,man?"

  "Here, Captain," responded a coarse voice, and a man whose mean andtruculent face contrasted forcibly with those about him pushed forwardand stood before the captain, who gave him a comprehensive glance,noting not only the mean and bad face, but the wiry and well-knitfigure, and the eyes quick and watchful as a rat's.

  "Billington," repeated he at last, "I've noticed on these expeditionsthat thou hast a pretty knack at woodcraft, and can smell thy way amongthese bogs and thorny coppices with marvelous good judgment."

  "I learned such woodcraft and more while I was gamekeeper to my LordLovell in the old country," interrupted Billington with an impudentgrin. The captain again regarded him with that penetrating glance whosepower is matter of history and replied,--

  "I suppose it was in such service that thou camest by that ugly scaracross thy nose. Thou hast never been a soldier, well I wot."

  "Thou 'rt right, Captain," said Billington putting his hand to his facewith an unabashed laugh. "It was a poacher"--

  "Ay, I thought it was a poacher," interrupted Standish dryly. "Well,master gamekeeper Billington, to-day thou 'rt under my orders, and Idesire thee to lead us through this wood in an easterly course, and tokeep a diligent eye upon all signs of occupation by the enemy, that isto say, our friends the salvages. Be very careful in this matter, an'please thee, good Billington, for shouldst thou think it a merry jest tolead us into danger of any sort, I fear me thou 'dst find it but a poorbargain for thyself."

  "Nay, Captain, the man means no harm and feels that we are all comradesin this matter," said Winslow pacifically, while Hopkins muttereddiscontentedly,--

  "O'er many masters to my mind."

  Standish answered neither, except by a glance from his penetrating eyes,and Billington taking the lead the little party struck into the woodsand marched rapidly and in silence for an hour or more, when Allerton,the oldest and feeblest man of the party, suddenly halted, and called toStandish that he must perforce rest for a few minutes, and was,moreover, sadly athirst. This want was immediately echoed by all, forthe flasks at every man's belt contained spirits or strong beer, and thetoil of the march, sometimes in spite of Billington's skill throughthickets whose thorny branches tore even the armor from the Pilgrims'backs, and sometimes through half frozen morasses, had induced a thirstcraving plentiful draughts of pure water.

  "We've passed neither spring nor runlet on our course, for I've lookedfor such," said Billington removing his leather cap and wiping his browupon his sleeve. "And though 't is frosty weather, such a diligent marchas ours heats the blood shrewdly."

  "We will halt beside this coppice for a space," ordered Standishglancing at Allerton's pallid face; "and do thou search yonder hollow,Billington, for water. Alden go you with him, and keep an eye on hiscourse."

  The two men thus detailed plunged into the little hollow where indeedwater should have been, but found only a pool so shallow and sosheltered as to have frozen quite solid; from this they brought somepieces of ice with which Allerton was so revived as to resume his coursefor another mile when he again broke down, while all the rest sufferedso sensibly from thirst that they could not conceal their distress.Another halt was called, and all the younger men dispersed in variousdirections, while Allerton lay stretched upon the ground, his parchedmouth open, and his eyes half closed. Beside him stood Standish, realconcern upon his usually stern features, and in his hand a flask ofspirits, from which the exhausted and fevered man turned loathingly.

  "'T is as good schnapps as ever came through a still," said Standishwistfully; "and if thou couldst stomach it must surely do thee good."

  "Water, water!" moaned Allerton.

  "Ay, a little water mingled with it were better for thee just now,"replied the Captain soothingly. "But sith water may not be had"--

  "Ho, men! Water, water, a running brook!" cried Alden's hearty voice, ashe came bursting his way through the thicket. "A running brook and adeer drinking at its spring."

  "And why didst not shoot the deer instead of hallooing him away, thougreat idiot?" demanded Standish in jesting a
nger, while, with such arush as the animal sore athirst makes when he scents the water springs,all the men but three of the party burst through the undergrowth andfound themselves in a lovely little dale so sheltered by hills and treesas to offer only a southern exposure to the weather. The snow of theprevious day had already disappeared from this favored spot, and thelittle runlet with its welling spring sparkled free from frost among thelong grasses, sweet-gale, and low shrubbery of the place; among theseshrubs more than one dainty track leading from the forest to the runletshowed that here the deer came daily down to drink, and Alden in hisheart felt he had done well not to lift a hand against the prettycreature he had surprised there. But neither the poetic Bradford, thepolished Winslow, nor the meditative Howland paused any more than theirbrethren to note the beauty of the spot, but one and all plungingforward threw themselves upon their knees thrusting their faces into thewater, and only pausing to draw breath and drink again.

  "We there drank our first New England water, and with as much delight asever we drunk drink in all our lives," wrote Bradford at a later day,and no doubt the memory of its refreshment lasted all his life.

  All but three, and these three were Allerton who could not go, Standishwho would not leave him, and Alden who would not leave Standish untilthe latter said,--

  "But dost not see, John, that thou 'rt hindering me from quenching mythirst? Go thou and bring thy steel cap full of water for MasterAllerton, and when I see him revived I'll go right gladly to lap waterout of my hand among my three hundred."

  "You are ever right, master," replied Alden briefly, and ran to do as hewas bid.

  An hour's rest and the food they had been unable to swallow whileathirst, so refreshed the Pilgrims that even Allerton resumed the marchwith fresh courage and pursued it steadily until Billington, suddenlypausing and pointing down at a narrow path intersecting their own, saidin a low voice to Standish who came close behind him,--

  "Men's feet, not beasts. It will lead belike to a village."

  "Ay," responded the captain briefly. "Look well to your weapons men, andlight your matches, but let no man fire his piece without command." Anddrawing his sword, Standish strode eagerly forward close to Billington,who with all his faults was no coward, and blithely blew his match to afiery glow, while glancing with his ferret eyes behind every tree andinto every covert he passed.

  Nothing, however, was to be seen, and suddenly the path came to an endin a large clearing covered with the stubble of maize recently gathered,while at the farther side stood several huts formed by a circle ofelastic poles, the butts thrust in the ground and the tops boundtogether leaving a hole through which the smoke was invited to escape,and sometimes did so. The outside was protected by heavy mats of skinsor braided of bark, while a more highly decorated one closed thedoorway. All were evidently deserted, and after some cautious advances,the captain leaving three men on guard permitted the rest to extinguishtheir matches and explore the wigwams so curious to European eyes and sofamiliar to our own.

  The interior of each showed a cooking hearth or platform framed ofsticks and stones, and an assortment of wooden cooking utensils rudelycarved. Among these the explorers noticed an English bucket without abale and a copper kettle, both linking themselves in their minds to thetraces of civilization already noted in the palisades and ruined cabinnear which the store of corn had been found. Many baskets, both for useand ornament, were found, and sundry boxes curiously wrought with bitsof clam shell, such as were used for wampum, and also little crab shellsand colored pebbles, seemed to show the presence of women and theirproficiency in the fancy work of their own time and taste. Several deerheads, one of them freshly killed, showed that the inmates of thewigwams were not far distant, and in a hollow tree by way of larder washung the carcass of a deer, so well ripened that even Hopkins pronouncedit "fitter for dogs than men."

  From all these novelties and curiosities the Pilgrims selected a few ofthe prettier specimens to carry to their comrades on board, formallypromising each other, as they had in case of the corn, to make duepayment to the owners whenever they should be found, a promise mostconscientiously performed at a later day.

  By the time these matters were fully examined night was falling, andthe Pilgrims, strong in their own good intentions and also in theirweapons, encamped a short distance from the Indian village, and althoughkeeping diligent guard all night saw nor heard naught to disturb theirslumbers. Rousing betimes next morning, their first attention was givento prayers, and their next to making as good a breakfast as possiblewith the aid of some wild fowl and little birds shot during the previousday's march, and then the "meat and mass" which "hinder no man" thusattended to, they set forth in the direction of the river where theywere to be picked up by the shallop. Toward noon this point was nearlyreached, in fact the clearing with the European cabin was close at hand,when Billington paused beside a mound carefully laid up with a border ofbeach stones and rounded high and smooth with sods, over which were laidhewn planks such as composed the cabin.

  "It is another store of corn of choicer variety," declared he greedily;but Hopkins shook his head.

  "It is the grave of some great sachem, or haply from these planks abovehim it is the grave of whoever built yon cabin and palisado."

  "Belike there is treasure of some wrecked vessel which brought himhither, and which he stored away thus, until his rescue," said Rigdale.

  "Should not we cautiously open it, Captain, and certify ourselves whatis therein?" asked Bradford. "If it prove a grave we can but reverentlycover it again, and if it be food, we need all that we can gather forfood and seed."

  "Ay, Master Bradford," replied Standish thoughtfully. "I like notmeddling with graves for despite or for curiosity, but sith it muchimports us to understand this country where we are to dwell, I think wemay examine this mound, and, as thou sayest, if it be a grave of whiteman or of red, we will leave it as honorable as we find it."

  Permission thus given, swords, bayonets, and hatchets were set to work,and in a few moments, the upper surface of sand and earth being removed,the explorers came upon a large bow, strong, tough, and beautifullycarved and pointed.

  "It is a sachem, and a mighty man of valor if he wielded this bow andshot these arrows," said Hopkins handling them respectfully.

  "It seemeth to me like a white man's touch in this carving," saidWinslow examining the bow.

  "Here lieth a goodly mat, stained with red and blue in a fair pattern,"said Bradford drawing it off the grave, as it now seemed certain to be.

  "And what is this?" exclaimed Alden raising something which lay beneaththe mat. Brushing away the mould that clung to it, this proved to be apiece of plank some twenty-seven inches in length, carefully smoothedupon one side, and painted with what seemed an heraldic achievement,while the top was cut into something of the fashion of a crestconsisting of three spikes or tines.

  "It is a hatchment over a noble's grave," cried Standish. "Say you notso, Master Winslow? See you, here is a shield, although I know not thedevice, and here is surely a crest."

  "So it beseemeth, Captain," replied Winslow cautiously. "And to my mindthis crest is a rude presentment of the lilies of France. See you now,Master Bradford!"

  "Nay, I know naught of such toys," replied Bradford sturdily. "To mymind it looketh as much like Neptune's trident as aught else."

  "Or like a muck-fork," suggested Rigdale in his broad Lancashiredialect, and with a coarse laugh resented by Standish, who, anaristocrat to his heart's core, ill brooked contempt of chivalrousemblems, especially by a rustic of his own shire.

  "Well, let us get on with this business," said he peremptorily, andpulling away another mat he disclosed a store of bowls, plates, dishes,and such matters, all new and beautifully carved and decorated.

  "For the dead man to cook and eat on his journey to the happy huntinggrounds, which the salvages place in the room of heaven," said Hopkinssanctimoniously. Beneath these lay another mat, and beneath this a cryptcarefully bedded with dry white sand, up
on which lay two packagescarefully sewn up in sailcloth, the one more than six feet in length,the other barely three.

  "The body of a man and child," said Bradford softly, as he helped toraise them from their pure white cell and lay them upon the earth.

  "Open them with care, friends," said Standish uncovering his head. "Itis some white man buried in such honor as they had knowledge of by thosewho loved him."

  The many folds of canvas removed, there lay a strange sight before thePilgrims' eyes. Inclosed in a great quantity of fine red powder,emitting a pungent but agreeable odor, lay the skeleton of a man,fleshless, except upon the skull, where clung the skin and a mass ofbeautiful hair, yellow as gold, and curling closely as if in life.

  "Is the flesh turned to this red powder?" asked Alden fingering itdubiously.

  "Dost know, Hopkins?" asked Standish, but the veteran shook his head.

  "I have seen naught like this in all my life," confessed he. "See, hereis a parcel at his feet done up in another bit of the old sail."

  "Shall I open it, Captain?" asked Alden eagerly.

  "Ay, an' thou wilt."

  "'T is clothes. A sailor's jerkin and breeches, a knife, a sail needlethreaded with somewhat like a bowstring"--

  "A deer's sinew. They still use it as our women do linen thread," saidHopkins taking it in his hand.

  "And some bits of wrought iron," continued Alden turning them over.

  "Ay, ay, ay, the poor fellow's chiefest treasures in his exile among thesalvages," said Bradford gently.

  "And still he was finding some comfort, you may well be sure," suggestedHopkins. "For it was a savage woman who laid him thus carefully to hisrest, and yon package be sure is the bones of her child."

  "Belike. Open it, John," said Standish briefly, and in effect thesmaller package contained the same red and pungent powder encasing thebones of a little child, his head covered with a thinner thatch of thefather's yellow curls, and the wrists, ankles, and neck surrounded withstrings of fine white beads. Beside it lay a little bow and arrowsornamented with all the loving elaboration of Indian art.

  "A boy, and his mother's darling, be she red or white, savage orChristian," said Bradford softly, as his thoughts flew to the baby boyleft in Holland under charge of his wife Dorothy's parents.

  "Yes," replied Standish gently. "Cover them reverently, and lay them intheir grave again. God send comfort to that poor woman's heart."

  "Certes they are no salvages," said Hopkins positively. "Never saw Iyellow hair on any but a white man's head, nor do red men wearbreeches."

  "Ay, he was a white man, but, as I opine, a Frenchman," declared Winslowthoughtfully.

  "French surely, masters, for this is French," said Robert Cartiertimidly, as he handled the pointed board. "These are indeed the liliesof France. I have seen them full oft."

  "Say you so, lad?" asked Standish kindly. "Well, I suppose a man loveshis country's ensign though he be naught but a Frenchman. There, placeall as we found it, and let us go our ways."