CHAPTER XXVI.
STIGMA.
Thus Geoffrey became a prisoner among his own people, owing to thefriendliness of Von Donck, the honest Dutchman having failed to reckonwith the intense suspicion of the Puritan mind. When the manner of hisguest's arrival had been explained to John Winthrop, that piousgovernor raised his eyebrows in astonishment, and did not hesitate togive instructions for the new-comer to be held in close confinement,pending an inquiry into the movements of the Dutch. While thisinvestigation was being pursued, justly and in good order as thegovernor directed, or, in other words, with extreme slowness, manynotable events occurred in the disordered country of the north.
The _St. Wenceslas_ had slipped from her moorings and drifted down theSt. Lawrence, bearing La Salle towards Acadie, and certain despatcheswhich were destined for the chief minister of France. UnwillinglyRoussilac had been compelled to record the services rendered to Churchand State by the proud departing priest.
"You have well served yourself, Sir Commandant," La Salle had said,after insisting upon his right to peruse the detailed history of theIroquois defeat, which contained no word of reference to the assistancerendered by the Algonquins. "And now, by Heaven, you shall serve me."And Roussilac, for all his ill will, was not strong enough to dareresist the priest.
There yet remained in that district the Kentish knight, old Penfold,and the Puritan; and when the man of Kent came to learn of La Salle'sdeparture, he left his solitary cave, and buckled on his sword, andreturned to action, though the dream of his life had vanished. Hisyounger brother, the fool of the family, who from boyhood had spent hisdays in idleness, trolling for pike or chasing with his dogs, wouldcontinue to occupy the old mansion which the elder had abandoned, andleave it, as he had been empowered to do failing news from the NewWorld, to his son, when the days of fishing and the chase should beaccomplished.
The knight came to his home beside the lost waters, and his wife, whohad visited him each day with food in the lonely cave, received himwith her proud silence and stood to hear his will. She it was who hadtold him of the sailing of the ship and the going of La Salle.
"Let us also travel to this land of Acadie," the knight said. "MyRichard haunts me with reproaches. I go to make ready our canoe forthe long journey. My mind shall find no rest till I have avenged ourson."
He went out and built a fire upon the beach, and while the lumps ofpitch, prepared from native bitumen mixed with pine resin, weremelting, he peeled soft sheets of bark from the snowy birch trees andpatched the canoe, caulking every seam with pitch. About the time ofthe evening shadow his work was done; but as he was returning to hishome a voice called, and the Puritan hastened to his side.
"Welcome, friend," said the knight. "How fares it with you and yourbrave comrade?"
"We suffer who sojourn in Mesech," said Hough. "Old Penfold liesgrievously sick of a fever."
"Dwell you far away?" the knight asked.
"Nigh upon two miles by land and water. We have returned to the cavewhich we occupied before our taking of the Dutch ship."
"My wife shall prepare a medicine. She is well skilled in the arts ofhealing," said the other. "You shall bring us to your cave with allspeed."
"The disease has already taken hold upon his mind," said Hough. "Onetime he is holding his mother's gown, old man though he be, andwandering in water-meadows to pluck long purples and clovers, mutteringas he picks at his blanket. 'Here is trefoil, good for cattle, butnoisome to witches.' Another time he reaches for his sword, andswears--the Lord forgive him--at the weakness which holds him down.'The French are upon us, comrades,' he calls. 'Let me not lie like anold dame with swollen legs.' Then he falls a-crying, and shouts,'England! England!' Methinks if his mind were healed he would standup again."
Mary Iden being summoned, and having made her preparations, the threeset forth and came to the cave, which the adventurers had hoped toexchange for the Dutch vessel, then lying fathoms deep beneath thecliffs of Tadousac. There they found Penfold stretched along a heap ofgrass, babbling incessantly at the cold walls and the shadows. Whenthe figures darkened the entrance, he screamed at them and sprang up,only to fall back upon the rude bed, a fever-held body agitated bystertorous breath.
"Build me here two fires," said the quiet woman, as she passed to thesick man's side.
"Witch!" shrieked Penfold. "Flower! Woodfield! Comrades, where areye? Save me now from sorcery. Hough! Go bring the villagers, and bidthem fling this hag into the Thames and pelt her with stones when sherises. To me, comrades! Leave not your old captain to perish bywitchcraft."
"Canst heal him from this madness?" muttered Hough. "Myself I darednot let his blood, fearing lest I might do that which should hasten hisend."
"Our people let no blood," came the answer. "We bring great heat intothe body, so that the evil spirit shall come forth to seek water. Thenwe strengthen the body, so that it may be able to resist his return."
Already Penfold ceased to struggle beneath her soothing hands. Thefires blazed fiercely, the smoke and hot vapours being drawn upwardsinto the natural chimneys. Obeying instructions, the men placed theirsick comrade between these fires and covered him closely, while theskilful healer moistened his brow and lips with water in which she hadsteeped the young pink bark of the bitter willow, thus wringing thefever out of his body like water from a sponge.
"I am saving the old man," she whispered in a confident voice.
At the end of another hour the limp rag of humanity was steeped insleep. By then the night was strong and the stars little orbs insplendour among the clouds. The breathing which the men heard whenMary Iden rose from her knees might have been that of a little child.
"The evil spirit has been driven forth to find water. Lift the manquickly; for the foul creature travels faster than the moonlight."
Obedient to superior knowledge, the men reconveyed the sleeper to thegrass bed, and there the healer roused him to administer a decoction ofbruised herbs: serrated calamintha, the perfoliate eupator, later morepopularly known as the fever-wort of North America, and the white-rayedpyrethrum, which lifted its bitter bloom upon the heights. The sickman gasped as he swallowed the powerful tonic, and sank back intountroubled rest.
Presently the knight and his wife departed, and Hough accompanied themupon the first stage of their return journey; and when they reached thelake-side, where the canoe sprawled along the shingle, the knightacquainted his fellow-countryman with his plan of departure. Houghlistened, gazing dimly over the scintillating surface, where a silverribbon of moonlight led away to the Isle of Dreams.
"Where lies that land whither you go?" he asked at length.
"In the far east where Sebastian Cabot first touched," the Kentishmanreplied. "There I may sight the great ocean, which we islanders love,and scent the good brine and watch for an English sail."
"Here there is nothing we may do," said Hough, removing his eyes fromthe dreamy lake. "There surely we may look for the ship which LordBaltimore shall send when Viner comes down to Virginia. I too would benear the sea and smell liberty."
With that they parted, and Hough returned to his hole among the rockswith visions of the sea. Within that cave, where Penfold slept duringhis guardian's absence, the fires darted, tincturing with red thesilver of the moonbeams against the sable wall of cliff. Between thegranite and the forest of pines a stream of moonlight spread like aglacier. A figure stole from the black belt, stepped cautiously intothe white road, and waded, as it were, through the rippling beams. Itwas Onawa, who had watched the two men and her sister making west; sheknew that one of the men would return after a little interval; and sheunderstood that the work which she had undertaken must be done quickly.
No croaking bird aroused Penfold from his sleep to warn him of theshe-wolf. It was one of those ironies which run through life that onesister should have cast the sick man into healthy slumber in order thatthe other might stab him as he lay.
A cloud of blood-sucking i
nsects trumpeted around Onawa. Their thinnoise seemed to her a tumult, and she stopped and looked back along thecold white stream. A lean wolf was slinking in her direction, hismuzzle snuffling the dust. She shivered when she remembered that themurderess was doomed to become a werewolf after death to prowl aboutthe scene of her former sin. The creature howled. The pale girlstarted and ran into the cave.
Her belief remained constant that she might still win the love of LaSalle by destroying his enemies. She knew that he had gained renown byher betrayal to him of the English settlement. Now he had gone in thegreat ship to Acadie. She was about to follow, having neither home norpeople, being indeed hunted for her life; but first she might destroyanother of his enemies. Then she could learn to say: "I have killedthe old Englishman who stirred up my people to attack yours." And shethought that he might welcome her at last for the sake of her gooddeeds.
A frightened howl broke upon the night. The wolf, disturbed by someenemy of its species, was hurrying for cover. The crisp snapping oftwigs, succeeded by a rattling of small stones, were caused, not by thepads of the black loup-garou, but by a body weightier and lesscowardly. These sounds were deadened by the walls of rock, and Onawadid not hear them. Swiftly she drew away the coverings from thewhite-faced sleeper, and old Penfold smiled innocently at her in hisdrugged sleep. Onawa drew in her breath, unsheathed her knife, andfelt its point; then leaned back, measuring the distance by the faintglow, and her arm went up to strike. That next moment she screamedwith terror, turned, struck wildly at the air, and was carried back tothe granite floor with Hough's iron fingers driven round her throat.
Step by step the grim Puritan dragged the girl back to the mouth of thecave, and there pinned her to the rock with one arm, while reachingwith the other to the corner, where he had piled a rope taken from thedeck of the privateer. He bound her hand and foot; and thus helplessshe stared up, and read her death upon his face.
For over an hour Hough paced the floor of the cave, listening to hiscaptain's gentle breathing, and recalling the violent death ofAthaliah, slain by order of Jehoiada, and the fate of Jezebel, castfrom an upper window at the command of Jehu; for such a man as thePuritan regulated all the actions of his life by the light revealed tohim from the Bible. There was, he reasoned, the highest authority tojustify the act which he contemplated; only the manhood in him recoiledfrom the slaying of a woman. At length his mind became fixed. He bentand drew together the scarlet embers of the fire.
Onawa made no sign of terror, and no appeal for mercy; but her eyesfollowed every movement of her stern captor, as she sought to learn hersentence without betraying her fear.
"The witch is fair," the Puritan muttered, standing over and regardingher fawn-coloured skin, her even features, and large dark eyes. "Awoman takes pride in her beauty. May the Lord punish me if I act nowunjustly and for vengeance alone."
He pushed a stick into the fire and watched it grow red, then turnedsharply upon his victim. The girl's eyes flashed defiance when theymet his.
"Behold!" he exclaimed, drawing a thin hand across his terrible face,upon which the Court of Star Chamber had written its unjust judgment.The girl saw the slit nostrils, the cropped ears, the branded cheeks,and the scarred forehead. Her tongue became loosened at that sight,and she prayed for instant death, because she knew it was vain to pleadfor mercy.
Outside the cave the long black wolf, which if native testimony wereaccepted, contained the soul of some sorcerer, or of some vile man whohad slain his friend, crept back to search for scraps of food. As acloud drifted over the moon the brute dropped a bone which it hadsnatched, and scurried away like a human thief into the shadows,terrified by a wild scream from within the granite cave.