Salute to Adventurers

h the Free Companions, and need look for no more trouble on that score. But what tickled my vanity was my talk with Ringan and Lawrence at the Monacan lodge and

t for finesse and subtlety, and was a born deviser of wars. Again and again I told myself how I and Lawrence's Virginians-grown under my hand to a potent army-should roll back the invaders to the hills and beyond, while the Sioux of the Carolinas guarded one flank and the

ht refuge in a creek on the shore of Norfolk county. The place was marshy, and it was hard to find dry land for our night's lodging. Our provisions had run low, and there seemed little enough for two hungry men who had all day been striving with salt winds

There were lights glimmering in the windows, and when I reached the yard and saw the size of the barns and outbuildings, I wished I had happened on a place of less pretensions. But hunger made me bold, and I tramped over the mown grass of the yard, which in the dusk I could see to be

plain clothes soaked and stained by travel; for it was clear that I had lighted on the mansion of some rich planter, who was even now entertaining his friends. The servant led me through an outer hall into a great room full

"and I left my boat on the shore a

rtily. "Sit down, and my servan

e, sir. A weary traveller i

hink the worse of a man for his clothes? Sit d

e Commonwealth time. He sat on the Council, and was the most respected of all the magnates of the dominion, for he had restrained the folly of successive Governors, and had ever teen ready to stand forth alike on behalf of the liberties of the settlers and their duties to the Crown. H

e end of the table I was out of the circle of the company. They talked and laughed, and it seemed to me that I could hear women's voices at the other end. Meantime I was busy with my viands, and no man ever punished a venison pie more heartily. As I ate and drank, I smiled at the strangeness of my fortunes-to come thus straight from the wild seas and the company of outlaws into a place of silver and damask and satin coats and lac

st, "Dulcinea will sing to us. She p

a lute. The low twanging went on for a little, and suddenly I was seized wit

een a girl's hope, and now it was a woman's certainty. At the first note, the past came back to me like yesterday. I saw the moorland gables in the rain, I heard the swirl of the tempest, I saw the elfin face in the hood which had cheered the traveller on his w

ve had come to me like a hurricane. From now I had but the one ambition, to hear that voice say to me and to mean it truly, "My dear and only love." I knew it was folly and a madman's dream, for I felt most deeply my common clay. What had I to offer for the heart of that proud lady? A dingy and battered

y candles, Pompey," my host called out, "and the great pun

was set alight, and leaped almost to the ceiling in a blue flame. Colonel Beverley, with a long ladle, filled the array of glasses on a salver, which the servant

yes and the heavy blue jowl of Governor Nicholson. He saw me, for I was

You're an active packman, for they

a storekeeper's intrusion into well-bred company, and some were there who had publicly cursed me for a meddlesome upstart. But I was

she was a grown woman, with a woman's pride and knowledge of power. Her exquisite slimness and grace, amid the glow of silks and silver, gave her the air of a fairy-tale princess. There was

voice recalled

nd he turned to the company, "that our friend combines commerce with hi

k he was, for Francis Nicholson's moods were as mutable as t

aughed. One young gentleman, who wore a purple coa

s cravat. "I would have said 'like a woman's,' had I not seen this ve

ng quizzed, and in that com

gle. The men who look grave just now are not those who live snugly in coast m

with blazing eyes asked me if I intended an insult. I was about to say that he could take what meaning he ple

," said my gentleman, and he turned away hi

ed law of hospitality. You are all my guests, and you have a l

s roving the table. He dearly loved a quarrel, and wa

as his brains and his right arm, and no better. I am of the creed

ken gentlemen murmured. The Virginian cavalier had as pretty a notion of the worth of descent as any Highland land-louper. Indeed, to

James Blair, the lately come commissary of the diocese of London, who represented all that Virginia had in the wa

tryman, sir," he said. "Did I hear

" he asked, when

or what is left

tioning his Excellency's dogma. Mr. Garvald is of as good blood as any in Scotland. And that," said he f

of gratitude as then filled my heart to the staid cleric. That he was of near kin to Miss Elspeth made it tenfold sweeter. I forgot my old clothes and

if my appearance was unfit for a dining-hall, it was an outrage in a lady's withdrawing-room. But Doctor Blair came forward to me and shook me warmly by the hand, and was full of gossip about Clydesdale, from which

'Twas well enough for your fine gentleman in his buckled shoes and silk stockings to enter such a place, but for myself, in my coarse boots, I seemed like a colt in a flower garden. The girl sat by a brazier of charcoal, with the scarlet-coated negro at hand doing her com

auldstaneslap in a motley company. Then I think it was in the Tolbooth, Mr. Garvald, when you were very gruff to your del

was to the liking of her little retinue of courtiers. My si

or you would know that it is the old cry of the landless and the lawles

she asked. "Now that I remember, I

I am a merchant, and am well content with any Gov

. I think it was the contrast with the glamour of those fine gentlemen. I had nei

gentlemen of Virginia whose swords will leap from their scabbards at a breath of peril, on behalf of their women and their homes. And these," h

o be provoked, so I an

yes and smiled sweet

' affairs. But I do assure you he is no house-keeper, I have seen him in desperate conflict with savage men, and even wi

x me. Nothing that she could say or do could break the spell that had fal

back to Shalah and solitude. The cold bed on the shore would be warmed for me by happy dreams. So I found my h

d me on the shoulder, and I tur

table deserved a whipping, but I will condescend to forget them. But a second offence shall

taller than me, a handsome fellow, with a flushed, pet

d. "I have no wish to quarrel with you. Go your wa

oose that your way should take you again to the side

a fine gentleman who did me the honour to regard

till laughing, I passed from the house, lit m