In the large hall which they entered last, hung with rich tapestries and
furnished with dark oaken chairs and settles covered with royal purple
velvet, a few pages and the Queen's ladies alone kept her company. As
Pocahontas and Lady De La Ware advanced, the Queen motioned every one
else to withdraw to the farther end of the chamber. She curtsied in
return to the obeisances made by Pocahontas and her sponsor, but did not
stretch forth her hand to be kissed as she would have done had she not
considered this stranger before her as a princess of royal blood.

"I thank thee for coming," she said graciously. "I have much desired to
see thee. Captain Smith was right when he reminded me of what our people
owe thee, he most of all."

"He was dear to my people also," answered Pocahontas.

"Hath Your Majesty heard how men speak of Captain Smith in the Colony?"
asked Lady De La Ware. "My brother who is still at Jamestown wrote me
that one of the colonists regretting the great Captain's departure said
of him:

"What shall I say of him but thus we lost him, that in all his
proceedings made justice his first guide, and experience his second,
ever hating baseness, sloth, pride, and indignity more than any dangers;
that never allowed more for himself than his soldiers with him; that
upon no danger would send them where he would not lead them himself;
that would never see us want what he either had or could get us; that
would rather want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that loved
action more than words, and hated falsehood and covetousness more than
death; whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our death.'"

"Tell me of thy long voyage," then questioned her majesty; and seating
herself, made room for Pocahontas beside her, while Lady De La Ware
moved off to talk with one of the ladies. "I do not see how men, and
more especially women, dare trust themselves for so long on the sea.
When I had been married by proxy to my lord, the King, I tried to go by
ship from Denmark to Scotland, but the tempests were so fierce that we
had to put in to Norway, scarce saving our lives; and thither came my
gracious lord, against the prayers of his councillors who tried to
dissuade him from venturing his precious safety in winter storms. Oh! I
have no love of the sea."

"I did not fear it," said Pocahontas, "but I thought it would never end.
Had I been alone, though, without my husband and my child"--then, not
knowing that court etique