ond
remedy, thank God! It is known what measures we took for our protection,
and how soon the wound to the colony was healed, and what vengeance we
meted out to those who had set upon us in the dark, and had failed to
reach the heart. These things belong to history, and I am but telling my
own story,--mine and another's.

In the chill and darkness of the hour before dawn something like quiet
fell upon the distracted, breathless town. There was a pause in the
coming of the boats. The wounded and the dying had been cared for, and
the noise of the women and the children was stilled at last. All was
well at the palisade; the strong party encamped upon the neck reported
the forest beyond them as still as death.

In the Governor's house was held a short council, subdued and quiet, for
we were all of one mind and our words were few. It was decided that the
George should sail at once with the tidings, and with an appeal for arms
and powder and a supply of men. The Esperance would still be with us,
besides the Hope-in-God and the Tiger; the Margaret and John would
shortly come in, being already overdue.

"My Lord Carnal goes upon the George, gentlemen," said Master Pory. "He
sent but now to demand if she sailed to-morrow. He is ill, and would be
at home."

One or two glanced at me, but I sat with a face like stone, and the
Governor, rising, broke up the council.

I left the house, and the street that was lit with torches and noisy
with going to and fro, and went down to the river. Rolfe had been
detained by the Governor, West commanded the party at the neck. There
were great fires burning along the river bank, and men watching for the
incoming boats; but I knew of a place where no guard was set, and where
one or two canoes were moored. There was no firelight there, and no one
saw me when I entered a canoe and cut the rope and pushed off from the
land.

Well-nigh a day and a night had passed since Lady Wyatt had told me that
which made for my heart a night-time indeed. I believed my wife to
be dead,--yea, I trusted that she was dead. I hoped that it had been
quickly over,--one blow.... Better that, oh, better that a thousand
times, than that she should have been carried off to some village, saved
to-day to die a thousand deaths to-morrow.

But I thought that there might have been left, lying on the dead leaves
of the forest, that fair shell from which the soul had flown. I knew not
where to go,--to the north, to the east