T 
 
 ^i 
 
 5
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 A Story of Lord Baltimore s Colony 
 in 1638 
 
 Lucy Meacham Thruston 
 
 Illustrated by Charles Grunwald 
 
 Boston 
 
 Little, Brown, and Company 
 1901
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " ''Tis what Maryland is destined to be some day"* 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 " ' I love thee, sweetheart, beyond the telling, beyond 
 
 the dreaming '" Page 79 
 
 " From every loophole the guns held them at bay" " 136 
 
 " < Margaret,' he whispered faintly, and then a great 
 
 agony shook him " " 285 
 
 '"Gentlemen, I come to claim a vote in this 
 
 Assembly'" " 333
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 I 
 
 " A | "\HE day is far too fine to remain within 
 
 doors ! " complained Mistress Brent, 
 
 -*- as she moved restlessly from window 
 
 to door ; " come, put up thy 'broidery, Mary, and 
 
 see the town." 
 
 Her sister shook her fair head. " The town ! " 
 she cried, and then laughed mockingly. 
 
 " Yea, the town ! " declared Mistress Margaret, 
 whose temper, never of the most even, was easily 
 tried by tedious days indoors. " Faith, child, thou 
 knowest not what some day it may be ! " 
 
 "May be!" 
 
 " An thou mockest like a parrot, I will have 
 none of thee ! " 
 
 Mistress Brent walked quickly across the long 
 living-room and flung open the door at the side. 
 " Mistress Hawley ! " she called, imperiously. A 
 tall, gracious woman with youth, yet steadfast dig- 
 nity, written on her calm face was standing in the 
 middle of the kitchen floor, gazing up to the raf-
 
 2 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 ters overhead, from which her winter's hoard was 
 fast disappearing. She turned quickly and looked 
 at Mistress Margaret with eyes so quiet and so 
 kind that her slight temper passed as quickly as 
 an April shower. 
 
 " Thou art busy," she complained, as she went 
 with quick movements to her side and wound her 
 arm about Mistress Hawley's slender figure ; " what 
 is a ne'er-do-naught like me to do? " 
 
 " Ne'er-do-naught," said Mistress Hawley, slowly ; 
 " I should ne'er have thought of thee as such ; truly 
 thou seemest one born for work." 
 
 "And why?" cried Mistress Margaret, gleefully. 
 
 " Gray eyes are not oft the sign of laziness," 
 quoth Mistress Hawley, lightly. 
 
 "But what is one to do? Mary is forever 
 dawdling o'er her embroidery, or else prinking 
 her dress, or gazing on her complexion which 
 she declares the long sea-voyage hath ruined, and 
 thou -"she shrugged her shoulders and looked 
 about her. Here in this great kitchen was work 
 enough for any good housewife's hands, and Mis- 
 tress Hawley had held the palm for such in the 
 settlement at St. Mary's since its planting four 
 years ago. 
 
 " Faith ! " cried her guest, gazing likewise up- 
 wards at the smokened rafters, " we have made 
 sad havoc in thy stores. A month agone and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 3 
 
 many a fine flitch of bacon hung there. Our fol- 
 lowing hath well nigh doubled thy household." 
 
 " And more," added Mistress Hawley ; " yet 
 thou knowest thou art as welcome as as spring 
 sunshine." 
 
 " Aye, and it shines too glorious now to stay 
 within. Leave thy work and idle with me. Come, 
 what sayest thou to taking the air ? " 
 
 " Is there cause " 
 
 " Nay, but to loiter in the sunshine. I care 
 not to be alone ; we are but new-comers, and there 
 are enough loiterers about to stare one out of 
 countenance." 
 
 " I doubt it," said Mistress Hawley; "they have 
 gone one by one. There have been serious and 
 exciting times within St. Mary's this spring, but 
 there is quiet now, or soon will be. The men 
 have gone to their plantations and about their 
 work." 
 
 "Twas time," declared Mistress Brent, still 
 credulous. 
 
 " But thou hast not fully understood the matter 
 which brought them hither." 
 
 " And I care not now ; come, thou wilt go with 
 me ! " 
 
 Mistress Hawley laughed, a low, rippling laugh 
 as though it came from depths of content may- 
 hap a content hardly striven for, yet truly gained.
 
 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Well, well, so be it ! " She turned to the woman 
 who sat near the wide hearth, " Chris, tend the 
 fowl, let there be no burning, now ! " 
 
 " Art ready? " She turned and led the way into 
 the hall where hung her cloak. " Thy gown is 
 scarce fit for our streets ! " she exclaimed, as she 
 threw the cloak about her shoulders and drew the 
 hood over the thick fair hair piled high upon her 
 well-poised head ; " rain-puddles and ruts " 
 
 " Tut ! the length is soon remedied ! " Mistress 
 Margaret caught the long lengths of bright silk 
 and pinned them back from the flowered petticoat, 
 and tucked the train in the fastening. " Now am 
 I ready," she declared, as she seized a wide hat 
 and tied the strings beneath her chin. 
 
 " Thou seemest as bright as the bluebirds I 
 saw this morn ! " 
 
 Mistress Margaret laughed at the flattery as 
 they opened the door, crossed the narrow yard, 
 and turned down the lane which the settlers called 
 Mattaponi Street. 
 
 There was no house upon it save Mistress Haw- 
 ley's, and the coffee-house anear where Giles Brent 
 tarried till he and his sisters should be settled. 
 They saw naught of him as they went slowly down 
 the lane, picking their way betwixt the rain-pools 
 that shone bright in the sunshine or were ruffled 
 with the light wind; the grass in the street and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 5 
 
 fields was green, but the buds upon the trees were 
 scarce unfolding, so shrewishly cold had been the 
 spring-tide; now the touch of the air upon the 
 cheek was soft as the fluff of down against it, or 
 as if one drew one's fingers lovingly across the 
 breadths of Eastern silks, and the smell of fresh 
 earth mingled with the salt of the great water near 
 was sweeter far than Eastern perfumes. 
 
 " An there were many days like this ! " cried 
 Mistress Margaret, as she turned her bright face 
 from side to side looking about her. 
 
 " Poor child ! " said her friend, pityingly, " our 
 New World hath treated thee harshly : storms and 
 delays at sea, and rains and winds ashore." 
 
 Mistress Margaret's piquant face was sober for 
 many minutes, as if she thought on much safe- 
 hidden in her own heart; and then she said lowly, 
 as if to herself, " And yet the spring-tide cometh ! " 
 
 "Truly it doth, sweetheart; think not as many 
 say there is but one spring-tide of life, that it is 
 but a green and sappy youth which rushes to a 
 brief summer, and all else of life is but a winter, 
 long and drear, and gray and lonely. Through all 
 our life our spring-tide is renewed, if," she added 
 reverently, " we look to One who is our life." 
 
 " True, many a time," she went on, " our fairest 
 hopes fall rustling like dead leaves about us, and 
 we look through the bare branches of our life and
 
 6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 think there is naught left; but the buds put out 
 slowly and grow in sunshine, in rain, in hope, in 
 sorrow, 'til life is screened again with joy." 
 
 " But not the first joy ! " declared Mistress Mar- 
 garet passionately, as though the words held some 
 hidden meaning for her, and, truth, they did. 
 Mistress Hawley had ne'er broken the reserve she 
 held and spoken such, had she not noted the long, 
 moody silences that fell now and then upon her 
 bright visitant, the hollow eyes and pale cheeks 
 which showed, sometime, there was war within 
 her. 
 
 " Not the same ! " Mistress Hawley echoed, 
 placidly ; " but fuller, stronger ! " And then she 
 was quiet, the sermon had been long enough. 
 
 They turned toward the river, where the homes 
 of the settlers were huddled close on either side. 
 Here the narrow point betwixt two creeks was 
 divided by Middle Street. They passed the small 
 chapel, the governor's house, deep set in trees 
 showing their pale-green branches against the 
 azure sky, the market square, grass-grown and 
 deserted, and beyond it the water-mill turned 
 lazily by the ebbing tide. 
 
 Down the street they loitered past houses of 
 painter or cobbler or lawyer to the great white 
 mulberry at the sandy point above the wharf. 
 
 Before them spread the river, wide and blue
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 7 
 
 and deep, shining like silver, or dyed blue as the 
 purple violets blooming in the door-yards ; here it 
 was still and calm, there the light wind ruffled it, 
 and there the westward sun struck a sparkling 
 pathway across, shimmering and changeful. Mis- 
 tress Margaret drew a long, sighing breath of 
 delight. 
 
 " A wondrous fair scene," said Mistress Hawley, 
 softly. 
 
 " Come to the river's edge ! " commanded Mis- 
 tress Brent, as she walked quickly forward. 
 
 The wharf where Mistress Margaret's foot had 
 first touched the New World a month agone was 
 deserted ; the boats which lay there canoes and 
 dugouts and the good ship that had brought them 
 thither rose and fell idly upon the tide ; the 
 sand of the wide, white beach was firm and dry, 
 and Margaret seated herself lazily upon a log of 
 driftwood and began to stir up the sand with the 
 toe of her dainty shoe. 
 
 " Come, be a child, Mistress Katharine ! " she 
 cried gayly, with a mischievous enjoyment of the 
 red on her friend's cheek at the unwonted use of 
 her name. 
 
 She picked up a stick smoothed by many a 
 journey on many a wave, and began idly to add 
 to the shining sand-heap, and that being not swift 
 enough, fell to work with a great oyster-shell she
 
 8 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 picked from the beach. The waves far out came 
 in soft whispering curves along the beach, gulls 
 and fish-hawks sunned their strong wings or flashed 
 for prey under the blue waves and went circling 
 away with plaintive cries and shrill shrieks, and 
 from across the narrow boundaries of the creeks 
 that ran beyond the houses came the sough of the 
 vast unlimited forests. 
 
 But warm as the sunshine fell, soft as the waves 
 whispered, Mistress Hawley's energy could ill bide 
 such idling. 
 
 " An thou must play in the sand," she remon- 
 strated, laughingly, " I must leave thee." 
 
 Mistress Margaret sprang to her feet. "And 
 I," she looked searchingly up the sandy street, 
 no one was abroad, "I I would fain see my 
 cousin, the governor." 
 
 " He visited thee but yesterday." 
 
 "And there was Mary and Giles and " she 
 stopped, biting her lip ; Mistress Hawley, as was 
 fitting, also entertained the governor when he was 
 visiting in her house. 
 
 " There is somewhat I must say to him alone," 
 she added, lamely. 
 
 Mistress Hawley turned away proudly. "An 
 it be pressing, I will see to thy opportunity." 
 
 Mistress Margaret opened her lips as though 
 to speak, but shut them tightly; the words were
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 9 
 
 ill-considered, and she had learned to love this 
 quiet, lonely woman since the day she had first 
 made them welcome in her home. 
 
 Yet the silence betwixt them was oppressive as 
 they walked up the street, though as they neared 
 the governor's house they paused. 
 
 " The governor is the head of the settlement," 
 said Mistress Brent, mutinously, "and his house 
 must be ever open to the settlers." 
 
 " But not for such as thou to visit him alone," 
 declared Mistress Hawley, austerely. 
 
 Mistress Margaret paused by the gateway; the 
 thought which impelled her was no new freak of 
 obstinacy, but the one which had prompted a 
 severance of the strong, dear ties to England, 
 which had upborne her in days of deadly sea- 
 sickness, which had comforted her when her heart 
 fair sank from disappointment at the raw poverty 
 of the town of St. Mary's about which her cousin, 
 the Lord Baltimore, made such talk and stir. But 
 never since she had landed had there been a 
 chance for talk as she craved with Leonard Cal- 
 vert. She must make her chance. 
 
 " Thou wilt not think me overbold," she pleaded, 
 loath to offend Mistress Hawley. 
 
 " An thou art resolved, I will go with thee ; 
 come ! " as she noted the pout upon Mistress 
 Margaret's red lips. "There are some hints of
 
 io MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 cheese-making I oft have promised his house- 
 keeper, there will be milk and to spare soon ; 't is 
 good time to have speech of her, and 'twill save 
 thee the wagging of a gossip's tongue likewise." 
 
 Of all things on which Mistress Brent ever 
 thought, the gossip's tongue came last; still she 
 went, thankful of Mistress Hawley's thoughtfulness. 
 
 It was the governor himself who espied them 
 as they came up the garden walk sprinkled with 
 gravel from the fiver's beach. The grass was 
 green on either side and the buds on the em- 
 bowering trees were swelling, but there was no 
 hint of flowers in the garden, nor hint of luxury 
 within. The governor lived as sparsely as the 
 simplest of his settlers. 
 
 " Welcome ! " he cried, as he came down the 
 step of the narrow porch to meet them. "You 
 do us much honor, fair cousin! 'tis not oft such 
 visitors delight us." He ushered them into the 
 room from which he had come, but Mistress 
 Hawley paused at the doorway. 
 
 " Mistress Brent hath something she would fain 
 say to thee," she said, quietly, " and I have an 
 errand with thy housekeeper nay, I can find 
 her; see thou to Mistress Brent." 
 
 The governor turned to his cousin, who, now that 
 the chance for which she longed and which she had 
 so boldly plucked was hers, turned faint-hearted.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT n 
 
 But Calvert, used to many men and many 
 moods, and used to hearing many a tale within 
 that bare room, understood her. He pulled his 
 great chair from the table where it stood to the 
 fireside. 
 
 " Mayhap thou art chilled by the air," he 
 began. 
 
 " Nay, the sunshine is glorious." 
 
 " It calls one to other work than this," said 
 Calvert, speaking in his slow, deliberate fashion; 
 " clerkly work is ever hardest such a day." 
 
 "And thine " 
 
 " Is getting ready these letters ere the sailing of 
 the ' Elizabeth.' " 
 
 "Doth she return so soon?" 
 
 " Aye, her business is done, she hath discharged 
 her ventures and gathered her cargo; 'tis time she 
 returned." 
 
 Mistress Brent looked long and thoughtfully at 
 the flame which wrapped the oaken log upon the 
 fire. The " Elizabeth " had been chartered to bring 
 them across seas, now she was ready to return. 
 Ships were uncertain ; when would there be news 
 of England, or passing to and fro? She turned 
 with a quick sigh. The table near her was littered 
 with papers dusty and new, quills broken and 
 fresh, and ink-crusted ink-horn, wax, and seal of 
 Maryland newly engraved the table of a man
 
 12 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 with clerkly duties forced upon him and to whom 
 such duties were distasteful. Near her lay a half- 
 opened parchment with many lines across it. She 
 knew it at once. 
 
 " 'Tis the map of Captain Smith," she exclaimed, 
 as she drew it toward her. 
 
 " Of Captain Evelin," corrected Calvert. 
 
 " But 't is founded on Captain Smith's. I saw 
 it at my cousin's castle of Arundel." 
 
 " With many an embellishment," said Calvert, 
 whimsically. 
 
 " Truth ! what means this? and this? " she asked 
 eagerly, pointing to many terms and explanations. 
 
 " Evelin will have it 't is what Maryland is des- 
 tined to be some day." 
 
 Mistress Brent read eagerly. Here was talk of 
 lordships and baronies and manors, and the color 
 mounted high on her round cheek. 
 
 " 'T is a fair future ! " she declared, a ring of 
 triumph in her voice. 
 
 "Thinkest so? " 
 
 "Why not? 'tis what my Lord of Baltimore 
 himself expects." 
 
 Calvert moved impatiently. " Thou and Evelin 
 came fresh from his influence." 
 
 " Captain Evelin I know not, though there hath 
 been much talk of him. But, my cousin of Balti- 
 more Cousin Calvert," she added, with a sharp,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 13 
 
 quick turn of speech, " 't is of this business I 
 would speak with thee." 
 
 Calvert's eyes were wide with surprise, and yet 
 he held himself expectant. 
 
 " When I did visit my Lord ere we sailed, there 
 were certain promises he made me. I have them 
 in his writ, but I thought not to see thee. We 
 have come thither, my sister Mary and I, not as 
 appurtenances of my brother's household, but as 
 separate venturers." 
 "But " 
 
 " My Lord of Baltimore hath promised that we 
 shall take up lands according to the rights he 
 hath opened to all. Nay, hear me to the end, 
 then have thy say. We have brought hither ten 
 servants ; we are entitled to a lot within the town 
 and a thousand acres to erect into a manor." 
 " Surely thou a woman defenceless " 
 " My men are sufficient to protect me." 
 " They might, were a man their leader." 
 " And will, with a woman for head." 
 " To go into this wilderness ! thou hast not 
 dreamt a tithe its dangers. True, the Indians 
 molest us not and are forbid to cross the Patux- 
 ent, one is scarce seen in a six-month; but 
 further away and then, the wild beasts 't is 
 folly, madness ! " 
 
 " Thou wilt find it sense," declared Mistress
 
 i 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Margaret, springing impatiently to her feet and 
 shaking thereby the long folds of her silken train 
 from their fastenings. 
 
 Calvert looked at the slim, straight figure in 
 its silken draperies, at the slender throat bared 
 by the collar that rose stiff-starched behind her 
 dark hair, but came low and narrow fair to her 
 bust, at the small hands meshed in lace. 
 
 " Cousin," he said gravely, as he lifted her slen- 
 der fingers in his, " such is not the work for thee." 
 
 "Then what is it, prithee?" cried Mistress 
 Margaret petulantly, though her eyes fell before 
 the look she saw half mocking, halt admiring 
 on her cousin's face. 
 
 " 'T is such as thou," he said, as he kissed the 
 fingers, according to his cousinly prerogative, 
 " will make the heaven of our New World " 
 
 "Then what wouldst thou have me do? There 
 is scarce room in Mistress Hawley's for our 
 chests. We crowd her, and methinks might 
 starve her, too." 
 
 " There can be no starvation in St. Mary's," 
 asserted Calvert, proudly, " 'tis the tale of James- 
 town and of Plymouth; we have had to spare. 
 Yet will I look to it that Mistress Hawley suffers 
 not." 
 
 " Thou wilt see she is plenished at our ex- 
 pense," begged Mistress Brent.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 15 
 
 " Thou art the guest of the settlement," said 
 Calvert, gravely, '"til thy brother is ready for 
 thee." 
 
 Mistress Brent lifted her small head proudly. 
 
 " He hath been with me but this morn," said 
 Calvert, quickly; "his grants are already made." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 The governor rolled out the parchment map. 
 " Here on this side the creek, behind our house. 
 'Tis not in the town proper; he will have a 
 hundred acres there. 'Twill be most desirable," 
 he added, musingly; "the land will run from the 
 river to the street of Mattaponi, and there will be 
 room for park and shrubbery, lawn and garden, 
 an he so desire." 
 
 " And the land nearest him, is it yet unclaimed? " 
 
 Calvert nodded his assent. 
 
 "Then, good cousin, it is ours. See thou 
 grantest it not to another, else will my Lord of 
 Baltimore's anger be hot." 
 
 " 'Tis hot enough, good faith, already." 
 
 " Then," cried Mistress Brent, glad enough now 
 she had fired her shot to lurk somewhat in am- 
 bush, "why dost thou vex him so?" 
 
 " I vex him ! " 
 
 "Did he not tell me of the many things he 
 asked of thee, and thy churlish refusal e'en to 
 notice them ? "
 
 i6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " And he told thee such idle tales ! " 
 "We talked of little else save Maryland," said 
 Mistress Brent. 
 
 "And he told thee this when Cousin, thou 
 hast heard the gossip of the town? Hast heard 
 of the Assembly convened here? hast heard of the 
 laws sent over by my brother? hast heard how 
 the settlers disdained them? hast heard of our 
 trouble with Kent ? and yet, with this mountain 
 pressing upon me, he will write and and ask 
 for redbirds or how fareth his drove of goats, 
 forsooth." 
 
 " See ! here are the letters I have writ him to 
 be sent by the ' Elizabeth.' " He unfolded the 
 parchment, but Mistress Hawley, her errand 
 done, came to recall her guest. 
 
 " T is late," she declared, " and I must home ; " 
 and then with quick housewifely eye she searched 
 the room, the litter of dusty papers on the table, 
 the tarnished silver of the candlestick, the un- 
 kempt hearth. "Truly the governor's house- 
 keeper might keep his house in better condi- 
 tion ! " she told herself indignantly, and then a 
 feeling she had oft felt, a pity for the man, 
 though he was brother to my Lord Proprietor and 
 governor of Maryland, asserted itself. 
 
 "Wilt thou not come with us?" she asked;
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 17 
 
 "thou hast no guest, thy supper will be solitary 
 else." 
 
 The governor folded the letters quickly and 
 slipped them in the pocket of his velvet doublet. 
 " That will I gladly ! " he declared, and he went 
 with them, talking lightly, out into the spring 
 sunshine, which threw long shadows across his 
 lawn, and down the street and lane. 
 
 The cowherds were driving in the cattle and 
 Mistress Hawley hurried on; her dairy was her 
 pride. In her hall she left them, and Mistress 
 Brent smiled as she entered the wide low-raftered 
 living-room where no one tarried; truly at last 
 she could see the governor face to face and 
 alone, and, womanlike, she thought to manage 
 him by this new clue he had given her, the con- 
 fidence of his grievances. 
 
 It seemed the hour of confidences; the sweet 
 influences of the fresh spring day, the inviting 
 glow of the low-burning fire, and the witchery 
 of the woman who was of his own race and 
 blood, and who was the only one, save Mistress 
 Hawley, too grave and reticent and akin to his 
 own disposition to invite his confessions, who 
 had come in touch with his life since he sailed 
 from England four years agone, all made it so. 
 
 With a sigh of content he settled himself 
 within the chair Mary had left vacant, but what-
 
 18 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 ever his mood, Mistress Brent left him little time 
 for gallantry, though voice was soft and eyes 
 were bright and lips were red, it was of those 
 letters she spoke, and quickly, ere the talk would 
 be on other themes. 
 
 " And wouldst thou know while this Kentish 
 thorn is in our side and while the settlers defy 
 his power, for what my brother chides me ; listen 
 to what I writ this bright day whilst thou couldst 
 wander abroad." 
 
 He looked hurriedly down the first few sen- 
 tences. " Here," he said, earnestly. 1 " ' The cedar 
 you writ for by him I could not procure to send 
 this yeare by reason there is very few to be found 
 that are useful timber trees ; two I heard of far up 
 in Patuxent River, and two others upon Popelyes 
 Island in the bay nere to Kent, and the freight 
 and other charges for the shipping them will be 
 so dear that I made a question whether you 
 would think fitt to undergo it: it will stand in 
 eight or ten pounds a tonne freight for England.' " 
 
 He looked across at his cousin, her slim figure 
 was erect in her low chair, the shine of the firelight 
 was on her bright face. "And this," he said: 
 
 "'The matts which you wrote for amount to 
 such a charge to be brought from the Indians 
 
 1 Maryland Historical Society Fund Publications, Calvert 
 Letters.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 19 
 
 that I had not sufficient means to purchase it, 
 it is not lesse than forty pounds worth of truck 
 out of England will buy 350 yards of matt, be- 
 sides the charge of making them in twenty several 
 Indian towns, for unless they be bespoken there 
 is very few to be had but such as are not worth 
 buying to give a friend, and besides for the use 
 you intend them it is necessaire they be all of one 
 make, else they cannot flower a room; and before 
 I shall procure so many yards, I must send all 
 the province ouer.' "... 
 
 " ' The redbird your lordship did desire I did 
 obtain, and yet was most unfortunate, for my 
 servant, who kept it caged, did neglect it whereby 
 it died.'" 
 
 He read here and there from the long letters 
 he had writ. 
 
 " And 't is of this he thinks, whilst " 
 
 " Cousin Calvert," interrupted Mistress Brent, 
 softly, " thou canst scarce understand, since this 
 venture hath not turned out so ill as his father's 
 of Avalon, thy brother hath mighty dreams. 
 Witness the map of Captain Evelin which hath 
 already had his approval. 'T is as if he were a 
 prince of a far country," she added, half in banter, 
 " he must show to those about him the stuffs of 
 his far-off province. The redbird must sing his 
 song or show his plumage, and the mats of queer
 
 20 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 sweet grass must tapestry his hall or be made a 
 royal gift to another " 
 
 " And the settlers of his province think less of 
 him and more of their own greatness every day." 
 
 And then they fell silent, for one was my lord 
 of Baltimore's brother and the other was his 
 cousin, and my Lord Proprietor's ambitions so 
 jumped with hers she could have no words 
 against them.
 
 II 
 
 OUTSIDE, back of the house, where were 
 dairy and outbuildings, the lowing 
 cattle were being milked, and Mistress 
 Hawley skirts pinned above her trim ankles 
 and sleeves rolled from her shapely arms was 
 hurrying busily. 
 
 The richest of cheeses must be chosen from 
 the cool shelf above the rippling stream which 
 gushed from the bank and went flowing through 
 the dairy house. This sparkling spring had made 
 Mistress Hawley content to dwell so far apart, 
 for the houses on the Point must all be dependent 
 for their water upon the great, cool spring near 
 the big mulberry. The richest of cheeses must 
 be chosen, the thickest of sweet cream must be 
 skimmed and mixed with cool milk, should the 
 governor choose to drink for his supper. For 
 Mistress Hawley's was a woman's household, and 
 there was lack of wine and ale. Perchance sad 
 years had taught her to abhor them ; perchance 
 a constant memory of that gay youth who won 
 her heart and then let his fortunes ebb from him
 
 22 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 in the rounds of pleasure till he was well nigh 
 ruined and was glad to recoup himself in the 
 venture then fitting from London, or remember- 
 ing the hopes she had fostered as she prepared 
 to accompany him, hopes founded on her 
 husband's long friendship with Lord Baltimore, 
 and on thinking on the many chances the new 
 life in the colony might bring, and then her 
 awakening, as she saw him, shattered in health, 
 worn with the voyage, unable to cope with new 
 difficulties, failing because his powers were sapped 
 when so much might have been his and hers. 
 Then the last sad scene of his death, when he had 
 counselled her to return to the old land. 
 
 But Mistress Hawley had chosen to remain. 
 House and lot, corn-land and tobacco fields, out- 
 side the town were secured to her; the indenture 
 of her servants was not yet past; when it was 
 she might transport others. This, or a helpless 
 dependence in a brother's household, already 
 filled. She chose this, and went about her daily 
 living content; even if, as she had preached to 
 Mistress Brent, life seemed naked and bare, there 
 were swelling buds of hope somewhere in her 
 heart. Enough to make the upward curve of 
 the mouth more gracious and the deep light of 
 her eyes more placid as she busied about her 
 housekeeping, or as she sat at the supper board
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 23 
 
 with the governor and Mistress Brent and Mis- 
 tress Mary. 
 
 " Faith," the governor declared to himself, 
 "'twould be hard to search England over and 
 find a fairer trio ! " Mistress Hawley was blos- 
 soming out in her new life with woman-folk 
 society, and Mistress Mary was fair and full of 
 womanish graces, and Mistress Margaret ! He 
 thought on how many times he had puzzled over 
 his new-found cousin since she had landed in 
 his settlement. He could remember her but as 
 a wild tomboy, over whom no restraint mattered. 
 He saw her first, that day of her coming, worn 
 and haggard ; to-night she was witchery from 
 her curling dark hair to the tip of her dainty 
 shoe, and the governor was nearer a feeling of 
 content with his lot than he had been since that 
 moment when the Indians had crowded about 
 them on a strange shore and he had waded 
 through shallow waters with Father White, bear- 
 ing his wooden cross, beside him, and knelt on 
 alien soil while the priest planted it deep in the 
 sod of Maryland. 
 
 The gay mood in which they had fallen lasted 
 until Giles Brent, formal and dandified, joined 
 them, and even bent him to their humor. 
 
 He must smoke a pipe with the governor from 
 the tobacco jar which still graced the chimney-
 
 24 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 piece, and must listen while Mary, the ribbon of 
 her lute slipped about her neck, sang the catch 
 she had learned in London ere they sailed. 
 
 " My true love hath my heart, and I have his, 
 By just exchange one for another given. 
 
 I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, 
 There never was a better bargain driven. 
 
 My true love hath my heart, and I have his. 
 
 "His heart in me keeps him and me in one, 
 
 My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides ; 
 
 He loves my heart, for once it was his own, 
 I cherish his because it in me bides ; 
 
 My true love hath my heart and I have his." 
 
 Mistress Margaret, with some deep insight in the 
 moods of men, knew her opportunity. 
 
 " What is there, Cousin Calvert," she demanded, 
 when the song was finished and the smoke wreaths 
 floated high in the rafters overhead, "what is 
 there to prevent our taking boat and sailing up 
 the coast in this fair weather? Our brother hath 
 been much abroad," she added, carelessly, " and 
 telleth wondrous tales of stream and meadow, of 
 great forests and wide rivers, thou wouldst not 
 have us mewed up thus?" 
 
 Calvert made no answer, but drummed lightly 
 with his finger-tips upon the board the air Mary 
 softly played. 
 
 "Thou sayest the Indian is scarce ever seen
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 25 
 
 hereabouts, why should Truth, my lord gover- 
 nor," she cried petulantly, " I had heard this was 
 the land of freedom ! Mayhap it is for men." 
 
 The governor laughed. 
 
 "At home, perchance thou canst recall, there 
 was ever room enow to breathe. Hast forgot 
 thy rides 'cross country, cousin, when I was ever 
 horsewoman enough to ride by thy side? Here 
 there are no horses, or so few they are needed 
 for the fields, or a horse being got one must not 
 ride afar ; the forest lurks with danger, and when 
 one turns to the waterway " 
 
 "Faith, 'twere bad if that were closed. What 
 say you, Mistress Hawley ? " Calvert turned to 
 face her where she sat quietly by the fireside. 
 "What say you to a jaunt upon the river?" 
 
 Mistress Hawley laughed her laugh of low 
 content. " 'T would be most excellent," she 
 declared, a sparkle shining in the depths of her 
 brown eyes, " and a providence for the doldrums 
 which now and then oppress Mistress Margaret." 
 
 " But never thyself," said Margaret, quickly. 
 
 " Nay, I have not time ; 't is fine ladies only, 
 they do visit." 
 
 " Fine ! lazy, thou meanest ; and whose fault is 
 it, I ween, that I bide lazy here ? " She shot a 
 fine glance of scorn at the governor's placid face, 
 but he was impervious.
 
 26 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " So be it," he said as he rose to his feet. 
 "Giles, thou wilt be one of us?" 
 
 " I prithee hold me excused," said Giles, stiffly; 
 " I have done naught but sail and explore since 
 I landed. I care not " 
 
 " Save thy manners, Giles," broke in his sister, 
 sharply, " we can do without thee ! There will 
 be Mistress Hawley and Mary and I, and thou " 
 she turned to Calvert. 
 
 " Une compagnie de quatre personnes," said the 
 governor, lightly. 
 
 "And when shall we go?" demanded Mistress 
 Margaret, flashing her most bewildering smile 
 upon her cousin. 
 
 " Aye," cried the governor as if in sudden re- 
 membrance; "the very thing; our pinnace hath 
 but returned from Jamestown and is lying at the 
 wharf of our manor of St. John's. I will despatch 
 a messenger, and Captain Rogers will be here ere 
 the morn." 
 
 " Captain Rogers ! " began Mary, but the half 
 inaudible exclamation was lost in Mistress Haw- 
 ley's louder, " We shall be gone all day, there 
 must be time to prepare. My larder " She 
 spoke anxiously. 
 
 " Surely I may be spared the pleasure of think- 
 ing for this slight expedition," interrupted the 
 governor.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 47 
 
 And Mary's thoughts were already far afield. 
 " Captain Rogers ! " She had seen him but a few 
 brief moments that rainy, blowy day, when, spite 
 of the biting weather, the settlers had gathered 
 upon the wharf to watch the whitening sail which 
 was the first to come to them with news of home 
 for a six-months. By the wharfs side lay a pin- 
 nace, her men aboard, awaiting the breaking of 
 the clouds to sail ; and when Mary, the rain beat- 
 ing upon her hooded head and lashing her cold 
 cheek, stood shyly apart noting her brother's 
 greeting, some one had come to her and called 
 her by name in a tone that trembled for very 
 joy. 
 
 " Mistress Mary Brent ! " 
 
 And she had turned to see him standing by 
 her, Henry Rogers, clothes worn and frayed, 
 but the man, alert, stalwart, ruddy. 
 
 " Master Rogers ! " she had faltered. 
 
 "Nay, Captain" he had corrected, striving to 
 say some words to hide his joyousness. " Captain 
 of this great ship lying here ; " he laughed ner- 
 vously and pointed to the pinnace. 
 
 "Art going away? " faltered the new-comer. 
 
 " But to Jamestown. I shall see thee ; thou 
 wilt not forget ?" 
 
 The look from Mary's blue eyes was fleeting, 
 but the captain was content, though the crowd
 
 28 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 surged about them and they had no further word 
 alone before he sailed that day for Jamestown, 
 being sent thither by the governor to bring the 
 cattle bought by my Lord Baltimore out of Vir- 
 ginia for the stocking of his manor of St. John's. 
 
 Now, Mary sat the lute upon her lap, her girlish 
 figure relaxed in her mood of thoughtfulness, her 
 blue eyes seeing visions she half dared to look 
 upon, there in the glowing coals to-morrow ! 
 
 To-morrow was all that April and the sunshine 
 and the fair new world could make it. 
 
 The pinnace lay upon the water, her white sails 
 rising in the ether and the glimmer of them shin- 
 ing, shimmering down on the placid mirror of the 
 river where the morning mists still clung. But 
 the governor and Mistress Hawley and Mistress 
 Brent and one other childish figure were already 
 aboard, and the captain would away, though his 
 sailors must bend to big, sweeping oars. 
 
 " T was idle waiting for the wind," he had de- 
 clared. " They would row till the tide turned and 
 the breeze sprang up." 
 
 And the mists lifted from green marsh and white 
 beach and hung their blue veil of haze upon the 
 distant woodlands, and the great, lazy river sighed 
 along the sandy shore and sent one soft breath of 
 a wave rippling toward it, and then rested ; then 
 another broke in sibilant lispings, and another,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 29 
 
 though the great shining river was yet inert and 
 dreaming. Then the gleaming mirror was broken 
 at its edges as if some unseen force were shaking 
 it into curves that moved first slowly, then fast; 
 running, running to the land, the bosom of the 
 river rose and fell, breaking from its dreaming 
 thraldom. A breadth of dark-blue waves ran 
 across it, a faint breeze chased them, played with 
 them, and then grown fiercer tore them into white- 
 caps ; the wind flapped in the sail, the sun struck 
 a diamond pathway on the blue, the pinnace keeled 
 to her side and went racing through water that 
 lashed high about her prow. 
 
 " Faith, 't is not so sorry a sight as when I first 
 looked upon it," laughed Mistress Brent, as her 
 sparkling eyes gazed on greening shore and run- 
 ning water, and she would have the governor tell 
 her all he knew of the land about, whence came 
 this curving creek, what savages had dwelt hereon, 
 had grant been made of the land beyond those 
 bold headlands; but when, the St. Mary's passed, 
 the pinnace sailed upwards to the Patuxent, and 
 lurking near the shore she saw a fair field from 
 whence the woods had dropped away, which rose 
 in high clay bluff above the beach and then sloped 
 sidevvise to hold a pond scarce bordered from the 
 river, she was silent. Nor was there more that she 
 could find to say, though the pinnace tacked back
 
 30 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and forth near the river's mouth until the governor 
 called it was time to make a landing. 
 
 The captain was well content. His eyes had 
 been searching for a broad, low beach, deep 
 curved. He ran the pinnace toward it; it was the 
 one spot he had dreamed of many a day, and the 
 one thought he had dreamed, too, came as nearly 
 true as though he had willed it with the power of 
 sorcery. When the meal on the beach was finished 
 and they lingered lazily, he had chance. 
 
 The sailors had gathered the driftwood and made 
 a fire that smouldered to the coals, and from 
 the beach, bared by the low tide, secured many 
 great oysters ; now, the governor declared, Mis- 
 tress Brent should taste an Indian feast, and he 
 would show her some day the great shell-banks 
 where they came yearly from far inland in the 
 autumn, when the oysters were at their best, for 
 feasting. 
 
 And the captain, who had been busied all the 
 morning, said shyly to the girlish figure by him, 
 " There are other shells upon the beach and most 
 curious; dost not care to look for them? There 
 are the maninose ; the Indian marks them by a blue 
 spot in the sand, and then digging down finds 
 them in a shell softer than the oyster." But curi- 
 ously enough the captain as they strolled away, 
 if he sought for a glimpse of blue at all, sought
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 31 
 
 for it not on the markings of the sand, but where 
 it gleamed beneath the fringed lids which most 
 perversely veiled it. And though Mistress Mary's 
 eyes were turned diligently to the sand at her 
 feet they saw naught save that all the world was 
 a glorious vision, and that wind and wave were 
 weaving a low, soft song which beat as an accom- 
 paniment to the voice in her ears, though the 
 words that voice spoke were sober enough. 
 
 " In the fringe of the pines," the captain was 
 telling her, "there were wondrous flowers;" and 
 he bent his footsteps thither. 
 
 The trees grew not quite to the shore, and in 
 the openings where wind and sun peeped through 
 and the grass had not yet full sway the ground 
 was strewn with pink tilting flowers, swaying to 
 every breath, and purple blossomings, and white 
 saxifrage ; and thickest of all, a pale-blue blossom, 
 with gleam like a forget-me-not. 
 
 "What is it?" Mary cried with rapture, as she 
 stooped to gather them ; " 't is most like a forget- 
 me-not, save it grows on a single stalk and the eye 
 is yellow." 
 
 " Call it the forget-me-not of our land ; thou 
 seest how plenteous it grows here, 'tis like our 
 memories. We know how to cherish thoughts'; 
 there is naught to teach us to forget." 
 
 Mary bent busily above the flowers. " I must
 
 32 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 take them to Margaret and Mistress Hawley," she 
 murmured. 
 
 " There is a sweet wild flower that grows 'neath 
 these pines ; the first day my careless foot crushed 
 it I thought of thee. Dost remember thy flower- 
 plot and how they ever flourished for thee, else I 
 had not thought of them, 't was only that I knew," 
 he went on as Mary had risen, her white hands 
 filled with the delicate blossoms, " 't was only 
 that I knew thy love aye, here it is ! " The 
 stick with which he tossed the pine needles had 
 uncovered a beauteous growth of thick, shining 
 leaves, that clung close to the damp soil and 
 sheltered the clusters of pink starry bloom. 
 
 " Ah, 't is sweet ! " said the captain as he knelt 
 and gathered it, " and pink pink as thy cheeks? " 
 he smiled mischievously as he watched the pink 
 there deepen to red. 
 
 Then he straightened himself suddenly. " Mis- 
 tress Mary," he queried, " what think you of the 
 land about?" 
 
 "This country Maryland " faltered Mary. 
 
 " God forbid ! this on which you stand? " 
 
 Mary looked up. The great pines under which 
 they had strayed met in solemn arches overhead, 
 and through their sighing tops moaned a fitful 
 wind ; the loud washing of the tide mingled with 
 the sound, the screaming of the gulls and fish-
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 33 
 
 hawks. Before them through the tree-trunks 
 gleamed the river; behind them, as she turned 
 and looked, the forest gloomed and darkened, 
 and in its dusky depths loomed some wild beast 
 that looked at them shyly and then went crashing 
 away. 
 
 Mary turned a white stricken face for answer. 
 " The Indian ! " she gasped. 
 
 " Nay, sweetheart, naught but a deer." The 
 captain was laughing. The moment he had longed 
 for, yet scarce dared to dream of, ever since that 
 fateful morning when he had known her dear foot 
 pressed the new sward, was here was his. 
 
 " Dear heart, there is naught to fear ! yet how 
 dost not see there is need for some one to protect 
 thee " he went on glibly; "'tis not a land for 
 lone women, faith ! the men give them not time 
 for that; there are too many empty hearts and 
 would-be homes." 
 
 " Mary, this land look about thee ! is of 
 my grant. I did intend from the moment the 
 governor's message reached me last night to 
 bring thee hither and say the words I longed 
 to say ; thou knowest them already, thou wast 
 but a slender lass when I left England, yet " 
 Captain Rogers stopped for lack of words, then 
 went on quickly, "thou wilt make my home here 
 in the wilderness? Look up, sweetheart! " 
 3
 
 34 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 And at that look the captain was silent and 
 satisfied. " But Margaret, Mistress Hawley," pro- 
 tested Mary, as she freed herself from his arms. 
 
 " This moment is mine ! " said the captain, de- 
 termined, " sit here ! " There was a fallen tree- 
 trunk near them, but the dampness of the spring 
 rains was in it; he unfolded Mistress Mary's cloak 
 he carried upon his arm and spread it for her. 
 The scarlet folds made bright setting for her slim 
 figure, and her fair hair shone like spun gold in 
 the sun shining straight above the tree-tops, and 
 sending level lances through the woodland. 
 
 "Truth, I have seen many strange visitants in 
 these forests, and yet I 'd swear thou art the 
 fairest that ever graced them. Come ! hast no 
 word for me? " 
 
 But Mary's lips were shyly mute, and her lover 
 must read the tale of downcast eyes and blushing 
 cheek. 
 
 "Wilt always be so shy? listen! thou knowest 
 in truth wooings are not long in our settlement." 
 
 The hand he held trembled slightly. 
 
 " Life is so full, there is no time for all the 
 gallant speeches and stately visits thou must think 
 on. Nor is there time for philandering with light 
 o' loves. Here is work for hand and brain. Here 
 is land to be cleared and houses reared. Shall I 
 take my men from the pinnace as carpenters?
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 35 
 
 Dost not think a house there where the land rises, 
 would look wondrous fair? There, before our 
 door, would be that curving beach where the 
 river flows so deep 't would harbor a hundred 
 ships. I know it well. I Ve sailed it oft, and 
 lingered in these woods, when I dared not hope 
 that one I loved would ever share this wild life, 
 yet now I shall speak to thy brother this 
 night." 
 
 Amongst the things he had dreamed of, Captain 
 Rogers had dreamed never of gift for such hot 
 wooing. Truly this life of venture had rendered 
 faint and blurred the memory of an English maid 
 well nigh too young for loving when he sailed 
 from England on the " Dove ; " but when he saw 
 her on that morn, her sweet, shy face wet with rain, 
 he could think of naught but an English blossom, 
 dew-besparkled, such as she herself had once 
 plucked him ; and the memory bided with him 
 as he sailed on that troublous trip to James- 
 town and fought the many excuses the Virginians 
 made for not furnishing his lordship with cattle, 
 for there was little friendship felt by the Virginians 
 for the new settlement, and they showed little will 
 to aid them prosper, even to the selling of their 
 stock to them. 
 
 But my Lord Baltimore was pertinacious. The 
 manor of St. John's was his show farm. Goats
 
 3 6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and hogs, cattle and horses, elks, could they be 
 found, must be bred upon it and boasted of in 
 England; and they lacked sheep for the breed- 
 ing. Sixty ewes had been promised from the 
 new secretary of the Virginia Colony, and Captain 
 Rogers must go fetch them and fight excuses and 
 hold them to the point until the bleating sheep 
 were aboard the pinnace. " A damned cargo 
 for the vessel ! " Rogers swore, and landed at 
 St. John's. 
 
 Through the days the memory of a face had 
 grown and grown, and the thought of his acres, 
 aye, even of the advancement it would mean were 
 the governor's cousin his bride, had filled all his 
 mind. He would lose no time upon his wooing; 
 there were other bachelors within the settlement, 
 and many of them. 
 
 Now, there had been no time in all his life, and 
 Captain Rogers's humor was somewhat complacent, 
 when the present so satisfied him and the future 
 shone so bright. 
 
 But the sister and brother were astounded. 
 Giles, when the governor had had word of him 
 and pointed out that the captain was a worthy 
 suitor, had naught of protest, but Margaret it 
 sent all her plans asunder. 
 
 She and Mary, so the venture had been 
 planned, should take up land jointly and keep
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 37 
 
 their household, leaving Giles to his ; such they 
 had intended, at least she had. Now 
 
 Mary had ever been acquiescent, when she 
 spoke, with few words ; but she was used to this 
 from her younger sister. Was this the cause why 
 she was so eager to accompany them? When 
 their cousin of Baltimore would have persuaded 
 them it was best to let their brother venture first, 
 and they could join him there, and her eager scorn 
 of England and the life which had befallen her 
 had driven her into rebellion against such plan- 
 nings, was it some other hope had made her sister 
 champion her? She had thought it only sister- 
 hood. 
 
 There was no more to say to the governor of 
 her plans. It was Mary who was bright, vivacious, 
 betwixt the teasing of her mankind and the wooing 
 of her lover, and Mistress Hawley and Giles and 
 Calvert who had much to say, to suggest, and 
 laugh over; and it was Mistress Margaret who 
 was quiet and distraught, and who was wakeful 
 long after the others slept. 
 
 She stole from the bed, that night when the 
 sail was done, where Mary dreamed her happy 
 dreams, and went to the shuttered window in the 
 attic where the sisters slept and threw it wide to 
 the night; the smell of the salt and of the green- 
 ing grass came to her, with the singing of the
 
 38 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 wind through bare branches and the rippling of 
 the tide along the shore. 
 
 Near her in the scattered houses of the settle- 
 ment the Marylanders slept. Where was the 
 grandeur she had dreamed on, the stately house 
 she would rear, the title she perchance might 
 bear, the power she would wield? At the very 
 first it had crumbled from her. 
 
 Would she dare, even wilful as she was, to brave 
 such life alone? 
 
 She moved restlessly against the window-sill, 
 and her arm jostled something upon the mantel- 
 shelf by her side. It was the hollow gourd Mary 
 had filled with her sweet pink flowers ; and with 
 the breath of their perfume came a sickening 
 thought : was Mary right and she and all her 
 ambitions wrong? for already she had played and 
 lost, and Mary Mary had found the flowers.
 
 Ill 
 
 AN she had fallen on sad thoughts, it was 
 time, indeed, for the growing of them. 
 As if repentant of her gayer mood, 
 the New World veiled its skies in gray that low- 
 ered and broke into fitful showers and gathered 
 into thick mists or spiteful down-pour. 
 
 "Does it do naught but rain here?" queried 
 Mistress Margaret impatiently, as she sought Mis- 
 tress Hawley in the kitchen. Up in the attic bed- 
 chamber Mary knelt before half-emptied chests 
 and looked on gleaming array of silk and velvet 
 and all the gowns which had been procured for 
 her in London. They had thought not then of 
 purchasing bridal array, but only that they needed 
 such plenishing while there was yet time. 
 
 "Where is Mistress Mary?" questioned her 
 hostess. 
 
 "Faith, she hath a wedding outfit and the 
 plenishing of a house and the thinking on a 
 lover's words to fill her mind." 
 
 "Enow, I trow; yet I doubt me she will do 
 much on the planning of her house." The curve
 
 40 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 of Mistress Hawley's red lip spread upwards. 
 She had been Captain Rogers's neighbor four 
 years. She thought not he would bend his way 
 to any woman's. 
 
 " He is the fairy lord for Mary," said Margaret, 
 somewhat bitterly; "he will do all the real think- 
 ing and leave her to her holiday tricks of 'broidery 
 and prinking." 
 
 " So she be a good housewife, too ; 't is all 
 that any man hopes for nay, wishes" Mistress 
 Hawley spoke scornfully, for she thought on the 
 many times her own clear-headed counsel had 
 been set aside. 
 
 But her discontent was for a moment. " And 
 as for housewifery, she hath already begun to 
 question me." 
 
 " Come talk to me ! " demanded Mistress Brent. 
 " Leave Sarah to tend to that," she turned to her 
 own serving-woman who gossiped with Mistress 
 Hawley's cook. " Sarah hath not forgot to stir 
 a pudding. See thou dost thy best," she com- 
 manded the stout, rosy woman, " else will Mistress 
 Hawley not pardon me for breaking in upon her 
 tasks." 
 
 " Talk of this troublous wedding an thou wilt," 
 she added, as they came into the living-room and 
 Mistress Brent threw herself into a low chair by 
 the fire and began to poke the smouldering logs.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 41 
 
 " Chris, the fire will not burn brightly," she com- 
 plained, " the rain through the chimney damps 
 the logs." 
 
 " But, faith, Margaret," the two women had 
 grown into much friendliness, " thou shouldst 
 have much work, then thou wouldst know the value 
 of a restful moment, as now." Mistress Hawley 
 leaned back in her great chair, but Margaret 
 moved restlessly; she had touched her on the 
 raw unwittingly. " 'T is the first wedding save of 
 serving men and maids in the colony and must 
 be well looked to. The wedding must be in the 
 chapel, and Father White must be sent for." 
 
 " Where is he now? " queried Margaret, quickly. 
 
 " He tarrieth with the Indians far up the Poto- 
 mac, where he hath made many converts." 
 
 " But the wedding feast," continued Mistress 
 Hawley, musingly ; " would our housing were large 
 enough ! There is but one place fitting in the 
 colony, the manor-house of St. John's." 
 
 " St. John's ! why is it the governor ever turns 
 the talk when we speak of it? " 
 
 " It hath memories for him," said Mistress Haw- 
 ley shortly, as if she too would have none of the 
 topic. 
 
 " And what are they? Nay, look not so dis- 
 dainful of my curiosity; here I bide, the rain 
 pouring without. Listen ! " as a sharp gust blew
 
 42 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the lashing of it against the window, " here I 
 bide, a ne'er-do-well, turned out thy kitchen long 
 ago, and Mary why should not the governor 
 wish his wedding feasting at St. John's?" 
 
 " He doth want it; he hath already spoken of it." 
 
 "Then why should he look so lordly whene'er 
 I hint on visiting the manor?" 
 
 Mistress Hawley found she was to listen to 
 questionings which were not lightly to be evaded. 
 
 " The governor hath had many vexing matters," 
 she began. 
 
 " So he told me at the first." 
 
 " Aye, but not these, I '11 warrant me ! " 
 
 "Then, what?" 
 
 " Did my Lord Baltimore speak to thee of the 
 Kentish quarrel?" 
 
 " Somewhat, though I listened but idly ! " 
 
 " Then thou must know that before the grant 
 of Maryland was made to my Lord of Baltimore, 
 the isle of Kent far up the bay had already been 
 settled by venturers from Virginia under the 
 leadership of William Claiborne." 
 
 "What right did he claim?" asked Mistress 
 Margaret, quickly. 
 
 "Right enow; he did hold a patent from 
 the king to trade in these waters and make 
 settlements." 
 
 Mistress Brent was silent.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 43 
 
 " My Lord of Baltimore's grant covered his 
 patent," continued Mistress Hawley. " When the 
 governor opened the sealed instructions brought 
 out from England, amongst the first was that a 
 notice should be sent of the grant and settlement 
 to Jamestown, and another to Kent Isle, claiming 
 jurisdiction." 
 
 " How did they receive it? " 
 
 " At Jamestown civilly enough, though there 
 was no great good-will to us." 
 
 " But the island settlement?" 
 
 " Would have none of us. They claimed their 
 patent and declared their independence, and that 
 they should proceed as heretofore to trade with 
 the Indians." 
 
 "And my cousin Calvert?" 
 
 " Was content to refer the matter to his brother. 
 But there were others amongst us more hot- 
 headed, and the governor mayhap he is some- 
 what too easily led. When it was known that 
 their trading pinnace had proceeded up the Po- 
 tomac, and that the Indians were bringing down 
 their store of beaver, there were some here who 
 had come thither for that very trade, and the In- 
 dians were already friendly with Claiborne's men ; 
 they knew where to look for them, and saved their 
 furs." 
 
 Mrs. Hawley, fully launched in her story, spoke
 
 44 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 clearly and forcibly what her logical mind and 
 common sense had shown her of the events pass- 
 ing before her eyes. 
 
 " The news of it roused wrath here ; they per- 
 suaded the governor to send soldiers up the river 
 and capture the traders and the pinnace. They 
 did so without bloodshed ; the leaders, a young 
 man, strong and handsome, and another older and 
 bluffer, were brought here for trial. Their boat 
 and the goods they had carried for the trade and 
 the furs they had gotten were confiscated, and the 
 men were set free." 
 
 " And then?" 
 
 "Claiborne was furious when he heard it, and 
 fitted out a vessel with guns to fight the ships of 
 St. Mary's wherever found." 
 
 "And this hath occurred here? Truly there 
 is little talk of it in England." 
 
 " England hath other and greater affairs of her 
 own on hand an I mistake not. But the vessel 
 from Kent and one from St. Mary's did meet in 
 some far-off stream on the other side this wide bay 
 of Chesapeake, and fought ; two men were killed." 
 
 " Killed ! " 
 
 " One was William Ashmore ; his brother still 
 bideth in the town." 
 
 " But this hath naught to do with St. John's ! " 
 
 " I cannot tell thee all the tangle," said Mis-
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 45 
 
 tress Hawley somewhat uneasily ; there were some 
 things she could surmise but dared not put in 
 words. " But the trouble continued. Claiborne 
 went to London to petition the king; my Lord of 
 Baltimore was there also, and then the governor 
 would fain have had the matter settled, as it 
 should have been, but there were others again ; 
 they stirred the people up. Naught would serve 
 but they must fit out an expedition, invade the 
 island, and assert their authority. There are sol- 
 diers amongst us to whom battle is the breath 
 of life ; and so once more the governor yielded. 
 He headed the expedition. They were success- 
 ful. They returned with no loss, but bringing two 
 prisoners and much plunder. God wot if the 
 people are as poor in household stuff as we be, 
 it must have stripped them sorely indeed." 
 
 "And the prisoners?" 
 
 " Were the captain who commanded the Kentish 
 vessel when Ashmore was killed, and one other." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Do not ask me the harrowing tale. That 
 winter had been sent hither from my Lord Pro- 
 prietor a great body of laws by which the colonists 
 needs must govern themselves, and there had been 
 hot words and wrangling about them. The gov- 
 ernor, Calvert, who stands betwixt the settlers 
 and his brother, could do naught with them.
 
 46 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 They would have no code forced upon them 
 wholesale, not they; and God knows I trow 
 they were in the right. Men who have strength 
 and wisdom to do battle with the raw New World 
 are men who know their needs better than my 
 Lord who sits at home." 
 
 Here Mistress Hawley caught herself, remem- 
 bering to whom she was talking. 
 
 " T is their right, their inalienable right, to have 
 a voice in their own law-making, and such they 
 declared. They framed their laws ; they were 
 adopted. Then here comes this prisoner. They 
 must try their new powers, and truly there were 
 other and wicked influences at work I cannot tell 
 thee of. They brought the prisoners to trial : one 
 swore allegiance to Baltimore; the other nay, 
 I should have told you the settlers from all the 
 distant plantations so thronged into the town, the 
 fort where the Assembly meetings had been held 
 was not large enough to hold them, and the gov- 
 ernor convened their meetings at St. John's. The 
 other, they hanged him there, according to their 
 new laws the death of a traitor, though to 
 what? He was well favored and courtly, with 
 a face strong and sweet and sad. I saw him twice, 
 when they brought him from Kent and when they 
 took him to St. John's for trial, that day. He 
 had powerful relatives in the colony of Virginia,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 47 
 
 and it well nigh occasioned war against us. Had 
 not the king so well known the disaffection of 
 the Virginians and warned the governor against 
 overt acts, I know not what might have been." 
 
 Mistress Hawley rose from her chair and walked 
 restlessly to the small latticed window, where the 
 rain still beat on narrow yard and green lane and 
 the houses beyond, but she saw it not. She saw 
 instead the face of the man who had so strongly 
 moved her pity, the face, as she had told of it, 
 strong and sweet and sad. She knew naught of 
 his history, and yet she knew there was naught 
 in it to give him shame, that last day. And 
 they had done him to death. 
 
 It was a stain on the page of their history, a 
 stain which many already repented and the gov- 
 ernor had done all he could to prevent. 
 
 As for Mistress Margaret, she sat gazing in the 
 smouldering fire. She had asked for a story, an 
 idle gossip, and she had gotten it. 
 
 These were some of the governor's troublous 
 questions. She thought of them and the views she 
 had heard fresh from my Lord of Baltimore's lips. 
 
 Truly there was cause for that preoccupied 
 look, that gravity, that sometimes came upon 
 him ; and truly there were troublous questions 
 on this side the water likewise likewise!
 
 IV 
 
 MISTRESS BRENT thought on these 
 matters many a day. She was far 
 more quiet than her wont, and willing 
 to yield to Mary's guidance in her plenishings and 
 to Mistress Hawley's in her housewifery, though 
 of the bridal fixings she was soon wearied. 
 
 " Faith, Mary," she declared, " Sarah is a most 
 excellent tirewoman and a seamstress withal ; thou 
 shalt have her and I will tend myself. She can 
 understand thy talk of ruff and farthingale and 
 slashings far more than I. Not but what I like to 
 go well clad ; " she rose to her feet and looked 
 down at the gleaming length of her skirt as she 
 did so, the dainty fashioning of her sleeve and 
 bodice, and turned her white neck in the ruff of 
 fine starched lace to gaze upon it complacently. 
 
 " But thou knowest I ever did hate the talk 
 and planning ! I could ne'er sit the day through 
 admiring my bodice." 
 
 She turned impatiently from Mary where she 
 sat, a waist of blue damask on her knee for which
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 49 
 
 she was fashioning such a collar and slashings and 
 ruching of lace as she had seen the beauteous lady 
 of Baltimore wear. 
 
 "It will become thee rarely, sweet; the blue is 
 as blue as thine eyes, and thy cheek will shine 
 clear as a rose leaf; though I like not the habit 
 thou hast of wearing thy mask o' nights; 'twill 
 make thy face too deadly white, and pallor be- 
 comes not a bride, not such a happy bride as thou 
 but blushes then " 
 
 She laughed at the sudden red of her sister's 
 vexed face. " I will send a better in my place," 
 and she went her way to the kitchen. 
 
 She knew well where to find her serving-maid. 
 When not busied about her own tasks Sarah's 
 round and ruddy face and blue eyes big with 
 thought of the astounding tales of savages and 
 adventures which Mistress Hawley's cook poured 
 ever into her willing ear, was to be found some- 
 where near her, helping a little, perchance, but for 
 the most part lost in solemn wonder. 
 
 That ever her mistress should have come 
 thither; that ever she should have seen her so 
 rudely housed and roughly waited on ; that a cabin 
 scarce fit for a farm should shelter her, and a cabin 
 of logs; that she should tread rough puncheon 
 floors and trail her garments over rush-strewn 
 floors instead of gleaming boards and squares of 
 4
 
 5 
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 carpet, where there were none of quality to wait 
 upon her ! 
 
 True, Mistress Mary had already found a hand- 
 some lover, but Mistress Margaret 
 
 They did say a maid went not long unwed in 
 this rough country, and her mistress ! There was 
 not such another in Maryland, not in Virginia, not 
 in the whole New World. She knew it well, and 
 had she not heard the talk? did she not see the 
 lingering glances which followed her slender figure 
 down the street, the envious look of women-kind 
 at bright gowns and dainty slippers? for Mistress 
 Brent had bought enough of them in London, 
 God wot, and wore them as carelessly as if mer- 
 cer and haberdasher were round the corner of the 
 green lane of Mattaponi Street instead of mill and 
 chapel, and houses small and rude. 
 
 Well, it was her mistress's own affair. Mean- 
 while she listened now as the cook, glad indeed 
 of so eager a listener, told again how they had 
 sighted the shores of their new land ; told how 
 the women, eager to set foot on firm ground, had 
 been sent ashore in a small boat with a great bun- 
 dle of linen to wash and cleanse in sweet spring 
 water, should such be found, and how the boat 
 was upset near shore and they had barely escaped 
 with their lives, all the linen wearing-apparel 
 being lost ; of how they had gone farther in, and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 51 
 
 the river banks were lighted with vast fires that 
 night which had sorely affrighted them ; of the 
 savages thronging the shores, the one white man 
 with them ; of their friendliness ; how they had 
 been guided to the Indian village and the wig- 
 wams which had stood where the houses of St. 
 Mary's were now built. The chieftain's was hard 
 by the spring, and the Indians had gathered to- 
 gether in some of their dwellings and left the 
 others to the new-comers. The chief had given 
 his to Mistress Hawley, for she was the fairest 
 woman in the " Ark " or the " Dove," and the 
 woman glanced jealously at Sarah. Mistress Haw- 
 ley had held her place unquestioned till now. Of 
 queer Indian customs she told ; of how many, ere 
 the summer was well gone, had slipped away to 
 forest or hunting-grounds, leaving their homes for- 
 ever, while others had stayed to show the settlers 
 how to till the fields already cleared and yielding 
 bounteously; had taught them, too, to make 
 strange dishes of the pounded maize. And upon 
 this gossiping, whilst the cook held a mortar well 
 filled with corn betwixt her knees and pounded 
 lustily, came Mistress Margaret. 
 
 " Sarah," she called lightly, " here is work for 
 thy idleness ! My sister finds me not so good a 
 seamstress. Get thee to her and hearken dili- 
 gently to her talk. Faith ! she knows to a nicety
 
 52 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 just how she 'd have each trifle, but as for 
 me " 
 
 " What of thy own gown? " asked her maid, who 
 was half angered that in all this talk of clothes 
 which had been about her ears there had been no 
 mention of her mistress. 
 
 " This is well enow ! " said Mistress Margaret 
 lightly, as she held her gown from the sanded 
 floor. 
 
 " That ! " screamed Sarah. 
 
 " This ! " declared Mistress Margaret petulantly, 
 an angry look in her gray eyes. " Didst thou not 
 put it upon me this morn? What ails it? Why 
 was it not fixed ere I wore it? " 
 
 " I am thinking o' the wedding," muttered Sarah. 
 
 "Then why not speak so? That peach-hued 
 satin I wore last at the court will serve ; the petti- 
 coat is white, and, faith, I'd not have them take 
 me for the bride ! I '11 go arrayed in colors." 
 
 " And thou wouldst make a fair bride," de- 
 clared Sarah, stoutly. 
 
 " Thinkest thou so?" laughed Mistress Brent, 
 though her bright face darkened ; " I trow I can 
 look as fair as maid ! " 
 
 " Aye, but " 
 
 "Why run thy thoughts on weddings?" 
 
 "They talk of them enow about here; there is 
 e'en a law "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 53 
 
 " Law, law ! what knowest thou of law? 'tis the 
 everlasting prate! Law of what? That every 
 maid should marry?" 
 
 " So I have heard," said Sarah, sullenly. 
 
 " Listen ! " Mistress Brent threw back her head 
 in peal after peal of merry laughter that reached 
 Mistress Hawley's ear as she busied about her 
 dairy. 
 
 "What is it, Margaret?" she called from the 
 low door where she stood, her skirts kilted about 
 her knees, a yellow pannikin of milk in her strong, 
 shapely hands. 
 
 " Sarah hath just told me the settlers think on 
 yet another amendment to the laws they have been 
 at such pains to prepare," called Mistress Brent. 
 
 " Aye, and what cause is that for laughter? " 
 
 " Thou hast not heard the whole, 't is that every 
 maid should marry; to such matters have they 
 turned their wondrous wisdom." 
 
 " Nay, Sarah, an thou art thinking on it," she 
 came over and touched the stout firm arm of her 
 faithful waiting-maid, "an thou art thinking on 
 it, mayhap 't is for thyself." She laughed wickedly 
 at the purplish red which flushed Sarah's full face. 
 "What thoughts art thou harboring under that 
 gray thatch of hair? Nay, go thy ways to Mistress 
 Mary." 
 
 She stepped from the rough low door to the
 
 54 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 sunlit path to the dairy. Peach and pear and apple 
 and plum which had graced the chiefs wigwam 
 were thick set in bloom, and about them hummed 
 and buzzed the bees from Mistress Hawley's hives ; 
 above the bank-sheltered spring the great walnut 
 unfolded ; ts late pale-green leaves ; the air was 
 heavy with salt and sweet with the smell of fresh 
 green growth and bloom. 
 
 The peevish look died from Mistress Margaret's 
 face. "Aye, the world looks different here ! " she 
 cried; "in Mary's room 'tis prison, here 'tis life. 
 Why art thou so busied ? " 
 
 The wide curves of Mistress Hawley's red lips 
 ran upwards and her brown eyes sparkled. 
 
 " I am making ready a little present for my Lord 
 Proprietor ! " she said, demurely. 
 
 " Ah ! "queried Margaret, consumed with sudden 
 curiousness, " what is it? " 
 
 " Here ! " Mistress Hawley pointed to a round 
 low basket, Indian woven of curious grasses. She 
 lifted a layer of dried grass. " There are cheeses, 
 good as the best of Devon, I 'd swear ! they have 
 been ripening a twelvemonth on these shelves; 
 and here are fruit," she lifted the strings of dried 
 peaches and apples and long straws thick with 
 cherries, " dried from my own trees last year. 
 They have kept rarely and look as fresh as when 
 I put them aside for some such purpose."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 55 
 
 " Though I know not," she added, a little frown 
 puckering her wide white forehead, "how they 
 will bear the sea voyage, an it be long; 'tis so 
 uncertain." 
 
 " And this ? " questioned Margaret as she touched 
 a jar close covered. 
 
 "'Tis honey, and I misdoubt me as to the hand- 
 ling, and I can ill spare the crock. I wonder 
 and yet its taste is so rare and sweet, feeding as 
 the bees do on many and strange blossoms " 
 
 " Nay, send it," said Margaret, with sudden 
 fervor ; " and let me tell thee this, if thou hast ever 
 favor to ask, remember thy basket." 
 
 " An I thought that " began Mistress Hawley. 
 
 " 'Twill win his very heart." 
 
 " Of which I have no intent. 'T was but I wished 
 to show him something of our housewifery." 
 
 " And that is what he wishes most to know, 
 dost thou not see," said Margaret impatiently, for, 
 truth, patience sat ever lightly upon her, " when 
 he can offer lands, and talk of fields and flocks and 
 orchards and dairies, 't is more patent than aught 
 else. Thy basket is a gracious offering and kindly 
 thought on." 
 
 So the basket went away on the " Elizabeth," and 
 the letters from the governor, and letters from Mis- 
 tress Brent, of which she said naught to any one, 
 but held her way till Mary's bridals should be done.
 
 56 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The days sped to them speedily, days of stir 
 and bustle and gladness; for the governor was 
 well content to turn his thoughts from the wrang- 
 ling and disappointment of the winter and make a 
 holiday for his cousin ; and the women-folk were 
 glad to have occasion for airing of the gowns they 
 had brought from England, and found so little 
 time for donning, and to gather the pink clusters 
 of the laurel or the sweet-smelling magnolias of 
 the woods for decking the rude altar. 
 
 Father White came back from his mission to 
 the Indians far up the Potomac near to the great 
 falls, and the day was such a one as the settlement 
 long remembered. 
 
 The pomp of the governor, who was used to 
 going but carelessly apparelled ; the glittering 
 array of Giles Brent; the splendor of Mistress 
 Margaret and the fairness of Mistress Hawley ; the 
 beauty of the bride ; the stalwart pride of Captain 
 Rogers; the solemn hush within the flower-decked 
 chapel ; the gay procession to St. John's ; the feast- 
 ing there, the tale of it rivalled all others for 
 many a day. Though of all the pleasure-bound 
 crowd the governor, least of all, liked this last 
 
 When he saw the settlers throng the halls, 
 settlers come from river or creek lands, from 
 homes along the Potomac or bay or the marshy 
 shores of St. George, he could but think on that
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 57 
 
 other day not many months agone when these 
 same men had been there with hard faces and 
 stern mien, when they had taken matters in their 
 own hands and wrested from him the power which 
 he considered rightfully his ; and when he was in 
 the big, wide room which ran the length of the 
 house and had been intended for just such pur- 
 poses, the assembling of all the people together, 
 he saw that room filled with angry men, and a 
 slender, purposeful figure in their midst. He could 
 fairly hear the sighing of the trees on the headland, 
 the trees beneath which they had hanged him. 
 
 But the strains which filled the room were gay 
 and lively. There was music of fiddle and flute, 
 and the governor must dance a measure with the 
 bride. Such things should be forgot. And as 
 he danced, stately and slow with courtly grace, 
 thoughts long forgot came back to him. He was 
 in his brother's hall of Arundel, the house was 
 thronged with brilliant guests, the dance was a 
 thing of the night, and on the morrow would be 
 gay hunting or merry clash of bowls within the 
 alley, or the careless lingering by beauty's side. 
 Life was merry and glad and sweet, and he was no 
 longer an exile in a rough land, a patient buttress 
 'twixt the determined men who had sailed with 
 him and the quick humors of his brother. 
 
 There were no gray streaks in his abundant hair,
 
 58 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 nor lines about his eyes. And the slim and pal- 
 pitating beauty whose finger-tips touched his 
 he raised his eyes, and there not far away stood 
 Mistress Margaret. The sheath of satin which 
 enclosed her shone like the sunset hues his tired 
 eyes had often watched upon the rippling river of 
 St. Mary's; it fell in billowing folds about her 
 feet ; he saw the sheen of her skirt, gold glinted, 
 the laces that half veiled her breast and rose in 
 stiff guard about her slender throat, the wilful, 
 curly hair high coiled and stuck through with 
 golden daggers, and the piquant face, cleared of 
 the storms he had sometimes seen upon it, flushed 
 and bright and laughter-loving. 
 
 He led the bride to her waiting bridegroom. 
 " Mistress Margaret, thou wilt tread this measure 
 with me?" 
 
 " My feet are fair itching," she declared ; " and 
 not a cavalier " 
 
 "Nay, thou dost them scant justice; they dare 
 not " 
 
 " Til the governor and the bride be done." 
 
 " Scarce then. Nay, fair cousin, thou didst see 
 thy mirror when thy toilet was done ; look about 
 thee ! " The governor half sighed at the compari- 
 son his words called forth. The women, what few 
 there were, were dressed in gowns fashioned half 
 a decade gone, and were browned and scorched
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 59 
 
 by the suns of Maryland, with marks of toil and 
 thoughtfulness upon them. 
 
 " They are birds of sober plumage, but thou art 
 a bird of paradise ! " 
 
 Mistress Brent's quick eyes flashed. " My cousin 
 grows gallant," she declared, demurely. 
 
 The governor started. In the pause after his 
 stately dance the fiddler was playing a strain half 
 sweet, half sad, and wholly winning. 
 
 Mistress Brent drew her breath quickly as she 
 beat her foot to the alluring tune. 
 
 " Dost know the dance? " he queried. 
 
 " I, too, have been at court," she said, a mis- 
 chievous smile upon her lips. 
 
 "Wilt dance it with me?" 
 
 " Will the governor dare?" 
 
 " 'T is the man who asks thee ! " and it was the 
 man who slipped his arm about her supple waist 
 and in the eyes of the astonished people circled 
 slowly about the room as the music sank to 
 plaintive minor or rose to swelling cadence. 
 
 The governor had been a rare dancer long days 
 agone, ere governorship was thought on, and his 
 easy steps were not forgot. 
 
 " I had not such a dance," declared Mistress 
 Brent, " had not such a dance in London." 
 
 " Didst think thy dancing days were left 
 behind?"
 
 60 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 But he had no answer; he saw only the dark 
 fringe of her lids, her smooth cheek and curving 
 mouth. 
 
 " Thou hast left naught behind," he went on, 
 hotly, " naught ! There is all one longs for here, 
 or dreams of, an he dreams." 
 
 Yet it was the first moment for five years his 
 own heart had not whispered to him a different 
 tale.
 
 IT was the governor's humor that Captain 
 Rogers should bide his honeymoon at St. 
 John's. 
 
 "Tis a well-favored spot for such lingering," 
 he had urged him ; " here we can tarry, many of 
 us, for a day or more and then go our ways, leav- 
 ing ye to yours. The household is ready for 
 visitants alway; such is my brother's wish, for he 
 ever urges his own purpose of some day coming 
 hither." The governor paused in his talk as 
 Captain Rogers pressed his thanks upon him. 
 
 " Aye, man, thou hast a fair bride, sweet and 
 biddable; when such joy comes in a man's life, 
 'tis fitting that he should stop apart from the 
 ways of men to shrine it in his heart and use it 
 to the wearing." 
 
 The captain looked up, astounded at the gov- 
 ernor's hot words ; even the eyes of the bridegroom 
 had no such fire as flashed in his; and the gov- 
 ernor, feeling the look, flushed as a schoolboy 
 might have done.
 
 62 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "Thou hast been a trader and adventurer in 
 our colony, Captain Rogers," he began, speaking 
 in stately fashion to hide the confusion which 
 beset him ; " thou must now turn thy thoughts to 
 clearing lands and planting tobacco fields and 
 raising of stock. Thou shouldst know somewhat 
 of stock handling, though?" he queried, a twinkle 
 of amusement in his eyes. 
 
 " Zounds ! an I did not, after the sheep and 
 hogs I brought hither from Jamestown " 
 
 " Thou canst see how we have housed them," 
 began Calvert, eagerly, " and how they prosper." 
 
 But Captain Rogers tired of all, save, forsooth, 
 his bride, in one short week. " 'T was no time for 
 idle lingering," he at last told himself, " but time 
 for a man to be about his business ; " and he left 
 sweet Mistress Mary protesting, and took his way 
 into the settlement to Mistress Hawley's house. 
 
 The things he talked on there roused many a 
 thought in Mistress Margaret's breast, thoughts 
 which hitherto had been cloudlike, floating, form- 
 ing, re-forming, clearing to the horizon and then 
 swarming in battalions, and now filling all space 
 as she walked, in tense thought, to and fro in 
 Mistress Hawley's living-room. 
 
 She went to the latticed window opening on the 
 street and flung it wide. Outside the shadows 
 were long in the lane; the walnut threw gigantic
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 63 
 
 arms athwart the way ; a mocking-bird in its 
 branches began to sing, to mimic, first, the cat- 
 bird's call, and then the gull's plaintive cry, to 
 slip from bird-call to bird-call, and then to burst 
 into melody, that thrilled and thrilled through all 
 the sunlit space without. 
 
 Mistress Margaret turned her hot cheek upon 
 her arm and listened with a delight that overcame 
 all other feelings and yet pressed upon her heart 
 like pain. 
 
 " Thou art listening to our songster ! " broke a 
 voice upon her ear, a voice slow and clear, and yet 
 with nothing of the coldness in it of which she had 
 accused her cousin Calvert when she had first met 
 him in the colony; " thinkest thou he can equal 
 our English nightingale?" 
 
 " One thinks not of the other when he hears 
 either," said Mistress Margaret, quickly; and in the 
 swift movement of her head, as though she 'd look 
 no man in the eye, her cousin caught the flash of 
 unshed tears beneath her lashes. 
 
 " Come ! " he said, gently; "'t is soft and warm 
 as midsummer, thou must not stay mewed up 
 thus; 'twill bring on heart-sickness, and there is 
 little medicine here for cure." He spoke as one 
 who knew. " This is all we have for remedy, such 
 a day and sky, and such fair green earth as this. 
 Mistress Hawley's rose is fair abloom," he went
 
 64 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 on, as if to give her time to quell that swelling 
 of the throat his eye had seen and to send the 
 tears back to their source; "'twill soon cover 
 doorway and window alike. 'Twas the first slip 
 of English rose planted in Maryland soil. See 
 how it grows, as all things do here." 
 
 But his cousin was ready and smiling, and came 
 to greet him in the doorway. 
 
 " Thou art fairer than its fairest bloom," he said 
 softly, as his pleased eyes dwelt on flushed cheek 
 and tremulous lip. Mistress Margaret in mood 
 mischievous or petulant was pleasing enow, but 
 Mistress Margaret thus ! 
 
 " I had thought to leave such gallantry behind 
 me," she began, petulantly. 
 
 "Thou forgettest we are an English colony," 
 said her cousin gravely, though his eyes were 
 yet a-twinkle. " Nay, buckle not thy armor ! all 
 things, the hour and fair nature alike, cry peace." 
 
 " But I I am not I feel not " 
 
 " Then learn to be ; 't is a lesson we all need, to 
 snatch its pleasure from the passing moment." 
 
 " And thou wouldst have one think of naught 
 else?" 
 
 " God forbid ! other matters press quick enough; 
 only to ease the armor now and then and breathe 
 at peace. See, I have used the text of my speech 
 again."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 65 
 
 Mistress Margaret smiled radiantly. " But 't is 
 a fitting one," she declared, as she swept her long 
 gown about her, and walked the pathway of Mis- 
 tress Hawley's narrow yard ; " thinkest the song- 
 ster ye term the mocking-bird sang from it?" 
 
 " Nay," declared Calvert, quickly. 
 
 "And then?" Mistress Margaret's gray eyes 
 were gravely questioning. 
 
 " His song, fair cousin 't is the moon of blos- 
 soms, as the Indian hath taught us, and the moon 
 of lovers alike." 
 
 Mistress Margaret's firm chin went tilting up in 
 air; sentiment played little part with her. 
 
 " Hast heard that Jack Childs is down with the 
 prevailing sickness?" she asked, suddenly. 
 
 " So soon ! " said Calvert, in dismay. He had 
 learned to dread the summer and the sickness 
 of the settlers. 
 
 " Aye, the ague was upon him this day and 
 yesterday. They did send for Mistress Hawley, 
 and she would have me take him the drink of 
 herbs she brewed." 
 
 The governor was silent at this sudden nipping 
 of his bud of sentiment, and they walked quietly 
 past chapel and market square, the governor's 
 house and the simple homes on the Point. Wall- 
 flower and cowslip were abloom in the small yards, 
 and Mistress Margaret had a searching look for 
 5
 
 66 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 each doorway. She knew already the tale of 
 every home: here was sickness, and here was 
 stalwart health; here was rude plenty where the 
 men were strong and ruddy ; here, where sickness 
 had lain them by the heel, was dependence ; here 
 was a heart homesick to faintness ; here, some heart 
 bounded with thankfulness for the bounty of the 
 new land and the freedom from restraint. And 
 she knew, too, and must honor him for it, that to 
 all, in joy or sorrow, want or plenty, the man by 
 her side was truly a friend, who felt the need of all 
 about him, and in many a way unspoken of aided 
 them. It was those of his own class, those who felt 
 they had equal rights in the colony's affairs, who 
 would yield to no authority save what they them- 
 selves created, who titled him as slow, unknowing. 
 
 Under the big mulberry were few loungers. 
 Men were at work in the fields outside the town, 
 planting long rows of velvety tobacco or weed- 
 ing the slender sprouts of maize. Down at the 
 wharf lay dugout and canoe slow rocking on the 
 tide, and the waves rippled softly along the wide 
 beach. 
 
 Mistress Margaret drew a long breath of delight. 
 " Aye, how I love the world, love it ! " she cried. 
 " Cousin Calvert, how a man can tire of life while 
 the seasons change and blossoms bourgeon I know 
 not."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 67 
 
 " And yet " 
 
 " Yet, though one 's heart be saddened there is 
 ever this wondrous world o' nature, changeful, 
 alluring." 
 
 " Unless " 
 
 " Nay, forever ! an God grant me a long life, 
 I'll fill it to the full each day!" 
 
 " Did I not see tears in thy eyes and sorrow on 
 thy face ? " 
 
 "Because I know not because thou wilt not 
 listen to me, because I am left to eat my heart 
 out; and yet I tell thee plainly I have but bided 
 my time, and that time has come." 
 
 " But, Cousin Mistress Margaret ! " 
 
 " Nay, listen ! " but suddenly her haughty man- 
 ner broke before the look in her cousin's eyes. 
 " Sit thee here, Cousin Calvert,'' she commanded, 
 as she seated herself upon a log of driftwood on 
 the beach, " and I will tell thee again thou recallest 
 that day when I made so bold as to visit thee. " 
 
 Calvert pulled his wide plumed hat over his 
 eyes as though to shade them from the glare of 
 shining water; but beneath its ample brim he could 
 sate them on the vision which seemed in truth, as 
 he had told her once, as though a bird of paradise 
 had strayed to this far region and plumed its 
 feathers on the sandy shore; the scarlet bodice 
 low-cut and short of sleeve; the flowered skirt
 
 68 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 'gainst which her arms shone fair as marble as 
 she clasped her hands upon her knee and looked 
 up earnestly at him where he sat beside her, and 
 the whole heart of him quivered like the shimmer- 
 ing waves beyond his feet. 
 
 She was talking of many things, going over 
 the old words she had used that spring afternoon 
 when she had sought him in his home ; words of 
 my Lord Proprietor, of promises and contracts; 
 but the man saw only the gray eyes dark with 
 purpose and the tendrils of her hair damp with 
 heat and clinging close against her brow, just 
 there where the blue veins wandered. He lifted 
 his hand and then clenched it tightly beside him, 
 while she talked so eagerly and prated of that 
 day upon the water, the beauteous spot they had 
 passed where the land heaved into a terrace, tree 
 crowned, and then dipped down to hold a dimpling 
 pond in its embrace. 
 
 " Embrace ! " poetic word for land and wave. 
 Was ever nature sentient, did the land, in truth, 
 throb beneath the soft touch of the wave? Bah! 
 what a fool he grew, could not a man think on a 
 maid, could not the governor of the colony hold 
 counsel with the fairest woman of its realm, with- 
 out such thoughts? 
 
 His thought came back to knowledge of her 
 speech ; it was of acres and servants, park and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 69 
 
 fields, she now talked, and her slippered foot 
 moved restlessly in the soft, loose sand ; now the 
 buckle glistened and now the sheen of silken hose. 
 
 " Her feet beneath her petticoat, 
 Like little mice, stole in and out," 
 
 he quoted to himself, and knew, while he quoted, 
 that he was fool enow to lay his great body there 
 in the sand to feel the touch of that dainty foot. 
 He looked behind him. Under the big mulberry 
 loiterers were gathering from their early supper; 
 they had lingered longer than he thought. The 
 river ran red with sunset lights, and the women 
 were gossiping in their dooryards, the children 
 about them, or singing English catches and 
 playing English games in the sandy roadway 
 beside which budded Maryland's greatness. 
 
 The governor rose wearily to his feet. It spent 
 his strength to curb the strong feeling in him. 
 
 " Mistress Hawley's supper waits," he said 
 gently, and Margaret was suddenly angered from 
 head to foot at the coldness of his tone; "but I 
 will see thee afterward." 
 
 " Then see thou bringest that map of Evelin's 
 along with thee, and the seal of Maryland, like- 
 wise." She spoke haughtily, affronted at his 
 manner, for he had let her speak, speak, and 
 had said no word, and now to put her off thus.
 
 7 o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 She would see otherwise; this night should fin- 
 ish it. 
 
 Even as she turned and her glance fell on the 
 group under the great mulberry, there was fresh 
 cause for wrath. 
 
 " There be two of my men," she declared ; " my 
 new brother would fain have them for the build- 
 ing of his house ! " 
 
 " A goodly plan." 
 
 " He will take them for no less than six 
 months," snapped Mistress Brent. " They are 
 hired now by the week in the tobacco fields." 
 
 And the governor, seeing her captious humor, 
 was silent save for some word to the loiterers at 
 the gateways or to the children singing as they 
 passed, and singing a song of London Bridge : 
 
 " London bridge is falling down, 
 Falling down, falling down." 
 
 Chubby hands were clasped high in air and 
 marching children circled under them. 
 
 " London bridge is falling down, 
 So fare ye well, my lady ! " 
 
 " Fare ye well ! " Yet he noted as he looked 
 back that strong arms caught at last "my lady" 
 and held her secure. Mayhap thinking on that 
 brought his great figure to its full height and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 71 
 
 confidence to his mien as he walked, his heart 
 filled with thoughts sweet as the blossoming 
 flowers, down the green lane to Mistress Hawley's 
 house. 
 
 She waited them with supper already spread on 
 the board in the wide hall, where the doors were 
 opened back and front to the faintest breezes ; and 
 on the table's shining whiteness were fish fresh 
 broiled and maize cakes smoking hot, and hominy, 
 frothing milk, and fresh, sweet cheese. 
 
 The governor must send a messenger to say 
 he would not sit at his board that night; but the 
 governor was obdurate. Not now must he linger 
 with that mutinous face anear him. There were 
 thoughts within with which he would hold con- 
 verse, though the thinking on them went like 
 wine to his head, and drew him back to Mistress 
 Margaret's side as steadily as the moon new risen 
 over the waters drew its troubled waves. 
 
 Pine torches were aflare on Mistress Hawley's 
 mantel-shelf, and the sweet-smelling myrtle candle 
 burned dimly in the hallway when he stood again 
 in her rose-bowered doorway; and in the hall, 
 restless, to and fro paced Mistress Brent. 
 
 He had learned to read her moods well, and 
 here was one he loved least and saw most ; it was 
 as if the spirit in that slender figure were at war 
 with self and all outside. Where was the tremu-
 
 72 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 lous face to which he had preached his words 
 of peace? 
 
 " Fair cousin," he swept the puncheon floor 
 with his plumed hat, and then came closer to her, 
 throwing it and the papers he held upon the 
 table, " thou mindest me thou wilt not be 
 an g r y> I P ra y thee of the lion we caught and 
 fain would send my brother. We treated it gently 
 as we dared within its cage, tempted it with food 
 it loved, and yet 'twas ever restless to and fro, 
 e'en as thou looked now ! " 
 
 "Until?" 
 
 " Until at last it died ! " 
 
 "Think on no parallel," she cried, harshly; "I 
 will not die." 
 
 " God forbid ! had we treated our fairest in 
 such fashion we had stained our colony and kept 
 all women hence." 
 
 " Thou hast brought the map and parchment 
 with thee?" she demanded, shortly. 
 
 Calvert bowed, still smiling at her humor. 
 He knew not how soon it might melt and her 
 mood be but sweeter for the storm. 
 
 Mistress Margaret pushed the candle, set in 
 the narrow mouth of a gourd, to the end of the 
 table. 
 
 "Faith, I wish Mistress Hawley had some of 
 the stuff lying idle in my chest!" she exclaimed
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 73 
 
 petulantly, as she steadied the rocking light from 
 the hasty shove. 
 
 "Why has she not?" 
 
 "Because she hath the spirit of a Vashti and 
 will touch naught, pewter nor silver, cloth nor 
 gold, while I linger on her bounty." 
 
 " There are other ways of repaying, and I will 
 see to it." 
 
 "What canst thou do? Grant her lands? She 
 hath all her scant number of servants can tend." 
 
 " Nay, there are other ways." 
 
 " Then see to it, I pray thee. Let there be 
 some way of my riches reaching her. Thou 
 knowest I have enough and to spare." 
 
 She pulled the great chair which had been 
 placed in the hall up to the candle's light. 
 
 " Cousin Calvert," she said, steadily, " thou wilt 
 seat thyself here near the light." A mischievous 
 smile curved for a moment her red lip as he 
 brought his chair still closer to where she sat. 
 
 " Here are my Lord Proprietor's letters ; read 
 them ! " she commanded impatiently, pushing them 
 toward him, and she leaned back to watch him 
 while he did so. 
 
 The candle shone dimly, and yet it lighted the 
 papers and the face above them and gave her 
 time to study the thoughtful face lined with care, 
 the wide blue eye, the fair hair touched here and
 
 74 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 there with silver and falling long upon his broad 
 white collar, the sober velvet doublet stained and 
 splashed it was one of her plaints against him 
 that he had ever little thought of clothes. The 
 governor should go in splendor ; there was that 
 tale of my Lord Delaware. It was said of him 
 that the pomp and show he kept went far to re- 
 establishing the Virginia colony; it made men 
 confident to look upon his bravery. 
 
 Now did this Cousin Calvert wear stay! a 
 doublet of deep blue velvet would suit the fair- 
 ness of his skin, slashed with pink of palest hue, 
 or white, with silver fastenings and such a collar 
 as Giles wore yesterday. Giles faugh ! would 
 she have him such a dandy as her brother? 
 Rather the stained doublet and tarnished buckles, 
 and, she eyed his hat swiftly, the wind-whipped 
 plume. 
 
 Her wandering glance fell on Calvert's face. 
 He was looking back at her, and she smiled 
 swift and sweet as summer sunshine. 
 
 "Aye, 'tis all right," he said at length; "and 
 Mistress Brent would take up lands in Maryland." 
 
 " 'T was that which brought Mistress Brent 
 hither," she said primly, though she flushed and 
 smiled beneath his look. 
 
 "And yet methought 'twas but the daring of 
 thy nature which might sicken of us and return."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 75 
 
 " Never ! There is no tie which binds me to 
 the Old World ! " 
 
 Calvert's heart throbbed high; there was no 
 lover, then, he knew naught of there in England, 
 whose memory would be a lode-star drawing her 
 homeward. 
 
 " And thou wouldst have thy claims made out?" 
 
 " As duly as any other venturer." 
 
 " Yet 't is the first time they have been made 
 for women," he added idly, toying with the quill 
 she brought him. 
 
 " T will not be the last ! " she broke in quickly. 
 
 " Faith, I know not ! hast heard the law? " 
 
 " Some servants talk of it." 
 
 " Our most puissant Assembly" his voice had 
 a ring of bitter irony "hath declared amongst 
 other things that no woman shall hold lands 
 within the colony, and should she inherit them, 
 within seven years must she be mated else are 
 they forfeit to the proprietor." 
 
 " Tut ! " cried Mistress Margaret, " as if my 
 cousin Baltimore could not do what he pleased 
 within his own colony; and these," she thrummed 
 the papers by his side, " are his." 
 
 " True, naught will o'erride this. The Assem- 
 bly claims not the sole power of making laws. 
 It must be as my Lord Proprietor and the Assem- 
 bly say. Only they must needs put the Assembly
 
 76 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 foremost, and make it ' as the Assembly sayeth 
 and my Lord Proprietor assents.' " 
 
 " And now," said Mistress Brent thoughtfully, 
 " for my six servants, two of whom are hired in 
 the tobacco fields, three at work on Mistress 
 Hawley's land, and one with me, I would have a 
 thousand acres situate," she drew the map toward 
 her and ran her slender finger down the curve of 
 St. Mary's River, " situate here, an I mistake not. 
 My brother Rogers's claim comes next; this is 
 'twixt it and St. Mary's." 
 
 " T is a most desirable spot," said Calvert, 
 humoring her. 
 
 " Aye," she said, complacently; "and for two 
 other servants for which I have writ " 
 
 Calvert started slightly. 
 
 "For which I writ by the 'Elizabeth's' return, 
 I would have a lot within the township, a hundred 
 acres next to Giles. I have already thought on the 
 name I shall call it, 'The Sisters' Freehold.' " 
 
 "Thy ambition is slight." 
 
 "Nay," she said, "this is all left me." She 
 pushed the papers aside as if having signified her 
 pleasure, she was done. 
 
 And Calvert, writing slowly as was his wont, 
 framed the words which made her mistress of 
 many broad acres. 
 
 Mistress Brent waited, beating a light tattoo upon
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 77 
 
 the shining table with her finger-tips. " Now," she 
 said quietly, when it was done, " I shall get my 
 servants together and see to the clearing of my 
 lands and the building of my house." 
 
 The quill fell from Calvert's fingers, splashing 
 Mistress Hawley's white table with spluttering ink- 
 drops. 
 
 "A house! " 
 
 " In which to dwell," added Mistress Margaret, 
 smiling serenely. 
 
 " What mad project " began Calvert, hotly. 
 
 " Madness ! " flashed Mistress Brent. 
 
 " Thou wilt dwell on thy lot in St. Mary's?" 
 
 "Nay, I know not, 'twill scarce content me; 
 mayhap later on, but I build on the manor first." 
 
 " Thou canst not live there." 
 
 "Canst not?" 
 
 " Thou wilt not dare ! " 
 
 "What need I fear?" 
 
 "Name o' God, cousin, there is the Indian ! " 
 
 " And have I not heard thee say an Indian 
 scarce shows his face in a six-months, and it was 
 hard to come by the arrows ye needed to send 
 my lord for his yearly tribute to be delivered at 
 Windsor Castle?" 
 
 " At St. Mary's, but that is far afield. And the 
 beasts; know ye not that the panther and bear 
 lurk within these dread forests?"
 
 78 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "Ye scare me not. My men are good hunts- 
 men." 
 
 Calvert made an impatient movement. "Will 
 they be ever near there? I tell thee a man a 
 man takes his life within his hand who ventures 
 thus." 
 
 " Methinks I am as brave as Captain Rogers or 
 my brother Giles." 
 
 " Brave ! 't is not a question of the spirit, but of 
 actual warfare. What could these do," he caught 
 her hands impetuously within his grasp, " what 
 could these do an the fierce bear came upon thy 
 doorstep as he did e 'en last winter to a settler's 
 cabin on the St. George's and seized the babe 
 within the hall?" 
 
 " I should fight him off." 
 
 " Or the panther spring upon thee thou 
 knowest not. These hands were made for lover's 
 kisses or softest touch, and thy shoulders " he 
 caught her to him ere she had any thought of the 
 words he meant to say, he bent above them pas- 
 sionately, the soft flesh curving in the farthingale 
 " for this, dear heart, for this," as he stooped to 
 rain hot kisses on their curves. 
 
 " Cousin Calvert " panted Mistress Margaret. 
 
 " Ah, I have frightened thee ! Child, thou 
 shouldst not so have wrought upon me! But 
 thou wilt none of it, this wild project; bide here
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 79 
 
 with me ! I love thee, sweetheart, beyond the tell- 
 ing, beyond the dreaming. What " for she had 
 sunk into the chair and thrown her arms above 
 her head on the ink-splashed table. " Margaret, I 
 have frightened thee, but I will not again ; listen, 
 sweetheart, bide here in Mistress Hawley's house 
 awhile, and " he stopped, breathing hard. " Wilt 
 not try to love me? Am I so uncouth, have I 
 forgot " 
 
 Mistress Margaret threw out one quivering hand 
 in protest, and Calvert seized it as he knelt by her 
 side. 
 
 " Then, canst not think on what I said, to- 
 morrow? " 
 
 " Nay, never!" cried Mistress Margaret, lifting a 
 face, tear-stained and pain-drawn, " never ! think 
 not on it, put it far from thee, hate me an thou 
 wilt, but love me, never ! " 
 
 She rose to her feet, while he still knelt, his face 
 turned upward, grief-stricken, astounded. 
 
 " Thou lookest a saint," she cried bitterly, " and 
 I the fiend who tortures thee ! " 
 
 " Thou art the sweetest," declared Calvert 
 sturdily; " and yet," he rose to his feet, " must it 
 be indeed as thou sayest?" 
 
 " In truth ! " 
 
 " Some day " 
 
 She flung herself again into the chair, her white
 
 8o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 arms above her head. " Go," she beseeched him, 
 
 " g ' " 
 
 " I cannot leave thee thus." 
 
 " I beg thee go ! " 
 
 He turned to the doorway and then turned back 
 again. In all the silent house he knew none 
 waked save them. Mistress Hawley, tired with 
 her tasks, was long abed. He had seen her pause 
 at the doorway and then go to her own ; the men 
 and maids he knew were at rest in their quarters. 
 He came back, barred the heavy door behind her, 
 blew out the flaring low-burned torches on the 
 mantel-shelf within the living-room, clasped the 
 latticed window, and came once more to the sob- 
 bing figure. He bent above her, kissing softly the 
 high coils of her dark hair. " I am gone, sweet- 
 heart; I'll trouble thee no more," he said, and 
 was gone. 
 
 But Margaret, spent, broken in the hour she so 
 long had wished, broken with the passion of a 
 storm she had thought long past, face to face 
 once more with a grief-wrung past, mourned for 
 herself and the man, whose loving heart had been 
 bared before her, alike; and the candles died out 
 ere she groped her way to the attic room where the 
 stars shone through the opened window. " Thank 
 God for the stars ! " she cried as she threw herself 
 upon her bed.
 
 VI 
 
 MISTRESS BRENT had her way, but 
 from that day began her enmity with 
 her brother-in-law. 
 
 Captain Rogers would have her servants for his 
 own hire, when servants were scarce to be had, 
 and he was consumed with impatience for pushing 
 forward the building of his house. 
 
 Mistress Brent was building her own, and had 
 she not angered him before, she had doubly done 
 so now. Every caution he approved she threw 
 to the wind. That she should so venture was 
 past all dreaming; that she should plan a dwell- 
 ing large and stately, with lawn tree-shaded and 
 terraced to the shore where her own wharf should 
 be built, while he was building small and narrow 
 with palisaded yard from which all trees were cut 
 lest they should harbor an enemy, was an offence 
 unpardonable ; to find, without her prating on it, 
 that brick and lumber had been written for from 
 Jamestown, and glass and furnishings from Eng- 
 land ; to see, when his work was done and his 
 house of clapboard and smooth-hewn logs was 
 finished in the yard of raw stumps and beaten 
 6
 
 82 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 earth, Mistress Brent's slowly finished midst tower- 
 ing trees, where it shone fair as an English home- 
 stead ; it roused strong words of biting criticism 
 until they reached even the governor's ears. 
 
 " 'Tis madness, sheer madness ! " Captain Rogers 
 had declared, " to build in such fashion when the 
 laws of Virginia demand that no outlying dwelling 
 shall be built without a palisade ; to build thus and 
 dwell alone ! " 
 
 " Mistress Brent hath great dependence on her 
 trustworthy servants," the governor took occasion 
 to tell her irate brother-in-law; "she declares they 
 are worth a score of some husbands she hath 
 seen." 
 
 The governor spoke with a gentle touch of irony 
 in his tones, as he recalled one of his cousin's 
 earlier, biting speeches. She had grown gentler 
 now, far too gentle, he thought ; he would rather 
 see her in tempestuous mood of scorn or anger, 
 with her quick manner of soothing speech and 
 beguiling smile, as if she would heal the wound 
 she made. But the quiet earnestness which had 
 come upon her since that night when she had 
 loitered so happily through the streets of St. 
 Mary's, when cowslips and wallflowers were 
 abloom in the dooryards, seemed centuries ago. 
 Sweet wild strawberries had blossomed and rip- 
 ened since then, the green fields of Indian corn
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 83 
 
 without the town had run to yellowing tassels, and 
 the pungent leaves of velvety tobacco were drying 
 in the long sheds. 
 
 Mistress Brent had come and gone betwixt her 
 manor-house and Mistress Hawley's ; ships had 
 unloaded her goods at St. Mary's and at her own 
 wharf; while she went ever serious as one who 
 hath begun to write a new page of life and would 
 see it fairly done. Through it all the governor's 
 eyes were upon her. She little thought how his 
 caution and prudence which guided all his affairs 
 were like a bulwark about her, and made the 
 carrying out of her plans far easier than they 
 would have been, nor how even now he was her 
 defender. 
 
 " Thy house is well and wisely built," he said 
 to Captain Rogers, " with strong walls and with 
 fortifications. I will see to it that it is well sup- 
 plied with ammunition, and in case there should 
 be trouble with the natives it must be the refuge 
 of those about: 'T is a plan I have long held in 
 mind, as the houses spread farther apart, there 
 must be certain ones appointed as refuge houses ; 
 there is need for one upon the St. George's and 
 one at Mattapanient. As the settlement increases, 
 these must be erected into hundreds, and captains 
 appointed. Such thine must be, and we will ap- 
 point thee captain of this new hundred."
 
 84 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 And Captain Rogers was well appeased. To 
 have this authority, to have authority over Mis- 
 tress Brent's affairs, to be able to summon her 
 servants to muster when and where he would, 
 to have in charge the garrisoning of her house- 
 hold and the inspection of it, though this was 
 all for many a day, was a power dearly loved 
 and duly exercised. 
 
 Seasons came and went. Mistress Brent was 
 within her house, her orchards were planted, her 
 corn lands bearing, her tobacco fields yielding 
 bounteously; whatever a man of the colony dared, 
 she ventured. There were hogs upon her marshes, 
 cattle within her meadows, sheep on her pastures, 
 and, hardest of all to procure, horses within her 
 stables. 
 
 Twice had her venture of sweet-cured tobacco 
 been shipped from the wharf before her doors, 
 and again the long velvety leaves had grown their 
 full length in the soft air of Maryland. It was 
 a goodly crop, and the looking on it filled Mistress 
 Margaret with joy as she rode by the border of 
 the field, keeping her brown mare to a sedate 
 walk. 
 
 The blackberry vines with leaves already spotted 
 scarlet tore at her long skirt as she rode slowly 
 along betwixt the forest's edge and the wide rolling 
 field, the leaves of the sweet gum shone like a
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 85 
 
 flicker of flame against the forest's blackness; 
 Mistress Brent drew rein, and slipped the riding 
 mask from her face and looked with sparkling 
 eyes about her. The dull-green stalks of tobacco 
 waved to the orchard she had set behind her 
 house, and the house itself shone fair as an Old 
 World picture, set as it was in towering trees with 
 the sparkle and glitter of the vast river break- 
 ing through the waving foliage, and behind her 
 the great forest stood with wide spaces between 
 the huge tree-trunks, inviting arcades of dusky 
 coolness. 
 
 " Hi, Jock ! " called Mistress Brent to one of 
 the men working down the long rows, " come 
 hither ! " she turned carelessly in the saddle, as 
 she waited him. "Art nearly done?" 
 
 " Aye, mistress," said the overseer, a heavy, 
 stocky man, with long arms and broad, honest 
 face; "but the suckers are toughened with the 
 drought, 't is weary work tearing them away." 
 
 "But the work will be finished ere nightfall?" 
 Jock looked about him with slow, stolid gaze. 
 
 " The men must work down the rows and back 
 again many times ere all be done." 
 
 " Press them to it, Jock ; thou knowest how to 
 get the utmost limit from them. Promise them 
 a pannikin of rum apiece and a serving of bacon 
 for their suppers, an they be done. Good lack !
 
 86 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the tobacco looks fine, but it well may take an 
 army of men to tend it." 
 
 " In faith, it does," said the overseer. " There 
 are other crops might pay ye better." 
 
 "And is there not maize and wheat enow?" 
 questioned Mistress Brent, quickly. It was ever 
 one of the points of dispute between her and her 
 overseer, whose stolid face hid a shrewd knowl- 
 edge of farming, and whose stout frame held an 
 equally stout heart, and one faithful to her inter- 
 ests withal. 
 
 But Jock, slow of speech, had ready no reply 
 save the doubting look of his honest face. 
 
 Mistress Brent laughed lightly. "Jock," she 
 began, presently, " hast heard aught of my sister's 
 babe this day?" 
 
 The man shook his head. 
 
 Mistress Brent's gray eyes grew dark and 
 thoughtful. She glanced along the length of the 
 field to where the river shone. 
 
 " I fain would know ; yet if I take boat and go 
 thither I needs must take a man from the fields, 
 and the work presses; the tide is low." She 
 looked back in the dim woodland. Could she 
 ride through its dusky recesses and find the creek, 
 she would be on Captain Rogers's land and not far 
 away from his dwelling. Yet she had never dared 
 the ride.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 87 
 
 Jock knew the quick humors of his mistress and 
 read her puzzled look. "Ye will not venture," 
 he began. 
 
 " Faith, that will I ! " she laughed, as she struck 
 her mare with the dogwood switch she had plucked 
 and pulled her head straight to the great forest. 
 " Tell Sarah I shall be back ere sundown, and 
 promise the men their cheer," she called, as she 
 left Jock, his blue eyes a-staring. 
 
 Down in the deep woodland the moist air, 
 fragrant with the pungent odor of the hot pine, 
 was deliciously refreshing; Mistress Margaret set 
 a straight course and went riding gayly on. 
 
 " 'T is like Maid Marion," she thought, lightly; 
 "only Maid Marion went oft afoot, and yes, 
 there was ever Robin Hood to keep her company. 
 But Maid Marion roamed no such beauteous woods 
 as these, or roamed them as outlaw. And these 
 are mine, upon mine own claim. A fool I Ve 
 been to be scared by tales from the 'joyment of 
 them. Pooh ! where are the bears and panthers 
 my cousin Calvert prated of so solemnly?" Mis- 
 tress Brent knew not the forest creatures slept in 
 their lairs at that hot hour. " Men set scarecrows 
 everywhere to keep women within doors." 
 
 She drew a long breath of delight as she looked 
 upward at the flickering sunlight on the tree-tops. 
 A buzzard floated lazily high up in ether; she
 
 88 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 could see the faint motion of his broad, black wing 
 through the opening in the foliage. A squirrel chat- 
 tered noisily at the breaking of his quiet; the land 
 grew moist, and the underwood tangled with laurel 
 and brier and dogwood. They neared the creek. 
 Mistress Brent, lost in musing, was but dreamily 
 conscious of the things about her. What was that 
 cautious movement in the thick growth ahead, the 
 flash of a bird's wing? Nay, it was too slow and 
 steady. She came with a shock of wild, sudden 
 fear to a knowledge of it; it was an Indian crouch- 
 ing, steadily stealing to the point where her course 
 would take her. She cut the mare wildly, pulled 
 her sharply aside, and went crashing through 
 bramble and brier and dogwood, till suddenly she 
 was at the creek and fording it, though she clung 
 fearfully, afraid even to look behind lest she should 
 see a gleaming tomahawk or hear the whizz of an 
 arrow. 
 
 But when her horse's hoofs were safe in Captain 
 Rogers's field she was filled with an angry scorn 
 of herself. "That I should have felt such cow- 
 ardly fear, as though I had ne'er seen an Indian ! 
 Truth, they are oft about the settlements, but not 
 at such seasons; and this one lurking here 
 tut ! " she berated herself, but the shuddering 
 recollection, the nervous horror, were upon her 
 for many a day, though she was determined
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 89 
 
 there should be no mention of it to Captain 
 Rogers. 
 
 " La ! he would have the men out o' my tobacco 
 fields ere sunset, and would be mustering and drill- 
 ing and marching the forest while the maize went 
 untended," and she set herself steady in the saddle 
 as she neared his house. 
 
 She fastened the mask again upon her face and 
 rode forward sedately, smiling, spite of the parox- 
 ysm of fear she had felt, as she pictured her 
 brother-in-law's horror and framed the words she 
 knew he would say. 
 
 The palisade gate was open and she rode within. 
 The heat rose in heavy shimmers over the hard, 
 bare earth, where no tree gave shade from the 
 blazing sun ; stables and quarters were huddled 
 close about the house, and the flies swarmed 
 thickly about the open doors. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " groaned Mistress Margaret, as 
 she slipped lightly from her horse. She went into 
 the narrow hall : it was deserted, whips and guns 
 littered the rack of wooden pegs stuck in the wall, 
 a saddle was thrown carelessly on the floor. There 
 was no one in the living-room. She opened the 
 door to the back. There sat Mary half asleep, 
 her babe, burning with fever, upon her knee. 
 
 " Margaret," she cried, a thrill of relief in her 
 voice, " I begged Henry e'en now to send for thee ! "
 
 9 o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Her sister raised the tiny hot form in her supple 
 arms ere she answered her. 
 
 " Has he been long thus? " she asked, anxiously. 
 
 "The fever has but shortly come upon him." 
 
 "The prevailing sickness?" questioned Mistress 
 Margaret. 
 
 Mary nodded. "Yet Henry did consider this 
 place so secure; there are no marshes near and 
 the wide, salt water is in front." 
 
 Margaret laid her free hand on her sister's 
 shoulder, which had grown softer and plumper 
 with each year of matrimony, until Mary's maiden 
 roundness, in sooth, bloomed somewhat too full 
 for beauty. 
 
 "Lie down; give me thy chair!" she insisted. 
 "I can hold him better, thus. See, he grows 
 more quiet already; thy arms were too wearied 
 to hold him. Where is thy maid?" 
 
 " He will let none touch him save me." 
 
 " Faith, he takes to me kindly enow ! " said 
 Margaret, cheerily. 
 
 " But thou hadst ever a wondrous gift with 
 children, Madge." 
 
 Mistress Margaret flushed. Rarer and rarer 
 came any such affectionate speech as this from 
 her sister, who made all the opinions of her hus- 
 band hers, and held toward her sister a half-irritated, 
 half-querulous manner.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 91 
 
 " Thou wilt have to give me one of them some 
 day." 
 
 " Now, Margaret, why canst thou not be sensible? 
 To live alone " 
 
 "Tut! commence not such old themes; rest 
 thy brain," said Margaret, impatiently, " the child 
 sleeps." 
 
 Mary pushed the hot pillow under her head 
 petulantly. 
 
 " 'T was but yesterday Henry said " 
 
 " Aye, sweet, thy husband hath many words 
 of wisdom; tell me of the children. Where is 
 Rosalind?" 
 
 " Playing somewhere about." 
 
 " I saw her not." 
 
 " She is in the servants' quarters, belike ; 't is 
 cooler within doors." 
 
 The sisters fell into talk of household matters, 
 talk which soothed Mistress Mary more than sleep 
 would have done, for her mind was wearied with 
 old thoughts and her brain was tired with dream- 
 ing old dreams ; and Mistress Margaret was fresh 
 as a breath of north wind in sultry weather. The 
 shadow of the house for whose coolness the mother 
 had sought the back room grew longer across the 
 bare yard, the flies buzzed sleepily, and Mistress 
 Margaret brushed them now and then from the 
 hot face of the babe on her knee. Summer
 
 92 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 drowsiness brooded all about, and in the bare 
 room with its scant furnishings and rough walls. 
 Captain Rogers scorned luxuriousness, and used 
 the wealth which had come into his hands with 
 his marriage for many ventures, trusting to make 
 himself a power within the province. 
 
 The soft curls about the baby's head grew damp, 
 his cheek less scorching hot. 
 
 " The fever breaks," said Mistress Margaret, 
 thankfully; "shall I lay him beside thee? Ye 
 both might sleep, and what " 
 
 Mistress Brent listened eagerly. 
 
 "What is it, Mary?" 
 
 " 'T is Henry and is not that the voice of 
 Giles?" 
 
 " Giles ! he is in Kent Isle." 
 
 " 'T is his voice," declared the younger sister. 
 " Nay, go not yet, tarry while I have time to tidy 
 my dress ; he must not see me thus." Mary rose 
 hastily, pushed back her fair hair and began to 
 search feverishly within the closet for a gown she 
 deemed suitable. 
 
 " Thou hast not a garment fit to wear," declared 
 Mistress Margaret, as she noted the tumbled look 
 of each. 
 
 "An thou hadst two babes to tumble 'bout 
 thee ! " 
 
 " There is never any reason why a woman should
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 93 
 
 not look her best." She laid the baby on the bed 
 and turned with quick whispers. " Here, robe 
 thyself! " she wound her long riding-skirt upon 
 her arm as she took the sprigged linen from its 
 peg and slipped the full skirt over her sister's 
 head. "La! it lacks fair an inch of fastening." 
 
 Mary's face grew red and fretful as she squeezed 
 herself into it. 
 
 "Nay, I would not fret myself; 'tis hot our 
 brother true, Giles is the biggest dandy within 
 the province. Here he comes with thy husband." 
 Mistress Margaret withdrew into the farthest corner 
 of the room where Mary diligently fastened her 
 bodice, and waited expectant, a light of amuse- 
 ment in her dark eyes. 
 
 " How fresh he looks, and I trow he hath but 
 this moment landed ; but he should have been first 
 to St. Mary's, and methinks I would have known 
 of that. Thou hast no lace so rare as that which 
 shrouds his wrists, hot as it is, nor no silk so fine, 
 save 't is thy wedding gown, as that of his summer 
 doublet. Not a curl upon his forehead seems out 
 of place." She turned laughingly to Mary; " 't is 
 not fitting," she added, mischievously, " 't is not 
 fitting the man of our family should go braver 
 than we." 
 
 "Braver," said Mary, crossly; "thou art ever 
 bediked enow."
 
 9 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The men were still in earnest converse in the 
 shadowed yard. 
 
 " An they take much longer, Mary, thou wilt 
 have full time." 
 
 "I am already dressed," declared Mary as she 
 picked up a leaden-framed mirror which lay on 
 the top of her chest of drawers and looked at 
 herself complacently. So many days had gone 
 since she had seen herself well gowned, she felt 
 a wondering pleasure at the cool stiffness of her 
 dress. 
 
 " Here they come ! " Margaret slipped behind 
 and gave Mary a little forward push as Giles came 
 with formal greeting even to his sisters. 
 
 " Mistress Mary, our fair sister ! " Giles was 
 newly made Commander of Kent, and spoke as 
 though he were a potentate. He kissed her 
 lightly on the cheek and then started as he saw 
 behind her the lithe figure of his older sister, her 
 face a-quiver with merriment. 
 
 " Giles," she declared, as she gave him her 
 fingers carelessly, " we looked not for thee so soon ; 
 what grave matters have brought thee hither?" 
 
 " Graver than thou thinkest," began Giles, but 
 Mistress Brent herself must bear some questionings. 
 
 Captain Rogers's stern eye had noted her riding- 
 dress and the mask upon the bed ere he greeted 
 her; he knew, also, no boat of hers lay at his
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 95 
 
 wharf. "How earnest thou hither?" he de- 
 manded soon as he welcomed her. 
 
 "An it please your lordship," she began de- 
 murely, " I rode." 
 
 Rogers's dark eyes flashed as he looked mean- 
 ingly at Giles, and Mistress Margaret, angered 
 at the look, added haughtily: 
 
 " Brown Bess is in thy stables, and, now I have 
 seen the babe and he is better, will take me home 
 again." 
 
 "Through the forest?" 
 
 Mistress Margaret hesitated a moment, and a 
 faint red rose in her cheeks beneath the men's 
 questioning gaze. 
 
 " Mayhap there are limits e'en to thy daring," 
 said Captain Rogers ; and his jeering tone stung 
 Mistress Margaret to the quick. 
 
 "An thou thinkest it daring to ride through 
 the forest," she began passionately. 
 
 " Nay, sister, there are reasons," said Giles, 
 gently, " reasons more than ever why thou 
 shouldst not so venture." 
 
 " Reasons ! " 
 
 " Aye, there is much disquiet amongst the In- 
 dians to the north." 
 
 " But not here." 
 
 " 'T is said they make league with the Nanti- 
 cokes and nearer tribes, and there is grave danger
 
 96 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 of an uprising such as they made in the Virginia 
 colony." 
 
 Mistress Brent fingered the folds of her riding- 
 habit nervously, but there was no word of the lurk- 
 ing spy she had come upon. Whether she thought 
 the matter too slight, or whether she feared the 
 interference of the captain of the hundred in her 
 affairs when she wanted him not, she was silent. 
 
 But Giles, while he quarrelled often with his 
 sister over what he termed her lack of maidenli- 
 ness, was yet proud of her beauty and her power, 
 and would hear no word of others against her. 
 He noted her discomfiture. 
 
 " I did purpose to stop at thy manor," he be- 
 gan, " and will take thee hither now ; our brother 
 will send thy mare safe home." 
 
 " Giles," cried his sister, angered at her brother- 
 in-law's cold looks and words, "send one of thy 
 men with her and we will sail homeward in thy 
 pinnace." She followed him in the hall and laid 
 her fingers lightly on his silken sleeve. " See 
 that he be well armed," she whispered as she 
 pressed his arm warningly, " and caution him 
 that no harm come to the horse." 
 
 " Art ready? " she questioned when Giles came 
 back from his errand. 
 
 " Ready ! " cried Captain Rogers, " surely he 
 tarries with us."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 97 
 
 Mistress Margaret was silent. 
 
 " I did purpose also to see my sister." 
 
 "Thou hast seen her here. I must talk with 
 thee further concerning the information thou hast 
 brought." 
 
 " I have already told thee all I know. The 
 governor must be informed." 
 
 "Then ye will hasten to St. Mary's?" 
 
 " Faith," said Giles, assuming his most lacka- 
 daisical air, " I know not ; it grows late, mayhap 
 I shall tarry for the night with her." 
 
 Captain Rogers's face hardened with anger, which 
 Giles was quick to read. 
 
 " Methinks thou wouldst understand that there 
 is need ! " he said, emphasizing his words. "Thou 
 hast thy fortified house." 
 
 The captain's eyes struck sudden fire. At last 
 the danger he had so often prated on had come. 
 
 " And when I have had counsel with the gov- 
 ernor we will speedily send thee instructions ; till 
 then 't is best that thou shouldst tarry here and 
 see to thy charge, else would I urge thy going 
 to St. Mary's also." 
 
 Captain Rogers was satisfied. He went with 
 them to the wharf, his wife by his side, and 
 watched the white sails of the pinnace as they 
 bent to the evening breeze ; he had even a word 
 of praise for his wife in her fine gown, and Mary, 
 7
 
 98 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 who had begun to feel the trouble of her toilet 
 ill spent, was well pleased, and faintly wished there 
 was more time for gay dressing. Yet the babes 
 
 she hurried to them now. The boy had wak- 
 ened exhausted from his fever and fretted for his 
 mother. 
 
 On the pinnace Mistress Margaret was saying 
 petulantly to her brother, " I would not owe him 
 anything, even the sending of Brown Bess home." 
 
 " Thou art unjust." 
 
 " Tut ! thou hast not to live with him for neigh- 
 bor and listen to his constant carpings. He never 
 comes within my house save to find some fault, 
 
 the maize is not well tended; Jock looks not 
 well to the curing of the tobacco, and yet we 
 shipped more last year than he," she added, slyly. 
 
 Giles laughed. " Aye," he cried, as he caught 
 the tip of her small, pink ear, " there 's the rub. 
 Thou art dainty enow for naught but loving, and 
 yet, sometimes, methinks thou art the best man 
 of us all," he added, with unwonted gravity. 
 
 " Now, Giles, thou art turning me to ridicule. 
 Thou knowest Jock is the best farmer in the 
 province. Faith ! he hath a seventh sense as to 
 winds and weathers, and Sarah is the best house- 
 keeper." 
 
 " 'T is the acme of wisdom to know how to 
 choose good servants," said Giles, sententiously.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 99 
 
 " And then to trust them. Though I believe, 
 after all, most of the affairs are under my over- 
 sight." 
 
 " I '11 warrant me ! " 
 
 " But of thy own affairs, Giles. I have not seen 
 thee since thou wast made Commander of Kent." 
 
 " South Fort Manor is as well laid off as thine 
 own." 
 
 "Twas Claiborne's home," said Mistress Mar- 
 garet, quickly. 
 
 "When he was on the island." 
 
 " And had not our cousin Evelin so stripped 
 it " Mistress Margaret looked quickly around 
 to see if any heard her; they might criticise the 
 failings of the government, but not when other 
 ears might listen, and these Kentish troubles were 
 the sorest of the colony. Evelin in his brief com- 
 mandery of the island had shamefully looted the 
 home of Claiborne for the benefiting of his own 
 new manor of Evelinton upon the Potomac. 
 Thither had he brought the furnishings of the 
 dwelling at South Fort, and had even removed 
 the new-set orchard to his own fields. But spite 
 of this material advantage he reaped little reward. 
 Evelin was hated beyond all men in Kent, and 
 little thought of in St. Mary's. 
 
 South Fort Manor, when Kent had been well 
 subjugated and brought under the sway of St.
 
 ioo MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Mary's, had been bestowed on Leonard Calvert 
 by the proprietor; but he, thinking little on the 
 widening of his possessions, had given it in turn 
 to Giles Brent, making him likewise commander 
 of the isle. 
 
 " 'T was sparsely furnished, I can tell thee," de- 
 clared Giles, talking of his new home ; " yet the 
 site is fair and the soil fertile ; the isle is the very 
 gem of the bay. My Lord Baltimore hath been 
 most wise to insist on its submission." 
 
 "T would ever have been a thorn in his side, 
 and yet methinks Claiborne had good cause for 
 his claim." 
 
 Giles shrugged his shapely shoulders; Clai- 
 borne's cause worried him not. 
 
 " Zounds ! 't is well for me 't is so ! " 
 
 "Thou hast no cause for plaint," said Mistress 
 Margaret; "thou hast reaped the fruits of his 
 labor." 
 
 Giles looked down and smoothed the ruffles on 
 his wrist. 
 
 " But rightfully," he declared. 
 
 " Rightfully enow." 
 
 They were seated far up in the bow of the pin- 
 nace to catch the cool breezes which blew fitfully 
 down the river. 
 
 On either side the haze of eventide dimmed the 
 shore, the river's breast was ruffled with the in-
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 101 
 
 coming tide and the evening wind, the flap of the 
 sail and the swishing of cleft water against the 
 pinnace's prow made a soft murmur that filled 
 the pauses of their talk. 
 
 On the blue water were wide, smooth swathes 
 like tortuous pathways on the waves. Mistress 
 Brent traced the silvery course of them, idly 
 turning to follow the shining ways. Her own 
 wharf was in sight. 
 
 " Giles," she exclaimed, " there is a strange 
 vessel at my wharf; 't is 't is the governor's 
 pinnace."
 
 VII 
 
 IT was the governor's pinnace. As they neared 
 the wharf they could see him coming from 
 the house to meet them, walking leisurely 
 in the shade of the great oaks, and then his tall 
 figure looming against the bluff as he came down 
 the stairway built in the clay and leading down 
 to the beach. 
 
 " He hath come himself," said Margaret, with a 
 sigh of satisfaction, not noting that her brother's 
 gaze dwelt upon her flushed face keenly. 
 
 " Cometh he often? " Giles queried, carelessly. 
 
 " Nay, the governor hath ever weighty affairs, 
 and takes them somewhat seriously, as thou 
 knowest. Yet he must ever have the manors 
 under his eye." She spoke disjointedly, as the 
 men brought the boat about and they neared the 
 wharf. " Yet J t is a pleasure ever to have him 
 with us; he is at ease." 
 
 " Relaxes from his cares," said Giles, with a 
 touch of sarcasm in his voice. 
 
 " As if e'en thine own were not overpowering 
 thee," declared his sister, hotly. "Faith, when I 
 saw thee greeting Mary "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 103 
 
 Giles laughed, though the shaft went home. 
 He leaped up on the wharf. "A happy meet- 
 ing ! " he exclaimed as he bent low before the 
 governor. " I am but now bound to St. Mary's." 
 
 " And Mistress Brent's is fair tarrying ground." 
 The governor turned to hand his hostess from the 
 vessel, and eyed, surprised, the long folds of her 
 habit. 
 
 " I had but ridden to my sister's," began Mis- 
 tress Margaret airily, " when my brother came 
 hither, and as he was bound to our manor " 
 
 The governor's countenance changed somewhat, 
 though he made no comment on her speech, but 
 turned to Brent. " I have but despatched a mes- 
 senger to thee." 
 
 " In sooth ! and I sought thee with news." 
 
 " Thou art haply met ; " he bowed gravely as 
 he offered his hand to Mistress Brent and led her 
 up the stairway in the bluff. 
 
 " Truth, we are glad to see you, Cousin Cal- 
 vert; these summer days grow tedious with no 
 talk save that of Jock about his crops and Sarah's 
 of her housewifery. One grows aweary." 
 
 " There is not a line of weariness in thy face 
 and not a note of weariness in thy voice." 
 
 "An thou readest faces and voices " 
 
 " T is the truest of all languages, words " 
 
 " Are but to conceal one's thoughts," said Giles,
 
 io 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 as he walked up the gravelled pathway behind 
 them. 
 
 "Is that thy way?" flashed his sister; "now 
 I'll know " 
 
 " Judge me not, prithee." 
 
 " Come," laughed Mistress Brent, " I '11 leave 
 our cousin Calvert to your word cutting while 
 I don a thinner gown. The coolest spot upon 
 the manor is within this hall." She opened a 
 door at the side of the hall and was gone. 
 
 Sarah, robust and red, and round-eyed at the 
 thought of guests, waited her in her chamber. 
 
 " My cousin Calvert and my brother are come 
 hither," said Mistress Margaret, carelessly; "look 
 to thy supper." 
 
 " There are cold capons and pasties of venison," 
 began Sarah, eagerly. 
 
 " Nay," cried Mistress Brent, " I am not the 
 housekeeper, I leave that to thee. Send Lucy 
 hither, I am grimed with the dust of the fields 
 and splashed with salt." 
 
 Mistress Brent went about her toilet, a song 
 upon her lips. Each piece of dust and heat 
 stained clothing must be laid aside ; linen soft 
 and lavender-scented must be put on, silken hose 
 and buckled slippers donned ; neck and shoulders 
 must be bathed in scented waters, and the dark 
 hair coiled high and set with golden daggers.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 105 
 
 " Bring the coolest gown within my wardrobe," 
 she commanded Lucy, who brought a thin filmy 
 tissue which was neither gray nor green nor 
 white, but shimmered of all alike; and Mistress 
 Brent looked at herself eagerly as she donned 
 it, and if her eyes brightened with pleasure at 
 the vision she saw there it was but a tithe of the 
 sparkle she saw in the governor's eyes when she 
 went out in the hall. 
 
 How it rested him to be here, in this cool, dark- 
 raftered and dark-hung hall, with the shifting 
 shadows of great trees outside and the hazy 
 shine of the misty river beyond ! Had he told 
 it to himself, did he know that in all new cares 
 the first advice he sought was that of my lady 
 of St. Anne's manor? did he know he valued 
 her word beyond that of his council? or did he 
 think it was the comfort and the rest of a life 
 so far different from that of many of the colonists, 
 that it was but the enjoyment of a fair hostess and 
 the luxury which she managed to keep about 
 her spite of the raw, new land in which she lived ? 
 It was the last of these he thought on in their 
 light talk and through their sumptuous meal; 
 but afterward, when the dusk lay thick beneath 
 the oaks, and the nearness of the river would 
 scarce be known save for the languid wash of 
 the tide along the shore, he fell into talk of the
 
 io6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 colony's affairs, as in truth he had come to do. 
 There was a step to which he must persuade, aye, 
 even command, this wilful cousin of his. 
 
 "Hast heard the tidings Giles brought us?" 
 he at last asked abruptly, breaking a silence 
 which had fallen upon them. 
 
 "Was it of the Indian?" questioned Mistress 
 Brent, quickly. 
 
 " Of the Indian, and of the gravest import." 
 
 " There are rumors," broke in Giles quickly, 
 "there are rumors in Kent of a vast conspiracy 
 amongst the tribes from the Susquehannocks to 
 the Matopeakes and Nanticokes." 
 
 " But the Nanticokes are ever peaceable." 
 
 " Not with some devil to stir them up." 
 
 Mistress Brent turned to Calvert. "Is this 
 thy first tidings?" she asked. 
 
 "There hath been trouble brewing for many 
 days, yet I trusted. I have had the traders note 
 them carefully; there is mischief afoot, yet I 
 trusted alway to dwell in friendship with them." 
 
 "Are they not friendly? What reasons hast 
 thou, Giles, for not thinking this tale one of many 
 idle rumors?" 
 
 " Idle rumors ! " cried Giles indignant. " Mar- 
 garet, thou passest the bounds of sense ! Would 
 such bring me hither in hot haste? Tales! have 
 I become "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 107 
 
 " Peace, I pray thee ! " 
 
 " We in Kent are the most exposed of all the 
 colonists," went on Giles, as though he presented 
 the matter to an Assembly; "should danger fall 
 upon the province 'twill strike us first." 
 
 " Methinks not," said his sister, quickly. 
 
 "Twill strike us first there." Giles drew 
 his slender figure straight in his chair. " The 
 Susquehannocks are not far to the north of us, 
 and the peninsula 'twixt the bay and ocean 
 swarms with savages. The Susquehannocks war 
 with tribes to the north of them. They have 
 been worsted. They fear extermination, as hath 
 befallen many a tribe, and they have striven in 
 great secrecy to make a league against the white 
 man ; 'twixt their enemies to the north and the 
 English settlements they are held too closely. 
 They have been well nigh successful. Even the 
 Matopeakes, who have dwelt so peaceably in the 
 settlement in the isle of Kent, grow strange and 
 sullen. They meditate some great and awful 
 danger to the colony." 
 
 "Then," said Calvert, as though he had been 
 for some time deciding on the wisest step, but 
 now saw his way, " then we will not give them 
 chance. I had hoped never to take offensive 
 move against them, but to dwell in Christian 
 amity; but I will not sit still and see my people
 
 io8 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 butchered. There must be no Virginian tale with 
 us. An there be war, 't is we who strike the 
 first blow. I '11 blast this confederacy ere it has 
 time " He had spoken far more rapidly than 
 his wont, and he broke off abruptly, " What 
 thinkest thou, Mistress Brent? " 
 
 Mistress Brent sat, her hands tight clenched, a 
 shadow on her face. 
 
 " What would ye do? " she asked. 
 
 " Send a force against them." 
 
 " Against whom ? " 
 
 " The Susquehannocks ; their force once broken, 
 we are secure." 
 
 " Aye," said Mistress Margaret, speaking low ; 
 " they tell strange tales of their prowess." 
 
 " Their cruelty," corrected Giles. 
 
 "Who will command the expedition?" 
 
 " Cornwallis is most valiant and well skilled." 
 
 " But not a man of Kent will serve under 
 him." 
 
 " We need them not." 
 
 And then they fell into talk of the colony's 
 affairs. Of the meeting of the Assembly in the 
 spring, and the power at last granted the colonists 
 to frame their own laws, the Proprietor retaining 
 the power of veto; of my Lord of Baltimore's 
 letters, which had grown strangely short and 
 troubled ; of the news of England and the terrible
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 109 
 
 rebellion which had broken out there, and which, 
 they felt assured, would soon be ended. 
 
 Times were troublous, more so than in all 
 the colony's history. Their talk was long and 
 serious. The night settled upon them; winds 
 rose and sighed in the tree-tops ; the tide turned 
 and came, rushing loud and sibilant, shore- 
 wards ; fireflies flashed over lawn and field and 
 marsh ; and the whip-poor-wills called their shrill 
 plaint. 
 
 Giles lingered in the doorway and then went 
 slowly down the gravelled path to the stairway 
 in the bluff. There was something witching in 
 the August night. And as he loitered, Calvert 
 had time for the words of caution he had come 
 to speak to Mistress Brent. 
 
 " Cousin Margaret," he began, with such a 
 tinge of affection in his tone that Mistress Mar- 
 garet started. There had been no word of aught 
 save friendship from him since that fateful day 
 four years ago. " Cousin Margaret, all that 
 Giles hath told us I knew already. Mine eyes 
 have been upon this trouble many days. 'T was 
 that which brought me to thee. 'Tis no longer 
 safe to dwell at St. Anne's" 
 
 Mistress Brent fair gasped her astonishment. 
 
 " I have not warned thee a day too soon," he 
 went on impressively, " nor a day too late." He
 
 no MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 spoke as though he prided himself upon his 
 oversight, as in truth he did. " I knew thy 
 spirit ; I knew the state of thy farm lands: thou 
 wouldst not leave them as they stand ready for 
 the harvest were not danger at thy very door. 
 Yet now it is in very truth. 
 
 " Thou must go, thou and thy household, to 
 thy brother Rogers's on the morrow." 
 
 " Beshrew me " 
 
 "Wait till thou hast heard the end. This day 
 ere I set sail from St. Mary's I did send mes- 
 sengers through all the hundreds, that they should 
 betake them to their houses of refuge. So I have 
 already told thy brother ; but I warned him to 
 leave me the telling thee. To-morrow I see Cap- 
 tain Rogers, he must have his full complement of 
 soldiers from each household." 
 
 " Cousin Calvert ! " began Mistress Margaret 
 slowly, though her face had paled somewhat from 
 this recital of a decisive danger she had thought 
 as remote as the stars above them, " we are safe 
 here, believe me." 
 
 " Safe ! " 
 
 " I have ten serving-men, stout and true ; how 
 many households, bethink you, have more?" 
 
 "But" 
 
 " Nay, I have listened to thee, listen now to me. 
 Should this danger come upon us, who would
 
 MISTRESS BRENT in 
 
 suffer, those in the town or those safe housed in 
 refuge-houses? nay, the outlying plantations " 
 
 " Thou hast voiced the very danger I am come 
 to warn ye of." 
 
 " The destruction of houses, of cattle, of crops, 
 I could ill stand it." 
 
 " Nor could any, yet 't is one of the chances all 
 of us must face," said the governor, grimly. 
 
 " Yet would I take my chances guarding mine 
 own, not fleeing like " 
 
 " Mistress Brent, thou speakest with more of 
 woman's folly than I had ever thought " 
 
 " Is it woman's folly to guard the stakes on which 
 are thrown one's very life, or man's wisdom?" 
 
 " My cousin," said the governor, gravely and 
 coldly, "thou hadst ever the gift of speech; I 
 bandy not words with thee." 
 
 " Nor do I ! " cried his cousin, hotly. " I ask 
 thee a question fairly, where is there a man in 
 thy province who, having staked so deeply, 
 nay, staked his all, for so I have done ; Giles hath 
 been more careful, and Mary, Captain Rogers 
 holds her wealth fast^ but I have ventured all, all. 
 Where is there one who, venturing thus, would 
 turn coward at the first breath of danger?" 
 
 Calvert rose to his great height and walked un- 
 easily down the dusky hall. 
 
 " Cousin," he said, as he came again within the
 
 ii2 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 circle of candle-light, " 't is not a question of house 
 and lands, but of life." 
 
 " Life ! what care I? What is life coupled with 
 a woman's dependence?" 
 
 " A woman's dependence," repeated the gov- 
 ernor, as though the words cut him to the heart. 
 
 " In Captain Rogers's household, think o' the 
 life I'd lead." She laughed scornfully. 
 
 " Is that the only household open to thee? " 
 
 " Or Giles's," she faltered, her gaze fastened on 
 her tight-clenched hands, where the fingers were 
 folded fast upon her thumbs, as is the manner of 
 people much wrought upon. 
 
 The governor came closer. There sat the 
 woman he loved far deeper than he had known 
 when he told her of it, in a tremor of womanly 
 fear, and his heart ached to comfort her, to fold 
 his arms about her and whisper there was an 
 empty household, forever empty an her own dear 
 form dwelt not there ; why should she not be the 
 head of the governor's household, the first woman 
 of the colony? He wondered why, sometimes, 
 ambitious as she was, she had not weighed this 
 side of it, and then loathed himself for thinking 
 on it. He would drive no woman, even though, 
 as now, she was silent before him, the fairest crea- 
 ture God had made, and winsome past all speaking 
 on it. Yet he held his peace, though truly the
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 113 
 
 look on his face spoke for him as, moved by the 
 magnetism of his gaze, she lifted her eyes till she 
 looked full upon him, for the space of a breath. 
 
 She sprang to her feet, and Calvert noted even 
 in that moment how the candle-light fell upon her 
 fair neck and soft, round arms and supple wrists. 
 
 " Cousin," she cried, as she picked up the can- 
 dlestick, " come with me ! " 
 
 She led the way into the living-room, and to a 
 secretary that loomed tall and black in the dusk. 
 " Here I keep some rude account of my affairs. 
 An thou carest to see it, every pound I have is at 
 venture." 
 
 "What have I to do with thine accounts?" 
 began the governor almost rudely, angered at 
 such speech. 
 
 "I did but think " 
 
 " Could I not trust thy word ? " 
 
 Mistress Brent bit her red lip. "Then come 
 with me ; thou knowest the structure of our dwell- 
 ing;" she walked nervously to the window, 
 " thick logs, clapboarded without and tapestry 
 hung within, the windows heavy battened with 
 great oaken bars for fastenings. *T is not so 
 flimsy as it looks ! " 
 
 Calvert followed her, as eagerly she besought 
 his attention for wall and window and doorway. 
 
 " 'T is strong as Captain Rogers's, and as for 
 8
 
 1 1 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 supplies of powder and ammunition, faith ! he 
 would not allow me to be an ounce too short or 
 a gun missing at the cost of his manor. Yet," 
 her voice took on a tinge of irony, " I do double 
 all his requirements, though I would not have him 
 know it, not for not for Truth, I am telling 
 thee many confidences," she went on brightly, 
 gathering bravery from his silence. 
 
 " But ye could not defend yourselves here." 
 " In faith, why not ? Because I am a woman ! 
 Can I not call my men within, can I not gather 
 my household in my house and stand or fall?" 
 
 " And if I fall, there 's an end of it." 
 
 " 'T is time," exclaimed the governor impa- 
 tiently, " ye made an end of such madness ; were 
 there a man within the colony who so resisted 
 my authority " 
 
 " Authority ! I tell ye to your face, an ye 
 command me to leave and I lose, aye, e'en 
 one shock of corn, I '11 hold the government 
 of Maryland responsible." 
 
 " Od's life ! think ye the head of each house- 
 hold will do so when the proclamation hath gone 
 forth? Then were the government bankrupt in- 
 deed. Nay, Margaret, where is thy woman's wit? 
 Think on thy foolishness and how thou hast put 
 me to it, e'en to hard words with thee."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 115 
 
 Mistress Margaret stood as though, at last, 
 thwarted and overcome. 
 
 " Cousin, an the savages were upon us and we 
 made a brave stand, they might be driven off or 
 held at bay till we could get help, but did we flee, 
 and did they come upon the plantation, the demon 
 of destruction which doth possess them would 
 leave naught to tempt me again to my manor. 
 In which case I sail to England, and take refuge 
 in my Lord of Baltimore's household." 
 
 She raised a warning hand as Calvert began to 
 speak. " 'T is what he did urge ere I sailed, and 
 what he asked in my wealth he is too noble to 
 refuse should I be come to poverty." 
 
 Calvert for the nonce was speechless with per- 
 plexity, and Mistress Brent was silent, leaning 
 against the deep window-frame, though her 
 troubled eyes saw naught of the peaceful night 
 without. 
 
 Presently she took up the thread of talk. 
 " When we were a-building," she went on as one 
 who tells a tale and tells it from the beginning, 
 " when we were a-building, we hit upon a strange 
 discovery. Where the river curves close to the 
 house and the bluff is high and bold," she 
 broke off abruptly as though her speech were 
 not yet direct, " there is a cave there, large 
 enow to hold twoscore men, mayhap more. Jock
 
 n6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 found it, how, I know not. Sassafras and su- 
 mac and brier clothe the sloping side and hide its 
 entrance. *T was a scant fifty yards to the house. 
 Jock, who hath had good knowledge in the wars 
 with my father, well knew how to dig a passage 
 from it to my cellars. We have there a sure 
 refuge. Yet have I kept it most secret. Were 
 it blazoned abroad, 't would be no longer a refuge. 
 A boat is ever near should we be forced to 
 flee" 
 
 " Show me this secret passage and cave," com- 
 manded Calvert, shortly. 
 
 Mistress Brent picked up the candlestick and 
 moved silently down the wide hall, past the stair- 
 way, to a door behind it. She opened it and went 
 down a narrow stair. The air of the cellar was 
 close and damp, coming, as they did, from the 
 fresh night air. She placed her hand lightly on 
 his arm and guided him across the low room. 
 " Pull these casks aside," she commanded, " they 
 are empty so! Thou wilt have to stoop low." 
 
 Mistress Brent gathered her silken skirts about 
 her. 
 
 " Stay," said the governor, " I will get a light ; 
 there is no need for thee to 'company me." 
 
 "Yet will I go," she declared stoutly, as she 
 bent her head and entered the narrow passage. 
 "Bend low for the first few yards," she cautioned;
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 117 
 
 "ye will find a good six feet beyond, though I 
 doubt me if that be enough for thy height." 
 
 She shivered at the darkness and dreariness ; 
 cobwebs brushed against her head, beetles and 
 frogs and things of the earth and of the dark went 
 scurrying out of their way, the high golden dagger 
 set in her hair caught in the clay overhead and 
 sent it showering on her bare shoulders, but she 
 set her lips tightly and went on. 
 
 " Zounds ! " cried Calvert, " 't is enough to try 
 the strongest. A gruesome refuge, yet safe if no 
 one know the secret," he added when they stood 
 in the cave, " and the lawn shows not a hint of it. 
 A man at either entrance might hold this 'gainst 
 a hundred. Why hast thou not told me sooner ? " 
 he reproached. 
 
 " A woman tells not everything," cried Mistress 
 Brent. 
 
 " Hadst no mercy on me and the anxious 
 moments I spent thinking on thee," he caught his 
 breath sharply. " I pray God few women know 
 so well how to rend a man's heart." 
 
 " Cousin," pleaded Margaret, a sound of tears in 
 her voice. 
 
 " Aye, there hath been many a wild night I dared 
 not sleep for thinking on thee, what perils might 
 not lodge about thee ; had I dared, I 'd have 
 wrested thee from them by every power in brute
 
 n8 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 force. It hath cost a hundred times the struggle 
 to bide still and let thee have thy way ! " 
 
 Mistress Margaret, shaken to the core, had no 
 word for this passionate protest but, what she 
 would have scorned hitherto, to lay her hand 
 upon his arm, and then to bend her soft cheek 
 against it. 
 
 The governor caught his breath sharply, and 
 his hand shook so that the candle he had taken 
 from her flickered violently, and then, caught in 
 a fitful draught which sucked through the cave 
 from the foliage-hidden entrance, went suddenly 
 out. 
 
 He caught his cousin by the wrist while he 
 searched for some gleam of outside light. " Aye, 
 here ; " he led her a few steps, then stooped and 
 parted the thick branches as they made their 
 way out, and pushed them carefully back again. 
 
 They stood on the beach, the stars were thick 
 overhead and the murmur of the incoming tide 
 rose like a song, strong, insistent. 
 
 Calvert spoke quickly. He had been danger- 
 ously near words it was no fitting time to say, if 
 that time should ever be. " Cousin, thou hast 
 my consent. I will tell Captain Rogers of it. 
 Bide ye here. Should there be danger, invasion, 
 ye can well defend yourselves till succor could 
 be given. But see thou hast ammunition in thy
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 119 
 
 secret place of refuge, and that there are ever 
 boats near for flight, should ye have to take to 
 the river." 
 
 " I thank thee," said Mistress Brent; and though 
 the way upon the beach was smooth and firm, 
 she laid her hand upon his arm. " And thou 
 dost not think me fitful, capricious? In truth, 
 all I have of interest in life is upon this manor, 
 else " She broke off with a sigh. "May- 
 hap 'tis that makes chief difference 'twixt us, 
 men and women. A man has many interests, 
 a woman oft but one. Men would have it that 
 one interest is always of the heart. History 
 showeth many not so ; " she, too, spoke as if to 
 tide over anxious thoughts, and Calvert seconded 
 her. 
 
 " Mayhap 't is true," he said, lightly. 
 
 " There are many such " 
 
 They had come to the foot of the clay-em- 
 bedded stair, and Giles, his elbow on his knee, 
 rested still upon it, looking dreamily on the star- 
 lit river, dreaming visions far tenderer than one 
 looking on him might have thought. 
 
 He started violently at the figures on the beach. 
 "'Fore God," he cried, "I thought ye ghosts; 
 whence came ye?" 
 
 " An thou dost fancy thy humor only is for 
 starlit rambles?" began the governor.
 
 120 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Nay, I lay no solitary claim upon such 
 madness." 
 
 Mistress Brent seated herself upon the steps. 
 "Tis a night for lingering outside," she declared; 
 " 't is yet hot within the house." She took the 
 candlestick from her cousin's hand and put it 
 upon the step behind her. " Thou wilt join us," 
 she said, looking up at him and pulling her skirts 
 close that he might seat himself anear. 
 
 Giles wondered at the governor's gay humor 
 that night. His wonder grew to amazement when 
 on the morrow he heard he had consented to his 
 sister's hardihood of biding still on her estates, 
 and then fell to idle thinking as, on taking his 
 way down to his pinnace, his eye lighted on a 
 candlestick thrust in a corner of the stair.
 
 VIII 
 
 THERE had been one further question 
 from the governor concerning his cous- 
 in's affairs. "Were there none from 
 St. Mary's she would have bide with her till the 
 trouble blew over? " 
 
 And Mistress Brent, looking demurely at the 
 gray planks of the wharf whence she had come 
 to watch their sailing, had answered, " Yea, Mistress 
 Hawley." 
 
 " Mistress Hawley ! " exclaimed Giles angrily, 
 for his humor had been peevish since he had 
 heard this foolhardy decision ; " an thou art not 
 satisfied with thine own danger but must bring 
 her," he choked, as if too impatient for speech. 
 
 " Truly, Giles," began his sister, with brows 
 uplifted, " thy interest for Mistress Hawley waxes 
 warm; 'twas but " she stopped astounded, a 
 sudden tide of red was flushing Giles's tanned face. 
 " Ha ! " she continued, remorselessly, " sets the 
 tide that way? faith, she is older " Margaret 
 in her astonishment was speaking rude truths.
 
 122 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "But a year." 
 
 "Sooth, that is true, and yet she is so calm, 
 so self-contained." 
 
 Giles turned away impatiently. 
 
 "I but thought how comforting 'twould be to 
 see her," cried Margaret, as she turned protest- 
 ingly to the governor, who listened with quizzical 
 look upon his fair face. " She always visits the 
 manor this time o' the year. Whatever we have 
 of fruit is hers. She prepares much of her winter 
 stores. We owe her enough, in conscience' sake, 
 and she would never allow a reckoning." 
 
 " Thou hast fair made it up, I ween." 
 
 " And I must make my peace now with Giles." 
 She went to the pinnace side and stood talking to 
 her brother while the men pulled on the creaking 
 sails and gave them to the wind, and then she 
 watched the white sails bend away to St. Mary's. 
 
 A feeling of loneliness fell upon her as she 
 turned toward the house. Out on the river the 
 silvery mists still hung, making of the opposite 
 shore a shimmering fairy-land ; the dew lay thick 
 upon the long grass beneath the oaks, and the 
 morning wind blew freshly through the hall. 
 Face to face with the necessity for firm action 
 and quick decision, she was yet beset with a 
 nervous, petulant mood. She had had her way, 
 and now she knew scarce how to take it.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 123 
 
 The men were already abroad, she must stir 
 them to action. 
 
 She hurried to the field. " Jock," she com- 
 manded when she had called the overseer to her, 
 " work the men hard as thou darest, bind the 
 bundles of fodder and throw them in the furrows, 
 and let them be collected within the barn ere 
 sunset. I know but there is danger abroad " 
 she went on nervously to tell the tidings she felt 
 he should know. 
 
 But Jock on hearing them set himself sturdily 
 against most of her plans. She would have the 
 maize housed even if not yet cured, she would 
 have the tobacco cut, the cattle driven in from the 
 meadows and the hogs from the marshes far up the 
 creek, and then, with all her produce thus gathered 
 together, she would make stand against danger. 
 
 Jock was far too good a soldier to counsel such 
 doings. " Send warnings to the men who tended 
 the swine and cattle ; let them take refuge at the 
 manor-house," he begged her ; " leave the tobacco 
 uncut and the maize unhoused, better the loss 
 from trampling should the savages indeed come 
 upon them, and God wot I hope 't will be a 
 wild alarm, there are ever many such in times 
 of danger, than to have them burned within 
 their sheltering." 
 
 And Mistress Brent heeded, though the fever
 
 i2 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 of work coming upon her, she toiled the livelong 
 summer day. 
 
 As the day went on, the heat waxed so great, 
 so lowering, that action became more and more 
 difficult. The leaves of the oaks outside hung 
 limp and lifeless in the scorching air, the horizon 
 thickened from the clear blue of many days, 
 a sickly grayish hue grew upon the sky, yet 
 there were no mutterings of the storm till sun- 
 set. Then such a howling fury of wind and 
 rain and hail broke over them as those of St. 
 Anne's Manor never had seen, gusts of wind 
 which were icy cold; merciless hail which beat 
 down all before it; rain which slashed like hail 
 and ran like rivers down the sharp slopes of the 
 roof, over lawn and gravelled pathway; crashing 
 thunder which shook the house about them, and 
 lightning which fairly scorched the face of nature 
 with its blaze. The heart of the storm passed 
 over them and went howling down the bay, yet 
 its mutterings could be heard, and wind and rain 
 still beat about them. 
 
 It turned wintry cold. 
 
 " In the name of Our Lady," pleaded Mistress 
 Brent, when, its first fury past, she moved from 
 the dark hall where she had taken refuge with her 
 women about her, " I am fair perishing with cold ; 
 canst light me a fire, Sarah?"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 125 
 
 But Sarah was scared past moving, and but 
 stared, round-eyed, at her mistress. 
 
 " An thou sittest like any graven image," began 
 Mistress Brent, angrily, her nerves were sorely 
 tried by the tempest, " rouse thee ! " she shook 
 Sarah's plump shoulders ; " the storm is gone." 
 
 As though in mockery of her speech, through 
 every crevice of window and door licked the pale, 
 fierce lightning, and the thunder crashed and rolled 
 overhead and boomed more sullen, far away. 
 
 " It hath passed already far down the bay ; 
 come ! I am perishing with cold ; then, sit here ! " 
 She seized the candle from the table. " Lucy, 
 look within the chamber, is there aught for light- 
 ing a fire? " 
 
 " Naught," mumbled Lucy, shuddering by her 
 side ; " yesterday I did clean the hearth anew and 
 fill it with fresh pine boughs." 
 
 " Find me my cloak, the scarlet sarcenet." 
 She held the candle while Lucy sank on her 
 trembling knees beside the oaken chest. " Toss 
 not the clothing about in such fashion. There ! " 
 as the maid pulled out the crimson folds of the 
 wrap and fastened it with shaking fingers about 
 Mistress Margaret's bare neck. 
 
 " Why, thou art as cold." She caught the rough 
 hand for a moment in her grasp. " Get thee to 
 bed, girl, thou art as frightened as though the
 
 126 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Indian were upon thee ; but stay ! " She went to 
 the battened window and through the peep-hole at 
 its side strove to get some view outside, but inky 
 blackness wrapped them about. 
 
 " I must wait for a flash from the storm. Aye, 
 there it is, and all is peaceful though storm- 
 swept." 
 
 She unfastened the window and flung it wide. 
 " Jock, Jock ! " The door of the cabin in which the 
 men slept was opened ; " knowest thou if the storm 
 hath struck anywhere about ? " 
 
 " None of the housings ; there is no danger I 
 can tell of till the morning." 
 
 " Then get thee to bed ; " she slammed the 
 shutter and slipped the heavy bar behind it in 
 its sockets. " And Lucy, thou, too," she added 
 kindly; "rouse Sarah and take her with thee. I 
 will tend myself. Though were Sarah not so fear 
 distraught faith! 'tis lonely as the dead," she 
 told herself as footsteps and voices died away 
 in the attic, " and as awesome." She caught 
 her breath sharply as the lightning glare flick- 
 ered pale and white through every crevice in the 
 heavy door. 
 
 "And what to do would I had kept these 
 silly women for company, and yet they were so 
 sick with fear it did weaken me to look on them." 
 
 She wandered, candle in hand, through cham-
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 127 
 
 her and hall and living-room, all the extent of 
 her dwelling; felt with cold, nervous fingers the 
 fastenings of every door and shutter, and came 
 again to the hall, where she had sought refuge 
 when the storm broke upon them. 
 
 The massive table was covered with a rich 
 carpet. She noted every coloring of its pattern 
 as though she had never seen it before, and 
 followed with trembling finger-tips the Eastern 
 tracery of its palms. Her own great chair was 
 drawn beside the table, and she sank into it, 
 drawing her cloak closely about her thin-clad 
 figure and bared neck and arms. 
 
 For the first time since she had been lady of 
 St. Anne's Manor the heart within her trembled 
 with fear. The wind which swept along the floor, 
 and struck her slippered feet to icy cold, set the 
 tapestry upon the walls waving as if with unseen 
 hands ; the antler points above the doorway of 
 the living-room caught the flickering candle-light 
 and shone as sinister as though they clothed the 
 front of some awful foe; and the darkness in the 
 rafters overhead seemed throbbing in unison with 
 the palpitations of her heart. 
 
 A surge of fear and loneliness and longing 
 swept over her. Useless to fight against it. 
 None could see her weakness. She buried her 
 face in the rich carpet on the table and wept
 
 128 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 like the child she longed, for one wild moment, 
 to be, while rain and wind beat and shook the 
 house and crashed in the great branches of the 
 oaks outside, and thunder muttered low, and 
 the pale lightning quivered over land and river. 
 
 So fierce a storm as had lately raged about 
 them shook Mistress Margaret's heart. With 
 fear fresh upon her she thought on all the 
 lonely hours she had spent since, spite of her 
 cousin's pleadings, she had taken her way and 
 cleared the lands of St. Anne's Manor. 
 
 She thought of the first days of her venture, 
 when there was naught but eager planning for 
 the day and heavy rest for the night; and then, 
 the first flush of novelty gone, of weary moments 
 she had begun already to fight ; of winter storms 
 that beat upon them and heavy days that shut 
 her 'in, and of times that took her fiercely when 
 heart strove against her will. It was not worth 
 all this, her whim! Was anything worth effort? 
 Would she not tire of all her hands could grasp? 
 
 Sick at heart, she strove with herself, while the 
 storm died away and the candle flickered low in 
 its socket. She turned her head wearily on her 
 arm. The candle was at its last gasp. She rose, 
 gathered candles from chamber and living-room 
 and lighted them all upon the table. 
 
 " I '11 have no more hobgoblins in the dark,"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 129 
 
 she told herself. And then gathering her cloak 
 about her she began to walk to and fro, to and 
 fro, in the gusty hall where the tapestry still 
 waved along the wall. 
 
 But now no childish fear possessed her. That 
 weakness had shown her something far more 
 awesome lurking in her heart, something which, 
 did she not face it and fight it and conquer it, 
 would eat like a canker into her life ; something 
 she had faced and fought and flung far from her 
 in the days of her life in England. " She would 
 have none of it in her new life," she vowed. The 
 fear, the loathing of it, had driven her into her 
 work, had possessed her to fill all her days and 
 leave no moment for idle dreaming. The angry 
 winds died into fitful blowing, stars shone out 
 overhead, the storm-lashed river ran in great 
 white-capped waves and broke booming along 
 the shore. Mistress Brent went to the foot of 
 the attic stair. 
 
 "Sarah," she called; "Sarah, I need thee! 
 I am restless and yet weary," she declared 
 as Sarah's heavy foot stumbled down the stair ; 
 " bathe my head in sweet waters, and should I 
 fall asleep, leave me not ! Thou canst slumber 
 on my bed likewise; 'twill not be the first 
 time." 
 
 And Sarah, with the memory which never left 
 9
 
 ijo MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 her of Mistress Margaret's childhood days when 
 she herself, a lass, had tended her and oft had 
 slept with her within her arms, bathed her brow 
 tenderly, when the glittering lights were blown 
 out in the- hall, and thought her own thoughts 
 about the wet cheeks and lashes beneath her 
 big, soft hand. 
 
 The morrow was clear, with sparkling sunshine 
 and air whose every breath set one's veins a-ting- 
 ling; yet it found Mistress Brent languid enow. 
 Storms had swept over her, and she was bent as 
 the tender things outside. Sarah hovered about 
 her all the morning; she saw, did no one else, 
 the shaking ringers, the dark circles under her 
 mistress's eyes, the listless air. 
 
 There was little the men could do. The world 
 was far too wet for work. Water stood in the 
 shallow corn furrows and the fodder hung whipped 
 to ribbons upon the bent stalks. 
 
 Jock must see to guns and ammunition and de- 
 fence. It took him all the morn, and she herself 
 was busied with him; and as the day grew on, 
 and the tender green things unbent themselves 
 and lifted their faces upright to the sun, glad of 
 the moisture at their roots, the strong impulses 
 of her active life came back to her. 
 
 " Sarah," she called blithely as she passed her 
 in the hall, " see thou hast a good supper. I am
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 131 
 
 famishing as though I had been fasting ; truth, 
 I Ve wanted neither breakfast nor dinner to-day." 
 
 Sarah went off well pleased. She need not 
 watch her mistress now. Her housekeeping was 
 the delight of her heart. To have such plenty, 
 such bounty of fish and fowl and game; it was 
 Sarah's only cause of discontent that there were 
 so few to share it ; but to-night there were to be 
 unlooked-for guests about the board. 
 
 As Mistress Brent paused in her doorway she 
 caught a glimpse of a white sail on the river. 
 There was scarce ever a sail upon it she could 
 not read. She took her way to the edge of the 
 bluff; there were others in sight two, three, 
 four! What meant it? For days, sometimes, 
 the blue waters were deserted. There was a 
 pinnace rounding the point ; here was one nearer 
 at hand, and here another, and here came a vessel 
 from St. Mary's. 
 
 She turned and studied them eagerly. They 
 were small bay and river craft ; this, wide of bow, 
 low set with slanting sails, was the vessel of the 
 Courtenays, who dwelt beyond her brother-in- 
 law ; there, could that be from the manor of 
 the Memmerton's, and this at the creek's mouth 
 from Point Grace? She sat down on the clay- 
 embedded stair and watched them. 
 
 Aye, so it was as she thought. One by one
 
 132 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 they shaped their course for Captain Rogers's, and 
 she thought on Mary with her sick babe and small 
 house crowded with those refugees, and wondered 
 how, tired and worn as her sister already was, 
 she could make shift with them. 
 
 But she had forgotten the pinnace from St. 
 Mary's. She turned her head quickly; it was 
 nigh her own wharf. She caught the glitter of 
 scarlet on the deck. Sooth ! that was Giles, and 
 by him; she sprang to her feet and ran down 
 to the wharf. 
 
 " I knew, I knew it was thou ! " she cried, as 
 she flung her arms about Mistress Hawley's neck. 
 "Giles, was it thy pleadings?" she demanded, 
 mischievously. 
 
 Giles shot her a quick glance from his hazel 
 eyes as he stood flicking with lace-bordered 
 handkerchief his spotless clothing. 
 
 " I did but tell her thy speech, thinking she 
 would see the merriment of it." 
 
 " And I came. I was already thinking on my 
 summer's visit, and when thy brother's pinnace 
 was at hand and he purposed to return at once." 
 
 " Giles, 't was well thought on," said his sister, 
 warmly. "I knew not faith I'm glad! thou 
 knowest not how drear we felt after ye sailed 
 away and left us with our ears still ringing with 
 Indian tales."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 133 
 
 " Look there ! and there ! " said her brother 
 shortly, pointing down the river at the vessels 
 nearing Captain Rogers's wharf. 
 
 " I see, and have already read their tale," 
 said Mistress Brent, nodding her dark head. " I 
 am but glad I have not added my own household 
 to Mary's cares." She linked her arm in Mistress 
 Hawley's and turned toward the house. " I will 
 send Lucy for thy mails. 
 
 " With thy men and ours, Giles, we are well 
 garrisoned," she said as they went toward the 
 house, though she waited anxiously for his 
 reply. 
 
 " I will see Jock and look about the place," he 
 answered evasively, as he hurried away. 
 
 "There he goes," cried his sister when he was 
 out of sight, "a popinjay in his apparel, and 
 yet as brave a soldier though his temper is 
 somewhat caustic and his judgment not always 
 of the best." 
 
 She trailed her slipper's toe in the gravel of the 
 pathway as she loitered. " He needs a mistress 
 for South Fort Manor," she said, with mischievous, 
 sidelong glance at the friend she was so glad to 
 have by her side ; but Mistress Hawley's soft 
 cheek was unflushed and her brow unclouded, 
 she only looked calmly pleased to be once more 
 at St. Anne's Manor.
 
 134 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " La ! " said Margaret, half petulantly, " I wish 
 he would marry ; there '11 be none then to say 
 I should be head of my brother's household. I 
 have enough ado about mine own. Thou knowest 
 the cattle we brought from Virginia? 'Tis a finer 
 breed than any at St. Anne's. I have a calf for 
 theejthou shalt have it soon as it is fuller grown. 
 Come, lay thy things aside and we will to the 
 stable and see it." 
 
 But Giles came hurrying to them with white 
 and stern-set face. He had found Jock, indeed, 
 and with him one other, dust-stained and fear- 
 shaken. 
 
 " There are hundreds," the fellow was saying. 
 " The woods swarm with them ! " 
 
 "Where? what tale is this?" demanded Giles, 
 sternly. The fellow fair shrieked at the sound of 
 the unexpected voice ; the men, absorbed, had 
 not noticed Giles's approach. 
 
 " Captain Brent ! " cried Jock, " my eyes are 
 glad to light on ye ; " he stopped abruptly, shamed 
 somewhat by his warmth of speech. 
 
 " The governor cautioned me," he went on, " to 
 have spies about the woods 'til this danger was 
 past. The man here Bill, tell thy tale to the 
 captain. Lord, man, thou art shaking as though 
 thou hadst an ague ! He stalked the woods, 
 cautious, as thou wilt know. They were quiet, as
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 135 
 
 alway. 'Long 'bout afternoon he lays him down 
 in the corn furrows, out in the far field, sir, and 
 what with the heat and the quiet he fell asleep." 
 
 Giles moved impatiently. 
 
 "Arter a while, sir, he opens his eyes and he 
 lays still as the dead ; peering through the corn 
 stalks he sees a savage crouching and then lifting 
 himself upright. He stands and he stands, look- 
 ing toward the house, and then he steals off, and 
 Bill, thinking if there's more to see he must get 
 a peep at it, crawls up nearer the wood. Ye 
 know how clean it is thereabouts; them woods 
 was just swarming. Bill says " 
 
 "'Twas Indians, stripped, with daubs of paint 
 all over them, and they was comin', stealin' up to 
 the place where that man I first clapt eyes on was 
 waiting. He was twice as tall as ye," the man ran 
 on, excitedly, " and his legs were big as Jock's 
 whole body, and he had a club the twain of us 
 could not have lifted." 
 
 " Jock," commanded Giles, " keep Bill with thee; 
 see to the securing of every living thing. I '11 not 
 have this tale spread 'mongst the men 'til they be 
 done with their meal. Go quietly, ye '11 need all 
 your strength. Gather with all thy fellows in the 
 main house when ye be done. There is danger 
 afoot, and of the direst."
 
 IX 
 
 THAT night of horrors! from the fearful 
 dread which fell upon them at Giles's 
 words the barred and shuttered house, 
 the breathless waiting for danger, the first crouch- 
 ing form seen in the thickening dusk peering 
 behind the men's cabins, the blazing tobacco 
 sheds, the bellowing cattle, the fiery flames of 
 burning outbuildings, and in their light the sav- 
 ages, hundreds strong to their last refuge in the 
 cave. 
 
 The savages turned their fury on the manor- 
 house ; from every loophole the guns held them 
 at bay, but the house with its great oaks about it 
 was an easy prey. The roof was soon ablaze. 
 
 "There is naught left but the secret passage," 
 panted Giles, as he raced down the stair from the 
 attic, where he had vainly striven to quench the 
 fire upon the roof. " Margaret, call thy women 
 together; Jock, get the men. Thank God there 
 are bullets a-plenty in the cave ! These are fair 
 spent." 
 
 He was stripped of his scarlet coat; that and 
 the tapestry torn from the loopholes was kicked
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 137 
 
 and trampled underfoot; hands and face and bare 
 arms were grimed with powder, but his clear-cut 
 face was ablaze with the joy of battle; his cold 
 indifference, his prim formality, had fallen from 
 him. 
 
 Mistress Brent groaned at his words. 
 
 "Is there naught else that can be done? Can 
 we not hold out? There is not a wound amongst 
 us." 
 
 "Thou speakest folly! e'en now this way, 
 Margaret ; haste ye, for God's sake ! " he called to 
 the men and women crouching about them in the 
 narrow part of the hall. And while he yet spoke 
 there was a fearful ramming at the heavy door, 
 which shook in every fibre. 
 
 Giles caught his sister by the hand and rushed 
 down the narrow cellar-stair. " Here," he com- 
 manded, " haste ahead with her, Jock. The women 
 next. My God, the door is breaking, they rush 
 within ! Mistress Hawley, why did ye tarry? " he 
 pushed her roughly ahead of him in the low, dank 
 entrance, and paused to try and pull back the 
 casks and hide the manner of their escape long 
 as might be. 
 
 Within the passage the darkness was of inky 
 blackness. Mistress Hawley stumbled; he laid his 
 hand upon her shoulder as he guided her before 
 him. " Push forward close to the rest ; now ye
 
 138 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 can stand upnght. Great God ! heard ye ever 
 the like?" 
 
 The Indians were within the manor-house. They 
 could hear the beat of innumerable feet as they 
 rushed through its rooms in search of victims. 
 
 " They will soon be upon our trail," he muttered, 
 " bloodhounds as they are. 
 
 " They are too close upon us ! " he exclaimed, 
 when the frightened fugitives were huddled close 
 in the cave which could scarce hold them. "We 
 dare not take to the boats." 
 
 " We must," panted Mistress Brent. " We dare 
 not stay here. Already the air grows foul. 
 
 "Jock," she cried, "see if all are here. Pray 
 God there be none left behind. Hast any one a 
 candle? Grace o' Our Lady, hold it aloft." She 
 gave one gasp of horror as the pale light flickered 
 down upon them, and Giles's quick look following 
 her horror-stricken gaze saw 
 
 Mistress Hawley's great coil of hair, loosened 
 by the knocking against the narrow passage, fell 
 about her. She stood nearest the entrance by 
 which they escaped, Giles close beside her; and 
 as Mistress Brent raised the candle overhead she 
 saw the gleam of a tomahawk and the savage flash 
 of an Indian's eyes, whose hands were already 
 reached forth toward the long, full locks. But Giles 
 was upon him, his dead form blocked the passage.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 139 
 
 "We must out! " Giles caught Mistress Hawley 
 by the wrist, 
 
 "Jock," he whispered, "go forward with Mis- 
 tress Brent. Make a dash for the boats, the sav- 
 ages are yet about the house. Stay, where is the 
 ammunition? Deal out to each man, quick!" as 
 Jock's ringers grew clumsy with his haste, " the 
 candle fails. Now ! " 
 
 Jock tore at the growth about the entrance, and 
 pushing out his great head gave one quick, cautious 
 look about. The high tide ran close beneath them, 
 the boat rocked softly by the stake to which it was 
 tied, and the stars shone as calm and clear as 
 though they saw but the heaven of the river be- 
 neath them and not the hell upon its banks. He 
 wriggled out; they followed him in breathless 
 haste and huddled 'neath the shadow of the cliff. 
 Jock started for the boat ; his feet were on the wet 
 sands when he stopped as though he were shot. 
 He crept back. 
 
 " Mistress Brent," he whispered, in an agony of 
 despair, " we must back into the cave. They are 
 on the beach waiting to rush upon us. There ! " 
 they heard a sharp whisper and the muffled tread 
 of many feet. 
 
 Giles leaped forward. " 'Fore God, 't is the 
 soldiers ; no Indian ever trod like that. Hush ! " 
 he checked the movement of the men. " There
 
 1 40 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 lies their boat, though how Jock, guard the 
 women, stir not thou and thy fellows I'd miss 
 it not not for " He raised Mistress Hawley's 
 hand he still clasped for an instant to his lips and 
 then dashed forward. There, climbing the bluff 
 scarce twenty yards away were Calvert and Corn- 
 wallis and the men of Maryland who had been 
 organized to proceed against the Susquehannocks. 
 
 " The savages swarm in the house," gasped 
 Giles, as he pushed forward to Calvert's side and 
 ran with him across the lawn. " Forward ! " cried 
 Calvert, " with all the noise of hell ! " 
 
 The Indians, hearing that great shout and the 
 rush of many feet, were terror-stricken. They 
 fled from the light of the burning buildings to the 
 refuge of the darkness, the soldiers in swift pur- 
 suit. By smouldering ruin of barn and stable, in 
 furrows of the maize, by forest's edge, the Indians 
 fell. The sun rose strong and clear. The alarm 
 had reached Captain Rogers, and his men joined 
 in the pursuit. Of Nanticoke and Susquehannock 
 scarce a score found safety in their villages. 
 
 Calvert would have an end of it at once. Corn- 
 wallis and his men took to boat and sailed to the 
 great river of the north. They raided the Indian 
 villages on its banks, and on the green isle, set like 
 a jewel in the river's mouth, they strengthened 
 the block-house built by Thomas Smith and now
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 141 
 
 deserted, and left a score of soldiers to keep per- 
 petual watch and ward. 
 
 Never again, swore the governor, should they 
 gather such force as to be able to march against 
 the settlements of Maryland. 
 
 But at St. Anne's it looked as if, in truth, Mis- 
 tress Brent's labors had come to naught. Well 
 was it that the storm of yesternight had beaten 
 upon the roof and left its shingling sodden with 
 the wet so that the blaze spread slowly. 
 
 Mistress Brent was not one to linger far behind. 
 As the battle-shrieks rang further and further 
 afield from the little group huddled on the beach, 
 she would listen to no word of caution. 
 
 "The soldiers drive the savages before them," 
 she cried, " we must to the house. Jock, will ye 
 tarry like cowards here? Nay, then, I will alone." 
 She sprang up the clay-embedded stair, but they 
 followed her close. Before the house the way 
 was clear. 
 
 "Up to the roof!" the mistress of the manor- 
 house cried; "the women will draw water and pass 
 it to you. Mistress Hawley, come with me." She 
 ran through the hall to the well which had been 
 sunken behind the house and caught the bucket 
 and sent it splashing down ; Sarah and Mistress 
 Hawley sprang to the sweep. The women were 
 ready to rush with it to the men ; until the well
 
 i 4 2 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 was nigh dry they wrought, and the house was 
 saved. 
 
 When the ghastly light of dawn broke on them, 
 grimed with smoke and cinders, their hands blis- 
 tered with the working of the well-sweep, they 
 saw they had stood for hours with the dead body 
 of an Indian a yard away. 
 
 Mistress Brent sickened at the gruesome sight. 
 " Come away," she begged Mistress Hawley and 
 Sarah ; " the house is saved, what there was left 
 to save," she added, bitterly. " Come, Katharine ;" 
 she put her hand on Mistress Hawley's arm, fairly 
 staggering as she did so. 
 
 " It hath been a bitter night," said Mistress 
 Hawley, soothingly ; " we will within doors." 
 
 " There is naught left but the walls," wailed 
 Sarah, as they put foot inside the hall. 
 
 " Peace ! " commanded Mistress Hawley sharply, 
 her own nerves strengthened by the fear in Sarah's 
 face and voice, though she was fair appalled at the 
 ruin she saw about her. 
 
 The tapestry hung by shreds upon the walls or 
 was kicked and trampled in heaps upon the floor; 
 the vessels upon the table where they had eaten 
 their meal overnight were strewn here and there ; 
 the hangings of the bed, the covers, the beds them- 
 selves, were torn and trampled in the room ; clothes 
 from the chests were thrown in glittering heaps.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 143 
 
 Mistress Margaret went from room to room 
 without a word. Where had been luxury and 
 fair order but yesterday, was now chaotic ruin. 
 
 She set her red lips firmly. Indignant anger 
 surged through her, renewing her spent strength. 
 She had thought to throw herself for rest in some 
 corner of her dwelling, instead she would bend to 
 the hardest task. 
 
 " Call the maids from the attic," she com- 
 manded Sarah. "The men likewise. Mistress 
 Hawley, lend me a helping hand." She bent 
 her slender arms under the heavy overturned 
 table. From the folds of the rich carpet which 
 had covered it rolled a pewter tankard battered 
 and dented. Mistress Margaret picked it up. 
 
 " Come to the store-room," she cried, as she 
 made quick way toward it. " T is well I had it 
 built here next the living-room, else would we 
 have gone starving." She knelt by a cask. 
 " Here, my hands shake like the leaves in the 
 wind, thine are as steady as a rock. Thou wilt 
 not think on thy abstemious habits," she begged ; 
 " drink a draught of this. Nay, an thou art so 
 dainty," she dragged a mouldy bottle from the 
 shelf and held it in her arm as she foraged, " and 
 here is cold capon and maize cakes. Our Lady 
 be praised that Sarah is ever provident ! " 
 
 She hurried with food and drink to the hall.
 
 i 4 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The men and women, spent and grimed, were 
 gathering there. " Here," called Mistress Brent, 
 "here is food and drink; rest ye, there is work 
 yet to be done. Katharine, sit ye here; carve 
 this capon. Pass the tankard about," she com- 
 manded ; " there is more and plenty. Well the 
 savages had not time to find it. 
 
 " The soldiers will be returning soon," she de- 
 clared when the servants were comforted with food 
 and drink, " we must make some order and cheer 
 for them. Aye, tasted food ever so good?" she 
 held a maize cake in her blistered hand and she 
 ate of it and the capon savagely. " Remember 
 thyself also, Mistress Hawley, as thou servest the 
 fowl ; " she began to make a jest of their pitiful 
 estate as she walked to and fro, food in hand. 
 
 " Faith, Sarah, here is darning for a twelve- 
 month," she cried, pointing to the tapestry. "The 
 silver and pewter play hide-and-seek." Her rest- 
 less foot kicked against a candlestick. " Methinks 
 I see a drinking-vessel peeping from Giles's coat ; 
 aye, 'twill be a rare tale to tell for many a day, 
 this of our siege and of the saving of our manor- 
 house. Sarah, draw again. Jock, uncork me this 
 bottle. Now, Katharine, faith thou 'It take a sip 
 from this ! " She picked up Giles's coat and shook 
 it lustily and the mug ran ringing on the floor. 
 " Here," she cried, as she filled it to the brim,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 145 
 
 " here 's to St. Anne's ! An thou drinkest it not, 
 I '11 know how little ye love me ! Now, to work! 
 Jock, put back the feather-bed in place in my 
 chamber, then take the men without; there are 
 dread objects there." Her face hardened. " See 
 they be gotten rid of. Lucy, take one of the 
 women with thee to fold the clothes within the 
 chest and cover the bed fairly. Sarah, see what 
 can be done for feeding of the soldiers." 
 
 " I shall render my help to Sarah," said Mis- 
 tress Hawley, steadily; "thou canst attend affairs 
 here." 
 
 " That will I." 
 
 And sleepless, haggard, worn, they yet worked 
 passing their strength, under the energy, which 
 urged them like a lash, of the slender woman who 
 flitted from room to room, from worker to worker, 
 with words of praise or direction, and help from 
 her own maimed hands. 
 
 Tapestry was rehung upon the walls. " We '11 
 make some show of order at once," she vowed. 
 Rifled chests and drawers were hastily put in fair 
 condition, the table in the hall was spread with 
 battered plates and vessels ere the first glint of a 
 soldier's coat was seen across the fields. 
 
 "Faith," then cried Mistress Brent as she 
 caught Mistress Katharine by the waist, " an I 
 look as thou dost, we 'd best hide us in my cham- 
 
 10
 
 146 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 her ! Thy hair is witches' locks, thy face smutted 
 like a savage's ! " She caught her leaden-framed 
 mirror from the wall, " Look on thyself! " she 
 commanded. 
 
 Mistress Hawley looked negligently, then turned 
 it toward Margaret. "And on thyself!" she 
 said, quietly. 
 
 Mistress Margaret gazed wild-eyed ; her brown 
 locks were clay-powdered and stuck with bramble 
 leaves, one great scratch crossed her cheek from 
 mouth to ear, daubs of smut were on forehead 
 and cheek and neck, her gray eyes blazed like 
 beacon-fires, and her face was drawn and set with 
 nervous tension. 
 
 She flung the mirror upon the bed and broke 
 into shrieking, hysteric laughter, that ran shrill 
 and nerve-cutting and broke into wild sobbing. 
 
 " Margaret, Margaret," pleaded Mistress Hawley, 
 " hush thee ! Tut, to be a baby ! Would have thy 
 women hear thee ! What would they do? Shriek, 
 too ! I '11 warrant thou 'It have the whole house 
 about thy ears. Brave women the soldiers will 
 think us to greet them thus ! 
 
 " Here," she drew her firmly to her shoulder, 
 " have thy cry out ! " she slipped her cool, steady 
 hand along the dark, rough head ; " it hath been 
 enough, this night, to try the strongest ! and thou 
 hast been so brave, always to the fore."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 147 
 
 Mistress Hawley had no mind of her own steady 
 mien, nor how it had gone as far toward hearten- 
 ing the scared household as Mistress Brent's spirit 
 and bravery ; nor did she dream that Giles would 
 forever remember that moment when the Indians' 
 approach was first seen and the candles scarce 
 lighted the barred and shuttered house ; how as 
 the women shrank affrighted she had taken the 
 linen and hot water Sarah brought ere the alarm 
 was given, and daintily and precisely polished each 
 plate and drinking- vessel in the candle-light. He 
 would remember her always as she stood, calm, 
 sedate, with steadfast look and clear eyes. Could 
 he have seen her now as his sister laughed and 
 wept upon her shoulder ! for suddenly she flushed 
 from round, firm chin to wide, low forehead, flushed 
 at the sight of a scarlet coat flung upon the bed, 
 and remembered that but for the quick bravery of 
 its wearer there 'd be at least one victim of the 
 attack on St. Anne's. 
 
 " There," she comforted, as the sobbings died 
 away, " thou wilt feel the better for thy crying. 
 Come, wash thy face of these signs of siege and 
 warfare." 
 
 Mistress Brent went obediently but listlessly 
 about her toilet. 
 
 " Methinks the savages could have been not 
 over a quarter of an hour within the house," she
 
 148 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 complained, " and yet the whole house looks as 
 though it hath been wrecked." 
 
 " Thou hast so much to thank God for," said 
 Mistress Hawley sternly at the complaining tone; 
 " thou hadst best fall upon thy knees." 
 
 " Aye, I must make my peace first with myself, 
 and God afterwards." 
 
 " Margaret ! " 
 
 " Thou knowest what I mean. I must reconcile 
 myself to this heavy loss." 
 
 " An thou takest not thy heart to God first and 
 art willing to receive this loss " 
 
 " Nay," pettishly, " there is work, work ahead. 
 My barns are burned down, my fields trampled 
 upon." 
 
 Mistress Hawley turned quietly to the door. 
 Her toilet was already finished. " Margaret, I 
 shall go and sit me down in this fresh air and clear 
 my brain of horrors, and thank God I am alive to 
 look upon green trees and sparkling water." 
 
 It was a quiet Margaret who joined her there. 
 All her energy was gone in that great fight against 
 fire and disorder. She could scarce trust her eye- 
 sight at the peaceful scene. Mistress Hawley had 
 strewn fresh sand upon the floor. Foot-mark nor 
 blood-stain showed there ; the tapestry hung straight 
 upon the wall, and rose and fell with the fresh 
 wind ; the board was spread, and in the doorway,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 149 
 
 looking on waving shadow and sparkling river, as 
 though she took her pleasure on any summer 
 morning, sat Mistress Hawley. Margaret sat 
 down beside her, and thus the men found them 
 on their return. 
 
 " Zounds ! " cried the governor in his astonish- 
 ment, " we looked to find wreck and smouldering 
 ruin ; the house was ablaze when I last did see it, 
 and we find ye " 
 
 Mistress Brent rose stiffly to her feet; every 
 muscle was tingling with weariness. " Cousin, we 
 have much to thank thee for ! " her voice shook 
 and hot tears trembled beneath her eyelids. " But 
 there are no words for this," she faltered. 
 
 " Look not for them. Faith, the savages lighted 
 a beacon which did us good purpose ; we had set 
 sail for Palmer's Isle and the Susquehannocks, 
 hoping thus to strike a blow should break their 
 strength ere they started. But they had been 
 too cautious, their movements were nearer a head 
 than we had knowledge of. The wind was fitful 
 and we beat about from side to side. We neared 
 St. Anne's, and I would fain have come ashore to 
 see how ye fared, but I knew thy brother tarried 
 with thee. Yet as I thought on it the captain 
 put his ship about, flames burst above thy dwell- 
 ing, savage cries could be heard e'en there ! 
 
 " We had found the Indian sooner than we
 
 150 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 thought," he went on glibly; his face was alight 
 with the joy of action and success, his tongue 
 as ready as Mistress Margaret's. "Zounds! we 
 gave them a chase. There are strange fruitage in 
 thy fields;" he laughed, but stopped abruptly at 
 Mistress Brent's shudder. 
 
 As for Giles, he had no sooner caught sight of 
 the women at the door than he had hastened 
 within. He was prinking at his toilet and be- 
 moaning his stained and rumpled coat, as though 
 there had been never other and wilder things, to 
 think on, or better for the doing than the wear- 
 ing of a fancy collar. He went back to his old 
 flippant speech with Mistress Hawley. Were 
 there warmer thoughts or more daring hopes 
 deep in his heart, he kept them well to himself, 
 and was but the careless man of fashion even 
 until the day when the governor's pinnace set sail 
 for the Susquehannocks, and he himself followed 
 for the commandery of Kent and his lonely home 
 at South Fort Manor. 
 
 But now the governor was as a man enlivened 
 with newly drunken wine. He had rescued St. 
 Anne's, he had put the savages to awful rout, 
 the tale of it would be told in the Indian villages 
 for many a day, and the plantations of Mary- 
 land, near and far, scattered on bay shore or 
 creek lands would rest secure.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 151 
 
 He talked confident and strong, and waxed 
 ever merrier; but Mistress Brent grew more and 
 more quiet, her white face and drooping figure 
 were but like the ghost of the piquant mistress 
 of St. Anne's. The governor set it down to sheer 
 terror of the danger which had beset her. 
 
 " Cousin," he queried, when the work of that 
 arduous day was done, the dead bodies of the 
 Indians dragged to decent burial, the stampeded 
 cattle gathered together, and a wide search for 
 lurking savages made through field and forest, 
 " Cousin Margaret, art heart-sick and frightened 
 out of thy love of St. Anne's?" 
 
 Mistress Margaret shook her head. 
 
 "What of thy house at St. Mary's? Will not 
 The Sisters' Freehold be thy biding-place this 
 autumn-tide?" 
 
 " I know not," she answered, languidly. 
 
 " Hast not enow " 
 
 " Dost think 'tis over-dangerous?" she asked, as 
 carelessly as though she spoke of things overseas. 
 
 " Dangerous ! " the governor's blue eyes fairly 
 blazed, but he held himself in check and went on 
 quietly. 
 
 " An it comes to danger, sooth, thou wert never 
 so safe." 
 
 " Now thou mockest me ! " She clenched her 
 hands upon her knee.
 
 152 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The governor moved impatiently. " There 
 hath ever been this danger," he forced himself to 
 say ; " that is why I did dissuade thee from the 
 first. With all our friendship for the savages, 
 there was ever this fear of treachery, nor could 
 we guess in such case where the blow would fall. 
 The richness of thy dwelling, the easy conquest 
 they looked on, brought them first here. They 
 thought to make swift work, and then but why 
 should I dwell on such horrors. They will feel, 
 now, they dare not strike a blow 'gainst any. 
 When the men of St. Mary's, already flushed with 
 victory, ravage their villages, they '11 be so broken, 
 I '11 warrant me they breed no further foments. 
 And with the Susquehannocks broken, under 
 watch, as I purpose henceforth to keep them, 
 there '11 be no future trouble with the Indian. 
 And we must bring them," he went on mus- 
 ingly, " once more to our friendship, else how 
 can they learn of us the great truth we set out 
 to teach them. Nay, trust me," he ended, 
 proudly ; " thou wast never more secure. The 
 cloud, like a storm whose mutterings I long have 
 feared, hath broken and rolled over and is gone." 
 
 "Then, may " as the governor looked again, 
 impatient at her speech. "I know nothing I 
 have no purpose," she broke out passionately. 
 " All is ruined about me."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 153 
 
 They were walking under the oaks in the long 
 slanting shadows of late eventide. The governor 
 rested his hand lightly upon her shoulder and 
 turned her toward her dwelling; the oak branches 
 were thick about the blackened roof and veiled 
 the ruin there. 
 
 " See thou art man enow woman enow, an 
 thou wilt, to know how soon that loss is plenished ; 
 and for thy cabins and stables, there are straight 
 trees in the woodland and men to do thy bid- 
 ding. Thou hast lost few cattle and not one of 
 thy men." 
 
 " 'T is the second sermon on thankfulness I 've 
 had read me this day. I know not if I enjoy it. 
 Methinks I must seem pagan to my friends to be 
 so harrowed." 
 
 " And so thou art an thou art not on thy knees 
 this night to our blessed Mary." 
 
 " My other preacher bade me pray to God," she 
 answered, petulantly; then, as if stricken by the 
 horror in his face, " Come, thou knowest I mean 
 no blasphemy. My soul will turn to God, but 
 now it is faint and numbed within me, as is my 
 body," she added, plaintively. "Let us rest 
 here." She sat down at the top of the stairway 
 leading to the beach. " Talk of lighter things ! " 
 
 But great things were in the governor's mind 
 that day; there was no light banter on his tongue.
 
 154 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " I could not tell," she went on ;. and if the 
 governor's humor was unusual, so, in truth, was 
 Mistress Margaret's. He was used to seeing her 
 moody, fitful, gay, scornful, but never so wholly 
 sad. " I could not tell thee how I have learned 
 to love this resting-place on the stair." She ran 
 her hand, though it was bandaged for its blister- 
 ings, caressingly over the grass near her. " Here 
 when I am restless or sad or wearied, and the 
 mood comes oftener than thou thinkest, I sit 
 and watch the long, rolling waves when the tide 
 is far out as now. See how they break in curling 
 foam upon the shallows ! Or watch the sea-fowl, 
 how thick the air is with them now; duck and 
 gull and fish-hawk ! how they all come closer 
 and closer homeward as the night falls ! how 
 many miles they may have been ere sunrise, yet 
 their unerring flight brings them again to nest of 
 reeds or clay ! Here, if ever a sail glides by, one 
 sees it, and the singing of the wind in the trees or 
 the murmur of the waves low or loud " 
 
 " Aye, but idle dreams will come to all ; " and 
 the governor spoke knowingly. His heart was 
 full of dreamings, whether they were idle he 
 knew not. But on the morrow he set sail for 
 Kent and the river of the north.
 
 X 
 
 WHEN the governor again was face to 
 face with Mistress Brent it was he 
 who needed comfort. 
 
 "Never had the plantation seemed so secure," 
 he had told her, and yet others saw it in not such 
 a light. Dread talks of the attack on St. Anne's 
 had run like fire from manor to farm to the 
 farthest settlement. Men who hitherto had 
 been courageous were panic-stricken; the refuge- 
 houses of each hundred were crowded, and above 
 all St. Mary's was filled beyond the housing of 
 the people. Corn and tobacco, well-nigh saved, 
 dried and withered or rotted in the field ; cattle, 
 which were hardest of all the settlers' needs to 
 procure and were most carefully cherished, were 
 left astray ; fever and ague, " the prevailing 
 sickness," were rife in the overcrowded town; 
 men loitered about the streets, under the shade 
 of the great mulberry, in the hot autumn days, 
 around the tables of the coffee-house in the 
 evenings ; tales were told daily which grew big- 
 ger for each telling.
 
 156 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Upon the men themselves was a very witchery 
 of fear and, added to that, a growing spirit of 
 dissatisfaction. 
 
 Calvert, after his expedition up "the great 
 river and the defeat of the Indian there, tarried 
 too long in Kent. He knew naught of the foment 
 in the province, and Captain Brent besought his 
 aid in righting many matters of dispute in Kent 
 Isle, where the men were never friendly to my 
 Lord Proprietor, and would give naught but the 
 slightest observance to his government, but beset 
 the path of the commander with thorns. 
 
 Then, matters of the isle adjusted, the Indian 
 signally defeated, the governor, his spirits mount- 
 ing high, sailed homeward to come upon this 
 foment in St. Mary's, and to find there a ship 
 newly come from England and bearing letters 
 from his brother. In England subjects strove 
 against their king, and strove successfully; the 
 king was a refugee from London; order and 
 rule were at an end. The Lord Baltimore com- 
 manded his brother to join him at once, so that 
 together they might make a better fight for their 
 province, which else might be lost them in the 
 dire upheaval. 
 
 In vain Calvert strove with the people in the 
 town and assured them the savages were never 
 to be so little feared ; to them the forest swarmed
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 157 
 
 with Indians. The ship waited his departure. In 
 his emergency he sought the Mistress of St. 
 Anne's. 
 
 " Giles must leave his commandery of Kent to 
 shift for itself and serve as lieutenant-governor 
 whilst I be gone," he told her after stating the 
 heart-sickening news. " And thou, I trust thou 
 wilt tarry with him at St. Mary's. Thou hast 
 strong influence with the people, thy bright face 
 will be more heartening to them than many 
 words which I could say; and if ye will keep a 
 hospitable house at my poor dwelling, make 
 whatever cheer seems best to enliven and en- 
 courage the people " 
 
 " Thou givest me a pleasant task." 
 
 " 'T is what the people need. They have grown 
 morbid, and will eat out their hearts with useless 
 dissatisfaction. Such feeling will spread like a 
 very canker at the root of our colony. They 
 need to be made confident once more." 
 
 " Methinks I am but a poor teacher." 
 
 " Thy ensample hath been a benefit to the 
 colony. The bravery with which thou, who 
 actually did stand the blow, hast met it, when 
 thou canst tell them." 
 
 " Of that night of horrors ! " 
 
 The governor turned his gray eyes on her, and 
 Mistress Brent noticed how deep the furrow had
 
 158 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 grown in his high forehead and how heavy the 
 lines were graved about his mouth. 
 
 " I am ever trifling," she said penitently, " even 
 with such topics." 
 
 " Ye will heed my request." 
 
 Mistress Brent grew as serious as she had 
 looked on first hearing the news the governor 
 came to bring. 
 
 " That I must think on it. How soon ? " 
 
 " I but wait to leave full instructions with 
 Giles. I have already despatched my pinnace 
 for him, he will be at St. Mary's by the morrow's 
 eve." 
 
 "And thou canst tarry here till then? " 
 
 " Methinks I am needed each hour at St. 
 Mary's." 
 
 " Aye, but I have my own poor affairs to think 
 on ; there are troublous questions. Belike St. 
 Anne's can ill spare me." 
 
 " Cousin, 't is bare six weeks since I did leave 
 thee with blackened ruins about thee ; where now 
 is any trace?" 
 
 " Thou hast not looked into it. A good fourth 
 of my tobacco crop is ruined, trampled by the 
 soldiery; nay, I begrudge it not; the cabins are 
 but lightly built and thatched for roofing." 
 
 " Tut ! thou art never satisfied." 
 
 "I will send Mistress Hawley to talk with
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 159 
 
 thee," cried Margaret, half offended. "An I 
 think kindly on the plan," she added, relenting 
 at the troubled look of Calvert's face, "I first 
 must see Jock." 
 
 " Jock," grumbled the governor with cousinly 
 freedom, " as if he could not take charge for 
 thee; then it would be as it should have been 
 at first, thou wouldst dwell in thy house at The 
 Sisters' Freehold and leave him here." 
 
 But Margaret only smiled shrewdly as she 
 went. Jock was far afield, it would be hours ere 
 he would be at the house; her impatient humor, 
 the idea once started, would not brook delay. 
 Truly St. Anne's, with Mistress Hawley gone and 
 the governor in England, with no pleasant visits 
 to relieve the tedium of the winter, no careful 
 watchfulness over her welfare, would be but 
 tedious, mayhap worse. Her nerves were yet 
 shaken with the horrors she had seen. 
 
 And then the appeal he had made her. It 
 flattered the very core of her pride that she was 
 needed at the governor's house, amongst the 
 people, to be the head and front of affairs: 
 she tilted her chin and threw back her head, her 
 eyes flashing. She leaned forward and stroked 
 Brown Bess's mane thoughtfully; her mare had 
 been hastily saddled, and she had gone to seek 
 Jock. The dried corn-tops in the field by which
 
 160 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 she rode swayed and rattled as the light winds 
 shook them, and the air was full of the smell of 
 them and the ripening corn and the fragrant 
 breath of the pines in the woodland near; over- 
 head the crows whirled and circled, and cut 
 sharp silhouettes against the deep blue of the 
 sky. A deer peeped shyly through the scarlet 
 sumac leaves and bounded away, the squirrels 
 leaped in the bronzing oaks, and the yellow 
 leaves of chestnut and walnut fell sifting slowly 
 down. It was the turning of the leaf time, and 
 every flitting flash of forest life would have had 
 its meaning and its delight for Mistress Brent on 
 any other morn she was abroad, but now her 
 mind was filled with new fancies. 
 
 Truth, it would be well to dwell for a time 
 in the midst of things. She was aweary of 
 solitude. 
 
 There was Jock. The men and women, work- 
 ing alike in the field, were stripping the corn from 
 the stacks, throwing the yellow ears in heaps in 
 the furrows. It was a pleasant harvest picture, 
 for men and maids fared well at St. Anne's and 
 worked willingly; and Jock, though he looked 
 soldier enough with the great blunderbuss slung 
 at his back, carried it but because some great 
 beast might come crashing out of the forest. 
 
 He had seen the glint of Mistress Margaret's
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 161 
 
 riding-skirt and the sleek side of Brown Bess, and 
 knew she sought him. He came up to her com- 
 placently enough, for he was proud of the men's 
 prowess and work that autumn and boasted much 
 of what they had done, and how, in spite of all, 
 their work had gone forward. 
 
 " The maize harvest is bounteous," he said, as 
 he came up to her ; " what we have lost with the 
 tobacco crop that will well repay." 
 
 " Thine old hobby, Jock." 
 
 Jock, slow of speech, had no answer, and 
 Mistress Brent plunged at once into talk of the 
 governor's visit, his wishes, the affairs of the 
 manor. Could he tend them? And then she 
 wondered at the look on his stolid face, half 
 hesitating, half ashamed. 
 
 "What ails thee, man?" she questioned sharply. 
 Jock fingered his skin cap nervously. 
 
 " We have been nigh upon four years at St. 
 Anne's," he began, clearing his throat huskily, 
 " and five in Maryland." 
 
 " Thou art a good reckoner," said Mistress 
 Brent, lightly. 
 
 " Five years in the province," went on Jock, 
 gathering courage as he spoke. 
 
 " And what if ye have? " 
 
 " Ye know the terms on which I sailed hither?" 
 he questioned, sturdily.
 
 162 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Mistress Brent sat erect in her saddle, a shiver 
 of apprehension running through her. 
 
 " Truly," she said, slowly, " thou hast well nigh 
 served thy term." 
 
 " 'T is five years." Jock beat again upon the 
 refrain which had been in his every thought for 
 many a day. 
 
 " And ye would be free? Is that what ye 'd say? 
 The life grows tedious?" she questioned, passion- 
 ately; " ye 'd have your freedom-due, and begone? 
 Mayhap ye '11 petition the governor for a hun- 
 dred acres of good land near the Indian ; 't will be 
 had now for the asking, I '11 warrant me, mayhap 
 already cleared; land goes a-begging, and the 
 farmers are at St. Mary's." 
 
 Jock's square, honest face reddened from the 
 deep-cut dimple in his chin, which softened his 
 rugged look absurdly, to the straw-colored thatch 
 of hair, and the stutter he had conquered long ago, 
 save in moments of deepest feeling, broke his 
 speech. 
 
 " Me-me-methought " 
 
 " Tut, tut ! take time, man, speak slow." Mis- 
 tress Brent's eyes were flashing and her whole 
 heart angered; she was face to face with the 
 problem she knew well she had to meet in the 
 provinces and had planned for vigorously, and 
 yet it took her unawares; to have the servants
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 163 
 
 she had just trained for good service demanding 
 their freedom-due, setting up next their plea of 
 equality. 
 
 " Jock, I thought ye 'd serve me more faithful 
 than the rest ; my father " 
 
 "Aye, I fought under him in Flanders, and 
 followed him home and stayed with him 'til his 
 death." 
 
 " Methought I had hit upon the staunchest of 
 our following when I found thee willing to follow 
 me across seas, thee and Sarah." She was look- 
 ing, musing gravely, down the dim vista of the 
 forest by her side, where the sun sent long shafts 
 like powdered gold-dust sifting through the tree- 
 trunks, and she saw not that Jock grew more fiery 
 red, and then, old soldier that he was, braced him- 
 self firmly and honestly. 
 
 "Why should I not serve ye? " he questioned. 
 
 " Why, indeed? " Mistress Brent's red lip curled 
 bitterly. 
 
 " Mistress Margaret, ye are angered at me," he 
 began, steadily ; " I had thought to have speech of 
 ye more quietly, but now I have no purpose to 
 take up lands." 
 
 " Then why speak of thy freedom? " 
 
 " Because it is my freedom, and because it is 
 my due. I have served thee well, and will yet," 
 he said after a short silence. For after her first
 
 164 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 hot anger Mistress Brent's thoughts were riot- 
 ing within. Here was an end of all her plans, 
 forsooth. 
 
 " Just as ye do now ? " she questioned, eagerly. 
 
 " Just as now, save for the wage." 
 
 " As if I 'd grudge it thee ! Jock, I need thee ; 
 thou knowest it ! An ever ye purpose leaving St. 
 Anne's, take some younger man, train him in 
 thy ways; ye will never be so well entreated 
 elsewhere. What do ye need?" 
 
 " Naught yet " stammered Jock. 
 
 "Then ye '11 bide on at St. Anne's? " 
 
 " I had no other thought." 
 
 "And thy freedom-due? " 
 
 " If ye '11 but make a note of it as owing me. 
 I have no need as yet, but, mayhap " 
 
 Mistress Margaret plucked a bit of the scarlet 
 five-leaved ivy that climbed near her and smoothed 
 it thoughtfully. 
 
 She knew the terms of indenture well, and she 
 had purposed, when the terms should first be past, 
 to make a ceremony of it, a feasting for the 
 manor; but Jock, she had thought of him always 
 as part of St. Anne's and her own life there. 
 She thought of it all now quickly; she should 
 have foreseen this, and not have been so taken 
 unawares. 
 
 " Jock," she said at last, " we '11 fix thy wage.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 165 
 
 But then " She went on talking of the affairs 
 of St. Anne's to him, the ship she had engaged 
 for carrying her tobacco to London, what time it 
 might be due, adjusting her plans once more for 
 the leaving of her manor. " But I shall come again 
 and again, and ye will come to St. Mary's. Faith, 
 I talk as if I were leaving behind my will and 
 testament. The men and maids will tarry here, 
 save Sarah." 
 
 And now Jock's old confusion came back a 
 hundred-fold. 
 
 " Sa-Sa-Sarah," he stammered ; " Sa-Sarah is 
 a ra-rare housekeeper." 
 
 " And a rare maid," said Mistress Brent, dryly. 
 
 " Lu-Lucy serves ye well." 
 
 " Zounds, man, and ye would rule my house- 
 hold " 
 
 " Sarah is over thirty-five. 
 
 Mistress Margaret looked at him with eyes 
 big with astonishment. " What folly fills thy 
 brain? " 
 
 " Mistress Margaret," pleaded Jock, " we 'd 
 thought to ask ye when things were more easy 
 like." 
 
 " Say thy say, now and here ! " 
 
 " I 'd been thy father's man ; I 'd ne'er seen 
 much o' her ; I 'd, I 'd fain mar-marry her," 
 he stuttered, angered alike at his own embar-
 
 i66 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 rassment and the little look of scorn on his 
 mistress's face. 
 
 " Mercy o' God ! marry her, Sarah, and I," 
 Mistress Margaret fair choked with her own as- 
 tonishment. " Marry her ! " she blazed ; " I trow 
 matrimony blows like a blast about me. I no 
 sooner put foot within the province than that slip 
 o' a sister o' mine must wed. Look at her now ! 
 Faith, she dare not say she owned her soul ! I 
 must be petitioned by half the bachelors within 
 the settlement." 
 
 Mistress Brent reddened with embarrassment. 
 She had meant not to blurt such confidences. 
 
 " Here 's Giles," she went on quickly, to hide 
 her own confusion, " head over heels in love 
 with one who will not turn her head for him." 
 Jock listened agape, such news of the captain was 
 news indeed. " And I '11 warrant me there is 
 courting enow with the men and maids, an ye 
 set them ensample." 
 
 Jock grinned. The talk was spicy, and would 
 be food for his slow thought for many a day. 
 " I Ve been busy," he muttered. 
 
 " About thy own courting. What says Sarah? " 
 
 "She, she'd be willing, methinks." 
 
 " Well, well, I must e'en use myself to Lucy. 
 But I '11 miss her sorely ; Sarah hath mothered 
 me."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 167 
 
 " There 's naught I could do, an I would, would 
 tear her from ye. She'll quarrel rarely to 'com- 
 pany thee." 
 
 "Then " 
 
 " I think I can persuade her," said Sarah's lover, 
 dryly; and at his tone and stolid look Mistress 
 Margaret threw back her head and laughed 
 merrily. 
 
 " I '11 have no undue suasion," she declared. 
 But Jock was meditating a last, big shot. 
 
 " Truth," he declared, going to the very heart 
 of the matter as those who say but little often do, 
 " methinks 't would be well if ye yourself would 
 be thinking on matrimony now. There 's one as 
 would kiss your very footsteps." 
 
 " Peace ! " commanded Margaret, shortly. " I '11 
 have none o' it, but go my own gait," she flared as 
 she whirled Brown Bess about and went galloping 
 homeward. 
 
 " A pretty tempest ye have brewed in my own 
 household," she flashed as she joined Mistress 
 Hawley and the governor in the hall. "Nay, 
 look not so innocent. I'll warrant me ye had 
 your suspicions long ago." 
 
 " Suspicions? what has gone wrong, or is it 
 right? Tis hard to read thy face, thou lookest 
 half merry and half vexed." 
 
 " Thou art a rare interpreter of one's looks."
 
 i68 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "If my fair cousin will pardon me, 'tis one of 
 the few gifts I pride myself on possessing." 
 
 "Then, perhaps thou canst go deeper yet and 
 tell me the cause of it" 
 
 " 'T is something of thy household affairs ; so 
 much thyself hath told. It crosses thy purpose, 
 and yet amuses thee. 'Tis not so serious, yet 
 unlocked for. 'Tis something what Jock hath 
 told thee." 
 
 " Gramercy ! thou hast nigh hit the bull's eye. 
 Listen ! " She began with excellent mimicry of 
 Jock's stuttering confusion, a mimicry so mirthful, 
 the governor laughed long and heartily, and Mis- 
 tress Hawley must wipe the tears from her lashes ; 
 and Margaret, heeding naught for the moment but 
 their merriment, went on to the last parting advice 
 of her friendly servitor. 
 
 At which the governor grew suddenly serious. 
 " A wise fellow," he declared ; " very wise and 
 most excellent advice." 
 
 " Advice," said Margaret, saucily, " is never to 
 be followed. One does the opposite to it alway, 
 and follows one's own whim." 
 
 " Pray God the whim be wise ! " cried the gov- 
 ernor, a twinkle in his eyes. 
 
 " If 't is a woman's, 't is always wise." 
 
 " In her own sight." 
 
 " And others'."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 169 
 
 " But should her whim cross that of others? " 
 
 " Ah, well, a whim 's a whim, and soon forgot." 
 
 To which the governor said but a low, devout 
 " Please God." 
 
 " I '11 find Sarah," cried Mistress Margaret, 
 springing to her feet. " I '11 spring this speech of 
 Jock's full on her." 
 
 "Margaret," pleaded Mistress Hawley, "the 
 poor creature, 'twill so distress her." 
 
 " Distress ! " 
 
 " Thou knowest how she loves thee. I wonder 
 she had any room for thinking on Jock. That 
 thou shouldst taunt her ; come, talk of thy winter 
 in St. Mary's; the governor hath done us a ser- 
 vice. Think what 'twill be to have thee with 
 us again ; there 's not a child will not joy to 
 see thee." 
 
 " They have forgot me long ago." 
 
 "That they have not, I trow," declared the 
 governor; "I am ever loaded with messages to 
 Mistress Margaret." 
 
 " Thy load must grow heavy ; thou hast never 
 delivered them." 
 
 The governor laughed. " I pray thee mercy ! " 
 he cried. The light banter was good to his heavy 
 soul ; he believed it was that which rested him 
 most whenever he came to St. Anne's ; whatever 
 cares might weigh on him he could talk of and
 
 170 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 find his cousin a thoughtful listener, a wise adviser, 
 and then the lighter mood which often came upon 
 her, the bitter, scathing speeches and scornful 
 flauntings and gay hospitality. 
 
 "Mercy, mercy ! when was it thine? When ye 
 knew me lonely, pining?" 
 
 " Thou hast ever looked it so plainly." 
 
 "I should sit thus." Mistress Brent held her- 
 self primly erect and drew down the corners of 
 her red mouth forlornly. 
 
 "Thou art the pattern of a love-lorn maid," 
 laughed Mistress Hawley. 
 
 " Love-lorn ! Mad with solitude, ye mean." 
 
 " We '11 cure that this winter. Three-fourths of 
 the colonists are crowded in the town." 
 
 " Pouf ! we '11 send them 'bout their business." 
 
 " Would God ye could." 
 
 " That will be our affair; we'll lord it so well, 
 Giles and I, thou wilt not know us on thy 
 return." 
 
 "'Twill suit thee, Madge," the governor stam- 
 mered, shocked at his slip o' the tongue ; " 't will 
 suit thee to flout it o'er all." 
 
 " Flout ! ye 'd think, in sooth, I had set up for 
 a court beauty." 
 
 " There 's none at court so beautiful." 
 
 " An ye commence to make such flattering 
 speeches, I must pray ye cease. Didst ever hear
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 171 
 
 such nonsense, Katharine? " But Mistress Hawley 
 was only smiling in placid enjoyment of the 
 badinage. 
 
 " An ye are both against me, I '11 leave ye." 
 
 " What a will-o'-the-wisp ye are," cried Mistress 
 Hawley, as she caught her ere she had risen. 
 " Twice hast thou tried to leave us ; rest ye, and 
 pray be sensible." 
 
 " Aye, that 's for thee," flashed Margaret. 
 
 " But come, the governor sails for England ; 
 there must be letters, messages." 
 
 " Truth, I had forgot." 
 
 "Ye will thank my lord most heartily for the 
 fruit-trees he did send me and the rose-slips," said 
 Mistress Hawley, gravely. 
 
 " I told thee thy gift would not be forgot," cried 
 Margaret ; " he but sought to make return for thy 
 cheeses." 
 
 "Twas most kindly thought on. I brought 
 some of my own rose-cuttings to Sarah." 
 
 " She hath been pothering about them ever 
 since. It grieves her that the lawn is too shaded 
 for rose-growing, but the south side of the house 
 suits them fairly 'tis there she has planted 
 them." 
 
 But when they fell to talk of England and my 
 Lord Baltimore, Calvert was grave. He looked 
 far deeper than either woman could fathom, and
 
 172 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 knew the terrible war there, was a thing no man 
 could see the end of, an upheaval which might 
 tear to shreds the fabric of his brother's plannings 
 and his work, which might oust them from Mary- 
 land and the New World. And yet he must leave 
 a quaking colony, shaken to its depths, behind 
 him.
 
 XI 
 
 HURRY as she might, Leonard Calvert 
 had sailed for England and Giles was 
 established in his house at St. Mary's 
 ere Mistress Brent could reach the town. There 
 was one duty at St. Anne's she would perform 
 punctiliously. From the very planting of the 
 province the indentured servants had some cause 
 of plaint ; many masters were harsh in their treat- 
 ment, kept them beyond their bonded time, gave 
 them their freedom-due grudgingly, so that amongst 
 the first laws of the Assembly were those requiring 
 the master to deal faithfully with them, provide 
 good clothes and housings and food, and see they 
 held not their servants beyond their proper length 
 of service. 
 
 But first there must be some teasing of Sarah : 
 it could not be withstood. From the moment 
 when Jock had told her of her mistress's consent 
 that they should bide the winter at St. Anne's, 
 Sarah had been in a tremor of bashfulness and joy 
 and regret, which became her stout figure and 
 round, rosy face but illy.
 
 174 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Faith, Sarah, I '11 warrant me you have been 
 crying; such red lids become you not. What will 
 Jock say?" rallied Mistress Margaret the next 
 morn. 
 
 "Jock!" sniffed Sarah. 
 
 " Aye ; methought there was some meaning in 
 thy talk of lovers and quick weddings those first 
 days in the province." 
 
 " Mistress Margaret," protested Sarah, tearfully. 
 
 " I told thee then what thoughts were swarming 
 under thy gray thatch. Beshrew me, though, I 
 knew not already " 
 
 "Tis just since all these dreadful times," pro- 
 tested Sarah, tearfully, "Jock said a word to 
 me." 
 
 " No sheep-eyes, hey ? " 
 
 "I vow. An he did I'd tear them out o' his 
 head," declared Sarah, stoutly. 
 
 " Gramercy ! " 
 
 "He just come to me after all these awful 
 horrors, and he says he says 'taint no place for 
 women to bide 'long o' themselves here ; and I 
 says I says the whole upshot was he asked 
 me to bide 'long o' him." 
 
 " A rare and tender wooing." 
 
 " Jock is a good man." 
 
 " None better." 
 
 Sarah turned away, hurt at her mistress's light
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 175 
 
 scorn, but Mistress Brent came running behind 
 her. 
 
 " Sarah, Sarah ! " she flung her arms about her, 
 " I have angered thee; I thought not " 
 
 But Sarah had folded her to her broad bosom 
 and was hugging her as tightly as in the days of 
 Mistress Margaret's childhood. 
 
 " Say but the word ; I '11 never leave thee, Jock 
 and no one other." 
 
 Mistress Margaret smoothed the round, red 
 cheek above her. 
 
 " T is all settled now, and all right. I did but 
 tease thee," she reassured her. " Ye will do me 
 more service here ; ye can keep things well in 
 hand and have them in readiness for me." 
 
 So Sarah was comforted. The next day but 
 one Mistress Brent called Sarah and Jock to her 
 in her chamber. The day's work was done and the 
 early dusk filled the room, making dark shadows 
 about the bed and hangings near which Mistress 
 Margaret stood. 
 
 " Jock," she said, as he came slowly forward 
 behind Sarah, "thou hast charge of the stores 
 upon the manor; now, or when you think fit, 
 these are yours." She read from a list she held 
 
 in her hands : 
 
 " Three barrels of corn ; 
 
 One billing hoe; 
 One felling axe.
 
 176 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Your other belongings are here ; " she pointed to 
 a pile of clothing on the bed as she read : 
 " One new cloth suit; 
 One new shirt; 
 One pair new stockings ; 
 A new Monmouth cap ; 
 
 these, and the clothes you already have. The 
 governor will give ye, an ye petition him, fifty 
 acres of land likewise ; but I trust ye will bide here 
 your lifetime, here at St. Anne's. Sarah," she 
 turned the memorandum she held to the light, 
 though she knew each item of it by heart, " thou 
 hast the same as Jock from out our stores, and 
 these likewise: 
 
 " One new petty coat and waistcoat ; 
 
 One new smock ; 
 
 One pair new shoes ; 
 
 One pair new stockings ; 
 
 and the clothes formerly belonging to ye. These 
 are your ' freedom-due,' your right by the law of 
 the province." She smiled brightly at the man 
 and woman standing awkwardly there. "But 
 these are wedding gifts," she pointed to a heap 
 of soft, dark stuff on the bed ; " 't is thy wedding 
 gown, Sarah ; there is a suit for thee, Jock, finer 
 than this fustian. I would have ye wed on the 
 morrow; what," for Sarah had flushed a fiery 
 red, "say ye not so, Jock?"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 177 
 
 " Ye will take the pinnace at dawn," she went 
 on as if it were a task, this matter in hand, 
 she would do well and generously and yet she 
 loved not ; it seemed to put a barrier betwixt her 
 and her servitors. " Ye will take the pinnace at 
 dawn for St. Mary's. Father White now tarrieth 
 there ; ye will be decently married. Mayhap, an 
 the wind be fair, ye may be again at St. Anne's 
 by nightfall. Take with thee whom thou wilt 
 as help for sailing. Your papers I will have 
 duly attested and made out at St. Mary's. No ! 
 no ! " she clasped her tiny hands upon her ears ; 
 "get ye gone now save your speech for one 
 another." She signalled them out of the room 
 and sent them away peremptorily. 
 
 It hurt her more than she had thought to make 
 this formal severance. True, their servants in the 
 old land were free to come and go, only they 
 rarely went, one counted on their lifelong faith- 
 fulness. But here, such new visions filled their 
 minds, land was so easily come by. She had 
 fitted them both with all they might need for a 
 settler's life ; the sturdy axe could soon fell trees 
 a-plenty for the building of a rude and simple 
 cabin, and make much of their furniture likewise. 
 
 She smiled as she thought on some of the 
 simple huts she had seen, gourds for drinking-ves- 
 sels, smooth chips for plates, logs set endwise for
 
 178 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 tables and chairs alike, pine boughs and skins 
 for bedding ah, yes, it was simple enough; and 
 a man was one's own master, so they said, and 
 would come, mayhap, to a vote in the Assembly. 
 
 Mistress Margaret shrugged her slender shoul- 
 ders. She was aristocrat from curling hair to 
 dainty foot, and cared not a whit for such mad- 
 ness, but, instead, would have each right the 
 Charter of Maryland granted her, even to the 
 wearing of a title. Only her cousin Baltimore 
 had, strangely enough, grown neglectful of such 
 matters as he had lain much stress on there in 
 Arundel. 
 
 She stood dreamily when they were gone, 
 Jock and Sarah, looking through the open 
 window toward the river. Darkness lay thick 
 under the oaks, a few belated fireflies twinkled 
 in the grass, the sea-fowl lingering on their south- 
 ward way called shrill and plaintive from their 
 circling flight, the lonely voices of the eventide 
 pierced to the heart of the solitary listener. The 
 morning calls of nature are a joyous reveille to 
 awakening, to work, to hope ; but as the sun 
 sinks slowly in the west and shadows fall, the 
 call sounds low, subdued, and sad. 
 
 Mistress Brent at her window, looking forth on 
 shadowed lawn and darkened river from which 
 the sunset lights were swiftly fading, and listening
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 179 
 
 to the murmuring wind in the bronzing oaks and 
 the long, low wash of the tide, was aware that 
 she joyed in the thought of living once more 
 amongst men. 
 
 She was soon amidst many of the province. 
 Ere she landed, the idle canoes about St. Mary's 
 wharf, the group under the great mulberry on the 
 Point, where the loungers were wont most to 
 loiter, told their tale. As she walked slowly 
 up the sandy street, the many faces at door and 
 window of the houses crowded to overflowing 
 told it again. 
 
 It had been two years since she set foot in the 
 town, and she went, now, with many a glance 
 about her, notwithstanding that Giles, resplendent 
 in his bravery, walked by her. She would have 
 a word with all the children in the street until he 
 stopped her. 
 
 " Peace, Margaret, ye will have every chit of 
 them all at thy heels. Come thy way, after- 
 wards." 
 
 " Aye," said she, laughingly, " I must see them 
 all, the round, fat beggars ! Their cheeks show 
 well enow there 's plenty in the town." 
 
 " Plenty," quoth Giles, his face growing stern- 
 set; "an these fellows return not soon to their 
 claims, there will be want of the direst in Mary- 
 land ere another twelvemonth."
 
 i8o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 But Mistress Margaret's humor was blithe. 
 No dark fears yet possessed her. In the garden 
 plot, here a well-tended rose showed autumn 
 blossomings, there sweet winter violets bloomed ; 
 for each she had a quick observance. As long 
 as the women tended their flowers and the chil- 
 dren sang in the street, she knew that all was 
 well. But as the winter grew apace, even Mistress 
 Margaret waxed faint-hearted. Some of the men, 
 unwilling to lose the fruit of all their labors, 
 returned to their claims to harvest a crop already 
 damaged by neglect ; but many, their fears mag- 
 nified by the fears of their neighbors and grown 
 to overblown proportions, lingered on through 
 all the winter. The households, but furnished for 
 themselves, felt the strain of added numbers; 
 oysters from the river, wild ducks from the 
 marshes, and venison from the forest were plenti- 
 ful but bread grew scarce. 
 
 The weather, too, was rigorous, beyond the 
 wont of the climate. Scarce was the Christmas 
 season, with such cheer and festivity as Mistress 
 Brent could make for it, passed, than bitter cold 
 set in. The river was frozen from side to side so 
 that men could safely cross it, snow fell irregularly 
 for days and drifted into door-yards and chimney- 
 side, and sifted through the bare branches of the 
 forest and weighted the thick pines.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 181 
 
 Now Mistress Margaret saw what the governor 
 had been to his people. Through every day 
 came messengers to those who were in his stead, 
 messages of want or sickness, news from outlying 
 plantations, prayers for help, they must heed 
 each, as they knew he would have done. 
 
 Giles's finery went neglected as he bent him to 
 his many tasks. To visit the plantations, to stop 
 for a cheery word with the gamesters in the 
 coffee-house, to hold, above all, the tangled 
 affairs of government as well as he might, left 
 time for little else. 
 
 Mistress Margaret must take him to task about 
 his thoughtlessness concerning himself, as he 
 came one night wet from ploughing through 
 great drifts of snow and shivering with cold. 
 She herself rested by the great fire in the gov- 
 ernor's living-room, where she had come upon Cal- 
 vert that evening when she had dared to visit him. 
 
 The table, pushed back beneath the window, was 
 still covered with papers, but neatly folded or 
 tied in packages, Giles was ever orderly, ink- 
 horn and quill, and seal of Maryland and the 
 map made by Captain Evelin yet garnished it, 
 side by side with manuscript leaves of the player 
 Shakespeare and the parson-poet Herrick. Giles 
 affected the new literature, and would have it sent 
 him from London.
 
 182 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The dark, heavy settle with its high-back screen 
 against the draughts was close drawn before the 
 fire, and Mistress Brent with Mistress Hawley by 
 her side sat upon it; the great chair waited Giles, 
 and Mistress Margaret fretted at his long stay. 
 
 " Had any one forewarned me he 'd so forget 
 himself! Come wind or weather, he is forever 
 about; he must visit the coffee-house for a word 
 with the men, he says they need a word of cheer 
 now and then. Cheer ! the cowardly " 
 
 " Nay," protested Mistress Hawley, comforting, 
 " thou must not dwell on such hard thoughts, 
 'tis not like thee." 
 
 "But Giles, Giles is all I have within the 
 province ! " 
 
 " Hast forgot Mary ? " 
 
 Mistress Brent rose from the great settle and 
 walked around it restlessly to the window. 
 
 "Tis as clear as daylight," she declared as 
 she drew aside the hangings from the window; 
 " the stars shine like glittering steel, and the white 
 light of the moon how the wind whistles, the 
 ice forms already on the pane; if Giles were but 
 within ! " 
 
 " He will return ere long." 
 
 "Thou art a sure prophet," his sister cried, 
 a note of relief in her voice. " There he comes ! " 
 as she saw a tall, slender form bent to breast the
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 183 
 
 wind; "though why I should have worried this 
 night of all others He is ever late and uncertain. 
 Faith, I believe it is because the bitter cold chills 
 one's courage as well as one's blood." She came 
 back to the settle and cuddled close to Mistress 
 Hawley's side. " 'T is such a night as one loves 
 to have the household within doors." 
 
 " Ah, Giles," she called, as he paused at the 
 doorway blinded by the glare of the firelight, 
 " thou hast come at last. I e'en grew uneasy." 
 
 " Uneasy," he answered lightly ; " didst think 
 wild beasts were abroad in the streets?" 
 
 " God's faith, I trust not. Thou art wet, the 
 snow clings even to thy shoe buckles. Go, change 
 thy footgear." 
 
 "I will but warm me by the fire." He came 
 forward to the chair by the fire, not knowing the 
 room held any save his sister. The firelight 
 shone full on Mistress Hawley's fair face against 
 the background of the dark wood of the settle. 
 
 A quick joy shone in Giles' bright hazel eyes. 
 "I thought not " 
 
 " I despatched a messenger for Mistress Hawley 
 ere sunset and besought her to visit us. She 
 is over chary of her company and needs much 
 coaxing to bide the night, but I shall not let her 
 from us." 
 
 "'Tis biting cold," declared Giles as he leaned
 
 184 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 forward to warm his stiffened fingers ; " methinks " 
 
 he paused a moment looking thoughtfully at 
 flame of oak and hickory "the smith's wife is 
 ill of pneumonia, 't is the fifth one in the town ; 
 many children are ailing, likewise." 
 
 "And thou hast been from house to house? " 
 " 'T is but what the governor would have done 
 
 and what thou wilt do on the morrow," he cast 
 a kind, shrewd glance at Mistress Margaret's face. 
 
 " I shall take Mistress Hawley with me." 
 
 " Mistress Hawley hath much skill in nursing? " 
 questioned Giles. 
 
 Mistress Hawley smiled her acquiescence. 
 
 " Thou wilt have enough to tax thee, an thou 
 wilt help us." 
 
 " I have been always ready. Governor Calvert 
 hath come oft to me for aid." 
 
 " Thou shouldst see the herbs and simples 
 hanging from her kitchen rafters. She '11 burn 
 her patients with pepper teas and hot mustards." 
 
 "The cold must be driven out," said Mistress 
 Hawley, defending herself. 
 
 " And rub them with bear's grease." 
 
 " There is naught better for the rheumatism." 
 
 " Come, I Ve had the megrims all the day ! I 
 have been close shut indoors too long; hadst 
 thou not come but now I have both thee and 
 Giles."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 185 
 
 " Thou art sober, Giles, and thy lace is torn," 
 she leaned toward him and fingered the torn fringe 
 at his wrist, but Giles, unused to caressings, flushed 
 and drew his hand away. 
 
 " Thy collar is rumpled," she went on, teasingly. 
 
 " Margaret 1" called Giles, sternly; it angered 
 him to have his toilet so dwelt upon before Mis- 
 tress Hawley. 
 
 " Well, well, I did but want thee " 
 
 " A man is oft careless in his dress because he 
 hath other matters to think on," said Mistress 
 Hawley. Giles had lost nothing in her sight by 
 his work in St. Mary's that winter. 
 
 Mistress Brent rose to her feet. Her own rich 
 gown hung in bright folds about her, and the coils 
 of her hair shone jewel-set upon her head. 
 
 "I have just the thing," she declared, as she 
 went quickly out of the room. 
 
 Giles, before the fire, was well content. The 
 warmth of it crept through his chilled body, and 
 the sight of the calm, clear face near him warmed 
 his heart ; as he leaned forward close to the fire 
 he studied her delightedly with sidelong glances, 
 the ripple of the fair brown hair on her white 
 temple where the blue veins shone, the eyes wide 
 set, deep fringed, the oval of cheek faintly tinged 
 with pink, the long curves of her figure. 
 
 The red lips were curved upward. He had
 
 1 86 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 watched them a hundred times : curved thus they 
 meant content or merriment; straight set they 
 often were, it was when her mood was determined 
 or when she was going briskly about her house- 
 hold tasks; drooping they sometimes were, and 
 the sadness of her eyes and face then cut him to 
 the heart. 
 
 The silence which fell on them when Mistress 
 Brent left them was of friendship and knowledge 
 of one another; there was no need for hasty speech 
 to break embarrassed pause. 
 
 The wind whistled about the house and shrieked 
 in the chimney's mouth, and the flames crackled in 
 the hearth and the hot sap hissed and spluttered 
 on the burning logs. 
 
 Mistress Margaret came gayly back, an Indian 
 basket heaped with red apples in her hand. 
 
 " Now," she cried, as she knelt before the fire 
 and placed the apples in shining rows before the 
 hot coals, " we '11 roast apples and tell tales ; would 
 we had Mary and her lute." 
 
 Giles laughed. " When last I saw her lute 
 Rosalind was plucking at a string, the rest were 
 broke." 
 
 " Poor Mary ! " sighed Mistress Margaret, as 
 she turned an apple to her liking. 
 
 " 'T is what she said of thee when last I visited 
 her," said Giles, teasingly.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 187 
 
 Mistress Margaret looked over her shoulder in 
 round-eyed wonder. 
 
 "Of me?" 
 
 "Dost think thyself the most fortunate of all 
 womenkind that none should pity thee?" ques- 
 tioned Mistress Hawley. 
 
 " Pity, why, 't is akin to love, the poet says," 
 teased Giles. 
 
 Mistress Brent drew back on the bearskin rug 
 and coiled her skirts about her. 
 
 " Here are some walnuts," she said compla- 
 cently, holding up her basket, " newly cracked, 
 and hickory nuts with thin shells from the great 
 tree beyond the town. Giles, reach me hither the 
 pewter plates from the mantel. They are but 
 freshly dusted," she said anxiously to Mistress 
 Hawley. 
 
 She ran her white hands in the basket and 
 brought them out heaped with nuts, black and 
 yellow shelled, and piled the plate for Mistress 
 Hawley's knee. 
 
 " Giles, 't is thy turn now ! " 
 
 She filled the plate upon her own lap and began 
 to eat with hearty enjoyment. 
 
 " Faith," she laughed as a spluttering apple fair 
 splashed her hand, " now, wast thou not so abste- 
 mious," she teased Mistress Hawley, " we 'd brew 
 a bowl o' punch with fresh hot apples for it."
 
 1 88 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " I love a roasted apple better," said Mistress 
 Hawley. 
 
 " With savory spices and soft sugar," went on 
 Margaret, teasingly; "the governor's housekeeper 
 hath them all within her store-room." 
 
 " 'T is right she should," declared Mistress 
 Hawley, stoutly. 
 
 "And right we should use them? " teased Mis- 
 tress Margaret. 
 
 " Come, Madge," broke in Giles, " tend thy 
 apples, methinks there is a smell of burning in 
 the air." 
 
 " Burning ! 't is done to a turn ; " she leaned 
 forward and plucked the apple by its stem. 
 "Katharine, an thou lovest such " 
 
 It was an evening of happy carelessness they 
 long remembered; one of the few they could 
 snatch from that hard winter. For next day, 
 spite of cold and snow, Mistress Hawley and 
 Mistress Brent were abroad, and found work for 
 many a day to come. 
 
 Mistress Hawley's stock of herbs and simples 
 was well nigh exhausted before the siege of the 
 winter had passed, and bread had grown so scarce 
 Giles had fitted out a pinnace for trade with the 
 Indians of Virginia, and bought maize, which he 
 distributed according to the people's necessities. 
 There had been tales of Indian depredations all
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 189 
 
 the winter; some said the cattle had been driven 
 off or hogs had been stolen, lurking figures had 
 been seen about the distant clearings; but the 
 cattle had been found astray and hogs had been 
 shot half wild in the forests, their owners' mark 
 upon them. Men began to see they had scared 
 themselves with their own hobgoblins, and to think 
 of returning to their claims. 
 
 And when at last they did they found their 
 houses wet with the storms of winter that had 
 beat upon them untenanted. Beds and clothing 
 were mouldering; the corn which yet hung upon 
 the stalks was moulded in the husks, or else corn 
 and stalk alike were beaten in the furrow or de- 
 stroyed by wild beasts; the tobacco they had 
 cut before the fear came upon them was illy 
 cured where it hung in the open sheds, there 
 was trouble to find even the seed for the new 
 planting. 
 
 But in the spring-tide, when the sap ran riotous 
 through trunk and tip of wood-growth, and saxi- 
 frage and anemone were nodding at the forest 
 edge, and the air was full of smell of bud and 
 blossom and resonant with sweet wild-bird songs, 
 when every day of sunshine was a call more potent 
 than any human plea to be up and doing out of 
 doors, men took heart of grace. 
 
 There were fish in the rivers and game in the
 
 190 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 woods, and strawberries and wild fruits in their 
 season would yield their due ; slight shelter was 
 needed for the summer, and by winter much they 
 had lost could be regained. 
 
 Hope ran in their veins like the sap in the wood- 
 lands; the people of the town, relieved of their 
 surplus households, worked in their gardens or 
 ploughed their fields beyond the town. The 
 women tended their houses and dug about their 
 roses, their cowslips, and sweet, early blooming 
 spikes of wallflower, and the children played in 
 the streets. 
 
 Yet the colony had been shaken, and, like a 
 woman once frighted, hid tender nerves under its 
 calm.
 
 XII 
 
 THOUGH the spring days came and went, 
 there was no sail from England. The 
 governor, so he had said, would be 
 back with the first of the shipping, but no vessel 
 showed on the river save the pinnaces of the 
 planters. 
 
 Through Jamestown, however, came news of 
 victorious rebellion in England, a mighty tearing 
 of all her people into factions, and those of Mary- 
 land feared for her governor's success. 
 
 Giles was growing restless as to his commandery 
 of Kent, and Mistress Margaret would be gone to 
 St. Anne's. She had had enough of men and 
 their affairs, and longed again for the quiet of 
 her manor. 
 
 She was thinking of it restlessly as she loitered 
 along the street from the governor's house by 
 chapel and mill, around Mattaponi Street toward 
 Mistress Hawley's. Before the coffee-house some 
 idle fellows were playing quoits, another lingered 
 by the wide, low doorway, smoking his evening 
 pipe lazily; across the sandy green-bordered lane
 
 192 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the shadows were growing long, and Margaret 
 noted, as she walked, the sweet white clovers 
 showing blossom in the thick-set grass, but her 
 mood was not of pleasant loitering nor idle chat. 
 
 "Faith," she complained to Mistress Hawley, 
 when she came upon her in the narrow strip of 
 yard, trimming the rose which had grown into a 
 bower above her door and window, " I feel as lazy 
 and as quarrelsome as as " she paused for 
 simile, " as those idle fellows there," she added, 
 pointing up the street. 
 
 " They look merry enow," said Mistress Hawley, 
 when she had bade her welcome. 
 
 " But they are quarrelling," declared Margaret, 
 persistently, " and might have come to blows had 
 I not sauntered past ; I did but give them a look 
 from the tail of mine eye as I came and they 
 quieted, forsooth." 
 
 Mistress Hawley reached to catch a high, rugged 
 spray and trim it evenly and bind it to the cottage 
 side. 
 
 " One fellow would have it his ring had hit the 
 stake and shied away," went on Margaret, mischiev- 
 ously making much of the trifle ; " the other," 
 she looked above her where she sat in the door- 
 way, " the rose will soon be budded," she said, 
 abruptly ; " it minds one of the day we first set 
 foot in the province."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 193 
 
 " 'T was in pouring rain and howling wind." 
 
 " Belike it was. La ! Katharine, look ! " Margaret 
 leaned up against the door-post while she shook 
 with laughter. There down the street came the 
 belated cowherd hurrying the cattle before him; 
 they half turned at the corner, and he was upon 
 them with his stick belaboring them, but they 
 turned again and charged furiously by the coffee- 
 house, fairly running on the unconscious players. 
 
 " Moll looks as if she 'd gore him an she had 
 a chance," laughed Mistress Hawley ; " 't is well he 
 could skip it lightly. I must hasten to the dairy ; 
 come, come with me." 
 
 "That will I. I ne'er think of thee and thy 
 house without a memory of that cool nook there." 
 
 " An you had to spend as many hours a day as 
 I do there, mayhap you would tire of it." 
 
 "Aye, I tire of everything in its turn. I am 
 tired now of St. Mary's," she declared, as she 
 followed along the well-trod pathway to the spring 
 house beneath the walnut whose pale-green buds 
 were showing faintly. 
 
 In the cool, dusky dairy the clear water rippled 
 by crock of rich milk and jar of yellow butter, and 
 the scent of ripening cheeses on the shelf mingled 
 with the fresh, sweet smell of earth and running 
 water. 
 
 Mistress Hawley tucked up her long, full skirt 
 13
 
 i 9 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and rolled the sleeves from her round wrists and 
 lifted with strong, supple arms the heavy crock to 
 the shelf. She began to skim the cream with 
 quick, practised hand. She must make ready for 
 the fresh milk the maid would soon bring. 
 
 Mistress Margaret went back to her early plaint. 
 " I am tired of St. Mary's." 
 
 Mistress Hawley nodded as if to say she ex- 
 pected such affairs. 
 
 " Katharine," begged Margaret, speaking sud- 
 denly and quickly, " I would ye were not so vastly 
 industrious." 
 
 " In truth ! " said Mistress Hawley carelessly, as 
 she went on busily with her work. 
 
 " In truth ! " mimicked Mistress Margaret ; " then 
 ye would, Katharine, hearken to what I have to 
 say; 'fore God, I mean it, every word; listen ! " 
 
 " Do I not alway ? " 
 
 " Tut ! one would think you the easiest moved 
 of mortals." 
 
 " In truth ! " 
 
 " In truth ! thou art fair angering, Katharine, 
 with thy everlasting ' in truth,' thy short words and 
 wise looks ; I 'd fain shake ye soundly ! " she said, 
 eying her with a look of mischief and resentment 
 mingled. 
 
 " Try it ! " 
 
 Mistress Margaret sprang to her feet and put her
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 195 
 
 slender hands on Mistress Hawley's firm shoulders. 
 " Would I could ! " she cried, then flung her arms 
 lightly about her. 
 
 "Katharine, listen! Give up thy cottage here 
 and go with me to St. Anne's; thou shalt share 
 with me in all things." 
 
 Mistress Hawley gasped. " Margaret, what 
 folly " 
 
 "And ye did, ye'd marry in a twelvemonth," 
 said Margaret, as she turned petulantly away. 
 
 " Marry ! " cried Mistress Hawley, shortly. 
 " Methinks there was some truth in what ye said, 
 ye wax idle." 
 
 " Now, Kate, be silent. I blame myself and 
 belabor myself, but for another to belabor me 
 never ! I did but ask thee to St. Anne's," she 
 went on, defending herself. " There 's many a 
 one " 
 
 "Aye, many a one would be glad to go. But 
 thou knowest how one's heart takes root. I would 
 not leave here," she looked about her at cottage 
 and garden and dairy, and thought on her fields 
 and pastures allotted outside the town. " I would 
 not give up these, no, for naught ; besides " 
 
 It was Mistress Margaret's turn to mimic. " Be- 
 sides," she quoted, petulantly. 
 
 " Besides, ye know my humor ; I would be 
 beholden to none."
 
 196 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "But would have all beholden to thee. Thou 
 art proud e'en in thy charities." 
 
 " My charities? I have none." 
 
 " Then all thy kindnesses count for naught." 
 
 Mistress Hawley was half angered. She turned 
 quietly to the skimming of the milk and poured 
 the thick, yellow cream into the crock for the 
 morrow's churning; naught broke the stillness 
 save the sound of the rippling water and the 
 rustling of the walnut's branches. Then there 
 came a ringing step adown the path. 
 
 " Margaret," cried Mistress Hawley, " who is it? " 
 
 " Faith, 't is Giles ! he said he had some errand 
 at the coffee-house and would come hither when 
 it was done ; it must have been of quick despatch." 
 
 " Giles? " cried Mistress Hawley, rosy red ; " run, 
 meet him, take him to the house! I would not 
 have him see me thus." 
 
 But Mistress Margaret was lazily still, a look of 
 mischief in her dark eyes. 
 
 "La! Katharine, thou dost the dairymaid to 
 perfection ; that bare arm, now, Giles would give 
 a pound for the looking on it." 
 
 " Margaret ! " Mistress Hawley was plucking 
 with nervous fingers at tucked skirt and rolled-up 
 sleeves. 
 
 Margaret stooped hastily and lifted a moist 
 crock from the floor.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 197 
 
 "Hi! Giles," she called, "we are within the 
 dairy. I would assist Mistress Hawley," she de- 
 clared demurely, as she went diligently to work 
 skimming the cream. Giles came on quickly, his 
 erect, slender figure showing clearly as he came 
 down the pathway. 
 
 " Margaret, Margaret ! " cried Mistress Hawley, 
 shocked, spite of her embarrassment at Margaret's 
 manner of work, "ye will break the cream and 
 ye" 
 
 "I'll warrant me she is a rare dairymaid," 
 laughed Giles, as he reached the doorway. 
 
 " There was none within," he went on, apologiz- 
 ing for his presence there. " I knew where to 
 search for ye at such an hour. I Ve heard 
 Margaret prate of thy dairy oft." 
 
 " Come, Margaret, leave it to Ann," begged 
 Mistress Hawley, throwing the great spoon upon 
 the shelf. 
 
 "Nay, finish thy work," begged Giles; "'tis 
 pleasant loitering here." 
 
 Giles leaned against the doorway and watched 
 with keen, delighted eyes the supple figure moving 
 to and fro. The maids came with the foaming 
 milk which must be strained into the clean crocks, 
 and the churning must be made ready for the 
 morrow. 
 
 The sun was well set behind the vast forest and
 
 198 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the sickle of the new moon hung in its red wester- 
 ing when they came gayly up the pathway to the 
 house. The doors of the hall were opened back 
 and front, and as they neared the one a messenger 
 swift with ill news came in the other. 
 
 Giles knew him instantly spite of the dusk that 
 thickened in the hall, 'twas a fellow of his house 
 of Kent. 
 
 "James," demanded his master quickly, "what 
 brings thee hither?" 
 
 "We did think it best one should come," the 
 man faltered, not knowing what to say, now that 
 he stood at last in his master's presence. 
 
 "Ye have come with news; what is it? speak! " 
 
 "A ship hath come to Kent," began the man, 
 nervously. 
 
 "Is it of England?" 
 
 " I know not." 
 
 " God's grace ! " blazed Giles, forgetful in his 
 impatience of the womankind about him ; " whose 
 ship ? What is thy tale ? " 
 
 "'Tis Captain Ingle," faltered the man. 
 
 " And who is Captain Ingle, forsooth ? " 
 
 " Tis a trader and adventurer who hath been to 
 St. Mary's in the earliest days of the settlement; 
 he is a warm friend and adherent of Claiborne's," 
 said Mistress Hawley slowly, speaking as one who 
 feared what might yet be said.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 199 
 
 "What does he at Kent? Out with it, man! 
 Thou hast ever a ready tongue." 
 
 " The people were o'erjoyed with his coming ; 
 the settlers crowded to the fort; he had much 
 to tell them " 
 
 " In God's name, of what? " 
 
 " Of England ; that the king would be o'er- 
 thrown and Maryland " 
 
 " And what of Maryland ? " broke in Mistress 
 Margaret. 
 
 " They will have no more of the government 
 of St. Mary's." 
 
 " What ! " blazed Margaret, " they dare to rebel 
 against the governor Calvert and the Lord Pro- 
 prietor?" 
 
 " T is not the first time," said Mistress Hawley, 
 quietly; "ye recall the tale I told ye long ago." 
 
 " Aye, but so long ago." Mistress Brent was 
 hot at such presumptuous daring. 
 
 " The governor will make them repent," she 
 cried. 
 
 "But they say " the man paused as if he 
 feared to finish. 
 
 "Say what?" 
 
 "That the governor comes no more," said the 
 man, eying Giles anxiously, as if to read from 
 his face if such news could be true. 
 
 " The governor comes on any day," said Giles,
 
 200 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 shortly ; " and so you may tell them for me. He 
 will show them their folly; he will come with 
 soldiers, and I shall be of them; but stay! 
 James, ye must hasten to my house. I would 
 have ye return to Kent, see that my household 
 is kept guarded and they lay not a finger to it. 
 I must send messages I Margaret, wilt thou 
 come with me now?" 
 
 He hurried her away. But questionings and 
 talk only made the man's tale the clearer. 
 
 Kent had shaken off her allegiance to St. 
 Mary's and again declared her independence. 
 
 Now Kent, that green isle far up the bay, the 
 gem of the Chesapeake, was a thorn in the side of 
 the settlement of St. Mary's. Settled by colonists 
 under William Claiborne when the grant of the 
 Calverts was yet unthought of, they would have 
 none of their rule when they were settled within 
 their province, and even when conquered by 
 force of arms were lukewarm in their allegiance. 
 Yet for four years they had owned the Calverts' 
 sway, their burgesses had sat in the Assembly, 
 and the governor looked on their subjection as 
 perfected and appointed them a commander. 
 Toward him they were much disaffected, but 
 Captain Brent, now in his stead, had tried by 
 all his arts to win them, and counted on some 
 success. Now
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 201 
 
 This Captain Ingle had come, as his fellow said, 
 from God knows where, and brought them these 
 tidings heard God knows how, and had persuaded 
 the people as they would gladly be persuaded. 
 
 The king's cause, he told them, crumbled to the 
 ground, and with his friendship went the cause of 
 the Lord Proprietor. Claiborne, who had power- 
 ful friends on the other side, would be reinstated. 
 The islanders had crowded into the little settle- 
 ment to see and hear him ; they were on fire with 
 joy and enthusiasm and would have none of St. 
 Mary's rule, no, not for a day. And the men 
 proceeded to choose their officers and to reinstate 
 the government they had held ere Calvert came. 
 Giles's commandery was overthrown. Bitterest of 
 all, he had lost it whilst in charge of the province, 
 and now he dared not act, and could not an he 
 dared. The people, but lately scattered to their 
 homes, were in no mood for warfare. Sufficient 
 to them were their own affairs. The soldiers at 
 St. Mary's and the small fort of the town were 
 too few for assistance, and the lieutenant-governor 
 must wait the governor's return. 
 
 As though ill news came never but others 
 followed in its wake, there came likewise a tale 
 of trouble from St. Anne's. Whilst in the stable- 
 yard Jock had been taken unawares by a bear 
 gaunt from his winter's sleeping and ferocious
 
 202 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 from his hunger. There had been a hard fight 
 ere Jock could make an end of him, and the 
 beast's great paw had ripped his shoulder deeply. 
 Jock was abed. 
 
 There was none at the front of affairs when the 
 planting must be attended to and the tobacco 
 made ready for the early shipment. Mistress 
 Margaret must be gone.
 
 XIII 
 
 LIFE is ever new. One views it never with 
 the same gaze. It is like a clear glass 
 which, catching the white light of eternity, 
 throws ever a changing hue on all around it. 
 
 So Mistress Margaret came back to St. Anne's, 
 joyous to be again within her home, yet with 
 fresh cares at heart and a conscious, anxious 
 memory of St. Mary's that would not be gone. 
 
 Instead of the easy, delighted absorption in her 
 own affairs in which she had lived, was a constant 
 alertness which kept her alive to every breath of 
 rumor, that rumor which somehow percolates 
 the most remote countries and makes one sure 
 there is a brotherhood in man, a sympathetic 
 beating of the pulses of humanity, gainsay it 
 who may. The rumors were mostly of the doings 
 of the lieutenant-governor. 
 
 She had left her brother, Captain Brent, wild 
 with impatience. To sit idly down while anger 
 ran riot in his veins was well nigh impossible to 
 his humor, yet it was all left him to do; and
 
 204 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 having it to do, he must meet it as a soldier 
 should who had learned to wait as well as act, 
 and to wait wisely. 
 
 She found herself so daily impatient that she 
 despatched her pinnace for news. Giles had 
 intended ere the governor's return to visit the 
 distant manors where the force of men had been 
 large enough to save the people from fear of 
 Indian invasion and to keep them within their 
 homes when the settlers had crowded into the 
 town. He would pay a stately visit to St. Peter's 
 Key at the head of St. Inigoes Creek, to Delight 
 on St. George's River, and to Philipp's Manor on 
 the Potomac. He would see the block-houses 
 of the hundreds and have the captains make 
 their rounds of inspection earlier in the season 
 than was their wont. Not a house within the 
 province but must be duly provided with ammu- 
 nition. Every man must have for himself and his 
 man-servants one musket, ten pounds of powder, 
 forty pounds of lead bullets, one sword and belt, 
 one bandelier and flask. Mistress Brent knew 
 they were all within her house, and more besides ; 
 her brother-in-law, the captain, was most rigor- 
 ous in his inspection, and had added, moreover, 
 a monthly drilling to which each household must 
 send its complement of soldiers. 
 
 And knowing Giles was gone from St. Mary's
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 205 
 
 on such errand, she strove to hold herself content 
 and tend her own affairs. 
 
 St. Anne's, with the budding oaks about it, the 
 newly built barns and stables, though they were but 
 pine logs fresh and green and thatched with reeds, 
 with its fresh turned fields and greening forests, 
 was fair enough to delight its owner's heart. 
 Within the dwelling Sarah had proven an ex- 
 cellent care-taker. Carpet and tapestry were 
 well darned, pewter and silver beaten into shape 
 and polished, floors scrubbed to shining white- 
 ness, for Mistress Brent would have none of the 
 sanded floors or green-spread rushes her neigh- 
 bors affected. " Ah, well ! " she sighed, " 't is 
 well to be home again," and being home and 
 being content she must needs go a-visiting Mary 
 and her babes. No daring through the woods, 
 this visit, but her canoe and two stout rowers 
 likewise, should the wind fail them. And Mistress 
 Margaret, tingling with life to her finger-tips and 
 unwilling to brook even the hour's idleness within 
 the boat, must learn to sail, forsooth, though her 
 man was in a quiver of fear and horror and be- 
 sought her far as he dared, pleading the treachery 
 of the great river and its sudden squalls; and 
 Mistress Brent, looking with careless glance along 
 the shifting blue water, called shame upon him for 
 a coward, when here the bay lay like a thing
 
 206 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 asleep, and there a cat's-paw of a wind ruffled 
 the blue into purplish tints and caught the sail 
 and sent them spinning onward. 
 
 She kept her hand on the tiller, the servant 
 by her side, and watched him trim the sail with 
 learning eye. " Aye," she declared as she sprang 
 on Captain Rogers's wharf, "I will be oft on the 
 river in the summer, 't is senseless waste to have 
 the men from out the fields to take me on my 
 jaunts ; I will learn myself." And she went on 
 her way gayly, a smile on her lips as she noted 
 Captain "Rogers's dwelling. 
 
 There in the spring sunshine it stood, gray, 
 forbidding, the high palisade weather-worn and 
 warped, the slope of the roof and the chimney 
 tops alone showing above it, the gate tight shut. 
 
 " Knock soundly upon it ! " she called to the 
 man who followed her. The fellow picked a 
 great stick from the ground and struck the gate 
 a resounding blow, when it flew open, and a 
 sentinel, blunderbuss at his back, stood within. 
 
 Rosalind played in the bare yard and in the 
 doorway sat the boy, rosy and content. 
 
 Mistress Margaret caught the girl in her arms. 
 " Auntie Madge ! " screamed Rosalind, who loved 
 her aunt with all her tricksy ways devotedly. 
 
 "Aye, and here is master Frederick what!" 
 for the boy hid his face shyly against the
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 207 
 
 door-post and raised a chubby arm above his 
 head. 
 
 " Mary," she cried to her sister, who came out 
 into the hall, " he knows me not ! " 
 
 Mary came up to her delightedly. Rogers and 
 her babes, the yard and beach and wharf her 
 sole outing-place grew tiresome now and then, 
 and even the babes became a cloying joy. Mar- 
 garet was like a breeze from the north sweeping 
 over her. She felt again the Mary Brent of old, 
 and no longer Mistress Rogers of Rogers's Hope. 
 
 " An ye come not oftener," reproached Mary, 
 "what can ye expect?" 
 
 " Coax him to me." Margaret seated herself 
 on the step by his side. 
 
 " Nay, Margaret," Mistress Rogers chided, " what 
 would Henry say an he entered and found Mis- 
 tress Brent newly come from the governor's resi- 
 dence, sprawled on his doorstep romping with the 
 children? Come, sit here! leave Frederick; he '11 
 come to his senses shortly." She pulled a chair 
 forward in the hall, and Margaret, Rosalind fast 
 clasped in her arms, rested herself within it. 
 
 Fair as she looked, childish pleasure in her eyes, 
 the bright color burnt by wind and sunshine in 
 her cheek, there was none to see, to admire, nor 
 cavil. Captain Rogers was hunting in the wood 
 and returned not.
 
 208 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 She could talk as unrestrained as in the olden 
 days, and by and by the babe, with many a shy 
 delay, came close and closer, till he too was on 
 her knee, his eyes fixed on the jewel at her 
 throat. 
 
 " The sweet chuck ! " cried Margaret, unfasten- 
 ing the pin ; " he shall have it ! " 
 
 " Madge ! " protested her sister. 
 
 " Nay, I have never given him aught save his 
 drinking-mug ; his sister here," she lifted Rosa- 
 lind, " hath fair hair like her mother's ; for this 
 young lady I shall have a set of corals of won- 
 drous carving to show against her pink cheeks 
 and white arms. For him aye, Mary, what does 
 a boy want?" 
 
 " A boat or a blunderbuss," laughed his mother ; 
 " 't is Frederick's sole delight." 
 
 " A soldier," said Margaret, thoughtfully, though 
 inwardly she prayed he 'd never be such a martinet 
 as his father. 
 
 Mistress Brent held the jewel in her hand. 
 "Do you remember it, Mary? It was our father's, 
 he wore it ever at his collar ; " she placed the 
 jewel, an amethyst set in twisted gold, in Mary's 
 hand. " 'T is fitting it should be worn by his eldest 
 grandson, but, Mary, see ye keep it for him, and 
 see to it, thyself, the lad is told of the deeds of 
 his grandfather who wore it, much of his brave,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 209 
 
 loyal life. Teach him to be such another and ye 
 do well." 
 
 Mary flushed to her fair hair. She knew well 
 what lurked under Margaret's words. The boy 
 was reared as his father would have him, and Cap- 
 tain Rogers had many a tale of his own forbears, 
 who yet shone dimly beside the ancestry of which 
 the Brents could boast. " I will, I will ! " prom- 
 ised Mary fervently, and then the two women fell 
 into talk, wholesome and intimate, talk of Mary's 
 life that winter, shut in, subdued ; a tale of the 
 children's pranks or Henry's hunting feats; talk 
 of Margaret's winter days in St. Mary's, the gossip 
 of the neighbors crowded there, the tale of their 
 affairs, of the babes new born, of the marriages 
 within the settlement, of new made claims, and of 
 those who might venture out from England in the 
 spring. 
 
 Margaret held strenuously from any grave 
 speech, and the evening sped away. 
 
 " Faith, I must be gone," she cried, springing to 
 her feet and spilling the children in such fashion 
 they rolled laughing to the floor. 
 
 "Madge, we never see thee," begged Mary; 
 "ye come and go like a flash, and so seldom." 
 
 " Aye, but thou knowest I am not lady of the 
 manor only, but manager of affairs as well, and 
 now that Jock is disabled, why cannot ye come 
 14
 
 210 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and visit me? What is to keep thee from it? 
 Some day when thy husband is far afield take thy 
 boat, or let me know and I will send hither." 
 
 Mary faltered some reply; she knew she must 
 first seek her husband's permission, and she knew 
 that for her to take the babes and tarry a day, 
 he would deem it monstrous, though he tarried oft 
 himself for weeks. 
 
 " In faith I grow lonely oft, and, Mary, when the 
 other babe has come," poor Mary flushed red 
 again, it was the first word Margaret had said of 
 the babe who must soon be here, " thou must 
 spare me Rosalind. Wilt be auntie's girl, sweet- 
 heart?" but the little girl held back at that, though 
 she followed to the wharf and clung about her till 
 she was in the boat; and Mistress Margaret look- 
 ing often back saw her there, a thin, childish figure 
 showing bright against the gray wharf and silvery 
 river. Her mother stood by her, the boy clinging 
 to her skirts. 
 
 And Margaret tilted her firm chin and drew 
 long breaths of the invigorating air. She felt as 
 though she. had been in prison and her spirit, freed, 
 could sail and circle with the gulls overhead. 
 
 Musing thus she forgot her new-born wish to 
 master the sailing of her canoe and sat with 
 thoughtful eyes as the boat, heeled to the fresh 
 wind blowing as the tide came in, skimmed
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 211 
 
 homeward, for which forgetfulness her man was 
 thankful. 
 
 As he trimmed the sail for the wharf of St. 
 Anne's the prow of a great ship came into view 
 around the point. Mistress Brent sprang to her 
 feet and the boat lurched wildly. 
 
 "Faith!" she cried, hysterically, "'tis of Eng- 
 land; how came it to St. Mary's without our 
 knowledge? " 
 
 " It must have sailed by us in the night-time," 
 said the man. 
 
 " And there is news from England, from my 
 Lord Proprietor; mayhap the governor hath re- 
 turned. Put the sail about, she may pass us by. 
 I must have the news ! " her eager eyes flew to 
 the tiller and the sail as the men put both about. 
 The ship loomed clearer. " Methinks it is the 
 ' Elizabeth,' " declared Mistress Brent after long 
 scrutiny. 
 
 The men with her assented. They had both 
 crossed the seas in the " Elizabeth " with Mistress 
 Brent, and knew every rope and sail of the great 
 ship. 
 
 " In good faith it is, and well come, too. There 
 will be tidings from England and the stores which 
 I did order likewise, and the tobacco is all ready 
 for the lading. We will make for our own wharf- 
 age ; she will shortly be there. I '11 not have the
 
 212 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 sailors who handle my merchandise think me 
 unmannerly." 
 
 But Mistress Brent waited the captain im- 
 patiently. He came, as she knew, brimful of news, 
 news of England, where the king's affairs pros- 
 pered not, though, what mattered most to Mis- 
 tress Brent and all others of Maryland, the 
 governor had come again to St. Mary's, sailing 
 in his own good ship, the " Elizabeth." 
 
 News of St. Mary's. Giles had but returned 
 from his jauntings and reconnoitrings, and the 
 governor was well pleased at finding the affairs 
 of the settlement so well in hand. 
 
 The shrewd captain had sailed back and forth 
 for the eight years of the settlement's growth, and 
 he knew its affairs as he knew his own ; and he had 
 fallen quick into Captain Giles's humor, the thing 
 for which he had worn him thin and for which 
 he had watched the river as if for the sail of 
 one beloved. He would have the governor home 
 again and begone at once to conquer Kent, and 
 Calvert himself hastened the expedition. 
 
 The captain knew, too, and hesitated not to tell 
 the Mistress of St. Anne's, that the goodly prov- 
 ince of Maryland might shortly be all the Lord 
 Proprietor might claim of his possessions, and that 
 the manor of St. John's might be, indeed, his dwell- 
 ing-place, and the governor had orders to keep all
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 213 
 
 in readiness. The Proprietor with his household 
 might come hither at any day. Calvert must hold 
 the affairs of the province well in hand. 
 
 All this and much more he told her, as the 
 men unloaded her stores. Seafaring tales of West 
 Indian hurricane and coast gates which had de- 
 layed them; tales of fierce battles and loss of 
 men's lives whom Mistress Brent had well known ; 
 wild tales of cruel vengeance till she looked shud- 
 deringly about her and thanked God she had 
 already taken refuge here, she and hers ; tales 
 of London and the poor trading there, for people 
 were wild with fear; of these he gossiped as the 
 great ship lay at the wharf of St. Anne's and the 
 captain was an honored guest in the manor-house. 
 
 And the sailors unloaded their stuffs : cloth for 
 the servants' wear, shoes and hosiery, brown cloth 
 and half-and-half and coarse linens and cottons, 
 hoes and axes and plow points for the farming, 
 sugar and molasses bought in West Indian ports, 
 and gin and rum and wine of Madeira, an oaken 
 chest filled with fine wear for my lady of the 
 manor, full-trimmed skirts and flowered petti- 
 coats and bodices of the latest device and laces. 
 
 Sarah and Lucy and Mistress Margaret herself 
 were agog with talk of the new fashions as the 
 dresses were unfolded from their wrappings, and 
 Mistress Margaret seizing an idle hour arrayed
 
 2i 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 herself in them. The skirts were not so sweeping 
 nor so full as those of the year before, they found, 
 nor the farthingales so high and stiff; here was 
 even a collar of rich soft lace that lay low on the 
 neck and bared the throat, and the sleeves were 
 puffed out but wondrously trimmed. 
 
 Here were slippers high-heeled and buckled, 
 and ribbons of sarsenet or lute, and handkerchiefs 
 which were but meshes of dainty lace, and per- 
 fumed gloves ; and here were the corals she had 
 ordered for Rosalind, pink and carved beauteously 
 they were ; here was a silver tankard, she would 
 give it to Mistress Hawley, willy nilly, and here 
 at the very bottom of the chest was a thing to 
 make her cry out with delight, a sweeping cloak 
 of beaver, soft as down and thick set as velvet, 
 that shone golden in the sunlight and shaded 
 brown as her sweet-cured tobacco leaves in the 
 shadow. She had had Giles and the governor 
 choose the skins for her, and they had been nigh 
 three years selecting them. 
 
 A whole delighted day she spent amongst her 
 gauds and finery, forgetful of Maryland's and Eng- 
 land's woes alike. 
 
 Slippers must be matched to gloves, and ribbons 
 to both ; this new fastening must be experimented 
 with and this new ornament tried. This gown, 
 now, this ball gown she had ordered when she
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 215 
 
 writ her merchant in London; she bit her red 
 lip } did the ladies of the town go so attired ? in 
 truth this bodice was but a hand's breadth ! The 
 skirt scarce swept the floor behind and showed her 
 slipper tips before, this soft creamy silk with its 
 full flounce at the hem deeply broidered in curious 
 designs of scarlet threads, scarlet and gold thick 
 intermingled. But the bodice! she held it won- 
 dering. " Surely there must be something else, 
 some drapery of silk or lace?" she questioned. 
 
 " 'T is just as it was packed," declared Sarah, 
 " each piece to piece as they must be worn." She 
 went to the bedside and lovingly fingered lace and 
 ribbon. " Mayhap 'twas this," she said doubtfully 
 as she lifted a scarf of lace so fine Mistress Mar- 
 garet could crush it in her hand, or yet swing it 
 many an arm's length had she so minded. 
 
 " Aye, I '11 try it." Mistress Margaret dis- 
 robed herself and slipped into the glistening skirt 
 of silk and the tiny bodice, stiff-boned. She glanced 
 down at her bare arms and bust as Sarah bent to 
 lace it; against the creamy tint of the silk they 
 shone white as ivory. She took the lace from 
 Sarah's hands and draped it about the bust where 
 the bodice ended and knotted it loosely in front, 
 but the lacy meshes marred the fair embroidery 
 of the vest. 
 
 " You '11 e'en have to wear it as it is," declared
 
 2i6 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Sarah ; " if it were not proper, they would not 
 have sent it." 
 
 " Fashion must have gone far lengths there ; 
 when I was in London one's ruff turned high as 
 the coils on one's head. Hand me the mirror, 
 Lucy." She took it from her maid's hands and 
 looked long and curiously. 
 
 The door opened behind her but she heard it 
 not. " Faith ! " broke in a deep, quick voice. 
 
 Mistress Margaret jumped until the mirror well 
 nigh fell from her hand. " Giles," she cried, " la ! 
 an I had broken the mirror seven years of ill luck 
 would have come upon St. Anne's ; what a fright 
 thou hast given me ! " She came quickly and 
 eagerly to him. There in the hall another waited, 
 tall, soldierly, erect, a look of expectancy on his 
 fair face. 
 
 " The governor ! " cried Mistress Brent, forget- 
 ful in a moment of her strange attire. " How 
 came ye upon us so suddenly?" she asked, 
 when she had given him fair greeting and her 
 brother likewise. 
 
 " Suddenly ! " laughed Giles ; " we came with 
 the captain to the door and there was talking 
 loud enough. I looked to see you every moment ; 
 the captain said you were within the house, but 
 it lay deserted. I heard the voices in your 
 chamber, and though I knocked, yet the voices
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 217 
 
 went on, and I ventured within, and thou " he 
 broke again into laughter, and Mistress Brent, 
 brought to sudden consciousness of self, flushed 
 from bare shoulder to curly hair. 
 
 The governor spoke quickly to cover her con- 
 fusion and vexation. 
 
 " 'T is a beauteous dress ye wear, such an one 
 as I saw on my sister for the Christmas festiv- 
 ities," he said, speaking courteously and sedately 
 enough, though his eyes shone with pleasure 
 at the vision he had come upon. There in the 
 cool hall where the tapestry shook lightly upon 
 the wall, and the shadows of the oaks flickered 
 without, where the river shimmered afar and the 
 green edge of the forest peeped through the vista 
 in the rear, there in the simplicity of his provincial 
 life shone the fairest thing his eye had rested on 
 in town or castle or court, the fairest woman, the 
 wisest counsellor, and truest friend ; though the 
 governor's heart grew hot and impatient at that 
 word of friend. He had returned to Maryland 
 resolved that the high hand his brother counselled 
 in the government's affairs should be used in his 
 private doings as well. He was aweary of waiting 
 and patience &a& friendship* 
 
 But Mistress Brent was thinking now of his 
 speech about her gown. She turned to him 
 eagerly.
 
 218 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "Is it such a fashion as they wear in truth? 
 such a skirt?" she turned slowly, "and such a 
 bodice?" though the flame flickered again in her 
 cheek as she thought on the scantiness of it 
 
 " Save for the lace upon it," said the governor 
 gravely, though his eyes danced with merriment. 
 It was like a -play, forsooth, to stop for but a word 
 with Mistress Brent, whom he had hoped to find 
 in his own home on his return, to leave the gun- 
 mounted deck of his ship where arms were stacked 
 and soldiers stood in grim readiness and come on 
 this peaceful scene and this brilliant figure in the 
 heart of it. 
 
 " But about the neck," added the governor, " a 
 band of velvet and such an ornament as this," 
 and then for the first time Margaret noted a tiny 
 package on the table. 
 
 The governor opened it quickly and took from 
 thence a band of velvet scarce a finger's width 
 in breadth and on it fastened a ruby heart; he 
 turned the jewel to show her the gold plate at 
 its back engraved with the Calvert arms. " Words 
 are feminine, deeds masculine," he quoted, trans- 
 lating freely the Latin inscription written in 
 minute characters beneath it, and Giles, a quizzical 
 smile twitching at his lips, turned away to search 
 for the captain, who lingered without. 
 
 Calvert, with fingers that shook somewhat,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 219 
 
 stooped to fasten it about her throat, and when 
 he had snapped the band in place Mistress 
 Margaret felt another touch than finger-tips 
 upon her neck, a touch that was hot and 
 passionate and stung her from head to foot. 
 
 The governor had not dared but the governor 
 was a bolder man than he who had sailed to 
 England in the autumn. To his prudence and 
 caution and long-suffering had been added some- 
 thing of his brother's fiery energy and supple 
 policy. Would he hold Maryland against all 
 odds, he would hold, likewise, the fairest thing 
 within her bounds. 
 
 " Thou wilt pardon me," he said gravely, bow- 
 ing, " 't was no more than a kiss on thy hand, fair 
 cousin," he lifted her hand gallantly, " and that 
 thou wilt grant me in farewell ; " he bent and 
 kissed it ere Mistress Brent had time to vent 
 her anger or to say more in her astonishment. 
 
 " Surely thou goest not now ! " 
 
 " E'en now ; we Ve lost a good two hours, so 
 Giles would tell thee, and when one goes a 
 soldiering such loitering comes amiss. He'd 
 have me sail by St. Anne's without a greeting, 
 but St. Anne's hath a magnet; scarce can it be 
 passed. Once before, an ye recall it, I tarried as 
 I passed; 'twas to thy help, mayhap thy salva- 
 tion, and now " he paused, let fall the hand he
 
 220 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 held, and picked up his hat. " Captain Brent," 
 he called. 
 
 Giles wheeled in the doorway where he talked 
 with the captain. 
 
 " We are ready," said the governor as he bowed 
 low to Mistress Margaret and passed out. 
 
 Giles turned, a look of mischief and keen in- 
 quiry alike flashing in his hazel eyes ; his sister's 
 face, puzzled, astounded, amused him. 
 
 " Mayhap she may come upon something she 
 thinks not of," he said to himself. " The governor 
 is another man ; she '11 not whisk him hither and 
 thither, blow hot, blow cold ; " but to that sister 
 he was bidding a quick adieu, with the warning 
 that he would come again, " Giles Brent, Com- 
 mander of Kent."
 
 XIV 
 
 MISTRESS MARGARET stood still in 
 the hall where her brother had left 
 her. The golden light of the late 
 afternoon sifted through the oaks on lawn and 
 pathway and fell in long slanting beams on the 
 men walking hastily down it, the governor, erect, 
 assured, as Mistress Brent had never seen him ; 
 Giles, quick and eager; the captain, lazily good- 
 natured. She watched them down the stairway, 
 heard the creaking of the sails as the sailors 
 loosed them to the wind ere she turned away. 
 A vexed thoughtfulness was on her face. 
 
 " Here, Lucy," she called, " unloose me from 
 this masquerading. 
 
 " Sarah, see to the arranging of the things 
 within the store-room, Jock " 
 
 " Jock will be abroad to-morrow," said Sarah, 
 proudly; but Mistress Margaret, spite of her 
 warm solicitude for her overseer, had no word of 
 joy. Sarah looked upon her astonished, but see- 
 ing the absorbed look on her face turned away.
 
 222 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Lucy with soft touch unloosed the tiny bodice 
 and lifted the gleaming skirt above her mistress's 
 dark head and arrayed her in the paduasoy she 
 had worn ere the fascinating trial of her new 
 wardrobe. 
 
 "What shall be done with these?" asked the 
 maid. 
 
 " Put them back again," said her mistress, 
 carelessly. 
 
 " Put them back," muttered Lucy ; " she speaks 
 as careless as if as if " she could find no 
 simile, but turned to a delighted fingering of 
 gowns and ribbons and laces, and a slow folding 
 of them together and replacing of them in the 
 oaken chest; but Mistress Margaret went out 
 into the hall as one who, thinking deeply, saw not 
 the things about her. She wandered down the 
 pathway to the bluff. There at the wharf lay the 
 great English ship ; there down the river, her white 
 sails bellying in the evening winds, sailed the 
 governor's vessel, the lowering sun struck bright 
 flashes against the stacked arms and mounted 
 guns upon the deck, and there in the bow was a 
 gleam of gold and scarlet, she knew it for the 
 dress of the governor. 
 
 Her gray eyes watched the fast-running tide 
 wistfully, the wide beach bared by the low waves, 
 the hazy line of opposite shore, the curve of the
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 223 
 
 land far up where the forest massed all shades 
 of green in its fresh budding; the few short 
 moments she lingered seemed hours, so heavy 
 was her absorption, but suddenly she was roused 
 by a song sung carelessly. 
 
 " It was a lover and his lass, 
 With a hey and a ho, and a heynonino ! 
 That o'er the green cornfield did pass 
 In the spring-time, the only pretty ring-time 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring. 
 
 " Therefore take the present time, 
 With a hey and a ho, and a heynonino ! 
 For love is crowned with the prime 
 In spring-time, the only ring-time 
 When birds do sing, hey ding a ding : 
 Sweet lovers love the spring." 
 
 She looked down quickly ; the sailor was eying 
 her curiously, and Mistress Brent was suddenly 
 conscious that the ship waited its lading and the 
 captain had signified his eagerness to be gone. 
 He had finished unloading her stores an hour 
 or more ago. She was her practical self once 
 more. 
 
 On the morrow, and many days after, she was 
 hurried. The tobacco was already in hogsheads 
 under the sheds : ropes were fastened about them 
 and the men began the busy rolling of them 
 to the wharf, down through the fields, along the
 
 224 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 easy slope beyond the lawn to the wide, firm 
 beach and the great hold of the ship. 
 
 Mistress Margaret could see them from the 
 living-room, where she sat making up accounts, 
 making out bills of lading, writing letters to 
 London tradesmen and orders of stores to be 
 delivered. There was no time for idle dreaming, 
 only quick work for clear brain and clever hand. 
 
 The ship was soon ready for her sailing, and 
 soon, too, the wharf lay deserted, after the busy 
 life centred there ; still there was no news from 
 Kent. 
 
 Mistress Margaret found herself wildly impatient. 
 She drove the servants on the manor mercilessly. 
 From dawn to dusk she was abroad. The sickle 
 of the new moon showed aright and the chestnut 
 leaves were big as squirrels' ears ; it was just the 
 time the Indians had taught them for planting of 
 the maize ; it could not be done swiftly enough. 
 
 The men and women grew sullen over the long 
 hours bending over the corn rows under the hot 
 spring sun. Never had Mistress Brent proven 
 a hard mistress till now. They cast sidelong, 
 resentful glances at the stiff, resolute, little figure 
 on Brown Bess, who haunted the fields, and who, 
 did they but know it, was holding herself far more 
 sternly in check than she held them, and was driven 
 by the war within herself to urge them on.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 225 
 
 Yet the servants made many a wish that Jock 
 was well again, and were glad enough to have his 
 white face amongst them. 
 
 " Gadzooks ! " one of them swore, " an Mistress 
 Brent had the working of us in the tobacco plant- 
 ing, we 'd ne'er have stood it." And they were 
 heedful of Jock's every word, and wrought dili- 
 gently though the overseer rested often at the cool 
 edge of the forest, nor had they word of jest for 
 Sarah's anxious face when she came cosseting 
 him with helpful drink or food. 
 
 They had only grown to dread the gleam of 
 Brown Bess's satin skin or the shine* of Mistress 
 Brent's riding-gown. Then, happily, there came 
 at last news from Kent, a letter brought by 
 the fellow who had come with ill tidings to 
 St. Mary's. 
 
 Mistress Margaret was afield when they sought 
 her with it. She had grown well nigh weary of 
 waiting and watching with nerves ajangle, and 
 had fallen into a dogged resolution of patience. 
 
 She was talking to Jock where he rested under 
 a huge chestnut-tree of the tobacco planting which 
 must soon begin, of how the plants throve in their 
 bed, and what method of transplanting would suit 
 them best, and how the soil had been prepared. 
 
 The corn was near done. The women in their 
 loose shifts of coarse blue linen worked easily; the
 
 226 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 men, bare-armed and bare-footed, wrought by their 
 side. The air was clear, crisp, invigorating ; labor 
 was no task under such a sky. By and by, as the 
 summer days sped by and .the sun waxed blazing 
 hot, and the sultry, close days came upon them, 
 they would go about their work gasping and well 
 nigh spent; but now, with the sky bright blue 
 above them, and all the vast space betwixt the blue 
 arch above and the earth beneath filled with cool, 
 soft winds, while the crows circled lustily overhead 
 and the buzzards sailed lazily far above, they bent 
 to their tasks willingly. 
 
 Brown Bess was crunching at the green twigs 
 near and Mistress Margaret pulled idly at the pink 
 wild roses she had gathered. 
 
 "There comes Sarah along the pathway," she 
 said, as she rose to her feet from the log on which 
 she had been sitting and sprang into her saddle ; 
 " belike she hath a pannikin of ale for thee. Ye 
 must soon be well under such ministering." She 
 turned Brown Bess about. " Aye," she said to 
 herself, " there she comes, and who would have 
 thought on it a year agone? Not I, in faith ! I 'd 
 have sworn Sarah had no thought save of my own 
 service. So do we deceive ourselves, in truth ; no 
 sooner do we begin to dream ourselves necessary 
 to any than " 
 
 She was abreast of Sarah's stout figure and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 227 
 
 honest face, and Sarah's blue eyes were wide open 
 and eager. 
 
 " I sought ye, Mistress Margaret," she began, 
 quickly, " and saw ye in the field ; and I thought 
 I 'd e'en bring Jock a draught of ale as I came," 
 she said, apologizing for the tankard which she 
 bore. She placed it on the ground and began to 
 feel in the folds of her bodice. 
 
 " 'Fore God, I trust I have not lost it. Ah ! " 
 she drew out a thick, folded letter. 
 
 " From whence?" gasped Mistress Brent, as she 
 snatched it from her. 
 
 " T is the seal of the Brents ; James did bring 
 it hither." 
 
 But Mistress Margaret heeded her not. She 
 was tearing at the seal and shaking out the long 
 folds of the letter. Her eye fell first on the signa- 
 ture, " Giles Brent, Commander of Kent." 
 
 " Please God," she cried, with a laugh that was 
 half a sob, " they have won." 
 
 " And Captain Giles," pleaded Sarah, breathless 
 for news, as her mistress had been. 
 
 "All is well, all is well with him!" Then 
 Mistress Brent flashed her an impatient glance. 
 "James hath already told thee. What," she 
 could laugh merrily with the letter and with such 
 news safe in her hands, " thou hast not gossiped with 
 him. Get ye gone to Jock and tell him the tale."
 
 228 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 She struck the mare sharply. She would reach 
 the privacy of her chamber and read at leisure; 
 words swam before her eyes here in this hot sun- 
 shine. Within the cool room she spread it out 
 and read thus: 
 
 Giles Brent, Commander of Kent, to his sister Mis- 
 tress Margaret Brent of St. Anne's Manor, 
 
 Greeting. 
 
 Whereas we did purpose long ago to send ye news of 
 us, and whereas now after long delay, more than we 
 had thought on, we are peaceably settled once more in 
 our manor of South Fort, where the governor and the 
 soldiers who did company us are our guests and we are 
 more at leisure, we do at once despatch our trusty servant 
 to thee with these tidings. 
 
 The winds being baffling and contrary when we did 
 leave ye, our coming to Kent was somewhat delayed ; 
 that night and day and night again we beat about the 
 bay, 'til we and those with us were most impatient, for 
 ye must know we were anxious about many things. Was 
 the man Ingle yet upon the isle, we wished to know, 
 with the great ship of which our trusty servant did tell 
 us ? Then must there be fight, we knew ; and while we 
 were in readiness for it and no man doubted the issue, 
 so resolved were we to win, yet I did misdoubt me but 
 what the governor thought on those sad affairs which 
 befell early in the settlement of the province, when the 
 men of St. Mary's and the men of Kent met in their
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 229 
 
 pinnaces on that stream which the natives do call the 
 Wicomico and there closed in bloody fight whereby 
 several men were slain. 
 
 And while the governor hath a valiant heart and a 
 most excellent understanding of soldiery, methinks he 
 dreads the fighting 'mongst ourselves, and would always 
 use peaceable means an it were possible, though he 
 was ready to fight, and looked with his own hands 
 to the priming of the guns and the fittings of the 
 weapons. 
 
 Yet were we glad when, coming upon the fort in the 
 early dawn, we found the wharf deserted save for the 
 small craft of the islanders. Nor were any about when 
 we landed, so we were able to force the gate and post 
 our men about their magazine and block-house, and send 
 other forces against the settlers without ere they were 
 yet astir. 
 
 Coming upon them thus they found resistance useless, 
 and have once more come within our sway ; though, in 
 truth, their allegiance looks somewhat half-hearted, and 
 methinks 't will be so for many days ; still we have them 
 now, and, having, will hold. 
 
 Then the governor leaving most of his soldiers here 
 would fain go on to Palmer's Isle and have me go with 
 him. 
 
 I had not before set foot on that small island, set most 
 opportunely in the wide river's mouth, as if Providence 
 had placed thereby a check upon the great savages who 
 have their villages upon its banks.
 
 230 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The soldiers there were truly most glad to see us, for 
 they had lived in exile and led a lonely life within the 
 wilderness, and some did beseech the governor to let 
 them return and leave others in their stead ; and to 
 those who did have mothers or wives or other ties 
 within the settlement the governor lent a listening 
 ear. 
 
 We did leave the garrison in good shape. It con- 
 sisteth of ten choice shots, and we left with them a boat 
 and arms and ammunition, and provisions and all things 
 necessary, thirty pounds of powder, one hundred pounds 
 of shot, twenty barrels of corn, one wherry or shallop, 
 two iron pots, one pestle, swords, and a half pike. 
 
 They are well housed in the fort which Thomas Smith 
 of unhappy memory had builded. 
 
 This being done we sailed again to Kent, where the 
 governor tarries to hold a session of the court upon the 
 island and to warn them to have ready their appoint- 
 ment for the burgesses to the next house of Assembly, 
 which he hath already notified them will be held at St. 
 Mary's some time within the fall God be willing. 
 
 I have writ ye thus in full, knowing your anxiety and 
 your great interest in us. 
 
 Ye will recall my last words in the hall of your house 
 of St. Anne's, in memory of them I now subscribe myself 
 Thy Brother 
 
 GILES BRENT, Commander of Kent. 
 
 The governor kisses thy hands, and would fain wait 
 upon thee on his return to St. Mary's.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 231 
 
 Mistress Brent read and re-read, and then blessed 
 the fates that made of her brother so ready a 
 letter writer. 
 
 " Faith, he hath writ to the point and most con- 
 cisely," she told herself; and she rose to put the 
 letter in her desk, though she lingered when that 
 was done, looking out the window to the shining 
 river. Affairs in Kent settled peaceably, that was 
 as the governor would have it ; her brother rein- 
 stated, she gloried in it. Palmer's Isle well garri- 
 soned, Kent in allegiance, St. Mary's quieted, 
 all was well in Maryland. 
 
 Then she thought again on the last sentence of 
 that message, written hastily, as if in after-thought, 
 " The governor will wait upon thee on his return to 
 St. Mary's," and she smiled thoughtfully with the 
 look of absorption upon her face which had set- 
 tled often there in the weeks since the governor's 
 hasty visit. 
 
 She watched for the returning pinnace with 
 no thought that it would go sailing past her, 
 as it did. Mistress Margaret was moved with 
 wrath that he who complained he could never 
 sail by St. Anne's without visiting its mistress, 
 should now, after so long an absence, and after 
 so adventurous an expedition, sail calmly onward. 
 
 But the governor had hasted too soon from St. 
 Mary's after his long stay overseas. He knew it.
 
 232 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 There was much to be done there, and then he 
 would come pleasuring to St. Anne's. 
 
 Mistress Margaret's anger had time to wax and 
 wane ere that time should come. 
 
 The pale-green corn shoots showed well in the 
 fields, and the tobacco plants grew lustily and un- 
 folded velvety leaves over the rich earth, the oaks 
 were thick set with foliage, and Sarah's roses were 
 abloom, ere such time came; and Mistress Margaret 
 was ready to greet him gladly and add some words 
 of chiding, words which it joyed him to hear. 
 
 He must tell her all of his Kentish venture, she 
 declared, of the expedition to Palmer's Isle and 
 the garrison life there ; but first, he besought her 
 to go with him to Captain Rogers. He had not 
 seen him since his coming from England; there 
 was business concerning his hundred he would 
 ask him of. 
 
 It tickled Mistress Brent to the top of her mis- 
 chievous humor to note the courtesy with which 
 her brother-in-law received them. 
 
 The governor's pinnace was well known upon 
 the river and had been already espied. Captain 
 Rogers waited them with due ceremony upon his 
 wharf, and handed Mistress Margaret ashore with 
 much stateliness. 
 
 Mistress Rogers was within her room, he re- 
 gretted she was unable to greet him; mayhap
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 233 
 
 Mistress Brent would visit her there, and Mistress 
 Brent, glad enow to leave them to their own affairs, 
 sought her sister. 
 
 Mary's cheek was flushed and her eyes alight. 
 There had been rumors before of Margaret's 
 attractions for her cousin, Leonard Calvert, but 
 never so strong as now, when it was known he had 
 even stopped his Kentish expedition to visit her, 
 and had come again soon as he well could leave 
 St. Mary's. Yet, though she tingled to speak of 
 it, Mary was ever in awe of her older sister and 
 dared say no word directly ; though Margaret was 
 well aware of her questioning look and eager alert- 
 ness. But she made no sign, enjoying instead 
 Mary's bright talk and, when she was again with 
 him, Captain Rogers's hospitality. 
 
 " Faith, Mary," she declared, as she made ready 
 to depart, " never have I paid thee a visit more 
 pleasant, though I would my brother-in-law had 
 let the children be with us and had not sent them 
 so safe away to the servants' quarters ere we had 
 come. I must see them ere we go, they are still 
 busily talking." She listened a moment to Cap- 
 tain Rogers's brisk tones and the governor's low, 
 deliberate speech, and then sped away across the 
 yard to the back where cabins and stables were 
 crowded in the palisade. Rosalind shrieked with 
 delight when she saw her.
 
 234 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Auntie, auntie ! " she cried ; " father said we 
 could not bother thee, thou wouldst not be think- 
 ing of us ! " 
 
 " Thinking of ye, indeed ! " blazed Mistress Mar- 
 garet, " I ever am. Now, come and see," she 
 seated herself in the low flag chair, " see what 
 auntie hath for thee, 't is e'en from overseas, 't was 
 brought in the great big ship which was at her 
 wharf," Mistress Brent went on to the delighted 
 child who cuddled close to her and watched with 
 wide-open eyes her aunt unfastening the chate- 
 laine at her side. 
 
 " Now, did I not promise thee?" She unfastened 
 a jewel casket she took therefrom, and Rosa- 
 lind gasped and could find no words for her 
 delight. There on the blue satin lay the carved 
 coral pin for her throat and rings for her ears, 
 carved in leaves and rose petals even to the 
 stem. 
 
 Mistress Brent caught Rosalind's loose gown 
 with the pin and hung the rings on the tops of 
 her small pink ears. " There," she cried delight- 
 edly, " run show them to mamma." 
 
 " Father said we must not leave here 'til he be 
 gone ! " said the child, hanging back. 
 
 Mistress Brent fairly stamped with vexation, 
 but she caught Rosalind in her arms and held 
 her high so that Mary could see her, and then,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 235 
 
 the imp of perversity seizing her, she called 
 loudly : 
 
 " Cousin Calvert, Cousin Calvert ! " She saw 
 the governor come to the door and look wonder- 
 ingly about him. 
 
 " Come hither," she called, " I would have 
 thee see my fair niece and nephew ; " and the 
 governor, catching sight of. her lithe figure 
 and piquant face, walked quickly across the 
 yard. 
 
 Captain Rogers, angered to the depths, for Mis- 
 tress Brent had cut short some wise words where- 
 with he was seeking to impress the governor, 
 slowly followed. 
 
 Margaret caught Rosalind, bejewelled, in her 
 arms. " Now, is she not the winsomest maid in 
 all thy province ? " 
 
 " I dare not say thee nay." 
 
 Calvert laughed as he caressed the little maid 
 hiding coyly against her auntie's shoulder. 
 
 " And this fellow," he called to the boy, " how 
 strong and sturdy he looks, and a soldier already;" 
 he saw the wooden gun, rough fashioned, the boy 
 held in his chubby hands. 
 
 " Ah, Captain Rogers, thou art most blessed," 
 said the governor, and he sat him down in the low 
 chair upon the earthen floor and called the boy to 
 him. That moment, had Captain Rogers known
 
 236 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 it, was the flower of his visit; and seeing the 
 governor's enjoyment of the children, her brother- 
 in-law forgave Mistress Margaret her misdemeanor, 
 and was filled, himself, with a pride that softened 
 his humor to her for many a day.
 
 XV 
 
 PLEASANT it was in the great living-room 
 lingering by the board, white spread with 
 damask of Flemish loom, where the silver 
 glittered in the light of the sweet-smelling myrtle 
 candles; pleasant it was in the wide hall, where 
 the summer breezes blew fitfully and the tapestry 
 waved lightly on the wall and the dusk was in the 
 rafters overhead; but out of doors, where the 
 shadows lay thick under the oaks and the fireflies 
 gleamed in the grass, the witchery of the night 
 was all abroad, though the sheen of the sunset 
 was yet in the sky and its opalescent dyes lin- 
 gered on the broad, murmuring river. 
 
 From living-room to hall and from hall to lawn 
 they loitered, the governor and his hostess, 
 adown the gravelled pathway to the bold edge 
 of the bluff, and along its side to where the thicket 
 hid the narrow entrance of the cave, and they 
 fell to talk of that dire night when Mistress Mar- 
 garet's household had found refuge there. 
 
 " Aye, had not it been well nigh impossible to 
 pass St. Anne's."
 
 238 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Had not the savages lighted a beacon would 
 guide thee many a mile," said Mistress Brent, 
 who would have no thought of such speech, " me- 
 thinks Captain Rogers would soon have come to 
 our assistance," she added, perversely. 
 
 "An he had, he would not have reached ye 
 ere " began Calvert, impatiently. 
 
 Mistress Brent turned suddenly, and her voice 
 was low and sweet as she answered him. " He 
 would not have been in time to save us. I have 
 never thanked thee in set words such as I oft 
 have framed in fancy. I will thank thee now. 
 Truly, cousin, 'twas a kind and watchful provi- 
 dence that brought thy pinnace down the stream 
 at such an hour, yet " 
 
 It was the governor's turn to look impatient 
 and grow restive under such speech. 
 
 " T was but a lucky turn of war." 
 
 " A lucky turn of war ; and if that is what ye 
 deem it /' 
 
 Then was the governor betwixt two fires: he 
 would not be praised, nor would he anger Mistress 
 Brent ; instead, he blundered, " Thou knowest well 
 there is naught, naught I would not dare an thou 
 wast in danger." 
 
 Mistress Brent looked down, a smile curving 
 her red lip, and it smote the governor suddenly, 
 the thought of it, it was the first time that he
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 239 
 
 had ever dared a tender speech she had not cut 
 in twain ere he had finished. 
 
 There was a feeling of sternness in his sudden 
 joy; he had come home again, back to the prov- 
 ince of Maryland, with strong intention nerving 
 him, he would not be held at arm's length by his 
 fair cousin. 
 
 " But I am not in danger," said his cousin, 
 lightly. 
 
 The governor was silent. 
 
 " I trow we would have made good our escape," 
 she added, perversely. 
 
 " T was a danger too great for us to trifle with 
 it now in words," said Calvert, gravely. 
 
 " Not so wouldst thou have others think," said 
 Margaret, petulantly; "ye'd have them believe 
 the settlement was safe ; safe as a church." 
 
 " Others," broke in Calvert, passionately, 
 "'tis not of others I think; what care I for 
 them?" 
 
 " Everything ! " declared Mistress Margaret, 
 fighting her cousin's humor, now she saw the 
 storm her words had raised ; " so we did persuade 
 them this winter." 
 
 " But thou, Margaret," and there was such a 
 depth of pleading in his voice that Mistress Mar- 
 garet, who thought she knew him through and 
 through, was yet astounded, "why wilt thou keep
 
 2 4 o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 ever this distance betwixt us? it is not for always, 
 it cannot be ! Surely thou hast forgot that night 
 many years ago." He came close to her, towering 
 above her slight figure, " And thy words then ; so 
 much has come and gone since then, I " he 
 paused, for Calvert was ever distrustful of his own 
 merits, "I surely thou hast not found me al- 
 together unworthy of thy loving, or in all these 
 months thou wouldst have given some sign." 
 He went on brokenly, drawing long breaths be- 
 tween the pauses of his speech ; but his cousin's 
 face was bent from him, he could read naught 
 there, but must stumble on. 
 
 " Thou hast been kind and kinder, Margaret." 
 She looked up at his appeal and smiled gently, 
 though her face was white as the gown she 
 wore. 
 
 " Tell me, is there any cause? " 
 
 " Cousin Calvert," she laid her hand on his arm. 
 
 He shook it off roughly and his blue eyes 
 blazed. 
 
 " Cousin, forsooth, I will have none of it ! " and 
 at his anger something of her old assurance came 
 to Mistress Margaret. 
 
 " Sir Governor," she began demurely, and then 
 checked herself. " There is much I would speak," 
 she said with some show of dignity; " and after 
 after, then I leave thee to judge."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 241 
 
 "To judge what, Margaret? Could I, would I 
 weigh aught against thee ? " he protested eagerly. 
 
 " Nay, I know not ; " Mistress Brent turned 
 thoughtfully and walked slowly back to the stair- 
 way in the cliff. " Sit down," she commanded, 
 " there is much I would say, methinks I owe 
 thee." 
 
 " Margaret," declared Calvert, stricken by the 
 look on her face, " thou owest me naught ; speak 
 not; I love thee, I will love thee ever, sweetheart; 
 leave all unsaid." 
 
 But Mistress Brent, though she drew her breath 
 sharply, shook her head. 
 
 " Nay, it must be ! Methinks that is why I so 
 oft have fenced with thee ; an I ever listened to 
 thy words again I must tell thee this." 
 
 She clenched her hands upon her lap, the 
 fingers tight upon her thumbs. 
 
 " I only pray thee silence 'til I be done, 'twill 
 make my task the easier." 
 
 Her gray eyes, dark with suffering, sought the 
 paling river and the sky where the first stars of 
 evening twinkled, as if for help, and then she 
 began : 
 
 " Thou rememberest my father's house ; the 
 great lawns and gardens and woods where we 
 came and went at will, and my wayward child- 
 hood. There was none to check me. My father 
 16
 
 242 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 was all soldier; my mother dead when I was 
 nigh a babe; my father heedless of us; only 
 Sarah, and she not grown to womanhood. Giles 
 was with my father most of all and held himself 
 aloof; Mary seemed too small for comradeship. 
 I grew as the wild things throve in the garden, 
 and when teachers were provided thou recallest 
 good Father Moran; little heed he gave us save 
 for a few short hours, and I learned readily 
 enow. 
 
 "'Twas bad enow," she declared passionately, 
 " and yet I wonder, I wonder could none be 
 found to look after two motherless girls, to teach 
 them somewhat of the beginnings of womanly 
 knowledge and not leave them all unfortified. 
 Nay, start not, 't is not a tale of shame I tell thee, 
 else I ne'er had lived longer than the knowledge of 
 it." She broke off abruptly, and when she spoke 
 again the channel of her thought was changed. 
 
 " But most of all," she went on dreamily, 
 " most of all I loved the garden by the old part of 
 the house, where the gardener was neglectful of 
 his skill; thou recallest it?" 
 
 Calvert smiled; the brightest picture of his 
 youth was of a dark-haired child who at last 
 made friends shyly with him one sunny day and 
 showed him the realm of her delight, where the 
 roses grew in wild tangle and the wallflower and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 243 
 
 cowslip in untended clumps, and the arbors were 
 rotting and overgrown. 
 
 " Ah, yes," sighed Margaret, " there was the 
 sunshine of my childhood; winter or summer, I 
 ever lingered there ! 
 
 " When ye were making ready your expedi- 
 tion," she went on hurriedly, "and Giles came 
 from London with wondrous tales of what my 
 cousin of Baltimore would do and what thou 
 didst purpose, and of the men who gathered to the 
 sailing of the 'Ark' and 'Dove,' of Father White's 
 fever to be gone a-preaching to the savages, and 
 my cousin Baltimore's great hopes of the new 
 country which he would have so wisely governed, 
 there was another with him, one who listened 
 with me and told me other tales of venture, 
 when he saw my wide-eyed listening, I was 
 woman in stature and years, God knows, but in 
 naught else. He found the garden pathways; 
 the arbor, albeit half rotted, was pleasant lin- 
 gering place, and he found withal an eager 
 welcomer, pleased enow, easy enow; aye, let 
 me speak the bitter truth and be done with it 
 easy enow and eager enow to give him her whole 
 heart, to scorch herself with the fire of her loving, 
 to fair consume the heart within her, to show him 
 all, to be his plaything, and then, then " 
 
 She rose to her feet and swayed as she stood
 
 244 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 on the narrow stair, her white-clad figure shining 
 in the dusk. 
 
 "He went away free as he came. Touch me 
 not, not now," she pushed Calvert back, back 
 to his seat. " My God ! the days that followed, 
 they withered my heart; there is no loving left 
 there, none, I tell thee. I waited ; I would not 
 believe. My father spoke of his marriage one 
 day, lightly and carelessly, as if of a thing that 
 should move us not. My father died ; Giles was 
 bitten with my cousin of Baltimore's dreams; 
 he would have me visit him ; anything would 
 have served, to be forever away; I seconded him 
 gladly ; Mary would come with us, why, we soon 
 knew. 
 
 " Now thou knowest the secret of my caprice. 
 I would have lands, forsooth, I would do un- 
 mannerly things ; I tell thee 't was my salvation, 
 it has saved me heart and mind. Think ye I 
 should fear the savages when my own heart was 
 the foe I had to fight." She sank back in her 
 seat upon the stair. 
 
 " Think not I love him, the dastard ! nor that 
 I fought love of him ; nay, 't was scorn I fought, 
 scorn of myself, loathing ! " 
 
 " Poor child ! " 
 
 " Child ! have I not lain bare the soul of a 
 woman centuries old?"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 245 
 
 " In sorrow, but naught else ; and thou hast 
 fought this fight here amongst us, amidst criti- 
 cisms." 
 
 " Such as they were, they hurt me not." 
 
 "And e'en I have so misjudged thee, Margaret; 
 I pray thy pardon." 
 
 " Pardon ! " said Margaret, faintly. 
 
 " Aye, I thought I knew thee through and 
 through. I thought I loved is that all thy tale ? " 
 he asked wistfully, as if afraid yet to intrude him- 
 self where such sorrow had been. 
 
 " All ? is not that enough? " 
 
 " Nay, save for thy suffering, 't is naught ; " he 
 leaned closer and placed his hand upon her tiny 
 ones clenched again within her lap. 
 
 And Margaret looking down where he sat be- 
 neath her, his fair face alight with sympathy, trust, 
 and a feeling deeper and stronger than all these, 
 drew a long, quivering breath. 
 
 " Methought thou wouldst never care again," 
 she began. 
 
 " I told thee at the first naught could change 
 me, naught. Thou wilt think not of it," he 
 pleaded, " but love me somewhat, sweetheart? " 
 
 Margaret shook her head. She was spent with 
 the telling of her tale and had so spirit of coquetry 
 left in her. 
 
 " I tell thee I fear there is no heart, no power
 
 246 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 of loving left in me; 'tis so with some; they 
 give their all in one mad burst of passion." 
 
 "Aye, but believe there is more left than one 
 thinks of," said the governor cheerfully, though 
 his pulses were bounding with joy; " thou wilt 
 not stay my loving thee?" 
 
 " An ye will," said Margaret ; " but the night 
 grows cold," she shivered slightly. 
 
 " And thou art wearied." He rose to his 
 great height, then stooped and lifted her gently 
 and placed her slight hand on his arm, though 
 he walked in silence beneath the thick shadows 
 of the oaks. A mocking-bird, startled from his 
 sleep, broke into song. Calvert smiled at the 
 omen and yet held his silence, only when they 
 stood within the hall he bent his fair head. 
 
 " Thou knowest the hunger and thirst of the 
 heart," he said ; " mine cries out. I have waited 
 thee, love, so long, so long; surely now " he 
 bent above her and gathered her close and kissed 
 her with such passion as moved her to the heart.
 
 XVI 
 
 WHEN Captain Ingle had persuaded the 
 settlers of Kent to rebel against the 
 authority of Maryland, he acted with 
 a knowledge of both men and times : 
 of men, for the islanders were stiff-necked in the 
 carrying out of their own intentions ; and of times, 
 for he knew better than most in the provinces how 
 uncertain was the tide in the Proprietor's affairs. 
 
 Should the rebellion prosper in England, and 
 he believed it would, the chances were slight 
 that my Lord Baltimore, a well-known friend of 
 the king, should hold his own on either side the 
 water. This, then, was the time for redressing 
 Claiborne's wrongs, and no sooner was the work 
 in Kent well done than he sailed away on the 
 coastwise expedition which had been his real 
 venture in the New World. 
 
 When he returned, it was but to hear at James- 
 town that Calvert had come again and sailed at 
 once to establish his authority at Kent, and that 
 Giles Brent was once more at South Fort, com- 
 mander of the isle.
 
 248 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The captain was angered to the topmost of his 
 nature, which was both choleric and quick. For 
 more than fifteen years had he traded in the New 
 World, from the West Indies to Jamestown, from 
 Jamestown to Plymouth ; along the coasts of wild 
 lands unknown and unclaimed had he sailed. On 
 many a trading expedition with the Indians far up 
 the Susquehanna had he been with William Clai- 
 borne. He knew his settlement at Kent when it 
 mustered scarce twenty souls till it grew to nigh 
 two hundred, from the handful of men at the fort 
 to the scattered settlements over all the south of 
 the island, the building of the cooper factory, the 
 setting up of mills for grinding corn and wheat, 
 the erection of Claiborne's manor-house at South 
 Fort and another at Craddock, the coming of the 
 chaplain and the sending of their burgesses to 
 Jamestown ; all this before the coming of the 
 " Ark " and " Dove " to the Potomac. 
 
 That Baltimore had claimed and the king 
 allowed his claim for this land already granted, 
 was the mighty reason that had turned him, 
 Richard Ingle, to the side of the rebellion. A 
 king so careless of his kingly rights as not to 
 remember his kingly word was not the king for 
 England. Well did he deserve the stings of the 
 hornets he had brought about his ears, and while 
 he was busied thus, they would see to their rights
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 249 
 
 on this side the water ; aye, and when the men who 
 fought the king were victorious, as Ingle would 
 stake his life they would be, they would uphold him 
 in all that had been done, even to the granting of 
 further authority. It should be no longer a ques- 
 tion of Kent, but of all Maryland as well. So he 
 thought as he nursed his anger and sought Wil- 
 liam Claiborne in the house which he had built 
 where two rivers meet and form the wide stream 
 beloved of the savages the river which he had 
 named the York. Here had William Claiborne 
 fought a great fight with the savages and routed 
 them from their village, and here at last, holding 
 a grant of the acres that rolled away from the 
 wide York to the James, he had built a house and 
 lived in state with the wife he dearly loved. 
 
 At St. Mary's the summer waxed and waned. 
 The maize yellowed in the sun, the long leaves 
 were pulled and stalked, the tobacco was cut and 
 hanging in the drying-sheds. The colonists were 
 hopeful. The season had been bountiful. The 
 losses, when the smaller settlers had lost all 
 save lands and buildings, were being repaired. 
 With good harvests, with maize for use and maize 
 for paying the quit-rents, with tobacco for the 
 selling, all might go well. 
 
 Shipping was slight and lading was yet scant, 
 save for the great manors. There was little news
 
 250 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 from my Lord of Baltimore, and that little but his 
 old exhortation set forth in fiery language; but 
 his stinging speech, when he sank to such, moved 
 the governor not. Never had he held the prov- 
 ince in such firm guidance. , Never yet had the 
 New World brought him such happiness, it was 
 summer-tide in his life as well as in the land 
 wherein he dwelt. 
 
 Summer-tide in all those delightful days when 
 he could slip away to St. Anne's and find its mis- 
 tress busied and happy, content dawning on her 
 face, which had ever been too restless in its look, 
 and which it joyed him to see. For he knew long 
 before her speech that no wild love waited him, 
 and for himself he prized the affection that grew 
 slowly and yet from year to year, until some time, 
 please God ! his beloved might scarce know her- 
 self how deep it was. 
 
 When the leaves upon the oaks were green, 
 when the leaves upon the oaks were bronzing, when 
 the woodlands were filled with verdure and when 
 they flamed in scarlet and gold, when, as now, 
 they were filled with the down drifting of leaves 
 which rustled in every wind that chased them 
 underfoot or clung in pine or cedar, or in the 
 twiscings of the grape-vines where the wild grapes 
 were purple and sweet he journeyed to and 
 fro.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 251 
 
 Now the mocking-bird was gone with its sum- 
 mer kind, cedar-bird and robin were in his stead ; 
 the wild " cohonk " was heard overhead, and the 
 marshes were filled with the flocks of ducks and 
 geese that lingered on their journey southward. 
 
 Mistress Hawley had come for her summer visit 
 and was again at home. Giles had come and gone 
 again to Kent; the great manor was getting ready 
 each day for its winter rest and quiet. Ere long 
 the hogs and their keepers would be gathered in 
 from the marshes, the cattle from far afield. Mis- 
 tress Margaret's busy fingers held all the threads, 
 and when the work was well done, she told her- 
 self, they would hold Christmas-tide royally at 
 St. Anne's. Last year she had been in St. Mary's ; 
 next nay, she could not yet say where next 
 Christmas-tide might find her. Jock and Sarah 
 would be left in charge for many a long day, in 
 truth, an she became the governor's wife ; and yet 
 she loved St. Anne's in every fibre of her being, 
 better, far better, than that English homestead 
 whose memory was blackened for her. She must 
 talk of it to her cousin. 
 
 Her cousin ! he would visit her on the morrow, 
 so he had said by the messenger who came from 
 St. Mary's not many days hence. It pleased her 
 to think on his coming. The days grew solitary, or 
 if the days were filled with work, the long evenings
 
 252 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 were dull and tiresome ; there might be song and 
 laughter in the servants' cabins, but in the great 
 living-room was silence and dusky corners and 
 dark rafters overhead; the wind howled in the 
 chimney and the tide raced, dashing, along the 
 shore there was no sound of life or cheer save 
 the crackling of the fire. 
 
 It was well when there was a guest beside the 
 hearth, and Mistress Margaret blithely made ready 
 for him from the warning of the early morn to 
 Sarah that her serving must be of the best, to the 
 hour in the dusk of the short afternoon, when the 
 governor kissed the finger-tips he held in his 
 strong clasp and read the welcome of her greeting 
 in her gray eyes. 
 
 " In sooth we are glad to see you, Cousin 
 Calvert," she said, though her tone was warmer 
 far than her words. 
 
 " In sooth, we are glad to be with thee, Cousin 
 Margaret," answered the governor, though he 
 laughed as he spake and pushed forward the 
 great chair from which Mistress Brent had risen. 
 
 " Methinks the night will prove stormy," she 
 said, turning quickly to light speech ; " best have 
 thy sails close-reefed and leave thy men to tarry 
 with the servants in their quarters." 
 
 She went to the casement window to call to 
 Jock as he crossed the yard.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 253 
 
 "Jock, bid the governor's men ashore, and 
 have them leave the boat in readiness for 
 storm." 
 
 "Aye," answered Jock, looking shrewdly to the 
 thickness gathering in the east. 
 
 "An thou art storm-bound?" queried Mistress 
 Margaret, fastening the window-bolt and coming 
 to the fireside. 
 
 " I am well content." 
 
 " And I," said Mistress Brent, her red lip curv- 
 ing mischievously, though she lifted her lowered 
 lids but for* the space of a second to note the 
 happiness in the governor's face. 
 
 The governor rose from his chair and came over 
 to the side of the mantel-shelf near her. 
 
 " Wouldst thou be indeed content, Margaret?" 
 he asked unsteadily, for there were moments such 
 as this when he had been long away when he 
 could not think calmly on his happiness, it was 
 too incredulous. 
 
 Mistress Margaret shrugged her shoulders. 
 " Listen to the wind, how it howls in the chim- 
 ney ! 't is not a pleasant voice when 't is the sole 
 one one has to hearken to." 
 
 Calvert was silent for a moment, looking about 
 him at the rich carpet beneath the table, the square 
 that covered it and the silver candlesticks there, 
 the thick hangings on wall and draperies about
 
 254 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the window, the settle and chests and chairs of 
 dark mahogany or carven oak. 
 
 " The governor's house, albeit the governor's, 
 is not so fine as this," he said, half quizzically. 
 
 " Yet it should be," said Margaret, quickly. 
 
 " So it should, and the centre of the life of the 
 colony; so my brother would have it." 
 
 " And such it must be," repeated Mistress Brent, 
 sententiously. 
 
 " But it hath no mistress, naught but a bachelor 
 with simple habits and few wants." 
 
 " Aye," laughed Mistress Margaret, " I have 
 dwelt not within it for a winter not to know;" 
 and though she laughed, the governor looked un- 
 easy. He well knew he should look more closely 
 to the fashion of his living. Truth, he had learned 
 to do so in one way at least. Scarce Captain Brent 
 himself went more gayly apparelled than he did 
 since his return from England, though he would 
 never look the man of fashion, the thoughtful 
 face and deep-set eyes would ever belie it. 
 
 But his uneasiness was only for a moment. " It 
 shall not be for long untended," he declared, look- 
 ing at the flaming fire, though he was aware of 
 each change in Mistress Margaret's face. 
 
 " With a mistress at its head," he went on, 
 slowly, " we 'd keep such revelry there this yule- 
 tide, we 'd draw the settlers from far and near to
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 255 
 
 the town, and not in such fear and trouble as 
 when they crowded it before." 
 
 " Sooth, 't would be well," said Margaret, care- 
 lessly. 
 
 "' Well /' Margaret, dost know what thou art 
 saying?" 
 
 " In truth 't is what I 'd pray thee do ! 'T would 
 be well for all." 
 
 She looked up and met Calvert's gaze. " What 
 is it thou wouldst?" she began, bewildered. 
 
 " Where hast thou been wandering in thy 
 dreams ? " asked Calvert quickly, nettled that the 
 speech to which he had led so gracefully had gone 
 unnoted. 
 
 " I was thinking," stammered Margaret, " as ye 
 talked of the yule-tide, I was thinking of the 
 season here. I would fain have the men and 
 maids make joyous revel; last year I was in St. 
 Mary's, and and next " 
 
 "Next," broke in Calvert, and then left the 
 finishing to Mistress Margaret, who flushed so 
 rosily in the firelight he could not forego the sight 
 of it. 
 
 But her confusion was but for the nonce. 
 
 " Faith," she said, lightly, " best make the most 
 of what one has at once. Who can foresee the 
 morrow?" 
 
 "To-morrow," thought the governor, and the
 
 256 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 vision of it was bright as the flame lapping the 
 oak logs on the hearth ; and he was silent for a 
 space, his fingers resting on Mistress Margaret's 
 chair, whither he had come to note her sweet con- 
 fusion. There where the brown hair curled upon 
 her neck was where he had kissed her that day when 
 he had ventured with his gift; she wore it now, 
 and the collar, low and rich, showed all the curve 
 of her firm neck. He fell to studying her face as 
 he had done a hundred times before, the round 
 cheek, rosy and firm ; the long sweep of her lashes ; 
 the small red mouth and steady chin and smooth 
 forehead where the wayward, dark hair, though 
 high-coiled, would wander. 
 
 " Margaret," he began, softly, " thou hast begged 
 the question. I did make a plea and thou hast 
 naught to say; I put it gently then, now I 
 must put it bluntly for speech, gallant speech 
 and I " 
 
 " Thou canst write far better than thou canst 
 speak," said Margaret, lightly; "thy missives " 
 
 "What of them?" said the governor, quickly. 
 
 "They are within my desk," said Margaret, 
 saucily; "would it please thee " 
 
 " Nay, spare me, and hearken ! Thou art a rare 
 fencer, yet must thou listen. Madge, I beseech 
 thee, why all these months alone here whilst I am 
 in St. Mary's? Thou knowest not the loneliness.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 257 
 
 The river betwixt us seems vast as the great seas 
 methinks thou mightest as well be across them." 
 
 " In faith, sir." 
 
 " Thou seemst so far away, in those days when 
 I come not hither, and I cannot many a day when 
 I would. Soon will be the meeting of the Assem- 
 bly; I will find no time for journeyings then, I 
 dare not." The furrow betwixt his brows deepened 
 with the thought. The Assembly had been trying 
 enough before, and now that the burgesses had 
 arrogated to themselves the power of adjournment, 
 he could not even forecast when the meetings 
 would be done. 
 
 "I know not how long they'll linger; I pray 
 God not 'til Christmas-tide. Then, the meetings 
 over, could we hold revelry in the governor's 
 house and keep the burgesses together and send 
 them home, pleased and joyed." 
 
 Mistress Brent understood now, but she had no 
 answer ready. 
 
 "I cannot," she said at length, "think not on 
 it ; " then seeing the look of pain on Calvert's 
 face she hesitated. 
 
 "Think on it, Margaret, I adjure thee; speak 
 not now, wait 'til the morrow an I tarry 'til then ; 
 I had purposed " 
 
 Mistress Margaret, cut to the quick by the look 
 on his face, had yet no word to say. Truly for
 
 258 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 this man, now she had been won to a thought of 
 giving her life into his keeping, a most strange 
 feeling was growing, a feeling blent much of pity 
 and much of sympathy. She knew how his brother 
 held him, as a faithful servitor; and how many 
 held him in England, as a man lacking all the 
 brilliant parts of his older brother. She had come 
 to the province prepared with these thoughts of 
 him, added to a remembrance of a shy, quiet youth 
 who had been often a guest of her father's house. 
 
 She had found a man of dignity and of stately 
 manner ; a man though slow, yet prudent ; though 
 silent, yet well loved ; though surrounded with those 
 grasping for new and better fortunes, yet doing 
 naught for the aggrandizement of his own; though 
 holding the power of granting the lands of the 
 province, making no claims for himself; and when 
 his brother had bestowed upon him the manor of 
 South Fort, making a gift of it to another, and that 
 other her brother. 
 
 Careless often, as he had been in his dress and 
 his own affairs, he had been careless never of one 
 of those about him. Yet few ever looked to give 
 him pleasure. And Margaret, in the rush of pity 
 for him, vowed there was naught she would not 
 venture for him. 
 
 Each time he visited her, when she saw him 
 first there was ever the mark of care and thought-
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 259 
 
 fulness upon him ; she could watch as moment by 
 moment the furrow faded from his forehead, the 
 lines of his face were smoothed and the eyes 
 brightened, until he looked as if years had fallen 
 from him. She could interest him in a thousand 
 ways, with affairs of the manor, of her household 
 doings, with jest and laughter; and she had 
 grown to look for the happiness in his face and 
 to sheer from aught that brought a thought of 
 care. 
 
 So it was now. She stole her slender fingers to 
 where his rested on her chair and slipped them 
 under his warm clasp. " I will think on it," she 
 promised. " Hush ! " as she saw the quick words 
 forming on his lips, "here comes Sarah." 
 
 She pushed back her chair and rose to her feet. 
 "Truth, cousin," she went on, striving to speak 
 steadily, as she crossed to the window looking out 
 on starlit lawn and river ; " see," she called him to 
 her side, "the clouds roll steadily up from the 
 east, and soon the stars will be hidden, the oaks 
 bend to the wind, 'twill be such a night as one 
 thanks God for shelter." 
 
 " And for shelter such as this," he looked mean- 
 ingly at the bright room behind him and the 
 slender figure by his side ; and if the wind moaned, 
 it had no sinister sound to him ; and if tide and 
 wind ran swift to St. Mary's, it was but for the
 
 2 6o MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 quicker journey on the morrow the hour was 
 his. 
 
 Though the storm howled over the house and 
 shook the bronzed leaves from the oaks and 
 scattered abroad the scurrying leaves in the wood- 
 land and tore the branches of the forest, and the 
 rain beat on land and river and beat the requiem 
 of the summer and its beautiful afterglow, the fire 
 on the hearth blazed high and the candle-light 
 shone on damask and silver and good cheer, and 
 again on Mistress Margaret's piquant face as she 
 sat by the fireside, her eyes bright with laughter, 
 for she would have naught but fun and jest this 
 night, and Calvert must bend himself to her 
 humor. 
 
 Yet when the evening was done and Calvert 
 slept the sleep of the well content within the guest 
 chamber, Mistress Brent still lingered by the 
 smouldering fire in the living-room. Much as she 
 had come to think on her cousin's happiness she 
 was not yet ready for the step he urged. She 
 would rather have lingered and used herself more 
 to the thought of it ; a year hence was time enow, 
 in faith, and he, she knew he grew impatient; 
 yet, as he said, she had been a most excellent 
 fencer and held him at bay. Now, Mistress 
 Margaret sighed. Freedom was dear to her. 
 Why could not they have gone on in the old way?
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 261 
 
 Why should every one urge her on? Why, last of 
 all, had she learned this strange insight of Leonard 
 Calvert's nature, to read the craving for love and 
 sympathy he hid under his calm exterior and to 
 feel she dared not trifle with it? Yet did she care 
 for anything? 
 
 Yes, for everything. She threw her arms above 
 her head, and the wide, loose sleeves slipped back, 
 showing the gleaming whiteness of them. She 
 cared for the world about, for her ventures in the 
 new country, for every acre of her grant, for every 
 tree in her forests, yet unsurveyed, for every friend 
 she claimed within the colony and every household 
 in St. Mary's, and for the man who slept that night 
 under the roof of St. Anne's. 
 
 Her heart ached for him, and because of that 
 ache and because she was well content to be with 
 him, to feel his love about her caring for her, she 
 would do as he pleaded. She would tell him on the 
 morrow. Yet she sighed as she rose, the decision 
 made, and blew out the candles and husbanded 
 the fire, and made her way across the dark, 
 draughty hall to her chamber, where Lucy waited 
 her, asleep before the hearth. 
 
 On the morrow she was ready to answer the 
 eager questioning of his eyes, though they met at 
 the breakfast-board and Sarah waited on them. 
 She saw the shaking of his fingers ; the cake of
 
 262 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 maize upon his plate untouched, though smoking 
 hot and thin and dainty ; the venison uncut, though 
 it was of the tenderest; the smoking hominy and 
 potatoes neglected. 
 
 " Sarah," she called, though there was a demure 
 look of mischief in her eyes, " Sarah, what have 
 you within the tankard, beer of our own brew- 
 ing? An thou wilt bring me hither some of 
 the white ale. Nay, call no one ! Go thyself; 
 the keys hang there." She pointed to the mantel- 
 shelf and busied herself with the food upon her 
 plate until Sarah's heavy foot was on the cellar 
 stair. Then she slipped hastily from her seat 
 at the head ot the board to the governor's 
 chair. 
 
 " Sir Giant," she smiled bravely as she spoke, 
 even if there were a catch in her voice and a 
 tremble upon her red lip, " eat thy food in peace, 
 it shall be as thou dost wish. Yes," to the quick 
 question, " ere yule-tide. Shame ! " for he had 
 sprung to his feet and was crushing her close to 
 him. "Sarah unhand me!" she sprang back 
 to her chair as Sarah's footfall sounded in the hall. 
 And the governor as he smoothed the lace upon 
 his coat wondered at the clear drops glittering on 
 the velvet. Yet were there tears there, the face 
 that looked at him from the head of the board was 
 bright as sunshine.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 263 
 
 " This cool weather moves one to hunger," she 
 was saying, lightly. " Sarah, pour the governor 
 a cup of ale, for me likewise." 
 
 Soon as the breaking of his fast the governor 
 had purposed to be gone, but loitering was such 
 delicious pastime, the morning was far spent when 
 he set sail. The river ran rough and boisterous 
 and the wind was somewhat fresh, yet the sun 
 shone clear and the clouds huddled close upon 
 the horizon; there was a draught of coolness, 
 a touch of winter in the air, that set his veins 
 a-tingle as they sailed, the pinnace heeled to 
 the wind, the prow throwing the spray high in 
 air. 
 
 Midway to St. Mary's they spied a small canoe 
 beating outwards. The man shaped his course for 
 them. The governor knew him ere he hailed for 
 a man of St. Mary's, and there was something in 
 his white, scared face that struck a chill to him ere 
 they had come to speech. His tale was soon told, 
 a tale so dread that Leonard Calvert, a second 
 before its hearing, would have sworn it impossible, 
 yet was it true. 
 
 Captain Ingle and William Claiborne had sailed 
 that night to St. Mary's. The strong wind which 
 whistled about the house when he had sat secure 
 had borne them swiftly. They had slipped safely 
 past St. Inigoes, and had trained the great guns of
 
 264 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the ship on the town. Should the people resist, the 
 town would be bombarded, destroyed. They had 
 submitted. 
 
 Giles Brent, they learned, was a prisoner on board 
 the ship. Kent had been already conquered.
 
 XVII 
 
 MISTRESS BRENT watched the gover- 
 nor's pinnace sail away with a strange 
 feeling of restlessness which she stifled 
 impatiently. She would see Jock. There was 
 some question of the curing of the tobacco. They 
 would go now to the sheds. The day was crisp, 
 but underfoot was soft from the rain ; she must 
 have Brown Bess saddled. Once there Mistress 
 Brent gave vigorous speech to the plans on which 
 she had been thinking. The thick hanging stalks 
 shut out all sound save of their own voices, so 
 they heard no footsteps until one of the servants 
 stood by them. 
 
 " What is it?" questioned his mistress, sharply. 
 
 " The governor hath come again and awaits 
 thee at the house." 
 
 " Hath come again? What is the meaning of 
 this?" 
 
 " I know not, mistress, Sarah called me to seek 
 thee at once." 
 
 " Pray God," said Mistress Brent as she un- 
 fastened her mare from her tethering by the shed
 
 2 66 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and sprang on her back, " there be not some mis- 
 chief afoot, though there hath been no time for 
 tidings good or ill." 
 
 Yet her first glance at the governor's face told 
 her there had been time for tidings, and those of 
 the worst. 
 
 He waited her in the living-room. 
 
 " Cousin Calvert," she began, as she entered 
 hastily. " Mercy o' God ! " she cried, for his face 
 was white and drawn and livid, "what hast thou 
 heard? whom hast thou seen? Let me call Sarah 
 to bring thee a draught of wine." 
 
 Calvert stopped her with a gesture. 
 
 " Margaret," he said hoarsely, with long pauses 
 between his words, "when I did leave thee 
 this morn I thought myself the governor of 
 this fair province and the happiest man therein 
 now," his voice rang sharply, " I have not e'en 
 a home within it, not an acre of land is mine ! " 
 
 Mistress Margaret tilted her chair proudly. 
 "There is St. Anne's!" she said, quietly. 
 
 " God's benison rest on thee, sweetheart, for 
 such speech ! " 
 
 "Is there news from my Lord Baltimore?" 
 queried Mistress Brent, a tinge of disdain in her 
 voice ; " hath he sent thither a new governor, or is 
 he come in person?" 
 
 "Would God he had!"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 267 
 
 "Then what?" 
 
 " I scarce can tell thee, it seems so incredulous." 
 
 " What hath befallen ? " demanded Margaret 
 impatiently, who would know the worst and be 
 done with it. 
 
 " Ingle," Mistress Margaret drew herself up 
 sharply and her gray eyes flashed, " Ingle hath 
 invaded St. Mary's ! " 
 
 " And the soldiers of the fort, the men of the 
 town ? " 
 
 Calvert shaded his face with his hand as he 
 leaned against the mantel-shelf. 
 
 " The ship slipped in last night, at dawn her 
 guns were trained upon the town." 
 
 "Who brought the tale? " 
 
 " One of my household, most trustworthy ; he 
 had his boat concealed, he had been hunting for 
 the wild ducks and would go again, he feigned, 
 and he sought me with all speed. I met him 
 in the river not many miles away." 
 
 " And e'en now he spreads the tale amongst 
 my servants." She went rapidly through the 
 hall to the open door. 
 
 The servants were grouped about the man 
 agape with astonishment at the tale he told with 
 much embroidery, of battleships and soldiers, 
 and great guns would blow the town in atoms. 
 
 " Sarah," called Mistress Brent, " come hither! "
 
 268 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 and then, not content with that, she hasted across 
 the yard to the hard-trodden earth before the 
 men's cabin. 
 
 "What tale is this ye tell?" she demanded, 
 angrily. 
 
 "Sooth, lady," stammered the man, aghast at 
 her anger, "'tis truth, St. Mary's 
 
 "Peace! I bid thee! hold thy tongue; 'til 
 more is known of this, stop thy prating in my 
 servants' ears. Why," she cried, as her anger 
 lessening, she knew the man's face, " 't is Wil- 
 liam Rolan; bide with Jock and leave these idle 
 fellows to be gone. When there is time for fear," 
 she turned to the men, " ye shall have it from 
 me from me ! " she stamped her foot angrily. 
 
 " Jock," she called him aside, " ye did not well 
 to follow me and to leave the men to do likewise, 
 now they are gathered as if keep this man with 
 thee, let him have speech of none ; there is disas- 
 trous news an this fellow be turned loose with 
 his tongue, 't will be bedlam come again. Come 
 to me in the house when I have had further 
 speech of the governor." 
 
 She went rapidly to the house. " So this fel- 
 low brought the tale." 
 
 " He is a most trusty servant, Margaret," re- 
 proached the governor, " and of them all the only 
 one who thought to warn me, else, like Giles "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 269 
 
 " Giles ! " 
 
 " Giles is a prisoner on board the ship." 
 
 Mistress Margaret threw herself into the chair 
 by the table and commenced to beat with her 
 slender fingers upon the heavy pile of the carpet 
 which covered it. 
 
 " Thou seest, had it not been for him, I, too " 
 
 Mistress Brent laughed shortly. " The com- 
 mander of Kent and the governor of Maryland 
 prisoners on board Captain Ingle's ship ! faith, the 
 sound of it tickles the ear ! This pirate waxes 
 bold." 
 
 " Pirate ! " cried Calvert, who would be just 
 spite of all else ; " Ingle scarce deserves this." 
 
 " Yea, pirate ! He would play the tricks upon 
 the Chesapeake which he hath learned upon the 
 Spanish Main." 
 
 Calvert was silent; for the nonce no action 
 seemed possible to him, he could but dwell dully 
 on the misfortune befallen him. 
 
 "And what is it?" went on Mistress Brent, 
 her chin high in air, her eyes flashing, " what is 
 it save piracy? On whose commission doth he 
 act? What authority doth he show?" 
 
 " Nay, for that, the fellow doubtless thinks 
 himself well backed ; he is of the rebellion," 
 he paused significantly, and in one wild flash Mis- 
 tress Brent saw all he meant.
 
 270 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Her cheeks flamed as she sprang to her feet. 
 
 " And ye mean he thinks he can wrest 
 this province now, and be upheld." She walked 
 swiftly and angrily across the room, her fingers 
 tight clenched upon her thumbs, her head erect. 
 " We will match him," she cried ; " piracy for 
 piracy, an he hath taken possession of us," she 
 laughed shortly, " we '11 steal our own again. 
 There are the lords of the manors, the soldiers 
 of the hundreds ! " 
 
 " And thinkest thou, Margaret, one of them 
 would move in our cause? nay," at her as- 
 tonished look, "bethink thee, for all they know 
 this man may represent the authority of England, 
 an they resisted him they might lose all they 
 had." 
 
 " Tut, 't is warfare, one cause against the 
 other ! " 
 
 Calvert looked at her kindling face, though 
 there was no answering enthusiasm on his. 
 
 " He holds the heart of the colony," he said, 
 shortly ; " an we make any move " 
 
 " T is bluster, this talk of destroying the town 
 should we resist ! He thinks to frighten us, and 
 he hath well done so," she added, bitterly. " How 
 many soldiers could we command?" she asked, 
 coming close to him where he stood beside the 
 hearth.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 271 
 
 " The soldiers of this hundred," said Calvert, 
 quietly, " muster scarce forty men." 
 
 Mistress Margaret spread out her hands in a 
 gesture of despair. 
 
 " And of them, how many could be relied 
 on?" 
 
 Aye, there, she knew, was the rub. Of the 
 settlers many were already disaffected toward 
 the Proprietor ; Protestants who, believing not in 
 the religious toleration which was the foundation 
 of their charter, would gladly overthrow a Catholic 
 governor; these, too, believed the cause of the 
 rebellion in England their cause, and hoped from 
 it their own triumph. They were willing to con- 
 cede to the English lord few of the rights he 
 claimed, and fought his influence in the Assem- 
 blies and complained much of their quit-rents 
 and poverty; and they would, moreover, make 
 of the losses of the year before a pretext for any 
 course, so it was the course of peace. 
 
 In truth, the blow was struck at the very mo- 
 ment of their weakness; even those friendly to 
 them well might fear warfare. Should their 
 holdings be deserted once more, their wives 
 and children crowded into the refuge houses, 
 their stock and granaries left to wind and weather 
 and the prowling beasts who would soon find 
 them out? It had been nigh to starving time
 
 272 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 with them before, now it would be upon them 
 indeed. 
 
 She knew so it would seem to them. They 
 could depend on few. She faced the difficulty 
 squarely. 
 
 " There is another question," said Calvert, " I 
 know not what my brother would have, mayhap 
 he would rather trust to diplomacy in London to 
 be reinstated." 
 
 " What he would have ! he knows naught of it, 
 and ere he knows we will have acted." 
 
 The governor smiled sadly, as if he but smiled 
 at her wilfulness. 
 
 " Truth, thou wouldst make a rare soldier, Mar- 
 garet." But she noticed not the flattery. 
 
 " See ye naught to do ? " 
 
 Calvert was silent. He saw not a hand's-breadth 
 before him, yet could he not bring himself to such 
 confession. 
 
 " At Jamestown ?" ventured Mistress Margaret. 
 
 "Jamestown," declared Calvert, hotly; "none 
 knoweth better than thou how they have fought 
 us at every step; in this matter of Kent they 
 persisted against us until the king's express com- 
 mand forbade them." 
 
 " There would be no help there." She went 
 back to the chair and began her silent tattoo on 
 the table. "I see naught, I see naught."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 273 
 
 " And when Captain Ingle sends hither his 
 soldiers, which, trust me, he will shortly do to all 
 the great manors, ye will submit?" 
 
 " 'T were useless for one manor to fight him." 
 
 "Even to surrendering me prisoner? " 
 
 " Calvert, how darest and ye would sit still 
 and wait such issue ! I 'd hie me to the Indians 
 and buy their aid." 
 
 " And have the savages to retake St. Mary's 
 for me! rather would I never set foot within it 
 again." 
 
 Yet Mistress Margaret's hot words had given a 
 clue to his thoughts. " There are soldiers to Be 
 hired in Virginia," he went on slowly, putting the 
 thought into words. " Nay," as Mistress Margaret 
 began quickly to speak, " let me think on it a 
 moment, my thoughts form slowly, thou knowest; " 
 he smiled faintly as he walked to the window. 
 
 Out there the sun, though nearing the end of 
 this most disastrous day, shone brightly ; the oak 
 leaves withered and dry, yet clinging to the 
 branches, writhed and rustled in the brisk wind, 
 and where the sun struck sharp against the 
 river it glistened as though flashed back from 
 diamonds. 
 
 Far out beyond the mouth of St. Mary's ran the 
 broad Potomac, its southern shore but showing a 
 dim, misty outline. There was his hope. Calvert 
 18
 
 274 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 thought it out. It was a hazardous plan, and yet 
 his only one. 
 
 He came back to Mistress Margaret. " May- 
 hap amongst the Virginia planters on the Potomac 
 and Rappahannock I may hire me soldiers ; they 
 are far from Jamestown and will venture much 
 for gain. 'T is the only plan. I must get me 
 to them, and journey from plantation to plantation 
 to get a force together." He sank in the chair 
 opposite her. " But think, Madge, 't will be 
 months ere I can come again, if then ; and what 
 happiness seemed mine ! Good God ! " 
 
 " Fret not, think not on it, only be up and 
 doing ! " 
 
 "Aye, I know; 'tis no time for aught save 
 work," he took her small hand and spread it 
 upon the cover of the table, following the out- 
 line of each finger with his touch ; " and 't is best ! 
 Sometimes thought is well nigh maddening, but 
 not now, sweetheart, when I come again I '11 listen 
 to no further talk of partings. There have been 
 enough already, God knows." 
 
 He pushed her hand gently away and rose to 
 his feet. 
 
 " I must be gone," he said, slowly and deter- 
 minedly. 
 
 " Surely not now to-morrow." 
 
 " Aye, now ; no need to think and let the canker
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 275 
 
 eat the deeper ; " Mistress Brent could stay him 
 no further, the feeling was what she herself would 
 have felt. 
 
 " Take thy man who came thither from St. 
 Mary's with thee," she counselled. 
 
 " Nay, he has wife and children and must return 
 to them." 
 
 " Then will I send him back with hopeful mes- 
 sages to thy friends," she said, firmly ; " he must be 
 cured of his fright, and return to tell them to bide 
 quiet for a time. But some one must be chosen to 
 bring me notice of thy movements." 
 
 " I will send one of the men who did bring me 
 hither." 
 
 " And I will see those of St. George's and 
 Captain Rogers and the lords of the manors ; 
 many will be found, trust me, ready to aid thee 
 when thou comest, only be not long!" 
 
 Calvert looked at her unsteadily. " Long," he 
 muttered ; then he drew himself up as a soldier 
 should. " I will call my men," he said ; and then 
 when that was done and all was ready for depart- 
 ure, *' Good-by, Margaret." 
 
 "Say it not in such fashion, what is there to 
 hinder thy coming again and yet again?" 
 
 But Calvert only said simply, " I will send thee 
 news of me." 
 
 " But thou wilt come some day?"
 
 276 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Some day as I should, to take my own again ; 
 'til then " 
 
 " Say ' farewell ' as thou didst this morn, lightly." 
 
 Calvert was quite himself again, the old, quiet 
 self. 
 
 " I cannot, there is a great gulf fixed 'twixt then 
 and now ; " he came near, reading her nervous 
 fright in her eyes. He lifted the hand he held 
 to his lips. " 'Til happier days, sweetheart," 
 he said, and was gone. Gone ere the tears had 
 cleared from Mistress Margaret's eyes. Far as 
 she strained her sight the gleaming sail sped on, 
 through sunset and dusk, pointed ever to that dim 
 horizon beyond the river's mouth, across the broad 
 Potomac, till the dark came down and hid it from 
 her sight. 
 
 There was no word of him for many days. At 
 St. Mary's all was as he said it would be. The 
 ship held the town. Small forces were sent 
 hither and thither to demand the allegiance of 
 the manors. 
 
 Mistress Brent waited for them at St. Anne's, 
 vowing in her heart they should have no oath of 
 her. She watched the river daily, and when she 
 saw them coming and knew well their errand she 
 called Jock. 
 
 " Thou wilt receive yonder men," she com- 
 manded, " and entreat them courteously ; say what
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 277 
 
 suits thee best, but for me, I shall get me to the 
 forest. Not a word ! I 'd burst with spleen to 
 see those villains in my hall; an I could fight 
 them as I did the Indians, I 'd do it gladly ! But 
 I 'd face every danger of the forest ere I 'd have 
 speech with them ! When they are gone, come thy- 
 self to the edge of the far tobacco field. There '11 
 be no lingering for them at St. Anne's, no rev- 
 elry. Captain Rogers may see to that." 
 
 And she was gone. For Mistress Margaret was 
 already head and front of the governor's party in 
 the province. The man had been returned to St. 
 Mary's, as she had counselled ; his own fears had 
 been allayed and he had been filled with tales of 
 what the governor purposed to do and how soon 
 he would return, only, he was cautioned, this must 
 be done under oath of secrecy and to the gov- 
 ernor's known friends. They must be told, like- 
 wise, to wait quietly, to do no violence, yet to 
 hold themselves in readiness to aid Calvert when 
 he returned. 
 
 To his friends amongst the lords of the manor 
 she was prepared to send messages concerning 
 him. There was coming and going all winter. 
 Yet the governor's lot was far harder than Mis- 
 tress Brent could think. 
 
 He had to go amongst men few of whom were 
 his friends and few of whom were friendly to his
 
 278 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 cause. Here and there he found those who en- 
 treated him kindly and fain would aid him, but 
 found it hard to persuade others to the same 
 mind. From plantation to plantation he went, 
 sometimes nigh hopeless; and news from St. 
 Mary's meanwhile was most disquieting. Ingle's 
 ship was indeed gone, but the men he left were 
 in possession of the town and, what touched 
 him keenly, the manor-house of St. John's had 
 been destroyed, burned to the ground. 
 
 Calvert could well understand with what hatred 
 the men would view it. There, Thomas Smith, 
 the prisoner from Kent, had been tried, there he 
 had been executed; these men, his friends and 
 avengers, would not leave a brick of it standing. 
 The loss was heavy, and most of all because the 
 records of the colony were stored there and burned 
 with it. The stock the governor had been at such 
 pains to procure would be dispersed and lost. 
 
 The governor in his exile could but set his 
 mind more firmly to his purpose. His messengers 
 came to St. Anne's again and again, and many 
 times ere there were good tidings to be brought. 
 Then came this note to Mistress Brent: 
 
 To Mistress Margaret Brent, 
 
 Greeting. 
 
 Whereas we have sent oft to ye tidings as to how we 
 fared, we now send one hither with news more to our
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 279 
 
 mind than any that have gone hitherto, namely, that we 
 do purpose ere many days be passed to be again in St. 
 Mary's. We have with the aid of our good friends of 
 Virginia got together a sufficient force to contend with 
 those that William Claiborne and Captain Ingle did leave 
 behind, and do purpose to sweep them from our prov- 
 ince. When this is done we will wait upon thee at St. 
 Anne's. Until then may God have thee in charge. 
 Thine alway, 
 
 LEONARD CALVERT. 
 
 Mistress Margaret's heart was filled with joy 
 that day. That a raw wind blew, and the river 
 ran gray and sullen and the skies were leaden, 
 mattered not. She must get messages to her 
 friends and have them hold themselves in readi- 
 ness, and then, hardest of all, she must play the 
 woman's part, and sit still and wait while the 
 actions she had planned went forward. 
 
 But waiting was neither long nor irksome. 
 Scarce had a week gone by when she knew Cal- 
 vert was come again to his own, the soldiers who 
 held St. Mary's were driven forth, the men from 
 the hundreds flocked to his help, and then, that 
 they had sailed for Kent. It was then she looked 
 to see the governor. 
 
 He might have come to her at the first, she 
 had reproached him in her heart. Did he not 
 know why he found the colonists in such readi-
 
 280 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 ness to receive them? did he not know why his 
 work was made easy? had she not writ him each 
 plan and hope ? had not his letters been full of fine 
 speeches? and now he could not spare a day from 
 his affairs, she argued, and was nettled thereby. 
 
 But Calvert at St. Mary's wrought furiously. 
 His health had been much weakened by the life 
 he had led in Virginia; he had been exposed in 
 all weathers, he had gone from place to place 
 urging the men to his cause and reaching where 
 alone they could be touched by offering so high 
 a wage that all he had stood pledged. 
 
 In the town itself was dire confusion ; this must 
 be straightened somewhat and he must be gone 
 to Kent. And as Mistress Margaret watched the 
 ships sail by, and knew her brother and lover were 
 both on board and deemed they were alike neglect- 
 ful, she was deeply angered. 
 
 Yet again the ships went by and she knew her 
 brother was re-established in his commandery, and 
 she was angered past the thinking on it. 
 
 She would go visit Mary no, she would not 
 see her in such mood and list her questioning on 
 the governor's absence ; she would bide at home, 
 she would find something to do. And she found 
 it straightway. There came a letter from Mistress 
 Hawley. The governor was ill. He pleaded for 
 her constantly. Would she come, and at once?
 
 XVIII 
 
 MISTRESS MARGARET had not set 
 foot in St. Mary's since she abode in 
 the governor's house with Giles, two 
 winters agone. 
 
 She strained her eyes to read the meaning of 
 its streets and houses. The wharf lay idle save 
 for the governor's pinnace, but lately come from 
 Kent ; the roots of the great white mulberry were 
 deserted; the children shrank silently away as 
 they went up the sandy street ; and the dooryards 
 were neglected, the houses unkempt, uncared for. 
 Weeds grew rank where flowers had bloomed, 
 the white clover thrust its head where English 
 flowers had been tended, the women's faces she 
 saw at door or window were dull and listless. At 
 the governor's gateway she espied Mistress Haw- 
 ley, her face was sadder yet than all the rest as 
 she swung the gate open hastily. 
 
 " I heard thou wast come, and thought thee 
 hurrying to my own house." She put her arm 
 about Mistress Margaret and drew her within 
 the yard. " I hasted to meet thee, though I 
 should not have left his bed. Margaret ! " Mis-
 
 282 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 tress Hawley's voice, so calm and steady, broke 
 suddenly as she turned her face quickly away. 
 
 "Is my cousin so ill?" queried Margaret, 
 quickly. 
 
 "111?" 
 
 " Katharine, I did not think " 
 
 " Nor did any of us. I wrote ye " went on Mis- 
 tress Hawley, incoherently. " He was worn, white, 
 gaunt when he came back, with a fierce feverish- 
 ness in his manner. His gentle courtesy was well 
 nigh gone ; he was short in his speech, impatient, 
 and now and then racked with cough." They were 
 near to the house as Mistress Hawley went on. 
 " There was not a thought of friends ; he never 
 came nigh me. I. saw him but upon the streets; 
 he made quick work of all to be done, he would 
 sweep the town of those insolent soldiers who 
 swaggered here and would be gone to Kent ; and 
 now " 
 
 She turned with an eloquent gesture of sorrow. 
 " Do not look startled," she cautioned, as she 
 helped Margaret lay her things aside in the guest 
 chamber. " Come ! " she led the way to Calvert's 
 room. " Nay, sweetheart, pause a while, wipe 
 that grief-stricken look of awe from off thy face, 
 let not his eyes rest on such ; wait here in the hall 
 but a moment." She was gone, and came back 
 with a draught of wine.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 283 
 
 "That foolish housekeeper," she went on talk- 
 ing on indifferent topics and eying Margaret 
 closely the while, " hath lost what little wits the 
 good God blessed her with. Ye should see the 
 keeping of his household." Mistress Hawley had 
 scarce had it in her heart to leave him, such 
 rough care had he come home to. 
 
 The color had returned to Margaret's face, 
 though faintly. " Now, sweetheart ! " She went 
 softly down the hall to a door at the end and 
 opened it gently. Within, the light was darkened 
 so that they paused a moment for sight. 
 
 A great bedstead loomed heavily in a darkened 
 corner, a table by its side was filled with candle- 
 stick and drinking-vessel and a tankard of some 
 dark drink. At the foot of the bed cowered the 
 governor's housekeeper, fat, indolent, sullen, and 
 scared. 
 
 Mistress Hawley stood back as Margaret went 
 forward close to the rumpled bed where the 
 governor's great wasted figure lay; his lids were 
 closed upon his deep-set eyes and his sunken 
 cheeks were red with fever. 
 
 Margaret clenched her hands as a quiver of 
 pity shook her heart. " He is asleep ; " she mo- 
 tioned to Mistress Hawley, who went up to the 
 housekeeper. "Ye can go to your duties," she 
 whispered. "Ye must provide for us; Mistress
 
 284 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Brent's servants will bide with me, and she her- 
 self when not needed here." 
 : Mistress Hawley knew well that the salvation 
 of a household, where such sickness was, lay in 
 the keeping as much as might be to its quiet 
 routine; so she had thought to add, "Mistress 
 Brent will be an hungered, see ye provide well 
 for her, it grows already late." 
 
 She seated herself in the chair the woman left. 
 " Sit down, Margaret," she whispered, pointing to 
 a chair near by. 
 
 Margaret shook her head, her lips were a- 
 tremble and her eyes misty with tears. Should 
 he waken he must not see her thus. She walked 
 unsteadily to the window; the battened shutter 
 was ajar and showed a glimpse of green grass 
 and tall trees and the creek which wound its 
 way behind the governor's house, and the peace 
 and quiet of it seemed an irony to the woman 
 who stood there half-stifled with sadness. The 
 long beams slanted lower and the quiet was yet 
 unbroken in the room. Margaret came again to 
 the chair by the bedside, Mistress Hawley waited 
 at the foot, and the moments sped away. The 
 room was close from its shuttering against heat 
 and light. Mistress Hawley moved quietly to 
 the window and opened it to the evening cool 
 and sweetness.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 285 
 
 " I like not this heavy sleep," she whispered, 
 stealing to Mistress Margaret's side and pulling 
 back the curtains of the bed for the fresh air to 
 blow upon the sick man there. A long, low, 
 slanting beam fell full upon his face, showing 
 each sunken feature and the dread look that 
 settled upon them. . 
 
 " My God ! " cried Mistress Hawley, and at the 
 sudden sharp sound Calvert's eyelids flickered 
 and opened. In the golden light by his side 
 shone the face he had longed for bitterly through 
 many desperate days. 
 
 " Margaret," he whispered faintly, and then a 
 great agony shook him. Again and again he 
 strove for speech. Mistress Hawley flew for aid ; 
 but when they reached him he but opened his 
 darkened eyes, half raised himself to reach Mar- 
 garet, and begged hoarsely, " Take all, pay all," 
 and was dead. 
 
 What followed for many days Mistress Margaret 
 knew not. It was but a daze of silence and great 
 sorrow, of coming and going of grief-stricken 
 folk, of the gathering together of the colonists 
 for last honor to the well-loved dead, and then 
 again silence and sorrow. 
 
 She was within the governor's house; she had 
 never thought to leave it; she was his nearest of 
 kin. By and by Giles would be come ; they had
 
 286 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 sent for him. Mistress Hawley tarried with her, 
 and it seemed to the quiet woman a bitter fate 
 which had left her the brunt of affairs whilst Mar- 
 garet mourned. She longed wildly to be gone, 
 to be within her own house; and instead, to 
 tarry there, to see the coming and going, to 
 answer the word of questioning or of kind in- 
 quiry, seemed insupportable. She felt she had 
 reached the limit of her durance and must speak 
 of it; she must make occasion to rouse Mistress 
 Brent. And thinking thus she wandered without 
 the house. The air within stifled her; she was 
 tired of the day and its hard duties, tired of the 
 warring within herself; and the cool fresh air, 
 the sound of the incoming tide, the singing of 
 the winds overhead, lured her farther and farther. 
 The quiet and peace were heavenly, and Mis- 
 tress Hawley drew a long breath of delight as she 
 paused listening to that voice of the waves that 
 calls and calls ever to its restless side, and then 
 with its soothing speech of eternal things quiets 
 the fever of the heart. 
 
 She needed the lending of her ear to its whis- 
 perings, for Mistress Hawley was well nigh dis- 
 traught, and yet would have none look on her 
 wound. Her mouth set itself in sorrowful curves ; 
 that restless tossing, that constant plaint was as 
 if of her own soul, and she must teach herself,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 287 
 
 though the moaning went on within, to look 
 as placid as she had seen the river show in mid- 
 summer heats. 
 
 She got up restlessly and went on, down by the 
 little wharf beyond the house. One of the men 
 of the governor's household was tying his boat 
 and she paused to have speech of him, careless 
 speech of wind or tide or weather; but the man 
 had other and more serious thoughts, and voiced 
 them suddenly. 
 
 " How long will it take for -news to reach 
 over seas?" he queried; "and who will take 
 charge of affairs 'til Lord Baltimore be heard 
 from?" 
 
 A great shock ran through Mistress Hawley's 
 tall, supple figure as she turned away unanswer- 
 ing; she had not even considered it, who should 
 be head and front of affairs until news could be 
 sent to England and letters from the Proprietor. 
 Who? There was but one, the governor's next of 
 kin and his executor, Margaret Brent. 
 
 She went with firm step and eyes alert into the 
 house. The twilight had deepened, and in the 
 living-room sat a slender, inert figure given to 
 the dark and to dark thoughts. She walked away, 
 and came back as steadily as she had gone. She 
 held pine torches within* her hands, and flint and 
 steel ; and she stuck the torches in the holes upon
 
 288 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 the mantel-shelf and lighted them and the candle 
 upon the table. 
 
 " Katharine," protested Mistress Margaret, " the 
 light blinds me, it hurts the eye ; " and Mistress 
 Hawley saw the lids were red and swollen, yet she 
 had steeled her heart against soft pity. She went 
 on quietly arranging the lights, and then she went 
 behind Mistress Margaret, closing the shutters. 
 
 Again Margaret was fretful. " It is hot and 
 close with all this light." 
 
 "We will need the light," declared Katharine, 
 calmly. " Margaret, come over here beside the 
 table. Where did the governor keep his papers? " 
 
 Mistress Margaret only shook her head petu- 
 lantly. 
 
 " Come," called Mistress Hawley, sharply. " Ye 
 know not? What is here on this table ? Letters, 
 instructions," she fingered the papers as she 
 went on. 
 
 " Governor Calvert ever kept a litter of them 
 there." 
 
 " Aye, when he was here to see to them. Ere 
 he died he left his affairs to one who totally 
 neglects them; what think ye he'd say an he 
 knew these had been left to every comer?" 
 
 Margaret sprang to her feet as though she had 
 been stung. " Katharine, it hath been not yet a 
 week "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 289 
 
 " Since Leonard Calvert died," added Mistress 
 Hawley, solemnly; "yet have men already become 
 restless and begun to wonder what will be next." 
 
 "What will be next!" 
 
 "Where have thy wits been wool-gathering?" 
 stormed Mistress Hawley, though her heart chid 
 her at Margaret's stricken face and wild eyes 
 beneath her heavy, swollen lids. " Who is to ad- 
 minister the governor's affairs ? " 
 
 " I," said Mistress Brent, proudly. 
 
 " Mercy o' God ! then when wilt thou be about 
 it?" 
 
 Margaret ran her shaking fingers across her 
 white face and then pushed back the damp hair 
 from her temples. 
 
 "When the colony at such a critical moment 
 grows faint-hearted for lack of a head, and the 
 Virginia soldiers are swaggering in the streets and 
 muttering for their pay, 'tis time the governor's 
 administrator, an he had one, were up and doing. " 
 
 Mistress Margaret walked across the room, her 
 eyes gleaming with passion and her cheeks, that 
 had been white many a day, aflame with anger. 
 
 " Ye will go to Deborah, Mistress Hawley, and 
 bid her send hither the governor's mails." 
 
 She seated herself at the table and picked up 
 nervously the first parchment her fingers touched, 
 though it fair unmanned her ; it was that map of
 
 290 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Maryland drawn out with plan of barony and 
 manor. Here in this chair had she sat as she de- 
 manded of the governor her rights, while he stood 
 by, a calm smile on his kind face. She laid it by. 
 Here was the seal of Maryland ; she held it in her 
 slender fingers while her mind, quicker than its 
 wont, awakened from its long inactivity, ran over 
 the names of the men in the colony. Who should 
 have the use of it? The power? Giles? Nay, 
 there was a narrowness, a want of ripeness in 
 his views; he was yet unfit. Thomas Gerard? 
 he cared too much for the making of his own 
 fortunes. Captain Rogers? she smiled sarcasti- 
 cally, and her own slender fingers closed more 
 tightly upon it. She held it, by the governor's 
 own choosing; there was none amongst them all 
 she knew it by the light of her own intellect 
 could stand so well in the governor's place, and 
 she would stand there and prove it. 
 
 No one knew as well as she all the twisted 
 strands of circumstance, the governor's hopes, the 
 trial through which he had lately passed, and the 
 Proprietor's wishes ; the scenes were shifting rap- 
 idly, and for the nonce she would hold her own 
 firmly. 
 
 Her face was as proud and her eye as cold as 
 Mistress Hawley had ever seen them when she 
 came with a box heavy as her hands could clasp
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 291 
 
 and put it and the key upon the table and waited 
 silent for the space of a moment. Margaret made 
 no sign, not even lifted an eyelid. She came be- 
 hind her and slipped her arms about her neck 
 and kissed her crimson cheek. 
 
 But Margaret scarce turned; she went on 
 quietly with the sorting of the papers already 
 on the table, and Mistress Hawley went away out 
 to the opened door, where she sat herself down 
 listlessly on the bench within the porch. 
 
 In the living-room, blazing with its lights, Mis- 
 tress Margaret went on with her task. 
 
 In all the litter on the table was little of impor- 
 tance. She opened the box. Here were letters 
 from my Lord Baltimore. She looked through 
 them warily; many were of such nature as her 
 cousin complained of. Why had not such things 
 been done? Why was there not given him a 
 full account of the stock on St. John's manor? 
 Had the cattle he had bought in Virginia been 
 brought thither? Why had no replies been made 
 to his query about the iron foundry he purposed 
 to establish in the colony? Were the treaties 
 with the Indians yet concluded? Had Leonard 
 Calvert obtained their relinquishment of all the 
 lands the king had granted him? he would have 
 the matter settled peaceably. Where were the 
 Indian arrows? it were time they were sent to
 
 292 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Windsor Castle, as his brother well knew must be 
 done each year in token of his fealty ; he should 
 not need the reminding of it. 
 
 " Good God ! " muttered Margaret, as she thought 
 on these and on the Indian troubles, the restless 
 spirit of the colonists, their stormy assemblies, the 
 trouble with Kent. 
 
 She went on. Here were lists of land grants; 
 here memorandum of his indebtedness ; here were 
 notes received in his Virginia exile, one protesting 
 the writer could not furnish the men he had 
 promised ; another, the men would not serve save 
 for higher wage. In all the coil of trouble but 
 one brightness. Mistress Margaret's red lips quiv- 
 ered. Here, apart, were all the missives she had 
 sent him. She thought on their wording. Little 
 there was of love and not much of tenderness in 
 them ; would God there had been some touch of 
 affection ! Had she but known how he had 
 worked and fretted ; but his messages to her had 
 been of a piece with his oldtime stately kindli- 
 ness, she had known not a tithe of the bitterness 
 of those last days. 
 
 As she neared the end of her task, as paper 
 and memorandum passed through her quick rin- 
 gers and their purport through her quick mind, 
 one strong, unlooked-for conviction forced itself 
 upon her : Could all the governor held be turned
 
 MISTRESS BRENT / 293 
 
 to pounds it would but pay his debts already 
 accrued ; the man who held the granting of all 
 Maryland owned not an acre of it ; the man who 
 had begged for claims for other men, for trad- 
 ing privileges for other men, and opened to them 
 the highroads of their fortunes, had not from all 
 the venture bettered himself a pound ! 
 
 She, too, had ventured all, yet with what re- 
 turns? For her manor of St. Anne's, her buildings, 
 her servants, her furnishings, she would not take 
 ten times her first expenditure. She had known 
 him, generous, thoughtful ever of others beyond 
 himself, but this, why, scarce a colonist but had 
 fared better, even Mistress Hawley, with her early 
 widowhood and poverty, flourished thriftily. 
 
 But Mistress Hawley in the darkness of the 
 porch had no thought of thrift, only a bitterness 
 of heart, an angry jealousy that would not be 
 stilled when she knew another hand made busy 
 with all the secrets of Leonard Calvert's life. 
 
 She had kept the knowledge from her own eyes 
 till he came home those last days, ill and needful 
 of care, and she had ministered to him. She had 
 thought with calmness on his wedding Margaret, 
 the fitness of it, and had gone her way, not know- 
 ing the sorrow in her heart was not an old one. 
 Now she knew, and face to face with the knowl- 
 edge must fight it and lay it low. And busied with
 
 294 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 her bitter thoughts the hours sped as swiftly as 
 they did to Mistress Brent. Dark and evening and 
 midnight settled on the town as they held each 
 her vigil. 
 
 The stars glittered in the zenith and all the 
 town slept ; but by and by Mistress Hawley was 
 aware of footsteps in the street, indistinct in the 
 soft sand. The gate opened, the steps rang firm 
 on the gravel, a figure alert, erect, loomed in the 
 starlight, Giles Brent had come. He knew not 
 the woman he had loved through his early man- 
 hood was fighting valiantly with the feeling which, 
 unknown even to herself, had kept her from him 
 as far as the stars above there in the heavens.
 
 XIX 
 
 ILES," said Mistress Margaret, the 
 morning of the next day, " 't is neces- 
 sary we should have a meeting of the 
 colonists here in St. Mary's." 
 
 Giles looked at her thoughtfully as he twisted 
 the pointed beard upon his chin. "'Twill be diffi- 
 cult now, when the settlers are all busied." 
 
 " Aye, but it is necessary." Mistress Margaret's 
 listlessness was all gone; though she was pale 
 and worn she was as alert and her manner as 
 positive as it had been. " I shall send the sum- 
 mons this very day." 
 
 "Thou?" 
 
 " In my own name. The governor hath named 
 me executor; there are things I must attend to 
 at once." 
 
 " Thou canst send my man James. He and 
 my pinnace are at the wharf." 
 
 " I will see to the wording of the messages." 
 
 " Margaret ! " 
 
 His sister turned inquiringly. She was already 
 half way down the hall.
 
 296 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 "Where is Mistress Hawley? methought she 
 abode with thee." 
 
 " Only until ye came." She was impatient to be 
 gone. 
 
 Giles followed with slow footsteps into the 
 living-room. 
 
 " Madge," he said, hesitatingly, " last night Mis- 
 tress Hawley appeared distraught." 
 
 Margaret shrugged her shoulders carelessly. 
 " She hath her moods, God knows." 
 
 " Moods ! now, if ever God made a woman who 
 hath them not, but clear common sense " 
 
 "Tut, and what man hath them not, likewise? 
 I am tired of this everlasting prating of man and 
 womankind; are they not of the same clay?" 
 
 Giles laughed shortly, "Tis what few women 
 say; they'd never own themselves of common 
 clay." 
 
 " For myself I feel somewhat less." 
 
 Giles's hazel eyes flashed dark and keen. 
 
 " Hath any weakness ruled thee?" 
 
 " Ruled, mayhap ; rule, never ! " 
 
 " Zounds ! ye are not often so exact." 
 
 " Sooth, Giles, stand not quibbling. These must 
 be writ at once. I would ye 'd find your man 
 James and send him hither. He must be gone 
 to St. George's hundred. I '11 send another to 
 Captain Rogers."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 297 
 
 Giles held his wide white-plumed hat in his 
 hand. " Then I '11 e'en be gone," he said ; " 't is 
 far better out o' doors." 
 
 Inside the room was cool and dusky, but with 
 the look of emptiness and sorrow a house will 
 wear when the head of it is stricken. But without 
 the grass was emerald green; clovers lifted their 
 white heads in neglected corners, shadows on lawn 
 and pathway were dense, out in the street the sand 
 glared in the bright sun, and Giles was glad to 
 draw the wide brim of his hat lower to shield his 
 eyes. The street was quiet, men were gone to the 
 fields outside the town or fishing in the river, and 
 the boys were tending the cows or hogs, or play- 
 ing far along the shore. Giles lingered at the gate- 
 way, looking down towards the river and then 
 upwards. 
 
 " Od, zounds ! " he muttered, " 't is too hot to 
 seek him on the sands ; I '11 wager a pound the 
 fellow is at the coffee-house ; " and he turned his 
 back to the river and went on up to the crossing 
 of the street, which soon grew at either end to a 
 long green lane, and then miles away to a blazed 
 track in the forest. 
 
 At the coffee-house some dozen of men were 
 lounging about; the landlord stood in the door, 
 and Giles passed close looking for his fellow. 
 
 The landlord started as he recognized him, for
 
 298 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Captain Brent had spent the first days of his so- 
 journ under his roof. 
 
 " Captain Brent ! " he cried, and in the eagerness 
 of his voice was something more than welcome; 
 "thy man was here this morn. I did look for 
 thee." 
 
 "Is he within?" queried Giles, when he had 
 answered the man's greeting. 
 
 " Aye, he is e'en now at a game of bowls. 
 But, Captain Brent," the man bowed obsequi- 
 ously, " I would e'en have a word with thee, sir; 
 in truth, there is somewhat I would ask of the 
 governor's affairs," he added anxiously, as Giles 
 stood carelessly hesitating at the doorway. 
 
 "Step within, sir;" he looked around him 
 quickly, about the open door and the tables near. 
 They were crowded with soldiers, idly indolent; 
 through the back door gleamed a bit of greensward 
 on which the bowlers played, James amongst them. 
 " Thou seest we have much company," he con- 
 tinued, with a sickly attempt at facetiousness. 
 
 Captain Brent barely nodded. 
 
 " They have been here this month," continued 
 the landlord, sharply. " They eat, mercy o' God ! 
 they eat more than I can come by. I have a 
 hunter ever in the woods, a fisherman on the 
 river, my cellars are drained dry. These Virgini- 
 ans, too, I trust them not, they are ever too friendly
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 299 
 
 with Claiborne. I hear strange talk." The land- 
 lord grew fair incoherent with the fear roused by 
 the thought he would convey. 
 
 "Ye would hint on league betwixt them," said 
 Giles, bluntly. 
 
 "I I hint at naught ; but think, now, they 
 drove the invaders forth, they held the town, 
 they could do it now an they were so minded, 
 they clamor for their pay, they need but a leader 
 to seize it some day" 
 
 " Aye," said Giles, " ye mean they 'd over- 
 power the town." 
 
 The landlord groaned, " Our lives would not 
 be worth a ha'pence ! " 
 
 "Tut, man, they be not such bloodthirsty 
 rogues." 
 
 " Ye know not ; they are devils, fair devils ! " 
 
 "Has there been a word of this to any one?" 
 said Giles, sternly. 
 
 "Not a whisper, a breath. I know not where 
 to turn, and when I did see thy man, ' Mercy 
 o' God ! ' said I, ' the captain has come again to 
 St. Mary's ; 't is him I will tell it to.' Truth, 't is 
 well ye are come, sir, else who can see to such 
 affairs now that the governor, God bless him 
 for a good and noble man ! " 
 
 " Mistress Margaret Brent hath his affairs in 
 charge," said Captain Brent, stiffly.
 
 3 oo MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " A woman now," said the landlord, eying the 
 captain stealthily. 
 
 " But one who will know full well the best to 
 do," said Giles, loyally ; " trust me thy score will 
 be settled soon and the men out of thy sight. 
 Lay thy fears to rest, man," he added, sternly, 
 "and do not so much as breathe a whisper; ye 
 know how such fears grow, 't would be ill for 
 thy cause an ye did. Trust me, all will soon be 
 settled to thy liking, and that of all, there needs 
 must be time for the doing of it." 
 
 He turned abruptly and went out. " Send 
 James to Mistress Brent," he called, and then, 
 as if moved by second thought, he came back 
 to the landlord. "A secret, sirrah, for thine own: 
 we call a council at St. Mary's at once of all the 
 colonists or their burgesses." 
 
 The landlord brightened even more than at 
 Captain Brent's promises. He was used to prom- 
 ises, empty words, but this sounded like very 
 fact; but ere he had time for speech Captain 
 Brent was gone. He watched the slender, erect 
 figure bravely attired in blue and gold, the wide 
 hat and the hair curling low upon his collar, the 
 quick turn of the head from right to left as he 
 passed the tables where the soldiers sat idly smok- 
 ing without the door. He swept his hat to them 
 carelessly and then turned quickly up the street.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 301 
 
 There was yet but one house on Mattaponi 
 Street, beyond the coffee-house, Mistress Haw- 
 ley's. Giles's keen eyes gazed from door-yard to 
 house and yard beyond. The roses bloomed in 
 pink clusters about the door. The walnut above 
 the spring was green with tender, sweet-smelling 
 foliage. There was the flutter of a blue gown on 
 the pathway, but it was a stolid maid ; there was 
 no sign of the mistress anywhere. Giles entered 
 the wide-open hall; the board there in the back 
 of it was bare and scrubbed to dazzling whiteness, 
 the pewter candlestick struck back the light as 
 if it were a mirror, but there was naught save 
 silence. 
 
 He went out down the pathway to the dairy. 
 He could hear the gurgle of the stream and the 
 song of the mocking-bird in the walnut-tree, but 
 the dairy door was fast locked. Mistress Hawley 
 had come home in the faint, gray dawn, and had 
 roused the men and maids and gone herself with 
 them to the fields she claimed outside the town. 
 He could but return to the governor's house to 
 find Mistress Margaret still busied about her 
 despatches, and hurrying James with many urg- 
 ings and cautionings. 
 
 " These must be delivered first of all to Captain 
 Thomas of St. George's hundred ; with good 
 winds how serve they, favorably ? Then ye
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 should be there ere midnight. Ye must then 
 proceed to the manor of Delight still farther up 
 the Potomac, and to Phillipps's Fancy and St. 
 Gerard. Your mission should be done ere to- 
 morrow's sunset. See ye tarry not." 
 
 Giles heard the caution and added some short, 
 stern words of his own as James came without. 
 
 Truly it might be that things in the town were 
 more serious than he thought. He would lay 
 the question before Margaret, it was she alone 
 could move in the matter, and he went his way 
 to the living-room. The papers were pushed 
 aside, and the quill Mistress Margaret still held 
 was idle. Giles rested himself upon the table 
 looking down at her. 
 
 The look on Mistress Margaret's face was still 
 distant, as though she thought on things far 
 away. By and by she looked up, looked again. 
 " Giles ! " she cried, sharply. " There is somewhat 
 ye would say to me." 
 
 " I but waited thy speech," he said, quizzically. 
 
 " I was thinking " 
 
 " 'T is what ye need to do. Zounds ! an all I 
 hear be true " he went on carelessly and exagger- 
 atedly, bent on rousing her. 
 
 " What dost thou hear, tales hazy as the morn- 
 ing was?" 
 
 " And stirring as it hath become."
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 303 
 
 " Come, Giles, what is thy news?" 
 
 Giles went on, speaking at first carelessly 
 enough, then, as he saw the intent look on his 
 sister's face, in short, rapid words. 
 
 Mistress Margaret sat quite silent until he was 
 done, and then for many moments afterwards. 
 When she spoke he was fairly angered, it seemed 
 so foreign to what he had been telling. 
 
 " Giles, the governor's horses are at St. Mary's ; 
 ye will be gone with me to St. John's. I will see 
 that Deborah gives us somewhat to eat at once, 
 and thou wilt see the horses be brought." 
 
 Through the early dinner and the long ride she 
 had few words. Why should they go to St. 
 John's, he wondered ; but his eldest sister was 
 well loved and much believed in, he was willing 
 to do her bidding e'en to this. Up the sandy 
 street they rode to the turn of Mattaponi Street, 
 and then out, past the farm of Master Crown, 
 past Courtenay's Fancy, though the way was now 
 but ill defined, across green fields and through 
 thick forests. 
 
 Mistress Brent drew rein sharply as she saw 
 through the clearing woodland the blackened 
 ruins of the manor-house. Instead of the great 
 house which had stood there, there were blackened 
 chimneys in sullen guard above a heap of ruins; 
 fencings, barns, stables were alike gone; the
 
 3 o 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 maize stalks stood in last year's furrows, weeds 
 grew thick in the tobacco fields, no fresh-turned 
 earth spoke of husbandry, but crows called and 
 buzzards wheeled overhead. In all the provinces 
 one would not light on a drearier scene. 
 
 " Now, pray God, Margaret, what hath brought 
 thee hither?" asked Giles, as he reined his horse 
 by her side and gazed with her on the scene of 
 desolation. 
 
 Mistress Margaret was looking with wide, gray 
 eyes on all the land before her; there it ran 
 sharply to the bluff above the broad river, there 
 it sloped to meadow and marsh land. Mistress 
 Brent turned her horse's head to where the 
 marshes shone velvety green. Sweet-brier and 
 elder bloomed at the marsh's edge, and green cat- 
 tails were browning amidst long, ribbony leaves; 
 blue flags waved where the water oozed through, 
 blackbirds flitted over them, song-sparrows, and 
 a gorgeous bird barred in black and gold; it was 
 the oriole, which went clad in the livery of my 
 Lord of Baltimore. 
 
 But Mistress Brent had no eye for waving reed 
 or nodding flag or flitting bird ; instead she eyed 
 sharply the narrow paths made here and there, 
 meeting and crossing and winding in long, zig- 
 zags far as the eye could reach. She urged her 
 horse into the oozy soil and searched the paths
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 305 
 
 for marks ; hoof prints of cattle showed there, 
 and smaller mark of hogs and goats. 
 
 " Giles," she called back to him, " what care 
 hath been taken of the stock the governor hath 
 accumulated here?" 
 
 " None, I trow ; the servants took refuge in 
 St. Mary's when the place was burned." 
 
 " And no account hath been taken of the cattle 
 here, I '11 warrant me." 
 
 " Claiborne's and Ingle's soldiers slaughtered 
 them for beeves." 
 
 " Not all, I'll swear; look here, and here," she 
 pointed with the dogwood switch she held to the 
 paths ; " and this is not the only pasture land upon 
 the manor. " 
 
 She turned her horse's head and rode inland 
 along the marsh's edge ; here the land rose sharply 
 to a tree-crowned crest, beyond it sloped gently. 
 
 Mistress Brent, who was ahead, drew rein and 
 signed her brother to be silent. "There," she 
 cried low and exultingly, "there must be the 
 pay for those soldiers." 
 
 She pointed to the meadow, where, on green 
 grass, by a trickling stream which ran down 
 and fed the marshes and forced its way through 
 rush-grown banks to the creeks beyond, there 
 grazed a good score of cattle, cows small and 
 wiry, from their feeding on the marsh, and a wild-
 
 306 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 looking bull who shook his shaggy head as if he 
 already scented danger. 
 
 " Where be the elks, I wonder," said Mistress 
 Brent, musingly. 
 
 " Dead long ago." 
 
 "And the hogs?" 
 
 " They Ve taken to the woods and been hunted 
 by the savages, I fear." 
 
 " Methinks there are some still upon the 
 marshes." 
 
 " Come further along the creek," urged Giles, 
 seeing now her bent. 
 
 " Ye will have to send trusty men to drive them 
 to the town ; there '11 be purchasers enow, mayhap 
 some of the Council will desire them, and we will 
 have the wherewithal to salve these dangers thou 
 didst dwell on, for let me tell thee, Giles, the 
 governor's wealth was of the scantiest. We have 
 seen enough," she said, as their path brought them 
 again to the marsh's side ; " and there is yet an- 
 other task for the day," she told herself as they 
 rode homeward, purpose forming strong within 
 her. 
 
 They passed the cowherds near the town, driv- 
 ing in the cattle from their common pasture ; they 
 passed the men and maids returning dusty from 
 the work in maize fields or tobacco acreage ; they 
 passed Mistress Hawley, looking spent and grave,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 307 
 
 for she had been all day overseeing her fields ; she 
 bowed calmly as Giles swept his hat and Mistress 
 Margaret nodded carelessly. 
 
 Above the great forest inland the sunset light 
 shone in wide red bars with pale, clear green be- 
 tween, the river ran yet tinged with opalescent 
 dyes, when Mistress Brent came softly out of the 
 governor's house, the folds of her long, rich gown 
 held high in her slender hands. Her dark hair 
 was coiled upon the head and stuck through with 
 jewelled daggers, her bare arms and neck shone 
 white and fair, dainty slippers crushed the gravel 
 lightly as she passed, and her bright face, though 
 it had lost its look of piquant coyness, shone with 
 purpose and with spirit. Mistress Margaret looked 
 behind, none watched her ; she closed the gate and 
 walked upward, then turned toward the coffee- 
 house. 
 
 The soldiers were done with their suppers and 
 gathered about the tables at the open doorway, 
 smoking ; dusky wreaths floated about their heads, 
 the dewy evening air was scented with the pungent 
 odor from their pipes. Through the window she 
 could see the landlord idly standing, and the 
 maids clearing the boards where men neither 
 dainty nor well-bred had fed. 
 
 Mistress Brent walked on, her chin tilted in the 
 air, her gray eyes dark and wide opened ; she
 
 3 o8 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 crossed the sandy street, came quite up between 
 the rows of tables, and paused upon the wide step 
 of the doorway. There she turned and faced the 
 men, who gazed upon her wide-mouthed with 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Soldiers of the governor," she began in clear, 
 ringing speech, and every man was silent, feeling 
 her words were meant for him and him alone. 
 " Soldiers of the governor, it hath but lately been 
 brought to my ears that ye tarry here unwilling, 
 waiting the settlement of your affairs, and in truth 
 I should have already known, save ye know 
 well the sorrow which hath befallen us," and her 
 voice sank, and each man felt his heart a-tremble 
 within him. " We have been selfish and thought 
 not of others, but he who brought ye hither and 
 whom ye so bravely served, his last words were 
 that ye should be paid," she was straining the 
 point in the intensity of her feelings, "that ye 
 should be paid to the last shilling. He did adjure 
 me that I should see to it, but I," she spread her 
 slender hands apart, " I have been forgetful. I 
 pray your pardon," her voice sank gently ; " but 
 within the week the pounds shall be yours." Her 
 voice rose clear and strong, " Within the week 
 ye shall have yours to the last shilling, and get 
 ye to your wives and sweethearts who await 
 ye!"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 309 
 
 And then, like a woman, her speaking done, she 
 could not walk calmly again, as she had purposed, 
 back to the street and down to Mistress Hawley's, 
 but she must whirl within the hall and slam the 
 door close shut and stand quivering behind it 
 while the landlord strove to mumble, though 
 his voice was fair choking, " God bless ye for 
 rousing them all this day ! Ye know not what 
 danger ye have saved us from; they waxed 
 desperate." 
 
 She had saved his coffers, or so she had prom- 
 ised ; and she had saved them from worse things, 
 he knew. But Mistress Brent had pushed past him 
 and gone flashing through the hall, her long train 
 upon her arm, and was running through dew-wet 
 grass which soaked her dainty slippers and silken 
 hose, along the pathway trodden to the cold 
 spring beneath the walnut, to Mistress Hawley. 
 
 She fled unseen by the men about the doorway, 
 who were silent, thinking on her, or talking with 
 great oaths of her words and promises, fled to 
 the thick shadow of the walnut. The slam of the 
 dairy door and the grating of the lock broke on 
 her ear. Mistress Hawley, slow and sad and 
 weary, walked up the hillside; Margaret sprang 
 upon her, her white arms trembling about her 
 neck. 
 
 " Forgive me, Katharine ; forgive me, I pray
 
 3 io MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 thee ! I have done much to-day that thou wouldst 
 have me do." 
 
 And Mistress Hawley drew a long quivering 
 breath of relief. She scarce had known herself 
 how heavily the anger of her friend had weighed 
 on her.
 
 XX 
 
 WHATEVER she had thought of her 
 woman's charms, her woman's heart 
 sank within her when Mistress Brent 
 thought on the council she had summoned. Not 
 one of those who would come thither but knew 
 well the tale of the past years. They knew her 
 friendship with the governor, mayhap they guessed 
 at more. With her sorrow fresh upon her, she 
 knew no impulse could save her now, no gay 
 flauntings turn men's thoughts as she would have 
 them, she must go her way as bravely as she 
 had ever done. 
 
 Once, in truth, her heart sank in a very panic 
 of fear; it was as she peered from her chamber 
 window in the governor's house, where she still 
 abode, and watched the tall figure of Thomas 
 Gerard coming up the gravelled pathway. Giles 
 was by his side, and the early sunlight, for the 
 sun was newly risen above the river and chased 
 the morning mists from street and field and forest, 
 shone on the tall, stern figure. Mistress Margaret 
 knew the brave deeds he had done when a soldier 
 in the foreign wars, she knew how well he ruled
 
 312 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 his manor, as a king should govern his country ; 
 she watched his serious face as they paused for a 
 space at the porch step, and through the heavy 
 morning air came snatches of their talk. She 
 clenched her hands nervously. 
 
 There were other footsteps on the gravel, and 
 others ; the crunching rang in her ears. Was the 
 whole province come hither? She turned away 
 resolutely to the window at the other side of her 
 chamber and leaned out in the morning stillness. 
 
 Here she could see the chimneys adown the 
 street and the thin smoke wreaths that spoke of 
 morning duties ; the air was filled with dewy scents 
 of roses and sweet clover, mocking-bird and robin 
 and wren sang in the branches, and the mists were 
 fair gone from the river. 
 
 The hour was late, she faced about proudly and 
 went with firm steps along the hall. 
 
 Was there any sinking of heart as she entered 
 the big living-room and saw the many men as- 
 sembled there, they saw it not. She knew them 
 all, those who had favored Calvert in his exile 
 and aided his return, and those who held them- 
 selves lukewarm; yet she greeted all as those 
 who mourned, and she laid before them the 
 questions which beset her and petitioned their 
 assistance. 
 
 Did one of them remember in his quiet hours
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 313 
 
 afterward her round cheek aflame with earnest- 
 ness and her brilliant eye and low, searching 
 voice, her quick, incisive speech? Did one of 
 them recall her account of the governor's behest 
 and how their hearts had been moved within them 
 at her simple words and downcast eye, or passing 
 from that to her speech as to her pressing emer- 
 gency, to her account of the menacing Virginians, 
 while the men were astounded that they should 
 have been so careless as to such dangers ? Did one 
 of them remember how she had carried them with 
 her from the first moment when she had entered 
 the living-room and they had ceased their talk to 
 greet her? 
 
 There was a word for each man ; did they think 
 to condole with her, she had words already framed 
 for asking of their own affairs. 
 
 When she asked their will as to the use of the 
 governor's seal, Sir Thomas Gerard was quick 
 and none gainsaid him. Calvert had left her his 
 authority, and so it should be until there was time 
 to send overseas and learn the Proprietor's will. 
 
 She questioned them as to the selling of the 
 cattle from St. John's ; they pledged their willing- 
 ness, and would buy readily and pay such price as 
 would necessitate the selling of but few. 
 
 Never was a council so harmonious held in the 
 colony. They had been ever ready to take issue
 
 3 i 4 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 with Leonard Calvert, to claim their rights and 
 assert their freedom from much Lord Baltimore 
 claimed. Now, in common danger and common 
 sorrow, they were united about the slender woman 
 who consulted them. They would hold the prov- 
 ince together ; would be in readiness to meet the 
 savages who were recovered from their losses, 
 were eager for revenge, and might take advantage 
 of their weakness to fall upon them ; they would 
 pay the Virginians and send them peaceably 
 away. 
 
 Sir Thomas Gerard, sailing homeward, thought 
 of it all ; thought, too, of the heaviness with which 
 he had obeyed her summons, of the dissensions 
 he knew of amongst the colonists and feared might 
 break out there. 
 
 " Aye," he said, whimsically, " she is the only 
 man amongst us all who could have done it." 
 
 He knew not then how soon he would be called 
 to defend her, nor how valiantly he would do so. 
 
 As for Mistress Brent, she set herself vigorously to 
 the carrying out of the plans she knew Calvert had 
 cherished, and more beside. In less than a week 
 she watched the Virginians sail homeward; she 
 was here and there in the homesteads of the town 
 heartening all. Men were encouraged to go vigor- 
 ously about their affairs ; the summer's sailing had 
 set in, and ships were being loaded at the town
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 315 
 
 and at the wharves of the manor-houses; the 
 season was favorable, and maize and tobacco 
 flourished. In all things Mistress Margaret pros- 
 pered save one. She must depart for St. Anne's, 
 and would have Mistress Hawley accompany her ; 
 but Mistress Hawley was obdurate. 
 
 " Katharine," she begged, " I ne'er saw thee so 
 spent and worn ; pray God ye be not failing with 
 the prevailing sickness. Thou art all unfit to tarry 
 here alone. Come with me to St. Anne's." 
 
 Katharine put her pleading by with scarce a 
 word. It was impossible, she declared, when 
 further pressed ; she could not leave when it was 
 so necessary she should bide at home and see to 
 the business of her fields and dairy. And Mistress 
 Margaret fell to wondering on the old subject of 
 Mistress Hawley's living. 
 
 There was not a woman of her station who 
 wrought harder; the indenture of most of her 
 servants had been passed, yet had she sent for 
 others; here and there were new furnishings, the 
 house looked not so scant as of old ; the work of 
 her hands prospered. Yet Margaret took it to 
 heart that she would not go with her. She went 
 puzzling over Katharine's mood, even to asking 
 her brother about it. But Giles was well nigh as 
 moody as Katharine. Mayhap there had been 
 words of his own in protest, and she had flouted
 
 316 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 him as she had done his sister. Both must go 
 and leave her, Mistress Brent to come again and 
 again, to bide in her house as she took heed to 
 the affairs of the colony, but Giles to see her no 
 more until he gathered with the burgesses of the 
 colony called to Assembly. 
 
 Letters had come from overseas. My Lord of 
 Baltimore was wroth even beyond the powers of 
 his biting speech that at such a crisis in his affairs, 
 when he could scarce hold his own in England, 
 the settlers should have acknowledged a woman 
 as his representative, and then, as if it needed but 
 a spark to fire his glowing anger, that woman 
 should have laid sacrilegious hands upon his cattle 
 carefully gathered at such trouble and cost. Little 
 did he reck that her doing so had saved him 
 from such close danger, that her prompt action 
 and quick judgment and wise conduct of affairs 
 perhaps preserved his colony to him ; he thought 
 but of the cousin who had bided with him, and was 
 furious that her slender hands should have held 
 the reins of his government. 
 
 And these letters must be read and acted upon 
 and answered. 
 
 " Right Honorable," wrote Gerard for the men 
 of the Assembly, possessed alike by a very flame 
 of anger that the Lord Proprietor should so have 
 belittled Mistress Brent and so berated them.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 317 
 
 RIGHT HONORABLE, Great and many have been the 
 miseries, calamities, and other sufferings which your poor 
 distressed people, inhabitants of this province, have sus- 
 tained here since the beginning of the heinous rebellion 
 first put in practice by that pirate Ingle. Now all is 
 past and calm, and the whole province in perfect subjec- 
 tion again under your lawful government and authority. 
 
 As for Mistress Brent's undertaking and meddling 
 with your Lordship's estate here, we do verily believe, 
 and in conscience report, that it was better in her hands 
 than in any man's else's in the whole province, after 
 your brother's death ; for the soldiers would never have 
 treated any other with that civility and respect, and 
 though they were even ready at several times to run 
 into mutiny, still she pacified them ; and she hath rather 
 deserved favor and thanks from your Honor for her so 
 much concurring to the public safety, than to be justly 
 liable to all those bitter invectives you have been pleased 
 to express against her. 
 
 After such warm championship of her cause, 
 Mistress Brent purposed a step the burgesses had 
 not thought on. 
 
 The Assembly yet held its meetings, and though 
 she was no longer the Proprietor's representative, 
 still was she Calvert's attorney and one of the 
 largest landowners in the colony. She who was 
 a week ago the head of the government would 
 demand, now, a voice in the Assembly.
 
 318 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 The morning of that January day was bitter cold. 
 Mistress Margaret, her morning meal finished at 
 Mistress Hawley's board, shivered as the icy blasts 
 howled about the house and blew the flickering 
 flames far out on the hearth, and bent and curled 
 the red light of the pine torches stuck in the 
 mantel-shelf to aid the sullen light of early dawn. 
 Mistress Hawley herself made a little exclamation 
 of dismay at the howling blast. 
 
 " There is storm and snow abroad, Margaret," 
 she said ; " thank God we can bide indoors to-day." 
 
 Mistress Margaret was silent; and Katharine, 
 who had learned much of her moods, knew from 
 her darkened face there was some warfare and 
 strife within. 
 
 " Margaret," she protested, as Margaret pushed 
 away her plate, the food scarce touched, " thou 
 hast scarce eaten a mouthful; surely thou hast 
 not finished? This venison is tender and tooth- 
 some, or there is cold capon within the kitchen." 
 
 " Nay, thy fare is of the best ; " she pushed back 
 her chair absent-mindedly and went over to the 
 window-pane and breathed upon the ice fronds 
 and wiped them away with her handkerchief of 
 lace. Outside, the stiffened rose-bush rattled 
 against the casement; the snow drifted over the 
 door-yard; down the street, gray and ghastly in 
 the early morning light, the fierce wind whirled
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 319 
 
 the powdered snow in clouds. About the coffee- 
 house it had blown in great drifts, and the close- 
 shut door made it seem a house deserted ; but as 
 she looked the door was thrown open ; she could 
 see the red light shine out in the snow, and men, 
 wrapped in long cloaks close drawn about their 
 faces, their wide hats pulled low, came hurriedly 
 out. There was Thomas Gerard, stately and sol- 
 dierly ; there was Thomas Wair from the Potomac ; 
 there was that rank, disaffected Hammond ; there 
 was Richard Preston from his new claimed manor 
 on the Patuxent; there was Giles, she knew his 
 quick, firm walk, and straight, slender figure ; 
 there was her brother-in-law, Rogers. She rubbed 
 a bigger space with her hot palm on the pane and 
 watched them around the curve. She well knew 
 where they were going. The sunrise gun had 
 sounded and the gun for the half hour afterward, 
 though the morning was too dull to know the sun- 
 rise save by the hour. They wended their way to 
 the fort, in which they would hold the day's session 
 of the Assembly. 
 
 But yesterday she had sat amongst them, their 
 honored head; to-day, to give full edge to her 
 bitterness, a heavy step came crunching beneath 
 the window. Jock, foreman and holder of prop- 
 erty upon her estate, was bound thither likewise ; 
 he, now, had a right to sit in the sessions and add
 
 320 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 his voice to the vote. She crushed her thumbs 
 to the palms of her hands as she turned about. 
 
 Mistress Hawley was gone from the board; 
 through the open door she could see her, as one 
 in mental disquiet will see and note each detail 
 they gaze on, unknowing how clearly it is for all 
 time imprinted on their minds ; she saw Katha- 
 rine's tall figure at the kitchen fire, the haunch 
 of venison on the spit, the cook but newly 
 brought from overseas gazing stolidly at her 
 mistress as she cautioned her as to the basting 
 and browning of it. Margaret, too, gazing at her 
 face, noted with a shock of surprise how slender 
 the figure had grown, how thin the outline of 
 the cheek, how big and bright the deep blue 
 eyes. Then, as if each detail were never to be 
 forgot, she saw the sanded floor, the rough bench 
 near the fire where the servants rested in the 
 eventide, and caught the scarlet gleam from the 
 loops of pepper overhead and the silvery sheen 
 of the ropes of onions. 
 
 Yet the long look was but for a moment. Mis- 
 tress Hawley reached for a leaf of sage and a 
 sprig of savory from the low rafters overhead, 
 and Mistress Brent turned and went quickly to 
 her chamber in the attic. There on a wooden 
 peg behind the door hung her rich fur cloak; 
 here were heavy boots. She slipped her feet
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 321 
 
 from her slippers; they were icy cold from the 
 draughts along the floor, but she heeded it not, 
 though the corn-cob coals were red upon the 
 hearth, and fastened the thongs of her heavy 
 boots. She looked quickly at her dress; the 
 brown paduasoy, short of skirt and slashed about 
 the bodice with scarlet would serve her purpose 
 well. She thrust her arms into the warm thick- 
 ness of her cloak and drew the hood about her 
 resolute face. 
 
 Down the stair and out the hall she made her 
 way with word to none. Outside the icy wind 
 caught her and fair whirled her off her feet, but 
 Mistress Brent threw back her head and smiled 
 at the wintry touch. She was bent on contest, 
 and contest with the storms but whetted her 
 humor. She noted with keen eyes every drift and 
 curious whirl of snow along her way, and saw how 
 heavy the smoke hung over the wide chimneys of 
 the coffee-house ; saw the rift which came in the 
 clouds toward the east and the long rays of the 
 sun showing fanwise through it, and the crows 
 flocking overhead, and thought on the Indian say- 
 ing that augured from such, windy weather and 
 a clearing sky ere nightfall. 
 
 By the governor's house she made her way and 
 noted its deserted look, for Deborah kept to her 
 kitchen, and save for the servants it was unten- 
 
 21
 
 322 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 anted. How heavy the snow drifted against close- 
 shut door and window, on shrubbery, tree, and 
 vine ! but the path by it and down to the fort 
 where the Assembly-men met was well trodden. 
 The creek was still and mute beneath the icy coat 
 that could have borne the huntsman to the snow- 
 covered forest beyond an he had not been busy 
 in the meeting at the fort. 
 
 Sh.e put her hand upon the buttoned door and 
 without a moment's thought was within ; nor did 
 she look to right or left or heed any curious 
 glances as she undid the fastenings from her 
 cloak and slipped the hood from her dark, 
 roughened hair. That done she looked about 
 her steadily: one had been speaking who made 
 pause at her entry, and in the mute astonishment 
 of the Assembly resumed his seat. This was 
 the time for the utterance of those flaming sen- 
 tences which had burned within her all night. 
 
 " Gentlemen," she said firmly, and there was 
 no sound in the room save her fresh, clear voice 
 and the howling of the wind outside, " Gentle- 
 men, I come to claim a vote in this Assembly." 
 
 The newly appointed governor moved anxiously 
 in his chair, and Giles, after one shrewd glance 
 from face to face, turned his keen gaze upon the 
 glowing logs at the far end of the room, whose 
 heat scarce took the edge from the bitter air, so
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 323 
 
 that the Assembly-men sat for the most part with 
 their cloaks about them. 
 
 The silence grew painful, until Gerard rose cour- 
 teously. " Mistress Brent," he said, slowly, " 't is 
 against the terms of the charter of Maryland." 
 
 "And wherein is this stated?" she asked, 
 quickly. 
 
 Gerard hesitated for a moment, but another, 
 in quick, raucous tones, was answering for him. 
 
 " 'T is so expressly stated in the laws of the 
 Assembly." 
 
 Mistress Brent's gray eyes flashed full on Cap- 
 tain Rogers's face ere he sat down. 
 
 " The laws of the Assembly," she said scorn- 
 fully to herself, but she dared voice no contempt 
 for such here. 
 
 " What would my Lord of Baltimore say to 
 such?" asked Rogers, from his seat. 
 
 " My Lord of Baltimore, Captain Rogers," she 
 said, quietly turning to the speaker, it was not 
 the first time she had heard his voice in combat, 
 "my Lord of Baltimore is a lover of justice; 
 think you he would grant manorial privileges to 
 one to whom he was unwilling to give a voice 
 in the Assembly likewise ? " 
 
 " To what woman," called the same raucous 
 voice, " hath he granted that privilege save his 
 kinswoman?"
 
 324 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Mistress Brent turned upon her brother-in-law 
 one flash of her great, dark eyes; she would 
 husband her anger and not show it now. 
 
 " How many women," she asked steadily, " are 
 within the provinces tending their own affairs 
 peaceably and sturdily and might serve as en- 
 sample for many?" 
 
 There was a note of keen delighted joy in Cap- 
 tain Rogers's voice as he sprang to his feet and 
 fair shouted, " Aye, but amongst the first laws 
 made in this Assembly was the one that no 
 woman should hold property in this colony, and 
 should she inherit it, and at the end of seven 
 years be still obstinately unmarried, that property 
 would be confiscate. Why hath that law been 
 neglected because the governor " 
 
 " Shame ! shame ! " came the cry from many 
 quarters. 
 
 The flush died from Mistress Brent's cheek, 
 though her voice was clear enough. " Such law 
 touches me not," she declared proudly; "I hold 
 special privileges from my cousin of Baltimore, 
 and I thank God," she went on, her voice rising 
 somewhat, " that the papers conveying such 
 intelligence to the governor were not amongst 
 those destroyed in the fire of St. John's Manor, 
 but are e'en now in my own possession. Con- 
 cerning the last," she drew the bit of lace she
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 325 
 
 held crumpled in her hand across her mouth 
 that trembled slightly, " obstinately unmarried, I 
 need not speak." 
 
 Giles looked about him quickly once more. 
 There were few faces in the room but showed 
 some feeling, but feeling was not conviction. 
 
 Mistress Margaret went on rapidly: 
 
 " Gentlemen, well may ye ask why in all the 
 years I have been amongst ye I never thought 
 on such step. I thought not on it. I have been 
 content to go my way. One, I knew, was at the 
 head whose wisdom would remember each one 
 of us. I had ventured amongst ye, and no man in 
 the colony ventured more, for I staked all I had, 
 and whether I have succeeded or lost I leave ye 
 to judge. Then by one great loss the questions 
 of your government were forced upon me. How 
 have I met them? Is there a man amongst ye, 
 God knows I say it not boastingly, could have 
 done aught more? Did I not find the prov- 
 ince shaken? Had not my Lord Baltimore's 
 authority been disregarded and the laws ye your- 
 selves made set aside for nigh two years? Who 
 amongst ye favored the invader 'tis not for me 
 to say. 
 
 " Did I not find chaos, rents unpaid, accounts 
 unkept, invasion of savages threatened, and menac- 
 ing soldiers within the town? Ye have seen my
 
 326 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 accounts, how stand they? What did ye say in 
 the letters ye writ my Lord Baltimore yesterday ? 
 Did ye not say in such words, no man of all 
 would so have wrought it? And yet, because 
 I am a woman, forsooth, to-day I must stand 
 idly by and have not e'en a voice in the framing 
 of your laws, a voice in the making of those 
 regulations which shall govern one who is 
 amongst the largest of your landowners. 
 
 "Is this justice? I ask in the name of years 
 yet to come. Ye have prided yourselves on 
 being the only colony within the New World 
 which grants to every man the right of worship- 
 ping his God as he wisheth; ye boast of your 
 liberty and freedom and are proud that ye lead 
 the way in the right, lead it in this likewise, 
 build wisely, grant us justice, and let the woman 
 who hath equal risks with ye in this new prov- 
 ince have an equal voice in the government, else 
 is your boast as empty wind." 
 
 She made impressive pause, and Gerard, who 
 fain would have seen her success, moved in 
 the next breath that the Assembly should vote 
 on this question which Mistress Brent had 
 raised. 
 
 Yet when the question had been put to such 
 test she stood defeated. Giles and Gerard moved 
 toward her, but she put aside all sympathy and
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 327 
 
 drew herself proudly erect. " Then," she cried 
 in clear, ringing tones, " I do hereby protest 
 against all this present Assembly and all its 
 doings, unless I may be present and have voice 
 as aforesaid."
 
 XXI 
 
 MISTRESS HAWLEY waited her im- 
 patiently. " Margaret," she began 
 quickly, "what wild whim moved 
 thee to be abroad? Why shouldst thou go 
 a-visiting? " 
 
 "Visiting," cried Mistress Brent, with a laugh 
 that was short and bitter, as she went past her in 
 the living-room. There stood her chair before 
 the fire where Katharine had pushed it when the 
 morning meal was done. She sank into it now. 
 
 " Thy skirt is wet with snow, and thy cloak, thy 
 shoes ! Lucy, take Mistress Margaret's wet things 
 from her. Margaret, go upstairs and change thy 
 dress. I will make thee a hot posset." 
 
 " Aye," said Margaret, bitterly, " dry clothes 
 and a hot posset ; 't is all a woman 's fit for, so 
 a man thinks." 
 
 " Now, pray God, what madness is this? " She 
 caught Margaret's hand; it was cold as the 
 snow outside, though her cheek was flaming. 
 " Margaret ! " 
 
 " Katharine, make not a pother ! "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 329 
 
 "Thou hast ill news! Surely none are come 
 hither from Jamestown with tidings from Eng- 
 land." 
 
 "Cannot ill news come save from England? 
 Methinks Maryland reeks with such." 
 
 Mistress Hawley could make naught of the 
 matter, but like a wise friend bided her time. 
 She hurried Lucy to her mistress and bent, her- 
 self, above the kitchen fire mulling a measure 
 from her small store of Madeira, adding sweets 
 and spices until it was ready for the drinking ; then 
 when it was smoking hot, and sending sweet odors 
 through all the house, bore it up the stair to 
 Margaret. She had hoped to find her cuddled 
 upon the soft bed, warm covers heaped upon her, 
 but she stood white and erect before the bright- 
 ened fire where Lucy had undone the bedraggled 
 paduasoy and taken it off her benumbed mistress. 
 She turned and took the bowl eagerly; it had 
 already cooled enough for drinking, and she drank 
 it to the last drop, and the color came flickering 
 back to her round cheek that had gone white after 
 the first few moments within the house. 
 
 " Thou hast a rare taste," she declared, lightly ; 
 "for one so abstemious; thou shouldst try thine 
 own cure some day." 
 
 Mistress Hawley shook her head, " Is there 
 aught else?" she queried.
 
 330 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Now, faith, Katharine, thou seest I have got a 
 hurt and would fain cosset me ; 't is beyond thy 
 healing, sweet. 'T is not of the body, methinks," 
 she added, mockingly; " 'tis neither of the heart." 
 
 Lucy finished her mistress's toilet and gathered 
 up her bedraggled clothes. " Take them to the 
 kitchen," she commanded, " and dry them there." 
 
 " Thy boots had best be softened with greas- 
 ing," added the careful hostess, " else thou 'It never 
 be able to wear them again." 
 
 "Aye," said Margaret, absently. There was a 
 warm fire on the hearth, and she held her wide 
 skirts daintily as she put out her foot to the heat. 
 "Aye, Katharine, I had best tell thee; 'twill be 
 town talk ere the morrow." She stopped, then 
 blurted out hastily, " I did go to the Assembly this 
 morn and claim a voice in the house. ' Look not so 
 astounded. What have I done for well nigh a 
 year?" 
 
 " And they " 
 
 Mistress Margaret shrugged her shoulders. 
 " They would have none of me ; no woman's 
 voice must be heard in their Assemblies." 
 
 " But what wouldst thou ? " 
 
 " Katharine, tell me, prithee, who is better fitted 
 to make the laws of this colony, Jock or I ? " 
 
 Mistress Hawley was at a disadvantage and 
 knew not what to say.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 331 
 
 " For myself," she said, slowly, " I wish no such 
 power. I have work enow; 'tis much to tend 
 the servants." 
 
 " Aye, and trim thy ways so as to meet all 
 winds, blow they fair or foul." 
 
 "So do we all." 
 
 " So do we all ; and why? An that iniquitous law 
 which Captain Rogers did quote in the meeting, 
 that no woman should hold property in the prov- 
 ince longer than seven years, were carried out, 
 ye 'd be not so placid ! " 
 
 " Seven years ! " 
 
 " Now I touch thee ! Thinkest thou such law 
 should be made an women had a right in making 
 them. Katharine, 'fore God, look not so ; why, 
 no man thinks on it now; 'tis madness, such 
 folly. I dared them to their faces." She did not 
 tell her how or in the name of what authority she 
 so dared. " It grows cold here ! " Margaret was 
 frightened at the thoughtlessness of her speech. 
 " The living-room is far better, and, faith," as she 
 went down the stair, " the odors of the kitchen 
 are most inviting. Now, I bethink me, I ate but 
 little breakfast." 
 
 The hint, as she intended, roused Mistress 
 Hawley. 
 
 " Truth, 't is fair eleven ; thou shalt have thy 
 dinner at once."
 
 33* MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 Mistress Hawley was too busied all the day 
 for idle dwelling on Mistress Margaret's speech. 
 " Pray God it was as she said," she thought, " and 
 no man dare take her own from her," and she put 
 the thought resolutely away. 
 
 The winter day seemed but a few hours long; 
 a gleam of sunlight at noon, thickening clouds, 
 and then, slowly at first, but ever thicker and 
 faster, snowflakes that filled the air and wrapped 
 the room in gray, sombre dusk save for the 
 firelight. 
 
 "Art not tired, Katharine?" asked Mistress 
 Margaret as she walked restlessly to the kitchen 
 door. The men and maids were already housed, 
 and Jock, sitting in a corner of the rude settle by 
 the fire, looked up hastily, as she spoke, at Mis- 
 tress Hawley. Mistress Brent caught his glance ; 
 it was so full of some hidden feeling was it, could 
 it be pity? that she stood sternly gazing at him. 
 Jock shifted uneasily. He remembered the scene 
 within the Assembly-room, and Mistress Brent did 
 too. " To allow a privilege to my overseer which 
 was forbidden me," she said, as she turned quickly 
 away ; but ere she had crossed the room there was 
 a loud knocking at the outer door. 
 
 Mistress Brent turned and made a sign to Lucy, 
 who went to open it. In a moment Giles was with 
 her.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 333 
 
 " Ah, Giles ! " cried his sister, as she slipped her 
 hand within his arm, " methought thou wouldst 
 come to me. How wet ye are ! Give Lucy thy 
 cloak." 
 
 She helped him unfasten it, and it was not 
 often she bent herself to such tasks; but her 
 brother took it quietly enough, there was that in 
 his mood and thought which rendered him for- 
 getful of trifles. 
 
 "Thou didst come to me at once?" said his 
 sister, half questioning. 
 
 " I tarried but a space at the coffee-house. Hath 
 ajiy been present, any of the town? " 
 
 " None save the servants, and Jock," she em- 
 phasized the last of her sentence bitterly, " newly 
 returned from the Assembly meeting." 
 
 " Where is he? " questioned Giles, quickly. 
 
 " Within the kitchen." 
 
 " Hath he had speech of Mistress Hawley?" 
 
 " How should I know? Yet why not, she hath 
 been busied in the kitchen dipping candles." 
 
 " Margaret, she hath seen her since " 
 
 " Since, pray God " 
 
 "Hath spoken to her within the half hour? 
 How looks she? " 
 
 " But as she ever does. I will call her and let 
 thee see for thyself," she began, mischievously. 
 
 " Not now, I pray thee."
 
 334 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 " Giles, is there any new note of trouble thou 
 art about to sound?" 
 
 "There was a stormy scene in the Assembly- 
 room," began her brother. 
 
 " Methinks I witnessed it," broke in his sister, 
 ironically. 
 
 " Thou didst fling a torch amongst us." 
 " Pray God it may set ye afire with some sense." 
 " It kindled a conflagration ye little thought of." 
 " An it inflamed ye, ye needed it, forsooth." 
 " But not as thou wouldst have it, not " 
 " Now, cease thy riddles ; thinkest thou I am set 
 on puzzling matches? " 
 " Captain Rogers " 
 
 " Aye, my brother-in-law, I 'd like to have 
 struck him through and through ; a pretty gift 
 of oratory he hath developed; since when did 
 he come by it? " 
 
 "Twas fatal enow spite o' thy words! When 
 thou wast gone " Mistress Margaret watched him 
 eagerly " when thou wast gone this woman's 
 question needs must be further aired. Captain 
 Rogers waxed eloquent beyond thy guessing. 
 'Into what length the women of the colony had 
 come,' he declared ; ' here was one had arrogated 
 the supreme authority, and to what had she 
 brought them, what scathing words were those 
 of the Proprietor ' "
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 335 
 
 " He had naught to say of that before." 
 
 " Aye, he declared he had held his peace ; the 
 thing was done, the matter closed, he had said to 
 himself, but now time had come for the expressing 
 of his thoughts." 
 
 Giles twisted his mouth into a sarcastic smile 
 such as often sat on Mistress Brent's red lips when 
 she was angered. 
 
 " I spare thee the rest, Madge, but his speech 
 was violent enough and fierce enough to arouse 
 the rougher humors of us. God knows they be 
 too many, we lack a gentle strain. But the up- 
 shot of it all is, they have set their faces firmly 
 against all power in women's hands, e'en to the 
 holding of property. They can do naught against 
 thee, Madge, they acknowledged such, but," his 
 voice sank, " there are others" and the brother and 
 sister gazed at each other in stricken silence. 
 
 " What," came a cheerful voice from the door 
 of the living-room, " ye linger in the dusk ! ye 
 look as if plotting treason ! " 
 
 " She knows naught," whispered Giles, quickly, 
 " I would fain have the telling; there is more." 
 
 Mistress Hawley came briskly across the floor. 
 " The lazy varlets," she declared impatiently as she 
 took the charred stumps of the pine torches from 
 the holes in the mantel-shelf and stuck fresh ones 
 there and stooped to light a splinter of pine to
 
 336 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 fire them with. Giles saw the clear, sweet face 
 shine in the firelight, the red curve of the lips 
 running upward as though she thought on happy 
 things. Such a passion of longing shone in his 
 face that Margaret grew sick at heart; such heart 
 hunger had she seen in another face, but the eyes 
 in which it shone had sought her own. She 
 turned quickly away and made a gesture to Giles, 
 a gesture of sympathy and understanding, as she 
 went out of the room. 
 
 Mistress Hawley turned to light the candles on 
 the table. " With such a storm without we must 
 make comfort within," she said, cheerily. 
 
 " Stay," said Giles, hoarsely, as she went about 
 the room. A shiver of fright ran through Mis- 
 tress Hawley's tall figure ; twice that day had they 
 come to her, her friends, with ill tidings writ 
 on their faces. What, now, was this? 
 
 " Margaret said thou wast wearied," said Giles 
 presently, in firmer tone; "sit thee down." He 
 pushed a great chair before the fire blazing on 
 the hearth. So seldom she allowed the slightest 
 waiting upon her that it pleased him, even with 
 this feeling of suffocation upon him, to push the 
 chair on to the great rug of bearskin where her 
 feet would rest warm on the soft fur and the blaze 
 of fire and torch would shine upon her. How the 
 coils of her hair glistened ! How fair her white
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 337 
 
 hands shone against her dark gown, though he 
 knew their palms were roughened with work ! 
 
 "Hast come to confess thy misdemeanors?" 
 she asked, carelessly; " thou lookest most serious." 
 
 Giles smiled spite of his anxious thought. 
 
 "Were I to confess," he began, ardently. 
 
 "Ah! Father White tarries so long amidst the 
 Indians thou hast forgot," she began, quickly. 
 
 " One forgets when there is naught to confess," 
 said Giles coldly, angered that his speech had 
 been parried in such a fashion. 
 
 Mistress Hawley moved uneasily in her com- 
 fortable seat. Was it a sigh parted her red lips? 
 " True," she said, and spite of all the words press- 
 ing upon him Giles was silent. The wind went 
 whistling about the house and moaning in the 
 chimney's mouth, and they could hear the dash 
 of driving snow against door and window and the 
 rattle of the stiffened rose-bush and the moaning 
 in the tree-tops. 
 
 Giles began again quite at the other end of the 
 tale he had to tell. 
 
 " Did Margaret tell thee aught of this morning? 
 Aye, well she might, 'tis spread through all the 
 province ere now." 
 
 " Nay, St. Mary's " 
 
 " Then thou dost not know a little bird of the 
 air carries our news for us; faith, it must be the 
 
 22
 
 338 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 sea-gull, its wings are so swift and strong." He 
 stopped his chaffing instantly. Mistress Hawley 
 was leaning back and listening to him with eyes 
 wide-opened and amused. 
 
 " There was a stormy scene when she had left 
 us," he went on hurriedly ; " they would have no 
 woman's authority. Mistress Brent had ques- 
 tioned them proudly as to those who should frame 
 the laws of the province; should it not be done 
 by those who owned the land?" He paused and 
 went on low, " There is an old law, nay, not so 
 old, but never yet enforced " 
 
 " That no woman should hold property within 
 the colony longer than seven years," cried Mis- 
 tress Hawley. 
 
 Giles nodded. " Aye, I was not present at the 
 making of it, thank God." 
 
 " And now? " 
 
 "Now they would force it. There can no 
 woman again demand the right my sister did or 
 taunt them with such language, so my brother, 
 Captain Rogers, hath put it. The laws will be 
 made by those holding the lands, and the lands 
 will be held by the men. 
 
 " A cutting of the Gordian knot as wise as 
 Alexander's," he added ; and though Captain Brent 
 spoke bitterly, his speech was not half so shamed 
 and angered as he felt. He dared not look at the
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 339 
 
 woman upon whom the blow had just fallen ; he 
 would grant her a moment's grace, though there 
 was much he purposed to say, and say at once. 
 
 " And I," said Mistress Hawley, her voice 
 a-tremble with emotion ; " and I, is it possible ? 
 Can a man do aught so unjust? Then was Mar- 
 garet right. To defraud me, it is robbery ! All 
 I have about me how hard I have wrought ! 
 when I was urged to go back overseas to bide 
 with my husband's people," 
 
 " Think not of it," broke in Giles, sternly. 
 
 " Never ! not there ; I know not if there be a 
 household there prepared to receive me. 'Tis as 
 Margaret said," she cried, her voice ringing with 
 scorn ; " ye have forced this rank injustice upon 
 us." 
 
 "Not I, nor many more of us, but the larger 
 number of votes will have it so." 
 
 " Then should we have a voice, as she hath said ! 
 How many a man will go to his wife this night 
 and tell this tale, while she sits uncaring; it 
 moves her not." 
 
 Giles's face flushed hotly as she thus put it. 
 " There," said he, slowly, " is the touchstone of 
 the difficulty. Madge stands absolved, but thou, 
 why shouldst " 
 
 " To strip me of all my years of labor," went 
 on Mistress Hawley, not seeing the drift of Cap-
 
 340 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 tain Brent's speech ; and Giles, seeing how bitter 
 seemed her burden, spoke boldly. 
 
 " There is a way of avoidance. The law runs, 
 ' Lest a woman be married ere the seven years be 
 passed.' Art thou so cold-hearted thou never 
 hast thought on such? Thinkest thou that thou 
 art ever to go through life alone? Hear me now; 
 I have been silent silent, God knows how long. 
 I knew myself what I was in thy eyes when first 
 we met, a youthful popinjay whose heart was 
 fixed on lace and velvets. I swore the years 
 should teach thee something else; I feared no 
 rival." Mistress Hawley flushed hotly. "Thou 
 wast ever cold enow to every man." She sighed 
 with a breath of relief. " I have watched thee 
 through how many years dost thou reckon? 
 Seven years did one of old serve for the maid he 
 loved, and seven again. Nigh to that score have 
 I come. I have seen thee a slim girl bowed with 
 sorrow, yet not crushed. Thy widowhood was 
 fresh those first days of our stay, and thou didst 
 deem me naught save a lad and a fop. Think 
 not I did not see the gleam of laughter sometime 
 in thy eye as it rested upon me, yet, methinks," 
 he added gravely, " I have disproved that last oft 
 and again, and that first one ages early here," 
 he passed his hands through his thick long 
 locks, "the gray is already here.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 341 
 
 " Katharine," he besought, " marry me and cut 
 this coil." 
 
 " And so make use of thy love to help me out 
 of my difficulties?" 
 
 " As thou wilt, but make use of it. Is there no 
 moving thee? Is thy heart indeed of ice? I'd 
 swear 't were not ! Give me but leave to teach 
 thee ! " 
 
 He leaned close and unfastened her clasped 
 hands. The color came and went in Mistress 
 Hawley's face, the red lips trembled, and Captain 
 Brent seeing it, took heart of grace. 
 
 " See ! " he knelt close beside her, " but place 
 them here, sweetheart." He put her arms about 
 his neck. " An thou wilt not speak to me ; speak I" 
 he crushed the folds of her gown against his hot 
 face in an agony of fear lest now, at last, he had 
 lost. But there was a soft touch on his head, a 
 voice low and hesitating. 
 
 " Captain Brent," hetrembled like a woman and 
 yet was silent, "a man oft tells a woman," she 
 went on brokenly and hesitatingly, " how many a 
 maid he hath loved ere the perfect blossom of his 
 love be come, but the woman, nay, she must 
 love but one. 
 
 " I have been once wedded," and the man at 
 her feet felt his heart would cease its beating did 
 she not hurry her words ; but he had had his say,
 
 342 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 please God she should do likewise, and whatever 
 it was he would bide by it ; and in the silence he 
 was aware of the howling wind and beating storm. 
 " I have been once wedded," she went on, firmly, 
 " and was true wife. Again there was one be 
 still and listen that had he loved me and not 
 thy sister look not so incredulous. I put it from 
 me from the day of his death. I scarce knew, 
 myself, before, I but faced it to fight it and con- 
 quer it. 'T is dead, a thing of yesterday, forever." 
 
 But Giles had risen to his feet. 
 
 "So 'twas this," he began, coldly; "and I 
 thought there was none, and spent my heart in 
 loving thee. Fool ! not to know a woman's heart 
 was not forever cold, and if 'twas cold to me 'twas 
 warm to some other." 
 
 "Did I not tell thee " 
 
 " Enough, thou didst tell me enough. I will 
 not force myself upon thee again. I will seek 
 Margaret." He strode across the room. " My 
 God ! " he cried, ere he had reached the door, "I 
 had forgot." He turned; there huddled in her 
 chair was Katharine, and surely no tears could 
 ever bedim her clear and steadfast eyes! 
 
 " Katharine," he cried, going back to her, " tell 
 me " 
 
 "Tell thee what? Did I not bare my soul 
 before thee to be scorned?"
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 343 
 
 " Scorned ! " 
 
 "Aye," she blazed upon him passionately; "I 
 would not tell thee; first thou must know " 
 
 " Would not tell me speak truth or never again 
 'fore God ! " 
 
 But Mistress Hawley was obstinately silent, 
 though cheeks were flaming and red lips a-tremble 
 and lashes wet with tears. 
 
 " When that love was buried, as thou didst 
 declare, didst think o' me then?" He lifted her 
 downcast face. " 'Fore God thou lovest me, me, 
 Katharine, else " His keen gaze searched her 
 face, every blush, every curve of it; he crushed 
 her close to him as he heard her ask, " Hadst 
 thou never a thought of others that thou shouldst 
 have been so angered?" 
 
 " Of none, sweetheart ; 't is not always needful 
 that many loves should bloom, as thou hast put 
 it ; nay, look not so ! I am content ; " and in the 
 silence of their delight there was no heed of moan- 
 ing winds or rattling casements or shaking doors, 
 or of that one which opened and shut again, as 
 Mistress Margaret, tired of her own gloomy 
 thoughts, sought them, but went quickly away 
 again. 
 
 She was glad, glad at heart, she told herself. 
 Katharine's questions were answered ; but for her, 
 cares and duties had been thrust upon her, she
 
 344 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 must be up and doing while her sorrow was yet 
 fresh ; and then with the taste of power, ambi- 
 tion had flowered strong within her and she had 
 gone her way, proud and sufficient. Now these 
 scathing letters of the Proprietor and the Assem- 
 bly's decision had swept action from her. She 
 must clasp hands with sorrow and grow acquainted 
 with grief.
 
 XXII 
 
 FROM that bitter January day Mistress 
 Brent turned to her own affairs ; those of 
 the province might go as they would, and 
 they came well nigh to destruction. Claiborne 
 came again, and with full authority from Cromwell, 
 Lord Protector of England, and he in time gave 
 peaceable way to the new governor my Lord Pro- 
 prietor appointed, when with his silvery tongue 
 he had persuaded Cromwell to grant him his own 
 again. 
 
 She saw the Protestant tide of emigration from 
 Virginia set in far up the bay upon the Severn 
 and the flock of refugees from England, and 
 through it all she held her way. St. Anne's was 
 ever one of the most flourishing manors in the 
 colony. 
 
 The line of the forest land grew farther and 
 farther inland, in the fastnesses of the woodlands 
 even were clearings of those who held the acres 
 as her tenants ; she held claims upon the Potomac 
 and the Patuxent; the love of it all, of shadowy 
 oaks and rippling river, of wide rich fields, of
 
 346 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 solemn forests of which she was no longer afraid, 
 the love of life and living grew strong with the 
 years that fed it. 
 
 Once a year she gathered her tenants about 
 her. Many and widely scattered as they were, 
 there were vexed questions that must be settled, 
 questions the laws of the province left in her 
 hands. 
 
 The land was still lawless enough for might to 
 be near right ; Indians were yet abroad, and were 
 often thievish and mischievous; the lord of the 
 manor must rule well. He must look to his 
 leases and rents ; must see that none on his manor 
 " held double measure to buy by the great and 
 sell by the less ; " must see there were no vagrants 
 on his land who " would sleep by day and watch 
 by night and fare well and do nothing ; " must fix 
 the price of bread and ale; try those who sold 
 corrupt meat or entertained vagrants; fine ten- 
 ants for allowing their cattle to destroy maize 
 fields, for any crimes of stealth, or, should they 
 wish to push the forestry laws, even for hunting 
 in their woodlands. 
 
 Mistress Brent was wont to make of her courts- 
 leet for so it was called in the parlance of the 
 time a day not only for settling troublous ques- 
 tions, but afterwards for games and feasts for her 
 servants and gathering together of her neighbors.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 347 
 
 She and Jock and Sarah were well nigh wearied 
 out on the afternoon of an October day making 
 ready. There under the oaks was the platform 
 on which she would sit on the morrow, first for the 
 court and afterward for the watching of the games 
 with her neighbors about her; beyond the house 
 the boards were already laid on trestles for the 
 feast. Sarah knew how many loaves of bread, 
 fine and white, how many cakes of maize, how 
 many hams and capons and wild turkeys and 
 haunches of venison had been made ready in her 
 kitchen for it. 
 
 The short autumn day was hazy near its close 
 and the air was filled with smell of smoke ; many 
 of the farmers would be thrifty and burn their 
 fields before the spring. Mistress Brent, going 
 from place to place to see that all was well done, 
 loitered at length along the gravelled pathway to 
 the edge of the bluff and paused, looking long at 
 the misty river. The waters were still and deeply 
 blue; autumn haze and smoke veiled sky and dis- 
 tant shore ; here and there a licking flame broke 
 through and flared wildly; far, far out, faint as 
 a mark drawn straight against the sky, loomed 
 the great mast of a ship, but whether the vessel 
 were large or small, of bay craft or foreign ship- 
 ping, she could read no sign. In the shifting, 
 veiling mists all was uncertain, and Mistress Mar-
 
 34 8 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 garet turned away, trusting the morrow would be 
 fair. 
 
 A red sunset means not always a lowering day. 
 The October dawn was as clear as though mists 
 and rains and clouds had never veiled the river, 
 and Mistress Brent looking from her window soon 
 as her breakfast board was cleared, on dew-wet 
 grass and waving trees and sparkling waterway, 
 saw the glimmer of many a sail that sought her 
 wharf. Far out on the waves loomed a great 
 ship, its sails full set, the light morning winds 
 and ebb tide moving her but slowly. 
 
 Mistress Margaret gave her many an anxious 
 glance, and then, her duties pressing thick upon 
 her, forgot; but though she went her way care- 
 lessly, there was one there on those decks would 
 put all her hard-won content to test; one who 
 eagerly scanned the strange shores and headlands 
 as the captain stood by him talking of the new 
 land, and whose heart beat hotly for a soldier 
 whose hair was silvered, when the small boat of 
 the ship put him, his mails and servant, ashore 
 at St. Anne's. 
 
 With what eagerness did he look about him! 
 He had thought to gaze on savage lands ; here 
 was a wide, white beach, there where the terrace 
 dipped was grass green as English turf, here it 
 held a rippling lake, there were towering oaks.
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 349 
 
 Many boats were at the wharf, canoe, dugout, 
 and pinnace. He went up the stairway unheeded ; 
 there to the left was such a crowd as he might 
 have seen on any village green, and under the 
 shadowing trees was a glint of bright garments 
 and moving, stately figures. He went slowly 
 forward as yet unheeded, until he stood on the 
 edge of the crowd watching with jest and laughter 
 the clumsy sack-race. 
 
 The crowd parted, and there in the midst he 
 knew her on the instant was a slender figure, 
 and she, turning, looked at him long and strangely; 
 the laughter died from her eyes that shone stern 
 and dark as she came forward to greet him. 
 
 "Master Richard White?" she commenced, as 
 if still uncertain who her guest might be. 
 
 " Captain White," he corrected. " I have seen 
 much service since last thou didst see me." 
 
 " The years have served thee well," she said, 
 with quiet dignity; "none of us would rest in 
 sloth." 
 
 " Truth," said Captain White, gallantly, " thou 
 seemest thyself to point thy adage." 
 
 " Aye," he had struck the tenderest point of 
 Mistress Brent's heart, " thou shouldst see many 
 of our habitations here." 
 
 " Naught could please me better ! " 
 
 "Thou wilt tarry 'til our feasting is done?"
 
 350 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 asked Mistress Brent; but at that the humor 
 of the man took fire, his greeting had been cold 
 enough, but this he would withstand 
 
 " For such I crossed the seas," he said, shortly ; 
 and the words rang in Mistress Brent's ears until 
 tenants and guests were gone and the day was 
 done, then, spite of all her talking on gossip of 
 England and the provinces, Captain White fin- 
 ished the speech he had come to say, though he 
 blundered sadly at the first. 
 
 When he looked at the quiet, stately woman by 
 his side, he could not go back at one breath to 
 a word of those summer days long agone, even 
 if the memory of them had never died. It was 
 that he tried to tell her at the first, that he remem- 
 bered her alway, that he thought of her even with 
 his wife at his side. 
 
 Then Mistress Margaret had turned scornfully 
 upon him. Had he dared wed one woman with 
 the thought of another in his heart? 
 
 It was not he who dared ; feeling was too strong. 
 Then had he lied to one. Where was his wife ? 
 
 Dead two years ago ! and then he plunged into 
 his story. A young man, his troth already 
 plighted, had met with one he deemed well nigh 
 a child ; but when he saw the dawning soul of 
 womanhood in her eyes, God only knew how 
 he learned to love her ! So as he never dreamed,
 
 MISTRESS BRENT 351 
 
 he had loved her; there was no speech for it, 
 the wildness and vastness of it. And he had 
 gone his way, for he hoped to come again and 
 speak words that might make life a paradise. He 
 glanced quickly at the woman by his side and 
 saw her flaming cheek, and knew not it was the 
 fire of shame that burned there. " So easily won 
 did he deem me," she thought, and the shame was 
 all the deeper when she knew it was true, " he had 
 but to come and pluck me like a ripe fruit from 
 the wall." 
 
 The woman to whom he was plighted, and his 
 voice hardened a little, had held him to his word. 
 It was a marriage planned of old by his father, 
 and there were family reasons. He need not 
 dwell on his life. His cousin, Father White, had 
 writ of her, Mistress Margaret, oft; her memory 
 had shone through all his days; he needs must 
 look upon her again ; now he was come. 
 
 Whatever words he said, they were enough to 
 prove his old eloquence and power of love-mak- 
 ing were not abated. Mistress Brent could no 
 longer wonder how his words had moved her cal- 
 low girlhood ; but they moved her not now as he 
 talked of the English home to which he would take 
 her; or should she strongly wish to bide in the 
 provinces, any life for him, were she but by his 
 side ! She smiled derisively. For what would
 
 35 2 MISTRESS BRENT 
 
 she barter her home here? To whom would she 
 give the reins of her life, to be turned and twisted 
 by another's will? 
 
 No, please God, she was content; content, too, 
 with her memories, with the thought of one who 
 loved her with a reverence that put to shame such 
 hot wooing, and with a faithfulness that belittled 
 the man by her side. 
 
 Content, she told the word to her heart again, 
 as she watched the sail out of sight which bore 
 Captain White to St. Mary's. The evening dark- 
 ened about her, but the sunset lights were red and 
 the river ran in opalescent hues at her feet as she 
 stood at the top of the stairway in the bluff. 
 Above her rustled the oak leaves, the air was 
 filled with the cries of wild ducks flocking to the 
 reedy marshes, the screams of circling sea-gulls, 
 and the loud cohonk of geese flying wedge-like 
 early southward. 
 
 The world was full of life and she a living 
 woman within it, she throbbed with its fulness 
 and thrilled with its beauty. She was content.
 
 SIR CHRISTOPHER 
 
 A Romance of a Maryland Manor in 1644 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN, author of "White 
 Aprons,** etc. Illustrated by HOWARD PYLE and other 
 artists. I zmo. Decorated cloth. Price, $1.50. 
 
 The author of that capital book, " The Head of a Hundred," has 
 written in " Sir Christopher" a romance, on the whole, about as charming. 
 
 Neiu York Tribune. 
 
 A notable combination of dramatic romance with what is known as the 
 character novel. ... It is one of the true books, brimming over with 
 the love of life and fields and forests, and above all of people. Boston 
 Transcript. 
 
 The story is full of incident and dramatic surprises, accompanied by 
 consistent character sketches of chivalric men and charming women. 
 Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 
 As a romance " Sir Christopher " is flawless. . . . Mrs. Goodwin has 
 made another of her happy hits. Providence Telegram. 
 
 Stands out conspicuous among the crowd of romances of Colonial days. 
 . . . Few writers of her school have succeeded so well in combining the 
 careful delineation of character with the elaboration of an intricate plot. 
 
 The Living Age. 
 
 Will take rank with the foremost historical romances yet produced in 
 America. Philadelphia Press. 
 
 One of the strongest and most wholesome romances ever brought forth 
 from that most romantic of all sections, Maryland and Virginia. " Sir 
 Christopher" contains enough good material for a half-dozen first-class 
 novels. The action never pauses, and the characters never for a moment 
 lose their hold upon the reader. Cleveland World. 
 
 It is the sort of volume one is proud to recommend. New York 
 World. 
 
 Peggy is a fine bit of work. . . . One of the best of the historical 
 romances of American Colonial times. As a love story it is full of charm. 
 
 San Francisco Chronicle. 
 
 The author has breathed into a strong plot that tenderness of expression, 
 that piquancy of epigram, that delightful humor, that fertility of de- 
 scription, that subtlety of argument which endeared Sir Walter Scott to 
 his readers. Ne-w York Press. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 254 Washington Street, Boston
 
 THE HE AD of 
 A HUNDRED 
 
 In the Colony of Virginia, 1622 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN, author of " Sir 
 Christopher," "White Aprons," "The Colonial 
 Cavalier," "Flint," etc. Illustrated edition. With 
 colored miniature and five full-page pictures by JESSIE 
 WILLCOX SMITH, WILFRED S. LUKENS, SOPHIE B. STEEL, 
 and CHARLOTTE HARDING. 1 2mo. Decorated Cloth. 
 $1.50. 
 
 Although this stirring colonial romance was written in 
 1895, its scene, its chief historical incident and several of its 
 historical characters are the same as those of Miss Johnston's 
 popular book, "To Have and to Hold." The heroine, Betty 
 Romney, comes to the shores of Virginia in the first shipload 
 of wives to escape a titled marriage with a man she hates, chosen 
 by her father. Among the historical personages who figure in 
 "The Head of a Hundred" are John Pory, John Rolfe, and 
 George Thorp. " The climax of the story," says a writer in 
 the New York Times, " is the same in both books, the bloody 
 Indian uprising of the period in which both heroes distinguish 
 themselves." 
 
 This new illustrated edition of Mrs. Goodwin's charming 
 companion romance to her delightful and highly successful story, 
 " White Aprons," is printed from a new set of plates and 
 well illustrated, and presents in attractive form a book that 
 since its first publication has found thousands of readers. 
 "The Head of a Hundred" has met with favor both as an 
 accurate picture of the early days of Virginia, and as a fresh 
 and entertaining romance. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 Publishers 254 Washington Street, Boston
 
 WHITE APRONS 
 
 A Romance of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia, 1676 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN, author of "The 
 Head of a Hundred," etc. New Illustrated Edition, 
 from new type. izmo. Decorated cloth. $1.50. 
 
 The Scene is in part Virginia, and in part the Court of 
 Charles the Second. The historical basis of the romance is the 
 episode known as " Bacon's Rebellion," but the author has 
 woven into it a charming love story, and given to the whole 
 narrative much dramatic interest. 
 
 A charming story. ... Its fidelity to the conditions prevailing in the 
 Virginia colony at the time is carefully sustained. The Re-view of Re-views. 
 
 It is no less a success as a literary monument than as a piece of most 
 entertaining fiction. Its love notes are pure and sweet, and withal inspir- 
 ing. Almost any scene picked out at random is a quotable instance of 
 genuine ability. Boston Herald. 
 
 As sweet and pure a bit of fiction as often comes in the reader's way. 
 
 Detroit Free Press. 
 
 A beautiful little story, sweet and inspiring, not less clever than true. 
 
 New York Times. 
 
 Mrs. Goodwin invests her romance with a crispness and freshness that 
 set it far above the ordinary novel, wherein facts and fiction are thrown 
 together. Chicago Post. 
 
 FT T NTT By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN. 
 1 *~* L 1 ^ A i6mo. Decorated cloth. $1.25. 
 
 Mrs. Goodwin is at her best in dialogue, and some very spirited con- 
 versations are distributed through the book. Providence Journal. 
 
 The story abounds in bright, almost epigrammatic sayings and spark- 
 ling flashes of merriment and wit, and altogethr is as sweet and pure a 
 piece of fiction as we have seen for many a dav. Detroit Free Press. 
 
 Miss Wilkins herself could not hae drawn the inn-keeper and 
 "general grocer" Marsden more truthfully or artistically. Winifred is a 
 lovely creation as charming a piece of womankind as we have encount- 
 ered for some time. Buffalo Commercial. 
 
 A quick, sympathetic study of human nature and those bonds of inter- 
 est which unite human souls. Boston Herald. 
 
 Sententious, witty sayings appear on almost every page. Chicago 
 J 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 Publishers 254 Washington Street, Boston
 
 Romances of Colonial Virginia 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN. 
 
 Illustrated Holiday Edition. 2 vols. i6mo. 
 Cloth, extra, gilt tops, put up in neat box, $3.00. 
 
 I. The Head of a Hundred, in the Colony 
 of Virgina, 1622 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN. Illustrated with five full- 
 page photogravure plates from drawings by Jessie Willcox 
 Smith, Sophie B. Steel, Charlotte Harding, and Win- 
 field S. Lukens ; four decorative headings by Clyde O. 
 De Land ; and an ornamental titlepage by K. Pyle. 
 
 II. White Aprons 
 
 A Romance of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia, 1676. By 
 MAUD WILDER GOODWIN. Illustrated with five full-page 
 photogravure plates from drawings by A. McMakin, 
 Clyde O.DeLand, L. R. Dougherty, Margaret F. Winner, 
 and Violet Oakley ; four decorative headings by Clyde 
 O. De Land ; and an ornamental titlepage by K. Pyle. 
 
 The Colonial Cavalier 
 
 Or, Southern Life Before the Revolution 
 
 By MAUD WILDER GOODWIN. New edition, with notes. 
 
 With numerous full-page and smaller illustrations by 
 
 Harry Edwards. I 2mo. Cloth, extra, gilt top, $2.00. 
 
 Full crushed morocco, gilt edges, $4.50. 
 
 This thoughtful and most suggestive and entertaining study 
 of the domestic and social life of the early settlers of Virginia 
 and Maryland has received the highest praise. 
 
 It gives us, through the old-time gossip of letters and diaries, and the 
 homely details of life and customs, a fireside intimacy luith old Virginian 
 and Maryland life 'which ive have never had before. Ntiv York Even- 
 ing Post. 
 
 A delightful sketch of the colonial cavalier in his home, church, state, 
 and social relations. We are made acquainted with the whole man. 
 The Outlook. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 Publishers 254 Washington Street, Boston
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 REC' r LD- 
 AUd 
 
 Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444
 
 - 
 
 3061 
 TLl7m 
 
 Mistress Brent, 
 
 L 
 
 331 
 
 3061 
 Tlil7m