Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims
Page 28
CHAPTER XXVII.
A LOVE PHILTRE.
The last pniese had made his uncouth obeisance and departed, and busyhands were removing all signs of the late commotion in haste that thesetting sun should find the village ready for its Sunday rest and peace,when Myles Standish suddenly presented himself before Priscilla Molinesas she came up from the spring with a pile of wooden trenchers in herhands.
"Mistress Molines a word with you," began he with an unconsciousimperiousness that at once aroused the girl's rebellious spirit.
"Nay, Captain, I am not of your train band, and your business must awaitmy pleasure and convenience. Now, I am over busy."
"Nay, then, if I spoke amiss I crave your pardon, mistress, and had wemore time I would beat my brains for some of the flowery phrases I usedto hear among the court gallants who came to learn war in Flanders. ButI also have business almost as weighty as thine and as little able tobrook delay. So I pray you of your courtesy to set down your platters onthis clean sod, and listen patiently to me for a matter of fiveminutes."
"I am listening, sir."
"Nay, put down the platters or let me put them down."
"There then, and glad am I"--
"Of what, mistress?"
"That I'm not often under thy orders, sir."
"Ah! But we'll waste no time in skirmishing, fair enemy. Tell me ratherwhat didst mean by the loving-cup thou sendst me? May I take it soothand truly as relenting on thy part?"
"I send you a loving-cup, sir!" exclaimed the girl, her eyes flashing,and her color rising.
"Yes. Call it by what name you will; I mean the cup Desire Minterbrought me from thee, with a message that I should drink thy health."
"Loth were I to think, Captain Standish, that you would willfully insulta maid with none to defend her, and so I will charitably suppose thatyou have been forced to drink too many healths to guard well thine own.Good e'en, sir."
"Now by the God that made us both, wench, I'll have an end of this. Nay,not one step dost thou stir until you or I are laid in a lie."
"A lie, Captain Standish!"
"Mayhap my own lie. I say that Desire Minter brought me a silver cup ofsome sweet posset, such as you have made for our sick folk time andagain, and bade me from you quaff it to your health."
"And that is God's truth, say you, sir?"
"Mistress Molines, my word has not often been doubted, and you force meto remind you that I come not of mechanical"--
"Nay, nay, stop there, an' it please you, sir! We'll unwind this coilbefore we snarl another. Fear not that my base mechanical blood shallever sully your noble strain; but mean though I be, my habit is atolerably truthful one, and I tell you once and for all that I sent youno cup, I made you no posset, I desired no health drunk by you."
"Nay, then, what hath this girl Desire wrought? And truth to tellPriscilla, I fear me 't is poison, for a shrewd pain seizeth me ever andanon, and a strange heaviness is in my head."
"And there's a sultry color on your cheek--nay, then, we'll see thesurgeon"--
"And thou 'lt forgive whatever I have said amiss, Priscilla, for mayhapI'll trouble thee no more. Like enough she hath revenged herself"--
"For your scorn of her love," interposed Priscilla vivaciously. "Likeenough, like enough. Come to the house, Captain, and let us take counselwith the dear mother. She still knows best."
"Go thou, Priscilla. It hardly beseems a man and a soldier to seekredress for a wench's love scratch at the hands of an old woman--nay,nay, fire not up afresh! No one can honor Mistress Brewster more than Ido, but tell me, is she a man or is she young? Sooth now, Priscilla!"
"And still in thy masterful mood thou 'lt have the last word, doughtyCaptain. But go you home, then, and bid John Alden make a fire and heata good kettle of water, and I'll away to the mother who will deal withDesire in short measure."
"'T is good counsel and I'll follow it, for in sober sadness I feelstrangely amiss." And the soldier, who now was as livid as he had beenflushed, strode away up the hill, while Priscilla picking up thetrenchers fled like a lapwing into the house where she found Desireseated sullenly in a corner, while the elder, his wife, and the governorwere gathered together near the fire cozily discussing the events ofthe day. Standing before them and restraining her natural vivacity thatit might not discredit the importance of her story, Priscilla in briefand pungent phrases told the story of the loving draught, and as Desirerose and stole toward the door laid a hand upon her arm that effectuallydetained her until the elder sternly said,--
"Remain you here, Desire Minter, until this report is sifted."
"Were it not well to send at once for our good physician, that he mayknow what hath been done before he sees the captain?" suggested Bradfordmildly, and the elder assenting, Priscilla was dispatched for doctorFuller, who arrived within the minute, and listened with profoundattention, while Mistress Brewster, to whom alone the girl would reply,extracted from her a most startling story.
"The captain first of all asked me to wife, and if he had not been wiledaway from me by artful"--
"Nay, nay, Desire, thou 'rt not to say such things as that," interposedthe dame with gentle severity, and Bradford added in much the sametone,--
"'T was thine own idle fancy, girl, that set thee on such a notion. Thecaptain hath averred to me as Christian man that he never made profferto thee nor wished so to do since first he set eyes on thee."
"He did then," muttered Desire sullenly, and Mistress Brewsterinterposed.
"Leaving that aside, tell us, Desire, what didst thou give the captainto drink, and why didst say that Priscilla sent it?"
"Marry, because she hath bewitched him, and I wot well he would take itfrom her without gainsaying."
"But what was it thou gavest him?"
"'T was--there was a wench here with the savages, and Squanto told meshe was a wise woman and knew how to work spells"--
"Well then, go on, Desire."
"And so I went with her pulling herbs in the fields and swamps, and withone word English and one of jabber, we knew each other's meaning, and Igave her the buckle of my belt which was broke and none here could mendit."
"A generous gift, truly," interposed the elder, but his wife beseechingsilence with a gesture asked,--
"And what gave she thee, Desire?"
"Some herbs, mother."
"And what were the herbs to do?"
"She said steep them well, and give the broth to any man I fancied, andit would turn his fancy on me."
"A love philtre! _Vade retrograde Sathanas!_" exclaimed the elder halfrising from his chair, but here the doctor eagerly interposed,--
"What like was the herb, girl? Hast any of it in store for a seconddose?"
"Mayhap--a little," muttered Desire twisting and turning, but seeing nomeans of escape.
"Go and fetch it," commanded the elder. "And Priscilla do thou go tooand see that the wretched creature doth not make way with it."
"And sith John Howland is after a sort betrothed to the poor bemusedchild, I think it well to summon him, that he may advise with us as tothe sequela of this folly. I will call him to the Council." And Bradfordfollowed the two girls from the room.
"If she hath murdered the captain, she shall die the death," exclaimedthe elder striding about the room, and pausing before the great chairwhere his pale and fragile wife sat looking up at him with beseechingeyes.
"Nay, William, she is hardly older than our own dear girls, and it wouldill become us who still carry our own lives in our hands to deprive apoor silly maid of hers."
"So the best road out of the maze is to cure the captain," remarkedDoctor Fuller dryly. "After that we'll marry the girl to John Howland,and trust him to keep her quiet. Here they come."
And in at the open door came the governor and Howland, Desire andPriscilla, who carried in her hand a little box full of half-driedleaves, which she presented to the doctor, who solemnly pulling from hispocket a pair of clumsy iron-bowed spectacles put them astride his nose,an
d taking the herbs to the window carefully examined them, while allthe rest stood anxiously around staring with all their might.
"Hm! Hah! Yes, well yes, I see, I see!" murmured the botanist, and thenturning to Bradford he fixed him with a meditative gaze over the tops ofhis barnacles and said,--
"You know something of botany, Governor. Say you not that this is the_Platanthera Satyrion_, the herb supposed to give vigor to the hearts ofthose wild men whom the mythologists celebrate?"
"Is it? I should have taken it for the iris whose flower I have noted inthese swamps."
"'T is akin, ay, distant kin, but with the difference that maketh oneharmless, and 't other deadly. I will take it to Sister Winslow's houseand examine it with my books, but still I can aver at once that 't isPlatanthera; and if it is also Satyrion I will promise that it shallprove only nauseous and distasteful to our good Captain, and by no meansdeadly. I will go to see him."
"And John Howland," said the Governor turning toward the young man whostood looking with aversion at the figure of Desire, who with her headin her apron wept loud and angrily, "it seemeth to me that since thismaid is betrothed to you, and is manifestly unfit to guide herself, thatit is best for you to marry her here, and now, and after that train herinto more discretion than she naturally showeth."
"May it please you, Master Bradford, and you, Elder," replied Howlandcoldly, "it seemeth to me that a woman who shows so little modesty inthe pursuit of one man is scarce fit wife for another. I did indeedpromise my late dear mistress whose ward this girl was, that I wouldcare for her, and if need be take her to wife; but sure am I that ifthat godly and discreet matron could know of all this, she would hold mefree of my bonds, the rather that I have never looked upon her with thattenderness that God putteth in our hearts toward those"--
"Nay, then, if it comes to that," interposed Desire, snatching away herapron and showing a swollen and tear-stained face, "I hate and despisethee, John Howland, and always have and always will; and if I took theefor my bachelor at all it was only in hope that 't would give a jealoustwinge to the heart of a better man, and if at the last I failed of himthou wouldst be better than none; but I've changed my mind, and now I'llnone of thee, not if ne'er another man"--
"Peace, shameless wench!" thundered the elder, striking the table withhis hand. "Profane not the ears of a decent matron with such talk. JohnHowland, it is my rede that thou art free of thy pledge to marry thiswoman. What say you, Governor?"
"I agree with you, Elder Brewster, that since both man and maid desireto render back their troth that they should be permitted so to do; and Ifurther suggest that by the first occasion presenting, Desire Minter besent back to her friends in England, who will, as Mistress Carver toldme, be content to receive her."
"Amen!" ejaculated John Howland with such unction that Bradford gravelysmiled as he followed him from the room, and murmured under hisbreath,--"He will wed Elizabeth Tilley, an' I'm not mistaken."