Prisoners of Hope: A Tale of Colonial Virginia

by Mary Johnston

  CHAPTER VII

  A MENDER OF NETS

  "A slave insurrection!"

  Landless, recoiling, struck with his shoulder the torch, which fell tothe floor. The flame went out, leaving only a red gleaming end. "I willget another," said the mender of nets, and limped to the corner wherethe shadow had been thickest. Landless, left in darkness, heard a faintmuttering as though Master Robert Godwyn were talking to himself. Ittook some time to find the torch; but at length Godwyn returned with onein his hand, and kindled it at the expiring light.

  Landless rose from his seat, and strode to and fro through the hut. Hispulses beat to bursting; there was a tingling at his finger-tips; to hisstartled senses the hut seemed to expand, to become a cavern,interminable and unfathomable, wide as the vaulted earth, filled withawful, shadowy places and strange, lurid lights. The mender of netsbecame a far-off sphinx-like figure.

  Godwyn watched him in silence. He had a large knowledge of human nature,and he saw into the mind and heart of the restless figure. He himselfwas a philosopher, and wore his chains lightly, but he guessed that theiron had entered deeply into the soul of the man before him. The sturdypeasants, indented servants with but a few short years to serve, betterfed and better clad than their fellows at home, found life on a Virginiaplantation no sweet or easy thing; the political and ecclesiasticaloffenders enjoyed it still less, while the small criminal class foundtheir punishment quite sufficiently severe. To this man the life must bea slow _peine forte et dure_, breaking his body with toil, crushing hissoul with a hopeless degradation. The thought of escape must be everpresent with him. But escape in the conventional manner, throughpathless forests and over broad streams, was a thing rarely attained to.Ninety-nine out of a hundred failed; and the last state of the man whofailed was worse than his first.

  Landless strode over to the table, and leaned his weight upon it.

  "Listen!" he said. "God knows I am a desperate man! My attempt to escapefailing, there is naught but His word between me and the deepest pool ofthese waters. I am no saint. I hate my enemies. Restore to me my sword,pit me against them one by one, and I will fight my way to freedom ordie.... A fair fight, too, a rising of the people against oppression; achallenge to the oppressor to do his worst; a gallant leading of aforlorn hope.... But a slave insurrection! a midnight butchery! Therewas one who used to tell me tales of such risings in the Indies. Murderand rapine, fire rising through the night, planters cut down at theirvery thresholds, shrieking women tortured, children flung into theflames,--a carnival of blood and horror!"

  "We are not in the Indies," said the other quietly. "There will be nosuch devil's work here. Sit down and listen while I put the thing beforeyou as it is. There are, most iniquitously held as slaves in thisVirginia, some four hundred Commonwealth's men, each one of whom, athome and in his own station, was a man of mark. Many were Ironsides. Andeach one is a force in himself,--cool, determined, intrepid,--and whollydesperate. With them are many victims of the Act of Uniformity, godlymen, eaten up with zeal. For their freedom they would dare much; fortheir faith they would spill every drop of their blood."

  "They are like our friend, the Muggletonian, fanatics all, I suppose,"said Landless.

  "Possibly. Your fanatic is the best fighting machine yet invented. Doyou not see that these two classes form a regiment against which notrainbands, no force which these planters could raise, would stand?"

  "But they are scattered, dispersed through the colony!"

  "Ay, but they can be brought together! And to that end, seeing how fewthere are upon any one plantation, upon the day when they rise, theymust raise with them servants and slaves. Then will they overpowermasters and overseers, and gathering to one point, form there a forcewhich will beat down all opposition. It is simple enough. We will but dothat which it was proposed to do ten years ago. You know theinstructions given by the Parliament to the four commissioners?"

  "They were to summon the colony to surrender to the Commonwealth. If itdid so, well and good; if not, war was to be declared, and the servantsinvited to rise against their masters and so purchase their freedom."

  "Precisely. Berkeley submitted, and there was no rising. This time therewill be no summons, but a rising, and a very great one. It will be,primarily, a rising of four hundred Oliverians, strong to avenge manyand grievous wrongs; but with them will rise servants and slaves, and tothe banner of the Commonwealth, beneath which they will march, willflock every Nonconformist in the land, and, when success is assured,then will come in and give us weight and respectability those (and theyare not a few) of the better classes who long in their hearts for thegood days of the Commonwealth, and yet dare not lift a finger to bringthem back."

  "And the royalists?"

  "If they resist, their blood be upon them! But there shall be nocarnage, no butchery. And if they submit they shall be unmolested, evenas they were ten years ago. There is land enough for all."

  "The servants and slaves?"

  "They that join with us, of whatever class, shall be freed."

  "This insurrection is actually in train?"

  "Let us call it a revolution. Yes, it is in train as far as regards theOliverians. We have but begun to sound servants and slaves."

  "And you?"

  "I am, for lack of a better, General to the Oliverians."

  "And you believe yourself able to control these motley forces,--menwronged and revengeful, fanatics, peasants, brutal negroes, mulattoes(whom they say are devils), convicts,--to say to them, 'Thus far mustyou go, and no farther.' You invoke a fiend that may turn and rend you!"

  Godwyn shaded his eyes with his hand. "Yes," he said at last, speakingwith energy. "I do believe it! I know it is a desperate game; but thestake! I believe in myself. And I have four hundred able adjutants, menwho are to me what his Ironsides were to Oliver, but none--" hestretched out his hand, thin, white, and delicate as a woman's, and laidit upon the brown one resting upon the table. "Lad," he said in agravely tender voice, "I have none upon this plantation in whom I canput absolute trust. There are few Oliverians here, and they are likeWin-Grace Porringer, in whom zeal hath eaten up discretion. Lad, I needa helper! I have spoken to you freely; I have laid my heart before you;and why? Because I, who was and am a gentleman, see in you a gentleman,because I would take your word before all the oaths of all the peasantservants in Virginia, because you have spirit and judgment; because,--inshort, because I could love you as I loved your father before you. Youhave great wrongs. We will right them together. Be my lieutenant, myconfidant, my helper! Come! put your hand in mine and say, 'I am withyou, Robert Godwyn, heart and soul.'"

  Landless sprang to his feet. "It were easy to say that," he saidhoarsely, "for, in all the two years I lay rotting in prison, and inthese weeks of sordid misery here in Virginia, yours is the only facethat has looked kindly upon me, yours the only voice that has told me Iwas believed.... But it is a fearful thing you propose! If all go as yousay it will,--why WELL! but if not, Hell will be in the land. I musthave time to think, to judge for myself, to decide--"

  The door swung stealthily inward, and in the opening appeared the deadwhite face, with the great letter sprawling over it, of Master Win-GracePorringer.

  "There are boats on the creek," he said. "Two coming up, one comingdown."

  Godwyn nodded. "I hold conference to-night with men from this and thetwo neighboring plantations. You will stay where you are and see andhear them. Only you must be silent; for they must not know that you arenot entirely one with us, as I am well assured you will be."

  "They are Oliverians?"

  "All but two or three."

  "I secured the mulatto," interrupted the Muggletonian.

  "Ay," said Godwyn, "I thought it well to have one slave representativehere to-night. These mulattoes are devils; but they can plot, and theycan keep a still tongue. But I shall not trust him or his kind too far."

  The peculiar knock--four strokes in all--sounded upon the door, andPorringer went to it. "Who is there?" passed
on the one side, and "Thesword of the Lord and of Gideon" on the other. The door swung open, andthere entered two men of a grave and determined cast of countenance.Both had iron-gray hair, and one was branded upon the forehead with theletter that appeared upon the cheek of the Muggletonian. Again the knocksounded, the countersign was given, and the door opened to admit a pale,ascetic-looking youth, with glittering eyes and a crimson spot on eachcheek, who stooped heavily and coughed often. He was followed by anotherstern-faced Commonwealth's man, and he in turn by a brace ofbroad-visaged rustics and a smug-faced man, who looked like a smallshopkeeper. After an interval came two more Oliverians, grim of eye,and composed in manner.

  Last of all came the mulatto of the pale amber color and the goldear-rings; and with him came the long-nosed, twitching-lipped convict inwhose company Landless had crossed the Atlantic. His name was Trail; andLandless, knowing him for a villainous rogue, started at finding himamongst the company.

  His presence there was evidently unexpected. Godwyn frowned and turnedsharply upon the mulatto. "Who gave you leave to bring this man?" hedemanded sternly.

  The mulatto was at no loss. "Worthy Senors all," he said smoothly,addressing himself to the company in general. "This Senor Trail is agood man, as I have reason to know. Once we were together in SanDomingo, slave to a villainous cavalier from Seville. With the help ofSt. Jago and the Mother of God, we killed him and made our escape. Now,after many years, we meet here in a like situation. I answer for myfriend as I answer for myself, myself, Luiz Sebastian, the humble andaltogether-devoted servant of you all, worshipful Senors."

  The man with the branded forehead muttered something in which the onlydistinguishable words were, "Scarlet woman," and "Papist half-breed,"and the smug-faced man cried out, "Trail is a forger and thief! Iremember his trial at the Bailey, a week before I signed as storekeeperto Major Carrington."

  This speech of the smug-faced man created something of a commotion, andone or two started to their feet. The mulatto looked about him with anevil eye.

  "My friend has been in trouble, it is true," he said, still verysmoothly. "He will not make the worse conspirator for that. And why,worthy Senors, should you make a difference between him and one other Isee in company? Mother of God! they are both in the same boat!" He fixedhis large eyes on Landless as he spoke, and his thick lips curled into atigerish smile.

  Landless half rose, but Godwyn laid a detaining hand upon his arm. "Bestill," he said in a low voice, "and let me manage this matter."

  Landless obeyed, and the mender of nets turned to the assembly, who bythis time were looking very black.

  "Friends," he said with quiet impressiveness, "I think you know me,Robert Godwyn, well enough to know that I make no move in these greatmatters without good and sufficient reason. I have good and sufficientreason for wishing to associate with us this young man,--yea, even tomake him a leader among us. He is one of us--he fought at Worcester. Andthat he is an innocent man, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned,wrongfully sent to the plantations, I well believe,--for I will believeno wrong of the son of Warham Landless."

  There was a loud murmur of surprise through the room, and one of theOliverians sprung to his feet, crying out, "Warham Landless was mycolonel! I will follow his son were he ten times a convict!"

  Godwyn waited for the buzz of voices to cease and then calmly proceeded,"As to this man whom Luiz Sebastian hath brought with him, I knownothing. But it matters little. Sooner or later we must engage hisclass,--as well commence with him as with another. He will be faithfulfor his own sake."

  The dark faces of his audience cleared gradually. Only the youth withthe hectic cheeks cried out, "I have hated the congregation of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked!" and rose as if to make forthe door. Win-Grace Porringer pulled him down with a muttered, "Curseyou for a fool! Shall not the Lord shave with a hired razor? When thesemen have done their work, then shall they be cut down and cast intoouter darkness, until when, hold thy peace!"

  The company now applied itself to the transaction of business. Trail wasduly sworn in, not without a deal of oily glibness and unnecessaryprotestation on his part. The man who held the little, worn Bible nowturned to Landless, but upon Godwyn's saying quietly, "I have alreadysworn him," the book was returned to the bosom of its owner.

  Each conspirator had his report to make. Landless listened with graveattention and growing wonder to long lists of plantations and theservant and slave force thereon; to news from the up-river estates, andfrom the outlying settlements upon the Rappahannock and the Pamunkey,and from across the bay in Accomac; to accounts of secret arsenalsslowly filling with rude weapons; to allusions to the well-affectedsailors on board those ships that were likely to be in harbor during thenext two months;--to the details of a formidable and far-reachingconspiracy.

  The Oliverians spoke of the hour in which this mine should be sprung asthe great and appointed day of the Lord, the day when the Lord was tostretch forth his hand and smite the malignants, the day when Israelshould be delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh. The branded manapostrophized Godwyn as Moses. Their stern and rigid features relaxed,their eyes glistened, their breath came short and thick. Once the youthwho had wished to avoid the company of the wicked broke into hystericalsobbing. The two rustics spoke little, but possibly thought the more. Tothem the day of the Lord translated itself the day of their obtaining afreehold. The smug-faced shopkeeper put in his oar now and again, butonly to be swept aside by the torrent of Biblical quotation. The newlyadmitted Trail kept a discreet silence, but used his furtive greenisheyes to good purpose. Luiz Sebastian sat with the stillness of a great,yellow, crouching tiger cat.

  Godwyn heard all in silence. Not till the last man had had his say didhe begin to speak, approving, suggesting, directing, moulding in hisfacile hands the incongruous and disjointed mass of information andopinion into a rounded whole. The men, listening to him with breathlessattention, gave grim nods of approval. At one point of his discourse thebranded man cried out:--

  "If the Puritan gentry you talk of would gird themselves like men, andcome forth to the battle, how quickly would the Lord's work be done!They are the drones within the hive! They expect the honey, but do notthe work."

  "It is so," said Godwyn, "but they have lands and goods and fame tolose. We have naught to lose--can be no worse off than we are now."

  "If the Laodicean, Carrington,"--began the branded man.

  Godwyn interrupted him. "This is beside the matter. Major Carrington isa godly man who hath, though in secret, done many kindnesses to us poorprisoners of the Lord. Let us be content with that."

  A moment later he said, "It waxeth late, friends, and loath would I befor one of you to be discovered. Come to me again a week from to-night.The word will be, 'The valley of Jehoshaphat.'"

  The conspirators dropped away, in twos and threes, gliding silently offin their stolen boats between the walls of waving grass. When, last ofall save Landless and the Muggletonian, Trail and Luiz Sebastianapproached the door, Godwyn stopped them with a gesture.

  "Stay a moment," he said. "I have a word to say to you. We may as wellbe frank with you. I distrust you, of course. It is natural that Ishould. And you distrust me as much. It is natural that you should. Iwould do without the aid of you and the class you represent if I could,but I cannot. You would do without my aid if you could, but you cannot.Betray me, and whatever blood money you get, it will not be that freedomwhich you want. We are obliged to work together, unequal yoke-fellows aswe are. Do I make myself understood?"

  "To a marvel, Senor," said Luiz Sebastian.

  "Damn my soul, but you're a sharp one!" said Trail.

  Godwyn smiled. "That is enough, we understand one another. Good-night."

  The two glided off in their turn, and Godwyn said to the Muggletonian,"Friend Porringer, that mended sail must be bestowed in the large boatbefore the hut against Haines' coming for it in the morning. Will youtake it to the boat for me? And if you will wait there this young manshall joi
n you shortly."

  The Muggletonian nodded, piled the heap of dingy sail upon his head andstrode off. The mender of nets turned to Landless.

  "Well," he said. "What do you think?"

  "I think," said Landless, raising his voice, "that the gentleman in thedark corner must be tired of standing."

  There was a dead silence. Then a piece of shadow detached itself fromthe other heavy shadows in the dark corner and came forward into thetorch light, where it resolved itself into a handsome figure of a man,apparently in the prime of life, and wearing a riding cloak of greencloth and a black riding mask. Not content with the concealment affordedby the mask, he had pulled his beaver low over his eyes and with onehand held the folds of the cloak about the lower part of his face. Herested the other ungloved hand upon the table and stared fixedly atLandless. "You have good eyes," he said at last, in a voice as muffledas his countenance.

  "It is a warm night," said Landless with a smile. "If Major Carringtonwould drop that heavy cloak, he would find it more comfortable."

  The man recoiled. "You know me!" he cried incredulously.

  "I know the Carrington arms and motto. _Tenax et Fidelis_, is it not?You should not wear your signet ring when you go a-plotting."

  The Surveyor-General of the Colony dropped his cloak, and springingforward seized Landless by the shoulders.

  "You dog!" he hissed between his teeth, "if you dare betray me, I'llhave every drop of your blood lashed out of your body!"

  Landless wrenched himself free. "I am no traitor," he said coldly.

  Carrington recovered himself. "Well, well," he said, still breathinghastily, "I believe you. I heard all that passed to-night, and Ibelieve you. You have been a gentleman."

  "Had I my sword, I should be happy to give Major Carrington proof," saidLandless sternly.

  The other smiled. "There, there, I was hasty, but by Heaven! you gave mea start! I ask your pardon."

  Landless bowed, and the mender of nets struck in. "I was sorry to keepyou so long, Major Carrington, in such an uncomfortable position. Butthe arrival of the Muggletonian before he was due, together with yourdesire for secrecy, left me no alternative."

  "I surmise, friend Godwyn, that you would not have been sorry had thisyoung man proclaimed his discovery in full conclave," said Carringtonwith a keen glance.

  Godwyn's thin cheek flushed, but he answered composedly, "It iscertainly true that I would like to see Major Carrington committedbeyond withdrawal to this undertaking. But he will do me the justice tobelieve that if, by raising my finger, I could so commit him, I wouldnot do so without his permission."

  "Faith, it is so!" said the other, then turned to Landless with a sternsmile. "You will understand, young man, that Miles Carrington neverattended, nor will attend, a meeting wherein the peace of the realm isconspired against by servants. If Miles Carrington ever visits RobertGodwyn, servant to Colonel Verney, 'tis simply to employ him (with hismaster's consent) in the mending of nets, or to pass an idle hourreading Plato, Robert Godwyn having been a scholar of note at home."

  "Certainly," said Landless, answering the smile. "Major Carrington andMaster Godwyn are at present much interested in the philosopher'spretty but idle conception of a Republic, wherein philosophers shallrule, and warriors be the bulwark of the state, and no Greek shallenslave a fellow Greek, but only outer barbarians--all of which isvastly pretty on paper--but they agree that it would turn the worldupside down were it put into practice."

  "Precisely," said Carrington with a smile.

  "You had best be off, lad," put in Godwyn. "Woodson is an early riser,and he must not catch you gadding.... You will think on what you haveheard to-night, and will come to me again as soon as you can makeopportunity?"

  "Yes," said Landless slowly. "I will come, but I make no promises."

  He found Porringer seated in their boat, patiently awaiting him. Theycast off and rowed back the way they had come through the stillness ofthe hour before dawn. The tide being full, the black banks haddisappeared, and the grass, sighing and whispering, waved on a levelwith their boat. When they slid at last into the broader waters of theinlet, the stars were paling, and in the east there gleamed a faint rosetint, the ghost of a color. A silver mist lay upon land and water, andthrough it they stole undetected to their several cabins.

  Meanwhile the two men, left alone in the hut on the marsh, looked oneanother in the face.

  "Are you sure that he can be trusted?" demanded Carrington.

  "I would answer for his father's son with my life."

  "What of these scruples of his? Faith! an unusual conjunction--a convictand scruples! Will you manage to dispose of them?"

  Godwyn smiled with wise, sad eyes. "Time will dispose of them," he saidquietly. "He is new to the life. Let him taste its full bitterness. Itwill plead powerfully against his--scruples. He has as yet no specialand private grievance. Wait until he gets into trouble with Woodson orhis master. When he has done that and has taken the consequences, hewill be ours. We can bide our time."