Audrey by Mary Johnston
Produced by Audrey Longhurst and the PG Online DistributedProofreading Team
AUDREY
BY MARY JOHNSTON
AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD" AND "PRISONERS OF HOPE"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F.C. YOHN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1902
COPYRIGHT, 1901, 1902, BY MARY JOHNSTON COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published February, 1902_
_Books by Mary Johnston._
AUDREY. With Illustrations in color. Crown 8vo, $1.50
PRISONERS OF HOPE. With Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD. With 8 Illustrations by HOWARD PYLE, E.B. THOMPSON, A.W. BETTS, and EMLEN McCONNELL. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
GAZED WITH WIDE-OPEN EYES AT THE INTRUDER (page 106)]
TO ELOISE, ANNE, AND ELIZABETH
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
I. THE CABIN IN THE VALLEY 1
II. THE COURT OF THE ORPHAN 16
III. DARDEN'S AUDREY 38
IV. THE ROAD TO WILLIAMSBURGH 52
V. THE STOREKEEPER 63
VI. MASTER AND MAN 73
VII. THE RETURN OF MONSIEUR JEAN HUGON 92
VIII. UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE 106
IX. MACLEAN TO THE RESCUE 117
X. HAWARD AND EVELYN 131
XI. AUDREY OF THE GARDEN 145
XII. THE PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN 163
XIII. A SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY 179
XIV. THE BEND IN THE ROAD 194
XV. HUGON SPEAKS HIS MIND 206
XVI. AUDREY AND EVELYN 222
XVII. WITHIN THE PLAYHOUSE 237
XVIII. A QUESTION OF COLORS 249
XIX. THE GOVERNOR'S BALL 262
XX. THE UNINVITED GUEST 273
XXI. AUDREY AWAKES 287
XXII. BY THE RIVERSIDE 300
XXIII. A DUEL 312
XXIV. AUDREY COMES TO WESTOVER 322
XXV. TWO WOMEN 337
XXVI. SANCTUARY 349
XXVII. THE MISSION OF TRUELOVE 363
XXVIII. THE PLAYER 375
XXIX. AMOR VINCIT 391
XXX. THE LAST ACT 402
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
GAZED WITH WIDE-OPEN EYES AT THE INTRUDER (page 106) _Frontispiece_
"HAD YOU LOVED ME--I HAD BEEN HAPPY" 58
AUDREY LEFT HER WARNING TO BE SPOKEN BY MACLEAN 206
"I DO NOT THINK I HAVE THE HONOR OF KNOWING"-- 270
HER DARK EYES MADE APPEAL 342
"JEAN! JEAN HUGON!" 414
AUDREY
CHAPTER I
THE CABIN IN THE VALLEY
The valley lay like a ribbon thrown into the midst of the encompassinghills. The grass which grew there was soft and fine and abundant; thetrees which sprang from its dark, rich mould were tall and great of girth.A bright stream flashed through it, and the sunshine fell warm upon thegrass and changed the tassels of the maize into golden plumes. Above thevalley, east and north and south, rose the hills, clad in living green,mantled with the purpling grape, wreathed morn and eve with trailing mist.To the westward were the mountains, and they dwelt apart in a blue haze.Only in the morning, if the mist were not there, the sunrise struck upontheir long summits, and in the evening they stood out, high and black andfearful, against the splendid sky. The child who played beside the cabindoor often watched them as the valley filled with shadows, and thought ofthem as a great wall between her and some land of the fairies which mustneeds lie beyond that barrier, beneath the splendor and the evening star.The Indians called them the Endless Mountains, and the child never doubtedthat they ran across the world and touched the floor of heaven.
In the hands of the woman who was spinning the thread broke and the songdied in the white throat of the girl who stood in the doorway. For amoment the two gazed with widening eyes into the green September worldwithout the cabin; then the woman sprang to her feet, tore from the wall ahorn, and, running to the door, wound it lustily. The echoes from thehills had not died when a man and a boy, the one bearing a musket, theother an axe, burst from the shadow of the forest, and at a run crossedthe greensward and the field of maize between them and the women. Thechild let fall her pine cones and pebbles, and fled to her mother, tocling to her skirts, and look with brown, frightened eyes for the wonderthat should follow the winding of the horn. Only twice could she rememberthat clear summons for her father: once when it was winter and snow was onthe ground, and a great wolf, gaunt and bold, had fallen upon their sheep;and once when a drunken trader from Germanna, with a Pamunkey who hadtasted of the trader's rum, had not waited for an invitation beforeentering the cabin. It was not winter now, and there was no sign of thered-faced trader or of the dreadful, capering Indian. There was only asound in the air, a strange noise coming to them from the pass between thehills over which rose the sun.
The man with the musket sent his voice before him as he approached thegroup upon the doorstep: "Alce, woman! What's amiss? I see naught wrong!"
His wife stepped forward to meet him. "There's naught to see, William.It's to hear. There was a noise. Molly and I heard it, and then we lostit. There it is again!"
Fronting the cabin, beyond the maize field and the rich green grass andthe placid stream, rose two hills, steep and thickly wooded, and betweenthem ran a narrow, winding, and rocky pass. Down this gorge, to thelistening pioneer, now came a confused and trampling sound.
"It is iron striking against the rocks!" he announced. "The hoofs ofhorses"--
"Iron!" cried his wife. "The horses in Virginia go unshod! And what shoulda troop of horse do here, beyond the frontier, where even the rangersnever come?"
The man shook his head, a frown of perplexity upon his bronzed and beardedface. "It is the sound of the hoofs of horses," he said, "and they arecoming through the pass. Hark!"
A trumpet blew, and there came a noise of laughter. The child pressedclose to her brother's side. "Oh, Robin, maybe 't is the fairies!"
Out from the gloom of the pass into the sunshine of the valley, splashingthrough the stream, trampling the long grass, laughing, and calling onerider to the other, burst a company of fifty horsemen. The trumpet blewagain, and the entire party, drawing rein, stared at the unexpected maizefield, the cabin, and the people about the door.
Between the intruders and the lonely folk, whose nearest neighbors weretwenty miles away, was only a strip of sunny grass, dotted over with thestumps of trees that had been felled lest they afford cover for attackingsavages. A man, riding at the head of the invading party, beckoned,somewhat imperiously, to the pioneer; and the latter, still with hismusket in the hollow of his arm, strode across the greensward, andfinding himself in the midst, not of rude traders and rangers, but ofeasy, smiling, periwigged gentlemen, handsomely dressed and accoutred,dropped the butt of his gun upon the ground, and took off hissquirrel-skin cap.
"You are deep in the wilderness, good fellow," said the man who hadbeckoned, and who was possessed of a stately figure, a martialcountenance, and an air of great authority. "How far is it to themountains?"
The pioneer stared at the long blue range, cloudlike in the distance. "I
"We are come out expressly to do so," answered the other heartily, "havinga mind to drink the King's health with our heads in the clouds! We needanother axeman to clear away the fallen trees and break the nets ofgrapevine. Wilt go along amongst our rangers yonder, and earn a pistoleand undying fame?"
The woodsman looked from the knot of gentlemen to the troop of hardyrangers, who, with a dozen ebony servants and four Meherrin Indians, madeup the company. Under charge of the slaves were a number of packhorses.Thrown across one was a noble deer; a second bore a brace of wild turkeysand a two-year-old bear, fat and tender; a third had a legion of pots andpans for the cooking of the woodland cheer; while the burden of severalothers promised heart's content of good liquor. From the entire troopbreathed a most enticing air of gay daring and good-fellowship. Thegentlemen were young and of cheerful countenances; the rangers in the rearsat their horses and whistled to the woodpeckers in the sugar-trees; thenegroes grinned broadly; even the Indians appeared a shade less saturninethan usual. The golden sunshine poured upon them all, and the bluemountains that no Englishman had ever passed seemed for the moment as softand yielding as the cloud that slept along their summits. And no man knewwhat might be just beyond the mountains: Frenchmen, certainly, and thegreat lakes and the South Sea: but, besides these, might there not begold, glittering stones, new birds and beasts and plants, strange secretsof the hills? It was only westward-ho! for a week or two, with goodcompany and good drink--
The woodsman shifted from one foot to the other, but his wife, who had nowcrossed the grass to his side, had no doubts.
"You'll not go, William!" she cried. "Remember the smoke that you sawyesterday from the hilltop! If the Northern Indians are on the warpathagainst the Southern, and are passing between us and the mountains, theremay be straying bands. I'll not let you go!"
In her eagerness she clasped his arm with her hands. She was a comely,buxom dame, and the circle on horseback, being for the most part young andgallant, and not having seen a woman for some days, looked kindly uponher.
"And so you saw a smoke, goodwife, and are afraid of roving Indians?" saidthe gentleman who had spoken before. "That being the case, your husbandhas our permission to stay behind. On my life, 't is a shame to ride awayand leave you in danger of such marauders!"
"Will your Excellency permit me to volunteer for guard duty?" demanded ayoung man who had pressed his horse to the leader's side. "It's odds,though, that when you return this way you'll find me turned Papist. I'llswear your Excellency never saw in Flanders carved or painted saint soworthy of your prayers as yonder breathing one!"
The girl Molly had followed her parents, and now stood upon a littlegrassy knoll, surveying with wide brown eyes the gay troop before her. Alight wind was blowing, and it wrapped her dress of tender, faded bluearound her young limbs, and lifted her loosened hair, gilded by thesunshine into the likeness of an aureole. Her face was serious andwondering, but fair as a woodland flower. She had placed her hand upon thehead of the child who was with her, clinging to her dress. The green knollformed a pedestal; behind was the sky, as blue as that of Italy; the twofigures might have been some painted altar-piece.
The sprightly company, which had taken for its motto "Sic juvattranscendere montes," looked and worshiped. There was a moment of silentdevotion, broken by one of the gentlemen demanding if 't were not time fordinner; another remarked that they might go much farther and fare muchworse, in respect of a cool, sweet spot in which to rest during the heatof the afternoon; and a third boldly proposed that they go no farther atall that day. Their leader settled the question by announcing that, Mr.Mason's suggestion finding favor in his sight, they would forthwithdismount, dine, drink red wine and white, and wear out the heat of the dayin this sylvan paradise until four of the clock, when the trumpet shouldsound for the mount; also, that if the goodwife and her daughter would dothem the honor to partake of their rustic fare, their healths should bedrunk in nothing less than Burgundy.
As he spoke he swung himself from the saddle, pulled out his ruffles, andraised his hat. "Ladies, permit me,"--a wave of his hand toward hisescort, who were now also on foot. "Colonel Robertson, Captain Clonder,Captain Brooke, Mr. Haward, Mr. Beverley, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Fontaine, Mr.Todd, Mr. Mason,--all of the Tramontane Order. For myself, I am AlexanderSpotswood, at your service."
The pioneer, standing behind his wife, plucked her by the sleeve. "Ecod,Alce, 't is the Governor himself! Mind your manners!"
Alce, who had been a red-cheeked dairymaid in a great house in England,needed no admonition. Her curtsy was profound; and when the Governor tookher by the hand and kissed her still blooming cheek, she curtsied again.Molly, who had no memories of fine gentlemen and the complaisance whichwas their due, blushed fire-red at the touch of his Excellency's lips,forgot to curtsy, and knew not where to look. When, in her confusion, sheturned her head aside, her eyes met those of the young man who hadthreatened to turn Papist. He bowed, with his hand upon his heart, and sheblushed more deeply than before.
By now every man had dismounted, and the valley was ringing with themerriment of the jovial crew. The negroes led the horses down the stream,lightened them of saddle and bridle, and left them tethered to saplingsbeneath which the grass grew long and green. The rangers gathered fallenwood, and kindled two mighty fires, while the gentlemen of the party threwthemselves down beside the stream, upon a little grassy rise shadowed by ahuge sugar-tree. A mound of turf, flanked by two spreading roots, was theGovernor's chair of state, and Alce and Molly he must needs seat besidehim. Not one of his gay company but seemed an adept in the high-flowncompliment of the age; out of very idleness and the mirth born of thatsummer hour they followed his Excellency's lead, and plied the two simplewomen with all the wordy ammunition that a tolerable acquaintance with themythology of the ancients and the polite literature of the present couldfurnish. The mother and daughter did not understand the fine speeches, butliked them passing well. In their lonely lives, a little thing madeconversation for many and many a day. As for these golden hours,--thejingle and clank and mellow laughter, the ruffles and gold buttons andfine cloth, these gentlemen, young and handsome, friendly-eyed,silver-tongued, the taste of wine, the taste of flattery, the sunshinethat surely was never yet so bright,--ten years from now they would stillbe talking of these things, still wishing that such a day could comeagain.
The negroes were now busy around the fires, and soon the cheerful odor ofbroiling meat rose and blended with the fragrance of the forest. Thepioneer, hospitably minded, beckoned to the four Meherrins, and hasteningwith them to the patch of waving corn, returned with a goodly lading ofplump, green ears. A second foraging party, under guidance of the boy,brought into the larder of the gentry half a dozen noble melons, goldenwithin and without. The woman whispered to the child, and the latter ranto the cabin, filled her upgathered skirts with the loaves of her mother'sbaking, and came back to the group upon the knoll beneath the sugar-tree.The Governor himself took the bread from the little maid, then drew hertoward him.
"Thanks, my pretty one," he said, with a smile that for the moment quitedispelled the expression of haughtiness which marred an otherwise comelycountenance. "Come, give me a kiss, sweeting, and tell me thy name."
The child looked at him gravely. "My name is Audrey," she answered, "andif you eat all of our bread we'll have none for supper."
The Governor laughed, and kissed the small dark face. "I'll give thee agold moidore, instead, my maid. Odso! thou'rt as dark and wild, almost, aswas my little Queen of the Saponies that died last year. Hast never beenaway from the mountains, child?"
Audrey shook her head, and thought the question but a foolish one. Themountains were everywhere. Had she not been to the top of the hills, andseen for herself that they went from one edge of the world to the other?She was glad to slip from the Governor's encircling arm, and from the gayring beneath the sugar-tree; to take refu
The rangers, with the pioneer and his son for their guests, dined besidethe kitchen fire, which they had kindled at a respectful distance from thegroup upon the knoll. Active, bronzed and daring men, wild riders, boldfighters, lovers of the freedom of the woods, they sprawled upon the darkearth beneath the walnut-trees, laughed and joked, and told old tales ofhunting or of Indian warfare. The four Meherrins ate apart and in statelysilence, but the grinning negroes must needs endure their hunger untiltheir masters should be served. One black detachment spread before thegentlemen of the expedition a damask cloth; another placed upon the snowyfield platters of smoking venison and turkey, flanked by rockahominy andsea-biscuit, corn roasted Indian fashion, golden melons, and a quantity ofwild grapes gathered from the vines that rioted over the hillside; while athird set down, with due solemnity, a formidable array of bottles. Therebeing no chaplain in the party, the grace was short. The two captainscarved, but every man was his own Ganymede. The wines were good andabundant: there was champagne for the King's health; claret in which topledge themselves, gay stormers of the mountains; Burgundy for the oreadswho were so gracious as to sit beside them, smile upon them, taste oftheir mortal fare.
Sooth to say, the oreads were somewhat dazed by the company they werekeeping, and found the wine a more potent brew than the liquid crystal oftheir mountain streams. Red roses bloomed in Molly's cheeks; her eyes grewstarry, and no longer sought the ground; when one of the gentlemen wove achaplet of oak leaves, and with it crowned her loosened hair, she laughed,and the sound was so silvery and delightful that the company laughed withher. When the viands were gone, the negroes drew the cloth, but left thewine. When the wine was well-nigh spent, they brought to their masterslong pipes and japanned boxes filled with sweet-scented. The fragrantsmoke, arising, wrapped the knoll in a bluish haze. A wind had arisen,tempering the blazing sunshine, and making low music up and down thehillsides. The maples blossomed into silver, the restless poplar leavesdanced more and more madly, the hemlocks and great white pines waved theirbroad, dark banners. Above the hilltops the sky was very blue, and thedistant heights seemed dream mountains and easy of climbing. A soft andpleasing indolence, born of the afternoon, the sunlight, and the red wine,came to dwell in the valley. One of the company beneath the spreadingsugar-tree laid his pipe upon the grass, clasped his hands behind hishead, and, with his eyes on the azure heaven showing between branch andleaf, sang the song of Amiens of such another tree in such another forest.The voice was manly, strong, and sweet; the rangers quit their talk of warand hunting to listen, and the negroes, down by the fire which they hadbuilt for themselves, laughed for very pleasure.
When the wine was all drunken and the smoke of the tobacco quite blownaway, a gentleman who seemed of a somewhat saturnine disposition, and lesssusceptible than his brother adventurers to the charms of the wood nymphs,rose, and declared that he would go a-fishing in the dark crystal of thestream below. His servant brought him hook and line, while thegrasshoppers in the tall grass served for bait. A rock jutting over theflood formed a convenient seat, and a tulip-tree lent a grateful shade.The fish were abundant and obliging; the fisherman was happy. Threeshining trophies had been landed, and he was in the act of baiting thehook that should capture the fourth, when his eyes chanced to meet theeyes of the child Audrey, who had left her covert of purple-berried alder,and now stood beside him. Tithonus, green and hale, skipped from betweenhis fingers, and he let fall his line to put out a good-natured hand anddraw the child down to a seat upon the rock. "Wouldst like to try thyskill, moppet?" he demanded.
The child shook her head. "Are you a prince?" she asked, "and is the grandgentleman with, the long hair and the purple coat the King?"
The fisherman laughed. "No, little one, I'm only a poor ensign. Thegentleman yonder, being the representative in Virginia of my Lord ofOrkney and his Majesty King George the First, may somewhat smack ofroyalty. Indeed, there are good Virginians who think that were the Kinghimself amongst us he could not more thoroughly play my Lord Absolute. Buthe's only the Governor of Virginia, after all, bright eyes."
"Does he live in a palace, like the King? My father once saw the King'shouse in a place they call London."
The gentleman laughed again. "Ay, he lives in a palace, a red brickpalace, sixty feet long and forty feet deep, with a bauble on top that'sall afire on birth-nights. There are green gardens, too, with windingpaths, and sometimes pretty ladies walk in them. Wouldst like to see allthese fine things?"
The child nodded. "Ay, that I would! Who is the gentleman that sang, andthat now sits by Molly? See! with his hand touching her hair. Is he aGovernor, too?"
The other glanced in the direction of the sugar-tree, raised his eyebrows,shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his fishing. "That is Mr.Marmaduke Haward," he said, "who, having just come into a great estate,goes abroad next month to be taught the newest, most genteel mode ofsquandering it. Dost not like his looks, child? Half the ladies ofWilliamsburgh are enamored of his _beaux yeux_."
Audrey made no answer, for just then the trumpet blew for the mount, andthe fisherman must needs draw in and pocket his hook and line. Clear,high, and sweet, the triumphant notes pierced the air, and were answeredfrom the hills by a thousand fairy horns. The martial-minded Governorwould play the soldier in the wilderness; his little troop of gentlemenand rangers and ebony servants had come out well drilled for their tiltagainst the mountains. The echoes were still ringing, when, with laughter,some expenditure of wit, and much cheerful swearing, the camp was struck.The packhorses were again laden, the rangers swung themselves into theirsaddles, and the gentlemen beneath the sugar-tree rose from the grass, andtendered their farewells to the oreads.
Alce roundly hoped that their Honors would pass that way again upon theirreturn from the high mountains, and the deepening rose of Molly's cheeksand her wistful eyes added weight to her mother's importunity. TheGovernor swore that in no great time they would dine again in the valley,and his companions confirmed the oath. His Excellency, turning to mounthis horse, found the pioneer at the animal's head.
"So, honest fellow," he exclaimed good-naturedly, "you will not with us tograve your name upon the mountain tops? Let me tell you that you aregiving Fame the go-by. To march against the mountains and overcome them asthough they were so many Frenchmen, and then to gaze into the promisedland beyond--Odso, man, we are as great as were Cortez and Pizarro andtheir crew! We are heroes and paladins! We are the Knights of"--
His horse, impatient to be gone, struck with a ringing sound an iron-shodhoof against a bit of rock. "The Knights of the Horseshoe," said thegentleman nearest the Governor.
Spotswood uttered a delighted exclamation: "'Gad, Mr. Haward, you've hitit! Well-nigh the first horseshoes used in Virginia--the number we wereforced to bring along--the sound of the iron against the rocks--theKnights of the Horseshoe! 'Gad, I'll send to London and have littlehorseshoes--little gold horseshoes--made, and every man of us shall wearone. The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe! It hath an odd, charming sound,eh, gentlemen?"
None of the gentlemen were prepared to deny that it was a quaint andpleasing title. Instead, out of very lightness of heart and fantastichumor, they must needs have the Burgundy again unpacked, that they mightpledge at once all valorous discoverers, his Excellency the Governor ofVirginia, and their new-named order. And when the wine was drunk, therangers were drawn up, the muskets were loaded, and a volley was firedthat brought the echoes crashing about their heads. The Governor mounted,the trumpet sounded once more, and the joyous company swept down thenarrow valley toward the long, blue, distant ranges.
The pioneer, his wife and children, watched them go. One of the gentlementurned in his saddle and waved his hand. Alce curtsied, but Molly, at whomhe had looked, saw him not, because her eyes were full of tears. Thecompany reached and entered a cleft between the hills; a moment, and menand horses were lost to sight; a little longer, and not even a sound couldb
It was as though they had taken the sunshine with them; for a cloud hadcome up from the west, and the sun was hidden. All at once the valleyseemed a sombre and lonely place, and the hills with their whisperingtrees looked menacingly down upon the clearing, the cabin, and the fivesimple English folk. The glory of the day was gone. After a little moreof idle staring, the frontiersman and his son returned to their work inthe forest, while Alce and Molly went indoors to their spinning, andAudrey sat down upon the doorstep to listen to the hurry of voices in thetrees, and to watch the ever-deepening shadow of the cloud above thevalley.