Iosco said, “Cleopatra must stay no longer, lest her sad tears and the rain be too much, and she die. Could she not speak to the great Werowance, and ask the life of Owaissa? He must grant what his sweet daughter wishes.” Cleopatra stood up, and Iosco led her. But she said sadly, “The great Powhatan is very angry. He would never spare a captive for a child’s wish, Iosco.”
Suddenly Iosco loosened and drew off his large, rich wampum belt. “Will Cleopatra take this with her petition? It is the charmed belt of Manteo, my father. I prize it, but know the mighty Powhatan’s eye often rests on it. He will grant the prayer of Cleopatra, if she carries the charmed belt of the far-journeyed Werowance Manteo.”
She took the wampum from Iosco, and having reached her wigwam they parted, she to sleep on her tussan of stretched skins, and Iosco to find the wigwam where Owaissa slept. He would lie, but not sleep, on the wet ground outside.
The morning dawned, dull and rainy. The loving Cleopatra held the wampum belt and watched for her father to eat his food. Virginia, too, had wakened early. She thought herself deserted by Iosco, and to her surprise that thought brought more pain than the thought of her probable death, which would undoubtedly be a torturing, painful one. She little knew that Iosco had been watching by her all the night, and was even now looking sadly at her through the openings in the logs, of which the wigwam was made. He marvelled how she could kneel so calmly, her sad face more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. If Cleopatra were not successful, she would soon be led to death. He would die first, before she should suffer. But she should not be disturbed by him in these solemn hours.
A joyous cry made Virginia look up; Iosco, too, from his post could see the lithe figure of Cleopatra as she bounded into the wigwam and threw her arms about Virginia, crying, “The beautiful Owaissa shall not die this day! The good Powhatan says that she shall fly all day and make his little daughter merry; she shall be merry at his great feast to-day, and before night comes Nantiquas will come. He will save the sweet Owaissa.”
Virginia rose, still holding the little girl in her arms, and said, “I will try to make my dear Cleopatra happy to-day, even if it be my last one she shall be merry. If Nantiquas does not come, and if he has not the power you think he has, when does Werowance say I shall die?”
Cleopatra covered her face with her brown hands to hide her tears, but she could not keep back the sobs, as she replied, “Cleopatra’s father, the Werowance Powhatan, says the pretty Owaissa shall fly to-day with his child, and not die until the sun goes down and the moon comes out and the sun shines again, but when it hangs on the great pine, the Owaissa and six of her tribe, who shall live till then, shall die before Powhatan.”
Iosco could see Owaissa comforting the child. He heard her say, “There are other things more cruel than death, Cleopatra, when one’s heart dies. But we will love each other to the end, whenever it may be.”
He saw her kiss the child, who clung to her, and heard her say, “We will remember that God knows our trouble. If he will that I should live, he can save me even from a great Werowance like Powhatan. And if not, he will help me to be brave.”
Iosco stood quietly with unmoved face, showing nothing of the struggle and pain in his heart.