“With that Dorothy begged him to go with her for one last journey over the mountains, that they might be together in solitude for a while. So he took his fine roan, Pacolet, and she her little mare, Bess, and they rode away for a wonderful month among the mountains, stopping where they pleased, and seeing the homes and plantations of their fellow Virginians, and everywhere they were entertained with great consideration, for two handsomer or more charming young people it would have been difficult to find. Moreover, Samuel loved his horse Pacolet better than anything in the world save his bride, and to feel this faithful and spirited steed under him, and to see the fair face of his love shining with health and joy, was, he thought, all that any man could ask of fate.
“So it was with a stout heart that at last he sailed away as commander of his elder brother’s merchantman, The Adventure, carrying cotton to France and tobacco to Algiers and gold to Constantinople. For you must know, Azalea, that at that time—I think it must have been about 1794, America did a good trade among the ports of the Mediterranean and even beyond. Perhaps, too, if you have read your history, you will know how the corsairs of the Barbary States preyed upon these merchantmen, so that it was necessary for America to place a fleet of battleships to guard the African coast in order to protect the merchant ships from the pirates. Notwithstanding this, many a ship was held against its will and its officers and crews made prisoners, and it was a common thing for notices to be read in American churches, giving the names of those in captivity in Tripoli or Algiers. Then would the friends and relatives of the imprisoned men raise money and buy them out again.
“But Samuel Bings had no fear. The Bings were brave men and subtle men, and they reckoned with their wits to keep them out of trouble.
“‘Keep heart of grace, Dorothy, my love,’ said Samuel when he bade her good-bye. ‘A year may pass, or a year and a half at farthest; then shall you see me home, and never more will I quit shore save by your leave or in your company.’
“But hardly had he put to sea when troubles came upon his bride. First her long-ailing mother died; then three months after that her father bade her farewell also. So she was left alone in the world. She had kin in plenty—though none of them were very near—who would have welcomed her to their homes, but they lived on plantations out of sight of the sea, and Dorothy had a mind to be where she could see it rolling in bringing the brave ships on it.
“‘What if The Adventure should land and Samuel come seeking me and I not be at hand?’ she said.
“So she chose her a house on the side of the hill that led up from the wharves, and from its galleries she could see every ship that came sailing into port. Here she made her a home, putting into it whatever was most beautiful or treasured from the old house of the Marshalls, and those curious things which the brothers Bings had brought her from China and Java and Japan and the South Sea isles; yes, and from the Bahamas and the Azores and the Canaries and the Hebrides and all the islands they had visited. Moreover, she made it her business to build a fine stable for her husband’s beloved horse, Pacolet, so that he was tended like a king’s horse, and every day she rode him to keep him in form, and she would take him to a certain place where they could overlook the sea, and the two of them would stand there like statues, watching the horizon for a sight of The Adventure.
“The year passed with no word from Samuel. But Dorothy comforted her heart.
“‘Did he not say I might have to wait a year and a half a year?’ she asked.
“But the year and the half year went by, and it was two years, and then three, and nothing was heard of the ship at all. So a dark fear began to grow up in the heart of Dorothy, and she never missed her church, not only because she was devout, but because she thought that some time she might hear the name of her husband read as among those who were lying in one of the cruel Barbary prisons awaiting a ransom. But never a word did she hear, and the years rolled by.