I was dizzy with the bliss of the air and the light, and it seemed a small thing that he would not believe me. The wind sounded in my ears like a harp, and the sea beckoned. A white bird flashed down into the crystal hollow between two waves, hung there a second, then rose, a silver radiance against the blue. Suddenly I saw a river, dark and ridged beneath thunderclouds, a boat, and in it, her head pillowed upon her arm, a woman, who pretended that she slept. With a shock my senses steadied, and I became myself again. The sea was but the sea, the wind the wind; in the hold below me lay my friend; somewhere in that ship was my wife; and awaiting me in the state cabin were men who perhaps had the will, as they had the right and the might, to hang me at the yardarm that same hour.
“I have had my fill of rest,” I said. “Whom am I to stand before?”
“The newly appointed officers of the Company, bound in this ship for Virginia,” he answered. “The ship carries Sir Francis Wyatt, the new Governor; Master Davison, the Secretary; young Clayborne, the surveyor general; the knight marshal, the physician general, and the Treasurer, with other gentlemen, and with fair ladies, their wives and sisters. I am George Sandys, the Treasurer.”
The blood rushed to my face, for it hurt me that the brother of Sir Edwyn Sandys should believe that the firing of those guns had been my act. His was the trained observation of the traveller and writer, and he probably read the colour aright. “I pity you, if I can no longer esteem you,” he said, after a pause. “I know no sorrier sight than a brave man’s shield reversed.”
I bit my lip and kept back the angry word. The next minute saw us at the door of the state cabin. It opened, and my companion entered, and I after him, with my two guards at my back. Around a large table were gathered a number of gentlemen, some seated, some standing. There were but two among them whom I had seen before,—the physician who had dressed my wound and my Lord Carnal. The latter was seated in a great chair, beside a gentleman with a pleasant active face and light brown curling hair,—the new Governor, as I guessed. The Treasurer, nodding to the two men to fall back to the window, glided to a seat upon my lord’s other hand, and I went and stood before the Governor of Virginia.
For some moments there was silence in the cabin, every man being engaged in staring at me with all his eyes; then the Governor spoke: “It should be upon your knees, sir.”
“I am neither petitioner nor penitent,” I said. “I know no reason why I should kneel, your Honour.”
“There’s reason, God wot, why you should be both!” he exclaimed. “Did you not, now some months agone, defy the writ of the King and Company, refusing to stand when called upon to do so in the King’s name?”
“Yes.”
“Did you not, when he would have stayed your lawless flight, lay violent hands upon a nobleman high in the King’s favour, and, over—powering him with numbers, carry him out of the King’s realm?”