The fortunate ones eagerly seized their letters and were soon deep in their contents. Those who had received no mail clamored for news.
“Fair and softly. Give me time to get my breath, and one of you men fetch me a cup of sack from yonder package near the door. Ah,” came his voice between his gulps, “how liquor warms the cockles of a man’s heart. Now I will begin.
“First of all, the reading of the Word of God”—here he lifted his hat reverently—“is rapidly spreading among the poor as well as the rich. Men’s minds are more set on serious things than in the reign of our good ‘Queen Bess,’ God rest her soul! The Puritan sect is making great headway, but I do not like their sour looks and lank hair.”
“How are King James and Parliament getting on?” said George Percy. “And what of my kinsman, Lord Percy?”
“Ill, man, ill. King James is driving Parliament to distraction by his forced levying of taxes and reckless expenditure of money without their consent. I do not know how long they will hold out. To all their remonstrances he replies, ‘I am King by divine right, and am under no duty to consult any will but mine own.’ As for your kinsman, Lord Percy, he still keeps Sir Walter Raleigh company in the Tower of London. All the brilliant wits of the day visit them. Chief among them is Will Shakespeare. That canting Scotchman Carr, now Earl of Somerset, if you please, has the upper hand at Court. Strange rumors are afloat concerning the murder of Overby. It is whispered that Carr and his wife, once Lady Essex, had a hand in that; and hark, a word in your ear, the London Company is mightily disgruntled because no gold has been sent back from the colony. You gallants get to work and hunt for the precious metal.”
“Put not such thoughts into their heads,” interposed Captain Smith in a whisper. “I tell you there is no gold in these parts. Better exhort them to set to work and put this settlement on a firm basis. Just now it is like a city built on shifting sand. Discontent and jealousy rock the government like a ship in a storm.”
CHAPTER IX
“Fire, fire!” The cry rang out over the settlement.
Scurrying figures hastened from all directions to the storehouse from whence volumes of flame leaped in frenzy. The wild wind swept the licking tongues over to the fort, and explosions of gunpowder shook the ground, scattering the sparks in every direction. In two hours’ time every cabin lay a smouldering mass of spluttering flames and charred embers. Poor, unfortunate colony! Was the relentless hand of fate crushing them out with resistless power? Those who make no effort to take their part in the world’s work she ever pushes to the wall. Perhaps they were but reaping as they had sown.