The Knight of the Golden Melice Part 46

"We will have no argument thereupon, Master Dudley," said Winthrop.

"Your desire is granted, and that, methinks, should satisfy you."

The door now opened, and Sa.s.sacus entered between two soldiers, clanking the fetters on his wrists as he moved. Alas! confinement, though short, had not been without baleful effect on the Sagamore. Not that he appeared cast down or humiliated; not that his gait was uncertain, or his bearing less proud; but a shadow, the shadow of a prison house, encompa.s.sed him. The iron was evidently beginning to enter his soul. The free denizen of the boundless forest could no more live without liberty, than flame without air. He was like an eagle struck down from his home in the clouds,

"Sailing with supreme dominion, Through the azure deep of air,"

to be chained upon a stump, and approached and gazed at by every wayfarer. The imperial bird darts round the lightning of his eyes, but he knows them to be innocuous, and his head droops at the consciousness.

"Remain where ye are," said an a.s.sistant to the soldiers. "The Governor is engaged at this moment."

"Can Neebin," said Winthrop, resuming his interrogatories, "tell me where is Sir Christopher Gardiner?"

"Flower of the forest and of the wild rushing stream," exclaimed Sa.s.sacus, in his own language, "be to him as the rock to which the wind whispers an idle tale."

"What says he?" inquired the a.s.sistants of one another, not one of whom understood more than here and there a word.

"Let the chief keep silent," said Winthrop, addressing Sa.s.sacus. "He will soon have an opportunity to say what he will;" and he repeated the question.

But the little Indian showed herself no longer docile as before, but to every question returned a stubborn silence.

"We have made a mistake in bringing in the chief," said an a.s.sistant.

"She will not open her lips again. He hath said something to frustrate our inquires."

"Thou hast rightly divined," said Winthrop, after another vain attempt to induce the child to speak. "And now what shall be done? for I hold it unmeet that she should be sent back to the source whence, instead of the Gospel truth she should have been taught, she hath sucked only error."

"That were indeed a deadly unkindness to the poor fawn," said Sir Richard, "seeing it would be imperiling her eternal salvation."

"Better," said Endicott, "that she should continue in a darkness penetrated only by the dim light of nature than be made a victim of Roman superst.i.tion."

"If any one of ye, gentlemen, will take her in charge," said Winthrop, "gladly will I resign the child into your hands; but if not, then will I receive her into mine own household, where, by G.o.d's grace, the tares which the enemy hath sown may be eradicated."

No one manifesting a desire to accept the offer of Winthrop, he ordered the child to be removed to his own house.

As the little girl on her way out of the apartment pa.s.sed nigh the chief, she stopped, and with childish impatience strove to take the manacles from his arms. A sad smile crossed the face of Sa.s.sacus at her vain attempt, and he said:

"They are the presents of Owanux. Neebin will not forget."

"Allow no farther speech between them," cried Winthrop, as the Sagamore commenced saying something more. "Part them, and take her instantly away."

"Waqua, or Sa.s.sacus, or whatever be thy name," said Winthrop, "wherefore, being at peace with my people, have you slain two of my men."

The chief looked steadily at the questioner, but returned no answer.

"We know," said the Governor, "that thou hast sufficient knowledge of our tongue to make thyself intelligible, for thou hast conversed with me. Speak, lest for thy refusal it should go the harder with thee."

Thus addressed, Sa.s.sacus surveyed with an indignant look his chains, and then stretching out one of his arms as far as his bonds permitted, spoke in a bold tone several sentences in his own language in reply.

"The spirit of the old proverb," said an a.s.sistant, "that one may lead a horse to water, nathless it will be impossible to compel him to drink, applies, it seems, as well to Indians as to horses."

"Why sit here to be scorned by this unbreeched heathen?" cried Dudley.

"Away with him! He was taken in the very act, and can render no excuse for this devilish malignity."

"Under favor," said Sir Richard, "that were but a hasty conclusion. It is only Christian mercy to labor with him a little more."

"It may be," said Winthrop, "that on an occasion so momentous, he distrusts his ability worthily to defend himself in a speech wherewith he is imperfectly acquainted. He must not be condemned unheard. The flashes of n.o.bility I have discovered in him did once prepossess me greatly in his favor, and, therefore, if for nought else, would I be indulgent. But, besides, he is a man whose blood is not to be spilled like a wild animal's."

"Be it so," said Dudley, "If ye can make him speak, I will promise to listen."

"Samoset is in the settlement, and may be instantly forthcoming,"

suggested Master Nowell.

"Let him then be called," said Winthrop.

But a short time elapsed before the messenger returned with the Indian, Samoset, who, in consequence of his superior acquaintance with the English language, had often acted as interpreter between his countrymen and the white strangers. This knowledge he had acquired from his intercourse with the English fishermen, before the wanderers who erected their tabernacle at Shawmut arrived in the country. He was a quick, apprehensive fellow, who, on account of the services he had rendered the colonists, stood high in their favor, and was treated with considerable confidence. No sign of recognition pa.s.sed betwixt him and Sa.s.sacus on his entrance, but they regarded one another as strangers.

"We have called thee, Samoset," said Winthrop, "to interpret between us and this prisoner. Ask him if he acknowledges himself to be the famous chief of the Pequots."

"Tell him," replied Sa.s.sacus, "that I am that eagle at whose scream the Narraghansetts hide themselves like little birds in the bushes."

"A bold answer," said Winthrop. "Ask him now, wherefore he hath been lurking in the woods in the vicinity of our lodges."

"The feet of Sa.s.sacus," answered the chief, "tread upon the forest leaves at his pleasure. His ancestors never inquired of the Taranteens nor of the Narraghansetts where they should hunt, and he will not ask permission of the strangers with beards."

"Frank and defiant," muttered Endicott. "Come, I like this."

"The forests are very wide," said Winthrop, "and the game is not so abundant in our immediate neighborhood. There must be some more particular reason for thy conduct."

"Listen, O, white chief!" returned the Indian. "The path whereon the tongue of Sa.s.sacus travels is a straight path. A great chief disdains to tell a lie. Know then, that, for a long, long time--our oldest men cannot recollect so far back, for they heard the legend from their grandfathers, and they again from theirs--it hath been told among us, that a race with a skin like the snow should come to our land, with strange manners, and speaking a strange language; and when I heard of Owanux, I came to see whether they were the men, for it becomes a chief to watch for his people."

"And what said the tradition," asked Winthrop, "should be the fate of the two races?"

"Tell him not, O, Samoset! my friend, who hast eaten with me from the same pot--that the legend, sadder than the wail of warriors from an unsuccessful expedition over the dead; than the sobs of the wintry wind around the grave of my first-born--that, like the cloud in the full moon, we were to waste away, and the intruders to occupy our hunting grounds."

"He says," said Samoset, interpreting to suit the chief, "that the Indians were to drive the strangers, as the wind whirls the leaves into little heaps."

"There will be two words to that bargain," said Dudley. "I trow it will take more than one Powah to make me believe such a story."

"It is the inspiration of the devil, who is ever the father of lies,"

observed Endicott. "Go to, with nonsense like this, but I do admire the brave bearing of the savage."

"Yet is it an unfortunate belief to prevail among the natives," said Master Bradstreet. "If extensively entertained, it may be fraught with great peril."

"A cunning invention of the Powahs, no doubt, to sustain the fainting courage of their deluded followers," said Sir Richard.

"Give me three hundred stout and well-armed fellows, trusting in the Lord, and careful to keep their powder dry and bullets ready, and I will so take the conceit out of their red-skins, from the Kennebec to the mouth of the Connecticut, that they will never tell this story again," said Endicott.

"Ask him," proceeded Winthrop, "if this Sir Christopher Gardiner is his friend."

"Soog-u-gest is my brother," answered the Sagamore.