The Queen was nineteen years older than Sir Walter; that is to say, she was in her fifties, and he was in his thirties.
But Queen Bess hated old age, and swore a halibi for the swift passing years, and always delighted in the title of the "Virgin2 Queen."
Sir Walter did one great thing for England, and one for Ireland. He taught the [Pg 6]English the use of tobacco, and he discovered the "Irish potato"—which is native to America.
They do say that Sir Walter and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed many a quiet smoke with their feet on the table—so as to equalize circulation. Both of them were big folk, with plans and ambitions plus. Sir Walter was contemporary with Shakespeare, and in fact looked like him, acted like him and had a good deal of the same agile3, joyous4, bubbling fertility of mind. That is, Sir Walter and William were lovers by nature; and love rightly exercised, and alternately encouraged and thwarted5, gives the alternating current, and lo! we have that which the world calls genius. And I am told by those who know, that you can never get genius in any other way.
[Pg 7]
Good Queen Bess—who was not so very good—fanned the ambitions of Sir Walter and flattered his abilities. And of course any man born in a lowly station, or high, would have been immensely complimented by the gentle love-taps, and sighs, vain or otherwise, not to mention the glimmering6 glances of the alleged7 Virgin Queen.
But a good way to throttle8 love is to spy on it, question it, analyze9 it, vivisect it. And so Sir Walter's bubbling heart had chills of fear when he discovered that he was being followed wherever he went by the secret emissaries of Elizabeth.
Had he been free to act he would have disposed of these spies, and quickly too; but he was in thrall10 to a Queen, and was paying for his political power by being deprived of his personality. Oho, and Oho![Pg 8] The law of compensation acted then as now, and nothing is ever given away; everything is bought with a price—even the favors of royalty11.
And behold12! In the palace of the Queen, as janitor13, gardener, scullion and all-around handy man was one John White, obscure, and yet elevated on account of his lack of wit.
He was so stupid that he was amusing. Sayings bright and clever that courtiers flung of when the wine went around were imputed14 to John White. Thus he came to have a renown15 which was not his own; and Sir Walter Raleigh, with his cheery, generous ways, attributed many a quiet quip and quillet to John White which John White had never thought not said.
Now John White had a daughter, Eleanor by name, tall and fair and gracious,[Pg 9] bearing in her veins16 the blood of Vikings bold; and her yellow hair blew in the breeze as did the yellow hair of those conquerors17 who discovered America and built the blockhouses along the coast of Rhode Island.
Doubtless in his youth John White had a deal of sturdy worth, but a bump on the sconce at some Donnybrook Fair early in his young manhood had sent his wits a woolgathering.
But the girl was not thus handicapped; her mind was alert and eager.
The mother of Eleanor had passed away, and the girl had grown strong and able in spirit through carrying burdens and facing responsibilities. She knew the limitations of her father and she knew his worth; and she also knew that he was a sort of unofficial fool for the court, being duly[Pg 10] installed through the clever and heedless tongue of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Who would ever have thought that Sir Walter, the diplomat18, the strong, the able, was to be brought low by this fair-haired daughter of John White, the court fool!
"You are Sir Walter Raleigh," said this girl of nineteen one day to Sir Walter when they met squarely face to face in a hallway. It was a bold thing to do to stop this statesman, and she only a daughter to a court fool, and herself a worker below stairs!
Sir Walter smiled, removed his hat in mock gallantry, and said, "I have the honor to be your obedient servant. And who are you?"
The girl, bouyed up by a combination of pride and fear, replied, "I am Eleanor White, the daughter of the man whom[Pg 11] your wit has rendered famous." And their eyes met in level, steady look. Fair femininity aroused caught the eye and the ear of Sir Walter.
"Yes," said he, "I think I have seen you. And what can I do for you?"
"Only this," said Eleanor, "that from this day forth19 you will not attribute any more of your ribaldry to my father."
"Otherwise, what?" asked Sir Walter.
"Otherwise you will have me to deal with," said the proud Eleanor, and walked past him.
He tried to call her back; he felt humiliated20 that she did not turn and look, much less listen. He had been snubbed.
The banderilla went home, and the next day Sir Walter felt that he must hunt out this girl with the yellow locks and make peace with her, for surely he of all men did[Pg 12] not want to hurt the feeling of any living being, neither did he want his own feelings hurt.
So he sought her out, and that which began in a quarrel soon evolved into something else. There were meetings by moonlight, notes passed, glances given, hand-clasps in the dark, and all of those absurd, foolish, irrelevant21 and unnecessary things that lovers do.
The girl was not of noble birth. But neither was Sir Walter, for that matter. Love knows nothing of titles and position. But how could these two ever imagine that they could elude22 the gimlet eyes of Good Queen Bess, who wasn't so very good! Queen Elizabeth had ways of punishing that were exquisite23, deep, delicate and far-reaching, which touched the very marrow24 of the soul.
[Pg 13]
Sir Walter had been presented by the Queen with a title to all the land in America, from Nova Scotia to Florida; and he, in pretty compliment, had officially named this tract25 of land Virginia.
The French had taken possession of the New World at the North, and the Spaniards at the South, and along the coast of what is now North Carolina the English had planted a colony.
It was the intention of Sir Walter to send expeditions over and take the whole land captive, so that Virginia would in fact be the land of the Virgin Queen.
At the center of this tract along the coast was to be the city of Raleigh. The Queen and Sir Walter had worked this out at length, and she had given him a special charter for the great city to be.
And now behold! She, with the mind of[Pg 14] a man, had perfected her plans for the building of the city of Raleigh. She planned an expedition, and fitted out the ships with sixty men and women from a receiving-ship that lay in the Thames.
These people were being sent out of England for England's good. And these were the people who were to found the city of Raleigh; and the Governor of this colony was to be—John White! he was to be the first mayor, Lord Mayor, of the city of Raleigh.
Queen Elizabeth had selected a husband for Eleanor White, an unknown youth—a defective26, in fact, and one without moral or mental responsibility. She had forced a marriage, or in any event had recorded it as such. The youth was known as Ananias Dare. Even in the naming of this individual, who had never dared [Pg 15]anything, the name "Ananias" carried with it a subtle sting.
John White and his daughter Eleanor, and Ananias Dare, were taken forcibly and put on the ship, which was duly provisioned, and the order given to found the city of Raleigh on the Island of Roanoke in the country called Virginia. A suitable sailor was selected as navigator, and orders were given him to land the colonists27, and come back.
And so the expedition sailed away for the New World; and Sir Walter Raleigh in the secret of his room beat his head in anguish28 'gainst the wall and called aloud for death to come and relieve him of his pain. And thus did Queen Elizabeth dispose of her rival, and punish with fantastic hate and jealousy29 the man she loved.
John White, Eleanor and Ananias Dare,[Pg 16] with the motley group of unskilled men and women, were duly landed in the forest on Roanoke Island. Battle with the elements requires judgment30, skill, experience, and these were things that our poor colonists did not possess.
Two weeks after landing on Roanoke Island a daughter was born to Eleanor. The captain of the ship had given orders that if the babe was a boy it was to be named Walter Raleigh Dare; if a girl the name was to be Virginia.
And they called the child Virginia Dare, and her name was so recorded in the history of the colony. She was duly baptized a week later, and the record of her birth and baptism still exists in the Colonial Archives in London.
This was the first white child born in America.
[Pg 17]
Very shortly after the baptism of the babe, the captain of the ship sailed away for England, leaving the colonists in their ignorance and helplessness to battle with the elements, wild beasts, and Indians as best they could.
We can imagine with what cruel delight Queen Elizabeth called Sir Walter Raleigh into her presence and had him read aloud to her and the assembled court the record of the birth of Virginia Dare.
As for the colonists, their days were few and evil. Dissensions and feuds31 arose, as they naturally would. John White was deposed32 as Governor, and when he resisted he was killed.
The idea of going to work, tilling the soil, and building a permanent settlement was not in the hearts of those people. They expected to find gold and silver and[Pg 18] fountains of youth. They felt they were marooned33, robbed and stranded34. The Indians, at first fearful, were now jealous of these white intruders. The quarrel came and the Indians fell upon the colonists and killed every one. Every one, did I say? There was one saved; it was the little white baby, Virginia Dare.
She was rescued by a squaw, who but a short time before had lost her own babe, and her hungry mother heart went out to that helpless little white waif. She seized upon the child and carried it away into the forest for safety.
点击收听单词发音
1 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 agile | |
adj.敏捷的,灵活的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 throttle | |
n.节流阀,节气阀,喉咙;v.扼喉咙,使窒息,压 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 analyze | |
vt.分析,解析 (=analyse) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 thrall | |
n.奴隶;奴隶制 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 royalty | |
n.皇家,皇族 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 janitor | |
n.看门人,管门人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 imputed | |
v.把(错误等)归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 conquerors | |
征服者,占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 diplomat | |
n.外交官,外交家;能交际的人,圆滑的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 humiliated | |
感到羞愧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 irrelevant | |
adj.不恰当的,无关系的,不相干的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 elude | |
v.躲避,困惑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 marrow | |
n.骨髓;精华;活力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 tract | |
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 defective | |
adj.有毛病的,有问题的,有瑕疵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 colonists | |
n.殖民地开拓者,移民,殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 feuds | |
n.长期不和,世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 deposed | |
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 marooned | |
adj.被围困的;孤立无援的;无法脱身的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 stranded | |
a.搁浅的,进退两难的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |