In that hour I had none of the exhilaration of success. So strangely are we mortals made that, though I had won safety for myself and my people, I could not get the savour of it. I had passed too far beyond the limits of my strength. Now that the tension of peril1 was gone, my legs were like touchwood, which a stroke would shatter, and my foolish head swam like a merry-go-round. Shalah's arm was round me, and he lifted me up the steep bits till we came to the crown of the ridge2. There we halted, and he fed me with sops3 of bread dipped in eau-de-vie, for he had brought Ringan's flask4 with him. The only result was to make me deadly sick. I saw his eyes look gravely at me, and the next I knew I was on his back. I begged him to set me down and leave me, and I think I must have wept like a bairn. All pride of manhood had flown in that sharp revulsion, and I had the mind of a lost child.
As the light grew some strength came back to me, and presently I was able to hobble a little on my rickety shanks. We kept the very crest5 of the range, and came by and by to a promontory6 of clear ground, the same, I fancy, from which I had first seen the vale of the Shenandoah. There we rested in a nook of rock, while the early sun warmed us, and the little vapours showed, us in glimpses the green depths and the far-shining meadows.
Shalah nudged my shoulder, and pointed7 to the south, where a glen debouched from the hills. A stream of mounted figures was pouring out of it, heading for the upper waters of the river where the valley broadened again. For all my sickness my eyes were sharp enough to perceive what manner of procession it was. All were on horseback, riding in clouds and companies without the discipline of a march, but moving as swift as a flight of wildfowl at twilight8. Before the others rode a little cluster of pathfinders, and among them I thought I could recognize one taller than the rest.
"Your magic hath prevailed, brother," Shalah said. "In an hour's time they will have crossed the Shenandoah, and at nightfall they will camp on the farther mountains."
That sight gave me my first assurance of success. At any rate, I had fulfilled my trust, and if I died in the hills Virginia would yet bless her deliverer.
And yet my strongest feeling was a wild regret. These folk were making for the untravelled lands of the sunset. You would have said I had got my bellyful of adventure, and should now have sought only a quiet life. But in that moment of bodily weakness and mental confusion I was shaken with a longing9 to follow them, to find what lay beyond the farthest cloud-topped mountain, to cross the wide rivers, and haply to come to the infinite and mystic Ocean of the West.
"Would to God I were with them!" I sighed.
"Will you come, brother?" Shalah whispered, a strange light in his eyes. "If we twain joined the venture, I think we should not be the last in it. Shalah would make you a king. What is your life in the muddy Tidewater but a thing of little rivalries10 and petty wrangles11 and moping over paper? The hearth12 will soon grow cold, and the bright eyes of the fairest woman will dull with age, and the years will find you heavy and slow, with a coward's shrinking from death. What say you, brother? While the blood is strong in the veins13 shall we ride westward14 on the path of a king?"
His eyes were staring like a hawk's over the hills, and, light-headed as I was, I caught the infection of his ardour. For, remember, I was so low in spirit that all my hopes and memories were forgotten, and I was in that blank apathy15 which is mastered by another's passion. For a little the life of Virginia seemed unspeakably barren, and I quickened at the wild vista16 which Shalah offered. I might be a king over a proud people, carving17 a fair kingdom out of the wilderness18, and ruling it justly in the fear of God. These western Indians were the stuff of a great nation. I, Andrew Garvald, might yet find that empire of which the old adventurers dreamed.
With shame I set down my boyish folly19. It did not last, long, for to my dizzy brain there came the air which Elspeth had sung, that song of Montrose's which had been, as it were, the star of all my wanderings.
"For, if Confusion have a part,
Surely it was confusion that had now overtaken me. Elspeth's clear voice, her dark, kind eyes, her young and joyous21 grace, filled again my memory. Was not such a lady better than any savage22 kingdom? Was not the service of my own folk nobler than any principate among strangers? Could the rivers of Damascus vie with the waters of Israel?
"Nay23, Shalah," I said. "Mine is a quieter destiny. I go back to the Tidewater, but I shall not stay there. We have found the road to the hills, and in time I will plant the flag of my race on the Shenandoah."
He bowed his head. "So be it. Each man to his own path, but I would ours had run together. Your way is the way of the white man. You conquer slowly, but the line of your conquest goes not back. Slowly it eats its way through the forest, and fields and manors24 appear in the waste places, and cattle graze in the coverts25 of the deer. Listen, brother. Shalah has had his visions when his eyes were unsealed in the night watches. He has seen the white man pressing up from the sea, and spreading over the lands of his fathers. He has seen the glens of the hills parcelled out like the meadows of Henricus, and a great multitude surging ever on to the West. His race is doomed26 by God to perish before the stranger; but not yet awhile, for the white man comes slowly. It hath been told that the Children of the West Wind must seek their cradle, and while there is time he would join them in that quest. The white men follow upon their heels, but in his day and in that of his son's sons they will lead their life according to the ancient ways. He hath seen the wisdom of the stranger, and found among them men after his own heart; but the Spirit of his fathers calls, and now he returns to his own people."
"What will you do there?" I asked.
"I know not. I am still a prince among them, and will sway their councils. It may be fated that I slay27 yonder magician and reign28 in his stead."
He got to his feet and looked proudly westward.
"In a little I shall overtake them. But I would my brother had been of my company."
Slowly we travelled north along the crests29, for though my mind was now saner30, I had no strength in my body. The hill mists came down on us, and the rain drove up from the glens. I was happy now for all my weakness, for I was lapped in a great peace. The raw weather, which had once been a horror of darkness to me, was now something kindly31 and homelike. The wet smells minded me of my own land, and the cool buffets32 of the squalls were a tonic33 to my spirit. I wandered into pleasant dreams, and scarce felt the roughness of the ground on my bare feet and the aches in every limb.
Long ere we got to the Gap I was clean worn out. I remember that I fell constantly, and could scarcely rise. Then I stumbled, and the last power went out of will and sinew. I had a glimpse of Shalah's grave face as I slipped into unconsciousness.
I woke in a glow of firelight. Faces surrounded me, dim wraith-like figures still entangled34 in the meshes35 of my dreams. Slowly the scene cleared, and I recognized Grey's features, drawn36 and constrained37, and yet welcoming. Bertrand was weeping after his excitable fashion.
But there was a face nearer to me, and with that face in my memory I went off into pleasant dreams. Somewhere in them mingled38 the words of the old spaewife, that I should miss love and fortune in the sunshine and find them in the rain.
The strength of youth is like a branch of yew39, for if it is bent40 it soon straightens. By the third day I was on my feet again, with only the stiffness of healing wounds to remind me of those desperate passages. When I could look about me I found that men had arrived from the Rappahannock, and among them Elspeth's uncle, who had girded on a great claymore, and looked, for all his worn face and sober habit, a mighty41 man of war. With them came news of the rout42 of the Cherokees, who had been beaten by Nicholson's militia43 in Stafford county and driven down the long line of the Border, paying toll44 to every stockade45. Midway Lawrence had fallen upon them and driven the remnants into the hills above the head waters of the James. It would be many a day, I thought, before these gentry46 would bring war again to the Tidewater. The Rappahannock men were in high feather, convinced that they had borne the brunt of the invasion. 'Twas no business of mine to enlighten them, the more since of the three who knew the full peril, Shalah was gone and Ringan was dead. My tale should be for the ear of Lawrence and the Governor, and for none else. The peace of mind of Virginia should not be broken by me.
Grey came to me on the third morning to say good-bye. He was going back to the Tidewater with some of the Borderers, for to stay longer with us had become a torture to him. There was no ill feeling in his proud soul, and he bore defeat as a gentleman should.
"You have fairly won, Mr. Garvald," he said. "Three nights ago I saw clearly revealed the inclination47 of the lady, and I am not one to strive with an unwilling48 maid. I wish you joy of a great prize. You staked high for it, and you deserve your fortune. As for me, you have taught me much for which I owe you gratitude49. Presently, when my heart is less sore, I desire that we should meet in friendship, but till then I need a little solitude50 to mend broken threads."
There was the true gentleman for you, and I sorrowed that I should ever have misjudged him. He shook my hand in all brotherliness, and went down the glen with Bertrand, who longed to see his children again.
Elspeth remained, and concerning her I fell into my old doubting mood. The return of my strength had revived in me the passion which had dwelt somewhere in my soul from, the hour she first sang to me in the rain. She had greeted me as girl greets her lover, but was that any more than the revulsion from fear and the pity of a tender heart? Doubts oppressed me, the more as she seemed constrained and uneasy, her eyes falling when she met mine, and her voice full no longer of its frank comradeship.
One afternoon we went to a place in the hills where the vale of the Shenandoah could be seen. The rain had gone, and had left behind it a taste of autumn. The hill berries were ripening51, and a touch of flame had fallen on the thickets52.
"Ah!" she sighed, like one who comes from a winter night into a firelit room. She was silent, while her eyes drank in its spacious54 comfort.
"That is your heritage, Elspeth. That is the birthday gift to which old
Studd's powder-flask is the key."
"Nay, yours," she said, "for you won it."
The words died on her lips, for her eyes were abstracted. My legs were still feeble, and I had leaned a little on her strong young arm as we came up the hill, but now she left me and climbed on a rock, where she sat like a pixie. The hardships of the past had thinned her face and deepened her eyes, but her grace was the more manifest. Fresh and dewy as morning, yet with a soul of steel and fire—surely no lovelier nymph ever graced a woodland. I felt how rough and common was my own clay in contrast with her bright spirit.
Her face grew grave. "And have you not seen what is in mine?" she asked.
"I have seen and rejoiced, and yet I doubt."
"But why?" she asked again. "My life is yours, for you have preserved it. I would be graceless indeed if I did not give my best to you who have given all for me."
"It is not gratitude I want. If you are only grateful, put me out of your thoughts, and I will go away and strive to forget you. There were twenty in the Tidewater who would have done the like."
She looked down on me from the rock with the old quizzing humour in her eyes.
"If gratitude irks you, sir, what would you have?"
"All," I cried; "and yet, Heaven knows, I am not worth it. I am no man to capture a fair girl's heart. My face is rude and my speech harsh, and I am damnably prosaic56. I have not Ringan's fancy, or Grey's gallantry; I am sober and tongue-tied and uncouth57, and my mind runs terribly on facts and figures. O Elspeth, I know I am no hero of romance, but a plain body whom Fate has forced into a month of wildness. I shall go back to Virginia, and be set once more at my accompts and ladings. Think well, my dear, for I will have nothing less than all. Can you endure to spend your days with a homely58 fellow like me?"
"What does a woman desire?" she asked, as if from herself, and her voice was very soft as she gazed over the valley. "Men think it is a handsome face or a brisk air or a smooth tongue. And some will have it that it is a deep purse or a high station. But I think it is the honest heart that goes all the way with a woman's love. We are not so blind as to believe that the glitter is the gold. We love romance, but we seek it in its true home. Do you think I would marry you for gratitude, Andrew?"
"No," I said.
"Or for admiration59?"
"No," said I.
"Or for love?"
"Yes," I said, with a sudden joy.
She slipped from the rock, her eyes soft and misty60. Her arms were about my neck, and I heard from her the words I had dreamed of and yet scarce hoped for, the words of the song sung long ago to a boy's ear, and spoken now with the pure fervour of the heart—"My dear and only love."
Years have flown since that day on the hills, and much has befallen; but the prologue61 is the kernel62 of my play, and the curtain which rose after that hour revealed things less worthy63 of chronicle. Why should I tell of how my trade prospered64 mightily65, and of the great house we built at Middle Plantation66; of my quarrels with Nicholson, which were many; of how we carved a fair estate out of Elspeth's inheritance, and led the tide of settlement to the edge of the hills? These things would seem a pedestrian end to a high beginning. Nor would I weary the reader with my doings in the Assembly, how I bearded more Governors than one, and disputed stoutly67 with His Majesty's Privy68 Council in London. The historian of Virginia—now by God's grace a notable land—may, perhaps, take note of these things, but it is well for me to keep silent. It is of youth alone that I am concerned to write, for it is a comfort to my soul to know that once in my decorous progress through life I could kick my heels and forget to count the cost; and as youth cries farewell, so I end my story and turn to my accounts.
Elspeth and I have twice voyaged to Scotland. The first time my uncle and mother were still in the land of the living, but they died in the same year, and on our second journey I had much ado in settling their estates. My riches being now considerable, I turned my attention to the little house of Auchencairn, which I enlarged and beautified, so that if we have the wish we may take up our dwelling69 there. We have found in the West a goodly heritage, but there is that in a man's birth place which keeps tight fingers on his soul, and I think that we desire to draw our last breath and lay our bones in our own grey country-side. So, if God grants us length of days, we may haply return to Douglasdale in the even, and instead of our noble forests and rich meadows, look upon the bleak70 mosses71 and the rainy uplands which were our childhood's memory.
That is the fancy at the back of both our heads. But I am very sure that our sons will be Virginians.
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1
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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sops
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| n.用以慰藉或讨好某人的事物( sop的名词复数 )；泡湿的面包片等v.将（面包等）在液体中蘸或浸泡( sop的第三人称单数 )；用海绵、布等吸起（液体等） | |
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flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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rivalries
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| n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 ) | |
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wrangles
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| n.（尤指长时间的）激烈争吵，口角，吵嘴( wrangle的名词复数 )v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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manors
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coverts
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| n.隐蔽的，不公开的，秘密的( covert的名词复数 )；复羽 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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saner
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| adj.心智健全的( sane的比较级 )；神志正常的；明智的；稳健的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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buffets
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| （火车站的）饮食柜台( buffet的名词复数 )； （火车的）餐车； 自助餐 | |
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tonic
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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prologue
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| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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67
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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68
privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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69
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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70
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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71
mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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