Blithe enough to all seeming, and with as few
inward misgivings as the case called for, Diccon and I went with
the subtle Emperor and the young chief he had bound to himself
once more, and with their fierce train, back to that village which
we had never thought to see again. A day and a night we stayed
there; then Opechancanough sent away the Paspaheghs, - where
we knew not, - and taking us with him went to his own village
above the great marshes of the Pamunkey.
CHAPTER XXXII IN WHICH WE ARE THE GUESTS OF AN EMPEROR
I HAD before this spent days among the Indians, on voyages of
discovery, as conqueror, as negotiator for food, exchanging blue
beads for corn and turkeys. Other Englishmen had been with me.
Knowing those with whom we dealt for sly and fierce heathen,
friends to-day, to-morrow deadly foes, we kept our muskets ready
and our eyes and ears open, and, what with the danger and the
novelty and the bold wild life, managed to extract some merriment
as well as profit from these visits. It was different now.
Day after day I ate my heart out in that cursed village. The feasting
and the hunting and the triumph, the wild songs and wilder dances,
the fantastic mummeries, the sudden rages, the sudden laughter,
the great fires with their rings of painted warriors, the sleepless
sentinels, the wide marshes that could not be crossed by night, the
leaves that rustled so loudly beneath the lightest footfall, the
monotonous days, the endless nights when I thought of her grief,
of her peril, maybe, - it was an evil dream, and for my own
pleasure I could not wake too soon.
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