Prisoners of Hope

Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston

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Title: Prisoners of Hope A Tale of Colonial Virginia
Author: Mary Johnston
Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21886]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: "WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)]
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PRISONERS OF HOPE
A Tale of Colonial Virginia
BY
MARY JOHNSTON
AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD," "AUDREY," ETC.
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
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COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MARY JOHNSTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINTH THOUSAND
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TO MY FATHER
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A SLOOP COMES IN 1 II. ITS CARGO 15 III. A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY 27 IV. THE BREAKING HEART 40 V. IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD 50 VI. THE HUT ON THE MARSH 60 VII. A MENDER OF NETS 71 VIII. THE NEW SECRETARY 86 IX. AN INTERRUPTED WOOING 91 X. LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER 100 XI. LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 108 XII. A DARK DEED 117 XIII. IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE 129 XIV. A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION 137 XV. THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE 150 XVI. THE FACE IN THE DARK 162 XVII. LANDLESS AND PATRICIA 173 XVIII. A CAPTURE 185 XIX. THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL 193 XX. WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED 205 XXI. THE DUEL 219 XXII. THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN 226 XXIII. THE QUESTION 239 XXIV. A MESSAGE 247 XXV. THE ROAD TO PARADISE 252 XXVI. NIGHT 267 XXVII. MORNING 273 XXVIII. BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS 282 XXIX. THE BRIDGE OF ROCK 295 XXX. THE BACKWARD TRACK 306 XXXI. THE HUT IN THE CLEARING 315 XXXII. ATTACK 326 XXXIII. THE FALL OF THE LEAF 335 XXXIV. AN ACCIDENT 343 XXXV. THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT 349 XXXVI. THE LAST FIGHT 357 XXXVII. VALE 369
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PRISONERS OF HOPE
CHAPTER I
A SLOOP COMES IN
"She will reach the wharf in half an hour."
The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of Virginia.
The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes. The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following its curves, tacked continually, its great sail intensely white against the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes, zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the floor of the wide porch in which she stood.
Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to a pillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes.
"Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining for your father when 'tis scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Do the Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves with such impatience?"
"The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three cases from England."
"Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?"
"One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party at Green Spring which the governor is to give in your honor--if you ask me, sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us your protestations. 'Tis to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdress of white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. The stockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in Covent Garden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze and the shoes, gallooned with silver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red