said of him that he was "the most manliest, comliest, boldest spirit
I ever saw in a savage."

After they had conversed for a little, Rolfe and Sparkes, accompanied by
certain Indians to whom Nautauquas confided them, set out on their way
to Werowocomoco. They did not fear that harm would come to them, but
they begrudged the time they must spend away from the colony. On their
arrival Powhatan, who was still angry with the English, refused to see
them, so Opechanchanough entertained them and promised to intercede
with his brother for them. Nautauquas's messenger had brought him the
news of Rolfe's relation to his niece.

In the meantime the truce was extended until the autumn and the
Englishmen were sent back to Jamestown. Nautauquas and Catanaugh had
enjoyed their time on the island among the palefaces, Catanaugh being
interested only in the fort and its guns and in the ship, and
Nautauquas, not only in these, but in talking as well as he could with
the colonists. He and Pocahontas again went hunting together on the
mainland, for the Governor allowed them full liberty to come and go as
they pleased, feeling sure that Nautauquas would keep his word not to
leave Jamestown until the Powhatan sent back Rolfe and Sparkes.

And the day that these returned the two braves set off to join their
father at Orapaks.

[Illustration: Decorative]

CHAPTER XX

THE WEDDING

Everyone in Jamestown was astir early one April morning in 1614. The
soldiers and the few children of the settlement, impressed with the
importance of their errand, had gone into the woods to cut large sprays
of wild azalea and magnolia to deck the church.

Sir Thomas Dale, and in truth all the cavaliers of the town, had seen
that their best costumes were in order, sighing at the moth holes in
precious cloth doublets and the rents in Flemish lace collars and cuffs,
yet satisfied on the whole with their holiday appearance. The few women
of the Colony, Mistress Easton, Mistress Horton, Elizabeth Parsons and
others, had of course prepared their garments many days before. It was
not often they had an excuse for decking themselves in the finery they
had packed with such care and misgivings back in their English homes;
and this was an occasion such as no one in the world had ever before
participated in. Here was an English gentleman of old lineage who was to
wed the daughter of a great heathen ruler, one in whose power it lay to
help or hinder the pr