to the marshes and reedy river banks, and still
I stayed in Jamestown, and my wife with me, and still the Santa Teresa
rode at anchor in the river below the fort. If the man whom she brought
knew that by tarrying in Virginia he risked his ruin with the King, yet,
with a courage worthy of a better cause, he tarried.

Now and then ships came in, but they were small, belated craft. The
most had left England before the sailing of the Santa Teresa; the rest,
private ventures, trading for clapboard or sassafras, knew nothing of
court affairs. Only the Sea Flower, sailing from London a fortnight
after the Santa Teresa, and much delayed by adverse winds, brought a
letter from the deputy treasurer to Yeardley and the Council. From
Rolfe I learned its contents. It spoke of the stir that was made by the
departure from the realm of the King's favorite. "None know where he
hath gone. The King looks dour; 't is hinted that the privy council are
as much at sea as the rest of the world; my Lord of Buckingham saith
nothing, but his following--which of late hath somewhat decayed--is so
increased that his antechambers cannot hold the throngs that come to
wait upon him. Some will have it that my Lord Carnal hath fled the
kingdom to escape the Tower; others, that the King hath sent him on a
mission to the King of Spain about this detested Spanish match; others,
that the gadfly hath stung him and he is gone to America,--to search for
Raleigh's gold mine, maybe. This last most improbable; but if 't is so,
and he should touch at Virginia, receive him with all honor. If indeed
he is not out of favor, the Company may find in him a powerful friend;
of powerful enemies, God knows, there is no lack!"

Thus the worthy Master Ferrar. And at the bottom of the letter, among
other news of city and court, mention was made of the disappearance of a
ward of the King's, the Lady Jocelyn Leigh. Strict search had been made,
but the unfortunate lady had not been found. "'T is whispered that she
hath killed herself; also, that his Majesty had meant to give her
in marriage to my Lord Carnal. But that all true love and virtue and
constancy have gone from the age, one might conceive that the said
lord had but fled the court for a while, to indulge his grief in some
solitude of hill and stream and shady vale,--the lost lady being right
worthy of such dole."

In sooth she was, but my lord was not given to such fashion of mourning.

The summer passed, and I did n