, her head thrown back against the wood, her face
white and still, with wide dark eyes. We waited for we knew not what,
but the light still burned in the Governor's house, and we could not
sleep and leave it there.

It grew later and later. The wind howled down the chimney, and I heaped
more wood upon the fire. The town lay in darkness now; only in the
distance burned like an angry star the light in the Governor's house. In
the lull between the blasts of wind it was so very still that the sound
of my footfalls upon the floor, the dropping of the charred wood upon
the hearth, the tapping of the withered vines without the window, jarred
like thunder.

Suddenly madam leaned forward in her chair. "There is some one at the
door," she said.

As she spoke, the latch rose and some one pushed heavily against the
door. I had drawn the bars across. "Who is it?" I demanded, going to it.

"It is Diccon, sir," replied a guarded voice outside. "I beg of you, for
the lady's sake, to let me speak to you."

I opened the door, and he crossed the threshold. I had not seen him
since the night he would have played the assassin. I had heard of him
as being in Martin's Hundred, with which plantation and its turbulent
commander the debtor and the outlaw often found sanctuary.

"What is it, sirrah?" I inquired sternly.

He stood with his eyes upon the floor, twirling his cap in his hands. He
had looked once at madam when he entered, but not at me. When he spoke
there was the old bravado in his voice, and he threw up his head with
the old reckless gesture. "Though I am no longer your man, sir," he
said, "yet I hope that one Christian may warn another. The marshal, with
a dozen men at his heels, will be here anon."

"How do you know?"

"Why, I was in the shadow by the Governor's window when the parson
played eavesdropper. When he was gone I drew myself up to the ledge, and
with my knife made a hole in the shutter that fitted my ear well enough.
The Governor and the Council sat there, with the Company's letters
spread upon the table. I heard the letters read. Sir George Yeardley's
petition to be released from the governorship of Virginia is granted,
but he will remain in office until the new Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt,
can arrive in Virginia. The Company is out of favor. The King hath sent
Sir Edwyn Sandys to the Tower. My Lord Warwick waxeth greater every day.
The very life of the Company dependeth upon the pleasure of the King,
and it