Up the aisle stalked Opechancanough and Nantaquas, son of Pocahontas, both decorated in all the glory of the Indian brave. Faces and arms were tattooed in birds and reptiles to do honor to the marriage of the Pearl of the Powhatans.
As Rolfe placed the plain gold band upon her finger he felt her hand tremble and pressed it to give her courage. Did she feel the imaginary circlet which long ago Smith had traced upon her finger?
“I pronounce you man and wife. Whomsoever God has joined together, let no man put asunder,” said the priest. As he ceased a quivering shaft of sunlight poured through the altar window, wrapping the kneeling couple in a shimmering veil of gold.
For two years Pocahontas had kept sweet the ingle-nook at Varina for her husband. Then she was crowned with the diadem of motherhood. A baby boy came to weld into an indissoluble bond their loving hearts.
When night stole over the plantation and the tallow candles were lit in the sconces Rolfe would sit by the fire puffing clouds of smoke from a curiously carved pipe presented by Nantaquas, and plan for the education of the little son lying asleep in the cradle which Pocahontas kept in motion with her foot while she sewed on tiny baby garments.
“Lily, we will take him to England and place him at Cambridge. There he will grow into a famous man, and by and by take a wife as his father did before him.”
With a jealous movement she bent over the sleeping babe, as if to protect him from unknown dangers.
“Nay, John, Pocahontas will not give her son to any maiden. He is her own, and she will not let him go from her across the seas.”
“Ah, Lily, you are like all mothers, jealous of every maiden as soon as a son is born to her,” he laughingly replied. “I would not separate you from our boy, he needs his mother too much. Whenever he goes, you shall accompany him. Your kindness to the colonists, when they were in suffering, has long ago reached England. All London rings with your fame and they long to see you. Wealth has come to me through my tobacco plantation, and my darling shall have rich robes of gorgeous hues to enhance her loveliness and vie with the jewels glistening in her hair.”
Then a slender form, gowned in sober gray, with smooth bands of light hair under a plain cap, flitted before his vision. With a frown of impatience he quickly banished the unwelcome vision.