But where was the Spaniard? On the river, hugging the shore, were many small craft, barges, shallops, sloops, and pinnaces, and beyond them the masts of the _Truelove_, the _Due Return_, and the _Tiger_, then in port; on these three, of which the largest, the _Due Return_, was of but eighty tons burthen, the mariners were running about and the masters bawling orders. But there was no other ship, no bark, galleon, or man-of-war, with three tiers of grinning ordnance, and the hated yellow flag flaunting above.
I sprang from my horse, and, leaving it and Mistress Percy in Sparrow's charge, hastened up to the fort. As I passed through the palisade I heard my name called, and, turning, waited for Master Pory to come up. He was panting and puffing, his jovial face very red.
"I was across the neck of land when I heard the news," he said. "I ran all the way and am somewhat scant of breath. Here's the devil to pay!"
"It looks another mare's-nest," I replied. "We have cried 'Spaniard!' pretty often."
"But this time the wolf's here," he answered. "Davies sent a horseman at a gallop from Algernon with the tidings. He passed the ship, and it was a very great one. We may thank this dead calm that it did not catch us unawares."
Within the palisade was noise enough, but more order than without. On the half-moons commanding the river, gunners were busy about our sakers, falcons, and three culverins. In one place, West, the commander, was giving out brigandines, jacks, skulls, muskets, halberds, swords and longbows; in another, his wife, who was a very Mary Ambree, supervised the boiling of a great caldron of pitch. Each loophole in palisade and fort had already its marksman. Through the west port came a horde of reluctant invaders,--cattle, swine, and poultry,--driven in by yelling boys.
I made my way through the press to where I saw the Governor, surrounded by Councillors and Burgesses, sitting on a keg of powder, and issuing orders at the top of his voice. "Ha, Captain Percy!" he cried as I came up. "You are in good time, man! You've served your apprenticeship at the wars. You must teach us how to beat the dons."
"To Englishmen, that comes by nature, sir," I said. "Art sure we are to have the pleasure?"