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When Sir Christopher Gardiner lifted the prostrate form of
Esther Ludlow from the ground, and bore her to the house, he
was not aware to whose prompt assistance the preservation of
the maiden was owing. He had from a distance observed the
danger to which she was exposed, but having unluckily no fire-arm,
he was unable to rescue her immediately, and was rushing
down the slope to attack her enemy with his dagger, when
Maudsley's bullet laid the ferocious animal lifeless at Esther's
feet. Annoyed at being thus prevented from rendering a signal
service to the fair Puritan, he did not pause to investigate the
circumstances of the case, but while Maudsley was struggling
through the swamp, which intervened between Esther's position
and the point from which he had fired, and while his form was
still concealed by the bushes, the knight had rapidly raised the
fainting girl in his arms, and borne her to her home.

When Maudsley arrived, he was somewhat surprised to find
the unknown damsel, whom he had rescued, thus spirited away,
and his first impulse was to search for her. He observed,
however, but very indistinctly, the figure of a man in puritanic
habiliments, disappearing through the pine forest, and he then
remembered, that in the neighborhood of this spot, which he
had never before visited, was the residence of several religious
settlers. The society of such people was not congenial to him.
The only Puritan for whom, in the whole breadth of New England,
he had the faintest sensation of sympathy, the Puritan who
seemed to hold the thread of his fate in her hands, although

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she had, in his estimation, slighted and scorned him — that Puritan
was, as he believed, many miles away in the settlement of
New Plymouth. He had been but a short time in New England,
and he had not yet chosen to visit the Ludlows in their
retreat. It was partly shame at being obliged to acknowledge
the weakness of his heart, partly doubt, whether his presence
might be pleasing or not, and partly a lingering feeling of
resentment, which had restrained him from flying across the
narrow strip of wilderness, which as he deemed still separated
them, even as he had already traversed the stormy and wintry
Atlantic.

Supposing the Ludlows some sixty miles distant, he, of
course, could hardly associate the idea of his Esther with the
damsel whom, concealed by bushes and dimmed by distance, he
had seen encountering the wolf, and when he arrived at the
spot, and found that she had been carried away in safety by a
man of her own faith, her father, husband, brother, lover, he
cared not which, he was on the whole rather gratified than
otherwise. He thought, to be sure, that it would have been
rather more courteous, had the Puritan gentleman stayed till his
arrival, but he reflected that their rapid retreat had probably
saved him from listening to a thanksgiving, concluding with an
exhortation, which would have been too long for his patience,
and he felt grateful for their departure. As we have seen, he
mused a little on the circumstances, and then dismissing the
whole matter from his thoughts, he went his way.

In the mean time Gardiner had borne Esther Ludlow to her
house, where he found her brother. He was somewhat alarmed
at the situation of his sister, but the explanation of Gardiner
satisfied him, that there was no danger to be apprehended, and the
exertions of a faithful waiting woman, whom Esther had brought
with her from England, having very soon restored her exhausted
senses, he pressed Gardiner to remain at his house for the

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present. He had occasionally seen the knight at Plymouth,
where he was regarded as a man weary of the world, a man who
had led a life perhaps of adventure and of passion, but whose
spirit was now changed, and who had as it were taken the cowl,
and gone into the wilderness as into a convent, where he might
atone, during the rest of his days, for the follies of his worldly
career.

“And it is to your prompt assistance then,” said Esther, who
was now perfectly restored, and who felt almost ashamed of
having had the weakness to faint — “it is to your assistance
that I am indebted for deliverance,” said she, suppressing a
slight shudder, and addressing herself to Gardiner.

“Alas! no,” he replied; “I was about to render you assistance,
which would have been a very easy as well as a most
welcome task, but even as I was hastening towards you, an
unknown hand from a distant thicket, Roger Conant's, perhaps,
or that of some other of your neighbors, anticipated my intention
and destroyed your enemy. No great achievement to be
sure, for the wolf is a cowardly cur, and would certainly not
have waited for my arrival, before taking himself to flight, even
if this unknown champion had been absent.”

“It is strange,” said Esther, “that the man to whose prompt
assistance I am so much indebted, should not at least present
himself at our cottage. Was Roger Conant at his own hut,
Walter,” she inquired, turning to Ludlow.

“No, he had been absent since daybreak — and there was
none about his household who knew whither — I think it likely
that it was he who assisted you, and I hope I shall soon have
an opportunity, if it be so, to offer him my warmest thanks.”

“If it be Conant,” said Esther, “you may be sure that he
will absent himself, to avoid our thanks. Such an every-day
matter as destroying a wolf, he will hardly deem a matter of
triumph.”

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“He were a more savage brute himself,” exclaimed Gardiner
with enthusiasm, and looking with flashing eyes at Esther, “he
were worse than a wolf himself, did he not triumph in being the
chosen instrument to rescue so precious and cherished a life
from the threatening danger — I would it had been my lot
instead of his. But Providence decreed otherwise,” he concluded,
slightly elevating his eyes to heaven, and fearing that his
manner might have expressed more warmth than would be
acceptable.

“I thank you for your kindness,” said Esther, “and I certainly
do not forget, that your arm was ready and willing to
preserve me, even if no other assistance had been near.”

“Have you received news from England?” asked Gardiner,
turning abruptly to Ludlow.

“I am expecting dispatches by the way of Plymouth,” was
the reply. “There has been an arrival in that harbor, and one
too, by which important news have come to hand. My own
letters, which would have been addressed to me at Plymouth, are,
I trust, already on their way across the intervening wilderness,
but I am not yet in possession of them.”

“You are not yet aware of any details,” said Gardiner, “but
I think I understand you to state, that you have learned already
something of importance.”

“Truly,” said Ludlow, “of much interest to me, and to you
likewise.”

“Appertaining to affairs at home, or regarding our own
matters here in the wilderness?” asked Gardiner.

“They regard ourselves, our own colony and prospects,” said
Ludlow.

“And our oppressed religion no doubt?” added Gardiner,
“but I am anxious to know something more — I too am entirely
without advices, and pray you to impart to me whatever you
have learned.”

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“Briefly then,” said Ludlow, “I am informed that a new,
serious effort is making to colonize these parts, by people of a
wholly different stamp from those who have hitherto attempted
the enterprise.”

“Differing from our brethren of New Plymouth, I apprehend
you to mean,” said Gardiner.

“Truly,” said Ludlow, “I did not so intend, although, to be
sure, the new colonists are different in many of their principles
from the brethren of New Plymouth. As I understand, they
are such who retain still a deep and yearning affection for our
holy mother church, and who would see her reclaimed from
her errors, and purified of her Popish gewgaws. Like my sister
and yourself and me, they would still remain in communion and
sweet fellowship with their ancient mother, and not like the
Separatists of Plymouth, tear themselves too rudely from her
arms, and fiercely refuse holy intercourse with her.”

“In short,” said Esther, who felt a deeper and livelier interest
than her brother in these matters, “in short, the new comers
are said to be rather Puritans than Separatists. They are nonconformists,
who seek to establish a purified church on this side
the ocean. Separated by the mighty Atlantic, from the land of
their fathers, they would not separate in heart and spirit from
the church of their affection — but only wipe away the stain of
its errors from their own garments.”

“They are then Puritans, these new comers?” said Gardiner,
with apparent calmness, but with a savage scowl for an instant
darkening his forehead.

“They are so,” said Esther, answering his question, and not
observing the expression of his face. “But my brother meant,
when he called them men of a different stamp from the former
settlers in this wilderness, that they differed widely from the idle
and dissolute, who have sought these shores, not for conscience
sake, but in the sordid hope of gain and worldly advantage.”

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“Let us not speak of them,” said Gardiner, “but of the new
comers. You say they are Puritans and not Separatist —
can you tell me by what right they come into this neighborhood?”

“We have not yet, as my brother has mentioned, learned the
details, but we hear that a company of pious and energetic
people has been formed, numbering among them many men of
station and fortune, and that this company has obtained from
the council of New England, a grant of the whole territory of
Massachusetts Bay.”

“Aha,” muttered Gardiner to himself, grinding his teeth
savagely, and looking black as a demon, upon the madonna face
of the beautiful Puritan, to whom he was listening. “Aha,
then Sir Ferdinando has been baffled indeed. And pray can
you inform me,” added he aloud, and in the blandest tones,
“can you inform me whether such a grant has actually been
obtained, and the patent already executed?”

“Such is the story,” answered Esther. “But if your own
letters do not reach you sooner, I trust we shall soon be able to
give you more ample information, when our messenger from
New Plymouth shall have arrived.”

“'T is very strange,” muttered the knight to himself, “that I
am left thus in the dark. Either Blaxton must have dispatches
for me, or they have miscarried altogether. Sir Ferdinando
could never have intended that I should be thus groping in ignorance
of such important matters. I crave your pardon, lady,”
said he aloud, “for having given you so much trouble by my
earnest desire for information. An exile, you know, as well as
any other, thirsts for knowledge of affairs at home. I thank
you for your kindness, and with your permission will now wish
you good morrow.” So saying, Sir Christopher courteously
saluted Ludlow and his sister, passed rapidly across the glade,
and disappeared in the forest.

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“The knight seems troubled and disconcerted,” said Ludlow
to his sister, after their guest had departed.

“He seemed perplexed and strangely affected,” answered
Esther, “at the information which we have received from
England — why his anxiety should be thus excited, I hardly
know. 'T is a strange, moody man, whose mind seems to
me as impenetrable as his visage. I know not why, but he
inspires me with any thing but confidence.”

“Nay, you judge him harshly,” said Walter Ludlow; “Gardiner
is, like myself, perhaps, a broken-spirited man, melancholy
and solitary, but not therefore to be distrusted.”

It is unnecessary to make further record of the Ludlows'
conversation, as we have at this time more to do with the knight
who had left the cottage.

p285-087

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