CHAPTER III

DARDEN'S AUDREY


It was May Day in Virginia, in the year 1727. In England there were George
the First, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King
and Defender of the Faith; my Lord of Orkney, Governor in chief of
Virginia; and William Gooch, newly appointed Lieutenant Governor. In
Virginia there were Colonel Robert Carter, President of the Council and
Governor _pro tem._; the Council itself; and Mistress Martha Jaquelin.

By virtue of her good looks and sprightliness, the position of her father
in the community, and the fact that this 1st of May was one and the same
with her sixteenth birthday, young Mistress Jaquelin was May Queen in
Jamestown. And because her father was a worthy gentleman and a gay one,
with French blood in his veins and Virginia hospitality in his heart, he
had made a feast for divers of his acquaintances, and, moreover, had
provided, in a grassy meadow down by the water side, a noble and
seasonable entertainment for them, and for the handful of townsfolk, and
for all chance comers.

Meadow and woodland and marsh, ploughed earth and blossoming orchards, lay
warm in the sunshine. Even the ruined town, fallen from her estate, and
become but as a handmaid to her younger sister, put a good face upon her
melancholy fortunes. Honeysuckle and ivy embraced and hid crumbling walls,
broken foundations, mounds of brick and rubbish, all the untouched
memorials of the last burning of the place. Grass grew in the street, and