"Where be the people?" marvelled Master Sparrow, as we rode through into the street. In truth, where were the people? On either side of the street the doors of the houses stood open, but no person looked out from them or loitered on the doorsteps; the square was empty; there were no women at the well, no children underfoot, no gaping crowd before gaol and pillory, no guard before the Governor's house,--not a soul, high or low, to be seen. "Have they all migrated?" cried Sparrow. "Are they gone to Croatan?" "They have left one to tell the tale, then," I said, "for here he comes running." CHAPTER VII In which we Prepare to Fight the Spaniard A man came panting down the street. "Captain Ralph Percy!" he cried. "My master said it was your horse coming across the neck. The Governor commands your attendance at once, sir." "Where is the Governor? Where are all the people?" I demanded. "At the fort. They are all at the fort or on the bank below. Oh, sirs, a woeful day for us all!" "A woeful day!" I exclaimed. "What's the matter?" The man, whom I recognized as one of the commander's servants, a fellow with the soul of a French _valet de chambre_, was wild with terror. "They are at the guns!" he quavered. "Alackaday! What can a few sakers and demi-culverins do against them?" "Against _whom_?" I cried. "They are giving out pikes and cutlasses! Woe's me, the sight of naked steel hath ever made me sick!" I drew my dagger and flashed it before him. "Does't make you sick?" I asked. "You shall be sicker yet, if you do not speak to some purpose." The fellow shrank back, his eyeballs starting from his head. "It's a tall ship," he gasped, "a very big ship! It hath ten culverins, beside fowlers and murderers, sakers, falcons, and bases!" I took him by the collar and shook him off his feet. "There are priests on board!" he managed to say as I set him down. "This time to-morrow we'll all be on the rack! And next week the galleys will have us!" "It's the Spaniard at last," I said. "Come on!" When we reached the river bank before the fort, it was to find confusion worse confounded. The gates of the palisade were open, and through them streamed Councillors, Burgesses, and officers, while the bank itself was thronged with the generality. Ancient planters, Smith's men, Dale's men, tenants and servants, women and children, including the little eyases we imported the year before, negroes, Paspaheghs, French _vignerons_, Dutch sawmill men, Italian glass-workers,--all seethed to and fro, all talked at once, and all looked down the river. Out of the babel of voices these words came to us over and over: "The Spaniard!" "The Inquisition!" "The galleys!" They were the words oftenest heard at that time, when strange sails hove in sight.