"And still in thy masterful mood thou 'lt have the last word, doughty Captain. But go you home, then, and bid John Alden make a fire and heat a good kettle of water, and I'll away to the mother who will deal with Desire in short measure." "'T is good counsel and I'll follow it, for in sober sadness I feel strangely amiss." And the soldier, who now was as livid as he had been flushed, strode away up the hill, while Priscilla picking up the trenchers fled like a lapwing into the house where she found Desire seated sullenly in a corner, while the elder, his wife, and the governor were gathered together near the fire cozily discussing the events of the day. Standing before them and restraining her natural vivacity that it might not discredit the importance of her story, Priscilla in brief and pungent phrases told the story of the loving draught, and as Desire rose and stole toward the door laid a hand upon her arm that effectually detained her until the elder sternly said,-- "Remain you here, Desire Minter, until this report is sifted." "Were it not well to send at once for our good physician, that he may know what hath been done before he sees the captain?" suggested Bradford mildly, and the elder assenting, Priscilla was dispatched for doctor Fuller, who arrived within the minute, and listened with profound attention, while Mistress Brewster, to whom alone the girl would reply, extracted from her a most startling story. "The captain first of all asked me to wife, and if he had not been wiled away from me by artful"-- "Nay, nay, Desire, thou 'rt not to say such things as that," interposed the dame with gentle severity, and Bradford added in much the same tone,-- "'T was thine own idle fancy, girl, that set thee on such a notion. The captain hath averred to me as Christian man that he never made proffer to thee nor wished so to do since first he set eyes on thee." "He did then," muttered Desire sullenly, and Mistress Brewster interposed. "Leaving that aside, tell us, Desire, what didst thou give the captain to drink, and why didst say that Priscilla sent it?" "Marry, because she hath bewitched him, and I wot well he would take it from her without gainsaying." "But what was it thou gavest him?" "'T was--there was a wench here with the savages, and Squanto told me she was a wise woman and knew how to work spells"-- "Well then, go on, Desire." "And so I went with her pulling herbs in the fields and swamps, and with one word English and one of jabber, we knew each other's meaning, and I gave her the buckle of my belt which was broke and none here could mend it." "A generous gift, truly," interposed the elder, but his wife beseeching silence with a gesture asked,-- "And what gave she thee, Desire?" "Some herbs, mother." "And what were the herbs to do?" "She said steep them well, and give the broth to any man I fancied, and it would turn his fancy on me."