A CENTURION OF THE THIRTIETH
Dan had come to grief over his Latin, and was kept in; so Una went aloneto Far Wood. Dan's big catapult and the lead bullets that Hobden had madefor him were hidden in an old hollow beech-stub on the west of the wood.They had named the place out of the verse in _Lays of Ancient Rome_.
From lordly Volaterrae, Where scowls the far-famed hold, Piled by the hands of giants For Godlike Kings of old.
They were the 'Godlike Kings,' and when old Hobden piled some comfortablebrushwood between the big wooden knees of Volaterrae, they called him'Hands of Giants.'
Una slipped through their private gap in the fence, and sat still a while,scowling as scowlily and lordlily as she knew how; for 'Volaterrae' is animportant watch-tower that juts out of Far Wood just as Far Wood juts outof the hillside. Pook's Hill lay below her, and all the turns of the brookas it wanders from out of the Willingford Woods, between hop-gardens, toold Hobden's cottage at the Forge. The Sou'-West wind (there is always awind by 'Volaterrae') blew from the bare ridge where Cherry Clack Windmillstands.
Now wind prowling through woods sounds like exciting things going tohappen, and that is why on 'blowy days' you stand up in Volaterrae andshout bits of the _Lays_ to suit its noises.
Una took Dan's catapult from its secret place, and made ready to meet LarsPorsena's army stealing through the wind-whitened aspens by the brook. Agust boomed up the valley, and Una chanted sorrowfully:
'Verbenna down to Ostia Hath wasted all the plain; Astur hath stormed Janiculum And the stout guards are slain.'
But the wind, not charging fair to the wood, started aside and shook asingle oak in Gleason's pasture. Here it made itself all small andcrouched among the grasses, waving the tips of them as a cat waves the tipof her tail before she springs.
'Now welcome--welcome Sextus,' sang Una, loading the catapult--
'Now welcome to thy home, Why dost thou turn and run away? Here lies the rod of Rome.'
She fired into the face of the lull, to wake up the cowardly wind, andheard a grunt from behind a thorn in the pasture.
'Oh, my Winkie!' she said aloud, and that was something she had picked upfrom Dan. 'I believe I've tickled up a Gleason cow.'
'You little painted beast!' a voice cried. 'I'll teach you to sling yourmasters!'
She looked down most cautiously, and saw a young man covered with hoopybronze armour all glowing among the late broom. But what Una admiredbeyond all was his great bronze helmet with its red horse-tail thatflicked in the wind. She could hear the long hairs rasp on his shimmeryshoulder-plates.
'What does the Faun mean,' he said, half aloud to himself, 'by telling methe Painted People have changed?' He caught sight of Una's yellow head.'Have you seen a painted lead-slinger?' he called.
'No-o,' said Una. 'But if you've seen a bullet----'
'Seen?' cried the man. 'It passed within a hair's breadth of my ear.'
'Well, that was me. I'm most awfully sorry.'
'Didn't the Faun tell you I was coming?' He smiled.
'Not if you mean Puck. I thought you were a Gleason cow. I--I didn't knowyou were a--a----What are you?'
He laughed outright, showing a set of splendid teeth. His face and eyeswere dark, and his eyebrows met above his big nose in one bushy black bar.
'They call me Parnesius. I have been an officer of the Seventh Cohort ofthe Thirtieth Legion--the Ulpia Victrix. Did you sling that bullet?'
'I did. I was using Dan's catapult,' said Una.
'Catapults!' said he. 'I ought to know something about them. Show me!'
He leaped the rough fence with a rattle of spear, shield, and armour, andhoisted himself into 'Volaterrae' as quickly as a shadow.
'A sling on a forked stick. _I_ understand!' he cried, and pulled at theelastic. 'But what wonderful beast yields this stretching leather?'
'It's laccy--elastic. You put the bullet into that loop, and then you pullhard.'
The man pulled, and hit himself square on his thumb-nail.
'Each to his own weapon,' he said, gravely, handing it back. 'I am betterwith the bigger machine, little maiden. But it's a pretty toy. A wolfwould laugh at it. Aren't you afraid of wolves?'
'There aren't any,' said Una.
'Never believe it! A wolf is like a Winged Hat. He comes when he isn'texpected. Don't they hunt wolves here?'
'We don't hunt,' said Una, remembering what she had heard from grown-ups.'We preserve--pheasants. Do you know them?'
'I ought to,' said the young man, smiling again, and he imitated the cryof the cock-pheasant so perfectly that a bird answered out of the wood.
'What a big painted clucking fool is a pheasant,' he said. 'Just like someRomans!'
'But you're a Roman yourself, aren't you?' said Una.
'Ye-es and no. I'm one of a good few thousands who have never seen Romeexcept in a picture. My people have lived at Vectis for generations.Vectis! That island West yonder that you can see from so far in clearweather.'
'Do you mean the Isle of Wight? It lifts up just before rain, and we seeit from the Downs.'
'Very likely. Our Villa's on the South edge of the Island, by the BrokenCliffs. Most of it is three hundred years old, but the cow-stables, whereour first ancestor lived, must be a hundred years older. Oh, quite that,because the founder of our family had his land given him by Agricola atthe Settlement. It's not a bad little place for its size. In spring-timeviolets grow down to the very beach. I've gathered sea-weeds for myselfand violets for my Mother many a time with our old nurse.'
'Was your nurse a--a Romaness too?'
'No, a Numidian. Gods be good to her! A dear, fat, brown thing with atongue like a cowbell. She was a free woman. By the way, are you free,maiden?'
'Oh, quite,' said Una. 'At least, till tea-time; and in summer ourgoverness doesn't say much if we're late.'
The young man laughed again--a proper understanding laugh.
'I see,' said he. 'That accounts for your being in the wood. _We_ hidamong the cliffs.'
'Did _you_ have a governess, then?'
'Did we not? A Greek, too. She had a way of clutching her dress when shehunted us among the gorze-bushes that made us laugh. Then she'd say she'dget us whipped. She never did, though, bless her! Aglaia was a thoroughsportswoman, for all her learning.'
'But what lessons did you do--when--when you were little!'
'Ancient history, the Classics, arithmetic, and so on,' he answered. 'Mysister and I were thickheads, but my two brothers (I'm the middle one)liked those things, and, of course, Mother was clever enough for any six.She was nearly as tall as I am, and she looked like the new statue on theWestern Road--the Demeter of the Baskets, you know. And funny! Roma Dea!How Mother could make us laugh!'
'What at?'
'Little jokes and sayings that every family has. Don't you know?'
'I know _we_ have, but I didn't know other people had them too,' said Una.'Tell me about all your family, please.'
'Good families are very much alike. Mother would sit spinning of eveningswhile Aglaia read in her corner, and Father did accounts, and we fourromped about the passages. When our noise grew too loud the Pater wouldsay, "Less tumult! Less tumult! Have you never heard of a Father's rightover his children? He can slay them, my loves--slay them dead, and the Godshighly approve of the action!" Then Mother would prim up her dear mouthover the wheel and answer: "H'm! I'm afraid there can't be much of theRoman Father about you!" Then the Pater would roll up his accounts, andsay, "I'll show you!" and then--then, he'd be worse than any of us!'
'Fathers can--if they like,' said Una, her eyes dancing.
'Didn't I say all good families are very much the same?'
'What did you do in summer?' said Una. 'Play about, like us?'
'Yes, and we visited our friends. There are no wolves in Vectis. We hadmany friends, and as many ponies as we wished.'
'It must have been lovely,' said Una. 'I hope it lasted for ever.'
'Not quite, l
ittle maid. When I was about sixteen or seventeen, the Fatherfelt gouty, and we all went to the Waters.'
'What waters?'
'At Aquae Solis. Every one goes there. You ought to get your Father totake you some day.'
'But where? I don't know,' said Una.
The young man looked astonished for a moment. 'Aquae Solis,' he repeated.'The best baths in Britain. Just as good, I'm told, as Rome. All the oldgluttons sit in its hot water, and talk scandal and politics. And theGenerals come through the streets with their guards behind them; and themagistrates come in their chairs with their stiff guards behind them; andyou meet fortune-tellers, and goldsmiths, and merchants, and philosophers,and feather-sellers, and ultra-Roman Britons, and ultra-British Romans,and tame tribesmen pretending to be civilised, and Jew lecturers, and--oh,everybody interesting. We young people, of course, took no interest inpolitics. We had not the gout: there were many of our age like us. We didnot find life sad.
'But while we were enjoying ourselves without thinking, my sister met theson of a magistrate in the West--and a year afterwards she was married tohim. My young brother, who was always interested in plants and roots, metthe First Doctor of a Legion from the City of the Legions, and he decidedthat he would be an Army doctor. I do not think it is a profession for awell-born man, but then--I'm not my brother. He went to Rome to studymedicine, and now he's First Doctor of a Legion in Egypt--at Antinoe, Ithink, but I have not heard from him for some time.
'My eldest brother came across a Greek philosopher, and told my Fatherthat he intended to settle down on the estate as a farmer and aphilosopher. You see'--the young man's eyes twinkled--'his philosopher was along-haired one!'
'I thought philosophers were bald,' said Una.
'Not all. She was very pretty. I don't blame him. Nothing could havesuited me better than my eldest brother's doing this, for I was only tookeen to join the Army. I had always feared I should have to stay at homeand look after the estate while my brother took _this_.'
He rapped on his great glistening shield that never seemed to be in hisway.
'So we were well contented--we young people--and we rode back to Clausentumalong the Wood Road very quietly. But when we reached home, Aglaia, ourgoverness, saw what had come to us. I remember her at the door, the torchover her head, watching us climb the cliff-path from the boat. "Aie! Aie!"she said. "Children you went away. Men and a woman you return!" Then shekissed Mother, and Mother wept. Thus our visit to the Waters settled ourfates for each of us, Maiden.'
He rose to his feet and listened, leaning on the shield-rim.
'I think that's Dan--my brother,' said Una.
'Yes; and the Faun is with him,' he replied, as Dan with Puck stumbledthrough the copse.
'We should have come sooner,' Puck called, 'but the beauties of yournative tongue, O Parnesius, have enthralled this young citizen.'
Parnesius looked bewildered, even when Una explained.
'Dan said the plural of "dominus" was "dominoes," and when Miss Blake saidit wasn't he said he supposed it was "backgammon," and so he had to writeit out twice--for cheek, you know.'
Dan had climbed into Volaterrae, hot and panting.
'I've run nearly all the way,' he gasped, 'and then Puck met me. How doyou do, Sir?'
'I am in good health,' Parnesius answered. 'See! I have tried to bend thebow of Ulysses, but----' He held up his thumb.
'I'm sorry. You must have pulled off too soon,' said Dan. 'Puck said youwere telling Una a story.'
'Continue, O Parnesius,' said Puck, who had perched himself on a deadbranch above them. 'I will be chorus. Has he puzzled you much, Una?'
'Not a bit, except--I didn't know where Ak--Ak something was,' she answered.
'Oh, Aquae Solis. That's Bath, where the buns come from. Let the hero tellhis own tale.'
Parnesius pretended to thrust his spear at Puck's legs, but Puck reacheddown, caught at the horse-tail plume, and pulled off the tall helmet.
'Thanks, jester,' said Parnesius, shaking his curly dark head. 'That iscooler. Now hang it up for me....
'I was telling your sister how I joined the Army,' he said to Dan.
'Did you have to pass an Exam?' Dan asked, eagerly.
'No. I went to my Father, and said I should like to enter the Dacian Horse(I had seen some at Aquae Solis); but he said I had better begin servicein a regular Legion from Rome. Now, like many of our youngsters, I was nottoo fond of anything Roman. The Roman-born officers and magistrates lookeddown on us British-born as though we were barbarians. I told my Father so.
'"I know they do," he said; "but remember, after all, we are the people ofthe Old Stock, and our duty is to the Empire."
'"To which Empire?'" I asked. "We split the Eagle before I was born."
'"What thieves' talk is that?" said my Father. He hated slang.
'"Well, Sir," I said, "we've one Emperor in Rome, and I don't know howmany Emperors the outlying Provinces have set up from time to time. Whicham I to follow?"
'"Gratian," said he. "At least he's a sportsman."
'"He's all that," I said. "Hasn't he turned himself into a raw-beef-eatingScythian?"
'"Where did you hear of it?" said the Pater.
'"At Aquae Solis," I said. It was perfectly true. This precious EmperorGratian of ours had a bodyguard of fur-cloaked Scythians, and he was socrazy about them that he dressed like them. In Rome of all places in theworld! It was as bad as if my own Father had painted himself blue!
'"No matter for the clothes," said the Pater. "They are only the fringe ofthe trouble. It began before your time or mine. Rome has forsaken herGods, and must be punished. The great war with the Painted People brokeout in the very year the temples of our Gods were destroyed. We beat thePainted People in the very year our temples were rebuilt. Go back furtherstill."... He went back to the time of Diocletian; and to listen to himyou would have thought Eternal Rome herself was on the edge ofdestruction, just because a few people had become a little large-minded.
'_I_ knew nothing about it. Aglaia never taught us the history of our owncountry. She was so full of her ancient Greeks.
'"There is no hope for Rome," said the Pater, at last. "She has forsakenher Gods, but if the Gods forgive _us_ here, we may save Britain. To dothat, we must keep the Painted People back. Therefore, I tell you,Parnesius, as a Father, that if your heart is set on service, your placeis among men on the Wall--and not with women among the cities."'
'What Wall?' asked Dan and Una at once.
'Father meant the one we call Hadrian's Wall. I'll tell you about itlater. It was built long ago, across North Britain, to keep out thePainted People--Picts you call them. Father had fought in the great PictWar that lasted more than twenty years, and he knew what fighting meant.Theodosius, one of our great Generals, had chased the little beasts backfar into the North before I was born: down at Vectis, of course, we nevertroubled our heads about them. But when my Father spoke as he did, Ikissed his hand, and waited for orders. We British-born Romans know whatis due to our parents.'
'If I kissed my Father's hand, he'd laugh,' said Dan.
'Customs change; but if you do not obey your father, the Gods remember it.You may be quite sure of _that_.
'After our talk, seeing I was in earnest, the Pater sent me over toClausentum to learn my foot-drill in a barrack full of foreignAuxiliaries--as unwashed and unshaved a mob of mixed barbarians as everscrubbed a breast-plate. It was your stick in their stomachs and yourshield in their faces to push them into any sort of formation. When I hadlearned my work the Instructor gave me a handful--and they were ahandful!--of Gauls and Iberians to polish up till they were sent to theirstations up-country. I did my best, and one night a villa in the suburbscaught fire, and I had my handful out and at work before any of the othertroops. I noticed a quiet-looking man on the lawn, leaning on a stick. Hewatched us passing buckets from the pond, and at last he said to me: "Whoare you?"
'"A probationer, waiting for a cohort," I answered. _I_ didn't know who hewas from
Deucalion!
'"Born in Britain?" he said.
'"Yes, if you were born in Spain," I said, for he neighed his words likean Iberian mule.
'"And what might you call yourself when you are at home?" he saidlaughing.
'"That depends," I answered; "sometimes one thing and sometimes another.But now I'm busy."
'He said no more till we had saved the family gods (they were respectablehouseholders), and then he grunted across the laurels: "Listen, youngsometimes-one-thing-and-sometimes-another. In future call yourselfCenturion of the Seventh Cohort of the Thirtieth, the Ulpia Victrix. Thatwill help me to remember you. Your Father and a few other people call meMaximus."
'He tossed me the polished stick he was leaning on, and went away. Youmight have knocked me down with it!'
'Who was he?' said Dan.
'Maximus himself, our great General! _The_ General of Britain who had beenTheodosius's right hand in the Pict War! Not only had he given me myCenturion's stick direct, but three steps in a good Legion as well! A newman generally begins in the Tenth Cohort of his Legion, and works up.'
'And were you pleased?' said Una.
'Very. I thought Maximus had chosen me for my good looks and fine style inmarching, but, when I went home, the Pater told me he had served underMaximus in the great Pict War, and had asked him to promote me.'
'A child you were!' said Puck, from above.
'I was,' said Parnesius. 'Don't begrudge it me, Faun. Afterwards--the Godsknow I put aside the games!' And Puck nodded, brown chin on brown hand,his big eyes still.
'The night before I left we sacrificed to our ancestors--the usual littleHome Sacrifice--but I never prayed so earnestly to all the Good Shades, andthen I went with my Father by boat to Regnum, and across the chalkeastwards to Anderida yonder.'
'Regnum? Anderida?' The children turned their faces to Puck.
'Regnum's Chichester,' he said, pointing towards Cherry Clack, and--hethrew his arm South behind him--'Anderida's Pevensey.'
'Pevensey again!' said Dan. 'Where Weland landed?'
'Weland and a few others,' said Puck. 'Pevensey isn't young--even comparedto me!'
'The head-quarters of the Thirtieth lay at Anderida in summer, but my ownCohort, the Seventh, was on the Wall up North. Maximus was inspectingAuxiliaries--the Abulci, I think--at Anderida, and we stayed with him, forhe and my Father were very old friends. I was only there ten days when Iwas ordered to go up with thirty men to my Cohort.' He laughed merrily. 'Aman never forgets his first march. I was happier than any Emperor when Iled my handful through the North Gate of the Camp, and we saluted theguard and the Altar of Victory there.'
'How? How?' said Dan and Una.
Parnesius smiled, and stood up, flashing in his armour.
'So!' said he; and he moved slowly through the beautiful movements of theRoman Salute, that ends with a hollow clang of the shield coming into itsplace between the shoulders.
'Hai!' said Puck. 'That sets one thinking!'
'We went out fully armed,' said Parnesius, sitting down; 'but as soon asthe road entered the Great Forest, my men expected the pack-horses to hangtheir shields on. "No!" I said; "you can dress like women in Anderida, butwhile you're with me you will carry your own weapons and armour."
'"But it's hot," said one of them, "and we haven't a doctor. Suppose weget sunstroke, or a fever?"
'"Then die," I said, "and a good riddance to Rome! Up shield--up spears,and tighten your foot-wear!"
'"Don't think yourself Emperor of Britain already," a fellow shouted. Iknocked him over with the butt of my spear, and explained to theseRoman-born Romans that, if there were any further trouble, we should go onwith one man short. And, by the Light of the Sun, I meant it too! My rawGauls at Clausentum had never treated me so.
'Then, quietly as a cloud, Maximus rode out of the fern (my Father behindhim), and reined up across the road. He wore the Purple, as though he werealready Emperor; his leggings were of white buckskin laced with gold.
'My men dropped like--like partridges.
'He said nothing for some time, only looked, with his eyes puckered. Thenhe crooked his forefinger, and my men walked--crawled, I mean--to one side.
'"Stand in the sun, children," he said, and they formed up on the hardroad.
'"What would you have done?" he said to me, "If I had not been here?"
'"I should have killed that man," I answered.
'"Kill him now," he said. "He will not move a limb."
'"No," I said. "You've taken my men out of my command. I should only beyour butcher if I killed him now." Do you see what I meant?' Parnesiusturned to Dan.
'Yes,' said Dan. 'It wouldn't have been fair, somehow.'
'That was what I thought,' said Parnesius. 'But Maximus frowned. "You'llnever be an Emperor," he said. "Not even a General will you be."
'I was silent, but my Father seemed pleased.
'"I came here to see the last of you," he said.
'"You have seen it," said Maximus. "I shall never need your son any more.He will live and he will die an officer of a Legion--and he might have beenPrefect of one of my Provinces. Now eat and drink with us," he said. "Yourmen will wait till you have finished."
'My miserable thirty stood like wine-skins glistening in the hot sun, andMaximus led us to where his people had set a meal. Himself he mixed thewine.
'"A year from now," he said, "you will remember that you have sat with theEmperor of Britain--and Gaul."
'"Yes," said the Pater, "you can drive two mules--Gaul and Britain."
'"Five years hence you will remember that you have drunk"--he passed me thecup and there was blue borage in it--"with the Emperor of Rome!"
'"No; you can't drive three mules; they will tear you in pieces," said myFather.
'"And you on the Wall, among the heather, will weep because your notion ofjustice was more to you than the favour of the Emperor of Rome."
'I sat quite still. One does not answer a General who wears the Purple.
'"I am not angry with you," he went on; "I owe too much to your Father----"
'"You owe me nothing but advice that you never took," said the Pater.
'"----to be unjust to any of your family. Indeed, I say you will make a goodofficer, but, so far as I am concerned, on the Wall you will live, and onthe Wall you will die," said Maximus.
'"Very like," said my Father. "But we shall have the Picts _and_ theirfriends breaking through before long. You cannot move all troops out ofBritain to make you Emperor, and expect the North to sit quiet."
'"I follow my destiny," said Maximus.
'"Follow it, then," said my Father pulling up a fern root; "and die asTheodosius died."
'"Ah!" said Maximus. "My old General was killed because he served theEmpire too well. _I_ may be killed, but not for that reason," and hesmiled a little pale grey smile that made my blood run cold.
'"Then I had better follow my destiny," I said, "and take my men to theWall."
'He looked at me a long time, and bowed his head slanting like a Spaniard."Follow it, boy," he said. That was all. I was only too glad to get away,though I had many messages for home. I found my men standing as they hadbeen put--they had not even shifted their feet in the dust,--and off Imarched, still feeling that terrific smile like an east wind up my back. Inever halted them till sunset, and'--he turned about and looked at Pook'sHill below him--'then I halted yonder.' He pointed to the broken,bracken-covered shoulder of the Forge Hill behind old Hobden's cottage.
'There? Why, that's only the old Forge--where they made iron once,' saidDan.
'Very good stuff it was too,' said Parnesius, calmly. 'We mended threeshoulder-straps here and had a spear-head riveted. The forge was rentedfrom the Government by a one-eyed smith from Carthage. I remember wecalled him Cyclops. He sold me a beaver-skin rug for my sister's room.'
'But it couldn't have been here,' Dan insisted.
'But it was! From the Altar of Victory at Anderida to the First Forge inthe Forest here is twelve
miles seven hundred paces. It is all in the RoadBook. A man doesn't forget his first march. I think I could tell you everystation between this and----' He leaned forward, but his eye was caught bythe setting sun.
It had come down to the top of Cherry Clack Hill, and the light poured inbetween the tree trunks so that you could see red and gold and black deepinto the heart of Far Wood; and Parnesius in his armour shone as though hehad been afire.
'Wait,' he said, lifting a hand, and the sunlight jinked on his glassbracelet. 'Wait! I pray to Mithras!'
He rose and stretched his arms westward, with deep, splendid-soundingwords.
Then Puck began to sing too, in a voice like bells tolling, and as he sanghe slipped from 'Volaterrae' to the ground, and beckoned the children tofollow. They obeyed; it seemed as though the voices were pushing themalong; and through the goldy-brown light on the beech leaves they walked,while Puck between them chanted something like this:--
Cur mundus militat sub vana gloria Cujus prosperitas est transitoria? Tam cito labitur ejus potentia Quam vasa figuli quae sunt fragilia.
They found themselves at the little locked gates of the wood.
Quo Caesar abiit celsus imperio? Vel Dives splendidus totus in prandio? Dic ubi Tullius----
Still singing, he took Dan's hand and wheeled him round to face Una as shecame out of the gate. It shut behind her, at the same time as Puck threwthe memory-magicking Oak, Ash, and Thorn leaves over their heads.
'Well, you _are_ jolly late,' said Una. 'Couldn't you get away before?'
'I did,' said Dan. 'I got away in lots of time, but--but I didn't know itwas so late. Where've you been?'
'In Volaterrae--waiting for you.'
'Sorry,' said Dan. 'It was all that beastly Latin.'