 Section 4. Old Men at Pevensey, from Puck of Pooks Hill. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Icy Jumbo. Puck of Pooks Hill by Rudyard Kipling. Section 4. Old Men at Pevensey. There is no wind along these seas. Out oars for Stavanger. Forward all for Stavanger. So we must wake the white-ash breeze. Let fall for Stavanger. A long pull for Stavanger. O hear the benches creak and strain. A long pull for Stavanger. She thinks she smells the Northland rain. A long pull for Stavanger. She thinks she smells the Northland snow and she's as glad as we to go. She thinks she smells the Northland rhyme and the dear dark nights of wintertime. Her very bolts are sick for sure, and we, we want it ten times more. Ho! All you gods that love brave men, send us a three-reef gale again. Send us a gale and watch us come with close-cropped canvas slashing home. But there's no wind in all these seas. A long pull for Stavanger. So we must wake the white-ash breeze. A long pull for Stavanger. Old Men at Pevensey. It has naught to do with apes or devils, Sir Richard went on in an undertone. It concerns dear Quilla, than whom there was never bolder nor craftier nor more hardy night-born. And, remember, he was an old, old man at that time. When? said Dan. When we came back from sailing with winter. What did you do with your gold? said Dan. Have patience! Link by link his chain mail made. I will tell all in its place. We bore the gold to Pevensey on horseback, three loads of it, and then up to the north chamber, above the great hall of Pevensey Castle, where dear Quilla lay in winter. He sat on his bed like a little white falcon, turning his head swiftly from one to the other as we told our tale. Jehan the Crab, an old, sour man at arms, guarded the stairway, but dear Quilla bade him wait at the stair-foot, and let down both leather curtains over the door. It was Jehan whom dear Quilla had sent to us with the horses, and only Jehan had loaded the gold. When our story was told, dear Quilla gave us the news of England, for we were, as meant, waked from a year-long sleep. The Red King was dead, slain, you remember, the day we set sail, and Henry, his younger brother, had made himself King of England over the head of Robert of Normandy. This was the very thing that the Red King had done to Robert when our great William died. Then Robert of Normandy, mad, as dear Quilla said, at twice missing of this kingdom, had sent an army against England, which army had been well beaten back to their ships at Portsmouth. A little earlier, and Wittership would have rode through them. And now, said dear Quilla, half the great barons of the North and West are out against the King between Salisbury and Shrewsbury, and half the other half wait to see which way the game shall go. They say Henry is overly English for their stomachs, because he hath married an English wife, and she hath coaxed him to give back their old laws to our Saxons. Better ride a horse on the bit, he knows, I say. But that is only a cloak to their falsehood. He cracked his finger on the table where the wine was spilt, and thus he spoke. William crammed us Norman barons full of good English acres after Salash. I had my share too, he said, and clapped Hugh on the shoulder. But I warned him, I warned him before Otto rebelled, that he should have biddened the barons give up their lands and lordships in Normandy if they would be English lords. Now they are all but princes both in England and Normandy, trencher-fed hounds, with a foot in one trough, and both eyes on the other. Robert of Normandy has sent them word that if they do not fight for him in England, he will sack and harry out their lands in Normandy. Therefore Clare has risen, Fitz Osbourne has risen, Montgomery has risen, whom our first William made an English Earl. Even Darcy is out with his men, whose father I remember, a little hedge-sparrow knight nearby Kong. If Henry wins, the barons can still flee to Normandy, where Robert will welcome them. If Henry loses, Robert, he says, will give them more lands in England. Oh a pest, a pest on Normandy, for she will be our England's curse this many a long year. Our men, said Hugh, but will the war come our ways, think you? Not from the south, said dear Quillar. But the sea is always open. If the barons gain the upper hand, Robert will send another army into England for sure, and this time I think he will land here, where his father, the conqueror, landed. Ye have brought your pigs to a pretty market. Half England alight, and gold enough on the ground, he stamped on the bars beneath the table, to set every sword in Christendom fighting. What is to do? said Hugh. I have no keep at Dallington, and if we buried it, whom could we trust? Me, said dear Quillar. Pevensey walls are strong, no man but Jehan, who is my dog, knows what is between them. He drew a curtain by the shot window, and showed us the shaft of a well in the thickness of the wall. I made it for a drinking well, he said, but we found salt water, and it rises and falls with the tide. Hark! We heard the water whistle and blow at the bottom. Will it serve? said he. Needs must, said Hugh, our lives are in thy hands. So we lowered all the gold down, except one small chest of it by dear Quillar's bed, which we kept as much for his delight in its weight and colour as for any of our needs. In the morning, ere we rode to our manners, he said, I do not save farewell, because ye will return and bide here, not for love nor for sorrow, but to be with the gold. Have a care, he said, laughing, lest I use it to make myself pope. Trust me not, but return. So Richard paused and smiled sadly. In seven days, then, we returned from our manners, from the manners which had been ours. And were the children quite well? said Euna. My sons were young, land and governance belonged by right to young men. So Richard was talking to himself. It would have broken their hearts if we had taken back our manners. They made us a great welcome, but we could see, Hugh and I could see, that our day was done. I was a cripple, and he a one-armed man. No, he shook his head, and therefore he raised his voice. We rode back to Pevensey. I am sorry, said Euna, for the night seemed very sorrowful. Little Maid, it all passed long ago. They were young, we were old. We let them rule the manners. Aha! cried dear Quilla from his shot window when we dismounted, back again to earth, old foxes. But when we were in his chamber above the hall, he puts his arms about us, and says, Welcome, ghosts, welcome, poor ghosts. Thus it fell out that we were rich beyond belief, and lonely. And lonely. What did you do? said Dan. We watched for Robert of Normandy, said the night. Dear Quilla was like witter. He suffered no idleness. In fair weather we would ride along between Bexley on one side to Cuckmear on the other. Sometimes with hawk, sometimes with hound, there are stout hairs both on the marsh and at the downland, but always with an eye to the sea, for fear of fleets from Normandy. In foul weather he would walk on the top of his tower, frowning against the rain, peering here and pointing there. It always vexed him to think how witter's ship had come and gone without his knowledge. When the wind ceased and ships anchored to the wharf's edge he would go, and leaning on his sword among the stinking fish would call to the mariners for their news from France. His other eye he kept landward for word of Henry's war against the barons. Many bought him news, jonglers, harpers, peddlers, subtlers, priests and the like, and though he was secret enough in small things, yet if their news misliked him, then regarding neither time nor plate nor people would he curse our King Henry for a fool or a babe. I have heard him cry aloud by the fishing boats, if I were King of England I would do thus and thus. And when I rode out to see that the warning beacons were laid and dry, he hath often called to me from the shot window, look to it, Richard, do not copy our blind King, but see with thine own eyes and feel with thine own hands. I do not think he knew any sort of fear, and so we lived at Pevensey in the little chamber above the hall. One foul night came word that a messenger of the King waited below. We were chilled after a long riding in the fog towards Bexley, which is an easy place for ships to land. Dear Quillar sent word the man might either eat with us or wait till we had fed. And on Jihan at the stair-head cried that he had called for horse and was gone. Pest on him, said Dear Quillar, I have more to do than to shiver in the great hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word? None, said Jihan, except he had been with Dear Quillar, son Lash, except he said that if an old dog could not learn new tricks, it was time to sweep out the kennel. Oh, hurl, said Dear Quillar, rubbing his nose. To whom did he say that? To his beard, chiefly, but some to his horses flank as he was girthing up. I followed him out, said Jihan the crab. What was his shield mark? Gold horse shoes on black, said the crab. That is one of Fawkes' men, said Dear Quillar. Puck broke in very gently. Gold horse shoes on black is not the Fawkes' shield. The Fawkes' arms are— The knight waved one hand, state Lily. Thou knowest that evil man's true name, he replied. But I have chosen to call him Fawke, because I promised him I would not tell the story of his wickedness so that any man might guess it. I have changed all the names in my tale. His children's children may be still alive. True, true, said Puck, smiling softly. It is nightly to keep faith, even after a thousand years. Sir Richard bowed and went on. Gold horse shoes on black, said Dear Quillar. I had heard Fawke had joined the barons, but if this is true, our king must be of the upper hand. No matter, all Fawkes are faithful. Still, I would not have sensed the man away empty. He fed, said Jehan. Gilbert the clerk fetched him meat and wine from the kitchens. He ate at Gilbert's table. This Gilbert was a clerk from Battle Abbey who kept the accounts of the manor of Pevensy. He was tall and pale-coloured, and carried those new-fashioned beads for counting of prayers. They were large brown nuts or seeds, and hanging from his girdle with his penne and ink-horn, they clashed when he walked. His place was in the great fireplace. There was his table of accounts, and there he lay at nights. He feared the hounds in the hall that came nosing after bones or to sleep on the warm ashes, and would slash at them with his beads like a woman. When Dear Quillar sat in hall to do justice, take vines, or grant lands, Gilbert would so write it in the manor roll. But it was none of his work to feed our guests, or to let them depart without his lord's knowledge. Said Dear Quillar, after Jehan was gone down the stair. Hugh, has thou ever told my Gilbert thou canst read Latin hand of right? No, said Hugh. He is no friend to me, or to Odo my hound either. No matter, said Dear Quillar, let him never know thou canst tell one letter from its fellow, and here he jerked us in the ribs with his scabbard. Watch him, both of you. There be devils in Africa, as I have heard, but by the saints there be greater devils in Pevensy. And that was all he would say. It chanced, some small while afterwards, that Norman manate arms would wed a Saxon wench of the manor, and Gilbert, we had watched him well since Dear Quillar spoke, doubted whether her folk were free or slave. Since Dear Quillar would give them a field of good land if she were free, the matter came up at the justice in Great Hall before Dear Quillar. First the wench's father spoke, then her mother, then all together till the whole rang and the hounds bayed. Dear Quillar held up his hands. Write her free, he called to Gilbert by the fireplace. God's name, write her free before she deafens me. Yes, yes, he said to the wench that was on her knees at him, thou art Cerdic's sister, and own cousin to the Lady of Mercia, if thou wilt be silent. In fifty years there will be neither Norman nor Saxon, but all English, said he, and these are the men that do our work. He clapped the manate arms, that was Jehan's nephew, on the shoulder, and kissed the wench, and fretted with his feet among the rushes to show it was finished. The Great Hall is always bitter cold. I stood at his side, Hugh was behind Gilbert in the fireplace, making to play with wise, rough oddo. He signed to Dear Quillar, who bad Gilbert measure the new field for the new couple. Out, then, runs our Gilbert between man and maid, his beads clashing at his waist, and the hall being empty, we three sit by the fire. Said Hugh, leaning down to the hearth-stones, I saw this stone move under Gilbert's foot when oddo sniffed at it. Look! Dear Quillar digged in the ashes with his sword, the stone tilted. Beneath it lay a parchment folden, and the writing atop was, Words spoken against the King by our Lord of Pevensy, the second part. Here was set out, Hugh read it us whispering, every jest Dear Quillar had made to us touching the King, every time he had called out to me from the shot window, and every time he had said what he would do if he were King of England. Yes, day by day had his daily speech, which he had never stinted, been set down by Gilbert, tricked out and twisted from its true meaning, yet with all so cunningly that none could deny who knew him that Dear Quillar had in some sort spoken these words. You see? Dan and Euna nodded. Yes, said Euna gravely, it isn't what you say so much, it's what you mean when you say it, like calling Dan a beast in fun, only grown-ups don't always understand. He had done this day by day before our very face, said Dear Quillar. Nay, hour by hour, said Hugh, when Dear Quillar spoke even now in the hall of Saxons and Normans, I saw Gilbert write on a parchment, which he kept beside the manor roll, that Dear Quillar said soon there would be no Normans left in England if his men at arms did their worker write. Bones of the Saints, said Dear Quillar, what a veil is honour or a sword against a pen! Where did Gilbert hide that writing? He shall eat it. In his breast when he ran out, said Hugh, which made me look to see where he kept his finished stuff. When Otto scratched at this stone here, I saw his face change, so I was sure. He is bold, said Dear Quillar. Do him justice, in his own fashion, my Gilbert is bold. Over-bold, said Hugh, harken here, and he read, Upon the feast of St. Agatha, our Lord of Pevensey, lying in his upper chamber, Being clothed in his second fur gown, reversed with rabbit, Pest on him, he is not my tire-woman, said Dear Quillar, and Hugh and I laughed. Reverse with rabbit, seeing a fog over the marshes, did wake Sir Richard Dalingridge, his drunken cup-mate. Here, they laughed at me, and said, Peer-out-old fox, for God is on the Duke of Normandy's side. So did I. It was a black fog. Robert could have landed ten thousand men, and we none the wiser. Does he tell how we were out all day riding the marsh, and how I near perished in a quicksand, and coughed like a sick you for ten days after? cried Dear Quillar. No, said Hugh, but here is the prayer for Gilbert himself to his master Folk. Ah! said Dear Quillar. Well, I knew it was Folk. What is the price of my blood? Gilbert prayeth that when our Lord of Pevensy is stripped of his lands on this evidence, which Gilbert hath, with fear and pains collected, fear and pains is a true word, said Dear Quillar, and sucked in his cheeks. But how excellent a weapon is a pen! I must learn it. He prays that Folk will advance him from his present service to that honour in the church which Folk promised him, and lest Folk should forget, he has written below, to be Sackreston of battle. At this, Dear Quillar whistled, A man who can plot against one Lord can plot against another. When I am stripped of my lands, Folk will whip off my Gilbert's foolish head. Nonetheless, battle needs a new Sackreston. They tell me Abbot Henry keeps no sort of rule there. Let the Abbot wait, said Hugh. It is our heads and our lands that are in danger. This parchment is the second part of the tale. The first has gone to Folk, and so to the King, who will hold us traitors. Assuredly, said Dear Quillar, Folk's man took the first part that evening when Gilbert fed him, and our King is so beset by his brother and his barons, small blame too, that he is mad with mistrust. Folk has his ear and paws poison into it. Presently the King gives him my land and yours. This is old. Then he leaned back and yawned. And thou wilt surrender Pevensey without word or blow, said Hugh. We Saxons will fight your King then. I will go warn my nephew at Dallington. Give me a horse. Give thee a toy and a rattle, said Dear Quillar. Put back the parchment and rake over the ashes. If Folk is given my Pevensey, which is England's gate, what will he do with it? He is a Norman at heart, and his heart is in Normandy, where he can kill peasants at his pleasure. He will open England's gate to our sleepy Robert, as Otto and Mortain tried to do, and then there will be another landing, and another sunlush. Therefore I cannot give up Pevensey. Good, said we too. Ah! But wait! If my King be made, on Gilbert's evidence, to mistrust me, he will send his men against me here, and while we fight, England's gate is left unguarded. Who will be the first to come through thereby? Even Robert of Normandy. Therefore I cannot fight my King. He nursed his sword thus. This is saying and unsaying like a Norman, said Hugh. What of our manners? I do not think for myself, said Dear Quillar, nor for our King, nor for your lands. I think for England, for whom neither King nor Baron thinks. I am not Norman, Sir Richard, nor Saxon, Sir Hugh. English am I. Saxon, Norman, or English, said Hugh. Our lives are thine, however the game goes. When do we hang Gilbert? Never, said Dear Quillar. Who knows? He may yet be Sackreston of battle, for, to do him justice, he is a good writer. Dead men make dumb witnesses. Wait! But the King may give Pevensey to Volk, and our manners go with it, said I. Shall we tell our sons? No. The King will not wake up a hornet's nest in the south till he has smoked out the bees in the north. He may hold me a traitor, but at least he sees I am not fighting against him, and every day that I lie still is so much game to him while he fights the Barons. If he were wise, he would wait till that war were over before he made new enemies. But I think Volk will play upon him to send for me, and if I do not obey the summons, that will, to Henry's mind, be proof of my treason. But mere talk, such as Gilbert sends, is no proof nowadays. We Barons follow the church, and, like Anselm, we speak what we please. Let us go about our days' dealings and say nought to Gilbert. Then we do nothing, said Hugh. We wait, said dear Quilla. I am old, but still I find that the most grievous work I know. And so we found it, but in the end dear Quilla was right. A little later in the year, armed men rode over the hill, the golden horse-shoes flying behind the king's banner. Said dear Quilla, at the window of our chamber. How did I tell you? Here comes Volk himself to spy out his new lands which our king hath promised him if he can bring proof of my treason. How dost thou know, said Hugh? Because that is what I would do if I were Volk, but I should have brought more men. My own horse to your old shoes, said he. Volk brings me the king's summons to leave Pevensey and join the war. He sucked in his cheeks and drummed on the edge of the shaft where the water sounded all hollow. Shall we go? said I. Go! at this time of year. Stark madness, said he. Take me from Pevensey to Fisk and flight through fern and forest and in three days Robert's keels would be lying on Pevensey mud with ten thousand men, who would stop them. Volk? The horns blew without, and a non-Folk cried the king's summons at the great door that dear Quilla with all men and horse should join the king's camp at Salisbury. How did I tell you? said dear Quilla. There are twenty barons, twist here, and Salisbury could give King Henry Goodland service, but he has been worked upon by Volk to send south and call me, me, off the gate of England, when his enemies stand about to batter it in. See that Volk's men lie in the big south barn, said he. Give them drink, and when Volk has eaten we will drink in my chamber. The great hall is too cold for old bones. As soon as he was off-horse Volk went to the chapel with Gilbert to give thanks for his safe coming, and when he had eaten he was a fat man and rolled his eyes greedily at our good roast Sussex wheat-ears. We led him to the little upper chamber where the Gilbert had already gone with the manor roll. I remember when Volk heard the tide blow and whistle in the shaft he leapt back, and his long downturned stirrup shoes caught in the rushes and he stumbled, so that Jehan behind him found it easy to knock his head against the wall. Did you know it was going to happen? said Dan. Assuredly, said Sir Richard, with a sweet smile. I put my foot on his sword and plucked away his dagger, but he knew not whether it was day or night for a while. He lay rolling his eyes and bubbling with his mouth, and Jehan roped him like a calf. He was cased all in that new fangled armour, which we call lizard-male, not rings like my Horbuck here, Sir Richard tapped his chest, but little pieces of dagger-proof steel overlapping on stout leather. We stripped it off, no need to spoil good harness by witting it, and in the neckpiece Dear Quillar found the same folding piece of parchment which we had put back under the hearthstone. At this Gilbert would have run out. I laid my hand on his shoulder. It sufficed. He felt a trembling and praying on his beads. Gilbert, said Dear Quillar, hear be more notable sayings and doings of our Lord of Pevensy for thee to write down. Take penner and inkhorn, Gilbert. We cannot all be sacrosans of battle. Said Falk from the floor, ye have bound a king's messenger, Pevensy shall burn for this. Make be, I have seen it besieged once, said Dear Quillar. But heart up, Falk, I promise thee that thou shalt be hanged in the middle of the flames at the end of that siege if I have to share my last loaf with thee, and that is more than Otto would have done when we starved him out and mortain. Then Falk sat up and looked long and cunningly at Dear Quillar. By the saints, said he, why did thou not say thou wasst on the duke's side at the first? Am I? said Dear Quillar. Falk laughed and said, no man who serves King Henry dare do this much to his messenger. When didst thou come over to the duke? Let me up, and we can smooth it out together. And he smiled and becked and winked. Yes, we will smooth it out, said Dear Quillar. He nodded to me, and Jihan and I heaved up Falk. He was a heavy man, and lowered him into the shaft by a rope, not so as to stand on our gold, but dangling by his shoulders a little above. It was turn of ebb, and the water came to his knees. He said nothing, but shivered somewhat. Then Jihan of a sudden beat down Gilbert's wrist with his sheath dagger. Stop, he said. He swallows his beads. Poison, be like, said Dear Quillar. It is good for men who know too much. I have carried it these thirty years. Give me. Then Gilbert wept and howled. Dear Quillar ran the beads through his fingers. The last one, I have said they were large nuts, opened in two halves on a pin, and there was a small folded parchment within. On it was written, The old dog goes to Salisbury to be beaten. I have his kennel. Come quickly. This is worse than poison, said Dear Quillar very softly and sucked in his cheeks. Then Gilbert groveled in the rushes and told us all he knew. The letter, as we guessed, was from Falk to the Duke, and not the first that had passed between them. Falk had given it to Gilbert in the chapel, and Gilbert thought to have taken it by morning to a certain fishing-boat at the wharf, which trafficked between Pevensey and the French shore. Gilbert was a false fellow, but he found time between his quakings and shakings to swear that the master of the boat knew nothing of the matter. He hath called me shavethead, said Gilbert, and hath thrown haddock-guts at me, but for all that he is no traitor. I will have no clerk of mine mishandled or miscalled, said Dear Quillar. This seaman shall be whipped at his own mast. Write me first a letter, and thou shalt bear it, with the order for the whipping, to-morrow to the boat. At this Gilbert would have kissed Dear Quillar's hand. He had not hoped to live until the morning, and when he trembled less he wrote a letter as from Falk to the Duke, saying that the kennel, which signified Pevensey, was shut, and that the old dog, which was Dear Quillar, sat outside it, and, moreover, that all had been betrayed. Write to any man that all is betrayed, said Dear Quillar, and even the Pope himself would sleep uneasily. Hey, Jehan, if one told thee all was betrayed, what would stout do? I would run away, said Jehan, it might be true. Well said, quothed Dear Quillar. Write, Gilbert, that Montgomery, the great Earl, hath made his peace with the King, and that little Darcy, whom I hate, hath been hanged by the heels. We will give Robert full measure to chew upon. Write also that Falk himself is sick to death of a dropsy. Nay, cried Falk, hanging in the well-shaft, drown me out of hand, but do not make a jest of me. Gest, are I? said Dear Quillar. I am but fighting for life and lands with a pen, as thou hast shown me, Falk. Then Falk groaned, for he was cold, and, let me confess, said he. Now, this is right, neighbourly, said Dear Quillar, leaning over the shaft. Thou hast read my sayings and doings, or at least the first part of them, and thou art minded to repay me with thine own doings and sayings. Take penner and inkhorn, Gilbert. Here is work that will not irk thee. Let my men go without hurt, and I will confess my treason against the King, said Falk. Now, why has he grown so tender of his men all of a sudden? said Hugh to me, for Falk had no name for mercy to his men. Plunder he gave them, but pity none. Te, te, said Dear Quillar. Thy treason was all confessed long ago by Gilbert. It would be enough to hang Montgomery himself. Nay, but spare my men, said Falk, and we heard him splash like a fish in a pond, for the tide was rising. All in good time, said Dear Quillar. The night is young, the wine is old, and we need only the merry tale. Begin the story of thy life, since when thou wasst a lad at tour. Tell it nimbly. Ye shame me to my soul, said Falk. Then I have done what neither King nor Duke could do, said Dear Quillar, but begin and forget nothing. Send thy man away, said Falk. That much I can, said Dear Quillar, but remember I am like the Danes' King. I cannot turn the tide. How long will it rise? said Falk, and splashed anew. For three hours, said Dear Quillar. Time to tell all thy good deeds. Begin, and Gilbert, I have heard that thou art somewhat careless. Do not twist his words from their true meaning. So fear of death in the dark being upon him, Falk began, and Gilbert, not knowing what his fate might be, wrote it word by word. I have heard many tales, but never heard I ought to match the tale of Falk, his black life as Falk told it, hollowly, hanging in the shaft. Was it bad? said Dan, or struck. Beyond belief, Sir Richard answered. Nonetheless, there was that in it which forced even Gilbert to laugh. We three laughed till we ached. At one place his teeth so chattered that we could not well hear, and we reached him down a cup of wine. Then he warmed to it, and smoothly set out all his shifts, malices, and treacheries, his extreme boldnesses. He was desperate bold. His retreats, shufflings, and counter-fittings. He was also inconceivably a coward. His lack of gear and honour, his despair at their loss, his remedies, and well-coloured contrivances. Yes, he waved the filthy rags of his life before us, as though they had been some proud banner. When he ceased, we saw by torches that the tide stood at the corners of his mouth, and he breathed strongly through his nose. We had him out, and rubbed him. We wrapped him in a cloak, and gave him wine, and we leaned and looked upon him the while he drank. He was shivering, but shameless. All of a sudden we heard Jehan at the stairway wake, but a boy pushed past him, and stood before us, the whole rushes in his hair My father, my father, I dreamed of treachery. He cried, and babbled thickly. There is no treachery here, said Falk. Go! And the boy turned, even then not fully awake, and Jehan led him by the hand to the great hall. Thy only son, said dear Quilla, why did thou bring the child here? He is my heir. I dared not trust him to my brother, said Falk, and now he was ashamed. Dear Quilla said nothing, but sat weighing a wine-cup in his two hands, thus. Anon Falk touched him on the knee. Let the boy escaped Normandy, said he, and do with me at thy pleasure. Yea, hang me to-morrow with my letter to Robert round my neck, but let the boy go. Be still, said dear Quilla, I think for England. So we waited what our lord of Pevonsy should devise, and the sweat ran down Falk's forehead. And last, said dear Quilla, I am too old to judge or to trust any man. I do not covet thy lands, as thou hast coveted mine, and whether thou art any better or any worse than any other black orange of our thief, it is for thy king to find out. Therefore go back to thy king, Falk. And thou wilt say nothing of what is past, said Falk. Why should I? Thy son will stay with me. If the king calls me again to leave Pevonsy, which I must guard against England's enemies, if the king sends his men against me for a traitor, or if I hear that the king in his bed thinks any evil of me or my two knights, thy son will be hanged from out this window, Falk. But it had not anything to do with his son, cried Euna, startled. How could we have hanged Falk? said Sir Richard. We needed him to make our peace with the king. He would have betrayed half England for the boys' sake. Of that we were sure. I don't understand, said Euna. But I think it was simply awful. So did not, Falk, he was well pleased. What, because his son was going to be killed? Nay, because dear Quilla had shown him how he might save the boy's life and his own lands and honors. I will do it, he said. I swear I will do it. I will tell the king thou art no traitor, but the most excellent, valiant and perfect of us all. Yes, I will save thee. Dear Quilla looked still into the bottom of the cup, rolling the wine-dregs to and fro. I, he said, if I had a son I would, I think, save him. But do not by any means tell me how thou wilt go about it. Nay, nay, said Falk, nodding his bald head wisely, that is my secret. But rest at ease, dear Quilla, no hair of thy head nor root of thy land shall be forfeited. And he smiled like one planning great good deeds. And henceforward, said dear Quilla, I counsel thee to serve one master, not two. What, said Falk, can I work no more honest trading between the two sides these troubleous times? Serve Robert or the king, England or Normandy, said dear Quilla. Not which it is, but make thy choice here and now. The king, then, said Falk, for I see he is better served than Robert. Shall I swear it? No need, said dear Quilla, and he laid his hand on the parchment which Gilbert had written. It shall be some part of my Gilbert's penance to copy out the savoury tale of thy life till we have made ten, twenty and hundred, maybe, copies. How many cattle think you would the Bishop of Tours give for that tale, or thy brother, or the monks of Blois? Minstrels will turn it into songs which thy own Saxon serfs shall sing behind their plow-stilts and men at arms riding through thy Norman towns. From here to Rome, Falk, men will make very merry over that tale and how Falk told it, hanging in a well like a drowned puppy. This shall be thy punishment, if ever I find thee double-dealing with thy king any more. Meantime the parchment stay here with thy son. Him I will return to thee when thou hast made my peace with the king, the parchment's never. Falk hid his face and groaned. Bones of the saints, said dear Quilla, laughing. The pen cuts deep. I could never have fetched that grunt out of thee with any sword. But so long as I do not anger thee, my tale will be secret, said Falk. Just so long. Does that comfort thee, Falk? said dear Quilla. What other comfort have ye left me? he said, and all of a sudden he wept hopelessly like a child, dropping his face on his knees. Poor Falk, said Euna. I pitted him also, said Sir Richard. After the spur, corn, said dear Quilla, and he threw Falk three wedges of gold that he had taken from our little chest by the bed-place. If I had known this, said Falk, catching his breath, I would never have lifted hand against Pevensey. Only lack of this yellow stuff has made me so unlucky in my dealings. It was dawn, then, and they stirred in the great hall below. We sent down Falk's mail to be scoured, and when he rode away at noon under his own, and the king's banner very splendid and stately did he show. He smoothed his long beard and called his son to his stirrup and kissed him. Dear Quilla rode with him as far as the new mill landward. We thought the night had been all a dream. But did he make it right with the king? Dan asked. About your not being traitors, I mean. Sir Richard smiled. The king sent no second summons to Pevensey, nor did he ask why dear Quilla had not obeyed the first. Yes, that was Falk's work. I know not how he did it, but it was well and swiftly done. Then you didn't do anything to his son, said Euna. The boy? Oh, he was an imp. He turned the keep doors out of door-toils while we had him. He sang foul songs, learned in the barren's camp, poor fool. He set the hounds fighting in the hall. He lit the rushes to drive out, as he said, the fleas. He drew his dagger on Jihan, who threw him down the stairway for it, and he rode his horse through crops and among sheep. But when we had beaten him and showed him wolf and deer, he followed us old men, like a young eager hound, and called us uncle. His father came the summer's end to take him away, but the boy had no lust to go because of the otter-hunting, and he stayed on till the fox-hunting. I gave him a bitten claw to bring him good luck at shooting, an imp, if ever there was. And what happened to Gilbert? said Dan. Not even a whipping. Dear Quilla said he would sooner a clerk, however false, that knew the manor-roll than a fool, however true, that must be taught his work afresh. Moreover, after that night I think Gilbert loved as much as he feared, dear Quilla. At least he would not leave us. Not even when Vivian, the king's clerk, would have made him sacristan of battle Abbey. A false fellow, but in his fashion bold. Did Robert ever land on Pevensey after all? Dan went on. We guarded the coast too well while Henry was fighting his barons, and three or four years later, when England had peace, Henry crossed to Normandy and showed his brothers some work at Tonshebray that cured Robert of fighting. Many of Henry's men sailed from Pevensey to that war. Falk came, I remember, and we all four lay in the little chamber once again and drank together. Dear Quilla was right. One should not judge men. Falk was merry. Yes, always merry, with a catch in his breath. And what did you do afterwards? said Euna. We talked together of times past. That is all men can do when they grow old, little maid. The belferty rang faintly across the meadows. Dan lay in the boughs of the golden hind. Euna, in the stern, the book of verses open in her lap, was reading from the slave's dream. Again in the mist and shadow of sleep he saw his native land. I don't know when you began that, said Dan sleepily. On the middle thwart of the boat, beside Euna's son bonnet, lay an oak leaf, an ash leaf, and a thorn leaf that must have dropped down from the trees above. And the brook giggled as though it had just seen some joke. End of Section 4 Old Men at Pevensey Section 5 A Centurion of the 30th from Puck of Pooks Hill This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Icy Jumbo Puck of Pooks Hill by Rudyard Kipling Section 5 A Centurion of the 30th The Runes on Wheeland's Sword A smith makes me to betray my man in my first fight. To gather gold at the world's end I am sent. The gold I gather comes into England out of deep water. Like a shining fish then it descends into deep water. It is not given for goods or gear but for the thing. The gold I gather a king covers for an ill use. The gold I gather is drawn up out of deep water. Like a shining fish then it descends into deep water. It is not given for goods or gear but for the thing. A Centurion of the 30th Cities and thrones and powers stand in time's eye, almost as long as flowers which daily die. But as new buds put forth to glad new men, out of the spent and unconsidered earth, the cities rise again. This season's Daffodil, she never hears what change, what chance, what chill, cut down last years. But with bold countenance and knowledge small, esteems her seven days' continuance to be perpetual. So time that is o'er kind to all that be, ordains us enus blind as bold as she. That in our very death and burial sure, shadow to shadow, well persuaded, sayeth, see how our works endure. A Centurion of the 30th Dan had come to grief over his Latin and was kept in, so Euna went alone to the far wood. Dan's big catapult and the lead bullets that Hobdon had made for him were hidden in an old hollow beach stub on the west of the wood. They had named the place out of the verse in Lays of Ancient Rome, from Lordly Volaterai 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 Hobdon piled some comfortable brushwood between the big wooden knees of Volaterai, they called him hands of giants. Euna slipped through their private gap in the fence at still awhile, scowling as scowlily and lordlily as she knew how. For Volaterai is an important watchtower that juts out of far wood, just as far wood juts out of the hillside. Pooke's hill lay below her, and all the turns of the brook as it wanders out from the Willingford Woods between hop gardens to old Hobdon's cottage at the forge. The southwest wind, there is always a wind by Volaterai, blue from the bare ridge where cherry-clack windmill stands. Now wind prowling through woods sounds like exciting things going to happen, and that is why on blowy days you stand up in Volaterai and shout bits of the lays to suit its noises. Euna took Dan's catapult from its secret place and made ready to meet Lars Porcena's army stealing through the wind-witened aspens by the brook. A gust boomed up the valley, and Euna chanted sorrowfully, verbena down to Ostia hath wasted all the plain, astur hath stormed geniculum, and the stout guards a slain. But the wind, not charging fair to the wood, started aside and shook a single oak in Gleason's pasture. Here it made itself all small and crouched among the grasses, waving the tips of them as a cat waves the tip of her tail before she springs. Now welcome, welcome, Sextus, sang Euna, 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 and heard a grunt from behind the thorn in the pasture. Oh, my winkey! she said aloud, and that was something she had picked up from Dan. I believe I have tickled up a Gleason cow. You little painted beast! a voice cried. I'll teach you to sling your masters. She looked down most cautiously and saw a young man covered with hoopy bronze armour, all glowing among the late broom. But what Euna admired beyond all was his great bronze helmet with its red horsetail that flicked in the wind. She could hear the long hairs rasp on his shimmery shoulder-plates. What does the thorn mean? he said, half-allowed to himself, by telling me the painted people have changed. He caught sight of Euna's yellow head. Have you seen a painted lead slinger? he called. No, said Euna, 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 thorn tell you I was coming? He smiled. Not if you mean Puck. I thought you were a Gleason cow. I—I didn't know you were a— a—what are you? He laughed outright, showing a set of splendid teeth. His face and eyes were 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 of the thirtieth legion, the Orpia Victrix. Did you sling that bullet? I did. I was using Dan's catapult, said Euna. Catapults, said he, I ought to know something about them. Show me. He leapt through the rough fence with a rattle of spear, shield and armour, and hoisted himself into Volaterai as quickly as a shadow. A sling on a forked stick. I understand, he cried, and pulled at the elastic. But what wonderful beast yields this stretching leather? It's lackey—elastic. You put the bullet into that loop and then you pull hard. The man pulled and hit himself square on his thumbnail. Each to his own weapon, he said gravely, handing it back. I am better with the bigger machine, little maiden, but it's a pretty toy. A wolf would laugh at it. Aren't you afraid of wolves? There aren't any, said Euna. Never believe it. A wolf is like a winged hat. He comes when he isn't expected. Don't they hunt wolves here? We don't hunt, said Euna, 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 cry of 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 some Romans. But you're a Roman yourself, aren't you? said Euna. Yes, and no. I'm one of a good few thousands who have never seen Rome except in a picture. My people have lived at Vectis for generations. Vectis. That island west yonder that you can see from so far in clear weather. Do you mean the Isle of Wight? It lifts up just before rain and we see it from the downs. Very likely, our villa's on the south edge of the island by the broken cliffs. Most of it is three hundred years old, but the cow stables, where our first ancestor lived, must be a hundred years older. Oh, quite that, because the founder of our family had his land given him by a curricula at the settlement. It's not a bad little place for its size. In springtime, violets grow down to the very beach. I've gathered seaweeds for myself and violets for my mother many a time with our old nurse. Was your nurse a Romaness, too? No, a Numidian. God's be good to her. A dear fat brown thing with a tongue like a cowbell. She was a free woman. By the way, are you free maiden? Oh, quite, said Euna, at least till tea-time, and in summer our governess 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 hid among the cliffs. Did you have a governess, then? Did we not? A Greek, too. She had a way of clutching her dress when she hunted us among the gauze bushes that made us laugh. Then she'd say she'd get us whipped. She never did, though, bless her. Aglaya was a thorough sportswoman 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. My sister 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 the western road—the demeter of the baskets, you know. And funny! Roma dare! How mother could make us laugh! What had? 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 Euna. Tell me about all your family, please. Good families are very much alike. Mother would sit spinning of evenings while Aglaya read in her corner, and father did accounts, and we four romped about the passages. When our noise grew too loud, the painter would say, Less tumult, less tumult! Have you never heard of her father's right over his children? He can slay them, my loves, slay them dead, and the gods highly approve of the action. Then mother would prim up her dear mouth over the wheel and answer, Hmm, I'm afraid there can't be much of the Roman father about you. Then the painter would roll up his accounts and say, I'll show you, and then, then he'd be worse than any of us. Fathers can, if they like, said Euna, her eyes dancing. Didn't I say all good families are very much the same? What did you do in summer, said Euna, play about like us? Yes, and we visited our friends. There are no wolves in Vectis. We had many friends, and as many ponies as we wished. It must have been lovely, said Euna. I hope it lasted forever. Not quite, little maid. When I was about sixteen or seventeen, the father felt gouty, and we all went to the waters. What waters? At Aquisolus, everyone goes there. You ought to get your father to take you some day. But where? I don't know, said Euna. The young man looked astonished for a moment. Aquisolus, he repeated, the best baths in Britain. Just as good, I'm told, as Rome. All the old glutton sit in its hot water and talk scandal and politics, and the generals come through the streets with their guards behind them, and the magistrates come in their chairs with their stiff guards behind them, and you meet fortune-tellers and goldsmiths and merchants and philosophers 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 in politics. We had not the gout. There were many of our age, like us. We did not find life sad. But while we were enjoying ourselves without thinking, my sister met the son of a magistrate in the West, and a year afterwards she was married to him. My young brother, who was always interested in plants and roots, met the first doctor of a legion from the city of the legions, and he decided that he would be an army doctor. I do not think it is a profession for a well-born man, but then I'm not my brother. He went to Rome to study medicine, and now he's first doctor of a legion in Egypt, at Antinoe, I think, but I have not heard from him for some time. My eldest brother came across a Greek philosopher and told my father that he intended to settle down on the estate as a farmer and a philosopher. You see, the young man's eyes twinkled, his philosopher was a long-haired one. I thought philosophers were bold, said Euna. Not all. She was very pretty. I don't blame him. Nothing could have suited me better than my eldest brother's doing this, for I was only too keen to join the army. I had always feared I should have to stay at home after the estate while my brother took this. He rapped on his great glistening shield that never seemed to be in his way. So we were well contented, we young people, and we rode back to Clousentum along the Wood Road very quietly. But when we reached home, a glire, our governess, saw what had come to us. I remember her at the door, the torch over her head, watching us climb the cliff path from the boat. Aye, aye, she said, children you went away, men and a woman you return. Then she kissed mother and mother wept. Thus our visit to the waters settled our fates 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 Euna. Yes, and the fawn is with him, he replied, as Dan with puck stumbled through the copse. We should have come sooner, puck called, but the beauties of your native tongue, oh Parnesius, have enthralled this young citizen. Parnesius looked bewildered, even when Euna explained. Dan said the plural of dominus was dominos, and when Miss Blake said it wasn't, he said he supposed it was backgammon, and so he had to write it out twice, for cheek, you know. Dan had climbed into Voloteri, hot and panting. I've run nearly all the way, he gasped, and then puck met me. How do you do, sir? I am in good health, Parnesius answered. See, I have tried to bend the bow of Ulysses, but he held up his thumb. I'm sorry you must have pulled off too soon, said Dan. Puck said you were telling Euna a story. Continue, oh Parnesius, said puck, who had perched himself on a dead branch above them. I will be chorus, as he puzzled you much, Euna. Not of it, except I didn't know where Ack, Ack something was, she answered. Oh, Aquisolus, that's Bath where the buns come from. Let the hero tell his own tale. Parnesius pretended to thrust his spear at puck's legs, but puck reached down, caught at the horsetail plume, and pulled off the tall helmet. Thanks, Jester, said Parnesius, shaking his curly dark head. That is cooler. 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 Aquisolus. But he said I had better begin service in a regular legion from Rome. Now, like many of our youngsters, I was not too fond of anything Roman. The Roman-born officers and magistrates looked down 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 of the 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 how many emperors the outlying provinces have set up from time to time, which am 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-eating Scythian? Where did you hear of it? said the pater. Not quite solace, I said. It was perfectly true. This precious emperor Gratian of ours had a bodyguard of fur-cloaked Scythians and he was so crazy about them that he dressed like them. In Rome of all places in the world 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 of the trouble. It began before your time or mine. Rome has forsaken her gods to be punished. The great war with the painted people broke out in the very year the temples of our gods were destroyed. We beat the painted people in the very year our temples were rebuilt. Go back further still. He went back to the time of Diocletian and to listen to him you would have thought eternal Rome herself was on the edge of destruction just because a few people had become a little large-minded. I knew nothing about it. In the history of our own country she was so full of her ancient Greeks. There is no hope for Rome, said the pater at last. She has forsaken her gods but if the gods forgive us here we may save Britain. To do that we must keep the painted people back. Therefore I tell you, Parnesius, as a father, that if your heart is set on service your place is among men on the wall and not with women among the cities. What wall? asked Dan and Euna at once. Father meant the one we called Hadrian's Wall. I'll tell you about it later. It was built long ago across North Britain to keep out the painted people. Picts, you call them. Father had fought in the Great Pict War that lasted more than 20 years and he knew what fighting meant. Theodosius, one of our great generals had chased the little beasts back far into the north before I was born. Down at Vectis, of course, we never troubled our heads about them. But when my father spoke as he did I kissed his hand and waited for orders. We British-born Romans know what is 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 to Clousentum to learn my foot-drill in a barrack full of foreign auxiliaries as unwashed and unshaved a mob of mixed barbarians as ever scrubbed a breastplate. It was your stick in their stomachs and your shield in their faces to push them into any sort of formation. When I had learnt my work the instructor gave me a handful and they were a handful of galls and Iberians to polish up till they were sent to their stations up-country. I did my best to fill a villa in the suburbs caught fire and I had my hand full out and at work before any of the other troops. I noticed a quiet-looking man on the lawn leaning on a stick. He watched us passing buckets from the pond and at last he said to me Who are you? A probationer waiting for a cohort I answered. I didn't know who he was from Ducalian. Born in Britain? He said. Yes, if you were born in Spain I said these words like an Iberian mule. And what might you call yourself when you are at home? He said, laughing. 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 respectable householders and then he grunted across the laurels. Listen young sometimes one thing and sometimes another. In future call yourself Centurion of the Seventh Cohort of the 30th Victrix. That will help me to remember you. Your father and a few other people call me Maximus. He tossed me the polished stick he was leaning on and went away. You might have knocked me down with it. Who was he? said Dan. Maximus himself, our great general the general of Britain who had been Theodosius' right hand in the picked war. Not only had he given me my Centurion but three steps in a good legion as well. A new man generally begins in the tenth cohort of his legion and works up. And were you pleased? said Euna. Very. I thought Maximus had chosen me for my good looks and fine style in marching but when I went home the pater told me he had served under Maximus in the great picked war and had asked him to promote me. A child you were said Puck from above. I was said Parnesius. Don't begrudget me, fawn. Afterwards the gods know 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 little home sacrifice but I never prayed so earnestly to all the good shades and then I went with my father by boat to Regnum to Anderida yonder. Regnum? Anderida? The children turned their faces to Puck. Regnum's chichester, he said pointing towards Cherry Clack and he threw his arm south behind him Anderida's Pevensey. Pevensey again said Dan, where Wheeland landed? Wheeland and a few others said Puck Pevensey isn't young even compared to me. The headquarters of the 30th lay at Anderida in summer but my own cohort, the 7th was on the wall up north. Maximus was inspecting auxiliaries the Abulqui, I think, at Anderida and we stayed with him for he and my father were very old friends. I was only there ten days when I was ordered to go up with thirty men to my cohort. He laughed merrily. The man never forgets his first march I was happier than any emperor when I led my handful through the north gate of the camp and we saluted the guard and the altar of victory there. How? How? said Dan and Euna. Parnesius smiled and stood up flashing in his armour. So, said he, and he moved slowly through the beautiful movements of the Roman salute that ends with the hollow clang of the shield coming into its place between the shoulders. Hi! said Puck that sets one thinking. We went out fully armed, said Parnesius, sitting down. But as soon as the road entered the great forest my men expected the packhorses to hang their shields on. No, I said, you can dress like women in Anderida but while 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 we get sunstroke or a fever then die, I said and a good riddance to roam shield, up spears and tighten your footwear. Don't think yourself emperor of Britain already? a fellow shouted. I knocked him over with the butt of my spear and explained to these Roman born Romans that if there were any further trouble we should go on with one man short. And by the light of the sun I meant it too. My raw galls at Clousentum had never treated me so. Then quietly as a cloud Maximus wrote out of the fern his father behind him and rained up across the road. He wore the purple as though he were already 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. Then he crooked his forefinger and my men walked crawled I mean to one side. Stand in the sun children he said and they formed up a hard road. 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 be your butcher if I killed him now. Do you see what I meant? Parnesius turned to Dan. Yes said Dan it wouldn't have been fair somehow. That was what I thought said Parnesius. But Maximus frowned you'll never be 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 anymore he will live and he will die an officer of a legion and he might have been prefect of one of my provinces now eat and drink with us he said your men will wait till you have finished my miserable 30 stood like wineskins glistening in the hot sun and Maximus led us to where his people had set a meal himself he mixed the wine a year from now he said you will remember that you have sat with the emperor of Britain and Gaul. Yes said the Peter you can drive two mules Gaul and Britain five years hence you will remember that you have drunk he passed me the cup and there was blue with the emperor of Rome no you can't drive three mules they will tear you in pieces said my father and you on the wall among the heather will weep because your notion of justice 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 you never took said the Peter to be unjust to any of your family indeed I say you will make a good officer but so far as I am concerned on the wall you will live and on the wall you will die said Maximus very like said my father but we shall have the Picts and their friends breaking through before long you cannot move all troops out of Britain to make you emperor and expect the North to sit quiet my destiny said Maximus follow it then said my father pulling up a fern root and die as Theodosius died our said Maximus my old general was killed because he served the empire too well I may be killed but not for that reason and he smiled 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 the wall and 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 had been put they had not even shifted their feet in the dust and off I marched still feeling that terrific smile like an east wind up my back I never halted them till sunset and he turned about until below him then I halted Yonder he pointed to the broken bracken covered shoulder of the forge hill behind old Hobdon's cottage there why that's only old forge where they made iron once said Dan very good stuff it was too said Parnesius calmly we mended three shoulder straps here and had a spearhead riveted the forge was rented from the government by a one eyed smith from Carthage 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 in the forest here is 12 miles 700 paces it is all in the road book a man doesn't forget his first march I think I could tell you every station between this and he leaned forward but his eye was caught by the setting sun down to the top of Cherry Clack Hill and the light poured in between the tree trunks so that you could see red and gold and black deep into the heart of Farwood and Parnesius in his armor shone as though he had been a fire wait he said lifting a hand and the sunlight jinked on his glass bracelet wait I pray to Mithras he rose and stretched his arms westward with deep splendid sounding words then Puck began to sing too in a voice like bell's tolling and as he sang he slipped from Volaterai to the ground and beckoned the children to follow they obeyed it seemed as though the voices were pushing them along and through the goldy brown light on the beachleaves they walked while Puck between them shunted something like this Cur mundus militat savana gloria cuyus prosperitas est transitoria tamquito labitor eius potentia quamvasa figuli quaisunt fragilia they found themselves at the little locked gates of the wood cocaiza abiet celsus imperio valdive splendidos totus imprandio diic ubitulius still singing he took Dan's hand and wheeled him round to face euna as she came out of the gate it shut behind her the same time as Puck through the memory magicking oak, ash and thorn leaves over their heads well you are jolly late said euna couldn't you get away before I did said Dan I got away in lots of time but I didn't know it was so late where have you been in Volaterai waiting for you sorry said Dan it was all that beastly latin end of section 5 a centurion of the 30th section 6 On the Great Wall from Puck of Pooks Hill this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Icy Jumbo Puck of Pooks Hill by Rudyard Kipling section 6 On the Great Wall a British Roman song AD 406 my father's father saw it not and I be like shall never come to look on that so holy spot the very Rome crowned by all time all art all might the equal work of gods and man city beneath whose oldest height the race began soon to send forth again such unshakable we pray that clings to Rome's thrice-hammered hardyhood in arduous things strong heart with triple armor bound beat strongly for thy lifeblood runs age after age the empire round in us thy sons who distant from the seven hills loving and serving much require thee thee to guard against home-born the imperial fire on the Great Wall when I left Rome for Lelage's sake by the legions road to Rimini she vowed her heart was mine to take with me and my shield to Rimini till the eagles flew from Rimini and I've tramped Britain and I've tramped Gaul and the Pontic shore where the snowflakes fall as white as the neck of Lelage as cold as the heart of Lelage and I've lost Britain and I've lost Gaul the voice seemed very cheerful about it and I've lost Rome and worst of all I've lost Lelage they were standing by the gate to Farwood when they heard this song without a word they hurried to their private gap and wriggled through the hedge almost atop of a jay that was feeding from Puck's hand gently said Puck what are you looking for Parnesius, of course, Dan answered we've only just remembered yesterday it isn't fair Puck chuckled as he rose I'm sorry but children who spend the afternoon with me and a Roman centurion need a little settling dose of magic before they go to tea with their governess Oh, hey, Parnesius he called Here, Fawn came the answer from Volaterai they could see the shimmer of bronze armour in the beach crotch and the friendly flash of the great shield uplifted I have driven out to the Britons Parnesius laughed like a boy I occupy their high forts but Rome is merciful you may come up and up they three all scrambled What was the song you were singing just now? said Euna as soon as she had settled herself that? Oh, Rimini it's one of the tunes that are always being born somewhere in the empire like a pestilence for six months or a year till another one pleases the legions and then they march to that tell them about the marching, Parnesius few people nowadays walk from end to end of this country said Puck the greater their loss I know nothing better than the long march when your feet are hardened you begin after the mists have risen and you end perhaps an hour after sundown and what did you have to eat? Dan asked promptly fat bacon beans and bread and whatever wine happens to be in the rest houses but soldiers are born grumblers their very first day out my men complained of our water-ground British corn they said it wasn't so filling as the rough stuff that is ground in the Roman ox mills however they had to fetch and eat it fetch it? where from? said Euna from that newly invented mortar mill below the forge that's forge mill our mill Euna looked at Puck yes, yours, Puck put in how old did you think it was? I didn't know didn't Sir Richard Dalingridge talk about it? he did and it was old in his day Puck answered hundreds of years old it was new in mine, said Parnesius my men looked at the flower in their helmets as though it had been a nest of adders they did it to try my patience but I addressed them and we became friends to tell the truth they taught me the Roman step you see, I'd only served with quick-marching auxiliaries a legion's pace is altogether different it's a long, slow stride that never varies from sunrise to sunset Rome's race, Rome's pace as the proverb says 24 miles in eight hours neither more nor less head and spear up shield on your back queer-ass collar open one hand's breadth and that's how you take the eagles through Britain and did you meet any adventures? said Dan there are no adventures south the wall said Parnesius the worst thing that happened to me was having to appear before a magistrate up north where a wandering philosopher had jeered at the eagles I was able to show that the old man had deliberately blocked our road and the magistrate told him out of his own book I believe that whatever his god might be he should pay proper respect to Caesar what did you do? said Dan went on why should I care for such things my business being to reach my station it took me twenty days of course the farther north you go the emptier are the roads they fetch clear of the forests and climb bare hills where wolves howl in the ruins of our cities that have been no more pretty girls no more jolly magistrates who knew your father when he was young and invite you to stay with them no news at the temples and way stations except bad news of wild beasts there's where you meet hunters and trappers for the circuses prodding along chained bears and muzzled wolves the houses change from gardened villas to shut forts with watchtowers of grey stone and great stone walled sheepfolds guarded by armed Britons of the North Shore in the naked hills beyond the naked houses where the shadows of the clouds play like cavalry charging you see puffs of black smoke from the mines the hard road goes on and on and the wind sings through your helmet bloom past altars to legions and generals forgotten and broken statues of gods and heroes and thousands of graves where the mountain foxes and hares peep at you red hot in summer freezing in winter is that big purple heather country of broken stone just when you think you are at the world's end you see a smoke from east to west as far as the eye can turn and then under it also as far as the eye can stretch houses and temples shops and theatres barracks and granaries trickling along like dice behind always behind one long low rising and falling and hiding and showing line of towers and that is the wall ah said the children taking breath you may well said Parnesius old men who have followed the eagle since boyhood say nothing in the empire is more wonderful than first sight of the wall is it just a wall like the one round the kitchen garden said Dan no no it is THE wall along the top are towers with guard houses small towers between even on the narrowest part of it three men with shields can walk a breast from guard house to guard house a little curtain wall no higher than a man's neck runs along the top of the thick wall you can see the helmets of the centuries sliding back and forth like beads 30 feet high is the wall and on the picked side the north is a ditch strewn with blades of old swords and spearheads set in wood and tires of wheels joined by chains the little people come there to steal iron for their arrowheads but the wall itself is not more wonderful than the town behind it long ago there were great ramparts on the south side and no one was allowed to build there now the ramparts are partly pulled down and built over from end to end of the wall making a thin town 80 miles long think of it one roaring, rioting, cock fighting wolf baiting, horse racing town from ituna on the west to segidunam on the cold eastern beach on one side heather, woods and ruins where picked side and on the other a vast town long like a snake and wicked like a snake yes, a snake basking beside a warm wall my cohort, I was told lay at hano where the great north road runs through the wall into the province of valentia harnessias laughed scornfully the province of valentia we followed the road therefore into hano town and stood astonished the place was a fair a fair of peoples from every corner of the empire some were racing horses some sat in wine shops some watched dogs baiting bears and many gathered in a ditch to see cocks fight a boy not much older than myself but I could see he was an officer reigned up before me and asked what I wanted my station, I said and showed him my shield harnessias held up his broad shield with it's three X's like letters on a beer-cask lucky omen said he your cohort's the next tower to us but they're all at the cock fight this is a happy place come and wet the eagles he meant to offer me a drink when I've handed over my men, I said I felt angry and ashamed oh, you'll soon outgrow that sort of nonsense he answered but don't let me interfere with your hopes go on to the statue of romadea you can't miss it the main road into valentia I could see the statue not a quarter of a mile away and there I went at some time or other the great north road ran under it into valentia but the far end had been blocked up because of the pits and on the plaster a man had scratched finish it was like marching into a cave we grounded spears together my little thirty and it echoed in the barrel of the arch but none came we painted with our number we prowled in and I found a cook asleep and ordered him to give us food then I climbed to the top of the wall and I looked out over the picked country and I thought, said Parnesius the bricked up arch with finish on the plaster was what shook me for I was not much more than a boy what a shame, said Euna but did you feel happy after you'd had a good? Dan stopped her with a nudge happy? said Parnesius when the men of the cohort I was to command came back unhelmeted from the cock fight their birds under their arms and asked me who I was no, I was not happy but I made my new cohort unhappy too I wrote my mother I was happy but oh my friends he stretched arms over bare knees I would not wish my worst enemy to suffer as I suffered through my first months on the wall remember this among the officers was scarcely one except myself and I thought I had lost the favour of Maximus my general scarcely one who had not done something of wrong or folly either he had killed a man or taken money or insulted the magistrates or blasphemed the gods and so had been sent to the wall as a hiding place from shame or fear and the men were as the officers remember also that the wall was manned by every breed and race in the empire no two towers spoke the same tongue or worshipped the same gods in one thing only were we all equal no matter what arms we had used before we came to the wall on the wall we were all archers like the Scythians the Pict cannot run away from the arrow or crawl under it he is a bowman himself he knows I suppose you were fighting Picts all the time said Dan I never saw a fighting Pict for half a year the tame Picts told us they had all gone north what is a tame Pict asked Dan a Pict there were many such who speaks a few words of our tongue and slips across the wall to sell ponies and wolfhounds without a horse and a dog and a friend man would perish the gods gave me all three and there is no gift like friendship remember this Parnesius turned to Dan when you become a young man for your fate will turn on the first true friend you make he means said puck grinning but if you try to make yourself a decent chap when you're young you'll make rather decent friends when you grow up if you're a beast you'll have beastly friends listen to the pious Parnesius on friendship I am not pious Parnesius answered but I know what goodness means what he was without hope was ten thousand times better than I stop laughing, fawn O youth eternal and all believing, cried puck as he rocked on the branch above tell them about your pertinacs he was that friend the gods sent me the boy who spoke to me when I first came little older than myself commanding the Augusta Victoria cohort on the tower next to us and the Numidians in virtue he was far my superior then why was he on the wall Euna asked quickly they'd all done something bad you said so yourself he was the nephew his father had died of a great rich man in Gaul who was not always kind to his mother when pertinacs grew up he discovered this and so his uncle shipped him off by trickery and force to the wall we came to know each other at a ceremony in our temple it was the bullkilling Pernesius explained to puck I see said puck and turned to the children that's something you wouldn't quite understand Pernesius means he met pertinacs in church yes in the cave we first met and we were both raised to the degree of griffins together Pernesius lifted his hand towards his neck for an instant he had been on the wall two years well he taught me first how to take heather what's that? said Dan going out hunting in the picked country with a tame picked you are quite safe so long as you are his guest and wear a sprig of heather where it can be seen if you went alone you would surely be killed if you were not smothered first in the bogs only the picked know their way about those black and hidden bogs old Aloe the one-eyed withered little picked from whom we bought our ponies was our special friend at first we went only to escape from the terrible town and to talk together about our homes then he showed us how to hunt wolves and those great red deer with horns like Jewish candlesticks the Roman-born officers rather looked down on us for doing this but we preferred the heather to their amusements believe me Pernesius turned again to Dan a boy is safe from all things that really harm when he is a strider pony or after a deer do you remember, O fawn, he turned to Puck the little altar I built to the silvan pan by the pine forest beyond the brook which? the stone one with the line from Xenophon said Puck in quite a new voice no, what do I know of Xenophon that was Pernex after he had shot his first mountain hare with an arrow, by chance mine I made of round pebbles in memory of my first bear it took me one happy day to build Pernesius faced the children quickly and that was how we lived on the wall for two years a little scuffling with the Picts and a great deal of hunting with old Allo in the Pict country he called us his children sometimes and we were fond of him and his barbarians though we never let them paint us Pict fashion the marks endure till you die how's it done? said Dan anything like tattooing? prick the skin till the blood runs and rub in coloured juices Allo was painted blue, green and red from his forehead to his ankles he said it was part of his religion he told us about his religion Pernex was always interested in such things and as we came to know him well he told us what was happening in Britain behind the wall many things took place behind us in those days and by the light of the sun said Pernesius earnestly but these little people did not know he told me when Maximus crossed over to Gaul after he had made himself emperor of Britain and what troops and emigrants he had taken with him we did not get the news on the wall till fifteen days later he told me what troops Maximus was taking out of Britain every month to help him conquer Gaul and I always found the numbers as he said wonderful and I tell another strange thing he jointed his hands across his knees and leaned his head on the curve of the shield behind him late in the summer when the first frosts begin and the Picts kill their bees we three rode out after Wolfe with some new hounds Routilianus our general had given us ten days leave and we had pushed beyond the second wall beyond the province of Valentia into the higher hills where there are not even any of Rome's old ruins we killed a she-wolf before noon and while Aloe was skinning her he looked up and said to me when you are captain of the wall my child you won't be able to do this anymore I might as well have been made prefect of lower Gaul so I laughed and said wait till I am captain no don't wait said Aloe take my advice and go home both of you we have no homes you know that as well as we do we're finished men we've finished both of us only men without hope would risk their necks on your ponies the old man laughed one of those short Pict laughs like a fox barking on a frosty night I'm fond of you too besides I've taught you what little you know about hunting take my advice and go home we can't I'm out of favour with my general for one thing and for another Pertinax has an uncle I don't know about his uncle said Aloe but the trouble with you Parnesius is that your general thinks well of you Roma dare said Pertinax sitting up what can you guess what Maximus thinks you old horse-copa just then you know how near the brutes creep when one is eating a great dog wolf jumped out behind us and away our rested hounds tore after him with us at their tails the country we'd ever heard of straight as an arrow till sunset towards the sunset we came at last to long capes stretching into winding waters and on a grey beach below us we saw ships drawn up 47 we counted not Roman galleys but the raven winged ships from the north where Rome does not rule men moved in the ships and the sun flashed on their helmets winged helmets of the red-haired men where Rome does not rule we watched and we counted and we wondered for though we had heard rumours concerning these winged hats as the Picts called them never before had we looked upon them come away come away said Aloe my heather won't protect you here we shall all be killed his legs trembled like his voice back we went back across the heather under the moon till it was nearly morning and our poor beasts jumbled on some ruins when we woke very stiff and cold Aloe was mixing the meal in water one does not light fires in the Pict country except near a village the little men are always signalling to each other with smokes and a strange smoke brings them out buzzing like bees they can sting too what we saw last night was a trading station said Aloe nothing but a trading station I do not like lies on an empty stomach I suppose he had eyes like an eagle I suppose that is a trading station also he pointed to a smoke far off on a hilltop ascending in what we call the Picts call puff double puff double puff puff they make it by raising and dropping a wet hide on a fire no said Aloe pushing the platter back into the bag that is for you and me next come we came when one takes heather one must obey one's picked but that vetched smoke was twenty miles distant well over on the east coast and the day was hot as a bath whatever happens said Aloe while our ponies grunted along I want you to remember me I shall not forget said Pertinax you have cheated me out of my breakfast what is a handful of crushed oats to a Roman he said I laughed his laugh that was not a laugh what would you do if you were a handful of oats being crushed between the upper and lower stones of a mill I'm Pertinax not a riddle guesser said Pertinax you're a fool said Aloe your gods and my gods are threatened by strange gods and all you can do is laugh threatened men live long I said I pray the gods that may be true he said but I ask you again not to forget me we climbed the last hot hill and looked out on the eastern sea three or four miles off there was a small sailing galley of the north gall pattern at anchor her landing plank down and her sail half up and below us alone in a hollow holding his pony sat Maximus emperor of Britain he was dressed like a hunter and he leaned on his little stick but I knew that back as far as I could see it and I told Pertinax you're madder than Aloe he said it must be the sun Maximus never stirred till we stood before him then he looked me up and down and said hungry again? it seems to be my destiny to feed you whenever we meet I have food here Aloe shall cook it no said Aloe a prince in his own land does not wait on wandering emperors I feed my two children without asking your leave he began to blow up the ashes I was wrong said Pertinax we are all mad speak up oh madman called emperor Maximus smiled his terrible tight-lipped smile but two years on the wall did not make a man afraid of mere looks so I was not afraid I meant you, Parnesius to live and die an officer of the wall said Maximus but it seems from these he fumbled in his breast you can think as well as draw letters I had written to my people full of drawings of pics and bears and men I had met on the wall mother and my sister always liked my pictures he handed me one that I had called Maximus's soldiers it showed a row of fat wineskins and our old doctor of the Hunno hospital snuffing at them each time that Maximus had taken troops out of Britain to help him conquer Gaul he used to send the garrisons more wine to keep them quiet I suppose on the wall we always called a wineskin a Maximus oh yes and I had drawn them in imperial helmets not long since he went on men's names were sent up to Caesar for smaller jokes than this true Caesar said Pyrtonax but you forget that was before I your friend's friend became such a good spear-thrower he did not actually point his hunting spear at Maximus his palm so I was speaking of time past said Maximus never fluttering an eyelid nowadays one is only too pleased to find boys who can think for themselves and their friends he nodded at Pyrtonax your father lent me the letters Parnesius so you run no risk for me none whatever said Pyrtonax and rubbed the spear-point on his sleeve I have been forced to reduce the garrisons in Britain I need troops in Gaul now I come to take troops from the wall itself said he I wish you joy of us said Pyrtonax with the last sweepings of the empire the men without hope myself I'd sooner trust condemned criminals you think so he said quite seriously but it will only be till I win Gaul one must always risk one's life or one's soul or one's peace or some little thing Alo passed round the fire with the sizzling deer's meat he served us to first ah said Maximus waiting his turn I perceive you are in your own country well you deserve it they tell me you have quite a following among the pits Parnesius I have hunted with them I said maybe I have a few friends among the heather he is the only armoured man of you all who understands us said Alo and he began a long speech about our virtues and how we had saved one of his grandchildren from a wolf the year before had you said Euna yes but that was neither here nor there the little green man aerated like a like Cicero he made us out to be magnificent fellows Maximus never took his eyes off our faces enough he said I have heard Alo on you I wish to hear you on the pits I told him as much as I knew and Pyrtonax helped me out there is never harm in a pit if you but take the trouble to find out what he really wants their real grievous against us came from our burning their heather the whole garrison of the wall moved out twice a year and solemnly burned the heather for ten miles north Rutillianus our general called it clearing the country the pits of course scampered away and all we did was to destroy their bee bloom in the summer and give food in the spring true quite true said Alo how can we make our holy heather wine if you burn our bee pasture we talked long Maximus asking keen questions that showed he knew much and had thought more about the pits he said presently to me if I give you the province of Valentia to govern could you keep the pits contented till I won gore stand away so that you do not see Alo's face and speak your own thoughts no I said you cannot remake that province the pits have been free too long leave them their village councils and let them furnish their own soldiers he said you I am sure would hold the reins very likely even then no I said at least not now they have been too oppressed by us to trust anything with a Roman name for years and years I heard old Alo behind me mutter good child then what do you recommend said Maximus to keep the north quiet till I win gore leave the pits alone I said stop the heather burning at once and they are improvident little animals send them a ship load or two of corn now and then their own men must distributed not some cheating Greek accountant said pertinax yes and allow them to come to our hospitals when they are sick I said surely they would die first said Maximus not if Parnesius brought them in said Alo I could show you 20 wolf-bitten bear clawed pits within 20 miles of here but Parnesius must stay with them in hospital else they would go mad with fear I see said Maximus like everything else in the world it is one man's work you I think are that one man pertinax and I are one I said as you please so long as you work now Alo you know that I mean your people no harm leave us to talk together said Maximus no need said Alo I am the corn between the upper and lower millstones I must know what the lower millstone means to do these boys have spoken the truth as far as they know it I a prince will tell you the rest I am troubled about the men of the north he squatted like a hare in the heather and looked over his shoulder I also said Maximus or I should not be here listen said Alo long and long ago the winged hats he meant the north men came to our beaches and said Rome falls, push her down we fought you you sent men we were beaten after that we said to the winged hats you are liars make our men alive that Rome killed we will believe you they went away ashamed now they come back bold and they tell the old tale which we begin to believe that Rome falls give me three years peace on the wall cried Maximus and I will show you and all the ravens how they lie ah I wish it too I wish to save what is left of the corn from the millstones but you shoot us pigs when we come to borrow a little iron you burn our heather which is all our crop you trouble us with your great catapults then you hide behind the wall and scorch us with Greek fire how can I keep my young men from listening to the winged hats in winter especially when we are hungry my young men will say Rome can neither fight nor rule she is taking her men out of Britain the winged hats will help us push down the wall let us show them the secret roads across the bogs do I want that? no, he spat like an adder I would keep the secrets of my people though I were burned alive my two children here have spoken truth leave us pigs alone comfort us and cherish us and feed us from far off with the hand behind your back Parnesius understands us let him have rule on the wall and I will hold my young men quiet for he ticked it off on his fingers one year easily the next year not so easily the third year perhaps see, I give you three years if then you do not show us that Rome is strong in men and terrible in arms the winged hats I tell you will sweep down the wall from either sea till they meet in the middle and you will go I shall not grieve over that but well I know tribe never helps tribe except for one price I will go too the winged hats will grind us to this he tossed a handful of dust in the air oh, Roma Daya said Maximus half allowed it is always one man's work always and everywhere and one man's life said Aloe you are emperor but not a god you may die I have thought of that too said he very good, if this wind holds all by morning tomorrow then I shall see you too when I inspect and I will make you captains of the wall for this work one instant Caesar said Pertenax all men have their price I am not bought yet do you also begin to bargain so early said Maximus well give me justice against my uncle Isenus the duum via of Divio in Gaul he said I thought it would be money or an office certainly you shall have him write his name on these tablets on the red side the other is for the living and Maximus held out his tablets he is of no use to me dead said Pertenax my mother is a widow I am far off I am not sure he pays all her dowry no matter my arm is reasonably long we will look through your uncle's accounts in due time until tomorrow, oh captains of the wall we saw him grow small across the heather as he walked to the galley there were pits scores each side of him hidden behind stones he never looked left or right he sailed away southerly full spread before the evening breeze and when we had watched him out to sea we were silent we understood earth bred few men like to this man presently Allo brought the ponies and held them for us to mount a thing he had never done before wait a while said Pertenax and he made a little altar of cut turf and strewed heather bloom atop and laid upon it a letter from a girl in Gaul what do you do, oh my friend I said I sacrificed to my dead youth he answered and when the flames had consumed the letter he ground them out with his heel then we vowed back to that wall of captains Parnesia stopped the children sat still not even asking if that were all the tale Puck beckoned and pointed the way out of the wood sorry he whispered but you must go now we haven't made him angry have we said Euna he looked so far off and and thinky bless your heart no wait till tomorrow remember you've been playing lays of ancient Rome and as soon as they had scrambled through their gap where oak, ash and thorn grow that was all they remembered end of section 6 on the great wall