CHAPTER XXIII
The episodes I now relate are so strange, so nearly impossible, that
I
hesitate to set them down lest you should call me
307
untruthful and a jonglet~r; nevertheless, they are told as they occurred,
and you must believe them as you may.
My quaint reduse had not been slain that night we trieLL l! s infernal
el~gine, but had lain in a long SWOOII af ter I car r.~ d him from amid
thewreck and `~/b~'sof hisdenout intOthO moonlight. That swoon,
indeed, lasted for a whole day~ and night; and :F,lizabeth wrung her
wliite hands over her fail~or's seeming lifeless body, while EmantLe1
picked his yellGw teeth rellectively with his dagger-point at the couch
foot, and Danle l\Iargery spent all her art in ungllerlts and salves UliOII
the luckless inventor ere he showed signs of returning life.
At last, however, he revived, and made a long, slow recovery of many
days under the geiltle mblistering of his women. And while he throve
hour by hour in the spring sullshine on the bench of his porch, I wooed
his daughter in wayward, dissatisfied kind, and laughed scornfully at the
blacl; Spaniard's jealous scowls, and WOII the mellow heart of the old
dame by my gallantness and courtesy. IJut it was child's play. I longed
again to feel the hot pulse of keen emotions throbbing in my veills, to
struggle Witil some strong tide of hot adventure, and so at last I had
made
np my mind to leave my good host and hostess at an early season, and,
turning so~dier again, espouse the first quarrel which chance threw in
my
way.
Then one day it happened -- a strange day indeed to me -- old Master
Adam Faulkener had grown weary of his cranks and fan-wheels, and had
gone for solace to his dusty tomes and classics. E:xploring amid them,
in
an eventful moment no had taken down a missal penned by some old
Sa::on monk, and turned to a passage he must have known well, sil~ce it
was marked and thumbed. And while the ancient scholar read and
mumbled over that quaint black-letter with its gorgeous gold and crimson
uncials, I, who chanced to staun a little way apart, saw the wan blood
mount in a thin pink glow to the enthusiast's cheeks, and in that flush
recoguized that he was warm upon another quest. He mlinlble4 and
mattered to himself, and while he saulltered up and dowh, or stopped
now an(1 then to thumb and pore over that icathern volume, I caught in
disJointed fragments some pieces of 1~is thoughts: " Ea, ha! a most likely
find indeed, a splelidid trcasure-llouso of trophies! And to think that
no
one but old =\n.brose and I wot of it, ho, ho! what does he sav? 'And in
this place was destroyed a noble house, and the antrer of the Lord fell
on
the l~agalL defenders, and they were slaill one and all. Ah! God leveled
their iclolatrous dwelling-places and scattele their ashes to the four
winds
of heaven, and with them were
308
destroyed, the common legend sayeth, all their hoards of bra~se ~and
silver>- all their accursed images of bronze and gold, all their trinkets
and
fine raimel~t, so that the ve~'geance of the Lord was complete, atld the
ntathen Tvas utterly7 ~viped out.' Good? very good, BroillL?r Ambrose,"
muttered the old man, wim chuckling pleasule. "And now where did this
thing lj n pen? ' l'his IIOusC? Whif.h hal'bOrEd SO ~'ch lewdness stood
on
the hill3ck I'y a road a few miles from the river, and had all that land
which Inow iS holy pcrquisite to the neigllboring abbey ' (lood, good!
for
certaill 'tis the s-ery spot I thought of. A happy, haI:py cha~lce ihat
made
me light upon this passage -- I, who live so l~ear the spot it spoaks of
-- I,
who alone of thousands can use it as the golden key to unlock such a
sweet mino of relics as that buried pagall home must be. Oll' Ambrose,
I
am gratefult" And patting nle musty monkish tome in childish pleasure,
he replaced it reverently {lpon its shelf.
Then up and down he paced, the stunent's passion borning hot within
nim, mnttering as he `selit: " Why l~ot to-night? why not, ``hy not? There
is no season better for such a work tha~; S00ll, and I h`rve my license;"
whereon he went to a 1?eg in the wall and fumbled in the wallet of the
ragged cloak I had seen him wear the ~~ight we met. ln a mitlute out
c~me a brand-new scroll of parchment, neatly r~ ned and folded, am
stamL~ed with the royal seal. That scroll Adam E'aulkener undid, and
setting his hol~l glasses Gh his nose, began to read the paper at arm's-
le~~gth with i~larticulate sounds of rapture. It seemed to delight him
so
mucl~ that presently I sauntered o;-er to share in the merriment,
forgetting I had thus far been unobserved; but when we came within two
paces of each other, the scholar, perceiving me, with a cry of dismay
stuffed the crushed parchrhen t hurriedly into his bosom, as thm~gh he
thon~ht hiriiself about to be robbed of something precions by a suLideil
ambuscade. However, in a minute, he recognized the robber and was
reassured, VLt undecided still, and inch by inch the v,hite roll came forth,
while the old man kept his eyes fixed on mine. What were his scrips and
scrous to me? I smiled to note the store he set by them. There was not
one of those poor things could interest me more nearly thau a last year's
leaf from the gardell yonder; and yet, strange to say, that white roll,
creeping into light from under his rusty gabardine, did attract me
somellow. Long life and strange experience have wakened in me senses
domlant in othLr nlortals, and I begin to be conScious of a knowled~e
l~eyond common knowing, a sel~se be
309
hind other senses, which grows with p.'iZ"tiCS, and seems ambitious by
and by to bringe the gulf `~!I;c h separates tangible from unreal, and
what
is from that \,ill I,~. That growinSr perspicacity within me sm'lled
som~mim' of weight about Faulkener's writing more than usual, arZtl
with my curiosity gently roused I queried:
"'i'hat seems a scrip of value, sir. Is its interest particular or pnblic?"
"ln some ways, good youth," Faulkener answered, hesitatingly, as he
unfolded the scroll so slowly ¥tS thotlgh he were jealoua even of the
pryiur' sunshine -- "in some waYs the interest of what this is the key
to is
very gereral, and in othLr ways it is, at least for some time to come,
most
private."
"Ruougll!" I said, "and I am sorry to ha`~e questiorc you; but your
pleasure in the tome over there suggested just now that this were some
general matter of curiosity -- some dark passage hl history whereon,
perhaps, two mi~lds might shed more light than one. I ask indthgence for
intrusion."
"Na~v, but stop a minute. Nistory, did you say? whY, this is historv; thi3
is t,be birth-scrip of a braun-new l~age iZ1 history; this is leave to
turll a
leaf no other fiubers have ever turued, to spell out in swect ashas and
loZely frabments a whole chapter, pc~uht'ce, of the by-gone. Bc~y!" cried
the ohl fell~tw, gra~ping m`T arm with his lean fingrers, and whisperi
i~
hl my ear as thouSrh he dreaded the grinniu~r mummy of l~ll.`raDll in
the shadow might play eavesdropper3 " can you l~cep a seeret~'?
"Ay, fairl~v, wheII it does not interest me."
"~TIly, then -- there! take that and read it;" and FaulkeZler thrust the
roll
intO my hands, a~ cast himse.lf into an attitune, and crossed his arms
tlpail
his chest, and stared at me from under his shaggy eyebro`> s as if he
faueied to see fear and wo~lder and delight fly over my conutetntuce
while my eyos devoured that precious deed of his. what was there so
wou~ ~lercul ~u it? rl'he thing tvas sealed and tasseled, th~e ink and
papsr
were new, the parchment white; it was, in fact, the very velium Faulkener
had been on his way to beg at court when we two met; a wonderful
chance, as you shall presently sue -- an extraordinary hap, hZ(leed, that
brouglZt me to hi3 side out of the great wastes of time at the very instant
tNthen tlult RUeient ssholar was on the road to ask that licerZso. But
I did
not know while I read how ncally the parch~hen t toucd~.ed me. It looked
just an ordinary nZissi`Te from high au.l~ority to humble petitiorler,
profuse and verbose, signed and COtliltersi~rrted, and amid a wilderness
of words just a grain of
310
sense, that I construed as giving the bearer leavo to seek for treasare
on
certaill lands the!ein mentioned, and adopt the same to his p!oper pleasure
withoat tax or drawbacl`.
"This may b~o a golden . ey, sir," was my respouse as the thing was
h.l!nied buck, "but it is difflotht to learn anything of the door it opens
by
looking m1 it,"
"Yet ne\rcrtheless, you~~g man. it is a golden key, and you shall see me
use it; for if, as yo~~der brol~en engh~e hints, the Fates will that I
may
not pry into the misty future, yet with their leave, with the help of this
and you, will I peep intO the even more shadowy past. Were you ever at
the opening of an ancient crypt -- a stony hiding-place, ior instance,
where
dead me.l's boues lay all about mid dim gems~and the rusty iron
playthings of love and war?"
"I do recall one such an episode."
- " And did it not affect you greatly?"
"Greatly indeed,"
"Ay, boy, and this that I will show you shall affect you more; we two will
turn a leaf whith shall read as clear to you as though ym~ had been at
the
writing of it a thousand years before. Ht is a grassy hillock, and you
shall
lift that sod with me; and if this Thisg is as I thiilk it is, oh! you
shall start at
wllat you find, and coward agae shall unstring vour soldier logs, you shall
be damb with wouner, and ply your mattock with damp, foarful awe
beaded on your forehead; and starting cYes fixed fast in horrid pleasure
on what we wiil unearLIl. Ay, if you have a spark of gener.ous
comprehension, if one drop of the milk of khlduess still bides within you,
you shall people this place we go to fiun with SUCil teeming, sprightly
iancies, such moving m~ckeries of frail human kind new risen from their
ashes at yoar feet, that you shall wrklg your hands out of pure rue for
them that were, and pluck your beard in dumb chagrill, and bent upon
your heart, even to wateh all .llat which ouce was rundy valor and hot
love, and white bcauty go adritting so Upon the dusty evening wintl. Yot.
will come with me?"
"Old man," I said, pacing up and down with folded arms and bent head,
"'twas U'pOll my tongue to say I wouLl not; I h.3ed a fair tryst to keep
this
evening, and something that I have seen of late makes such ventures as
you have planned dotlbly distasteful to nle; 'twas in my miild to laugh
and
silake my head; but, goos! you have stirred a pulse wiThin me that rouses
me with resistless wondcr; yoar wolds tell on me strangely; there is
something in that you say which echoes throu~h my heart like the
fooLf~ll of ~ stor~u Upon the hollow
3ll
earth, and I can do nothing but listen and acquiesce. I will come,"
"Glood youth, good youth, I knew you would; and, that our hopes may
not safftr by delay, let us prepare at once. Get you mattocts, spade, and
pick, with whatever other tooki your strellgth £I,all need, and I
will feed
and have my prctty paZfrey saddled, and COII von crabbed passage over
once agaisl. So we will be ready; an¢1 at nightfall, under the yellow
stars,
will start upon a -veLZture that vou shall think on for many a day,"
I bc~nt my head, and we did as Faulkener sug`~ested. But a strange
unrest possessed Tne. When spade and mattock were hidden where we
could take them up iaZ secret (for we did not wish our enterpriso too
wislely known), the time hung wondrously heavy on hand. ALL the
tedious hours before sanset I was oppressed with an all~iety quaint and
inexplicable, half wishing by turns I had not promised to jOill the mad
old
fei~1ow i~1 his mooulight quest, and then laughislg my scruples down
and beeoming as restloss for tlsle start 2`S before I had been reluctant.
As
for the scholar himseif, the very shirt of Dejanira possessed him, and
his
impatience shone behind his yeltow wrislklad face like a candle inside
a
horll lantern. Somehow the hout-s wore throagll, however, and when the
evenill~ was come we sct forth, Faulkener pale aed eloquentl' ravin:'from
astride of that mean palfrey wbose sumpter pad was loaded witli our
tools on one side, and on the other a monster sack whereiu to brilJg back
all the treasure we were to rille, and I on foot leading that gentle beast,
and thoughtful past propGrtion or reasoH.
At first we pushed on at a brisk pace by familiar roads, but after a time
our path lay more to the eastward, the scholar said, and oslce off the
sJroad white track leading to the nearest town t~slO mad grew narrower
and inore narrow. On we went in silence, ~rile a~cter milo; by autty lanes
where twittering bats flitted up and dowsl the 1. s ck arcades of
overhallging bush and brier; by ru.;`ly fats wilele the water stood Wall
and din1 in the uneertahl light; now brushislg by the heavy, dewaden
branches of a N`oodmail s pam throrlgh deep thickets of oak anl ~ eelN.
a~ I Ib~s~ folloviing a winding sheep-track over lh~g a ,d g ~rsc. S~ s~;
'~b.`r iNttS tl;at wa5', a::d so few the signs f~f lif, aro!.3c~f~.l l;
~`v The
~chol;~r k~pt f an th s~i~sa~~on; i~!'t 1~; . i;.` ~;~'tc\. 1~`i:,t lSl.til
he
~icems:,a.:l, \`,'il~' t~` I,lllbed sil:~!t~y '`r,~jil me ~;~~ ~iZ:l ~;~`ed
! s
n..~l~1s iil o!Z :.~~ I~~~!~~n1 to n;9 ~i,,~s~oii~ll lilC,t.,,iiLs,'1 fOU'IrI
t~lo~ll a .liii~lce word 01 1wO he was isi soisue kind watching the stars,
atZd 1eading us for"
312
ward by their dim light toward that goal whereof he had got knowledge
from his musty tomes. On we went through the still, starry night, pacing
along from black shadows to black shadows, and moomight to silver
moonlight, until it must havo been withill an hour or twe of day-breaking,
for under the purplo pall of sky there was a long strean1 oL pale light
in
the east. It w as about that time, and tha night shadows wore strong and
ebony, and the cold brcath and deep hush of a coming morning hung
over everythill~, when Faulkener first began to hesit~te, and presently
confessed that that which he sought for shothd be somewhere here, but in
the glin~mer of the starlight he was uncertaiu whether it lay to right
or
left. We halte`l, and, mounting on a hillock, peered all about us, but
to
little purpose, for the somber night hid everything, the massed forest
trees rose tier upon tier on every hand, like mountaill ranges running
on
indefinite into the gloomy passes of the clouns, and the chauce gleams
of
moonlight, lying white and still upon the dew-damp mevdows, were so
like great misty lakes and rivers it were dlfficult to say whether they
were
such or not.
So back we scrarllbled once more, and unnitched our patient beast from
the hazel whereto we had tied him, and plutlged on again by dingUe and
sa'~dy road, and rough woodlaun path, until we were hopclessly mazGd,
and there seemed nothmg for it but to wait till daylight or go empty back.
Yet, reluctant to do either, we held to it a little, hoping some chance
might
favor U6. 'Twas past midnight; not a crowof distant cock or yelp of village
cur broke the dead sthbless, and we were plodding down a turfy road,
when on a surlden our patient steed threw forward his ears and came to
a
dead stop, aun, alluost the same minute, the gray-clad figure of a
countryman in loDg cape and hood, a wide slouch hat UpOll his head, and
a tail staff in his hand, came out from the depth a hundred vards ahead
of
us, and with slow, measured gait and bent lace walked down toward us.
Old Faulkener was overjoved. nere was one who knew the corlutry, and
wothd show us his precious hillock; and he shouted to that stranger, and
tugged his palfrey's rein But that obscrvant beast was strangely reluctant;
he went on a pace, then stopped and backed and pawed the silent ground,
thron ing his pricked ears forward, whinlJying, and staring at thai s~lent
coming stranger with strange disquiet in every movenlerlt. And I- - I
sympat}lized with that dumb brute; and as the coulltiyman canle near
somehow my blood ra~l cold ani1 colder; my tongue, that was swa~ to
ask the way, stuck helpless tG my teeth; a foolisl~
313
chill beset my limbs; and by the time we met I had oniy wit enough left
to
stare, speechless, at that gray forni, in si!ent expectation. But the old
philosopher did not feel these tremors. He was delighted at our good-
luck, a~id, fun~bling in his wallet, pulled out a small silver piece which
he
tendi i ed to the man, explaining at the sarlle time our need, and asKing
him to guide us.
The stranger took the COill ill silence, and, l~eeping his Lace hidden
in the
shadow of his hat, said the monun was n~ar, "he knew it well, he had
bided by it lollg," and he would willingly S}now us where it lay. Back
we
`vent by copse and heather, back for half a mile, then turlled to the right,
and in a few min.ltes more came Otlt of the brush~vood into th~e
starlight, and there at our very feet the ground was swellblg np in a gentle
sweep to the flat top of a little islaun hill lost in the sea of forest-land
abont
it. It was the place we can~e for, and the scholar, without another thought
for tlS, jOyfilily pricked his steed to the rise, and was soon out of sight
round the shoulder of the ground.
But I! Oh, what was that strange, dull hesitation that made my feet heavy
as lead upon that threshold? Whence came those thronging, formless
fancies that crowded to my mind as I surveyed that smoothly ronuned
hillock and all the fantastic shad~ws beyond it? rlihat spot was the same
one I had waunered to when I walked lonely from Faulkener's house, and
here chauce brought me to it anew at dead midnight, and all the old thrills
of indistinct remembrance I Then had felt were worl~ing in me again with
redoubled force, moving my soul to such unrest that I l~ent my head and
hid my eyes, and strove loug and sainly to recall~why or when I had last
trodden that soil, as somewhere and somehow I was certaiu that I had.
Thinking and thinking without purpose, presently I looked up, and there,
two paces away, was still that gray hedgeman leaning on his staff and
regarding me from under his country hat with calm, souness attention. I
had forgotten his presence; and it was so strange to see him there so rustic
and so stately that I started back, and an unfamiliar chill beset me for
an
instant. But it was only a moment; then, angry to have been surprised,
I
turned haughtily UpOD him, and, with folded arms, h~ mockingness of
his own stern attitune, stared prounly into those black shadows where
should have been his face. Jove' 'twas a stare that would not have
blauched for all the lighbriing of a C~sar's eye, or wavered one moment
bencath the grin1 returning gaze of any tyral~~ that ever livedj and yet
even as I looked iJlto tha~t Yoid my
314
soul turued to water, and my eyelids quivered and bent and drooped, my
arms fall loose and nerveless to my side, and every power of free action
forsool, me.
That being took my perturbation with the same cold lack of wonder he
had showu throu~llout. He eyed me for a~ minnte with his sleepy, stately
calm, and then he said, "You have been here before,"
"Yes," I answered; " but how or when only The great gods know;" and
though I noticed it not at the moment, yet since it has flashed upon me
as
another link in a wounroLIs chain that at that moment both I and the gray
countryman were using the lollg-forgotten Eritish tongue.
"And woold you know, would you recall?" he queried in his passionless
voice.
"Ay, if it is within vour power to stir my memory. stir it, in the name
of
loun Taranis, of old Belenus, and all the other dends I ouce believed in!"
"NVell, sworn, Phtenician!" said that tall, nocturnal wanderer, and without
another word grasped his stafl, and, Siglling to me to follow, led round
the shoulder of the hillocl; to where, aloue and solitary, we twu v.ere
stayed by a trickling rivulet that sprung from a grassy basin in the slope
and went by a little rushy course winding down intO the dusky thickets
beyond. At that pool my guide stopped sunderny, then, pOint. ing with
stern finger shll shrouned under the folds of his ample cloak:
"Drink!" l~e cried. "Drink and remember!"
1 conld no more have thwarted him than I could have torn that solid
mound from off its base, and down I went UpOI} Olle kllee, and took a
broket1 crock some shepherd had left behind and filled it, and put it to
my
lips and drank. 'lher~ up I leaped with a wild yell of wouner and
astolli~hmellt, svl~ile right across the suhen miL night sky, it
seemed,
there shot out in one broad, living piature all the pairlted pageantry
of my
Ron~an life. I saw old Poman Britaiu rise befole rric. and the quaint
templed towns of a splendid epoch 1eL~p into sl~al~e from the tumbled
chaos of the evening clouns. I saw the crowded episodes that had
followed after my reawakouing in the cave where my pri~leess had laid
me; the faces of my jolly, lorlg-dead comrades scemed thronging round
about me; I heard the street cries of a I~oman-British city; i saw the
dust
rise, and the glitter as the ¥,halanses wheeled and turrled L~pOU the
castra before the por-; n where, a gay patrician gallant, I lounged in
gold
and turquois armor. I saw Electra's ivory Vjll~ start i~to form and
s~~bstauce out of the pale, filtering
315
Tunor moomight, and the great wh te bull, and the haughty lady, stately
and tall, beckoning me ul~ her marble stet)s; and then I was wiTh her,
her
petted youLII, lyLlg ;ndotent and happy, toying disdaillfully with the
imperial love she profcrred me, whilo we filled our rainbow shells from
that bright foulltaiu that spurted in her inner court.
With a wild cry I dropped the shepherd's crock and started back. The
water I was SippiD~ was the wNater of nectra's sourt-yard fountain!
GOLIS! tliere was no~~e other like it. Ofteh we two haddrunkof
thatcrystal tr~rrol~t 3S it burst, full of those sweet earth-salts the
Romans
loved so well, from the bowels of the earth straight irlto hor ~~early
basins; the last time I had stooped to it was on that night of fiery combat
when Flectra's villa fell; and here I was fiippit~g of it again, so strarlgely
and unexpectedly that I hi(l my eyes a space, scL~rte knowing what might
happen next. ~ beil I uncovered thern the black, dusky olouns bad s`~-
nno~ved the pahlted pageantry of my vision, the night wind blew ckill
romld the grassy slope, the noman villa am fountain ha~l gone from the
gray shadows where we stood; only the tinkle of the falling water was left
in the darkness, and in front of me still the t`th figure of that gray-clad
countryman. Only that countrymn! :~oth! how can I describe the rush of
kedl wonder and fear which swept over me when, looking at hirm again,
I saw that he had turlled back the flap of his wide liat, and there, in
the
dead gray light, was staring at me -- the same stern, passionless face
that
had come to my sh3ulder in the reek and heat of combat on this very spot
thirteen hundred years before, and, doing the bidding of the great unk
:rown, had drawn me from thosD fiery shambles only JuSt in time.
I kllew him then, on the instant, as DO mortal, and glared and glared at
him with every uerve at tension, and speechless tongue, too numb to
question; and while I stared like that, with the strong emotion playing
o~1
lip and eDe~it was only a mi~lute or so, though it scemod aD epuch -- the
face of that being was lighted by a smile, sedate and impalpable.
'1hen, turning to me with gentle su~~eriority, he said: " You have been
lollg, Phoe~~icirm! They told me you would come again, and I have
waited -- waited for you here these few hundrod years -- waited until I
ncar tired of watching all your drcling vagaries. lIere is the place you
came
to-night to find -- .ny errand ends! Dig, wo~nler, and reflect; this I
was
told to show you and to sa~7!" ,~nl like the echo of his own words, like
the
shadow of a cloun upon a rock, that strange messell,
316
ger of another life was drunk up by the darkness right in front of my
worldering eyes.
So swift auA silent was I is passage back irito the outer vagueness that
for
a minute I could uot believe he ha.l goue in truLIl, and held my breath,
and stared up and down, expeching h* would fashiou again out of the
draughty air, or speak aboVo or below, OllEE Hl,re, ill that voice,-
everysyllable of ~vlliell fel' clear on my soul, like waior falling in
a well.
But ¥t was useless to listen and peer into the gloom. the shfipo was
gone
beyoun recall; and while my mind still pondered over the ,strarlgeness
of
it, keeping me spell-bound at the brink of that enchauted fountaiu, with
bent head and folded arms, trying to guess how much of this was f`~ntasy
and how much fact, there rose a shout npon the still uight air, and, raishJ~
m~r eyes, there was I;aulkener's quaint blaok image capering wildly on
the dusky sky-lille, the while he brandished aloft in ono hand a spade;
and
in the other -- looking quaintly like a newsevered head darlgling by the
hair--the first sofl he had cut of that " treasure-heap2'so dear and dreadful
to me.
I went suhen ly up to the reduse, full of such strange, confZiCting feelings
as you may suppose, and found him eager and excited. He had marked
out a long furrow across the crest of' the hill, "and this we were to open
and strike out right or left according as our venture throve." Jovel I
stared
for a time at that black trench as though it were the narrow lip of h --
n,
which presently should yawu and throw up a grim, ghostly, warlilie crew,
worso than those who frightelled Jason.
un then I laughed in bitterness and perplexity, and tore off my doublet
and rolled my tunic sleeves above my shmllder, and took a spade, and at
one strong heave plunged it deep intO the tender bosom of the swelling
turf just over where the outskirts of tha ancient Romar1 house had been,
and wrenched it ~~p. Then in again, and then again, while the mad
philosopher capered in the twilight to watch my sinewy Stl ength so well
applied, and the whist~ing bats swept curious rounci us. I had not turned
back a stitch of that light, peaty coverlet, whetZ down my spade sunk
through an inrler crust, deep into something soft and hollow-seeming,
and the next minuto Faulkener, who also had set to work, was into the
same fine strata too. W o laid it bare, and there below us shoue a floor
of
white dim ashes, mixed with earth, and leaves, and roots.
"1\ torch! a torch!" vellc~d Faulkouer, and down he went upon his k~lees,
and, wild with exultatiml, wallowod in that powdery stuff, throwing it
out
by handfuls and.~!rllfuls, till 3ll his clothes were coYered Wifll it,
and his
hoary be~rl Wf4S
317
etill more hoar~, and his white face still tnore v,hite, and his m~d
twiakling eyes were still mote lunatic, and I helping him, full Of crowding
hopes and frars. And so we dr'~r and grrove1ed and scraped, while the
pale stars t~vinkled overhcad, antil SOO.1 my master gave a shollt, and
looking r~uick,y at him -- Jove! he was hand in hand with a dead white
hand that he had uneoveretl, and was h:lulirlS,r.Dt it hl f;antie eagc~ness,
aild scraping away the rubbish above, aml sli~~l:'inD aild l~lilnging aml
stagrgering in the gray dust, while the be`~ded sweat shollo on his
Lorellcad, and his white elf-locl~s were all astray nl~oll the night air;
and
then -- gods! -- it began to gi`-e, and I hekl my breath -- knowing ull
I
knew -- while the white sthif cracke;1 aml heaved about that ghostly
paml, autl thon it opo~red, and -- first his heatl, and then his shoulders,
and then his stiff contorted limbs -- my master dragged out into the
starshine, with one strong effort, a bulky ancient warrior!
There in the torch-light which liaulkeller held a~ove him, slept that kiln-
dried soldier. nLe lay tlat upon }liS back, and, while one knotted shriveled
fist iVa9 stretched stiiT in front in deathless anger, the broken digits
Of his
other hand were welded by red iron dust about the red rusty hilt of a
bladeless sword. And that soldier's souness face was set stiff and hard,
while on his stern, shut lips and deep in his eyeless sockets even now
restless passion and quencmess hate seemed smoldering. About that frail
'nody still clung in melancholy tatters the shreds and rem~~ar~ts of
purple webs and golden tissue. On his ShOUIderS' SU,'ll,. intO his
witholed, lifeless flesh, were the moldy straps and scales of harness and
cuirass, and on his head what once had been, though now it was more like
winter wrack, a gay helmet and a horseman's nodding crimson plume. It
was a ghostly plavEhing to unearth like that under the wavering starlight,
and it was doubly dreadf~ll to note how death-like was it, while yet all
the
hot life-passiou lay stamped forever in unchanging lierceness on the
hideo~ls mask of dissolution. I turned away as Faulkener, gleefully
shouting that he was a thousand years old ie he was a day tore the russet
trophies from him, and pushed him down the hill;
turned away, grimly frowning, out into the black starlight, with folded
arms, for that conto.tec1 thing .was jolly CQDjus Martius, my merry
Byzantine captain of those mercenaries who stood it out with me thrDt
h1st night of Roman power in England! Jolly Cains Martius! Of Ltn we
two had set the British dogs a-yelping as we wandered home from noisy
midnight frolics down the moonlit terni'1e streets; often we two had
driven the same boar to bay deep in his reedy stronghold;
318
oftes1 at banquet and at feast, when the roses lay deep below and the
strong was~ll bseath of scented wine hung thick above, th-it cslrly bl.tOk
head tha Mercian damsels liked so well had sunL happy and heavy on my
shoulder. Jove! how the world lutd sl-sln since then; and there was
Faulkener pushing him sl~~va, the slope, alsd I colZld IZOt raise a
comrade finger for n.cr`~\' ('aisis, ansl coshd only stupidly remember,
as
the ,ss``aviling h~.lp werlt trurldlill5g, away i';to the branZblLs, how,
in
That lo!~g ago, I had owed him half a silver talent and had never yet
repaid it"
Well, ~ve t'ell to work again, and, furtlZer Qn, amic'Z the passages when
these asleicnt nlen nu~1 fought a~,d iallell in ille rout, we found a lirllb,
and cLug about it till we uncovered another strange, t`~-isteel hide of
what was once hslmarlity -- a stalwart shell this OS)t', but Faulkener
thought little on him because he ~vo~ e no linlss or chains, and set him
rolling after the oths~r with scant cerermony. The next we came to
scerrled by gear and n caporls a southern mercenary. He lay asprawl
upon his face, and my master levered him out and plucked him of his
scanty metal relics with no more compunction than if he wore a pigeon.
It
was grim wild work, there under the leer of the yellow dawning, all in
the
hush of the twilight, eoming on those ghastly rclics thus one by one, and
prizing therrl out of their a~hy shell~~ and turning them over; and
reading on each blaGis murllmy mask, that seemed to smile and grin with
dead ferocity inlder the flickering flambeauligilt, the countenance and
fashion of ancient comrade and ally. And ever and anon as I worked, held
to the labor by a strange fascination, the melancholy footfall of the gusty
wind came p~tcing round the hill, and with a frown and start I would look
over my shoultler, half fearing, half noping it was my gray countryman
come once more. So we toiled, and to led, while the nigrllt walled, and
Faull~ener's treasure-heap WftS swelling. Anrl the nearer we worked to
the center of that ample round of corridors and courts the thicker came
to
light those old-world fighters, and presently we got right down to the
tessellated paving of E1ectra's lordly hall, and here we fonnd what it
was
which made all these ancient warriors so still and lasting. It was that
strange, mysterious fountain. That jet of pungent taste and wondrous
properties, when the walls fell in, had overflowed its basins and
percol~tted through the deep soft ashes Iying thick about these ma~ble
rooms aml cl~ambers, and, by the StOIly magic wherewiTh it was
charged, had lbled and filled those ancient gentlemen it met with, and
thereafter, in long dark mouths of
319
sile~lce, had stlpplemented their wasting tissues with its calcareous
sediment, and kept them forever as we fonun them -- stral~ge, horrible,
exact, and real, with passion and life stamped deep on every face, and
strellgth and vigor in every limb, although those faces were omy ashy
macl~s, and those limbs no stouter tharl the volklnl on which I w rite.
Under that crust of welded stone and ashes it was wonder-full to see how
perfectly was everything prescrved. \Nre raised it in great Hakes from
the stony flooring, and all the stain and litter of the fight lay under
it, as
thotlgh they were not a dozen hours old; we chipl?ed that scaly covering
from the walls, and there, fresh as the moment they were made,
gleameCI tZp under our wavering torch-light all the gay mural paintings,
the smu~lges of battle, and the scars of ax: and arrow. We lifted that
pale,
stitf shroun from the inner chambers, and beneath lay shreds and shells
of
furniture and gear; the half-baked loaves were in the oven; the flesher's
knife was on the block. I,boured about the bounds of that stately ruin
we
went, uncovering at every spadeful something mournful, lorgetting
fatigue and time, as wonder after wonder rose to view; thus we came at
last to the mid-court, where the great fight had been, and peeled the thill
turf from off it far and near.
We had scarce begun to rake aside the ashes, when down to help us came,
out of the black parting clouns. stroug gusts of cold morning wind,
blowing fitfully at first and chill, and sobbing overhead and all about
us, as
though the gray air was full of spirits. It gathered strength, aun, wailing
over the wide floor we had uncovered, in one strong breath swept back
the veil of ashes, and there -- Jove! -- all amid the jUtS of fahen
masonly
and stumps of beam and rafter, blackened in that fire which seemed but
yesterday, were high, protruning knees of dead combatants, and stifF
bent elbows, as thick as grass; and haggard, wizened faces, all stamped
with twenty fiue degrees of terror; and fierce clillchod fists, and hands
that
still waved above thein brokeH hilt and blade. There they lay in heaps
and
rucks about that ancient villa Iqoor, just as they had died fighting, amid
the red choking ashes of the blazing roof, all horribly life-like, ar.d
yct so
grimly dead! Old Faulkeller yelled in sheer affright, and oapered, and
shook his fists toward them, ~nld tore his leall white locks'tween dread
and wonder; and stiffc my thrygia~l curls seemed on my head, and cold
the sweat upou ---y fcirellGad.
And then, while we watr.lled, a very wonderful thing hap~ pened, and,
dreadful aHd beautiful, those cinders began to
320
glow. Jutting beam and rafter grew red and redder, pile and timber and
cornice cau~ht the ambient blush, the crimson stain crept 3ll across the
hall, it burned in nmekery upon ruined wall and portico, and lighted with
all unealtmy radiance those parched, contorted faces that grinned and
leered and frowhed, still in frantic struggle with their l~intl, all rOUI14
U3.
Was I mad? W'as this some hideous last drlusion which beset my aching
mind and horror-surfeited eyes? l!`:o, there was Faulkener; he saw it too,
and had fahen on his knees and buried his fearful face behind his
hauns
and thrown his ~,abardine `.Ioak over hiS head to shat out that dreadful
sight. I drew my hand across my face and looked again: it was true, too
true -- that charred and ancient villa was all alight once more; wherever
fire had been, at es ery PO;IIt and crevice, there the anibient glow was
smoldering with a ilameless brightness. It underlay the silver ashes with
a
hot goklc
shine; it gilded all the fahen metal statues of gods and goddesses
until
they seemed to shimmer beneath its touch; it sholle near by ur.der the
walls and far out upon the steps -- it was so real, so terribly lil.e what
it
had been here a tlmusand years before, that I half bent to take a weapon,
in the delusion of that brillia~lt fantasy, a husky cry of encouragement
to
those stark, ancient warriors half framed itself upon my lips -- and then,
how exactly I knew not, but somehow a slight illsequence flashed upon
me, and in another minute I had SPUn angrJlY rowld upou my heel -- alid
there I saw, right bchind us, CUInI, benignant, crimsou, the great May
sun
was topping the easter oak-trees.
CHAPTER XXIV.
To Contents Page
Chapter 24
