Bevis Part 31

"Only bread-and-b.u.t.ter and ham, and summer apples. It's a picnic."

"A picnic. What's that ribbon for?" Bevis wore the blue ribbon round his arm.

"O! that's nothing."

"I've half a mind to tell--I don't believe you're up to anything good."

"Pooh! don't be a donk," said Bevis. "I'll give you a long piece of this ribbon when I come back."

Off he went, having bribed Scylla, but he met Charybdis in the gateway, where he came plump on the Bailiff.

"What's up now?" he gruffly inquired.

"Picnic."

"Mind you don't go bathing; the waves be as big as cows."

"Bathing," said Bevis, with intense contempt. "We don't bathe in the evening. Here, you--" donk, he was going to say, but forebore; he gave the Bailiff a summer apple, and went on. The Bailiff bit the apple, muttered to himself about "mischief," and walked towards the rick-yard.

In a minute Mark came to meet Bevis.

"You did him?" he said.

"Yes," said Bevis, "and Polly too."

"Hurrah!" shouted Mark. "They're all there but one, and he's coming in five minutes."

Bevis found his army a.s.sembled by the gate leading to the New Sea. Each soldier wore a blue ribbon round the left arm for distinction; Tim, who had been sent by Pompey to be with them till all was ready, wore a red one.

"Two and two," said Caesar Bevis, taking his sword and instantly a.s.suming a general's authoritative tone. He marshalled them in double file, one eagle in front, one halfway down, where his second lieutenant, Scipio Cecil, stood; the basket carried in the rear as baggage. Caesar and Mark Antony stood in front side by side.

"March," said Bevis, starting, and they followed him.

The route was beside the sh.o.r.e, and so soon as they left the shelter of the trees the wind seemed to hit them a furious blow, which pushed them out of order for a moment. The farther they went the harder the wind blow, and flecks of brown foam, like yeast, came up and caught against them. Rolling in the same direction as they were marching, the waves at each undulation increased in size, and when they came to the bluff Bevis walked slowly a minute, to look at the dark hollows and the ridges from whose crests the foam was driven.

But here leaving the sh.o.r.e he led the army, with their brazen eagles gleaming in the sun, up the slope of the meadow where the solitary oak stood, and so beside the hedge-row till they reached the higher ground.

The Plain, the chosen battle-field, was on the other side of the hedge, and it had been arranged that the camps should be pitched just without the actual campaigning-ground. On this elevated place the gale came along with even greater fury; and Mark Antony said that they would never be able to light a camp-fire that side, they must get through and into shelter.

"I shall do as I said," shouted Bevis, scarcely audible, for the wind blew the words down his throat. But he kept on till he found a hawthorn bush, with brambles about the base, a detached thicket two or three yards from the hedge, and near which there was a gap. He stopped, and ordered the standard-bearer behind him to pitch the eagle there. The army halted, the eagles were pitched by thrusting the other end of the rods into the sward, the cloaks, coats, and rug thrown together in a heap, and the soldiers set to work to gather sticks for the fire. Of these they found plenty in the hedge, and piled them up in the shelter of the detached thicket.

Bevis, Mark Antony, and Scipio Cecil went through the gap to reconnoitre the enemy. They immediately saw the smoke of his camp-fire rising on the other side of the Plain, close to a gateway. The smoke only rose a little above the hedge there--the fire was on the other side--and was then blown away by the wind. None of Pompey's forces were visible.

"Ted, I mean Pompey, was here first," said Mark Antony. "He'll be ready before us."

"Be quick with the fire," shouted Caesar.

"Look," said Scipio Cecil. "There's the punt."

Behind the stony promontory at the quarry they could see the punt from the high ground where they stood; it was partly drawn ash.o.r.e just inside Fir-Tree Gulf, so that the projecting point protected it like a breakwater. The old man (the watcher) had started for the quarry to get a load of sand as usual, never thinking, as how should he think? that the gale was so furious. But he found himself driven along anyhow, and unable to row back; all he could do was to steer and struggle into the gulf, and so behind the Point, where he beached his unwieldy vessel.

Too much shaken to dig sand that day, and knowing that he could not row back, he hid his spade and the oars, and made for home on foot. But the journey by land was more dangerous than that by sea, for he insensibly wandered into the high road, and came to an anchor in the first inn, where, relating his adventures on the deep with the a.s.sistance of ardent liquor, he remained.

Bevis, who had gone to light the fire with the matches in his pocket, now returned through the gap, and asked if anything had been seen of Pompey's men. As he spoke a Pompeian appeared, and mounting the spars of the distant gate displayed a standard, to which was attached a white handkerchief, which fluttered in the breeze.

"They're ready," said Mark Antony. "Come on. Which way shall we march?

Which way are you going?"

The smoke of Caesar's fire rose over the hedge, and swept down by the gale trailed along the ground towards Pompey's. Bevis hastened back to the camp, and tied his handkerchief to the top of an eagle, Mark followed. "Which way are you going?" he repeated. "Where shall we meet them? What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," said Caesar, angrily pushing him. "Get away."

"There," growled Mark Antony to Scipio, "he doesn't know what he's going to do, and Phil is as cunning as--"

The standard-bearer sent by Caesar pushed by him, got through the gap, and held up the white flag, waving it to attract more attention. In half a minute, Pompey's flag was hauled down, and directly afterwards some one climbed over the gate and set out running towards them. It was Charlie. "Run, Tim," said Caesar Bevis; "we're ready." Tim dashed through the gap, and set off with all his might.

"Two and two," shouted Caesar. "Stand still, will you?" as they moved towards the opening. "Take down that flag."

The eagle-bearer resumed his place behind him. Caesar signing to the legions to remain where they were, went forward and stood on the mound.

He watched the runners and saw them pa.s.s each other nearly about the middle of the great field, for though little, Charlie was swift of foot, and full of the energy which is more effective than size.

"Let's go."

"Now then."

"Start."

The legions were impatient and stamped their feet, but Caesar would not move. In a minute or two Charlie reached him, red and panting with running.

"Now," shouted Bevis, "march!" and he leaped into the field; Charlie came next for he would not wait to take his place in the ranks. The legions rushed through anyhow, eager to begin the fray.

"Two and two," shouted Caesar, who would have no disorder.

"Two and two," repeated his first lieutenant, Mark Antony.

"Two and two," said Scipio Cecil, punching his men into place.

On they went, with Caesar leading, straight across the wind-swept plain for Pompey's camp. The black swifts flew about them, but just clearing the gra.s.s, and pa.s.sing so close as to seem almost under foot. There were hundreds of them, they come down from the upper air, and congregate in a great gale; they glided over the field in endless turns and windings. Steadily marching, the army had now advanced a third part of the way across the field.

"Where's Pompey?" said Scipio Cecil.

"Where shall we meet and fight?" said Mark Antony.

"Silence," shouted Bevis, "or I'll degrade you from your rank, and you shan't be officers."

They were silent, but every one was looking for Pompey and thinking just the same. There was the gate in full view now, and the smoke of Pompey's camp, but none of the enemy were visible. Bevis was thinking and trying to make out whether Pompey was waiting by his camp, or whether he had gone round behind the hedge, and if so, which way, to the right towards the quarry, or to the left towards the copse, but he could not decide, having nothing to guide him.

But though uncertain in his own mind, he was general enough not to let the army suppose him in doubt. He strode on in silence, but keeping the sharpest watch, till they came to the waggon track, crossing the field from left to right. It had worn a gully or hollow way leading down to the right to the hazel hedge, where there was a gate. They came to the edge of the hollow way, where there were three thick hawthorn bushes and two small ash-trees.

"Halt!" said Caesar Bevis, as the bushes partly concealed them from view. "Stay here. Let no one move."

Bevis himself went round the trees and looked again, but he could see nothing: Pompey and his army were nowhere in sight. He could not tell what to do, and returned slowly, thinking, when looking down the hollow way an idea struck him.