Marcus: the Young Centurion Part 31

"Hark at that!" he muttered. "And after all the trouble I took to mend that bit of fence! Talk about sheep always following one another through a gap, why they are nothing to swine! They want a gap, too, for the leader to go through, but an old boar big with that snout of his and them tusks, he'll bore and bore and bore till he makes a little hole a big un, and once he gets his snout in he drives on till he gets right through. Now, I've mended that hole so as you'd have thought it was quite safe; but hark at that! He's got right through into the garden, and the old sow and the young uns has followed him. But just wait a bit till I get my staff, and I'll make such music as will bring Master Marcus out to ask me if I am killing a pig. There's no room about the place to please them, no miles of acorn and chestnut forest so that they can fill themselves as full as sacks, but they must come into my garden and raven there! Nothing will do for them but my melons and cuc.u.mbers!

Well, we'll just see about that."

Serge rose from his seat, after taking hold of the spear that he had rested against the side of the chariot, and with his eyes closely shut took a couple of steps forward, and then stopped short with his eyes wide open, as he stared wildly round in an absolute state of confusion and strove hard to make out where he was.

For some moments his mind was a complete blank, and the darkness seemed impenetrable, while his mind absolutely refused to answer the mental question--Where am I?

Then he knew, and there was fierce anger in the low tones of his voice, which formed the self-accusatory words:

"Why, I've been asleep!"

He struck a sharp blow with the staff of his spear; but it was not at the imaginary patriarch of the home herd, but at his own head, which was saved from harm by his helmet, the stroke causing a sharp sound sufficiently loud to make Lupe utter an ominous growl, and the horses where they were tethered start and stamp.

"And sarve you right too!" growled Serge, removing his helmet, which he had knocked on one side, and softly rubbing one spot that had felt the bottom edge keenly. "And here have I been going on about being honest and keeping a true watch over that boy! Here, I'm proud of myself, I am! If I go to sleep again it shall be standing up, anyhow." And pulling himself together he shouldered his spear and commenced pacing up and down, to keep it up steadily hour after hour, only pausing to listen from time to time, to hear nothing more suspicious than the regular night sounds of a camp surrounded by sentries and scouts and on the watch for an enemy known to be near at hand.

Marcus slept well till daybreak, when the first warning of the enemy's movements was given, and he sprang to his feet, to find himself face to face with Serge.

"What was that?" he cried.

"Trumpet, boy. Make ready. The enemy's going to stir us up again."

CHAPTER TWENTY.

IN THE SNOWY Pa.s.s.

Serge's announcement was quite correct, for while the Romans rested, the enemy had been gathering together again among the hills, and were coming on in force to attack the camp; but what they had failed to do by their night attack proved doubly difficult in the light of day. The little Roman force, though vastly outnumbered and surrounded, was well commanded by a skilful officer, who was able, by keeping his well-disciplined men together, to roll back the desultory attacks delivered on all sides, till, quite disheartened, the enemy retreated in all directions and the march was resumed again.

That day's tramp and the many that followed were a succession of marches through an enemy's country, with the foe always on the watch to hara.s.s the little force, and cut it off from joining the main invading body far ahead.

Every day brought its skirmishes, with victory constantly on the Roman side.

There was no want of bravery on the enemy's part, but the discipline of the little civilised division with its strong coherence was too much for the loose dashes, ambushes, and traps that were laid.

The consequence was a slow, steady advance that nothing could impede, through the fertile plains of the South and ever onward, with the snow-capped mountains growing nearer and nearer, till the great pa.s.s was at hand that had been traversed by the main army, and no difficulty was then experienced as to the route, for its pa.s.sage was marked plainly enough by the traces of the many encounters and the ruin and destruction that indicated its way.

"Shall we never overtake them?" said Marcus, one evening.

"Well, if we keep on I suppose we shall," replied the old soldier. "But what's your hurry? Are you tired out?"

"Oh, no," cried the boy; "we don't go fast enough for that; but I am anxious to join father once again."

"Humph!" grunted Serge. "I don't feel so much in a hurry myself.

Perhaps we shan't overtake him at all."

"But we are going to join the army."

"We are going just where our captain takes us, boy. He's doing his work splendidly, and so are we."

"What, keeping on with these little petty skirmishes?"

"Of course, boy. Don't you see how we are keeping the enemy from closing in about the army's rear, and saving them from destroying and burning every homestead and village whose supplies are wanted for our men?"

"Oh, I don't quite understand," cried Marcus, impatiently.

"Leave it to your leader, then, boy. That's what a good soldier ought to do. But what's the matter with you? Cold?"

"Yes, horribly. Why, it was as hot as could be in the valley this morning."

"Well, no wonder," said Serge, with a grim smile. "We were all amongst the trees and pleasant gra.s.s down there, and now on each side and straight before you--"

"Yes," said Marcus, as he glanced around him. "It looks all very bleak and bare down here."

"Up here, boy. We have been steadily rising all the day. Look at the ice and snow up yonder and straight before us. This time to-morrow we shall be shivering amongst the snow."

"But we can't get the horses and the baggage right over that mountain in front." And he pointed at the jagged peaks and hollows which were glistening like gold in the last rays of the setting sun.

"No, boy, but we can go on along this rugged valley, which leads right through, and then when we get to the top of the pa.s.s begins to go down again, when we shall find it getting warmer every hour till we are once more in the plains amongst the green fields and forests of the enemy's country. Look there at that stream," and the old soldier pointed to the dingy-coloured rushing waters which flowed by the side of the level which their leader had chosen as the site of that night's camp.

"Yes, I see; and it isn't fit to drink," said Marcus.

"Snow water," said the old man, shortly. "Well, which way does it run?"

"Why, towards us, of course."

"Well, by this time to-morrow, if it's like one that I tramped by with your father years ago, we shall have found it coming out from underneath a bed of ice, left it behind, and on the other side of the hill come upon another flowing right away to the north and west; and alongside of that road will be our road, right into the enemy's country, and the enemy posted every here and there to stop us from reaching the plain-- that is, if Julius and your father have not driven them right away. But most likely they have, and all our troubles now will come from the rear."

Serge's remarks, based upon old experience, proved to be pretty correct, for the troubles of the little force began to come thick and fast. Up to the time of that last halt the attacks had been made by the little parties, each under its own leader, and they came from front, rear, and flanks, in all directions, for the rush made by one portion of a tribe would act as the signal for others to follow suit, and it frequently happened that the Roman soldiers were completely surrounded. But now as they moved on towards the north and west, the pa.s.s they had entered and which wound or zig-zagged its way more into the mountain chain which divided the land of the Gauls from the Roman dominions, closed in more and more, beginning as a beautiful open valley and gradually changing its nature as it rose till it a.s.sumed the nature of a gorge or rift.

The sides were no longer soft gra.s.sy slopes broken by little vales which afforded shelter for the enemy, and from which they made their fiercest rushes, coming down like furious torrents from the hills and often in company with the streams by whose sides they made their way, but hour by hour grew steeper till they a.s.sumed the nature of rugged walls, impa.s.sable to any but climbers or the goats that browsed their sterile paths in herds. The mountains here towered up higher and higher in their stern frowning majesty, scantily furnished with growth, save here and there the earth that had been washed down from above afforded sustenance to a patch of spear-like pines with their dark, sombre, blackish green needles. The roughest of rough stony tracks was now the detachment's path, and it became hard work, approaching to climbing, for the heavily-armed foot soldiers, difficult for the cavalry--whose horses needed the sure-footedness of mules to get along, their riders having to dismount and lead their steeds--while for the little train of chariots the difficulties were almost insurmountable. The pony-like pairs that drew them were safer footed and got on better than the heavier animals that bore the Roman mounted men, but the chariots were always in need of help. Sometimes one wheel would be high in the air, sometimes the other, while often the drivers and riders had to make a rush to help drag or push the low, heavy vehicles over some more rugged spot.

For there was no regular road now that they were beyond the Roman dominions, where directly a country was conquered the new owners set themselves to form a level military road, but simply a rough, rock-enc.u.mbered track.

"Yes, it's bad going," Serge said, "but it would want a far worse way than this to keep back a Roman army. Our men with all their baggage have been along here, as you see, so of course we can follow; and it's splendid for us in the way of safety."

"Yes," agreed Marcus; "every attack must come now from the front or rear. These mountain walls make splendid allies to guard our flanks."

"Front--rear--flanks! Well done!" cried Serge. "I like that. You're getting quite the soldier, my boy."

Matters proved to be better still as they moved higher up the pa.s.s, not in the way of the road improving, but respecting the difficulties with the enemy, for after the latter had made a brave stand in one spot where the pa.s.s widened out for a s.p.a.ce, and fought stubbornly for a while, the little Roman force cut their way through and into the narrow portion where the walls of the gorge closed quite up on either side, leaving only room for the grey muddy stream and the road track along which Marcus and his friends made their way, completely freed from all attack save from the rear, where a fierce pursuit was kept up, fresh parties of the enemy giving up and retreating after delivering their attack and being rolled back.

The fighting was sharp, the brunt of it being borne by the foot soldiers, who protected the rear, while the chariots were forced over the many difficulties and the horses helped along, a portion of the foot being far in advance, ready for any body of the enemy which might be blocking their way in ambush.

It had been rough work that day, and the men, after the amount of fighting they had gone through, were beginning to look dispirited and feel disheartened, for in addition to the length of the struggle, the supplies had run short, and everyone knew that no more food could be obtained until they had forced their way through the desolate pa.s.s, over the summit, and down the other side to the cultivated and inhabited regions below.

But their leader was well suited to his task, and he seemed to be everywhere, with a word or two of encouragement and praise, stopping to help the men with the baggage animals, heading a party sent forward to lever the great blocks of stone that impeded progress, and ready directly after to urge his trembling horse back among the rocks the moment the echoes of the shouts behind warned him that there was a fresh attack in the rear. There were two of these, one directly after the start at sunrise, and a second high up the pa.s.s at mid-day, when as he bade the hors.e.m.e.n and the chariots pa.s.s on, he laughingly in Marcus'

hearing told his soldiery to make use of the loose rocks to form a rough breastwork behind which they could fight, and all the better for the cavalry being out of their way.

That fight was bitter and long sustained, and as the turmoil came echoing up the gorge to where Marcus and Serge were striving hard to master the difficulties before them and urge their willing little chariot horses on, the latter frowned as he rubbed his blue nose and responded to something Marcus had said.