Bevis: The Story of a Boy
Page 29
the Bailiff looked in, and said there wassome sheet lightning in the north, and he was going to call back some ofthe men to put tarpaulins over two or three loaded waggons, as hethought, after so much dry, hot weather, there would be a great storm.The lightning increased very much, and after it grew dusk the flasheslit up the sky. Before sunset the sky had seemed quite cloudless, butnow every flash showed innumerable narrow bands of clouds, very thin,behind which the electricity played to and fro.
While Bevis and Mark were watching it, Bevis's governor came out, andlooking up said it would not rain and there was no danger; it was asky-storm, and the lightning was at least a mile high. But thelightning became very fierce and almost incessant, sometimes crookedlike a scimitar of flame, some times jagged, sometimes zigzag; and nowand then vast acres of violet light, which flooded the ground and showedevery tree and leaf and flower, all still and motionless; and afterwhich, though lesser flashes were going on, it seemed for a moment quitedark, so much was the eye overpowered.
Bevis and Mark went up into the bench-room, where it was very close andsultry, and sat by the open window with the swords for Pompey bound upin two bundles and the standards, but they were half afraid no one wouldcome for them. Their shadows were perpetually cast upon the white wallopposite as the flashes came and went. The crossbow and lance, theboomerang and knobbed clubs were visible, and all the tools on thebench. Now and then, when the violet flashes came, the lightning seemedto linger in the room, to fill it with a blaze and stop there a moment.In the darkness that followed one of these they heard a voice call"Bevis" underneath the window, and saw Phil and Val Crassus, who hadcome for the swords. Mark lowered the bundles out of window by a cord,but when they had got them they still stood there.
"Why don't you go?" said Mark.
"Lightning," said Val. "It's awful." It really was very powerful. Thepears on the wall, and everything however minute stood out moredistinctly defined than in daytime.
"It's a mile high," said Bevis. "It won't hurt you."
"Ted wouldn't come," said Phil. "He's gone to bed, and covered hishead. You don't know how it looks out in the fields, all by yourself;it's all very well for you indoors."
"I'll come with you," said Bevis directly; up he jumped and went down tothem, followed by Mark.
"Why wouldn't Ted come?" said Mark.
"He's afraid," said Phil, "and so was I till Val said he would come withme. Will lightning come to brass?" The flashes were reflected from thebrass rings on the standards.
"I tell you it won't hurt," said Bevis, quite sure, because his governorhad said so. But when they had walked up the field and were quite awayfrom the house and the trees which partly obstructed the view, he wasamazed at the spectacle, for all the meadow was lit up; and in the skythe streamers of flame rose in and out and over each other, till youcould not tell which flash was which in the confusion of lightning.Bevis became silent and fell into one of his dream states, when, as Marksaid, he was like a tree. He was lost--something seemed to take him outof himself. He walked on, and they went with him, till he came to thegate opening on the shore of the New Sea.
"O, look!" they all said at once.
All the broad, still water, smooth as glass, shone and gleamed,reflecting back the bright light above; and far away they saw the wood(where Bevis and Mark once wandered) as plain as at noontide.
"I can't go home to-night," said Phil. Val Crassus said he could sleepat his house, which was much nearer; but he, too, hesitated to start.
"It _is_ awful," said Mark.
"It's nothing," said Bevis. "I like it." The continuous crackling ofthe thunder just then deepened, and a boom came rolling down the levelwater from the wooded hill. Bevis frowned, and held his lips tighttogether. He was startled, but he would not show it.
"I'll go with you," he said; and though Mark pointed out that they wouldhave to come back by themselves, he insisted. They went with Pompey'slieutenants till Val's house, lit up by lightning, was in sight; thenthey returned. As they came into the garden, Bevis said the battleought to be that night, because it would read so well in the historyafterwards. The lightning continued far into the night, and stillflashed when sleep overcame them.
Next morning Bevis sprang up and ran to the window, afraid it might bewet; but the sun was shining and the wind was blowing tremendously, sothat all the willows by the brook looked grey as their leaves wereturned, and the great elms by the orchard bowed to the gusts.
"It's dry," shouted Bevis, dancing.
"Hurrah!" said Mark, and they sang,--
"Kyng Estmere threwe his harpe asyde, And swith he drew his brand."
This was the day of the great battle, and they were impatient for theevening.
There was a letter on the breakfast-table from Bevis's grandpa,enclosing a P.O.O., a present of a sovereign for him. He asked thegovernor to advance him the money in two half-sovereigns. The governordid so, and Bevis immediately handed one of them to Mark.
About dinner-time there came a special messenger from Pompey with aletter, which was in Pompey's name, but Phil's handwriting. "Ted Pompeyto Caesar Bevis. Please tell me who you are going to send to be with mein my camp, and let him come to the stile in Barn Copse at half-pastfive, and I will send Tim to be with you till the white handkerchiefsare up. And tell me if the lieutenants are to carry the eagles, or someone else."
Bevis wrote back:--"Caesar to Pompey greeting,"--this style he copiedfrom his books,--"Caesar will send Charlie to be with you, as he can ranquick, though he is little. The lieutenants are not to carry theeagles, but a soldier for them. And Caesar wishes you health."
Then in the afternoon Mark had to go and tell Cecil and others, who wereto send on the message to the rest of their party, to meet Bevis at thegate by the New Sea at half-past five, and to mind and not be one momentlater. While Mark was gone, Bevis roamed about the garden and orchard,and back again to the stable and sheds, and then into the rick-yard,which was strewn with twigs and branches torn off from the elms thatcreaked as the gale struck them; then indoors, and from room to room.He could not rest anywhere, he was so impatient.
At last he picked up the little book of the Odyssey, with its brokenbinding and frayed margin, from the chair where he had last loft it; andtaking it up into the bench-room, opened it at the twenty-second book,where his favourite hero wreaked his vengeance on the suitors. With hisown bow in his right hand, and the book in his left, Bevis read,marching up and down the room, stamping and shouting aloud as he came tothe passages he liked best:--
"Swift as the word, the parting arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings!
* * * *
"For fate who fear'd amidst a feastful band? And fate to numbers by a single hand?
* * * *
"Two hundred oxen every prince shall pay; The waste of years refunded in a day. Till then thy wrath is just,--Ulysses burn'd With high disdain, and sternly thus return'd.
* * * *
"Soon as his store of flying fates was spent, Against the wall he set the bow unbent; And now his shoulders bear the massy shield, And now his hands two beamy javelins wield."
Bevis had dropped his bow and seized one of Mark's spears, not hearing,as he stamped and shouted, Mark coming up the stairs. Mark snatched upone of the swords, and as Bevis turned they rattled their weaponstogether, and shouted in their fierce joy. When satisfied they stopped,and Mark said he had come by the New Sea, and the waves were the biggesthe had ever seen there, the wind was so furious.
They had their tea, or rather they sat at table, and rushed off as soonas possible; who cared for eating when war was about to begin! Seizingan opportunity, as the coast was clear, Mark ran up the field with theeagles, which, having long handles, were difficult to hide. Cecil andBill took the greatcoat, and a railway-rug, which Bevis meant torepresent his general's cloak. He followed with the basket ofprovisions on his shoulder, and was just thinking how lucky they were toget off without any inquiries,
when he found they had forgotten thematches to light the camp-fire. He came back, took a box, and was goingout again when he met Polly the dairymaid.
"What are you doing now?" said she. "Don't spoil that basket with yourtricks--we use it. What's in it?" putting her hand on the lid.
"Only bread-and-butter and ham, and summer apples. It's a picnic."
"A picnic. What's that ribbon for?" Bevis wore the blue ribbon roundhis 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