After London; Or, Wild England

by Richard Jefferies

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE CAMP

  Felix walked steadily on for nearly three hours, when the rough track,the dust, and heat began to tell upon him, and he sat down beside theway. The sun was now declining, and the long June day tending to itsend. A horseman passed, coming from the camp, and as he wore only asword, and had a leathern bag slung from his shoulder, he appeared to bea courtier. The dust raised by the hoofs, as it rose and floated abovethe brushwood, rendered his course visible. Some time afterwards, whilehe still rested, being very weary with walking through the heat of theafternoon, he heard the sound of wheels, and two carts drawn by horsescame along the track from the city.

  The carts were laden with bundles of arrows, perhaps the same he hadseen unloading that morning from the war-ship, and were accompanied onlyby carters. As they approached he rose, feeling that it was time tocontinue his journey. His tired feet were now stiff, and he limped as hestepped out into the road. The men spoke, and he walked as well as hecould beside them, using his boar-spear as a staff. There were twocarters with each cart; and presently, noting how he lagged, and couldscarce keep pace with them, one of them took a wooden bottle from theload on his cart, and offered him a draught of ale.

  Thus somewhat refreshed, Felix began to talk, and learnt that the arrowswere from the vessel in whose track he had sailed; that it had been sentloaded with stores for the king's use, by his friend the Prince ofQuinton; that very great efforts had been made to get together a largearmy in this campaign; first, because the city besieged was so nearhome, and failure might be disastrous, and, secondly, because it was oneof three which were all republics, and the other two would be certain tosend it assistance. These cities stood in a plain, but a few milesapart, and in a straight line on the banks of the river. The king hadjust sat down before the first, vowing that he would knock them down,one after the other, like a row of ninepins.

  The carters asked him, in return, whose retainer he was, and he saidthat he was on his way to take service, and was under no banner yet.

  "Then," said the man who had given him a drink, "if you are free likethat, you had better join the king's levy, and be careful to avoid thebarons' war. For if you join either of the barons' war, they will knowyou to be a stranger, and very likely, if they see that you are quickand active, they will not let you free again, and if you attempt toescape after the campaign, you will find yourself mightily mistaken. Thebaron's captain would only have to say you had always been his man; and,as for your word, it would be no more than a dog's bark. Besides which,if you rebelled, it would be only to shave off that moustache of yours,and declare you a slave, and as you have no friends in camp, a slave youwould be."

  "That would be very unjust," said Felix. "Surely the king would notallow it?"

  "How is he to know?" said another of the carters. "My brother's boy wasserved just like that. He was born free, the same as all our family, buthe was fond of roving, and when he reached Quinton, he was seen by BaronRobert, who was in want of men, and being a likely young fellow, theyshaved his lip, and forced him to labour under the thong. When hisspirit was cowed, and he seemed reconciled, they let him grow hismoustache again, and there he is now, a retainer, and well treated. Butstill, it was against his will. Jack is right; you had better join theking's levy."

  The king's levy is composed of his own retainers from his estates, oftownsmen, who are not retainers of the barons, of any knights andvolunteers who like to offer their services; and a king always desiresas large a levy as possible, because it enables him to overawe hisbarons. These, when their "war", or forces, are collected together incamp, are often troublesome, and inclined to usurp authority. Avolunteer is, therefore, always welcome in the king's levy.

  Felix thanked them for the information they had given him, and said heshould certainly follow their advice. He could now hardly keep up withthe carts, having walked for so many hours, and undergone so muchprevious exertion. Finding this to be the case, he wished themgood-night, and looked round for some cover. It was now dusk, and heknew he could go no farther. When they understood his intention, theyconsulted among themselves, and finally made him get up into one of thecarts, and sit down on the bundles of arrows, which filled it likefaggots. Thus he was jolted along, the rude wheels fitting but badly onthe axle, and often sinking deep into a rut.

  They were now in thick forest, and the track was much narrower, so thatit had become worn into a hollow, as if it were the dry bed of atorrent. The horses and the carters were weary, yet they were obliged toplod on, as the arms had to be delivered before the morrow. They spokelittle, except to urge the animals. Felix soon dropped into a recliningposture (uneasy as it was, it was a relief), and looking up, saw thewhite summer stars above. After a time he lost consciousness, and sleptsoundly, quite worn out, despite the jolting and creaking of the wheels.

  The sound of a trumpet woke him with a start. His heavy and dreamlesssleep for a moment had taken away his memory, and he did not know wherehe was. As he sat up two sacks fell from him; the carters had thrownthem over him as a protection against the night's dew. The summermorning was already as bright as noonday, and the camp about him wasastir. In half a minute he came to himself, and getting out of the cartlooked round. All his old interest had returned, the spirit of warentered into him, the trumpet sounded again, and the morning breezeextended the many-coloured banners.

  The spot where he stood was in the rear of the main camp, and but ashort distance from the unbroken forest. Upon either hand there was anintermingled mass of stores, carts, and waggons crowded together, sacksand huge heaps of forage, on and about which scores of slaves, driversand others, were sleeping in every possible attitude, many of themevidently still under the influence of the ale they had drunk the nightbefore. What struck him at once was the absence of any guard here in therear. The enemy might steal out from the forest behind and help himselfto what he chose, or murder the sleeping men, or, passing through thestores, fall on the camp itself. To Felix this neglect appearedinexplicable; it indicated a mental state which he could not comprehend,a state only to be described by negatives. There was no completeness, nosystem, no organization; it was a kind of haphazardness, altogetheropposite to his own clear and well-ordered ideas.

  The ground sloped gently downwards from the edge of the forest, and theplace where he was had probably been ploughed, but was now trodden flatand hard. Next in front of the stores he observed a long, low hut builtof poles, and roofed with fir branches; the walls were formed of ferns,straw, bundles of hay, anything that had come to hand. On a standardbeside it, a pale blue banner, with the device of a double hammer workedin gold upon it, fluttered in the wind. Twenty or thirty, perhaps more,spears leant against one end of this rude shed, their bright pointsprojecting yards above the roof. To the right of the booth as manyhorses were picketed, and not far from them some soldiers were cookingat an open fire of logs. As Felix came slowly towards the booth, windingin and out among the carts and heaps of sacks, he saw that similarerections extended down the slope for a long distance.

  There were hundreds of them, some large, some small, not placed in anyorder, but pitched where chance or fancy led, the first-comers takingthe sites that pleased them, and the rest crowding round. Beside eachhut stood the banner of the owner, and Felix knew from this that theywere occupied by the barons, knights, and captains of the army. Theretainers of each baron bivouacked as they might in the open air; someof them had hunter's hides, and others used bundles of straw to sleepon. Their fire was as close to their lord's hut as convenient, and thusthere were always plenty within call.

  The servants, or slaves, also slept in the open air, but in the rear oftheir owner's booth, and apart from the free retainers. Felix noticed,that although the huts were pitched anyhow and anywhere, those on thelowest ground seemed built along a line, and, looking closer, he foundthat a small stream ran there. He learnt afterwards that there wasusually an emulation among the commanders to set up their standards asnear the water as possible, on accoun
t of convenience, those in the rearhaving often to lead their horses a long distance to water. Beyond thestream the ground rose again as gradually as it had declined. It wasopen and cultivated up to the walls of the besieged city, which was notthree-quarters of a mile distant. Felix could not for the momentdistinguish the king's head-quarters. The confused manner in which thebooths were built prevented him from seeing far, though from the higherground it was easy to look over their low roofs.

  He now wandered into the centre of the camp, and saw with astonishmentgroups of retainers everywhere eating, drinking, talking, and evenplaying cards or dice, but not a single officer of any rank. At last,stopping by the embers of a fire, he asked timidly if he might havebreakfast. The soldiers laughed and pointed to a cart behind them,telling him to help himself. The cart was turned with the tail towardsthe fire, and laden with bread and sides of bacon, slices of which theretainers had been toasting at the embers.

  He did as he was bid, and the next minute a soldier, not quite steady onhis legs even at that hour, offered him the can, "for," said he, "youhad best drink whilst you may, youngster. There is always plenty ofdrink and good living at the beginning of a war, and very often not adrop or a bite to be got in the middle of it." Listening to their talkas he ate his breakfast, Felix found the reason there were no officersabout was because most of them had drunk too freely the night before.The king himself, they said, was put to bed as tight as a drum, and ittook no small quantity to fill so huge a vessel, for he was a remarkablybig man.

  After the fatigue of the recent march, they had, in fact, refreshedthemselves, and washed down the dust of the track. They thought thatthis siege was likely to be a very tough business, and congratulatedthemselves that it was not thirty miles to Aisi, so that so long as theystayed there they might, perhaps, get supplies of provisions withtolerable regularity. "But if you're over the water, my lad," said theold fellow with the can, picking his teeth with a twig, "and have got toget your victuals by ship; by George, you may have to eat grass, or gnawboughs like a horse."

  None of these men wore any arms, except the inevitable knife; their armswere piled against the adjacent booth, bows and quivers, spears, swords,bills and darts, thrown together just as they had cast them aside, andmore or less rusty from the dew. Felix thought that had the enemy comesuddenly down in force they might have made a clean sweep of the camp,for there were no defences, neither breastwork, nor fosse, nor any setguard. But he forgot that the enemy were quite as ill-organized as thebesiegers; probably they were in still greater confusion, for KingIsembard was considered one of the greatest military commanders of hisage, if not the very greatest.

  The only sign of discipline he saw was the careful grooming of somehorses, which he rightly guessed to be those ridden by the knights, andthe equally careful polishing of pieces of armour before the doors ofthe huts. He wished now to inquire his way to the king's levy, but asthe question rose to his lips he checked himself, remembering thecaution the friendly carters had given him. He therefore determined towalk about the camp till he found some evidence that he was in theimmediate neighbourhood of the king.

  He rose, stood about a little while to allay any possible suspicion(quite needless precautions, for the soldiers were far too agreeablyengaged to take the least notice of him), and then sauntered off with ascareless an air as he could assume. Looking about him, first at a forgewhere the blacksmith was shoeing a horse, then at a grindstone, where aknight's sword was being sharpened, he was nearly knocked down by ahorse, urged at some speed through the crowds. By a rope from thecollar, three dead bodies were drawn along the ground, dusty anddisfigured by bumping against stone and clod. They were those of slaves,hanged the preceding day, perhaps for pilfering, perhaps for a merewhim, since every baron had power of the gallows.

  They were dragged through the camp, and out a few hundred yards beyond,and there left to the crows. This horrible sight, to which the rest wereso accustomed and so indifferent that they did not even turn to look atit, deeply shocked him; the drawn and distorted features, the tonguesprotruding and literally licking the dust, haunted him for long after.Though his father, as a baron, possessed the same power, it had neverbeen exercised during his tenure of the estate, so that Felix had notbeen hardened to the sight of executions, common enough elsewhere. Uponthe Old House estate a species of negative humanity reigned; if theslaves were not emancipated, they were not hanged or cruelly beaten fortrifles.

  Hastening from the spot, Felix came across the artillery, whichconsisted of battering rams and immense crossbows; the bows were madefrom entire trees, or, more properly, poles. He inspected these clumsycontrivances with interest, and entered into a conversation with somemen who were fitting up the framework on which a battering ram was toswing. Being extremely conceited with themselves and the knowledge theyhad acquired from experience only (as the repeated blows of the blockdrive home the pile), they scarcely answered him. But, presently, as helent a hand to assist, and bore with their churlishness without reply,they softened, and, as usual, asked him to drink, for here, andthroughout the camp, the ale was plentiful, too plentiful for muchprogress.

  Felix took the opportunity and suggested a new form of trigger for theunwieldy crossbows. He saw that as at present discharged it must requiresome strength, perhaps the united effort of several men, to pull awaythe bolt or catch. Such an effort must disconcert the aim; thesecrossbows were worked upon a carriage, and it was difficult to keep thecarriage steady even when stakes were inserted by the low wheels. Itoccurred to him at once that the catch could be depressed by a lever, sothat one man could discharge the bow by a mere pressure of the hand, andwithout interfering with the aim. The men soon understood him, andacknowledged that it would be a great improvement. One, who was theleader of the gang, thought it so valuable an idea that he went off atonce to communicate with the lieutenant, who would in his turn carry thematter to Baron Ingulph, Master of the Artillery.

  The others congratulated him, and asked to share in the reward thatwould be given to him for this invention. To whose "war" did he belong?Felix answered, after a little hesitation, to the king's levy. At thisthey whispered among themselves, and Felix, again remembering thecarters' caution, said that he must attend the muster (this was a pureguess), but that he would return directly afterwards. Never for a momentsuspecting that he would avoid the reward they looked upon as certain,they made no opposition, and he hurried away. Pushing through thegroups, and not in the least knowing where he was going, Felix stumbledat last upon the king's quarters.