The Serf

by Guy Thorne

  CHAPTER XII

  "Through the gray willows danced the fretful gnat, The grasshopper chirped idly from the tree, In sleek and oily coat the water-rat, Breasting the little ripples manfully Made for the wild-duck's nest."

  They won to land, with the aid of a floating oar. Hyla and Cerdic werefor getting back to Icomb and explaining what had befallen them to thefathers, but Huber flatly refused to accompany them. He said it was hisduty to go back to Hilgay and say what had become of his comrades, andhow they had met their end.

  "But if you tell Lord Fulke how you have eaten and slept infriendship--for we must rest and eat before we go--with those that didkill his father, what then?" said Cerdic.

  "Lord Fulke would not dare harm me for that, even were I to tell him. Iam too well liked among the men. Natheless, I shall say nothing. I shallsay that I clomb on the boat, and won the shore, and so made my wayhome. Look you to this. Can I give up the only life I know, and mymaster, and eke my wife to serve the priests, or live hunted and outlawin the fens with you?" He argued it out with perfect fairness and goodsense, and, with a sinking of the heart, they saw that their ways mustindeed lie very far apart.

  Material considerations made the whole thing difficult. They were in anunenviable position, and one of great danger, and their only means oftransport was the one boat. "There is only one way," said Cerdic, "andthat is this: we must row over the lake to the Priory first, and thenleave the boat with Huber to make his own way back over the lake andthrough the fenways."

  The man-at-arms crossed himself with fervour.

  "Not I," he said. "I would not venture again upon that accursed lake formy life. It is cursed. You have heard of the Great Black Hand? It is anevil place, and has taken many of my good comrades. Leave you me hereand go your ways. I will try to get back through the fen."

  "Art no fenman, Huber, and canst scarcely swim. Also, that is the mostdangerous part of the fen, the miles between the river and this lake.It's nought but pools, waterways, and bog. You could not go a mile."

  "Then I will stay here and rot. There is no mortal power that shall makeme upon that water more."

  There was such genuine superstitious terror in his face and voice thatthey felt it useless to attempt persuasion, and they cast about in theirminds for some other solution of the difficulty. It was long in coming,for in truth the problem was very difficult. At last it was solved,poorly enough, but with a certain possibility of safety.

  The three men had landed but a few hundred yards from the opening of thewaterway which led to Hilgay, winding in devious routes among the fen.To regain the monastery there were two ways--One, the obvious route, bysimply crossing the great lake, for the Abbey was almost exactlyopposite, and the other, most difficult and dangerous, to skirt the lakeside, where there was but little firm ground, and go right round it tothe Priory.

  Seeing no help for it, they decided on attempting that. Huber was tohave the big, heavy boat, and as best he could, make his way back toHilgay. It was a curious decision to have arrived at. By all possiblerights, Hyla and Cerdic should have kept the boat for their own use, andlet Huber shift as best he could. He was, or rather had been, an enemy;they had not only treated him with singular kindness, but he owed hisvery life to them. It is difficult to exactly gauge their motive.Probably their long slavery had something of its influence with them.Despite their new ideals and the stupendous upheaval of their lives, itis certain that they could hardly avoid regarding Huber from thestandpoint of their serfdom. He had been one of their rulers, and therestill clung to him some savour of authority. Yet it was not all thisfeeling that influenced them. Some nobler and deeper instinct ofself-denial and kindness had made them do this thing.

  In a closed locker, in the stern of the boat, they found some fishinglines, and a flint for making fire. It was easy to get food, and theyspent the day resting and fishing. At length night fell softly over thewanderers, and they fell asleep round the fire, while the other wentscraping among the reeds searching for fresh-water mussels, and thenight wind sent black ripples over all the pools and the great lakebeyond.

  They were early up, catching more fish for breakfast, and, rathercuriously for those times, they bathed in the fresh cold water, wherebythey were most heartily refreshed and put into good courage. Then camethe time of parting. It was fraught with a certain melancholy, for theyhad seemed very close together in their common danger.

  "I doubt we shall ever clap eyes on you again, Huber," Hyla said."Cerdic and I are not likely to trouble Hilgay again, unless indeed mylord catch us again, and I think there is but little fear of that."

  "No, friend Hyla," said the man-at-arms; "we must say a long good-byethis morn."

  "You will get back in a day," said Cerdic, "though boat be heavy and theway not easy. What tale will you tell Lord Fulke?"

  "Just truth, Cerdic, though indeed I shall not tell all the truth. Ishall tell how my good comrades died, and how I did win to land with youtwo, and left you by the mere. I shall tell Lord Fulke that I could notover-come you, for that you were two to my one, and eke armed. That yousaved me from the water I must not say, though well I should like to doso. They would think that I was in league with you, and had failed in myduty, if I said anything to your credit."

  "Without doubt," said Hyla.

  "You are right, Huber. But I do not look to see Hilgay again."

  "And I pray that you never may, friend, for your end would be a veryterrible and bloody one. And now hear me. You have taken me to yourhearts that did come to use you shamefully. My life is your gift, and Iwill save pennies that prayer may be made for you by some priest thatyou be kept from harm, and win quiet and safety. Moreover, never will Ido ill to any serf again, for your sakes. For you are good and true men,and have my love. Often I shall remember you and the lake and all thathas come about, when I am far away. And give me your hand and sayfarewell, and Lord Christ have you safe."

  They said the saddest of all human words, "farewell," and turning heleft them. The big boat moved slowly away among the reeds until it washidden from their sight. Once they thought they heard his voice in adistant shout of farewell, and they called loudly in answer, but therewas no response but the lapping of the water on the reeds.

  "A true man," said Hyla sadly.

  "I think so," said Cerdic, "and there are many like him also. We havenever known them, or they us, but chance has changed that for once.Nevertheless I am not sorry he has gone. We are of one kind and he ofanother, and best apart. Let us set out round the lake; we have a longtask before us, and I fear dangerous."

  They gathered up their fishing lines and the remaining fish, which theyhad cooked for their journey, and set out upon it.

  They were full of hope and courage, resolute to surmount the perils anddifficulties which were before them, and yet, all innocent of fate, onewas going to a sudden death and the other was moving towards anadventure which would end in death and torture also.

  It is surely a very good and wise ordering of affairs, that we do notoften have a warning of what shall shortly befall us. Only rarely do wefeel the cold air from the wings of Death beat upon our doomed faces.Now and then, indeed, we get a glimpse of those unseen principalitiesand powers by whom we are for ever surrounded. Women in child-birthhave, so it is said, seen an angel bearing them the new soul they aregoing to give to the world, as God's messenger came to Our Lady of oldtime.

  More often the black angel, who is to take us from one life to another,presses upon a man's brain that he may know his near translation.Visions are given to men who have lived as men should live, and havebeaten down Satan under their feet.

  A wise and awful hand moves the curtain aside for them. And it issometimes so with a great sinner. When that arch scoundrel Geoffroi wasclose upon his end, he also had a solemn warning. Fear came to him inthe night and whispered, as you have heard, that he was doomed.

  But these two children were given no sign. It was not for them; theycould not have understood it. God is a psychol
ogist, and He watchedthese two simple ones very tenderly.

  A mile of heavy going lay behind them. Over the quaking fen bright withevil-looking flowers, as beautiful and treacherous as some pale sensualwoman of the East, they plodded their weary and complacent way.

  Lean, brown, old Cerdic was to die. Radiance was waiting for this poorman, as the sun--how dull beside that greater radiance which was so soonto illuminate him!--clomb up the sky.

  They crossed various ditches and water-ways, leaping some and wadingbreast-high through others, covered with floating scum and weeds. Onceor twice a wide pool of black water alive with fish brought them to acheck, and they had to swim over it or make a long detour. After aboutthree hours their journey became more easy. There was not so much waterabout, and the ground, which was covered with fresh, vividly green grassin wide patches, was much firmer.

  Cerdic went on in front with a willow-pole, probing the ground to see ifit was safe for them to venture on, a most necessary precaution in thatland of bog and morass.

  They were passing a clump of reeds when, with a quick scurry, a largehare ran out almost under their feet. Something had happened to one ofits forelegs, for it limped badly, and scrambled along at no great rate.

  A hare's leg is a wonderfully fragile piece of mechanism, despite itsenormous power. Often when the animal is leaping it over-balancesitself in mid air, and coming down heavily breaks the thin bone. Thisis what had happened to the creature that startled them from the reeds.

  The quick eye of the old lawer-of-dogs saw at once that the animal wasinjured and could not go very fast. Here was a chance of food whichwould be very welcome. With a shout to Hyla he went leaping after it.His lean, brown legs spread over the ground, hardly seeming to touch itas he ran. He soon came up with the hare, but just as he was stooping tograsp it the creature doubled, and was off in a new direction. Hyla sawCerdic pick himself up, stumble, recover, and flash away on the newtrack. In a minute a tall hedge of reeds, which seemed as if they mightfringe a pool, hid him from view.

  Hyla plodded slowly on, wondering if Cerdic would catch the hare, andthinking with a pleasant stomachic anticipation what a very excellentmeal they might have if that were so. In about five minutes he came upto the reeds, and just as he approached them his heart gave a great leapof fear. Cerdic was calling him, but in a voice such as he had neverheard him use before, it was so changed and terrible. Half shout, halfwhine, and wholly unnerving. He plunged through the cover, the wetsplashing up round his feet in little jets as he did so, and then hecame across his friend.

  Six or more yards away there was a stretch of what at first glanceappeared to be pleasant meadow land, so bright was the grass and sostudded with flowers. In the centre of the space, which might measuretwenty square yards, Cerdic stood engulfed to the waist, and rapidlysinking deeper. He made superhuman efforts to extricate himself. Hisarms beat upon the sward, and his hands clutched terribly at the tuftsof grass and marsh flowers. His face, under all its tan, became a darkpurple, as the terrible pressure on his body increased, and he began tobleed violently from the nose, and to vomit. Hyla went cautiouslytowards him, but every step he took became more dangerous, and he wasforced to stand still in an agony of helplessness. Even in his owncomparative security he could feel the soft caressing ground suckingeagerly at his feet.

  He watched in horror. Slowly now, though with horrible distinctness, thebody of his friend was going from him. The green grass lay round hisarm-pits, and his arms were extended upon it at right angles like thearms of a man crucified. His fingers kept jumping up and down as if hewere playing upon some instrument.

  Then there came a gleam of hope. The motion ceased, and the head andupper part of the shoulders remained motionless.

  "Have you touched bottom, Cerdic?" Hyla called in a queer high-pitchedvoice that startled himself.

  "No, Hyla," came in thick, difficult reply, "and I die. I am going awayfrom you, and must say farewell. I have loved you very well, and nowgood-bye. I am not afraid. Good-bye. I will pray to God as I die. Do youalso pray, and farewell, farewell!"

  He closed his staring eyes, and very gradually the sucking motionrecommenced.

  Hyla stared stupidly at this slow torture, unable to move or think.

  It was soon over now, and the body sank very quickly away, and left thesurvivor gazing without thought at the spot where nothing marked agrave.

  As he watched, a hare with a broken leg began to hobble across the vividgreenness.