Bevis Part 36

"I don't know," said Cra.s.sus. "Very likely. We'll see. March."

They moved along to the left; Bevis opened his eyes, and saw the sting and its sheath left sticking in his hand. He drew it out, waited a moment, and then peered out again from the brambles. Cra.s.sus and the cohort were going towards the old hollow oak, which stood not far from the quarry on low ground by the sh.o.r.e of the New Sea, so that their backs were towards him. Bevis stood out for a second to try and see Mark. There was not a sign of him, the field was quite deserted, and he remembered that Cra.s.sus had said Mark was a mile away. "The battle's lost," said Bevis to himself. "Mark has fled, and Pompey's after him, and they'll have me in a minute."

He darted down the slope into the hollow which concealed him for the time, and gave him a chance to think. "If I go out on the Plain they'll see me," he said to himself; "if I ran to the firs I must cross the open first; if I hide behind the stones, they're coming to look. What shall I do? The New Sea's that side, and I can't. O!"

He was over the bank and on the sh.o.r.e in a moment. The jutting point was rather higher than the rest of the ground there, and hid him for a minute. He put his left knee on the punt, and pushed hard with his right foot. The heavy punt, already loosened by the waves, yielded, moved, slid off the sand, and floated. He drew his other knee on, crept down on the bottom of the punt, and covered himself with two sacks, which were intended to hold sand. He was, too, partly under the seat, which was broad. The impetus of his push off and the wind and waves carried the punt out, and it was already fifteen or twenty yards from the land when Cra.s.sus and his men appeared.

Volume Two, Chapter II.

THE BATTLE CONTINUED--MARK ANTONY.

They had found the oak empty, and were returning along the sh.o.r.e to search the quarry. The wind brought their voices out over the water.

"Mind, he'll fight if he's there."

"Pooh! we're ten to one."

"Well, he hits hard."

"And he can run. We shall have to catch him when we find him; he can run like a hare."

"Look!"

"The punt's loose."

"So it is."

"Serves the old rascal right. Hope it will sink."

"It's sure to sink in those big waves," said Cra.s.sus. "Come on," and down he went into the quarry, where they looked behind the stone heaps and every place they could think of, in vain. Next some one said that perhaps even now Bevis might be in the sycamores, up in the boughs, so they went there and looked, and actually pushed a soldier up into one tree to see the better. After which they went down to the lower ground and searched along the nut tree hedge, some one side, some another, and two up in the mound itself.

"Wherever _can_ he be?" said Cra.s.sus. "It's extraordinary. And Pompey, too."

"Both of them nowhere."

"I can't make it out. Thrust your sword into those ferns." So they continued hunting the hedge.

Now the way Val Cra.s.sus and his cohort came to hunt for Caesar Bevis was like this: At the moment when Pompey pounced on Caesar, the rest of the Pompeians, a little way off, were scattering before Mark Antony and Scipio Cecil, who had attacked them front and rear. Mark Antony, though he had (to him unaccountably) missed Ted, saw the eagle which he had lost before him, and, calling to Cecil, pursued with fury. So terrific was their onslaught, especially as Scipio's cohort was quite fresh, that the Pompeians gave way and ran, not knowing where their general was, and some believing they had seen him fly the combat. This pursuit continued for a good distance, almost down to the group of elms to which Bevis and Mark used to run when they came out from their bath.

As the Pompeians ran, Val Cra.s.sus, driven along by the throng, caught his foot against one who had tumbled, and fell. When he got up he found the rest had gone on and left him behind with several stragglers who had escaped at the side of the crowd. As he stood, dubious what to do, and looking round for Pompey, several more stragglers gathered about him, till by-and-by he had a detachment. Still he was uncertain what to do, whether to go after Mark and endeavour to check the rout, or whether to stay there and rally the Pompeians, if possible, to him.

By this time the fugitives, with Antony and Scipio hot on their rear, had gone through the gate to which the hollow way or waggon-track led, and were out of sight. Val Cra.s.sus moved towards the rising ground to view what happened in the meadows beyond, when two Pompeians came running to him, and said that Pompey had got Caesar Bevis prisoner.

These were the two who had been hoisted up into the sycamore-tree, at Pompey's order, to slash down at the four defenders. So long as Bevis stood there afterwards watching Scipio drive his recent a.s.sailants away, they dared not descend. They had seen Bevis fight like a paladin; and though he was alone they dared not come down. But when Pompey pounced on him, and they went fencing at each other, past the tree, and some distance, they slipped out of the tree, which was very large, but equally short, so that they had not half the depth to fall that Charlie had.

They dreaded to go near the two leaders, for the moment, but watched the main fight, and hesitated to go near it, too, as their friends were in distress. When they turned, Pompey and Caesar were both gone: they looked the other way, and the Pompeians were in full flight. They hid for a few minutes in the bowl-like hollow, where the moor-c.o.c.k was cooked; and when they ventured to peep out, saw Val Cra.s.sus, with the soldiers who had rallied around him. They ran to him with the story of Caesar's capture, and that Ted was holding him, and could but just manage it.

Val Cra.s.sus immediately hastened to the sycamores, but when he arrived, found no one, for Pompey had fled, and Bevis was on the flake. Val turned angrily on the two who had brought him this intelligence, but they maintained their story, and being now in for it, added various other particulars; how Caesar had got up once, and how Ted pulled him down again, so that, most likely, Bevis had got away again, and Ted was chasing him.

Cra.s.sus shouted, but received no answer; then he went through the firs, and came back to the sycamores, and next to the quarry, where he stood within a yard or two of Bevis without seeing him. Unable to discover either Pompey or Bevis, Cra.s.sus was now minutely searching the broad mound of the nut tree hedge.

While he had been thus engaged, Antony and Scipio followed close in the rear of the fugitives across two meadows, Mark forgetting Bevis in his eagerness to recover his standard. As they ran, presently Phil Varro stopped, sat down on the gra.s.s, and was instantly taken prisoner. He was short and stout and so overcome with his exertions that he could make no resistance, as they tied his hands behind him.

Antony still continued to pursue, shouting to the soldier with the eagle to surrender. He did not do so, but, looking back and seeing Varro taken, threw it down, the better to escape. So Antony recovered it, and at last, pausing, found himself alone, having outstripped all the rest.

He now returned to where Varro was prisoner, and Scipio Cecil came up with another eagle, which he had taken, and which had been carried before Phil Varro.

"Hurrah!" shouted Mark, sitting down to recover breath; and they all rested a minute or two.

"Wreaths!" said Cecil, panting. "Wreaths for the victors!"

"How many did you have made?"

"Two or three. Hurrah! we'll put them on presently."

"Where's Bevis?" said Mark, as he got over his running.

"I haven't seen him," said Cecil.

"Nor I!"

"It's curious."

"Have you seen him?"--to the others.

"Not for a long time."

"No--nor Pompey." Every one remarked on the singular absence of the two leaders.

"Cra.s.sus," said Mark. "Bevis is hunting Cra.s.sus and Pompey: that's it.

Come on. Let's help. March."

He marched along the winding hedge-row towards the Plain, and, turning round a corner, presently came to the gate in the nut tree mound just as Cra.s.sus, who had been searching it, opened the gate.

"Charge!" shouted Mark, and they dashed on the Pompeians. Cra.s.sus drew back, but before he could get quite through, Mark jammed him with the gate, between the gate and the post.

"Fred! Bill!" For Cra.s.sus struggled, and was very strong. Bill rushed to Mark's a.s.sistance: together they squeezed Val tight.

"O! My side! You dogs!" Cra.s.sus. .h.i.t at them with his sword: they pressed him harder.

"Give in," said Bill. "You're caught--give in."

"I shan't," gasped Val. "If I could only reach you,"--he hit viciously, but they were just an inch or two beyond his arm.

"Charge, Cecil!--Scipio, charge!" shouted Mark. Scipio had charged already, and the Pompeians, being divided into three parties, one on each side of the mound, and the third up in it, were easily scattered.

Scipio himself found their eagle in the brambles, where the bearer had left it, as he jumped out of the hedge to run.

"Yield," said Bill. "Give in--we've got your eagle."

"All the eagles," said Scipio, returning. "Every one--our two and Pompey's two."