The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis.

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  A RIVAL.

  It was a fact that Martianus had taken possession of the villa in theisland, on the strength of a claim which was far less definite than he hadchosen to represent to Carna. But no other owner was forthcoming, and theplace was important in the minds of the British population as having beenthe dwelling of the last representative of Roman power. The new occupantmight seem to have succeeded to the position of the one who had latelyquitted it. It flattered the man's vanity, too, to put himself in theplace, so to speak, of the powerful Count of the Shore, while he could usethe appliances of the villa, which were comfortable and even luxurious, togratify his taste for what he called the pleasures of civilized life. Hisestablishment would probably have failed to satisfy the fastidious tasteof a Roman gentleman; the cooking was barbarous, and the service generallyrude. Still there was a certain imitation, which imposed at least upon theignorant, of Roman refinement, and Martianus flattered himself that he wasat least a passable successor of Count AElius.

  Meanwhile he pursued his suit to Carna with a good deal of craft. He was adiligent attendant at the village church, and professed to feel such aninterest in the teaching of the old priest that the ministrations inchurch must be supplemented by conversations at home. To Carna he saidlittle or nothing about his personal claims, but he was eloquent on thesubject of the future of Britain. About this she was never tired ofhearing, and in hearing him speak of it, which he did with a certaineloquence, the sense of his falseness and unreality began to grow fainterin her mind. The maiden faith which "glorifies clown and satyr" began tomake this schemer, who indeed was not without ability and accomplishments,look like a genuine patriot. As for the priest and his wife, they weresimply captivated by him, and never lost an opportunity of praising him totheir young kinswoman. On the whole, his suit made some progress. It wasonly when he seemed to put forward any personal claim, or ventured toaddress to Carna any personal compliments, that she decidedly shrank fromhim. He was quite shrewd enough to see this, and though it was a veryunpleasant experience for his vanity as well as for his love, he did notfail to guide his conduct by it. As long as he talked about Britain, itswrongs in the past, and its hopes for the future, he was sure of afavourable hearing.

  Martianus had other things to think of besides his suit to Carna. As hesaid, he had broken entirely with Ambiorix. He had found that the strengthof the old Druid party had been greatly exaggerated, and that in fact thetime for its revival had gone by for ever. Any chance, too, of eventemporary success that it might have had had been lost with the life ofCarausius. The priest had held many threads of secret intrigue in hishands, and there was no one to take them up, when they dropped from hishand. And Ambiorix, besides being worth but little as an ally, had wantedtoo much, for he was not of a temper to be satisfied with the secondplace.

  Still Martianus was well aware that his rival would have to be reckonedwith sooner or later. If he could induce Carna to become his wife, andthus unite her family claim to his own, this reckoning might be gotthrough with care and success. If he had to rely upon himself the chanceswould be decidedly less favourable. The dilemma in which he found himselfwas this. On the one hand, to hasten his suit might be to ruin italtogether; Carna, too, might fairly ask him for something moresubstantial than his own assertion of his pretensions. On the other hand,there was the danger of being attacked and crushed before he could makehis appeal to the country. Ambiorix, he knew, was a man of even desperatecourage, and would not suffer himself to be effaced without a struggle.

  Martianus did his best to guard himself against this danger. Hestrengthened the fortifications which the Count had made round the villa,laid up a store of provisions which might be sufficient for a prolongedsiege, and used all his resources--he was one of the richest men inBritain--to get together as large and effective a garrison as possible.

  These precautions were not taken a day too soon. About the beginning ofJune he received intelligence from his agents on the mainland thatAmbiorix was preparing to attack him. He hurried at once with the news tothe priest's house.

  "You know," he said, "that my house has always been at your disposal, but,much as I should have liked to receive you as my guests, I would not pressthe invitation upon you. But now, in the face of what I have just heard,your coming is a necessity. Ambiorix and his followers are almost on theway to attack us, and there is no place of safety but the villa."

  The proposition was most distasteful to Carna, who shuddered at thethought of entering her old home in such society. At first she wasdisposed to be generally incredulous, knowing that Martianus was notincapable of exaggerating, and even of inventing, when he had an object toserve. Compelled, by the proofs which the chief advanced, to acknowledgethat the danger was real, she took refuge in the argument that "it did notconcern them."

  "We are too insignificant to be harmed," she said.

  "Pardon me, Carna," replied Martianus. "You surely know better than thatabout yourself. And if, as I can easily believe, you are careless on yourown account, think of your host. There is nothing that Ambiorix hates withso deadly a hatred as a Christian priest."

  The old priest, a worthy man, but not of the stuff of which martyrs aremade, was terribly alarmed at this statement. Carna, too, was compelled toacknowledge that this fear was not without reason, and reluctantlyconsented to the removal. Her mind once made up, she found abundance ofoccupation in making it as little grievous to others as might be. Thevilla could not hold any great number of inmates in addition to thegarrison, and of course it was necessary that the number of non-combatantsshould be as small as possible. Some of the inhabitants of the settlementcould, of course, remain safely in their homes. They had little or nothingto be robbed of, and the expected assailants had no other reason forharming them. But many households had to be broken up, and as only veryfew could be received at the villa, there were many painful scenes to begone through, and Carna was unceasingly busy giving all the comfort andhelp that she could. Martianus, who was not unkindly in temper, put allhis resources at her disposal, and his readiness to assist put him higherin her favour than he had ever been before.

  Nor was she sorry that she had found shelter within the fortifications ofthe villa when the next morning revealed the presence of the invaders.They had come across in the night to the number of several hundreds, andcould be seen from the windows of the villa. And a very singular sightthey were. A spectator might have imagined himself to have been carriedback more than four centuries and a half, and to be looking on the hostswhich had gathered to oppose the landing of the first Caesar. Thesewarriors who came up shouting to the palisade which formed the outerdefence of the villa seemed to be absolute barbarians; no one could havebelieved that for many generations they had been subjects of a civilizedpower. They had, in fact, deliberately thrown off all the signs of thatsubjection. It was the dream of Ambiorix to have Britain such as she mighthave been had Rome never conquered her. It was a hopeless attempt, thisrolling back the course of time by four centuries, but in such matters asdress and equipment something could be done. Accordingly, his troops weresuch as the troops of Cassibelan might have been had they suddenly risenfrom their graves. Most of them were naked to the waist; what clothingthey had was chiefly of skins, though some wore gaily-coloured trews. Allwore their hair falling over their shoulders, and long, droopingmoustaches, but no beard or whisker. All the exposed parts of their bodieswere dyed a deep indigo-blue, by the application of woad. Ambiorix hadbeen very anxious to revive the chariots of his ancestors, but had beencompelled to give up the idea. In any case he could not have transportedthem to the island. He had been at great pains to instruct them in thegenuine British war-cries, as far as tradition had preserved them. Here,again, the result had been somewhat disappointing. There were things whichthey had learnt from Rome which they could not put off as easily as theirdress; and the challenges which they shouted out to the besieged as theysurged up to the
defences were a curious mixture of the British and Latintongues.

  The battle at first went decidedly against the assailants. The Count hadleft behind him a catapult among other effects which he had not thought itworth while to remove; and Martianus, who had practised some of thegarrison in the use of it, brought it into play with considerable effect.The very first discharge killed one of the lesser chiefs, and a littlelater in the day Ambiorix himself was badly bruised by one of the stonespropelled from it. Meanwhile the defenders escaped almost wholly withoutinjury. There was no need for them to leave the shelter of the buildings.As long as they kept within this the bows and slings of the enemy failedto harm them. One or two rash young recruits exposed themselvesunnecessarily, and were wounded in consequence; but when Ambiorix, aboutan hour before sunset, called off his men, the garrison found that thecasualties had been very slight and few.

  During the night the besiegers were not idle. They constructed amantelet(61) of wicker work covered with stout hides, and brought it outclose to the palisade--an operation which the besieged, with a culpablecarelessness, allowed them to do unmolested. From under cover of this theyplied long poles, armed at the ends with blades of steel (for Ambiorix wasnot so obstinate a conservative as to go back to the axe of bronze), andhacked away at the palisade. The catapult produced no effect on thiserection, and though arrows, discharged almost perpendicularly into theair so as to fall just on the other side of it, inflicted some injury, thework went on without interruption. Martianus, seeing this, headed a sallyin person, and, after a sharp struggle, succeeded in possessing himself ofit. The wicker work was broken in pieces, and the hides carried off withinthe line of defences.

  The next three days passed without incident, and the inmates of the villabegan to hope that the danger had passed over. In reality, however, thebesiegers were collecting materials for the construction of anothermantelet on a much larger scale. As much of this as was possible was puttogether out of sight of the villa, and on the morning of the fourth dayan erection of considerable size could be seen about fifty yards from thepalisade. It soon became evident that the new plan of the assailants wasto try the effect of fire. Arrows were wrapped round with tow, and, whenthis had been lighted, were discharged into the enclosure. Some mischiefwas done, not so much to the buildings, for it was not difficult to putout the fire if the arrows happened to fall on an inflammable place, butto the garrison. The men who had to extinguish the flames could not avoidexposing themselves, and those who exposed themselves were frequently hitby the slingers and archers. On the whole, however, little progress wasmade, and when, in the course of the evening, a heavy rain came on, andthe wind, which had hitherto assisted the flames, altogether died away,the discharge ceased.

  It was now necessary for Ambiorix to bring matters to a crisis. Hisfollowers had nearly exhausted the store of provisions which they hadbrought with them, and, as he was unwilling to alienate the inhabitants ofthe island by resorting to plunder, he did not see how he could replenishit. Nothing remained, therefore, but to try a direct assault, and this hedid in the early dawn of the sixth day after his arrival. Under cover of aheavy mist which rolled in from the sea, and helped by the neglect of thesentinels, who, never very watchful, had relaxed their care altogetherwhen the light became visible, he brought his men close up to the palisadeat the spot where an opening had been left, closed with a strong gate. Fora few minutes, such was the supineness of the garrison, the assailantswere allowed to batter and hew at this undisturbed. When some of thedefenders had been rallied to the spot, the work was more than half done.Ambiorix, who was now entirely recovered from the injury received on thefirst day of the siege, plied his axe with extraordinary energy, and hisimmediate followers, whom he had carefully selected for their courage andstrength, followed his example. By the time Martianus arrived on the scenethe gate had been broken down, and the assailants were pouring into theenclosure.

  The garrison, who were outnumbered in the proportion of nearly three toone, were at once ordered to fall back into the quadrangle of the villa.They formed a line across the open side where they were covered by thearchers and slingers posted on the roofs of the various buildings. Here along and fierce struggle ensued. The defenders had some advantage in theirposition, and were better drilled and disciplined; the assailants, on theother hand, had the courage of fanaticism. When an hour had passed, andthe combatants, by mutual consent, paused to take breath, both sides hadlost many in killed and wounded, but neither had gained any considerableadvantage.

  Carna meanwhile had been busy ministering to the needs of the wounded, andwas scarcely aware of the true position of affairs, the room in which shewas at work not commanding a view of the space in which the struggle wasgoing on. Chancing, however, to leave it for a moment in search ofsomething which she wanted for her work, she saw what had taken place. Ina moment her resolution was taken. During the siege her thoughts had beentaken up, not with the danger to herself and the other inmates of thevilla, but with the terrible fact that Britons were fighting againstBritons. Long before she would have attempted to put an end to their cruelstrife, if she had seen any hope of success. She would not have hesitatedrisking her life in the attempt. Indeed she had proposed to Martianus thatshe should go with a party bearing a flag of truce, and seek an interviewwith the hostile commander. He had met her with a courteous and peremptoryrefusal, and she had been compelled to acquiesce. But now it seemed to herthat her chance was come. Taking advantage of the pause in the struggle,she ran between the combatants, and threw herself on her knees with herface towards the assailants.

  A murmur of astonishment and admiration ran through both the ranks. Sheseemed to be a visitor from another world, so strange, so unexpected, and,at the same time, so beautiful was her appearance.

  "Britons, brothers," she cried, in a sweet but penetrating voice, whichmade itself heard through the throng, "what is this? Britons, brothers,have you forgotten what you are? Your masters have left you. You carryarms which have been forbidden to you for more than four hundred years,and must you first use them against your own countrymen? Have you noenemies abroad that you must look for them at home?"

  A shriek of terror, followed by a wild war cry, which, though strange tomany of the crowd, was only too familiar to the dwellers on the coast,gave a fearful emphasis to her words. The enemies from without were there.