Henry Brocken

  VIII

  _If I see all, ye're nine to ane!_

  --OLD BALLAD.

  I was awoke by a sustained sound as of an orator speaking in anunknown tongue, and found myself in a sunny-shadowy loft, whither Isuppose I must have been carried in my sleep. In a delicious languorbetween sleeping and waking I listened with imperturbable curiosityawhile to that voice of the unknown. Indeed, I was dozing again when adifferent sound, enormous, protracted, abruptly aroused me. I got up,hot and trembling, not yet quite my own master, to discover its cause.

  Through a narrow slit between the timbers I could view the countrybeneath me, far and wide. I saw near at hand the cumbrous gate of thestockade ajar, and at a little distance on the farther side Mr.Gulliver and his half-human servant standing. In front of them was anempty space--a narrow semicircle of which Gulliver was the centre. Andbeyond--wild-eyed, dishevelled, stretching their necks as if to see,inclining their heads as if to hearken, ranging in multitude almost tothe sky's verge--stood assembled, it seemed to me, all the horses ofthe universe.

  Even in my first sensation of fear admiration irresistibly stirred.The superb freedom of their unbridled heads, the sun-nurturedarrogance of their eyes, the tumultuous, sea-like tossing of crest andtail, their keenness and ardour and might, and also in simple truththeir numbers--how could one marvel if this solitary fanatic dreamedthey heard him and understood?

  Unarmed, bareheaded, he faced the brutal discontent of his people.Words I could not distinguish; but there was little chance ofmisapprehending the haughty anguish with which he threatened, pleaded,cajoled. Clear and unfaltering his voice rose and fell. He dealt outfearlessly, foolishly, to that long-snouted, little-brained,wild-eyed multitude, reason beyond their instinct, persuasion beyondtheir savagery, love beyond their heed.

  But even while I listened, one thing I knew those sleek malcontentsheard too--the Spirit of man in that small voice of his--perplexed,perhaps, and perverted, and out of tether; but none the lessunconquerable and sublime.

  What less, thought I, than power unearthly could long maintain thatstern, impassable barrier of green vacancy between their hoofs andhim? And I suppose for the very reason that these were beasts of along-sharpened sagacity, wild-hearted, rebellious, yet not the slavesof impulse, he yet kept himself their king who was, in fact, theircaptive.

  "Houyhnhnms?" I heard him cry; "pah--Yahoos!" His voice fell; he stoodconfronting in silence that vast circumference of restless beauty. Andagain broke out inhuman, inarticulate, immeasurable revolt. Far acrossover the tossing host, rearing, leaping, craning dishevelled heads,went pealing and eddying that hostile, brutal voice.

  Gulliver lifted his hand, and a tempestuous silence fell once more."Yahoos! Yahoos!" he bawled again. Then he turned, and passed backinto his hideous garden. The gate was barred and bolted behind him.

  Thus loosed and unrestrained, surged as if the wind drove them, thatconcourse upon the stockade. Heavy though its timbers were, theyseemed to stoop at the impact. A kind of fury rose in me. I lusted togo down and face the mutiny of the brutes; bit, and saddle, andscourge into obedience man's serfs of the centuries. I watched, onfire, the flame of the declining sun upon those sleek, vehementcreatures of the dust. And then, I know not by what subtle irony, myzeal turned back--turned back and faded away into simple longing formy lost friend, my peaceful beast-of-evening, Rosinante. I sat downagain in the litter of my bed and earnestly wished myself home;wished, indeed, if I must confess it, for the familiar face of my AuntSophia, my books, my bed. If these were this land's horses, I thought,what men might here be met! The unsavouriness, the solitude, theneighing and tumult and prancing induced in me nothing but dulness atlast and disgust.

  But at length, dismissing all such folly, at least from my face, Ilifted the trap-door and descended the steep ladder into the roombeneath.

  Mr. Gulliver sat where I had left him. Defeat stared from his eyes.Lines of insane thought disfigured his face. Yet he sat, stubborn andupright, heedless of the uproar, heedless even that the late beams ofthe sun had found him out in his last desolation. So I too sat downwithout speech, and waited till he should come up out of his gloom,and find a friend in a stranger.

  But day waned; the sunlight went out of the great wooden room; thetumult diminished; and finally silence and evening shadow descended onthe beleaguered house. And I was looking out of the darkened window ata star that had risen and stood shining in the sky, when I wasstartled by a voice so low and so different from any I had yet heardthat I turned to convince myself it was indeed Mr. Gulliver's.

  "And the people of the Yahoos, Traveller," he said, "do they stilllie, and flatter, and bribe, and spill blood, and lust, and covet? Arethere yet in the country whence you come the breadless bellies, thesores and rags and lamentations of the poor? Ay, Yahoo, and do viciousmen rule, and attain riches; and impious women pomp andflattery?--hypocrites, pandars, envious, treacherous, proud?" Hestared with desolate sorrow and wrath into my eyes.

  Words in disorder flocked to my tongue. I grew hot and eager, yet bysome instinct held my peace. The fluttering of the dying flames, thestarry darkness, silence itself; what were we who sat together?Transient shadows both, phantom, unfathomable, mysterious as these.

  I fancied he might speak again. Once he started, raised his arm, andcried out as if acting again in dream some frenzy of the past. Andonce he wheeled on me extraordinary eyes, as if he half-recognisedsome idol of the irrevocable in my face. These were momentary,however. Gloom returned to his forehead, vacancy to his eyes.

  I heard the outer gate flung open, and a light, strange footfall. Sowe seated ourselves, all three, for a while round the smoulderingfire. Mr. Gulliver's servant scarcely took his eyes from my face. And,a little to my confusion, his first astonishment of me had now passedaway, and in its stead had fallen such a gentleness and humour as Ishould not have supposed possible in his wild countenance. He busiedhimself over his strips of skin, but if he caught my eye upon his ownhe would smile out broadly, and nod his great, hairy head at me, tillI fancied myself a child again and he some vast sweetheart of mynurse.

  When we had supped (sitting together in the great room), I climbed theladder into the loft and was soon fast asleep. But from dreamsdistracted with confusion I awoke at the first shafts of dawn. I stoodbeside the narrow window in the wall of the loft and watched thedistant river change to silver, the bright green of the grass appear.

  This seemed a place of few and timorous birds, and of fewer trees. Butall across the dews of the grasses lay a tinge of powdered gold, asif yellow flowers were blooming in abundance there. I saw no horses,no sign of life; heard no sound but the cadent wail of the ash-greybirds in their flights. And when I turned my eyes nearer home, andcompared the distant beauty of the forests and their radiant cloudswith the nakedness and desolation here, I gave up looking from thewindow with a determination to be gone as soon as possible from acountry so uncongenial.

  Moreover, Mr. Gulliver, it appeared, had returned during the night tohis first mistrust of my company. He made no sign he saw me, and lefthis uncouth servant to attend on me. For him, indeed, I began to feela kind of affection springing up; he seemed so eager to befriend me.And whose is the heart quite hardened against a simple admiration? Irose very gladly when, after having stuffed a wallet with food, hesigned to me to follow him. I turned to Mr. Gulliver and held out myhand.

  "I wish, sir, I might induce you to accompany me," I said. "Some daywe would win our way back to the country we have abandoned. I haveknown and loved your name, sir, since first I browsed onpictures--Being measured for your first coat in Lilliput by the littletailors:--Straddling the pinnacled city. Ay, sir, and when the farmerspicked you up 'twixt finger and thumb from among their cornstalks...."

  I had talked on in hope to see his face relax; but he made no sign hesaw or heard me. I very speedily dropped my hand and went out. Butwhen my guide and I had advanced about thirty yards from the stockade,I cast a glance over my shoulder towards the house that had
given meshelter. It rose, sad-coloured and solitary, between the green andblue. But, if it was not fancy, Mr. Gulliver stood looking down on mefrom the very window whence I had looked down on him. And there I donot doubt he stayed till his fellow-yahoo had passed across hisinhospitable lands out of his sight for ever.

  I was glad to be gone, and did not, at first, realise that the leastdanger lay before us. But soon, observing the extraordinary vigilanceand caution my companion showed, I began to watch and hearken, too.Evidently our departure had not passed unseen. Far away to left and toright of us I descried at whiles now a few, now many, swift-movingshapes. But whether they were advancing with us, or gathering behindus, in hope to catch their tyrant alone and unaware, I could notproperly distinguish.

  Once, for a cause not apparent to me, my guide raised himself to hisfull height, and, thrusting back his head, uttered a most piercingcry. After that, however, we saw no more for a while of the beaststhat haunted our journey.

  All morning, till the sun was high, and the air athrob with heat andstretched like a great fiddlestring to a continuous, shrill vibration,we went steadily forward. And when at last I was faint with heat andthirst, my companion lifted me up like a child on to his back and setoff again at his great, easy stride. It was useless to protest. Imerely buried my hands in his yellow hair to keep my balance in such acamel-like motion.

  A little after noon we stayed to rest by a shallow brook, beneath acluster of trees scented, though not in blossom, like an Englishhawthorn. There we ate our meal, or rather I ate and my companionwatched, running out ever and again for a wider survey, and returningto me like a faithful dog, to shout snatches of his inconceivablelanguage at me.

  Sometimes I seemed to catch his meaning, bidding me take courage, haveno fear, he would protect me. And once he shaded his eyes and pointedafar with extreme perturbation, whining or murmuring while he stared.

  Again we set off from beneath the sweet-scented shade, and now nodoubt remained that I was the object of very hostile evolutions.Sometimes these smooth-hooved battalions would advance, cloudlike, towithin fifty yards of us, and, snorting, ruffle their manes and wheelswiftly away; only once more in turn to advance, and stand, with headsexalted, gazing wildly on us till we were passed on a little. But myguide gave them very little heed. Did they pause a moment too long inour path, or gallop down on us but a stretch or two beyond the limithis instinct had set for my safety, he whirled his thong above hishead, and his yell resounded, and like a shadow upon wheat the furiouscompanies melted away.

  Evidently these were not the foes he looked for, but a subtler, a moreindomitable. It was at last, I conjectured, at scent, or sight, orrumour of these that he suddenly swept me on to his shoulders again,and with a great sneeze or bellow leapt off at a speed he had, as yet,given me no hint of.

  Looking back as best I could, I began to discern somewhat to the leftof us a numerous herd in pursuit, sorrel in colour, and of a moremagnificent aspect than those forming the other bands. It was obvious,too, despite their plunging and rearing, that they were gaining onus--drew, indeed, so near at last that I could count the foremost ofthem, and mark (not quite callously) their power and fleetness andsymmetry, even the sun's gold upon their reddish skins.

  Then in a flash my captor set me down, toppled me over (in plainwords) into the thick herbage, and, turning, rushed bellowing,undeviating towards their leaders, till it seemed he must inevitablybe borne down beneath their brute weight, and so--farewell to summer.But almost at the impact, the baffled creatures reared, neighingfearfully in consort, and at the gibberish hurled back on them bytheir flamed-eyed master, broke in rout, and fled.

  Whereupon, unpausing, he ran back to me, only just in time to rescueme from the nearer thunder yet of those who had seized the very acmeof their opportunity to beat out my brains.

  It was a long and arduous and unequal contest. I wished very heartilyI could bear a rather less passive part. But this fearless creaturescarcely heeded me; used me like a helpless child, half tenderly, halfroughly, displaying ever and again over his shoulder only a fleetingglance of the shallow glories of his eyes, as if to reassure me of hispower and my safety.

  But the latter, those distant savannahs will bear witness, seemedforlorn enough. My eyes swam with weariness of these crested,earth-disdaining battalions. I sickened of the heat of the sun, theincessant sidelong jolting, the amazing green. But on we went, fleetand stubborn, into ever-thickening danger. How feeble a quarry amid somany hunters!

  Two things grew clearer to me each instant. First, that every movementand feint of our pursuers was of design. Not a beast that wheeled butwheeled to purpose; while the main body never swerved, thunderedsuperbly on toward the inevitable end. And next I perceived with evenkeener assurance that my guide knew his country and his enemy and hisown power and aim as perfectly and consummately; knew, too--this wasthe end.

  Far distant in front of us there appeared to be a break in the levelgreen, a fringe of bushes, rougher ground. For this refuge he wasmaking, and from this our mutinous Houyhnhnms meant to keep us.

  There was no pausing now, not a glance behind. His every effort wasbent on speed. Speed indeed it was. The wind roared in my ears. Yetabove its surge I heard the neighing and squealing, theever-approaching shudder of hoofs. My eyes distorted all they lookedon. I seemed now floating twenty feet in air; now skimming withintouch of ground. Now that sorrel squadron behind me swelled andnodded; now dwindled to an extreme minuteness of motion.

  Then, of a sudden, a last, shrill paean rose high; the hosts of ourpursuers paused, billow-like, reared, and scattered--my poor Yahooleapt clear.

  For an instant once again in this wild journey I was poised, as itwere, in space, then fell with a crash, still clutched, sure andwhole, to the broad shoulders of my rescuer.

  When my first confusion had passed away, I found that I was lying in adense green glen at the foot of a cliff. For some moments I couldthink of nothing but my extraordinary escape from destruction. Withinreach of my hand lay the creature who had carried me, huddled andmotionless; and to left and to right of me, and one a little nearerthe base of the cliff, five of those sorrel horses that had beenchief of our pursuers. One only of them was alive, and he, also,broken and unable to rise--unable to do else than watch with fierce,untamed, glazing eyes (a bloody froth at his muzzle,) every movementand sign of life I made.

  I myself, though bruised and bleeding, had received no serious injury.But my Yahoo would rise no more. His master was left alone amidst hispeople. I stooped over him and bathed his brow and cheeks with thewater that trickled from the cliffs close at hand. I pushed back thethick strands of matted yellow hair from his eyes. He made no sign.Even while I watched him the life of the poor beast near at handwelled away: he whinnied softly, and dropped his head upon thebracken. I was alone in the unbroken silence.

  It seemed a graceless thing to leave the carcasses of these bravecreatures uncovered there. So I stripped off branches of the trees,and gathered bundles of fern and bracken, with which to conceal awhiletheir bones from wolf and fowl. And him whom I had begun to love Icovered last, desiring he might but return, if only for a moment, tobid me his strange farewell.

  This done, I pushed through the undergrowth from the foot of the sunnycliffs, and after wandering in the woods, came late in the afternoon,tired out, to a ruinous hut. Here I rested, refreshing myself with theunripe berries that grew near by.

  I remained quite still in this mouldering hut looking out on the glenswhere fell the sunlight. Some homely bird warbled endlessly on in herretreat, lifted her small voice till every hollow resounded with hercontent. Silvery butterflies wavered across the sun's pale beams,sipped, and flew in wreaths away. The infinite hordes of the dustraised their universal voice till, listening, it seemed to me theirtiny Babel was after all my own old, far-off English, sweet of thehusk.

  Fate leads a man through danger to his delight. Me she had led amongwoods. Nameless though many of the cups and stars and odours of theflowers were to
me, unfamiliar the little shapes that gamboled in furand feather before my face, here dwelt, mummy of all earth's summers,some old ghost of me, sipper of sap, coucher in moss, quieter thandust.

  So sitting, so rhapsodising, I began to hear presently anothersound--the rich, juicy munch-munch of jaws, a little blunted maybe,which yet, it seemed, could never cry Enough! to these sweet,succulent grasses. I made no sign, waited with eyes towards the sound,and pulses beating as if for a sweetheart. And soon, placid,unsurprised, at her extreme ease, loomed into sight who but myox-headed Rosinante in these dells, cropping her delightful way alongin search of her drowned master.

  I could but whistle and receive the slow, soft scrutiny of herfamiliar eyes. I fancied even her bland face smiled, as mightelderliness on youth. She climbed near with bridle broken andtrailing, thrust out her nose to me, and so was mine again.

  Sunlight left the woods. Wind passed through the upper branches. So,with rain in the air, I went forward once more; not quite so headily,perhaps, yet, I hope, with undiminished courage, like all earth'stravellers before me, who have deemed truth potent as modesty, andthemselves worth scanning print after.