CHAPTER XVII.
THE BRITISH VILLAGE.
The British priest's home was at a populous village on the banks of theAvon, now known by the name of Netton, and as this was some miles nearerthan Sorbiodunum, he determined to take thither the party whom hisopportune arrival had rescued from danger. Once arrived there, it would beeasy to send a messenger to the town, and await further instructions. Alitter was hastily constructed for Carna, who, though her spirits andcourage were still unbroken, was somewhat exhausted by excitement andfatigue. The Saxon's wounds were dressed and bound up by the priest, whounited some knowledge of medicine and surgery to his otheraccomplishments, and was indeed scarcely less well qualified for the cureof bodies than of souls. The priest-doctor looked somewhat grave when hesaw how deep the sword-cuts were, and how much blood had been lost, butCedric made light of his injuries, scorned the idea of being carried, andindeed seemed to find no difficulty in keeping close to Carna's litter onthe homeward journey.
Netton--we are unable to give the British name of the village--was reachedsome time before dawn. At sunrise the priest, who had refreshed himselfwith two or three hours' sleep, was ready to perform his office at hislittle church. It was the first day of the week, and the building wascrowded. It was an oblong building, with a semicircular eastern end, thatresembled that kind of chancel which is known by the name of an apse. Ithad been designed by an Italian builder, who had copied the shape thatseems to have been used in the earliest Christian buildings, that of the_schola_ or meeting-house of the trade guilds or associations. The body ofthe building was of timber. The eastern end, or sanctuary, had a littlemore pretension to ornament; it was of stone, and the walls were hung withsomewhat handsome tapestry, wrought with symbolic designs.
Few of the party which had accompanied the priest the night before wereprevented by their fatigue from being present. The Britons were always adevout people, and in Netton their priest had gained such an influenceover them, that they were exceptionally regular in their religious duties.Carna had been anxious to attend the service, but the priest's wife--he hadfollowed the usual practice of the British Church in marrying beforeordination--had absolutely forbidden so unreasonable an exertion. Cedric,who would otherwise have been present in whatever part of the building wasopen to an unbaptized person, was still buried in a profound slumber. Theservice was in Latin, a language of which most if not all the worshippersknew enough to be able to follow the prayers. Such portions of theScriptures as were read were accompanied by the priest with occasionalexpositions in the British language; and the sermon, except the text,which was in Latin, and taken from the recently published Vulgate of St.Jerome, was wholly in that tongue. The preacher's text was from thePsalms, "Quomodo dicitis animae meae, Transmigra in montem sicutpasser?"(40) and was mostly concerned with the troubles of the time. Hehad in an uncommon degree the national gift of eloquence, and stirred thehearts of his hearers to their inmost depths. He warned them thattroublous times were approaching, such as neither they nor their fathershad seen were approaching, and that they would have to resist unto bloodfor the faith into which they had been baptized.
"Antichrist," he cried, adapting to the day, as Christian preachers havedone in every age, the language of the apostles--"Antichrist is at hand!You see him in these heathen hosts who are threatening you on every side;these Saxon pirates from the east, who are ravaging our shores; thesePictish ravagers from the north, who every year are penetrating furtherand further into the land. Yes," he added, with a telling reference to theevent of the night before, "and even in apostates of British blood, whohave preserved in your midst the hideous superstitions from which ourancestors turned to worship the blessed Christ; and as it was in the daysof the blessed Paul, so is it now: 'He that letteth will let till he betaken out of the way,' The Roman power has kept these forces in check, butit will keep them no more. The time is short. They are gathering every dayin greater strength, and you must gird yourselves to meet them."Therefore, he went on, they must be strong and quit them like men. Theymust gird on them, and make complete in every point, their spiritualarmour--the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Divine Word, theall-covering shield of faith; nor must they forget the temporal weaponswith which the outward enemies who assail the body must be met. "He thathath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one," cried the preacher,in his final apostrophe to his people, "and he will find that as his dayso shall his strength be, and that the Lord can deliver by few as by many,Gideon's three hundred, as by the eight hundred thousand men that drewsword in Israel."
Wrought by the eloquence of the orator to an almost incontrollableexcitement, the whole congregation sprang to their feet, as if they wereasking to be led at once to the battle. Then, with a sudden change fromthe stirring tone of the trumpet to the sweet music of the flute, thepreacher touched another note. In a pleading voice, almost but never quitebroken with tears, he besought them to cleanse their hearts; he remindedthem that the armies of the Lamb of God must be clothed in the white robeof righteousness; that purity, tenderness to the weak, charity to thefallen, were as needed for Christ's soldiers as steadfastness and courage,till many a cheek was wet with tears of contrition and repentance.
In the course of the forenoon a fleet-footed messenger was despatched toSorbiodunum. By the time he reached that town the Count and his party hadarrived, excepting one who had been left behind, still too exhausted byhis forced march to move. Some, too, had been sent back in the hope thatthey might not be too late to rescue the stragglers who had perforce beenleft behind during the journey through the snow. As there was now noimmediate necessity of haste, AElius allowed his followers to rest andrefresh themselves for the remainder of the day at Sorbiodunum. Thefollowing morning he went on to Netton, where he found, to his greatdelight, that Carna had apparently suffered no harm from her perilousadventures. His gratitude to the Saxon was beyond the power of words toexpress. Though it somewhat hurt his Roman pride that a barbarian shouldever have the strength to hold out when all others fail, he did not sufferhis vexation to take anything from the hearty warmth of his thanks. Cedricreceived them with the courtesy of an equal, a bearing which both Britonsand Italians could not help resenting in their hearts, while theyreluctantly admired his surpassing strength.
Three days were spent in Netton with much comfort to the party, the priestand his people showing them as liberal an hospitality as their meansadmitted, and refusing the recompense which the Count almost forced uponthem.
"Take something for your poor," said AElius, when his arguments wereexhausted.
"My people," answered the priest, "must not lose one of the most preciousprivileges of their Christian life, the sweet compulsion of having tominister to the necessities of those who want their help."
"Then you cannot refuse some ornament for your church," the Count went on.
The good man hesitated for a moment. His church was dear to his heart, andhe would gladly have seen it made as fair as art and wealth could make it.
"My lord," he replied, after his brief hesitation, "in happier times, andin another place, I would not refuse your generous offer. But now thepoorer we are the better. I should like to see our altar-vessels of gold,but it would not be well to tempt the barbarians to a deadly sin, and toexpose Christian lives to worse peril than that they now stand in, by suchtreasures, of which the report could scarcely fail to be spread abroad.Our chalices, and flagons, and patens are now of lead, thinly covered fordecency's sake with silver, and they are of no value to any but those whouse them. No, my lord, leave our church with at least such safety aspoverty can give. But there are places in the world, I would fain believe,though indeed in these days I scarce know where they are, where Christianmen worship God in security, and where the treasures of the church aresafe from robbery. Let your gift be given there, when you find theoccasion. And if you will let me know the place I shall be happy withimagining it, without the anxious care of its custody."
/> With this answer the Count was compelled to be content, till at least nextmorning, by which time Carna's ready wit had suggested that the priestcould hardly refuse a gift of books.
"My lord," said the good man, when the Count renewed his offer in itsfresh shape on the following day, "your determined generosity has overcomeme. Books I cannot refuse either for my own sake or my people's. Isometimes feel that they are starved, or at the best ill-fed withspiritual food. I can speak to them of their every-day duties, but Icannot build them up in their faith for lack of knowledge in myself, andwhere is the knowledge to come from? Of books I have none but my Bible andmy Service-book, and two small books of homilies. If I had some of thecommentaries and homilies of the two great doctors of our Church,Hieronymus(41) and Augustine, I should be well content. I have heard ofthe great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, John the GoldenMouth,(42) but, alas, I cannot read Greek."
"You shall have them as soon as they can be got," said the Count.
In the course of the day the search party sent back from Sorbiodunumreturned. They had found one of the stragglers still alive, and hadbrought him on to the village where the first halt had been made. There hewas being carefully tended, but there was no chance of his being restoredto health for many weeks to come. Of the other two they had a terribleaccount to give. Only a few mangled remains could be discovered, the poorcreatures having been manifestly devoured by wolves. All that could behoped was that they had expired before they were attacked.
The Count had now nothing to detain him, and as he was for many reasonsanxious to be at home, where a multiplicity of duties were awaiting him,he determined to start on the following day. His route was first toSorbiodunum. There he would be on the main road leading to VentaBelgarum.(43) From Venta, by following another main road he and his partywould make their way easily to the Camp of the Great Harbour.