Marcus: the Young Centurion

  CHAPTER TWENTY.

  IN THE SNOWY PASS.

  Serge's announcement was quite correct, for while the Romans rested, theenemy had been gathering together again among the hills, and were comingon in force to attack the camp; but what they had failed to do by theirnight attack proved doubly difficult in the light of day. The littleRoman force, though vastly outnumbered and surrounded, was wellcommanded by a skilful officer, who was able, by keeping hiswell-disciplined men together, to roll back the desultory attacksdelivered on all sides, till, quite disheartened, the enemy retreated inall directions and the march was resumed again.

  That day's tramp and the many that followed were a succession of marchesthrough an enemy's country, with the foe always on the watch to harassthe little force, and cut it off from joining the main invading body farahead.

  Every day brought its skirmishes, with victory constantly on the Romanside.

  There was no want of bravery on the enemy's part, but the discipline ofthe little civilised division with its strong coherence was too much forthe loose dashes, ambushes, and traps that were laid.

  The consequence was a slow, steady advance that nothing could impede,through the fertile plains of the South and ever onward, with thesnow-capped mountains growing nearer and nearer, till the great pass wasat hand that had been traversed by the main army, and no difficulty wasthen experienced as to the route, for its passage was marked plainlyenough by the traces of the many encounters and the ruin and destructionthat indicated its way.

  "Shall we never overtake them?" said Marcus, one evening.

  "Well, if we keep on I suppose we shall," replied the old soldier. "Butwhat's your hurry? Are you tired out?"

  "Oh, no," cried the boy; "we don't go fast enough for that; but I amanxious to join father once again."

  "Humph!" grunted Serge. "I don't feel so much in a hurry myself.Perhaps we shan't overtake him at all."

  "But we are going to join the army."

  "We are going just where our captain takes us, boy. He's doing his worksplendidly, and so are we."

  "What, keeping on with these little petty skirmishes?"

  "Of course, boy. Don't you see how we are keeping the enemy fromclosing in about the army's rear, and saving them from destroying andburning every homestead and village whose supplies are wanted for ourmen?"

  "Oh, I don't quite understand," cried Marcus, impatiently.

  "Leave it to your leader, then, boy. That's what a good soldier oughtto do. But what's the matter with you? Cold?"

  "Yes, horribly. Why, it was as hot as could be in the valley thismorning."

  "Well, no wonder," said Serge, with a grim smile. "We were all amongstthe trees and pleasant grass down there, and now on each side andstraight before you--"

  "Yes," said Marcus, as he glanced around him. "It looks all very bleakand bare down here."

  "Up here, boy. We have been steadily rising all the day. Look at theice and snow up yonder and straight before us. This time to-morrow weshall be shivering amongst the snow."

  "But we can't get the horses and the baggage right over that mountain infront." And he pointed at the jagged peaks and hollows which wereglistening like gold in the last rays of the setting sun.

  "No, boy, but we can go on along this rugged valley, which leads rightthrough, and then when we get to the top of the pass begins to go downagain, when we shall find it getting warmer every hour till we are oncemore in the plains amongst the green fields and forests of the enemy'scountry. Look there at that stream," and the old soldier pointed to thedingy-coloured rushing waters which flowed by the side of the levelwhich their leader had chosen as the site of that night's camp.

  "Yes, I see; and it isn't fit to drink," said Marcus.

  "Snow water," said the old man, shortly. "Well, which way does it run?"

  "Why, towards us, of course."

  "Well, by this time to-morrow, if it's like one that I tramped by withyour father years ago, we shall have found it coming out from underneatha bed of ice, left it behind, and on the other side of the hill comeupon another flowing right away to the north and west; and alongside ofthat road will be our road, right into the enemy's country, and theenemy posted every here and there to stop us from reaching the plain--that is, if Julius and your father have not driven them right away. Butmost likely they have, and all our troubles now will come from therear."

  Serge's remarks, based upon old experience, proved to be pretty correct,for the troubles of the little force began to come thick and fast. Upto the time of that last halt the attacks had been made by the littleparties, each under its own leader, and they came from front, rear, andflanks, in all directions, for the rush made by one portion of a tribewould act as the signal for others to follow suit, and it frequentlyhappened that the Roman soldiers were completely surrounded. But now asthey moved on towards the north and west, the pass they had entered andwhich wound or zig-zagged its way more into the mountain chain whichdivided the land of the Gauls from the Roman dominions, closed in moreand more, beginning as a beautiful open valley and gradually changingits nature as it rose till it assumed the nature of a gorge or rift.The sides were no longer soft grassy slopes broken by little vales whichafforded shelter for the enemy, and from which they made their fiercestrushes, coming down like furious torrents from the hills and often incompany with the streams by whose sides they made their way, but hour byhour grew steeper till they assumed the nature of rugged walls,impassable to any but climbers or the goats that browsed their sterilepaths in herds. The mountains here towered up higher and higher intheir stern frowning majesty, scantily furnished with growth, save hereand there the earth that had been washed down from above affordedsustenance to a patch of spear-like pines with their dark, sombre,blackish green needles. The roughest of rough stony tracks was now thedetachment's path, and it became hard work, approaching to climbing, forthe heavily-armed foot soldiers, difficult for the cavalry--whose horsesneeded the sure-footedness of mules to get along, their riders having todismount and lead their steeds--while for the little train of chariotsthe difficulties were almost insurmountable. The pony-like pairs thatdrew them were safer footed and got on better than the heavier animalsthat bore the Roman mounted men, but the chariots were always in need ofhelp. Sometimes one wheel would be high in the air, sometimes theother, while often the drivers and riders had to make a rush to helpdrag or push the low, heavy vehicles over some more rugged spot.

  For there was no regular road now that they were beyond the Romandominions, where directly a country was conquered the new owners setthemselves to form a level military road, but simply a rough,rock-encumbered track.

  "Yes, it's bad going," Serge said, "but it would want a far worse waythan this to keep back a Roman army. Our men with all their baggagehave been along here, as you see, so of course we can follow; and it'ssplendid for us in the way of safety."

  "Yes," agreed Marcus; "every attack must come now from the front orrear. These mountain walls make splendid allies to guard our flanks."

  "Front--rear--flanks! Well done!" cried Serge. "I like that. You'regetting quite the soldier, my boy."

  Matters proved to be better still as they moved higher up the pass, notin the way of the road improving, but respecting the difficulties withthe enemy, for after the latter had made a brave stand in one spot wherethe pass widened out for a space, and fought stubbornly for a while, thelittle Roman force cut their way through and into the narrow portionwhere the walls of the gorge closed quite up on either side, leavingonly room for the grey muddy stream and the road track along whichMarcus and his friends made their way, completely freed from all attacksave from the rear, where a fierce pursuit was kept up, fresh parties ofthe enemy giving up and retreating after delivering their attack andbeing rolled back.

  The fighting was sharp, the brunt of it being borne by the footsoldiers, who protected the rear, while the chariots were forced overthe many difficulties and the horses helped along, a portion of the footbeing far
in advance, ready for any body of the enemy which might beblocking their way in ambush.

  It had been rough work that day, and the men, after the amount offighting they had gone through, were beginning to look dispirited andfeel disheartened, for in addition to the length of the struggle, thesupplies had run short, and everyone knew that no more food could beobtained until they had forced their way through the desolate pass, overthe summit, and down the other side to the cultivated and inhabitedregions below.

  But their leader was well suited to his task, and he seemed to beeverywhere, with a word or two of encouragement and praise, stopping tohelp the men with the baggage animals, heading a party sent forward tolever the great blocks of stone that impeded progress, and readydirectly after to urge his trembling horse back among the rocks themoment the echoes of the shouts behind warned him that there was a freshattack in the rear. There were two of these, one directly after thestart at sunrise, and a second high up the pass at mid-day, when as hebade the horsemen and the chariots pass on, he laughingly in Marcus'hearing told his soldiery to make use of the loose rocks to form a roughbreastwork behind which they could fight, and all the better for thecavalry being out of their way.

  That fight was bitter and long sustained, and as the turmoil cameechoing up the gorge to where Marcus and Serge were striving hard tomaster the difficulties before them and urge their willing littlechariot horses on, the latter frowned as he rubbed his blue nose andresponded to something Marcus had said.

  "No, my lad," he replied; "they're not getting the better of our men,and they will not. We hear so much of what is going on because thesound comes up as if through a trumpet."

  "Comes up, Serge?"

  "Yes, my lad; we're a couple of thousand feet higher than they are belowyonder, and the reason the fight lasts so long is because the enemy keepon bringing up fresh men."

  "Think so?" said Marcus.

  "I'm sure of it, my lad. Yesterday and before there were thousands ofthem scattered in droves all about us; now the pass is so narrow thatthey are all squeezed up together; and so much the better for us."

  "Why?" asked Marcus.

  "Because we've got such a narrow front to defend. Why, you know what ascrap of road there was where the captain halted his men."

  "Yes," said Marcus; "just like a gash cut through the rock."

  "That's right," said the old soldier. "Well, a line of twenty men wouldhave been sufficient to guard that bit."

  "More than enough," said Marcus.

  "Right, boy. Well, he has got six or seven hundred there, and no armythat the enemy can bring up can drive our men from that stronghold.There are only two things that can master them."

  "What are they?" said Marcus, anxiously.

  "Cold and hunger."

  "Ah!" sighed Marcus.

  "There, don't groan like that, boy," cried the old soldier, sharply."It sounded as if you hadn't had anything to eat for a week, and I'msure you're not cold."

  "Then you're wrong," cried Marcus, "for I am bitterly cold."

  "That shows you haven't worked hard enough. Come on and let's getbehind the chariot and help the horses with a push."

  "Yes, presently," said Marcus, as he glanced at the brave little beasts,which looked hot in spite of the fact that a chilly wind was blowingdown the gorge, and that they were standing up to their knees in snow."I'm a bit out of breath too."

  "Don't talk, then, boy," growled Serge. "Save your wind."

  "But I want to talk," continued Marcus. "You've been over this passbefore?"

  "Nay, not this one, boy, but one like it farther east."

  "Like this? But was it so strange?"

  "What do you mean by strange, my lad?"

  "Why, for us to be going to rest last night with the country all roundseeming to be in summer, while as we've come along to-day we've got intoautumn, and now we're going right into the depth of winter."

  "Yes, my lad, but it's summer all the same. It's only because we're sohigh up, same as you used to see it at home when you looked up towardsthe mountains and saw them covered with snow."

  "But this doesn't look like snow, Serge," said the boy, kicking up theicy particles. "It is more like piled-up heaps of hail after a heavystorm. Ugh! It does look winterly! Ice and snow everywhere, and not agreen thing to be seen."

  "All the more reason, boy, why we should push on, get over the highestbit, and then every step we take will be for the better."

  "Shall we be out of this cutting icy wind that comes roaring up betweenthese two great walls of rock?"

  "To be sure we shall," said Serge, cheerfully; "and it'll be somethingto talk about when we've done it and are down below in the warm sunshineto-morrow morning, eating new bread and drinking milk."

  "I don't want to talk about it, Serge," said Marcus, beginning to talkin a dull, drowsy way. "I shall want to sleep and rest. I feel as if Icould do so now."

  "Do you? Then you mustn't; and we must stop anyone who tries to. Why,it reminds me, boy, of old times when we crossed that other pass. Someof our men would lie down to sleep, but they never got up again."

  "Why?" cried Marcus, in a horrified tone.

  "Frozen stiff, boy. Once you're up amongst the snow you can't stop,only to get breath; you must push on; and I wish someone would give meorders to go on now."

  Marcus was silent for a few moments, as if thinking deeply.

  "Don't feel more sleepy, boy, do you?" said Serge, sharply.

  "No; that seems to have woke me up," was the reply; and taking a fewsteps forward with difficulty, for his feet sank right in at every step,Marcus leaned over into the car and caught Lupe by the ear where he laycurled up with his rough coat on end.

  The boy's movement was quickly and excitedly performed, a feeling ofdread having attacked him that the dog might have been frozen stiff; butat the touch the animal gave a cheery bark, bounded out of the car, andbegan to plough his way through the snow, at first after the fashion ofa pig, and then by throwing himself down first on one side and then uponthe other.

  "I was half afraid, Serge," said Marcus.

  "You needn't have been, boy," replied the old soldier. "You see,Nature's given him a warm, thick coat, and he makes it thicker wheneverhe likes by setting his bristles up on end."

  "But that would make it more open and thinner, Serge."

  "Nay, but it don't, boy. Somehow it keeps warm all inside between thehairs, and the cold can't get through."

  "I don't understand why that should be, Serge," said Marcus,thoughtfully.

  "I don't neither," said the man, "but it is so. It's one of those funnythings in Nature. Why, look at the birds. What do they do when a snowstorm comes down from the mountains in winter? They don't squeeze theirfeathers down tight, do they?"

  "No," said Marcus, thoughtfully; "they seem to set them all up on end,just as they do when they go to roost, and they look twice as big."

  "To be sure they do, boy. You don't feel sleepy now?"

  "No, not a bit. But I say, Serge, will there be more snow higher up thepass?"

  "Most likely, boy; and I want to get at the job of fighting our waythrough it. We ought to be going on. Hallo! Hear that?"

  "Yes. What does it mean?"

  "It's the reason why we with the horses are not pushed on. That's whatI was afraid of."

  "Afraid?"

  "There, don't take a man up short that way," growled Serge. "I didn'tmean afraid; I meant expected. The enemy have attacked our men right upyonder in the front, and they've got us between them. Well, all thebetter. Something for us to do, and keep us warm."

  "But I was hoping that we might be pushed on now."

  "So was I, boy, but it won't be yet," growled Serge. "I say, don't letyour mouth get watering for the new bread and warm milk just yet."

  "No," groaned Marcus, rather piteously.

  "But it will be all the nicer and sweeter when it comes, boy. I say,there was only one thing that could possibly have happened to make us
worse off."

  "What, having to fight in this snow, Serge?"

  "Nay, that would have warmed us, lad. I meant, come on to snow."

  "Snow at this time of year?" cried Marcus.

  "It snows up in the mountains at all times of the year, boy," growledSerge. "Down below in the plains it only rains, but up here it snows;and here it comes, and someone else too. I expect things are goingwrong in the rear, or else he has heard the attack in front, and hascome to see."

  For a blinding and dense squall of snow came raging through the pass,leaving horsemen and chariots as white as their chief, whose horse camechurning its way through the hail-like coating that stood half way upthe wheels, close to which its rider reined in.

  "Find it cold, my lads?" he cried cheerily, and was answered by a chorusof assent.

  "Well, I've brought you up news to warm you. The men below are holdingthe enemy in check, and they have begun to retire, which means tosupport us and drive those back who are trying to stop us at the head ofthe pass. Make ready. Ah, my boy, you there? Well, are you tired ofseeking your father?"

  Marcus shook his head.

  "Well," said the captain, "tired or not there is no going back, for youcould not cut through two or three thousand of the enemy alone. There,we shall soon be through this frozen pass, and making our way down intothe sunny plains. Winter now, and summer this time to-morrow. Readythere, advance!"

  As their chief spoke loudly, Marcus caught sight through the haze ofsnow which seemed to hold the darkness of night above, the head of acolumn of the foot soldiers making a steady advance, looking as if theywere wearing a fresh form of decoration, every man's helmet plume beingincreased in size by a trimming of the purest, whitest swans-down orfilmy, flocculent silver itself.

  But there was no time for studying appearances; all now was stern,earnest work. At the first order given by the chief, Lupe seemed totake it that he was concerned, and set up a hoarse barking, which seemedto animate the chariot horses, notably his friends attached to Marcus'chariot, which began to stamp and paw up the snow beneath their feet,while when their driver took his place by their heads they plungedforward, tugging the heavy vehicle out of the ruts into which the wheelshad cut for themselves. Then with the snow squall driving on beforethem leaving the trampled snow ahead freshly smoothed, and lighting thedarkness of the night, there was a dull, grinding, creaking sound ofwheels and yielding snow as it was trampled down into a better road, andgood progress was made, for the slope in advance was more gradual, andthe hollows and pitfalls between the rugged stones that strewed the waywere levelled down.

  It was a strange and weird procession, as Marcus tramped on step by stepwith Serge, behind the chariot, into which Lupe had suddenly leaped tostand with his paws planted upon the front of the vehicle, which nowlooked as if it had been turned into silver. And there were momentswhen the boy felt that it must all be part of a dream.

  But there was nothing dream-like in the sounds that came downwardbetween the great snowy walls, for they were those of desperatefighting--the shouts of defiance of the Roman soldiers mingled with thebarbarous cries of the Gauls, who had gathered together again in thegreat gateway from which they had been driven by the troops of CaiusJulius, and were now striving to prevent the descent of the Romanrear-guard into their fruitful plains, and if possible entrap these newtroops between their own forces, which were holding them shut in thedeep, long, wintry gorge.