The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis.<br />A Tale of the Departure of the Romans fro, Church and Putnam [summer beach reads TXT] 📗

the Saxons, terrible to those who knew it, scarcely less terrible, with its shrillness and fierceness, to those to whom it was strange, arrested the attention of all, and made every eye turn to the rear of the attacking party. There could be seen, running swiftly up the ascent which led to the palisade, the band of Saxons. In front a huge standard-bearer carried a blood-red banner, on which was wrought in black the raven of Odin. Behind him came, in a loose order which served to conceal their scanty number, Cedric’s warriors, a sturdy race, whose tall stature was made to seem almost gigantic by the height to which their hair was dressed. They were formidable foes, but still there were brave men in both the British parties who would have had the courage to stand up against them. Unhappily one of the panics which defy all reason and all individual courage began among the inland Britons at the sight of these strange enemies; and, once begun, it could not be checked. Ambiorix, indeed, with a few of his immediate followers, faced the enemy, but was quickly swept away by the rush of their onset. Martianus, with some of the garrison, carrying Carna along with him, took refuge in the villa, and hastily secured the doors. Others fled wildly over the country, or hid themselves in the out-buildings. Nowhere was [pg 297]there any thought of resistance, and the Saxons won their victory almost without losing a drop of blood.

Cedric’s eyes, sharpened as they were by love, had caught a glimpse of Carna, as she was swept in the throng of fugitives within the doors of the villa, and he at once led his men to the attack. Any defence of the place against assailants so determined would have been hopeless, even had the garrison been as resolute as they were, in fact, feeble and demoralized. A few sturdy blows from Cedric’s battle-axe brought the principal door to the ground, and he rushed across the fragments into the hall, followed by some ten of his attendants. The rest he had signed to remain without. Carna, who, herself undismayed amidst all the tumult, was surrounded by a group of terrified men and women, stood facing him. The crimson mounted to her forehead as she met his eyes, for she saw, as no woman could fail to see, the love that was in them; but she showed no other sign of emotion.

“Spare these poor creatures,” she said, pointing to her terrified companions.

“Your lives are safe,” said Cedric in British. “Go with this man,” and he pointed to one of his attendants, to whom at the same time he gave some brief directions. He turned to Carna: “Lady,” he said, “this is no time for many words; and I could not say them if it were, for my tongue is ill-taught in your language. But you cannot have failed to see [pg 298]my heart. It is yours, and all that I have. Come and be a queen in my home and among my people.”

The girl’s eyes, which she had turned to the ground at his first address, were now lifted to meet his gaze. “I cannot leave my people,” she said.

“Yet,” he answered, “the good women of whom you used to tell me, whose lives are written in that holy book of yours, left their own people to follow their husbands.”

“Yes, but the God of the husbands whom they followed was the God whom they worshipped in their own homes. You worship strange gods, with whom I can have no fellowship.”

“Come with me and teach the truth to my people and me,” cried the young man, feeling that there was nothing which he would not do to win this bright, brave, beautiful maiden.

“Listen, Cedric,” she answered—it was the first time that she had called him by his name, and he thought that he had never known before what a name it was—“You told me some time since that you would sooner go into the everlasting darkness with your own people than bow the knee to a God whom you believed to have dealt unjustly with them. It was a noble resolve; and I have honoured you for it. Will you give it up for the love of a woman? If you did, I could honour you no more, and you are too good to have a wife that did not honour you. No, Cedric, I [pg 299]will pray for you. Perhaps God will hear me, and give you light, and bring us together to the blessed Christ, but it cannot be here.”

She caught his right hand which he had reached out in the earnestness of his speaking, and lifted it to her lips. Her kiss was the last expression of her gratitude. And perhaps there was something in it of a woman’s love. But she never faltered for one instant in the resolve that was to separate them.

Behind Cedric stood a burly, middle-aged warrior, his father’s foster-brother. He had watched the scene with an intense interest, and though of course he could not understand what was said, had a very shrewd notion of the turn which affairs were taking. Perhaps he saw, too, expressed in the girl’s tone something of a feeling which the young man was too rapt in his adoration to observe. Anyhow, he was ill-content that his young chief should miss the bride on whom his heart was set, and who seemed so worthy of him.

“A noble maiden!” he whispered to Cedric, “and fit to be the wife and mother of kings; and I think that she loves you. Shall we carry her off? I warrant that it will not be long before she forgives us.”

“Peace!” said Cedric, turning fiercely upon him, “Peace! Would you have me wed a slave? My wife must come to me freely, or come not at all.”

[pg 300]

He spoke to Carna again. “Your will is my law. If you say that we must part, I go. But, lady, you must leave this house. My people are set upon burning it, and I could not hinder them, if I would.”

Without another word, she obeyed his bidding, and passed into