William H. Babcock - Cian of the Chariots - Chapter XL: How Cian Saved Arthur From Cerdic lyrics

CHAPTER XL. HOW CIAN SAVED ARTHUR FROM CERDIC. With Arthur of anxious contention With Arthur a splendid labor. – TALIESSIN. IT was black and late when Aurelia groped her way again to the Emperor. A stifling weight of cloud left no crevice for starlight. Even the lamps and tapers of the hill were unseen, being mainly in deep inner recesses, where the work of weapon-hunting or treasure-hiding still went on. The great Saxon encampment was also a wilful darkness. Away here and there, some hill-top, itself unseen, bore its one hazy glimmer, where camp-fire or burning home had died down. The universe had gone into mere blankness and mourning. There was silence, too, save for sounds of mere menace and pain; sometimes a keen, irrepressible cry as of stabbing, or some tragic mystery; sometimes a brief mocking trill from a night-bird out and below, broken by a nearer groan. Also, with close listening, a blended under-murmur, which might have been of the feeble night-wind only. Arthur was dozing, utterly outworn, with his back [Page 378] against the palace-wall of a lesser Cornish king, one of many who had built mansions about and below that of their great king of kings, in this new border capital. But he came to life at Aurelia's low call beside him, and answered cheerily. Also he heard by effort, with clear mind, all that she had to tell. She made inquiry in turn, and he answered, "One whom I sent forth brings word that Cerdic is yet alive, and rallying in strength, and swearing to have his revenge before another day. If he cannot lead, the White Horse will come on with young Cenric. It may be we can snatch that banner – before quite losing life." He spoke with the calmness that comes of exhaustion and dark, lonely musing. She held her peace, casting about for words. He spoke again, with little more of thrill or color. "Who would say that I, who have foiled many, should at the last be thus trapped and taken? That I also, who have loved and lifted so many friends, should live to feel all melt from him save only one or two? Ah me! I fear that Arthur has not been the man of his belief and thought, nor so just as he once hoped to be, nor so diffident of his tread where every foot should be unclad." Her heart stirred, not unhopefully, though with pity, at these words. She did not need the telling that, in spite of continued triumph and splendor, he [Page 379] had not lately been quite the great Arthur of earlier days. No one had first feared it, and then felt it, more strongly than she. And now the cup of calamity was brimming over in a flood. If only his blindness should not have been washed away too late! She had no word of excuse to offer, nor any of condemnation. "You are overworn, my Emperor," she said very gently. "Sleep, while I watch over you. I trust there may be new hope in the awakening." Even yet, behind their last bulwark, on the very eve of ruin and slaughter, her faith clung fitfully to the coming of Cian. "You are wonderful, Aurelia," answered the Emperor drowsily. "But this is not the place where you should be." Her cheeks burned in the darkness. Was there ever so unheard-of a part to take as hers, the guardian companion of another woman's bridegroom on his wedding-night? Just how should it be expounded and exemplified to Prince Cian? The stress of these thoughts both hardened and stung her. "Shall "I bring Guinevere – if she will come?" Arthur half groaned, impatiently. "Let her remain in safety," said he. "Caradoc, then?" [Page 380 "He has undergone enough and more, considering what may yet await him." She spoke again, with a smile in her voice. "Then surely it must be me. I shall mount the wall, and watch there, first making some of our good fellows clear a little space for me." With a sleepy, "God bless you, Aurelia!" he lay back, and pa**ed at once out of consciousness. Later, men averred that this wedding-time of the great Arthur was such a thing as never had been, nor would ever be again in all the earth. It seemed but a moment before he started up with the sense of being stirred and shaken. All was black still, though in truth they were near dawn. He could not discern any outline, but he knew Aurelia's voice. "They are coming. They are near." He was on his feet, hurrying to the wall, his men rousing on every side already. "Caradoc?" he inquired. "He was the first sent for." She whispered on as they peered and listened; "It was but just now. I had watched a long time. I was drowsy. Then something startled me; and I knew it was the noise of stumbling, well down the hill. At once I became sure of men at the other wall, where they may have thought some of ours to be. Hark!" A forward stir, yet nearer, was distinguishable now. Doubtless there had been a pause of uncer- [Page 381] tainty, but they were coming on all together. With faint scraping, Arthur struck a light, holding it city-ward. At the signal, other lights awoke along the palace-front behind them, and a dozen fire-arrows leaped out from the windows over their heads into the open space between the walls, each with its train of burning tow. One, chance-guided, lit, for a moment, the fringe of Cerdic's great banner, and stabbed in the face a pikeman who came close behind, bringing him to the ground, all aflame. The other arrows pinned the ground only, but lighted unevenly the whole scene for the archers and slingers. Fast and thick the missiles came. Man after man went down; first, as they shrank from this sudden illumining, then, as they cast all secrecy aside, and came leaping, pitching, bu*ting forward, in every attitude, with every kind of yell. Spears darted from the wall, and some of the foremost fell forward; others caught at the flying missiles, or snatched them from the ground, and paused a moment to hurl them back. Yet the ma** made no halt, until an indescribable great rain of all manner of things, weighty and hot and pointed, – even shattering jars of boiling oil, even vessels trailing out pennons of burning tar, viscid and clinging, – descended on them from the housetops. Then, indeed, there was a little check. Twice the standard-bearer tumbled to earth, and another took [Page 382] his place. Once young Cenric was tripped, and thrown amid the press, barely escaping d**h from the feet of his own men. And as here, so it was quite round the circuit of Camelot, only in lesser degree. But soon there was spear-thrusting and sword-reaching across the barrier; and the throng momently grew denser against its outer face, being even shielded in a measure by nearness to those within. At intervals one, two, or a dozen would spring or clamber up, or seemingly be hurled from behind or below, and hold some part of the top for a moment. "The same old game!" cried Caradoc, sweeping his battle-axe into the face of one of these, and guarding, with strokes and thrusts, the place where that enemy had been. The need of the hour had brought his strength back again for a time. "But I tire of it," he exclaimed pettishly. "Where, then, is Llywarch – or Lancelot, or Cian?" The fire-arrows had burned out; but they were not fighting in darkness, for there was a faint glimmer through the cloud-curtains which held back the day. The wind blew higher and higher, and seemed to reach even those upper regions, for they thinned perceptibly. The wounded saw it where they lay, with upward-looking faces; and Aurelia saw it, as, withdrawn a little, she peered and strained in momently weakening hope, and rush of dread. But the men in combat could not see, until the curtain [Page 383] broke away suddenly, and the world was given to all eyes. It was in the very midst of the most determined attack. Three score Saxons were on the wall in one place, holding together; half a score already inside, fighting forward. Every moment brought others leaping down, and yet others tumbling up into their places. Then came a glad outcry from the roofs and windows, "Look! Cian! Cian of the Chariots!" Aurelia, springing to a higher foothold, called aloud, "It is Cian indeed! Thank God!" The Saxons on the wall saw too; while those within, who could not see, but caught their cries and glances, divined it all, and made frantic efforts to reach them. This, indeed, Cenric, with one more, really did, the rest falling by the way under the reinvigorated swords or spears that struck into them. All pitched out together, and went streaming down the hill, with the half-ordered rout of their comrades, to meet a more formidable onset. Arthur and Caradoc were over and after them, with many followers, unrelenting, shouting abroad in their glee. For there could no longer be a moment's doubt of the issue. The Saxons, though so near winning the town, had suffered wofully in thus often a**ailing a brave enemy strongly posted. The new British force that now came sweeping on them in a crescent was really beyond their remaining strength, and seemed [Page 384] more overwhelming still. The cloud-prolonging of the night had brought Cian and Llywarch very near them unseen; and now that light was needed for a ruinous stroke, it came swiftly and amply. Llywarch led one wing, Cunegla**e, the stripling grandson of old Edyrn, the other; Cian filled the centre with his chariots, fighting-men in great numbers riding behind. All were below the nearer ridges, making great speed over the open land, for there was not one footman in the whole array. With little noise they came, except an occasional shout of delight as to some festivity; with no menace but the glad up-tossing of spears and javelins, yet in utmost earnestness. A good part of Cerdic's army was yet on the far side of the hill, and hardly to be brought around in time. But he bestirred himself, with the aid of his best friend and his spear-bu*t, in driving his men into squares, wedges, and circles on the slope and the lower level ground, the better to resist their enemies of either side. What a morn for Cian – Cian the deliverer! All through the night, as he swept on before his men, he had watched for the city's lights and feared the city's darkness; until the outsailing fire-arrows told their tale, and the flare and uproar far up the height warned him to make all speed. Now the parting of the curtain had shown him victory surely ahead; the [Page 385] Saxons, appalled, making what hasty shift they could to abide him; the belted cone-hill alive with down-hurrying Britons; the crowning wizardly beauty of palace and temple; and home – many-colored, wildly outlined, multitudinously aflutter, the great dragon-standard from the highest imperial tower surmounting all! Truly never again should man come in quite such fashion, at such an hour, to such a Camelot. There was racing to see who should first be with the Saxons; but the crescent horns were too far ahead in position, for all that Cian could do. One ill-formed lump of men melted instantly under the charge of Llywarch; yet mainly the rooted spears held, and the horsemen were turned, eddying, until they sprang to earth and joined fight, evenly facing their foes. But before this second locking the plunging chariots had broken in on the whole front as through a shell, making lanes almost as far as Arthur and Caradoc. Some, indeed, were overthrown, where reckless men leaped at bit and shaft, or sent them, by main force of numbers, lurching over; and the riders or horses of some were speared as they came by. But the greater number kept with Cian, turning and turning again, with varying direction, until the whole resistance was bewildered, and the great Saxon army broken into three. One part, the least, made in hurrying disorder for [Page 386] some rugged ground on the northeast; another, bearing Cerdic and Cenric in the midst, and holding together as men whose only hope of life lay therein, went doggedly back by the road of their coming; and all the way their teeth showed very plainly to Llywarch, who followed. The third, having less dread of anything human than of Cian's chariots, took the wild resolve to seek their enemy's stronghold, and made, by a dash at a weakly defended point, a part of the second line of earthwork their own. They numbered a good many yet, very savage and desperate. The men above withstood them fiercely, but still gave way. Cian saw no leader of this minor defence but a woman's form, which made his heart leap with recognition, though he had not thought Aurelia was there. With little thought, and that figure his only aim, he led the rush of wheels over the nearly obliterated lower wall; and then, on foot, by escalade, the many fighting-men who poured after him, vehemently against the second. There was hard work yet, though brief, on the crest of it and in the space behind; yet he cut through the Saxons wholly, and stood, after so long, again before his London queen. "I astonish you," she said; "but you have astonished us with better reason. We had all but made [Page 387] up our minds to die. Come, take my place, Cian; I am weary of playing general." "It reminds me of our first meeting," said he; for the wall gave her height as the pedestal had given, and weapon and garb were nearly the same. A line of dead Saxons below, fallen under the blades of her defenders, proved that wildness and fury had been there, as before, but again without avail. His men were finishing that work, the few hostile survivors dashing off blindly as they could. The defence and rescue of Camelot were quite ended. As he stood beside her, Caradoc and Arthur came, the former with a half-defiant promise to be his friend for life, though all the world should deny. But the Emperor denied nothing, his face being solemn and shamed in its gladness. "What more could man do for man than you have done for me, Cian?" he said; and his voice was broken. "Old times are a strong magnet," answered Cian; "and the need of our friends and our sovereign is a stronger. Even my men of Mona would have been here sooner could we have foreseen. But prophecy failed us." Arthur winced at the word thrown out to try him. "If it could have forecast something better than – Mona," he suggested. "But – was not the Samaritan some kind of pagan?" Aurelia and Cian touched eyes and hands, rejoi- [Page 388] cing silently together. It needed no words to a**ure them that danger had gone by, that good-will would reign again, with no compulsion of faith. But now a gathering of figures on the far eastern hill-tops drew their notice; and the Saxons, who had taken refuge there, were seen drifting uncertainly back toward Camelot. Presently, as if fearing to be cut off altogether, these broke across the more open country to the southward, and pursuit came instantly hard upon them. Faint cries of fear and exultation reached the watchers on the hill of Camelot. Even the flash of armor and the tossing of scarfs and banners might presently be seen. Arthur uttered a low exclamation, half amused, half scornful – "Lancelot!" "I think it is he," said Cian. "At least we shall not have to fight him." "Was there any thought of that?" asked Aurelia. Then Cian told her the little that was known, and the much by way of surmise, Arthur listening very gravely. When the tale was ended, the Emperor fixed on this old friend regained a look most kindly, and walked away, pondering. His gaze was on the chase and running fight, now of so little moment to any except the fugitives. But his thought could scarcely be there. Aurelia followed him with her eyes, then turned in compa**ion to the distant flying men, overtaken [Page 389] one by one. Mayhap, though, it was in some measure the less for having seen their faces ravening so near, and heard their brutal outcries. But here was Cian beside her to draw her mind away, and soon also came tidings from her own city. For one outcome of the Saxon rout was to let in the life of the outer world again; and all that it brought was called for greedily, though not all, when heard, was welcome. The Kent-folk, one rumor said, were threatening; and the riotous Celtic party within the town were again shamefully making head against her and the Emperor. For they had thought the calamity beyond repair. And there had been many cries of "Vortimer." Aurelia's brow knitted, and her soul stung her. She heard Cian's indignant appeal, "Cast them off, and come to me," with answering hand-pressure; but a moment afterward her own words were, "Not yet." Later she mused aloud, "Vortimer! Then they shall have Vortimer."