"It is said," Puck"s voice was wickedly meek, "that there was a great fight."
"Eh, but I must ha" been a silly lad." Wilfrid spoke with a sudden thick burr in his voice. He coughed, and took up his silvery tones again.
"There was no fight really. My men thumped a few of them, but the tide rose half an hour before its time, with a strong wind, and we backed off. What I wanted to say, though, was, that the seas about us were full of sleek seals watching the scuffle. My good Eddi--my chaplain--insisted that they were demons. Yes--yess! That was my first acquaintance with the South Saxons and their seals."
"But not the only time you were wrecked, was it?" said Dan.
"Alas, no! On sea and land my life seems to have been one long shipwreck," He looked at the Jhone Coline slab as old Hobden sometimes looks into the fire. "Ah, well!"
"But did you ever have any more adventures among the seals?" said Una, after a pause.
"Oh, the seals! I beg your pardon. They are the important things.
Yes--yess! I went back to the South Saxons after twelve--fifteen years.
No, I did not come by water, but overland from my own Northumbria, to see what I could do. It"s little one _can_ do with that cla.s.s of native except make them stop killing each other and themselves----"
"Why did they kill themselves?" Una asked, her chin in her hand.
"Because they were heathen. When they grew tired of life (as if they were the only people) they would jump into the sea. They called it going to Wotan. It wasn"t want of food always--by any means. A man would tell you that he felt grey in the heart, or a woman would say that she saw nothing but long days in front of her; and they"d saunter away to the mud-flats and--that would be the end of them, poor souls, unless one headed them off! One had to run quick, but one can"t allow people to lay hands on themselves because they happen to feel grey. Yes--yess!
Extraordinary people, the South Saxons. Disheartening, sometimes....
What does that say now?" The organ had changed tune again.
"Only a hymn for next Sunday," said Una. ""The Church"s One Foundation."
Go on, please, about running over the mud. I should like to have seen you."
"I dare say you would, and I really _could_ run in those days.
Ethelwalch the king gave me some five or six muddy parishes by the sea, and the first time my good Eddi and I rode there we saw a man slouching along the slob, among the seals at Manhood End. My good Eddi disliked seals--but he swallowed his objections and ran like a hare."
"Why?" said Dan.
"For the same reason that I did. We thought it was one of our people going to drown himself. As a matter of fact, Eddi and I were nearly drowned in the pools before we overtook him. To cut a long story short, we found ourselves very muddy, very breathless, being quietly made fun of in good Latin by a very well-spoken person. No--he"d no idea of going to Wotan. He was fishing on his own beaches, and he showed us the beacons and turf-heaps that divided his lands from the Church property.
He took us to his own house, gave us a good dinner, some more than good wine, sent a guide with us into Chichester, and became one of my best and most refreshing friends. He was a Meon by descent, from the west edge of the kingdom; a scholar educated, curiously enough, at Lyons, my old school; had travelled the world over, even to Rome, and was a brilliant talker. We found we had scores of acquaintances in common. It seemed he was a small chief under King Ethelwalch, and I fancy the King was somewhat afraid of him. The South Saxons mistrust a man who talks too well. Ah! _Now_, I"ve left out the very point of my story. He kept a great grey-muzzled old dog-seal that he had brought up from a pup. He called it Padda--after one of my clergy. It _was_ rather like fat, honest old Padda. The creature followed him everywhere, and nearly knocked down my good Eddi when we first met him. Eddi loathed it. It used to sniff at his thin legs and cough at him. I can"t say I ever took much notice of it (I was not fond of animals), till one day Eddi came to me with a circ.u.mstantial account of some witchcraft that Meon worked. He would tell the seal to go down to the beach the last thing at night, and bring him word of the weather. When it came back, Meon might say to his slaves, "Padda thinks we shall have wind to-morrow. Haul up the boats!"
I spoke to Meon casually about the story, and he laughed.
"He told me he could judge by the look of the creature"s coat and the way it sniffed what weather was brewing. Quite possible. One need not put down everything one does not understand to the work of bad spirits--or good ones, for that matter." He nodded towards Puck, who nodded gaily in return.
"I say so," he went on, "because to a certain extent I have been made a victim of that habit of mind. Some while after I was settled at Selsea, King Ethelwalch and Queen Ebba ordered their people to be baptized. I fear I"m too old to believe that a whole nation can change its heart at the King"s command, and I had a shrewd suspicion that their real motive was to get a good harvest. No rain had fallen for two or three years, but as soon as we had finished baptizing, it fell heavily, and they all said it was a miracle."
"And was it?" Dan asked.
"Everything in life is a miracle, but"--the Archbishop twisted the heavy ring on his finger--"I should be slow--ve-ry slow should I be--to a.s.sume that a certain sort of miracle happens whenever lazy and improvident people say they are going to turn over a new leaf if they are paid for it. My friend Meon had sent his slaves to the font, but he had not come himself, so the next time I rode over--to return a ma.n.u.script--I took the liberty of asking why. He was perfectly open about it. He looked on the King"s action as a heathen attempt to curry favour with the Christians" G.o.d through me the Archbishop, and he would have none of it.
"My dear man," I said, "admitting that that is the case, surely you, as an educated person, don"t believe in Wotan and all the other hobgoblins any more than Padda here." The old seal was hunched up on his ox-hide behind his master"s chair.
""Even if I don"t," he said, "why should I insult the memory of my fathers" G.o.ds? I have sent you a hundred and three of my rascals to christen. Isn"t that enough?"
""By no means," I answered. "I want _you_."
""He wants us! What do you think of that, Padda?" He pulled the seal"s whiskers till it threw back its head and roared, and he pretended to interpret. "No! Padda says he won"t be baptized yet awhile. He says you"ll stay to dinner and come fishing with me to-morrow, because you"re overworked and need a rest."
""I wish you"d keep yon brute in its proper place," I said, and Eddi, my chaplain, agreed.
""I do," said Meon. "I keep him just next my heart. He can"t tell a lie, and he doesn"t know how to love any one except me. It "ud be the same if I were dying on a mud-bank, wouldn"t it, Padda?"
""Augh! Augh!" said Padda, and put up his head to be scratched.
"Then Meon began to tease Eddi: "Padda says, if Eddi saw his Archbishop dying on a mud-bank Eddi would tuck up his gown and run. Padda knows Eddi can run too! Padda came into Wittering Church last Sunday--all wet--to hear the music, and Eddi ran out."
"My good Eddi rubbed his hands and his shins together, and flushed.
"Padda is a child of the Devil, who is the father of lies!" he cried, and begged my pardon for having spoken. I forgave him.
""Yes. You are just about stupid enough for a musician," said Meon. "But here he is. Sing a hymn to him, and see if he can stand it. You"ll find my small harp beside the fireplace."
"Eddi, who is really an excellent musician, played and sang for quite half an hour. Padda shuffled off his ox-hide, hunched himself on his flippers before him, and listened with his head thrown back. Yes--yess!
A rather funny sight! Meon tried not to laugh, and asked Eddi if he were satisfied.
"It takes some time to get an idea out of my good Eddi"s head. He looked at me.
""Do you want to sprinkle him with holy water, and see if he flies up the chimney? Why not baptize him?" said Meon.
"Eddi was really shocked. I thought it was bad taste myself.
""That"s not fair," said Meon. "You call him a demon and a familiar spirit because he loves his master and likes music, and when I offer you a chance to prove it you won"t take it. Look here! I"ll make a bargain.
I"ll be baptized if you"ll baptize Padda too. He"s more of a man than most of my slaves."
""One doesn"t bargain--or joke--about these matters," I said. He was going altogether too far.
""Quite right," said Meon; "I shouldn"t like any one to joke about Padda. Padda, go down to the beach and bring us to-morrow"s weather!"
"My good Eddi must have been a little over-tired with his day"s work.
"I am a servant of the Church," he cried. "My business is to save souls, not to enter into fellowships and understandings with accursed beasts."
""Have it your own narrow way," said Meon. "Padda, you needn"t go." The old fellow flounced back to his ox-hide at once.
""Man could learn obedience at least from that creature," said Eddi, a little ashamed of himself. Christians should not curse.
""Don"t begin to apologise just when I am beginning to like you," said Meon. "We"ll leave Padda behind to-morrow--out of respect to your feelings. Now let"s go to supper. We must be up early to-morrow for the whiting."
"The next was a beautiful crisp autumn morning--a weather breeder, if I had taken the trouble to think; but it"s refreshing to escape from kings and converts for half a day. We three went by ourselves in Meon"s smallest boat, and we got on the whiting near an old wreck, a mile or so off sh.o.r.e. Meon knew the marks to a yard, and the fish were keen.
Yes--yess! A perfect morning"s fishing! If a bishop can"t be a fisherman, who can?" He twiddled his ring again. "We stayed there a little too long, and while we were getting up our stone, down came the fog. After some discussion, we decided to row for the land. The ebb was just beginning to make round the point, and sent us all ways at once like a coracle."
"Selsea Bill," said Puck under his breath. "The tides run something furious there."
"I believe you," said the Archbishop. "Meon and I have spent a good many evenings arguing as to where exactly we drifted. All I know is we found ourselves in a little rocky cove that had sprung up round us out of the fog, and a swell lifted the boat on to a ledge, and she broke up beneath our feet. We had just time to shuffle through the weed before the next wave. The sea was rising.
""It"s rather a pity we didn"t let Padda go down to the beach last night," said Meon. "He might have warned us this was coming."
""Better fall into the hands of G.o.d than the hands of demons," said Eddi, and his teeth chattered as he prayed. A nor"-west breeze had just got up--distinctly cool.
""Save what you can of the boat," said Meon; "we may need it," and we had to drench ourselves again, fishing out stray planks."