The boy had a vision of a winged figure, sword in hand, swooping wrathfully down upon them.
Surely he knew it--that swoop, that sword, that splendid rage.
It was St. Michael, the Archangel, in the famous picture by Guido Reni, a copy of which hung in the drawing-room at home.
"Remember the crew o the Curlew, men!" roared a mighty voice.
The arms about the boy loosened.
"The sogers!" shrilled Fat George, and bolted with a scream.
The rest followed in cataract rout. They pelted past the lad, bellowing, bleating: a tumult of arms, legs, aweful eyes in aweful faces. Only Beardie had the strength of mind to aim a smashing blow at the boy"s head as he fled, and he missed.
"Make for the cottage, boys!" thundered the Parson, storming by. "Oh, Polly, my love and my lady!" and his sword flashed and sang and swept against the sky.
"Grenadiers!" rang an imperious voice from out of the ground.
Kit jumped round.
The Gentleman"s head was thrust through the manhole; his eyes sweeping the greensward.
Fighting Fitz had seized the situation in a glance. Could he thrust his Grenadiers between the boys and the cottage, victory was his.
Lifting himself on his hands, his head thrown back, he sent the singing voice that the veterans of the Prussian Guard had heard at Marengo out of the cloud as Kellerman"s Green Brigade roared down on them--he sent it swinging over gra.s.s and knoll,
"_a la maison, mes enfants!"_
Kit did not hesitate. Dirk in hand, he leapt at the head flashing in the sun. Here, in the heat and h.e.l.l of battle, he had no thought of mercy.
The Gentleman heard the patter of his coming, and swept about.
"Sold again, Little Chap!" he laughed, and bobbed underground.
The chance was gone. There was not a second to be lost.
"This way, Blob!" yelled the boy, and dashed up the knoll, making for the cottage.
CHAPTER LVI
THE RACE FOR THE COTTAGE
I
And it was full time.
As he stormed up the knoll, he heard upon his right the clink of arms, and the sound of a Frenchman shouting.
Down through the sheltering sycamores he plunged, and burst out into the open.
A tall Grenadier, who had been sentry upon the shingle-bank, was racing up on his right across the greensward, screaming as he ran.
His yells were of effect. Half a dozen ragged ruffians bobbed up from behind the broken wall in the rear, and seeing only the boys, made fiercely for them.
It was a race for the cottage; and the door of the cottage was shut.
That dead mask of wood stared at Kit blankly. Had it no eyes? no soul?
no understanding? was it not English, heart of oak, its life sucked these centuries from the breast of the same mother? could it not _feel_ his agony?
"Piper! Piper! the door"s shut!"
"_Ay, sir, but it wun"t be drackly-minute_," came a straining voice from within; and the boy could hear the rending of torn boards, and the splintering of terrific hatchet-work.
The Grenadier with set teeth and blue-black muzzle was launching forward with huge strides.
Kit could hear the rattle of his cartridge-pouch flopping as he ran.
Would the door open? if so, which would reach it first?
"Faster, Blob, faster!"
"Oi"d run faaster, if ma legs would," panted Blob, lumbering behind.
He was doing his best; but he was no match for the fawn-footed gentleman, who led him. Lumps of ghostly clay, inherited from a long line of furrow-following ancestors, clung to his heels, impeding him.
Kit gripped his dirk and ran.
His eyes were on the Grenadier, a black and yellow fellow, with a wart between the brows. That wart held Kit"s imagination. It sickened him.
It was just his luck to have to deal with a warted man, when he had always loathed warts! But for the wart he felt he could have been heroic.
At the thought the tide of his humour welled within him; and the Grenadier was amazed to see a smile in the eyes of this boy with the long face, ghastly-pale, racing against him.
Taken off his guard, he smiled too.
So each ran towards the other, whom he meant to kill, with smiling eyes.
II
The cottage door began to open slowly, so slowly.
The boy could see the old foretop-man in the darkened pa.s.sage. A hatchet was in his mouth; he was handling the door with one hand, and his chair with the other.