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Page 43
'The night before I left we sacrificed to our ancestors--the usual
little Home Sacrifice--but I never prayed so earnestly to all the Good
Shades, and then I went with my Father by boat to Regnum, and across the
chalk eastwards to Anderida yonder.'
'Regnum? Anderida?' The children turned their faces to Puck.
'Regnum's Chichester,' he said, pointing towards Cherry Clack, 'and'--he
threw his arm South behind him--'Anderida's Pevensey.'
'Pevensey again!' said Dan. 'Where Weland landed?'
'Weland and a few others,' said Puck. 'Pevensey isn't young--even
compared to me!'
'The headquarters of the Thirtieth lay at Anderida in summer, but my own
Cohort, the Seventh, was on the Wall up North. Maximus was inspecting
Auxiliaries--the Abulci, I think--at Anderida, and we stayed with him,
for he and my Father were very old friends. I was only there ten days
when I was ordered to go up with thirty men to my Cohort.' He laughed
merrily. 'A man never forgets his first march. I was happier than any
Emperor when I led my handful through the North Gate of the Camp, and we
saluted the guard and the Altar of Victory there.'
'How? How?' said Dan and Una.
Parnesius smiled, and stood up, flashing in his armour.
'So!' said he; and he moved slowly through the beautiful movements of
the Roman Salute, that ends with a hollow clang of the shield coming
into its place between the shoulders.
'Hai!' said Puck. 'That sets one thinking!'
'We went out fully armed,' said Parnesius, sitting down; 'but as soon as
the road entered the Great Forest, my men expected the pack-horses to
hang their shields on. "No!" I said; "you can dress like women in
Anderida, but while you're with me you will carry your own weapons and
armour."
'"But it's hot," said one of them, "and we haven't a doctor. Suppose we
get sunstroke, or a fever?"
'"Then die," I said, "and a good riddance to Rome! Up shield--up spears,
and tighten your foot-wear!"
'"Don't think yourself Emperor of Britain already," a fellow shouted. I
knocked him over with the butt of my spear, and explained to these
Roman-born Romans that, if there were any further trouble, we should go
on with one man short. And, by the Light of the Sun, I meant it too! My
raw Gauls at Clausentum had never treated me so.
'Then, quietly as a cloud, Maximus rode out of the fern (my Father
behind him), and reined up across the road. He wore the Purple, as
though he were already Emperor; his leggings were of white buckskin
laced with gold.
'My men dropped like--like partridges.
'He said nothing for some time, only looked, with his eyes puckered.
Then he crooked his forefinger, and my men walked--crawled, I mean--to
one side.
'"Stand in the sun, children," he said, and they formed up on the hard
road.
'"What would you have done," he said to me, "if I had not been here?"
'"I should have killed that man," I answered.
'"Kill him now," he said. "He will not move a limb."
'"No," I said. "You've taken my men out of my command. I should only be
your butcher if I killed him now." Do you see what I meant?' Parnesius
turned to Dan.
'Yes,' said Dan. 'It wouldn't have been fair, somehow.'
'That was what I thought,' said Parnesius. 'But Maximus frowned. "You'll
never be an Emperor," he said. "Not even a General will you be."
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