A King's Comrade: A Story of Old HerefordWhistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)
History
A King's Comrade: A Story of Old Hereford
Whistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)
Ethelbert, Saint, -794 -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Offa, King of the Mercians, -796 -- Fiction
There fell a sort of awe and a silence on us after that. Silently
we went on up the riverside track, for I was leading with Erling,
and that strange belief that by the river we should find what we
sought would not leave me; and when we came below the place where
the cart was, I saw marks where its wheels had riven the soft earth
close to the water. Without a word I signed my companions to spread
abroad and search, and I dismounted, and with the bridle of my
horse over my arm, I went scanning each foot of the ground in the
moonlight.
Twenty yards, not more, from the water, where some winter flood had
left a wide patch of sand and little pebbles, I saw the marks of
the cart again. It had stopped there, and round the spot were deep
footprints of men. They went on for a few yards, and then there was
a little fresh-turned place. Out of that lapped a piece of cloth,
plain to be seen in the light of the moon, but easily overlooked in
the haste of those who had left it. And then I knew that I had
indeed found the king.
Now I lifted my hand, and the rest saw me, one by one, and came to
my side, and for a moment we stood still, not daring to disturb
that resting. Then I took the spade one man had, and gently turned
the gravel from that bit of cloth, and there was surety. They who
set him there had but covered him hastily, no doubt because they
heard our friends after them.
Little by little, and very reverently, we uncovered, and so took
him from that strange resting, and the water welled into the place
where he had lain. And as we thought, his head had been smitten
from his body, and it was that which we found first, wrapped in the
cloak whose end had betrayed his hiding. Yet had it not been for
the token of the rainbow we had hardly thought to seek here, so
near the water.
Men speak today of the finding of Ethelbert the saint by reason of
the pillar of fire which shone from where he was hidden, and they
tell the truth in a way, if they know not how that marvel came from
the heaven before our eyes who saw it. Let the tale be, for from
the heaven the sign came in our need and it is near enough, so that
it be not forgotten. There is many a man who has seen the like, but
not at such a time or as such a portent; and, again, for one man
who has seen the bow in the clouds over against the moon are mayhap
a thousand who may go through long lives and never set eyes
thereon. Whereby it happens that there are some who will not
believe that such a thing can be.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account