The Trumpet-Major | Page 6

larger creatures.
Otherwise all was still.
The girl glanced at the down and the sheep for no particular reason; the
steep margin of turf and daisies rising above the roofs, chimneys,
apple-trees, and church tower of the hamlet around her, bounded the
view from her position, and it was necessary to look somewhere when
she raised her head. While thus engaged in working and stopping her
attention was attracted by the sudden rising and running away of the
sheep squatted on the down; and there succeeded sounds of a heavy
tramping over the hard sod which the sheep had quitted, the tramp
being accompanied by a metallic jingle. Turning her eyes further she
beheld two cavalry soldiers on bulky grey chargers, armed and
accoutred throughout, ascending the down at a point to the left where
the incline was comparatively easy. The burnished chains, buckles, and
plates of their trappings shone like little looking-glasses, and the blue,
red, and white about them was unsubdued by weather or wear.
The two troopers rode proudly on, as if nothing less than crowns and
empires ever concerned their magnificent minds. They reached that part

of the down which lay just in front of her, where they came to a halt. In
another minute there appeared behind them a group containing some
half-dozen more of the same sort. These came on, halted, and
dismounted likewise.
Two of the soldiers then walked some distance onward together, when
one stood still, the other advancing further, and stretching a white line
of tape between them. Two more of the men marched to another
outlying point, where they made marks in the ground. Thus they
walked about and took distances, obviously according to some
preconcerted scheme.
At the end of this systematic proceeding one solitary horseman--a
commissioned officer, if his uniform could be judged rightly at that
distance--rode up the down, went over the ground, looked at what the
others had done, and seemed to think that it was good. And then the girl
heard yet louder tramps and clankings, and she beheld rising from
where the others had risen a whole column of cavalry in marching
order. At a distance behind these came a cloud of dust enveloping more
and more troops, their arms and accoutrements reflecting the sun
through the haze in faint flashes, stars, and streaks of light. The whole
body approached slowly towards the plateau at the top of the down.
Anne threw down her work, and letting her eyes remain on the nearing
masses of cavalry, the worsteds getting entangled as they would, said,
'Mother, mother; come here! Here's such a fine sight! What does it
mean? What can they be going to do up there?'
The mother thus invoked ran upstairs and came forward to the window.
She was a woman of sanguine mouth and eye, unheroic manner, and
pleasant general appearance; a little more tarnished as to surface, but
not much worse in contour than the girl herself.
Widow Garland's thoughts were those of the period. 'Can it be the
French,' she said, arranging herself for the extremest form of
consternation. 'Can that arch-enemy of mankind have landed at last?' It
should be stated that at this time there were two arch-enemies of
mankind--Satan as usual, and Buonaparte, who had sprung up and

eclipsed his elder rival altogether. Mrs. Garland alluded, of course, to
the junior gentleman.
'It cannot be he,' said Anne. 'Ah! there's Simon Burden, the man who
watches at the beacon. He'll know!'
She waved her hand to an aged form of the same colour as the road,
who had just appeared beyond the mill-pond, and who, though active,
was bowed to that degree which almost reproaches a feeling observer
for standing upright. The arrival of the soldiery had drawn him out
from his drop of drink at the 'Duke of York' as it had attracted Anne. At
her call he crossed the mill-bridge, and came towards the window.
Anne inquired of him what it all meant; but Simon Burden, without
answering, continued to move on with parted gums, staring at the
cavalry on his own private account with a concern that people often
show about temporal phenomena when such matters can affect them
but a short time longer. 'You'll walk into the millpond!' said Anne.
'What are they doing? You were a soldier many years ago, and ought to
know.'
'Don't ask me, Mis'ess Anne,' said the military relic, depositing his
body against the wall one limb at a time. 'I were only in the foot, ye
know, and never had a clear understanding of horses. Ay, I be a old
man, and of no judgment now.' Some additional pressure, however,
caused him to search further in his worm-eaten magazine of ideas, and
he found that he did know in