And, to pass over the minor incidents of that march, I will maintain in fairness (though the men of Troy choose to laugh) that the sudden apparition of a black man seated in the morning light upon the Devil's Hedge was enough to daunt even the tried valour of the Looe Diehards.
"The De'il's awa', the De'il's awa',
The De'il's awa' wi' th' exciseman."
"The De'il's awa', the De'il's awa',
The De'il's awa' wi' th' exciseman."
The eye notoriously magnifies an object seen upon a high ridge against the skyline; and when Scipio stood erect in all his gigantic proportions and waved both arms to welcome his beloved master, the Diehards turned with a yell and fled. Vainly their comrades of Troy called after them. Back and down the hill they streamed pell-mell, one on another's heels; down to the marshy bottom known as Trebant Water, nor paused to catch breath until they had placed a running brook between them and the Power of Darkness.
For the second time that night the Gallants rolled about and clung one to another in throes of Homeric laughter; laughter which, reverberating, shout on shout, along the ridge and down among the tree-tops, reached even to the meadow far below, where in the sudden hush of the lark's singing the merrymakers paused and looked up to listen.
But wait awhile! They laugh best who laugh last.
CHAPTER IX.
BY LERRYN WATER.
"O will you accept of the mus-e-lin so blue,
To wear in the morning and to dabble in the dew?"
Old Song.