II

That, in the heat of rage and of terror, we had gone farther than we had

at first designed, our gloom and our silence on the morrow attested. True

we were quit of our incubus, but on such terms as not even the severity

of the times could excuse. For the man had but chastised us to our

improvement; and to destroy the scourge is not to condone the offence.

For myself, as I bore up the little Margery to my shoulder on my way to

the reaping, I felt the burden of guilt so great as that I found myself

muttering of an apology to the Lord that I durst put myself into touch

with innocence. "But the walk would fatigue her otherwise," I murmured;

and, when we were come to the field, I took and carried her into the

upper or little meadow, out of reach of the scythes, and placed her to

sleep amongst the corn, and so left her with a groan.

But when I was come anew to my comrades, who stood at the lower extremity

of the field--and this was the bottom of the hour-glass, so to speak--I

was aware of a stir amongst them, and, advancing closer, that they were

all intent upon the neighbourhood of the field I had left, staring like

distraught creatures, and holding well together, as if in a panic.

Therefore, following the direction of their eyes, and of one that pointed

with rigid finger, I turned me about, and looked whence I had come; and

my heart went with a somersault, and in a moment I was all sick and

dazed.

For I saw, at the upper curve of the meadow, where the well lay in gloom,

that a man had sprung out of the earth, as it seemed, and was started

reaping; and the face of this man was all in shadow, from which his beard

ran out and down like a stream of gall.

He reaped swiftly and steadily, swinging like a pendulum; but, though the

sheaves fell to him right and left, no swish of the scythe came to us,

nor any sound but the beating of our own hearts.

Now, from the first moment of my looking, no doubt was in my lost soul

but that this was him we had destroyed come back to verify his prophecy

in ministering to the vengeance of the Lord of Hosts; and at the thought

a deep groan rent my bosom, and was echoed by those about me. But

scarcely was it issued when a second terror smote me as that I near

reeled. Margery--my babe! put to sleep there in the path of the Black

Reaper!

At that, though they called to me, I sprang forward like a madman, and

running along the meadow, through the neck of the glass, reached the

little thing, and stooped and snatched her into my arms. She was sound

and unfrighted, as I felt with a burst of thankfulness; but, looking

about me, as I turned again to fly, I had near dropped in my tracks for

the sickness and horror I experienced in the nearer neighbourhood of the

apparition. For, though it never raised its head, or changed the steady

swing of its shoulders, I knew that it was aware of and was reaping at

me. Now, I tell you, it was ten yards away, yet the point of the scythe

came gliding upon me silently, like a snake, through the stalks, and at

that I screamed out and ran for my life.

I escaped, sweating with terror; but when I was sped back to the men,

there was all the village collected, and our Vicar to the front, praying

from a throat that rattled like a dead leaf in a draught. I know not what

he said, for the low cries of the women filled the air; but his face was

white as a smock, and his fingers writhed in one another like a knot of

worms.

"The plague is upon us!" they wailed. "We shall be mowed down like ripe

corn!"

And even as they shrieked the Black Reaper paused, and, putting away his

scythe, stooped and gathered up a sheaf in his arms and stood it on end.

And, with the very act, a man--one that had been forward in yesterday's

business--fell down amongst us yelling and foaming; and he rent his

breast in his frenzy, revealing the purple blot thereon, and he passed

blaspheming. And the reaper stooped and stooped again, and with every

sheaf he gathered together one of us fell stricken and rolled in his

agony, while the rest stood by palsied.

But, when at length all that was cut was accounted for, and a dozen of us

were gone each to his judgment, and he had taken up his scythe to reap

anew, a wild fury woke in the breasts of some of the more abandoned and

reckless amongst us.

"It is not to be tolerated!" they cried. "Let us at once fire the corn

and burn this sorcerer!"

And with that, some fire or six of them, emboldened by despair, ran up

into the little field, and, separating, had out each his flint and fired

the crop in his own place, and retreated to the narrow part for safety.

Now the reaper rested on his scythe, as if unexpectedly acquitted of a

part of his labour; but the corn flamed up in these five or six

directions, and was consumed in each to the compass of a single sheaf:

whereat the fire died away. And with its dying the faces of those that

had ventured went black as coal; and they flung up their arms, screaming,

and fell prone where they stood, and were hidden from our view.

Then, indeed, despair seized upon all of us that survived, and we made no

doubt but that we were to be exterminated and wiped from the earth for

our sins, as were the men of Anathoth. And for an hour the Black Reaper

mowed and trussed, till he had cut all from the little upper field and

was approached to the neck of juncture with the lower and larger. And

before us that remained, and who were drawn back amongst the trees,

weeping and praying, a fifth of our comrades lay foul, and dead, and

sweltering, and all blotched over with the dreadful mark of the

pestilence.

Now, as I say, the reaper was nearing the neck of juncture; and so we

knew that if he should once pass into the great field towards us and

continue his mowing, not one of us should be left to give earnest of our

repentance.

Then, as it seemed, our Vicar came to a resolution, moving forward with a

face all wrapt and entranced; and he strode up the meadow path and

approached the apparition, and stretched out his arms to it entreating.

And we saw the other pause, awaiting him; and, as he came near, put

forth his hand, and so, gently, on the good old head. But as we looked,

catching at our breaths with a little pathos of hope, the priestly face

was thrown back radiant, and the figure of him that would give his life

for us sank amongst the yet standing corn and disappeared from our sight.

So at last we yielded ourselves fully to our despair; for if our pastor

should find no mercy, what possibility of it could be for us!

It was in this moment of an uttermost grief and horror, when each stood

apart from his neighbour, fearing the contamination of his presence, that

there was vouchsafed to me, of God's pity, a wild and sudden inspiration.

Still to my neck fastened the little Margery--not frighted, it seemed,

but mazed--and other babes there were in plenty, that clung to their

mothers' skirts and peeped out, wondering at the strange show.

I ran to the front and shrieked: "The children! the children! He will not

touch the little children! Bring them and set them in his path!" And so

crying I sped to the neck of meadow, and loosened the soft arms from my

throat, and put the little one down within the corn.

Now at once the women saw what I would be at, and full a score of them

snatched up their babes and followed me. And here we were reckless for

ourselves; but we knelt the innocents in one close line across the neck

of land, so that the Black Reaper should not find space between any of

them to swing his scythe. And having done this, we fell back with our

hearts bubbling in our breasts, and we stood panting and watched.

He had paused over that one full sheaf of his reaping; but now, with the

sound of the women's running, he seized his weapon again and set to upon

the narrow belt of corn that yet separated him from the children. But

presently, coming out upon the tender array, his scythe stopped and

trailed in his hand, and for a full minute he stood like a figure of

stone. Then thrice he walked slowly backwards and forwards along the

line, seeking for an interval whereby he might pass; and the children

laughed at him like silver bells, showing no fear, and perchance meeting

that of love in his eyes that was hidden from us.

Then of a sudden he came to before the midmost of the line, and, while we

drew our breath like dying souls, stooped and snapped his blade across

his knee, and, holding the two parts in his hand, turned and strode back

into the shadow of the dripping well. There arrived, he paused once more,

and, twisting him about, waved his hand once to us and vanished into the

blackness. But there were those who affirmed that in that instant of his

turning, his face was revealed, and that it was a face radiant and

beautiful as an angel's.

Such is the history of the wild judgment that befell us, and by grace of

the little children was foregone; and such was the stranger whose name

no man ever heard tell, but whom many have since sought to identify with

that spirit of the pestilence that entered into men's hearts and

confounded them, so that they saw visions and were afterwards confused in

their memories.

But this I may say, that when at last our courage would fetch us to that

little field of death, we found it to be all blackened and blasted, so as

nothing would take root there then or ever since; and it was as if, after

all the golden sand of the hour-glass was run away and the lives of the

most impious with it, the destroyer saw fit to stay his hand for sake of

the babes that he had pronounced innocent, and for such as were spared to

witness to His judgment. And this I do here, with a heart as contrite as

if it were the morrow of the visitation, the which with me it ever has

remained.