A day after the Christmas of 1915, my professional duties took me up north; or to be as precise as our present conventions allow, to “the North–Eastern district.” There was some singular talk; mad gossip of the Germans having a “dug-out” somewhere by Malton Head. Nobody seemed to be quite clear as to what they were doing there or what they hoped to do there; but the report ran like wildfire from one foolish mouth to another, and it was thought desirable that the whole silly tale should be tracked down to its source and exposed or denied once and for all.
I went up, then, to that north-eastern district on Sunday, December 26th, 1915, and pursued my investigations1 from Helmsdale Bay, which is a small watering-place within a couple of miles of Malton Head. The people of the dales and the moors2 had just heard of the fable3, I found, and regarded it all with supreme4 and sour contempt. So far as I could make out, it originated from the games of some children who had stayed at Helmsdale Bay in the summer. They had acted a rude drama of German spies and their capture, and had used Helby Cavern5, between Helmsdale and Malton Head, as the scene of their play. That was all; the fools apparently6 had done the rest; the fools who believed with all their hearts in “the Russians,” and got cross with anyone who expressed a doubt as to “the Angels of Mons.”
“Gang oop to beasten and tell them sike a tale and they’ll not believe it,” said one dalesman to me; and I have a suspicion that he thought that I, who had come so many hundred miles to investigate the story, was but little wiser than those who credited it. He could not be expected to understand that a journalist has two offices — to proclaim the truth and to denounce the lie.
I had finished with “the Germans” and their dug-out early in the afternoon of Monday, and I decided7 to break the journey home at Banwick, which I had often heard of as a beautiful and curious old place. So I took the one-thirty train, and went wandering inland, and stopped at many unknown stations in the midst of great levels, and changed at Marishes Ambo, and went on again through a strange land in the dimness of the winter afternoon. Somehow the train left the level and glided8 down into a deep and narrow dell, dark with winter woods, brown with withered9 bracken, solemn in its loneliness. The only thing that moved was the swift and rushing stream that foamed10 over the boulders11 and then lay still in brown pools under the bank.
The dark woods scattered12 and thinned into groups of stunted13, ancient thorns; great grey rocks, strangely shaped, rose out of the ground; crenellated rocks rose on the heights on either side. The brooklet14 swelled15 and became a river, and always following this river we came to Banwick soon after the setting of the sun.
I saw the wonder of the town in the light of the afterglow that was red in the west. The clouds blossomed into rose-gardens; there were seas of fairy green that swam about isles16 of crimson17 light; there were clouds like spears of flame, like dragons of fire. And under the mingling18 lights and colours of such a sky Banwick went down to the pools of its land-locked harbour and climbed again across the bridge towards the ruined abbey and the great church on the hill.
I came from the station by an ancient street, winding19 and narrow, with cavernous closes and yards opening from it on either side, and flights of uneven20 steps going upward to high terraced houses, or downward to the harbour and the incoming tide. I saw there many gabled houses, sunken with age far beneath the level of the pavement, with dipping roof-trees and bowed doorways21, with traces of grotesque22 carving23 on their walls. And when I stood on the quay24, there on the other side of the harbour was the most amazing confusion of red-tiled roofs that I had ever seen, and the great grey Norman church high on the bare hill above them; and below them the boats swinging in the swaying tide and the water burning in the fires of the sunset. It was the town of a magic dream. I stood on the quay till the shining had gone from the sky and the waterpools, and the winter night came down dark upon Banwick.
I found an old snug25 inn just by the harbour, where I had been standing26. The walls of the rooms met each other at odd and unexpected angles; there were strange projections27 and juttings of masonry28, as if one room were trying to force its way into another; there were indications as of unthinkable staircases in the corners of the ceilings. But there was a bar where Tom Smart would have loved to sit, with a roaring fire and snug, old elbow chairs about it and pleasant indications that if “something warm” were wanted after supper it could be generously supplied.
I sat in this pleasant place for an hour or two and talked to the pleasant people of the town who came in and out. They told me of the old adventures and industries of the town. It had once been, they said, a great whaling port, and then there had been a lot of shipbuilding, and later Banwick had been famous for its amber-cutting. “And now there’s nowt,” said one of the men in the bar; “but we get on none so badly.”
I went out for a stroll before my supper. Banwick was now black, in thick darkness. For good reasons not a single lamp was lighted in the streets, hardly a gleam showed from behind the closely curtained windows. It was as if one walked a town of the Middle Ages, and with the ancient overhanging shapes of the houses dimly visible I was reminded of those strange, cavernous pictures of medi?val Paris and Tours that Doré drew.
Hardly anyone was abroad in the streets; but all the courts and alleys29 seemed alive with children. I could just see little white forms fluttering to and fro as they ran in and out. And I never heard such happy children’s voices. Some were singing, some were laughing; and peering into one black cavern, I made out a ring of children dancing round and round and chanting in clear voices a wonderful melody; some old tune30 of local tradition, as I supposed, for its modulations were such as I had never heard before.
I went back to my tavern31 and spoke32 to the landlord about the number of children who were playing about the dark streets and courts, and how delightfully33 happy they all seemed to be.
He looked at me steadily34 for a moment, and then said:
“Well, you see, sir, the children have got a bit out of hand of late; their fathers are out at the front, and their mothers can’t keep them in order. So they’re running a bit wild.”
There was something odd about his manner. I could not make out exactly what the oddity was, or what it meant. I could see that my remark had somehow made him uncomfortable; but I was at a loss to know what I had done. I had my supper, and then sat down for a couple of hours to settle “the Germans” of Malton Head.
I finished my account of the German myth, and instead of going to bed, I determined35 that I would have one more look at Banwick in its wonderful darkness. So I went out and crossed the bridge, and began to climb up the street on the other side, where there was that strange huddle36 of red roofs mounting one above the other that I had seen in the afterglow. And to my amazement37 I found that these extraordinary Banwick children were still about and abroad, still revelling38 and carolling, dancing and singing, standing, as I supposed, on the top of the flights of steps that climbed from the courts up the hillside, and so having the appearance of floating in mid-air. And their happy laughter rang out like bells on the night.
It was a quarter past eleven when I had left my inn, and I was just thinking that the Banwick mothers had indeed allowed indulgence to go too far, when the children began again to sing that old melody that I had heard in the evening. And now the sweet, clear voices swelled out into the night, and, I thought, must be numbered by hundreds. I was standing in a dark alley-way, and I saw with amazement that the children were passing me in a long procession that wound up the hill towards the abbey. Whether a faint moon now rose, or whether clouds passed from before the stars, I do not know; but the air lightened, and I could see the children plainly as they went by singing, with the rapture39 and exultation40 of them that sing in the woods in springtime.
They were all in white, but some of them had strange marks upon them which, I supposed, were of significance in this fragment of some traditional mystery-play that I was beholding42. Many of them had wreaths of dripping seaweed about their brows; one showed a painted scar on her throat; a tiny boy held open his white robe, and pointed43 to a dreadful wound above his heart, from which the blood seemed to flow; another child held out his hands wide apart and the palms looked torn and bleeding, as if they had been pierced. One of the children held up a little baby in her arms, and even the infant showed the appearance of a wound on its face.
The procession passed me by, and I heard it still singing as if in the sky as it went on its steep way up the hill to the ancient church. I went back to my inn, and as I crossed the bridge it suddenly struck me that this was the eve of the Holy Innocents’. No doubt I had seen a confused relic44 of some medi?val observance, and when I got back to the inn I asked the landlord about it.
Then I understood the meaning of the strange expression I had seen on the man’s face. He was sick and shuddering45 with terror; he drew away from me as though I were a messenger from the dead.
Some weeks after this I was reading in a book called The Ancient Rites46 of Banwick. It was written in the reign47 of Queen Elizabeth by some anonymous48 person who had seen the glory of the old abbey, and then the desolation that had come to it. I found this passage:
“And on Childermas Day, at midnight, there was done there a marvellous solemn service. For when the monks50 had ended their singing of Te Deum at their Mattins, there came unto the altar the lord abbot, gloriously arrayed in a vestment of cloth of gold, so that it was a great marvel49 to behold41 him. And there came also into the church all the children that were of tender years of Banwick, and they were all clothed in white robes. And then began the lord abbot to sing the Mass of the Holy Innocents. And when the sacring of the Mass was ended, then there came up from the church into the quire the youngest child that there was present that might hold himself aright. And this child was borne up to the high altar, and the lord abbot set the little child upon a golden and glistering throne afore the high altar, and bowed down and worshipped him, singing, ‘Talium Regnum Coelorum, Alleluya. Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Alleluya,’ and all the quire answered singing, ‘Amicti sunt stolis albis, Alleluya, Alleluya; They are clad in white robes, Alleluya, Alleluya.’ And then the prior and all the monks in their order did like worship and reverence51 to the little child that was upon the throne.”
I had seen the White Order of the Innocents. I had seen those who came singing from the deep waters that are about the Lusitania; I had seen the innocent martyrs52 of the fields of Flanders and France rejoicing as they went up to hear their Mass in the spiritual place.
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1
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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foamed
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| 泡沫的 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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brooklet
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| n. 细流, 小河 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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projections
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| 预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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huddle
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| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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revelling
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| v.作乐( revel的现在分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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