Читать книгу The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel - Emmuska Orczy - Страница 26

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After three years at Harrow, Percy, to his vast surprise and amusement, found himself a monitor.

In the interval the ups and downs of school life had passed quickly and uneventfully. Though by nature an idler, Percy was by no means lacking in intelligence. He possessed a quick and receptive mind, an amazing memory for facts and figures and an able brain. His teachers were often infuriated by his slovenly work and apparent stupidity, and they had just cause for complaint since he never seemed to show a desire to exert himself at lessons. It was a standing grievance with the classical master that he refused to work for the scholastic honours which his ability undoubtably deserved.

Instead, Percy had perfected a system whereby he contrived to do the minimum amount of work required to avoid impositions and beatings. The system at Harrow in those days whereby a boy obtained promotion (remove as it was called) at least once a year, unless he was totally unfit for it, enabled him to climb very slowly, but surely, from the Lower to the Upper School, ultimately attaining, somewhat precariously, the dignity of a sixth-form boy without having worked very hard for the honour.

But even if these years had failed to make a scholar out of him, they were the means of forging those great friendships which were destined to last a lifetime, friendships built on varying foundations.

The original sharers of the dormitory, Andrew Ffoulkes, Edward Bathurst, and William Pitt, linked themselves together in enduring bonds tacitly acknowledging the leadership of Percy Blakeney. Though they were just schoolboys, they had already discerned in the companion those magnificent qualities of courage as well as of cunning, of magnetic personality and the power to command, of irresistible gaiety and charm whatever the predicament, which later on in life called forth their unqualified obedience. At Harrow these three being inseparable, earned the nickname of the “Three Devils,” since no escapade or freak prank was ever carried out successfully save at their instigation.

They once held up the London to Hertford mail coach in approved highwayman fashion, and, having revealed to their victims their identities and intentions, they sent the proceeds of their robbery to a well-deserving charity. They ruled the juniors with an iron hand, put a stop to all bullying and to all unwarranted outbursts of childish rebellion. They even, by means of the subtle art of “sidetracking,” reduced a too presumptuous master to subjection and by physical force deposed a too bumptious monitor. The headmaster was quite willing to admit that the influence of the “Three Devils” was all for the good of the school, and that whenever they brought a request to him he was always ready to give it his earnest consideration and to grant it when possible or reasonable. Hence, their unexpected promotion to monitor rank.

Strangest of all was the close friendship between Blakeney and William Pitt. It was a friendship which brought Percy much of the help and consideration in high places of which he subsequently stood in need in his work of mercy.

It was a case of extreme opposites meeting; Pitt admired Percy’s wonderful physique and fearlessness, whilst Blakeney paid tribute to the other’s capacity for hard work and moral courage. At first, Percy only showed toward his friend that tolerant contempt which the athlete has for the bookworm. Later it dawned upon him that Pitt was more than a plodder, was, in fact, a genius, and contempt was thereupon turned into genuine and generous admiration. He accepted quite humbly the rebukes and railings which Pitt levelled at his idleness; and so great was Pitt’s influence over him that presently the masters noticed an unaccountable improvement in Percy’s schoolwork. Soon it became known that Pitt was under Blakeney’s especial care and that any one who wished to tease or bully the studious boy had first to reckon with Blakeney’s fists.

Pitt was Ffoulkes’ fag. When Percy was released from performing menial duties after the brilliant part he had played in the school rebellion, he set himself the task of helping to perform his, so as to enable his friend to study without interruption; and when he in his turn became a fag master he made his own young slave carry out duties for Pitt, until such a time as the latter could command a fag for himself.

The Earl of Chatham, at his son’s request, sent a holiday invitation to Percy and, after he had listened gravely to his young visiter’s exploits as recounted to him by William, he remarked:

“Damn it, if I only had you in my ministry I would defy Bedford and . . . hm . . . even the King.”

Which remark Pitt was soon after to remember in a manner and at a time that caused his friend Blakeney much consternation.