Spurge and Agric are minor antagonists in the book The Bellmaker, the seventh book in the Redwall novel series. They are a couple of abusive yet cowardly weasels who had been robbing whichever travelers they come across and have at some point enslaved a young hedgehog named Bowly, whom they would frequently abuse before they encounter Mariel and Dandin, who take him from them after intimidating them while pretending to not know who they are.
Biography[]
Spurge and Agric are a couple of weasel thieves who had often robbed whichever travelers they encounter, getting much food and drink in the process. At some point, they captured a young orphaned hedgehog named Bowly Pintips, whom they would make their slave, have cook food for them, tie to a post at nights, and frequently abuse. One night, as they slept by a fire in their camp, Bowly Pintips managed to escape the post and run away from them.
Upon waking up, they are infuriated by his disappearance, though they sit by the fire during the day, trying to brew a pan of mint tea, which they were not doing a good job at with Spurge burning his paw on the pan handle and dancing about waving it in pain. Spurge questions how Bowly was able to do it as Agric then prods the apple pancakes at the side of the fire with his willow cane as he makes plans to track Bowly down with Spurge and whip him with his cane upon locating him. Just as he was discussing this, Bowly, who had returned after encountering Mariel and Dandin whom he told about his predicament, arrived at the camp and apologized for running off like that, causing Spurge's jaw to drop. Infuriated, Agric points with the cane to the wooden post and prepares to bind him to the post and whip him, but Spurge knocks the cane aside, telling him that they'll do it after breakfast as he wants him fit to cook their food first before having Bowly do so.
As Bowly began to stir crushed mint leaves into the bubbling water while setting the pancakes on a thin shale slab which he balanced over the fire's edge, Mariel strolled into the camp under the guise of a hungry traveler. Spurge then asks her what she has in the haversack she was carrying before going into a huddle, sniggering and whispering as they plan to rob her. Agric then turns to her, telling her that if she wants to eat, she needs to help. He then orders her to help Bowly ready the food, promising to give her something real nice, Spurge emphasizing this while sniggering. Mariel then began doing so as the weasels sat in the shade of the rock while nudging each other, continuously sniggering. Dandin then comes in himself by kicking the weasels' footpaws out of his way as he strode into the camp with Mariel welcoming him.
After Mariel and Bowly laid the food on the ground, Dandin sat between the two weasels and invited Bowly to join them. When Spurge and Agric tried to reach for food, Dandin slapped them with the flat of his dagger blade, telling them to wait their turn. Spurge and Agric began to look distinctly uneasy due to Dandin looking like a seasoned warrior. The three then began talking about robbers and slavers and what they do, causing the two weasels to become very nervous. Dandin then asks them if they know of two such slavers, pretending to not know they are slavers themselves. Agric stammers as he responds that he does not.
Dandin continues to intimidate them by staring hard at them as they trembled before swishing the willow cane under their noses, asking Mariel if she thinks they are telling the truth. Mariel in response proceeds to walk over to the weasels' wooden post and ties up a knot in the end of the post's short, heavy rope whilst saying that they look like fairly respectable beasts. She then produces half a dozen mixed beech and hazelnuts still in their shells from the weasels' food cache. Once she's done, she explains the former knotted rope she used to have and that she'd whack other things if she knew some creatures were lying to them. To demonstrate, she spins the knotted rope and cracks the nuts with the rope, intimidating Spurge and Agric further as they start to squeak with fright and tremble while staring shockedly at the line of kernel and shell fragments, which is what remained of the beech and hazelnuts.
Bowly then pats Spurge and Agric on their heads while grinning, pretending to tell them they've made a mistake and that they are good creatures and wager that they'd thank them for the food and water. Taking the hint, Spurge and Agric loaded their food and drink store into the haversack. Afterwards, Dandin removed sufficient supplies for a day from the pack and placed them in front of the two, telling them to take it with their compliments. He then asks where they're bound with Spurge replying that he thinks North. Mariel and Dandin then depart with Bowly and their weapons, telling them to beware the thieves they mentioned and to be cautious around the country before striding off calling cheerful goodbyes to the crestfallen weasels.
