---
title: No sooner had the messengers reached the city than they stole out at… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner had the messengers reached the city than they stole out at night and buried a pot of gold far down in the earth, and let down another into the bed of the Tiber, just where a bridge spans the river. Who acts: messengers, people, bridge. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No sooner had the messengers reached the city than they stole out at night and buried a pot of gold far down in the earth, and let down another into the bed of the Tiber, just where a bridge spans the river.

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**Who acts:** messengers, people, bridge · **What happens:** reach, steal out, bury, let down, span · **To what, where:** city, pot, earth, another, bed, river

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (messengers, people, bridge), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg641:43:76
# text = No sooner had the messengers reached the city than they stole out at night and buried a pot of gold far down in the earth, and let down another into the bed of the Tiber, just where a bridge spans the river.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	buried	bury	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
22	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
29	down	down	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	obj	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Tiber	Tiber	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
38	just	just	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
39	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	42	advmod	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	spans	span	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | the messengers | the city |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent city=Theme |
| 2 | **steal out** | past | people |  |  |  | night |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **bury** | past | the messengers *not said here* | a pot of gold |  | the earth |  | down *property* | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent pot=Theme in earth=Destination |
| 4 | **let down** | infinitive |  | another |  | the bed of the Tiber |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent another=Theme |
| 5 | **span** | present | a bridge | the river |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme river=Co-Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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