C.F.P.

Shanahan History October 1, 2012 Word Count: 1144 Wk4d1

A Soldiers Tale
I am a Kings man, I always have been a Kings man, and I will be a Kings man till the day I die. I sit now in a prison shed, waiting for my sentence to be carried out. The young man guarding the cell looks as if he were a mere sixteen years old. How old are you, boy? The guard glances over at me. After an unsure look around, he replies. Im nineteen, Mr. Clive. The boy seems worried about talking to me, but in a moment, his curiosity gets the better of him. Is it true that you slandered the King? I felt a momentary spike of annoyance as he refers to William the Pretender, as The King. Boy, never let it be said that I ever slandered the rightful king of England! I paused for a moment to let my words sink in. Rather, promulgate the fact that I refused to acknowledge a usurper and a Dutchman to boot, as my sovereign. As he realizes the gist of my words, the guard turns away. He kicks himself for his lack of discipline and not for curbing his interest. I was a nineteen year old soldier once. But I fought in a different land, for a different cause, and for a different King. Was it really forty two years ago that I set sail for England? These thoughts cascaded through my mind as I thought of companions who did not return from that bloody conflict. I began to slowly drift off into sleep as a shaft of warm sunlight fell across my back. And soon I slept. ______________________________________________________________________ The night of our return home, all is silent, the moon shone over the water as we row toward the small inlet that marked the entrance to Saybrook harbor. My party consists of my brother, myself, and Nat Bulkley. Nat ties the boat to the dock, and we sit there listening. I can hear nothing except for the crickets. Than noise erupts out of the darkness; the pier where my transport has landed is suddenly alive with people. Calls of, Get them, get the Royalist soldiers, ring through the air. My companions and I dive overboard into the icy water; we are prepared for such an event. Our departure from Devonshire was much the same, in that we were hounded by Roundhead cavalry to the beaches. Shots are fired from the docks, and we swim even faster to avoid the speeding lead. We crawl into the reeds under the furthest pier, dripping. I notice that Charles, named after our noble Kings murdered father, is not with us. Nat, where is Charles? We both glance back towards the pier. To my dismay, I see the mob pull a body from the water. At this distance, I cannot tell if it is my brother.

We cant go back for him now, Henry. Wed be doing Charles a disfavor by returning. We cant just leave him, I groan, Theyll kill him. Theyd do no such thing; well probably find him at the watchmans house in the morning. Hell be fine. ______________________________________________________________________ I wake with a start, as a bucket of icy cold water is flung over me. Young Watkins may have let you sleep, but there shall be no more of it, A red faced soldier looks disapprovingly at me, No comforts are allowed to men like you. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, slandering the King the way you did. He stalks out of the shed, and I sit shivering for a few moments, then try to drown out my predicament in my memories. ______________________________________________________________________ The sad fact of the matter was that Nats hope was wrong. We did go to the watchmans house in the morning, only to find that my brother had been shot in our escape. It had been his body the mob retrieved from the harbor. I grieved for him, but eventually time forced me to move on. When Charles the Second regained the throne, my life became a little easier, as I was no longer publicly persecuted by my Puritan neighbors. Those were happier years; I got married, had several children, and even built a farm of my own. There was always a slight sense of unease, but generally, life was kind. It was a sad day when the King died, but life continued. King James was not the administrator that his brother was; he didnt appease the colonies in their quest for a measure of self-administration, and was generally unpopular in the Dominion. The day we heard of the exile of King James, I was shocked. After the restoration, I had simply assumed that the parliaments foolishness was ended. Jacob Leislers rebellion in New York and Governor Andross arrest by the militia in Boston were great indicators of the turmoil in the colonies. A loose tongue can lead one into trouble. A tongue loosened by too much cider, can lead you into trouble greater still. I had been sitting in the inn, when Mathew Wood declared loudly from the bar, that a Catholic monarch was bad enough, but a man who would keep a standing army, and place Catholics in parliament was not to be borne. I myself was Anglican, but I believed that the King had a right to be whatever Christian religion he wished to be, and I made my belief known to Mathew. While I did not believe in the King placing his own in parliament, and while not a traditional thing, the excesses of Cromwells army were an extreme, and not the norm of Jamess army.

Anyhow, the argument became heated, and the subject of the, Pretender came up. I tried to contain my temper, but in the end, my emotions proved too much. I ruthlessly castigated William, calling several dreadful names, denying his right to be the English King as he was not English. I blasted him for usurping Jamess throne, and exiling him. What I said came to the wrong ears, and by morning I had been sentenced to flogging for treasonous talk. The Militia marched me off to the shed where I now sit. The door of my prison swings open, and my captors enter. They pull me up roughly, and march me out into the yard. Henry Clive, you are responsible for impugning the rightful King in public. As such you have been sentenced to flogging, the Captain says, Since you are an elderly man your flogging shall consist of only ten lashes. They proceed with the sentence, and before the end, I am unconscious. I believe that when all is said and done, I will retain my belief. I am glad that I spoke out against injustice. What I did was honorable, and that will always be my choice of action, for I am Kings man.