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Dueling Misfits
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereLunghezza: 331 pagine5 ore
- Editore:
- N. Beetham Stark
- Pubblicato:
- Jul 12, 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781301692262
- Formato:
- Libro
Descrizione
King Stephen and Queen Maude (Matilda) fought for 19 years over the crown of England. Unfortunately, neither person had the qualities to make a good ruler. Queen Maude (Matilda), was never a queen and not even an empress even though she was married originally to the Holy Roman Emperor. She had an explosive temper and was given to indecisiveness. She freely gave away properties that did not belong to the crown and which were not hers to give, hoping that the new owners would be willing to fight and die for the new lands. After her half brother died, she left England and set about grooming her son, Henry, for the kingship.
Between them, Stephen and Maude managed to kill hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, drove many from their homes and forced thousands into starvation. Stephen was not a man who could trust others. He drove nobles from their family homes and replaced them with,’ New Men’, men of lesser nobility who would be loyal to him because he had given them lands. The displaced barons banded together and rode over the peasants roughshod, killing, stealing, burning and raping at will. In this story, two fictitious Irish brothers serve Stephen and one serves Maude while the fourth is a monk. They become spies, exchanging information using the ancient written language of the Irish known as ogham. This novel tells of the extreme suffering of the English people during this time and sets the stage for the rule of Henry II.
Informazioni sul libro
Dueling Misfits
Lunghezza: 331 pagine5 ore
Descrizione
King Stephen and Queen Maude (Matilda) fought for 19 years over the crown of England. Unfortunately, neither person had the qualities to make a good ruler. Queen Maude (Matilda), was never a queen and not even an empress even though she was married originally to the Holy Roman Emperor. She had an explosive temper and was given to indecisiveness. She freely gave away properties that did not belong to the crown and which were not hers to give, hoping that the new owners would be willing to fight and die for the new lands. After her half brother died, she left England and set about grooming her son, Henry, for the kingship.
Between them, Stephen and Maude managed to kill hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, drove many from their homes and forced thousands into starvation. Stephen was not a man who could trust others. He drove nobles from their family homes and replaced them with,’ New Men’, men of lesser nobility who would be loyal to him because he had given them lands. The displaced barons banded together and rode over the peasants roughshod, killing, stealing, burning and raping at will. In this story, two fictitious Irish brothers serve Stephen and one serves Maude while the fourth is a monk. They become spies, exchanging information using the ancient written language of the Irish known as ogham. This novel tells of the extreme suffering of the English people during this time and sets the stage for the rule of Henry II.
- Editore:
- N. Beetham Stark
- Pubblicato:
- Jul 12, 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781301692262
- Formato:
- Libro
Informazioni sull'autore
Nellie Beetham Stark was born November 20, 1933, in Norwich, Connecticut to Theodore and Dorothy Pendleton Beetham. She attended the Norwich Free Academy and later Connecticut College in New London, CT before graduating with a MA and a Ph.D. degree in Botany (Ecology) from Duke University.
Stark worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a botanist for six years and then joined the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada where she worked on desert and forest ecology and later tropical nutrient cycling. She has consulted in many countries, working for some time in Russia, Australia and South America. She developed the theory that explains why tropical white sand soils cannot grow good food crops and described the decline processes of soils. She has also developed a science of surethology, or survival behavior which describes how humans must adapt to their environments if they hope to survive long term. She has 96 professional publications and has published in four languages.
Her life long hobby has been English history, with emphasis on naval history. Her family came originally from Tristan Da Cunha in the South Atlantic in the early 1900’s. Her grandfather was a whale ship captain for a time which spurred her interest in naval history. She also paints pictures of sailing ships which she has used as covers for her historical novels. She has built several scale models of sailing ships and does extensive research on ships and naval history, traveling to England once yearly.
Stark was awarded the Connecticut Medal by Connecticut College in 1986 and the Distinguished Native Daughter Award for South Eastern Connecticut in 1985. She was named outstanding Forestry Professor three times by the students of the University of Montana, School of Forestry.
Today she writes historical novels, mostly set in England. She has published some 21 novels in the past twenty years, mostly on the internet. She lives on a farm in Oregon and raises hay and cows.
Stark's two most popular book series are:
Early Irish-English History
1. The Twins of Torsh, 44 A.D. to 90 A.D.
1. Rolf "The Red" MacCanna, 796-846
2. An Irishman's Revenge, 1066-1112
4. Brothers 4, 1180-1216
5. Edward's Right Hand, 1272-1307
6. We Three Kings, 1377-1422
The Napoleonic Wars at Sea (Benjamin Rundel)
1. Humble Launching - A Story of a Little Boy Growing Up at Sea, 1787
2. Midshipman Rundel - The Wandering Midshipman, 1795
3. Mediterranean Madness - The Luckless Leftenant Rundel, 1797
4. The Adventures of Leftenant Rundel, 1797-1799
5. Forever Leftenant Rundel, 1800-1803
6. Captain Rundel I – Trafalgar and Beyond, 1803-1806
7. Captain Rundel II – Give Me a Fair Wind, 1806-1809
8. Captain Rundel III – Bend Me a Sail, 1810-1813
9. Admiral Rundel – 1814-1846
Correlati a Dueling Misfits
Anteprima del libro
Dueling Misfits - N. Beetham Stark
DUELING MISFITS
KING STEPHEN AND QUEEN MAUDE
1135-1154
BY N. BEETHAM STARK
DUELING MISFITS
BY N. BEETHAM STARK
Smashwords Edition
This book is published in Oregon in the United States. Copyright 2013. All rights are reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the author or her agents. Paid downloads are acceptable.
ISBN 978-0-9846316-7-4 0-9846316-7-4
Acknowledgments
The author is indebted to R. H.C. Davis King Stephen, for insights into the nature of these troubled times. Also of great value was Empress Matilda by Marjorie Chibnall 1992, Henry I, King of England, by Judith Green, 2008 and Henry I, by C. Warren Hollister, 2001.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Tarsie, Picotso and our mutual friend, ‘PP’ for their wonderful insights into history.
History is the bitter pill that mankind must swallow if future generations are to avoid the social maladies of the past.
This is history told through the eyes of fictitious characters.
Cover art is by N. Beetham Stark. The coins are photos of hammered silver coins that may have depicted Stephen and Maude in conflict over the crown about the year 1141.
The author’s name is written in ogham, the language of the ancient Irish Celts and in English. The ogham alphabet has no ‘k’, so the last letter of the name in ogham is missing.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Ch. 1 Restless
Ch. 2 Exodus
Ch. 3 From Archer to Stone Mason
Ch. 4 Metamorphosis
Ch. 5 The Mysterious Death of King Henry
Ch. 6 King Stephen - Self-Made King
Ch. 7 Bryan’s Challenge
Ch. 8 Brothers United
Ch. 9 Courier Gone Missing
Ch. 10 A King is Caught
Ch. 11 Maude
Ch. 12 A Man Obsessed
Ch. 13 Wounded Heart
Ch. 14 The Truth Comes Out
Ch. 15 Young Henry Tests The Saddle
Ch. 16 Young Henry Returns To England
INTRODUCTION
This is the true story of two monarchs who both wanted to rule England at the same time. If the stories that the chroniclers of the time have left us are correct, neither of the two, Stephen or Maude (sometimes spelled without the ‘e’), were suited to rule the great English nation. The former ruler, King Henry I, had unusually strong talents as an organizer, a politician and a ruler. He loved peace more than war and was one of few monarchs not interested in expanding his empire. He set up an efficient government unprecedented for its time in all Europe. But when Stephen usurped the crown, he saw fit to destroy much of what Henry had accomplished. He changed all of the bishops and sheriffs and made promises that he could not keep. He failed repeatedly to meet the needs of the English people and failed the church as well. He floundered in Normandy, losing control. The barons that he had disinherited in England rode rough shod over the people, looting, raping, burning and enslaving many. We are led to believe that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in the futile struggle between King Stephen and Queen Maude (Matilda) for the crown.
Matilda was Henry I’s Daughter. He had originally named her as his successor when his only legitimate son, Prince William, died with the sinking of the White Ship in the English Channel. Stephen was his nephew and spent much time at Henry’s court. When Henry died, Stephen immediately made false claims and seized the treasury and the crown. Years later, Matilda (here called Maude) saw fit to challenge Stephen for the crown and was backed by her half-brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester.
In this historical novel, I tell the story of both monarchs through the eyes of their servants, four Irish brothers who served as scribe, archer, monk and courier. They devise a plan of communications that was effective and more efficient than anything in place at the time. The story is told through the eyes of all four brothers, but mostly through the activities and misfortunes of Thorne who is forced to change his name to Bryan in order to escape the wrath of King Stephen. His life is plagued by the fact that he overheard a conversation between Stephen and a sailor one night in the stables of the royal court. He is certain that Stephen who was not yet king, saw him and wants to put him out of action because he could destroy Stephen’s chances of becoming king.
The story is written from a point of view which may not be correct. King Stephen may not have been the evil, conniving, ambitious man that is depicted here. If I do him an injustice, I apologize in advance. But it is clear that Stephen was ambitious, he did want the crown, and he had opportunity to do all of the evil things that he is depicted as doing here. And some of the historians do more than hint that Stephen could have planned to scuttle the White Ship through bribing a sailor. He had good chance to bribe some servant in the scullery to lace King Henry’s eels with poison, but we have no concrete proof that he did so. In fact, some historians say that Henry died after a hunting party and that his ailment, whatever it was, lasted for eight days. All things considered, he could just as well have eaten too many eels and caused a rupture of his intestines or some other digestive complications. I have chosen to use the eels version because it makes a better story. Whether any poison was involved or whether Stephen had any hand in the matter is a question which will remain unanswered forever. Also, Stephen may not have planned in advance to take over the Norman Treasury, but historians tell us that he moved with uncanny swiftness to clean out the Norman treasury and to control the English treasury as well. If one looks at his interest in the crown and the sequence of events, from the scuttling of the White Ship which resulted in the death of Prince William, Henry’s successor, to the untimely death of Henry himself, to the hasty ride to control both treasuries, it is easy to see a carefully sculpted plot to gain the crown of England. Added to that is the fact that Stephen’s younger brother, Henry, was in position to have the ear of the Pope and was a man of great influence in England. With all this we have the perfect motives for a clever takeover of the English crown. What is lamentable is the tremendous loss of English lives and the intense suffering during the nineteen years of the struggle between the two monarchs for the crown.
Matilda, Henry’s daughter, is referred to here and in most English histories as ‘Queen Maude.’ I believe that the reason for this is that Henry’s mother was Matilda and Stephen’s wife was also called Matilda. With three Matildas all having significant roles in this period of history, confusion is inevitable. I confess to having to do considerable research to be certain that I am writing about the correct ‘Matilda’. Here Matilda, daughter of King Henry I, is referred to most of the time as ‘Maude.’ The odd thing about Maude is that she is called ‘Queen Maude’ by the English but was never anointed or crowned as Queen. She was also married to the Holy Roman Emperor of Germany, but was never crowned as ‘Empress’. After the Emperor’s death, she married the much younger Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, but was never or rarely called Countess Matilda. She has to be a most unfortunate character in the panorama of characters who lived during this turbulent time, 1120-1154. She lost the English crown by the force of her stubbornness, bad temper and not because of any pitched battle. The people simply rejected her.
The events that follow Stephen’s ascension to the throne show his clever nature, as well as his lack of understanding of his people and the politics of governance. He managed to make one mistake after another resulting in loss of faith of his nobles and great, almost unbearable hardships for his people. History tells of the disinherited barons joining forces and riding across the land, taking the peasant men as slaves to be sold, raping the women and pillaging and burning the towns. They destroyed everything down to the crops and animals. Stephen’s indifference to the lawlessness in his kingdom is in stark contrast to the peaceful and safe world people had known under Henry I. This story is good reading for any politician who thinks that history has no bearing on the world that we live in today. If one looks hard enough, it is possible to find the same abuses of mankind and the same evil in our present lives as existed in 1135. The main difference is that physical hardship has been replaced by mental torture, lies, taxes, uncertainty and secret agendas which are veiled from the people.
The hardships of the times have been portrayed as accurately as possible. Life was difficult, travel was by foot or by horse and food and water were often in limited supply. Travel to Normandy was a major undertaking, totally at the mercy of the English Channel. Castles were major landmarks. But a castle could control only the area visible from its ramparts. Land between castles was open game and difficult to control or defend. The peasants were at the mercy of their overlords with little or no say in their lives or futures. The only source of heat was the sun and an open fire. Clothes had to be of wool but could not keep out the drenching rains. Communication was difficult. There was no regular postal service and royal couriers were the main means of passing on information. Most people could not read. Most royalty, nobles and clerics had some education and could read Latin, but the peasants were largely uneducated. Language was in transition at this time in history. Most of the nobility spoke French. The peasants spoke an early quaint version of English, but many spoke Saxon dialects or even Gaelic. Communication between the nobles and the peasants was never easy and misunderstandings were common. No one had ever heard of human rights and brutal treatment, torture, and unwarranted deaths were commonplace.
Most of the things that happen to Bryan and his brothers are things that were known to happen to people at the time. Capture, imprisonment, torture, slavery, robbery, pillaging, burning, corruption in the church, wolves, adultery, leprosy, all had a place in life in England at that time. Because there were few large scale or notable battles, it is harder to depict warfare during this period. Sieges were common with castles holding out to the starvation point. Most of the action was in the form of small skirmishes, ambushes and looting expeditions which destroyed great amounts of property and wealth. The practice of disinheriting nobles of doubtful loyalty was started with King Henry I, but was abused and expanded by Stephen who created his own group of disgruntled nobles who still wielded great power. He created his own enemies where Henry had only wanted to punish those noble families who had supported his brother against him in his battle for Normandy. Stephen’s casual treatment of his powerful brother, Henry of Blois, shows his lack of understanding of the power of the kingship and the responsibility of brotherhood. A king could only be as powerful as the men whom he nourished around him as his advisors and warriors.
The cover has the author’s name, N. Beetham Stark, written in ogham.
Major sources for this work are many, but the most important have been: King Stephen by R.H. C, Davis, 1990, Henry I by C. Warren Hollister, 2001, Henry I, King of England by Judith Green, 2008, and assorted maps and Ecclesiastical sources. The Domesday Book was valuable in establishing which towns were in existence in 1120. I use the names of nobles because many of their descendants are with us today. They were the people who were making history, whether they knew it or not.
Chapter 1
RESTLESS
It was a cold and rainy day when Thorne Brogan first screamed his defiance at the world. It was as if his parents both knew that something special was going to happen to their first born son. But they could never have guessed how trying and troubled his life would be. Even in the womb, he was restless, constantly kicking and thrashing about, anxious to get on with life. As a babe, he was like no other that his parents had ever seen. At six months he was walking. His first words came out in perfect Gaelic when he was eleven months old.
Thorne grew up in the hills west of Arklow, in Ireland. From the very start it was plain that he would be a large man with strong hands and huge limbs. He depended as little upon his parents as any babe could. Early on he established a fierce independence. At five he made his first bow and arrows. He was soon off to the fields and hills to search for game to shoot. Within a year, he was able to keep the family table supplied with fresh boar, bird and fish. His father was delighted with his progress, but wished more than once that the child might be around to help with the harvest and winnowing.
A year later the second child appeared. It was a boy again and they named him, Rye. Like his older brother, he had auburn hair and a fine strong face. He began quite early to show signs of being bookish. His mother came from a Druid family and she had several books written in the old Druid Ogham. When she found Rye fingering the pages thoughtfully, she decided to teach him to read the Ogham symbols. As soon as Thorne saw his brother with the book, his second strength appeared. He had a thirst for knowledge. He too, wanted to learn to read. Their mother took time each day to teach them the strange stick and dot symbols that danced about a straight line and told a story in the form of a pen and ink forest. Each letter was named for a tree. So one with imagination could picture a small stand of trees of different types and see instead a word. And these two were not lacking in imagination. They could find all manner of mischief to occupy their idle hours.
Then the third son arrived. They named him Rush. As soon as he could walk, he was trying to grab the mane of their pony and climb on to ride. He too showed signs of being most restless. When he mounted a horse, it was as if he and the horse were of one mind. He soon learned to ride like his Celtic ancestors. He controlled the animal with his knees, throwing his hands in the air and letting out bone chilling war whoops that made a man’s hair stand on end. He was a constant problem because he had no interest in learning to read or write and he was as often away to the hills as was his brother, Thorne. But Sheila Brogan continued to teach her sons to read, when she could find them.
Then the fourth son, Brock, arrived. At last the Brogans thought that they had a normal child. His hair was nearly brown and he showed none of the restless tendencies of the other three boys. He too, was to grow to be a tall, strong man. But when his mother took him to Mass, unlike his brothers, he sat quietly and listened to every word. If there was singing, he sang with a clear and sweet voice. At five, he approached the village priest and asked if he might teach him to read and speak Latin. Thorne and Rye were so amazed that they too asked to be taught. But Thorne was not about to be shortchanged. He asked the priest to teach him to read, write and speak Latin, French, English and Gaelic. Father Hurley looked at the boy, now perhaps nine years old and said, Lad, you wish to bite off more than any grown man can chew. You can never handle all of those words in one dose. Let me teach you Latin at first. Then we can work on the others.
But Thorne was already a man who knew his own mind. He said, I already know the Gaelic, Father, if I am to sit still for that long to learn how to say something that is on my mind, I must learn how to say it so that any man can comprehend my words. Teach me all of it and I shall thank you.
Everyone was surprised when Thorne stood by his lessons. Oh, he would stir in his seat and soon grab his bow and arrow if he saw a bird that would make a fine stew, but he was also a fast learner and he soon had mastered the essentials for survival in all four languages. Rye, who loved to study and cared nothing for the hunt, was not about to be outdone by his brother. He too tackled the full range of languages and did quite well, especially with French. But Thorne declared after a week that French was invented for men who were half deaf and had athletic tongues. He learned it, but he hated it. Rush, on the other hand, would have little to do with any language. All he wanted to do was to ride on the beaches and feel the wind in his face blowing his auburn hair wildly. His mother did try to teach him Ogham, when ever she could get him to sit still long enough. If it had not been for the cold Irish rains that forced a man inside, he might never have learned any language. Although Brock was four years younger than Thorne, he soon managed to conquer Latin, letting the other languages fall by the wayside. Even so, he would eventually retain enough of the other languages to find them useful. Soon, he began to be recognized as a potential Latin scholar. Sheila Brogan was delighted because some of her ancestors had been the very finest of Latin scholars and there were a number of priests in her family.
Thorne would study for several days and then he would disappear for a week, taking his bow and arrows with him. He learned how to hunt, fish and build fires and shelters to care for himself. In fact he was so independent that his father worried about him constantly. When ever he needed a hand to help with the farm, he had to turn to responsible Brock. He was the only son who could be depended on to stay at home. By age nine, Rush was attracted to the Boyle family who lived about five miles to the west. They had a beautiful little girl, Danu, who was the object of Rush’s affections, even though they were but children.
One trait that surfaced early in Thorne was his love of music. At age two he took great pleasure in beating on a hollow log that his father had brought in for the fire ring. His mother, however, found anything but pleasure in this constant drumming and quickly burned the log. Thorne disappeared one day when he was three and returned for supper with a crude approximation of a boudrain (Irish drum, ‘boron’) made from some cow hide stretched over a small section of hollow log and held tight by thong. He updated the instrument regularly, making a newer and better drum each year. It soon became necessary for Sheila to ban all drumming in the cottage. They lived in a small stone cottage that their father had built near a spring.
It was not long after that Rye went to the fall wool market and heard a man playing a crowd, a rectangular instrument with five strings that could be plucked or bowed. Rye lacked the skills to build a bow, but he managed to carve out a soundbox and attach strings to it. It was an ancient Celtic instrument that his mother loved. She could tolerate a few hours of it in the cottage before she had to ask Rye to leave for the barn. Their father declared one night that the cows gave more and sweeter milk when the boys played their music in the barn.
When Rush came along, he favored the lyre. He whittled out a body, attached strings to it over a bridge and began to make horrible sounds on it when he was only five. Gradually, he also was able to find better wood and carved out a much finer lyre. With three boys playing, their mother decided that the only way she could keep her sanity was to teach them old Celtic songs. Once the boys heard the songs, they soon were able to play the tunes and it kept them amused while the rains pelted down on their sedge roof.
Their little band was complete when their father, who loved music also, brought home a small Irish bag pipe. Brock had broken a dozen sticks trying to bend it to the shape of a lyre, and had finally given up. He had heard the tinkling tones of a lyre -like instrument at the fair and was determined to join his brothers in playing the fine old tunes. He finally settled for a pipe carved from wood. With the family band assembled one Christmas Eve, Ryan, their father, took charge, leading the boys in playing all manner of ancient melodies. He often sang and the boys played to accompany him. For untrained musicians, they were extremely talented. When their mother joined in the singing, it was all the better, but it would be Brock who would have the finest singing voice.
As one might expect, it is not possible to raise four boys under one roof without some mischief. Often the mischief began as an overambitious project that the boys could not complete and evolved into outright mayhem. They fought like pups and rolled about the floor knocking ashes from the fire ring and bumping into cruets and jars, sometimes breaking them.
One day Thorne had walked to the coast. He was beating idly on his boudrain, rapping out a thudding tune that made him feel good. He stood for sometime and watched a local fisherman in his small boat fishing in the Irish Sea. He had fished for years, but the fish that he caught in the local streams were small. This fisherman was pulling out fish that were up to two feet long. Thorne determined to build a boat and fish the Irish Sea. He had to catch those big fish.
Thorne spoke with the local priest about how to build a boat. Father Hurley thought that the lad wanted to float down one of the small rivers or paddle around a cranaugh, so he explained how cow hide stretched over a willow frame would make a round, cup-shaped boat that would work just fine. Thorne was always a man of action. He was only eleven years old, but with his knife he began to cut willow branches and to weave them into a mat. He soon realized that if he built his boat near home, it would be too heavy to carry to the sea, so he moved his work to the coast, but not before Rye caught a glimpse of what he was building. Thorne used bits of thong cut from an old, rotting cowhide. He reasoned that the thong should be strong enough to hold the willow branches together. Then he ‘borrowed’ a new cow hide from his father’s barn and fastened it to the frame with thong. He was fashioning a paddle out of some drift wood when his three brothers caught up with him.
What are you doing, Thorne?
said Rye.
Can’t you see I am building a boat and here are paddles. This,
as he held up some braided plant fibers, will be my fishing line and I have made hooks from bits of wood and bone.
And where do you expect to fish, brother?
He threw his hand in the air in a mighty gesture encompassing the Irish Sea, Out there of course,
he replied.
Now it was well known among the local farmers that all four boys had itchy feet. They were all eager to travel and see the world. Brock was only seven, but he was as much of a wanderer as the others.
Can we go with you?
all three boys called at once.
And what would I do with all three of you in this small boat?
replied Thorne.
We can fish an’ we can bail an’ we can row too,
said Rush who by now was ready to jump into the small boat.
Thorne looked at the small coracle. He had not planned on anyone but himself sailing in it. I wonder if all four of us can fit in the boat, he mused.
All right. Come along. I will sail in a few minutes. The fish are biting well today. I saw a man bring in a large fish not long ago.
He placed his bait and fishing gear in the coracle, eager to see if it would all work.
The boys grabbed the small boat and dragged it to the strand. With yelps of joy, they clambered into the tipsy coracle and Thorne pushed the craft through the shallow water beyond the wash. As he jumped in, he thought, I didn’t tell Da or Ma I was going fishing, but then I never tall them what I am doing anyway. No matter.
They had to fight the waves with the paddles to get beyond the tow which kept dragging them back to the shore. The main problem was that there were four eager sailors in the boat and no captain. Each man wanted to paddle his own way, sending the little round craft swirling about in the water. The other problem was that there was too much weight in the coracle. It was meant to be a pond or stream craft for only one man.
Thorne soon realized the problem and he took charge, shouting at his brothers to, Pull as I do.
Pull, Pull! This way.
After almost an hour, the little craft was in open water and bobbing about like a wood chip on the waves of a mighty sea. Now the craft dipped and rose with the waves so that often a paddle set in the water ended up in thin air with its rower tipped upside down in the boat. It was good laughing fun at first. Thorne managed to get one hook baited and in the water, but he was hard pressed to hang onto the sides of the craft and could not man his line. He watched helplessly as it slipped over the side of the craft and into the water.
After two hours, the fun was over. The boys were hanging onto the rim of the boat for dear life, eyes dilated and wild screeches telling of their fright. When the sea water began to pour into the craft in large quantities, Thorne told his brothers to , Bail, bail for all you’re worth,
but no one would let go of the rail to do any bailing. Disaster tracked them across the sea and it was only a matter of minutes before they would all be in the water. The storm that had blown in now stirred up huge waves and the coracle tipped dangerously with each successive wave. The tipping dumped most of the water out, but it nearly dumped the boys too. Thorne saw the inevitable racing towards them. He grabbed the remaining fishing line made from plant fibers and made a loop in one end. Then he looped the line over the nearest brothers arm and tied all four of them together with just enough room for them to swim. It was none too soon either, for the next huge wave carried the coracle up very high and then collapsed under them, tipping the coracle completely upside down. They bobbed in the water, shouting and splashing,
Thorne yelled, Swim, follow me! Blub, blub.
The four boys all knew how to swim, but getting them to swim at the same speed and in the same direction was a challenge. Slowly,
they began to swim, but Thorne would be the first to admit that he didn’t know where the coast was. He tried to see the land every time a wave carried him high, but the rain blurred his vision and he could not get his bearings. Now, for the first time in his life, he was worried, frightened beyond belief.
Back at the cottage, Ryan Brogan brought the cows in for milking as he always did and looked for Brock to do the milking. Where is the boy? He never misses milking. Surely he has not wandered off like the others! He walked about the property calling for Brock, but the seven year old was no where to be found. Then he went to the cottage. You seen Brock, my dear?
No love. I have not seen any of the boys all day long. They were not about at lunch time either. Usually one or the other gets hungry and comes in looking for some bread and butter."
Night came on and it was now dark. There was not a boy in sight. Ryan came in
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