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AMONG THE MOHEGANS
A Puritan's Tale of Passage
By Howard Root iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2013 Howard Root
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-8368-5
CHAPTER 1
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Psalm 23:2
Badby Village, Daventry, Northamptonshire, England —March 1630
The workday came early for me, as it did with every dawn. As the early spring sun peeked over the small, rounded hills and dense forests of Badby Village in Daventry, I moved—after a quick breakfast of raw milk and biscuits—off to our family's farmyard to feed the small herd of two cows, a handful of skinny chickens, a few sheep, and one poor horse that pulled our plows and our wagons. As for me, I stood taller than average and, with a build like a rooted tree trunk, easily carried myself to these tasks. My duties, responsibilities, and future were clear—my Puritan heritage honor-bound me to serve my father, Thomas Smythe, and my elder brother, Jacob, both on the family farm and on the weaving loom.
My family called me Jonathan, and as the younger son of this tenant family, I foresaw my fate sealed into a life of servitude to my elder brother. On the death of our father, Jacob—at twenty-five the elder son—would inherit our thatched two-room cottage, the farm acreage, and the weaving, with me left to work for him. I would be left with nothing. I would own nothing—not that there existed a great amount to own. For a headstrong twenty-year-old, this eventual servitude did not sit well with me. My father and brother knew well my feelings, dreams, and plans of colonization and independence in the New World.
Our king, Charles I, had started war with Spain in 1625, leaving our country in massive debt and opening up the possibility of colonization in the New World for adventurous Englishmen such as me. This king proclaimed reforms that resulted in prosecutions and persecutions for all Puritans who did not adhere to sacramental Anglican Church laws. To make matters worse, the lord of our parish, Lord Kingley, caused considerable unrest by his attempts to turn much of the croplands to pasture and to restrict our hunting rights in Badby Wood.
Grumbling to myself over my lot, I much anticipated a secret hunting trip after His Lordship's deer into the surrounding Badby Wood with my good friend Aaron Carpenter; we had been friends since we were weaned. Our small family plots of land adjoined each other and the common tenant area of Badby Village. At least my father and brother, I thought, could not deny me the opportunity to put much-needed meat on the table. To hell with Lord Kingley and his band of ruffians! Poaching deer was only a minor crime, punishable by time in the stocks if caught. Our plan was to not get caught!
A low whistle caught my attention as Aaron bounded into the farmyard. Aaron, slightly shorter than I, was well muscled and had the familiar curly red hair of the village. I noticed that Aaron carried his father's musket with him. A full moon ago, Aaron and I had ventured into Badby Wood on a scouting mission to choose good game-hunting sites. We'd been brutally chased off by Kingley's hired men. Aaron had suffered badly bruised ribs from one of the cudgel wielders.
"A good day to you, Jonathan," Aaron bubbled. Always cheerful, he could put a smile on my face in my gloomiest moods.
"Aye, but keep the noise down, lad. If we stir the elders, we'll never leave the village."
"Come, boy, the early start to this day means His Lordship's boys may be sleepin', so we can sneak past 'em!"
It was a good thought, and Aaron helped me finish off the chores. My father and brother had warned me not to touch the musket and shot, but the sense of adventure overcame my timidity. I sneaked into our thatched cottage, crept carefully across the main room to the smoldering fireplace, and gently lifted the musket, powder, and shot bags from the mantel rack on the fireplace. My father and mother were snoring peacefully in their separate alcove off the main room. Brother Jacob was still snoring on his pallet in the loft above them. My two younger sisters were not stirring in their blissful sleep. I eased myself back across the central room, soundlessly closed the heavy oaken main door, and ventured into the farmyard, where Aaron awaited.
"Off we go with us, and may the Almighty keep our powder dry and our shots straight," I whispered to Aaron with a smile.
* * *
We trotted down the well-beaten main road of the village to the edge of Badby Wood and then quickly disappeared into the cover of the dense forest. Badby Wood had originally been set aside for deer hunting, but of late, Lord Kingley had further limited access to the good hunting areas. Hired bands of Kingley's thugs now guarded and roamed the woods, searching for poachers, further enraging the villagers. Aaron and I knew from our experiences that these thugs were ever vigilant, but we had a plan.
We knew these woods like the backs of our hands. The warm sun had leafed out the massive oaks, increasing the silence in the almost cathedral-like forest. We planned to keep away from the main trails through the forest. The dense underbrush and thickets slowed our progress, but we knew that patrols kept their keen eyes on the main trails. We pushed onward toward our hunting site. The sun had slipped over the nearest hilltop, burning off the morning mists. The calls of familiar birds were the only sounds. As we crested a slight rise, we caught sight of what we had come for—a doe placidly browsing in the clearing directly in front of us. She had not caught our scent or noticed our arrival and continued feeding. I quickly and efficiently loaded my musket and prepared to fire. Aaron, who was following me, had sighted in on the doe before me and had already aimed his loaded musket. Our two shots rang out almost simultaneously. The doe leaped, staggered, and fell. The two shots had thudded into the doe below the shoulder, instantly killing it. We hurried to the animal and began field dressing it.
Intent on our tasks, we were heedless to the men noiselessly arriving. The musket shots ringing out in the forest had revealed our location to one of His Lordship's patrols. A snapping twig alerted me to the approaching danger. I sprang to my feet, the bloodied knife from dressing the deer in my hand. Four gnarled and muscular men approached us on the run. Aaron grabbed for his musket, but two of the men quickly overpowered and bound him. The other two wrestled me to the ground, punching and kicking me into submission. The leader of the thugs—a scarred Irish ruffian named O'Malley, whom we knew to be quick to anger and merciless, based on a previous encounter—displayed a special dislike for English Puritans.
"Out for a little hunting, be you? His Lordship don't take kindly to poachers!" O'Malley snarled, spitting in my face and then slamming his cudgel into my stomach for emphasis. I sank to my knees.
"Come on, boys, let's drag these bastards to His Lordship. He'll deal out the punishment." O'Malley chuckled. They roughly dragged us to our feet and commanded us to move out to the nearest trail. Two of the gang lashed the doe to a stout tree limb in preparation for carrying the evidence back to the manor house.
After an hour of forced march, we reached a two-wheeled pony cart that the thugs had squirreled away. The men threw the deer into the back of the cart and quickly jumped in. They roped us like animals to the back of the cart. We started off at a brisk pace. Uneven terrain, a warming sun, and the quick pace of the cart quickly exhausted us both. Staggering behind the cart, Aaron let out a yell as he fell face-first onto the back of the cart and then smashed his head on a small boulder on the trail. The crunch of bone was sickening.
"Stop the cart, you bastards! He's hurt!"
O'Malley looked back, smiling, and whipped the pony into an even quicker pace. For the next couple of furlongs, I could only watch as Aaron was dragged helplessly along behind the cart. Aaron was in mortal danger, but there was no way for me to help. I tried to pray, as I had been taught, to forgive my tormentors, but my anguish quickly turned to blinding anger. If I survived—and I would survive—I told myself that my vengeance would right these wrongs.
* * *
Aaron's face and upper torso were a pulpy red mass by the time the cart slowed and jerked to a stop in front of Lord Kingley's manor house, Fawnswich Hall. The two-story stone-and-brick manor house, built over a century before, was an impressive structure that included a courtyard and several outbuildings. The sun had reached its zenith, warming the stones of the manor. My pain was only beginning as I stood weaving from exhaustion, praying for signs of life from Aaron. The only sound was the buzzing of blood-hungry flies. O'Malley drove the cart into the courtyard and slowly marched to the entryway, knocked quietly on the massive oak door, and waited. A well-dressed footman soon answered the knock.
With a sneer as he smelled the odor of bloody flesh, he asked for a reason behind the intrusion. "What brings these stinking carcasses here?"
O'Malley fawned and scraped in front of the footman. "Aye, we've brought a present for His Lordship—two prisoners we caught poaching on His Lordship's land. One resisted and had to be dealt with; the other's still breathing. And we offer this fresh deer with regards to His Lordship. We await His Lordship's judgment."
The footman scanned the motley gang, the deer carcass, and the two prisoners. "Go around to the back of the manor. I will announce you to His Lordship."
Without further comment, he slammed the door shut. The gang drove the cart around the manor house to the stable and barns behind it, still dragging Aaron and my exhausted self. Then we waited. Flies soon found the deer carcass and Aaron's body in earnest, and just as I was about to lose consciousness, the footman reappeared, followed by Lord Kingley. Dressed in a velvet black suit with a wide white lace collar and topped with a black cavalier hat and feather, His Lordship looked and acted the regal part of one of the king's lords.
After clearing his throat and dabbing at his nose with a lace handkerchief in repeated attempts to cover the stench, he announced in clipped tones as if addressing a large assemblage, "What do we have here?"
O'Malley quickly answered, "Two poachers, Your Lordship. They await thy judgment."
"It seems to me that the one poacher has already received the Lord's just punishment"—he pointed to Aaron's lifeless and bound body—"but the other needs to face his." Turning to face me, Kingley declared, "What do you say in your defense?"
"My friend and I followed the rightful laws of tenancy to hunt Badby Woods, Your Lordship. We did kill the deer, but ..." I stammered as Kingley held up his hand to silence me. Does Kingley believe he has to judge this crime harshly to stem the rising occurrences of poaching?
"You have said enough to seal thy fate," pronounced Kingley. "The rights of tenancy have been altered and publicly recorded. Take the deer to my kitchen, bury the one knave on common ground in the village, and then lock this one in the pillory in Badby Village for the balance of the day. I will pen a wood sign announcing his crime to be hung around his neck. We have rendered fair justice." With the proclamation delivered, His Lordship turned and regally left the yard, followed closely by his footman.
Left gaping after Kingley, I screamed, "This was not justice—not justice at all!" I thought to myself, But vengeance will be mine!
Lord Kingley heard my cry, turned, and wagged his finger at me. "Tut, tut, make it two days in the pillory for this ruffian, O'Malley!" Then, with a wry smile, Lord Kingley sauntered back into his manor house.
After finding shovels in His Lordship's stable, the gang unloaded the deer carcass, carried it to the kitchen, and then threw Aaron's body roughly into the cart. The footman returned with a hastily scrawled message fixed to a piece of thin wood:
COMMON CRIME OF POACHING, PILLORY FOR TWO DAYS SO JUDGED, Lord Kingley.
They hung this board by a cord tightly tied around my neck.
The thugs set off for the village as I stoically plodded along behind the cart. As we crested a low hill and entered the outskirts of the village, we approached the common burying ground. The gang stopped the cart as a small crowd of tenant farmers and women began to form.
A group of angry village elders stepped forward. One demanded of the thugs, "What is this? What could they possibly have done to deserve this treatment? You cannot be dragging our own like cattle behind a cart!" Yells from the crowd grew louder as the spectators closed in around the cart. The mood of the crowd quickly turned ugly, for they knew the gang members were thugs hired by Kingley to enforce his rulings.
"Go fetch Goody Carpenter," commanded one of the elders. "Free the prisoner's bonds."
The gang began backing away from the cart, and I sank to my knees from exhaustion as my bonds were loosened. Anger and revenge swelled within me.
Now free, I struggled to my feet. In desperation, I grabbed one of the old shovels in the cart and, in a full-arcing swing powered by my remaining energy, brought it across O'Malley's neck! The blow cleanly sliced open his neck, nearly decapitating him. Blood spurted from the huge gash as he flopped to the ground. Totally exhausted, I again slumped to the ground.
However horrified the gang members were at the sight of their leader gushing life's blood from his neck, they were able to drag me to the middle of the village and lock my head and arms into the pillory. I was now a captive to my own follies! A sobbing and shrieking Goody Carpenter clutched frantically at her dead son. One of the cudgel-wielding thugs took the opportunity to aim a savage blow to my head. Pain and blackness were the last things I clearly remembered.
As the crowd of villagers began to thicken with angry protestors, the gang members backed quickly away from the middle of the village and took off running the way that they had come.
"After them!" A few of the more agile members of my village crowd chased after the thugs.
* * *
Still somewhat dazed, I awoke to a pair of sturdy legs standing in front of me. They looked familiar even to my groggy head, and as I attempted to crane my head upward to view the person in total, I saw that the legs belonged to Aaron's younger brother, Samuel. He stood there with his legs spread, hands nervously clenching an ax. Is he here to avenge his brother's death? If so, I would not have blamed him.
With a mighty grunt, he swung the ax downward. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the blow. I felt the wind from the ax as it narrowly missed my head. He brought the ax head down on the lock to the pillory and smashed it open. He had come to save me, not to seek revenge.
"Samuel, Aaron and I poached a deer in Badby Woods. It was wrong but not this wrong." I choked back tears of relief. "The sentence for the crime of poaching is not wrongful death! His Lordship's thugs captured and beat us and ended up killing Aaron. It was His Lordship who sent us here—Aaron to be buried and me to the pillory—all for killing a deer! This is not justice but cruelty and vengeance!"
I now fully felt the effects of the beatings, the forced march, the shock of Aaron's death, and O'Malley's killing. I sobbed with grief and anguish, overcome by my own guilt. Suddenly I was free from the pillory.
"Jonathan, I could not stand by and watch you suffer so. Aaron would have done as much."
With his help, I staggered off to my family cottage after taking one last look back at the site where Aaron's body had lain. In my mind, I could still hear the sobbing Goody Carpenter.
* * *
"You must leave, Jonathan, and you must leave now!" My father, Thomas, shook with rage. The timbre of his voice left no doubt as to his sincerity. "His Lordship's men will be back searching for you in no time. You have committed acts of will against God's commandments. You have sinned against the Lord, against your Puritan teachings, and against your family. And, importantly, against His Lordship's recent rulings—like them or not! We must now face the wrath of His Lordship for standing up for you. The gang of thugs will report this incident! You must leave for our family's sake, for the village's sake, and for your own!" I had no answer, for I knew well Father's temper. He shook his head in consternation. "Anne, tend to his wounds; then I will make final decisions."
My father was a tall, lean man with the shoulders of a man who had worked hard and long, day and night in the fields. His blue eyes reflected the sternness and tenacity of a Puritan elder; his beard was streaked with gray. There was no humor to his face now.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from AMONG THE MOHEGANS by Howard Root. Copyright © 2013 Howard Root. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc..
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