Fire by C C Humphreys

Author:C C Humphreys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2016-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

16

BLOOD

Terschelling, Holland, 9th August

Keep your head down. He will not know me. He saw me but for a few moments, in the dark and over blades. Like the smiting angel he rants about, he will pass me by. But pray God, let it be soon. I am not sure how much more apocalypse I can take.

Through his hands, resting on the pew before him and raised like many of the prisoners around him in an attitude of prayer, Coke risked a look. The man who had been haranguing them for half an hour from the pulpit of the small Dutch church showed no signs of flagging. The only hope that he might make an end of it soon was how the verses were coming more regularly, each delivered with ever-increasing fervour. Coke had suffered enough sermons in his life to recognise their shape – and to identify, too, a skilled preacher from a poor one. Captain Blood was one of the best.

‘ “These have the power to shut heaven,” ’ the Irishman cried, ‘ “that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and have the power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” ’

Most of the English prisoners of war were sailors: practical men, who also were keeping their heads down. But there was a sizeable group of landsmen, pressed like Coke, their lives shattered by fate. These men, in the front two pews, had a different take on the words. These men yearned for certainties.

‘It has not rained in London these four months,’ cried one.

‘They say so many died in the four-day battle that the sea turned red,’ added another.

‘And all know how many were lost in the great plague last year,’ cried a third. ‘My father, my –’

‘Aye, brothers!’ Blood leaned over the pulpit now towards those who were swaying. ‘We know the inevitable. What we must know now is our part in it. For the Lord wants servants who will labour for him, even to their utmost, yeah, even to the end of days. To hasten His kingdom with righteous acts. This is what we must plan for now, against the day foretold, that is nigh upon us.’ He looked at them all, each in turn. ‘What are we to do?’

‘Fight?’

‘Aye, brother. Fight!’ Blood slapped the pulpit before him to halt the muttering that followed. ‘And that is why I have come to you. To offer you the chance to join the warriors of Christ in the waging of this holy war.’ His eyes gleamed. ‘There’s eighteen thousand veterans from the late civil wars already formed into regiments, many under their former commanders from the good old cause. Ready to come, with the Dutch ready to transport ’em.’ He raised both hands. ‘ “For thou art my battle axe and weapons of war; and with thee will I break in pieces the nations.” ’ He pointed at one man. ‘Will you be my battle axe?’ At another. ‘Will

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