The Blast That Tears the Skies (2012) by Davies J. D

Author:Davies, J. D [Davies, J. D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical/Fiction
Published: 2012-04-01T23:00:00+00:00

Expect who can the Dutch fleet should come out

Whilst Opdam lies at anchor of the gout?

Perhaps they have no wind and so keep in:

What? Out of breath before they do begin?

~ John Bradshaw, rector of Cublington, Buckinghamshire, Some Thoughts upon the Dutch Navies Demurr and upon the First Squadron of the Kings Royall Navy (1665)

‘Sic semper tyrannis, crieth the righteous man! For doth not the Prophet Isaiah tell us, “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible”? My dear brethren, thus shall it be with the tyrant Charles Stuart! Even now, the instrument of our salvation comes to us from the east! The wind fills the sails of the godly Dutch who will deliver us from this unholy Pharaoh – a tyrant who must go the way of his father! Aye, we shall all be as the sixth angel foretold in Revelation, preparing the way for the army from the east that will cleanse the land of fornicating princes and the plague their sins have hatched! Recall the sixteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter, brothers and sisters – “And they gathered them together at the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon”! Aye, dear brethren, Armageddon, the battle to come upon the sea, where the godly will prevail! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!’

All around Phineas Musk and Lazarus Sutcliffe, the Reverend Jeroboam Harvey’s congregation raised their hands to their heaven, crying loud and repeated ‘amens’. Almost all the women, and not a few men, were weeping copiously. The eyes of a thin girl close to Musk were glazed over; in trance-like ecstasy, she began to dance. A man at the front, almost at the base of Harvey’s makeshift pulpit of kilderkins, suddenly began rolling on the floor of the great barn that housed the conventicle and started speaking in tongues, to applause from those around him. Musk caught the eye of a comely matron attired in a simple Puritanical garb of black broadcloth, white linen collar and hood; she was waving her arms in the air and seemed to be mouthing the words of a psalm. Musk was impressed. Far from being transparent and entirely out of place, as he had expected, the Countess Louise seemed born to the role.

Musk himself cried out, ‘Oh, Alleluia! Alleluia, amen!’ before whispering to Sutcliffe, ‘Sweet Jesu, why can he not have the common decency to speak treason five minutes into his sermon rather than after two interminable hours?’

The crippled veteran murmured, ‘Once heard Hugh Peters, that was Noll Cromwell’s chaplain, berate us for four hours. And we didn’t even fight that day.’

Musk grimaced. ‘Ah, Peters … his head is still stuck on a pole at the end of London Bridge, is it not? Proof that justice catches up with malcontents and bores alike. Enough, though. Time to introduce our Israelites to the notion of the Babylonish Captivity, methinks.’

Musk pushed his way

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.