"A drop ran into one eye and stung. The smell and taste of the dust were acrid. The round shield hung heavy on his left arm.
"He looked about. Spectators made splashes of subdued color on gray tiers. He sensed their excitement before they started shouting." (p. 83)
Bodily Sensations
stinging
heaviness
Smell
of dust
Taste
of dust
Sight
color
grayness
Sound
shouting
Sensation...
...of excitement
Hector tells Charlie to remember:
Otterburn
Bannockburn
Killiekrankie
Wallace
Those were real conflicts. Maybe the Hoka would be better employed in righting present wrongs rather than in re-enacting past ones?
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think it would be better to say Hector/Bertram was using the memory of these past conflicts as inspirations for the righting of current wrongs.
Sean
Note the Jacobite paradox -- it derived its force from Scottish anti-English feeling, but its aim was to make a Stuart the king of _England_, not Scotland. If Charlie had won, he'd have reigned in London, not Edinburgh.
James I became King of England and rapidly lost interest in Scotland; his son detested the place and thought of himself as an Englishman.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, any triumph by the Jacobites would have meant the restored Stuarts would have reigned from London, not Edinburgh. Which is no surprise, given how the concentration of population, wealth, trade, commerce, and hence power was centered in England, not Scotland.
Sean
Note also that if the English had won the 100 Years War -- say if Henry V had lived to 75 -- then the probable result would have been the same: France would become a province of England, and the kings would have ruled from Paris. England's about equivalent to Normandy or Provence, but France as a whole was about 4x as populous and richer at the time.
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