When Lucas is surrounded by armed men and about to be arrested:
"Dim as a star seen through a winter tempest, his plan came to Lucas." (p. 65)
Two comments:
a Homeric turn of phrase in the metaphor;
yet another Andersonian moment of realization!
If he is captured, then he will be:
"...hung in an iron cage and starved to death." (p. 67)
I oppose both the death penalty and torture. What could be worse than both together?
The arrest warrant has been issued because Lucas' enemy "...made out an affidavit..." (p. 67)
"Affidavit" is one of those words that I read occasionally, getting some idea of its meaning only from the context. Time to google. When I was in a Magistrate's Court, the prosecutor began by stating that there were some more affidavits in the case of Mr. Shackley but the Magistrate impatiently told him to get on with presenting the case. (It amused me at the time.)
The attempted arrest leads to the second fight scene in the novel. Lucas, our cosmopolitan hero, deploys fighting skills learned from the Mongols. Of course he escapes, thus generating a chase sequence...
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not opposed, per se, to capital punishment, when limited to the gravest crimes. Nor would I object to making the death penalty a difficult and lengthy penalty to impose. Because I would want certainty about the criminal's guilt.
Yes, we see Lucas having an Andersonian moment of realization. What I thought, however, is that he came to his plan of escape a bit more slowly than others of Anderson's heroes. That "Dim as a star seen through a winter tempest..." implies uncertainty or slowness. Which would scarcely seem surprising!
Of course Lucas would HAVE to escape! If he had not, ROGUE SWORD would have come to a lamentably swift and unsatisfactory end. And I'm aware that most of us, in such a situation, would NOT escape the Bailo's men.
Ad astra! Sean
Capital punishment is -supposed- to be terrible; that's the purpose, apart from the exemplary/demonstrative one, to strike terror.
Punishments tend to be more demonstrative when the legal-police system involved is weak; pre-modern states were usually rather weak, and tried to make up for it with ferocity.
Also, we're talking about a world of low impulse control and a weak sense of institutional legitimacy. Legitimacy serves to disguise and muffle the ultimate sanction of authority, which is force.
As the old saying goes: "Government is not eloquent. It is not persuasion. It is power; it is force."
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree with your comments. A criminal SHOULD feel terror if he knows the punishment for first degree or felony murder is death. He would be more likely to not commit murder because of that terror.
And I agree that, before the 18th century (perhaps somewhat earlier in the France of Louis XIV), most states were rather weak and their punishments for crimes were indeed ferocious.
Ditto, what you said about legitimacy.
Ad astra! Sean
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