The First Book of Samuel by SAREJESS (epub read online books txt) 📕

the man that he would like to see him and the servant followed off to the side of the courtyard where Samuel stood. “Did you tell the fisherman” he inquired? “Yes and he was not happy to be awakened for such a small order of fish” replied the servant.

Later in the morning Samuel made his way across the village square to the village gaol to speak with the provost stationed there. Devall was typical of the new men in power in France, but human nature being what it was; Samuel knew from previous experience that Devall would accept a bribe to look the other way when it came to smuggling. On a previous occasion Samuel had spoken with Devall and had bribed him for allowing Samuel to be out after curfew. Devall had been led to believe that the nature of Samuel’s after hour’s business was the smuggling of various goods from England and he was quite agreeable to accepting a loaf of Colchester cheese and an amount of money. Thus when Samuel entered the office of the provost, he was fairly certain that he would be successful in his endeavors.

Devall, a fat man greeted Samuel like an old friend. He was an easygoing man who was also the town miller. They chatted for a while on local news before Samuel turned to his business. Drawing a small bag of coins he placed it on the table and said “I need to be out after curfew tonight citizen Devall, and I am hoping that you could make sure the patrols, will not be about on the road to Torsion tonight as I need to do some business after dark.” “I should cut myself in for a larger percentage of your business” said the fat man with a smirk. “I will see what I can do” he continued, shifting the large bulk of his body in the flimsy chair. Samuel thought it a miracle that the delicate chair could hold so much weight without disintegrating.

Samuel drew out from his doublet a bottle of fine chateau Roche wine and placed it on the table knowing the fat man enjoyed a fine red wine. Then opening a bag he had brought with him he produced a lump of cheese while the fat man crossed to a cabinet and took out two glasses returning to the table. Devall opened the bottle, savoring the wines aroma before pouring it. In the mean time Samuel began cutting slices of cheese and they toasted their bargain with the wine and cheese before Samuel excused himself saying he needed to see that all was going well at the inn.

At midday the tribunal’s party returned from the coast, not having found their prey and continued on to Paris not with too much enthusiasm and fearing what would happen when they reported the loss of the refugees.

Later in the day Samuel called for the servants to ready his wagon, as he would be going to the fishing village to buy the weeks seafood, also taking some barrels of wine to the coastal village inn run by the next contact in the chain that helped the nobles escape from the terror of the revolution.

Once this was done he descended the stairs to the cellar making sure to lock the cellar door before opening the secret panel behind which the escaping nobles were. They were awake and very worried, as they had now been in the small room quite a number of hours. Quickly he told them to strip off all of their heavy outer garments, and then he told them how he planed to get them to the coast. They listened with mixed looks on their faces. One of the women objected that it was improper for a lady of the court to be trussed up in a barrel like a herring. Du Preez quickly quieted her by telling her then she would have to remain and face the forces of the revolution. After this Samuel led each of them to a barrel and helped them in, telling them above all else not to move or make a sound while the barrels were been loaded or when the wagon was stopped on the road. Once they were in the barrels he sealed them and unlocked the door and called some of the servants down to the cellar and told them to load the barrels onto the waiting wagon. The whole process took about half an hour as a number of legitimate barrels of wine had to be loaded. Finally Samuel called his most trusted servant and told him that once again he was in charge and he expected to be away until the following day and the inn was now in his charge and he would be held accountable should there be any mismanagement. Thus saying Samuel climbed up into the driving seat of the wagon and set off for the coastal village.

It was not the first time he had taken this journey so he knew the countryside quite well and kept a weather eye on the distant road in front of him, should Devall play him false. While the wagon moved down the road Samuel fell to thinking of how many roads he had traveled in his long life. He remembered another snow-covered road in England that he had traversed about half a century earlier when he had been on his way to see some friends in the city of London. That road had also been quite dangerous as highway men had been very busy at that period of English history so he had taken to that road with much trepidation but he fortunately had not been robbed, nor even come near to. The nearest he had come to seeing a highway man happened a few days later when he had seen some criminals hanged at Highgate.

The snow started falling as the wagon crossed over a low rise, before the sleepy little fishing village came into sight. Samuel sat back and watched from the rise, the moonlit winter night, the village looked quiet and he hoped that the fisherman was ready. As he descended, he met the village constable as he drove into the main street. “What is your business here?” the constable asked lifting his lantern up to see the innkeeper better I have papers from the provost said Samuel handing over a document which Devall had given him just in case it was needed. Scrutinizing the document Samuel wondered if the constable was even able to read. One never knew with the new men in France.

You may proceed said the constable handing back the paper. Samuel drove on toward the village dock where he found the fisherman Jacques. Quickly they loaded the seven barrels onto the fishing boat. Samuel received a few crates of fish and other seafood items, which he had previously ordered, once this was done the fisherman and his crew pushed off into the choppy ocean. Much later that night or early the following morning they would meet with an English warship or frigate who would take the refugees to safety but just now they would remain in their barrels until they had reached a safe distance from the shore, before the barrels would be breached and the poor people allowed to smell the first free air they had for many long months in the terror.

Samuel loaded the fish onto his wagon and set out to the village in where he would spend the rest of the night.

Samuel arrived at the inn. He was warmly received by his friend Pierre “Welcome citizen come warm yourself by the fire, while I attend to your wagon” he said this while leading Samuel to the fireplace and indicating to one of the servants to bring brandy and some food for Samuel. Pierre was a large man who moved with a certain type of grace despite his large size. Once Samuel was seated, the two men chatted for a few minutes. When the food and drink arrived, Pierre excused himself begging urgent business.

The bar was about half full with the general type of persons who frequented the inn, the fisher folk who sat around the fire telling tales and laughing at some of the more hilarious stories of fish that had got away. Samuel listened with half an ear as he considered the business that had brought him to the sea side village. He had become involved in the smuggling of refuge noblemen and women almost by accident but once he was involved he had put his whole heart into the matter. He was one of the links in a chain, which had been smuggling people fleeing the terror of the French revolution soon after the King, and Queen had been captured. Many of the people in the link did it purely for a profit but some like Samuel did it because he genuinely felt that what was happening in France was wrong.

He had seen people killed before in the name of religion. God knew he had lived through the Spanish inquisition a few centuries earlier and he had seen men and women burned at the stake after horrendous torture for been secret Jews or for been heretics of the Christian faith. Men and women had been tortured almost to the point of death having to be carried or dragged to the stake to be burned. He had watched a number of burnings under a hot Spanish sun he had smelt the burning flesh and had been horrified at the cruelty of it all. He had seen death in its many forms but what he had seen of the Christian church in Spain was one of the worst things he had ever lived through. How did he survive all the centuries of death? It was because he looked like exactly what he was a humble innkeeper with no outstanding features just an innkeeper, a publican.

But what he saw of the revolution in France sickened him people were been killed for political ideas of freedom and liberation and equality, for all this in the name of freedom. Of course the French court had been corrupt but what was new all government that Samuel had ever lived under were corrupt. What he objected to was the fact that the government of France had now fallen into the hands of uncouth men; men who had previously been little more than butchers, shopkeepers and millers. As he sat next to the fire he became drowsy and his mind began to wander over his long and interesting life. He had met many people who had, had ideals and dreams for a better life but never before had there been such a paradigm shift in ideas, that now the common man held sway over his own aspirations. Never before had so many Frenchmen and women had the ability to rise above the position into which they had been born. The regulars began leaving soon, the inn was empty but Samuel still sat deep in thought. At 2 o clock in the morning Pierre returned accompanied by a tall man in a blue cloak who seated himself next to the fire warming his hands, the steam from the snow which covered his cloak slowly melting. After a few minutes the man said “You are performing well in your task citizen and for this the refugeess thank you.” “What can a man do when he sees injustice?” replied Samuel.

”The government of Britain has noticed your efforts and wishes to extend their thanks” replied the man “ah the British” said Samuel “ever the thankful. Thanks do not put bread on the table of those poor unfortunate people who come to the English shore from