The sun had set.
Ab Siddy [Darryl] was with the dory, in the river Lee marshes, just outside the Corke north gate.
Art [Jeff] and Baron [Deacon] were in Ye Docks Lookout.
Elrick [Ian], Roma [Chris] and Thomas [Kevin] were at the North Inn.
Just before midnight, the Deacon [Shane] took Tess, and went to the North Gate. Corke's gates were closed all night, as per standard procedure, and no-one, man nor beast, was allowed to leave or enter.
"I have an emergency Last Rites to attend," exclaimed the Deacon.
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| An Ecumenical Matter |
"Yes," said the Deacon, "Myself and the sister here have been summoned. An ecumenical matter."
The guards took the money: "Well, we can't stand in the way of an ecumenical matter, Father."
They opened the gate and let him and Tess out into the night.
Wed 28-May
Roma took Thomas to see his Romani acquaintance in the North Inn (that he had made contact with the other day). Here, they asked to be sneaked out of the town. It would cost two shillings. They both paid, and were summarily dressed up in women's clothes, wigs, make-up and all. This worked, and the gate guards paid them no heed. They got back to the dory and to Ab. There was no sign of the Deacon and Tess. Ab had not seen hide nor hair of them.
Since Elrick was not there, Thomas offered to get the dory going. No-one else knew how to set up the make-shift mast, nor how to rig up sails.
"How hard can it be?" said Thomas, and he set about trying to rig it.
At noon, Baron & Elrick went to the armourer to pick up their new suits of leather armour. They donned these, and felt very snug and very smug.
Art and those two were now the only party members still left in town, so all three decided to chance their luck to get through the North Gate. Baron managed, but Elrick and Art both failed. They were both grabbed by the guards, and thrown in a cell in the gate tower.
A few hours later, none other than Bishop Dee himself came to see them in the cell. He was looking for the Deacon, and it was urgent. Elrick (in fact none of the party) did not know where he was. The Bishop took Elrick back to the Golden Hind and down into the chapel. Here, the Bishop sat Elrick down in the Chair of Holy Truth and got him to say the words again - that he didn't know where the Deacon was and that he had not seen him for days.
"You are telling the truth, Mister Youngson," said Bishop Dee.
The Bishop wrote a note to give to the gate guards. They accepted this and let Elrick and Art out of the city [ Art was marmalading. ]. The two joined the rest of the party at the dory.
Thomas had had all day to rig up the sails on the dory. He had not been very successful. Elrick soon demolished all his hard work and got the dory ready for sail in good time.
"We won't get far with the mast upside-down," he said. "And why did you put the tiller on the prow?"
As they were about to get underway, they saw the Corke Marine Gate open, and saw the Golden Hind leave the city, down the main river Lee channel.
Then the party left the marshes and headed to the head of Corke harbour themselves, keeping well back from the Hind.
As it was nearing dark, Elrick pulled the boat up on a small deserted-looking island. But the island wasn't actually empty. There was a grumpy chap with dwarfism who camped here. He introduced himself as Sean Gallagher. He had been stranded here a few weeks, and was looking for a way off. But the tidal currents were treacherous around here and he could not swim anyway. And no other boats ever docked. But he did have a supply of apples.
[Shane retired Deacon Father O'Reilly and brought in Sean Gallagher.]
Sean had a cross-bow, sword and shield. He set up an apple to prove to the group how good a shot he was. He also had a printed poster with a caricature of him and some writing. But there was no-one in the group left who could read.
Except ... Thomas (who can't read) exclaimed "I can read!" He grabbed the poster, and said "It is a reward poster for Sean. From the witch-hunter. 100 pounds reward."
Jaws dropped all round.
"Uh, 50 pounds?"
"You can't read, can you?" said Roma.
"Yeah I can."
"Yeah, right."
They settled down for the night.
"Nothing ever happens here over night," said Sean.
Thu 29-May
But, during the night, during Second Watch, ... nothing happened.
In the morning, they all left on the dory, Sean too.
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| England vs Spain |
As they headed down the gigantic Corke harbour, heading for Terryhaven, they heard thunder rolling across the sea. But it wasn't thunder, it was cannon fire; large ship cannons. From the direction of the heads, a way off in the distance, was a cloud of smoke.
Elrick, headed in that direction to see what was happening. As they got closer, they could see three English man-o-wars were in conflict with two Spanish galleons.
It wasn't until some stray shot came bouncing across the water and splashed nearby that Elrick decided discretion was the better part of valour, and he turned the boat around. This decision was confirmed when a cannon ball rocketed overhead, about half mast-height.
As they were heading north again, returning to Terryhaven, they met two more English brigs - the two that were formerly moored at the head of the harbour - heading for the battle. If the Spaniards had any slim hope, it was gone now.
They arrived in Terryhaven a couple of hours later, and went to the barn.
The barn where they stayed was owned by the Terry family. All the other trips here they had dealings with the wife, but this time they met the head of the Terry household; he called himself King Terry. He wandered over. This was the first time he had met Thomas, and he took issue with the "English git". And beat him up.
Caoilainn arrived after dark. She asked about the Deacon and about the Pig Peeker. It was at that point that the party realized that the Pig Peeker had been left in Corke, in Esther's barrel being pickled. Oh, well.
Fri 30-May
The whole party decided to walk to the southern point at the head of Terryhaven bay. From the cliffs there, they would be able to see out to the heads of Corke Harbour, and maybe see some more of the ship battle, safe from land.
Ab decided he didn't want to go with them, and stayed back in the barn to brew some potions.
It took until noon to get to the point. By then, one of the English brigs, damaged, was sailing up the harbour towing a badly fire-damaged galleon. Out at the heads, there were four English ships. And nothing else.
"So the other Spanish boat was sunk or she fled."
They got back to the village an hour or so before sunset.
But Art and Roma noticed some suspicious shapes moving in the forest just to the south. So, the quiet ones, Roma, Baron and Elrick, snuck off to investigate.
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| O'Neills |
There was a large group, twelve or so, dressed in camouflage gear with greens and browns, and armed with bow and sword, headed to the barn. Ab was inside brewing, so he had no idea.
The intruders confronted Ab before Elrick and Roma could shout a warning, but luckily, it didn't turn sour, and Ab wasn't cut into pieces, nor impaled on a spear. The intruders kept their weapons sheathed, and did not bear any ill will. So Baron motioned the rest of the party forward.
This new group were rangers, and they also used the Terry family's barn as a place to stay. Their leader was a lass called Catriona.
When Catriona was satisfied that the party had no allegiance to the English, despite having Thomas (an Englishman) in their midst, she sat them down and had a chat. Her group was joined to the Irish rebel O'Neills ("with two Ls") and that they were the local freedom fighters. They wanted to re-ignite the Nine Years war, and boot the English out of Ireland. They had arranged with the Spanish to deliver arms and ammunition to help with the rebellion. But this recent ship battle had put a spanner in those works.
Catriona said she could read, so Sean showed her the poster of him.
"This is a wanted poster, for you, from the Corke witch-hunter. For five pounds. Alive."
"Like I said," snapped Thomas. Lucky guess.
After dark, Caoilainn arrived, and Elrick introduced Catriona to her. Catriona was impressed at the connections that the party had to the Sidhe.
When Catriona found out that Elrick could sail, she had a job for the party.
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