Saraband for Two Sisters

Luke’s son was born in February. I called him Lucas. He was like his father but slightly different and my pleasure in my babies absorbed me. Angelet came over to the farmhouse to be with me whenever she could, but she was never sure when Richard would come to Far Flamstead. Not that he often did. He was too much concerned with the fighting. As with such conflicts the excitement and hopes with which they began soon petered out and the great depression and reality remained, for it had become clear that there was going to be no easy victory for either side. I felt myself torn in this conflict. My instincts were to support the Royalists. I knew the King had acted foolishly; I knew that he was stubborn and that he must be brought to reason; but at the same time I did not wish to see our country ruled by those who thought pleasure sinful.

I felt a certain need in me to support Luke, which amazed me. I caught something

 of his enthusiasm for his cause; there was so much that was good in it. I was torn between the two and felt that I could not have served either side with the zest that was needed for victory.

Luke was depressed by the way things were going. He used to say that the soldiers were untrained and an army was needed which could stand up to the King’s disciplined forces. He had the idea of forming his own troop. There were many ready to join. All his farm workers and others from families around came to join. They drilled on our fields and learned the arts of war.

There was much talk now of a man called Oliver Cromwell, who had joined the Army as a captain, and he was clearly one to be reckoned with. Luke spoke of him in glowing terms. He was reorganizing the Army. It was no longer going to be a straggling mob of men who had no weapons and no skills-little but their fervent belief in the right. Belief in the right there must be, but skill too. “Captains must be good honest men,” Cromwell was quoted as having said, “and then good honest men will follow them. A plain russet-coated captain who knows what he is fighting for and loves it I would rather have than what you call a gentleman and nothing else.” Such words were inspiring, and all over the country those who believed gave themselves up to the task of turning themselves into soldiers.

Luke had gone off with his troop. The months passed and we were at war in earnest, and none of us could guess what the outcome would be.

Those dreary years of war, how sickening they were! What a snare it was, for it could bring little good to either side. Much of the country was laid waste; we lived in a state of agonizing expectation during the first months and then we were lulled to something near indifference. Much of the corn was ruined; the Puritans were destroying many ancient treasures because they believed that beauty in itself was evil and that no man should look on something and find it entrancing-architecture, statuary, paintings-for if it gave pleasure it was evil.

When I heard of such destruction I was ardently Royalist; when I thought of Court extravagances and the stubborn nature of the King I was for the Parliament; but more often I had the inclination to curse them both.

I was thinking of Richard, who was in constant danger. Each day I feared that there would be news of his death or capture. There was Luke, too, who had trained his troop and gone off to fight. It was possible that one day these two would be in the same deadly battle.

“How stupid it is,” I cried, “to fight and kill to settle differences.”

“What other way is there?” asked Angelet.

“We have words, have we not? Why don’t we use them?”

“They would never agree. They have tried words and failed.” Yes, Luke had tried with his pamphlets, but Luke could never see more than one side of this argument. Nor could Richard.

So we waited and lived our lives when the days were long and there were few visitors and the talk was all of war-how this side was winning and then shortly after how it was losing. How Cromwell and Fairfax would soon find their heads on London Bridge; how the King would soon have no throne. And all the time we waited for news.