Flight of the Heron read-along: Part I chapters 5-6

[regshoe]

What is right and what is wrang, a short sword and a lang, a weak arm and a strang for to draw...

Welcome back to the read-along! This week's chapters are getting a bit more serious, historically and for our characters...

Next week we'll read the first two chapters of Part II.

Comments

[luzula]

I think I am a bit jaded, however, by the 'war is hell' trope. I have to remind myself if they'd chopped Keith's head off in Chapter 1, there wouldn't be much more of a tale. Everyone seems unbelievably polite and noble.

Chopping off a captured officer's head in the 18th century was just not done! Sure, Ewen is more polite about Keith being his guest than most other officers might have been. But the whole business with giving him parole, and not killing him once he was captured, was just standard procedure in 18th century warfare. You want to be treated the same way if you're captured, after all.

Of course, ordinary soldiers wouldn't have the same opportunities--the officers are from the upper classes, after all.