Flight of the Heron read-along: Part V chapters 1-2

[regshoe]

Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o' cowd...

Welcome back, everyone, and happy new year! We embark on the final Part...

Next week we'll continue with chapters 3 and 4 of Part V.

Comments

[hyarrowen]

I do like the instance of nice Hanoverians that we get in this section, I must admit. The soldiers are kind (I wonder what happened to them?) and so are the farmers; and also the officer in charge of burning Ardroy. It’s humanising to see them so; they’re just people.

It hadn’t occurred to me that Ewen is taking the same route as Keith did here, though the return to Spean Bridge is an obvious and nicely circular arc. It was on TV here the other night - Portillo, perhaps - and though I’ve been to the town, I didn’t make it to the bridge. They are not kidding when they call it High Bridge.

I hope that Ewen sends help to the women who helped him, and what was he doing looking down the girl’s blouse anyway, good grief, Ewen! She was damn clever about getting it to him, though.

[killclaudio]

I liked the nice Hanoverians as well! There's a good sense of balance to the whole book, realistic about the horrors that happened but full of wonderful acts of human kindness too.

I was so worried about the soldiers who were transporting Ewen, because I don't like to think of them being punished for their kindness. I'm just going to assume that in the chaos of chasing down the remaining rebels, nobody had time to do more than give them a stern talking-to. :)

[hyarrowen]

Yes, fingers crossed for the soldiers. Gurer'f n uvag va n yngre puncgre bs jung gur bhgpbzr bs gur punfr jnf. Be ng yrnfg, gur fgbel gung jnf chg nobhg.

[killclaudio]

I actually just finished the book tonight, and yes, ubcrshyyl gur ehzbhef bs Rjra'f qrzvfr jvyy znxr vg zhpu rnfvre ba gurz! Nygubhtu V'z thrffvat ybfvat n cevfbare vf sebjarq hcba rira vs gurl qba'g xabj ur tbg njnl. :)

[sanguinity]

Ru, fnirf gur pbfg bs n gevny naq gur snss bs svaqvat jvgarffrf. Naq gung tebhc bs fbyqvref arire jnagrq gb znxr gur fvqr-gevc gb Sbeg Jvyyvnz naljnl.

[killclaudio]

Very true!

[regshoe]

I'm just going to assume that in the chaos of chasing down the remaining rebels, nobody had time to do more than give them a stern talking-to. :)

Aww, I hope so!

[regshoe]

That's a good point about the soldiers—it's not a great position for them to be in, losing such an important prisoner so carelessly! I hope they don't suffer for their kindness.

High Bridge is certainly a feat of military engineering. I was reading Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland, written by an officer who worked on the building of Wade's roads, recently and he tells some pretty impressive stories about the work.

The incident of the girl's knife is an impressive bit of work from both of them—Ewen's quick thinking in taking advantage of his position as interpreter, then the girl's ingenious manoeuvring in getting the knife to him. A good moment.