[...]
All soldiers raised their bayonets in sign of salute as the Commander in Chief appeared before them.
Six vessels had united in front of King’s Cross. The Commander in Chief’s vessel lay sideways and four ships floated in front. The soldiers from the two remaining vessels had boarded on each. A little further away lay fishermen boats: all origins were present English, Dutch, German traders and even some natives. Fishermen tried their best to approach the ceremony of unification of English troops.
When the sound of the trumpet seized O’Neill’s blood pressure rose. He could feel his heart bounce faster and faster. The throbs almost hurt him under his suit. The wind seemed to whisper “Go ahead Nathan, talk to your men, they’re at your feet, tell them what you have to tell them,”
As he stepped ahead he was in sight of every soldier, every man was staring back at him. O’Neill stood straight on the deck in front of the frozen water and kept looking at the waves cradling the vessels of the English fleet. His eyes gradually rose and he could discern the canons and the windows of the vessels. Then came the barricade and the deck. Then came the leather boots all shiny and glittering. Then there were the uniforms and the blades and guns and the dreadful faces of the soldiers. No smiles, just stares. The men in uniforms stared at O’Neill and listened hard. He had to announce their mission, he had to encourage them and lift their morale, he had to send them to war.
The look of the soldiers was frightening. During that short lapse of time memories came back and he remembered his childhood and his brothers and sisters and father and mother. He went back to this day of late June when English soldiers came to his hometown in Northern Ireland.
That had been the first time when Nathan O’Neill encountered that dreadful face.
Red troops came in town in order to negotiate with inhabitants and convince them to join the forces of the Kingdom. At least that was the objective but in truth soldiers were full of hatred against the Irish. Part of the boys were enrolled, part of them were shot at or beaten. Women were often raped or humiliated or killed.
Nathan’s brothers had escaped on time and went south of the Island to join their mother and sisters. Nathan still had something to settle with his father at home when the army besieged their town. After a sharp opposition between a sergeant and old O’Neill, Nathan’s father was beaten in front of his son. He fell aground and one of the soldiers took Nathan along to the camp. Nathan would never see his father again. He had only been told that his father was alive and had been sent to London.
London was to be Nathan’s destination too. Being too young to become a soldier Nathan O’Neill was adopted in a rich household living near London. The head of the family was a general in the King’s army and all of his sons had to have remarkable military careers. This had served as an opportunity to Nathan O’Neill who could thus enroll quite easily and also wish for internal mobility thanks to the careers and name of his half-brothers and adoptive father.
O’Neill learned all through his childhood how the English Crown proceeded. He knew that strength was in England, not Ireland nor Scotland. To survive he had to do with England. This was his choice. He knew his brothers and sisters were too rebel and too proud to submit to the English Crown. Sometimes he thought about his former comrades calling him a coward or a traitor but he did not care. How could they know what had become of him? His father was supposed to be dead and the same could probably have happened to him. This had been his solution to out manoeuvre the English: become one of them even if inside he remained an Irish boy.
As years passed by and he eventually enrolled, after military school and the rise in grades. After the wars and parades, celebrations and honours, the Irish boy still remained inside O’Neill.
Responsibilities increased and Nathan O’Neill was eventually proclaimed Commander in Chief of the Naval Corps of the United Kingdom of the English Empire. He was to be the leading figure of an army of soldiers whose only mission was to kill in order to widen the English Empire. More than four hundred men were under his control and the responsibility weighed hard on O’Neill’s back. It also weighed on his morality. Morality, if there was any left after the many sessions of military propaganda.
France and England disputed the northern parts of the Americas since both sides started their settlements in that region and both Empires knew about the importance of expanding their wealth. O’Neill’s fleet was sent to help the ground troops and eventually settle a deal with the natives of the region, impose the strength of the English Empire in order to win new territory.
The Commander in Chief lifted his head:
“I, Nathan O’Neill, under the governance of Queen Anne and in deep respect to George of Hanover, proclaim the presence of the Empire of Great Britain permanent in this region, in this land. And now, gentlemen, it is up to you to fix the Empire in this part of the world. To serve our Queen, and her interest. To serve the nobility, and the image of our Empire. To preserve a part of England, in America!” [...]
© 2016 Matt Oehler
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