Barry Lyndon Page #9

Captain Grogan is shot, cries out, and falls.

A brother captain turns to Lieutenant Lakenham.

CAPTAIN:

Grogan's down; Lakenham, there's

your company.

RODERICK (V.O.)

That was all the epitaph my brave

patron got.

Roderick kneels above Grogan.

CAPTAIN GROGAN:

I should have left you a hundred

guineas, Roderick, but for a cursed

run of ill-luck last night at faro.

He gives Roderick a faint squeeze of the hand; and, as the

word is given to advance, Roderick leaves him.

RODERICK (V.O.)

When we came back to our ground,

which we presently did, he was lying

still, but he was dead. Some of our

people had already torn off his

epaulets, and, no doubt, had rifled

his purse.

EXT. VARIOUS ROUGH RURAL LOCATIONS - DAY

Short cuts to voice over.

Roderick and British troops rape, pillage and burn.

RODERICK (V.O.)

After the death of my protector,

Captain Grogan, I am forced to

confess that I fell into the very

worst of courses and company. In a

foreign country, with the enemy

before us, and the people

continually under contribution from

one side or the other, numberless

irregularities were permitted to the

troops. It is well for gentlemen to

talk of the age of chivalry; but

remember the starving brutes whom

they lead -- men nursed in poverty,

entirely ignorant, made to take

pride in deeds of blood -- men who

can have no amusement but in

drunkenness, debauch, and plunder.

It is with these shocking

instruments that your great warriors

and kings have been doing their

murderous work in the world.

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - WARBURG - BATTLE FRAGMENTS - DAY

RODERICK (V.O.)

The year in which George II died,

our regiment had the honor to be

present at the Battle of Warburg,

where Prince Ferdinand once more

completely defeated the Frenchmen.

Lieutenant Lakenham is shot, falls, and cries for help.

RODERICK (V.O.)

During the action, my lieutenant,

Mr. Lakenham, of Lakenham, was

struck by a musket-ball in the side.

He had shown no want of courage in

this or any other occasion where he

had been called upon to act against

the French; but this was his first

wound, and the young gentleman was

exceedingly frightened by it.

LAKENHAM:

Here, you, Roderick James. I will

pay you five guineas if you will

carry me into the town which is hard

by those woods.

Roderick and another man take him up in a cloak, and carry

him towards the nearby town of Warburg.

EXT. A FARMHOUSE - GERMAN STREET - WARBURG - DAY

In order to get into the house, Roderick and the other man

are obliged to fire into the locks with their pieces,

which summons brings the inhabitants of the house to the

door; a very pretty and black-eyed, young woman, and her

old, half-blinded father.

They are at first unwilling to accommodate the guest, but

Mr. Lakenham, speaking to them in German, and taking a

couple of guineas out of a very full purse, speedily

convinces the people that they have only to deal with a

person of honor.

INT. WARBURG FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY

They carry Lieutenant Lakenham to bed and receive their

five guineas.

RODERICK (V.O.)

We put the patient to bed, and he

paid me the stipulated reward. A

young surgeon, who desired nothing

better than to take himself out of

the fire of the musketry, came

presently to dress the wound.

In his German jargon, Roderick pays some deserved

compliments to the black-eyed beauty of Warburg, thinking,

with no small envy, how comfortable it would be to be

billeted there.

EXT. STREET - WARBURG - OUTSIDE THE FARMHOUSE - DAY

He starts back to the regiment, with his comrade, when the

man interrupts his reverie by suggesting they divide the

five guineas.

PRIVATE:

I should get half.

RODERICK:

Your share is one guinea.

Roderick gives him one guinea.

PRIVATE:

He gave you five guineas, and I

bloody well expect half.

RODERICK:

Go to the devil.

The private lifting his musket, hits Roderick a blow with

the butt-end of it, which sends him stunned to the ground,

allowing his comrade to take the other four guineas from

his pocket.

Recovering his senses, Roderick bleeding, with a large

wound in the head, has barely time to stagger back to the

house where he had just left the lieutenant, when he

falls fainting at the door, just as the surgeon exits.

INT. WARBURG FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY

Roderick is carried by the surgeon and the black-eyed

girl, into another bed in the room where the Lieutenant

has been laid.

LAKENHAM:

(languidly, in pain)

Who are you putting into that bed?

LISCHEN:

We have the Corporal, wounded, to

you bringing.

LAKENHAM:

A corporal? Turn him out. Schicken

sie Herrn Koporal weg!

INT. WARBURG FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT AND DAY

Lischen brings Roderick a refreshing drink; and, as he

takes it, he presses the kind hand that gave it to him;

nor does this token of his gratitude seem unwelcome.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I found Lischen the tenderest of

nurses. Whenever any delicacy was

to be provided for the wounded

lieutenant, a share was always sent

to the bed opposite his, and to the

avaricious man's no small annoyance.

Lischen serving food.

Various cuts, representing different days.

Lakenham behaving as rottenly as Roderick describes:

RODERICK (V.O.)

Nor was I the only person in the

house to whom the worthy gentleman

was uncivil. He ordered the fair

Lischen hither and thither, made

impertinent love to her, abused her

soups, quarreled with her

omelettes, and grudged the money

which was laid out for his

maintenance, so that our hostess

detested him as much as, I think,

without vanity, as she regarded me.

Roderick making lover to Lischen while Lieutenant Lakenham

sulks in the next bed.

RODERICK (V.O.)

For if truth must be told, I had

made very deep love to her during my

stay under her roof, as is always my

way with women, of whatever age or

degree of beauty. Do not think me

very cruel and heartless, ladies;

this heart of Lischen's was like

many a town, which had been stormed

and occupied several times before I

came to invest it,

Roderick sitting up in bed. Lischen has just served him

his supper.

Enter a British officer, an aide who carries a notebook,

and a surgeon. In a brief scene to be written, we learn

that a sudden movement on the part of the French requires

the British army to follow them. The town is to be

evacuated, except for some Prussian line-of-communication

troops, whose surgeons are to visit the wounded in the

place; and, when they are well, they are to be drafted to

their regiments.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I began to reflect how pleasant my

quarters were to me, and that I was

much better here than crawling under

an odious tent with a parcel of

tipsy soldiers, or going the night-

rounds, or rising long before

daybreak for drill. I determined

that I never would join mine again.

EXT. VIEW OUT OF WARBURG FARMHOUSE WINDOW - DAY

Roderick stands by the window, watching English troops and

wagons leaving the town.

INT. WARBURG FARMHOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY

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