The Devil's Disciple

1

The year 1777 was the one in which

the passions roused by the breaking off

of the American colonies from England,

more by their own weight

than their own will,

boiled up to shooting point,

the shooting being idealized in minds in England

as suppression of rebellion

and in the colonists as the defence of liberty.

Both sides being therefore convinced

that the most high minded course

for them to pursue

was to kill as many of one another as possible.

Come on.

Back - you, gal.

Halt!

Well. We live in wonderful time, eh, chaplain?

And therefore send this to General Philips:

I am obliged to remove the oxen for his cannon

because a soldier without food is of no more use

than of artillery without ammunition.

We shall eat his oxen, sir,

and replace them with horses.

And my compliments to Mrs. Philips.

I hope, she's ... comfortable.

Come on, sir.

My compliments, sir.

Everything is ready.

Ready? Everything? Nothing is ready,

Major Swindon, nothing at all!

- For the ... eh ...

- Hanging?

- Oh, the eh ...

I should be glad to have a support

of your presence this morning, sir.

Not particularly ... lively business -

hanging this poor devil.

No, sir, it is not.

It is making too much

of these people to hang them.

Martyr themselfs is what they like.

It is the one way

to achieve fame without ability.

However, as you have

committed us to hanging him:

the sooner he is hanged the better.

At such a time we must remember ...

we are all made of good and evil.

Each man believes

himself to be in a right.

And that's man enemy has the same beliefs.

But when this conflict is over

we can be sure in one thing ...

justice will prevail.

God cannot be set aside.

Pastor!

What is it, Christy?

It's a matter of life and death.

- Oh ... I'll wait when you finish your service.

- Christy!

- What is happen?

- Father has been arrested,

by the army, in Springtown.

- They say he is a rebel.

- What!?

They killed uncle Peter and

they go to hang father!

I don't know what mother will say when

she hears that I'd been interrupted the service.

- Your father is no rebel.

We all know that.

- They don't. And they won't beleive me!

He was with uncle Peter, and you

know what uncle Peter's like.

I'll go there myself and speak with the authorities.

They'll believe me.

William Dudgeon, will you come with us?

As relatives we are deeply shocked,

but what can we do?

We might be in danger ourselfs.

- He's right, Mr. Anderson!

- Perhaps you're right.

- My friends, I must leave.

The blessing of God be with you.

- Amen.

After all, our families

had never been very close.

Is your mother at home?

- Yes. Oh!

She could not come to church,

she's not very well.

My wife will look after her.

Judith, go to Mrs. Dudgeon and stay

with her till I bring her husband home.

Tell her that Christy and I

are gone to Springtown.

We'll be there within an hour.

Anthony!

- You take care.

- Nothing will happen to me, or to Timothy Dudgeon.

He is an innocent man.

Advance! Stand! Ho!

General Burgoyne,

my name is Parshotter,

I am the minister here.

I have always preached

loyalty to the crown.

Without sufficient eloquency, I gather.

That wretched, misguided fellow

not one of my flock, sir.

Not a Springtown man,

he's from Websterbridge.

Ah, no, no, Springtown is loyal, sir.

Non a violation to non-concord here.

In our church here we pray for king George,

and of course his armed forces.

Thank you, sir. Most helpful.

Swindon.

If you don't mind, minister.

Swindon, if you could now

get the matter for your attention.

We're good enough to do up tents for the garrison.

It may be necessary to leave troops

here when we move up.

We already gave them one good example, sir.

There will be now no trouble here.

- I'm glad you take that view.

- Do I understand, sir, that

in your opinion there will be further breaches ...

- I do not express my opinion.

I never stoop to that habit of profane

language which unfortunately

coarsens our profession.

If I did, sir, perhaps I should be

able to express an opinion

of a war office that supplied me ,

with a twice as many cavalry man

than I have horses and

a weight of cannon so large that

half of roads in this country

are not suited to support it.

How do you feel, sir, if we had

to confront a colonial army

in our present condition?

Before we have made contact with General Howe.

Our dragoons are on foot, sir

and our artillery not even in sight.

Count on me, General, the British soldier

will give a good account of himself.

And therefore, I suppose, sir, the British

officer need not know his business:

the British soldier will get him out

of all his blunders with the bayonet.

In future, sir, I must ask you to be a little

less generous with the blood of your men,

and a little more generous

with your own brains.

Swindon.

Do you at all realize, sir, that we have

nothing standing between us and destruction

but our own bluff and the ignorance

of these backwards men?

They are men of the same

British stock as ourselves:

six to one of us,

six to one, sir,

and half our troops are Hessians,

Brunswickers, German dragoons,

and Indians with scalping knives.

Suppose the colonists find a leader,

what shall we do then?

Eh?

Our duty, sir, I presume.

May I ask are you writing

a melodrama, Major Swindon?

- No, sir.

- What a pity! WHhat a pity!

Now. Go on. Way back a little.

Give back there. Go on. Back.

Get them out of there!

Get your cart of the bridge!

Come on!

Here! Here!

Take the reins, Christy.

They killed father, too.

Before we even got here.

Stay here, Christy.

- Who is the officer in charge here?

- Come on man, move away from me, and

- it's all over.

- I want the officer.

- Go about your business.

- Officer! Sir!

- Right, carry on.

- That man was from my parish.

I am his minister.

- Really?

- It's gross injustice. He is innocent.

- He was found guilty. Simple as clear.

- In the meantime I'll clear ...

- Mr. Hawkins!

- What is it?

- It's that minister of yours, from Websterbridge. He stirred up trouble.

Damn that man!

- Out of the question. The body remains.

- I cannot believe you mean it.

Anderson, don't be a fool!

Sergeant at arms,

arrest that man!

- You can't leave that body there!

- Anderson.

Indeed, Lieutenant, this man does not

understand military necessity.

He is a minister. A minister!

The man of peace!

Is he? Parshotter, you vouch

for that too, I am sure.

- Ehm ... Yes.

- He's of Websterbridge,

I've been there, that's a small village.

We don't see much of the world.

- Timothy Dudgeon ...

- The church must support any measures

designed to save human life.

- Don't you agree, Mr. Parshotter?

- Ehm ... Yes.

Will you leave man's body hanging there...?

It's a warning - to others!

- Precisely.

- You must think before you

do anything to endanger the lifes of

innocent men and women.

- My flock, Mr. Anderson.

- I am sure that we can vouch

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes