The Patriot Page #9

He leaves Marion alone.

INT. CHARLOTTE'S FARMHOUSE - NIGHT (LATER)

Marion stares at the fireplace. Charlotte walks in

carrying a pitcher and fresh clothing.

CHARLOTTE:

They're asleep.

Marion is silent. Charlotte pours water into a washbowl

and motions to Marion. He takes off his shirt. She

begins cleaning away the blood and tending the wound on

his neck.

MARION:

How did this... how did I let this

happen?

CHARLOTTE:

You couldn't have known.

MARION:

I should have known... once I would

have... I used to be wary... and

today I watched my son killed before

my eyes... your sister civilized me

and I damn myself for having let

her...

CHARLOTTE:

Thomas is dead but you've done

nothing for which you should be

ashamed.

MARION:

I've done nothing and for that I am

ashamed.

She looks at him closely.

CHARLOTTE:

If you go, I'll care for them as if

they were my own.

MARION:

I'll leave in the morning with

Gabriel.

He stares past her, looking at the flames in the

fireplace. She tends his wounds.

EXT. PORCH - CHARLOTTE'S FARMHOUSE - MORNING

Marion and Gabriel finish saddling their horses. Marion

embraces Nathan and Samuel. Then he turns to Margaret,

William and Susan.

WILLIAM:

When will you be back?

MARION:

I don't know, William.

WILLIAM:

Tomorrow?

Marion winces. Margaret puts her arm around William.

MARGARET:

No, not tomorrow.

Marion kisses them both, then moves on to Susan, trying to

coax a word out of the silent four-year-old:

MARION:

Goodbye?

She just looks at him.

MARION:

Just one word? Goodbye? That's all

I want.

Susan shakes her head. He sighs, rises and turns to

Charlotte. They hesitate, then embrace, hugging deeply

but a bit awkwardly, holding each other just a moment

longer than one would expect. She looks up at him... he

kisses her on the cheek.

Marion mounts up. And he and Gabriel head off, Susan,

unnoticed and unheard, whispers:

SUSAN:

Goodbye.

Marion and Gabriel ride away.

EXT. CAMDEN ROAD - DAY

Marion and Gabriel ride past the signs of a small

skirmish. Bodies. Abandoned wagons. Dead horses. A

burning farm.

EXT. CAMDEN HILLSIDE - DAY

Marion and Gabriel ride to the crest of a hill. A vista

spreads out before them. They see an awesome sight -- A

MASSIVE SLASH OF RED approaches a MASSIVE SLASH OF BLUE.

A battle is taking place about five miles away.

Gabriel starts to spur his horse but Marion restrains him.

MARION:

No, it's too late.

Gabriel stops. Marion points out brightly colored

clusters of men behind each army.

MARION:

Command posts... Patriot...

British...

The distant slash of red stops. Marion and Gabriel hear

only a GENTLE WIND and some nearby SONGBIRDS.

Then, from a black mass of the side of the red slash, a

sudden, silent eruption of white smoke.

An instant later, the blue slash quivers. A moment later

the SOUND OF THE CANNONS, RUMBLES UP THE HILL and rolls

over Marion and Gabriel.

The RED SLASH STOPS moving. It darkens as thousands of

Redcoats raise their muskets and the front ranks kneel

into firing position.

Marion's eyes dart. He knows what's coming.

MARION:

Break for the trees... break for the

trees...

A MASSIVE ERUPTION OF WHITE SMOKE billows from the red

slash. An instant later, the blue line starts to break up

as hundreds of distant Patriots fall.

The SOUND OF THE BRITISH MUSKETS reaches Marion and

Gabriel like the pattering of rain.

Then the SMOKE OF INEFFECTIVE, SCATTERED VOLLEYS erupts

from the Patriot lines. The red line holds firm.

MARION:

Send them to cover! Goddamn you!

But the blue line of the Patriots stays in the open field.

From behind the Redcoats, FAST-MOVING GREEN AND RED MASSES

move quickly onto the battlefield. CAVALRY.

GABRIEL:

Father, we have to do something...

The British cavalry slams into the blue line, shattering

it. Tiny bits of blue move in every direction.

GABRIEL:

Father...

MARION:

It's already over.

Marion watches, appalled. At this distance the moving

slashes of color and billowing smoke are strangely

beautiful. Marion turns his horse and heads down the

hill, toward the rear of the Patriot lines.

EXT. AMERICAN ENCAMPMENT - NIGHT

A nightmare. SCREAMS OF AGONY. A few hundred battered,

Patriot survivors treat their wounded and prepare to move

out. The battle, so bloodless and beautiful at a

distance, has, in its aftermath, become horrifically

painful and ugly.

Marion and Gabriel ride into camp, passing nervous

sentries and a field surgery which is surrounded by pools

of blood and amputated legs and arms. Marion sees HARRY

LEE at a make-shift command post, barking orders, trying

to pull things together.

LEE:

Damn you, Sergeant, don't move the

wounded twice, put them straight on

the wagons from the surgeons.

PATRIOT SERGEANT

Yes, sir.

LEE:

Lieutenant, detail men for

outriders. We move out as soon as

the wounded are ready.

LIEUTENANT:

Yes, sir.

The Lieutenant rushes off. Lee notices Marion and

Gabriel, surprised to see them. He jerks his head for

them to follow him into:

LEE'S COMMAND TENT

Once out of sight of the men, Lee loses his command

bearing. Exhausted, he leans on his campaign table and

looks closely at Marion, asking with his eyes why Marion

is here.

MARION:

Green Dragoons came to my home,

killed my son, Thomas. It was

Tarleton himself.

LEE:

I'm sorry.

MARION:

I'm sorry I wasn't here for this.

LEE:

There's nothing you could have done,

Gates is a damned fool.

MARION:

We saw.

LEE:

I begged him to stay in the cover of

the trees but he insisted the only

way to break Cornwallis was muzzle-

to-muzzle. He spent too many years

in the British army.

MARION:

Where is he now?

LEE:

Last anyone saw, riding hard,

northeast, his staff a hundred yards

behind, trying to catch up.

MARION:

Who's in command?

LEE:

I am, I think.

MARION:

What are my orders?

Lee gives Marion a tired smile.

LEE:

If you want orders, I've got some

for you.

Lee ROLLS OUT A MAP for Marion and Gabriel.

LEE:

We're a breath away from losing this

war. In the North, Washington is

reeling from Valley Forge, running

and hiding from Clinton and twelve

thousand Redcoats.

(pointing)

Here in the South, Cornwallis has

broken our back. He captured over

five thousand of our troops when he

took Charleston and today he

destroyed the only army that stood

between him and New York.

MARION:

So now Cornwallis will head north,

link up with Clinton and finish off

Washington.

LEE:

And Patriots will start dying on the

gallows instead of the battlefield.

(beat)

Unless we can keep Cornwallis in the

South until the French arrive. A

treaty was signed at Versailles

after our victory at Saratoga. The

French are sending a fleet and ten

thousand troops.

MARION:

When?

LEE:

Fall, six months at the earliest.

MARION:

Long time.

LEE:

The bigger problem is where, not

when. The French fleet won't sail

north of the Chesapeake for fear of

early storms.

MARION:

So you're going to try to keep

Cornwallis in the South until then.

LEE:

Not me, you. I'm going north with

every Continental regular I can find

to reinforce Washington or he won't

last six weeks.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes