From Predestination: The Bloodstone of Boiorix:<\/p>\n
“The line of prisoners stumbled to a halt beside a derelict barn, and one by one were allowed to use the water trough to quench their thirst. Jacques was in the middle of the line of perhaps forty young men. While they shuffled forward and drank they were idly watched by the Proven\u00e7al troops and the mounted officers. Jacques glanced at the officers and saw that the Captain was the same man who had led the attack on his home. He lunged forward without thinking, as anger overcame his weariness, but before the troops even noticed his movement the men either side of him had reeled him in with the chains that bound them together and forced him to turn away. It was partly self-preservation, and partly helping one of their own.<\/p>\n
Soon the soldiers ordered the line forward again, and they trudged on for many more hours.<\/p>\n
Jacques shoes were ruined and his feet were bloodied by the time they reached the large town of Aix-en-Provence. The sun was starting to set behind them as they trudged through the wide cobbled streets, first passing warehouses and single storey houses, then stone built merchant houses, and finally emerging into the town square.<\/p>\n
A small crowd of townspeople were jeering and gesticulating as the prisoners trudged into the square, but while some troops formed the prisoners into two lines facing the H\u00f4tel de Ville, other troops held the crowd back. A few minutes later a large man wearing a tricorn hat and a bright blue sash appeared at the balconied window, and flapping his arms he called for quiet so he could speak.<\/p>\n
“Mes Amis, we have long desired to see an end to the heretics who have been living amongst us like a worm in an apple. For years we have waited for the appeals to end, and finally by the grace of God, King Francis agreed, and so I, Jean Maynier d’Opp\u00e8de, the President of your parlement of Provence immediately raised an army to crusade against them. And here you see the results before you. Let’s see if five years in the galleys will teach them to follow the teachings of the Mother Church.” He raised his voice so he could still be heard over the crowd’s excited murmurs, and with spittle flying he shouted out, “Captain Escalin, take them away to the galleys!”<\/p>\n
Jacques stood in shock. What is the man saying? Where are the heretics? My family was clearly Christian, my parents were totally pious. How could the King of France send a crusade against Christians? This makes no sense.<\/p>\n
He was pushed by the man behind him, and so staggered forward, his mind a whirl of confusion and anger.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Predestination: The Bloodstone of Boiorix: “The line of prisoners stumbled to a halt beside a derelict barn, and one by one were allowed to use the water trough to quench their thirst. Jacques was in the middle of the line of perhaps forty young men. While they shuffled forward and drank they were idly … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predestination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}