IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN AWE YET, DO NOT READ FROM THIS CHAPTER ON!
Yay! Another one! This is all I have right now, but I shall write more. I have three weeks of nothing to do so I'm sure I'll get a bit of writing done.
Disclaimer: Disney owns all but what Beth and I own!
The next afternoon, the executions took place at Fort Charles.
"In order to effect a timely halt to deteriorating conditions, and to ensure the common good, a state of emergency is declared for these territories by decree of Lord Cutler Beckett duly appointed representative of his majesty, the king. By decree, according to martial law, the following statutes are temporarily amended: right to assembly, suspended, right to habeas corpus, suspended, right to legal council, suspended, right to verdict by a jury of peers, suspended. By decree all persons found guilty of piracy, or aiding a person convicted of piracy, or associating with a person convicted of piracy shall be sentenced to hang by the neck until dead," an officer read as some of the pirates were hung.
Meg cringed as she heard each rope snap tight, fiddling with a piece of eight between her fingers. Beckett noticed this but dismissed it. However, he slowly began to realize how each hanging was tearing her apart. But would she do something about it? No. Not yet anyway. She continued watching no matter how much it hurt her. She was forcing herself to see what she helped cause.
Meg noticed a boy in a line near by to be executed. Looking down at the coin and then at Beckett to see if he was watching her (he was not), she quickly moved over to him.
"Here," she gave him the coin. "Do you know 'Hoist the Colors'?"
"Aye, I do, miss,"
"You need to start singing it when you get up there…I'm sorry…it's what Beckett wants…but it has to be done…we're in desperate times. Be brave!" Meg kissed the boy's forehead and gave him a smile, but she was fighting back tears.
"Oy! You!" called out one of the guards.
"Leave her alone," Beckett called. "She can't hurt anything." He went around the building to a desk or table of some sort, seemingly bored of all the executions…waiting for something.
Meg trudged back to her original observing point. Her heartbeat quickened as the boy stepped up to the gallows.
He looked up at the noose for a moment and then back down at the cob Meg had placed in his hands, spinning it, turning it over. In a quiet small voice, he began to sing.
"The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her Bones.
The seas be ours
and by the powers
where we will well roam."
By the end of the verse, his voice had gotten stronger and he sounded more confident in singing the summons.
A tear slid down Meg's cheek.
The executioner got a barrel for the boy to stand on so he would reach the noose. There was silence for a moment. Then, one of the other pirates standing on the gallows took up the chorus.
"Yo, ho, all hands,
hoist the Colors high…"
The other pirates standing there and the boy continued,
"Heave ho…"
Then all the other pirates in chains waiting for their turn at the noose took up the song,
"…thieves and beggars,
never shall we die…."
Then confidently then all sang in one voice, some rattling their chains, taunting the guards.
"Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die!"
Lieutenant Groves ran to Beckett, brushing past Meg.
"Lord Beckett!" he cried. "They've…started to sing…sir…"
Beckett looked up.
"Finally."
This one word caused Meg's heart to fall. This was exactly what Beckett had wanted, and she had helped him accomplish it. However, she knew it had to be done. The pirates continued singing and she murmured the words along with them. They sang the chorus one last time…
"Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die."
The boy met Meg's gaze holding it for the last line…and the executioner pulled the lever. Meg looked away, putting a hand on the wall, tears falling freely now.
I hope this one was okay! I really like it though...oh, and in case you were wondering,'cob' was another term for a coin in those days. "The most famous of the coins associated with the New World were the 'pieces of eight,' or pesos. They were shipped back to Spain in huge quantities to finance the operations of the ever-growing Spanish Empire, and became the common currency or trading in South and Central America and the West Indies. For more than a hundred years the pieces of eight circulating in the New World were crudely struck silver coins of a type called cobs" (from page 35 of Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly). R&R please and I'll write more!!!