William Tavington met Captains Bordon and Wilkins coming up from the stables as he headed that way a short time after leaving Charlotte. Pleased that they were on time, he approached them briskly, ready to get on with the task of questioning the prisoners.
"So," he said to both men. "How did it go when you told Mrs Bordon about disposing of the bastards who'd ravished her?"
"It went about as well as could be expected," Bordon slowly told him as the three men headed toward the prisoner compound. "I did not give her the graphic details, but I made it clear to her that they'd been made to pay and would not be troubling her or anyone else ever again."
"I did the same with my wife," Tavington said blandly. "She was grateful to me for sparing her the petty details, as she really did not want to know. It's better that way, I think, as most women tend to have such tender consciences."
Both captains nodded in agreement as they continued to walk.
As the prisoner compound came into view, Bordon turned to Tavington and asked, "Do you think it will do any good to interrogate these men?"
"I very much doubt it, but one never knows," Tavington replied in a non-committal tone. "And it doesn't really matter in any instance, as if they refuse, I have a valid reason to have them hanged. If one of them breaks down and tells me where their base is, I win again. Either way, I cannot lose."
At the prisoner enclosure, Tavington approached the bars, with Bordon and Wilkins flanking him on either side. As he surveyed the men inside with barely concealed disdain, the partisans returned his gaze, staring at the dragoon leader and his henchmen with a mixture of both fear and loathing.
Seeing that he had their attention, Tavington loudly said, "I am prepared to give parole to any man who will tell me the whereabouts of Benjamin Martin's base and any other useful information about his activities."
The partisans were momentarily nonplussed by Tavington's nerve to make such a proposition, but quickly recovered.
"You must be jesting if you think we're going to tell you anything, especially after what your men did to Sam and Harry," Rollins sneered, then spat a sizable wad of chewing tobacco in Tavington's direction. "You had no call to do that."
"No call?" Bordon repeated indignantly, his hand going to the hilt of his sabre as he stepped forward to confront the short statured colonist. "After what they did to my wife, I should have had them drawn and quartered."
"Vengeance belongs to the Lord," Reverend Oliver put in unctuously. "It wasn't your place to punish them for their sins."
James Wilkins whirled on the aging preacher. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself; riding with these bandits who would violate innocent women, as well as defy the King's God-given authority."
"Now, now, Captains," Tavington interjected calmly. "There's no need to justify your actions to these prisoners. You don't owe them any explanations, whatsoever." Turning to face the resentful partisans, he declared, "Every man who is not willing to give the information I've requested will be scheduled to hang for treason in the morning. It's just that simple."
Having said his piece, Tavington turned and walked away from the agitated prisoners without another word. He'd given them their chance. If they were unwilling to cooperate, then let them hang.
After a moment, his two captains turned and reluctantly followed him back to the main house.
"That didn't go well," Bordon said glumly once they were out of earshot of the prisoners. "No one volunteered to talk. I don't know why you didn't allow me to persuade a few of them."
"I know most of those men," Wilkins put in. "I don't think it would have helped. I think it would have only served to make them more recalcitrant."
"I tend to concur with Captain Wilkins," Tavington said. "I intend to assign some men to build a gallows in full view of the prisoners. That will give them all something to think about and it's quite possible that it will cause at least one man to reconsider." With a dismissive gesture, he concluded, "If not, then we've removed quite a few men from Martin's militia with a minimum of effort."
"That's true," Bordon reluctantly agreed.
"Why don't you go find your wife, Bordon, and let her unsheath that sabre of yours for awhile," Tavington suggested. "That's what I intend to spend the night doing with mine."
Bordon briefly reddened at his superior officer's vulgar reference, but then said, "A fine idea, Colonel."
Turning to Wilkins, Tavington said, "And I'd suggest you go see who is available down among the camp followers, Wilkins."
"I've already made arrangements," Wilkins announced with a tight grin. "Tarleton and Hanger tried to get me to play faro with them tonight, but I told them I had better things to do."
"Excellent," Tavington said smoothly. "I'll see you both tomorrow morning, not too early, down by the gallows. We'll give them all one last chance to talk and if we get no takers again, I'll give the order to proceed with the hangings."
"Even the preacher?" Wilkins asked.
"Especially the preacher," Tavington shot back. "Out of all of them, he's the one who should have known better than to get involved in this rebellion."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
William Tavington lingered in bed with Charlotte until mid-morning the next day. As he'd promised her, they'd spend most of the previous night engaging in bed sport, with both of them sleeping in the next morning.
He was awakened by a persistent tapping at the door, which took awhile for him to hear from the bedroom.
"Hold on, I'm coming," he muttered as he slipped his banyan on over his naked body, then padded to the door in bare feet.
The dragoon yanked the door open, somewhat grumpily, to find Bordon standing there.
"Benjamin Martin just arrived at the fort under a flag of truce and he's going into the Lord General's office now," Bordon announced urgently. "I thought you'd want to know."
"Yes, thank you Bordon," Tavington replied. "Give me a few minutes to get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."
After Bordon left, he returned to the bedroom where he found Charlotte sitting up in bed, yawning and stretching.
"I'm sorry, love, but I most go and attend to a matter downstairs," he told her as he began to dress. "Martin has shown up at the fort under a flag of truce to see the Lord General, and I need to go see just what it is he wants."
"Oh, dear," Charlotte said, shaking her head at Ben's foolishness. "When Ben gets a notion into his head, all common sense frequently flees from it."
"That's a good thing," Tavington asserted as he arranged his hair into a neat queue.. "It will make it much easier for me to defeat him if he frequently acts on impulse without stopping to think of possible consequences."
Charlotte sighed gustily. "I just wish he'd had the sense to stay out of this war, considering he has all those children to care for by himself."
"Well, he didn't have the sense and it's my duty to put an end to his activities," her husband shot back, his mild tone not concealing his determination. Leaning over to give Charlotte a kiss, he said, "I would appreciate it if you would stay out of sight until Martin can be dealt with. With any luck, I shouldn't be too long."
Leaving his quarters without any further ado, Tavington found Bordon and Wilkins a few moments later, waiting just outside the main building for him .
"Martin is still in there with the Lord General," Bordon informed his superior officer as Tavington joined them.
"Do you have a clue why he's here?" Tavington asked
"I'd say he's going to try to negotiate to get his men released," Wilkins ventured.
"Good luck on that," Tavington said harshly, with a short bark of scornful laughter
At that moment, General O'Hara came outside and headed down the steps toward where they were standing.
"Do you have any idea what Benjamin Martin wanted to see the Lord General for?" Tavington asked O'Hara. "I'm surprised he would show his face here after the thrashing I gave him yesterday".
"He is here to arrange a prisoner exchange," O'Hara told him, impatient to move on from the curious dragoon. "I'm on my way now to give the order to have his men released."
"Released?" Tavington exclaimed indignantly. "You can't do that! These prisoners are scheduled to be executed today for treason!"
"They won't be executed today, Colonel," O'Hara declared firmly, his tone increasingly testy, "He has eighteen of our officers that we can't afford to lose."
Making a rude noise of disgust, Tavington grated out, "He had no prisoners when we fought him yesterday. I strongly suspect that he's lying"
"It's no lie, Colonel Tavington," O'Hara shot back, now thoroughly exasperated with the junior officer. "He has them tied to trees in the far meadow and showed the Lord General through his spyglass."
Tavington was still not convinced. "I still think it's a mistake to release the prisoners. They are wreaking havoc on our supply trains and each man I capture makes my job that much easier."
"The Lord General has given the order to release them," O'Hara insisted frostily. "Surely, you don't mean to be insubordinate?"
"No, sir," Tavington said reluctantly, still seething with rage over this misguided order.
As the three dragoons watched the pompous general head off in the direction of the prisoner enclosure, Tavington tore off his bearskin helmet and threw it to the ground in helpless frustration.
"I cannot believe that the Lord General was taken in by that damned farmer!" Tavington spat. "How naïve could he be? Does he have any idea how this undermines my authority and how it makes me look in front of the rebels"
Bordon and Wilkins stood by helplessly, not having any words of encouragement to offer their leader.
"If you need me, I'll be down at the stables," Tavington said wearily, as he retrieved his dragoon helmet and stalked off.
Both men looked after him as he walked away, unsurprised, as they knew that Tavington liked to work out his frustrations by giving his horse a good grooming, a task he normally left to stable hands.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
A little over an hour later, as Tavington was escorting Charlotte to the noon meal, they met two infantry soldiers awkwardly carrying two straw dummies, dressed in British infantry officer's uniforms, up the steps to the main building.
"What's this?" Tavington demanded as the soldiers struggled up the stairs with their cumbersome burdens.
"These are the bleedin' 'officers' the Lord General exchanged our prisoners for," one disgruntled sergeant told him in candid disgust.
"Is that so?" Tavington replied, grimly satisfied to be proven correct. A grin could not help but tug at the corner of his lips, "That's quite interesting, wouldn't you agree, Charlotte?"
"Quite interesting," she concurred. William had told her what had happened with his prisoners after he'd returned to their quarters from the stables.
"Would you mind going on to the mess hall without me?" Tavington asked her, a sudden thought having formed in his mind "I think I need to be there when these men show the Lord General just what he got in return for setting those partisans free."
Charlotte suppressed a laugh, but smiled conspiratorially with her husband. She almost pitied General Cornwallis, as she knew that William was going to give him "what for", albeit within the limits of military protocol.
"Go head, darling," she said, waving him off. "I'll just take my meal with the Bordons."
"I'll see you soon," he told her. "Tell Bordon and Wilkins what's going on."
"I surely will," she promised.
After giving Charlotte a peck on the cheek, he followed the two infantrymen to the Lord General's office, where Cornwallis was presumably waiting for the non-existent officers to arrive.
The door to the general's office opened as they approached it, with General O'Hara stepping out into the hall.
"What's all this?" O'Hara demanded as the infantrymen moved to wrestle the straw dummies through the doorway.
"Why, it's two of the officers my prisoners were exchanged for," Tavington told him, his voice oily with satisfied scorn. As he squeezed past the bewigged general, he hissed, "I told you so."
As they entered the office, General Cornwallis rose from his desk when he saw the commotion at the door.
"Explain yourself, Sergeant," he ordered the first man, who let the dummy he was carrying drop to the floor.
"All we found when we went to the meadow were these clothed dummies, my Lord," the sergeant told him sheepishly. "The rebels were long gone by the time we got there. There weren't any of our men there at all, but just several of these dummies."
"I advised General O'Hara that this was likely a ruse, as Martin had no prisoners with him when we encountered his group yesterday," Tavington said, shrugging, leaving unsaid the fact that his advice was ignored.
"Is this so, O'Hara?" Cornwallis demanded peevishly.
"Uh, ah, yes, my Lord," O'Hara stammered in embarrassment, furious at being humiliated by an upstart like William Tavington.
"Did it not occur to you that we should have sent for Colonel Tavington and, perhaps, Mistress Tavington, as she is Martin's former sister-in-law?" Cornwallis said to the younger general, oblivious to the fact that he'd not thought to do so, either.
"No, my Lord," O'Hara said. "I merely sought to carry out the orders you gave."
Cornwallis sighed loudly, wondering if it was too much to expect his aide to have an independent thought now and again.
Turning away from O'Hara, Cornwallis addressed Tavington "I want revenge. I don't care how you accomplish it, just do it. I trust that I'll be able to count on you to get the job done."
"Most assuredly, my Lord," Tavington said, baring his teeth in a feral grin. "I quite look forward to it, actually."
"Excellent," Cornwallis said, returning the dragoon's smile. "I want you to wipe Benjamin Martin and his militia off the face of the Earth."
"Consider it done," Tavington told him confidently.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\