KnoWoPerWriMo

[lucianus]

Thursday 25. November

This day I did speak at length with my prisoner now that he is somewhat recovered and find that he is the M. de Vopellyaire; he doth have a very fine horse worth I should say above 2/ and saddle and accoutrements the which I will keep, likewise his harness seemeth to would fit me and I would keep that as well but the remainder I will sell him back and told him thus so that he would know my intentions; about an hour before midday came a drum to treat for my prisoner and carry my demands back to garrison and by and by he comes again and tells me they would not meet my terms and so I send him back again and so it continued ‘til near supper and I and M. de Vopellyaire did eat and later came the drum again with an acceptable answer and would pay me 500 écu and so tomorrow was set to exchange; the cornet I won of him, I will present to my Lord upon his return.

---

So Luke has a prisoner and has to deal with ransoming him.

Comments

Huh?

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

Was the last sentence a "translation" of the text? You're silly! :-D

Re: Huh?

[lucianus.livejournal.com]

Luke was actually speaking of the flag he grabbed from him which is called a "cornet." M. de Vopellyaire is by his rank a cornet because he carries the flag called a cornet. Just like the officer with the rank of ensign carries the unit ensign. Its all a bit confusing but cuz this is Luke's journal and he knows what he's writing about, he doesn't need to explain it to himself. ;)

So I'm glad you asked the question.

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see he treats his prisoner well. Is that because of the prisoner's value as a ransonable person? Or the ethic of the time? Or Luke's personal ethic?

[lucianus.livejournal.com]

Good treatment of rich prisoners was expected, cuz they were worth money. Luke will hopefully be getting a pot of money for this guy if all goes well. They have agreed to pay him 500 ecu, which is approximately 60/ which equates very roughly to about $30,000! We'll have to see if they can actually cough up with all of that. In Coningsby's journal earlier in the month a rich Frenchman from their side was captured worth "4000." I am assuming that to be ecu.

Yesterday I referred to that distressing incident after Jarnac. The story there was that the Prince de Conde was captured in the battle and was hanging out with his captors waiting to be ransomed (and he would be worth a mint) when someone on the captors side came up and blew his brains out because of a longtime grudge. This was so very, very not cricket, it went against the unwritten rules for care of high status prisoners and it denied the captors their very rich ransom. I don't know what happened in the end to the shooter but I expect it wasn't good.

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

Sounds like that poor drum (again, so called because he's a soldier who carries a drum?) did a lot of walking back and forth today. Would it have been the same man every time, or would Luke just not take notice? Did such middlemen ever get anything out of the negotiations, or meddle at all?

[lucianus.livejournal.com]

In this period drummers, who were grown men not boys, also acted as negotiators and held a status of a junior officer. This drummer did indeed go back and forth a good deal as the terms were being hammered out and for his troubles Luke would have paid him some money, probably an ecu or two for each time he went back and forth, or maybe more. Anyone entrusted with a message would have expected to be paid for his troubles and for the confidence that the person who hired him put in him.