by Judith James
Alone, lost inside a nightmare world, all Gabriel had ever wanted was companionship and a place to belong, but Sarah had given him so much more. She had taught him to trust in friendship and in love, and by believing in him, she had taught him to believe in himself. He had faced his demons, and with her help, he'd survived them. He would always carry scars, but the wounds had healed and the adventure was just beginning. They sailed together, under the stars, fellow journeyers in life, and love. He was a man with an enormous capacity for love, and Sarah had released it. Forgetting the stars, the ship, and his men, he adored her with its full measure. There was only Sarah, and he kissed her with all the ardor in his soul.
Afterword
I've always been drawn to independent people who rebel against stereotypes and challenge the conventions and norms of their times. There's a tendency sometimes, to think such behaviors, particularly among women, are unique to our modern age, but anyone who reads the works of historian Antonia Fraser will find accounts of women who led troops, went to war, ran their own business, wrote books and plays, dressed and lived as men, secured divorces, abandoned husbands, and didn't die of shame. Although some of Sarah's behaviors are unconventional for the time, they are by no means unique. A century earlier, Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, made a practice of wearing men's clothing, and was soon the mistress of a smitten King Charles II. Thirty years after this story takes place, the novelist George Sands, a French Baroness who counted among her lovers Chopin and Jules Sandeau, lived her life in men's clothes and traveled about Paris smoking a pipe. Dekker and van de Pol, in their study The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe
give several examples of women who lived their lives disguised as men. They go on to say there were several circumstances in which it was considered acceptable for women to "crossdress" giving the examples of flight or escape from dangerous circumstance, sexual play, during travel, and 'while carousing.'
Women also traveled, often alone, sometimes together, and some made a name for themselves as travel writers. Brian Dolan's Ladies of the GrandTour gives a fascinating account of these accomplished ladies (who included bluestockings, divorcees, great ladies, and courtesans) and their adventures on the fringes of society and the fringes of Europe. Among them was Mary Wollstonecraft, writer, philosopher, and feminist, who in 1792 wrote what is now considered one of the first major feminist treatises A Vindication of the Rights ofWomen.
Contrary to popular belief, women also went to sea with their men. Ships with women living, as opposed to traveling, on them, were referred to as Hen Frigates. Cordingly's fascinating Seafaring Women is filled with stories of the 'surprising number of women who went to sea, some as the wives or mistresses of captains, and some dressed in men's clothing." Perhaps most interesting of all, according to Life At Sea in the Age of Nelson, by Steven Pope, women travelled aboard warships and were present in numbers at all the major battles of the era, usually as assistants to the surgeon. Most were the wives of officers, but the rules governing soldiers allowed each company of marines to travel with five women. It could be argued that Sarah's travels with her cousin Davey, and later Gabriel, were not terribly unusual for the time.
These women weren't stereotypical and they didn't fit the norm, but they were real flesh and blood people. Like Sarah, many of them, particularly those in the upper classes, paid a price, facing ostracism and social disapproval, but they also lived adventures and lives forever closed to their more timid sisters.
Sarah would have had to be unconventional and far from timid to become involved with someone like Gabriel. This book is in large part his story. Brothels like Madam Etienne's, frequented by men, and even some women of quality, were not unusual in Europe, and young boys and girls were sometimes taken from the streets and sold into prostitution, a practice, unfortunately, that persists to this day. Although it might be shocking for some readers, I've attempted to deal honestly with the after effects of childhood abuse as well as battlefield trauma. The Age of Illusion, by James Laver gives a gritty, entertaining, and sometimes shocking account of the manners and morals of the period, including the darker aspects.
In regards to language, Gabriel's isn't always appropriate or polite, but neither is his background, and he spends much of his life in the company of mercenaries and soldiers. Several words we sometimes assume to be common only since the twentieth century, have in fact been in wide use for a very long time. The writings of the seventeenth century court poet, the Earl of Rochester would put some modern rappers to shame, as would the ode Horace Walpole wrote to the Earl of Lincoln in 1743. You can find it in The British Abroad, by Jeremy Black.
Bohemia, which now forms the core of Czechoslovakia, was home to nomadic populations of Roma (gypsies) and also provided refuge for Huguenots fleeing France. Kali Sara, also know as the Black Madonna, is by some accounts Patron Saint of the Romany people, and was said to be an Egyptian maid who accompanied the three Marys as they escaped Palestine for France after Christ's crucifixion. It was said she begged alms for the Marys and spread her cloak over the water to save them when their boat was sinking. To others she is a Romany Goddess, one of the faces of Kali, whose worship predated Christianity and was later incorporated by the Christian church. The origin of her statue in France is lost in antiquity, and the latter explanation seems most likely.
Vingt-et-un was a precursor to the card game blackjack, one of the few games where attentive statisticians and card counters can have an advantage over the odds. Although there are many accounts of card counters making a fortune and being banned from casinos today, I can find none from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Perhaps Gabriel was the first to recognize and profit from this method.
Several prominent Cornwall families made fortunes from smuggling (or free trading, as it was called at the time), piracy, and privateering, including the Killigrew family who established Falmouth. There was an upswing of privateering during the Napoleonic wars. Although most of the characters in this story are fictional, Lieutenant Gabriel Brey did scour the coast of Cornwall at the time in the revenue cutter the Hind, leading raids by land and sea and in one instance catching his man after a chase lasting twenty-eight hours. There was increased pressure to curtail the trade after the murder of a customs officer on the Lottery in 1798.
The turmoil and shifting alliances in Europe at the time resulted in an increased number of Europeans being taken captive and held for slavery and ransom in the Mediterranean. The practice was at its peak in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but still flourished well into the nineteenth; indeed, the words from the United States Marine Corp anthem "to the shores of Tripoli" refer to a campaign instigated by Thomas Jefferson to suppress the Barbary pirates and free American slaves in 1804. There were still 120 European slaves in the bagnio in Algiers when the French took it over in 1830. Sultan Mulai Slimane ruled Morocco from 1792 to 1822 and had to put down several rebellions in the early years. The Scottish renegado Peter Lisle, known as Murad Reis, was also
active at this time, eventually becoming admiral of Tripoli's navy and marrying a daughter of Yusuf, the bashaw. Galleys had been largely replaced for use in warfare in Europe by the early 1700s but were used in the Mediterranean in an auxiliary capacity until the advent of steam propulsion. Chain mail was worn in the Barbary states until well into the nineteenth century.
The quotations and snippets of poetry are borrowed from Thomas Bullfinch, William Shakespeare, and the Bible. For those who are interested, I have included a glossary and loose translation of the foreign phrases used in this story.
GLOSSARY OF FORIEGN TERMS
French words and phrases (in order of appearance)
Maison de Joie: House of Joy.
Non? C'est bien: No? That's fine.
Au contraire, monsieur: On the contrary, sir.
Les Anglais sontid: The English are here.
On-dit: The gossip, what everyone's discussing.
S'il vous plait: If
you please.
Mon vieux: Older French phrase, my old friend, old man, old boy. Mignonne: Small and pretty, dainty, cute, a term of endearment. Et bien: And so, it's good, all right, ok (depends on the context used). Au revoir: Until next time, until we meet again, goodbye. Ma belle: My beauty, my pretty. Reveille toi, mon ange: Wake up my angel. Bon Dieu: Good God! Ma chere: My dear Mon cheri: My darling.
Mon ange, ma belle amie, mon amour: My angel, my beautiful friend, my love. Merde: Shit.
Je t'aime,je t'adore, ma vie, mon ame, mon cceur: I love you, I
adore you, my life, my soul, my heart.
Salut, mon vieux: Hello, old friend.
Enchantee, mademoiselle: Enchanted, miss.
Mon amour, chere amie: My love, dear friend.
A la victime: In the style of a victim (refers to those who were guillotined during the revolution)
Entree into the beau monde: Entry into fashionable society. Vingt-et-un: Twenty-one (card game similar to and predating blackjack).
Mon ami: My friend (masculine). Mon amie: (feminine).
Ancien regime: The old order of pre-revolutionary France.
Bienvenue, mon frere: Welcome, my brother.
Chevalier: Literally a horseman or knight. A rank within the French nobility including members of
families of ancient nobility, even when untitled.
Ma fois: An exclamation of great surprise. My faith!
Oui, c'est moi: Yes, it's me.
J'y suis, j'y reste: French saying 'here I am, here I stay.
Et bien, monfrere: All right, my brother.
Mais c'est charmant!: But how charming!
A votre sante: To your health (a toast).
Chacun a son gout: Each according to his taste.
De rien, madame: It is nothing, madame.
Touche: Touched, a term from fencing, acknowledging a point was scored.
C'est la vie: That's life.
Conge: Leave, permission to depart, term sometimes used in French and English when a lover has been discarded and told they aren't wanted anymore. Il faut d'argent: Money is required, one must have money, it takes money.
Une vie manquee: A misspent life.
A la bourgeois: In the style of the middle classes, conventional etc. Je ne sais quoi: An indescribable something, I don't know what. Laissez faire: Easy going, non interfering. Sang-froid: Cold blood, cold-blooded. Affair d'amour: Love affair.
C'est un embarras de richesses: French expression "it's an embarassment of riches".
Croix de Dieu: Cross of God! Sacrilegious French expression. Affair d'honneur: A matter of honour.
Noblesse oblige: Expression meaning those in high positions are obliged to act responsibly.
Sou: A penny.
Arriviste: Social climber, a person with money but no ancient gentility.
Demimondaine: Woman who lives on the fringes of society, a women of questionable repute.
Bon soir: Good evening.
Pardonnez moi: Excuse me, pardon me.
No, merci: No thank you.
Je suis de trop: French expression meaning I am one too many, superfluous, not needed, sometimes unwanted.
Sans pareille: Matchless, without match, without parallel.
Nom de Dieu: In God's name, Name of God.
Mes enfants: My children.
Je suis desole: I am sorry, desolate, heart broken.
Bouleverse: Overwhelmed, staggered, deeply moved, bowled over, etc.
Grande passion: Overwhelming passion, all consuming love affair. Grande amour: Great love, (a person) love of one's life.
Latin words and phrases
Veni, vedi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered (attributed to Caesar) Spanish
Querida: My dear, my love.