[Sca-cooks] My Official Position in re Puck's recent posts

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Well, folks, it's like this:

You need to go and read Parke Godwin's Robon Hood novels, "Sherwood",
and "Robin And The King". In the first volume, Robin finds himself in an
unlikely situation. He's leading a band of English archers on the side
of the Normans, because he's decided that even though there's a powerful
Saxon-led rebellion going on, he would rather see the Normans in power
than see the continuation of the war. Robin, of course, ends up under
the command of one Sieur Ralf, Lord High Sheriff of Nottingham, who
turns out to be a decent sort, if a bit driven in a Javere sort of way.
Hey, if the King says to hunt down Robin, that's what I must do. Ralf,
being first and foremost a Norman bachelor knight and true to his class,
has been told by his superiors that under no circumstances will his
rabble of Saxon peasant archers ever be deployed, since the rebellion
involves a lot of Norman knights, and of course, Norman knights don't
make war that way. [Except, perhaps, in the case of King Harold of
England, but we'll let that pass.] In the mean time, nothing much is
happening: a castle siege here, a sorty there, a retreat, nobody hurt,
then do it all over again the next day. Robin's men, of course, would
much rather end this and go home and till their fields.

So what we're ultimately left with is the Sheriff giving Robin the
following orders, more or less in paraphrase:

"Robin, we're all agreed that we cannot allow archers to be used against
the chivalry. Whatever happens, you will not loose upon the rebels, is
that clear? Robin, I just said you were not to attack the chivalry,
didn't I? Robin, order your men to desist or I'll have your hide on my
shield! Robin! Dammit, sir, I _will_ be obeyed! I order you to attack!"


Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98