JIT – Journey In Time (Part Four & Last)

 (Contains scenes of an upsetting/distressing nature)

By John Abbott

I had only seen one or two women in stages of undress before, I had never seen a woman entirely naked in the daylight hours ever. My knowledge of women was not as wide as I would have liked, but her plain face had not done her any justice. Her pale white body was beautiful. Hanna lay almost motionless on her back upon the table, her knees were up and firmly together. Sil with a jug of wine in his right hand, planted his left hand upon her knees. He was grinning and dribbling wine as he declared again.

"I want you woman!"

Sil dropped the jug and forcibly prised Hanna's knees apart. She shuddered and her head rolled from side to side but she did not scream as Sil, in a mad sexual frenzy, opened his breeches and proceeded to enter her. She grunted at the force and weight of the man but still did not scream, her face was a wide-eyed mask of abject terror. Sil was pushing violently into her whilst pinning her arms to the table and was grinning as he reached his peak of sexual excitement. Ashamedly, I too found myself in a state of frenzy. I find it hard to believe now but I had become sexually excited, and as I followed the indecent acts of Sil, my mind was blank - no feeling at all. Rosch was in a blubbering heap on the floor, as Sil approached Hanna for a second time. He lowered his head towards her pudendum and at that moment she leapt up, screaming.

" Nooooo ! God !, noooo ! "

 

She jumped off the table, landing on her feet unsteadily, and with no hesitation she ran wildly screaming out of the half-open door. Both Sil and I pushed outside to see this poor naked woman scampering away from the western edge of the village. We looked at each other in an alcoholic daze, neither of us attempting speech. I tried to sit on the doorstep but collapsed drunkenly, whilst Sil began to move across the village towards part of our company, who had obviously heard the screaming and had stepped outside various households to find the source. Through my glazed eyes I could see that as Sil angrily approached them, most were laughing and shouting encouragement.

In the next few minutes, most of our group arrived at the door of the Rosch home. Rosch himself had presumably left through a back door and had not been seen leaving by anyone. Within seconds, as they consistently cajoled Sil about this event, I was being plied with more alcohol. A minute, maybe more, and I was violently ill all down the front of my own shirt.

The next thing that I have any memory of occurred many hours later. Apparently, I had passed out, and had been carried out of the village by Presten and, along with the rest of the company, was bound for the Imperial city of Rothenburg. The remainder of the story has been recounted to me by Sil, and due to his bad English, may well be lacking in detail.

After I had passed out, the company had spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening drinking the village dry of wine. Then all settled down for the night. It seems that Rosch, who had rushed to the next village for help, returned during that evening. As our Company slept off the afternoons carousing, the angry villagers, led by Rosch, made off with all the horses and stole all the weapons. By the time anyone awoke and realised what had happened, the villagers had returned again in large numbers, sixty to seventy of them, at least. The villagers then proceeded to give a sound beating to all the members of our Company, I personally received an immense amount of bruises to my body and head along with a very swollen right ankle.

It seems that I misjudged Presten badly. He was not happy with our conduct in Linden and, apparently, he and Moss went missing on Wednesday after we had reached Rothenburg. After our party had fled the village, Fraser had decided that the only option open to us to enable us to recover our horses and weaponery would be to appeal to the Beadle of Rothenburg, who upheld the rule of law in this territory. Fraser was right. Upon hearing our story, obviously omitting any unlawful portions, the Beadle decided to visit Linden, on our behalf. He could not allow the villagers to take the law into their own hands. Fortunately, I had to stay in Rothenburg to allow myself to recover from a badly sprained ankle. The Beadle did indeed travel to Linden, and from what I have been led to believe, with Fraser's help, immediately arrested three of the villagers. Obviously, the villagers made vehement protests and, within the next few hours, the Beadle heard the real story of the forcible entry to peoples homes and of the stealing of all the village's wine. And, most important of all, the appearance of Georg Rosch's wife, Hanna, which gave her the chance to explain her tale of the monstrous rape by a ' Fat Swede ' and a ' White-haired ' soldier. The Beadle then had little option other than to let the villagers free, and he also managed to recover the horses and most of the weapons which appeased Fraser enormously.

 

I came from Briel with an open mind and heart. I had hopes, expectations ... all have been dashed like hailstones against the ground, worn and battered like rocks in a sea storm. I know not what to do next or where to turn. They say that this terrible war will soon be over, but there still appears to be no sign of a peace. Everywhere there is envy, hatred and greed: that’s what this war has taught me... Some live like animals, eating bark and grass, and the weak are preyed upon by all, without any fear for the consequences. I could never have imagined that anything like this would happen to me.

Many people say there is no God...

  

JONATHON THOMAS VINCENT - APRIL 1634 - ROTHENBURG

Unlike my long-lost relative, Jonathon Thomas Vincent, I knew of the outcome of this situation. In my long patient search for the details surrounding my family's history, I have come across many minor facts which, at first, appeared irrelevant, but later were to become essential to the plot.

Apparently this series of events was reported in minute detail to the Swedish commander, a certain General Horn, who, whilst expressing his disapproval, decided against any form of discipline for the officer responsible. But he was keen to remind the officer that the soldiery were not to molest the peasantry.

By the year of our Lord 1641, there were no more peasants to molest in Linden, for the village was by then uninhabited - and it was to remain so for the rest of the war.

 

REVEREND JONATHON THOMAS VINCENT - NOVEMBER 1990

(Rothenburg ob der Tauber)

(for the benefit of non-historians, The Thirty Years War - 1618 to 1648)

 

 

Copyright John Abbott