Soldier of Fortune Read Online Free Page A

in favour of the
defendants, Judge Jeffreys continued his reign of terror. Plagued by a kidney
stone, he was sometimes in such agony that he turned into a ranting tyrant,
moved to even greater extremes of savagery. Those who trembled in the dock
before him did not realise how much money the Lord Chief Justice was making out
of the Bloody Assizes by selling pardons and profiting from the traffic of
those he sentenced to transportation. Suffering was a lucrative enterprise.
    Nathan
Rawson faced him with great courage and endured his cross-examination with calm
defiance. His trial was brief. He was one of five hundred or more prisoners who
were rushed through the court in a mere two days. Since Taunton was seen by the
authorities as a hotbed of revolt, Jeffreys and the other judges were
especially severe. Along with many others, Nathan was condemned to death. His
wife and son were in the large crowd that gathered on the day of execution to
watch their family members and friends being hanged. As her husband was taken
up on to the scaffold, Juliana Rawson could not bear to look but Daniel did not
take his eyes off the grisly proceedings. Most of the rebels showed fear and
one pleaded aloud for mercy but Nathan Rawson met his end with fortitude, even
managing a farewell smile to his son as the noose was put around his neck.
Daniel had never felt so proud of him.
    Later
that night, when the guard had dozed off to sleep, Daniel cut down his father
with the help of two friends and drove him away in the cart. They buried him
with dignity in the churchyard of the village where he had been born. As dawn
was breaking, Juliana and Daniel Rawson were driving away from the farm towards
the coast. The cart was loaded with their possessions. Mourning the death of
her husband, Juliana sat in silence with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders.
All she could think about was returning to the safety of her native country.

As
he drove the cart along the winding track, Daniel wrestled with a welter of
emotions. He was hurt, sorrowful, shocked, indignant, vengeful and bristling
with rage. Too young to understand the full implications of what had happened,
he knew one thing for certain. He was no longer a boy. Indirectly, the battle
of Sedgemoor had turned him into a young man. He had killed a soldier with the
sword that had now been presented to him. It was a weapon he could not wait to
hold in his hand again.

CHAPTER ONE
     
    March, 1704
     
    Daniel
Rawson had always disliked Paris. As he rode through its streets in the
gathering darkness, he was reminded why he hated the place so much. It was the
noisiest, dirtiest, most foul-smelling city in Europe. It was also the most
crowded. Broad avenues and magnificent public buildings had been introduced to
give it status and splendour but they could not hide the fact that the majority
of Parisians lived in tiny, squalid, ugly, vermin-ridden houses or tenements.
But the main reason why Daniel loathed it so much was that it was the capital
city of a country against which he had been fighting ever since he had joined
the army. He was at the heart of enemy territory.
    In
his opinion, however - and it was an opinion based on long experience - Paris
had one redeeming feature. It was the home of some of the most beautiful women
in the world, exotic birds of paradise with wonderful plumage, gorgeous ladies
who were steeped in the arts of love and eager to pass on their secrets to the
select few. That was what had enticed Daniel to enter the city in disguise and
to ride with an anticipatory smile of delight on his face. He had an
assignation.
    Thoughts
of what lay ahead did not distract him from the ever-present danger in the
streets. Beggars had accosted him at every turn and prostitutes had tried to
lure him brazenly into hovels where he could be overpowered and robbed. When he
went down a narrow lane and saw two ragged men ahead of him, therefore, he knew
instinctively that trouble was at hand. Though they were