Posts Tagged ‘Royal Family’

[This is a fictional tale by your humble servant, but based on a very real story.]

Although a more modern Scots Guards sentry, it gives the idea of the loneliness of the post - Courtesy of the Scots Guards Appreciation Society

Private Sean Gorman, Scots Fusilier Guards, had been on duty at the castle gate guarding the Royal Family for hours.  His frail, slender frame was cold, wet, and covered in snow, from his tall bearskin cap to his shiny black brogans.  His bright red coatee was a barely visible pinkish colour under the layer of white fluff.  He stood at a rigid attention, staring straight ahead, waiting … waiting … waiting for his relief.  Guard duty, he thought in disgust, on Christmas eve, 1853, I’ve no luck at all.

The monotony was mind-numbing, but he had learned to steel himself.  His brain raced from one thought to the next, but his physical being was rock hard and unmoving. Och, what in hell was that, he thought, listening to a distant crying.  A wee bairn, a baby … it sounds like a baby. Out there in front a the gate, in the snow.  Och, no.  It must be with its mum.  Just walkin’ past, hurrying to the warmth and crackle of a bloody great fire.

There it was again.  The high-pitched whine, closer this time.  The swirling thick snow blocked Sean’s view but for a few feet ahead.  The cries were not changing.  It wasn’t passing by.  It was heart-wrenching, pleading.

What am I ta do, Sean thought.  I canna leave my post.  The punishment for such a transgression was severe – a court martial, prison.

He stood rigid for another twenty long agonizing minutes, as he listened to the pitiful crying.  He could take it no more.  He snapped out of his trance-like guard state, and ran down the road through the churning blizzard toward the cries.

He heard its exact location along the side of the road before he saw it.  The cries were emanating from a small mound of snow.

As Sean gazed down into the snow his eyes widened.  God save us, what’s all this?

[Part II of the continuing adventures of "Sticks" will be along tomorrow.]