As to the poetic overture to each said chapter of the acts both sanguine and profane recorded herein, The Rule of both The Knights Saint George and The Knights Trace, lauds and respects The Death of Arthur. Though the words of Mallory are fit to feed the ear of prince and King, with scant else to suffice for the greater latter, the lower orders of knighthood bearing the banners of Christ Opposed to Multifarious Evil into the vile precincts of Heathenry, Heresy and Voodoory are of a less cultivated mind than the leading families of Christendom, let alone rough Easter New England, and stand far below and beyond the pale of Sweet Old England.

What is rudely more, where the knights of rough Easter New England are retained by stalwart and pious men-at-arms, and those shimmering souls of Sweet Old England when at arms against Christian, Heathen, Heretic or Saracen, are retained by the lower orders of nobility, West of the Great Heathen River, called Mississippi, martial needs are filled by more desperate men. With only sailors, pikemen, musketeers and cannoneers, according to Old English tradition, permitting entry from the lower orders—and these being middling stock to artisans of the yeomanry—we of rude Wester New England are of a differing plight.

Even in Easter New England, the lowly, wastrel, bound Christian soul—Christian though he may be—is only permitted to enter arms as an oarsman or sailor upon the King’s Ships, as is the practice among The Knights Sepulcher, whose godly galleys depart Saint George and thence row up the Missouri to Musseshell Rally Station [1] each October.

Be it though, among the Stations of The Knights Saint George and The Knights Trace, ten combatants to the noble one are drawn from, pillory post, gaol lock, barrister stocks and even the ready gallows! Only those dastards hung in chains by order of The King’s Magistrates are beyond the recruiting arm of a knight or ranking squire. Thus the serfs of the Plantation, when punished for courting libertine or shiftless damnation, if able to bear arms or tend horse, and judged so by a Knight [or acting knight] of the order, and in extremity by a sergeant in good standing, may, instead of execution, mutilation and shackle and fetter penance, be bound the The said Order for a life of military service. [2]

Such a Christian—and this he must be—be he boy, scout or ranger, lives a life rugged beyond Old English conception, and storied according to Easter New English convention. Be the penitent wretch English trash, Scottish riffraff, Welsh back-slider, Cornish drag-footed brag, shanty Irish grog, a worse vagrant mongrel, a rude praying Indian, or even a good and Goddamned breed, so long as he be not besooted of soul by Satan’s black brand, he may be mustered to SERVE!

How does one minister to such a motley mob of murderous dragoons?

Yes, the sermons of the squire, vested as chaplain to every Crusader troop, edifies the rude soul.

Such godly lessons are upheld by the Knight’s exemplar character.

But men of all races and ages desire hero song and roaring tales and will not make due with only sermon and hymn.

For one must remember, that in Wester lands, he who is without a horse is doomed and worse—useless to Christ’s kind kingly purpose. Thus, even a gallows-bird cut loose from the very noose, is destined due to the natural upwelling nobility of the equine spirit with which he lives his life in close conenction, to begin to think of himself in higher ways, but dangerously in his lowly wiles. It is for this reason that Dragoons are only mustered from among the lowly in Europe by the debased Russians, who have but little choice in the matter, assailed as they are by Tartar and Turk. European soldiery of the lowly kind is never mounted against Christian foes in the Old World for this very reason. We, though, in westerlands, are assailed by all manner of subhuman foes and are so, grimly compelled to follow the Russian practice.

Such a man-killing mob may not be inspired by the lyre and harp [3] with stories of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table, without a reasonable fear that they might aspire in their brutish hearts to the status of these knights of legendry, or Lord forbid, conceptualize a Grail after their own base ideals!

Therefore, while The Knights Sepulcher, delight in Beowulf, alike as their heretic foes of Norther New France are to the fiend Grendel and his vile mother, our forefathers of the more wester and souther orders favored—and their loyal sons yet favor—The Song of Roland. This is for the reason that Teraldus the Norman shared ancestry with our breed of Kings and Princes, and of as much import, composed his work before the French became infected with that miasma of the Middle Sea air and began to ape the Saracen in his easy habit.

The men of The Knights Saint George and The Knights Trace, are doomed to fall in its ranks. Hence, Roland’s bold dedication to his King unto certain death provides many the ready rhyme to occupy the lowly ranger mind. For God as our heavenly witness, one can only imagine what dreadful doggerel would pass the gap-toothed lips of bond soldier kind on our frontiers if our paiges and stone deacons failed to preserve the Song of Roland. Hence, in labor to abide by convention, wishing this tale to reach the princely ear—which we dour persons of the Three Orders know must be entertained—a pertinent verse from Roland’s Song shall head each Act, in hopes, in part, that such will counterweight the vile voodoo chants appended at the close of each Act.

Such are the words that inspire our bloody boys to slaughter aback horses in the outrealms of Awes West and Awes South.

“Behind the walls of Saragoss,

not a Saracen was left—

who had not come to Christ

or sudden death!”

-Song of Roland, First Chant

…

-Alfred the 9th, 52nd Confessor to The Order of Saint George of the Cross

…

Notes

-1. Said rally point is a temporary station, through which The Knights Trace, our eyes and ears upon the frontier, are supplied and is manned year round by the Praying Mandan Tribe, captained by a chief who by ancient convention ever receives address according to a Welsh name, and alone among their kind is permitted in the company of Knights by name. German convict cannoneers, donated by the grace of His Princely Person of Baden, in support of Christ’s martial purpose, there guard this furthest hinter port of Christendom, there to sire breeds on squaws for the scout service.

2. Boys of ten to thirteen years are most sought after, with rogues of full years distrusted in the main. Some may remain boys as men, becoming scullers, if stupid, squeamish or returned lame to that state. Breeds—praying breeds all—may become scouts only. Those of Christian blood able to take up soldiering, which is to say most, are promoted according to deed from age 13 through 21to the rank of ranger. Such a fellow, not distinguishing himself in a soldiery way by age 21 is likely to be a sculler for life. [4] Sergeants may only be advanced from ranger, never scout.

-3. These duties fall to paige and stone deacon, in the main.

-4. Where sculler kind and oarsmen are not armed in Chistendom Proper, the pony boy of these orders are lightly armed in the way of sailors, with a knife, and if trusted, a pistol if he be of Christian blood and a bow and arrows if he be a breed. Such bows, due to their ready rate of lossing and accuracy, are valued highly in Awes West in particular.

-5. Pikemen and musketeer are only employed west of the Great Heathen River by the Dons of New Spain, who possess a peasant class somewhere in nature between the yeoman and serf of England, generally regarded as a miserable excuse for a soldier, though the mestizo spawn of the indiscriminate fecund Dons make excellent demi-scout rangers.