You advise Opechancanough
that he must banish Silas Sharrow or we will be eternal enemies.
You're a rat! You had no ma and no pa
because you ain't worthy of none!
You will pay, Meredith Rutter. I swear.
A man boarded the ship to sail with us.
Crabtree showed a ring to him. A ring?
Governor, I have the horse. There is a cost.
A pardon for Silas Sharrow.
My heart's true wish, sir, is to utterly unseat Yeardley.
Ugh!
Now I am the prince of piss! (CHUCKLES)
I am the best man with a shit shovel
in all of Virginia! (BOTH LAUGHING)
(OWL CALL) (GASPS)
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
There, this wolf will kill your animals no more.
His head should bring a trade of shot and powder.
Chacrow, try the boots.
I promise you'll look as fine as any Englishman, wearing them.
A great humiliation to me,
to our country, when Silas Sharrow adopted the heathen religion.
If this respected Pamunkey warrior should be baptised,
should take a Christian name...
..what vengeance we'd enjoy against Opechancanough.
My pet, your gentle voice will best persuade him.
(LOCK CLICKS, DOOR OPENS)
(GRUNTS)
Your wife is so distressed, she's done with you, Master Rutter.
When I drink, sir, then I don't remember.
And when I don't recall, then how can I be responsible?
You told Tamlin he was a rat. Did not deserve a ma nor a pa.
I would not say such a thing to a boy.
Never. No, not me.
Well, I'll speak with the lad.
It will all blow by.
The boy is gone.
Does it not so much as trouble your mind, man,
that you might comfort your wife?
(GROANS)
Why did you return the promissory note to me?
Gave you every advantage over me,
proof of my collusion to steal land from the Company.
Whatever ploy or keen trap you have in mind, sir,
I am ready to defend myself. The deed was done on an impulse.
No - a compulsion.
It was a mystery to me, as were my feelings
for a woman so dangerously self-serving.
(SIGHS)
We are the same, you and I.
I heard tell of an encounter you had on the ship
before you set sail for England.
Do you trust one living soul? A man recognised you and you showed him in your possession
a ring that frightened him so, he left the vessel immediately.
I promised myself I would never love any person.
That is my credo. Until now.
It is yours, too. I know you have the ring.
I've heard of the power it bestows.
My admiration for you, Madam,
does not come accompanied with hope. I'm not a fool.
But it seems I walk in a new world,
one in which I...care for someone.
It is not so lonely there.
I suspect...you're stalked by the same loneliness as I am.
(HORSE NICKERS)
How'd you like my gift from Chacrow?
He imagines he might dupe me into believing that he's here to serve as my scout and huntsman.
He's surely amongst us to be Opechancanough's eyes, he is!
Chacrow seems most keen to obtain gunpowder from us.
The Pamunkey plant it in the ground. Fools believe they can grow it.
(LAUGHS)
Your brothers persuaded me to let you return,
and yet it is those same men who avoid English taxes
by sending their tobacco to Middleburg.
You know that is not true.
I have documents to prove it.
Or at least I can have them concocted.
Feed Chacrow's love of gunpowder.
Bring him here. Show him how we make it.
Encourage him to believe that we might gift him with knowledge.
What better man to do it than you?
The man who turned against his own people.
You will be the one who will pry Chacrow away
from his loyalty to Opechancanough.
Deliver him to us, or your brothers' land will be taken from them.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
TEMPERANCE: It was on such a cross that Jesus Christ, our saviour,
died to deliver us from our sins.
Ah, sacrifice. Yes.
If you knew Jesus, and that is why I speak to you now,
you and your kind would be spared damnation and an eternity in Hell.
The head of a man that stood upon a stake,
that was a great offering to the spirits?
No, the secretary committed terrible crimes.
His head was cut off.
For us, a wrong must be made right.
When there is a killing or a betrayal,
then a warrior from the bloodline must answer with equal harm.
It must be so. SILAS: Chacrow?
The Governor bid me give you instruction.
Master Crabtree has a ring. I believe it lives in his pocket.
(SPUTTERS) (GROANS) James!
Oh, it's a wound to add to the many others I've earned.
The ring - I believe it will tell us the true manner of this man.
I will find it.
You look as frail as a child does.
Frail? You are wrong, sir, wrong. Never frail.
Virginia has taught me everything I need to know
about strength and self-reliance.
Every day I am reminded that I have to live by will, sheer will!
Why do you protest so much?
(SIGHS)
Let me remind you, friendly to your ear, Master Read,
I know myself well enough.
There is no market for your ill-named concerns.
I must find the ring.
Why must you?
Because there is power in it.
Yeardley will show me how gunpowder is made.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
(IN ENGLISH) I trade.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
(IN ENGLISH) You are not Pamunkey. We will speak English.
You dishonour your ancestors with this. The creature's sacred to your family.
When you came to live with Pamunkey,
it was because Yeardley was going to kill you.
Now you are returned to your own people.
How is it possible, Silas?
My brothers made a gift of a golden horse
to buy the Governor's forgiveness of me.
Opechancanough believes that you were always a spy for Yeardley.
But you know how I... how I love my life
that the Pamunkey gave to me.
That you gave to me. Chacrow, I could never betray you.
Yeah... Now, will you speak to Opechancanough
and tell him that you know me to be true?
(BIRDSONG)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
My king says you must die, Silas.
(SIGHS)
He's...he's chosen you to kill me?
Hm.
When? Soon.
Soon, Silas.
(MUSIC SWELLS)
Is there no word of Tamlin, Mistress Rutter?
Farmer said he has caught a boat to Gloaming Creek.
Do you know how far that is? Well, he's gone.
Do you hear me, girl? Pepper Sharrow is a good man.
You have his children and hold them tight, too -
My mistress needs me. Oh, to hell with your mistress!
If you know what love is, you put a child inside you.
God would strike me down. I ain't married. (SCOFFS)
Our Governor cut the head off a man and put it on a spike
and God lost no sleep over that, did he (?)
Take your lover into the long grass and honey him
until you have loved yourselves spent!
Spent? Oh, I...
..don't know that I would like to be s-spent.
I have such an itch about my foot, my neck and my hand. Spent?
Oh...
(EXHALES SHAKILY)
(RUMBLE OF THUNDER)
I'll be a good husband, Winganuske.
I will bring you children, Henry.
The Governor has Pamunkey labour?
Yes, ma'am. The other farms also have Naturals.
Though not mine. It was my notion to bring them here.
I was the one who made entreaties with the Pamunkeys.
There is no justice if I'm to be denied!
Perhaps you will have Naturals on your farm soon, ma'am.
I will.
(BIRDSONG)
Charcoal. Logs of wood burn slowly.
They're covered with earth and straw so there's no air.
For five days, these men keep the earth covered in it.
This is gunpowder?
One part of it.
Chacrow, I cannot ask you to refuse Opechancanough,
but if you kill an Englishman, you will be hanged.
And if you kill a Sharrow,
my brothers will not rest until they are revenged.
I might fail. You might kill ME, Silas.
No, that is... that is not how it'll be.
Hm. You're still my brother, Chacrow.
(SCOFFS)
You'll always be my brother.
(GRUNTS)
(GRUNTING) (BOTH CHUCKLE)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(PANTING) (SPITS)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
You are a fool. You will never beat Pamunkey!
A fool who cannot obey his king,
who brings his own exile, brings his own death!
(EXCLAIMS, THEN EXHALES)
Charcoal! Do you think this proves your love of Pamunkey?
No. (WHIMPERS) No.
This is not gunpowder.
You show me all of it. You show me how to make it.
I will.
(BIRDSONG)
For you, to show you that I'm glad you have returned.
My king sent me to you.
If you do not want to be here with me
because of the death of our child, Winganuske,
you do not have to stay.
I want you here by my side,
but I know you're here because Opechancanough told you to.
No, it was not Opechancanough who sent me,
it was Mangopeesomon, my king.
Opechancanough is your king.
Mangopeesomon. Opechancanough has...changed his name.
If a Pamunkey changes his name, it's for a reason.
If a king takes a new name, that must mean something.
(STAMMERS) Uh...
Let us...lie upon the bed, Henry.
The danger is, if Crabtree returns to England,
he must never board a ship.
He might yet secretly send a report to the Virginia Company.
If he should die, they'll send order to us
to look at our every dealing.
Crabtree presents himself as a factor.
If this man were to break accords of Jamestown,
why should we not, then, deal with him as no more than a factor and not a Company agent?
We might bring him here to the jailhouse.
And here, apply persuasion
to encourage him to send a report to England
that might more...suit our wishes.
Master Crabtree! Our Governor would speak with you.
He would inspect your import papers, sir.
A formidable feat, sir...
..to so capture the Pamunkey Sharrow and have him walk behind your horse
like a whipped dog. How was it done?
Authority, sir, and a musket.
Didn't he press an arrow against your flesh
and wisp away once before? How was it done -
You doubt me, Master Crabtree? Why do you doubt
that I doubt you, sir? Have I not made myself clear?
How was it done?
If you did not hide behind your hump,
I'd relish riding my sword through your throat.
I accept your challenge.
Ah!
We live in a day of worshipping weapons.
Once, when men were men,
a dagger, a pistol, a musket - these did not decide a duel.
Fists served as honest clubs of honour.
It would be a kind day I had opportunity
to buckle the rest of your body with my own hands.
My father was a prizefighter.
His before him. Brutal beasts.
Tongues too tight to boast. But I had heard
how they had killed men by the number...with their fists.
I would sneak out at night, follow my pa,
and watch in the dark as his mighty arms
swung down blows with force enough to fell a bull.
And me, his son,
so freak-feebled,
he could not fix his eyes upon me for shame.
I cast my own form in iron
and waited the day I would crush my father's jaw
with a single blow.
(GRUNTS)
(PANTING)
(GRUNTS)
My father looked upon me kindly after that.
I salute you, Marshall.
No man has ever landed more than one blow upon me.
(PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
Do you suppose the Marshall is tamed, sir, by my fists?
Such blows might have floored a bear!
They will soon have me in the jailhouse, sir.
The prospect does not seem to concern you.
It's what I want.
MAN: Here you go.
A ship came here to Jamestown,
The White Lion. You know it?
It's the vessel that delivered Maria and Pedro and their people.
Mm. That business is mired with mystery and intrigue.
The blackamoors were stolen from the Spanish.
No-one yet knows who in England
commissioned the pirates to raid the vessel.
After the cargo was unloaded here and Yeardley gained these servants -
He calls them "servants",
but there is no end yet named to their tenure,
so some might better name them...as slaves.
The ship was abandoned and its crew vanished into Virginia.
They might be discovered yet.
Do you know how far this land stretches, sir?
How many souls live here now? You won't find them.
You were once a huntsman familiar with those trails.
I do not wish to go.
Oh, but you will.
Chacrow, will you tell me how it's to be done?
When you tell me the last of how gunpowder is made...
..I will face you as a friend.
It will be done with respect.
You might come to me by the dock.
Gunpowder can't be made without saltpetre.
Shit is mixed with ashes and weeds and piss,
and it rots until it decays and crumbles.
Then it is washed so that the water leaches over it,
then heated, and when all the mist and damp
rises up like a vapour, there's left this salt.
Pedro, can you pass us some saltpetre?
What these fine men make from pig's dung is beautiful, Silas.
Chacrow, you serve our Governor now?
Chacrow is a friend to us, Pedro.
You just leave your own people
to follow that creature that makes the air filthy around him.
My king made a gift of Chacrow to Yeardley.
(CHUCKLES) This man, Pedro,
this man, I trust like no other.
This man, he knows honour.
And whatever this man does will be true.
Hm.
My friend, there's only one more part to gunpowder that you must learn.
Then you will be ready.
(FLY BUZZES)
(SIGHS)
There is a hell that only a drunk can take you to.
They don't even need to drag you there.
All he has to do is hold out his hand
cos you believe there is a golden day.
A day that will never arrive.
When your very love of him will deliver the beast
from his own self-possession.
I've been a-thinkin' on what you told me
and praying and imagining what you described,
taking Pepper into the long grass and...whatever it was you said.
(INHALES) "Spent."
God would see us there and it would be a sin.
(STUTTERING) So I...can't.
(CHUCKLING) Child!
Oh, there are such wrongs in this world
and you believe that a woman hanging on a man's trout is a sin?
No wonder your ma called you "Mercy" (!)
YEARDLEY: A man must leave a legacy to the mark of him.
I will, of course, leave land to my child,
but what I most want to bequeath
is what makes my heart swell with pride.
I hope to have the same perplexity myself someday soon, Governor. Hm!
There. Place your name next to mine
to certify you saw me cast my wishes onto paper.
I would read the document first, Governor.
You saw me write my name - that's all you need confirm.
Well, if I'm to oblige, sir, then I must know the content.
(CLEARS THROAT)
I cannot sign this.
I did not ask for your approval, Doctor, just your witness.
Pedro and Maria are living souls...
..the same as you and I.
You cannot bequeath them to your children.
Oh, but dear Doctor, I have.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
Pedro, Maria, can you go companion to my wife?
Can you tell her that I have suffered a terrible wrong?
I have such burdens, see, as no man should carry.
(STAMMERS) Won't you come to my aid
when I am so afflicted with injustices?
Have you no heart within you?
(MUSIC SWELLS)
(INSECTS CHIRRUP)
I will go to Jamestown.
If, while I am gone, you escape to the faraway mountains...
..then I can't face my people.
I will be mocked for losing you. Opechancanough will punish me.
But he will not kill me.
No, I do not want to run.
The last part of gunpowder cannot be made.
It's dug from the rocks and brought here to us.
I'm getting you some. Bring it to you by dark.
You will be the Pamunkey who brought his people the secret of gunpowder.
And they will love you well.
(DOOR CLOSES)
(RETCHES)
Look, he does not stand like a man should.
He does not take care of his wife.
That man has your God in his heart?
Chacrow, the Almighty Lord once sent this wretch to save me.
(RETCHING)
This is how God works. He sent a miracle.
Chacrow, I was about to kill a man...
..and God sent this pitiful beast to deliver me.
(MEREDITH GROANING)
(PANTING)
That boy ain't coming back.
He ain't ever coming back.
Won't last long out there.
And in the days that he has left, he believes that he ain't worthy of a mother's love.
You can hide behind your drunkenness, Meredith Rutter,
until the day that it kills you, but suppose,
for a day, for an hour or a minute...
Supposing you could just stand still and face yourself.
Suppose you could say it, huh, for me?
Say it!
You say that you drove that boy away
when you knew that I loved him as my own child.
Don't I deserve that?
One moment of honesty so I know that you're still human?
(VOICE BREAKING) I drove that boy away from here with my cruelty...
..and with my coward's heart.
(SOBBING)
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
(POIGNANT MUSIC)
(SNIFFLES)
Silas, before you left the Pamunkey,
did you hear of Opechancanough changing his name?
You have a Pamunkey wife, Henry.
You will have Pamunkey children.
Keep your peace with him and you'll live well.
Brother, where are you going?
You know my strength, Henry. You know my courage.
What lies before me, I choose.
Brother, where are you going?
Brother?
Silas!
(SIGHS)
(CLEARS THROAT)
Ma'am?
What is it like to be with child?
You innocence makes you bold, girl.
How sweet!
The stars glisten in fantastical patterns.
The whole world, Mercy,
is kinder to a woman knowing she is carrying a babe.
I do envy you so, Lady Yeardley.
You will have your time, Mercy.
God loves nothing better than a woman made rich in her womb.
(GASPS)
Pepper, I want to hang on your trout.
What does that mean?
I don't know. (GIGGLES)
The factor accused me of being lonely,
and you christened me frail in one day.
We shall see. (SIGHS)
I intend to steal Master Crabtree's precious ring.
I know where it resides.
You sound certain that you'll succeed.
You might know me again, James...
..if you promise not to love me.
You rip my man's blood from me with that same beguiling.
Never more.
My thoughts are like wine, they're intoxicating to me.
I will have the ring. You will.
We both know it. But where does it lead you?
Are you nothing but revenge?
Go back to your sleep, sir. It suits you well (!)
I drove that boy away with my cruelty and my coward's heart.
You say I have cured you of your loneliness.
Not you, madam, but my heart's tenderness for you.
You've outwitted me at every turn.
You're not a factor nor a Company agent.
You are a seemer, sir.
A shape-shifter insists upon mystery.
Which Willmus Crabtree am I to believe?
Do you suppose the ring will bring you
full familiarity with all that I am?
If you feel sick,
it is not a fatal poison, merely a sleeping potion.
(CHUCKLING)
Well, what will we do to pass the time until I am taken?
Shall I unpick my own wits
and tell you of the moment that I was won?
(OWL CALL)
(IMITATES OWL CALL)
(CRICKETS CHIRRUP)
You... You drove that boy away.
You drove that boy away.
Your own cruelty, Meredith Rutter.
Your own coward's heart!
As I walked here,
I saw the world as you taught me to see it, Chacrow.
So, for that reason, I can't give you the last part
of making gunpowder. (SIGHS)
I drove that boy away. Your own cruelty, Meredith Rutter.
Your own coward's heart.
There ain't nothing worse than there is.
Is this what you intended?
To mock me so that I live in your shadow?
To pretend that you will show your love to me?
I have seen what this thing we call "progress"
has done to the English,
and I will not be the man who brings it to you.
Opechancanough knows what is true.
I do this because I love you.
(GRUNTS)
(SIGHS)
Silas Sharrow has bit me with lies!
(CHOKES)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(YELLS)
Raise the alarm!
Master Rutter's fallen!
Raise the alarm! (MEREDITH GROANING)
(EXCLAIMS)
(COUGHS)
You hold the King's own signet.
You are the most powerful man in Virginia.
(CHUCKLES)
You are cursed with descendancy. All the way back to the days of the Bible,
your kind have been marked out for servitude. The King's signet
gives you full right over the Governor.
Why have you not cut him down? There is business yet to play.
There is a way to undo this man. It is to take him to madness.
(Do not so much as speak of my business to the air.) (GASPS)
Why did you keep it from me?
(GRUNTS)
Do you not see me as a man like other men?
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)