THE GOOD AND THE BAD

The Actors:

The King of the French, William.

His henchman, Arjone

His most trusted advisor, Sir Dragon

The Flag Holder, Sir Brave

Sir Arbush

And the two twins, Alns and Hector

The English:

King Henry IV,

his most trusted advisor, Harold,

the famous knight, Sir Dragon Slayer

the executioner, Richard

the axe man Peter

and the twins, Pitch and Kaln.

Let the tale begin!

The French King William was cross. He was the mightiest king of them all. He could invade any country apart from England. England was his enemy, so he decided that he would call all his knights and leave them at the shore and take a few and then keep coming back for more until he had won.

Ten days later they had crossed the sea and were in England, but when William saw the size of the English army he had two less and he fought with them until nightfall and went on board the Walk (the name of the ship) and went to get all his men. After ten days he arrived. Alns was dead therefore Hector, his brother was very sad but mostly cross.

"Well," said William, "that’s the sad thing about wars, but never mind, tomorrow there shall not be one English soldier left over! Then we shall have England and victory!"

Then that morning William woke the soldiers at 6 AM to sharpen their weapons and to do an early morning charge! It was successful: they managed to get over the castle wall without waking the guards. Only the last bit wasn’t. Arbush stepped on a twig and a soldier carefully opened one eye and then closed it. "Phew" he thought, but then one of the French soldiers fell in a trap (a hole with sticks on top and when you walk on it, the twigs break and you fall in) "Aaaaaaagh!" he called. That woke the soldier alright, then he woke the troops and King Henry the IV.

"Let the battle be won," shouted Henry.

Then the bloody battle started. The sound of trumpets and battle drums started.

"Charge!" the English shouted. And the English ran and galloped to the French. And sure enough there came the French first line with William, and Sir Dragon and Arjone. Harold had caught up Henry and was now close to William.

"Get off and fight like a man," shouted Harold.

William’s horse reared and William got off. Clang, clang you heard from Harold’s sword and William’s sword. Then Arjone came to help.

"No," said William, "this is between me and Harold." Clang clang you heard again. Whoosh, Harold’s sword flew through the air. Henry came galloping to the scene. But it was too late. Harold’s head was lying on the ground.

"No! Not my friend," Henry said.

Then William mounted his horse and galloped out of trouble. Henry was very cross about his friend dying so he let the next line go, and gave them the task of killing William.

Peter the axe man on horse, Dragon Slayer and Richard were the line and they charged. Peter the man on horse was close by William. He wanted to aim the axe at William, but William was too quick for him. He strode away. But Richard the executioner was charging towards William and made a cut on William’s leg. There was blood from the French king!

In a different part of the battlefield were Henry IV and Arjone. Arjone was trying to come past Henry. He quickly got past, only Henry saw him and came up for battle. Arjone’s horse reared and then it came down. And then suddenly Henry’s horse kicked Arjone and he fell on the ground. Arjone’s horse was now very frightened and ran off to the side of the red army. Now there was nothing between Henry and Arjone. Henry reared his horse and landed on Arjone. Now he was trapped between the paws of Henry’s horse!

William saw this and let off two of his rows to go to save Arjone. There were ten men running and galloping to Henry. But Arjone wasn’t mad, he rolled over and got to his feet.

Henry let his last two lines go. So did William. William called all his knights to get Henry now the English were turning to their castle for safety only they had a catapult and there was someone by it on the castle.

"Fire," ordered the red king . It was a miss!

"Fire," shouted Henry. Miss.

Third time. A hit. It was a black knight on a black horse.

"I’ve got one left your Majesty."

"Fire it," shouted Henry back.

"Ok" said the knight on the castle. It was another hit. Hector died.

Now this made William cross, so he set his men in full charge! Then Sir Dragon Slayer said to Henry, "Why are we running away like cowards? Why don’t we turn back and fight like a man?"

"Yes, you are right," said Henry, "men turn back and fight like a man."

It was man against man. The first person to fall was the French flag holder, Sir Brave. After that it was Kaln. Then a French war horse. Then Sir Dragon Slayer, then a French knight died. It was a bloody battle, too bloody even to talk about! And then another three French died and another two English. Lancelot pushed Arjone off his horse, then two red knights killed Arjone and his dying words were for William and this is what they were:

"I am not Arjone, I am Joan of Arc, and I am a woman, Will………" then she closed her eyes and died!

"No" shouted William.

There were not that many red English or blue French left over. They were very tired and some ran away into the forest but others fought on like brave men. Until the French army got smaller and smaller. Then suddenly one of the French said, "the King is dead" and held a staff with Henry’s head on top.

"Well you have to make me the king of England then," said William.

"Never," shouted the English, "King or no king, you are our enemy and we shall keep on fighting."

Now it was four against six. Red had six and blue had four until the French won.

Lindsay Martin, Amsterdam June 8, 2002