The Quality of Mercy (41 page)

Then it came to him suddenly, as he still knelt there, that the narrowness of the wording did not matter after all, that it had no significance. He remembered the remarks of his fellow diner, that the judgment had abolished slavery in England at a stroke. An error he had thought it at the time, but he saw now that it might by general belief be converted to truth. This was the line to take, these were the words to promulgate and repeat. As many people as possible must be brought to think that the ruling had abolished slavery in England. If it were said often enough, and emphatically enough, it would come to be generally accepted as fact, and so
it would become true. By these means the tide of opinion would swell, it would submerge the quibbles of the law. All slaves setting foot in England would be regarded from that very moment as free. Spurred on by this, they would follow the example of Jeremy Evans; they would repudiate their bondage, smash the yoke. England would truly become the home of freedom, admired and envied among the nations. Ashton felt his heart swell with this tide of liberty, and his eyes filled with tears.

Soon after this dawn and these tears, Percy Bordon and Billy Scotland walked for the first time with the others across the fields to the mine. Both were possessed by a sense of great occasion, though Percy still labored with the fear of something monstrous dwelling below, some presence known only by rattlings and thuds and loud puffs of steam.

In spite of this fear, walking with his two brothers and hastening his steps to keep up with them, he felt proud to be entering the world of men. The light was strong enough for them to see the pale radiance of the sun as it rose through faint clouds before them, to the east. There was a sense of waning summer in the air. In the fields beyond the mine, toward the Dene, the wheat stood straight and tall, and there was a luminous gilding on the stalks and ears. From the edges of the wheat fields they could hear the trailing song of the yellowhammers, whether joyous or sad no one could tell.

At the pithead they waited for the banksman’s call that the shaft was clear. One by one the men found a space in the swinging rope, made a loop, thrust their limbs through and bound them tightly. This David Bordon did now for the first time—a step forward for him too, to be among the grown men. Michael Bordon took Percy astraddle across his knees, told him to hold tight, grasped the rope with one hand, keeping the other free to guard against collisions with the walls of the shaft during the descent.

Four men, two youths and two children bound and clutched
together, strung out along the rope, began the descent into the darkness of the pit. One of the children would spend his life toiling belowground, would never know anything else, would scarcely know anything else existed. The other in the course of time would come up into the light of the world, would move with his family away from the colliery village to a place where the air was more wholesome and the houses more spacious. He would learn to read and keep account books, and he would help his two older brothers in the management of the textile factory the family came to own, which gave increased opportunities of employment and brought prosperity to some, and where many small children toiled for long hours. And this difference in the destiny of the two boys was entirely due to a dead miner’s dream of freedom.

Barry Unsworth, who won the Booker Prize for
Sacred Hunger
, was a Booker finalist for
Pascali’s Island
and
Morality Play
and was long-listed for the Booker Prize for
The Ruby in Her Navel
. His other works include
The Songs of the Kings
,
After Hannibal
,
Losing Nelson
, and
Land of Marvels
. He lives in Italy.