Blood of a Blindside. Pennant Fooled. Dirty and Stupid. And the list went on. His name had been mentioned when the men gathered in the camp had debated what to do with Mister Winthrop. The majority was to do nothing with him; after all, he was still alive and uninjured, was it worth the bother to feed, wash, and dress a man who was in no condition to understand his actions? It had been decided that his death would only be fair. The men had voted to cut his throat and leave him in the forest as an example for other soldiers like him to take caution. Except their first vote was vetoed by Captain Hampden who would have none of it. Instead, he'd set a time to return and ask him questions, and if he appeared to be normal then they would decide to leave him in the wilderness as a warning to those who were thinking of making a run for freedom. It had been Captain Hampden who had suggested to the others that some sort of game was to be played with Winthrop while they waited for the time to go, in order to make the day go quickly and with a good laugh. The man had been a great favorite of Captain Hampden, and he was grateful that he'd saved his life and he would leave the decision to his good captain's word on whether they should leave him in the forest or not. In the forest where they never came out again. Winthrop had not been much of a conversationalist at all; he talked in the most unintelligible gibberish, which made everyone around him laugh. Hampden had been impressed by him and was grateful he'd spared his life. They brought him to the clearing by the tree line. "Mister Winthrop?" the man had said, looking from one man to the next. "Mister Winthrop," the man repeated. "You've come to kill me." "No. I've come to play a game with you. I am the king of the land and you are my subject." "And my game?" "Ah yes, yes, of course. My subject you are, so it is your job to bring to me any men that dare to escape from the land of England." "And what if they don't come?" "Then you die." And so the game began. After a few minutes of playing, Winthrop had been asked how many men were in the land of England. He had thought for a moment. "I am the king of the men in the land of England," he had replied and then he had laughed. "Ha, ha, ha, I've got you good!" The man had thought for a moment and then he smiled. "Do you not have a wife and children?" "I do, I do!" Winthrop had gushed with happiness. "I have a wife and four children and they are in the village of..." He had paused for a moment and then his face had contorted. "But what do you know of them? You are a foreigner. I am the king of England and I must rule. My subjects are loyal to me." Hampden had looked at him in amazement. This man would never live up to his potential if he was so easily led. If you don't allow for him to be your subject then you wouldn't even consider playing with him. He began to wonder just what sort of man Winthrop had been back in England. "In the meantime," the man had said, bringing Winthrop back to the current topic at hand. "I think I would be interested to learn more about the land of England." Winthrop had chuckled, "But I cannot show you the land until you've brought me three more of the men from the land of England. Then I shall tell you anything you ask." Hampden could see how this was not going to go well, so he took the bull by the horns and went off into the woods to look for men for his king. They eventually found three men in the village of... the village of... it didn't matter to Winthrop. After he described them to the king of England, they then went off into the forest, searching for anything of use to them to take back to the settlement. They happened upon two of their fellow soldiers whose names they'd forgotten. Winthrop could not stand the thought of anyone not carrying out what he asked. He wanted all four men there on time so he had them whipped. But when that did not bring the men they went to town again, only this time they got themselves drunk. Winthrop was delighted to see his subjects in the depths of drunkenness and had them tied up and thrown into a pile to keep them there. But then Winthrop realized they were only drunk. They could walk in and out of the village and he decided that it was not sufficient enough to keep them there. He had the third man, which was no longer a problem because he was already dead, dragged to the edge of the village and his arm was tied to a post, and then he had the man shot and left there for the birds and animals to feast on. As for the man who had beaten them all senseless in the forest, that was a different matter. The men had brought him back and Winthrop had tied him up in a tree and started hitting him with a rock. This had the desired effect and his screams of pain kept Winthrop happy. But that had been only good for a few minutes until the man had started talking, and that's when he'd taken up a sharp ax and began to chop him into small pieces until he was unrecognizable. Winthrop was elated and had the man's head put on top of a pole to show as an example to all those who were against him, to let them know that those who dared to be rebellious would be punished in the same manner. And then Winthrop had walked off into the woods to tell the others of his achievements and to keep them from worrying about the man. The three men from the village had thought that Winthrop had not been there and they had gone back into town, and one of the women there told them of how Winthrop had killed the first man and then started screaming for help. "I think it is safe to say that the man was dead when I left him, but the king of England has taken over and does whatever he pleases. You'd better be glad you haven't been killed, or you'd be dead by now. I think it best that we run. If you want to stay here and have your heads chopped off I'm sure you'll be fine. And if you run into him you'd better just wait around for the punishment, as you'll get nothing but pain." And so it was that the men in the village had begun their escape and they had headed back to the tree line with what supplies they could carry with them to avoid Winthrop's wrath. They had returned to the field with six men. "And this is your subject, you are going to give him an extra special job to do." "And what is that?" "The king of England wants you to kill these six men." "I can do that." And so the game had begun, but this time Winthrop thought he'd take a different tact. He started screaming when he saw the first man and kept on screaming, all through the man's body, and when he had died he had Winthrop rip the skin off his back and chew on the bloody flesh until it was so tender that he could not eat it. He had done the same to the second man and after that Winthrop ate nothing but leather and hair. They did the same thing to the sixth man, and then Winthrop began the process of skinning the last one and he had started eating the flesh when... The king stopped and waited for Hampden to say something but it was clear to see that he had nothing else to say. He looked at Hampden and had to admit he was an incredibly brave man. Not many men would keep on playing a game of such evil in such a time of peril. There was a certain madness that only madness could fathom and he would never understand it, not until it stared him in the face. He knew that Winthrop was crazy and he should have just killed the madman and be done with it. But he couldn't and he had been the only one who could stop him. And that had made him into something even worse than just killing the madman, it had made him into his whipping boy. Winthrop had made him the scapegoat of every man that had been in the land of England who had tried to escape. And there were so many men that had tried that Hampden felt that he must have been there. He knew he hadn't; Hampden was the last man to have left the town alive, but the man who had survived the battle was named Peter and they had a lot of stories about him. He was a friend of Lester and in fact was the only other Englishman that he had met. Lester was always boasting about how brave he was, because it was just that kind of man that he