Reading.

[asher553]

THE BAROQUE CYCLE - KING OF THE VAGABONDS (STEPHENSON): Dorset, June 1685. Eliza, now separated from Jack and presuming him dead, has just had a surprise encounter with Jack's long-lost brother, Bob Shaftoe. This section begins with a lengthy narrative told in Bob's own voice - the POV switching to first-person for the first time in The Baroque Cycle. There is an extensive backgrounder on the Earl of Monmouth's Rebellion, the attempt by an illegitimate son of King Charles II to depose the openly Catholic King James II. Monmouth, returning from exile in the Dutch Republic, landed in south-western England on June 11, rallied thousands of local supporters to his cause, but was decisively defeated within a month and was beheaded on July 15. Merciless reprisals against his suspected followers resulted in hundreds being executed, flogged, or sold into slavery. [138]