(0) Sir William’s Dream - An Alternative Ending Poem by Sailing to windward

“Wine with you sir? ”, said the sly one,
the, I won’t look you in the eye one,
at the other end of the long oak table,
where I’d placed him whilst still able,
to command something of this night.

“Honoured Sir”, I lamely refrained,
cheeks coloured by the port and
taunted and shamed by my weak repost
When I, more than anything, felt lost,
to the calculations of his mind.

“Blathery, blah blah ” he pomped again
All the while dribbling wine and spitting
hen, managing a most effective defeat
of elegance, and a ruinously complete
murder, of our mother tongue.

There was danger now; mortal liability,
of my mask slipping beyond my ability
to cover the lies. Hot sweat on my face
bled a leak of rancid deceit and
a fall from grace, was imminent.

Then still it went – not even a creak
from the timbers, nor shout from the yards
They, white faced, waited for me to speak
whilst all eyes watched the flintlock cock
and steady in my laced frilled hand.

“You Sir, may be a national treasure,
But I know you - I have your measure.
Now we have those Frenchies beat,
It's time to pay at Sir William’s feet
His wife is a whore and you Sir,
You Sir are replete.



Note: I am one of Lord Nelson's greatest fans but his seemingly roguish behaviour of taking another man's wife (and so publicly) led me to wonder what Sir William Hamilton really thought of this arrangement. with some twisting of time and history this 'alternative end' might also, in roguish fun, offer another reason for our 'Dear Nel' ending up in that barrel of brandy. The reader might surmise that the narrator could be Captain Hardy and that could offer a number of other twists.