Book III — The Life and Death of SCARLETT SARAH Chapter III — Of False Captains, Bitter Spirits, and Forgotten Brothers [Opening Entry] Thus begins the third chapter of the third book, wherein DICK O’SUILLEABHAIN dons once more the garments of command and assumes the mantle of captain aboard the Lady Luck. Beneath borrowed authority and a name not wholly his own, he walks the crowded streets of Port Royal seeking answers hidden from honest men and truths sold only in darkness. Yet there are harbors more treacherous than reefs and storms, and among them are the chambers of a man's own memory. For Port Royal remembers DICK as surely as DICK remembers Port Royal. The smell of tar and tobacco, the songs of drunken sailors, the clatter of dice upon stained tables, and the welcoming glow of tavern lanterns stir embers he believed long extinguished. What begins as a necessary disguise soon becomes a familiar descent, and the bottle proves eager to renew an old acquaintance. Thus the captain wanders where decent folk seldom tread: through alleys where knives settle disputes more swiftly than courts, through dens of vice where fortunes vanish before sunrise, and through taverns whose floors have absorbed more blood than ale. There, amid thieves, smugglers, deserters, and liars, he finds himself pursued not by enemies, but by the ghosts of the man he once was. Yet Fortune, that whimsical mistress who delights in leading men astray only to place revelation at the end of their wandering, has not abandoned him entirely. For in the lowest quarter of the city, where hope is sold cheaply and regret is given freely, DICK encounters a face from another life. A companion once counted among his closest friends. A brother not by blood, but by hardship, loyalty, and shared misfortune. Time, however, is a cruel sculptor. The man who stands before him bears the same name and memories, yet little else remains unchanged. Prosperity and ruin have each left their mark upon him. New loyalties dwell behind familiar eyes, old convictions lie buried beneath fresh ambitions, and secrets cling to him as barnacles cling to a ship's hull. Thus DICK learns that while oceans may separate men, years transform them more completely still. And as old friendship rekindles beside flowing rum and uncertain smiles, neither man can yet know whether fate has granted them a reunion... or arranged a collision long delayed. For some debts survive every voyage, and some reckonings are merely patient. [Verse 1] While walking down by the old quay wall, With a bottle o’ rum and a sailor’s drawl, Who did I see through the smoke and rain? Poor old MERLIN come home again. [Chorus] Oh me boys, (oh dear me boys), Oh the drums they beat so wild and high, With a hook for a hand and a patch on his eye, Faith, I hardly knew ye, MERLIN mine. [Verse 2] Where are your cheeks so red and fine? Where’s the golden hair shone bright in time? The cannon took what the sea left dry, And the gulls cry over the old war sky. [Chorus] Oh me boys, (oh roaring boys), Curse the flags and the bloody lies, With a wooden leg and a shattered spine, Faith, I hardly knew ye, MERLIN mine. [Verse 3] You were the finest lad in town, Every tavern girl came gatherin’ round, Now ye stomp that floor with an oaken stride, And drink black rum with the dead inside. [Bridge – slower] “Oh DICK, me friend,” says he with a grin, “The sea took flesh but not the wind, And though I’m carved by shot and brine, The old songs still remember mine.” [Final Chorus – loud drunken choir] Oh me boys, (oh broken boys), Raise the mugs and let them fly! For the kings stay fat while the sailors die, And I hardly knew ye, MERLIN mine. [Outro] Aye… the voice remained. (MERLIN mine!) The damned old voice remained.
