The truth behind the Highwayman’s Tale If those interested had bothered to ride along the

The truth behind the Highwayman’s Tale If those interested had bothered to ride along the London-Bath road on the day the graves bring forth their dead, they might have learnt the entire truth behind the highwayman’s tale. Of course, it was against their interest to know what led up to the events of that fateful nights, now that they’d so firmly established that all muggles were all monsters with no honor and no loyalty. They might have to, horror of all horrors, change the way they thought of the matter in the first place. Then again, the human mind is capable of extraordinary mental gymnastics. For if they’d particularly cared to know the truth about this man and his deeds, they could have asked the ghosts of Frederick and his lady love, both of whom still wandered the London-Bath road late at night. They would have learnt that Freddie, by nature, was a philanderer and that this was no great love story of theirs. He would have left Bess without a murmur when he tired of her - indeed centuries of being forever at her side had long since weaned him of all desire and tenderness he might have once felt for her. They might have remembered that Frederick Rosier made it his business to steal from his people; the wealthy purebloods; to return those goblin-made artifacts they had once seized for their own. That he never had a second thought where killing was involved, as long as he won his spoils. They might even have gone so far to have found a paybook with neat annotations of payments received from the goblins for each item recovered - they paid him a far greater sum than the pin money his father was wont to give him. And let us not forget to name his lady love - Bess her name was, and she was a true Gryffindor  like her highwayman - an ordinary tavern wench and muggleborn, who gave selflessly to her highwayman, knowing quite well that in time he would tire of her and marry some rich, odious pureblood witch and settle quite happily with her. And even this is not the entire tale. This, at least, is still told among certain people, whose voices are rarely heard over the clanging of coins and proclamations of blue-bloodedness. The highwayman’s tale was far more darker. Concerned more than one man. If only they had bothered to question the ghosts of Frederick Rosier and his tavern wench - but in truth, who would have known where to look for them when the inn no longer stood to mark the place? - they might have learnt the entire tale. For the story the purebloods told their children left out the most crucial part of the tale: the arrest of the landlord and the burning of the tavern by King James’ men. Of those who died in the fire that night, ten were muggles and only two were wizards.  And for them, no justice, no vengeance was exacted and nobody knows their names or who they were, whether they had families who missed them and why they happened to have been there on that fateful night. The fact that so many paid for one man’s reckless bravery is a part of the tale which is never told and will never be told as long as the sound of gold coins drowns it out. What other tale would the purebloods tell their children about the wicked muggles, if not this one? [Pictures Sources: The Girl Who Looked Out At the World by Alex Stoddard Photography, Screencaps from Stand and Deliver by Adam Ant, Witchfinder General, The Fellowship of the Ring, Building on fire by Sephirothmsk on Deviantart.] -- source link

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