Riflemen to the front of the column

Carty blinked - 'heroes' he knew, but not villains, and memoirs, and poetry was an old butr confusing concept attached to new vocabulary.

Harris saw the boy's confusion. It was always difficult. Carty learned so quickly that it was hard to remember which words he knew. It was not always a matter of translating, either: some things he knew about, if only he had the right words for it, but others were quite alien. Or so Harris, unfamiliar with Irish or Ireland, supposed.

"You will tell your grandchildren of the battles you've fought," he said, after a pause to check that the next stretch of hillside did not conceal a French Division.

Carty laughed, understanding that. "No grandchildren many many very long long year!"

"You'll have forgotten the battles, then."

"Forgotten battles? No, no, no forgotten battles."

"How will you remember them?" Harris asked, genuinely curious. "The details - who was there, who performed great deeds, who was wounded... "

"In... in my head, Harris," said Carty, frowning a little in confusion. "I not know all things - only General knows all things, ha ha! - but I see and hear and hear saying and it is all in my head. Like... in winter, when we go over hill with little white flowers and there are Frenchmen behind rocks like cliff with thorns on and Hagman misses two shot and Mister Sharpe saying "Come on, Hagman, hit the bastards!" but it is because his fingers cold, and Cresacre is hit in arm and Spaniard called Cortez and Spaniard called Agia are dead. And more big battles with many regiments. But when you know regiment is here, and wounded here, and dead here, and flowers, it is in the head."

Harris stared at him. "I had forgotten Agia," he admitted, "and I don't think I even noticed the flowers. Most people need to write things down, or they forget them entirely."

Carty laughed. "Well, I not can be writing like you be writing!"

Harris nodded thoughtfully. "Homer couldn't write - What he wro... said was written down centuries after he died. He described wars and kings and beautiful women. But he made it up, and then remembered the verses. Or got the stories from people like you, who did remember the flowers and the names." He spoke slowly, hoping that Carty would understand the words, and then the thought behind the words.

Harris had spoken of this Homer before, always with admiration, so Carty beamed. "Homer make stories? Stories with strong words, about fighting, and... kings, and women?" Very Irish, very bardic. He could get behind this Homer-man.

Harris nodded. "About a beautiful woman, who left her husband for a handsome prince from another kingdom. So her husband, and all his clan fought to get her back. For ten years."

This sounded good. "What is beautiful woman name?"

"She was called Helen - and she is known as Helen of Troy. Because that is where the prince took her, and where her husband's clan came to fight for her."

"How many in husband clan - what is husband name? Where is kingdom? What is prince name? What is his clan?"

"One piece at a time, Carty, please," Harris grinned. He thought he knew the story well enough, though other tales pushed into it. The story of Helen of Troy - the face that launched a thousand ships - was not just the one told by Homer. "She was married to Menelaus - he was King of Sparta, and brother to the High King, Agamemnon. They were what we call the Greeks, though they had another name for themselves."

Carty sorted through that in his head - it was just like an Irish legend, with the High King being this Agamemnon instead of Nuada or Lugh or Bres. "Agamemnon is High King of Greeks and his brother Menelaus of Sparta clan with beautiful wife is Helen. But Helen is in other king-dom, with prince who taking - what is name of prince, and other king-dom? Is it other brother clan?"

"No, they were not brothers. The Greeks had to cross the sea to reach the other kingdom, called Troy. In a thousand ships, from all the kings under Agamemnon. The Prince who had run away with Helen was called Paris, and his father was Priam. Paris had many brothers..." And let us hope that Carty does not expect me to name them all, Harris thought.

Carty looked up expectantly. A thousand he had trouble imagining, but he knew it was a very big number indeed.

Harris thought for a moment - which thread to follow? Begin at the beginning, probably. He'd covered the abduction, or seduction... "The gods quarrelled - some supported the Greeks, some the Trojans - the people of Troy are called Trojans. And when all the ships and soldiers were together, they needed a wind. One of the goddesses demanded a sacrifice."

"Sac-ri-fice?"

"To give something to the gods - usually an animal. To kill it. Only this time the goddess wanted a young girl, the daughter of the High King, to be killed, or there would be no wind."

"Ochone! Daughter is killed to the gods?" Carty asked with an appropriately nervous look.

Harris nodded, his face serious. "They wanted a wind to take them to Troy, so she was sacrificed. And the wind blew, and all the ships went to Troy. But it caused a lot of trouble for the High King later. When he went home."

"After ten years fighting?"