The Castle Bleak

The Queen had paid the eunuchs to

Decapitate the King,

And once the deed was done, she thought,

‘I’m Queen of everything.’

She taxed the peasants to the hilt

Took half of every crop,

Her greed was quite rapacious, so

She never thought to stop.

She reigned up in the Castle Bleak

A fortress tall and grim,

That many armies tried to breach

But never could get in,

The only weakness she could see

From top, and looking down,

The trees that grew so tall against

The wall had made her frown.

‘We’ll have to chop those poplar trees

They’re getting rather tall,

An army might climb up one night,

They’re right against the wall,’

Her lover, Lord Chantrell had sighed

And tried to put her off,

‘Those poplar trees are beautiful,

Too beautiful to chop.’

She didn’t raise the point again

But went off to the tower,

Where she had locked the eunuchs to

Prevent them taking power,

She sent her German swordsman in

To do the deed, she said,

‘I want to see you come on out

With every eunuch’s head.’

The Queen was grim and merciless,

She’d act on every whim,

Her thoughts were dark and tortuous

And even with her kin,

Her cousin liked the mead too much

And slutted round the town,

Was gifted with a barrel of it,

Upside down, to drown.

She even chided Lord Chantrell

For eyeing off her maid,

She said, ‘You two can go to hell,’

She thought the girl was laid.

They built a bonfire in the court

The maid was bound and tied,

And Chantrell watched the flames devour

The beauty he had spied.

One day upon the tower top

Chantrell unsheathed his blade,

And sliced his lover’s head clean off

In payment for the maid,

Her head flew down the tower wall,

Her final thoughts were these:

‘These branches break my fall, I’m glad

I didn’t chop the trees.’

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[TPK Stories]

Very chilling tale; brilliantly written.

[Helena]

Oh my gosh! Brilliant writing....poor eunuchs so much for their devotion. Loved the ending!

[T.S. Sky]

Dark but brilliant. She was one mean queen glad she was stopped. :)

[Avinash]

Yes scientifically she was capable of thinking even after beheading as brain does work couple of seconds after it. The cycle of blood once started can not be stopped even by its originator.

[Tony Jordan]

Ooow - this is gory lol.
It' brillianty gory though.

Our girl is cross between Cromwell and Lady Macbeth methinks.
Loved the demise of the guy who boozed. I think I'd like to go that way lol.

And the head lives a wee while doesnt it before the white dot on the screen blips out? I read that about some decapitation tales during the French Revolution.
What an amazing last thought you thought she might have thought, I thought.
This is top-form DLP !!!

[Valentine]

Oh...how awful. She got her just desserts but I almost imagined her head hitting the ground and rolling down a hill. No romance in this ditty. Valentine