Tower and Town, March 2015

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The Great Fire Of Marlborough

Redemption

It was getting hotter. I had tried warning our guard but they weren’t going to listen to one of us. We were less than dirt in their eyes; Dutch scum. The Civil War had taken away any of our rights to humanity and the innocent town of Marlborough had been turned into our prison, where now we would slowly be roasted to death like forgotten vermin. The heat intensified; flakes of old plaster showered onto our heads powdering us with snow-like dust. Sixteen convicts on the highway to hell.

'Brand! Vlammen! Luister near mij!' They didn’t understand. But why wouldn’t they listen? I could picture the fire licking against the wooden door with its scalding tongue. My countrymen jostled together, the panic bubbling behind their eyes. The temperature carried on rising, and now there was a noise and movement on the other side of the door.

Suddenly the guards burst in shouting things we only partly understood. The open door let in a weak sigh of wind as we were hurriedly herded out into what was by now dawn breaking over Hades. I instinctively crossed myself as I took in the scene. The beauty of the flaming town was unworldly. It was terror and danger laced with wonder, and as I looked around at my comrades I saw feverish fascination reflected in their flickering eyes.

The next moment a rusty bucket was thrust into my hand and the spell was broken. Adrenalin coursed through my blood and we sprinted towards our door to redemption as the skin melted from our faces, sweat streaming down our bodies. Now we fought for our freedom, in a foreign land whose inhabitants once scorned the very thought of us. Alone we would save this little town, or die in the process. Then all thoughts stopped as action took over, moving our bodies to an unknown rhythm.

(The Dutch Ambassador was invited to the dedication of this plaque in 1997 in recognition of the Dutch prisoners of war who were in the town at the time of the Great Fire and the heroic efforts made by them to rescue people).

Celeste Spink