Book Three

The Honest Silence

1859 to 1866

A boy soldier in the red coat of the Regiment of Virginia stands with his musket on a dark battlefield at night, among men round a small fire, stretcher-bearers with a lantern, a field gun with the colours furled beside it and the fallen in the grass, while fires burn across the field under a clear sky full of stars. Crown on the Potomac The Honest Silence Book Three 1859 to 1866

October 1859. John Brown seizes the armoury at Harpers Ferry, and Colonel Robert E. Lee takes him alive. Eighteen months later five polities rise against the King's ministers in the King's name, and petition him to recognise them as his true subjects in America. The petition comes back unopened. The King says nothing, for the whole of the war.

The Honest Silence is the account of Henry Ashton, a Virginian engineer who stayed with Lee and the Crown when his Province and his brother went the other way, written in 1866 to a blind King who will have it read to him: the engine house and the levee at St James's, the works that broke Jackson, Atlanta and the march, the counting of the people his family owned, and the price the Lords asked for the Rights Act.

Each chapter opens with a short extract from the Universal Register, the encyclopedia of the world the book is set in. The extracts are quoted from the Register as it stands; the chapters show what happened in the rooms it was not in.

Begin reading: Chapter One, Terms → Characters

Part One: The Engine House (October 1859 to April 1861)

  1. 1 Terms Henry Ashton. 26 min.
  2. 2 Hiring Day Henry Ashton. 23 min.
  3. 3 The Constitutional Position Henry Ashton. 17 min.
  4. 4 Geography Henry Ashton. 18 min.

Part Two: The Court of St James's (May to September 1861)

  1. 5 Casemate Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  2. 6 The Kingdom of the American States Henry Ashton. 18 min.
  3. 7 Paces Henry Ashton. 13 min.
  4. 8 Unopened Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  5. 9 Short Time Henry Ashton. 15 min.

Part Three: The Works (October 1861 to September 1862)

  1. 10 The Works Henry Ashton. 20 min.
  2. 11 Unconditional Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  3. 12 Cockspur Henry Ashton. 16 min.
  4. 13 The River Road Henry Ashton. 21 min.
  5. 14 The Ditch Henry Ashton. 16 min.
  6. 15 Truce Henry Ashton. 15 min.

Part Four: No Winter (October 1862 to November 1863)

  1. 16 The Rate Henry Ashton. 17 min.
  2. 17 The Yards Henry Ashton. 16 min.
  3. 18 The Bridge Henry Ashton. 14 min.
  4. 19 The Mail Henry Ashton. 13 min.
  5. 20 Held Over Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  6. 21 Set Apart Henry Ashton. 16 min.

Part Five: The Counting (1864 to February 1865)

  1. 22 The Flood Line Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  2. 23 The Schedule Henry Ashton. 14 min.
  3. 24 The Quarters Henry Ashton. 14 min.
  4. 25 Assent Henry Ashton. 14 min.

Part Six: The Lords' Price (1865 to October 1866)

  1. 26 Patience Henry Ashton. 13 min.
  2. 27 Betters Henry Ashton. 15 min.
  3. 28 The Roll Henry Ashton. 16 min.
  4. 29 Public Authority Henry Ashton. 18 min.
  5. 30 The Same Hands Henry Ashton. 10 min.