The Stone of Blood (24 page)

I guess I basked in the glory of my new found admiration in those moments as we walked along the road that passed “My Old Kentucky Home State Park” and still further up and into the middle of downtown Bardstown. The air was clean and crisp as we walked along and talked.

As we strode along those streets …we enjoyed the scenery and then we took our rest beside a statuesque monument that sat across the street from the public Library within the courts square. We sat by an oddly shaped wooden boat, painted a dull shade of gray. And we rested for a moment.

“Who is this Monument for?” Colby asked as he looked around at the back of it like he thought it really looked stupid or something. “And who built this old boat?”

“I bet it won’t float as well as mine does!” He continued as he smiled a sly smile.

“That’s a monument for John Fitch. He invented the steam boat.” I replied. “And stealing a boat aint the same as owning it” I continued as I made it a point to reply to the other part of Colby’s statement. “That’s all I’m sayin’!”

I stood up then from out of the shade and I walked around to the front of the Monument to read from its plaque:

“Beneath this monument are interred the mortal remains of John Fitch soldier and inventor born at South Windsor, Connecticut, January 21, 1743: Died at Bardstown, Kentucky, July 2, 1798. At the outbreak of the American Revolution appointed a Lieutenant of a
New Jersey
company of the first regiment, and later employed as armorer for the troops by the committee of safety for the
province
of
New Jersey
. In the fall of 1785 he presented drawings of his proposed steamboat to the American philosophical society and endeavored to finance experiments by selling maps of his explorations and by petitioning the assemblies of
Virginia
,
Maryland
and
Pennsylvania
for assistance. On the
Delaware River
,
August 22, 1787
, John Fitch launched and successfully operated a steamboat before a distinguished gathering which included the framers of the American Constitution then in session. During the years 1786-7, laws granting Fitch exclusive rights to navigate by steam were enacted by several states. On
July 26, 1788
, he launched another steamboat using a stern paddle wheel and on
April 16, 1790
, his steamboat established and maintained scheduled sailings on the
Delaware
. Congress granted John Fitch a patent August 26, 1791 signed by President George Washington. King Louis of
France
likewise granted the American inventor a patent on November 20th of the same year. In 1796 Fitch constructed still another steamboat using a form of screw propeller. He reaped neither profit nor glory from his inventions, which contributed toward the revolution of Navigation. Erected A.D. 1927 in compliance with the act of congress approved
February 12, 1926
.”

“This guy knew the King of France too Colby! Look!” I said. “
King Louis of
France
likewise granted the American inventor a patent.”

“You see there!” I continued. “The history of Bardstown is directly linked to
France
!”

“But weren’t a bunch of the Kings of France named Louis?” Colby interjected. “How do we know that this was the same one who met with the priest from St. Joe?”

“Hmmm…” I said as his line of reasonin’ began to make sense to me. “…alot of their Kings were named Louis! You’re right! This one’s
not
the same guy that met with Flaget. Look!” I said excitedly. “I read that the
French Revolution
started in July of seventeen hundred ninety-three and they executed their King! They cut off
that
King’s head! This was probably the one that they killed, cause it says here that ‘
Fitch was given the patent in 1791’
! The King that met with Flaget could’ve been his son, maybe? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that
they
didn’t meet until 1798 or 1799 in
Cuba
!”

“This is kinda like a history puzzle aint it, puttin’ everything together?” Colby stated as a question and then he rolled his eyes. “Cause it’s boring me to tears! And Oh! By the way…” Colby related. “…you’re standing on this guy’s grave!”

Colby was right!

Directly beneath this Monument lay the body of
Poor Old John Fitch.
He was
buried beneath the streets of Bardstown, right in the middle of its court square! I’d heard that he’d committed suicide by way of a drug overdose, cause some of the local people here had stolen his lands.

Standin’ there on his grave, well it kinda gave me the creeps!

We crossed the street to the Library and walked up its marbled steps. They were made of a grey marbled stone, smooth but not so much so that you could slip on em’ or nothin’.

We opened up the two tall window glass doors to the Library and we stepped into its foyer. To the right of us sat a large winding staircase that circled upwards to the left. The rail was wooden and allowed its travelers to look out over the Library’s lobby as they held on to its smooth touch along the journey both up and down from its second floor venue.

It turns out that Colby would spend a great deal of his time at the top of that staircase; just lookin’ over that banister …tryin’ to sneak a peek down women’s blouses and things, to try and see their boobs! Like I said before, he was my friend and all but he was also ‘
a great big nut
’
!
”

Anyways, we opened up the second set of tall glass doors and entered into the lobby. And suddenly! Everything got very, very quiet. The ladies behind their podium desks looked up at us sternly as we entered the room, but we continued on anyways …we just got a whole lot quieter about it!

To the left of us sat wooden tables and chairs for reading books and for studying. While the room itself was aligned with tall book cases and shelves …with row after row of hard back books!

I spent the next couple of hours collectin’ as many books for researchin’ as I could think of, from ‘
werewolves
’ to church bells to John Fitch and Stephen Foster! And I even went through some of the library’s old newspaper files on microfiche.

Meanwhile, Colby was ridin’ up and down on the small elevator that resided at the center of the library! He rode up and down on it at least a couple hundred times! And he even came really close to gettin’ both of us kicked out of there too!

Once I had gotten myself situated and comfortable, I looked up information on John Fitch.

“
John Fitch
(1743-1798) was an American inventor who had been unable to attain a
US
patent for a steamboat design he had envisioned, but
had received a patent for it from
France
with the help of a man by the name of Aaron Vail, a merchant with whom he had done business with in
New England
. Fitch set sail for
France
in seventeen hundred ninety-three just as the Reign of Terror began, and met with Vail. But his attempt to build the steamboat in France would fail, due to the Revolutionary changes in the French government, so he sojourned onward to England in pursuit of more funds, leaving his plans and drawings with Vail, as well as papers he had detailing sixteen hundred acres of land of which he had laid claim to in the United States territories.

Fitch’s plans for the steamboat were lent out by Vail to a Mr. Robert Fulton, who would go on to become Fitch’s strongest rival. The papers of land claim would henceforth disappear.
Fitch returned to
Kentucky
after repeated hardship to sell his lands to fund his research but found ‘Squatters’ occupying his properties. Legal entanglements ensued, but the outcome would not come to fruition. As by way of an opium overdose in July 1798, John Fitch’s fate would be sealed by that of his own hand.”

“
John Fitch’s fate would be sealed by that of his own hand.”
I re-read again.
“Did it really happen that way
or had someone killed him?
” I wondered. And I read again that
“…
t
he papers of land claim would henceforth disappear...
”

The
plan for the City of
Lystra
in
Nelson
County
had been created in 1795. That’s what I’d read in Mama’s encyclopedias anyways.
And that was followed by the death of John Fitch in 1798.

“Could it have been murder? And who were the ‘
Squatters
’ who’d occupied his lands?” I thought out loud. “Had they been the ones who had built the
new city
of Lystra?”

I had spoken too loud!
I realized that as I looked about the Library room to see the faces of those who had heard me, those within hearin’ distance of my words! I became very cautious of my surroundings then. As the looks I’d been given, had made me uneasy. But I returned to my books again soon enough and continued my research of the past.

“
John Fitch traveled to
France
in 1793, j
ust as the Reign of Terror began.
” I thought. “
And just w
hat exactly was the
‘Reign of Terror’
?”

Within a book titled “The French Revolution”, I found many references to ‘
The
Reign of Terror
’.

“
The Reign of Terror
(
5 September 1793
, to
28 July 1794
) was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." Estimates vary widely as to how many were killed, with numbers ranging from 16,000 to 40,000; in many cases, records were not kept or, if they were, they are considered likely to be inaccurate.”

And I further read that:

“
The guillotine became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans) and Madame Roland, as well as many others, such as pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier, lost their lives under its blade.
”

“Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.” I said to myself. “It
was
his father they killed!”

“
During 1794, revolutionary
France
was beset with both real and imagined conspiracies by internal and foreign enemies. Within
France
, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Roman Catholic Church was generally against the Revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state and required they take an oath of loyalty to the nation. In fact, many French priests were imprisoned or executed.
”

“
I wonder if that was why Father Flaget left
France
.
” I thought.

Colby had disappeared from sight. He’d probably gone upstairs or somethin’ I figured, cause he sure wasn’t nowhere to be found!

I had to put all of this in order myself I reckoned; I didn’t know if everything had begun in France in 1793 or not, but everything seemed to be pointing to this one moment in history! It was as if it were a focal point. A moment in time that linked all of these things together!