Designed to carry heavy armament. Designed for war. A commerce raider. She would roam the earth and do inestimable damage to Yankee shipping. - John Jakes

They had taken no more than a dozen steps away from the cottages when a musket barrel came smashing through an unbroken window in one of the cottages ahead. The door flew open, three more muskets poked out. The muskets boomed, killing two of th surprised soldiers a yard to Orry's left.

The syndicated journalist?"
"The syndicated muckraker would be more like it," Dr. Walker said. "Mister Sensationalism. Specialist in the exposé. Long on headlines, short on facts.

Iron can destroy anything: families, fortunes, governments,whole countries. It's the most powerful stuff in the universe."
"Oh?" Orry's skeptical glance fell down on the Plain below. "You really think it's more powerful than a big army?"
"Without weapons - without this - there are no big armies.