Men of Iron

When Myles Falworth first comes to Devlen Castle, the highest-ranking squires, an order known as the bachelors, have established a culture of servitude among the younger squires. Akin to hazing, the bachelors force the younger squires to perform menial tasks for them, as though they were their personal attendants, and include physical punishment and beratement if the squires fail to perform a given task to their liking. One of these tasks, assigned at random to pairs of squires each morning, involves going to the well with buckets to fill up the water basin from which the bachelors bathe. Before even being assigned this specific task, Myles declares to Francis Gascoyne that he will not wait on the bachelors. In a half-asleep state, he fills the tub exactly once, angry at Gascoyne for making him complicit in the chore. The task of filling the tub becomes a point of contention for Myles, and the tub itself symbolizes the tipping point of the conflict between the bachelors and the squires. Myles outright refuses to serve the bachelors, later rallying all of the squires to stop doing tasks as well (later cemented by him defeating Chief Bachelor and Head Squire Walter Blunt). The bachelors react to Blunt’s defeat by removing the tub themselves, to avoid appearing on the losing end of the power struggle. They complain about its absence as though they know nothing of it, but another squire loudly acknowledges that they all know the bachelors removed it themselves. The basin serves as a catalyst for action as well as evidence that the bachelors know their position is in jeopardy—the first of many power struggles (and victories) initiated by Myles.