Authors: Martin Archer
Tags: #Historical Fiction
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It doesn’t take long to get the men in the castle organized and out of sight. Then Thomas and I take the castle’s two horses and ride out to inspect the surrounding area. We’re looking for the best place to locate the rest of our men, the ones who continued on to the north when I walked into the castle with the others. Some of the nearby woodlands look quite promising.
After we ride around a bit we dismount and stand in an open area next to one of the woodlands. From up here we can see the castle and the lands surrounding it. It’s time to talk about how we’re going to proceed.
I suggest that perhaps we might have the men inside castle put up a token resistance and retreat into the keep - and let the Earl’s men into the courtyard. When they’re inside we can use our larger force of men to surround the castle and they’ll be trapped in the compound without food and water. Then we’ll kill the Earl and his knights and let his peasants and everyone else go home.
Thomas doesn’t like the idea. He says he read a really old book about Rome in the monastery that described just such a battle - and how the men inside the compound won. The Romans trapped one enemy force inside the walls of their fortress by building a wall around it - and then built a second wall to keep out the relieving force that soon arrived. They held both walls until the people in the fortress starved and so many died that the rest surrendered. Then the would-be relievers gave up and went away.
After thinking about it I agree with Thomas that letting Baldwin and his men into the compound is not a good idea. Holding a keep and luring an attacking force into the walled compound in front of it is a good idea for many castles but probably not for Trematon. Its keep is too weak - if they can batter down the door the Earl’s men may be able to quickly break into it from the courtyard and kill everybody before we can starve them out or get into the compound and stop them.
So we go to a different plan - I’ll lead the men in a charging run out of the trees and take the Earl and his men in the rear as soon as the Earl begins mounting an attack on the castle walls. Since we’ll be on foot with a couple of miles to run it will take about twenty minutes to get there. That means the wall and the keep will have to be held at least that long – and it’s virtually certain that Trematon can be held that long since we now have more than enough fighting men inside to bleed them on the walls and then sortie and win even without my surprise attack.
Of course we have a lot of men in there; my son is in there with my brother.
Alternately what we’ll do if the Earl and his men don’t launch a major attack on the day they arrive is creep out of the trees in the dark like robbers and storm into the Earl’s encampment at dawn. I’ll make that decision when I see where they camp and how they act.
Whatever we do, Thomas and I agree, we must do everything possible to kill Baldwin while he’s outside his own castle and vulnerable. Otherwise we’ll have to lay siege to his castle and his vassals and his relatives and friends, if he has any, might be able to come and relieve him.
In any event, by the time the sun goes down we have decided to hide me and a large force of our men here in the trees – all the men who continued to the north with Martin while I was leading the smaller party into Trematon Castle.
There is another stand of trees closer but it’s too close. The Earl’s men might come across our men when they go out searching for firewood for their cooking fires.
Then we go back to the castle to have dinner with Lady Dorothy and the children.
I hope it isn’t roast mutton. I know Lady Dorothy and her tenants have a lot of sheep but I’m getting tired of mutton after five days of eating the archers’ targets.
I’ll ride north in the morning and lead the waiting men to their new positions.
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Early the next morning, after a fine evening of conversation and mutton stew, Thomas and I use Trematon’s two horses to ride north for about an hour to meet Martin and the men who will be our ambush force. They are camping beside a little stream that runs into the River Fal below the ford.
Martin calls the sergeants together as soon as we arrive and I briefly explain the situation as soon as they gather around. Then we lead the men on a march to the woodland where we will be waiting until the Earl arrives with his men.
We reach the woods about noon and Thomas and I immediately begin working with Martin and his sergeants while the men make camp next to the little brook that runs through the trees. The first thing we do is walk out and assemble on the little hill between the trees and Trematon so I can point to landmarks and explain what we are going to do and why.
It is important Martin and his sergeants understand what we’re going to do and why and where we’re going to do it – it will be them and their men I’ll be leading out of the woods to counterattack the Earl’s men. We’ll do it either when they begin their attack the castle or in their camp if they attempt a siege. And Martin and the sergeants and the chosen men who are their seconds certainly need to know what to do and who to follow if Martin or I go down.
“Okay. Everyone listen up. That’s Trematon Castle over there. It’s going to be attacked by the Earl of Cornwall and some of his men in a couple of days. He wants to evict the widow and her two young daughters who live there and add it to his lands that are east of here.”
“And he’s pretty stupid in addition to being greedy. He thinks the castle’s weak and only defended by the woman and a dozen or so of her people of whom not a one is a soldier. He doesn’t know it now has more than a hundred of our men inside its walls.”
“We don’t know how strong a force the Earl will bring or whether he will attack or just try to starve them out. But since he only thinks he’ll only be fighting a dozen or so untrained men it’s likely he’ll attack when he finds out she won’t let him in. Then there will be a fight where we’ll not only outnumber and surprise the bastards but we’ll also be much better trained and more experienced than they are.”
Which is always how it is best to fight. When you’ve got the enemy by the balls, I mean.
“What the Earl also doesn’t know is that a hundred or so of our men, and my son George and his little friends, are already inside the castle under Bishop Thomas’ command. All the rest of us will be waiting here in the woods to fall upon the attackers’ rear.
At least that’s the plan.
And here’s how we’re going to do it.”
After two hours of explaining and pointing and answering questions I’m losing my voice but I think they get it enough to explain to their men.
“So now we’re going to go back to the men and begin practicing. This afternoon we’ll simulate a charge against a force at the Trematon walls and then early tomorrow morning we’ll move out of our camp in the dark so we can practice an attack against an enemy camp in the dawn’s early light.”
“But before you go back to your men and explain what we’re going to do, you also need to know what to tell them not to do – they are not to allow their men to wander out of our camp or to light fires and show smoke during the day. They are also to be absolute quiet and only talk in whispers when we are forming up for our attack whenever it might be.
“And know this. It is important to the success of our attack that no one is seen by the Earl’s spies or peasants they might chat up. We don’t want to lose any of our men by being stupid. So it’s on every sergeant and chosen man’s head that his men never let themselves be seen and do all their cooking in the middle of the night - so the smoke is all gone by the time the sun comes up.”
“And one more thing when we fight it’s important that every one of your men is wearing his sailors cap and either carrying a bow or a small ship’s shield – it’s the only way the men in the castle will know who is a friend and who is not.”
We really need something so our men can identify each other in the confusion of a battle. Maybe a colored tunic?
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After our session with Martin and his sergeants Thomas rides back to Trematon and I go with Martin to his camp. Starting tonight I will begin sleeping in the woods with them until the Earl and his men show up.
And, of course, Thomas and I are doing a number of other things to provide the Earl and his men with a warm welcome – such as putting out gallopers on his likely route so we’ll know when he is coming and who he is bringing with him. Also, and even though we don’t tell the sergeants because they don’t need to know, we’ve got a dozen or so of the castle’s new men in the empty village and scattered around in the outlying fields posing as shepherds.
The arrogant sonofabitch is not going to sneak up on us and surprise us if I can help it. Not with my son and brother in the castle he isn’t
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A galloper just arrived on a blown horse after a brief stop at the castle to sound the alarm - the sergeant captaining the messengers reports a force of several hundred men led by the Earl are approaching the river crossing.
Another blown horse? Our horses are really very poor; they have no bottom do they?
The result of his warning at Trematon, the galloper tells me with a big smile when I inquire, is a lot of running around and shouting sergeants.
Several hours later a second galloper arrives – the Earl is taking the footpath towards Trematon - and he’s bringing a little over two hundred of his men with him to deal with the dozen or so men he thinks are inside with Lady Dorothy. They’re carrying many long ladders and he’s at least two days away at the slow speed they’re moving. None of his men split off to go to Falmouth.
It sounds safe enough since they’re at least a day away so I decide to walk in to Trematon with a squad of men. I want to see what’s going on at the castle and talk to Thomas – we don’t want any unnecessary casualties so it’s important for him to remind his men that everyone coming out of the trees will be wearing a sailor’s cap and carrying either a small ship’s shield or a bow. Also I’m tired of eating fire-blackened mutton with the men.
And it’s a good thing I do, walk in I mean. Thomas promises he’ll once again warn every man in the castle not to shoot or stab or drop rocks on our own men.
Then, before I walk back, Thomas and I, and George and his little friends, have a delicious dinner of mutton stew with Lady Dorothy and her girls. She is greatly relieved and thankful when she hears that my son and Thomas will be staying in the castle with her and her children.
And I’m really getting tired of mutton although the bread and onions are very good indeed. Her cheese is very questionable - I have the runs right after we eat. At least I think it’s the cheese.
After dinner I lead my little squad of men back to the woods where we’ll spend the night. I doesn’t look like the Earl and his men will arrive until the day after tomorrow but I want to once again practice our attack on his sleeping camp just as the sun comes up in the morning.
Yesterday morning’s practice attack didn’t go very well and this time we’ll go for another of the likely places where the Earl might pitch his camp.
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We’ve been getting periodic reports from our gallopers as to the location of the Earl and his men. So it is no surprise this afternoon when a disorganized mass of men comes over the little hill to the east and starts down towards the castle.
A few minutes later and here comes a party of mounted men bringing up the rear. Undoubtedly it is the Earl and his knights. He probably called them and their men in from their distant manors even though their harvests are almost certainly not in. Well not all of his knights, of course – I’ve got Sir Percy tucked away with Harold on one of our galleys.
Except for the Earl and his men everything is very quiet and nothing is moving except for some deer nibbling on tree branches as they drift past our camp. From here in the woods I can just make out that the castle gate is closed and the drawbridge over the pond is up. The place looks deserted. And that’s the way it should look because yesterday the sheep and tenant farmers and the castle’s serfs were all moved to the most distant fields and our fake shepherds recalled.
The village looks empty too. It should. It is empty. And the villagers are good half day’s walk on the far side of the castle so they should be safe too. Besides, the Earl wants to own them so he’s not likely to kill them.
Our men seem almost glad to see the Earl and his men. Probably because it means the waiting is over - as every soldier can tell you, it is the waiting before the battle starts that grinds you down because you start thinking of all the terrible things that might happen.
In any event our men are excited and curious. They all start talking and moving towards the edge of the trees to get a better look. A few sharp words from the sergeants moves them back.
We can’t have them doing that – we don’t want to take the chance of being seen and ruining our ambush so that more of our men are hurt before we finish them off, the Earl and his men that is.