The Greek camp in front of us did not appear to be on alert and I was not a bit nervous; I was sweating profusely, no doubt because it was already a hot day.
Another ladder was soon in place and the company’s archers and auxiliaries began coming down it as well. Every man had his longbow slung over his back with his quivers so his hands would be free to hold on to the ladder whilst he was climbing. It was the auxiliaries carrying each file’s pikes who had the trouble. They had never before climbed down a ladder carrying a pike.
“Drop it down, damn you. You can pick it up when you get down the ladder.”
A sergeant bellowed out his command when the first of the auxiliaries hesitated at the top of the ladder. The man did not understand and just stood there looking helpless until the sergeant grabbed it out of his hands, shouted “Pike coming down,” and dropped it over the wall.
****** Major Captain Daniel Tenn
Getting on the ladder and climbing down to the sliver of land between the wall and its moat was difficult but doable. What was even more difficult was staying on my feet whilst holding loosely on to the guide rope and sloshing through the black and foul-smelling waters to get to the other side of the moat.
It was probably my imagination, but I had a sense that the narrow causeway was crumbling under my feet as I walked on it. My apprentice sergeant, Edward Fast was right behind me. Edward was a good lad who could scribe and gobble Latin. He was useful running errands for me. Although I would never admit it, of course, I had come to rely on him.
The water was up to my knees and, in an effort to avoid falling all the way in, I found myself holding on to the line Lieutenant Draper and Bill Street were holding tight between them, walking slowly and taking small steps, and putting my feet down carefully. There were rapidly growing sounds of conflict coming from the encampment in front of me, but I did not dare look up to see what was happening. My fear of slipping off the underwater walkway into the foul waters had temporarily pushed everything else out of my mind.
Ahead of me I heard the grunt of an archer pushing out an arrow and the slap of a bowstring against his leather wrist protector. Sam was already in action. I did not dare look up to see what he was doing, rather I concentrated on walking carefully and allowing the line to slide through my hand as I walked.
I was walking slowly and somehow instinctively knew that grabbing the line and holding on for dear life was something I would have to do to save myself if the slippery ground under my feet suddenly gave way. And although it might have been my imagination, it felt as though the walkway was literally breaking apart under my feet as I walked on it.
Strangely enough, or perhaps it was not so strange under the circumstances, I felt a profound sense of relief when I finally reached Sam’s lieutenant, and had both of my feet firmly on dry ground. Sam was standing near his lieutenant to guard him and to give his archers their orders as they came across the moat. He had already pushed out three or four arrows.
“It felt like it was giving way under my feet,” I said to Sam as I unslung my bow and nocked an arrow.
“Aye, I noticed that myself,” he said as a wild-eyed man came around one of the nearby tents carrying some kind of spear. He leaped over a body sprawled in front of the tent and started running away when he saw us.
Whose arrow hit the man first, mine or Sam’s, or perhaps Edward’s, I do not know for sure, but I think it was mine. It did not matter; the poor sod was done for. He gave a great howl and went tumbling with his now-empty hands flailing about. We ignored him as he tried to crawl away. The next time I looked, a few minutes later, he was face down on the ground and not moving.
In less than a minute Sam and I had assembled half a dozen or so archers. It was enough to get started so we began moving slowly, very slowly, a couple of hundred paces into the outskirts of the Greek camp.
Edwin, Sam’s lieutenant, would send the rest of the company’s archers to join us as fast as they came over the moat. Similar actions were occurring all along the wall as a little over two thousand archers and pike men moved into the Greek encampment from their positions in the narrow enclosures all along the city’s outer wall.
It was easy at first. We pushed out arrows at everyone who moved as we moved cautiously into the Greek camp and the rapidly growing cloud of dust that hung over it. Everywhere around us was a great mass of chaos and confusion with panic-stricken horses and shouting and screaming men and women running about hysterically in every direction.
We had caught the Greeks totally by surprise, that much was clear. For the first few moments they did not know which way to run. Getting away from us and the wall seemed to be the safest move.
As a result, those who had set up their tents closest to wall, the people we reached first, mostly ended up running towards the middle of the huge Greek camp—which put them right into the path of the states’ horsemen and foot soldiers who had been ordered to cut a wide swath of destruction through the middle third of the camp.
Moreover, once they had swept through the middle third, the men of the states’ forces were to turn around and come back to where they started by riding through the far third. The archers coming over the wall and moat were responsible for destroying the closest third. At least, that was the plan before we started.
Each of our men, of course, was only concerned with what was happening immediately around him. In my case, at that moment, it was a great bearded man who came charging out of nowhere swinging an old-fashioned long sword.
He was screaming something, either some kind of battle cry to frighten us or give himself courage, when our arrows hit him. And they hit him too late. He stumbled past one of Sam’s archers, and managed to give him a good backhand cut, and even started to go for another archer, before he was jabbed in his side and pressed to the ground by a pike in the hands of one of Sam’s auxiliaries.
The wounded archer fell to knees and then steadied himself with one hand on the ground whilst he tried to hold the great cut in his side together with the other and get to his feet. There was a look of surprise and amazement on his face.
Sam immediately ordered the two archers nearest the wounded man to help him get back across the moat.
“And do not leave him until the sailmakers sew him up and he has eaten some flower paste.”
More and more archers and pike-carrying auxiliaries came over the moat and caught up with us as Sam and I slowly, very slowly, led more and more of his men into the Greek camp. It was rich in targets so there was no need to charge ahead rapidly.
As we spread out, and slowly advanced whilst constantly pushing out arrows at the Greeks and their wagon-pulling horses, a great and growing cloud of dust began rising over the camp. It was the result of everyone running about and the many stampeding and galloping horses.
Chapter Seventeen
Things start to go wrong.
Sam and I stood inside the Greek camp and watched as the galloping horses of the knights and other riders of the states’ force sent people running, at least those who still could, as they swept through the main part of the camp in front of us dealing out death and destruction.
The foot soldiers of the states’ forces who had sallied out behind the riders had not yet reached us when, suddenly, people trying to escape from the states’ riders started coming out of the dust cloud and running towards us. We no longer had to move forward to find targets—they were flooding towards us on both sides. We had a target rich position.
I had just succeeded in putting an arrow into the side of a stampeding horse pulling a driverless two-wheel cart, when an out-of-breath archer sent by Sam’s Lieutenant, Edwin Draper, rushed up to Sam. He brought a disturbing report. I was standing nearby and heard it all despite the noise around us—the underwater causeway in front of his company’s enclosure had collapsed after only about half of Sam’s men had gotten across. Our wounded man was trapped on this side of the moat and so were we.
According to the out-of-breath messenger, two of Sam’s
men had been crossing at the time to join us. They had been saved by holding on to the guide rope and being pulled back to the wall. A third man, he said, a long-serving veteran by the name of David Curry, lost his grip and went into the moat. He did not come up.
Sam was more than a little unhappy.
“Shite and damn, David was a good man.”
And then, a moment later after he finished pushing out an arrow he had nocked, and given a satisfied nod at the result as his man went tumbling down with a loud scream, Sam told me what I already knew.
“We will have to get back using the causeway in front of Basil Tower’s company. Basil is the captain of the company in the enclosure just to the west of mine. He is a London man, but uncommonly steady even if he does talk about money all the time,” he added unnecessarily.
“Right. And you best begin moving your men in that direction. Listen to the noise; the fighting seems to be coming this way. It must be the states’ foot. They were supposed to follow their riders up the middle, but only God knows where they might be what with all this dust.”
******
It was not the states’ foot soldiers who arrived first, however. It was the states’ knights and other riders. They had ridden all the way through the middle of the Greek camp and had turned around to ride back through another part of it.
According to the orders I had heard Commander Courtenay give them, the states’ riders were supposed to circle around to the right and ride back to the gate through that part of the camp that was even further away from the wall than the path they initially took up the middle. Some of them, however, had apparently turned the wrong way and were now coming back through that part of the camp that was closer to the wall—the part of the camp which the archers coming over the wall and moat had occupied.
By the time we heard the riders approaching, we had either put down or scared the hell out of numerous fleeing men and women who were attempting to flee by running through that part of the Greek camp where we stood. We often heard them coming through the dust and closely packed tents before we saw them. Surprising enough, they were coming at us both from our left and from our right. Terribly confused they seemed to be; they knew they needed to run to save themselves, but they did not know in which direction.
My initial thought when I heard the approaching states’ riders, and Sam’s too, was that the Greeks had somehow been able to mount a counter attack. He hurriedly gathered in the men he could see and positioned them behind an overturned wagon. It was a reasonable thing to do because the states’ riders were not supposed to be coming towards us. Edward and I stood and waited with him.
We began to see the states’ riders through the dust cloud as they got closer and closer. Worse, we could hear them as they began trying to cut down the foot archers who had come over the wall from the enclosure to Sam’s north, Basil Tower’s men. When they got close enough, and were just beginning to veer off, we could see for the first time that the men trying to ride us down were our supposed allies from the states’ forces.
It was a great and unforgiveable military mistake by knights and other riders who had been led in the wrong direction by their confused captains. Unfortunately, as we later learned, some of the states’ riders died for it just as they would have done if they had deliberately attacked us.
There was no surprise in that some of the states’ riders had been killed—trying to cut down a disorganized and poorly armed and trained Greek soldier, or one of his camp followers, was one thing; going after a highly trained English archer carrying the most modern weapons in the world was something else and altogether different—and much more likely to be fatal.
It apparently was a fatal mistake in this case, for the survivors amongst the horsemen soon changed direction and veered off. They ended up passing to the north of where we were standing. As they went past us we could see the dim outlines of riders and horses in the heavy cloud of dust that hung over the camp.
We could also hear the growing sounds of strife that suggested the states’ foot soldiers were coming closer from the opposite direction. It was time to back up to the moat and get out of harm’s way. We had done all the damage we could do to the Greek camp. It was time to pull back, so I told Sam what I wanted his company to do and he began giving the necessary orders.
“Listen up lads,” he shouted. “The time has come for us to get back inside the wall. The causeway across the moat to our camp is down so we are going to move along the wall to the west and use the causeway in front of the next enclosure.”
A few moments later he began giving his orders.
“Form on me, lads. Over here. Form on me.”
His sergeants repeated his order and archers hurried from all around us to form up around Sam in a battle-marching formation with those of the men carrying bladed pikes walking between the longbow-carrying archers. The men were scared and worried as we began withdrawing. There was no question about it in my mind; any Greeks we came upon were doomed.
****** Major Captain Daniel Tenn
The Greek encampment was still filled with the sounds of struggle and covered with a great cloud of dust as we closed in together and began moving westward. We knew which way to walk because we were close enough to the wall to be able to catch glimpses of it through the dust.
Several of Sam’s men were wounded and being helped by their mates, or perhaps they had merely been overcome by the heat. And one man in an archer’s tunic was hanging head down over an archer’s shoulder and being carried. I had no idea who he was or how he died. I suddenly staggered and realized I was a bit tipsy from being too hot and extremely thirsty.
We moved closer to the moat and walked along its edge through rapidly clearing dust until we came to an archer standing next to a ladder on the other side of the moat. He was skittish when he first saw us coming and started to climb up the ladder to escape. But he came back down when he saw our archers’ tunics. A large number of archers were standing on the wall above him. They began shouting welcomes and questions.
“A hoy to you,” Sam loudly croaked so the men on wall could hear him. “I be Captain White of Number Twenty-seven. Where be Captain Tower and your walking causeway through the moat? We need to cross.”
“A good hoy to you too, Captain,” came the respectful answer from a sergeant on the wall.
“Captain Tower be going along the moat with Lieutenant Harper and the lads who made it into Greek camp. They be looking for a place to cross the water to get back. Our causeway sank before me and the rest of the lads could be getting across.”
“Shite and damnation.”
That was all I could think to say at first when I heard the sergeant answer Sam. Finally, I pulled an idea out from behind my eyes.
“A hoy to the highest ranking man up there on the wall. Listen up sharp-like,” I shouted up to the men who lined the wall and were peering down at us.
“This is Major Captain Tenn. We have wounded and need a place to cross. Send runners, fast runners, all the way along the wall in both directions asking if any of the companies have a causeway open across the moat. Tell the runners to run fast and to send a man back each time they find one that is usable. And they are to keep going and find them all. We will wait here and rest until we hear from you.
“Oh yes. And tell the runners to ask about the condition of each causeway that is open. We need to know whether or not it can handle a lot of men. Also send a runner, a rider if you have one, to the open gate where the states’ forces are camped. They are to request Commander Courtenay, or any Lieutenant Commander they can find, to hurry here as fast as possible.
“Now run, goddammit, run. We have some wounded lads here who need barbering.”
“Aye Major Captain, you have wounded and we are to run.” It was a battle command and was repeated most proper. My hopes rose.
My high hopes did not last long. After a few minutes I began getting anxious and realized I was desperately thirsty. The dust cloud over the camp was drifting away an
d the noise level was already distinctly lower. It would only be a matter of time before the Greeks got their shite together and came for us, particularly when they found out we were a small force and realized we were trapped on the wrong side of the moat.
****** Major Captain Daniel Tenn
I was wrong. We were not a small force. Whilst we waited for word of which way to walk to find a crossing point, the men of two more companies came westward on the cart path that ran along the moat. They had caught up with us because we had stopped and they were still walking west along the moat looking for a place to cross. I told them to bide with me until we knew which way we should walk to find a crossing.
Commander Courtenay himself and Henry showed up on the wall above us almost at the same time a few minutes later, and then Richard, the lieutenant commander in charge of the horse archers appeared. They had all heard about us being stranded and had been galloping along the top of the wall to see for themselves and organize a rescue. The men and I were pleased to see them; our hopes rose once again.
A few moments later we watched as Henry said something to Commander Courtenay, and then mounted a horse and galloped westerly along the top of the wall with his white hair flying out behind him. The Commander slid off his horse and leaned over the outer ledge of the wall to look at us whilst talking to Richard. A moment later Richard hurried off in the other direction
“We have companies all along the wall who cannot get back across,” Commander Courtenay shouted down to me. Then he gave me a fateful order.
“Dan, I want you to stay right where you are and wait until Henry brings in those who are stranded outside the wall further to the west. When they get here, we will cover you from up here on the wall whilst you lead the whole group east along the wall to the sally gate. Your force will get stronger and stronger as you are joined by more and more of the men who are stranded west of you.”
The Alchemist's Revenge Page 13