Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

by Diana Gabaldon

  He was aware that some of the English junior officers considered this garment mildly contemptible, but then, relatively few of them had been shot at yet. Grey had, repeatedly. It wouldn't save him from close fire, but the fact was that most of the French muskets had a very short range, and thus a good many musket balls were near spent by the time they reached a target. You could see them, sometimes, sailing almost lazily through the air, like bumblebees.

  Coat, epaulets, gorget, laced hat...roll. Tom, always prepared, had thrust a crusty German roll into his hand, thickly buttered. Grey crammed the last of it into his mouth, shook crumbs from his lapels, and washed it down with coffee--one of the other orderlies had brewed some over a spirit lamp, the smell of it bracing.

  Tom was circling him, eyes narrowed in concentration, lest he miss some vital detail of appearance. His round freckled face was anxious, but he said nothing. Grey touched him gently on the shoulder, making him look up.

  "Me lord?"

  "Thank you, Tom. I'll go now." The jumble had almost sorted itself out. Officers were thundering down the wooden staircase, shouting to one another, calling for their ensigns, and the air was filled with the scents of coffee, powder, heel black, hot hair, pipe clay, and a strong odor of fresh piss, both from the chamber pots and from the urine-soaked lumps of stale bread the orderlies used to bring up the shine on gold lace.

  Tom swallowed, and stood awkwardly back.

  "I'll have your supper for you, me lord."

  "Thank you," Grey repeated, and turned to go. He'd reached the door when he heard Tom cry out behind him.

  "Me lord! Your dagger!"

  He slapped at his waist in reflex, and found the place empty. He whirled on his heel to find Tom there, dagger in hand. He took it with a nod of thanks, and turning, ran down the stairs, tucking the knife into its sheath as he went.

  His heart was thumping. In part from the natural atmosphere of excitement that attends a looming battle, in part from the thought that he might have found himself on the field without his dagger. He'd carried it since he was sixteen, and would have felt unarmed without it, pistol and sword notwithstanding.

  The fact that he'd forgotten it, he thought, was not a good sign, and he touched the wire-wrapped hilt in an attempt to reassure himself.

  Outside, the pigs were still snoring, both river and ditch invisible in a shroud of mist so thick that Grey wondered how the lookouts had ever seen the French troops. The air was fresh, though, with a spattering rain that came and went, and the weather did nothing to allay the spirits of the men.

  He rode slowly through the forming columns, Brett and Tarleton foaming with excitement behind him. He felt the same excitement pulse through his own limbs--felt it in waves, coming off the men as they hurtled into position, clanking and cursing.

  How does it work? his father had written in his campaign journal, after Sheriffmuir. How do emotions transmit themselves between men, with no gesture, no slightest word spoken? Whether it be confidence and joy, despair, or the fury of attack, there is no evidence of its spread. It is just suddenly there. What can be the mechanism of this instantaneous communication? Grey didn't know, but he felt it.

  "Hoy!" he shouted at the retreating back of a bareheaded soldier. "Hoy, Andrews! Lose something?"

  He unhooked the calvary saber he carried and leaned down, neatly catching up the battered tricorn on its point before the hat could be trampled. It clinked; Andrews, like many of the infantry, had crisscrossed the inside of his hat with iron strips, the better to turn a blow.

  Nudging Karolus through the throng, Grey deposited the hat neatly on Andrews's startled head, provoking gales of laughter from the man's companions. Grey bowed nonchalantly, accepting their salutes, and making no effort to hide his own amusement. It was like wine, the air before a battle, and they were all drunk with anticipation.

  They looked well, he thought with approval. Rough, by comparison to the burnished Prussians, but brimming with uncouth spirits and an open desire for the fight.

  "Corporal Collet!" he bellowed, and thirty heads snapped round in his direction. The largest--and best--of the companies under his command, he had managed to keep Collet's company together for more than two years, drilled and brought on with such skill as essentially to act as a single entity. A sight to delight a commander's heart.

  "Sir!" Collet barked, bounding up beside him.

  "Take your company to the front, Corporal. Form on the left; you're the pivot. Wheel on Captain Wilmot's signal."

  "Sir, yes, sir!" Collet's seamed face beamed at the honor, and he bounded back to his men, barking orders. The men cheered, and went off at the trot, shoulder to shoulder, like a flock of particularly bloodthirsty sheep.

  Noise. Complete confusion, but an orderly confusion. Corporals shouting their companies into order, lieutenants and captains roving to and fro on horseback, minding their divisions. And the hussars who served as messengers, darting swiftly through the throng like minnows through the slow-moving shoals of reddish fish.

  A pig burst suddenly out of the shredding mist and galloped in panic through a distant company, causing whoops and shrieks. One of the German officers shot it, and a small band of harpies rushed through the forming ranks to fall upon it with their knives, making the soldiers step round them. Grey sighed, knowing he would at some point be presented with a bill for that pig.

  German camp followers. These women--some prostitutes, some wives, and half of them vicious slatterns, regardless of legal status--clung like cockleburs to the army's arse, following closely even into battle, ready to loot and plunder at the slightest opportunity. God help anyone who fell in their path, Grey thought, watching the butchery.

  The sound of bugling cut through the thick air, and Karolus flung back his head with a snort. Grey felt a sudden sharp pang; he would so much have wished to share this with Percy. But there was no time for regret. The army was on the move.

  There was no question of stealth. Duke Ferdinand's combined forces numbered something in excess of thirty-two thousand troops, the French and Austrians forty-seven thousand. It was a straightforward matter, insofar as anything done by an army could be so described, of speed, force, tactics--and will.

  A young hussar dashed up to Grey, brimming with excitement and self-importance, delivering a note.

  Luck, it said.

  Grey smiled and stuffed the note in his pocket. He had sent his own, identical note to Hal a few minutes before. It was their habit, when possible, to wish each other luck before a battle. He valued Hal's wishing him luck the more, because he knew Hal did not believe in it.

  Duke Ferdinand's plan was novel, and daring: infantry to swing out and encompass the French left flank, the Prussian cavalry to press the advantage, artillery advancing into position to pin the divisions on the right. And the 46th to be in the van of the flanking maneuver.

  He chose to carry a cavalry saber, rather than the customary officer's hanger, both because he liked the weight and because it was more visible. He raised it now and bellowed, "Advance by company! Quick...March!"

  Brett and Tarleton took up the cry, which spread to the sergeants and through the lines, and the columns began to move with amazing speed, churning the ground to black mud.

  The fog drifted in patches over the marshy ground, but did not clear. In spite of the intermittent rain--repeated bellows of "Keep your powder dry, God damn your eyes!" rang from every quarter of the field in various languages--it was not a cold day, and the men, while damp, were cheerful.

  Near the Landwehr, he pulled Karolus a little to the side, watching his men stream by, listening to the noises becoming audible from the French and Austrian lines forming on the other side of the dyke. The Landwehr itself was a formidable barrier--two water-filled ditches, each some ten feet wide, with a massive central bank, fifteen feet in width, between them--but not a very wide one. A thick growth of trees and bushes edged the dyke here; he couldn't see the enemy through mist and leaves, but he could hear them easily--Fre
nch, he thought.

  Shouts, cheers, the distant creak of caisson wheels as artillery wheeled into position...then these were drowned in the boom of drums, as Ferdinand's Prussian cavalry came within earshot on Grey's side of the Landwehr, led by their drum horse. Dragon-Riders, they called themselves, with that typical German inclination for drama. They looked it, though. Tall men all, straight in the saddle and beautiful in their glory, and his heart was stirred, despite himself.

  Karolus was stirred, too; he jerked, snorted, and made as though to join them. He had once been a cavalry horse--loved drums and adored parades. Grey reined him in, but the stallion continued to dance and toss his head.

  Karolus was stirring up the ensigns' horses, too, and Grey was not sure that Brett and Tarleton could keep their own mounts under control. Clicking his tongue, he pulled Karolus's head round, and rode a little way into the trees along the Landwehr, trailed by his ensigns.

  He could still hear the cavalry drums, but the horses had quieted a little, with the others out of sight. Brett's horse bobbed his head, wanting to drink from the ditch, and Grey nodded at Brett to allow it.

  "Not too much," he said automatically, his attention divided between the sounds behind them and those to his left, where the other British regiments were massing to attack the French right flank. The double ditches of the Landwehr were full to the banks, swelled by the recent rains, and the water ran muddy and quick below him, grass trailing in the current.

  "What's that?" he heard Brett say, startled, and looked where his ensign was pointing. Several tall, pointed shapes were dimly visible among the trees on the other side of the dyke. He blinked, and made sense of what he was seeing just as one of the shapes flung back its arm and hurled something in his direction.

  "Grenades!" he roared. "Get clear, get clear!"

  The first one struck a few feet to his right and exploded, sending pottery shards in all directions. Some struck Karolus, who shied violently, then bucked and reared as more grenades struck the bank between the ditches--bright flashes from the ones that went off, others rolling like fallen apples, smothered and harmless in the dirt, a few with live fuses hissing like snakes.

  Grey grappled the reins in one hand, fumbling for his pistol. There was a sudden feeling of warmth down his face, the sting of blood running into one eye. He got the pistol and fired blind. There were bangs nearby and the smell of powder; Brett and Tarleton were firing, too.

  A thunder of hooves; Brett's mount, riderless, fled past Grey. Where...? He glanced round--there. Brett had been thrown, was rising from the ground, smeared with mud.

  "Get back!" Grey shouted, pulling Karolus's head around. The grenadiers were pulling back, too, out of pistol range, but one lucky last throw landed a live one in the grass at Brett's feet, a blue-clay sphere, fuse sparking.

  The boy stared at it, transfixed.

  In sheer reflex, Grey spurred the horse and made for Brett, struck him glancing, and knocked him away. No time to think, to swerve--Karolus shifted suddenly, bunching under him, and jumped the ditch. Hit the bank with a jolt that jarred Grey's teeth, flexed once more and leapt the second ditch, skidding and floundering as he landed in wet grass, flinging his hapless rider up onto his neck.

  A hand grabbed Grey's arm and wrenched him off the horse. He fell, struggling, throwing elbows and knees in all directions, tore loose and rolled, yelling, "Lauf! Lauf!"

  A yelp from the man who had grabbed for Karolus's bridle, then the drumming of hooves as the horse galloped off into the mist. Grey had no time to worry about him; the grenadier who'd pulled him off was crouching, a wary look on his face and a dagger in his hand. Three or four more lurked behind him, wide-eyed with surprise.

  "Surrender," the grenadier said in French. "You are my prisoner."

  Grey hadn't breath to spare in reply. He'd dropped his saber in the fall, but it lay on the ground, a few feet away. Gasping and swallowing, he gestured briefly to the grenadier for patience, walked over, and picked up the sword. Then he gulped air, swung it two-handed round his head, and, lunging forward, struck at the grenadier's neck with the fixed intent of removing his head. He halfway succeeded, and the shock of it nearly dislocated every bone in his arms.

  The grenadier fell backward, the spurting blood from his neck failing to obscure the look of total astonishment on his face. Grey staggered, barely kept a grip on his sword, but knew that to lose it was to die on the spot.

  Two of the grenadiers fell to their knees, trying to aid their stricken comrade. Another was backing away, mouth open beneath his mustache in horrified surprise. And the last, God damn him, was shrieking for help, meanwhile rummaging frantically in his bag. Grey began to back away, bloody saber at the ready.

  Grenadiers weren't schooled in hand-to-hand combat; they didn't normally need to be. But there were plenty of troops nearby who were, and dozens of them would arrive in seconds. Grey dashed a sleeve across his face, trying to clear the blood from his eye. His scalp was stinging now; a shard from the first grenade must have struck him.

  Meanwhile, the grenadier had drawn two more grenades from his bag, clay spheres each the size of an orange, filled with gunpowder. He carried a coil of hissing slow-match in a brass tube at his belt; the smoke from it wreathed his features, and he coughed, but didn't blink.

  Black eyes fixed on Grey, he touched the fuses of the grenades to the slow-match, one and then the other. Sweat and blood were running down Grey's face, stinging his eyes.

  Jesus. At six feet, he could scarcely miss. Grey saw the man's lips move, counting.

  Grey turned and ran for his life. There was a roar of voices behind him, and the loud sharp pop! of an exploding grenade. Small objects pinged hard against his back and thighs, stung his legs but failed to penetrate the leather jerkin.

  They were all after him now. He could hear the thump of feet and grunts of effort as they heaved their grenades. Terror lent wings to his feet, and he zigzagged frantically through the trees, the flash-bang of explosions shaking the bushes and driving rooks and blackbirds shrieking into the clouds above.

  He skidded to a halt and nearly fell. Oh, Christ.

  A company of French infantry turned surprised faces toward him, then, as comprehension dawned, several of them slung the muskets from their shoulders and began hastily to load. No way past them. Beyond them...beyond them lay rank upon rank upon rank of soldiers, a serried mass of blue and white.

  A tremendous boom seemed to shake the trees, and a cannonball smashed through the brush on the far side of the dyke, no more than a hundred yards from where he stood. The battle had begun.

  Lord John Grey sketched a gesture of salute toward the startled infantry, turned right, and amid a belated hail of musket balls and the occasional grenade, scrambled up the bank, and jumped into the Landwehr.

  He couldn't swim. Not that it mattered. He was wearing more than a stone's weight of equipment, and he sank like a stone, bubbles gushing up through his clothes. Hit the muddy bottom. Bent his knees in panic and jumped, to rise no more than a foot or so. Sank back and felt his boots sink deep in the silt. He struggled blind in the murky water, tried frantically to shuck his coat, realized finally that he was still gripping his sword, and dropped it. His chest burned, swelling with the vain, irresistible desire to breathe.

  He got the coat half off, and churned what breath there was in his lungs up and down the column of his throat, in hopes of extracting the last vestige of air from it. Scrabbled for the buckle of his belt, couldn't get it loose, went back to yanking at his coat. Could hold his precious breath no longer, and let it go in a blubbering, bubbling cloud of relief and regret.

  He was still mindlessly trying to get the damned coat off. It was stuck, wrenched askew over his shoulders, and he thrashed about in suffocating frenzy, fighting the murk, the mud, the weight of the water, the coat, the heavy boots, his straining chest, his goddamn cartridge box, for Christ's bloody sake, whose strap had got round his neck and was going to strangle him before he drow--bloody
hell!

  Something struck his hand, hard. Panicked images of sharks, fish teeth, blood--he jerked back.

  Idiot, he thought, with what faint vestige of sanity remained in his darkening mind. You're in a fucking ditch.

  And with that, reached out quite calmly and took hold of the thing his hand had struck. A tree root, curving out of the bank. Waved his other hand gently around, found a bloody tangle of roots--mats and strings and woody stems, a fucking plethora of roots. Pulled the cartridge box off over his head, dropped it, took a good grip, pulled one boot from the muck, and began to climb.

  His face broke the surface in a rush of air so glorious that he didn't care whether that breath might be his last.

  He clung like a snail for several minutes, limbs trembling and heart pounding from the struggle, just breathing. Then, as his mind cleared, he realized that he had come up beneath an overhanging shelf of grassy earth. If any marksmen lingered on the bank above, it was no matter; he was invisible.

  There was a lot of noise near at hand, but none of it directly overhead, and from what he could make out, none of it concerned with him. Orders were being shouted in French; the infantry company above was about to depart. He put his forehead against the cool mud of the bank and closed his eyes, waiting. Breathing.

  He regretted the loss of his saber. The pistol was still in his belt, God knew how--but soaked and useless. That left the dagger as his only usable weapon. Though given his position, he reflected, it probably didn't matter.

  He was on the wrong side of the Landwehr, crouched under a bush, sodden and cold, with several thousand enemy soldiers a few dozen yards away. No, it didn't matter much.

  Cautious peeping through the bushes, together with what he could hear, gave him a general notion of the shape of the battle. Most of the artillery was to his left--the French right flank. The cannon were firing sporadically from both sides, still estimating range. A good deal of noise in the distance to his right, and brief clouds of powder smoke rising white as volleys were fired. Not a lot; no real engagement there yet. The ruse had worked, then; Clermont had been taken by surprise. Drums in the distance, a brief tattoo. The cavalry was still moving.