Pistoleer: Roundway Down

by Smith, Skye

  Their first stop on the way to the inn was the picket camp of watchers at the bend in the dyke just above Shepherd's Shore. They were the lookouts, and though from this lower level the column approaching from Marlborough was not yet visible, Daniel told them to watch for them. He left them with his looker and then hurried Millie down the dyke to the inn to sound the alarm. After telling the news he ordered two of his men to take the news to the main camp at Bagnall Hill. Meanwhile the rest of the men were to get something to eat, and then saddle their horses and break camp.

  It took only moments for Daniel to pack his damp bed roll, and then he rode back up to the picket camp higher up the dyke. "I can see squads of scouts quite clearly now," the lad with the looker told him as soon as he dismounted. Daniel took a turn with his looker and he too could pick out the scouts, though they were still perhaps two miles distant.

  By this time Henry had run up the slope from the inn, and he was nudging Daniel's elbow for a turn on the looker. "I could see the scouts with my own two eyes," Henry growled, "and of course a column of cavalryers would have sent out scouts.” He grabbed the signal gun away from the lad who was holding it. The lad had already loaded it and lit the match cord ready for firing. "Fire that," Henry told the lad by way of apology for his roughness, "and you will warn the scouts before we are ready for them.” He spat on the match cord and then twisted the wet end to make sure it was dead. "Run down to the inn and tell the men to set a trap for the scouts and to be quick about it."

  "You have a plan?" Daniel asked. The looker was once again at his eye, and he spoke without lowering it. The main column was cresting a rise in the road and a sunbeam was lighting their way. "Christ, there must be a thousand of them."

  "Aye, the obvious plan. Capture or kill them scouts and then get the bloody hell out of here."

  * * * * *

  The royalist scouts were expecting trouble at the inn at the shore in the great dyke. The Marlborough garrison who had lost the supply carts had warned them. They approached the shore cautiously and well spread out. They were calling out as they came, "Oye! We know you are there! You may as well show yerselves!"

  There was no reply from the inn or the dyke so four of the scouts played odds or even to decide which of them would be the first to step within musket range. A lone scout urged his horse forwards twenty paces and called the same thing again. Still there was no reply. They had two choices. Wait until the main force caught up and risk looking like fools, or cross the dyke further up the hill and come at the buildings from the other side from where they could better see what was happening in and around the buildings.

  They chose the latter and veered uphill a ways until the ditch was shallow and the hump of the dyke more rounded. It was a place where the dyke took a jog and that bend would hide them from any eyes at the inn. Even though the ditch was rounded and shallow it still took them some effort for their horses to traverse up the dyke and over the ancient earthworks. Their tactics were completely predictable, and all eight scouts were hit by balls from dragoon carbines.

  Once the dragoons were sure that none of the scouts could still ride, Henry fired the signal gun, loaded it and fired it again. Two heavy shots. The signal for many men coming. While his men tied the hands of the three scouts who were not badly wounded, Henry said some holy words over the less lucky scouts. Once the captives were tied over their saddles, the men who planned the ambush left the pickets on watch, and rode back down to the inn. For two hours the dragoons waited nervously for a flying army to reach them, and all the time they wished that Daniel would come down from the picket camp and tell them to mount up and retreat.

  I was just after noon that Daniel rode into the courtyard of the inn accompanied by all of the pickets from above. He yelled out to everyone. "I thought there were a thousand of them, but there are twice that number. They must know that we are here, because they have sent a few hundred dragoons ahead of the rest to capture and hold this shore. Those dragoons will be here in minutes, so we are leaving. Mount up. Hurry. Mount up. We will retreat as far as the fork in the road that leads to Devizes. From there we can watch this shore and then decide what to do."

  Once every man was down off Woden's Dyke, and out of the buildings, and mounted they rode out towards Roundway Down. They all wanted to hurry, but they could not actually run the horses because the chalk mud of the road was slippery from the night of rain. At least they were putting some distance between them and the ungodly hoard coming down the Marlborough coach road.

  Or so they thought, but they were wrong. They had barely left the inn when a brigade of cavalryers came charging down Maggie's hill towards them. This brigade must have come around a longer way and crossed the dyke further west on the higher levels of the hill where there were no pickets. Now they were racing down the hill to cut Daniel's dragoons off before they could reach safety.

  "Could be the escort from them carts getting even with us," Henry yelled to Daniel. Daniel had to slow down and let him catch up so he could hear his words. That put the other dragoon captain alone in the lead, and rather than risk a fight with double their number of cavalryers, that captain led them onto a rough trail that led downhill through a cut towards the Bishops Canning hollow. Every dragoon on his tail saw the sense in that turn and followed him down. The trail was only wide enough for single file, and further down there were thickets that could be used for ambushes. If the cavalryers cared to follow them down this narrow trail, they would lose the advantage that the open land of the down gave them.

  The lead captain stopped just far enough down the trail so that the sixty men following him would be out of carbine range from above. There he waited and watched to make sure that everyone had caught up, er, caught down. This dragoon captain was one of Waller's inner circle of officers so once Daniel caught up to him he asked, "What will Waller do now that an entire flying army is coming down the Marlborough Coach Road?"

  "I know exactly what he will do," the captain replied, "for I was part of the group of officers who made plans for this eventuality." His accent was precise and educated, for he was a gentleman officer, not a field officer like Daniel. "The siege guns at Rowde will be ordered to increase their bombardment of Devizes castle, but most of our infantry will be ordered to break off from the siege and march up the western track to Bagnall Hill, and once on the downs they will muster in formation on the slopes of Roundway hill facing the fork in the coach road up above us. Some of our light field guns will be placed on the crest of Roundway Hill to cover the road down the hill to Devizes.

  The various troops of dragoons who had been patrolling the approaches to Devizes will be ordered back to guard the siege guns at Rowde, and also to keep the Cornish infantry from sallying forth from Devizes. As dragoons we should assume that order and continue down this trail to the village and then use the lower roads to reach Rowde and our next duty."

  "I have had no such orders," Daniel replied.

  "But I just told you."

  "You are telling me what was planned, not what has actually been ordered. Before I decide, I need to hear more of these plans."

  The captain shrugged his shoulders and continued with his briefing. "Haselrig and his lobsters will be ordered to ride up Roundway Hill on the Devizes coach road, which is a gentler way for his heavy horses to reach the downs, but also denies its use to the royalists. Once on the downs they are to become a moveable wall of heavy armour and great horses with orders to block the royalist flying army from advancing towards Devizes.

  Colonel Hungerford will be in charge of the various regiments of light cavalry camped at Bagnall Hill and his duty will be to face the royalist cavalry and stall any battle until our infantry and our field guns are in position. Waller's own light cavalry under Major Duet will form the reserve and protect the infantry while they are marching to their positions.

  Waller will not want the battle to begin until the infantry muskets and the field guns are in place. Of course I do not know how it will all play out, b
ut there will be two standing orders. Hopton's infantry must not be allowed to join with the royalist cavalry, whether the infantry marches out of Devizes or the cavalry rides in."

  "What's the other?"

  "The obvious. None of our own regiments are to block the aim of our musketeers and field guns."

  From up above them on the coach road they could hear the sounds of countless hoofs, and Daniel hated not knowing what was going on, so he dismounted and climbed up through the bush along the east side of the vale to see if the main force of cavalryers were through the shore in the dyke yet. He smirked as he saw but a few hundred riders on this side of the shore. Their repair of the ancient dyke had served to delay them. Was it the irony of the gods that in these modern times such ancient earthworks still served their original purpose.

  This side of the vale was slightly higher than the west side, so from his precarious perch he could also see what was happening on the downs and Roundway Hill. He was just settling in to keep watch when a raised voice made him look towards the end of the vale where began the rough path his dragoons had fled down.

  The cavalryers who had come over the hill at them were walking their horses to cool them after their mad downhill dash. They had been joined by a regiment of dragoons, the first men through the shore. A dragoon officer was calling out to Daniel's men down below. "I am Major Smith of his majesties dragoons. The king has need of dragoons as skilled as yourselves. Join our ranks and on joining you will each receive an immediate payment of five shillings. Ten shillings if you bring your horse and weapons with you. Have no fear for your honor. You will not be asked to fight in this battle."

  If there had been a hunting rifle at hand, Daniel would have shot the bugger. Instead he crouched down in the bushes and looked out to the west over Roundway Down. Amazingly a goodly number of Hungerford's cavalry were already assembled near to the fork in the coach roads to face the royalists. They would be companies who had camped last night at Bagnall Hill. Men who would have heard the signal gun, and so the first to be ready to fight.

  They had chosen to assemble to the east of the fork in the coach roads so that it did not matter which road the royalists chose, the one down the hill to Devises or the one that led past Bagnall Hill and then dropped down into Chippenham. Unfortunately, more and more royalists were arriving at the fork with every passing minute, despite having to scramble over the dyke. Eventually the royalists would handily outnumber Hungerford’s regiments.

  But then another rebel force began arriving. The first of the London Lobsters who had been camped down with the siege guns at Dowde were appearing over the crest of the Devizes road. The road was steep for coaches, so it would be steep for the heavy horses that the Lobsters rode, but they were now arriving, and more of them every moment. Daniel could imagine the curses on the royalist commander's lips, when he saw the easy coach road to Devizes suddenly blocked by such a weighty and mobile foe.

  In truth, Daniel was quite amazed that the Lobsters had gotten here so quickly, for it took a long time for these men to saddle and strap the armour on their horses, and then put their own armour on. They must already have been getting ready to fight. Perhaps they had been about to storm the town. During the stormings they used the protection of their heavy armour to keep them safe from musket fire while they cleared the royalist barricades for Waller's infantry.

  Each passing moment there were more men on the downs. No artillery yet, but lots of light cavalry on both sides, plus more and more Lobsters blocking the hill road. The first squads of Waller's musketeers were now cresting Roundway Hill. Daniel even recognized Major Duett, whose reserve cavalry were guarding, and helping to tow some field guns up the hill. One thing that was quite obvious to Daniel, and therefore must be obvious to every other officer on the field - time was working against the royalists. If they were going to attack and try to reach Devizes, then their best chance was now, before Waller's army had time to organize and dig in.

  The other side of that insight was that Hungerford's cavalry should be doing quick skirmisher raids on the royalists to keep them disorganized and gain more time for Waller. The closest royalist regiment to Hungerford's was the dragoons who had been the first across the dyke, and they were taking a rest.

  "Well attack the bloody dragoons, fool," Daniel cursed Hungerford under his breath. The man was not an experienced officer. He had been put in charge of the light cavalry only because he was an MP and Parliament's Governor in Bath.

  What was it about these parliamentarian gentlemen that made them so set against taking an advantage when it was offered. Had they learned nothing from Prince Rupert's tactics. Rupert never shied from taking unfair advantage. But then, Rupert had fought in the Germanies. The Germanies where war had been a way of life for decades. The German's knew that war and battle is all about quickly taking advantage of the unexpected. Parliament's gents must have been raised by mothers who would call out "That's not fair!" whenever child's play got too rough for the little'uns. That call had no place on a battlefield. People die on battlefields, a lot of people.

  "Hungerford, y'd make a glorious mother," Daniel cursed.

  Meanwhile Waller's infantry line was forming in front of Roundway Hill, slowly - but was ever growing thicker. He could now see Waller's plan. Haselrig's Lobsters had blocked the coach road down to the Devizes. Hungerford's light cavalry had blocked the coach road to Chippenham and Bath. The infantry was forming a battle line between them. Most of the field guns were being placed on the crest of the hill behind the infantry so they could shoot over the heads of the infantry line.

  Waller's battle formation sent a clear message to the royalists. Go back to Marlborough, because you will never reach Devizes through the Lobsters. With the Lobsters forming such a heavy wall across the road, they could not break through. If they did charge that wall they would lose men to Waller's field guns and muskets. The more they charged, the more men they would lose. Eventually the royalists would have to retreat, and when that happened Hungerford's light cavalry would fall on them and scatter them, and then hunt them down. The plan was simple and logical and made with a full understanding of the lay of the land, but more importantly, the lay of the roads and the all important fork. What made it a typical Waller plan was that it encouraged the enemy to retreat rather than fight and waste lives.

  Daniel scrambled back down to the trail to where his men waited. They seemed quite relaxed to be safe down here and not up on the battlefield. Once he had his wind back he told them all, especially the other captain, of what he had seen.

  "Then the plan I helped to create is being followed," the other captain said smugly, "so my dragoon company will be expected to protect the siege guns at Rowde, and to keep the Cornish infantry from marching out of Devizes. Are you coming with us. It should be safe enough to go down through this hollow."

  "Go if you must," Daniel told him. "But my orders were to guard the road from Marlborough and slow or block any riders."

  * * * * *

  "Jesus wept," Sergeant Henry Foster said as he looked out over the battlefield. It was such a grand and worrying sight that he almost lost his perch in the bushes on the eastern slope of the vale. "What a waste of manpower. That many men could plough every corn field in the kingdom, with or without all them horses. May God forgive them for such Tom foolery, when the kingdom is facing hungry times."

  The lines of both armies were now fully filled in, although Waller's infantry were still arriving. Waller's infantry line had now stretched from the Lobsters blocking the coach road to Devizes to the light cavalry blocking the coach road to Chippenham and Bath. There were three royalist cavalry regiments, plus a regiment of dragoons, and they were in a column stretching along the Devizes road on both sides of the fork. It was almost as if they were claiming that road. The truth was more likely that the road was just beyond musket and grape range of Waller's guns. Everyone on both sides seemed to be waiting impatiently for the order to charge, any order to charge. Just waiting. Nervously w
aiting.

  "Well it is obvious what the royalists plan is," Daniel said. "Ride straight down the Devizes road in force and push their way through the Lobsters and keep going until they reach the town."

  "So what are they waiting for?"

  "Either for more regiments to arrive from Marlborough, or for Hopton's garrison to break out of the town to come and help them."

  "Then why ain't Waller attacking?" Henry asked.

  "Because the number of cavalry on each side is about equal. Infantry can't attack or chase cavalry, so he is waiting for the royalists to make the first attack, so his guns can pare down their numbers."

  There was a rumble behind them coming from the direction of the dyke along the coach road, and they both turned their heads to look. "Ah, so that is what the royalists were waiting for. Their artillery." Henry laughed. "It has taken them till now to get their guns past our dyke. Have you ever seen such tiny field guns."

  "Yes," Daniel replied. "A few years ago on the border of Scotland. The Scottish general Alex Leslie had some of them. They are Swedish gallopers. Fast loading canister guns. Bugger."

  "Why bugger?"

  "Because it means I must get across the battlefield and warn Waller, and soon," Daniel sighed.

  "Why don't we do something about them gallopers first," Henry suggested. "After all, they seem to be bringing them right to us. Nice of them, eh?"

  While the gallopers were brought closer, Daniel scrambled back down the path and told his men to get ready to ride back up the trail and make a run for Waller's line. "The sarge and I will meet you up on top, so don't forget to take our mares."

  "What about the royalist dragoons? Where are they?" the corporal asked. "Will we have to fight them to get out of this vale?"

  "They are all over on the Devizes road standing about near to the cavalry and waiting for orders," Daniel replied.