Pistoleer: HellBurner

by Smith, Skye

  "What are you two whispering about?" Alice asked as she came near. The two men smiled at her but stopped their whispering. John was ready to go, so they reached for their cloaks and pistols.

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  THE PISTOLEER - HellBurner by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

  Chapter 21 - With the mob at Lollards Tower, Lambeth, May 1640

  For three weeks Oliver Cromwell and Robert Blake spent long hours in meetings with Parliamentarians of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They had even made some short, but ineffective speeches to the House about the theft of common land, but these received the lightest of polite applause. Since they had good voices and a willingness to speak, they were courted by Pym and Hampden to aid them in their own tactic of keeping the topics of debate focused on the issue of the king raising money by means not voted on by Parliament.

  Meanwhile over the same weeks, Daniel had sold most of his cargo of Spanish brandy, but was having trouble selling the Spanish spices. This was because almost no one was familiar with the Spanish spices and condiments as they were still so expensive and so rare in England, even in London. Despite his own distaste for the aristocracy, he found himself having to court their taste for rare and expensive things.

  On a bright sunny day in May, young Alice cajoled Daniel into taking her to visit Mary Ward, the young mistress of Henry Marten's London house. Her excuse was to take her a gift of some of the Spanish condiments and to show her how to prepare them, as a recompense for her brother Robert being welcomed as a guest into Henry's house. In truth, the gifts were just an excuse for Alice to meet Mary.

  Over the weeks she had needled Daniel until he told her of her brother's feelings for Mary, which had filled her with curiosity about the woman. She had never known her eldest brother to desire female company and she dearly wanted to take the measure of the woman who had so captured his interest. She had decided that this would best be done in the kitchen as she showed Mary how to brew the exotic and erotic drink cacaolait.

  The rich thick spicy drink seemed to effect all women alike, almost as if they had just had slow, delicious sex. With women it was love at first taste. In her short experience with these costly flavours, Alice had discovered that men preferred the dark bitter brew made from roasted kofe-cherry seeds.

  She had learned to serve both of these drinks with a shaker of ground dried red pepper alongside so that they could be spiced to individual tastes, as most English were not fond of the cold heat of the peppers. Alice had Mary taste the cacaolait both with and without the spice, and Mary preferred it with, because the flush caused by the pepper completed the sensuousness caused by the buttery richness of the cacao.

  When the three parliamentarians arrived back from Westminster, Mary and Alice were still endlessly giggling in the kitchen. Mary heard their arrival and skipped out into the hallway to call for a footman to take the men's hats and cloaks. That gave her a few moments more to duck back into the kitchen to warn Alice of their men's arrival and to gulp down the last of her divine drink. After a most pleasant afternoon in the kitchen filled with gossip and other oral treats, it was now time to see to the needs of men.

  Daniel emerged from the library to join the newly arrived men. He had been left alone to thumb through Henry's books just moments after Alice first met Mary. The women certainly did not want him listening to their gossip and laughter and the discussion of all those things that were important to pregnant young women, and of little interest to ships' captains.

  The parliamentarians in the hallway were in a foul mood. "The bloody king has prorogued the House of Commons,” Robert explained to Daniel. "He has virtually accused us of siding with Scotland against England, as if we were traitors. And all this just to stop a vote on Oliver Sinjin's motion to revoke the Ships Money act. The king truly has only one priority ... funding a new army to teach the Scottish Covenanters a lesson. He has ignored all of the truly important issues that we have brought to his attention."

  At that moment both Mary and Alice danced arm in arm out of the kitchen to greet them. Robert's face went scarlet at the sight of his sister with Mary, a women he had met in tryst and sorely wished to tryst with again, even if it meant wedding her. During the ensuing greetings, Henry moved closer to Daniel and whispered, " I wondered why you were here. I expected you to be at the docks now that your ship and crew have returned to fetch you."

  "True, I am expected at the docks, but I couldn't leave without say fare-the-well to you all. We leave on tomorrow's first ebb tide, Netherlands bound to see about buying a ship to replace the one that was lost at sea. A ship large enough to cross to the New World."

  "So you are still planning to do that?" Oliver asked in wonder.

  "The decision has still to be made, but a good first step would be to buy a larger ship in readiness. We need another ship in any case, no matter if we move to the New World or not."

  There was no more talk about the New World, because at that moment the footman brought in another footman who was red in the face and out of breath. "You must come quickly!" the man announced between gasps. "Mister Hampden has been arrested by the king's men. They are dragging him away from his house as we speak."

  "That cannot be,” Mary said in disbelief. "Not in England. No one can be arrested whilst he is behind his own threshold."

  "Except under a special warrant from the king,” Henry interrupted. "Still, I must go and see to John. He may need us as witnesses, or to take messages to his family or agents."

  "No, no, no,” Oliver said pulling Henry back from the door. "They could have a warrant for you as well. They could have a warrant for any of us. It is we who have been thwarting the king in the House."

  "I'll go,” Daniel offered. No one objected, and why should they, for he was a capable and dangerous man. He checked the prime on his wheel-lock pistol and shook it sideways to make sure that there was flash powder in the breach vent, and then hid it again in the holster in the small of his back. He borrowed its twin from Henry and shoved it into his cloak pocket. Hampden's footman hurried Daniel's pace along all the way to the end of the close and up to the gate to Hampden's front door. There were a half dozen armed men standing about the gate, and more were standing just inside the front door.

  Daniel calmed himself and caught his breath before he spoke to any of them. "This is a peaceful street and these houses all belong to gentlemen. My gentleman has sent me to ask you why are you here. What is happening?"

  "Bugger off,” the man closest to the gate told him, but then as the stranger came closer he realized how big and fit was the man he had insulted. He continued in a more respectful tone, "I mean, we are on the king's business and none of yours."

  "John Hampden is a neighbour, and a member of Parliament, and an honest man,” Daniel replied in a loud voice, so the growing number of neighbourhood men could hear. "I have every right to ask, and if you are truly from the king, then you need not fear to answer." He lowered his tone. " It is worth a groat to my gentleman to know exactly what is happening."

  The mention of coins for information raised the brows of the nearest king's men and two others stepped closer but were pushed back by the first man. "The king's warrant is to seize John Hampden and hold him until his offices can be searched for letters from Scotland."

  "You cannot. John Hampden is a member of Parliament. He cannot be arrested, especially not in his own home."

  The man snickered. "Our squad and five others like us were in place before the king dismissed parliament. Since there is no longer a parliament, we can indeed arrest him. And you may tell your gentleman that we did not enter his house to arrest him. He was taken before he reached his gate. Without him inside to legally defend his hearth, we had the right to enter and to make the search. Now that was worth a groat, surely."

  Daniel held out the promised silver fourpence but then snatched it back just as the man was reaching to take it. "You mentioned other squads. Who else is being arrested?"
>
  The man looked at his mates. "No harm telling? It will be public knowledge soon enough." He got the nod from them, so he looked back towards the hand with the coin.

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  "So not just Hampden, but Pym as well? And who else?" Henry counted down the names. "The Earl of Warwick, Lord Brooke, Lord Saye, and Sir Walter Earle. The very men who kept Parliament from granting the king more taxes and were trying to take away his Ships Money." Henry's anger at the news was written all over his face and in his body language. "Did they say where they were being taken?"

  "To the south bank, perhaps Southwark or Lambeth. A tower or a palace. They refused to say more,” Daniel replied.

  "Oh, not that! Oh please, not the Lollards Tower." Henry began to panic. "Archbishop Laud's palace is in Lambeth. One of its towers is the infamous prison where archbishops and inquisitors of the past tortured the early Puritans. Hopefully they will keep them in the palace while their offices are being searched, and not in that bloody tower. Oh please, may they have stored those letters from Scotland safely and in secret, otherwise they could lose their heads, or worse."

  Henry turned to Daniel. "Will you ride with me? I'm taking my carriage to town. I need to visit the printer Marchamont Needham."

  "Not him ,surely,” Robert moaned. "He prints the king's lies."

  "Needham prints for anyone with the coin,” Henry said while still staring at Daniel waiting for a confirmation, "and therefore I have remained on good terms with his purse. He is the only man in London able to put a thousand pamphlets into the streets of London within a day, and this news must get out tonight if we are to save our confederates from Laud. Word must be on the street before London's apprentices get off work and make for the alehouses."

  "Why the apprentices?" asked Alice. She was thoroughly enjoying her visit to the Marten house. The place was a swirl of activity and men and ideas and it was all so exciting.

  "Trades masters have wives and homes and businesses, and therefore much to risk if they are named as agitators. Their apprentices, on the other hand, must stay single, and they have only their tools to have a care for. They are the young muscle of the trades, and that is exactly who we need to march on Laud's palace. Young muscle. A mob armed with tools rather than weapons, but a mob so large and rough that no bishop's man will dare to stand in their way."

  "Let's away,” said Daniel. "Henry, while you are gathering your things, I'll grab your guns from the lockup. Oliver, Robert, come with me. You can help me to load Henry's guns and carry them to the carriage."

  "If you're expecting trouble, then I'm coming too,” called Robert, his fellow pistoleer. He didn't wait for an argument but raced ahead to the weapons cupboard in the library.

  Oliver looked around at the other men preparing to leave. He really didn't want to get involved. He had a wife and many children at home in Ely, and by the call for arms these men were expecting trouble. Big trouble. Violent trouble. Alice and Mary stared at him expectantly. Their questioning looks spoke volumes. "Wait for me,” he called out, meekly.

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  Lambeth Palace sat in splendor on the south bank of the Thames across from Westminster. They had come here in Henry's carriage every evening for three days and each time they had taken a very long and winding route, for the closest bridge was London Bridge.

  Even Marchamont Needham could not print a pamphlet that was not yet composed so it had taken two days to print the number of pamphlets that Henry had paid for. On each of their trips to Lambeth they had handed out pamphlets through the streets of the south bank of the Thames and had crunched them into the hands of every group of young bucks they saw walking in the street or holding up alehouse walls.

  Most apprentices could read, sort of, but just in case they couldn't, every pamphlet was handed out with a verbal explanation of what was happening. "The archbishop has taken the leaders of parliament to his palace to torture them. Torture them because they were blocking the king from taxing apprenticeships." It was not quite true, and not quite what the pamphlet said, but they were the words that would incite these apprentices to march on the archbishop's palace.

  The first evening they had but a few handfuls of sample pamphlets so they had concentrated on the streets around the theatres in Southwark. As the audiences crowded out into the streets to go home they were handed pamphlets. It had been Henry's idea to hand out the first small bundle near the theatres, ingenious because people were drawn by the shows from all over London, and therefore they would take the pamphlets back to their own neighbourhoods all over London.

  The second evening they had many pamphlets to hand out, and as those combined with the growing awareness of London's apprentices, there was much thumping of chests in the streets around the theatres. The night watch called for reinforcements, but when they arrived the apprentices put the run on them.

  On the third evening, this evening, a large mob of apprentices had assembled in Southwark and most of them already knew the contents of the pamphlets. To gain the attention of the mob, Henry had handed a shilling to a young lad with a drum, Tom Benstead by name.

  Tommy Drummer was a regular outside the theatres where he drummed and called out the names of the next performances and the players to the theatre patrons. Once Tommy had the mob's attention, Henry had called out to the apprentices to go with him to the Archbishop's palace in the cause of freeing the prisoners. He then handed Tommy some more coins to bang his drum loudly as the mob marched, so as to call out the men from every alehouse that they would pass on the march to Archbishop's Palace in Lambeth.

  Henry's carriage had quickly outdistanced the mob to the palace. Though the fine carriage might be recognized, they had no choice but to bring it in case the six prisoners were released, for it was likely that they would have been beaten and no longer capable of walking. Now they stopped on the river bank before the palace and waited for the mob to catch up.

  When the mob did arrive, still being led by the drummer, there were hundreds of them, and they were all young, burley men. Outside the carriage stood half of Daniel's crew, all armed to the teeth. Because they were armed they had been told to stay well back from the mob and from the palace. They were not to be seen as part of the mob, for they were only there as a guard in case the rescuers in the carriage or the released prisoners needed protection.

  The first hundred of the mob were stopped by the palace guard at the formidable gates. The guards were well armed, while the mob carried the tools of their trade, which in truth looked no less frightening than the weapons of the guards. There were hot words spat at each other, but it was more or less peaceful. The next section of the mob to arrive were not so well-behaved. As the minutes passed the mob grew in front of the locked gates until it was huge, perhaps as many as five hundred.

  The guards were not so stupid as to threaten these young strong men, for if there was any fighting the outnumbered guards would surely be the losers. Instead they stood back and watched as the apprentices used their tools to literally take the gates apart. A mounted captain of the guard waded through his own men and yelled towards the mob that the Archbishop was not at home and that he was visiting Queen Henrietta in Greenwich.

  A cry came back from Tommy the drummer, "You hear that, lads? After we've trashed this bloody palace and done for these bloody bishop bum boys, then we can march on the Queen's house in Greenwich. The bloody Queen is a Catholic and it makes sense that Laud would take his orders from her." The words worried the captain and his guards more than just a little, for at that moment the pivots of the gates broke free and the heavy metal bars of the gates fell inwards towards them.

  The captain must have realized that the only thing that would save the Palace and Archbishop Laud, who was actually hiding inside, would be the release of the prisoners held in Lollards Tower, so he yelled that out to the mob. His words were picked up by the apprentices and they halted their forward surge. The drummer yelled out, "We have enough patience to wait for at most ten minutes, so be qui
ck about freeing them."

  At the general hum of agreement from the mob, the captain turned his horse and almost trampled his way through his own cowering guardsmen towards the door that led to the tower. The minutes passed and with every new minute, the mob grew louder. It was then that one of the guardsmen, perhaps out of fear, made a dreadful mistake in the choice of his words.

  "You will all pay for this!" he shouted out from where he was pressed against a small door. "A messenger has been sent to fetch the sheriff and he will read the riot act and then you will all be done for unlawful assembly!"

  The words angered the mob and men's voices were calling out for this guard to be taught some manners. Young Tommy, fearful for the safety of his drum in any melee of large men, retreated to the carriage where he told Henry of the guard's idiotic threat, and of the likely outcome. Daniel was standing with his crew at the time, and he looked up at the driver and asked him to throw down his secret weapon.

  The mention of a secret weapon put more fear into the drummer and he would have fled the grounds if Daniel had not grabbed his arm and pushed him back into the mob and through it to the front so he could point out the mouthy guardsman. It took some shoving and struggling to get through, but they finally reached the front lines, and there Daniel stopped and threw the cloth sack containing his secret weapon at the guard.

  The guard caught it easily, looked at the sack, felt it, and then worked the strings to open it. While he was doing so, the tall and handsome blonde man who had thrown it to him was yelling to him in a bellow well-practiced from yelling the length of a ship in a storm, "This is not an unlawful assembly! This is a challenge match between the London apprentices and Lambeth guards, and to be fair we have even given you first possession of the football."

  The guardsman let the sack drop away from the football in his hand, and then looked at it with surprise, then out at the closest apprentices with curiosity which turned to fear, for each one of the burley lads was preparing to tackle him for the ball. In a cowardly hurry, the guard lobbed the football high into the crowd just to be rid of it.