Pistoleer: Edgehill

by Smith, Skye

  The first step was to make a broom. The broom bushes in the next notch in the slope were tinder dry and the branches snapped off in his hand. Once they were bundled and tied around an eight foot long sapling he had a tool for the arson, so he rode north to find a likely spot to set the grass alight. He rode along looking at one un-munched, dried out, sheep’s pastures after another searching for the optimum place to light the fire. Once lit he would be safe enough and away from the flames so long as he stayed up wind of the burning grass. For two miles he rode along and tried to think like an arsonist, until he was almost abreast of the hamlet of Ratley. There he rode down and across a gully that led to a high point on the ridge to the south of the hamlet.

  He turned around and rode back across the gully. Because of it he would have to start the fire in two places. One on the south side of the gully and one further north beyond the hamlet. He lit his broom with his pistol flint and some flash powder and once it was burning, he climbed back into the saddle. Or at least he tried to climb back into the saddle, but Femke was really not pleased about the broom torch. By the time he was seated, the torch had already set the grass around him aflame and the wind was carrying it southeast along the highlands and more slowly towards the edge.

  He rode north, back across the gulley and once he was on higher land again he could see the shepherd's hamlet of Ratley again. He felt guilty about burning folk's homes, but the folk wouldn't be there to know. They would have long ago taken their stock down to Banbury or one of the other villages down below on the flats. Despite this he waited a while just to make sure there were no folk coming out of the buildings to watch the fire he had already lit. Femke was watching it and she was not pleased to be just standing here rather than running away from it.

  While he waited he pulled out his looker and rapped Femke gently between the ears with it so that she would know to calm down and keep still while he took a good look to the great valley to the north east. What he saw filled him with dread. The king's army had outfoxed Assex. Yes they had marched off the ridge and headed up a road leading northeast, but now they had turned and were heading southeast. Assex had been totally wrong. The king wasn't heading to Nottingham, he was still heading for London, and now Banbury was directly in his path.

  "Blast, bugger, blast,” Daniel cursed. He needed to be in two places at once. He needed to ride to Banbury and warn them, and he needed to ride to Warwick and get Assex to turn around. Which? Assex would just ignore him anyway. Banbury wouldn't. The decision was making itself when Femke snorted and paced. Daniel pulled his looker away from his eye and turned to see what was bothering her. Perhaps some folk were in the hamlet.

  Well there was someone in the hamlet but it wasn't shepherd folk. It was cavalryers. At first he saw a half a dozen, but then there were more, a lot more. Effing Assex had been doubly foxed. Not only was the king's army turning southeast, but not all of Rupert’s devils had left the ridge. Bloody hell. Bloody bloody hell. They had stayed behind to take the guns. The cannons that were bringing up the rear of Assex's column. The rear that was guarded by Hampden and his Greencoats from Buckingham.

  As he watch more and more cavalryers came into view. There were hundreds of them, and they were between him and Kineton. No, that wasn't quite correct. A squad of them had circled around and were coming at him from the north, where there was still no fire. He couldn't get back to Kineton by going south the way he had come because of the wild fire. He couldn't go through Ratley because it was filled with angry men. He couldn't go north or east because the circling squads would catch him. That left southeast to Banbury. It would be a race to Banbury but once he was off the ridge he could hide or take side roads.

  No. Not Banbury. That was the old solution. This was a new problem. He had to reach Kineton and warn Hampden. Just behind him was the gully that led to a high point on the ridge. On this side of the gully was a thick mass of tinder dry broom bushes, the bushes he had been about to light to take the fire to the hamlet and the north end of the ridge.. On the other side of the bushes the closest cavalryers were picking their way through the tangle using a sheep path in order to cut him off.

  "I'm sorry sweetie,” he whispered into Femke's ears as he threw the last of his flaming torch into the broom bushes. He waited just long enough to make sure the bushes lit. At first they glowed and seemed to go out, and his heart dropped because the closest cavalryers were almost on him. And then a gust of wind turned the glow to sparks and the sparks to flames and then the entire tenth of an acre of dry bush seem to explode in flames. Flames were hopping along the top of them towards the sheep path and the closest cavalryers.

  There was not time to stand and watch. Femke was frightened and shying from the flame and heat and smoke. He had to kick her to get her attention and then sawed at her reins to get her to skip down in the gully and run along it to the local high point of the ridge. And oh how she ran, as if she were being chased by the flames of hell, which she was. The gully ended and there were some flats with long deep grass. She lengthened her stride and Daniel felt sure enough in the saddle to have a look over his shoulder.

  The flames were at the hamlet. In a minute the thatch roofs would catch. Because of the gulley there was a horseshoe of flames around where Femke was now running, and the fire in the long grass was moving no where near as fast as the fire hopping from bush to bush to the north of him. To the south the grass was a wall of flames moving towards the ridge and leaving smoking black grass behind it.

  That was when the smoke caught up to them, smoke and ash and heat. Choking heat. Blinding smoke. Oh the Wyred sisters were having a good time weaving their irony today. An arsonist killed by his own fire. It was just typical of them. Both he and Femke were holding their breath. He had his eyes closed against the burning ash, but he hoped that she didn't. And then she stumbled. The fire right on their heels and now she decides to stumble.

  No, it wasn't a stumble. It was the edge. She had gone over the edge. Immediately the smoke was gone. It was above them. They could breath. They could see. See how steep the slope was down from this local high point of the ridge. Daniel leaned right back in the saddle until he was almost lying backwards over her bum. It helped her rebalance her footing a bit, but not enough. She was going to lose it and take a tumble.

  Trick horse. This was Teesa's trick horse. He swung his body around so that both legs were on one side and then crouched down low holding himself to her with one foot in a stirrup and one hand on each of the saddle horns. With his weight down low, she got her legs under control and she was no longer trying to stop. Instead she walked stiffly straight down the slope. Not traversing to one side or the other but going straight down.

  A screaming horse with a screaming man trapped in the saddle cart wheeled by them, end over end, crashing the heads, crashing the necks, end over end and then slid to a stop further down the slop. Femke strutted by the broken bodies and kept on strutting. There was another scream from behind and Daniel looked back to see the legs, just the legs of a horse as it leapt over the edge above. The horse and rider were almost immediately visible as they dropped down out of the smoke. Down, down, down, then the horse landed hard on the slope and Daniel was sure he could hear her legs snapping and then she fell and the rider was catapulted out of the saddle head first into the dirt.

  Femke had reached a gentler part of the slope and now she picked up her pace, virtually leaping down the slope in hops. Anything to get away from the fire and the smoke. How was the poor beast to know that down here they were already safe from the fire. Safe from the fire perhaps but not safe from the cavalryers. Mounted men were zig zagging down the slope to the north of where the hamlet would be burning. It would be a race to Kineton after all.

  As soon as Femke reached the flats he climbed back into the saddle, leaned well over her shoulders and kicked her to a run. And how she ran. She must have thought that the fire was still chasing her. She was halfway across the battlefield of two days ago before the zigzagging men eve
n reached it. Now he needed Hampden's Greencoats to look around and see him coming, so he pulled out his regular snaplock pistol, checked the prime, and then fired it backwards away from Femke's head. It didn't seem possible but the surprise of the blast seemed to speed her up even more.

  By the time Daniel reached Kineton, Hampden's entire company knew they were coming and were forming a musketeer line in front of the train of cannons and carts. Daniel pushed his pistol back into its saddle holster and put his hands high in the air. "Friend!" he yelled over and over. "I am a friend." And then he was to them and hauling back on Femke to convince her to slow down. She was going too fast so he turned her instead, and eventually she hip hopped to a stop.

  After leaping to the ground he threw her reins to a likely looking lad and asked him to walk her until she cooled down. To the lad next to him he said, "Take me to Colonel Hampden, quickly man." The lad led him along the line of carts and all along the way Daniel was telling the green jacketed musketeers that Prince Rupert’s cavalry were on his heels and that they should be forming their line behind the carts to use them as a barricade.

  Hampden was mounted and was riding down the line of carts towards him. His first question was, "Is all that smoke on the ridge your doing?"

  "Aye,” Daniel replied, almost as glad to see Hampden as he was to stop walking for his legs felt like they were cramping up. "Bad new." he puffed. "Essex has been tricked. Wheeze. King's army turned back south towards Banbury. Cough. Some of Rupert's flying army stayed on the ridge. They are after your cannons." His legs gave out and the lad had to hold him up else he would have collapsed to the ground.

  "Well bloody Rupert can have them then,” Hampden hissed. "To arms, to arms," he called out. "Expect a cavalry charge from the east. Unhitch all the gun carriages and turn the lighter guns to bear. I want them loaded with grape."

  "Couldn't have said it better myself,” Daniel muttered. Assex would have probably ordered them loaded with walnuts.

  "We were suspicious as soon as we spotted your smoke,” Hampden told him. "I expected a dirty trick from Rupert. Well now he can eat our grapes."

  Daniel hobbled down the line of guns. Most of them were clumsy culverins and too heavy to manhandle quickly into place. Finally he found what he was looking for, the four pound field guns. Three of them in a row. "You men,” he yelled at the gunners. "Grab up some canisters and prepare for rapid staggered fire."

  "What are canisters?" the gunner closest to him asked.

  "Dom achteruit Engels kanonnen,” Daniel cursed under his breath. "All right. Grab any sacking the size of a sock and put two handfuls of grape in each one, then tie them off. It speeds up the loading and lets the grape be spit out all even like."

  "How about socks,” said a carter who was standing nearby wanting to help. He ran off to his cart.

  Hundreds and hundreds of cavalry were now racing across the battlefield towards them. Hampden was giving a rousing speech to his musketeers. They didn't have time for rousing speeches. Daniel ran up the barrel of a culverin so big and heavy that twenty men were still heaving on it to turn it. "Men,” he yelled out, while giving Hampden the sign of a finger across the throat to shut him up. "If Rupert's men were infantry they wouldn't stand a chance against you. I want all of your first shots to turn them into infantry. Aim for the horses. That goes for the cannons too. Aim low. Put them on foot like the rest of us."

  The carter was back with a sack of hand knitted woolen socks. As soon as he reached the three field guns he began scooping handfuls of grape shot into them.

  "Oye, you!" yelled a big man with a face pockmarked by flash burns. "These is my guns. Who the fuck are you to be giving orders?"

  "I'm a ships captain who was taught ships gunnery by the Dutch navy!" Daniel yelled back at him. You had to yell at gunners even if they were standing right next to you, because they were all half deaf.

  "Oh, well, that's all right then,” the gunner said and then kicked the lad next to him to get him to hurry along with the powder barrel.

  The green jackets were no longer standing in a line protecting the gun carriages and carts. Now they were behind them or in them and the gun carriages and carts were protecting them. Hampden was standing high on a cart filled with barrels and he had his sword out ready to give the order to fire."

  "Don't waste the first shots,” Daniel reminded him. "Wait for it. Wait until you can see the horses eyes."

  Everyone one waited. Everyone stared at Hampden's raised sword so they wouldn't lose their nerve by staring at the cavalry charge. It was frightening to behold. The horses were all big, not cobs like Femke. Very big. A ton of horse and man each. Hundreds of tons of horses and men. On a signal they all stepped up their speed. The hoofs drummed the dry earth like rolling thunder.

  "Fire,” Hampden yelled and dropped his sword and then there was a different type of thunder. Five hundred musket balls and ten cannons worth of grape hit the charging horses all at the same time.

  Daniel didn't have time to see the effect. None of the gunners and none of the musketeers had time to see the effect, for they were too busy reloading. "Fire two,” Daniel yelled. "Get one reloaded. Use the socks of grape, it's faster." Two went off. Then three. Then one. Then two. Now the musketeers were staggering their shots. Now the sounds of explosions were continuous. Daniel finally took a peek at was happening on the killing field.

  The cavalry were retreating, or to be more correct, the cavalry and the newly created regiment of king's infantry were retreating. Retreating at the run to the church and houses of Kineton. "Hold your fire,” Hampden was yelling over and over. "They are out of range."

  "They ain't out of range of Bertha,” a gunner called out. They had finally got the biggest of the guns turned and aimed.

  "NO!" Hampden called to him as loudly as he could. "The worst of the wounded are in those houses. Don't fire at the buildings."

  What happened next was a standoff. The cavalry, perhaps five hundred of them, kept to the cover of the buildings, inside of which were hundreds of wounded infantry men from both sides from the first day of the battle. Hampden's green jackets kept to the cover of their cart barricades and their big guns. Hampden's pikemen and poleaxe men, stood ready to leap into the fight if any cavalryer breached the guns. Underneath the carts were hiding hundreds of the walking wounded.

  Hampden looked up at the sun. "My messengers should have reached the rest of the army by now. How long has it been since I sent them? It will take that time again for Essex to send help, hopefully his cavalry."

  "His cavalry?" one of the gunners yelled out "Useless as tits on a bull. We've downed more of Rupert's men in ten minutes than they did in an entire battle."

  The standoff continued until a party of scouts came riding in from the north and reported something to the king's officers at the church. Minutes later the horsemen galloped away in the direction of the nose of the ridge. More than a hundred of them were riding double. The green coats called all sorts of rude things after them, trying to make them turn around and attack them once more. They did not take the bait.

  Balfour and his cuirassiers arrived about ten minutes after that. Only then did Hampden allow his men to walk out into the killing field and see to the men on the ground. They were all dead, mostly from broken necks. All of the horses still on the field were shot to put them out of their misery. Enough horses to feed the army for days. Meanwhile the cuirassiers interspersed themselves with Greencoat musketeers and entered the village, very carefully, expecting a trap.

  There was no trap. The first men to the first cottage waved to Balfour and Hampden to come forward. Daniel joined them. The first cottage had become a mausoleum. Every wounded man inside had been slashed across the throat by sabres. They were the wounded no more. It was the same in the second cottage. Suddenly there was a cheer from the church.

  The heavy door of the church had foiled Rupert's young nobles. Men were walking out. The physicians and orderlies who had chosen to stay behind to take car
e of the badly wounded. "Why would they do such a terrible thing?" Hampden asked of Balfour.

  Hampden had never served in the German wars but Balfour had and he replied, "Rupert is a Bohemian. He is using the German tactic of Schrecken ... showing the folk of this kingdom what will happen to them if they dare take up arms against him. We must not spread the word of what happened here, else towns folk everywhere will surrender their gates to him without a fight."

  Green jacketed men were now crowding around Hampden and each of them was saying the same thing. They wanted to go back to Buckingham, and right now. They wanted to go back and defend their homes and families from the Devil Prince and his flying army of vultures.

  Daniel did not wait around to hear the outcome. He was done with this filthy war. After collecting Femke and his gear, he mounted up to ride back up and across the now charred ridge and make for home. Balfour called out after him, "Daniel, are you heading anywhere near Banbury?"

  "Before you ask it, of course I will warn them that there is nothing between them and the king's army ... and no, I will not tell them of this schrecken."

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  The Pistoleer - Edgehill by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

  Chapter 30 - Appendix FAQ

  The reference material in this Appendix is organized like an FAQ. For an overview of the politics of the time, see the Appendix of Book One 'HellBurner'. Here is a list of the questions that are answered below.

  1. Where can I read about the non-fiction events and characters?