‘Wait,’ I repeated as Hamo rose and raised his bow into position. Concentration soured his expression as he fixed his gaze upon the enemy, no doubt choosing his first victim. ‘Wait until I give the word.’
One of the Englishmen emerged and brandished a coin-pouch with a whoop of delight, and the other two shortly followed with their own finds held aloft. Inside those pouches was the last of the silver and gold that I’d brought with me on campaign, together with some more that Serlo and Pons, Eudo and Wace had lent me for the purpose. Altogether it was a considerable treasure, and enough to bring the rest of their band rushing forward. Some tried to snatch those purses away from their finders, whilst others fought over the wine-flasks, or to be the first inside the remaining tents. Exactly why they thought we’d abandoned our camp, I had no idea. Perhaps they reckoned we were away scouting the land, or that we had fled at the first sight of them approaching. Probably most didn’t care: they saw a chance to obtain easy spoils, and for most that was all that mattered. Most, that was, except for their lord — he of the chausses and the inlaid helmet — who was left standing alone, bellowing for them to hold back, to stay close to him.
But his warnings were in vain, and now his men would pay for their greed.
‘Now,’ I said to Hamo. No sooner had the command left my lips than he’d drawn back his bowstring and let his first arrow fly. With a sharp whistle of air it shot up into the darkness, closely followed by those of his comrades. A cluster of glittering steel points soared out from the trees across the open ground, vanishing briefly into the night before plunging earthwards once more, towards the campfires and the Englishmen squabbling amongst themselves.
Too late they saw the arrows spearing down towards them. Too late a cry was raised. One man was struck between the shoulder-blades as he scrambled out from one of the tents, and he went down. Another, swigging from one of the leather bottles, took a shaft in the neck and fell backwards into one of the campfires, sending up a shower of sparks. Men were running, shouting, screaming as the silver-tipped shafts rained down in their midst. Volley followed upon volley as Hamo and his men drew the shafts from their arrow-bags. In all probably only three or four out of those twenty-odd foemen were killed, but it was enough to spread panic among their ranks.
And into that throng we charged, filling the night with our fury. We fell upon them before they could recover their wits and work out what was happening, before they could come together and form a shield-wall to fend us off. Usually I find that those final few moments before battle is joined are when my mind is clearest, and that I’m aware of the slightest details, from which way the wind was blowing to the sound of my own heartbeat resounding through my body. But not this time. Exactly when I gave the order to break from our hiding place, or what battle-cry I roared, I cannot recall. The next thing I remember is seeing the first of the foemen standing before me, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, unslinging his red-painted shield from where it hung by its long strap across his back. I lifted my blade high, then struck down so quickly and with such force that it sliced through his leather sleeve into his shoulder. He bent over, yelling out in agony; I brought my knee up into his groin and buried my sword-point in his gut, twisting it so as to finish him all the quicker, then wrenching it free. The steel glistened crimson in the firelight. My first kill of the night.
We tore into the enemy, bringing weeks of pent-up anger to bear. Steel clashed upon steel, ringing and shrieking like the dissonant cries of some hellish beast. The hail of arrows had ceased and Hamo and his company were running to join us, adding their strength to ours, hurling themselves into the fray with knives and hand-axes and all manner of weapons: men both young and old eager to prove their worth alongside trained knights like myself. I raised my shield to deflect a spear, then twisted away and landed a blow across the back of a foeman’s head, and he was dead before he hit the ground. These were stout warriors we faced, and not lacking in skill at arms, but for all that they were ill disciplined and no match for knights of Normandy.
‘For St Ouen and King Guillaume!’ someone roared, and it might even have been me, except that the words seemed somehow far away, and I didn’t remember having willed myself to speak.
‘God aid us,’ another shouted. The traditional war-cry of Normandy, it was quickly taken up, until we were all roaring as if with one voice: ‘God aid us!’
The battle-calm was upon me; everything was as simple as practising sword-cuts against the stake in the training yard. Time seemed to slow: each moment stretched into an eternity, and I knew every movement of my foes before it even happened. From their stance and the way they held their weapons I knew whether their next strokes would be low or high, feint or parry or thrust or cut, and armed with that knowledge I lost myself to the will of my blade, striking out to left and right, feeling free in a way that I hadn’t in longer than I could remember, all my earlier anxiety having fled. Dimly I was aware of Serlo and Pons on either side of me, protecting my flanks, but I didn’t care whether or not they were there, for I was laughing with the ease of it all as we scythed a path through the enemy towards their lord.
He stood beyond the fires, trying desperately to rally his troops, but for the most part his orders fell on deaf ears. All around him was confusion. The enemy were in disarray, in two minds whether to retreat or to hold their ground, whereas we were united in our desire to spill enemy blood. A few of the thegn’s more steadfast warriors chose to stand by him, but already a large number were making as fast as they could manage for the safety of the marsh-channel, some limping with gashes to their sides and thighs where they had been struck, others clutching their arms or shoulders, fleeing out of fear for their lives, and I knew we had to take full advantage of this moment.
‘Kill them,’ I cried. ‘No mercy!’
After that it was all over so quickly. One instant I was in the midst of battle, leading the attack against the few who bravely fought on, and the next I was looking into the eyes of the thegn himself. I rushed him with my shield, slamming the boss into his chest and jerking the iron rim upwards into his jaw. The force of the blow sent him stumbling backwards, his mouth and chin running with blood. His sword slipped from his grasp and he lost his footing on the muddy ground. The weight of his mail did the rest, bringing him crashing down on to his back. Breathing hard, I looked up, expecting to find his companions coming to his aid, but they were all on the ground, either finished on the blade-edges of my knights or else writhing in pain and desperately calling out for help that wouldn’t come.
Sweat dripped from my brow, stinging my eyes, and the blood of my enemies, warm and sticky, streamed down my sword-hand. A few of the Englishmen still lived, but not many. Having seen their leader fall they knew better than to continue the struggle, and now they too were turning in flight, pursued by Eudo and Wace and their knights. This was the first chance any of us had had to exercise our sword-arms in a long while, to wreak our vengeance upon the rebels, and they seized the opportunity to quench their bloodthirst, whooping with delight at the chase and the glory of the kill.
The thegn tried to get up, scrabbling beside him for his weapon, but I kicked the hilt away before he could reach it. It spun away across the stony ground. I levelled the point of my sword towards the bare skin at his neck and straightaway he stiffened. Beneath his helmet his eyes opened wide, the whites reflecting the moonlight.
‘Move and I’ll slit your throat from ear to ear,’ I said, hoping he would understand me. My blood was still up and it was hard to think of the right English words, and so I spoke in my own tongue instead.
He swallowed. His face carried few scars of the sort that I knew from my own reflection, and that was when I saw him for the youth that he was, no more than seventeen or eighteen summers, by my reckoning, and possibly younger even than that, stoutly built and round of face, with a brace of golden rings on each hand. Clearly he was wealthy, and used to fine living, and yet I doubted if he had won that wealth through battle. Not if his sword-s
kills were anything to judge by, and while it was fair to say that some men were better leaders than they were fighters, I found it hard to imagine a mere pup such as him inspiring much confidence in anyone.
‘Hwæt eart thu?’ I barked. Who are you?
At last he found his voice. ‘Spare me, lord.’ He stumbled a little over the words as he replied in French, trying to appease me, I supposed. ‘Please, take my rings, anything you wish, but have mercy, I beg of you.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘Godric,’ he said as tears welled in his eyes. ‘Thegn of Corbei and son of Burgheard.’
I’d never heard of a place called Corbei, or of his father Burgheard, but that did not particularly surprise me. I was beginning to build an impression of Godric. A petty landholder with pretensions to grandeur, he equipped himself as handsomely as he could to disguise his lowly status. I recognised his kind.
‘I’m not going to kill you,’ I assured him. ‘But you can give me your rings. I’ll have those. Your helmet and scabbard too.’
Godric glanced around him, but he was surrounded by Frenchmen and there was no way he could escape.
‘Do it,’ I said.
Reluctantly he divested himself of his helm and weapons, laying them down carefully on the ground beside him. I stood over him, my sword still drawn, watching carefully in case he possessed any hidden blades — knives on a belt underneath his tunic, perhaps — and was foolish enough to try to use them. As soon as he’d removed them all, I instructed Hamo and his men to carry them to our boats, together with as much as they could carry of the goods we’d brought with us. We didn’t have time to take away everything, or to strip the corpses of their possessions. Already what I thought was a faint smear of grey was beginning to appear on the horizon. It might have been my imagination, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance. I wanted to be well away from here by the time day was upon us.
‘A few of them managed to get away,’ Eudo told me when he and Wace returned from their pursuit. ‘They fled into the marsh-channel where we couldn’t follow them.’
Another reason to leave this place as quickly as possible. Soon they would rouse their countrymen and return, no doubt in larger numbers. Indeed reinforcements might already be on their way. The clash of steel and screams of the dying would carry easily across the marshes. If there were any sentries on watch on the other side of the channel, they would surely have heard us.
Wace handed me the coin-pouches that had formed part of our bait, which he and his knights had managed to recover from where they’d fallen amongst the enemy dead.
‘It’s mostly all there,’ he said. ‘We might be a few pennies short, but not many.’
Probably some had been spilt during the fight. Their loss didn’t concern me all that much. Our capture of the Englishman ought to bring us reward enough to pay for everything this expedition had cost us, hopefully with a good amount left over too, although the king’s treasurers weren’t known for their generosity.
‘On your feet,’ I told him. At first he did not respond, and it took Pons striking him across his shoulder-blades with a spear-haft to jolt him into doing as instructed. I wished I’d thought to bring some rope with which to bind his wrists, but he didn’t look the sort who was likely to put up much of a fight. Not after seeing so many of his countrymen cut down before his eyes.
I shoved him in the back to start him moving as, guided by Baudri, we made our way back across the islet towards where Hamo and his men were waiting with the punts. They had worked quickly, dragging the small vessels down from the thicket and pushing them out into the shallows so that they were already afloat by the time we arrived.
‘Whatever price you demand for my release, my uncle will pay it,’ Godric said as we reached the shore. ‘I swear it.’
‘Why should anyone pay a single penny for the sake of a wretch like you?’ I asked with a snort as we splashed our way through the murky knee-deep waters out to the boats.
‘I’m his only nephew, and the closest to a son that he has.’
‘Many men hate their sons,’ I replied. ‘He might not want you back. Besides, how are we supposed to get word to him?’
Godric had no answer to that, and since he wouldn’t get into the punt willingly I had no choice but to shove him over the gunwale. He gave a cry as he tumbled forward, landing awkwardly on his side. I took my place next to him, where I could keep a close watch over him.
‘Don’t speak another word unless you want to feel my blade between your ribs.’ I laid a hand upon the knife-hilt by my waist. ‘Do you hear me?’
He said nothing, and I took that to mean that he did. Wace and Hamo in the other boats were already pushing off from the shore and I gave the signal to Serlo, who once more had the punting-pole, to do the same. And so we left the island of Litelport behind us. Not half an hour could have passed since I’d spied what I thought was the first glimmer of dawn, but already the skies were noticeably brighter.
We were barely a dozen boat-lengths out from the shore when Godric, speaking more quietly, began again: ‘My uncle-’
‘I heard what you said,’ I interrupted him, before he could go on. If he had any sense at all he’d have realised it was far better for him to shut his mouth and not to provoke us further.
‘But, lord-’
He broke off as I grabbed the collar of his tunic. ‘Tell me, then,’ I said. ‘Who is this uncle of yours, who’s so wealthy that he can afford to waste good silver for your sake?’
Obviously he had something he wished to tell me, and I wasn’t prepared to have him chirping all the way back to Brandune. Neither did I want to have to make good on my promise, since if I killed him this entire expedition would have been for nothing.
His mouth opened but his tongue must have been frozen, for no sound came out. There was fear in his eyes, and I realised then just how short was the distance he’d travelled along the sword-path. This was no warrior. Certainly I would not trust him to stand in any shield-wall. I wondered if his sword had ever run with the blood of his foes, or if he had ever unsheathed it outside the training yard before tonight.
‘Tell me,’ I repeated. ‘Who is he?’
I saw the lump form in Godric’s throat as he swallowed. My patience was fast running out. Eventually he managed to compose himself enough to speak, although the words that emerged from his lips were not at all what I’d been expecting.
‘My uncle, lord,’ he said, ‘is Earl Morcar.’
Six
He’s Morcar’s nephew?’ Robert asked later that morning, once we’d brought Godric to his hall and told him everything that had happened that night.
‘So he claims,’ I replied.
Already it all seemed an age ago. The thrill of the fight had long faded, and tiredness was beginning at last to catch up with me. My limbs felt like lead, fatigue clawed at my eyes, and I wanted nothing more than to find some quiet spot in which to lay myself down and sleep.
Robert fixed his gaze upon the Englishman, who sat on a stool beside the smoking hearth-fire, his hands bound with rope in front of him, his flaxen hair plastered to his skull. Since leaving Litelport behind us he’d uttered barely a word, except occasionally to murmur what sounded like a prayer, but he spoke now.
‘It is the truth, lords,’ he protested. ‘Upon my life, with God and all the saints as my witnesses, I swear it!’
To some men lying came naturally, while others learnt the art through years of practice. Nonetheless, to spew falsehoods when one’s very life was at stake was a skill that few possessed, and required no small amount of nerve, too. Perhaps I was wrong about the Englishman, but I doubted he was so daring, and for that reason alone I was inclined to believe him.
‘If you want to change your mind, you’d be wise to do so now, before you meet the king,’ Wace warned him.
‘Yes,’ Eudo added. ‘If he finds out you’ve lied to him, he won’t be best pleased.’
That silenced Godric, who no doubt had heard of K
ing Guillaume’s unpredictable temper, and knew all about the fits of rage to which he was rumoured to be prone. It was often said that no man ever crossed him twice and lived, for while the king was sometimes prepared to overlook a first offence, he was rarely so forgiving the second time. By taking up arms in rebellion, Godric had committed his first transgression. Already, then, his fate rested on a knife’s edge.
The drapes across the hall’s entrance parted, allowing in a sudden burst of sunlight: something we had seen little of in recent days. Through the parting stepped a pale-faced, dung-reeking lad of perhaps twelve or thirteen, whom Robert had sent to the royal hall with news of our prisoner. He stood, panting heavily as if he had just run all the way to Cantebrigia and back.
‘You bring news?’ Robert asked him.
The boy nodded. ‘Yes, lord,’ he said in between breaths. ‘I returned as quickly as I could.’
‘Well, what is it? Did you give the message as I instructed?’
‘I did, lord.’
‘And?’
‘He is on his way, lord. The king’s steward told me himself.’
Robert nodded and dismissed the boy, who looked relieved that his questioning was finished, and that he wasn’t about to be sent with any more messages for the royal household. The officials of the palace were powerful men, useful to have as allies but dangerous to have as enemies, not just because they had the king’s ear but also because their orders carried his authority. They were respected by lords both petty and distinguished, and the boy had shown determination to have secured the attention of the royal steward.
In honesty, I wasn’t much looking forward to facing the king either. For much as I admired the will that had brought us here to England, and as great as his achievement was in winning this kingdom, nevertheless I feared him, as did many men in those days, both French and English alike. Although few had seen it with their own eyes, we had all heard the stories of how he and his raiding-bands had gone into the north last winter. We had heard how they’d harried the land and its people and despoiled both town and country, burnt storehouses newly filled with the autumn’s harvest, slaughtered sheep and cattle in the fields where they grazed, put entire families to the sword, from hobbling greybeards to the youngest babes in arms, and left the meadows to run with blood as they spread fire and ruin, all in the name of retribution for the Northumbrian uprisings. It was, of course, a long-spoken truth that wars were fought with rape and pillage as much as they were with sword and shield, but the ferocity of his vengeance on this occasion sowed great alarm among his followers, and I was glad to have had no part of it. That one act revealed an aspect to King Guillaume that had rarely shown itself before, but which with each passing day became clearer as this campaign dragged on, as his desperation deepened and his mood grew ever more foul.
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