Authors: Edward Marston
4 Under Siege (30 page)
A VERY MURDERING BATTLE
1709. Europe is in the grip of the coldest winter for a century. France suffers most - after the fierce frost comes a famine as the cattle die and the harvests are poor. The people are starving and mutiny rattles the French army. King Louis XIV searches for peace on almost any terms, and negotiations commence in The Hague for a settlement with the English.
Captain Daniel Rawson is at those negotiations as an interpreter, but the talks collapse, and Daniel finds himself once again at the behest of the Duke of Marlborough. This time Marlborough needs Daniel to track down a missing and priceless tapestry, which he does, but after a visit to England, he becomes embroiled in the battle of Malplaquet, a campaign that will become famous throughout history as one of the bloodiest of the War of the Spanish Succession.
E
DWARD
M
ARSTON
was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over thirty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children’s books or literary criticism, plays or biographies.
www.edwardmarston.com
T
HE
C
APTAIN
R
AWSON SERIES
Soldier of Fortune
Drums of War
Fire and Sword
Under Siege
A Very Murdering Battle
T
HE
H
OME
F
RONT
D
ETECTIVE SERIES
A Bespoke Murder
T
HE
R
ESTORATION SERIES
The King’s Evil
The Amorous Nightingale
The Repentant Rake
The Frost Fair
The Parliament House
The Painted Lady
T
HE
R
AILWAY
D
ETECTIVE SERIES
The Railway Detective
The Excursion Train
The Railway Viaduct
The Iron Horse
Murder on the Brighton Express
The Silver Locomotive Mystery
Railway to the Grave
Blood on the Line
The Stationmaster’s Farewell
The Railway Detective Omnibus:
The Railway Detective - The Excursion Train - The Railway Viaduct
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
London W1T 4EJ
www.allisonandbusby.comHardcover published in Great Britain in 2010.
Paperback edition published in 2011.
This ebook edition first published in 2011.Copyright © 2010 by E
DWARD
M
ARSTONThe moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.ISBN 978–0–7490–4017–8