Behind the Walls (9 page)

Chapter Thirteen

J
ames Morrison was humming the same ditty over and over again. Daniel didn’t like to ask the older boy to stop but then realised how ridiculous this was. He had signed up to fight Jacobites so why would he feel awkward about something like this? ‘James …’

His fellow guard glanced at him. ‘What?’

Daniel smiled to show there was no malice behind his words. ‘Well, it’s just that you’ve hummed that song about five times now.’

To his relief, James laughed. ‘Whoops! Sorry, I’m always doing that. It drives my mother mad.’

Daniel breathed easily. ‘Ah, it’s alright. So, when do you think we’ll get our ammunition?’

The cannons had been repaired, polished and repositioned on the walls, but as of yet, there was nothing to fire them with. James shook his head and said, ‘Only the great and wise Lundy knows the answer to that question. He’s ordered us to save our gunpowder and muskets.’

Daniel offered, ‘I suppose he’s right. Isn’t he?’

James gawked at him. ‘Do you think so? Reverend
Walker has heard that more Jacobites are heading for us and all we can do, all we are allowed to do, is stand here and bloody wait.’ James blew his nose into his hands and added, ‘And did you hear what the lieutenant-colonel said to the reverend? He told him it was a
false
claim. Can you believe that?’

Daniel hoped that James would leave it at that but he didn’t.

James had spent the morning lecturing anyone who would listen on why Lundy’s response to the reverend’s news was the most stupid thing he had ever heard in his life. He began once more. ‘Imagine you’re a city that refuses to obey the law of the land …’

Daniel suddenly felt tired but he knew it was only because he was about to spend the next quarter of an hour or so listening to James pontificate. Although he had to admit he preferred listening to James over Henry Campsie.

On the plus side, all that was really required of him was to nod occasionally when not scrunching up his features in pretend disbelief. In fact, he could probably get away without doing any of this as long as he agreed with James. That was the important thing.

Earlier that morning Robert had teased his brother about this blossoming friendship. ‘Has he let you fire his gun yet?’

Daniel had made a face in reply. ‘Very funny! He doesn’t
have any powder!’

Robert had smirked. ‘I bet he does have some but it’s tucked into his boots and is too damp from his sweaty feet.’

Before Daniel had been able to say anything else their mother had come into the room, carrying Alice. ‘Robert Sherrard, you’re worse than a gossipy old woman!’

Her sons had laughed.

She had sat down on a stool to rock the baby to sleep and had asked, ‘So what is the news in the town? Is there anything your mother should know?’

Daniel had grinned. ‘Now you’re asking us for gossip.’

Those moments were delicious, when thoughts of defence and war could be forgotten, and they could relax together – two grown boys teasing their mother who wanted to have fun.

On watch, Daniel and James stood and stared out across the Foyle, both lost in thought until Daniel asked, ‘Do you think you’ll get married?’

James was taken aback by the suddenness of the question. Checking Daniel’s expression to see he was serious, he asked, ‘Whatever made you think of that?’

Daniel was telling the truth when he shrugged, ‘I don’t know. It just popped into my head.’

James accepted this as a reasonable explanation. ‘I suppose I will, yes. That’s what men do, isn’t it – find a respectable girl, make her your wife and have a family?’

Daniel asked cheekily, ‘Have you found a respectable girl yet?’

James winked. ‘I might have!’ Then he added, ‘But I won’t be doing anything about it until I know Derry is safe from harm.’

Daniel nodded and said, ‘We’re sort of stuck until this is all sorted.’

James’s gaze suddenly darted to the ground. A tiny movement had caught his attention, his full attention. He bounded off.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Daniel.

James put his fingers to his lips and dramatically pointed to a mouse that was minding his own business. Daniel sighed. James frequently boasted he was faster than a cat and, of course, he couldn’t resist the chance to show off in front of him. It was tiring having to constantly provide a response.

Mrs Sherrard told Daniel that the reason James was so
needy
– her word – was that he was the only child of a doting mother. His father had died when he was a baby and so he was the only man in his mother’s life. ‘He missed out having a father,’ his mother said. ‘I’m sure he envies you and Robert having one another.’

Daniel could understand this and determined to show James more kindness while Robert scoffed at the idea. Daniel wondered if his brother didn’t envy James since he
didn’t have to deal with a parent who stubbornly expected him to be better than he was.
We always want what someone else has
. That’s the conclusion that Daniel reached.

To hide his irritation and also to remind James that he should be focused on working, Daniel leant over the cannon as if to inspect it. He polished it a little with his sleeve, noticing how cool it felt even through his tunic. A spider had spun his web in between the spokes of one of the wheels. When was the last time this gun was used? The web was an inappropriate ornament for such a fearsome weapon. Daniel tore it with his index finger and then had to rub his finger against the wall to release it from the sticky strands.

‘Daniel?’

Daniel decided against looking up immediately.
Let him come and stand next to
me,
where he should be, keeping watch
.

‘Daniel?’

James’s tone was low and urgent, but Daniel paid it no heed.
He has to learn not to keep running off
.

And Daniel might have kept this up had not another guard shouted, ‘Look, it’s them!’

At this, Daniel’s head snapped upwards to see James holding a wriggling mouse by the tail in one hand while using his other to point across the river Foyle.

The cool, silent body of the cannon stopped Daniel from stumbling at the sight of a huge army, newly arrived,
to flesh out the one that had been camped there for ages.

James called out, ‘It’s that lot that Reverend Walker was talking about.’ He dropped the relieved mouse as he added, ‘There’s Lundy’s false alarm!’

Daniel asked, ‘What do we do?’

James spat, ‘Nothing. That’s his orders. We do nothing except stand here with empty guns and watch.’

Daniel watched and felt that the new arrivals were a great deal superior to the old ones. They had more horses for one thing, while they also appeared more disciplined and professional. Another guard joined himself and Daniel and said, ‘They’re taking care to be noticed by us. We’re meant to be trembling with fear now and unlocking the gates.’

James cursed at them while Daniel suddenly asked, ‘Wait! What are they doing?’

The three of them stared and stared until James declared, ‘They’re loading a cannon!’

That couldn’t be right, could it? It was hard to accept this after months of inactivity when the guards at Ferry Quay Gate complained about the boredom of watching the camp do nothing interesting in the least. The fact that Derry might be fired upon had seemed a relevant one back in December but now, five months later, it was hardly considered a possibility – until now.

The older guard muttered, ‘They’re just bluffing!’

Daniel was too polite and inexperienced to disagree, although it struck him that it was a trifle silly to go to the bother of loading up a cannon and not fire it. If the old soldier was prepared to remain still while the enemy cannon was primed and pointed in their direction, James and Daniel were prepared to look foolish and they cowered down to cover themselves.

They needn’t have bothered. Not that the Jacobite cannon wasn’t fired; it most definitely was. Those Papists had the cheek, after all this time, to fire one single cannonball which hit the Newgate Bastion, a few feet away from the boys. Daniel and James jumped up, ready to dash off for ammunition, their fear forgotten.

‘No,’ said the old soldier. ‘Stay where you are. They’re leaving now. See for yourself.’

The two boys saw the men get back in line and an order was made to resume marching again.

‘What is it? What happened?’ Reverend Walker was out of breath, his wig askew. The whole city had heard the solitary boom.

The older soldier replied, ‘It’s alright, Reverend. Just a new battalion saying “hello”!’

The reverend breathed noisily through his nose. ‘They’re going to Strabane to collect more recruits.’ He slapped the cannon, making the boys jump again. ‘How dare they! We should have returned fire.’

Daniel was too timid to point out the obvious, but James was happy to do it, ‘But, sir, we’re not allowed to keep any gunpowder on us … otherwise we surely would have fired.’

The reverend spun around to face them. Keeping an eye on the marching army, he shoved his wig farther up his head. ‘What did you say, boy?’

Daniel saw James falter. ‘I’m s-sorry, sir. I didn’t mean any disrespect.’

‘No,’ sighed Reverend Walker. ‘What you meant was that the individual who thought that they were only a false alarm is the same one who insisted on the gunpowder being hidden away.’

His audience dared not say another word.

‘Tell me,’ said the reverend to the older soldier. ‘Do you think they’ll be back?’ He calmed visibly when the man replied immediately and honestly, ‘Yes, sir. They’ll be back.’ In fact the churchman began to smile, though Daniel thought it the coldest smile he had ever seen. ‘Well, then,’ he said. ‘Let them come back and this time we’ll be ready and waiting.’

Chapter Fourteen

A
dam Murray was having a busy morning. Due to a burst of dissatisfaction with Robert Lundy, he had found himself in charge of approximately fifteen hundred soldiers. How did this happen?

His father had a simple explanation:
they recognise the leader in him and plainly see his courage
. As far as Gabriel was concerned, it was all perfectly natural and no surprise at all. So, he wouldn’t be bothering to congratulate his son on his informal promotion. Adam was still expected to visit, burn his mouth on the soup of the day and sew whatever needed mending.

In truth, Adam was taking it all in his stride. Thanks to Robert Lundy’s fit of temper one evening, Adam only went into Derry when it was necessary. The lieutenant-colonel had ordered the gates to remain locked against hundreds of Derry soldiers who had been out ambushing the Jacobites. Apparently he thought it was necessary to protect the city’s supplies from her own fighting men. It proved too much for some of the men who decided, on that very night, to take the next boat to England. The rest
of them were now following Adam Murray, or Colonel Murray as they called him. They pledged to fight until death, believing that death on the battlefield would be infinitely kinder than handing themselves over to the Catholics. They trusted Adam. He never showed fear; he was always in front, sitting on his white horse, leading the way. He made a perfect substitute for the shady Robert Lundy.

Adam did ask his father if he was alright with his son devoting most of his time to warfare. In ordinary times Adam would have helped out with the farm, but these days there just weren’t enough hours to allow him to do this.

Gabriel was typically blunt. ‘Aren’t you really asking me for my blessing?’

Adam shrugged. ‘I suppose so.’

His father was cleaning his fingernails with the old bread knife. ‘I’ve never stopped you from doing what you want to do and I’m not about to start now.’

There was silence as Adam dissected his father’s words, to find the encouragement in them. Like most sons, he did, on top of everything else, hope to make his father proud.

However, Gabriel, as far as Adam could see, was not like most fathers. Sometimes it seemed that the old man did not have the least bit of interest in what was going
on around him. He rarely ventured away from the farm and did not make a particularly good listener when Adam filled him in on the latest news. No doubt it was to do with his fair age. Gabriel was already in his forties by the time Adam arrived, shocking his poor parents to the core. Now he was a stubborn old man who wanted nothing except to see his wife again. Gabriel never actually said this, but Adam understood it all the same.

Hours later, Adam thought of his father’s blazing fireplace as the weather turned miserable. Instead of polite April showers, blustering gusts of drenching rain embraced Adam and Pegasus as they led his fifteen hundred men across the plains a few miles from Derry.

As he rode, Adam considered the situation. Confusing rumours were trickling out of the city, mostly to do with Robert Lundy’s lack of faith in holding it. And Gabriel was right; this lack of faith was spreading and it was dangerous. Adam heard that a captain and an officer in Derry had been murdered because they had decided that the city was done for and prepared to board a ship that was returning to London.

Adam was shocked by the absence of discipline and loyalty of everyone involved. Lundy’s game-playing, if that’s what it was, was backfiring on him. The people were running out of patience.

‘Sir?’

Adam looked around. Three figures were coming towards them. He recognised two of them to be his own men. The third one was in uniform and looked familiar.

He greeted Adam and introduced himself. ‘I’m Captain Neville, sir. We’ve met before in the city.’

Adam got down from Pegasus and shook his hand.

Captain Neville said, ‘Your men thought it best that I tell you myself what is happening.’

‘I see,’ said Adam, wondering if the captain was fleeing Derry or requesting to join his regiment.

Looking slightly sheepish, Captain Neville admitted, ‘I’ve been locked out since last night, but I’m hoping to get back in. The night guard, a man I dislike, pretended not to recognise me.’

Adam was suspicious. ‘Why would he pretend that?’

The captain hesitated, aware of the large number of ears that were attempting to eavesdrop. Spying a large tree to their right, Captain Neville suggested that he and Adam shelter from the rain, hoping that Adam would understand that this was a conversation for his ears only.

Adam did and agreed, electing only to bring Pegasus with him as a neutral observer. He told his men to continue their march to Brookhall, a couple of miles away, where they were to make camp; he would follow them as soon as he could.

Some of the men demurred, one of them asking if
Adam was sure the captain meant him no harm. Adam raised his eyebrows at Captain Neville who rushed to reassure them that he was one of King William’s men, just like they were. This satisfied Adam’s soldiers who saluted him and moved on.

As Captain Neville, Pegasus and Adam strolled towards the tree, Adam asked, ‘Are you carrying any weapons?’

Too polite to point out that Adam really should have asked that question when he was surrounded by his own men, Captain Neville raised his arms, saying, ‘You can search me if you like. I’m not armed but I’ve a good excuse why not.’

Captain Neville reached out to pat Pegasus on the neck. The horse shucked her head in thanks or perhaps it was irritation. Pegasus disliked windy weather; it made her grumpy.

They reached the tree, the rain slapping the leaves in such a way that it sounded like applause. Perhaps neither man noticed the wonderful smell. The tree was so generous in size and coverage that they could have closed their eyes and been fooled into thinking they were in the middle of a forest.

Adam merely glanced at the captain who needed no further persuasion. ‘Yesterday,’ began Captain Neville, ‘I was part of a group of three that was sent to parley with the Jacobite camp.’ Adam was not expecting this but
didn’t interrupt. ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Lundy said that the city should be surrendered.’ The captain shrugged at the expression of disgust on Adam’s face. ‘Anyway, three of us were selected to meet with Talbot’s man, Colonel Richard Hamilton, to ask about King James’s demands and find out what terms he would grant us.’ Here, the captain rubbed water off the bridge of his nose. ‘It was actually a good meeting, to be honest. We were received with graciousness and told if we surrendered, and handed over all our weapons and horses, not a drop of blood would be shed. Colonel Hamilton was adamant about that.’

Adam stared at Pegasus who stared back. The captain continued, ‘Hamilton gave us a day to consider our answer and promised us that no Jacobite troops would approach our gates while the leaders were deliberating their response.’

Adam stayed silent. He did not … that is, he could not … well, he just wasn’t sure how he felt.
To be promised clemency if we surrendered? That the city would be allowed to continue in peace if it submitted to James, who – it would appear – didn’t want any harm done to her. Does that even make sense?

Oblivious to Adam’s inner turmoil, the captain described how the meeting took no more than a couple of hours. ‘But while we were gone there was trouble. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it seems that fear took hold in the city. Somebody, or bodies, is possibly exaggerating the size
of the army that is accompanying James to Derry.’

Adam had heard that James was coming north but wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not. It struck him as the act of either a pathetic man or a stupid one.

Captain Neville said, ‘Afterwards the three of us presented ourselves at the gate, gave the password but were denied entry without an explanation. I think a little power can be a dangerous thing.’ He looked to Adam for agreement, but Adam was saying nothing yet. Undaunted, the captain continued, ‘We demanded to see an alderman, any of them, but the guards refused to fetch them. Finally my two companions were allowed inside but Colonel Whitney, who was supervising the nightwatch, abused me shamefully and the gate was shut in my face.’

Adam didn’t look particularly sympathetic when Captain Neville said he was forced to spend the night in a stranger’s filthy cabin. ‘Then, this morning, I heard the most peculiar thing. During the night someone found two of the gates unlocked and the keys were missing. Can you imagine the panic that might have caused?’

Adam’s eyes narrowed and he offered, ‘Somebody left the gates open for the Papists to sneak in and spy on us?’

His companion gazed at him. ‘That’s what I thought, only there was no sign that any Jacobites had been inside.’

Adam shook his head, saying, ‘That doesn’t mean anything. A few of them could have made their way inside, to
convince people to surrender. They could have disguised themselves as ordinary folk and done as much damage with words as with guns and swords.’

Captain Neville was struck dumb for a moment. What Adam said made perfect sense. Running his fingers along the trunk of the tree, the captain murmured, ‘Hundreds of strangers living on the streets. Yes, it would be all too easy to mingle amongst them and start one little rumour about atrocities that might befall them if Derry doesn’t surrender. That’s all it would take.’

Nodding in grave agreement, Adam asked, ‘When is James expected?’

Captain Neville looked embarrassed and his voice shook as he gulped his reply, ‘Today!’

There was no time to lose. Adam heaved himself back up onto Pegasus, who seemed surprised at her master’s urgency. The horse had hoped to escape the rain for a while longer.

It was the captain’s turn to ask a question. ‘What are you going to do, Colonel?’

Adam didn’t pretend to have a plan. ‘I don’t know yet but I have to do something.’ With that, he directed Pegasus towards Derry. The city was about four miles away and the ground would be soggy from the rain. He spurred the horse into action, thinking,
how could they just give up like that? Have they no pride?

As Pegasus thudded against the soft earth, sending clods of mud flying in her wake, Adam ordered himself to stay calm. The first thing he had to do was reach Derry before the Papist king.