Northern Knight (12 page)

We said out farewells and left just before May day.  I think the Bishop was relieved to see us return when I had promised. Perhaps he had thought I might change my mind. If he was disappointed in our numbers he did not show it. With just ten knights, thirty five men at arms and twenty archers we were not a large force but we were all mounted and I was confident that we could discourage any force which came south.  With squires and servants we numbered seventy five in total. I gave the Bishop's banner to Harold who held it proudly aloft.  We headed north up the road which led to Scotland.

Hexham still remained a burnt out shell.  The King's new lord of the manor had yet to be appointed.  As we crossed the bridge I looked at the potential for defence.  If we had to retreat then this was a good place to stop an advancing enemy. The bridge stood and my archers could stop an assault. Although the river was fordable mailed knights and men at arms would not risk such a perilous crossing.

The manor at Chollerford was not a large one and was just a few miles north of Hexham.  The manor house looked as though it had not been altered since the time of King Ethelred. It was a simple wooden house with a drainage ditch running around it.  It looked to be profitable.  There were outhouses and buildings surrounding the hall in an untidy tangle. It looked as though we would be well fed.  I saw cattle, sheep and pigs as well as fowl clucking around the yard. The steward, Ralph son of Athelstan, had a family and they lived in the manor. He read the letter from the Bishop.  I saw the sadness on his face. "My family and I will move out, Baron."

"There is no need, Ralph.  We will stay with our men.  There would be nothing to be gained from having a roof over our head but we will need food." I pointed to the forests which surrounded the manor; there was little land for farming. "I will have my men hunt there but we will need milk, bread and cheese."

He brightened immediately. "It will have to be oat bread, my lord."

I saw Guiscard frown at that.  He was the one most recently arrived from Normandy.  He would learn.  "We can eat oaten bread, Ralph; you have ale too?"

"Yes my lord, fine ale.  It is brewed by my wife." I could see the quality from his girth and his rosy cheeks.

"Then we will have some sent each day." I pointed across the river to the old Roman fort. "We will be based in the old Roman fort."

His wife gripped his arm, "It is said, my lord, that it is haunted and there was a battle near here. St Oswald killed the mighty Welsh King, Cadwallon.  The ghosts of the Welsh warriors wander the wall at night."

I laughed, "We are warriors and we will endure the dead. We have sent plenty to their deaths.  They do not frighten men who fight for God and the Bishop."

We headed towards the fort which was on the other side of the Roman Road. Surprisingly the outer walls of the old Roman fort stood and looked as though they would not require much work to improve them. Edward nodded.  "We can build a sort of gate here my lord and we can make shelters.  This is better than I hoped."

"And I.  I think it must have been built for cavalry.  They look to be stables down there." I pointed to the gate near to the river and the bridge. "I want two men on guard at the bridge at all times.  Sir Richard, assign them." He nodded.  "Dick and Aiden, I want you and the rest of my archers splitting into pairs.  Spend tomorrow finding out what the land looks like and then the day after we begin our patrols. Right now I want you to go and hunt some meat for tomorrow.  It will give you the lie of the land."

Baron Raymond de Brus said, "But we could just stay here.  The Bishop only wants us to stop an attacker.  There are none."

"When I do a job, Sir Raymond, I do it to the best of my ability.  Besides that I do not want to be surprised.  When the Scots come we attack them when I choose not when they suddenly appear." Thus chastened, Sir Raymond nodded and coloured.  I looked at Edward and gave him the slightest of nods.  I would leave it to him to explain to Sir Raymond the way I worked. I had not had the luxury of getting to know my new knight.

We had enough tents for the knights and Wulfric organised the others to use branches to make roofs for the barracks.  I hoped it would not rain over much but we were hardy men and summers were generally dry. When Ralph's wife and children came for us to tell us that food was ready we had already achieved much. We had just begun to eat when our hunters returned.  From the size of their catch there had to be plenty of game in these forests.  With no lord at Hexham and the Bishop in Durham no one would have hunted for some time.  We would eat well.

I had forgotten what it was like to sleep on the ground. Although it took me some time to fall asleep I would soon become accustomed to it.  Leofric seemed excited when he woke me.  "There are many knights here my lord and I am the youngest squire."

"Good, then you will be able to learn from them! Remember your most important task is to look after Star and Scout. They must both learn to trust you. When I go into battle you need to be close enough to see if my mount weakens and then you bring whichever I am not riding."

"Yes, my lord."

Although I was being strict with him, I liked his enthusiasm. He was young enough to see much of this as a game. My words would make him stronger. I sent Dick to the New Castle with orders to find out the disposition of the garrison.  While the rest of my archers scouted I had my knights and men at arms practise some new manoeuvres. If they were disloyal then it might prove problematic. We had to fight as one.  If each part worked well then the whole would have a greater chance of success. "We are mobile and we will use the charge but there will be times when we have to fight on foot." I saw the looks of disbelief on the faces of Raymond and Guiscard. "We have done this before and it can work.  With archers behind us and lances held before us we can deter any enemy.  If we are outnumbered then it is a tactic we will use.  Get your lances and spears and let us try it out."

We spent all morning working out the best way to face an enemy. I placed Edward and Richard on the flanks for they were the most solid and reliable of my knights and I placed my new knights between them along with Sir Guy and Sir Geoffrey.  I left a proud Leofric holding my banner in the middle while I mounted Scout and rode at the conroi as though I were the Scots. Although small in number I was impressed with the appearance we presented. Our array of knights would stop an enemy; of that I was certain.

After three days my archers had explored the land to the north, east and the west. The men at arms at the New Castle, Gospatric's retainers, informed Dick that they had been given orders to protect the river crossing. Dick had no reason to doubt them. He told me that they seemed honest enough.  There were not many of them but they could easily delay an invading army. Edward pointed out that they could not stop a rebel army led by their leader, the putative Earl of Northumbria. I knew that but hoped that Gospatric would not wish to draw attention to himself.  He would be more likely to have others do his bidding. As he had shown the last time he was a shrewd plotter and had distanced himself from the actual rebellion. I was certain he would do so again.

Had I had enough men I would have placed a small number at the south of the bridge at the New Castle but I had to work with those that I had. I sent a rider back to tell the Bishop of the situation and I advised him to have the road from the New Castle watched. He had enough men at arms to do that.  A warning would be all that they would need to give. Secretly I was still convinced they would travel down the road we guarded.  The river could be forded at many places.  When the Romans had built their wall they had known they could not stop the old tribes of Scotland crossing the border and raiding but by building their forts and their wall they could stop them taking their ill gotten gains back. That was my plan. They would try to cross the river first.  It would be later that they would try the river fords.

On the fourth day the scouts reported a column of men heading south. We saddled our horses and, leaving the archers on the crumbling walls of the Roman fort, I led my mounted men to the end of the bridge. The valley rose gently to a high point a half a mile from the end of the stone structure.  We rode to the top of the rise. As soon as we were there we saw the banners of the Scots. It was a large, raiding warband.

"Aiden ride to the New Castle and warn them that there is a Scottish warband on the loose." As he turned to ride I said, "Keep your ears and eyes open.  See how they react."

He grinned, "Aye, Baron." He knew men as well as he knew animals.

If we could see them then I knew that they could see us. The rabble that approached became more organised as their leaders gave orders.  I sought the banners. I was looking for the banner of the Scottish king.  I could not see it.  Nor could I see Gospatrick's banner either.  In fact I recognised none of them. That was both a good and a bad thing.  It meant that we had not fought them before; they would not know us but we did not know them either.

Raymond de Brus' family had estates in Scotland too.  "Baron Raymond, do you recognised any of those banners?"

He peered north, "I can see the banner of Fife and Dunbar but none who are Norman."

Harold had the sharpest of eyes.  "My lord, there are some knights with plain shields and they follow no banner."

"They will be English rebels who do not wish to be identified." I had seen such deception before.

We had the slight advantage of a slope. "Prepare lances." Our formations had been practised. The one we adopted was a line of knights with the squires as a half line and banners behind and then four equal lines of men at arms.  I had chosen the formation because the width of the road allowed it.  The old Roman Road had ditches and scrubby bushes alongside. They would either have to knock us from the road or find another way around.

When I saw them forming a line of knights I knew they intended the former. "They mean to try to destroy us with a charge up the hill. Let us earn our coin this day."

We began to trot down the road. I had impressed upon all of my men the need to obey orders.  Leofric was directly behind me with my banner and it was his movements with the banner which would give the commands. The Scottish knights rode up the hill towards us. I noticed that they came at us in a ragged line.  They were not knee to knee. Our speed increased so that we were cantering.  We needed to go no faster for the slope was with us.  In contrast the Scots were whipping their horses as they struggled up the slope which sapped energy from already tired legs.

I lowered my lance when we were just fifty paces from them.  At twenty paces I pulled back my lance and then we struck their line with a shattering smashing of wood.  Their lack of discipline meant that we knocked aside the five knights who had faced us and the four who followed were pushed into the ditches. The third line did not even have lances prepared.  I saw a knight with a yellow shield try to bring his shield around to his right side.  He failed and my lance took him under his arm as his sword failed to break my lance. Edward, Guy and Richard were in their element.  They had all done this many times before.  My men were constantly at war and it showed. When their spears shattered they drew their swords in one easy and controlled motion.  They did not panic.  The Scots, in contrast, showed that they might have practised with their lances but they had not fought together.  They fought as individual knights.

We had done enough already.  The knights and mounted men at arms had been disrupted.  If we continued to charge we might kill more Scots but we risked being overwhelmed by superior numbers.  I could see a mass of men on foot with spears and they were forming a shield wall already. "Fall back.  Leofric, signal retreat!"

We had practised this too.  We all stopped our horses, punched forward at the warriors before us and then turned. We had the problem of negotiating the road littered with men and horses.  Four Scottish knights were down and would not rise again. Two horses lay writhing with lances in their bodies. Other knights and men at arms crawled into the ditches to avoid the thundering hooves. It would take them some time for our enemies to reorganise.

We had not escaped unscathed. Sir Raymond's horse was injured. I sent him back to the camp.  Tristan had also suffered a wound to his leg and he accompanied, reluctantly, Sir Raymond.

"Wulfric bring up eight men at arms.  If we have to charge again they can lead."

"Aye, my lord."

We watched as the Scots debated what to do.  Harold's sharp eyes saw their intention.  "They are sending men into the woods and forests, my lord.  They are going to outflank us."

"Sir Edward, take the rest of the men back to the bridge.  Harold, stay with me.  They cannot see beyond us and we can return to the bridge when they have tired themselves out in a charge."

The top of the hill felt lonely when they left.  There were just eleven of us. My men at arms were not worried.  I could see that in their posture.  All seemed relaxed. This was a calculated move.  I wanted to show the Scots that we did not fear them. If eleven men could halt them then they might be more tentative in their attacks in the future.

The Scottish knights and men at arms reformed and began to come at us.  Someone had taken charge and they came at us tighter now; they were knee to knee and there were no chinks in their defence. Our retreat would need to be timed well. I knew that they would have their foot racing through the woods.  The Scots liked to use lightly armed warriors who had a helmet sword and shield only. They were fierce warriors and the woods would suit them. They would move almost as fast as the horses which advanced up the road.