Outlaw (Aelfraed) (15 page)

I looked at our men at arms; they were sharpening weapons and talking easily to each other.
  They were confident for they had never suffered a defeat. Those who had been at Fulford and Stamford, the few who remained, had left the battlefield with their weapons and the dead enemy remained. They would not worry about the Normans.

Branton and his archers arrived shortly before dusk.
  He was grinning from ear to ear. “They are coming, my lord and they are angrier than a wrecked wasp’s nest.” He pointed to the south. “They are about a mile away.”

“Did you lose any men?”

“Just one archer, his horse fell and he was surrounded.”

Aethelward looked at me, “They will know our numbers then.”

“Rafe will not talk.”

Aethelward shook his head. “He will for the Normans are a cruel people and they will torture him.
  It matters not, Branton, in fact it may aid us for they will know that they outnumber us. Place your men on the flanks and put your horses at the rear with the boys.  They are the horse guards today.”

I turned to Osbert, “Now Osbert.”

“Stand to arms!”

Every man took his place, eager to face the enemy. I nodded to him, “Unfurl the banners, and let them know who we are.”

Sarah and the women had busily sown the red horse on a white background and the huge banner looked magnificent as it fluttered overhead.  Ridley signalled to his sergeant and his banner, slightly smaller but no less magnificent was unfurled.  He had two smaller red horses on a green background. The Normans would have an incentive to close with us and that is what we wanted.

One of the sentries on the hill shouted, “Riders coming in.”

Every weapon was readied and then we saw that it was the last of our scouts coming from the west.  The other archers recognised them and began hurling ribald insults at them.

“Where the fuck have you been? Shagging sheep?”

“Overslept?”

“You’ll be late for your own funeral.”

The leader rode up to me; he was one of Branton’s men.  “Sorry we are late sir, we found a column of men.  They were heading up the Roman road towards Ripon.”

Aethelward frowned.
  “How many and who was their leader?”

“There were about fifty knights, a few hundred horsemen, thirty crossbowmen and two hundred foot.
  They had no banners but were led by an older man dressed like you my lord and that Norman tosser from Jorvik; the one who doesn’t like you.”

“Guy of Evreux!” He nodded.

“And I would guess that the man dressed like you is Copsi.”

“Uncle if they join with these then we are in trouble.”

“No but I worry about Topcliffe for Guy of Evreux knows where you live.”

That thought had not crossed my mind and now it infected it.
  The few men we had left to guard it could not withstand an assault by almost a thousand men.  I prayed that they were heading for Ripon. My thoughts were interrupted by a shout from the sentry again, “Enemy in sight.”

The thundering hooves of the approaching horsemen confirmed the sentry’s warning. The line of light horse reined in when they were five hundred paces away.
  They had expected to fall upon a few archers and suddenly they saw a wall of iron facing them. The numbers grew and we saw the Norman knights with the Perci banner come to the fore.  They surveyed the scene and we waited for their attack.

Aethelward said, confidently, “They will not attack tonight.”

“How do you know? “

“Look at their horses.
  They have ridden hard carrying armoured men. I can see that they are lathered. If they do attack I will be surprised for they will lose.”

He was right for we saw them withdraw to a low hill about a mile away in the lee of the white horse.
  They began to set up their camp. I turned to Osbert.  “Stand the men down but I want a screen of sentries to warn us of their approach.  Light the cooking fires on the other side of the hill.” He looked at me strangely, “we need our sentries to have no distractions.”

Ridley nodded, “I remember in Wales Aelfraed.
  Those sentries did not see us for they had fires burning.”

“I will do so my lord.”

The three of us watched the Normans for a while until night fell completely and all we could see were their fires. “Do you think they will come tonight?”

“I would, nephew, if I were Perci.
  If only to see what the terrain is like. If he does not then he is a poor general and tomorrow will be easy.  If he does then we will have our work cut out on the morrow. But as a precaution have the men take water from the stream and soak the ground behind the ditches on the flanks.  It will not hurt them but it will slow down any advance.”

I ate as I walked around our lines.
  I wanted my men to see me and gain confidence from that but I also wanted to be close to the front line in case they did come.  Ridley copied me and followed me around but Aethelward was tired, and if I am honest, not well.  He retired early leaving the watch to us. We saw the fires dim and then the night was black. “Ridley, you get some sleep now and I will wake you at moon set. You can have the early watch.”

Reluctantly my friend went to bed.
  “Osbert.  You sleep now and I will wake you in an hour or so.  I may need some company then.”

I could not sleep anyway.
  My mind was filled with the worry of Maiden Bower. Should I have left more men to defend it?  Could I have sent the Queen and my people to Medelai? None of this was any use for it was in the past but it tormented me that I had been so keen to bring the Normans to battle that I had forgotten my weakness, Maiden Bower. I wandered amongst the sentries, ensuring that they were alert.  Their teeth showed white in the night and they nodded their respect.  Suddenly we heard a cry and we drew our weapons. There was another noise and a second cry. I turned to the sentries next to me and held my finger to my lips. I then signalled for them to go forwards with me.  When we reached the ditch we saw the scurrying shapes of the enemy scouts who had fallen foul of the ditch and the stakes.  It was dark and I could not see but when morning came I expected I would see some blood on the sharpened spikes.  Our defences had been effective.

When Osbert relieved me I fell into a sound sleep. The fact that they had come meant that it would be a hard day and I knew that we had to defeat them quickly to enable me to find out where Guy and Copsi had gone. If the Normans did not attack the next day then we would have to.

We were up and fed before dawn, anticipating an early attack. They had seen how few we were and they would have identified the fyrd, distinctive by nature of their lack of uniformity. Of course they did not know that our fyrd were better trained and prepared than those who had died with Harold. Branton and my archers each had two quivers; one held the mail breakers or as they came to call them, knight killers, and the other the normal arrows with a broad barbed head. Aethelward sat astride his horse just behind the men at arms, the better to survey the enemy ranks.  It was he who saw them advance.

“Here they come.”

William of Perci had brought bundles of faggots which they intended to lay in the spike filled ditch. “Archers, take out those men.”

The range was just over a hundred paces and the archers sent over flights of fifty arrows at a time.
  Even though each faggot bearer had a warrior protecting him with a shield, they took heavy casualties.  They were brave men for they succeeded in covering the stake lined ditch, some of them with their dead bodies.  William’s herald lowered a pennant and the light horse, armed with a spear and shield and covered in leather armour, galloped forwards. Osbert began to bang his shield with his spear and it was taken up along the line.  I knew how unnerving that sound was. It was a message to the horsemen that we were not moving. As soon as they crossed the ditch the land began to rise and that allowed Branton’s archers to aim at the horses on a flatter trajectory.  It also visibly slowed up the charging horses. The front rank was decimated and the few who threw their spears and javelins did little damage to our shield wall.  When they retreated there were dead and dying horses scattered along our front and the dead horsemen amongst them.

“He is sending the crossbowmen against the archers.”

Branton nodded his acknowledgement.  I saw that the foot soldiers began to advance steadily towards us.  William of Perci was no fool.  My archers were not numerous and could only fire at one target. He was sacrificing his crossbows to enable his infantry to weaken us. I turned to Ridley and Osbert who were standing just behind me. “As soon as the first men are across the ditch we will charge them.  They will not be expecting that.”

They both grinned and Osbert shouted, “Shield wall!” I stepped back between Ridley and Osbert.
  If we went into wedge formation then we would be the tip.  The line which approached us was ragged and not continuous.  The men in it had not trained as we had.  They might outnumber us but we were organised.

The first fifty had crossed the ditch and Osbert yelled, “Forwards!”

We moved quickly, but without running, towards the line of foot soldiers.  I held Boar Splitter above my shield and identified the warrior I would be striking.  He too had a mail shirt and the Norman helmet with the nasal.  His shield was a shorter version of the kite shield used by the knights and in his hand he held a spear. We were a solid line and the brave man advanced towards it. I could see that I was taller and I mentally adjusted my aim so that I would strike downwards. The advantage of a round shield was that any blow which struck the top would slide around the side.  The man before me had no such aid and when I stabbed down he reacted by pushing his shield up.  He was too slow and all he succeeded in doing was driving the spear head into his skull.  I twisted the blade out and looked for another enemy. I saw, from the corner of my eye that Osbert and Ridley were slightly behind me.  We had ended in a wedge formation. Around me I could hear the sounds of battle, cries of joy and death screams. When I saw the ditch a little way ahead I shouted, “Charge! Push them in the ditch!”

Even though they had filled in the ditch it was uneven and, as we hit them, they fell, to be stabbed and stamped upon as they lay on the ground, pinning their writing bodies to their own faggots. “Withdraw!”

We pulled back steadily to our original position. I turned to look for Aethelward but I could not see him.  I checked down the flanks and saw that the crossbowmen had retreated and most of Branton’s men remained. Branton himself came running over.  “Lord Aethelward has been struck by a bolt.  He lives but he cannot direct the battle.” He saw the shocked look on my face.  “He will live my lord.”

There was a lull as the Normans regrouped. We had taken few casualties but they had been badly hit and their confidence dented. They still outnumbered us.
  I watched as they divided their horse.  The knights took their right flank while the lighter horse took the left. The mauled foot and crossbowmen began to advance up the middle.

“Branton use your mail breakers against the knights and send the other archers to the right.”

There were only a hundred knights and they thought they would ride through my archers and attack our flanks.  They would have a shock coming. “Ridley, go to the left side of our line, Osbert, take the right.” I needed two experienced heads if the archers did break. I glanced behind me.  There was now no-one to command the fyrd now that Aethelward had fallen.

I was gratified to see that the foot moved cautiously towards us. Their resolve weakened the closer they came to us and they were forced to clamber over their dead comrades. I was able to watch the knights as they rode up the hill towards Branton. I say rode rather than charged for it was, perforce slower than they would have liked, mainly because the ground was wet and the horses carried a heavy load. I wondered if Branton had delayed his men too long for the horsemen were but sixty paces away and he had not given the order.
  The men before me were a hundred paces away and trudging rather than marching towards us.  I heard, “Loose!” from Branton and turned to see the twenty arrows fly towards the Normans. Ten knights were plucked from their saddles and two horses veered away from the deadly missiles hurtling towards them. I could almost feel the shock.  Archers did not worry the Norman knight but when they saw their fellows with arrows sticking out of them, it unnerved them. The rest of the knights halted and covered themselves with their shields.  Whoever was in command decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retreated down the hill. It did not save them for Branton and his men continued to pour arrow after arrow at them. Only half of their force reached their own lines unscathed.

The archers on the right had not fared as well and I saw fewer flights flying from their arrows. Luckily Branton saw their plight and I saw the resourceful sergeant send ten of his archers to reinforce them. Then I was too busy to notice as we became engaged.
  Crossbow bolts flew over our heads and began to strike the fyrd. I turned and roared, “Fyrd! Up shields”

My men already had their shields up but some of the less well trained paid for it with their lives. We strode forward to
engage the men at arms. Boar Splitter stabbed and jabbed at all before him and I could see the fear in men’s eyes.  No-one wished to confront the Red Horse and the deadly spear. I was in that happy state warriors sometimes achieve; I was in a rhythm of stabbing and punching; it almost seemed effortless. One of my victims fell sideways clutching the shaft of the spear, my weapon was torn from my grip. In one fluid motion I slid my shield around to my back and took up Death Bringer.  Our line was looser but my men, who surrounded me, knew my action and they moved out of the circle of death as the axe began to weave a path before me.  The warriors before me had terror in their eyes.  They stabbed their spears at me but my new armour deflected most of the blows and those that did strike me did not penetrate Ralph’s excellent work. One warrior, braver than the rest, attempted to step inside my swing; with a slight correction the axe head sliced through his helmet and into his skull. The soldier behind tried to take advantage as I withdrew my blade but the warrior next to me thrust his spear into his mouth, already shouting his triumph.