The Dunston Blade (33 page)

“The biggest problem will be the French ships if they know what we are doing so secrecy is important,” said John. “The fact is that we are going against
the King.”

“That gives the venture the spice I like,” answered Peter.

John thought to himself that he was taking the most risk. They spent the night at one of Peter’s chateaux not far from the coast and after a very good meal
they fell into bed. The next morning John said that they would journey to Nieuwpoort to find berths for their passage home as the Barge had returned after
dropping them off. Peter gave them a note for a friend of his who would be able to help Arriving in Nieuwpoort they made for the house of Peter’s friend
who went with them to the docks and spoke to a ship’s Captain. He said he had room on his ship and he would be leaving within the hour. They thanked
Peter’s friend and went on board. The ship took them back into Yarmouth and they had to walk back to where they had left their horses with one of
Aelfraed’s men on guard. John remarked that his feet were sore and he hadn’t walked so much since he had left France. Spending that night with Aelfraed
they finalised their plans for shipping the wool to Flanders.

It was a fine morning as they set off for home, John was pleased that everything had gone well and then thought perhaps it had gone too well, was trouble
coming! He was deep in thought as they neared a small wood when suddenly an arrow thudded into the ground in front of him. He kicked his horse into a run
and made for the trees. More arrows were coming at them and one struck one of their guards. As they reached the wood John stopped and quickly dismounted.

“Quickly, get into some cover,” he said as he caught the guard who was about to fall from his horse.

John lowered him to the ground as he could hear movement of men through the trees. Stephen and the remaining guard stood in front of John but the man was
dead with the arrow in his heart. John stood and drew his sword, the three of them faced the outlaws as they came out of the trees.

“I am Sir John Ivanson, and this is my land,” shouted John. “Yield now or face death.”

The leader of the outlaws stopped and laughed. “Perhaps he has a purse as big as his mouth lads,” he said. As the rest came together John counted eight men
but not all had swords and only two held bows. John stepped up to the leader and said.

“I have work for men who want it and cold steel for those who rob.”

The man laughed again and lunged at John who side stepped and thrust his sword straight through the man’s chest. It was though time stood still, everyone
froze as John withdrew his sword and looked at the remaining outlaws.

“Who is next?”

One of the bowmen lifted his bow and was immediately felled by a dagger thrown by Stephen. The remainder turned and fled back into the trees.

“Good throw, Stephen,” said John. “We must clean out these woods and send word we will not tolerate outlaws here.”

They hoisted the dead guard onto his horse and set off for Dunston. With the higher taxes and pressure being put on land owners, John could see more of
this type of incident appearing. He was fortunate that his fief yielded good profit so he must use it to protect all his tenants and friends. Arriving home
Tristan informed John that several groups of men had been seen making their way to the coast, possibly to escape the call to arms from the King. John met
the two young Knights together with Roderick and worked out a plan to take a reasonable sized force around the farms and see that the farmers and shepherds
realised the dangers and were prepared. That evening John sat in the hall in front of a blazing fire and looked at the growing family, Jack was now slowing
down and relied more on the lad who had been taken on in the Smithy, Matilda still helped Tania and was a good companion. Harold and Edmond were growing
fast and Tania had employed two girls from the Village to help her. The two young Knights would need rooms of their own at sometime, but where? With the
moat surrounding the Castle the only way to expand was up, he would have to talk to the builder and see what could be done.

Coming in from a morning ride John found he had visitors, Sir Cedric was sitting in the Hall with Tania and the children. The Earl suggested that they talk
in John’s chamber and when they were seated he said.

“I am here to tell you that I have to raise a force to assist the King in his ventures in Scotland and this is to include you and as many men as you have.”

John sat in thought for a moment and then replied to his friend and mentor.

“I will not lie to you and I will tell you I am not in agreement with this Scottish venture. I know we must protect our boarders but I think there is more
to this than we know.”

“You are right,” said Sir Cedric. “The King wants to subdue the Scots once and for all They have come too far south and his intention is to vanquish them
and drive them back behind the border. To do this he will need a good sized army.”

John sat and deliberated and decided to tell the Earl of his plans to export to Flanders himself, and to do this he would need all his men to protect the
farms and the shipments. Sir Cedric smiled and said.

“If you support him now you will find that the taxes will be ended and you will have control over your own wool trade without going behind our backs.”

John said he would give his answer in a few days. After Sir Cedric had gone back to Wymondham John thought hard about the implications of taking his men to
Scotland. He would loose some to death and some to desertion and he could not afford to have that happen. However if what Sir Cedric had said about the
taxes and wool trade were true then he must support the King. A compromise would be to take a smaller force using the excuse of lambing and the increase of
outlaws. With these thoughts in mind he went to find Tania and talk to her. His two sons were growing fast and the years were slipping by and any time away
meant time lost with his family but as Tania pointed out supporting the King would be better than going against him. John sent a messenger to the Earl
asking when would he depart for the North and saying his force would join him.

II

The departure day came and John and Tristan with five hundred men set off for Wymondham to meet Sir Cedric and his contingent. The combined force with
baggage train and support staff numbered close to one thousand five hundred men. They joined the Kings army and marched towards the Scottish boarders,
chasing the remnants of the last Scottish invasion back to their homeland. They were approaching Berwick on Tweed when the scouts reported they had seen a
number of armed men in the woods on the South side of the River Tweed. The Scots were going to try to delay them reaching the bridge into the town. John
rode up to Sir Cedric.

“I’ll take my men and circle behind them.”

The Earl agreed and as the main army moved on to the town, John’s force set off to the right of the wood. They circled behind where they thought the Scots
would be and started to move into the trees. It was not long before they were spotted and a blood curdling yell warned the rest that they were being
attacked from the rear. John’s bowmen quickly took a stand and loosed arrow after arrow into the yelling horde, Tristan blew his horn and John led the
charge of horsemen into the melee. The bowmen drew their swords and followed them, John drove his new destrier forward and the horse barged his way into
the fighting men, stamping and biting while John laid about him with his sword. A huge brute of a man came at them screaming and shouting, Mace, his new
horse, responded to John’s knee pressure and side-stepped, the man was swinging an axe and as he missed, John took off his head. The fighting was ferocious
and the wood seemed full of yelling Scots, then John caught sight of Sir Cedric’s foot soldiers coming in from the other side, suddenly the yelling
subsided and men could be seen trying to make their escape back to the town, with their bits of cloth skirts flying in the wind. There is always an eerie
silence when a battle finishes and the dead are counted, those near death are helped along their way and wounded put on carts. John had lost eleven of his
men, six dead and five who would not fight again. He met the Earl who was also dismounted and talking to the wounded.

“What a crazy, frightening bunch,” said John.

“Hatred of the English spurs them on,” said Sir Cedric. “We haven’t seen the last of them, so be prepared.” They rejoined the main army and moved on
towards Berwick. The Kings forces had taken the bridge and had joined with a force that had entered the town from the West. John accompanied the Earl to a
Council called by the King who had taken up residence in the Castle. Edward outlined a plan to march on Edinburgh and establish a governing body there to
control the Scots. John would have preferred to be marching home, he had had enough of this wild land and wanted to be back in the relative peace of his
own home. When he returned to the house they had commandeered he called Tristan and told him of the plan. On the march north they encountered small groups
of Scots who disappeared before the army, John wondered if they were gathering for a final battle. They left the land they marched over scorched and bare,
feeding off the villages they passed through and killing those who opposed them and some who didn’t. Edward was bent on showing them he was King and
rebellion would be severely dealt with. John did not like this kind of warfare even when Sir Cedric tried to convince him that it was the only way the
Scots understood. He went out on a scouting party to see some more of this inhospitable land. He saw that the standard of living was far below that in the
South, people scratched an existence from the rocky soil and it was only in the larger towns and cities that their wool trade allowed some citizens to
become rich. Returning back to Edinburgh John was given instructions to go back to Berwick on Tweed and start collecting men who would be needed to build
the walls around the town that Edward had planned. They were pleased to leave the mountains behind and were soon marching along the shoreline to Berwick.

Arriving in the town John commandeered the town hall for his base and started to send out for the men he needed. A man approached him who said he was the
King’s Mason and had already designed the walls so John put some of his men to supervising the labourers.

Edward returned to Berwick on Tweed to make sure the walls were going up according to plan and John was given leave to go back home. Tristan and the men
were in high spirits to be on their way back to Norfolk but John warned them to stay alert as there were still roving bands of Scots below the border.

They camped outside York of a few nights and John journeyed into the city to see if the new cathedral had been finished. There were still workmen busy
around the building which John could see would be very large when finished. Tristan found him looking at the new altar and called to him.

“We should move out of this place as there is sickness here, it is fortunate we are camped out of the city.” John joined him and they went back to their
camp warning everyone to stay out of the city and they would move on in the morning.

They marched on getting ever nearer to Norfolk, they lived off the land and stayed away from the main roads. As they neared Norwich the mens spirits rose,
they even broke into song as their feet took them nearer to Dunston.

As they approached Dunston Woods the scouts came back to report that there were several armed men on the track and some were cutting down a large oak. John
halted the column and sent Tristan to investigate, he sent the men to the edge of the wood and to keep out of sight. When Tristan returned he brought
disturbing news, he had ventured to the other side of the wood and had seen a large force of men attacking the Castle. There were ranks of archers shooting
fire arrows high into the Castle and a small catapult firing rocks at the walls. He had crept as near as he dare to the men cutting the oak and it was
clear this was for a battering ram should they succeed in lowering the drawbridge. Tristan said he thought there were about two hundred men that he could
see.

“Did you see a standard,” asked John.

Tristan answered he could see nothing clearly. John called his captains together and organised his attack, take out the men in the wood first quietly if
possible then bowmen to fire at the catapult and any other foe. This would be followed by his horsemen charging the archers while the rest, under Tristan,
followed to destroy who ever it was attacking his home, but John told him to leave a group of horsemen in the woods to defend their rear.

“I do not understand who would do this,” said John. “We are not at war with our neighbours.”

“Remember you fought two Barons in Yarmouth,” remarked Tristan.

“You think this might be a reprisal, if it is then they will go the same way as last time.”

John’s temper was rising and he strode over to the baggage and donned his armour while the rest of his men prepared for the coming battle.

He called out, “Tristan, clear these interlopers out of the woods and the rest of you prepare to chase these beggars from our lands.”

Tristan sent a runner back to tell John the woods were now clear and he could bring the rest of the men up. The bowmen stepped out of the trees and walked
to within range, there was no alarm from the attackers, perhaps they thought they were their own men returning. They soon thought differently as arrows
were finding their marks and men were falling. The crew of the catapult were the first to go down and then it was anyone who turned to face them. There was
pandemonium for a few minutes as someone tried to organise the attackers to face this new challenge. John’s Squire sounded a horn and John led his horsemen
in a charge down the slope to the Castle. They met the attackers head on and a fierce fight began, John and Mace were in the thick of it until the rest of
his men reached them then pushed through the melee to see if he could find their leader. He came through the main fighting to see four riders making off
and by their armour he could see they were nobility. He set off after them with Tristan in pursuit. Mace, even though he was a big horse, had a good turn
of speed and with John urging him they began to gain on the four when out of the wood rode the horsemen that had been left there. The four riders in front
of them turned and tried to outflank them but it was too late and John was amongst them. As Mace barged into the first rider John swung his sword and just
missed the gap between his helmet and shoulder, the rider spurred his horse but Mace hit him again and threw him off balance. John parried a thrust from
his opponent and then thrust his sword into the unprotected part under his shoulder this made him drop his sword and he called out.