by Smith, Skye
"My God," Waller blasphemed as he stared into the chest. "Oh my God." He dove a hand into the chest and lifted out a fistful of silver coins. My God, this chest is filled with silver."
"And there are nine more like it," Rob told him. "Ten chests of Dutch leeuwendaalder, er, Lion Dollars." Such dollars were the shaved coins that the Dutch use for trading instead of the full rijksdaalders. "I believe that these are the pay chests for the royal army, or perhaps just the pay that was promised to the Welsh infantry for joining up. The chests were in a cleverly hidden hold under the floorboards of this cabin. Every privateer ship has such a hide. It took me hours to figure out where it was and how to open it."
"So that is why Maurice is coming here," Waller said as he closed the chest. "Silver coins are the most dispersible of wealth and the king needs it as much as we do, more even. Rather than him using it to pay his army, we can use it to pay ours."
"I suggest that I sail it and this ship out of here as soon as possible and get them to the safety of Bristol."
"Yes, of course. No, let me think," Waller replied. He sat staring at the open chest, lost in thought, while Rob poured and served kofe in the finest of china imported from the China's by way of Holland. "Yes you must take this treasure in this ship to Bristol, but first I have another use for this ship. It must load up my artillery, my camp carts, anything that will slow my flying army down and carry them across the Severn to Aust so they can safely make their way back up to Gloucester."
"You mean to take your whole army across, don't you?" one of the staff officers said, looking a bit confused.
"That would take too long with the few ships we have captured," Waller replied. "We have thousands of horses, and I refuse to abandon them to Maurice. No, I must split my force into two. The slow part goes by ship across the Severn, while my flying army rides north to attack Maurice. Without our carts and ordinance, we can surprise them and break through to the safety of Gloucester."
* * * * *
The Dragon of Bristol never did carry carts, ordinance, or horses down the Wye, because even the slow half of Waller's army could march as far as the mouth of the Wye. Even there the Dragon did not carry them across the Severn to the town of Aust, because it was too clumsy to load them onto the tall ship. While the smaller coastal ships that Rob and his lads had captured carried the carts, ordinance, and horses across, the Dragon shuttled the people across.
There were a lot of people. When armies traveled, the injured moved with them, the prisoners moved with them, the carters and swampers moved with them, the camp labour moved with them, and an ever growing number of women of various reputations also moved with them. The further an army traveled, the more numerous were the camp followers. General Waller had over a thousand mounted fighting men riding with him, while Rob, a mere captain, was put in charge of transporting almost an equal number of people across the Severn.
The crossing went without incident until the very last load. The Dragon was the last craft to pull away from the Wye mouth, because her last load included the infantry who had been the guard around the embankment. As these men were making their way to the ship to load, they were attacked by royalist cavalry. There were more than a hundred cavalryers so it was likely an advance force of Maurice's flying army.
Rob, on the Dragon's bridge, could see immediately that the royalist cavalryers were not so much interested in the slaughter of infantrymen as in the capture of the ship before it could cast off. Unfortunately for the cavalryers, they ignored Waller's infantrymen at their peril. These were not untrained Welsh lads, but London lads who had marched halfway across the kingdom with Waller and had been in and out of battles for the entire way.
It was senseless to risk any man's life when safety was as close as the ship's gangplank, so Rob sent some of his own lads as runners to the infantry squads to carry his orders. So it was that when a trumpet blared from the bridge of the Dragon, every man jack of them dropped to the ground and pushed their faces into the dirt.
What happened next took the charging cavalryers by complete surprise. The ship's cannons began to fire at them one at a time in a steady sequence. As the seven culverins loaded with grape filled the air with smoke and debris and lead shot, the cavalryers prudently retreated to regroup. Once the cavalryers had retreated, the cannons stopped firing, and the infantry jumped to their feet and ran for the safety of the ship. Before the cavalryers could regroup, the Dragon had slipped her lines and was drifting away from the embankment with the current.
The infantryman standing beside Rob on the bridge pulled his trumpet down from his lips and stared with wonder at the battlefield. "How could so many cannons injure so few horses or men? It beggars belief."
"The gunners were aiming high on purpose," Rob told him, "so we wouldn't hit any of our own men. Perhaps a bit too high, out of caution."
An hour later the last of the slow half of Waller's army stepped ashore in Aust, and began the twenty mile march to Gloucester. It was all through friendly territory, so Rob bid them fare-thee-well and he and his men sailed the Dragon and the smaller ships down the Severn and up the River Avon to Bristol.
Rob did not leave the bridge of the Dragon until they were snug alongside the inner quays at Bristol, for he was so proud to be the master and commander of this ship, of all ships. As a child in Bridgwater, in better times when his father had been the mayor, he had sneaked into his father's library late at night so that he could listen to the worldly adventures as told by Thomas James himself, about this and his other ships. And now here he was in command of that amazing adventurer's last ship, the Dragon of Bristol.
* * * * *
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The Pistoleer - Roundway Down by Skye Smith Copyright 2014-15
Chapter 17 - Talk of Bermuda in Wellenhay in April 1643
Since Daniel had left Lowestoft by ship he did not see Colonel Cromwell again until they met in the port of Lynn near where the River Great Ouse emptied into the Wash. While Daniel's trip had been comfortable and uneventful, Oliver had chased the Royalists fleeing from the rising at Lowestoft overland through Norfolk and Suffolk. In Lynn they met at St. Anne's fort, which had originally been built to protect Lynn from pirate attacks soon after King Charles had lost the navy at Cadiz. Both men had gone to the fort's garrison office in search of orders, letters, or other messages.
Oliver was handed a satchel of documents, whereas Daniel was handed just one envelope. The college educated Colonel scanned his various papers in less time than it took Daniel to read the two pages that he pulled from his envelope. Both men cursed through their smiles, not realizing that each was reacting in the same way to the messages until their eyes met.
"It must be the same news," Oliver pointed out.
"I very much doubt it," Daniel replied, "unless you have just been selected as the next Vice-Governor of Bermuda.
"Closer than you think," Oliver said through a laugh. "I have been nominated as the next Governor of the Isle of Ely. However, until the paper work is done and it is put to a vote in parliament, I am to be acting governor."
Daniel did not immediately congratulate Oliver. His own village of Wellenhay may be considered a part of that governorship and he was weighing the pro's and con's of this news for his village. The pause seemed pregnant so he hurriedly said, "I was expecting to be made Governor of Bermuda, not vice-governor."
"I was expecting to be made Governor of Cambridge, not Ely."
"My appointment comes with promises of better," Daniel told him.
"As does mine," Oliver replied. He looked around at the other officers in the office and asked quietly, "Where can Captain Vanderus and I go to speak privately?" It was a politely veiled order from the senior officer in the room - leave and give us our privacy. The other officers all calmly, but hastily, left the room.
Once they were gone Oliver said, "John Hampden wants me to gather the militias of the entire Eastern Association and march them towards Oxford immediately.” John Hampden was perhaps the s
martest man in the kingdom and the strategist behind John Pym, and the Reform Party, and the Providence Island Company. He was currently the colonel of the regiment protecting Warwickshire from the random lootings of royalist cavalryers.
"You said he wants ... not orders?" Daniel asked.
"He cannot order it. Only Lord General Essex can do that. He has gone to Windsor to convince Essex that now is the time to strike directly at the king in Oxford, so this is his notice to have my militia assembled, prepared, and close enough for a forced march once Essex gives the order to move on Oxford."
"Why now, why the hurry? Assex has done nothing all spring, so he is not likely to do his job now, is he?" Daniel mentally chastised himself for saying Assex instead of Essex. It was becoming a bad habit which could cause trouble for him in certain military circles.
"The Duke of Newcastle is moving his army south to join with the king. With the help of the German mercenaries and the weapons that Queen Henrietta was able to land at Bridlington, the duke's army of northerners and papists seem to be unstoppable. General Fairfax was given the task of stopping the duke and the Queen from breaking out of Yorkshire and reaching Oxford, but his army is now in full retreat. Hampden thinks that now is our last chance to take Oxford before it is resupplied and reinforced."
"But that has been true since Henrietta landed in February," Daniel said, almost guiltily because despite his best effort, he had not been able to stop the German-Dutch-Royalist invasion. "Something else must have changed."
"William Waller has defeated the Welsh army," Oliver said with a smile so wide that it connected both his ears. "Oxford can no longer be resupplied nor reinforced from Wales or the West Country. The only army that Charlie has in the field in the Midlands is Prince Rupert's flying army, and a third of that is riding with Prince Maurice to keep Waller busy. Now is the time. If the Eastern Association sweeps into Oxfordshire from the east and Essex from the south, then Oxford can no longer be a haven for Charles. He will either have to surrender, or retreat north."
"But, but," Daniel was forming his words as he pieced a map of kingdom together in his head. "But if you march from Cambridge for Oxford with your militia, then you take the risk that the duke's army coming south from York will sweep in behind you. If even I have thought of that, then it would have been obvious to Hampden."
"Of course Hampden has thought of it, which is why he has strongly suggested that I assemble the Eastern Militias. Even if they aren't needed for an attack on Oxford, they will be needed to help General Fairfax stop the duke's army from marching south and pillaging and punishing our most loyal counties. Besides which ... and this you must speak to no one.” Oliver looked around the room nervously and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Parliament has just approved a hundred thousand pounds payment to have the Scottish Covenanter army cross the border and attack the duke's army from the north."
"No, the fools," Daniel stood back aghast and had a hard time keeping his voice down. "The Scots will plunder everything from the River Tweed to the Humber."
"Nay, nay. That is why the huge sum. Those pounds are in the place of plunder. They may pillage the royalist armies and camps, but not the towns, villages, or farms along the way. The Scots are expected to use part of that fortune to buy what they need from the locals."
"Trust me, said the priest to the choir boy," Daniel quoted. He sighed and then began to ask about what was happening locally. "What happened to the nob royalists you chased out of Suffolk and across Norfolk?
"That is why I am here. They've gone to ground around Lynn."
"That makes sense since the governor here is a royalist. What is to happen with them?"
"I will leave it to Sergeant Major Sherwood to ferret them out, for I must ride for Cambridge to send out the orders to gather the militias, as Hampden requested."
"And what of your new duties as the Governor of Ely?" Daniel asked, hoping for an honest and open answer.
"Duties, hah," Oliver grunted. "I have been nominated to the post because some of the lords in London were getting reports that their estates near Ely were being squatted on and tilled by Fens cottagers. Nothing worries a land lord like the prospect of someone making an honest living and not paying them rent. I am to put a stop to the practice."
The reply was bad news for Daniel, as his own village and its partner villages were the worst offenders for claiming land back to common use. "You! But it was you who petitioned the courts that too much land was being stolen from the commons by absentee landlords. And now you are expected to uphold the claims of those landlords?"
"It may seem like a cruel irony, but I see John Pym's wisdom written all over my appointment. With me already filling the position, no wealthy landlord can be appointed to it and clear the cottagers off. Pym wants every fallow field planted this year, else we will be facing a hungry winter due to the king and his thieving armies. In comparison, the questions of ownership and rents are of little consequence to our grand old cause."
The news that his folk were to be allowed, nay, encouraged to reclaim the commons, was such a relief to Daniel that he almost whooped.
"And why did you complain about being appointed the Vice-Governor of Bermuda?" Oliver asked. "That is surely a great honor for a common man such as yourself."
"Robert Rich promised me the governorship," Daniel replied. Robert Rich was the Lord Admiral and Earl of Warwick, and the richest man in the kingdom. It was his fortune that backed the Reform Party and the Providence Island Company. "He has promised me the governorship for two years now, and each year I have agreed to be sent on dangerous missions in expectation of that appointment. Now he offers me less than he promised."
It occurred to Oliver that this would mean Daniel was moving to Bermuda. He had his own plans for Daniel and his capable and dangerous clan. "You can always refuse the offer and gamble he will better it," he said cagily.
"I cannot afford to refuse it," Daniel told him. "You know as well as I how brutal the winters are becoming, and how much shorter the growing season is. I promised my clan a better life somewhere warmer, and this is our best chance yet."
Oliver frowned. It was the fast ships of the Wellenhay clan that moved troops and supplies along this coast for the Eastern Association. Almost sheepishly he asked, "And so your ships will be moving to Bermuda?"
Daniel gave him a sly look. "Not on our first journey. If you can make do with half of our ships and crews, then so can I, but just make sure that our charter fees are always paid in good time."
"Of course," Oliver said, losing the frown. Of course not all of the clan would move to Bermuda at once. They would first send the young and strong to build a new village in Bermuda before moving the rest.
* * * * *
Wellenhay's communal longhouse was warm and safe and Daniel was wrapped in a length of the linen-cotton cloth that the women used for everything from bedding in their cottages to towels and wraps in the communal bath house. He had just spent a pleasant hour the bath house and for the first time in weeks he felt clean. For the first time in weeks his weapons were not with him. Perhaps it was this feeling of safety rather than the warmth of the longhouse that was making him nod off. For the first time in weeks he was 'off' watch.
The rest of the elders of the Wellenhay clan were all around him and loudly squabbling and complaining about Daniel not being made Governor. Sarah had his papers in her hand and was trying to shush them. Sarah had that certain glow to her, the glow of being with child, Robert Blake's child. He was so happy for her, and for Robert, and for himself. If the bairn were a son, and Sarah had assured him that it would be, then Robert would marry her to claim his heir, and she would once again be a first wife of a good Christian man, rather just one of Daniel's second wives.
The noise of the squabbling drowned out Sarah's shush. Cleff, the eldest of the men, was saying how being only the Vice-Governor did not assure their clan would be ceded the land of the Warwick Tribe of Bermuda that Robert Rich had promised them. This was critic
al because they needed enough waterfront land to build a fishing village and enough other land to grow the all important, life giving coconuts.
The arguing had been going around and around without resolution. The truth was that that no one knew for sure what was going on in Bermuda right now. Not with Robert Rich's estates there, or with the current political and financial state of the islands. For all anyone knew, the Spanish could have taken it over on behalf of King Charles. Bermuda, after all, was all alone in the middle of the Atlantic and a month's sail from England.
A shrill whistle hurt everyone's ears and they all turned to look at Sarah who then let her emergency whistle slip from her lips. Everyone in the clan, in this village, and on any of their ships always carried an emergency whistle on a thong around their necks - just in case. The marshes of the Fens could take you unawares at any time, as could the slippery decks of their ships.
Sarah held up Daniel's two letters for them to see. "I want to talk about this second letter, not the first," She told them. Sarah was not actually an elder of the clan, not like Venka, her elder sister and Daniel's other second wife. This because Sarah had married out of the clan to a Christian from Cambridge, and had returned to Wellenhay only after being widowed.
Of the entire clan, however, she was the only one who had formally attended school and was able to read and write formal English and understand the nuances of the florid and garbled and silly 'written' version of the language. Silly was how all of the folk of the North Sea viewed the French half of English, the 'written' half. It was so difficult and illogical, unlike the Frisian half of English, the oral half, which was simple and natural.
"The first letter," she explained to them, "is Daniel's appointment as vice-governor bearing the seal of the Somers Isle Company but still needing the signature of two of the directors.” Somers Isle was the original name of Bermuda, and the company was a part of the mighty Providence Island Company. "The second letter is from Robert Rich personally, and it explains the terms of the appointment." Robert Rich was the governor of both companies, and the richest man in the kingdom.
