Pistoleer: Edgehill

by Smith, Skye

  "No, not in Cambridge. I don't want to put the lives of bystanders at risk,” Oliver told him. "Look here on the map. For a dozen miles the highway is absolutely straight and built up high on an ancient Roman road and for most of the way there is no other road. We have decided to block the road there, three miles before Huntingdon and a quarter mile north of the crossroad at Fenstanton. It's a place the locals call Loler Hedges because there are dense hedgerows on each side of the road."

  "But they will have scouts,” Daniel pointed out. "The scouts will see your blockade and have the carts turn off at the Fenstanton crossroads towards Hemingford Grey. There is another road from there to Huntington. See, there on your map."

  "I know it well,” Oliver said with gleam in his eye, "for I used to have a farm on the other side of the River Ouse near Saint Ives. While Valentine and his mounted band are blocking the highway, me and my infantry band will be blocking the other road. We will block it where the road runs along the river bank, which means that the convoy of carts will be stopped alongside the river's tow path."

  Daniel nodded as brought that part of the Ouse to mind. When he was a child that part of the river was not navigable because the millers had built so many weirs. Once Huntingdon and Bedford needed coal, the river way had been cleared out again so that coal barges could be towed up the river.

  "That is why we need a few of your ships,” Oliver continued. "While I keep my cousin Henry and his mounted guard busy, the ships come alongside the carts, scare the carters off, transfer the cargo to the ships and then head for Ely. That is the only place where the road runs along the river, other than a narrow tow path. If we block the tow path then Henry can't follow you."

  "It's an interesting plan,” Daniel said while walking through it in his head. "Lots of things may go wrong but if enough things go right it could work. I like it. You are robbing a military convoy rather than the colleges, so if you are caught and charged with highway robbery you can claim it was a militia action ordered by parliament. That may not save you two from being hung as thieves but it will save your men."

  Cromwell loosened his collar with a finger at the thought of being hung as a thief. "So you will help us?"

  "I'll put it to the vote by the crews. May I borrow this map to explain it to them? Venka will give you something to eat while I do that." Daniel stood and began to walk away, but then had a thought and turned back. "We will need the ships in Hemingford Grey ahead of time and we don't want the villagers to be frightened into reporting us to a constable. Do you have any friends there who will vouch to the village that we mean them no harm?"

  "Many,” Oliver replied. "I was a cottage farmer near there for six years."

  * * * * *

  A single rider pulled up hard just in front of the Freisburn Two, the first ship he came to. The rider leapt down and ran over to the ship and called out in a hoarse whisper for Oliver. When Oliver and Daniel stepped forward out of the shadows he told them, "The convoy has left Cambridge. It's running hours late because our man Minshull dithered for so long about how much to send. Eventually he sent the carters away empty handed ... as you told him to."

  "Have you told Valentine?" Oliver asked.

  "Of course. He figured that you have about two hours to wait."

  "How many guards, how many carts, how many men on the carts, and how is everyone armed?" Daniel asked.

  The rider screwed up his nose while he thought and then said, "There are forty guards split between the front and rear and ten side riders and scouts. All of them are mounted. Henry Cromwell is at the rear, and Reverend Oley is leading because he grew up around here. They all have swords, but less than a quarter carry pistols. There are seven carts and each has but one carter per cart, ugh, each of them has a blunderbuss."

  "That would be Barnaby Oley, the president of Clare Hall College,” Oliver told Daniel.

  "Bugger,” Daniel said with a curled lip at the mention of the blunderbusses. He went from ship to ship along the towpath to tell all of this to the crews of the three small ships. Well at least in the sea they were small ships. Here on the Ouse they dwarfed the narrow river barges.

  He had to pick his way between the stretched out bodies of sleeping men and muskets and pikes, the sixty men of Oliver's volunteer band. Valentine had twenty mounted men at the blockade on the highway but they would not come here to help them. After the convoy was diverted they would be busy moving their blockade closer to Huntingdon, just in case the convoy escaped Oliver.

  His own crews added twenty more, and they were the only seasoned fighting men, and the only ones carrying dragons and pistols. Hopefully Henry's mounted guards were as green as Oliver's infantry. Hopefully there would be enough confusion in the darkness for this to all work. Hopefully the carters wouldn't get a chance to use their blunderbusses. Blunderbusses, they were bad news for his crew because it was his crew who would be attacking and unloading the carts.

  "I don't like the thought of facing blunderbusses," said Anso, the large man who took Daniel's place as the clan's elected warlord whenever Daniel wasn't about."

  "I agree. Instead of bringing the ships up to the carts one at a time, we'll bring up two at once. That will give us more dragons in case the bloody carters give us grief. That will still give us one ship in reserve in case we need to rescue any men from the horse guards." If things did not go well, the ships would be the escape route for Oliver's infantry. That would be Anso's role.

  They let the dozing men lie for another hour, and then they began to organize the trap. It was actually three traps. One for the leading guards, one for the carts and one for the trailing guards. This section of road had the river on one side and a thick hedge of brambles on the other with a wood of young elm behind the brambles. Oliver’s men had cleared some narrow paths through the brambles so they could hide behind the hedges with the trees. Two of those trees had been chopped almost through and Oliver had men standing by them to push them over.

  Once everyone knew their positions and knew what was expected of them, Oliver's men spread out and hid behind the brambles. They waited for another half hour before hearing the clumping of hooves on the sun baked clay of the road. Three scouts rode by, and Oliver's men ducked and kept silent. They had no interest in the scouts so they let them ride on towards Huntingdon.

  About five minutes later there was the sound of more hooves, a lot more hooves. This would be the advance party of guards led by Oley. Everyone stayed hidden and silent until they had passed by, and only leaped into action once the creak and squeal of cart wheels was right in front of them. With pry bars and ropes they bent a half cut elm towards the road until it toppled, slowly at first but then faster as it crashed across the road in front of the first cart horse.

  At nearly the same time, the seventh cart was passing the men standing with the second elm, and they toppled it to crashed across the road. Their timing was slightly off, and the crashing tree smashed the back of the last cart. The trap was sprung. The carts had been separated from the trailing guard and from the leading guard not just by the weight and heft of the tree trunks but by all the branches and leaves.

  There was confusion everywhere on the dark road with men yelling and horses neighing and every man on horse or cart fearful of being shot at from the woods. There were orders being yelled to dismount and take cover, but instead the horsemen were keeping to their saddles preparing to flee. This was good news for Oliver's plan, for so long as these guards stayed mounted, they could not squirm through the fallen branches to reach and protect the carts.

  Two looming shapes came down river from the other bank and nudged up beside the towpath next to the trapped carts. As soon as they were close enough to the bank, the crew leapt ashore and ran at the carters yelling, "don't fight us and you won't be hurt."

  The men who had felled the trees were running at the carters from behind brambles using the cut paths, and they were also yelling. There was confusion everywhere, but Oliver's allies knew exactly what to do. The
carters had all reached instinctively for their blunderbusses, but at the sight of so many men spread out and running towards them pointed very large pistols, they let go of their guns and held their hands up high.

  "No time to tie them up,” Daniel called out to his men. "Let the brambles hold them." All seven of the carters had their blunderbusses taken from them, and then were herded away from the carts and physically launched into the bramble hedges where their clothes and skin were immediately held fast by hundreds of tiny sharp hooks.

  While the crew who had captured the carts got to work heaving and carrying the crates of silver from carts to ships, other men feigned an attack on Henry and his guards to the rear of the trap, while others feigned an attack on Oley and his guards to the front. Feigned was the right word for these attacks because they weren't trying to hurt anyone, just trying to keep them disorganized and moving so they would not dismount. So long as they stayed mounted and directionless in the dark they were not a threat to anyone but each other.

  Feigned as the attacks were, they were still noisy with howls and yells and the popping of guns and the smell of gunpowder smoke, but absent from the noise were the cries of anguish that would mark injury. Eventually Henry must have realized that the attack was a sham for he convinced most of his men to dismount and break through the elm branches to reach the carts.

  All this time the heavy crates had been manhandled to get them aboard the ships. Daniel was standing watch for any sign of Henry's men breaking through the felled trees. At the first sound and smoke of a pistol firing through the branches, a decision was forced on him. Fight them off using deadly force, or flee on the ships with what they had already loaded.

  He had no desire to start these men killing each other, for it was not just Oliver who would have relatives on the other side. His decision was to flee. He yelled for everyone to load what they were carrying and then climb aboard, and before any of Henry's men had ventured far through the tree branches, the two ships were being pushed away from the bank and towards the other side of the river. Once the ships were six feet away from the bank he blew three times on his whistle, long and clear ... the signal to all the ambushers along the river that it was all over and to get to safety.

  Anso on the reserve ship upstream from the carts, began blowing his whistle and yelling at the men who had been harrying Oley's leading guards. These men did not tarry and ran around the village end of the bramble hedge and raced across the road to the river bank. The second that everyone had scrambled aboard the reserve ship, Anso steered it away from the bank. By the time Oley had realized that there was no longer men behind the brambles taking shots at him, the reserve ship was moving down river, and all he could do was watch as the ship glided over to the far bank.

  Oliver and his men waited until most of Henry's men were through the downed tree and amongst the carts, and then they charged out from behind the bramble bushes, crossed the road and then ran down stream along the tow path to wait for Daniel's two ships at the place where they had completely blocked the towpath to horse traffic. No one was following them, so the ships even had time to put out gangplanks to load them.

  "Did we get it all?" Oliver asked eagerly once he got aboard. Not, 'is anyone hurt', or 'are we missing anyone'.

  One of his volunteers answered, "Over half."

  "Half, then why did you sound the retreat?" Oliver said as he gave Daniel a hard stare.

  "Because to take more would have cost lives,” Daniel replied. "Ours and theirs. It wasn't worth it."

  "But only half?"

  "More than half. If there were 20,000 pounds in all then we got twelve and they keep eight,” Daniel told him. Oliver was one of those people who always looked at his ale pot as half empty rather than half full. He hailed the other treasure ship with, "Any sign of Anso?"

  "He's catching up,” came the reply. "There's no sign of any horsemen following us."

  "Well at least your cousin Henry has decided that half is good enough,” Daniel said pointedly to Oliver.

  "Well it's not good enough for me,” Oliver said in a temper. "Turn around. The carts will still be there until they can clear the blockage."

  "Forget it Ollie, you have more important things to do,” Daniel told him. "I'll drop your men off around the bend so they can march back to Cambridge."

  Oliver was about to argue his plan to take more of the silver, but then the words 'important' and 'march' stuck in his mind. "March? Why when we can get almost all the way to Cambridge on these ships by way of the Ouse and the Cam."

  "Because that would take too long, and you want your men back in Cambridge before first light."

  Oliver had begun a count of heads to make sure that no one had been left behind. He stopped his count to ask, "Why?"

  "Didn't you even look at the faces of the men you were shooting at. Cotton and his constables were with your cousin." Cotton was the Sheriff of Cambridgeshire. "I suppose that was to add respectability to the convoy."

  "No I didn't notice. And besides, we weren't shooting at them but around them." Oliver stated defensively. As he said it he dearly hoped that his cousin Henry realized that they were trying their best not to hurt anyone. "But what has that got to do with my men having to march home."

  "Well, if Cotton and his men are here and on their way to Huntingdon with what they saved of the silver, then who is guarding Cambridge castle? Isn't the militia arsenal kept in the castle?"

  Oliver's eyes went wide. "Put over to the towing path, quickly,” he told Daniel and then went to roust his men by calling out, "Take up your gear, quickly now. We are marching back to Cambridge." That same message was relayed to the other two ships and within a half an hour a troop of men were following Oliver along a farm road back towards the highway.

  * * * * *

  The clansmen rowed the ships only as far as the pool caused by the Cam joining the Ouse. There they rafted the ships together, set a watch, and slept until daylight. The pool was a safe enough place to stop because there were no roads nearby, and the land all around was marshy.

  The morning light showed them that it was too risky to attempt taking two tons of silver and their solid and heavy packing crates by ship to Cambridge. If they ran aground on one of the mud bars, then they would be sitting ducks for any royalist force that may be looking for them. Instead all three ships continued on towards Wellenhay where for sure they could guard the treasure.

  Daniel jumped ship at Ely and claimed one of the clan's saddle horses from the Winchford road stable, and rode to Cambridge. Everything seemed calm enough in Market Place, but when he approached the castle on Bridge Street there were many folk standing on the bridge and around the castle, all of them having a good chin wag. Not that it was much of a castle anymore. Most of the outer walls had been quarried to build the fine college buildings that now surrounded it, and all that remained of the gate house was now the Sheriff's Gaol. The keep was still complete and held the magazine and arsenal of the militia.

  After tying his horse to a bush, he walked into a group of tradesmen and had a good listen to the gossip without drawing attention to himself by asking questions. Apparently early this morning parliament's militia led by Oliver Cromwell had captured the gate house and the keep, and were not allowing the Sheriff's men to enter. No one knew where the Sheriff was.

  "So is Oliver inside now?" he asked, finally breaking his silence.

  "Nay," said a baker who had witnessed the whole event just before dawn. "there are only about five men left in each building. The rest of them marched off across the bridge as soon as it was light." It was enough to tell Daniel that he was in the wrong place to find Oliver so he mounted up and went back over the bridge into town.

  Eventually he found Oliver outside Trinity college. He was surrounded by college masters, rabidly angry college masters, and eventually he signaled his militia to come forward and clear the area around a coach and four. Once the masters were held back behind a human held fence of pikes, another master was led
out of the main entrance to Trinity and stuffed into the coach.

  "You can't do this,” the master was yelling. "Someone stop this travesty."

  Oliver stared at him and said, "You promised me you would come quietly if you were aloud to pack some things for the trip. Now shut up." His sleepless night had not improved Oliver's mood. He saw Daniel in the growing crowd and motioned him over.

  "Danny, can you keep the silver safe for say a week while I am in London?" Oliver whispered.

  "I suppose. What's up?"

  "I am taking the College head masters to London with me to explain to Parliament why they sent all of their silver to the king." As Oliver said this a squad of men carried some heavy chests to the coach.

  "It looks like that is not all you are taking to London."

  "If they can afford to send their plate to the king, then they can afford to send the rest of the college treasures to London."

  "No wonder the masters are so angry,” Daniel cackled and grinned. "There goes their pay. Are you going to close down the colleges?"

  "Not if they behave themselves. Not yet anyway. Some of the students are very young and they still must be provided for."

  "So I take it the town is yours."

  "Parliament's. The town is parliament's. Valentine will be in charge while I am in London. Is there anything else you wanted to ask, for if not I will say goodbye. My coach has three more stops to make before we leave for London."

  "God speed, Ollie,” Daniel said and patted the man on the back. The new commander of Cambridge climbed up into the coach without even saying a thank you for the night's work, but then he had always been like that. He always said please but rarely said thank you. Oh well, it was nice to see someone else being decisive besides Warwick. Parliamentary committees rarely were.

  What was it that Warwick always told him, "Ask for parliament's forgiveness, not their permission". The quote from such a powerful man had always bothered him, because that was exactly how Charlie had been ruling the kingdom for the last dozen years, or at least, trying to rule it.