by Smith, Skye
"Boulogne is closer," Raynar mentioned. "Why hasn't Count Eustace cleaned out this nest of pirates?"
"Boulogne pays them tribute to stay away. As for the rest of us, for the Frisian and Danish and Flemish ships, any that come too close to those harbors are taken, and their crews sold to the Normans as oar slaves. My advice is to ignore the fortress until you have cleaned out the pirates. Once the pirates hear that there is a new castellan at the fortress of Montreuil, then they will be away, and your opportunity will be gone."
Raynar pulled out the map of the Montreuil coastline he had copied in Paris while he waited for the wedding to end. "Here, here, and ah, that must the third cove. Yes," said Canute running his finger down the line that depicted the coastline, "you see how close they are to Boulogne, and how they can control the traffic along that coast where the Manche is the narrowest?"
"Have you ships in Flanders that could help us?" asked Raynar. "This would be normal work for your men."
"No, I sent them back to Denmark when I heard of the wedding. I will travel back along the pilgrim route of the Germans." He laughed . "Perhaps if I travel slowly enough the Danish winter will be finished before I get there."
"That is why you need to take a big Danish wife," Raynar half jested and held his hand farout in front of his own breast to mimic large tits. "One who could keep you warm all winter."
"She would nag me to death either for spending too much time in the church, or not enough."
The discussions about the three pirate havens between Montreuil and Boulogne set Raynar’s mind thinking, and when he reached Oudenburg he went straight to Hereward to discuss his plan. Hereward agreed with the plan. He was now overrun with bowmen and seamen, as shipping traffic was at a crawl in expectation of winter storms. All three of his longships had now been refitted, which meant Raynar had the use of four ships including the Anske. Together they could easily carry an extra hundred men in addition to their normal crews.
Hereward began giving orders to outfit the ships and collect the men and supplies, while Raynar rode to Brugge to deliver some of the Count's messages to the palace. The most important message was that the treaty and truce with France was complete. The other was to send a small garrison of mounted men to escort the women home from Paris. In the way of palaces, delivering such simple messages took two days.
By the time Raynar returned to Oudenburg, the town had woken from its late fall stupor, ale stupor, and wine stupor, and men were rigging and loading the ships. The longest delay in sailing was finding a pilot who knew the coast around Calais and the harbours of Montreuil. They did not find any for two days, but then two of Hereward's captains each found one and they contracted both of them.
Early next morning, Roas and Hereward stood on the dock together, with her curled into his arms as they waved a long goodbye to their ships and men.
The goddess Freyja helped them with her tides and by providing a stiff onshore wind. Not trusting the autumn weather, the ships sailed close to each other and close to land, and at night they rafted together for their own safety. It was a hundred mile sail and they hardly dipped an oar for the duration. They made it with only two nights spent at sea, and the second night was but a few miles from the northernmost of the pirate havens.
It was barely light the next day when they neared the mouth of the northernmost harbour. Raynar and four men boarded one of the fishing skiffs they were towing and rowed for shore. From where they landed on a desolate beach, they had a two-mile hike to the headland from where they hoped to spy out the harbour. It is never that easy, is it?
The climb off the beach was exhausting. The headland had no good view of the harbour, so they had to hike inland around the small bay. Eventually they realized that with the curve of the headland, their skiff was less than a mile from where they ended up after such a long, hard scramble.
The harbour was calm. The only boats afloat were some fishing skiffs like theirs. The larger ships were all dragged up on the beach to where only the highest tides could reach them. The high tides were a blessing from Freyja. They had four days of high tides ahead. Raynar made a count of the ships and their sizes. The winter village that the pirates had built, or occupied, was a half mile inland up a steep valley. It had been situated to be out of the winter winds, despite being a goodly distance from the ships.
Four hours later, at high tide, all four of his ships entered the harbour under oar and made for the beached ships. Raynar told the men over and over, "We are not here to fight. We are here to steal ships. Without the ships, the men can be mopped up by the men from the fortress."
A hundred men went into the shallow water as soon as the ships touched bottom. They used a hail of arrows to make sure no watchers made it as far as the path to the village, and then they set up a line of pikes and bows across the path and up the steep sides of the valley in both directions.
Meanwhile, the oarsmen laid down the skid logs between the beached ships and the water. Once in place they knocked out the beam supports that held the ships upright, ran the ships' anchor lines out to their own ships, and then hauled the ships towards the water using foot power, and finally oar power.
There were three longships and two cogs on the beach and they had floated all but one of the cogs before they heard screams coming from the direction of the village. They had been discovered. With everyone working on the last cog, they floated it quickly and then called to the bowmen to retreat to the ships.
The bowmen began leapfrogging in a covering movement, backwards down the beach, keeping the pirates at a safe distance by the virtue of the long range of their longbows. Once the bowmen on the ships could cover them, the last ashore made a mad dash into the sea and hauled themselves into the captured ships, which were now under tow and the closest ships to the beach.
Once outside the harbour they put minimal prize crews on the five captured ships and rafted them together for safety, and then the original four ships sailed further south to the next pirate haven. The captains jointly agreed to follow the same plan in the second small harbour, except that they dispensed with sending a scouting party ashore because they did not have that much light left in the day.
Stealing the ships of the second harbour was easier than stealing those of the first. There were four longships, but only one of them was beached. While the wolfpacks once again cut the beach off from the village ashore, the bowmen in the ships slaughtered the watch on the pirate ships, and prize crews boarded them immediately. It took less than a half an hour to float the last ship, and they were away again making for open water.
The rafted prize ships from the first harbour had by this time made it to the mouth of the second harbour, where they were joined by the newly captured ships which had their own prize crews aboard.
It was dark by the time they reached the mouth of the final, and largest of the wild harbours, and the closest to Montreuil. They spent a wretched night rafted together, every oarsman sleeping over his oar. The watch were constantly fearful of changes in tides, and currents, and wind, and wave. Listeners were posted to be alert to a change in the sounds of the sea that would portend reefs and rocks and bars. By morning the prize ships had caught up to them despite their awkward drifting pace.
With light enough to see the shore, they realized that their luck had changed. Either they had been spotted by a watcher high on the cliffs, or a runner from the second harbour had warned this pirate village. Whichever the case, the beach was crawling with men ready to defend their ships.
This harbour was different because it had a fresh water estuary, and the ships were all anchored in the river and anchored against the flow of river or tide. Of a total of five longships, three were still afloat while two were settled into the mud flats. Of a total of three small cogs, two were afloat while one was over on its side and looked to be under repair.
The captains and the seconds stood on the shoreside ship of the raft and grumbled in disappointment. "I expected some of them to make a break for it. We
could have blocked their way and then rained arrows into them until they surrendered," moaned Raynar.
"As it is," said the eldest captain, "we can't get near any of their ships because if we enter that river they will be onto us in one mass, climbing all over us like ants on a honey cake."
"There are certainly a lot of the buggers," said another.
They waited at the harbour mouth trapping the pirates in, but not able to steal their ships, and without manpower enough to land. Hours passed, but at least the weather held.
"Maybe your message never got through to Edgar," said the elder. Their plan all along had been to take this last harbour from both sea and land. They had sent a messenger from Oudenburg to find Edgar and tell him their plan and their likely arrival date. "Not to complain lad. We've taken a fortune in ships already and with but a handful of injuries."
"Agreed," replied Raynar, "we did good work yesterday. Damn good. Unfortunately, the men from the other harbours will now come here to ship aboard, and the pirates will still worry this coast."
There was a call from the bow. Activity on the beach. Two longships were fixing their oars. "Right then!" yelled Raynar, "we get two more in any case. Unlash the raft, all oarsmen to their places. All bowmen string your bows. Time your shots well, men and conserve your arrows. Concentrate on the steering oar first. Kill any bugger that touches it. Once they must steer by sweep, aim at the far side oarsmen that have less cover. Kill a few and their oars on that side will get tangled and they will row in circles."
Just as the two longships were coming into range, there was another shout. Another three ships making a run for it. There was fighting on the beach. Raynar squinted into the morning sun and mist. "It must be Edgar on the beach" he yelled to the other ships. "Damn it," he said to himself, "I hope we don't run low on arrows." Then shouting to the bowmen. "Go easy on the arrows, men. Make every shot count."
Their four ships, bristling with bowmen, made short work of the first two longships. They both lost steering almost immediately and then they were like sitting ducks. The other three ships, one a longship and the other two cogs, were making for the far side of the harbour mouth at speed, so Raynar signaled his three longships to break off from this fight and intercept them. They power turned using the sweeps, then the oarsmen pulled at double speed, and the ships hissed through the water toward the pirates.
The first two pirate ships were drifting in the wind back towards shore. The Anske kept within bow range of both, but well out of grappling range. If one of the pirates ever got a grapple on her, she would be swarmed. Each time the pirates manned the steering oar they lost men to the powerful arrows. Each time they organized the sweep oars to do the steering, oarsmen fell wounded across their oars, causing their oars to drag and jam the others.
Eventually one of the longships came dangerously close to a reef, and Raynar hailed them that they could use their steering oar again, but not to try to escape.
On the far side of the bay, the two cogs were dead still in the water. The longship was still moving, but in a slow circle. A number of the men had grabbed their axes and shields and were standing as if waiting to be boarded. None of Raynar’s ships would close. They had their orders. Stay out of grappling range and use their arrows for short range slaughter.
The Anske was now close enough to shore to view the battle on the beach. It was not much of a battle. So many of the warriors had fled to the ships to be quickly away that they left behind mostly the old, the weak, and the women on the beach. Some groups were trying to flee north, some south, some inland, and some were kneeling on the beach with their hands away from their sides to show they were unarmed.
The wind was Raynar's friend today. It blew the drifting pirate ships on both sides of the harbour towards the beach where Edgar's men were waiting for them. The pirates eventually realized that their situation was hopeless. In a crossfire of arrows from the beach and from the ships that were blocking them in, they would all be slaughtered. They offered to resign, and were allowed to splash to the beach so long as they carried no weapons.
When the prisoners were all ashore, Raynar’s bowmen disembarked from their ships, and then the ships' crews towed the pirate ships to the growing raft of prize ships now anchored in the center of this, the largest of the harbours.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The Hoodsman - Courtesans and Exiles by Skye Smith
Chapter 24 - English castellan for Montreuil sur Mer in October 1072
As Raynar stepped out of the shore break and up onto dry beach, Edgar ran forward and hugged him hugely. "My God! It has been too long since I have felt this joy of winning a battle!" He waved an arm that pointed at the number of prisoners, and the number of ships. "I count twelve longships and five cogs captured. That is a fleet."
"The ships are safe enough guarded by my crews," replied Raynar, "but you need to go now and exercise your writ from Philippe and take control of the fortress. There is no other place that we can guard this many prisoners."
Edgar turned and yelled to Fulk to join him and together with some English lords and all of Fulk's French, as well as Robert and his Corbie garrison, they rode back up the valley to the fortress. As they half-expected, the castellan refused to open the gates for the new garrison.
This was a looming disaster for Edgar for they had not the men, equipment, or authority to lay siege to such a grand fortress. They did not even have enough men to hold all the prisoners securely. When Fulk heard of the refusal he rode alone up to the gates, with his famous standard flapping in the wind and ordered the gates to be opened in the name of the king. The importance of Fulk's presence at Montreuil should never be understated, though he never did bloody his sword.
The gates were eventually opened by knights who had family in Anjou and had no desire to anger their count. In the end they were forced to hold the castellan at knife point to do this. These knights claimed later that they would follow Fulk to hell and back, whereas they would not follow the castellan even so far as the gate.
The fortress was massive. Not only were the slopes up to the walls more like cliffs than steep slopes, but the walls were long and high and they well defended the small town that was inside. For times of siege there were holding pens for horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, and these were now put to use for holding the prisoners.
With the help of the existing garrison, now under Edgar’s command, Raynar's bowmen tied the hands of the prisoners and marched them up to the fortress gate, where they were told to wait in a long line stretching down the road. Raynar hiked the length of the line to reach the gate and realized that there was a great mix of folk in the line. At the gate he found the various lords arguing in three languages about how to process so many prisoners before they lost the daylight.
Raynar stomped past them all, and up to the new castellan, Edgar, and said simply, "Put me in charge of the prisoners." Edgar measured the resolve in his face, his words, and his body language and bowed to his old friend's wishes. He gave the order, and when the lords complained, gave it again. They all stepped back and left Raynar to do the work.
From the height of the road at the gate Raynar could look down the sea of worried faces, and at the weary faces of his own bowmen. He yelled to the closest wolveshead, "Pull a dozen women from the line and bring them here to me." Within moments a dozen women were standing in front of him, shaking with fear.
He held up his arm and gave a signal and his personal wolfpack all trotted forward to stand with him. He explained his plan to them and to the women. The line was to march through the gate. As each of the folk entered the fortress, the women were to decide which pen to put them in. He showed them all the pens.
"I want the leaders of the raiders and the most evil of the men in that pen." He pointed. "Those that were armed followers by choice, in that pen, and those who were forced to fight in the pen beside it." He indicated another. "Men that were not warriors in that pen." Again he pointed. "And all women, children, or
wounded in that pen." He gestured one last time and then turned to his audience and asked if everyone understood.
They had understood, but his second raised the obvious question. "How will we know who is who? They have no weapons. No leader will admit to it. All warriors will swear they were forced."
"These women will tell you. It is they who are to do the sorting. You just make sure that the women are safe from the men, and that the men go to the correct pen and go peacefully."
There was no better way of understanding than to do, so they began with the first five men at the gate. It took three hours to do the sorting, often delayed by arguments between the women on some decision. In the end, there were about thirty men in the leader pen, two hundred in the two warrior pens, fifty in the non-warrior pen, and about a hundred people in the women’s pen, about half of whom were badly-wounded men.
Edgar and Fulk and a few of his knights spent their time interviewing the men in the leader pen, while Raynar spent his time in the women’s pen instructing them on how to care for each of the wounded. He was kneeling beside one man while instructing a woman on how to staunch his bleeding, when the woman slapped the man's wound.
He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her away from the man, who was now in agony. "What do you do? He is wounded. He needs care."
"Fuck you, English!" said the woman in Flemish. "He abducted me, he raped me, and he killed my child. The only care he will get from me will keep him in pain for as long as possible before he dies."
Raynar let go her arm and looked around at the women. They were ragged and had marks from beatings new and old. He gathered those closest towards him and spoke to them. He had to repeat his words in four languages. When he was finished he waved them away, and those women began gossiping with others in the pen.
When darkness fell, a rotation of guards was formed to watch the pens. Raynar shouted but one order, though in four languages to prisoners and guards alike. " If any prisoner steps outside the pen, they will be shot by the bowmen. "
