Red Man

by Andrew Wareham

  Micah had not heard of Shakespeare and did not beg that his ignorance should be enlightened.

  “The pastor and his ilk will not approve of such doings, sir.”

  “Bugger them! We shall go across the seas and find a place where a soldier is appreciated, Red Man. For the nonce, let us get on with winning this war!”

  They marched on Romsey and found a number of squires on their way. All of the country gentlemen took a single look at the half mile long column of footmen and the very fierce-seeming squadron of horse that walked at their head and discovered that they had always loved Parliament.

  The first door they knocked at set the pattern.

  “Tell me, Captain – what can I do with my taxes? I have held back my money for not knowing how best to send it to the proper place.”

  Micah smiled at the pale-faced, pacific gentleman who addressed him, a man dressed more as a farmer in doublet and breeches than as one of the gentry, but clearly prosperous from the quality of the cloth on his back.

  “Why, sir, I am permitted to accept tax receipts for Parliament and will write you a docket for them. It could be as well for you to pay some part of your dues in kind. Was you to deliver a fat bullock or two, or some sacks of flour perhaps, they could be deducted from the monies you owe. Were you able to encourage some of your men to march behind our colours, equipping them with strong shoes and jerkins and such, that would also count against your impost, and would display your loyalty. Have you perhaps a son or other young man who is at home on a horse who could bring sword and pistol to the ranks of my troop?”

  “My younger sons might both ride with you, Captain, but they are men of birth and breeding, should not be mere troopers.”

  “They will not remain so, sir. The army is to recruit many more troops of horse and young men with experience of riding to war will soon rise in the world, as they should.”

  Unspoken was the acceptance by both that sending sons to the ranks of Parliament committed the squire to the cause. He could not later claim to have been a Royalist when he had bidden his boys to fight against the King.

  “I have but two pistols, Captain.”

  “We have some in our baggage train, having shot down the traitors who carried them. Likewise swords, but no breast-and-backs.”

  “My grandfather and his brothers sailed out of Poole in earlier years, sir.”

  Micah knew the correct response to make to this in the south of England.

  “So did many of the best of our ancestors, Squire.”

  “Well said, sir. The Spanish felt their strong right arms, I believe. I have their helmets and personal armour, sir, and their heavy swords, though not to match the blade you wear.”

  “The backsword? A strong blade and one I have an affection for and have used on occasion.”

  “The boys will join you inside the hour, Captain. I will order a pair of fat bullocks to your train as well. Was we to say thirty pounds sterling, in silver, sir?”

  “Excellent, sir! Was you able to discover a strong ploughboy or two, we might well take five off that sum.”

  The troop joined the march three hours later, four young men walking at their heels and two volunteer troopers waving farewell to indignant mother and sisters who had thought the family supported the King.

  The end of the day saw a full platoon of green recruits learning the beginnings of the soldier’s trade while Sergeant Fletcher instructed six of young gentlemen in their commands.

  “Most excellent, Red Man. Eight head of beef cattle; two sheep; six goats in milk and eleven sacks of flour. The men will eat well these next weeks. The sick will have milk to strengthen them. The regimental purse is better off by more than one hundred pounds which will allow us to make useful purchases in Poole or Salisbury, if we get there; Romsey will be too small a town to offer anything of value to us. There is much to be said for a rich and out of the way farming county.”

  There was also twenty pounds apiece in their personal purses, that needing no mention.

  The town of Romsey was also prosperous - but sullen. The feeling of the burgesses was for the King and they scowled mightily at the Parliamentary troops, not realising that hostility gave the regiment freer rein to mulct them.

  “We would have taken proper taxes from our supporters, Red Man. From the disloyal, we may extract fines as well!”

  Micah was inclined to wonder whether they should be so eager in their raising of money. Daniel assured him that it was nothing compared to what would have happened in the years overseas.

  “They would have lost every penny in the Germanies, and their daughters as well. These folk do not know how well off they are, Red Man. Order the Mayor to call his councillors or aldermen or burgesses or whatever they name them here to come to session. They will also be the magistrates, all the authorities of the town in one.”

  The Mayor was easily found. He was a fat little man and had donned his chain of office, to display his importance, was stomping along the High Street towards the group of officers assembled for orders at the market square. Micah intercepted him.

  “I am Captain Slater of Colonel Jevons’ Regiment of Foot, in the service of Parliament. We are instructed to bring the county to the proper and peaceful service of the lawful authorities of the land. We also shall collect all outstanding taxes and such contributions of money and men as shall be available. I would expect all loyal men to dig deep into their pockets in this time of urgent need; to that end I would wish you to bring together the leading lights of the town at your town hall or such building as you habitually use. It is now eleven o’clock, I see, sir.”

  Micah pointed to the clock tower, itself evidence of a prosperous little town.

  “Shall we say for two o’clock, sir”

  “I cannot be expected to drag busy men from their places in the middle of the day at the behest of a rabble of ignorant soldiery!”

  “Oh, well, if that be so, do not bestir yourself, sir. We can do without your services. The men might prefer to sack the town. Major Carew!”

  Daniel looked up from the group he had been giving orders to.

  “His Worship the Mayor believes us to be an ignorant rabble, sir, and will not offer his peaceful cooperation.”

  “He will not? How foolish of him. Take your horse in two parties, Captain Slater, and block the road in both directions so that none may escape the town. I shall give the orders to ransack every property.”

  The Mayor changed his mind, begged them not to be precipitate, apologised for words spoken hastily and without proper thought.

  “The burgesses can be assembled within the hour, sirs! I will send for them now. In the Town Hall, sir, which you may see not half a furlong distant.”

  “Let it be so, Mr Mayor. The sack will commence by one of the clock if your council is not assembled and willing by that hour.”

  The Mayor had turned bright scarlet, sweating under the not especially hot sun, stuttering in his eagerness to serve. He pledged himself to instant action. He ran, his white-stockinged legs twinkling under his breeches.

  “There is money in this town, Red Man! The Mayor can spend out on cotton stockings, well dyed, not miserly wool!”

  Micah had not noticed that detail, was much impressed by Daniel’s wisdom.

  The two senior officers stood in front of the borough council assembled - eight well presented burgesses, each a tradesman of the town and wearing working clothes that were in no way worn or torn. There was a town clerk as well, sat at his own proper desk and with pen and ink and white paper to his front. The Mayor had a raised table, facing the eight. The room itself, the council hall, was nearly eighty feet long and fifty broad, panelled in New Forest oak, old and mellow, could be used for assemblies, and perhaps for town meetings if such might be called.

  Daniel raised an eyebrow to the clerk who begged his worship to open proceedings.

  The Mayor stood and rapped on the gavel to his front.

  “The meeting is called to order. We have bee
n brought to assemble to hear the extraordinary requests of the regiment of troops currently present in our town. Best the officers present should make them known to us to deliberate upon.”

  Daniel stood forward.

  “I am Major Carew, officer commanding the battalion in the service of Parliament. There has been complaint made of disloyalty against the town and I am here to pacify this part of the whole county. I have so far discovered the people of Hampshire to be well-affected towards Parliament and to oppose the man of blood, Charles Stuart. I much trust I shall find the same here, that the rumours of treason are false. I would wish to see taxes paid in full as evidence of loyalty and would be happy to accept voluntary contributions above and beyond such duties.”

  The burgesses scowled, but none were stupid. They had thriving little businesses in the town and wished to survive in them, not to see their premises burned out and who knew what happening to their families. The oldest of them glanced about him, caught the eye of each in turn then nodded to the Mayor.

  “Alderman Wiggins will wish to speak to this matter, Major.”

  The Alderman was the wreck of a once powerfully built man, ancient now and gone to seed, back bent, but still with a deep, imposing voice.

  “I am not one to bow to threat casually made, Soldier. Neither am I a fool. I can count. The better part of a thousand men under arms offer a menace that our small town cannot defy. I will not offer false protestations of loyalty. I will say that I am a woodworker and skilled in my mill and workshops and having knowledge of such. I know nothing of government and kingship and nor should I. It is not my business to interfere in the doings of my betters. I will not rise against my King – but neither will I die for him. It is not, I repeat, my business to fight for or against these people far away in London Town, a place I have never seen, nor ever shall I. I shall not fight thee, Soldier, and will pay such taxes as are meet, and a little more beside. I will tell thee straight, sir, should the King’s Party come under arms, I shall say the same to them. You are none of my business, I say again, and I call a plague on all who will march with sword and gun into my town – but, I shall not fight thee and will do my possible to ensure that none other in this town is so foolish as to do so.”

  The old man stared defiantly at Daniel before sitting again.

  Daniel laughed and shook his head.

  “And that has put me in my place, sir! I think you will find that you will live more freely under Parliament than under the rule this foolish King was trying to create – but I am not here to argue such with you. I must take taxes – soldiers must be paid and guns and powder and provender bought – and Parliament needs more money to build ships as well. I want also your pledge that you will not send your sons to the King’s cause and will not prevent them volunteering to my band. I hope you will not find the King’s soldiers making the same demands of you, but I cannot predict the fortunes of war. I shall not come back in armed rage to call you traitor if you respond to the King as you have to me. To live is achievement enough in the times that are coming to this country. I shall make camp outside of the town tonight, and my men will not enter. Bring your contributions to us in the morning and we shall march peacefully.”

  There seemed little need to reiterate what would happen if they did not pay up.

  Micah walked back at Daniel’s side.

  “What is the chance that some one of them will send a horseman off tonight to seek the aid of King’s forces, sir?”

  “High, I would suspect, Red Man. I am inclined to hope so. There is no great army in these parts and we can deal with any small bands that may come our way, and it will do the officers good to fight again. They have a deal of learning still to do and there is nothing like the smell of powder to stir up men’s intellects. We shall march towards Wiltshire, according to the word from the people here. There are forces loyal to Parliament in Poole and the southern parts of Dorset, or there were just a few weeks since, and so we need to show our faces in the parts more urgent for the King.”

  “We might well meet our enemy stirring towards us, you think, sir?”

  “Better to do so than to have to try to find them, marching to every village in the hope of stirring them out. They could be at Mottisfont or Whiteparish, close to hand, or miles distant Devizes way. A cry for help bringing them to our hands will be far more convenient.”

  “So it will. I had not thought of that.”

  They made camp close to the River Test and waited for the townspeople to come to them. The first peddlers were in camp almost before they had lit their fires; curious boys, drawn to the sight of armed soldiers, followed soon after. Commercially-inclined girls of the town appeared after darkness fell.

  The morning saw His Worship entering the camp, followed by two of the burgesses, a boy leading a donkey cart and two large labouring men with cudgels.

  “I have made the collections, Major, as promised. We are not the richest of towns and money is short before harvest comes in.”

  That was obviously true. Merchants came with their gold and silver to buy the brewers’ barley and millers’ wheat in July and August and others would arrive to purchase the apple crop later in the season; beef sold at the markets all through the late summer after fattening up. In June, coins were naturally short.

  Daniel nodded cautiously; the strongboxes would not be wholly empty even so.

  “We have put together one hundred and sixty pounds, mostly silver but with a deal of coppers too.”

  “Hence the cart?”

  “In part, sir. There are also a few of muskets in the town, and a round dozen of flintlock pistols. On discussion, we felt it wiser to have none of such rather than too few to defend the town. A hot-headed youth firing a musket at a soldier could set the whole town aflame. Better our hands are empty, we believe. The muskets and pistols and some fowling pieces and the powder horns and a pair of kegs and the ball and shot for them are all in the cart. We have kept the few blades we possess, they being less of a hazard to us.”

  That seemed a wise act to Micah.

  Daniel agreed.

  “You are sensible indeed, Mr Mayor. Your town is far better protected without the instruments of temptation to hand. As you so rightly say, there is always the prospect that some silly boy might fire the shot that ruined the lives of all. On the topic of young men, foolish or otherwise, are there those who might profitably come to our ranks?”

  The Mayor, a pompous little man perhaps, but a successful small-town shopkeeper, was astute enough to pick up on the word ‘foolish’. There were several youths who merited that description, youngsters who would not learn a trade or settle down as day-labourers and who would, sooner or later, come before the bench of magistrates and be given a flogging and eventually either come to the noose or be sent off to sea or to servitude in the quarries down at Portland. It might be simpler to get rid of them now, into the ranks of the army, out of the way of decent folks.

  “If, perhaps, sir, you was to send a few of your men and an officer with me, we might lay hands upon a few lads who would be better employed in your ranks than in hanging about the town…”

  “Captain Slater! A recruiting gang, if you would be so good. A platoon and a good sergeant and some lengths of rope, perhaps.”

  It took a very few minutes, Sergeant Driver having a very good idea of how such a party should be organised.

  “A long rope, sir, the lucky young men who are to join us to have their hands secured and a length of cord tied to them and to the rope so they can march along in line. They say as how some shackle them by the neck, but that seems cruel to me, sir, for a stumble could strangle them. Wasteful as well.”

  They followed the Mayor into the few back alleys of the little town and into hovels that he specified. It was mid-morning and the idlers were mostly still abed, or lying in ragged pallets, more correctly. Nine youths were hauled out in quick order, their ears cuffed when they complained too loudly, their backsides kicked when they would not march. The womenfol
k – mothers and sisters for none could afford a wife – wailed a little, but not too loudly, for idle mouths were no great loss to them.

  One foolish boy found the need for braggadocio, shouted that his mother need not weep for him, he would soon be back; the soldiers could not keep the likes of him for long.

  “Keep your eye on that one, Sergeant Driver.”

  “I got him, sir. He shall learn the error of his ways, see if he don’t!”

  “Well done, Sergeant. Do you think we should crop an ear? To mark him so that any constable will know him as a runaway, if he should go?”

  “Not yet, sir. Give him the chance to knuckle down to the life. Besides, sir, a man can always grown his hair long to hide the top of an ear cut off. Better to slit the nostrils, sir – ain’t no way of hiding that a man’s had either side of his nose cut open up to the bridge, sir.”

  “I’ve never seen that, Sergeant.”

  “Not so common in England, sir. Saw it more than once in the Germanies. They still have serfs there in some places and one of them who runs has his nose slit – makes them look like pigs’ snouts, sir, hanging back open. Gave us a laugh more than once!”

  That needed a stronger sense of humour than Micah possessed. It had an effect on the big- mouthed boy, however; he turned pale and clamped his teeth determinedly shut.

  The Mayor swallowed back the bile and hoarsely agreed that the measure would certainly mark any villain for life.

  “Excessive, I believe, Mr Mayor – but these are hard times we live in today. We shall march this afternoon, on the Salisbury road is our current intent. There is little to attract us in the New Forest itself, unless you might suggest one of the small places there that might benefit from our attentions?”

  His Worship could not imagine that any town would be said to benefit therefrom. He knew nothing of the towns of the Forest – they looked towards Poole, he said, while Romsey traded with Winchester and Southampton almost entirely.