Read The Archer's Gold: Medieval Military fiction: A Novel about Wars, Knights, Pirates, and Crusaders in The Years of the Feudal Middle Ages of William Marshall ... (The Company of English Archers Book 7) for Free Online Page A
Authors: Martin Archer
laugh along with Henry and my other two lieutenants – and hearing us all roar with laughter seemed to please the boys and the men nearby though I don’t know why.
@@@@@
We’re as ready as we can be as the first early signs of dawn begin to lighten up our position. Our limited supply of caltrops have been scattered, our stakes hammered in and resharpened, all of our horses are tied to trees along a path in the forest behind us, and the wagons are lined up close together to fill a gap through which mounted knights might otherwise ride.
Our supplies and horsemen are ready too - the arrow bales have been opened and the extra arrows distributed; and Raymond’s Horse Marines and almost all of his outriders are in our ranks with their horses tied in the trees behind us.
It's getting light for sure. I can already see the nearby road and in a few minutes we'll be able to see our old campsite on the other side of it.
“Are you and the boys ready to run for it?” I quietly ask Thomas.
“Yes, of course we are. Our horses are saddled and ready to go. And I’ve gone over and over our situation with the boys and their outriders. They know what they’re to do if they get the order to run."
Then my priestly brother put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.
"Don't get yourself in a worry. They’re smart lads, aren't they? They understand the situation; if they're told to run they’ll fetch their horses and head for Launceston like the devil himself is behind them and snapping at their arses.”
We had debated what to do with George and the lads all night long. In the end it was Thomas’s decision that they stay. He'd reckoned they be safer here with us than on the road where they might run into patrols of fighting men coming out of Oakhampton.
It’s probably just as well that the boys stay even if we don't need them as horse holders. We can use the boys to fetch water for the men and we need the long bows of Thomas and the three outriders assigned to the boys.
And even the short bows of the boys might be useful when the knights and their men get close enough for the boys' arrows to reach them – a little arrow in the eye or throat or anywhere else on a horse or man is just a good as a “heavy” or a “long” from our Marines' longbows.
We're tightly grouped in the basic fighting formation we've come to use whenever we face mounted knights - three lines of archers and then a gap of twenty paces and then four more lines of archers.
Every Marine archer also has a pike, a sword, and a shield. The pikes, of course, are on the ground so they can't be seen by horsemen charging us - until our men raise them and set them at the last moment when it is too late for the horse of a charging rider to avoid being impaled. It's something our recruits practice almost every day.
The second four archer lines are further back, of course, because of our past experience using the pikes against charging horsemen. Being impaled on a grounded pike stops the horses dead in their tracks but sometimes the riders don't stop when the horses stop - they fly off their horses and knock down our men like bowling pins on the village green.
I know what happens to riders when their horses run on to our pikes because that's exactly what happened to me when that stupid King Guy's knights charged into our line in front of Nicosia - one of them came flying out of his saddle when our pikes stopped his charging horse and knocked me on my arse.
We learned at Nicosia didn't we? Now we leave a gap of twenty paces between our third and fourth lines so the riders who fly off their horses can land without knocking down so many of our men.
Then, of course, when the horsemen are down and in the unlikely event they
@@@@@
We’re as ready as we can be as the first early signs of dawn begin to lighten up our position. Our limited supply of caltrops have been scattered, our stakes hammered in and resharpened, all of our horses are tied to trees along a path in the forest behind us, and the wagons are lined up close together to fill a gap through which mounted knights might otherwise ride.
Our supplies and horsemen are ready too - the arrow bales have been opened and the extra arrows distributed; and Raymond’s Horse Marines and almost all of his outriders are in our ranks with their horses tied in the trees behind us.
It's getting light for sure. I can already see the nearby road and in a few minutes we'll be able to see our old campsite on the other side of it.
“Are you and the boys ready to run for it?” I quietly ask Thomas.
“Yes, of course we are. Our horses are saddled and ready to go. And I’ve gone over and over our situation with the boys and their outriders. They know what they’re to do if they get the order to run."
Then my priestly brother put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.
"Don't get yourself in a worry. They’re smart lads, aren't they? They understand the situation; if they're told to run they’ll fetch their horses and head for Launceston like the devil himself is behind them and snapping at their arses.”
We had debated what to do with George and the lads all night long. In the end it was Thomas’s decision that they stay. He'd reckoned they be safer here with us than on the road where they might run into patrols of fighting men coming out of Oakhampton.
It’s probably just as well that the boys stay even if we don't need them as horse holders. We can use the boys to fetch water for the men and we need the long bows of Thomas and the three outriders assigned to the boys.
And even the short bows of the boys might be useful when the knights and their men get close enough for the boys' arrows to reach them – a little arrow in the eye or throat or anywhere else on a horse or man is just a good as a “heavy” or a “long” from our Marines' longbows.
We're tightly grouped in the basic fighting formation we've come to use whenever we face mounted knights - three lines of archers and then a gap of twenty paces and then four more lines of archers.
Every Marine archer also has a pike, a sword, and a shield. The pikes, of course, are on the ground so they can't be seen by horsemen charging us - until our men raise them and set them at the last moment when it is too late for the horse of a charging rider to avoid being impaled. It's something our recruits practice almost every day.
The second four archer lines are further back, of course, because of our past experience using the pikes against charging horsemen. Being impaled on a grounded pike stops the horses dead in their tracks but sometimes the riders don't stop when the horses stop - they fly off their horses and knock down our men like bowling pins on the village green.
I know what happens to riders when their horses run on to our pikes because that's exactly what happened to me when that stupid King Guy's knights charged into our line in front of Nicosia - one of them came flying out of his saddle when our pikes stopped his charging horse and knocked me on my arse.
We learned at Nicosia didn't we? Now we leave a gap of twenty paces between our third and fourth lines so the riders who fly off their horses can land without knocking down so many of our men.
Then, of course, when the horsemen are down and in the unlikely event they
Similar Books
Lehrter Station
David Downing
King of the Godfathers
Anthony Destefano
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters
Tell Me Your Dreams
Sidney Sheldon
A Latent Dark
Martin Kee
The Billionaire's Island Romance (The Romero Brothers, Book 3.5)
Shadonna Richards
The Twin
Gerbrand Bakker
What's a Boy to Do
Diane Adams
The Teratologist
Edward Lee
The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay
Tim Junkin