1038. Chapter 1038

After Much Ado About Murder

Part Three

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: The game's afoot. Follow your spirit and upon this fanfic, cry," God for Istria, England and Lady Katherine." Rating: K Time: Immediately following After Much Ado About Murder, Part Two.

Soon, the five ships left the small cove and headed north. The men with the sharpest eyes sat in the bows of the ships searching for the shore. After two hours, a man called back to Castle.

"Breakers ahead, Sir Richard. We're there. And I can see a glow of fires ahead of us. It's the enemy camp, all right."

The ships beached themselves and the men landed as quietly as they could. Castle organized the men rapidly. There were one hundred men at arms in the center and two hundred archers on either side of them. The archers, usually lightly armored and armed wore armor, either chain mail shirts, lamellar armor or a coat of plates. Each carried, in addition to a longbow and a hundred arrows, a sword or battle axe.

Quickly Castle moved them off the beach. The enemy camp was a few hundred yards inland. A small hill would allow the archers to shoot down into the enemy camp.

There was a scream from the left which was ended in a bloody gurgle. That was followed by shouts in English and German. "They've seen us." Someone yelled.

"Forward." Castle screamed, drawing his sword. "To the top of the hill. Run!"

The English soldiers arrived at the top of the hill in a confused mass. Castle began yelling to get his men into formation. Archers began to fire their arrows into the darkened camp below them.

"Archers!" Castle roared. "Use your fire arrows. Light up the camp so we can see."

Each archer had been issued with five arrows that were wrapped in tow dipped in pitch. All along the line of archers, men began cursing as they took out flint, steel and tinder to light their arrows. But, soon, flaming arrows began to be fired into the enemy camp. As most of the shelters were tents and hastily built wooden shacks, fires soon lit up the camp.

As the flames spread, Castle looked down into the camp, now being deluged by arrows. He could see naked men rushing to grab weapons and armor, and some who just ran. A slender, naked blonde woman ran through a storm of arrows and by some miracle, disappeared into the darkness unharmed. Other women and children were not so lucky.

As the fires spread, Castle could see the enemy knights' horse herd. The horses were starting to panic, neighing and bucking. Some began kicking at the flimsy fence around them.

"Archers!" Castle yelled. "On the left! Shoot fire arrows into the horses' pen. Make them run." Castle hated to kill animals, but he knew that flaming and other arrows would kill many of the horses.

Now the enemy was in full retreat. Had Castle's men not been spotted, the two wings of archers would have enveloped the enemy and shot them to pieces. As it was, the enemy was disappearing into the darkness faster than they could be killed.

Except for the wounded and dead, the camp was now empty.

"Captains!" Castle called out. "Move your men forward. Remember, keep your men together! There may be more enemy troops out there."

There was some grumbling from men who would have rushed down the hill to pillage the now deserted enemy camp, but Castle's force moved down the hill carefully. Once his men were in the camp, Castle sent scouts out to locate any enemies.

"Englishman!" Called a voice as Castle walked by the remains of a burned tent. "Here."

Castle moved slowly towards the voice with his sword before him. He a naked man with three arrows through his stomach.

"The blow of mercy, Englishman. The coupe de grace. Please. I am in agony. Kill me."

"We don't have a priest with us…" Castle began.

"I have no time for a priest. End it, Englishman. End it now."

Castle nodded and knelt before the man. He placed the point of his sword just under the man's breastbone and pushed hard. The man stiffened for a brief moment, then was still.

"Sir Richard!" An archer said, rushing up to him. "Come see what we've found!"

Castle took one last look at the dead man and followed the archer. He was led to the remains of a large burned out tent. A priest was kneeling before two large wooden chests. A dozen or more archers and men at arms were also gathered there.

"The keys." Shouted an archer. "Schlussel!"

The priest held out two large iron keys which the archer quickly grabbed. He opened one chest and then the other.

"There, Sir Richard. These are their pay chests. It's all on gold coins and there's a month's pay for your army here and then some."

"Lock the chests up and take them back to Lady Katherine. When we return, there'll be a bonus for the army and a triple bonus for the men on this raid." The archers cheered.

As Castle was seeing the chests off, the scouts reported back to him.

"We found some loose horses, Sir Richard, so were able to go a bit farther. The area is full of naked, unarmed men, but we found no evidence of any organized enemy force."

Castle nodded and thought. "Just the same, we should make ready to go. There must be other enemy camps nearby." Castle raised his voice. "Captains! Have your men gather up the weapons and armor as well as any saddles or tack you find. What we can't use we can sell in Pola. Get to it."

The captains began chivvying their men to stop looting and follow Castle's orders.

In an hour, they were all back aboard the galleys and rowing steadily towards Istria. They spotted one Venetian galley on the horizon as they sailed south, but the enemy ship wisely turned away.

Their reception in Pola was ecstatic. The populace came out to cheer the ships as they sailed into the harbor. Duke Rodrigo met the Castles at the dock and escorted them back to his palazzo.

"Congratulations, Richard." He said, once they were settled. "A magnificent raid. You've scattered a thousand knights, taken arms and armor and gold as well."

"We can't win a war against an army the size the Venetians have with raids, Duke." Castle said solemnly.

Rodrigo nodded. "I know that. But it gives Venice something to think about when they pit their knights against our archers." Duke Rodrigo smiled. "And I have a bit of good news from here for you. King Louis of Hungary is sending us some fifteen hundred light cavalry. With our own stradiots we can keep the border with Venice under constant surveillance."

"The Venetians are getting ready for war." Castle said. "What are our plans?"

Duke Rodrigo looked around him. No one but the two Castles were near him. He lowered his voice. "I plan to move my whole army north in two days. The damage you did to the pirates to our south should keep them from attacking us. I am leaving behind the various town militias that have been set up. As long as they're behind stout walls, they'll fight well for their towns and families. If we win in the north, I can take my whole army south and drive the pirates all the way into the Mediterranean. And if we lose…."

"it won't matter." Castle finished for him.

The army did not begin to move north in two days. The Duke did give the order, but as happens, many things needed to be done before the army could move.

As an example, Daffyd, a Welsh archer, examined his pony and found that one of it's shoes was loose. He went to Sam, the farrier, to have it re-shoed. Sam went to the wagon where his spare horseshoes, tools and forge were, but found them gone. Someone had moved them to another wagon he was told. Sam spent half a day searching through various wagons only to eventually be told that someone had mistakenly ordered his horseshoes, tools and forge to be left behind. Sam spent another several hours looking through the warehouses of Pola, but by the time he found everything, it was too late to do any work.

In the meantime, Daffyd, found that his spare bowstrings had been appropriated by his former lover, Nancy, to bind up her torn dress. He went looking for Nancy and found her with Long James, her new lover, who told Daffyd to go….Well, you get the picture. Multiply this problem by several thousand and you will see why the Duke's army did not leave Pola for another two days.

After days of marching, Sir Richard Castle stopped his horse by a small stream that led to the Adriatic Sea.

"Ober dere be Venizia." A Hungarian cavalry officer said, in poor English.

"It doesn't look any different than Istria. "Castle muttered. "But I see no Venetian troops, Lord Esterhazy." Castle was not at all sure that the officer was any kind of nobleman, but the man seemed happy to be called such.

As he spoke, a dozen or so riders burst through a stand of trees, riding hell for leather for the cavalry that Castle was with.

"Mine! Mine!" Cried the Hungarian officer, then shouted something in his native tongue.

The riders splashed across the small stream and spoke excitedly to their officer. Finally, the officer spoke to Castle. "Dere be twenny Venizia come soon. Mebbe dey fight." He smiled and gestured to his own force of over a hundred horse archers.

In minutes, a second band of riders rode through the brush, but came to a sudden stop. They stared sullenly at the larger force confronting them. One man raised his hand, displaying one finger and yelled something that Castle did not catch. A dozen or more Hungarians replied, in some manner.

The Venetians turned and trotted their horses away.

The Hungarian spoke again to Castle. "More Venezias come. Many more. We go." And so they went.

They rode back to the main army, now settling in behind their defenses. To their west were swamps and wetlands that eventually ended in the Adriatic Sea. Horses and men would sink deeply into the mire and be of no danger to Duke Rodrigo's force, even if they managed to straggle out, exhausted and scattered.

To the east was a long, steep limestone ridgeline and behind that was rocky, broken country. The only way through was by a series of small passes, well known to the local Istrians. The passes could easily be held by a handful of archers and spearmen.

The problem was the land between the sea and the ridge. Duke Rodrigo had a little less than ten thousand men to cover some three miles. His army was doing its best to firm up their defenses. Each archer normally carried a long, thick stake, sharpened at each end. One end was driven into the ground at an angle in front of the archer. Any horseman charging the archer would have to slow at the very least and probably stop. Troops were busy in the nearest woods chopping up more stakes.

In front of the stakes, other soldiers were digging small holes to cause horses and men to stumble and fall. Caltrops, four metal spikes arranged so that one side would always be pointed up were also placed in front of the archers. But they had few shovels to dig with and few caltrops.

Meanwhile, Duke Rodrigo had called his officers together in his tent to outline his plans.

"Gentlemen, I shall not arrange our forces in the traditional three battles; the vanguard, the main body and the rearguard. Rather, I will place the main body, containing most of our dismounted men at arms and knights in the center under my personal command. With me will also be the bulk of our crossbowmen. To my right will be archers under Sir James. To my left, Pietro Dandalo will command another wing of archers and our spearmen."

The Duke turned to Sir Richard. "You will command a fourth battle, which will be held in reserve, Sir Richard. Your job, leading your own troops, will be to plug any holes the enemy may make in our lines. And, if God favors us, you will counter attack when they begin to retreat. You will be stationed immediately behind my own battle."

Castle bowed. "As you wish, Duke Rodrigo."

The Duke looked around at his commanders. "The Venetians have a great deal of gold and have provided de Braquenne with some twenty-five thousand troops. De Braquenne, being French, has hired many, many mounted knights, men at arms and squires. His mounted troops alone outnumber us two to one. In addition, he has some five thousand crossbowmen, mostly Italians, from one city or another. But, our English friends have shown in France that longbowmen can bring down whole armies composed of mounted, armored men. Now, we should all get some sleep. I fear that tomorrow will be a very busy day."

Much later that night, Castle was woken by Kate.

"Richard, you have to get up."

"God, woman. You're insatiable. Wasn't three times enough for you?" He mumbled, still half asleep.

"Not that way. Get dressed. We have to see Duke Rodrigo."

"Why?" By now Castle was wide awake.

"There's a cold wind blowing from the sea."

"More reason to stay in bed."

Kate got out of the bed and pulled the covers off of her husband. "Get dressed. This is serious."

A half an hour later they were standing in front of Duke Rodrigo.

"This had better be worth disturbing my sleep before a battle." He grumped.

"It is." The two Castles said at once.

"Kate, you should tell the Duke."

"Duke Rodrigo, there's a cold wind blowing in from the Adriatic Sea. At this time of the year, that means rain, heavy rain, is coming. You need to keep de Braquenne from attacking us until the rain begins. De Braquenne will have to attack us uphill. Heavy horses with heavy armor and heavily armored riders, trying to attack uphill across muddy ground will slow their charge to a walk. And, if the rain is heavy enough, the river may rise enough to keep his infantry, at least, from crossing."

"How do you expect me to keep de Braquenne from attacking us?" The Duke growled. "The bastard has wanted this fight for a very long time."