A Question of Honour by Wayne Grant

Author:Wayne Grant [Grant, Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781690742784
Published: 2019-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

Storming Les Andelys

On the south bank of the Seine, French engineers fought to save the English bridge. Grappling hooks were flung onto the blazing barricade, snagging and tearing loose pieces of the makeshift barrier and pulling them into the river. Slowly the bonfire was reduced to a smouldering pile that was doused with river water, sending up clouds of steam.

The wood of the roadway was green and that saved the structure from being completely consumed by the flames. A thirty foot section of the bridge decking had burned through, but the supporting structure beneath was still intact. By an hour before dawn, the engineers had laid new beams across the gap and the southern span of the bridge was restored.

On the north bank, the remnants of the French river force twice tried to storm the river gate, but were rebuffed. As the sky lightened in the east, they prudently retreated to the island to plan their next assault. By the time the King was roused for his breakfast, Cadoc had sent two hundred infantry over to the island as well as a large wheeled ram. The mercenary general bowed to Philip when he appeared.

“Shall I order the assault on the town, your grace?” he asked.

The King surveyed the repairs to the bridge and frowned.

“I wouldn’t tarry,” he said. “Richard is at least two days away, even if he comes with only his mounted troops. But I want the castle in our hands before he arrives. He’ll rush to save his beloved Château Gaillard and if he fails to bring his whole army, perhaps we can do here what we failed to do at Aumale!”

“Shall we take prisoners, your grace?”

Philip frowned.

“After Gamaches, I think not!”

***

In the final hours of darkness, the Invalid Company frantically worked to prepare for the onslaught they knew would come. The chief engineer and all of the craftsmen had strangely disappeared from the town after the firing of the bridge, leaving the Invalids to improvise hasty defensive measures. Holding the town with a hundred men against an entire French army was impossible, but Les Andelys was not what the French had come for. The castle on the hill was the prize they sought and the English would use the town to buy time—time for Bertrand Dieupart to reach Neufchatel and King Richard.

Heavy wooden beams were ripped from nearby buildings to further brace the river gate and new barricades were cobbled together blocking alleyways on either side of the main road leading from the river up to the town square. A solid line of new wooden buildings lined that road, limiting the French advance toward the centre of town to a single narrow lane. Halfway up that lane, the Invalids built another barricade.

As the sky lightened in the east, a trumpet sounded a long series of notes from the opposite bank of the river. Declan was standing next to Roland on the wall walk near the river gate when the sound echoed across the water.

“It must be the signal to retreat,” Declan said dryly.

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