Robert the Bruce--A Tale of the Guardians by Jack Whyte

Author:Jack Whyte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE POLITICS OF FRIENDSHIP

Bruce did not catch up to his English friends before they won back to camp, for they had clearly wasted no time moving out from the site of the mass hanging. The place was deserted by the time he reached it again, and he carefully avoided approaching the line of dangling bodies, all too aware of the sights and smells of violent death that would pollute this spot until the scavengers and the weather had cleansed it again and the dead men’s fallen, insect-scoured bones had been covered by grass. Only in passing did he recognize that these were Englishmen hanged by other Englishmen, for they had been felons and had earned the justice meted out to them. Had he himself been sent to deal with them they would have fared no differently, for all his personal dislike of summary hangings.

He left them behind without another thought, following the broad, unmistakable path left by Percy’s force, and within a few miles he found the English encampment spread out along the open lea flanking the river below the tiny settlement Percy had mentioned. A hamlet too small to have a name of its own, the tiny cluster of buildings had sprung up haphazardly on the crested flanks of a low knoll overlooking the crossing where the main London road forded the shallow, equally nameless river.

He drew rein before approaching the camp, far enough away to see it as a whole, and was surprised to find it larger and more carefully organized than he had expected. It was square, in the fashion of the old Roman marching camps, between three and four hundred paces long on each side and cut into quarters by two broad, intersecting avenues, with the horse lines laid out in the two rear sections.

Someone has strong notions of how to do things right, he thought, wryly acknowledging that the unapproachable Earl of Pembroke must be responsible. More than three hundred men and their horses, baggage, and attendants all in one spot created quite a scene. Orderly lines of tents were already laid out in disciplined blocks here and there in the two closest sections of the camp, while others were being busily erected in the intervening spaces. He saw one great pavilion in the centre, towering over all the others, that had the colours of de Valence fluttering at its peak, and he determined to avoid it, having no wish to meet the French-born Earl of Pembroke. He turned his horse towards the line of guardsmen on his left and rode forward to present himself.

The sergeant in charge of the detachment looked at the newcomer’s rich appearance and waved him through, not bothering to ask his business but raising an eyebrow at his lack of armour and the single, belted dirk. Bruce halted anyway and asked him if he knew where Sir Henry Percy might be found. The sergeant waved, indicating one of the new blocks of tents being built and saying he thought he had seen Percy arrive earlier with Sir John Bigod’s party.

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