Saffron and Green: Gallowglass by George Edwardson & George Westropp

Author:George Edwardson & George Westropp [Edwardson, George & Westropp, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-05T23:00:00+00:00

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Thomas Westropp was doing his best to maintain some sort of discipline among the now bored soldiers in the barrack.

He had been summoned by Clerk Oldroyd of the Council of the North, who confirmed his rank of lieutenant. This time, however, it was permanent and no longer just acting.

The vacuum left by the departure of both Conyers and Gourley had to be filled smartly. Thomas would take temporary command of the company until a new captain could be appointed.

Thomas was comforted that Ralph had decided to stay with him on his appointment to quartermaster. Clerk Oldroyd had managed to get an order from the Council confirming Captain Conyers’ decision to promote him.

Payday arrived and all was pandemonium, as Captain Conyers had feared. The whole company was suddenly and alarmingly out of control. Fights broke out among the men and with the city’s apprentices. Others, who stood in their way, were often roughed-up or beaten. The true winners were the whores and tavern-owners of York.

The Westropp brothers were powerless as the drink-fuelled men with coin in their pockets rampaged around the western part of the city. With Meynell’s company disbanded, there were not enough men in York under orders to control the outrage. Honest men and merchants near the Minster locked and barred their doors against the mayhem until the soldiers’ money ran out.

Lieutenant Thomas wondered fretfully what Sir Christopher would have done. Even he had to step into a doorway to avoid being knocked down by men he had known and admired since his first days with the company. There was no reasoning with the drunk and vicious gangs of men looking for more drink, women and a good fight.

Thomas was appalled. How could things have got so out of control? How should he have acted to prevent the rampage? Were there ring leaders he could have arrested with the help of the Sheriffs or the Council’s serjeant-at-arms? Well, it was all too late now, and he determined to assert his control as soon as possible.

Immediately the men were back in barracks, out of money and hungover, Thomas and a serjeant divided the company into training sections. The remaining bowmen into one, halberdiers into another and musketeers – now grown much more numerous – into a third.

So, training was resumed under Thomas’ personal direction. The new calivers needed men to fire them and another 20 archers were chosen by him to learn how to shoot and manoeuvre with muskets on their shoulders instead of bows.

A parcel of land was found a mile or so south of the Ouse Bridge where the men could practice without the danger of shooting local farm labourers, travellers or, possibly worse, each other.

Day after day, the men were worked on their new weapons. Their speed of loading, firing and then re-loading improved to a point where Thomas could stop shouting and cajoling. Next, any new man would have to learn how to deploy and shift their ground like a military force rather than a herd of confused cattle.

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