Wallace's War by Griff Hosker

Author:Griff Hosker
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9798356584107
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp
Published: 2022-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The bishop was in a better mood when, the next day, we rode for the first of the castles, Dirleton. He had eaten better at our camp and I had promised that I would have my men hunt so that his men had more than peas and beans for food. Dirleton lay on the coast and the bishop chose it as the other castles he had been charged with taking lay further east. This would allow us to be close to Leith where we would be able to have news of our supply ships.

The defenders knew that we were coming. The de Vaux family were of Norman origin and they knew how to defend themselves. As we approached the fortress, I saw the problems we would face, especially without siege engines. The keep was circular with a good gatehouse protected by a bridge over a ditch which was the only way in. There were four towers on the walls and my heart sank for I had helped to defend Newcastle which was not as strong as this castle. We ringed the fortress and while the Durham warriors took off their mail to build camps and embed stakes to prevent a sortie I went with the bishop and the sheriff to view the defences. We were four hundred paces from the castle and beyond the range of both their crossbows and bows.

Bishop Bek shook his head, “Without siege engines, how do we take the castle? The walls of the donjon are too high for ladders and the ditch means we cannot mine it.”

“How many archers did you bring, Bishop Bek?”

He looked at Sir John who said, “Four hundred.”

“Then with my archers, we clear the walls and the gatehouse and steal an idea from the Scots themselves.” I could see that they were intrigued, “When I was at Newcastle, they brought up a ram filled with kindling to burn the gate. We can do the same except we do not use a ram, which will take time to build. We use men protected with shields and we do not risk the men running with fire. We will use fire arrows to ignite the kindling and to keep the fire going. I fear that we may burn the bridge but that will be a small price to pay if we are able to gain entry to the castle.”

The bishop nodded, “It is better than any plan I might have.” He turned to Sir John Marmaduke, “Have twenty men make camp on the far side close to the postern gate. That should be enough to deter them from sending for help. We will camp on this side and make the main assault on the gate.”

“My lord, if you would have your men collect kindling and make it into faggots then I can have my archers make fire arrows. Tomorrow, we will begin to thin their defenders and then we can attack the day after.”

Sir John said, “You sound confident about this, Warbow.”

I nodded, “When we were in Flanders, we had a town protected by a river to take as well as a stout donjon.

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