It was early morning when John reached Okehampton to re-join his regiment. As he approached the main square he was surprised to find it full of men and horses preparing for battle. He called down to one of the young grooms.
"Boy – why are these men not sleeping? What has roused them?"
"There's to be an ambush, sir. The Royalists are on the move and are coming this way. Major General Chudleigh plans a surprise for 'em."
Determined not to be left out of any ambush, John pressed on through the throng until he came across his own troop. His captain, a young man little older than himself, quickly explained the situation.
"After that disaster at Launceston, the Royalists think they have us on the run. The scouts tell us that their army is on the move this very night, commanded by Sir Ralph Hopton. He's leading a force of over five thousand men through the night to take Okehampton in the morning. We're to surprise him and drive them back over the River Tamar."
"But we've only two hundred cavalry here at the most. How can we drive back a force of over five thousand? It's madness."
"The Major says it's down to surprise. In the dark they won't see us. He's reckoning that as most of them are untrained volunteers, they'll throw down their arms and run."
"Major General Chudleigh hasn't exactly been right in the past or we wouldn't be in this situation."
"You'd best mind your words, young Trebarfoot. This is not a time to seem disloyal."
"I certainly wouldn't ..."
He was interrupted by a bugle call summoning the cavalry to a briefing at the southern end of the square. John joined the throng of men making their way to the meeting. Many were like him, in their early twenties. But there were also older men, some with their sons, fighting side by side. He felt proud to be a part of this movement, idealistic and forward thinking. The days of monarchs who ruled autocratically 'by the grace of God' were over. Today the land-owners, the merchants and the middle classes had a right to be consulted. Parliament represented these people and it was their right to be heard that he was fighting for.
At the end of the square, a wagon had been drawn up as a platform. Major General Chudleigh strode out of his headquarters to address his troops. He was a young man in his mid-twenties, the son of an old land-owning family from Devon.
"Men, tonight we are charged with a most daring and audacious assault. Our scouts tell us that the Royalist battalions are on the move, heading this way towards Okehampton. If they take this town we will have lost an essential base for recruitment and re-stocking our army. It is essential that this advance is stopped. However, our main force of foot soldiers is not yet ready to face the enemy after the fierce battle at Launceston. So I have decided that we will use strategy and cunning as our weapons. We will ride out to Sourton Down, less than five miles from here. Once there, we will split into six squadrons of horse. I calculate that the Royalist force will reach Sourton Down before dawn. Our scouts tell us that they are merry with wine and ill-disciplined. They won't see us as we'll be drawn up in the shadow of the hill with the rising sun behind us. On my command, we will ride out at full charge, shouting and screaming whatever obscene thing comes to your mind."
A ripple of laughter spread through the assembled men.
"They will be taken by surprise. Many of their recruits are untrained and will run like chickens from the field of battle. Your duty will be to follow them relentlessly and slay them. Show no mercy because they have shown none to us."
There was a murmur of assent from within the ranks.
"Now return to your steeds and mount up. We leave in thirty minutes."
YOU ARE READING
The Voice Within
ParanormalA journalist sacked for phone hacking and tired of his decadent life style researches a triple murder that took place in his own ancestral home during the English Civil War. He discovers that events which occurred there nearly four hundred years ago...
