Now I have nought to do to write a chronicle of the good town of
Eastcheaping, or a history of this war of them of the town with the
Baron of Deepdale, or else a long tale I might make of it. So here
follows all that shall be told of the said war.
In somewhat less than a month from their coming to Eastcheaping they
had sure news that the Baron was on the way to the town with a great
company of knights and men-at-arms; and thereafter it was known that
he was riding with a light heart and little heed. Wherefore Sir Medard
turned the matter over in his mind, and, whereas if any one knew well
the roads and the fields about Eastcheaping, he, Sir Medard, knew them
better, he deemed he might give this great lord a brush by the way. So
he rode out a-gates with but a small company of men-at-arms, five
score to wit, all in white armour, and rides with them along the
causeway. But early in the night, ere he had set out, he had bidden a
twelve score footmen make their way quietly in knots of five and ten
and thereabout to a certain place fifteen miles as the highway led
from Eastcheaping, where the said causeway, craftily made, went high
raised over a marish place much beset with willow and alder, an evil
place for the going of heavily-laded horses. But of these same
footmen, some half had bows, and the rest spears and swords; all the
Dalesmen went with these, and Osberne was the captain of the whole
company, but with him was an old grey-beard, a sergeant tried in many
wars, and a guileful man therein, and to him and Osberne Sir Medard
showed what should be done.
So now the Baron and his came riding along the causeway, ten hundreds
of men in all, lightly and in merry fashion, for they had said that
they would go knock at the door of Eastcheaping and see what the
carles were about there; and it was hard on noon. And first came
riding an hundred or so of tall men well armed in white armour, their
basnets new tinned; and they came to a certain place where on either
side was abundance of thick alder bush and the ground soft between,
and there was the causeway wider by a spear-length than its wont for
some two score yards. Well, this hundred passed by on their way, but
when they were clean out of sight, and the next company not yet come,
up rise a half dozen of men from out the alders on either side, and
come on to the causeway: they are clad in homespun coats and hoods,
though if any had looked closely he had seen hawberks and steel hoods
under the cloth. These men lay some things down on the causeway in the
very midst between the narrows, and then get them back into the marsh
again.
No sooner are they gone but there comes the sounds of weaponed men
going, and presently there is the head of a much bigger company coming
on to the wide space betwixt the narrows, three hundreds of men at
least. They were armed and mounted as well as they might be, but kept
not very good order. When the first of them came to the place where
the marsh-lurkers had been, they found lying athwart the causeway, one
on each side, two dead porkers, two dead dogs, two hares, and in the
very midst a fox, these also dead. The first men wonder at this, and
get off their horses and handle the carcasses; then they call others
to look at them; and some deem this the work of dwarfs or fairies or
such like; and others say this is a sign or token of the up-country
folk to rise upon them, and that they had best send men a-foot to
search the marsh; and others that they should send tidings to the
rearward folk. And some say one thing, some another, and all the while
their fellows are thronging into the wide place till they are all
crowded together, and not a third part of them know what has befallen,
and deem that something has gone amiss; and the rearward fall to
drawing their swords and crying out, To it, to it! Slay, Slay!
Deepdale, Deepdale! till scarce a man knew his right hand from his
left.
But amidst all this turmoil a great voice (and it was Stephen the
Eater) cried out from the marsh at the right hand: "Go back, ye swine,
to Deepdale." Then another sang out from the north: "If ye can, ye
dead dogs." Then Stephen again: "This time ye must run like hares."
"Learn lore of the fox next time, if ye can," cried the northern
voice. And even therewith was the twanging of bowstrings from ether
side, and the whistle of shafts and spears, for the foemen were near
enough, and men and horses fell huddling on the causeway, and the
shafts rained on without abatement, and the Deepdale riders were in
sorry case indeed; and many of them were good knights well tried in
the wars.
Then some gat off their horses and entered the marsh, and found no
better hap there, for they were speedily slain by axe and sword of the
Eastcheapers; or they squattered in the mire and yielded them to
whomsoever was before them, of whom Stephen gat a good knight
full-armed. But Osberne was otherwhere. For some of the Baron's men
spared not to turn their backs and ride all they might rearward; but
they went but a little way into the narrows ere they saw steel before
them, and there across the causeway stood the company of the Dalesmen,
even such as were not with the bowmen. Desperately they drave at them;
but it was all for nought, for the first four fell, they and their
horses, before the long spears of the Dalesmen, and the others were
cumbered with the wounded and the slain, so that they might not come
on a-horseback. Howbeit, some dismounted and fell on sword in hand.
Then forth from the ranks of the Dalesmen came a slim warrior in a
long hawberk and bright basnet and a shield on his arm, and he put his
hand to his left side and drew, and it was as if a beam of fell blue
flame flashed in the sun; and he cried out: "For the Dale! For the
Dale! Hasten, fellows, and follow on, for Boardcleaver crieth for a
life." And therewith he entered among the Deepdale folk and smote
right and left, and with each stroke hewed a man, and they fell back
before him; and then the Dalesmen were by his side instead of the
foes, and still he went forward and men fell before him, and still
came on the spears of the Dalesmen; and now all they of Deepdale,
whether a-foot or on horseback, turn and flee away toward the place of
the first slaughter.
Then Osberne cried to his men: "Off the causeway now, all ye Dalesmen;
these ye shall not chase, they shall fall in with chasing enough anon;
and now must the causeway be clear of all but foemen if I know aught
of Sir Medard's mind. Ye have done well." Therewith he gat him quietly
from off the causeway, and all they followed; they went but a little
way, and then about on the tussocks around the alder bushes, and
turned toward the causeway and awaited new tidings.
Speedily they befel; for anon they heard a confused noise of crying
and shouting and thundering of horse-hoofs, and clattering of weapons
and war-gear, and then burst out from a corner of the causeway all the
throng of fleers, spurring all they might, weaponless, many of them
jostling and shoving each other, so that every now and then man and
horse fell over into the marsh and wallowed there, till the Dalesmen
came up and gave them choice of death or rendering. And came great
cries of Eastcheaping! For the Porte! and A Medard, a Medard! and the
riders of Eastcheaping came thrusting amongst the fleers, and with the
first of the chasers was Medard himself bareheaded, so that all might
know him, and after him his banner of a Tower and an Eagle sitting
therein; and then came the banner of the good town, to wit, three
Wool-packs on a red ground; and then the rest of the riders. And all
that went by in a minute or two, and thereafter came the bowmen, all
bemired with the marish waters, but talking high and singing for joy.
Said Osberne: "Come we now, fellows, and join ourselves to these, for
they will not run away like to the horses. Now belike has Sir Medard
done the business, so we may follow him fair and softly." "He may have
yet somewhat to do," quoth a man who was of that country; "for in a
while this marish ends and the causeway comes out on to fair and soft
meadows, and there we may look yet again to come on the Baron and
his." "Sooth is that," quote the sergeant from amongst the bowmen on
the causeway; "yet is not the good Knight so harebrained as not to
abide ere he falls on, save he see no defence in what is left of the
Baron's array. Ye shall see; but come thou up, Master Osberne, with
thy Dalesmen, and let us get on to the said sunny meads out of this
frog-city."
So Osberne and his Dalesmen scrambled up, and they all went on
together at a pretty pace; and Osberne had not yet sheathed
Boardcleaver, but bore him on his shoulder all bloody as he was.
So in an half hour they saw the hard meads before them, and then they
set up a shout and ran all together, for they heard the noise of
battle, and saw some confused running and riding, and knew not what it
might mean. So on they ran till they had come up on to the crown of a
long but low ridge whence they might see the whole plain, and
straightway they set up the whoop of victory. Forsooth what they
beheld was the two banners of Sir Medard and the Porte following on
the last of the fleers, and beyond them the whole host of the Baron
flowing away as men discomfited; so they rested to catch their breath
on the top of the ridge, and of all of them that went out from
Eastcheaping the night before there was not one man lacking. Then they
set off again toward the battle, their weapons on their shoulders and
their horns blowing; and they went speedily, and presently they saw
that Sir Medard and his had slacked in the chase and were standing
together about the banners with their faces to the foe. Wherefore they
also went slower, and they met together with many glad cries; and then
Osberne came to Sir Medard and hailed him joyfully, and therewith
thrust Boardcleaver back into the sheath and said: "Meseemeth,
Captain, that the battle is done. But [how] came their whole host to
flee away?" Said Sir Medard: "We drave the rout along the causeway,
and they, when they came on to the hard meadow, might not stay them;
and the rest, who saw them coming on the spur and our banners in the
chase, knew not how many or how few were following on them, and they
turned also, deeming they were safest at home. And so now we will
gather the spoil together and wend fair and softly back to
Eastcheaping."
Even so they did, and great spoil they gathered, and all the footmen
gat them horses and rode with the others; so that they all came back
safe to the good town before sunset. Thus ended the first riding of
the Baron of Deepdale.