Games of Otterburn 1388 by Charles Randolph Bruce Read Free Book Online Page B

than the close trees misted in the copse.   Being in ‘enemy’ regions he slept in some of his armor and felt completely absorbed in the environs as his clothing was as dank as the air.
    He and his men had had a good half night’s sleep after mostly staying in the saddle for the last two nights. They were anxious to get to the reiving so they could have red meat to go with their oat bannocks.
    Earl John Dunbar stood tall in the fog and looked about him. “How we goin ’ to find anythin ’ to reive in this muddle?”
    “I ken where Durham town is,” said Douglas coming to John. “We’ll be a plumb surprise to those folk.”
    “Be a plumb surprise to me if we get there to surprise them,” replied John.
    The remaining knights began to stir from their wool coverings.
    George Dunbar came to the knot of Douglas and John. “Hell of a morn for a raid,” he said wiping his eyes. “How we findin ’ Durham ?”
    Douglas smiled and shook his head a bit then explained, “We’re camped on the east side of the River Wear.”
    “And Wear runs past Durham ,” interjected George.
    “How far?” asked John.
    “Less than half a league,” answered James.
    John smiled in approval. “ Ye been this way in the fog before?”
    “Have,” said Douglas as he turned to fetch and saddle his destrier.

    The mist was thinning a bit as the Scots approached the town of Durham .
    On the south end of the loop in the River Wear and high up on the bluff stood the famous cathedral and north of the cathedral was the strong castle keep. Surrounding the cathedral and keep was a high impregnable wall.
    The Bishopric of Durham included a land mass similar to an earldom except it was separate from the London government in that it had its own laws, parliament, tax collections, customs duties, army, and even to the extent of issuing its own coinage. It was like a country within a country except it paid a portion of its revenue to the English crown.
    It was not what was within the wall that was the target of the Scots but the influential and lucrative market on the north end of the fortress.
    Market Street was narrow between the buildings and the buildings were tight set together. The sheriff’s men patrolled the streets from Market to Gillygate . Within the trading atmosphere there was always somebody in an argument with somebody else.
    “They’re stirrin ’ a bit now James,” whispered George.
    Douglas ’ knights were within spying distance of the town market.
    “There’s a holdin ’ pen out back from the flesh hewers, did ye see it?” asked Douglas .
    “Ne’er did,” admitted George.
    “It is there, believe me, and it’s full of kine and such ready for the takin ’,” said Douglas still in a whisper.
    “Ye want me to go that way?” asked George with a nod of his head.
    “Take twenty knights and ten archers, the rest of us will go straight up the main street and bring them havoc,” said Douglas . Then he nudged his horse forward while Sir George culled out his forty or so men and pushed toward the right side of the market behind the row of buildings.
    Douglas began the raid with a shock to the population. He had his men ride to the edge of the buildings of the market and all hooted their horns as loudly as they could for about three minutes while Earl George got his men around to the back of the flesh hewer’s shop.
    By the end of the hoot the population of the town was wide awake and in a panic to get to their weapons or get far beyond the horn blast.
    When the two large framed and well fed flesh hewers of the shop heard the horns blare out they instinctively knew their livestock was in jeopardy.
    “After our stock, they are!” said the first man looking around the darkened room for his cleaver.
    The second man pulled an old sword from its pinnings on the wall. “Scotch been scared off from here for some years now. Reckon its them come again?”
    “Be findin ’ out quick enough,” said the first as he opened the door