Traitor's Field by Robert Wilton Read Free Book Online Page A

of as commander, or perhaps Hollinge, and there are wild rumours of secret preparations of yet unidentified infantry and cavalry detachments. Such forces would of course enable the King’s adherents to dominate the wealth and importance of the City of London, and would present a grave danger to General Fairfax at Colchester while General Cromwell remained so far from the capital.
     
    [PAPERS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT, M/48.102,
    PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY TAKASHI COLLECTION]

    Dearest Cromwell,
    this by way of caution or encouragement, for as usual our Parliament does not act with the same vigour, clarity, and integrity as our Army. Notwithstanding your victory of the week past, for which every man here has given his thanks to God humbly and right heartily, both the House of Commons and the House of Lords have this day repealed the Vote of No Addresses, thereby enabling their negotiations with King Charles to resume immediately, and I think that this be their aim. I perceive no sign that the approach or the ideals of Parliament’s commissioners in treating with the King would display any of the strength appropriate to our cause, to your recent success, or to the slippery history of the King in such proceedings, and I rather think that as usual they hope to hurry to a compromise by the straightest route.
    My love and my duty to you,
    O. St John
    August 24. 1648
    [NALSON COLLECTION 24, BODLEIAN LIBRARY]

    Fleet report, August 26.: inshore scouting vessels report that the ships of the Prince of Wales, which were thought to be making eastward for the continent, have turned and are bound for the mouth of the Thames. We can report no healthy spirit among the crews of our own craft anchored in the river, and beg leave to present our most urgent concern at the uncertain and ominous prospect.
    [ADMIRALTY PAPERS (EARLY MSS P.10.B.6)]

    The preacher’s voice soared and rasped, his shoulders rising and falling and his hands conjuring the words out of his chest. From the doorway, many of the actual words were lost, but the tone of the voice was clear, its exhortations and accusations, its bitter denunciations and soft prayers.
    There were two men in the doorway, one in the uniform of a Roundhead cavalry officer, the other in heavy practical civilian clothes.
    ‘You want him?’ murmured the first.
    A shake of the head. ‘No need to interrupt. No point in making it worse.’
    The man in question could also be seen easily from the doorway. Seated in one of a semicircle of chairs, the most powerful man in England stared with rigid attention at the preacher, jowls slumped and swarthy and large eyes unblinking.
    The cavalry officer murmured, ‘Not good?’
    Another shake of the head. ‘The south’s alive with Royalists, and while the Army’s fighting up here the Parliament’s getting ready to give it all away again. He’s going to be furious.’

    When he visited the Sign of the Boar again the next day, the rider found a message for him from a man passing as Francis Padget. An hour later, he was out of the city and trotting steadily towards a certain crossroads.
    He slowed the horse as he came within a hundred yards of the crossroads. It was a well-chosen spot. The land was flat and open all around; nowhere for either party to have set a trap. He kept the horse at a walk, peering ahead to the crossroads, around him, occasionally unobtrusively over his shoulder.
    At fifty yards he saw the shape of a man on a horse, under an oak by the junction. His own horse’s ears pricked up, and the rhythm of the walk altered for a moment. He checked that the bag slung by his right leg was open, and let the horse walk on.
    Mortimer Shay watched him come: watched the rhythm of the horse, watched the posture of the man, checked all around himself, focused on the road beyond the rider leading back to Leeds. Eventually he eased his horse out away from the tree and into the roadway. As it emerged from under the shadow of the branches, the animal