The Brothers of Gwynedd (169 page)

  It was not long before we got word who was to replace Gloucester as commander in the south. Early in July Edward appointed his uncle, William of Valence, earl of Pembroke, the eldest of King Henry's Poitevin half-brothers, who had come over, years ago, to make their fortunes by marriages with English heiresses. I saw him once at Oxford, a lean, black-bearded, imperious person, hot-tempered and proud, bitter in his opposition to Earl Simon's Provisions, and unscrupulous in the means by which he fought them. But give him his due, he was not a bad soldier. With his own household guard Valence had sufficient troops to be able to move between Carmarthen and Cardigan, and once he took out a large force, some hundreds on foot besides lances to raid along the Cardigan coast against Griffith ap Meredith's lands, and tried to reach Llanbadarn, apparently with the hope of reoccupying the shell of the castle, but we closed in from the hills to eastward, and hunted them back towards Cardigan. He got them back in good disciplined order, or his losses would have been greater.

  From the north David duly sent us word by courier when there was anything to report.

  "The king has brought his army and headquarters to Rhuddlan," he wrote late in July, "and has got his first ships in the estuary, twenty-eight of them began their fifteen days of duty service on the tenth of this month. Twelve more have joined them since, and two great galleys from the Cinque Ports, besides some coastal boats got locally. We have kept close watch on the dock at Rhuddlan, and seen boats taking off men and arms to the ships off-shore, and returning empty. I believe Edward is putting aboard large numbers of archers and crossbowmen to be used at sea, if needed, but certainly in some planned landing. No move as yet to show what his plans are. Nothing will happen until after his August muster. He is busy now making his supply lines safe. There's little more to tell, except that I have withdrawn from Hawarden, as I was bound to do once they moved from Chester. I left them the shell. Hope is still rebuilding, and the wells still unserviceable. When my position is threatened, you shall hear of it."

  With the beginning of August, and the mustering of the feudal host, things changed with our warfare in the south. English reinforcements began to arrive in great numbers, our scouts brought us word of detachments of men being fed in through Carmarthen, to which the English had easy access from the southern marcher lordships, and distributed also to Dynevor and Cardigan, so many of them that it seemed clear Edward had ordered all the tenants-in-chief of some large region of his realm to do their feudal service under Valence, instead of joining the royal army at Rhuddlan.

  "It is a tribute," said Llewelyn, "after its fashion. David's load will be lighter at least by these."

  It was what we had expected and intended, but it meant that we were now facing great odds, and had to base our movements, after the old Welsh fashion, on the high hills which we knew better than did the enemy, and on the speed of our sudden raids into the valleys, and as sudden withdrawals. If they came out in strength, and used that strength intelligently, we had nothing to match it, and could not and should not meet them in pitched battle or attempt to prevent them from occupying land. But what we could do was take back what they had occupied, as soon as they reduced the forces that held it, as they must in order to use them elsewhere. And as long as we were able to continue this system of reclamation and cession, and keep our own numbers intact, we could and did prevent them from moving away a single company to add to the main army in the north. And so we contrived all through August.

  There were among these levies of foot, especially those from the march of Gwent and other baronial lands, large numbers of what they called Welsh friendlies, soldiers who served for pay and took their living as it came. During that month of August we got more than one recruit from their ranks, and gained not merely an archer or a spear-man, but also some useful information about Valence's resources and plans. In the middle of the month a deserter from a raiding party out of Dynevor told us that the king himself had laid down the campaign Valence should undertake. He was to furnish an expedition to conquer all the lands of Meredith's sons in Cardigan, and hand them over to the traitor Rhys of Dryslwyn, who naturally was expected to supply part of the army to carry out the assignment.

  So we were prepared for the expedition when it came, and knew that its first aim was to bring us to battle, on the way to invade the lands of Griffith and Cynan. We were equally determined to avoid such action, and when the force issued from Carmarthen we had scouts trailing them all the way, and kept our main forces to the hills and forests, never far from the enemy but never confronting him. The English moved in a body up the Towey valley as far as Llangadoc, where Rhys's division joined them, and thence Valence crossed over the uplands to the river Ystwyth, and marched his men down that valley to Llanbadarn. We kept pace with him most of the way, but little enough did he see of us, only our traces where an outpost of his camp was found wiped out at dawn and stripped of its arms, or a group of stragglers cut off and killed. We struck often enough to let him know that we were still there, and he dared not allow his precautions to flag, or dispose of any of his men. But we never emerged from cover to stray within reach of his archers, and he was too cautious to come after us into the forests. We had sent on word to Griffith and Cynan, and they were prepared to use the like tactics, avoiding encounters, denying the enemy all possible supplies on the way, and waiting for his passing.

  The shell of Llanbadarn was that and nothing more when Valence came to it. No defenders were there to be fought, the place was derelict, and having no workmen with them, and no prospect of bringing them in sufficient numbers until the whole cantref was pacified, they did not bother to occupy it, but marched by and left it as it was. So this great march ended none too gloriously down the coast, joining hands with Daubeny's garrison at Cardigan, by which time it was into the first days of September, and the forty days of feudal service was over. Most of the horse were certainly taken into pay and remained after that time, but some of the foot soldiers were discharged.

  For that month's work they had gained little, though it is true that Rhys ap Meredith did get hold of a part of the lands belonging to his loyal kinsmen, and the English helped him to retain them. Still, Valence must have been cautious in his report to the king, for a very large and powerful garrison was still maintained at Dynevor. All the chief castles along the march were in similar case, Builth, Radnor, Montgomery, Oswestry, all anxious to secure a strong enough grip on their own region to spare lances and foot-men to send to the king at Rhuddlan, but all compelled to retain their garrisons undiminished. It was what we had set out to do, and for more than two months we had done it. But we knew, every man of us, that we, for our part, had raised by now every man we could raise, and stood only to see our forces dwindle, if some hard-pressed vils and commotes lost heart and lent an ear to the royal offers of grace, while Edward's numbers had not yet reached their maximum, but could be expanded steadily as long as he had or could borrow the money to pay his mercenaries. In the matter of numbers and resources time was not on our side. As regards the weather, it might be in the end, but we dared not reply on it. His hate is such, Cynan had said of Edward, that neither snow nor frost will stop him. Put no trust in winter!

When we got back to Llandovery, it was the youngest of the prince's nephews, his namesake, who came out to greet us, and kissed his uncle's hand.

"My brothers are out towards Dynevor," he said, "with a patrol. Giffard is back in

Ystrad Tywi, so we've heard, and with a strong following. He has the king's leave to take back this castle, and all he can capture of Iscennen. He had not ours! We are planning a warm welcome for him."

  "You may find me some office in that welcome," said the prince. "We've had very little action in this circuit we've made with Valence."

  "Very gladly we would," said the boy, "but I think there may be graver calls upon you than ours, my lord. There's a courier here for you from David. Yesterday he rode in, but knowing you were on your way back I held him here rather than send out after you. I think, from what he says of movements in the north, you may be needed at home."

  Llewelyn went in with him from the bustle of the courtyard to the dimness of the hall, and there the messenger from Gwynedd came to salute him and present his letter. We knew him, he was a trooper of David's household at Hope, until that fortress was slighted and abandoned to Reginald de Grey. Llewelyn asked him, before he broke the seal: "What goes forward in the Middle Country?"

  "My lord, the Lord David sent me out the same day our outposts down the valley sighted King Edward's army advancing up the Clwyd. I thought he would have moved by the coast towards Conway. So he did in the last war. I think he has grasped that he dare not move further west while the Lord David holds the Middle Country. I think he is moving to break that hold, so that he may not be taken on the flank, and cut off from Chester."

  "I judge as you do," said Llewelyn. "The king keeps a measure of respect for my brother's prowess, however well he hates him." And he broke the seal of David's letter, and read the message, brief enough and eloquent in its brevity:

  "Luke de Tany, under Edward's commission, has landed an army in Anglesey, with all the fleet, more than forty ships, to cover him. The harvest is burned, garnered or lost, God knows in what measure. The king is marching up the Clwyd. Grey is crossing westwards from Hope, it seems aiming at Ruthin. Suddenly everything is on the move. It is time. Come!"

We made for Denbigh the next day, setting out at dawn, and beyond Bala Llewelyn took fresh horses and rode ahead with a small company of lances, leaving his household troops and the foot soldiers under Tudor to follow at their best pace. The town, when we reached it, was full of soldiery, and their bustle had a dourness and purpose about it that spoke loud in our ears, besides the relative absence of women and children about the streets. David had pickets out on the edge of the town, and a double guard on the gatehouse, the guard-walk on the wall was manned at every turret and angle, and the armoury was ringing with activity. There were all the indications of a garrison braced to siege conditions. Llewelyn looked about him sharply at all his brother's provisions, but could not fault them.

  David was up on the tower, and when the watch signalled our coming he would have started down to us, but Llewelyn waved him back, and we went up to join him. He was unarmed, there in his own castle, but the stripped and austere state he kept spoke of pressures that might have him in mail and on the move at any moment. He came to meet us on the guard-walk, his face intent and grave.

  "I'm glad you're come," he said when they had embraced, and stood together staring out to eastward. "Our situation here is not yet bad, but it is bad enough, I own it. I will not pretend I have done all things well."

  From that vantage point there was no warfare to be seen, and no enemy, only in the distance to the east, in the riverside plain, a few threads of smoke from sources hidden from us by the undulations of the land between. Llewelyn saw the thin blue drifts rising and dissolving, and knew what they meant.

  "Yes, they are there," said David. "They have not struck at us yet, they passed us by, keeping close to the river, in the low ground. He is not yet ready, and Denbigh will not be easy to storm. But Ruthin is lost. De Grey moved west from Hope, at the same time as Edward set off with his own army up the Clwyd towards us. I could not send help to Ruthin for fear of an attack here, but he did not attempt it. What he has done is string the whole valley with outposts, and pass us by to join Grey, cutting off all the allies we have east of Clwyd. Now Ruthin is gone, and this advanced line of ours is breached, and the rest may have to go after Ruthin."