Micah Clarke<br />His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During by Arthur Conan Doyle (read e books online free txt) ๐
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- Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Read book online ยซMicah Clarke<br />His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During by Arthur Conan Doyle (read e books online free txt) ๐ยป. Author - Arthur Conan Doyle
At four oโclock Monmouth held a last council of war upon the square tower out of which springs the steeple of Bridgewater parish church, whence a good view can be obtained of all the country round. Since my ride to Beaufort I had always been honoured with a summons to attend, in spite of my humble rank in the army. There were some thirty councillors in all, as many as the space would hold, soldiers and courtiers, Cavaliers and Puritans, all drawn together now by the bond of a common danger. Indeed, the near approach of a crisis in their fortunes had broken down much of the distinction of manner which had served to separate them. The sectary had lost something of his austerity and become flushed and eager at the prospect of battle, while the giddy man of fashion was hushed into unwonted gravity as he considered the danger of his position. Their old feuds were forgotten as they gathered on the parapet and gazed with set faces at the thick columns of smoke which rose along the sky-line.
King Monmouth stood among his chiefs, pale and haggard, with the dishevelled, unkempt look of a man whose distress of mind has made him forgetful of the care of his person. He held a pair of ivory glasses, and as he raised them to his eyes his thin white hands shook and twitched until it was grievous to watch him. Lord Grey handed his own glasses to Saxon, who leaned his elbows upon the rough stone breastwork and stared long and earnestly at the enemy.
โThey are the very men I have myself led,โ said Monmouth at last, in a low voice, as though uttering his thoughts aloud. โOver yonder at the right I see Dumbartonโs foot. I know these men well. They will fight. Had we them with us all would be well.โ
โNay, your Majesty,โ Lord Grey answered with spirit, โyou do your brave followers an injustice. They, too, will fight to the last drop of their blood in your quarrel.โ
โLook down at them!โ said Monmouth sadly, pointing at the swarming streets beneath us. โBraver hearts never beat in English breasts, yet do but mark how they brabble and clamour like clowns on a Saturday night. Compare them with the stern, orderly array of the trained battalions. Alas! that I should have dragged these honest souls from their little homes to fight so hopeless a battle!โ
โHark at that!โ cried Wade. โThey do not think it hopeless, nor do we.โ As he spoke a wild shout rose from the dense crowd beneath, who were listening to a preacher who was holding forth from a window.
โIt is worthy Doctor Ferguson,โ said Sir Stephen Timewell, who had just come up. โHe is as one inspired, powerfully borne onwards in his discourse. Verily he is even as one of the prophets of old. He has chosen for his text, โThe Lord God of gods he knoweth and Israel he shall know. If it be in rebellion or if in transgression against the Lord, save us not this day.โโ
โAmen, amen!โ cried several of the Puritan soldiers devoutly, while another hoarse burst of shouting from below, with the clashing of scythe-blades and the clatter of arms, showed how deeply the people were moved by the burning words of the fanatic.
โThey do indeed seem to be hot for battle,โ said Monmouth, with a more sprightly look. โIt may be that one who has commanded regular troops, as I have done, is prone to lay too much weight upon the difference which discipline and training make. These brave lads seem high of heart. What think you of the enemyโs dispositions, Colonel Saxon?โ
โBy my faith, I think very little of them, your Majesty,โ Saxon answered bluntly. โI have seen armies drawn up in array in many different parts of the world and under many commanders. I have likewise read the section which treats of the matter in the โDe re militariโ of Petrinus Bellus, and in the works of a Fleming of repute, yet I have neither seen nor heard anything which can commend the arrangements which we see before us.โ
โHow call you the hamlet on the leftโthat with the square ivy-clad church tower?โ asked Monmouth, turning to the Mayor of Bridgewater, a small, anxious-faced man, who was evidently far from easy at the prominence which his office had brought upon him.
โWestonzoyland, your Honourโthat is, your GraceโI mean, your Majesty,โ he stammered. โThe other, two miles farther off, is Middlezoy, and away to the left, just on the far side of the rhine, is Chedzoy.โ
โThe rhine, sir! What do you mean?โ asked the King, starting violently, and turning so fiercely upon the timid burgher, that he lost the little balance of wits which was left to him.
โWhy, the rhine, your Grace, your Majesty,โ he quavered. โThe rhine, which, as your Majestyโs Grace cannot but perceive, is what the country folk call the rhine.โ
โIt is a name, your Majesty, for the deep and broad ditches which drain off the water from the great morass of Sedgemoor,โ said Sir Stephen Timewell.
Monmouth turned white to his very lips, and several of the council exchanged significant glances, recalling the strange prophetic jingle which I had been the means of bringing to the camp. The silence was broken, however, by an old Cromwellian Major named Hollis, who had been drawing upon paper the position of the villages in which the enemy was quartered.
โIf it please your Majesty, there is something in their order which recalls to my mind that of the army of the Scots upon the occasion of the battle of Dunbar. Cromwell lay in Dunbar even as we lie in Bridgewater. The ground around, which was boggy and treacherous, was held by the enemy. There was not a man in the army who would not own that, had old Leslie held his position, we should, as far as human wisdom could see, have had to betake us to our ships, leave our stores and ordnance, and so make the best of our way to Newcastle. He moved, however, through the blessing of Providence, in such a manner that a quagmire intervened between his right wing and the rest of his army, on which Cromwell fell upon that wing in the early dawn, and dashed it to pieces, with such effect that the whole army fled, and we had the execution of them to the very gates of Leith. Seven thousand Scots lost their lives, but not more than a hundred or so of the honest folk. Now, your Majesty will see through your glass that a mile of bogland intervenes between these villages, and that the nearest one, Chedzoy, as I think they call it, might be approached without ourselves entering the morass. Very sure I am that were the Lord-General with us now he would counsel us to venture some such attack.โ
โIt is a bold thing with raw peasants to attack old soldiers,โ quoth Sir Stephen Timewell. โYet if it is to be done, I know well that there is not a man born within sound of the bells of St. Mary Magdalene who will flinch from it.โ
โYou say well, Sir Stephen,โ said Monmouth. โAt Dunbar Cromwell had veterans at his back, and was opposed to troops who had small experience of war.โ
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