Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [133]
It cost something: it cost almost more than she could manage to fight, and to keep on fighting, by this time. Philippa said, ‘I hadn’t heard, but I am sure that I’m going to. What has Queen Mary been telling you?’
‘It was Mary Fleming,’ said Marthe. ‘A pretty, uncritical creature, and a devoted admirer of Francis. She tells me Richard Crawford of Culter is one of the Scottish bridal Commissioners.’
Lymond’s brother. ‘Yes?’ said Philippa flatly.
Marthe smiled. ‘He is coming next month. And bringing with him Sybilla his mother.’
Chapter 10
Six jours l’assaut devant cité donné
Livrée sera forte et aspre bataille.
In one matter Lymond’s captains had forecast correctly. In the weeks of brilliant manœuvring which preceded the investment of Calais, neither they nor their leader had a thought for personal matters. And even when Calais surrendered, there was still a rose to replace in the chaplet. The remaining marshy square miles of the Pale, the last English possessions in France, had to be overrun and appropriated before the triumph was perfect.
Thus, while the Duchess of Bouillon’s daughter was bedded, the victors of Calais were casting already through the cold winter marshes, spreading fright and apprehension among all the lonely, Spanish-held strongholds.
The Duke of Savoy their commander was not there. For days he had been in Bruges, begging for money with which to pay the five German regiments hurriedly saved from disbanding, and for the twelve thousand more foot and horse he would have to raise, recall or seduce from their warm German ale-houses to replace the armies he had just dispersed for the winter.
Meanwhile, crowded on the frontier at Gravelines were his best Spanish captains, each with handfuls of Walloons and hackbutters. More were marching up from the south, where the French Jack-o’-lantern had beckoned them, but were still too far off to be comfortable. Nor could he cull men from Saint-Quentin or Ham or le Catelet. Those hard-won Spanish forts were under-garrisoned as it was.
Messages, earnest, courteous and sensible, passed back and forth between King Philip and his wife, Mary Tudor of England. It was understood that the Earl of Rutland was preparing an army to protect the English possessions round Calais. They said that the Earl of Pembroke was on his way with five thousand men to cross the Channel from Dover, and that a further five thousand were spoken for. It was known that eighteen English ships, no doubt laden with troops, had had to turn back from Calais because of the disastrous capture of Fort Ruisbank. Preparations were made to receive landings at Dunkirk; lighters and barges were assembled at Dunkirk, Nieuport and Ostend; carts for money and baggage were readied.
The Duke of Savoy, still awaiting his army, laid plans to encamp at Saint-Omer.
Three thousand unarmed refugees walked into Gravelines form Calais, and had to be sheltered and nourished. A lively, well-plenished band of four hundred enemy horse rode up to the Sluice before Gravelines, reconnoitred it and Dunkirk, and withdrew, neatly, leaving panic behind them.
Another troop stopped off at the English-held fortress of Hâmes, and called upon Edward, Lord Dudley, to deliver the castle. He refused, even to death. By the back postern, at the same moment, he sent a call of despair to King Philip: for guns, powder and spades, and a standard of three hundred foot-soldiers. No one sent them. The besiegers, on the other hand, had other business to attend to. They made a note to return and rode off, in high spirits.
On Thursday, January 13th, six days after Calais’s surrender, the town and fortress of Guînes was surrounded.
Lord Grey of Wilton had seen it coming. In fact, he got Mary, his wife, to ride for help that first weekend, when the French were busy sapping up to the fortress by trenches. It was done properly, with a safe conduct from the Duke de Guise, who would never subject an English Earl’s daughter to the inconvenience of a bombardment.