the river, or he can moved west and fall back to the other side of the River Conwy. That would abandon Abergele and Betws yn Rhos to us, along with several fishing villages along the coast- Llandrillo-yn-Rhos and Llanwst. Whether it is worth his while to defend them, or worth our while to attack them, are both questionable.
“We won’t be able to cross the River Conwyn and threaten Caernafon or Bangor, both of which
Bernard de Neufmarche added his own comment. “The men are tired, my lord. They marched all night and have fought hard this morning. They need food and rest and will not be able to move until mid-afternoon.”
FitzOsbern scowled. While an extremely intelligent man and not illiterate, nor was he well-lettered or used to a debating chamber. He wasn’t used to having military considerations presented so quickly and thoroughly, nor with such erudition. It took him a minute or so to work out what Alan had said. Having finally, after over a year of effort primarily in South Wales, brought the Welsh king’s army into the field to oppose his forces, he couldn’t engage them. “How do we get to them?” he demanded simply.
“I don’t know, Lord William,” replied Alan with a blank expression. “Conjuring a way to get 800 men across a river 70 yards wide and too deep to ford, in the face superior numbers of enemy troops who will be shooting arrows is something beyond my experience. I
“Neufmarche, keep 100 men near the river. The remainder can rest and eat. We’ll see what Bleddyn does over the next few hours,” ordered fitzOsbern.
“And then, my lord?” queried Neufmarche.
“I’m buggered if I know at the moment! Thorrington is right. We’d lose 200 men just to get across the river, probably more, given their damn archers. We’ll think about it and rest the men. The Welsh aren’t going anywhere at the moment.”
Six hours later, with no change to the situation, fitzOsbern called his command group back together. “Ideas?” he demanded.
“Well, we could send a force of men back upriver to seize and hold a fording point,” suggested Guy de Craon.
“If we had a dozen longboats, we could hold their force here while we slipped 500 men behind them, to either attack Bleddyn or sack the villages behind him,” commented Alan.
“Wishful thinking won’t help!” barked fitzOsbern angrily.
“Well, I’ve been trying to get the king to have that sort of a naval force and it would allow plenty of options for attack. Perhaps you might like to talk to him about it also? That would give you more options in the future,” replied Alan.
“Is that the best you can come up with?”
“Well, this is why you receive such large grants of land and command of an army, because you have to make the hard decisions!” said Alan with a sardonic laugh. “Seriously, de Craon’s given you the only viable option if you want to bring them to battle. We can’t force an opposed crossing here. There are several points we could cross just upstream. One is about a mile away. The river channel there is narrow, about twenty paces, but deep, and with mud banks on both sides. We have now, what… 400 horses, including about 200 ponies we’ve captured over the last few days? The horses can swim across and the men can hold onto their saddle pommels for assistance,” said Alan.
“No mud flats!” interjected Bernard de Neufmarche. “The horses will get mired in the mud and make a lot of noise. I’ve been in that situation before. Spearmen slaughtered us while our horses were stuck in a swamp. There are places where the river is not much wider, but with both banks firm. If we must force a crossing, better at that sort of place.”
Alan nodded agreement and said, “We can leave 50 men on this side of the river, build camp fires which they keep banked up and they move about making noise and movement. We can leave those who are lightly wounded or can’t swim. We’ll have to move damn fast and at night. The Welsh aren’t stupid and will have their scouts out and be fully awake tonight. We’re not going to get any more cheap and easy wins! I can see two problems. One is if we get caught with half our men over, they’ll get wiped out. The second is if we are successful in making a crossing, we’re on the opposite side of the river from safety, with no easy way to get back. The bridge is broken. We would
“A third point. Not many men can swim with forty pounds of metal on their back. I know I can’t,” said de Neufmarche. “It would be risky. Damn risky!”
“Your call, Lord William,” commented Alan. “You either get to face Bleddyn in battle with no route for retreat- and if the battle goes against us your army will be completely destroyed. Or we can sit quietly here and wait for Bleddyn to make a move.”
FitzOsbern scowled, thumped his fist angrily against a wall several times before saying harshly, “Cast the dice! Let’s see where they fall! Do what you can to chose the best place and get our men across quickly without being seen.”
While the others organised the men, Alan carefully scouted the river, making sure that no special attention was drawn from the Welsh. As Bernard de Neufmarche had said there was a place about a mile to the south, around two bends up the river, with firm banks on both sides and trees reaching down to the water’s edge. Alan disappeared into the village and raided the blacksmith’s workshop, the water-mill and several fishermen’s cottages. The soldiers stayed out of sight at the south side of the village, the men-at-arms stripped off their armour, rolled it up and carefully marked their ownership. Sunset was at eight twenty and it was dark in the forest shortly afterwards. They would have an hour and a half before the moon rose and fortunately the night sky was overcast with heavy clouds.
Alan had used his time to prepare his men, who moved to the chosen spot after the scouts had declared it clear. Six men stripped naked and swam across the narrow river with no weapon but a knife, each towing a piece of rope.
The rope on the most downstream side was used to pull a fishing net into place, for the safety of any men who were swept downstream by the gentle current. The other ropes were attached firmly to large oak trees. Three were simply to assist men crossing by providing a hand-hold, and two were fastened higher, about ten feet above the ground and wound taut.
The scouts crossed the river using the ropes and placing their bowstrings under their hats to keep them dry as they struggled through the cold water. They restrung their bows immediately when they emerged dripping on the west bank. Alan returned to the east bank, bringing the end of another lighter rope with him, and was stringing a mechanism from one of the ropes when the first of the soldiers arrived. The horsemen dismounted, checked their rolled-up armour was firmly tied to their horses and then swam across beside their horses, being pulled along as they held onto the saddle pommels or the horses’ manes. They patted the shivering horses as they struggled out of the water and then quickly slipped on their armour and girded themselves with their weapons, before rubbing down the horses. The archers were starting to cross on the two rope lines, one every ten seconds or so. The foot-soldiers were lining up next to the zip line, their armour and equipment being placed into a large basket hanging from the rope, which was pulled across and then sent back empty.
While the men had been instructed to be quiet and that their lives depended on this, it is impossible to move 500 or more men and nearly half as many horses silently. While there was no shouting of instructions and little muttered conversation from the men, except when they emerged from the freezing cold water to stand in their wet clothes in the night wind, arrows started to come out of the forest about an hour after the first soldier had crossed.
The moon could be seen just rising behind the clouds, but cast little light in the forest. FitzOsbern had just crossed and was buckling on his armour- his padded gambeson and armour had been sent over on the zip line and so unlike most of his men he was at least dry after he had wiped off the cold water after emerging on the west bank. Alan was surprised that they had been given an hour, but thought that perhaps a part of that time had been taken up by Bleddyn trying to believe the Anglo-Normans had been foolhardy enough to cross the river under his nose. By that time there were over 300 men on the west bank and on fitzOsbern’s instructions they increased the
