Re: An Eastern Jewel in a Western World !!! Chronicles of a French Miserable.
Flemish Campaign (Part IV)
Chapter LXXXII : A l'assaut
An de Grâce 1212 AC.Kingdom of France.
Paris.
!!!Medieval Music to listen!!!
Current world...
Aide memoire:
Philippe's trips
Heroes...
Dead Heroes...
One rainy morning, the battle so much expected at last happened. Warned by my men, I quickly took my armor and my loyal Durandal, and ran with my bodyguards till the battlements.
I was quite depressed since a few days because there was no news about Bertrand. It was nearly 2 weeks since the beginning of the siege. Where could he be?
When I arrived at the top of the city walls, I knew that the battle would be a difficult one.
We glanced at the tall and proud siege towers and at all the men gathering for the battle.
I ordered to ring the general alert, asking for all the people able to fight to come on the battlements and take part of the defense.
The English were approaching. They pushed some siege towers but also some rams to destroy our gates. I was definitely stunned about the great number of English knight.
It was like an army of knights with shining armors.
My “Fleur de Lys” companies of experimented axemen were waiting in the first lines, watching the scene. I encouraged them to fight hard. They acclaimed me a last time before to focus on the siege towers.
I succeeded to see the Normand yellow lion on the English battle flags. The over proud English knights were holding it, provoking us once more.
- “For the Fleur de Lys !” I shouted.
“Let’s kill that weak lion…”
My soldiers roared.
- “Fire on the towers” I ordered to my bowmen, hidden behind the battlements embrasures.
As an answer, a volley of fired arrows took off toward the siege towers.
Hundreds of little stars flew and pierced the rainy sky. I knew that it was quite useless to try putting fire to the wet siege towers. But anyway, it was worthwhile.
Indeed, after some times, we happily watched one of the siege towers taking fire. The English knights following it to climb into were totally surprised.
My men at the walls roared of pleasure and took the opportunity to jeer and insult the English.
However, there were other siege towers all around and we couldn’t put fire to them. Despite our bowmen skills, the battle was imminent.
The axes and crossbows were ready.
We watched the rams and siege towers slowly approaching. Everyone was silent. The rain was running down our mail coat and armors. We were a little frozen, worrying about our fate…
When the siege towers were just near the city walls, a low horn rang and a sea of knights rushed toward us. It was a red, yellow and silver mix.
I felt my bowls retracting, fear taking part of my heart. I didn’t know if my militia would succeed to cope with those experimented soldiers…
I was facing the unknown.
I hated that…
The knight wave surged in the siege towers.
Amongst my men, we heard the shouts and orders of the evil English. We would soon be obliged to make them silent, to preserve our lives.
And all of a sudden, the siege towers opened their mouths and vomited the English knights. We were waiting for them with our swords and axes, but they succeeded to make their path and find some space where to fight.
With my vassals and bodyguards, we were running along the battlements. We suddenly saw some English troops making their path amongst some crossbowmen, less experienced. I ordered my men to engage them. We didn’t have the right to let them enter the city.
I remember when I started a duel against the first English knights. I was not used fighting by foot. It was like I was during training. It was completely different than on a war steed.
We could more easily duck and avoid the blows, but we couldn’t escape if surrounded.
Fortunately for me, my loyal men and vassals were very skilled and we easily push back the English in our battlement. They surely weren’t expecting such a resistance.
In the other battlements the siege towers succeeded to assault, the fight was tough, most particularly on one of them, located near the main gate. There were the most experimented English knights, probably some royal guards. When I heard about the harsh fight, I ordered Jacques d’Orléans and his templar men to go and stop the bleeding…
Jacques went there and fought, with the support of some of my “Fleur de Lys” company of axemen.
Tough battle.
Fortunately, I was pleased to notice the courage and bravery of my men. Some Parisian militia succeeded to make English knights rout and go back.
More important, the rams of the English had been destroyed and broken by some of my little catapults on the battlements. It was perfect because the gates were one of the weakest points to enter the city.
The battle lasted more than 8 hours.
At the end of the day we succeeded to push the English back, despite their will to open the gates. When I had secured my battlement, I ran to assist and support Jacques and his templar knights.
There weren’t a lot of English soldiers remaining but almost all the templar had been injured or killed.
We fought beside our friends and sickened those bastard Normand to come back.
They all rushed back and I hugged Jacques. He did a brilliant job, despite the sacrifice of his men.
He was definitely a loyal man.
His blood and tears proved me that.
The next four days, the English tried to assault again and again, but they had lost their will power and were less eager to fight against my motivated militia.
I fought again on the battlements and begin to appreciate that foot by foot close fight.
Each morning, I was dealing with my troop’s turnover. We had lost a lot of crossbowmen during the bombing, and some swordsmen and spearmen during the assault period. However, there were still a good amount of axemen and knights.
I thought that the English would finally resign, or that Bertrand would come back with some reinforcement from the North.
I was wrong.
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