Free [Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent by Iain Campbell Page B

squadron of Wolves sitting silent and menacing on their horses, before continuing , “I don’t think you would want them to visit again, next time with all restraint removed. Sow the wind and you will reap the whirlwind. Let not one of your men set foot in Staple Hundred. Also, every captive taken from England is to be delivered here within the hour.”
    “The village?” asked the old man next to Idwallon.
    Alan looked calculatingly at the ramshackle collection of huts, cottages and sheds. “Your people are poor enough. I’ll instruct my men not to torch the village. This time.”
    “And my son?” asked Idwallon, looking at the sword in his hand.
    “Lies in a ditch near Yazor,” replied Alan.
    “ What of Twedr ap Rhein?” queried the old adviser.
    “The son of your brother Rhein ap Grfydd, l ord of Cantref Twedos?” asked Alan addressing Idwallon. “I know not. If he’s not in the ditch, he’ll shortly be arriving at York on his way to Northumbria to be sold as a slave. Nobody of that name introduced themselves after they were captured.”
    Idwallon asked , “My son’s body. May I recover it?”
    Alan gave him a piercing look and then nodded. “I’ll give you that courtesy. Also that of Twedr ap Rhein, if he ’ s also in the ditch. Provide two unarmed men who knew them both and I’ll have them escorted to Yazor and then back to the border.”
    “And the other bodies?” asked the adviser.
    “Don’t push me too far, old man,” replied Alan. “I’m showing some courtesy to the l ords of Selyf and Tewdos. The others stay in the ditch to be eaten by the crows as the carrion they are. If there is a next time , they’ll be joined in h ell by hundreds of their countrymen. You may leave.”
    Every horse, cow, pig and sheep in the village and from the surrounding hills was gathered up and driven down the valley towards Staunton, together with the bags of flour from the granary. Alan left some sacks of grain seedstock, and the village had sprouting crops in its few fields. Fourteen English who had been held captive as slaves, five men and nine women, were received, questioned and escorted away towards home. The men ate the village chickens as they waited to hear that the force sent to Builth Wells had successfully withdrawn, which took two days as the animals and wagons seized from that village were driven down the winding and often overgrown and marshy valley. The Welsh sat quietly behind the wooden palisade , offering no resistance and no offence. The English set a strong guard and slept in the cottages vacated by the Welsh.
    Alan and the thegns hunted the next day in the overgrown valley with its ancient trees and tangled thickets, bringing back deer, boar and wild cattle for the men to eat. No alcohol was permitted and the few barrels of ale or mead in the village had been broached and the contents spilled on their arrival . Rigorous discipline was imposed, something that some of the Anglo-Saxons, particularly the thegns and their retainers, ha d some difficulty in accepting.
    Alan noted the very different nature of the countryside. On the Welsh side of the border the land was very hilly and in places mountainous. The hills were bare and barren with poor soil, but supported large herds of cattle and to a lesser extent flocks of sheep, now all on their way east. The river valleys were fertile, cut deep and wide, but farmed only half-heartedly. The Welsh preferred a semi-nomadic life in the hills and looked with contempt at those who farmed the valleys. The nature of the land and their preferred lifestyle condemned the Welsh to a relatively poor existence.
    When Robert rode in to advise that the last of the carts and animals from Builth Wells were nearing the border, Alan withdrew his men and they cautiously marched north-east towards England. The valley ahead was well-scouted and men had been placed to guard all likely areas of ambush.
    Once back over the border and in England Alan, Robert and the thegns