Defeated

In early August, the weather turned slightly cool, and overcast rain filled the sky.

A lone Cog heaved amid the waves of Clyde Bay off Salt Beach, like a withered leaf fallen into the vast ocean, drifting helplessly.

On the Cog's sterncastle stood a middle-aged man, his face grim beneath the endless rain.

His hair and beard were disheveled. Beneath his sunken eye sockets was a face worn with exhaustion. Several rents in the battered coat of arms over his chainmail revealed cracks in the links beneath. His gorget, greaves, gauntlets, helmet hood, and cuisses were all gone.

The cold rain lashed wildly in the sea wind, striking his body as droplets ran down his temples and beard, falling from the skirt of his armor onto the sterncastle's planks.

Below the sterncastle, some forty poorly dressed and incompletely armed soldiers lay sprawled about. They paid no heed to the cold wind and rain, merely slumping against the deck with vacant eyes.

Five gravely wounded soldiers remained in the cabin. Their wounds had been roughly bound after boarding, but no one could treat them. All they could do now was howl in agony.

Beneath the fenced canvas awning for warhorses at the center of the deck, the original seven or eight horses had vanished. In the empty space lay more than a dozen corpses, hastily wrapped in torn cloth and felt blankets.

Though they shared quarters with livestock, at least it sheltered them from wind and rain. It was the last shred of respect afforded to the dead.

The patter of feet through water sounded out. A short, stocky man with brown eyes and brown hair, his stubble thickly streaked with white, climbed onto the sterncastle. Rain continually dripped from the bloodstained woolen cloak over his shoulders, striking the pooled water on the boards and splashing up pale-red droplets.

"Baron, Allen Island is here. We're home." The man raised his left hand, missing three fingers, and pointed toward the increasingly close Stackport Bay. The main keep of Brodick Castle was already faintly visible.

Baron John, standing atop the sterncastle, gazed at the approaching Allen Island, his expression growing ever more complicated.

Allen Island's army had suffered an unprecedented defeat.

A month ago, Baron John had led Allen Island's forces out in full strength, brimming with lofty ambition. More than a hundred men was no small armed force in this age and land. They had sailed south aboard three ships and quietly landed on the coast of Raven Barony in Carrick County.

Afterward, Baron John led his troops cautiously south along the coastline, successfully slipping into the peninsula on Galloway's western coast.

That was a weakly controlled region under England's rule. Using surprise assault tactics, they captured a military fort called Glenluce, killed fifteen English soldiers stationed there, and seized control of the throat through which the English army entered the western peninsula.

Baron John had also attempted to advance on Wigtown, but suffered setback after setback before the two forts of Balley and Kirkcowan. He had no choice but to withdraw and hold Glenluce Fortress.

Over the following half month, Baron John divided his forces into two groups.

One main force remained at Glenluce to cut off the English army's route, while the other, composed primarily of accompanying peasant levies, was led by Baron John's household knight to plunder the entire western peninsula, seizing ample grain, supplies, gold, silver, and valuables.

In truth, most of those they plundered were Scottish commoners as well. But since they had become obedient subjects under English rule, Baron John naturally showed them no courtesy.

This campaign went exceptionally smoothly—so smoothly that it seemed strange. Two successive English relief forces merely probed them briefly before immediately withdrawing.

Three days ago, having taken enough loot, Allen Island's army decided to withdraw according to plan.

The three ships that had sailed south had successfully completed their maritime trade and smuggling. By then, Baron John's troops controlled the entire western peninsula of Galloway. Baron led White Sail and another ship into a small fishing village called Stranraer, deep within Loch Ryan on the western peninsula, as planned.

Having noticed that things were going far too smoothly, Baron John had already transported the spoils gathered over the past month there.

The three ships would return to Allen Island laden with trophies of war. Perhaps Allen Island would enjoy a year of plenty this year.

Yet just as the army was boarding the ships, a force suddenly charged in from the east.

Fifty cavalrymen led the charge, followed by two hundred infantrymen.

Donald MacCann, the pro-English lord of Galloway, commanded them personally, while the knight Roland MacGah led the vanguard straight at them.

The Scottish nobles' wholesale surrender last year had freed up English troops to deal with these flea-like bands of "rebels."

This pursuit and annihilation had clearly been planned for a long time. The English army had deliberately waited until Baron John had plundered countless treasures from the western peninsula before suddenly appearing at his rear.

By then, the troops burdened with countless riches had long lost the fierce courage of barefoot men who feared no one in shoes that they had possessed when first setting out.

To mislead Baron John, Donald MacCann had sent two small forces to attack Glenluce Fortress over the past month, both of course returning empty-handed.

Returning to the matter at hand, by the time the English pursuers arrived, Allen Island's army had already boarded the ships. But the English had come prepared, deploying five warships from the south to blockade the mouth of Loch Ryan.

The ships, laden with men, horses, and spoils, could not move swiftly or nimbly. If they attempted to break out by sea, both men and ships would surely perish.

To lighten the ships and allow them and the loot to break through the enemy blockade, Baron John led his men ashore under cover of night at Cairnryan Port on Loch Ryan's northern shore. They agreed to rendezvous at Ballantrae after breaking out.

Traveling light under Baron John's command, Allen Island's army did not follow the flat shoreline. Instead, they threaded their way through the gentle slopes along Loch Ryan's northern shore, constantly changing their marching direction in an attempt to shake off the English pursuers—especially that cavalry force snapping at their heels.

Yet most of Allen Island's army consisted of hastily conscripted peasant levies. In their nighttime panic, many fell behind and lost their way, plunging headfirst into the pursuing English forces.

Under interrogation, those frail peasant levies revealed the direction taken by Allen Island's army.

Thus, over the following stretch of time, Allen Island's army was hemmed in, pursued, and intercepted by the English.

After fleeing for a day and a night, Baron John led some survivors to the vicinity of Ballantrae, only to find their path blocked by an ambushing force.

With enemies blocking the front and pursuers at their rear, Baron John's younger brother, the banner knight Colin, stepped forward in the critical moment. He led fifteen men-at-arms and ten peasant levies to hold off the pursuers while Baron John personally drew his sword and cut down the enemies ahead. After several bloody battles, they finally broke through the encirclement.

But the banner knight Colin failed to catch up. Seeing his father surrounded and slain by the pursuers, the squire Colin II turned back in a surge of bloody courage to rescue him. Father and son both perished.

Ma'en fought desperately to snatch Colin II's body back from the English. Sir Colin's corpse had already become an English trophy.

Meanwhile, two ships, including White Sail, were captured while breaking through at the mouth of Loch Ryan. Only Baron, scarred all over, reached Ballantrae and took aboard the remnants of Allen Island's army, which had suffered more than half its strength in losses.

Five knights, twenty-three men-at-arms, fifty conscripts, and over twenty sailors—of Allen Island's force of more than a hundred, only forty-seven or forty-eight escaped by ship in the end, including five severely wounded men.

Of the five knights, two had died and one was gravely wounded. More than half the men-at-arms were lost, and Baron John himself had been struck in the chest by a spiked mace. The iron spikes had pierced the rings of his chainmail, though fortunately, the wound was not too serious.