Chapter 14: Welsh Threat

(Will Archer narrates)

I try my hardest to hold the town together, but more people fleeing the fighting around the city of Chester try to enter the town for protection. There is no sign yet of the Powys army in pursuit and I doubt they will come this far, but the refugees are not ready for persuasion from their convictions.

While there are pressures from without, the ferment within to escape the pestilence is also a problem. Just as we thought the pestilence was waning, with fewer getting sick and with regular nursing to those remaining in their houses, we have had six deaths yesterday afternoon and two more overnight, including the merchant who took my bedchamber. The word of the fatalities has spread through the town and more people are wanting to leave, pressing that they are fit and not carrying the pestilence, but I cannot take the chance.

I nock an arrow this morning for the first time in a week, I have had no time to practice my archery skills, but at this range my dart would pass through three men at full draw. I stand facing the head of the protesting townsfolk in the Market Square. I have a handful of fit men at arms, too few who could be spared from the pickets, including my clerk Jack Moor, just risen from his sickbed this morning, his fever broken but his body too weak yet to wield a sword. His hand rests on his dagger and looks mean.

The leaders of this rebellion are mostly silent, only the butcher Owain, who was once of Chester, with the bloodiest tools of his trade in his hands, is moved enough by his former friends and neighbours to speak up. “Let the Chester folk in and let us fit men out while we still can. We are not sick, but if we remain, surely it is Almighty God that has inflicted this plague upon us as a warning to leave this place. If we stay, surely we will suffer too.”

I remove my face mask to speak, raising my voice so all may hear on both sides of the divide. “You can leave this place whenever you choose, but it will be in a pine box if you catch the devil’s breath, or a pauper’s shroud if you do not disperse. Let there be no confusion, let all hear and understand. Be sure that I will take the ultimate sanction on anyone willing to risk passing this pestilence to the rest of the county and I will surely have the town confiscate your every possession, leaving you and your families as paupers, if you continue to defy martial law.”

I cannot lay it on any thicker than show them that I mean business. To the death if need be. The citizens of this town need to be aware that I have to make the best decisions both for them and the rest of the people in this county. If I was an ordinary man, I might have been tempted to sneak off out into the countryside myself to escape this pestilence, but I am a man with responsibilities and I will do my duty even if I have to die in the process.

The crowd is silent.

“Go back to your homes and wait this out. If you have no food or drink, come to the square at noon and mid-afternoon, when there will be fresh vegetable and fruit gruel and bread from the bakery, as well as ale and fresh well water from Oaklea ready to dole out fairly.”

Now the crowd is noisy with discussions but they disperse and make their way back to their homes.