Bass could see the master mariner’s point and supposed that he was just going to have to write off the use of the fleet against Ulaid, for the little kingdom’s other deep harbor was even more of a deathtrap for a seaborne attacker than was the Lough of Belfast.
All right, what then? Nibble around the coasts, sacking islands and bombarding coastal villages and sinking fishing boats, such as Brian had first suggested? Or simply ride up into Airgialla, collect the supporting infantry and siege train, then march across the Ulaid border and lay waste the countryside until King Ruarc felt stung enough to bring out his army and fight? Bass was not afraid of pitting himself and his condotta against the forces of Ulaid. Like most Irish kingly armies, they were no such thing, really, being simply a warband of the king’s cronies, relatives, and some of his subjects with a sprinkling, possibly, of foreign mercenaries.
The Ard-Righ had told him that Ulaid possessed no field artillery as such, only a few full cannon on siege carriages drawn by twenty span of oxen, with massive tubes twenty to twenty-four feet long. So they would not be expected to appear in any battles, for they would be of little good in a fast-moving engagement and not even King Ruarc could be expected to be so reckless as to risk the loss of such hellishly expensive pieces.
“You see, Sir Bass,” High King Brian had said, “to a large extent, the kingdoms of this Eireann still remain very conservative and of the old fashion. To every ruler here except me, war is the sole pursuit of gentlemen—that’s why we have so many wars, and for any reason or none at all. Before I became Ard-Righ, wars were unheard-of except in the time between planting and harvest; I it was who began to really modernize my army on the European model, put it in the field in April and keep it there for six months, if the early snows weren’t too deep. Of course, there were screeching howls when I did this, some from my own people, but mostly from my enemies, for this meant that they, too, were obliged to change their hoary ways, maintain their fighters for more months in the field, else they would stand to lose any gains to me and mine.
“I did this for a purpose. Sir Bass, for even then, in my youth, in the earliest years of my reign as Ard-Righ, I recognized that Eireann would never realize her potential, never become and remain a power of any sort in this world of ours, were her kingdoms not stablized in some way, not ever perennially at war one with the other or racked by rebellions and clan fightings. I realized that one of the ways to change the war-mad minds of the chiefs and the kings and the gentry was to show them that real war was not in any way or manner a game to be played for two or three months each year for so paltry rewards as a few acres of bumed-out croplands, a few head of scrawny cattle and a new scar or three of which to boast around the fires of autumn, winter, and early-spring nights.
“Such peculiar mind-sets as my brother chiefs and kings own have ever been the weakness of the entire race of the Gael, lulius Kaesar and his few Romans could never have conquered the land of Gallia had it not been torn by Gaels just like these of Eireann, whose hates and feuds for and with one another ran far deeper than fear and hatred of foreign invaders. Because of these deep rifts, divisions of the Gaels, all Gallia dropped like a ripe plum into the Roman hand.
“Eireann, ununited, is a plum no less ripe, only awaiting the proper hand to claim her, entire. I mean to succeed in uniting these Gaels of Eireann, where the great Werk-ingetorix failed in uniting his against the then-puny power of Rome. But Gaels have always been a superstitious lot; Christianity still in these enlightened days is but a thin patina over a weighty mass of strong, deeply rooted mores and beliefs, some of them as old as the hills and the waters. And so, although I could fight and win suzerainty over these other kingdoms, the great masses of the common people never would consider me other than a mere foreign conquerer unless I held the sacred Jewel of their land and folk. And if I took the other kingdoms by conquest. I might not get with the lands and the peoples whose Jewels, which would then mean that there would be rebellion after rebellion for me to fight year after year so long as I lived or essayed to hold the other kingdoms as mine.
“Such things have happened before, you see, in the blood-splattered history of the kingdoms of Eireann. The Jewel held by Ruarc is not the original, ages-old Jewel of Ulaid. That one was cast into the depths of Lough Neagh by a defeated king just before he was caught and slain by an invader. The invader’s divers could never find the original, so he replaced it with a great gem lifted from Mercia during a raid, but still are there clans of Ulaid who will not recognize it or those who hold it as the lawful Jewel or ruler of Ulaid.
“The legend sung by the filid has it that that last, really legitimate King of Ulaid will be returned in the body of a foreign warrior and that when this chosen one arrives at Lough Neagh, the ancient Jewel will leap out from where it has so long rested in those deep, dark waters and cleave to him, showing all who see that he is the warrior-king that Ulaid has for so long awaited. Just one of our folk tales.” He smiled.
Then he went on with his explanations. “Your ancient Gael warrior uses no missile weapons of any sort, only axe, spear, knife, and sword, sometimes with a light target of wickerwork, and no armor at all, quite often too with no clothes at all. The descendants of those men do use armor today, even bows and crossbows and hackbuts or pistols, but still they harbor an antique belief in the backs of their minds that engines that hurl impersonal missiles really long distances are a bit cowardly, and though they’ll all mount them on fortifications and ships quickly enough, they deliberately avoid obtaining artillery small and light enough to be handy on a battlefield. This does not apply to my army, of course, as you’ve seen, and King Flaithri of Connachta has begun to so arm his field forces as well, though he presently has no numbers of them and is clearly not completely sure how he should best employ them.
“What he has done is what I had wanted, in a way, in the beginning, but I much fear now that because of his steps to modernize the Connachta army, I may have to thoroughly conquer him and them and his kingdom. Of course, when he reaches the point of believing his cause lost, he’ll simply enship to Magna Eireann with his Jewel and leave Connachta to me to hold as best I can lacking the Jewel. There are only two options, neither of which I would care to essay.”
Throughout most of the voyage back to Munster from Slaneymouth, il Duce sat huddled in the bow, wrapped in a boat cloak and clearly deep in thought. When at last he roused himself, they were only some half hour from the city. Taking Sir Ugo aside, he said, “His grace di Norfolk, this noble English condottiere, puts a different angle to my gun tube, Ugo, as too does the carnage ongoing in Italy. You know, for I often have spoken privately of it in times past, that it had been my intent to serve out my contract to His Eminence, and to then seek employment for my condotta with the Ard-Righ, this Brian.
“But now the order is changed, changed utterly. Ties of blood that I never before knew I had in my fabric call me to Italy, to do all of which my men and I are capable to drive these foul Moors and Spaniards and their barbarian cohorts from Italian soil. Too, it now would seem that the Ard-Righ presently owns no need for me and mine.
“Brian told me, back there, that he is ready for us to make use of FitzRobert, that immediately the new order is jelled here, you are to journey back to him at Lagore with word and the Jewel.
“But I want you to do more than that, Ugo. I will send you back to Lagore right enough, bearing with you all that Brian requires; however, I will be sending Roberto with you. I want the two of you to wangle a way to accompany this condottiere inglese on the northern campaign and thoroughly observe, which should present you no difficulty, for the Ard-Righ seems quite impressed by you and most friendly toward you personally.