Then he softened his rebuke with a smile. “But your sudden charge, Bass, was what won us the day, both sooner and at much less cost than anyone had expected. Those Irish ruffians met their match in the Spanish heavy horse, they had lost their impetus, the rear ranks of the Spanish center were rapidly reforming, and the countercharge would surely have driven our center back with a heavy loss.
“Yours was a shrewd blow and delivered at just the proper place and time, Bass. Of course, your position there on the right gave you a perspective which mine own denied me, but I am here to state that you accomplished what was undoubtedly your purpose, accomplished it with a vengeance, I might add, and gallopers were dispatched to the King with news of your victory ere you and your retinue had returned to our lines.”
“But what of the Spanish right?” croaked Foster hoarsely. Two jacks of honeymead trickled down his throat still had not restored his voice, for some reason.
The old Earl’s shaggy salt-and-pepper brows raised into arches. “Why, your charge rolled the center right back into their right, of course. As I said, Bass, ’twas a well-planned and shrewdly delivered stroke. You must tell me someday just who were your mentors, in your salad days; they’ve produced in you a rare combination of priceless qualities.
“Who else would have thought of disassembling those little falconets and their carriages and packing the lot on mule-back? Yet they gave our squadrons a hefty edge over the damned Spanishers. I have soldiered the most of my fifty years, Bass, from England to Persia and from Suomy’s frozen lakes to the heathenish jungles southwards of Timbouqtu, yet each day I serve under you I learn a new and better way to do something, militarily speaking.
“Perhaps you were not aware of it, Bass, but Earl Lucius and I were set with you by the King’s express command, to watch you and to take over if the post seemed too much for your then-unknown talents as a great captain. Although you did great deeds last year, only the smaller actions of late summer and autumn saw you in an unsupervised, independent command. But this glorious day has proved you in all capacities; this is Earl Lucius’ opinion as well, and our gallopers are carrying those very words and more to the King, you may be sure.
“Bass, Sir Bass, my lord Marquess of Velegrad, please allow me to humbly state that it has been, is and will ever be a signal honor to your servant, Howell ap Owain, to have the privilege of serving under so accomplished and puissant a captain, and this honor will be duly noted in the records that all my descendants may share my justifiable pride.”
There were tears sparkling in the old soldier’s faded blue eyes and his voice shook with sincerity. Stiffly, he fell to one knee and, taking Foster’s hand, pressed it to his lips.
When Earl Howell had finally departed into the night, Foster was on the point of arising from his chair and wondering if he could make it the short distance to the bed in the adjoining tiny room when Nugai padded in, wobbling slightly, his head and a large part of his flat, yellow-brown face swathed in bandages.
“Now, dammitall, Nugai,” Foster croaked angrily. “I ordered you to stay flat on your back until morning. You’re certain to have at least a concussion, though the way your helmet was sundered, you’re lucky as sin to be alive. If you won’t think of yourself, man, at least think of me; the Lady Krystal will never forgive me if I dont bring you back alive.”
The oriental just grinned at the reprimand. “Drei Irischer Herren to see My Lord visch. Vill they to admitted be?”
Foster nodded tiredly. “Might as well see them now as later. Show them in, Nugai, then you get your yellow ass to bed or IT1 have you put in it forcibly and tied down.”
The thick-bodied little man answered only with a bob of the head and another grin, before slowly stumbling out the door, to usher in the Irish officers.