22nd June - Engaging the Locals

That was a start. "Good," Jarreau nodded, "Have your men fall in with mine. I'll speak with Gauthier and then rejoin you."

Rather timidly, the young Sous asked his NCO whether he please could have the men have fall in with Jarreau's. Fortunately (or thanks to some planning on the Colonel's part) that individual was a rather kind old campaigner who did nothing more than to comment:

"Speak up, Sir! The lads feel better if they can hear that you mean it."

Then he briskly whipped his men into order, voice neither low nor undecided, and left a blushing Sous-Lieuntenant to conquer his embarassment in privacy.

---

The Colonel had directed his horse next to the Dutch officer and was attempting polite conversation, but when he saw the men forming up, he was rather relieved. When d'Avout gave the signal and the colon began to move, he allowed his horse to linger at the side of the way for a bit to take a good look at what they had now to beat an unknown number of Portuguese rebels in a mountain stronghold of unknown strength. Since he was not officially part of the force and as a politeness to the officers from the other regiments, he touched his hat when they passed.

The Dutch company marched behind the French, arms shoulderd and loaded.
They had still barely any idea what they were going to meet, but as there were only about three companies present, they didn't expect much of an enemy and, in fact, they didn't really expect a big fight. A few vollys at most.

A quick salute was ordered and the men turned their faces as they marched past the French colonel. They stopped directly behind one of the French companies and their captain left them there, searching for orders by whoever was in charge of the company, and if they would proof junior to him, a quick meet would do.

Occ: From tomorrow on I wont be able to post, so you guys have my full permission to decide the acts of the company and its offircirs.

Conferring briefly with his sergeant, Jarreau caught sight of the Dutch officer's approach from the corner of his eye, but a moment later there was a shout from up ahead and the column began to move. The cavalry troops formed the vanguard, riding as far as the terrain would allow and kicking up a choking cloud of dust. This elicited several heartfelt curses from the men of Jarreau's company.

When nothing further transpired, however, the lieutenant dropped back to walk beside DeChagney's mount. "Damned cavalry," he muttered.

The young Sous nearly fell off his mount again when he realized that he was riding while the other, higher ranking officer was walking beside him. Fortunately the gelding was a patient animal, otherwise it might have felt the need to remind his rider why panicking on horseback was never recommended.

However, the Colonel came galloping up and fell in beside the two others, thus saving DeChagney from the difficult decision whether to get off his horse and look rather ridiculous by leading it along or possibly be incredibly rude by riding while his superior walked. He didn't like the situation much nevertheless, and tried to fade into the background - which was a bit difficult, considering that he was in the middle.

Beuret shared Jarreau's opinion on the cavalry and their tendency to kick up a lot of dust. He was responsible for setting standards, however, and therefore restricted himself to a mild "It seems the dragoons are very keen to meet the Portuguese."

"Aye," Jarreau scowled. "But this'll be a far cry from charging squared up infantry."

"For all that I know, the Portuguese have taken position in an old castle ruin. So the dragoons will have to get down from their horses sooner or later. Have you seen, has the Captain brought any guns or anything else that can deal with walls?",

the Colonel asked. DeChagney immediately squinted his eyes and tried to see, but got only a grain of dust into his eye for his trouble.

"Not that I've seen, sir. Unless he plans on pulling them out of his--" Jarreau broke off, realizing almost too late that he was in danger of crossing a line. "A fortified village..." he said instead, changing the subject, "They'll have made sure there's only one viable entrance by now. And once we're channeled like that, they can hold us off easily."

The Colonel looked sternly at Jarreau for a moment, but left it at that mild rebuke, and bend his mind to the problem the other man had posed instead.

"Yes, most likely - although they can be incredibly stupid when they have just enthusiasm and no leader, we should assume that they have found one by now and taken adequate precautions against us."

He looked at DeChagney and asked lightly:

"In which case, M. DeChagney, how would you propose we proceed?"

The young Sous blushed violently, opened and closed his mouth a couple of time and then looked frantically at Jarreau for some pointers - his mind had completely gone blank. He had read all the books, and the colonel had told him all the usual tactics several times, but right now he couldn't recall anything.

Turn around. Go back to camp. Get some goddamn artillery, Jarreau was tempted to say, but instead mouthed, "Flank. The. Gate."

He had no idea what the village looked like; he didn't even know if there was a gate. But coming at the breech from two different directions might at least split the enemy's focus, however temporarily. Their own numbers, he guessed, were strong enough that they could provide fairly continuous covering fire, and if they could get in close enough on either side, the walls might protect them from the enemy artillery.

That still left the problem of getting through the hypothetical gate. Though without artillery or explosives, he couldn't see a way to ameliorate this, unless of course they could find another way in and thus divide the enemy's attention.

Assuming that the cazadores did not take the offensive and attack while the French were conveniently strung out along the road.

DeChagney blushed even deeper and hesitantly said:

"F...f...flank the g..gate, Sir?"

The Colonel nodded indulgently.

"Yes, not a bad idea, although you would do well to take a close look at the gate and what lies behind it first - these narrow streets with stone houses they have here are not very pleasant to if the enemy decides to hide in them. So don't rush an attack without some kind of plan how to go on! But I think that was not M. Jarreau's first thought on the matter, was it?"

While DeChagney contemplated whether it was actually possible to die from mortification, the Colonel invited Jarreau with a wave of his hand to share his thoughts.

"We have no business being here without artillery, sir," Jarreau replied bluntly.

The colonel nodded grimly.

"Yes. Unfortunately ...", he shrugged. It was not his expedition, and any hint of criticism on his part would undermine the cavalry captain's authority. Not to mention the fact that most cavalrymen didn't take suggestions from infantry well. He sighed, then asked quietly:

"Lieutenant, do you know whether any artillery pieces are in the vincinity at all and not engaged otherwise?"

Jarreau frowned. "Most of the artillery was lost in the retreat. Even if we could persuade them to part with some of their remaining supplies, we'd never do it in time." He tried to recall if there were any outposts nearby still in their hands, but without success.

"There's bound to be another way in..." he added fiercely, half to himself.

[OOC: Sorry, missed that one completely.]

"Let us hope there is. Or that the Portuguese have some pieces nearby that we can easily take."

The Colonel laughed harshly and without any humor.

"Although we don't have spates either to dig a way in ..."

Patches of stone, roof peaks, a spire -- distant, but looming ever nearer -- rose out of the landscape above them and Jarreau muttered darkly, "We'll find out soon enough."

He opened his mouth to shout something to his sergeant, but checked and turned instead to the colonel. "With your permission, sir, I'd like to send out scouts."

The colonel made an inviting gesture with his hand. "I'm just here for the sights ... Certainly, go ahead. I'll inform Captain d'Avout."

He pulled his horse to the side so that he could close up with the cavalry captain. DeChagney asked in a very young voice, pointing towards the spire:

"Is that it, Sir? Where the rebels are?"

"I believe so," Jarreau answered with a curt nod.

Anxious that the scouts should be gone before the cavalry captain had a chance to countermand the order, he summoned Gauthier and quickly explained his intentions, but before he dismissed the sergeant, he turned to DeChagney, "Will you be sending out any of your men?"

"As s..s..s..scouts?",

DeChagney stammered, looking around uncertainly.

"Y...y...yes, I sh..should, shouldn't I?"

Fortunately the sergeant had already anticipated this - if other infantry units began to assemble scout parties, the 17th by all means should already be off and tracking. So when DeChagney turned in the sattle, trying to screw up the courage to give a selfconfident order, he immediately reported:

"Scout party assembled and ready, Sir!"

DeChagney relaxed a bit at this - one hurdle was taken, after all - and got even bold enough to suggest:

"Should we t...take the right side o..of the valley?"