Blackstone and the rescued men were twenty yards from Killbere’s boat when a dozen garrison soldiers shepherding townspeople across the bridge suddenly turned against their own kind, demanding they turn back because the castle yard was too full. The throng of desperate people pressed hard, their raised voices becoming cries of pain and anger as the soldiers struck out at them. Blackstone handed Beyard’s unconscious body into the willing arms of Killbere’s men. Will Longdon and Kynith clambered aboard and helped John Jacob and Ashford ease the others down into the well of the boat. Blackstone was about to jump aboard when screams rose from the bridge. The soldiers were no longer using staves to keep the people back, they were thrusting swords into them. A woman shrieked, an animal cry, as the man with her was cut down and the child he was cradling tumbled from his arms into the weir below the bridge. The crowd faltered but the woman threw herself into the water. The swirling current caught her clothing, pulling her below the surface. Soldiers turning to watch her desperate attempt to save her child saw the armed men in the boats, one of whom plunged into the swirling current.

Blackstone surfaced. A father’s instinct had made him dive into the fast-flowing river. He heard and saw the men hailing their comrades on the walls. He reached midstream; the child bobbed ten feet away from him, its clothes puffed with air keeping it afloat for those first vital minutes. There was no sign of its mother. Blackstone grabbed the child. It was alive, eyes wide, mouth gasping from the cold water. He cradled it to his chest, kicking hard against the current. He heard Jack Halfpenny cry ‘Loose!’ and saw garrison soldiers fall as they ran along the towpath towards them. He kept his eyes on the soldiers and then his head and shoulders slammed into a boat. Killbere had cut loose the mooring lines when Blackstone plunged in and the oarsman had pulled hard into the centre of the stream as Halfpenny’s archers kept the enemy at bay. John Jacob and Killbere leaned down and heaved Blackstone half out the water as Will Longdon took the child from him.

Killbere shouted. ‘Let the current take us! Jack, release your line!’

The boats spun in the tidal flow. Crossbow bolts splashed into the water and thudded into the hull. Halfpenny’s men were too unbalanced to shoot back and bent instead to the oars to pull them further out of range. In Blackstone’s boat Kynith grabbed Will Longdon’s shoulder and pointed as the woman bobbed to the surface.

‘There!’

‘I can’t swim,’ said Longdon. ‘Leave her.’

Kynith pulled off his jupon. ‘I can reach her.’

Will Longdon went to grab him but the Welsh archer threw himself into the current.

‘Kynith is in the water,’ Longdon yelled.

Blackstone and Killbere turned and saw him striking out towards the woman, who was floating face up.