Ten minutes later, it was all over. The Girls’ Own had climbed the barricade, avoiding the corpse-choked gaps to clamber up and over the wagons. The ground on the other side was a charnel house, dirt churned to bloody mud by the work of Archer’s howitzers, which had wreaked havoc on the waiting militia. Those enemy who weren’t dead, wounded, or fleeing in panic were being corralled to the rear by the Royals, who’d marched in to help with the mopping up.

*   *   *

“Sir,” Winter said. “Third Regiment reports twelve dead and twenty-three injured.” That included Sergeant Bells and her rankers. The rest of the casualties had come from the erratic fire of the Patriot Guard; none of the militia had come close to the line.

“Do you have an estimate of the enemy’s losses?” Janus said.

He sat comfortably on his horse, surveying the carnage. Winter’s troops had opened a hole in the barricade by harnessing teams of horses to drag the broken wagons aside, and cleared a path through the drift of bodies. Otherwise the enemy lay where they had fallen, cut to pieces by musketry and cannon-fire. The regimental cutters, having dealt with the paltry friendly casualties, moved briskly over the field looking for wounded with a good chance to survive.

“Hard to say, sir,” Winter said. “Probably five or six hundred all told? We have a few hundred prisoners, too. But I doubt the militia that got away will be coming back to bother us.”

“Agreed,” Janus said. “You weren’t at the Battle of the Road in Khandar, I recall.”

“No, sir,” Winter said. “If you remember I was . . . otherwise engaged.”

The general nodded. “I commented to Captain d’Ivoire at the time that the first engagement for green troops is crucial. It sets the tone for everything that follows.” He smiled, briefly. “I believe you have administered a salutary lesson.”

“The Patriots will fight, sir, even if the militia doesn’t.”

“They have more to lose,” Janus agreed. “But even desperate men have a breaking point. We simply need to find it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now. Your regiment is fit for further action?”

“Yes, sir. The Girls’ Own is resting now, but if I let the Royals lead we can press on.”