CHAPTER THE THIRD

The plan was simple but audacious. Macdonald's spies knew that the Regent's party would be travelling eastwards to Rouillac on the via Agricola, the only road able to accommodate heavy vehicles, which meant that they would be obliged to pass less than three miles south of Chateau Lecoq at Neuvicq.

If they wanted the booty, they had two options; to attack a heavily armed, if unsuspecting wagon train on the road or to use a clever but even riskier subterfuge. Macdonald and de Machon opted for the more daring plan of inviting Lord John to lodge with them overnight, the better to spy out the royal party's strengths.