Vagabond

by Bernard Cornwell. Part one. england October 1346.

Arrows on the hill.

It was October, the time of the year's dying when cattle were being 
slaughtered before winter and when the northern winds brought   
a promise of ice  The chestnut leaves had turned golden, the beeches 
were trees of flame and the oaks were made from bronze.  Thomas 
of Hookton, with his woman, Eleanor, and his friend, Father Hobbe, 
came to the upland farm at dusk and the farmer refused to open   
his door, but shouted through the wood that the travellers could 
sleep in the byre.  Rain rattled on the mouldering thatch.  Thomas 
led their one horse under the roof that they shared with a woodpile, 
six pigs in a stout timber pen and a scattering of feathers where a 
hen had been plucked.  The feathers reminded Father Hobbe that 
it was Saint Gallus's day and he told Eleanor how the blessed saint, 
coming home in a winter's night, had found a bear stealing his 
dinner.  He told the animal off!"  Father Hobbe said.   He gave it a 
right talking-to, he did, and then he made it fetch his firewood."   
 I've seen a picture of that," Eleanor said.   Didn't the bear become 
his servant?"   
 That's because Gallus was a holy man," Father Hobbe explained.   
 Bears wouldn't fetch firewood for just anyone!  Only for a holy 
man.   
 A holy man," Thomas put in,  who is the patron saint of hens."   
Thomas knew all about the saints, more indeed than Father Hobbe.   
 Why would a chicken want a saint?"  he enquired sarcastically.   
 Gallus is the patron of hens?"  Eleanor asked, confused by 
Thomas's tone.   Not bears?"   
 Of hens," Father Hobbe confirmed.   Indeed of all poultry."   
 But why?"  Eleanor wanted to know.   
 Because he once expelled a wicked demon from a young girl."   
Father Hobbe, broad-faced, hair like a stickleback's spines, peasant- 
born, stocky, young and eager, liked to tell stories of the blessed 
saints.   A whole bundle of bishops had tried to drive the demon 
out," he went on,  and they had all failed, but the blessed Gallus 
came along and he cursed the demon.  He cursed it!  And it screeched 
in terror"  Father Hobbe waved his hands in the air to imitate the 
evil spirit's panic,   and then it fled from her body, it did, and it 
looked just like a black hen,  a pullet.  A black pullet."   
 I've never seen a picture of that," Eleanor remarked in her 
accented English, then, gazing Out through the byre door,  but I'd 
like to see a real bear carrying firewood," she added wistfully.   
Thomas sat beside her and stared into the wet dusk, which was 
hazed by a small mist.  He was not sure it really was Saint Gallus's day 
for he had lost his reckoning while they travelled. Perhaps it was 
already Saint Audrey's day? It was October, he knew that, and he 
knew that one thousand, three hundred and forty-six years had 
passed since Christ had been born, but he was not sure which day 
it was.  It was easy to lose count.  His father had once recited all the 
Sunday services on a Saturday and he had had to do them again 
the next day.  Thomas surreptitiously made the sign of the cross.   
He was a priest's bastard and that was said to bring bad luck.  He 
shivered.  There was a heaviness in the air that owed nothing to 
the setting sun nor to the rain clouds nor to the mist.  God help us, 
he thought, but there was an evil in this dusk and he made the 
sign of the cross again and said a silent prayer to Saint Gallus and his 
obedient bear. There had been a dancing bear in London, its teeth 
nothing but rotted yellow stumps and its brown flanks matted with 
blood from its owner's goad.  The street dogs had snarled at it, slunk 
about it and shrank back when the bear swung on them.   
 How far to Durham?"  Eleanor asked, this time speaking French, 
her native language.   
 Tomorrow, I think," Thomas answered, still gazing north to 
where the heavy dark was shrouding the land.   She asked," he 
explained in English to Father Hobbe,  when we would reach 
Durham.   
 Tomorrow, pray God," the priest said.   
 Tomorrow you can rest," Thomas promised Eleanor in French.   
She was pregnant with a child that, God willing, would be born in 
the springtime.  Thomas was not sure how he felt about being a 
father.  It seemed too early for him to become responsible, but 
Eleanor was happy and he liked to please her and so he told her 
he was happy as well.  Some of the time, that was even true.   
 And tomorrow," Father Hobbe said,  we shall fetch our answers."   
 Tomorrow," Thomas corrected him,  we shall ask our ques- 
tions.   
 God will not let us come this far to be disappointed," Father 
Hobbe said, and then, to keep Thomas from arguing, he laid out 
their meagre supper.   That's all that's left of the bread," he said, 
and we should save some of the cheese and an apple for break- 
fast."  He made the sign of the cross over the food, blessing it, then 
broke the hard bread into three pieces.   We should eat before 
nightfall."   
Darkness brought a brittle cold.  A brief shower passed and after 
it the wind dropped.  Thomas slept closest to the byre door and 
sometime after the wind died he woke because there was a light 
in the northern sky.   
He rolled over, sat up and he forgot that he was cold, forgot his 
hunger, forgot all the small nagging discomforts of life, for he could 
see the Grail.  The Holy Grail, the most precious of all Christ's 
bequests to man, lost these thousand years and more, and he could 
see it glowing in the sky like shining blood and about it, bright as 
the glittering crown of a saint, rays of dazzling shimmer filled the 
heaven.   
Thomas wanted to believe.  He wanted the Grail to exist.  He 
thought that if the Grail were to be found then all the world's evil 
would be drained into its depths.  He so wanted to believe and that 
October night he saw the Grail like a great burning cup in the north 
and his eyes filled with tears so that the image blurred, yet he could 
see it still, and it seemed to him that a vapour boiled from the holy 
vessel.  Beyond it, in ranks rising to the heights of the air, were 
rows of angels, their wings touched by fire.  All the northern sky 
was smoke and gold and scarlet, glowing in the night as a sign to 
doubting Thomas.   Oh, Lord," he said aloud and he threw off his 
blanket and knelt in the byre's cold doorway,  oh, Lord."   
 Thomas?"  Eleanor, beside him had awoken.  She sat up and stared   
into the night.   Fire," she said in French,  c'est Un grand incendie."   
Her voice was awed.   
 C'est Un incendie?"  Thomas asked, then came fully awake and saw 
there was indeed a great fire on the horizon from where the flames 
boiled up to light a cup-shaped chasm in the clouds.   
 There is an army there," Eleanor whispered in French.   Look!"   
She pointed to another glow, farther off.  They had seen such lights 
in the sky in France, flamelight reflected from cloud where Eng- 
land's army blazed its way across Normandy and Picardy.   
Thomas still gazed north, but now in disappointment.  It was an 
army?  Not the Grail?   
 Thomas?"  Eleanor was worried.   
 It's just rumour," he said.  He was a priest's bastard and he had 
been raised on the sacred scriptures and in Matthew's Gospel it had 
been promised that at the end of time there would be battles and 
rumours of battles.  The scriptures promised that the world would 
come to its finish in a welter of war and blood, and in the last 
village, where the folk had watched them suspiciously, a sullen 
priest had accused them of being Scottish spies.  Father Hobbe had 
bridled at that, threatening to box his fellow priest's ears, but 
Thomas had calmed both men down, and then spoken with a 
shepherd who said he had seen smoke in the northern hills.  The 
Scots, the shepherd said, were marching south, though the priest's 
woman scoffed at the tale, claiming that the Scottish troops were 
nothing but cattle raiders.   Bar your door at night," she advised, 
and they'll leave you alone.   
The far light subsided.  It was not the Grail.   
 Thomas?"  Eleanor frowned at him.   
 I had a dream," he said, just a dream."   
 I felt the child move," she said, and she touched his shoulder.   
 Will you and I be married?"   
 In Durham," he promised her.  He was a bastard and he wanted 
no child of his to carry the same taint.   We shall reach the city 
tomorrow," he reassured Eleanor,  and you and I will marry in a 
church and then we shall ask our questions."  And, he prayed, let 
one of the answers be that the Grail did not exist.  Let it be a dream, 
a mere trick of fire and cloud in a night sky, for else Thomas feared 
it would lead to madness.  He wanted to abandon this search; he   
wanted to give up the Grail and return to being what he was and 
what he wanted to be: an archer of England.   
Bernard de Taillebourg, Frenchman, Dominican friar and Inquisitor, 
spent the autumn night in a pig pen and when dawn came thick 
and white with fog, he went to his knees and thanked God for the 
privilege of sleeping in fouled straw.  Then, mindful of his high task, 
he said a prayer to Saint Dominic, begging the saint to intercede with 
God to make this day's work good.  As the flame in thy mouth 
lights us to truth"  he spoke aloud, 's o let it light our path to 
success."  He rocked forward in the intensity of his emotion and his 
head struck against a rough stone pillar that supported one corner 
of the pen.  Pain jabbed through his skull and he invited more by 
forcing his forehead back against the stone, grinding the skin until 
he felt the blood trickle down to his nose.   Blessed Dominic," he 
cried,  blessed Dominic!  God be thanked for thy glory!  Light our 
way!"  The blood was on his lips now and he licked it and reflected 
on all the pain that the saints and martyrs had endured for the 
Church.  His hands were clasped and there was a smile on his 
haggard face.   
Soldiers who, the night before, had burned much of the village 
to ash and raped the women who failed to escape and killed the 
men who tried to protect the women, now watched the priest drive 
his head repeatedly against the blood-spattered stone.   Dominic," 
Bernard de Taillebourg gasped,  oh, Dominic!"  Some of the soldiers 
made the sign of the cross for they recognized a holy man when 
they saw one.  One or two even knelt, though it was awkward in 
their mail coats, but most just watched the priest warily, or else 
watched his servant who, sitting outside the sty, returned their 
gaze.   
The servant, like Bernard de Taillebourg, was a Frenchman, but 
something in the younger man's appearance suggested a more 
exotic birth.  His skin was sallow, almost as dark as a Moor's, and 
his long hair was sleekly black which, with his narrow face, gave 
him a feral look.  He wore mail and a sword and, though he was 
nothing but a priest's servant, he carried himself with confidence   
and dignity.  His dress was elegant, something strange in this ragged 
army.  No one knew his name.  No one even wanted to ask, just as 
no one wanted to ask why he never ate or chatted with the other 
servants, but kept himself fastidiously apart.  Now the mysterious 
servant watched the soldiers and in his left hand he held a knife 
with a very long and thin blade, and once he knew enough men 
were looking at him, he balanced the knife on an outstretched 
finger.  The knife was poised on its sharp tip, which was prevented 
from piercing the servant's skin by the cut-off finger of a mail glove 
that he wore like a sheath.  Then he jerked the finger and the knife 
span in the air, blade glittering, to come down, tip first, to balance 
on his finger again.  The servant had not looked at the knife once, but 
kept his dark-eyed gaze fixed on the soldiers.  The priest, oblivious to 
the display, was howling prayers, his thin cheeks laced with blood.   
 Dominic!  Dominic!  Light our path!"  The knife span again, its wicked 
blade catching the foggy morning's small light.   Dominic!  Guide us!   
Guide us!"   
 On your horses!  Mount up!  Move yourselves!"  A grey-haired 
man, a big shield slung from his left shoulder, pushed through the 
onlookers.   We've not got all day!  What in the name of the devil 
are you all gawking at?  Jesus Christ on His goddamn cross, what 
is this, Eskdale bloody fair?  For Christ's sake, move!  Move!"  The 
shield on his shoulder was blazoned with the badge of a red heart, 
but the paint was so faded and the shield's leather cover so scarred 
that the badge was hard to distinguish.   Oh, suffering Christ!"  The 
man had spotted the Dominican and his servant.   Father!  We're 
going now.  Right now!  And I don't wait for prayers.  He turned 
back to his men.   Mount up!  Move your bones!  There's devil's work 
to be done!"   
 Douglas!"  the Dominican snapped.   
The grey-haired man turned back fast.   My name, priest, is Sir 
William, and you'll do well to remember it."   
The priest blinked.  He seemed to be suffering a momentary con- 
fusion, still caught up in the ecstasy of his pain-driven prayer, then 
he gave a perfunctory bow as if acknowledging his fault in using 
Sir William's surname.   I was talking to the blessed Dominic," he 
explained.   
 Aye, well, I hope you asked him to shift this damn fog?"   
 And he will lead us today!  He will guide us!"   
 Then he'd best get his damn boots on," Sir William Douglas, 
Knight of Liddesdale, growled at the priest,  for we're leaving 
whether your saint is ready or not."  Sir William's chain mail was 
battle-torn and patched with newer rings.  Rust showed at the hem 
and at the elbows.  His faded shield, like his weather-beaten face, 
was scarred.  He was forty-six now and he reckoned he had a sword, 
arrow or spear scar for each of those years that had turned his hair 
and short beard white.  Now he pulled open the sty's heavy gate.   
 On your trotters, father.  I've a horse for you."   
 I shall walk," Bernard de Taillebourg said, picking up a stout staff 
with a leather thong threaded through its tip,  as our Lord walked."   
 Then you'll not get wet crossing the streams, eh, is that it?"  Sir 
William chuckled.   You'll walk on water will you, father?  You and 
your servant?"  Alone among his men he did not seem impressed 
by the French priest or wary of the priest's well-armed servant, but 
Sir William Douglas was famously unafraid of any man.  He was a 
border chieftain who employed murder, fire, sword and lance to 
protect his land and some fierce priest from Paris was hardly likely 
to impress him.  Sir William, indeed, was not overfond of priests, 
but his King had ordered him to take Bernard de Taillebourg on 
this morning's raid and Sir William had grudgingly consented.   
All around him soldiers pulled themselves into their saddles.  They 
were lightly armed for they expected to meet no enemies.  A few, 
like Sir William, carried shields, but most were content with just a 
sword.  Bernard de Taillebourg, his friar's robes mud-spattered and 
damp, hurried alongside Sir William.   Will you go into the city?"   
 Of course I'll not go into the bloody city.  There's a truce, 
remember?"   
 But if there's a truce .   
 If there's a bloody truce then we leave them be."   
The French priest's English was good, but it took him a few 
moments to work out what Sir William's last three words had 
meant.   There'll be no fighting?"   
 Not between us and the city, no.  And there's no goddamned 
English army within a hundred miles so there'll be no fighting.  All 
we're doing is looking for food and forage, father, food and forage.   
Feed your men and feed your animals and that's the way to win   
your wars."  Sir William, as he spoke, climbed onto his horse, which 
was held by a squire.  He pushed his boots into the stirrups, plucked 
the skirts of his mail coat from under his thighs and gathered the 
reins.   I'll get you close to the city, father, but after that you'll have 
to shift for yourself."   
 Shift?"  Bernard de Taillebourg asked, but Sir William had already 
turned away and spurred his horse down a muddy lane that ran 
between low stone walls.  Two hundred mounted men-at-arms, 
grim and grey on this foggy morning, streamed after him and the 
priest, buffeted by their big dirty horses, struggled to keep up.  The 
servant followed with apparent unconcern.  He was evidently accus- 
tomed to being among soldiers and showed no apprehension, in- 
deed his demeanour suggested he might be better with his weapons 
than most of the men who rode behind Sir William.   
The Dominican and his servant had travelled to Scotland with a 
dozen other messengers sent to King David II by Philip of Valois, 
King of France.  The embassy had been a cry for help.  The English 
had burned their way across Normandy and Picardy, they had 
slaughtered the French King's army near a village called Crecy and 
their archers now held a dozen fastnesses in Brittany while their 
savage horsemen rode from Edward of England's ancestral pOssessions in Gascony.  All that was bad, but even worse, and as if to 
show all Europe that France could be dismembered with impunity, 
the English King was now laying siege to the great fortress harbour 
of Calais.  Philip of Valois was doing his best to raise the siege, but 
winter was coming, his nobles grumbled that their King was no 
warrior, and so he had appealed for aid to Scotland's King David, 
son of Robert the Bruce.  Invade England, the French King had 
pleaded, and thus force Edward to abandon the siege of Calais to 
protect his homeland.  The Scots had pondered the invitation, then 
were persuaded by the French King's embassy that England lay 
defenceless.  How could it be otherwise?  Edward of England's army 
was all at Calais or else in Brittany or Gascony, and there was no 
one left to defend England, and that meant the old enemy was 
helpless, it was asking to be raped and all the riches of England 
were just waiting to fall into Scottish hands.   
And so the Scots had come south.   
It was the largest army that Scotland had ever sent across the   
border.  The great lords were all there, the sons and grandsons of 
the warriors who had humbled England in the bloody slaughter 
about the Bannockburn, and those lords had brought their men-at- 
arms who had grown hard with incessant frontier battles, but this 
time, smelling plunder, they were accompanied by the clan chiefs 
from the mountains and islands: chiefs leading wild tribesmen who 
spoke a language of their own and fought like devils unleashed.  They 
had come in their thousands to make themselves rich and the French 
messengers, their duty done, had sailed home to tell Philip of Valois 
that Edward of England would surely raise his siege of Calais when 
he learned that the Scots were ravaging his northern lands.   
The French embassy had sailed for home, but Bernard de Taille- 
bourg had stayed.  He had business in northern England, but in 
the first days of the invasion he had experienced nothing except 
frustration.  The Scottish army was twelve thousand strong, larger 
than the army with which Edward of England had defeated the 
French at Crecy, yet once across the frontier the great army had 
stopped to besiege a lonely fortress garrisoned by a mere thirty-eight 
men, and though the thirty-eight had all died, it had wasted four 
days.  More time was spent negotiating with the citizens of Carlisle 
who had paid gold to have their city spared, and then the young 
Scottish King frittered away three more days pillaging the great 
priory of the Black Canons at Hexham.  Now, ten days after they 
had crossed the frontier, and after wandering across the northern 
English moors, the Scottish army had at last reached Durham.  The 
city had offered a thousand golden pounds if they could be spared 
and King David had given them two days to raise the money.  Which 
meant that Bernard de Taillebourg had two days to find a way to 
enter the city, to which end, slipping in the mud and half blinded 
by the fog, he followed Sir William Douglas into a valley, across a 
stream and up a steep hill.   Which way is the city?"  he demanded 
of Sir William.   
 When the fog lifts, father, I'll tell you."   
 They'll respect the truce?"   
 They're holy men in Durham, father," Sir William answered 
wryly,  but better still, they're frightened men."  It had been the 
monks of the city who had negotiated the ransom and Sir William 
had advised against acceptance.  If monks offered a thousand   
pounds, he reckoned, then it would have been better to have killed 
the monks and taken two thousand, but King David had overruled 
him.  David the Bruce had spent much of his youth in France and 
so considered himself cultured, but Sir William was not thus ham- 
pered by scruples.   You'll be safe if you can talk your way into the 
city," Sir William reassured the priest.   
The horsemen had reached the hilltop and Sir William turned 
south along the ridge, still following a track that was edged with 
stone walls and which led, after a mile or so, to a deserted hamlet 
where four cottages, so low that their shaggy thatched roofs seemed 
to swell out of the straggling turf, clustered by a crossroads.  In the 
centre of the crossroads, where the muddy ruts surrounded a patch 
of nettles and grass, a stone cross leaned southwards.  Sir William 
curbed his horse beside the monument and stared at the carved 
dragon encircling the shaft.  The cross was missing one arm.  A dozen 
of his men dismounted and ducked into the low cottages, but they 
found no one and nothing, though in one cottage the embers of a 
fire still glowed and so they used the smouldering wood to fire the 
four thatched roofs.  The thatch was reluctant to catch the fire for 
it was so damp that mushrooms grew on the mossy straw.   
Sir William took his foot from the stirrup and tried to kick the 
broken cross over, but it would not shift.  He grunted with the effort, 
saw Bernard de Taillebourg's disapproving expression and scowled.   
 It's not holy ground, father.  It's only bloody England."  He peered 
at the carved dragon, its mouth agape as it stretched up the stone 
shaft.   Ugly bastard thing, isn't it?"   
 Dragons are creatures of sin, things of the devil," Bernard de 
Taillebourg said,'s o of course it is ugly."   
 A thing of the devil, eh?"  Sir William kicked the cross again.   My 
mother," he explained as he gave the cross a third futile kick,  always 
told me that the bloody English buried their stolen gold beneath 
dragons" crosses."   
Two minutes later the cross had been heaved aside and a half- 
dozen men were peering disappointedly into the hole it had left.   
Smoke from the burning roofs thickened the fog, swirled over the 
road and vanished into the greyness of the morning air.   No gold," 
Sir William grunted, then he summoned his men and led them 
southwards out of the choking smoke.  He was looking for any   
livestock that could be driven back to the Scottish army, but the 
fields were empty.  The fire of the burning cottages was a hazed 
gold and red in the fog behind the raiders, a glow that slowly faded 
until only the smell of the fire was left and then, suddenly, hugely, 
filling the whole world with the alarm of its noise, a peal of bells 
clanged about the sky.  Sir William, presuming the sound came from 
the east, turned through a gap in the wall into a pasture where he 
checked his horse and stood in the stirrups.  He was listening to the 
sound, but in the fog it was impossible to tell where the bells were or 
how far away they were being tolled and then the sound stopped as 
suddenly as it had began.  The fog was thinning now, shredding away 
through the orange leaves of a stand of elms.  White mushrooms dot- 
ted the empty pasture where Bernard de Taillebourg dropped to his 
knees and began to pray aloud.   Quiet, father!"  Sir William snapped.   
The priest made the sign of the cross as though imploring heaven 
to forgive Sir William's impiety in interrupting a prayer.   You said 
there was no enemy," he complained.   
 I'm not listening for any bloody enemy," Sir William said,  but 
for animals.  I'm listening for cattle bells or sheep bells."  Yet Sir 
William seemed strangely nervous for a man who sought only live- 
stock.  He kept twisting in his saddle, peering into the fog and scow- 
ling at the small noises of curb chains or hooves stamping on damp 
earth.  He snarled at the men-at-arms closest to him to be silent.  He 
had been a soldier before some of these men had even been born 
and he had not stayed alive by ignoring his instincts and now, in 
this damp fog, he smelt danger.  Sense told him there was nothing 
to fear, that the English army was far away across the sea, but he 
smelt death all the same and, quite unaware of what he was doing, 
he pulled the shield off his shoulder and pushed his left arm through 
its carrying loops.  It was a big shield, one made before men began 
adding plates of armour to their mail, a shield wide enough to 
screen a man's whole body.   
A soldier called out from the pasture's edge and Sir William 
grasped his sword's hilt, then he saw that the man had only 
exclaimed at the sudden appearance of towers in the fog which 
was now little more than a mist on the ridge's top, though in the 
deep valleys either side the fog flowed like a white river.  And across 
the eastern river, way off to the north where they emerged from   
the spectral whiteness of another hill crest, was a great cathedral 
and a castle.  They towered through the mist, vast and dark, like 
buildings from some doom-laden wizard's imagination, and Bernard 
de Taillebourg's servant, who felt he had not seen civilization in 
weeks, stared entranced at the two buildings.  Black-robed monks 
crowded the tallest of the cathedral's two towers and the servant 
saw them pointing at the Scottish horsemen.   
 Durham," Sir William grunted.  The bells, he reckoned, must have 
been summoning the faithful to their morning prayers.   
 I have to go there!"  The Dominican climbed from his knees and, 
seizing his staff, set off towards the mist-shrouded city.   
Sir William spurred his horse in front of the Frenchman.   What's 
your hurry, father?"  he demanded, and de Taillebourg tried to dodge 
past the Scotsman, but there was a scraping sound and suddenly 
a blade, cold and heavy and grey, was in the Dominican's face.   I 
asked you, father, what the hurry was?"  Sir William's voice was as 
cold as his sword; then, alerted by one of his men, he glanced over 
and saw that the priest's servant had half drawn his own weapon.   
 If your bastard man doesn't sheathe his blade, father"  Sir William 
spoke softly, but there was a terrible menace in his voice,   I'll have 
his collops for my supper."   
De Taillebourg said something in French and the servant reluc- 
tantly pushed the blade fully home.  The priest looked up at Sir 
William.   Have you no fear for your mortal soul?"  he asked.   
Sir William smiled, paused and looked about the hilltop, but he 
saw nothing untoward in the shredding fog and decided his earlier 
nervousness had been the result of imagination.  The result, perhaps, 
of too much beef, pork and wine the previous night.  The Scots had 
feasted in the captured home of Durham's prior and the prior lived 
well, judging by his larder and cellar, but rich suppers gave men 
premonitions.   I keep my own priest to worry about my soul," Sir 
William said, then raised the tip of his sword to force de Taillebourg's 
face upwards.   Why does a Frenchman have business with our 
enemies in Durham?"  he demanded.   
 It is Church business," de Taillebourg said firmly.   
 I don't give a damn whose business it is," Sir William said,  I still 
wish to know."   
 Obstruct me," de Taillebourg said, pushing the sword blade away,   
and I shall have the King punish you and the Church condemn 
you and the Holy Father send your soul to eternal perdition.  I shall 
summon     
 Shut your goddamned bloody face!"  Sir William said.   Do you 
think, priest, that you can frighten me?  Our King is a puppy and 
the Church does what its paymasters tell it to do."  He moved the 
blade back, this time resting it against the Dominican's neck.   Now 
tell me your business.  Tell me why a Frenchman stays with us 
instead of going home with his countrymen.  Tell me what you want 
in Durham."   
Bernard de Taillebourg clutched the crucifix that hung about his 
neck and held it towards Sir William.  In another man the gesture 
might have been taken as a display of fear, but in the Dominican 
it looked rather as though he threatened Sir William's soul with 
the powers of heaven.  Sir William merely gave the crucifix a hungry 
glance as if appraising its value, but the cross was of plain wood while 
the little figure of Christ, twisted in death's agony, was only made of 
yellowed bone.  If the figure had been made of gold then Sir William 
might have taken the bauble, but instead he spat in derision.  A few 
of his men, fearing God more than their master, made the sign of the 
cross, but most did not care.  They watched the servant closely, for he 
looked dangerous, but a middle-aged cleric from Paris, however 
fierce and gaunt he might be, did not scare them.   So what will 
you do?"  de Taillebourg asked Sir William scornfully.   Kill me?"   
 If I must," Sir William said implacably.  The presence of the priest 
with the French embassy had been a puzzle, and his staying on 
when the others left only compounded the mystery, but a garrulous 
man-at-arms, one of the Frenchmen who had brought two hundred 
suits of plate armour as a gift to the Scots, had told Sir William that 
the priest was pursuing a great treasure and if that treasure was in 
Durham then Sir William wanted to know.  He wanted a share.   I've 
killed priests before," he told de Taillebourg,  and another priest sold 
me an indulgence for the killings, so don't think I fear you or your 
Church.  There's no sin that can't be bought of,   no pardon that 
can't be purchased."   
The Dominican shrugged.  Two of Sir William's men were behind 
him, their swords drawn, and he understood that these Scotsmen 
would indeed kill him and his servant.  These men who followed   
the red heart of Douglas were border ruffians, bred to battle as a 
hound was raised to the chase and the Dominican knew there was 
no point in continuing to threaten their souls for they gave no 
thought to such things.   I am going into Durham," de Taillebourg 
said,  to find a man.   
 What man?"  Sir William asked, his sword still at the priest's neck.   
 He is a monk," de Taillebourg explained patiently,  and an old 
man now, so old that he may not even be alive.  He is a Frenchman, 
a Benedictine, and he fled Paris many years ago.   
 Why did he run?"   
 Because the King wanted his head."   
 A monk's head?"  Sir William sounded sceptical.   
 He was not always a Benedictine," de Taillebourg said,  but was 
once a Templar."   
 Ah."  Sir William began to understand.   
 And he knows," de Taillebourg continued,  where a great treasure 
is hidden."   
 The Templar treasure?"   
 It is said to be hidden in Paris," de Taillebourg said,  hidden for 
all these years, but it was only last year that we discovered the 
Frenchman was alive and in England.  The Benedictine, you see, 
was once the sacrist of the Templars.  You know what that is?"   
 Don't patronize me, father," Sir William said coldly.   
De Taillebourg inclined his head to acknowledge the justice of 
the reproof.   If any man knows where the Templar treasure is," he 
went on humbly,  it is the man who was their sacrist, and now, 
we hear, that man lives in Durham."   
Sir William took the sword away.  Everything the priest said made 
sense.  The Knights Templar, an order of monkish soldiers who 
were sworn to protect the pilgrims" roads between Christendom 
and Jerusalem, had become rich beyond the dreams of kings, and 
that was foolish for it made kings jealous and jealous kings make 
bad enemies.  The King of France was just such an enemy and he 
had ordered the Templars destroyed: to which end a heresy had 
been cooked up, lawyers had effortlessly distorted truths and the 
Templars had been suppressed.  Their leaders had been burned and 
their lands confiscated, but their treasures, the fabled treasures of 
the Templars, had never been found and the order's sacrist, the   
man responsible for keeping those treasures safe, would surely 
know their fate,  When were the Templars disbanded?"  Sir William 
asked.   
 Twenty-nine years ago," de Taillebourg answered.   
So the sacrist could yet be alive, Sir William thought.  He would 
be an old man, but alive.  Sir William sheathed his sword, utterly 
convinced by de Taillebourg's tale, yet none of it was true except 
that there was an old monk in Durham, but he was not French 
and he had never been a Templar and, in all probability, knew 
nothing of any Templar treasure.  But Bernard de Taillebourg had 
spoken persuasively, and the story of the missing hoard was one 
that echoed through Europe, spoken of whenever men gathered to 
exchange tales of marvels.  Sir William wanted the story to be true 
and that, more than anything, persuaded him it was.   If you find 
this man," he said to de Taillebourg,  and if he lives, and if you then 
find the treasure, then it will be because we made it possible.  It 
will be because we brought you here, and because we protected 
you on your journey to Durham."   
 True, Sir William," de Taillebourg said.   
Sir William was surprised by the priest's ready agreement.  He 
frowned, shifted in his saddle and stared down at the Dominican 
as if gauging the priest's trustworthiness.   So we must share in the 
treasure," he demanded.   
 Of course," de Taillebourg said instantly.   
Sir William was no fool.  Let the priest go into Durham and he 
would never see the man again.  Sir William twisted in his saddle 
and stared north towards the cathedral.  The Templar treasure was 
said to be the gold from Jerusalem, more gold than men could 
dream of, and Sir William was honest enough to know that he did 
not possess the resources to divert some of that golden trove to 
Liddesdale.  The King must be used.  David II might be a weak lad, 
scarce breeched and too softened by having lived in France, but 
kings had resources denied to knights and David of Scotland could 
talk to Philip of France as a near equal, while any message from 
William Douglas would be ignored in Paris.   Jamie!"  he snapped at 
his nephew who was one of the two men guarding de Taillebourg.   
 You and Dougal will take this priest back to the King."   
 You must let me go!"  Bernard de Taillebourg protested.   
Sir William leaned from his saddle.   You want me to cut off your 
priestly balls to make myself a purse?"  He smiled at the Dominican, 
then looked back to his nephew.   Tell the King this French priest 
has news that concerns us and tell him to hold him safe till I return."   
Sir William had decided that if there was an ancient French monk 
in Durham then he should be questioned by the King of Scotland's 
servants and the monk's information, if he had any, could then be 
sold to the French King.   Take him, Jamie," he commanded,  and 
watch that damned servant!  Take his sword."   
James Douglas grinned at the thought of a mere priest and his 
servant giving him trouble, but he still obeyed his uncle.  He 
demanded that the servant yield his sword and, when the man 
bridled at the order, Jamie half drew his own blade.  De Taillebourg 
sharply instructed his servant to obey and the sword was sullenly 
handed over.  Jamie Douglas grinned as he hung the sword from 
his own belt.   They'll not bother me, uncle."   
 Away with you," Sir William said and watched as his nephew 
and his companion, both well mounted on fine stallions captured 
from the Percy lands in Northumberland, escorted the priest and 
his servant back towards the King's encampment.  Doubtless the 
priest would complain to the King and David, so much weaker than 
his great father, would worry about the displeasure of God and 
the French, but David would worry a great deal more about Sir 
William's displeasure.  Sir William smiled at that thought, then saw 
that some of his men on the far side of the field had dismounted.   
 Who the devil told you to unhorse?"  he shouted angrily, then he 
saw they were not his men at all, but strangers revealed by the 
shredding mist, and he remembered his instincts and cursed himself 
for wasting time on the priest.   
And as he cursed so the first arrow flickered from the south.  The 
sound it made was a hiss, feather in air, then it struck home and 
the noise was like a pole-axe cleaving flesh.  It was a heavy thump 
edged with the tearing of steel in muscle and ending with the harsh 
scrape of blade on bone, and then a grunt from the victim and a 
heartbeat of silence.   
And after that the scream.   
Thomas of Hookton heard the bells, deep-toned and sonorous, not 
the sound of bells hung in some village church, but bells of thunder- 
ous power.  Durham, he thought, and he felt a great weariness for 
the journey had been so long.   
It had begun in Picardy, on a field stinking of dead men and 
horses, a place of fallen banners, broken weapons and spent arrows.   
It had been a great victory and Thomas had wondered why it left 
him dulled and nervous.  The English had marched north to besiege 
Calais, but Thomas, duty bound to serve the Earl of Northampton, 
had received the Earl's permission to take a wounded comrade to 
Caen where there was a doctor of extraordinary skill.  Then, how- 
ever, it was decreed that no man could leave the army without the 
King's permission and so the Earl approached the King and thus 
Edward Plantagenet heard of Thomas of Hookton and how his 
father had been a priest who had been born to a family of French 
exiles called Vexille, and how it was rumoured that the Vexille 
family had once possessed the Grail.  It was only a rumour, of course, 
a wisp of a story in a hard world, yet the story was of the Holy 
Grail and that was the most precious thing that had ever existed, 
if indeed it had existed; and the King had questioned Thomas of 
Hookton and Thomas had tried to scorn the truth of the Grail story, 
but then the Bishop of Durham, who had fought in the shield wall 
that broke the French assaults, told how Thomas's father had once 
been imprisoned in Durham.   He was mad," the bishop explained 
to the King,  wits flown to the winds!  So they locked him up for 
his own good."   
 Did he talk of the Grail?"  the King asked, and the Bishop of 
Durham had answered that there was one man left in his diocese 
who might know, an old monk called Hugh Collimore who had 
nursed the mad Ralph Vexille, Thomas's father.  The King might 
have dismissed the tales as so much churchly gossip had not Thomas 
recovered his father's heritage, the lance of Saint George, in the battle 
that had left so many dead on the green slope above the village of 
Crecy. The battle had also left Thomas's friend and commander Sir 
William Skeat wounded and he wanted to take Skeat to the doctor 
in Normandy, but the King had insisted that Thomas go to Durham 
and speak with Brother Collimore.  So Eleanor's father had taken 
Sir William Skeat to Caen and Thomas, Eleanor and Father Hobbe   
had accompanied a royal chaplain and a knight of King Edward's 
household to England, but in London the chaplain and the knight 
had both fallen sick with an early winter fever and so Thomas and 
his companions had travelled north alone and now they were close 
to Durham, on a foggy morning, listening to the cathedral's bells.   
Eleanor, like Father Hobbe, was excited for she believed that dis- 
covering the Grail would bring peace and justice to a world that 
stank of burned cottages.  There would be no more sorrow, Eleanor 
thought, and no more war, and perhaps even no more sickness.   
Thomas wanted to believe it.  He wanted his night vision to be 
real, not flame and smoke, yet if the Grail existed at all he thought 
that it would be in some great cathedral, guarded by angels.  Or else 
it was gone from this world, and if there was no Grail on earth 
then Thomas's faith was in a war bow made of Italian yew, painted 
black, strung with hemp, that drove an arrow made of ash, fledged 
with goose feathers and tipped with steel.  On the bow's belly, where 
his left hand gripped the yew, there was a silver plate engraved 
with a yale, a fabulous beast of claws and horns and tusks and 
scales that was the badge of his father's family, the Vexilles.  The 
yale held a cup and Thomas had been told it was the Grail.  Always 
the Grail.  It beckoned him, mocked him, bent his life, changed all, 
yet never appeared except in a dream of fire.  It was mystery, just 
as Thomas's family was a mystery, but perhaps Brother Collimore 
could cast light on that mystery and so Thomas had come north.   
He might not learn of the Grail, but he expected to discover more 
about his family and that, at least, made the journey worthwhile.   
 Which way?"  Father Hobbe asked.   
 God knows," Thomas said.  Fog shrouded the land.   
 The bells sounded that way."  Father Hobbe pointed north and 
east.  He was energetic, full of enthusiasm, and n vely trusting in 
Thomas's sense of direction, though in truth Thomas did not know 
where he was.  Earlier they had come to a fork in the road and he 
had randomly taken the left-hand track that now faded to a mere 
scar on the grass as it climbed.  Mushrooms grew in the pasture, 
which was wet and heavy with dew so that their horse slipped as 
it climbed.  The horse was Thomas's mare and it was carrying their 
small baggage and in one of the sacks hanging from the saddle's 
pommel was a letter from the Bishop of Durham to John Fossor,   
   
the Prior of Durham.   Most beloved brother in Christ," the letter 
began, and went on to instruct Fossor to allow Thomas of Hookton 
and his companions to question Brother Collimore concerning 
Father Ralph Vexille,  whom you will not remember for he was 
kept closed up in your house before you came to Durham, indeed 
before I came to the See, but there will be some who know of him 
and Brother Collimore, if it pleases God that he yet lives, will have 
certain knowledge of him and of the great treasure that he con- 
cealed.  We request this in the name of the King and in the service of 
Almighty God who has blessed our arms in this present endeavour."   
 Qu'est-ce que c'est?"  Eleanor asked, pointing up the hill where a 
dull reddish glow discoloured the fog.   
 What?"  Father Hobbe, the only one who did not speak French, 
asked.   
 Quiet," Thomas warned him, holding up his hand.  He could smell 
burning and see the flicker of flames, but there were no voices.  He 
took his bow from where it hung from the saddle and he strung it, 
bending the huge stave to loop the hemp string over the piece of 
nocked horn.  He pulled an arrow from the bag and then, motioning 
Eleanor and Father Hobbe to stay where they were, he edged up 
the track to the shelter of a deep hedge where larks and finches 
flitted through the dying leaves.  The fires were roaring, suggesting 
they were newly set.  He crept closer, the bow half drawn, until he 
could see there had been three or four cottages about a crossroads 
and their rafters and thatch were well ablaze and sending sparks 
whirling up into the damp grey.  The fires looked recent, but there 
was no one in sight: no enemy, no men in mail, so he beckoned 
Eleanor and Father Hobbe forward and then, over the sound of the 
fire, he heard a scream.  It was far off, or perhaps it was close but 
muffled by fog, and Thomas stared through the smoke and the fog 
and past the seething flames and suddenly two men in mail, both 
mounted on black stallions, cantered into view.  The horsemen had 
black hats, black boots and black scabbarded swords and they were 
escorting two other men who were on foot.  One was a priest, a 
Dominican judging by his black and white garb, and he had a 
bloodied face, while the other man was tall, dressed in mail, and 
had long black hair and a narrow, intelligent face.  The two followed 
the horsemen through the smoky fog, then paused at the crossroads   
where the priest dropped to his knees and made the sign of the 
cross.   
The leading horseman seemed irritated by the priest's prayer 
for he turned his horse back and, drawing his sword, prodded the 
blade at the kneeling man.  The priest looked up and, to Thomas's 
astonishment, suddenly rammed his staff up into the stallion's 
throat.  The beast twitched away and the priest slammed the staff 
hard at the rider's sword arm.  The horseman, unbalanced by his 
stallion's jerking motion, tried to cut down across his body with his 
long blade.  The second horseman was already unsaddled, though 
Thomas had not seen him fall, and the black-haired man in mail 
was astride his body with a long knife drawn.  Thomas just stared 
in puzzlement for he was convinced that neither the two horsemen 
nor the priest nor the black-haired man had uttered the scream, 
yet no other folk were in sight.  One of the two horsemen was 
already dead and the other now fought the priest in silence and 
Thomas had a sense that the conflict was unreal, that he was dream- 
ing, that in truth this was a morality play in dumb show: the black- 
clad horseman was the devil and the priest was God's will and 
Thomas's doubts about the Grail were about to be resolved by 
whoever won and then Father Hobbe seized the great bow from 
Thomas.   We must help!"   
Yet the priest hardly needed help.  He used the staff like a sword, 
parrying his opponent's cut, lunging hard to bruise the rider's ribs, 
then the man with the long black hair rammed a sword up into 
the horseman's back and the man arched, shivered, and his own 
sword dropped.  He stared down at the priest for a moment, then he 
fell backwards from his saddle.  His feet were momentarily trapped 
in the stirrups and the horse, panicking, galloped uphill.  The killer 
wiped the blade of his sword, then took a scabbard from one of the 
dead men.   
The priest had run to secure the other horse and now, sensing 
he was being watched, he turned to see two men and a woman 
in the fog.  One of the men was a priest who had an arrow on a 
bowstring.   They were going to kill me!"  Bernard de Taillebourg 
protested in French.  The black-haired man turned fast, the sword 
rising in threat.   
 It's all right," Thomas said to Father Hobbe and he took the black   
bow away from his friend and hung it on his shoulder.  God had 
spoken, the priest had won the fight and Thomas was reminded of 
his night vision when the Grail had loomed in the clouds like a cup 
of fire.  Then he saw that under the bruises and blood the strange 
priest's face was hard and lean, a martyr's face, with the look of a 
man who had hungered for God and achieved an evident saintliness 
and Thomas almost fell to his knees.   Who are you?"  he called to 
the Dominican.   
 I am a messenger."  Bernard de Taillebourg snatched at any expla- 
nation to cover his confusion.  He had escaped from his Scottish 
escort and now he wondered how he was to escape from the tall 
young man with the long black bow, but then a flight of arrows 
hissed from the south and one thumped into a nearby elm trunk 
while a second skidded along the wet grass, and a horse shrieked 
nearby and men were shouting in disorder.  Father de Taillebourg 
called to his servant to catch the second horse, which was trotting 
uphill and, by the time it was caught, de Taillebourg saw that the 
stranger with the bow had forgotten him and was staring south to 
where the arrows flew.   
So he turned towards the city, called his servant to follow him 
and kicked back his heels.   
For God, for France, for Saint Denis and for the Grail.   
Sir William Douglas cursed.  Arrows were hissing all about him.   
Horses were screaming and men were lying dead or injured on the 
grass.  For a heartbeat he felt bewildered, then he realized that his 
forage party had blundered into an English force, but what kind of 
force?  There was no English army nearby!  The whole English army 
was in France, not here!  Which meant, surely, that the citizens of 
Durham had broken their truce and that thought filled Sir William 
with a terrible anger.  Christ, he thought, but there would not be 
one stone left on another when he had finished with the city, and 
he tugged the big shield to cover his body and spurred south towards 
the bowmen who were lining a low hedge.  He reckoned there were 
not so many of them, maybe only fifty, and he still had nearly two 
hundred men mounted and so he roared the order to charge.   
Swords scraped from scabbards.   Kill the bastards!"  Sir William 
shouted.   Kill them!"  He was savaging his horse with his spurs and 
thrusting other confused horsemen aside in his eagerness to reach 
the hedge.  He knew the charge would be ragged, knew some of 
his men must die, but once they were over the blackthorn and in 
among the bastards they would kill them all.   
Bloody archers, he thought.  He hated archers.  He especially hated 
English archers and he detested traitorous, truce-breaking Durham 
archers above all others.   On!  On!"  he shouted.   Douglas!  Douglas!"   
He liked to let his enemies know who was killing them, and who 
would be raping their wives when they were dead.  If the city had 
broken the truce, then God help that city for he would sack, rape 
and burn the whole of it.  He would fire the houses, plough the 
ashes and leave the bones of its citizens to the winter blight, and 
for years men would see the bare stones of the ruined cathedral 
and watch the birds nesting in the castle's empty towers and 
they would know that the Knight of Liddesdale had worked his 
revenge.   
 Douglas!"  he shouted,  Douglas!"  and he felt the thump of arrows 
smacking into his shield and then his horse screamed and he knew 
more arrows must have driven deep into its chest for he could feel 
the beast stumbling.  He kicked his feet from the stirrups as the 
horse slewed sideways.  Men charged past him, screaming defiance, 
then Sir William threw himself out of the saddle and onto his shield 
that slid along the wet grass like a sledge, and he heard his horse 
screaming in pain, but he himself was unhurt, hardly even bruised 
and he pushed himself up, found his sword that he had dropped 
when he fell and ran on with his horsemen.  A rider had an arrow 
sticking from his knee.  A horse went down, eyes white, teeth bared, 
blood flecking from the arrow wounds.  The first horsemen were at 
the hedge and some had found a gap and were spurring through 
and Sir William saw that the damned English bowmen were run- 
ning away.  Bastards, he thought, cowardly bloody English rotten 
whoreson bastards, then more bows sounded harsh to his left and 
he saw a man fall from a horse with an arrow through his head 
and the fog lifted enough to show that the enemy archers ha 
not run away, but had merely joined a solid mass of dismounte 
men-at-arms.  The bowstrings sounded again.  A horse reared in   
and an arrow sliced into its belly.  A man staggered, was struck again 
and fell back with a crash of mail.   
Sweet Christ, Sir William thought, but there was a damned army 
here!  A whole damned army!   Back!  Back!"  he bellowed.   Haul off!   
Back!"  He yelled till he was hoarse.  Another arrow drove into his 
shield, its point whipping through the leather-covered willow and, 
in his rage, he slapped at it, breaking the ash shaft.   
 Uncle!  Uncle!"  a man shouted and Sir William saw it was Robbie 
Douglas, one of his eight nephews who rode with the Scottish army, 
bringing him a horse, but a pair of English arrows struck the beast's 
quarter and, enraged by pain, it broke away from Robbie's grasp.   
 Go north!"  Sir William shouted at his nephew.   Go on, Robbie!"   
Instead Robbie rode to his uncle.  An arrow struck his saddle, 
another glanced off his helmet, but he leaned down, took Sir 
William's hand and dragged him northwards.  Arrows followed 
them, but the fog swirled thick and hid them.  Sir William shook 
off his nephew's grip and stumbled north, made clumsy by his 
shield stuck with arrows and by his heavy mail.  God damn it, God 
damn it!   
 Mind left!  Mind left!"  a Scottish voice cried and Sir William saw 
some English horsemen coming from the hedgerow.  One saw Sir 
William and thought he would be easy pickings.  The English had 
been no more ready for battle than the Scotsmen.  A few wore mail 
but none was properly armoured and none had lances.  But Sir 
William reckoned they must have detected his presence long before 
they loosed their first arrows, and the anger at being so ambushed 
made him step towards the horseman who was holding his sword 
out like a spear.  Sir William did not even bother to try and parry.   
He just thrust his heavy shield up, punching it into the horse's 
mouth, and he heard the animal whinny in pain as he swept his 
sword at its legs and the beast twisted away and the rider was 
flailing for balance and was still trying to calm his horse when Sir 
William's sword tore up under his mail and into his guts.   Bastard," 
Sir William snarled and the man was whimpering as Sir William 
twisted the blade, and then Robbie rode up on the man's far side 
and chopped his sword down onto his neck so that the Englishman's 
head was all but severed as he fell from the saddle.  The other 
horsemen had mysteriously shied away, but then arrows flew again   
and Sir William knew the fickle fog was thinning.  He dragged his 
sword free of the corpse, scabbarded the wet blade and hauled 
himself into the dead man's saddle.   Away!"  he shouted at Robbie 
who seemed inclined to take on the whole English force single- 
handed.   Away, boy!  Come on!"   
By God, he thought, but it hurt to run from an enemy, yet there 
was no shame in two hundred men fleeing six or seven hundred.   
And when the fog lifted there could be a proper battle, a murderous 
clash of men and steel, and Sir William would teach these bastard 
English how to fight.  He kicked his borrowed horse on, intent on 
carrying news of the English to the rest of the Scottish army, but 
then saw an archer lurking in a hedge.  A woman and a priest were 
with the man and Sir William put a hand to his sword hilt and 
thought about swerving aside to take some revenge for the arrows 
that had ripped into his forage party, but behind him the other 
Englishmen were shouting their war cry:  Saint George! Saint George!" 
and so Sir William left the isolated archer alone.  He rode on, leav- 
ing good men on the autumn grass.  They were dead and dying, 
wounded and frightened.  But he was a Douglas.  He would come 
back and he would have his revenge.  
A rush of panicked horsemen galloped past the hedge where 
Thomas Eleanor and Father Hobbe crouched,  Half a dozen horses 
were riderless while at least a score of others were bleeding from   
wounds out of which the arrows jutted with their white goose 
feathers spattered red.  The riders were followed by thirty or forty 
men on foot, some limping, some with arrows stuck in their clothes 
and a few carrying saddles.  They hurried past the burning cottages 
as a new volley of arrows hastened their retreat, then the thump 
of hooves made them look back in panic and some of the fugitives 
broke into a clumsy run as a score of mail-clad horsemen thundered 
from the mist.  Great clods of wet earth spewed up from the horses" 
hooves.  The stallions were being curbed, forced to take brief steps 
as their riders took aim at their victims, then the spurs went back 
as the horses were released to the kill and Eleanor cried aloud in 
anticipation of the carnage.  The heavy swords chopped down.  One 
or two of the fugitives dropped to their knees and held their hands 
up in surrender, but most tried to escape.  One dodged behind a   
galloping horseman and fled towards the hedge, saw Thomas and 
his bow and turned straight back into the path of another rider 
who drove the edge of his heavy sword into the man's face.  The 
Scotsman went onto his knees, mouth open as though he would 
scream, but no sound came, only blood seeping between the fingers 
that were clasped over his nose and eyes.  The horseman, who had 
no shield or helmet, turned his stallion and then leaned out of the 
saddle to chop his sword into his victim's neck, killing the man as 
if he were a cow being pole-axed and that was oddly appropriate 
because Thomas saw that the mounted killer was wearing the badge   
of a brown cow on his jupon, which was a short jerkin-like coat 
half covering his mail hauberk.  The jupon was torn, bloodstained 
and the cow badge had faded so that at first Thomas thought it was 
a bull.  Then the horseman swerved towards Thomas, raised his 
bloody sword in threat and then noticed the bow and checked his 
horse.   English?"   
 And proud of it!"  Father Hobbe answered for Thomas.   
A second horseman, this one with three black ravens embroidered 
on his white jupon, reined in beside the first.  Three prisoners were 
being pushed towards the two horsemen.   How the devil did you 
get this far in front?"  the newly arrived man asked Thomas.   
 In front?"  Thomas asked.   
 Of the rest of us."   
 We walked," Thomas said,  from France.  Or at least from 
London."   
 From Southampton!"  Father Hobbe corrected Thomas with a 
pedantry that was utterly out of place on this smoke-stinking hilltop 
where a Scotsman writhed in his death agonies.   
 France?"  The first man, tangle-haired, brown-faced, and with a 
northern accent so thick that Thomas found it hard to understand, 
sounded as if he had never heard of France.   You were in France?"   
he asked.   
 With the King.   
 You're with us now," the second man said threateningly, then 
looked Eleanor up and down.   Did you bring the doxie back from 
France?"   
 Yes," Thomas replied curtly.   
 He lies, he lies," a new voice said and a third horseman pushed 
himself forward.  He was a lanky man, maybe thirty years old, with 
a face so red and raw that it looked as though he had scraped his 
skin off with the bristles when he shaved his sunken cheeks and 
long jaw.  His dark hair was worn long and tied at the nape of his 
neck with a leather lace.  His horse, a scarred roan, was as thin as 
the rider and had white nervous eyes.   I hate goddamn liars," the 
man said, staring at Thomas, then he turned and gave a baleful 
glance at the prisoners, one of whom wore the red heart badge of 
the Knight of Liddesdale on his jupon.   Almost as much as I hate 
goddamn Douglases."   
,  4 
The newcomer wore a padded gambeson in place of a hauberk 
or haubergeon.  It was the kind of protection an archer might wear 
if he could afford nothing better, yet this man plainly outranked 
archers for he wore a gold chain about his neck, a mark of distinc- 
tion reserved for the gentry and above.  A battered pig-snouted 
helmet, as scarred as the horse, hung from his saddle's pommel, a 
sword, plainly scabbarded in leather was at his hip, while a shield, 
painted white with a black axe, hung from his left shoulder.  He 
also had a coiled whip hanging at his belt.   The Scots have archers," 
the man said, looking at Thomas, then his unfriendly gaze moved 
on to Eleanor,  and they have women.   
 I'm English," Thomas insisted.   
 We're all English," Father Hobbe said firmly, forgetting that 
Eleanor was a Norman.   
 A Scotsman would say he was English if it stopped him from 
being gutted," the raw-faced man said caustically.  The other two 
horsemen had fallen back, evidently wary of the thin man who 
now uncoiled the leather whip and, with a casual skill, flicked it 
so that the tip snaked out and cracked the air an inch or so from 
Eleanor's face.   Is she English?"   
 She's French," Thomas said.   
The horseman did not answer straightaway, but just stared at 
Eleanor.  The whip rippled as his hand trembled.  He saw a fair, slight 
girl with golden hair and large, frightened eyes.  Her pregnancy did 
not show yet and there was a delicacy to her that spoke of luxury 
and rare delight.   Scot, Welsh, French, what does it matter?"  the 
man asked.   She's a woman.  Do you care where a horse was born 
before you ride it?"  His own scarred and thin horse became fright- 
ened just then because the veering wind blew a sour gust of smoke 
to its nostrils.  It stepped sideways in a series of small, nervous steps 
until the man drove his spurs back so savagely that he pierced the 
padded trapper and made the destrier stand shivering in fear.   What 
she is,"  the man spoke to Thomas and pointed his whip handle at 
Eleanor,   don't matter, but you're a Scot."   
 I'm English," Thomas said again.  A dozen other men wearing 
the badge of the black axe had come to gaze at Thomas and his 
companions.  The men surrounded the three Scottish prisoners who 
seemed to know who the horseman with the whip was and did not   
like the knowledge.  More bowmen and men-at-arms watched the 
cottages burning and laughed at the panicked rats that scrambled   
from what was left of the collapsed mossy thatch.   
Thomas took an arrow from his bag and immediately four or   
five archers wearing the black-axe livery put arrows on their own 
strings.  The other men in the axe livery grinned expectantly as if 
they knew this game and enjoyed it, but before it could be played 
out the horseman was distracted by one of the Scottish prisoners, 
the man wearing Sir William Douglas's badge who, taking advan- 
tage of his captors" interest in Thomas and Eleanor, had broken free 
and run northwards.  He had not gone twenty paces before he was 
ridden down by one of the English men-at-arms and the thin man, 
amused by the Scotsman's desperate bid for freedom, pointed at 
one of the burning cottages.   Warm the bastard up," he ordered.   
 Dickon!  Beggar!"  He spoke to two dismounted men-at-arms.   Look 
after those three."  He nodded towards Thomas.   Watch  em close!"   
Dickon, the younger of the two, was round-faced and grinning, 
but Beggar was an enormous man, a shambling giant with a face 
so bearded that his nose and eyes alone could be seen through the 
tangled, crusted hair beneath the brim of the rusted iron cap that 
served as a helmet.  Thomas was six feet in height, the length of a 
bow, but he was dwarfed by Beggar whose vast chest strained at a 
leather jerkin studded with metal plates.  At the giant's waist, sus- 
pended by two lengths of rope, were a sword and a morningstar.   
The sword had no scabbard and its edge was chipped, while one of 
the spikes on the big metal ball of the morningstar was bent and 
smeared with blood and hair.  The weapon's three-foot haft banged 
against the giant's bare legs as he lurched towards Eleanor.   Pretty," 
he said,  pretty."   
 Beggar!  Down, boy!  Down!"  Dickon ordered cheerfully and 
Beggar dutifully twitched away from Eleanor, though he still gazed 
at her and made a low growling noise in his throat.  Then a scream 
made him look towards the nearest burning cottage where the 
Scotsman, stripped naked now, had been thrust in and out of the 
fire.  The prisoner's long hair was alight and he frantically beat 
at the flames as he ran in panicked circles to the amusement of 
his English captors.  Two other Scottish prisoners were squatting 
nearby, held on the ground by drawn swords.   
I   
The thin horseman watched as an archer swathed the prisoner's 
hair in a piece of sacking to extinguish the flames.   How many of 
you are there?"  the thin man asked.   
 Thousands!"  the Scotsman answered defiantly.   
The horseman leaned on his saddle's pommel.   How many thou- 
sands, cully?"   
The Scotsman, his beard and hair smoking and his naked skin 
blackened by embers and lacerated by cuts, did his best to look 
defiant.   More than enough to take you back home in a cage."   
 He shouldn't say that to Scarecrow!"  Dickon said, amused.   He 
shouldn't say that!"   
 Scarecrow?"  Thomas asked.  It seemed an appropriate nickname 
for the horseman with the black axe badge was lean, poor and 
frightening.   
 He be Sir Geoffrey Carr to you, cully," Dickon said, watching the 
Scarecrow admiringly.   
 And who is Sir Geoffrey Carr?"  Thomas asked.   
 He be Scarecrow and he be Lord of Lackby," Dickon said in a 
tone which suggested everyone knew who Sir Geoffrey Carr was, 
and he be having his Scarecrow games now!"  Dickon grinned 
because Sir Geoffrey, the whip coiled at his waist again, had dropped 
down from his horse and with a drawn knife, approached the Scot- 
tish prisoner.   
 Hold him down," Sir Geoffrey ordered the archers,  hold him 
down and spread his legs."   
 Non!"  Eleanor cried in protest.   
 Pretty," Beggar said in his voice that rumbled deep inside his 
huge chest.   
The Scotsman screamed and tried to pull himself away, but he 
was tripped, then held down by three archers while the man evi- 
dently known throughout the north as the Scarecrow knelt between 
his legs.  Somewhere in the clearing fog a raven cawed.  A handful 
of archers was staring north in case the Scots returned, but most 
were watching the Scarecrow and his knife.   You want to keep your 
shrivelled collops?"  Sir Geoffrey asked the Scotsman.   Then tell me 
how many there are of you.   
 Fifteen thousand?  Sixteen?"  The Scotsman was suddenly eager 
to talk.   
 He means ten or eleven thousand," Sir Geoffrey announced 
to the listening archers,  which is more than enough for our few 
arrows.  And is your bastard King here?"   
The Scotsman bridled at that, but a touch of the knife blade to 
his groin reminded him of his predicament.   David Bruce is here, 
aye.   
 Who else?"   
The desperate Scotsman named his army's other leaders.  The 
King's half-brother and heir to his throne, Lord Robert Stewart, 
was with the invading army, as were the Earls of Moray, of March, 
of Wigtown, Fife and Menteith.  He named others, clan chiefs and 
wild men from the wastelands of the far north, but Carr was more 
interested in two of the earls.   Fife and Menteith?"  he asked.   They're 
here?"   
 Aye, sir, they are.   
 But they swore fealty to King Edward," Sir Geoffrey said, evi- 
dently disbelieving the man.   
 They march with us now," the Scotsman insisted,  as does Doug- 
las of Liddesdale."   
 That ripe bastard," Sir Geoffrey said,  that shit of hell."  He stared 
northwards through the fog shredding from the ridge, which was 
being revealed as a narrow and rocky plateau running north and 
south.  The pasture on the plateau was thin and the ridge's weath- 
ered stone protruded through the grass like the ribs of a starving 
man.  Off to the north-east, beyond the valley of mist, the cathedral 
and castle of Durham reared up on their river-lapped crag, while 
to the west were hills and woods and stone-walled fields cut with 
small streams.  Two buzzards sailed above the ridge, going towards 
the Scottish army that was still concealed by the fog which lingered 
to the north, but Thomas was thinking that it would not be long 
before troops came to find the men who had run their fellow Scots 
away from the crossroads.   
Sir Geoffrey leaned back and went to return his knife to its scab- 
hard, then seemed to remember something and grinned at the pris- 
oner.   You were going to take me back to Scotland in a cage, is that 
right?"   
 No!"   
 But you were!  And why would I want to see Scotland?  I can   
peer down a jakes whenever I want."  He spat at the prisoner then 
nodded at the archers.   Hold him."   
 No!"  the Scotsman shouted, then the shout turned to a terrible 
scream as Sir Geoffrey leaned forward with the knife again.  The 
prisoner twitched and heaved as the Scarecrow, the front of his 
padded gambeson now sheeted with blood, stood up.  The prisoner 
was still screaming, hands clutched to his bloody groin, and the 
sight brought a smile to the Scarecrow's lips.   Throw the rest of him 
into the fire," he said, then turned to look at the other two Scottish 
prisoners.   Who is your master?"  he demanded of them.   
They hesitated, then one licked his lips.   We serve Douglas," he 
said proudly.   
 I hate Douglas.  I hate every Douglas that ever dropped out of 
the devil's backside."  Sir Geoffrey shuddered, then turned to his 
horse.   Burn them both," he ordered.   
Thomas, looking away from the sudden blood, had seen a stone 
cross fallen at the crossroad's centre.  He stared at it, not seeing the 
carved dragon, but hearing the echoes of the noise and then the 
new screams as the prisoners were hurled into the flames.  Eleanor 
ran to him and held his arm tight.   
 Pretty," Beggar said.   
 Here, Beggar, here!"  Sir Geoffrey called.   Hoist me!"  The giant 
made a step with his hands and Sir Geoffrey used it to climb into 
his saddle, then he kicked the horse towards Thomas and Eleanor.   
 I'm always hungry," Sir Geoffrey said,  after a gelding."  He turned 
to watch the fire where one of the Scotsmen, hair flaming, tried to 
escape, but was prodded back into the inferno by a dozen bowstaves.   
The man's howlwas abruptly cut short as he collapsed.   I'm in the 
mood to geld and burn Scotsmen today," Sir Geoffrey said,  and 
you look like a Scot to me, boy."   
 I'm not a boy," Thomas said, the anger rising in him.   
 You look like a bloody boy to me, boy.  A Scots boy, maybe?"  Sir 
Geoffrey, plainly amused by Thomas's temper, grinned at his newest 
victim who did indeed look young, though Thomas was twenty-two 
summers old and had fought for the last four of them in Brittany, 
Normandy and Picardy.   You look Scots, boy," the Scarecrow said, 
daring Thomas to defy him again.   All the Scots are black!"  he 
appealed to the crowd to judge Thomas's complexion, and it was   
true that Thomas had a sun-darkened skin and black hair, but so 
did a score or more of the Scarecrow's own archers.  And though 
Thomas looked young he also looked hard.  His hair was cropped 
close to his skull and four years of war had hollowed his cheeks, 
but there was still something distinctive in his looks, a hand- 
someness that attracted the eye and served to spur Sir Geoffrey 
Carr's jealousy.   What's on your horse?"  Sir Geoffrey jerked his 
head towards Thomas's mare.   
 Nothing of yours," Thomas said.   
 What's mine is mine, boy, and what's yours is mine if I want it.   
Mine to take or mine to give.  Beggar!  You want that girl?"   
Beggar grinned behind his beard and jerked his head up and 
down.   Pretty," he said.  He scratched at the lice in his beard.   Beggar 
likes pretty."   
 I reckon you can have the pretty when I'm through with her," 
Sir Geoffrey said with a grin and he took the whip from where it 
hung at his waist and cracked it in the air.  Thomas saw that the 
long leather thong had a small iron claw at its end.  Sir Geoffrey 
grinned at Thomas again, then drew back the whip as a threat.   
 Strip her, Beggar," he said,  let's give the boys a bit of pleasure," 
and he was still grinning as Thomas swung his heavy bowstave 
hard into the teeth of Sir Geoffrey's horse and the animal reared 
up, screaming, as Thomas knew it would, and the Scarecrow, 
unready for the motion, fell backwards, flailing for balance, and his 
men, who should have protected him, were so intent on the burning 
Scottish prisoners that not one drew a bow or a blade before Thomas 
had dragged Sir Geoffrey down from the saddle and had him on 
the ground with a knife at his throat.   
 I've been killing men for four years," Thomas said,  and not all 
of them were Frenchmen."   
 Thomas!"  Eleanor screamed.   
 Take her, Beggar!  Take her!"  Sir Geoffrey shouted.  He heaved 
up, but Thomas was an archer and years of drawing his big black 
bow had given him extraordinary strength in the arms and chest 
and Sir Geoffrey could not budge him, so he spat at Thomas instead.   
 Take her, Beggar!"  he yelled again.   
The Scarecrow's men ran towards their master, but checked when 
they saw that Thomas had a knife at his captive's throat.   
 Strip her, Beggar!  Strip the pretty!  We'll all have her!"  Sir Geof- 
frey bawled, apparently oblivious of the blade at his gullet.   
 Who reads here?  Who reads?"  Father Hobbe bellowed.  The odd 
question checked everyone, even Beggar who had already snatched 
off Eleanor's hat and now had his huge left arm around her neck 
while his right hand gripped the neckline of her frock.   Who in this 
company can read?"  Father Hobbe demanded again as he bran- 
dished the parchment he had taken from one of the sacks on the 
back of Thomas's horse.   This is a letter from my lord the Bishop 
of Durham who is with our lord the King in France and it is sent 
to John Fossor, Prior of Durham, and only Englishmen who have 
fought with our King would carry such a letter.  We have brought 
it from France."   
 It proves nothing!"  Sir Geoffrey shouted, then spat at Thomas 
again as the blade was pressed hard into his throat.   
 And in what language is this letter written?"  A new horseman 
had spurred through the Scarecrow's men.  He wore no surcoat or 
jupon, but the badge on his battered shield was a scallop shell on 
a cross and it proclaimed that he was not one of Sir Geoffrey's 
followers.   What language?"  he asked once more.   
 Latin," Thomas said, his knife still pressing hard into Sir Geof- 
frey's neck.   
 Let Sir Geoffrey up," the neweomer commanded Thomas,  and 
I shall read the letter."   
 Tell him to let my woman go, Thomas snarled.   
The horseman looked surprised at being given an order by a mere 
archer, but he did not protest.  Instead he urged his horse towards 
Beggar.   Let her go," he said and, when the big man did not obey, 
he half drew his sword.   You want me to crop your ears, Beggar?   
Is that it?  Two ears gone?  Then your nose, then your cock, is that 
what you want, Beggar?  You want to be shorn like a summer ewe?   
Trimmed down like an elf?"   
 Let her go, Beggar," Sir Geoffrey said sullenly.   
Beggar obeyed and stepped back and the horseman leaned down 
from his saddle to take the letter from Father Hobbe.   Let Sir Geof- 
frey go," the neweomer ordered Thomas,  for we shall have peace 
between Englishmen today, at least for a day."   
The horseman was an old man, at least fifty years old, with a   
great shock of white hair that looked as though it had never been 
close to a brush or comb.  He was a large man, tall and big-bellied, 
on a sturdy horse that had no trapper, but only a tattered saddle 
cloth.  The man's full-length mail coat was sadly rusted in places 
and torn in others, while over the coat he had a breastplate that 
had lost two of its straps.  A long sword hung at his right thigh.  He 
looked to Thomas like a yeoman farmer who had ridden to war 
with whatever equipment his neighbours could lend him, but he 
had been recognized by Sir Geoffrey's archers who had snatched 
off their hats and helmets when he appeared and who now treated 
him with deference.  Even Sir Geoffrey seemed cowed by the white- 
haired man who frowned as he read the letter.   Thesaurus, eh?"  He 
was speaking to himself.   And a fine kettle of fish that is!  A thesaurus 
indeed!"  Thesaurus was Latin, but the rest of his words were spoken 
in Norman French and he was evidently confident that no archer 
would understand him.   
 Mention of treasure,  Thomas used the same language, which 
had been taught to him by his father,   makes men excited  Over- 
excited."   
 Good Lord above, good Lord indeed, you speak French!  Miracles 
never cease.  Thesaurus, it does mean treasure, doesn't it?  My Latin 
is not what it was when I was young  I had it flogged into me by 
a priest and it seems to have mostly leaked out since.  A treasure, 
eh?  And you speak French!"  The horseman showed genial surprise 
that Thomas spoke the language of aristocrats, though Sir Geoffrey, 
who did not speak French, looked alarmed for it suggested Thomas 
might be a good deal better born than he had thought.  The horse- 
man gave the letter back to Father Hobbe, then spurred to Sir 
Geoffrey.   You were picking a squabble with an Englishman, Sir 
Geoffrey, a messenger, no less, from our lord the King.  How do 
you explain that?"   
 I don't have to explain anything," Sir Geoffrey said,  my lord."   
The last two words were added reluctantly.   
 I should fillet you now," his lordship said mildly,  then have you 
stuffed and mounted on a pole to scare the crows away from my 
newly born lambs.  I could show you at Skipton Fair, Sir Geoffrey, 
as an example to other sinners."  He seemed to consider that idea 
for a few heartbeats, then shook his head.   Just get on your horse,"   
he said,  and fight the Scots today instead of quarrelling with your 
fellow Englishman."  He turned in his saddle and raised his voice so 
all the archers and men-at-arms could hear him.   All of you, back 
down the ridge!  And quick, before the Scots come and drive you 
off!  You want to join those rascals in the fire?"  He pointed to the 
three Scottish prisoners who were now nothing but dark shrivelled 
shapes in the bright flames, then he beckoned Thomas and changed 
his language to French.   You've really come from France?"   
 Yes, my lord."   
 Then do me the courtesy, my dear fellow, of speaking with 
me."   
They went south, leaving a broken stone cross, burned men and 
arrow-struck corpses in a thinning mist, where the army of Scotland 
had come to Durham.   
Bernard de Taillebourg took the crucifix from about his neck and 
kissed the writhing figure of Christ that was pinned to the small 
wooden cross.   God be with you, my brother," he murmured to the 
old man lying on the stone bench cushioned by a palliasse of straw 
and a folded blanket.  A second blanket, just as thin, covered the 
old man whose hair was white and wispy.   
 It is cold," Brother Hugh Collimore said feebly," so cold."  He spoke 
in French, though to de Taillebourg the old monk's accent was 
barbarous for it was the French of Normandy and of England's 
Norman rulers.   
 Winter comes," de Taillebourg said.   You can smell it on the 
wind."   
 I am dying,"  Brother Collimore turned his red-rimmed eyes on 
his visitor,   and can smell nothing.  Who are you?"   
 Take this," de Taillebourg said and gave his crucifix to the old 
monk, then he stoked up the wood fire, put two more logs on the 
revived blaze and sniffed a jug of mulled wine that sat in the hearth.   
It was not too rank and so he poured some into a horn cup.   At 
least you have a fire," he said, stooping to peer through the small 
window, no bigger than an arrow slit, that faced west across the 
encircling Wear.  The monk's hospital was on the slope of Durham's   
hill, beneath the cathedral, and de Taillebourg could see the Scottish 
men-at-arms carrying their lances through the straggling remnants 
of mist on the skyline.  Few of the mail-clad men had horses, he 
noticed, suggesting that the Scots planned to fight on foot.   
Brother Collimore, his face pale and his voice frail, gripped the 
small cross.   The dying are allowed a fire," he said, as though 
he had been accused of indulging himself in luxury.   Who are 
you?"   
 I come from Cardinal Bessieres," de Taillebourg said,  in Paris, 
and he sends you his greetings.  Drink this, it will warm you."  He 
held the mulled wine towards the old man.   
Collimore refused the wine.  His eyes were cautious.   Cardinal 
Bessieres?"  he asked, his tone implying that the name was new to 
him.   
 The Pope's legate in France."  De Taillebourg was surprised that 
the monk did not recognize the name, but thought perhaps the 
dying man's ignorance would be useful.   And the Cardinal is a 
man," the Dominican went on,  who loves the Church as fiercely 
as he loves God."   
 If he loves the Church," Collimore said with a surprising force, 
 then he will use his influence to persuade the Holy Father to take 
the papacy back to Rome."  The statement exhausted him and he 
closed his eyes.  He had never been a big man, but now, beneath 
his lice-ridden blanket, he seemed to have shrunk to the size of 
a ten-year-old and his white hair was thin and fine like a small 
infant's.   Let him move the papacy to Rome," he said again, though 
feebly,  for all our troubles have worsened since it was moved to 
Avignon."   
brother, you can help us achieve that."   
 Cardinal Bessieres wants nothing more than to move the Holy 
Father back to Rome," de Taillebourg lied,  and perhaps you,   
Brother Collimore appeared not to hear the words.  He had 
opened his eyes again, but just lay gazing up at the whitewashed 
stones of the arched ceiling.  The room was low, chill and white.   
Sometimes, when the summer sun was high, he could see the flicker 
of reflected water on the white stones.  In heaven, he thought, he 
would be forever within sight of crystal rivers and under a warm 
sun.   I was in Rome once," he said wistfully.   I remember going   
down some steps into a church where a choir sang.  So beautiful."   
 The Cardinal wants your help," de Taillebourg said.   
 There was a saint there."  Collimore was frowning, trying to 
remember.   Her bones were yellow."   
 So the Cardinal sent me to see you, brother," de Taillebourg 
said softly.  His servant, dark-eyed and elegant, watched from the 
door.   
 Cardinal Bessieres," Brother Collimore said in a whisper.   
 He sends you his greetings in Christ, brother."   
 What Bessieres wants," Collimore said, still in a whisper,  he 
takes with whips and scorpions."   
De Taillebourg half smiled.  So Collimore did know of Cardinal 
Bessieres after all, and no wonder, but perhaps fear of Bessieres 
would be sufficient to elicit the truth.  The monk had closed his eyes 
again and his lips were moving silently, suggesting he was praying.   
De Taillebourg did not disturb the prayers, but just gazed through 
the small window to where the Scots were making their battle line 
on the far hill.  The invaders faced southwards so that the left end 
of their line was nearest to the city and de Taillebourg could see 
men jostling for position as they tried to take the places of honour 
closest to their lords.  The Scots had evidently decided to fight on 
foot so that the English archers could not destroy their men-at-arms 
by cutting down their horses.  There was no sign of those English 
yet, though from all de Taillebourg had heard they could not have 
assembled a great force.  Their army was in France, outside Calais, 
not here, so perhaps it was merely a local lord leading his retainers?   
Yet plainly there were enough men to persuade the Scots to form 
a battle line, and de Taillebourg did not expect David's army to be 
delayed for long.  Which meant that if he wanted to hear the old 
man's story and be away from Durham before the Scots entered 
the city then he had best make haste.  He looked back at the monk, 
 Cardinal Bessieres wants only the glory of the Church and of God.   
And he wants to know about Father Ralph Vexille."   
 Dear God," Collimore said, and his fingers traced the bone figure 
on the small crucifix as he opened his eyes and turned his head 
to stare at the priest.  The monk's expression suggested it was the 
first time he had really noticed de Taillebourg and he shuddered, 
recognizing in his visitor a man who believed suffering gave merit.   
A man, Collimore reflected, who would be as implacable as his 
master in Paris.   Vexille!"  Collimore said, as though he had almost 
forgotten the name, and then he sighed.   It is a long tale," he said 
tiredly.   
 Then I will tell you what I know of it," de Taillebourg said.  The 
gaunt Dominican was pacing the room now, turning and turning 
again in the small space under the highest part of the arched ceiling.   
 You have heard," he demanded,  that a battle was fought in Picardy 
in the summer?  Edward of England fought his cousin of France 
and a man came from the south to fight for France and on his 
banner was the device of a yale holding a cup."  Collimore blinked, 
but said nothing.  His eyes were fixed on de Taillebourg who, in 
turn, stopped his pacing to look at the priest.   A yale holding a cup," 
he repeated.   
 I know the beast," Collimore said sadly.  A yale was an heraldic 
animal, unknown in nature, clawed like a lion, horned like a goat 
and scaled like a dragon.   
 He came from the south," de Taillebourg said,  and he thought 
that by fighting for France he would wash from his family's crest 
the ancient stains of heresy and of treason."  Brother Collimore was 
far too sick to see that the priest's servant was now listening intently, 
almost fiercely, or to notice that the Dominican had raised his voice 
slightly to make it easier for the servant, who still stood in the 
doorway, to overhear.   This man came from the south, riding in 
pride, believing his soul to be beyond reproof, but no man is beyond 
God's reach.  He thought he would ride in victory into the King's 
affections, but instead he shared France's defeat.  God will some- 
times humble us, brother, before raising us to glory."  De Taillebourg 
spoke to the old monk, but his words were for his servant's ears.   
 And after the battle, brother, when France wept, I found this man 
and he talked of you."   
Brother Collimore looked startled, but said nothing.   
 He talked of you," Father de Taillebourg said,  to me.  And I am 
an Inquisitor."   
Brother Collimore's fingers fluttered in an attempt to make the 
sign of the cross.   The Inquisition," he said feebly,  has no authority 
in England."   
 The Inquisition has authority in heaven and in hell, and you   
think little England can stand against us?"  The fury in de Taille- 
bourg's voice echoed in the hospital cell.   To root out heresy, 
brother, we will ride to the ends of the earth."   
The Inquisition, like the Dominican order of friars, was dedicated 
to the eradication of heresy, and to do it they employed fire and 
pain.  They could not shed blood, for that was against the law of 
the Church, but any pain inflicted without blood-letting was per- 
mitted, and the Inquisition knew well that fire cauterized bleeding 
and that the rack did not pierce a heretic's skin and that great 
weights pressed on a man's chest burst no veins.  In cellars reeking 
of fire, fear, urine and smoke, in a darkness shot through with 
flamelight and the screams of heretics, the Inquisition hunted down 
the enemies of God and, by the application of bloodless pain, 
brought their souls into a blessed unity with Christ.   
 A man came from the south," de Taillebourg said to Collimore 
again,  and the crest on his shield was a yale holding a cup."   
 A Vexille," Collimore said.   
 A Vexille," de Taillebourg said,  who knew your name.  Now why, 
brother, would a heretic from the southern lands know the name 
of an English monk in Durham?"   
Brother Collimore sighed.   They all knew," he said tiredly,  the 
whole family knew.  They knew because Ralph Vexille was sent to 
me.  The bishop thought I could cure him of madness, but his family 
feared he would tell me secrets instead.  They wanted him dead, 
but we locked him away in a cell where no one but I could reach 
him.   
 And what secrets did he tell you?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 Madness," Brother Collimore said, just madness."  The servant 
stood in the doorway and watched him.   
 Tell me of the madness," the Dominican ordered.   
 The mad speak of a thousand things," Brother Collimore said, 
 they speak of spirits and phantoms, of snow in summer and dark- 
ness in the daylight."   
 But Father Ralph spoke to you of the Grail," de Taillebourg said 
flatly.   
 He spoke of the Grail," Brother Collimore confirmed.   
The Dominican let out a sigh of relief.   What did he tell you of 
the Grail?"   
Hugh Collimore said nothing for a while.  His chest rose and fell 
so feebly that the motion was scarcely visible, then he shook his 
head.   He told me that his family had owned the Grail and that he 
had stolen and hidden it!  But he spoke of a hundred such things.   
A hundred such things."   
 Where would he have hidden it?"  de Taillebourg enquired.   
 He was mad.  Mad.  It was my job, you know, to look after the 
mad?  We starved or beat them to drive the devils out, but it did 
not always work.  In winter we would plunge them into the river, 
through the ice, and that worked.  Devils hate the cold.  It worked 
with Ralph Vexille, or mostly it worked.  We released him after a 
while.  The demons were gone, you see."   
 Where did he hide the Grail?"  De Taillebourg's voice was harder 
and louder.   
Brother Collimore stared at the flicker of reflected water light on 
the ceiling.   He was mad," he whispered,  but he was harmless.   
Harmless.  And when he left here he was sent to a parish in the 
south.  In the far south."   
 At Hookton in Dorset?"   
 At Hookton in Dorset," Brother Collimore agreed,  where he had 
a son.  He was a great sinner, you see, even though he was a priest.   
He had a son."   
Father de Taillebourg stared at the monk who had, at last, given 
him some news.  A son?   What do you know of the son?"   
 Nothing."  Brother Collimore sounded surprised that he should 
be asked.   
 And what do you know of the Grail?"  de Taillebourg probed.   
 I know that Ralph Vexille was mad," Collimore said in a whisper.   
De Taillebourg sat on the hard bed.   How mad?"   
Collimore's voice became even softer.   He said that even if you 
found the Grail then you would not know it, not unless you were 
worthy."  He paused and a look of puzzlement, almost amazement, 
showed briefly on his face.   You had to be worthy, he said, to know 
what the Grail was, but if you were worthy then it would shine 
like the very sun.  It would dazzle you."   
De Taillebourg leaned close to the monk.   You believed him?"   
 I believe Ralph Vexille was mad," Brother Collimore said.   
 The mad sometimes speak truth," de Taillebourg said.   
 I think," Brother Collimore went on as though the Inquisitor had 
not spoken,  that God gave Ralph Vexille a burden too great for 
him to bear."   
 The Grail?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 Could you bear it?  I could not."   
 So where is it?"  de Taillebourg persisted.   Where is it?"   
Brother Collimore looked puzzled again.   How would I know?"   
 It was not at Hookton," de Taillebourg said,  Guy Vexille searched 
for it."   
 Guy Vexille?"  Brother Collimore asked.   
 The man who came from the south, brother, to fight for France 
and ended in my custody."   
 Poor man," the monk said.   
Father de Taillebourg shook his head.   I merely showed him the 
rack, let him feel the pincers and smell the smoke.  Then I offered 
him 	life and he told me all he knew and he told me the Grail was 
not at Hookton."   
The old monk's face twitched in a smile.   You did not hear me, 
father.  If a man is unworthy then the Grail would not reveal itself.   
Guy Vexille could not have been worthy."   
 But Father Ralph did possess it?"  De Taillebourg sought reassurance.   You think he really possessed it?"   
 I did not say as much," the monk said.   
 But you believe he did?"  de Taillebourg asked and, when Brother 
Collimore said nothing, he nodded to himself.   You do believe he 
did."  He slipped off the bed, going to his knees and a look of awe 
came to his face as his linked hands clawed at each other.   The 
Grail," he said in a tone of utter wonder.   
He was mad," Brother Collimore warned him.   
De Taillebourg was not listening.   The grail," he said again,  le 
Graal!"  He was clutching himself now, rocking back and forth in 
ecstasy.   Le Graal!"   
 The mad say things," Brother Collimore said,  and they do not 
know what they say.   
 Or God speaks through them," de Taillebourg said fiercely.   
 Then God sometimes has a terrible tongue," the old monk replied.   
 You must tell me," de Taillebourg insisted,  all that Father Ralph 
told you."   
 But it was so long ago!"   
 It is le Graal!"  de Taillebourg shouted and, in his frustration, 
he shook the old man.   It is le Graal!  Don't tell me you have for- 
gotten."  He glanced through the window and saw, raised on the far 
ridge, the red saltire on the yellow banner of the Scottish King and 
beneath it a mass of grey-mailed men with their thicket of lances, 
pikes and spears.  No English foe was in sight, but de Taillebourg 
would not have cared if all the armies of Christendom were come 
to Durham for he had found his vision, it was the Grail, and though 
the world should tremble with armies all about him, he would 
pursue it.   
And an old monk talked.   
The horseman with the rusted mail, broken-strapped breastplate 
and scallop-decorated shield named himself as Lord Outhwaite of 
Witcar.   Do you know the place?"  he asked Thomas.   
 Witcar, my lord?  I've not heard of it,   
 Not heard of Witcar!  Dear me.  And it's such a pleasant place, 
very pleasant.  Good soil, sweet water, fine hunting.  Ah, there you 
are!"  This last was to a small boy mounted on a large horse and 
leading a second destrier by the reins.  The boy wore a jupon that 
had the scalloped cross emblazoned in yellow and red and, tugging 
the warhorse behind him, he spurred towards his master.   
 Sorry, my lord," the boy said,  but Hereward do haul away, he 
do."  Hereward was evidently the destrier he led.   And he hauled 
me clean away from you!"   
 Give him to this young man here," Lord Outhwaite said.   You 
can ride?"  he added earnestly to Thomas.   
 Yes, my lord."   
 Hereward is a handful though, a rare handful.  Kick him hard to 
let him know who's master."   
A score of men appeared in Lord Outhwaite's livery, all mounted   
and all with armour in better repair than their master's.  Lord   
Outhwaite turned them back south.   We were marching on   
Durham," he told Thomas, just minding our own affairs as good   
Christians should, and the wretched Scots appeared!  We won't   
make Durham now.  I was married there, you know?  In the 
cathedral.  Thirty-two years ago, can you credit it?"  He beamed happily at Thomas.   And my dear Margaret still lives, God be praised.   
She'd like to hear your tale.  You really were at Wadicourt?"   
 I was, my lord."   
 Fortunate you, fortunate you!"  Lord Outhwaite said, then hailed 
yet more of his men to turn them about before they blundered 
into the Scots.  Thomas was rapidly coming to realize that Lord 
Outhwaite, despite his ragged mail and dishevelled appearance, was 
a great lord, one of the magnates of the north country, and his 
lordship confirmed this opinion by grumbling that he had been 
forbidden by the King to fight in France because he and his men 
might be needed to fend off an invasion by the Scots.   And he was 
quite right!"  Lord Outhwaite sounded surprised.   The wretches have 
come south!  Did I tell you my eldest boy was in Picardy?  That's 
why I'm wearing this."  He plucked at a rent in the old mail coat.   I 
gave him the best armour we had because I thought we wouldn't 
need it here!  Young David of Scotland always seemed peaceable 
enough to me, but now England's overrun by his fellows.  Is it true 
that the slaughter at Wadicourt was vast?"   
 It was a field of dead, my lord."   
 Theirs, not ours, God and His saints be thanked."  His lordship 
looked across at some archers straggling southwards.   Don't 
dawdle!"  he called in English.   The Scots will be looking for you 
soon enough."  He looked back to Thomas and grinned.   So what 
would you have done if I hadn't come along?"  he asked, still using 
English.   Cut the Scarecrow's throat?"   
 If I had to."   
 And had your own slit by his men," Lord Outhwaite observed 
cheerfully.   He's a poisonous tosspot.  God only knows why his 
mother didn't drown him at birth, but then she was a goddamned 
turd-hearted witch if ever there was one."  Like many lords who 
had grown up speaking French, Lord Outhwaite had learned his 
English from his parents" servants and so spoke it coarsely.   He 
deserves a slit throat, the Scarecrow does, but he's a bad enemy to 
have.  He holds a grudge better than any man alive, but he has so 
many grudges that maybe he don't have room for one more.  He 
hates Sir William Douglas most of all."   
 Why?"   
 Because Willie had him prisoner.  Mind you, Willie Douglas has 
held most of us prisoner at one time or another and one or two of 
us have even held him in return, but the ransom near killed Sir 
Geoffrey.  He's down to his last score of retainers and I'd be surprised 
if he's got more than three halfpennies in a pot.  The Scarecrow's 
a poor man, very poor, but he's proud, and that makes him a bad 
enemy to have."  Lord Outhwaite paused to raise a genial hand to 
a group of archers wearing his livery.   Wonderful fellows, wonder- 
ful.  So tell me about the battle at Wadicourt.  Is it true that the 
French rode down their own archers?"   
 They did, my lord.  Genoese crossbowmen."   
 So tell me all that happened."   
Lord Outhwaite had received a letter from his eldest son that told 
of the battle in Picardy, but he was desperate to hear of the fight 
from someone who had stood on that long green slope between 
the villages of Wadicourt and Crecy, and Thomas now told how 
the enemy had attacked late in the afternoon and how the arrows 
had flown down the hill to cut the King of France's great army into 
heaps of screaming men and horses, and how some of the enemy 
had still come through the line of newly dug pits and past the   
   
arrows to hack at the English men-at-arms, and how, by the battle's 
end, there were no arrows left, just archers with bleeding fingers   
and a long hill of dying men and animals.  The very sky had seemed 
rinsed with blood.   
The telling of the tale took Thomas down off the ridge and out 
of sight of Durham.  Eleanor and Father Hobbe walked behind, 
leading the mare and sometimes interjecting with their own comments, while a score of Lord Outhwaite's retainers rode on either 
side to listen to the battle's tale.  Thomas told it well and it was 
plain Lord Outhwaite liked him; Thomas of Hookton had always 
possessed a charm that had protected and recommended him, even 
though it sometimes made men like Sir Geoffrey Carr jealous.  Sir 
Geoffrey had ridden ahead and, when Thomas reached the water 
meadows where the English force gathered, the knight pointed at 
him as if he were launching a curse and Thomas countered by 
making the sign of the cross.  Sir Geoffrey spat.   
Lord Outhwaite scowled at the Scarecrow.   I have not forgotten   
the letter your priest showed me,"  he spoke to Thomas in French 
now,   but I trust you will not leave us to deliver it to Durham 
yourself?  Not while we have enemies to fight?"   
 Can I stand with your lordship's archers?"  Thomas asked.   
Eleanor hissed her disapproval, but both men ignored her.   
Lord Outhwaite nodded his acceptance of Thomas's offer, then gestured that the younger man should climb down from the horse.   
 One thing does puzzle me, though," he went on,  and that is 
why our lord the King should entrust such an errand to one so 
young.   
 And so base born?"  Thomas asked with a smile, knowing that 
was the real question Lord Outhwaite had been too fastidious to 
ask.   
His lordship laughed to be found out.   You speak French, young 
man, but carry a bow.  What are you?  Base or well born?"   
 Well enough, my lord, but out of wedlock."   
 And the answer to your question, my lord, is that our lord the 
King sent me with one of his chaplains and a household knight, 
but both caught a sickness in London and that is where they remain.   
I came on with my companions."   
 Because you were eager to speak with this old monk?"   
 If he lives, yes, because he can tell me about my father's family.   
My family."   
 And he can tell you about this treasure, this thesaurus.  You know 
of it?"   
 I know something of it, my lord," Thomas said cautiously.   
 Which is why the King sent you, eh?"  Lord Outhwaite queried, 
but did not give Thomas time to answer the question.  He gathered 
his reins.   Fight with my archers, young man, but take care to stay 
alive, eh?  I would like to know more of your thesaurus.  Is the 
treasure really as great as the letter says?"   
Thomas turned away from the ragged-haired Lord Outhwaite and 
stared up the ridge where there was nothing to be seen now except 
the bright-leaved trees and a thinning plume of smoke from the 
burned-out hovels.   If it exists, my lord,"  he spoke in French,  
 then it is the kind of treasure that is guarded by angels and sought 
by demons.   
 And you seek it?"  Lord Outhwaite asked with a smile.   
Thomas returned the smile.   I merely seek the Prior of Durham, 
my lord, to give him the bishop's letter."   
 You want Prior Fossor, eh?"  Lord Outhwaite nodded towards a 
group of monks.   That's him over there.  The one in the saddle."  He 
had indicated a tall, white-haired monk who was astride a grey 
mare and surrounded by a score of other monks, all on foot, one 
of whom carried a strange banner that was nothing but a white 
scrap of cloth hanging from a painted pole.   Talk to him," Lord 
Outhwaite said,  then seek my flag.  God be with you!"  He said the 
last four words in English.   
 And with your lordship," Thomas and Father Hobbe answered 
together.   
Thomas walked towards the Prior, threading his way through 
archers who clustered about three wagons to receive spare sheaves 
of arrows.  The small English army had been marching towards 
Durham on two separate roads and now the men straggled across 
fields to come together in case the Scots descended from the high 
ground.  Men-at-arms hauled mail coats over their heads and the 
richer among them buckled on whatever pieces of plate armour 
they owned.  The army's leaders must have had a swift conference 
for the first standards were being carried northwards, showing that 
the English wanted to confront the Scots on the higher ground of 
the ridge rather than be attacked in the water meadows or try to 
reach Durham by a circuitous route.  Thomas had become accustomed to the English banners in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy, 
but these flags were all strange to him: a silver crescent, a brown 
cow, a blue lion, the Scarecrow's black axe, a red boar's head, Lord 
Outhwaite's scallop-emblazoned cross and, gaudiest of all, a great 
scarlet flag showing a pair of crossed keys thickly embroidered in 
gold and silver threads.  The prior's flag looked shabby and cheap 
compared to all those other banners for it was nothing but a small 
square of frayed cloth beneath which the prior was working himself 
into a frenzy.   Go and do God's work," he shouted at some nearby 
archers,  for the Scots are animals!  Animals!  Cut them down!  Kill 
them all!  God will reward each death!  Go and smite them!  Kill 
them!"  He saw Thomas approaching.   You want a blessing, my son?   
Then God give strength to your bow and add bite to your arrows!   
May your arm never tire and your eye never dim.  God and the 
saints bless you while you kill!"   
Thomas crossed himself then held out the letter.   I came to give 
you this, sir," he said.   
The prior seemed astonished that an archer should address him 
so familiarly, let alone have a letter for him and at first he did not 
take the parchment, but one of his monks snatched it from Thomas 
and, seeing the broken seal, raised his eyebrows.   My lord the bishop 
writes to you," he said.   
 They are animals!"  the prior repeated, still caught up in his peroration, then he realized what the monk had said.   My lord bishop 
writes?"   
 To you, brother," the monk said.   
The prior seized the painted pole and dragged the makeshift 
banner down so it hung near to Thomas's face.   You may kiss it," 
he said grandly.   
 Kiss it?"  Thomas was quite taken aback.  The ragged cloth, now 
it was close by his nose, smelt musty.   
 It is Saint Cuthbert's corporax cloth," the prior said excitedly,  taken 
from his tomb, my son! The blessed Saint Cuthbert will fight for us! 
The very angels of heaven will follow him into the battle."   
Thomas, faced with the saint's relic, went to his knees and drew 
the cloth to his lips.  It was linen, he thought, and now he could 
see it was embroidered about its edge with an intricate pattern in 
faded blue thread.  In the centre of the cloth, which was used during 
Mass to hold the wafers, was an elaborate cross, embroidered in 
silver threads that scarcely showed against the frayed white linen.   
 It is really Saint Cuthbert's cloth?" he asked.   
 His alone!"  the prior exclaimed.   We opened his tomb in the 
cathedral this very morning, and we prayed to him and he will 
fight for us today!"  The prior jerked the flag up and waved it towards 
some men-at-arms who spurred their horses northwards.   Perform 
God's work!  Kill them all!  Dung the fields with their noxious flesh, 
water it with their treacherous blood!"   
 The bishop wants this young man to speak with Brother Hugh 
Collimore," the monk who had read the letter now told the prior, 
and the King wishes it too.  His lordship says there is a treasure to 
be found."   
 The King wishes it?"  the prior looked in astonishment at Thomas.   
 The King wishes it?"  he asked again and then he came to his senses 
and realized there was great advantage in royal patronage and so 
he snatched the letter and read it himself, only to find even more 
advantage than he had anticipated.   You come in search of a great 
thesaurus?"  he asked Thomas suspiciously.   
 So the bishop believes, sir," Thomas responded.   
 What treasure?"  the prior snapped and all the monks gaped at 
him as the notion of a treasure momentarily made them forget the 
proximity of the Scottish army.   
 The treasure, sir,"  Thomas avoided giving a truthful answer,  
 is known to Brother Collimore.   
 But why send you?"  the prior asked, and it was a fair question 
for Thomas looked young and possessed no apparent rank.   
 Because I have some knowledge of the matter too," Thomas said, 
wondering if he had said too much.   
The prior folded the letter, inadvertently tearing off the seal as 
he did so, and thrust it into a pouch that hung from his knotted 
belt.   We shall talk after the battle," he said,  and then, and only 
then, I shall decide whether you may see Brother Collimore.  He is 
sick, you know?  Ailing, poor soul.  Maybe he is dying.  It may not 
be seemly for you to disturb him.  We shall see, we shall see."  He 
plainly wanted to talk to the old monk himself and so be the sole 
possessor of whatever knowledge Collimore might have.   God bless 
you, my son," the prior dismissed Thomas, then hoisted his sacred 
banner and hurried north.  Most of the English army was already 
climbing the ridge, leaving only their wagons and a crowd of 
women, children and those men too sick to walk.  The monks, 
making a procession behind their corporax cloth, began to sing as 
they followed the soldiers.   
Thomas ran to a cart and took a sheaf of arrows, which he thrust 
into his belt.  He could see that Lord Outhwaite's men-at-arms were 
riding towards the ridge, followed by a large group of archers.   
 Maybe the two of you should stay here," he said to Father Hobbe.   
 No!"  Eleanor said.   And you should not be fighting."   
 Not fight?"  Thomas asked.   
 It is not your battle!"  Eleanor insisted.   We should go to the city!   
We should find the monk."   
Thomas paused.  He was thinking of the priest who, in the swirl 
of fog and smoke, had killed the Scotsman and then spoken to 
him in French.  I am a messenger, the priest had said.   Je suis un 
avant-coureur," had been his exact words and an avant-coureur was 
more than a mere messenger.  A herald, perhaps?  An angel even?   
Thomas could not drive away the image of that silent fight, the 
men so ill matched, a soldier against a priest, yet the priest had 
won and then had turned his gaunt, bloodied face on Thomas and 
announced himself:  Je suis un avant-coureur."  It was a sign, Thomas 
thought, and he did not want to believe in signs and visions, he 
wanted to believe in his bow.  He thought perhaps Eleanor was right 
and that the conflict with its unexpected victor was a sign from 
heaven that he should follow the avant-coureur into the city, but 
there were also enemies up on the hill and he was an archer and 
archers did not walk away from a battle.   We'll go to the city," he 
said,  after the fight."   
 Why?"  she demanded fiercely.   
But Thomas would not explain.  He just started walking, climbing 
a hill where larks and finches flitted through the hedges and field- 
fares, brown and grey, called from the empty pastures.  The fog was 
all gone and a drying wind blew across the Wear.   
And then, from where the Scots waited on the higher ground, 
the drums began to beat.   
Sir William Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale, prepared himself for 
battle.  He pulled on leather breeches thick enough to thwart a 
sword cut and over his linen shirt he hung a crucifix that had been 
blessed by a priest in Santiago de Compostela where Saint James was 
buried. Sir William Douglas was not a particularly religious man, 
but he paid a priest to look after his soul and the priest had assured 
Sir William that wearing the crucifix of Saint James, the son of thunder, 
would ensure he received the last rites safe in his own bed. About 
his waist he tied a strip of red silk that had been torn from one of 
the banners captured from the English at Bannockburn.  The silk 
had been dipped in the holy water of the font in the chapel of Sir 
William's castle at Hermitage and Sir William had been persuaded   
that the scrap of silk would ensure victory over the old and much 
hated enemy.   
He wore a haubergeon taken from an Englishman killed in 
one of Sir William's many raids south of the border.  Sir William 
remembered that killing well.  He had seen the quality of the Eng- 
lishman's haubergeon at the very beginning of the fight and he had 
bellowed at his men to leave the fellow alone, then he had cut the 
man down by striking at his ankles and the Englishman, on his 
knees, had made a mewing sound that had made Sir William's men 
laugh.  The man had surrendered, but Sir William had cut his throat 
anyway because he thought any man who made a mewing sound 
was not a real warrior.  It had taken the servants at Hermitage two 
weeks to wash the blood out of the fine mesh of the mail.  Most of 
the Scottish leaders were dressed in hauberks, which covered a 
man's body from neck to calves, while the haubergeon was much 
shorter and left the legs unprotected, but Sir William intended to 
fight on foot and he knew that a hauberk's weight wearied a man 
quickly and tired men were easily killed.  Over the haubergeon he 
wore a full-length surcoat that showed his badge of the red heart.   
His helmet was a sallet, lacking any visor or face protection, but in 
battle Sir William liked to see what his enemies to the left and right 
were doing.  A man in a full helm or in one of the fashionable 
pig-snouted visors could see nothing except what the slit right in 
front of his eyes let him see, which was why men in visored helmets 
spent the battle jerking their heads left and right, left and right, like 
a chicken among foxes, and they twitched until their necks were 
sore and even then they rarely saw the blow that crushed their 
skulls.  Sir William, in battle, looked for men whose heads were 
jerking like hens, back and forth, for he knew they were nervous 
men who could afford a fine helmet and thus pay a finer ransom.   
He carried his big shield.  It was really too heavy for a man on foot, 
but he expected the English to loose their archery storm and the 
shield was thick enough to absorb the crashing impact of yard-long, 
steel-pointed arrows.  He could rest the foot of the shield on the 
ground and crouch safe behind it and, when the English ran out 
of arrows, he could always discard it.  He carried a spear in case the 
English horsemen charged, and a sword, which was his favourite 
killing weapon.  The sword's hilt encased a scrap of hair cut from   
the corpse of Saint Andrew, or at least that was what the pardoner 
who had sold Sir William the scrap had claimed.   
Robbie Douglas, Sir William's nephew, wore mail and a sallet, 
and carried a sword and shield.  It had been Robbie who had brought 
Sir William the news that Jamie Douglas, Robbie's older brother, 
had been killed, presumably by the Dominican priest's servant.  Or 
perhaps Father de Taillebourg had done the killing?  Certainly he 
must have ordered it.  Robbie Douglas, twenty years old, had wept 
for his brother.   How could a priest do it?"  Robbie had demanded 
of his uncle.   
 You have a strange idea of priests, Robbie," Sir William had said.   
 Most priests are weak men given God's authority and that makes 
them dangerous.  I thank God no Douglas has ever put on a priest's 
robe.  We're all too honest.   
 When this day's done, uncle," Robbie Douglas said,  you'll let 
me go after that priest."   
Sir William smiled.  He might not be an overtly religious man, 
but he did hold one creed sacred and that was that any family 
member's murder must be avenged and Robbie, he reckoned, would 
do vengeance well.  He was a good young man, hard and handsome, 
tall and straightforward, and Sir William was proud of his youngest 
sister's son.   We'll talk at day's end," Sir William promised him,  but 
till then, Robbie, stay close to me."   
 I will, uncle."   
 We'll kill a good few Englishmen, God willing," Sir William said, 
then led his nephew to meet the King and to receive the blessing 
of the royal chaplains.   
Sir William, like most of the Scottish knights and chieftains, was 
in mail, but the King wore French-made plate, a thing so rare north 
of the border that men from the wild tribes came to stare at this 
sun-reflecting creature made of moving metal.  The young King 
seemed just as impressed for he took off his surcoat and walked up 
and down admiring himself and being admired as his lords came 
for a blessing and to offer advice.  The Earl of Moray, whom Sir 
William believed was a fool, wanted to fight on horseback and the 
 king was tempted to agree.  His father, the great Robert the Bruce, 
had beaten the English at the Bannockburn on horseback, and not 
just beaten them, but humiliated them.  The flower of Scotland had   
ridden down the nobility of England and David, King now of his 
father's country, wanted to do the same.  He wanted blood beneath 
his hooves and glory attached to his name; he wanted his reputation 
to spread through Christendom and so he turned and gazed long- 
ingly at his red and yellow painted lance propped against the bough 
of an elm.   
Sir William Douglas saw where the King was looking.   Archers," 
he said laconically.   
 There were archers at the Bannockburn," the Earl of Moray 
insisted.   
 Aye, and the fools didn't know how to use them," Sir William 
said,  but you can't depend on the English being fools for ever.   
 And how many archers can they have?"  the Earl asked.   There 
are said to be thousands of bowmen in France, hundreds more in 
Brittany and as many again in Gascony, so how many can they 
have here?"   
 They have enough," Sir William growled curtly, not bothering 
to hide the contempt he felt for John Randolph, third Earl of Moray.   
The Earl was just as experienced in war as Sir William, but he had 
spent too long as a prisoner of the English and the consequent 
hatred made him impetuous.   
The King, young and inexperienced, wanted to side with the Earl 
whose friend he was, but he saw that his other lords were agreeing 
with Sir William who, though he held no great title nor position 
of state, was more battle-hardened than any man in Scotland.  The 
Earl of Moray sensed that he was losing the argument and he urged 
haste.   Charge now, sir," he suggested,  before they can make a 
battle line."  He pointed southwards to where the first English troops 
were appearing in the pastures.   Cut the bastards down before 
they're ready."   
 That," the Earl of Menteith put in quietly,  was the advice given 
to Philip of Valois in Picardy.  It didn't serve there and it won't serve 
here."   
 Besides which," Sir William Douglas remarked caustically,  we 
have to contend with stone walls."  He pointed to the walls which 
bounded the pastures where the English were beginning to form 
their line.   Maybe Moray can tell us how armoured knights get past 
stone walls?"  he suggested.   
The Earl of Moray bridled.   You take me for a fool, Douglas?"   
 I take you as you show yourself, John Randolph," Sir William 
answered.   
 Gentlemen!"  the King snapped.  He had not noticed the stone 
walls when he formed his battle line beside the burning cottages 
and the fallen cross.  He had only seen the empty green pastures 
and the wide road and his even wider dream of glory.  Now he 
watched the enemy straggle from the far trees.  There were plenty 
of archers coming, and he had heard how those bowmen could fill 
the sky with their arrows and how their steel arrow heads drove 
deep into horses and how the horses then went mad with pain.   
And he dared not lose this battle.  He had promised his nobles that 
they would celebrate the feast of Christmas in the hall of the English 
King in London and if he lost,  then he would lose their respect and 
encourage some to rebellion.  He had to win and, being impatient, 
he wanted to win quickly.   If we charge fast enough," he suggested 
tentatively,  before they all reach their lines     
 Then, you'll break your horse's legs on the stone walls," Sir 
William said with scant respect for his royal master.   If your maj- 
esty's horse even gets that far.  You can't protect a horse from 
arrows, sir, but you can weather the storm on foot.  Put your pikes 
up front, but mix them with men-at-arms who can use their shields 
to protect the pike-holders.  Shields up, heads down and hold hard, 
that's how we win this."   
The King tugged at the espalier which covered his right shoulder 
and had an annoying habit of riding up on the top edge of the 
breastplate.  Traditionally the defence of Scottish armies was in the 
hands of pikemen who used their monstrously long weapons to 
hold off the enemy knights, but pikemen needed both hands to hold 
their unwieldy blades and so became easy targets for English bow- 
men who liked to boast that they carried the lives of Scottish pike- 
men in their arrow bags.  So protect the pikemen with the shields 
of the men-at-arms and let the enemy waste their arrows.  It made 
sense, but it still irked David Bruce that he could not lead his 
horsemen in an earth-shaking assault while the trumpets screamed 
at the heavens.   
Sir William saw his King's hesitation and pressed his argument.   
 We have to stand, sir, and we have to wait, and we have to let   
our shields take the arrows, but in the end, sir, they'll tire of wasting 
shafts and they'll come to the attack and that's when we'll chop 
them down like dogs."   
A growl of assent greeted this.  The Scottish lords, hard men all, 
armed and armoured, bearded and grim, were confident that they 
could win this fight because they so outnumbered the enemy, but 
they also knew there was no short cut to victory, not when archers 
opposed them, and so they would have to do what Sir William said:   
endure the arrows, goad the enemy, then give them slaughter.   
The King heard his lords agree with Sir William and so, reluctantly, he abandoned his dream of breaking the enemy with 
mounted knights.  That was a disappointment, but he looked about 
his lords and thought that with such men beside him he could not 
possibly lose.   We shall fight on foot," he decreed,  and chop them 
down like dogs.  We shall slaughter them like whipped puppies!"   
And afterwards, he thought, when the survivors were fleeing south- 
wards, the Scottish cavalry could finish the slaughter.   
But for now it would be footman against footman and so the war 
banners of Scotland were carried forward and planted across the 
ridge.  The burning cottages were mere embers now that cradled 
three shrunken bodies, black and small as children, and the King 
planted his flags close to those dead.  He had his own standard, red 
saltire on yellow field, and the banner of Scotland's saint, white 
saltire on blue, in the line's centre and to left and right the flags of 
the lesser lords flew.  The lion of Stewart brandished its blade, the 
Randolph falcon spread its wings while to east and west the stars 
and axes and crosses snapped in the wind.  The army was arrayed 
in three divisions, called sheltrons, and the three sheltrons were so 
large that the men on the far flanks jostled in towards the centre 
to keep themselves on the flatter ground of the ridge's summit.   
The rearmost ranks of the sheltrons were composed of the tribes- 
men from the islands and the north, men who fought bare-legged, 
without metal armour, wielding vast swords that could club a man 
to death as easily as cut him down.  They were fearsome fighters, 
but their lack of armour made them horribly vulnerable to arrows 
and so they were placed at the rear and the leading ranks of the 
three sheltrons were filled by men-at-arms and pikemen.  The men- 
at-arms carried swords, axes, maces or war-hammers and, most   
important, the shields that could protect the pikemen whose 
weapons were tipped with a spike, a hook and an axehead.  The 
spike could hold an enemy at bay, the hook could haul an armoured 
man out of the saddle or off his feet, and the axe could smash 
through his mail or plate.  The line bristled with the pikes that made 
a steel hedge to greet the English and priests walked along the 
hedge consecrating the weapons and the men who held them.  Sol- 
diers knelt to receive their blessings.  A few of the lords, like the 
King himself, were mounted, but only so that they could see over 
the heads of their army, and those men stared south to see the last 
of the English troops come into view.  So few of them!  Such a small 
army to beat!  To the left of the Scots was Durham, its towers and 
ramparts thick with folk watching the battle, and in front was this 
small army of Englishmen who did not possess the sense to retreat 
south towards York.  They would fight on the ridge instead and the 
Scots had the advantage of position and numbers.   If you hate 
them!"  Sir William Douglas shouted at his men on the right of the 
Scottish battle line,  then let them hear you!"   
The Scots bellowed their hatred.  They clashed swords and spears 
against their shields, they shrieked to the sky and, in the line's 
centre, where the King's sheltron waited under the banners of the 
cross, a troop of drummers began to beat huge goatskin drums.   
Each drum was a big ring of oak over which was stretched two 
goat skins that were tightened with ropes until an acorn, dropped 
onto a skin, would bounce as high as the hand that had let it go 
and the drums, beaten with withies, made a sharp, almost metallic 
sound that filled the sky.  They made an assault of pure noise.   
 If you hate the English, let them know!"  the Earl of March 
shouted from the left of the Scottish line that lay closest to the city.   
 If you hate the English, let them know!"  and the roar became 
louder, the clash of spear stave on shield was stronger, and the noise 
of Scotland's hate spread across the ridge so that nine thousand men 
were howling at the three thousand who were foolish enough to 
confront them.   
 We shall cut them down like stalks of barley," a priest promised, 
we shall soak the fields with their stinking blood and fill all hell 
with their English souls."   
 Their women are yours!"  Sir William told his men.   Their wives   
and their daughters will be your toys tonight!"  He grinned at his   
nephew Robbie.   You'll have your pick of Durham's women, 
Robbie."   
 And London's women," Robbie said,  before Christmas."   
 Aye, them too," Sir William promised.   
 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost," the King's senior chaplain shouted, send them all to hell!   
Each and every foul one of them to hell!  For every Englishman   
you kill today means a thousand less weeks in purgatory!"   
 If you hate the English," Lord Robert Stewart, Steward of Scot- 
land and heir to the throne, called,  let them hear!"  And the noise 
of that hate was like a thunder that filled the deep valley of the 
Wear, and the thunder reverberated from the crag where Durham 
stood and still the noise swelled to tell the whole north country 
that the Scots had come south.   
And David, King of those Scots, was glad that he had come to 
this place where the dragon cross had fallen and the burning houses 
smoked and the English waited to be killed.  For this day he would 
bring glory to Saint Andrew, to the great house of Bruce, and to 
Scotland.  
Thomas, Father Hobbe and Eleanor followed the prior and his 
monks who were still chanting, though the brothers" voices were 
now ragged for they were breathless from hurrying.  Saint Cuthbert's 
corporax cloth swayed to and fro and the banner attracted a strag- 
gling procession of women and children who, not wanting to wait 
out of sight of their men, carried spare sheaves of arrows up the 
hill. Thomas wanted to go faster, to get past the monks and find 
Lord Outhwaite's men, but Eleanor deliberately hung back until he 
turned on her angrily.   You can walk faster," he protested in French.   
 I can walk faster," she said,  and you can ignore a battle!"  Father 
Hobbe, leading the horse, understood the tone even though he did 
not comprehend the words.  He sighed, thus earning himself a sav- 
age look from Eleanor.   You do not need to fight!"  she went on.   
 I'm an archer," Thomas said stubbornly,  and there's an enemy 
up there."   
 Your King sent you to find the Grail!"  Eleanor insisted.   Not to 
die!  Not to leave me alone!  Me and a baby!"  She had stopped now, 
hands clutching her belly and with tears in her eyes.   I am to be 
alone here?  In England?"   
 I won't die here," Thomas said scathingly.   
 You know that?"  Eleanor was even more scathing.   God spoke 
to you, perhaps?  You know what other men do not?  You know 
the day of your dying?"   
Thomas was taken aback by the outburst.  Eleanor was a strong 
girl, not given to tantrums, but she was distraught and weeping 
now.   Those men," Thomas said,  the Scarecrow and Beggar, they 
won't touch you.  I'll be here."   
 It isn't them!"  Eleanor wailed.   I had a dream last night.  A dream."   
Thomas put his hands on her shoulders.  His hands were huge   
and strengthened by hauling on the hempen string of the big bow.   
 I dreamed of the Grail last night," he said, knowing that was not   
quite true.  He had not dreamed of the Grail, rather he had woken 
to a vision which had turned out to be a deception, but he could 
not tell Eleanor that.   It was golden and beautiful," he said,  like a   
cup of fire."   
 In my dream," Eleanor said, gazing up at him,  you were dead 
and your body was all black and swollen."   
 What is she saying?"  Father Hobbe asked.   
 She had a bad dream," Thomas said in English,  a nightmare."   
 The devil sends us nightmares," the priest asserted.   It is well 
known.  Tell her that."   
Thomas translated that for her, then he stroked a wisp of golden 
hair away from her forehead and tucked it under her knitted cap.   
He loved her face, so earnest and narrow, so cat-like, but with 
big eyes and an expressive mouth.   It was just a nightmare," he 
reassured her,  Une cauchemar."   
 The Scarecrow," Eleanor said with a shudder,  he is the cauchemar." ,   
Thomas drew her into an embrace.   He won't come near you, 
he promised her.  He could hear a distant chanting, but nothing like 
the monks" solemn prayers.  This was a jeering, insistent chant,   
heavy as the drumbeat that gave it rhythm.  He could not hear the 
words, but he did not need to.   The enemy, he said to Eleanor, 
are waiting for us.   
 They are not my enemy," she said fiercely.   
 If they get into Durham," Thomas retorted,  then they will not 
know that.  They will take you anyway.   
 Everyone hates the English.  Do you know that?  The French 
hate you, the Bretons hate you, the Scots hate you, every man in 
Christendom hates you!  And why?  Because you love fighting!  You 
do!  Everyone knows that about the English.  And you?  You have 
no need to fight today, it is not your quarrel, but you can't wait to 
be there, to kill again!"   
Thomas did not know what to say, for there was truth in what 
Eleanor had said.  He shrugged and picked up his heavy bow.   I   
fight for my King, and there's an army of enemies on the hill here.   
They outnumber us.  Do you know what will happen if they get 
into Durham?"   
 I know," Eleanor said firmly, and she did know for she had 
been in Caen when the English archers, disobeying their King, had 
swarmed across the bridge and laid the town waste.   
 If we don't fight them and stop them here," Thomas said,  then 
their horsemen will hunt us all down.  One after the other."   
 You said you would marry me," Eleanor declared, crying again.   
 I don't want my baby to be fatherless, I don't want it to be like 
me."  She meant illegitimate.   
 I will marry you, I promise.  When the battle is done we shall be 
married in Durham.  In the cathedral, yes?"  He smiled at her.   We 
can be married in the cathedral."   
Eleanor was pleased with the promise, but too furious to show 
her pleasure.   We should go to the cathedral now," she snapped.   
 We would be safe there.  We should pray at the high altar."   
 You can go to the city," Thomas said.   Let me fight my King's 
enemies and you go to the city, you and Father Hobbe, and you 
find the old monk and you can both talk to him, and afterwards   
you can go to the cathedral and wait for me there."  He unstrapped 
one of the big sacks on the mare's back and took out his haubergeon, 
which he hauled over his head.  The leather lining felt stiff and cold, 
and smelt of mould.  He forced his hands down the sleeves, then 
strapped the sword belt about his waist and hung the weapon on 
his right side.   Go to the city," he told Eleanor,  and talk to the 
monk."   
Eleanor was crying.   You are going to die," she said,  I dreamed 
it."   
 I can't go to the city," Father Hobbe protested.   
 You're a priest," Thomas barked,  not a soldier!  Take Eleanor to 
Durham.  Find Brother Collimore and talk to him."  The prior had 
insisted that Thomas wait and suddenly it seemed very sensible to 
send Father Hobbe to talk to the old monk before the prior poisoned 
his memories.   Both of you," Thomas insisted,  talk to Brother Colli- 
more.  You know what to ask him.  And I shall see you there this 
evening, in the cathedral."  He took his sallet, with its broad rim to 
deflect the downward stroke of a blade, and tied it onto his head.   
He was angry with Eleanor because he sensed she was right.  The 
imminent battle was not his concern except that fighting was his 
trade and England his country.   I will not die," he told Eleanor with 
an obstinate irrationality,  and you will see me tonight."  He tossed 
the horse's reins to Father Hobbe.   Keep Eleanor safe," he told the 
priest.   The Scarecrow won't risk anything inside the monastery or 
in the cathedral."   
He wanted to kiss Eleanor goodbye, but she was angry with him 
and he was angry with her and so he took his bow and his arrow 
bag and walked away.  She said nothing for, like Thomas, she was 
too proud to back away from the quarrel.  Besides, she knew she 
was right.  This clash with the Scots was not Thomas's fight, whereas 
the Grail was his duty.  Father Hobbe, caught between their obstin- 
acy, walked in silence, but did note that Eleanor turned more than 
once, evidently hoping to catch Thomas looking back, but all she 
saw was her lover climbing the path with the great bow across his 
shoulder.   
It was a huge bow, taller than most men and as thick about its 
belly as an archer's wrist.  It was made from yew; Thomas was fairly 
sure it was Italian yew though he could never be certain because 
the raw stave had drifted ashore from a wrecked ship.  He had 
shaped the stave, leaving the centre thick, and he had steamed the 
tips to curve them against the way the bow would bend when it 
was drawn.  He had painted the bow black, using wax, oil and soot, 
then tipped the two ends of the stave with pieces of nocked antler 
horn to hold the cord.  The stave had been cut so that at the belly 
of the bow, where it faced Thomas when he drew the hempen 
string, there was hard heartwood which was compressed when the 
arrow was hauled back while the outer belly was springy sapwood 
and when he released the cord the heartwood snapped out of its 
compression and the sapwood pulled it back into shape and between 
them they sent the arrow hissing with savage force.  The belly of 
the bow, where his left hand gripped the yew, was whipped with 
hemp and above the hemp, which had been stiffened with hoof 
glue, he had nailed a scrap of silver cut from a crushed Mass vessel 
that his father had used in Hookton church, and the piece of silver 
cup showed the yale with the Grail in its clawed grip.  The yale 
came from Thomas's family's coat of arms, though he had not   
known that when he grew up for his father had never told him 
the tale.  He had never told Thomas he was a Vexille from a family 
that had been lords of the Cathar heretics, a family that had been 
burned out of their home in southern France and which had fled 
to hide themselves in the darkest corners of Christendom.   
Thomas knew little of the Cathar heresy.  He knew his bow and 
he knew how to select an arrow of slender ash or birch or horn- 
beam, and he knew how to fledge the shaft with goose feathers 
and how to tip it with steel.  He knew all that, yet he did not know 
how to drive that arrow through shield, mail and flesh.  That was 
instinct, something he had practised since childhood; practised till 
his string fingers were bleeding; practised until he no longer thought 
when he drew the string back to his ear; practised until, like all 
archers, he was broad across the chest and hugely muscled in his 
arms.  He did not need to know how to use a bow, it was just an 
instinct like breathing or waking or fighting.   
He turned when he reached a stand of hornbeams that guarded 
the upper path like a rampart.  Eleanor was walking stubbornly 
away and Thomas had an urge to shout to her, but knew she was 
already too far off and would not hear him.  He had quarrelled with 
her before; men and women, it seemed to Thomas, spent half their 
lives fighting and half loving and the intensity of the first fed the 
passion of the second, and he almost smiled for he recognized 
Eleanor's stubbornness and he even liked it; and then he turned 
and walked through the trampled drifts of fallen hornbeam leaves 
along the path between stone-walled pastures where hundreds of 
saddled stallions were grazing.  These were the warhorses of the 
English knights and men-at-arms and their presence in the pastures 
told Thomas that the English expected the Scots to attack because 
a knight was far better able to defend himself on foot.  The horses 
were kept saddled so that the mailed men-at-arms could either 
retreat swiftly or else mount up and pursue a beaten enemy.   
Thomas could still not see the Scottish army, but he could hear 
their chanting, which was given force by the hellish beat of the big 
drums.  The sound was making some of the pastured stallions ner- 
vous and three of them, pursued by pageboys, galloped beside the 
stone wall with their eyes showing white.  More pages were exercis- 
ing destriers just behind the English line, which was divided into   
three battles.  Each battle had a knot of horsemen at the centre of 
its rear rank, the mounted men being the commanders beneath 
their bright banners, while in front of them were four or five rows 
of men-at-arms carrying swords, axes, spears and shields, and ahead 
of the men-at-arms, and crowded thick in the spaces between the 
three battles, were the archers.   
The Scots, two arrow shots away from the English, were on 
slightly higher ground and also divided into three divisions which, 
like the English battles, were arrayed beneath their clusters of com- 
manders" banners.  The tallest flag, the red and yellow royal stan- 
dard, was in the centre.  The Scottish knights and men-at-arms, like 
the English, were on foot, but each of their sheltrons was much 
larger than its opposing English battle, three or four times larger, 
but Thomas, tall enough to look over the English line, could see 
there were not many archers in the enemy ranks.  Here and there 
along the Scottish line he could see some long bowstaves and 
there were a few crossbows visible among the thicket of pikes, but 
there were not nearly so many bowmen as were in the English 
array, though the English, in turn, were hugely outnumbered by 
the Scottish army.  So the battle, if it ever started, would be between 
arrows and Scottish pikes and men-at-arms, and if there were not 
enough arrows then the ridge must become an English graveyard.   
Lord Outhwaite's banner of the cross and scallop shell was in the 
left-hand battle and Thomas crossed to it.  The prior, dismounted 
now, was in the space between the left and centre divisions where 
one of his monks swung a censer and another brandished the Mass 
cloth on its painted pole.  The prior himself was shouting, though 
Thomas could not tell whether he called insults at the enemy or 
prayers to God for the Scottish chanting was so loud.  Thomas could 
not distinguish the enemy's words either, but the sentiment was 
plain enough and it was sped on its way by the massive drums.   
Thomas could see the huge drums now and observe the passion 
with which the drummers beat the great skins to make a noise 
as sharp as snapping bone.  Loud, rhythmic and reverberating, an 
assault of ear-piercing thunder, and in front of the drums at the 
centre of the enemy line some bearded men whirled in a wild 
dance.  They came darting from the rear of the Scottish line and 
they wore no mail or iron, but were draped in thick folds of cloth   
and brandished long-bladed swords about their heads and had small 
round leather shields, scarce larger than serving platters, strapped 
to their left forearms.  Behind them the Scottish men-at-arms beat 
the flats of their sword blades against their shields while the pike- 
men thumped the ground with the butts of their long weapons to 
add to the noise of the huge drums.  The sound was so great that 
the prior's monks had abandoned their chanting and now just gazed 
at the enemy.   
 What they do,"  Lord Outhwaite, on foot like his men, had to 
raise his voice to make himself heard,   is try to scare us with noise 
before they kill us."  His lordship limped, whether through age or 
some old wound, Thomas did not like to ask; it was plain he wanted 
somewhere he could pace about and kick the turf and so he had 
come to talk with the monks, though now he turned his friendly 
face on Thomas.   And you want to be most careful of those scoun- 
drels," he said, pointing at the dancing men,  because they're wilder 
than scalded cats.  It's said they skin their captives alive."  Lord 
Outhwaite made the sign of the cross.   You don't often see them 
this far south."   
 Them?"  Thomas asked.   
 They're tribesmen from the farthest north," one of the monks 
explained.  He was a tall man with a fringe of grey hair, a scarred 
face and only one eye.   Scoundrels, they are," the monk went on, 
scoundrels!  They bow down to idols!"  He shook his head sadly.   I've 
never journeyed that far north, but I hear their land is shrouded in 
perpetual fog and that if a man dies with a wound to his back then 
his woman eats her own young and throws herself off the cliffs for 
the shame of it."   
 Truly?"  Thomas asked.   
 It's what I've heard," the monk said, making the sign of the cross.   
 They live on birds" nests, seaweed and raw fish."  Lord Outhwaite 
took up the tale, then smiled.   Mind you, some of my people in 
Witcar do that, but at least they pray to God as well.  At least I think 
they do."   
 But your folk don't have cloven hooves," the monk said, staring 
at the enemy.   
 The Scots do?"  a much younger monk with a face left horribly 
scarred by smallpox asked anxiously.   
 The clansmen do," Lord Outhwaite said.   They're scarcely 
human!"  He shook his head then held out a hand to the older 
monk.   It's Brother Michael, isn't it?"   
 Your lordship flatters to remember me," the monk answered, 
pleased.   
 He was once a man-at-arms to my Lord Percy," Lord Outhwaite 
explained to Thomas,  and a good one!"   
 Before I lost this to the Scots," Brother Michael said, raising his 
right arm so that the sleeve of his robe fell to reveal a stump at his 
wrist,  and this," he pointed to his empty eye socket,'s o now I pray 
instead of fight."  He turned and gazed at the Scottish line.   They 
are noisy today," he grumbled.   
 They're confident," Lord Outhwaite said placidly,  and so they 
should be.  When was the last time a Scottish army outnumbered 
us?"   
 They might outnumber us," Brother Michael said,  but they've 
picked a strange place to do it.  They should have gone to the 
southern end of the ridge."   
 And so they should, brother," Lord Outhwaite agreed,  but let 
us be grateful for small mercies."  What Brother Michael meant was 
the Scots were sacrificing their advantage of numbers by fighting 
on the narrow ridge top where the English line, though thinner 
and with far fewer men, could not be overlapped.  If the Scots had 
gone further south, where the ridge widened as it fell away to 
the water meadows, they could have outflanked their enemy.  Their 
choice of ground might have been a mistake that helped the English, 
but that was small consolation when Thomas tried to estimate 
the size of the enemy army.  Other men were doing the same and 
their guesses ranged from six to sixteen thousand, though Lord 
Outhwaite reckoned there were no more than eight thousand Scots.   
 Which is only three or four times our number," he said cheerfully, 
 and not enough of them are archers.  God be thanked for English 
archers."   
 Amen," Brother Michael said.   
The smallpox-scarred younger monk was staring in fascination 
at the thick Scottish line.   I've heard that the Scots paint their faces 
blue.  I can't see any though."   
Lord Outhwaite looked astonished.   You heard what?"   
 That they paint their faces blue, my lord," the monk said, em- 
barrassed now,  or maybe they only paint half the face.  To scare 
us."   
 To scare us?"  His lordship was amused.   To make us laugh, more 
like.  I've never seen it."   
 Nor I," Brother Michael put in.   
 It's just what I've heard," the young monk said.   
 They're frightening enough without paint," Lord Outhwaite 
pointed to a banner opposite his own part of the line.   I see Sir 
William's here."   
 Sir William?"  Thomas asked.   
 Willie Douglas," Lord Outhwaite said.   I was a prisoner of his for 
two years and I'm still paying the bankers because of it."  He meant 
that his family had borrowed money to pay the ransom.   I liked 
him, though.  He's a rogue.  And he's fighting with Moray?"   
 Moray?"  Brother Michael asked.   
 John Randolph, Earl of Moray."  Lord Outhwaite nodded at 
another banner close to the red-heart flag of Douglas.   They hate 
each other.  God knows why they're together in the line."  He stared 
again at the Scottish drummers who leaned far back to balance the 
big instruments against their bellies.   I hate those drums," he said 
mildly.   Paint their faces blue!  I never heard such nonsense!"  he 
chuckled.   
The prior was haranguing the nearest troops now, telling them 
that the Scots had destroyed the great religious house at Hexham.   
 They defiled God's holy church!  They killed the brethren!  They 
have stolen from Christ Himself and put tears onto the cheeks of 
God!  Wreak His vengeance!  Show no mercy!"  The nearest archers 
flexed their fingers, licked lips and stared at the enemy who were 
showing no sign of advancing.   You will kill them," the prior 
shrieked,  and God will bless you for it!  He will shower blessings 
on you!"   
 They want us to attack them," Brother Michael remarked drily.   
He seemed embarrassed by his prior's passion.   
 Aye," Lord Outhwaite said,  and they think we'll attack on horse- 
back.  See the pikes?"   
 They're good against men on foot too, my lord," Brother Michael 
said.   
 That they are, that they are," Lord Outhwaite agreed.   Nasty 
things, pikes."  He fidgeted with some of the loose rings of his mail 
coat and looked surprised when one of them came away in his 
fingers.   I do like Willie Douglas," he said.   We used to hunt together 
when I was his prisoner.  We caught some very fine boar in Liddes- 
dale, I remember."  He frowned.   Such noisy drums.   
 Will we attack them?"  the young monk summoned up the cour- 
age to enquire.   
 Dear me no, I do hope not," Lord Outhwaite said.   We're out- 
numbered!  Much better to hold our ground and let them come to 
us."   
 And if they don't come?"  Thomas asked.   
 Then they'll slink off home with empty pockets," Lord Outhwaite 
said,  and they won't like that, they won't like it at all.  They're only 
here for plunder!  That's why they dislike us so much."   
 Dislike us?  Because they're here for plunder?"  Thomas had not 
understood his lordship's thinking.   
 They're envious, young man!  Plain envious.  We have riches, 
they don't, and there are few things more calculated to provoke 
hatred than such an imbalance.  I had a neighbour in Witcar who 
seemed a reasonable fellow, but then he and his men tried to take 
advantage of my absence when I was Douglas's prisoner.  They tried 
to ambush the coin for my ransom, if you can believe it!  It was just 
envy, it seems, for he was poor.   
 And now he's dead, my lord?"  Thomas asked, amused.   
 Dear me, no," his lordship said reprovingly,  he's in a very deep 
hole in the bottom of my keep.  Deep down with the rats.  I throw 
him coins every now and then to remind him why he's there."  He 
stood on tiptoe and gazed westwards where the hills were higher.   
He was looking for Scottish men-at-arms riding to make an assault 
from the south, but he saw none.   His father," he said, meaning 
Robert the Bruce,  wouldn't be waiting there.  He'd have men riding 
around our flanks to put the fear of God up our arses, but this 
young pup doesn't know his trade, does he?  He's in the wrong 
place altogether!"   
 He's put his faith in numbers," Brother Michael said.   
 And perhaps their numbers will suffice," Lord Outhwaite replied 
gloomily and made the sign of the cross.   
Thomas, now that he had a chance to see the ground between 
the armies, could understand why Lord Outhwaite was so scornful 
of the Scottish King who had drawn up his army just south of the 
burned cottages where the dragon cross had fallen.  It was not just 
that the narrowness of the ridge confined the Scots, denying them 
a chance to outflank the numerically inferior English, but that 
the ill-chosen battlefield was obstructed by thick blackthorn hedges 
and at least one stone wall.  No army could advance across those 
obstacles and hope to hold its line intact, but the Scottish King 
seemed confident that the English would attack him for he did not 
move.  His men shouted insults in the hope of provoking an attack, 
but the English stayed stubbornly in their ranks.   
The Scots jeered even louder when a tall man on a great horse 
rode out from the centre of the English line.  His stallion had purple 
ribbons twisted into its black mane and a purple trapper embroid- 
ered with golden keys that was so long that it swept the ground 
behind the horse's rear hooves.  The stallion's head was protected 
by a leather face plate on which was mounted a silver horn, twisted 
like a unicorn's weapon.  The rider wore plate armour that was 
polished bright and had a sleeveless surcoat of purple and gold, the 
same colours displayed by his page, standard-bearer and the dozen 
knights who followed him.  The tall rider had no sword, but instead 
was armed with a great spiked morningstar like the one Beggar 
carried.  The Scottish drummers redoubled their efforts, the Scots 
soldiers shouted insults and the English cheered until the tall man 
raised a mailed hand for silence.   
 We're to get a homily from his grace," Lord Outhwaite said 
gloomily.   Very fond of the sound of his own voice is his grace."   
The tall man was evidently the Archbishop of York and, when 
the English ranks were silent, he again raised his mailed right hand 
high above his purple plumed helmet and made an extravagant 
sign of the cross.   Dominus vohiscum," he called.   Dominus vobiscum."   
He rode down the line, repeating the invocation.   You will kill God's 
enemy today," he called after each promise that God would be with 
the English.  He had to shout to make himself heard over the din 
of the enemy.   God is with you, and you will do His work by making 
many widows and orphans.  You will fill Scotland with grief as a 
just punishment for their godless impiety.  The Lord of Hosts is with   
you; God's vengeance is your task!"  The Archbishop's horse stepped 
high, its head tossing up and down as his grace carried his encour- 
agement out to the flanks of his army.  The last wisps of mist had 
long burned away and, though there was still a chill in the air, 
the sun had warmth and its light glinted off thousands of Scottish 
blades.  A pair of one-horse wagons had come from the city and a 
dozen women were distributing dried herrings, bread and skins of 
ale.   
Lord Outhwaite's squire brought an empty herring barrel so his 
lordship could sit.  A man played a reed pipe nearby and Brother 
Michael sang an old country song about the badger and the par- 
doner and Lord Outhwaite laughed at the words, then nodded his 
head towards the ground between the armies where two horsemen, 
one from each army, were meeting.   I see we're being courteous 
today," he remarked.  An English herald in a gaudy tabard had rid- 
den towards the Scots and a priest, hastily appointed as Scotland's 
herald, had come to greet him.  The two men bowed from their 
saddles, talked a while, then returned to their respective armies.   
The Englishman, coming near the line, spread his hands in a gesture 
that said the Scots were being stubborn.   
 They come this far south and won't fight?"  the prior demanded 
angrily.   
 They want us to start the battle," Lord Outhwaite said mildly, 
and we want them to do the same."  The heralds had met to discuss 
how the battle should be fought and each had plainly demanded 
that the other side begin by making an assault, and both sides had 
refused the invitation, so now the Scots tried again to provoke the 
English by insult.  Some of the enemy advanced to within bowshot 
and shouted that the English were pigs and their mothers were 
sows, and when an archer raised his bow to reward the insults an 
English captain shouted at him.   Don't waste arrows on words," he 
called.   
 Cowards!"  A Scotsman dared to come even closer to the English 
line, well within half a bowshot.   You bastard cowards!  Your 
mothers are whores who suckled you on goat piss!  Your wives 
are sows!  Whores and sows!  You hear me?  You bastards!  English 
bastards!  You're the devil's turds!"  The fury of his hatred made him 
shake.  He had a bristling beard, a ragged jupon and a coat of mail   
with a great rent in its backside so that when he turned round and 
bent over he presented his naked arse to the English.  It was meant 
as an insult, but was greeted by a roar of laughter.   
 They'll have to attack us sooner or later," Lord Outhwaite stated 
calmly.   Either that or go home with nothing, and I can't see them 
doing that.  You don't raise an army of that size without hope of 
profit."   
 They sacked Hexham," the prior observed gloomily.   
 And got nothing but baubles," Lord Outhwaite said dismissively.   
 The real treasures of Hexham were taken away for safekeeping 
long ago.  I hear Carlisle paid them well enough to be left alone, 
but well enough to make eight or nine thousand men rich?"  He 
shook his head.   Those soldiers don't get paid," he told Thomas, 
 they're not like our men.  The King of Scotland doesn't have the 
cash to pay his soldiers.  No, they want to take some rich prisoners 
today, then sack Durham and York, and if they're not to go home 
poor and empty-handed then they'd best hitch up their shields and 
come at us.   
But still the Scots would not move and the English were too few 
to make an attack, though a straggle of men were constantly arriving 
to reinforce the Archbishop's army.  They were mostly local men 
and few had any armour or any weapons other than farm imple- 
ments like axes and mattocks.  It was close to midday now and the 
sun had chased the chill off the land so that Thomas was sweating 
under his leather and mail.  Two of the prior's lay servants had 
arrived with a horse-drawn cart loaded with casks of small beer, 
sacks of bread, a box of apples and a great cheese, and a dozen of 
the younger monks carried the provisions along the English line.   
Most of the army was sitting now, some were even sleeping and 
many of the Scots were doing the same.  Even their drummers had 
given up, laying their great instruments on the pasture.  A dozen 
ravens circled overhead and Thomas, thinking their presence pre- 
saged death, made the sign of the cross, then was relieved when 
the dark birds flew north across the Scottish troops.   
A group of archers had come from the city and were cramming 
arrows into their quivers, a sure sign that they had never fought 
with the bow for a quiver was a poor instrument in battle.  Quivers 
were likely to spill arrows when a man ran, and few held more   
than a score of points.  Archers like Thomas preferred a big bag 
made of linen stretched about a withy frame in which the arrows 
stood upright, their feathers kept from being crushed by the frame 
and their steel heads projecting through the bag's neck, which was 
secured by a lace.  Thomas had selected his arrows carefully, re- 
jecting any with warped shafts or kinked feathers.  In France, where 
many of the enemy knights possessed expensive plate armour, the 
English would use bodkin arrows with long, narrow and heavy 
heads that lacked barbs and so were more likely to pierce breast- 
plates or helmets, but here they were still using the hunting arrows 
with their wicked barbs that made them impossible to pull out of 
a wound.  They were called flesh arrows, but even a flesh arrow 
could pierce mail at two hundred paces.   
Thomas slept for a time in the early afternoon, only waking when 
Lord Outhwaite's horse almost stepped on him.  His lordship, along 
with the other English commanders, had been summoned to the 
Archbishop and so he had called for his horse and, accompanied 
by his squire, rode to the army's centre.  One of the Archbishop's 
chaplains carried a silver crucifix along the line.  The crucifix had a 
leather bag hanging just below the feet of Christ and in the bag, 
the chaplain claimed, were the knuckle bones of the martyred 
Saint Oswald.  Kiss the bag and God will preserve you," the chaplain 
promised, and archers and men-at-arms jostled for a chance to 
obey.  Thomas could not get close enough to kiss the bag, but he 
did manage to reach out and touch it.  Many men had amulets or 
strips of cloth given them by their wives, lovers or daughters when 
they left their farms or houses to march against the invaders.  The 
touched those talismans now as the Scots, sensing that   
was about to happen at last, climbed to their feet.  One of their great 
drums began its awful noise.   
Thomas glanced to his right where he could just see the tops of 
the cathedral's twin towers and the banner flying from the castle's 
ramparts.  Eleanor and Father Hobbe should be in the city by now 
and Thomas felt a pang of regret that he had parted from his woman 
in such anger, then he gripped his bow so that the touch of its 
wood might keep her from evil.  He consoled himself with the 
knowledge that Eleanor would be safe in the city and tonight, when 
the battle was won, they could make up their quarrel.  Then, he   
supposed, they would marry.  He was not sure he really wanted to 
marry, it seemed too early in his life to have a wife even if it was 
Eleanor, whom he was sure he loved, but he was equally sure she 
would want him to abandon the yew bow and settle in a house 
and that was the very last thing Thomas wanted.  What he wanted 
was to be a leader of archers, to be a man like Will Skeat.  He wanted 
to have his own band of bowmen that he could hire out to great 
lords.  There was no shortage of opportunity.  Rumour said that the 
Italian states would pay a fortune for English archers and Thomas 
wanted a part of it, but Eleanor must be looked after and he did 
not want their child to be a bastard.  There were enough bastards 
in the world without adding another.   
The English lords talked for a while.  There were a dozen of them 
and they glanced constantly at the enemy and Thomas was close 
enough to see the anxiety on their faces.  Was it worry that the 
enemy was too many?  Or that the Scots were refusing battle and, 
in the next morning's mist, might vanish northwards?   
Brother Michael came and rested his old bones on the herring 
barrel that had served Lord Outhwaite as a seat.   They'll send you 
archers forward.  That's what I'd do.  Send you archers forward to 
provoke the bastards.  Either that or drive them off, but you don't 
drive Scotsmen off that easily.  They're brave bastards."   
 Brave?  Then why aren't they attacking?"   
 Because they're not fools.  They can see these."  Brother Michael 
touched the black stave of Thomas's bow.   They've learned what 
archers can do.  You've heard of Halidon Hill?"  He raised his eye- 
brows in surprise when Thomas shook his head.   Of course, you're 
from the south.  Christ could come again in the north and you 
southerners would never hear about it, or believe it if you did.  But 
it was thirteen years ago now and they attacked us by Berwick and 
we cut them down in droves.  Or our archers did, and they won't 
be enthusiastic about suffering the same fate here."  Brother Michael 
frowned as a small click sounded.   What was that?"   
Something had touched Thomas's helmet and he turned to see 
the Scarecrow, Sir Geoffrey Carr, who had cracked his whip, just 
glancing the metal claw at its tip off the crest of Thomas's sallet.   
Sir Geoffrey coiled his whip as he jeered at Thomas.   Sheltering 
behind monks" skirts, are we?"   
Brother Michael restrained Thomas.   Go, Sir Geoffrey," the monk 
ordered,  before I call down a curse onto your black soul."   
Sir Geoffrey put a finger into a nostril and pulled out something 
slimy that he flicked towards the monk.   You think you frighten 
me, you one-eyed bastard?  You who lost your balls when your 
hand was chopped off?"  He laughed, then looked back to Thomas.   
 You picked a fight with me, boy, and you didn't give me a chance 
to finish it."   
 Not now!"  Brother Michael snapped.   
Sir Geoffrey ignored the monk.   Fighting your betters, boy?  You 
can hang for that.  No,"  he shuddered, then pointed a long bony 
finger at Thomas,   you will hang for that!  You hear me?  You will 
hang for it ,  He spat at Thomas, then turned his roan horse and 
spurred it back down the line.   
 How come you know the Scarecrow?"  Brother Michael asked.   
 We just met."   
 An evil creature," Brother Michael said, making the sign of the 
cross,  born under a waning moon when a storm was blowing."  He 
was still watching the Scarecrow.   Men say that Sir Geoffrey owes 
money to the devil himself.  He had to pay a ransom to Douglas of 
Liddesdale and he borrowed deep from the bankers to do it.  His 
manor, his fields, everything he owns is in danger if he can't pay, 
and even if he makes a fortune today he'll just throw it away at 
dice.  The Scarecrow's a fool, but a dangerous one."  He turned his 
one eye on Thomas.   Did you really pick a fight with him?"   
 He wanted to rape my woman.   
 Aye, that's our Scarecrow.  So be careful, young man, because 
he doesn't forget slights and he never forgives them."   
The English lords must have come to some agreement for they 
reached out their mailed fists and touched metal knuckle on metal 
knuckle, then Lord Outhwaite turned his horse back towards his 
men.   John!  John!"  he called to the captain of his archers.   We'll 
not wait for them to make up their minds," he said as he dis- 
mounted,  but be provocative."  It seemed Brother Michael's prog- 
nostication was right; the archers would be sent forward to annoy 
the Scots.  The plan was to enrage them with arrows and so spur 
them into a hasty attack.   
A squire rode Lord Outhwaite's horse back to the walled pasture   
a   
as the Archbishop of York rode his destrier out in front of the army.   
 God will help you!"  he called to the men of the central division 
that he commanded.   The Scots fear us!"  he shouted.   They know 
that with God's help we will make many children fatherless in their 
blighted land!  They stand and watch us because they fear us.  So 
we must go to them."  That sentiment brought a cheer.  The Arch- 
bishop raised a hand to silence his men.   I want the archers to go 
forward," he called,  only the archers!  Sting them!  Kill them!  And 
God bless you all.  God bless you mightily!"   
So the archers would begin the battle.  The Scots were stubbornly 
refusing to move in hope that the English would make the attack, 
for it was much easier to defend ground than assault a formed 
enemy, but now the English archers would go forward to goad, 
sting and harass the enemy until they either ran away or, more 
likely, advanced to take revenge.   
Thomas had already selected his best arrow.  It was new, so new 
that the green-tinted glue that was pasted about the thread holding 
the feathers in place was still tacky, but it had a breasted shaft, one 
that was slightly wider behind the head and then tapered away 
towards the feathers.  Such a shaft would hit hard and it was a 
lovely straight piece of ash, a third as long again as Thomas's arm, 
and Thomas would not waste it even though his opening shot would 
be at very long range.   
It would be a long shot for the Scottish King was at the rear of 
the big central sheltron of his army, but it would not be an impos- 
sible shot for the black bow was huge and Thomas was young, 
strong and accurate.   
 God be with you," Brother Michael said.   
 Aim true!"  Lord Outhwaite called.   
 God speed your arrows!"  the Archbishop of York shouted.   
The drummers beat louder, the Scots jeered and the archers of 
England advanced.   
Bernard de Taillebourg already knew much of what the old monk 
told him, but now that the story was flowing he did not interrupt.   
It was the tale of a family that had been lords of an obscure county   
in southern France.  The county was called Astarac and it lay close 
to the Cathar lands and, in time, became infected with the heresy.   
 The false teaching spread," Brother Collimore had said,  like a mur- 
rain.  From the inland sea to the ocean, and northwards into Bur- 
gundy."  Father de Taillebourg knew all this, but he had said nothing, 
just let the old man go on describing how, when the Cathars were 
burned out of the land and the fires of their deaths had sent the smoke 
pouring to heaven to tell God and His angels that the true religion had 
been restored to the lands between France and Aragon, the Vexilles, 
among the last of the nobility to be contaminated by the Cathar evil, 
had fled to the farthest corners of Christendom.   But before they left," 
Brother Collimore said, gazing up at the white painted arch of the 
ceiling,  they took the treasures of the heretics for safekeeping."   
 And the Grail was among them?"   
 So they said, but who knows?"  Brother Collimore turned his 
head and frowned at the Dominican.   If they possessed the Grail, 
why did it not help them?  I have never understood that."  He closed 
his eyes.  Sometimes, when the old man was pausing to draw breath 
and almost seemed asleep, de Taillebourg would look through the 
window to see the two armies on the far hill.  They did not move 
though the noise they made was like the crackling and roaring of 
a great fire.  The roaring was the noise of men's voices and the 
crackling was the drums and the twin sounds rose and fell with the 
vagaries of the wind gusting in the rocky defile above the River 
Wear.  Father de Taillebourg's servant still stood in the doorway 
where he was half hidden by one of many piles of undressed stone 
that were stacked in the open space between the castle and the 
cathedral.  Scaffolding hid the cathedral's nearest tower and small 
boys, eager to get a glimpse of the fighting, were scrambling up the 
web of lashed poles.  The masons had abandoned their work to 
watch the two armies.   
Now, after questioning why the Grail had not helped the Vexilles, 
Brother Collimore did fall into a brief sleep and de Taillebourg 
crossed to his black-dressed servant.   Do you believe him?"   
The servant shrugged and said nothing.   
 Has anything surprised you?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 That Father Ralph has a son," the servant answered.   That was 
new to me."   
 We must speak with that son," the Dominican said grimly, then 
turned back because the old monk had woken.   
 Where was I?"  Brother Collimore asked.  A small trickle of spittle 
ran from a corner of his lips.   
 You were wondering why the Grail did not help the Vexilles," 
Bernard de Taillebourg reminded him.   
 It should have done," the old monk said.   If they possessed the 
Grail why did they not become powerful?"   
Father de Taillebourg smiled.   Suppose," he said to the old monk, 
 that the infidel Muslims were to gain possession of the Grail, do 
you think God would grant them its power?  The Grail is a great 
treasure, brother, the greatest of all the treasures upon the earth, 
but it is not greater than God."   
 No," Brother Collimore agreed.   
 And if God does not approve of the Grail-keeper then the Grail 
will be powerless."   
 Yes," Brother Collimore acknowledged.   
 You say the Vexilles fled?"   
 They fled the Inquisitors," Brother Collimore said with a sly glance 
at de Taillebourg,  and one branch of the family came here to England 
where they did some service to the King.  Not our present King, of 
course," the old monk made clear,  but his great-grandfather, the last 
Henry.   
 What service?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 They gave the King a hoof from Saint George's horse." The monk 
spoke as though such things were commonplace.   A hoof set in 
gold and capable of working miracles.  At least the King believed it 
did for his son was cured of a fever by being touched with the hoof.   
I am told the hoof is still in Westminster Abbey."   
The family had been rewarded with land in Cheshire, Collimore 
went on, and if they were heretics they did not show it, but lived 
like any other noble family.  Their downfall, he said, had come at 
the beginning of the present reign when the young King's mother, 
aided by the Mortimer family, had tried to keep her son from taking 
power.  The Vexilles had sided with the Queen and when she lost 
they had fled back to the continent.   All of them except one son," 
Brother Collimore said,  the eldest son, and that was Ralph, of 
course.  Poor Ralph."   
 But if his family had fled back to France, why did you treat   
him?"  de Taillebourg asked, puzzlement marring the face that 
had blood scabs on the abrasions where he had beaten himself 
against the stone that morning.   Why not just execute him as a 
traitor?"   
 He had taken holy orders," Collimore protested,  he could not 
be executed!  Besides, it was known he hated his father and he had 
declared himself for the King."   
 So he was not all mad," de Taillebourg put in drily.   
 He also possessed money," Collimore went on,  he was noble 
and he claimed to know the secret of the Vexilles."   
 The Cathar treasures?"   
 But the demon was in him even then!  He declared himself a 
bishop and preached wild sermons in the London streets.  He said   
he would lead a new crusade to drive the infidel from Jerusalem 
and promised that the Grail would ensure success."   
 So you locked him up?"   
 He was sent to me," Brother Collimore said reprovingly,  because 
it was known that I could defeat the demons."  He paused, remem- 
bering.   In my time I scourged hundreds of them!  Hundreds!"   
 But you did not fully cure Ralph Vexille?"   
The monk shook his head.   He was like a man spurred and 
whipped by God so that he wept and screamed and beat himself 
till the blood ran."  Brother Collimore, unaware that he could have 
been describing de Taillebourg, shuddered.   And he was haunted 
by women too.  I think we never cured him of that, but if we did 
not drive the demons clean out of him we did manage to make 
them hide so deep that they rarely dared show themselves.   
 Was the Grail a dream given to him by demons?"  the Dominican 
asked.   
 That was what we wanted to know," Brother Collimore replied.   
 And what answer did you find?"   
 I told my masters that Father Ralph lied.  That he had invented 
the Grail.  That there was no truth in his madness.  And then, when 
his demons no longer made him a nuisance, he was sent to a parish 
in the far south where he could preach to the gulls and to the seals.   
He no longer called himself a lord, he was simply Father Ralph, 
and we sent him away to be forgotten."   
 To be forgotten?"  de Taillebourg repeated.   Yet you had news of 
him.  You discovered he had a son."   
The old monk nodded.   We had a brother house near Dorchester 
and they sent me news.  They told me that Father Ralph had found 
himself a woman, a housekeeper, but what country priest doesn't?   
And he had a son and he hung an old spear in his church and said 
it was Saint George's lance."   
De Taillebourg peered at the western hill for the noise had become 
much louder.  It looked as though the English, who were by far 
the smaller army, were advancing and that meant they would lose 
the battle and that meant Father de Taillebourg had to be out of 
this monastery, indeed out of this city, before Sir William Douglas 
arrived seeking vengeance.   You told your masters that Father Ralph 
lied.  Did he?"   
The old monk paused and to de Taillebourg it seemed as if the 
firmament itself held its breath.   I don't think he lied," Collimore 
whispered.   
 So why did you tell them he did?"   
 Because I liked him," Brother Collimore said,  and I did not think 
we could whip the truth out of him, or starve it from him, or pull 
it out by trying to drown him in cold water.  I thought he was 
harmless and should be left to God."   
De Taillebourg gazed through the window.  The Grail, he thought, 
the Grail.  The hounds of God were on the scent.  He would find it!   
 One of the family came back from France," the Dominican said, 
 and stole the lance and killed Father Ralph."   
 I heard."   
 But they did not find the Grail."   
 God be thanked for that," Brother Collimore said faintly.   
De Taillebourg heard a movement and saw that his servant, who had 
been listening intently, was now watching the courtyard.  The servant 
must have heard someone approaching and de Taillebourg, lean- 
ing closer to Brother Collimore, lowered his voice so he would not be 
overheard.   How many people know of Father Ralph and the Grail?"   
Brother Collimore thought for a few heartbeats.   No one has 
spoken of it for years," he said,  until the new bishop came.  He 
must have heard rumours for he asked me about it.  I told him that 
Ralph Vexille was mad."   
 He believed you?"   
 He was disappointed.  He wanted the Grail for the cathedral."   
Of course he did, de Taillebourg thought, for any cathedral that   
possessed the Grail would become the richest church in Christendom.  Even Genoa, which had its gaudy piece of green glass that 
they claimed was the Grail, took money from thousands of pilgrims.   
But put the real Grail in a church and folk would come to it in 
their hundreds of thousands and they would bring coins and jewels 
by the wagonload.  Kings, queens, princes and dukes would throng 
the aisle and compete to offer their wealth.   
The servant had vanished, slipping soundlessly behind one of 
the piles of building stone, and de Taillebourg waited, watching the 
door and wondering what trouble would show there.  Then, instead 
of trouble, a young priest appeared.  He wore a rough cloth gown, 
had unruly hair and a broad, guileless, sunburned face.  A young 
woman, pale and frail, was with him.  She seemed nervous, but the 
priest greeted de Taillebourg cheerfully.   A good day to you, father."   
 And to you, father," de Taillebourg responded politely.  His ser- 
vant had reappeared behind the strangers, preventing them from   
leaving unless de Taillebourg gave his permission.   I am taking 
Brother Collimore's confession," de Taillebourg said.   
 A good one, I hope," Father Hobbe said, then smiled.   You don't 
sound English, father?"   
 I am French," de Taillebourg said.   
 As am I," Eleanor said in that language,  and we have come to 
talk with Brother Collimore.   
 Talk with him?"  de Taillebourg asked pleasantly.   
 The bishop sent us," Eleanor said proudly,  and the King did too."   
 Which King, child?"   
 Edouard d'Ang/eterr'," Eleanor boasted.  Father Hobbe, who spoke 
no French, was looking from Eleanor to the Dominican.   
looked flustered, he repeated the question.   Why would 
 Why would Edward send you?"  de Taillebourg asked and, whe   
send you?"   
don't know, father," Eleanor said.   
think you do, my child, I think you do."  He stood and Father 
sensing trouble, took Eleanor's wrist and tried to pull   
her from the room, but de Tailleb  tIrg n  (lded at his servant and   
gestured towards Father Hobbe and the English priest was still trying 
to understand why he was suspicious of the Dominican when the 
knife slid between his ribs.  He made a choking noise, then coughed 
and the breath rattled in his throat as he slid down to the flagstones.   
Eleanor tried to run, but she was not nearly fast enough and de 
Taillebourg caught her by the wrist and jerked her roughly back.   
She screamed and the Dominican silenced her by clapping a hand 
over her mouth.   
 What's happening?"  Brother Collimore asked.   
 We are doing God's work," de Taillebourg said soothingly,  God's 
work."   
And on the ridge the arrows flew.   
Thomas advanced with the archers of the left-hand battle and they 
had not gone more than twenty yards when, just beyond a ditch, 
a bank and some newly planted blackthorn saplings, they were 
forced to their right because a great scoop had been taken out of 
the ridge's flank to leave a hollow of ground with sides too steep 
for the plough.  The hollow was filled with bracken that had turned 
yellow and at its far side was a lichen-covered stone wall and 
Thomas's arrow bag caught and tore on a rough piece of the coping 
as he clambered across.  Only one arrow fell out, but it dropped into 
a mushroom fairy ring and he tried to work out whether that was 
a good or a bad omen, but the noise of the Scottish drums distracted 
him.  He picked up the arrow and hurried on.  All the enemy drum- 
mers were working now, rattling their skins in a frenzy so that the 
air itself seemed to vibrate.  The Scottish men-at-arms were hefting 
their shields, making sure they protected the pikemen, and a cross- 
bowman was working the ratchet that dragged back his cord and 
lodged it on the trigger's hook.  The man glanced up anxiously at 
the advancing English bowmen, then discarded the ratchet handles 
and laid a metal quarrel in the crossbow's firing trough.  The enemy 
had begun to shout and Thomas could distinguish some words now.   
 If you hate the English," he heard, then a crossbow bolt hummed 
past him and he forgot about the enemy chant.  Hundreds of English 
archers were advancing through the fields, most of them running.   
The Scots only had a few crossbows, but those weapons outranged 
the longer war bows of the English who were hurrying to close 
that range.  An arrow slithered across the grass in front of Thomas.   
Not a crossbow bolt, but an arrow from one of the few Scottish 
yew bows and the sight of the arrow told him he was almost in 
range.  The first of the English archers had stopped and drawn back 
their cords and then their arrows flickered into the sky.  A bowman 
in a padded leather jerkin fell backwards with a crossbow bolt 
embedded in his forehead.  Blood spurted skywards where his last 
arrow, shot almost vertically, soared uselessly.   
 Aim at the archers!"  a man in a rusted breastplate bellowed.   Kill 
their archers first!"   
Thomas stopped and looked for the royal standard.  It was off to 
his right, a long way off, but he had shot at further targets in his 
time and so he turned and braced himself and then, in the name 
of God and Saint George, he put his chosen arrow onto the string and 
drew the white goose feathers back to his ear. He was staring at 
King David II of Scotland, saw the sun glint gold off the royal 
helmet, saw too that the King's visor was open and he aimed for 
the chest, nudged the bow right to compensate for the wind, and 
loosed.  The arrow went true, not vibrating as a badly made arrow 
would, and Thomas watched it climb and saw it fall and saw the 
King jerk backwards and then the courtiers closed about him and 
Thomas laid his second arrow across his left hand and sought 
another target.  A Scottish archer was limping from the line, an 
arrow in his leg.  The men-at-arms closed about the wounded man, 
sealing their line with heavy shields.  Thomas could hear hounds 
baying deep among the enemy formation, or perhaps he was hear- 
ing the war howl of the tribesmen.  The King had turned away and 
men were leaning towards him.  The sky was filled with the whisper 
of flying arrows and the noise of the bows was a steady, deep music.   
The French called it the devil's harp music.  There were no Scottish 
archers left that Thomas could see.  They had all been made targets 
by the English bowmen and the arrows had ripped the enemy 
archers into bloody misery, so now the English turned their missiles 
on the men with pikes, swords, axes and spears.  The tribesmen, all 
hair and beard and fury, were beyond the men-at-arms who were 
arrayed six or eight men deep, so the arrows rattled and clanged   
on armour and shields.  The Scottish knights and men-at-arms and 
pike-carriers were sheltering as best they could, crouching under 
the bitter steel rain, but some arrows always found the gaps between 
the shields while others drove clean through the leather-covered 
willow boards.  The thudding sound of the arrows hitting shields 
was rivalling the sharper noise of the drums.   
 Forward, boys!  Forward!"  One of the archers" leaders encouraged 
his men to go twenty paces nearer the enemy so that their arrows 
could bite harder into the Scottish ranks.   Kill them, lads!"  Two of 
his men were lying on the grass, proof that the Scottish archers 
had done some damage before they were overwhelmed with Eng- 
lish arrows.  Another Englishman was staggering as though he were 
drunk, weaving back towards his own side and clutching his belly 
from which blood trickled down his leggings.  A bow's cord broke, 
squirting the arrow sideways as the archer swore and reached under 
his tunic to find a spare.   
The Scots could do nothing now.  They had no archers left and 
the English edged closer and closer until they were driving their 
arrows in a flat trajectory that whipped the steel heads through 
shields, mail and even the rare suit of plate armour.  Thomas was 
scarce seventy yards from the enemy line and choosing his targets 
with cold deliberation.  He could see a man's leg showing under a 
shield and he put an arrow through the thigh.  The drummers had 
fled and two of their instruments, their skins split like rotten fruit, 
lay discarded on the turf.  A nobleman's horse was close behind the 
dismounted ranks and Thomas put a missile deep into the destrier's 
chest and, when he next looked, the animal was down and there 
was a flurry of panicking men trying to escape its thrashing hooves 
and all of those men, exposing themselves by letting their shields 
waver, went down under the sting of the arrows and then a moment 
later a pack of a dozen hunting dogs, long-haired, yellow-fanged 
and howling, burst out of the cowering ranks and were tumbled 
down by the slicing arrows.   
 Is it always this easy?"  a boy, evidently at his first battle, asked 
a nearby archer.   
 If the other side don't have archers," the older man answered, 
and so long as our arrows last, then it's easy.  After that it's shit 
hard."   
Thomas drew and released, shooting at an angle across the Scot- 
tish front to whip a long shaft behind a shield and into a bearded 
man's face.  The Scottish King was still on his horse, but protected 
now by four shields that were all bristling with arrows and Thomas 
remembered the French horses labouring up the Picardy slope with 
the feather-tipped shafts sticking from their necks, legs and bodies.   
He rummaged in his torn arrow bag, found another missile and 
shot it at the King's horse.  The enemy was under the flail now and 
they would either run from the arrow storm or else, enraged, charge 
the smaller English army and, judging by the shouts coming from 
the men behind the arrow-stuck shields, Thomas suspected they 
would attack.   
He was right.  He had time to shoot one last arrow and then there 
was a sudden terrifying roar and the whole Scottish line, seemingly 
without anyone giving an order, charged.  They ran howling and 
screaming, stung into the attack by the arrows, and the English 
archers fled.  Thousands of enraged Scotsmen were charging and 
the archers, even if they shot every arrow they possessed into the 
advancing horde, would be overwhelmed in a heartbeat and so 
they ran to find shelter behind their own men-at-arms.  Thomas 
tripped as he climbed the stone wall, but he picked himself up and 
ran on, then saw that other archers had stopped and were shooting 
at their pursuers.  The stone wall was holding up the Scots and he 
turned round himself and put two arrows into defenceless men 
before the enemy surged across the barrier and forced him back 
again.  He was running towards the small gap in the English line 
where Saint Cuthbert's Mass cloth waved, but the space was choked 
with archers trying to get behind the armoured line and so Thomas 
went to his right, aiming for the sliver of open ground that lay 
between the army's flank and the ridge's steep side.   
 Shields forward!"  a grizzled warrior, his helmet visor pushed up, 
shouted at the English men-at-arms.   Brace hard!  Brace hard!"  The 
English line, only four or five ranks deep, steadied to meet the wild 
attack with their shields thrust forward and right legs braced back.   
 Saint George! Saint George!" a man called.   Hold hard now!  Thrust hard 
and hold hard!"   
Thomas was on the flank of the army now and he turned to see 
that the Scots, in their precipitate charge, had widened their line.   
They had been arrayed shoulder to shoulder in their first position, 
but now, running, they had spread out and that meant their west- 
emmost sheltron had been pushed down the ridge's slope and into 
the deep hollow that so unexpectedly narrowed the battle ground.   
They were down in the hollow's bottom, staring up at the skyline, 
doomed.   
 Archers!"  Thomas shouted, thinking himself back in France and 
responsible for a troop of Will Skeat's bowmen.   Archers!"  he bel- 
lowed, advancing to the hollow's lip.   Now kill them!"  Men came to 
his side, yelped in triumph and drew back their cords.   
Now was the killing time, the archers" time.  The Scottish right 
wing was down in the sunken ground and the archers were above 
them and could not miss.  Two monks were bringing spare sheaves 
of arrows, each sheaf holding twenty-four shafts evenly spaced 
about two leather discs that kept the arrows apart and so protected 
their feathers from being crushed.  The monks cut the twine holding 
the arrows and spilt the missiles on the ground beside the archers 
who drew again and again and killed again and again as they shot 
down into the pit of death.  Thomas heard the deafening crash as 
the men-at-arms collided in the field's centre, but here, on the 
English left, the Scots would never come to their enemy's shields 
because they had spilled into the low yellow bracken of death's 
kingdom.   
Thomas's childhood had been spent in Hookton, a village on 
England's south coast where a stream, coming to the sea, had carved 
a deep channel in the shingle beach.  The channel curved to leave 
a hook of land that protected the fishing boats and once a year, 
when the rats became too thick in the holds and bilges of the boats, 
the fishermen would strand their craft at the bottom of the stream, 
fill their bilges with stones and let the incoming tide flood the 
stinking hulls.  It was a holiday for the village children who, standing 
on the top of the Hook, waited for the rats to flee the boats and 
then, with cheers and screams of delight, they would stone the 
animals.  The rats would panic and that would only increase the 
children's glee as the adults stood around and laughed, applauded 
and encouraged.   
It was like that now.  The Scots were in the low ground, the 
archers were on the lip of the hill and death was their dominion.   
The arrows were flashing straight down the slope, scarce any arc 
in their flight, and striking home with the sound of cleavers hitting 
flesh.  The Scots writhed and died in the hollow and the yellow 
autumn bracken turned red.  Some of the enemy tried to climb 
towards their tormentors, but they became the easiest targets.  Some 
attempted to escape up the far side and were struck in the back, 
while some fled down the hill in ragged disarray.  Sir Thomas 
Rokeby, Sheriff of Yorkshire and commander of the English left, 
saw their escape and ordered two score of his men to mount their 
horses and scour the valley.  The mailed riders swung their swords 
and morningstars to finish the archers" bloody work.   
The base of the hollow was a writhing, bloody mass.  A man in 
plate armour, a plumed helmet on his head, tried to climb out of 
the carnage and two arrows whipped through his breastplate and 
a third found a slit in his visor and he fell back, twitching.  A thicket 
of arrows jutted from the falcon on his shield.  The arrows became 
fewer now, for there were not many Scotsmen left to kill and then 
the first archers scrambled down the slope with drawn knives to 
pillage the dead and kill the wounded.   
 Who hates the English now?"  one of the archers jeered.   Come 
on, you bastards, let's hear you?  Who hates the English now?"   
Then a shout sounded from the centre.   Archers!  To the right!   
To the right!"  The voice had a note of sheer panic.   To the right!   
For God's sake, now!"   
The men-at-arms of the English left were scarcely engaged in the 
fight because the archers were slaughtering the Scots in the low 
bracken.  The English centre was holding firm for the Archbishop's 
men were arrayed behind a stone wall which, though only waist 
high, was a more than adequate barrier against the Scottish assault.   
The invaders could stab, lunge and hack over the wall's coping, and 
they could try to climb it and they could even try to pull it down 
stone by stone, but they could not push it over and so they were 
checked by it and the English, though far fewer, were able to hold 
even though the Scots were lunging at them with their heavy pikes.   
Some English knights called for their horses and, once mounted   
and armed with lances, pressed up close behind their beleaguered 
comrades and rammed the lances at Scottish eyes.  Other men-at- 
arms ducked under the unwieldy pikes and hacked with swords 
and axes at the enemy and all the while the long arrows drove in 
from the left.  The noise in the centre was the shouting of men in 
the rearward ranks, the screaming of the wounded, the clangour 
of blade on blade, the crack of blade on shield and the clatter of 
lance on pike, but the wall meant that neither side could press the 
other back and so, crammed against the stones and encumbered by 
the dead, they just lunged, hacked, suffered, bled and died.   
But on the English right, where Lord Neville and Lord Percy 
commanded, the wall was unfinished, nothing more than a pile 
of stones that offered no obstacle to the assault of the Scottish 
left wing that was commanded by the Earl of March and by the 
King's nephew, Lord Robert Stewart.  Their sheltron, closest to the 
city, was the largest of the three Scottish divisions and it came at 
the English like a pack of wolves who had not fed in a month.  The 
attackers wanted blood and the archers fled from their howling 
charge like sheep scattering before fangs and then the Scots struck 
the English right and the sheer momentum of their assault drove 
the defenders back twenty paces before, somehow, the men-at- 
arms managed to hold the Scots who were now stumbling over 
the bodies of the men they had wounded or killed.  The English, 
cramming themselves shoulder to shoulder, crouched behind their 
shields and shoved back, stabbing swords at ankles and faces, and 
grunting with the effort of holding the vast pressure of the Scottish 
horde.   
It was hard to fight in the front ranks.  Men shoved from behind 
so that Englishmen and Scotsmen were close as lovers, too close to 
wield a sword in anything except a rudimentary stab.  The ranks 
behind had more room and a Scotsman chopped down with a pike 
that he wielded like a giant axe, its blade crunching down into an 
enemy's head to split helmet, leather liner, scalp and skull as easily 
as an unboiled egg.  Blood fountained across a dozen men as the 
dead soldier fell and other Scots pushed into the gap his death had 
caused, and a clansman tripped on the body and screamed as an 
Englishman sawed at his exposed neck with a blunt knife.  The pike 
dropped again, killing a second man, and this time, when it was   
lifted up, the dead man's crumpled visor was caught on the pike's 
bloody spike.   
The drums, those that were still whole, had begun their noise 
again, and the Scots heaved to their rhythm.   The Bruce!  The 
Bruce!"  some chanted while others called on their patron, 
 Saint Andrew! Saint Andrew!" Lord Robert Stewart, gaudy in his blue 
and yellow colours and with a thin fillet of gold about the brow 
of his helmet, used a two-handed sword to chop at the English 
men-at-arms who cowered from the rampant Scots.  Lord Robert, 
safe from arrows at last, had lifted his visor so he could see the 
 tenemy.   Come on!"  he screamed at his men.   Come on!  Hard into 
them!  Kill them!  Kill them!"  The King had promised that the Christ- 
mas feast would be in London and there seemed only a small screen 
of frightened men to break before that promise could come true.   
The riches of Durham, York and London were just a few sword 
strokes away; all the wealth of Norwich and Oxford, of Bristol and 
Southampton was only a handful of deaths from Scottish purses.   
 Scotland!  Scotland!  Scotland!"  Lord Robert called.   Scotland!"  And 
the pikeman, because the trapped visor was obstructing his blade, 
was beating on a man's helmet with the hook side of his weapon's 
head, not chopping through the metal, but smashing it, hammering 
the broken helmet into the dying man's brain so that blood and 
jelly oozed from the visor's slits.  An Englishman screamed as a 
Scottish pike struck through his mail into his groin.  A boy, perhaps 
a page, reeled back with his eyes bloodied from a sword slash.   
 Scotland!"  Lord Robert could smell the victory now.  So close!  He 
shoved on, felt the English line jar and move back, saw how thin 
it was, fended off a lunge with his shield, stabbed with his sword 
to kill a fallen and wounded enemy, shouted at his squires to keep 
a watch for any rich English nobleman whose ransom could enrich 
the house of Stewart.  Men grunted as they stabbed and hacked.  A 
tribesman reeled from the fight, gasping for breath, trying to hold 
his guts inside his slashed belly.  A drummer was beating the Scots 
on.   Bring my horse!"  Lord Robert called to a squire.  He knew that 
the beaten English line had to break in a moment and then he 
would mount, take his lance, and pursue the beaten enemy.   On!   
On!"  he shouted.   On!"  And the man wielding the long-hafted pike, 
the huge Scotsman who had driven a gap into the English front   
rank and who seemed to be carving a bloody path south all by 
himself, suddenly made a mewing noise.  His pike, high in the air 
where it was still fouled with the bent visor, faltered.  The man 
jerked and his mouth opened and closed, opened and closed again, 
but he could not speak because an arrow, its white feathers blood- 
ied, jutted from his head.   
An arrow, Lord Robert saw, and suddenly the air was thick with 
them and he pulled down the visor of his helmet so that the day 
went dark.   
The damned English archers were back.  
Sir William Douglas had not realized how deep and steep-sided was 
the bracken-covered saddle in the ridge's flank until he reached its 
base and there, under the flail of the archers, found he could neither 
go forward nor back.  The front two ranks of Scottish men-at-arms 
were all either dead or wounded and their bodies made a heap over 
which he could not climb in his heavy mail.  Robbie was screaming 
defiance and trying to scramble over that heap, but Sir William 
unceremoniously dragged his nephew back and thrust him down 
into the bracken.   This isn't a place to die, Robbie!"   
 Bastards!"   
 They may be bastards, but we're the fools!"  Sir William crouched 
beside his nephew, covering them both with his huge shield.  To go 
back was unthinkable, for that would be running from the enemy, 
yet he could not advance and so he just marvelled at the force of 
the arrows as they thumped into the shield's face.  A rush of bearded 
tribesmen, more nimble than the men-at-arms because they refused 
to wear metal armour, seethed past him, howling their wild defiance 
as they scrambled bare-legged across the heap of dying Scots, but 
then the English arrows began to strike and hurl the clansmen back.   
The arrows made sounds like bladders rupturing as they struck 
and the clansmen mewed and groaned, twitching as more arrows 
thumped home.  Each missile provoked a spurt of blood so that Sir 
William and Robbie Douglas, unscathed beneath their heavy shield, 
were spattered with gore.   
A sudden tumult among the nearby men-at-arms provoked more 
arrows and Sir William bellowed angrily at the soldiers to lie down, 
hoping that stillness would persuade the English archers that no   
Scotsmen lived, but the men-at-arms called back that the Earl of 
Moray had been hit.   Not before time," Sir William growled to 
Robbie.  He hated the Earl more than he hated the English, and he 
grinned when a man shouted that his lordship was not just hit, but 
dead, and then another hail of arrows silenced the Earl's retainers 
and Sir William heard the missiles clanging on metal, thumping 
into flesh and striking the willow boards of shields, and when the 
rattle of arrows was done there was just the moaning and weeping, 
the hissing of breath, and the creak of leather as men died or tried 
to extricate themselves from under the piles of dying.   
 What happened?"  Robbie asked.   
 We didn't scout the land properly," Sir William answered.   We 
outnumber the bastards and that made us confident."  Ominously, 
in the arrowless quiet, he heard laughter and the thump of boots.   
A scream sounded and Sir William, who was old in war, knew that 
the English troops were coming down into the bowl to finish off 
the injured.   We're going to run back soon," he told Robbie,  there's 
no choice in it.  Cover your arse with your shield and run like the 
devil."   
 We're running away?"  Robbie asked, appalled.   
Sir William sighed.   Robbie, you damned fool, you can run for- 
ward and you can die and I'll tell your mother you died like a brave 
man and a halfwit, or you can get the hell back up the hill with 
me and try to win this battle."   
Robbie did not argue, but just looked back up the Scottish side 
of the hollow where the bracken was flecked with white-feathered 
arrows.   Tell me when to run," he said.   
A dozen archers and as many English men-at-arms were using 
knives to cut Scottish throats.  They would pause before finishing 
off a man-at-arms to discover whether he had any value as a source 
of ransom, but few men had such value and the clansmen had 
none.  The latter, hated above all the Scots because they were so 
different, were treated as vermin.  Sir William cautiously raised his 
head and decided this was the moment to retreat.  It was better to 
scramble out of this bloody trap than be captured and so, ignoring 
the indignant shouts of the English, he and his nephew scrambled 
back up the slope.  To Sir William's surprise no arrows came.  He 
had expected the grass and bracken to be thrashed with arrows as   
he clambered out of the hollow, but he and Robbie were left alone.   
He turned halfway up the slope and saw that the English bowmen 
had vanished, leaving only men-at-arms on this flank of the field.   
At their head, watching him from the hollow's farther lip, was Lord 
Outhwaite, who had once been Sir William's prisoner.  Outhwaite, 
who was lame, was using a spear as a stave and, seeing Sir William, 
he raised the weapon in greeting.   
 Get yourself some proper armour, Willie!"  Sir William shouted.   
Lord Outhwaite, like the Knight of Liddesdale, had been christened 
William.   We're not done with you yet."   
 I fear not, Sir William, I do indeed fear not," Lord Outhwaite 
called back.  He steadied himself with his spear.   I trust you're well?"   
 Of course I'm not well, you bloody fool!  Half my men are down 
there."   
 My dear fellow," Outhwaite said with a grimace, and then waved 
genially as Sir William pushed Robbie on up the hill and followed 
him to safety.   
Sir William, once back on the high ground, took stock.  He could 
see that the Scots had been beaten here on their right, but that had 
been their own fault for charging headlong into the low ground   
   
where the archers had been able to kill with impunity.  Those archers 
had mysteriously vanished, but Sir William guessed they had been 
pulled clear across the field to the Scottish left flank that had   
advanced a long way ahead of the centre.  He could tell that because 
Lord Robert Stewart's blue and yellow banner of the lion was so   
far ahead of the King's red and yellow flag.  So the battle was going 
well on the left, but Sir William could see it was going nowhere in 
the centre because of the stone wall that obstructed the Scottish 
advance.   
 We'll achieve nothing here," he told Robbie,'s o let's be useful."   
He turned and raised his bloody sword.   Douglas!"  he shouted.   
 Douglas!"  His standard-bearer had disappeared and Sir William sup- 
posed that the man, with his red-hearted flag, was dead in the low 
ground.   Douglas!"  he called again and, when sufficient of his men 
had come to him, he led them to the embattled central sheltron.   
 We fight here," he told them, then pushed his way to the King 
who was on horseback in the second or third rank, fighting beneath 
his banner that was thick stuck with arrows.  He was also fighting   
with his visor raised and Sir William saw that the King's face was 
half obscured with blood.   Put your visor down!"  he roared.   
The King was trying to stab a long lance across the stone wall, 
but the press of men made his efforts futile.  His blue and yellow 
surcoat had been torn to reveal the bright plate metal beneath.  An 
arrow thudded into his right espalier that had again ridden up on 
the breastplate and he tugged it down just as another arrow ripped 
open the left ear of his stallion.  He saw Sir William and grinned 
as though this was fine sport.   Pull your visor down!"  Sir William 
bellowed and he saw that the King was not grinning, but rather a 
whole flap of his cheek had been torn away and the blood was still 
welling from the wound and spilling from the helmet's lower rim 
to soak the torn surcoat.   Have your cheek bandaged!"  Sir William 
shouted over the din of fighting.   
The King let his frightened horse back away from the wall.   What 
happened on the right?"  His voice was made indistinct by his wound.   
 They killed us," Sir William said curtly, inadvertently jerking his 
long sword so that drops of blood sprayed from its tip.   No, they 
murdered us," he growled.   There was a break in the ground and 
it snared us."   
 Our left is winning!  We'll break them there!"  The King's mouth 
kept filling with blood, which he spat out, but despite the copious 
bleeding he did not seem over-concerned with the wound.  It had 
been inflicted at the very beginning of the battle when an arrow 
had hissed over the heads of his army to rip a gouge in his cheek 
before spending itself in his helmet's liner.   We'll hold them here," 
he told Sir William.   
 John Randolph's dead," Sir William told him.   The Earl of Moray," 
he added when he saw that the King had not understood his first 
words.   
 Dead?"  King David blinked, then spat more blood.   He's dead?   
Not a prisoner?"  Another arrow slapped at his flag, but the King 
was oblivious of the danger.  He turned and stared at his enemy's 
flags.   We'll have the Archbishop say a prayer over his grave, then 
the bastard can say grace over our supper."  He saw a gap in the 
front Scottish rank and spurred his horse to fill it, then lunged with 
his lance at an English defender.  The King's blow broke the man's 
shoulder, mangling the bloody wound with the debris of torn mail.   
 Bastards!"  the King spat.   We're winning!"  he called to his men, 
then a rush of Douglas's followers pushed between him and the 
wall.  The neweomers struck the stone wall like a great wave, but 
the wall proved stronger and the wave broke on its stones.  Swords 
and axes clashed over the coping and men from both sides dragged 
the dead out of their paths to clear a passage to the slaughter.   We'll 
hold the bastards here," the King assured Sir William,  and turn 
their right."   
But Sir William, his ears ever attuned to the noise of battle, had 
heard something new.  For the last few minutes he had been listen- 
ing to shouts, clangour, screams and drums, but one sound had 
been missing and that was the devil's harp music, the deep-toned 
pluck of bowstrings, but he heard it again now and he knew that 
though scores of the enemy might have been killed, few of those 
dead were archers.  And now the bows of England had begun their 
awful work again.   You want advice, sire?"   
 Of course."  The King looked bright-eyed.  His destrier, wounded 
by several arrows, took small nervous steps away from the thickest 
fighting that raged just paces away.   
 Put your visor down," Sir William said,  and then pull back."   
 Pull back?"  The King wondered if he had misheard.   
 Pull back!"  Sir William said again, and he sounded hard and sure, 
yet he was not certain why he had given the advice.  It was another 
damn premonition like the one he had experienced in the fog at 
dawn, yet he knew the advice was good.  Pull back now, pull all 
the way back to Scotland where there were great castles that could 
withstand a storm of arrows, yet he knew he could not explain the 
advice.  He could find no reason for it.  A dread had seized his heart 
and filled him with foreboding.  From any other man the advice 
would have been reckoned cowardice, but no one would ever 
accuse Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, of cowardice.   
The King thought the advice was a bad jest and he gave a snorting 
laugh.   We're winning!"  he told Sir William as more blood spilt from 
his helmet and slopped down to his saddle.   Is there any danger on 
the right?"  he asked.   
 None," Sir William said.  The hollow in the ground would be as 
effective at stopping an English advance as it had been at foiling 
the Scottish attack.   
 Then we'll win this battle on our left," the King declared, then 
hauled on his reins to turn away.   Pull back indeed!"  The King 
laughed, then took a piece of linen from one of his chaplains and 
pushed it between his cheek and his helmet.   We're winning!"  he 
said to Sir William again, then spurred to the east.  He was riding 
to bring Scotland victory and to show that he was a worthy son 
of the great Bruce.   Saint Andrew!" he shouted through thick blood.   
 Saint Andrew!"   
 You think we should pull back, uncle?"  Robbie Douglas asked.   
He was as confused as the King.   But we're winning!"   
 Are we?"  Sir William listened to the music of the bows.   Best say 
your prayers, Robbie," he said,  best say your bloody prayers and 
ask God to let the devil take the bloody archers.   
And pray that God or the devil was listening.   
Sir Geoffrey Carr was stationed on the English left where the Scots 
had been so decisively rebuffed by the terrain and his few men-at- 
arms were now down in the blood-reeking hollow in search of 
prisoners.  The Scarecrow had watched the Scots trapped in the low 
ground and he had grinned with feral delight as the arrows had 
slashed down into the attackers.  One enraged tribesman, his thick 
folds of swathing plaid stuck with arrows as thick as a hedgehog's 
spines, had tried to fight up the slope.  He had been swearing and 
cursing, repeatedly struck by arrows, one was even sticking from 
his skull, which was smothered in tangled hair, and another was 
caught in the thicket of his beard, yet still he had come, bleeding 
and ranting, so filled with hate that he did not even know he 
should be dead, and he managed to struggle within five paces of 
the bowmen before Sir Geoffrey had flicked his whip to take the 
man's left eye from its socket clean as a hazel from its shell and 
then an archer had stepped forward and casually split the man's 
arrow-Spitted skull with an axe.  The Scarecrow coiled the whip and 
fingered the damp on the tip's iron claw.   I do enjoy a battle," he 
had said to no one in particular.  Once the attack was stalled he had 
seen that one of the Scottish lords, all gaudy in blue and silver, was 
lying dead among the heap of corpses and that was a pity.  That   
was a real pity.  There was a fortune gone with that death and Sir 
Geoffrey, remembering his debts, had ordered his men down into 
the pit to cut throats, pillage corpses and find any prisoner worth 
a half-decent ransom.  His archers had been taken off to the other 
side of the field, but his men-at-arms were left to find some cash.   
 Hurry, Beggar!"  Sir Geoffrey shouted,  Hurry!  Prisoners and plun- 
der!  Look for gentlemen and lords!  Not that there are any gentlemen 
in Scotland!"  This last observation, made only to himself amused 
the Scarecrow so that he laughed aloud.  The joke seemed to 
improve as he thought about it and he almost doubled over in 
merriment.   Gentlemen in Scotland!"  he repeated and then he saw 
a young monk staring worriedly at him.   
The monk was one of the prior's men, distributing food and ale 
to the troops, but he had been alarmed by Sir Geoffrey's wild cackle.   
The Scarecrow, going abruptly silent, stared wide-eyed at the monk 
and then, silently, let the coils of the whip fall from his hand.  The 
soft leather made no sound as it rippled down, then Sir Geoffrey 
moved his right arm at lightning speed and the whip struck to loop 
itself about the young monk's neck.  Sir Geoffrey jerked the lash.   
 Come here, boy," he ordered.   
The jerk made the monk stumble so that he dropped the bread 
  and apples he had been carrying, then he was standing close beside 
Sir Geoffrey's horse and the Scarecrow was leaning down from the 
saddle so that the monk could smell his fetid breath.   Listen, you 
pious little turd," Sir Geoffrey hissed,  if you don't tell me the truth 
I'll cut off what you don't need and what you don't use except to 
piss through and feed it to my swine, do you understand me, boy?"   
The monk, terrified, just nodded.   
Sir Geoffrey looped the whip one more time round the young 
man's neck and gave it a good tug just to let the monk know who 
was in charge.   An archer, fellow with a black bow, had a letter for 
your prior."   
 He did, sir, yes, sir."   
 And did the prior read it?"   
 Yes, sir, he did, sir."   
 And did he tell you what was in it?"   
The monk instinctively shook his head, then saw the rage in the 
Scarecrow's eye and in his panic he blurted out the word he had   
first overheard when the letter was opened.   Thesaurus, sir, that's 
what's in it, thesaurus."   
 Thesaurus?"  Sir Geoffrey said, stumbling over the foreign word.   
 And what, you gelded piece of weasel shit, what, in the name of 
a thousand virgins, is a thesaurus?"   
 Treasure, sir, treasure.  Latin, sir.  Thesaurus, sir, is Latin for .  .   
the monk's voice trailed away.   .  .  .  treasure," he finished lamely.   
 Treasure."  Sir Geoffrey repeated the word flatly.   
The monk, half choking, was suddenly eager to repeat the gossip 
that had circulated amongst the brethren since Thomas of Hookton 
had encountered the prior.   The King sent him, sir, his majesty 
himself, and my lord the bishop too, sir, from France, and they're 
looking for a treasure, sir, but no one knows what it is."   
 The King?"   
 Or where it is, sir, yes, sir, the King himself, sir.  He sent him, sir."   
Sir Geoffrey looked into the monk's eyes, saw no guile and so 
unlooped the whip.   You dropped some apples, boy."   
 I did, sir, I did, sir, yes.   
 Feed one to my horse."  He watched the monk retrieve an apple, 
then his face suddenly contorted with anger.   Wipe the mud off it 
first, you toadspawn!  Clean it!"  He shuddered, then stared north- 
wards, but he was not seeing the surviving Scots of the enemy's 
right wing scramble out of the low ground and he did not even 
notice the escape of his hated enemy, Sir William Douglas, who 
had impoverished him.  He saw none of these things because the 
Scarecrow was thinking of treasure.  Of gold.  Of heaps of gold.  Of 
his heart's desire.  Of money and jewels and coins and plate and 
women and everything a heart could ever want.   
The sheltron on the Scottish left, rampant and savage, forced the 
English right so far back that a great gap appeared between the 
English centre, behind its stone wall, and the retreating division on 
its right.  That retreat meant that the right flank of the central divi- 
sion was now exposed to Scottish attack, indeed the rear of the 
Archbishop's battle was exposed to the Scots, but then, from all 
across the ridge, the archers came to the rescue.   
They came to make a new line that protected the Archbishop's 
flank, a line that faced sideways onto the triumphant Scottish 
assault and the swarm of archers drove their arrows into Lord 
Robert Stewart's sheltron.  They could not miss.  These were bowmen who started their archery practice at a hundred paces and 
finished over two hundred paces from the straw-filled targets, and 
now they were shooting at twenty paces and the arrows flew with 
such force that some pierced through mail, body and mail again.   
Men in armour were being spitted by the arrows and the right-hand 
side of the Scottish advance crumpled in blood and pain, and every 
man who fell exposed another victim to the bowmen who were 
shooting as fast as they could lay their arrows on the cords.  The 
Scots were dying by the score.  They were dying and they were 
screaming.  Some men instinctively tried to charge the archers, but 
were immediately cut down; no troops could stand that assault of 
feathered steel and suddenly the Scots were pulling back, tripping 
over the dead left by their charge, stumbling back across the pasture 
to where they had begun their charge and they were pursued every 
step of the way by the hissing arrows until, at last, an English voice 
ordered the archers to rest their bows.   But stay here!"  the man 
ordered, wanting the archers who had come from the left wing to 
stay on the beleaguered right.   
Thomas was among the archers.  He counted his arrows, finding 
only seven left in his bag and so he began hunting in the grass for 
shot arrows that were not badly damaged, but then a man nudged 
him and pointed to a cart that was trundling across the field with 
spare sheaves.  Thomas was astonished.   In France we were ever 
running out of arrows.   
 Not here."  The man had a hare lip, which made him hard to 
understand.   They keep  em in Durham.  In the castle.  Three coun- 
ties send  em here."  He scooped up two new sheaves.   
The arrows were made all across England and Wales.  Some folk 
cut and trimmed the shafts, others collected the feathers, women 
span the cords and men boiled the hide, hoof and verdigris glue 
while smiths forged the heads, and then the separate parts were 
carried to towns where the arrows were assembled, bundled and 
sent on to London, York, Chester or Durham where they awaited 
an emergency.  Thomas broke the twine on two sheaves and put   
the new arrows in a bag he had taken from a dead archer.  He had   
found the man lying behind the Archbishop's troops and Thomas 
had left his old torn bag beside the man's body and now had a new   
bag filled with fresh arrows.  He flexed the fingers of his right hand.   
They were sore, proof he had not shot enough arrows since the   
battle in Picardy.  His back ached as it always did after he had shot 
the bow twenty or more times.  Each draw was the equivalent of 
lifting a man one-handed and the effort of it dug the ache deep 
into his spine, but the arrows had driven the Scottish left wing 
clean back to where it had started and where, like their English 
enemies, they now drew breath.  The ground between the two 
armies was littered with spent arrows, dead men and wounded, 
some of whom moved slowly as they tried to drag themselves back   
to their comrades.  Two dogs sniffed at a corpse, but skittered away 
when a monk shied a stone at them.   
Thomas unlooped the string of his bow so that the stave straight- 
ened.  Some archers liked to leave their weapons permanently 
strung until the stave had taken on the curve of a tensioned bow, 
and were said to have followed the string; the curve was supposed 
to show that the bow was well used and thus that its owner was 
an experienced soldier, but Thomas reckoned a bow that had fol- 
lowed the string was weakened and so he unstrung his as often as 
he could.  That also helped to preserve the cord.  It was difficult to 
fashion a cord of exactly the right length, and inevitably it stretched,   
but a good hempen string, soaked with glue, could last the best 
part of a year if it was kept dry and not subjected to constant 
tension.  Like many archers, Thomas liked to reinforce his boweords 
with women's hair because that was meant to protect the strings 
from snapping in a fight.  That and praying to Saint Sebastian. Thomas 
let the string hang from the top of the bow, then squatted in the 
grass where he took the arrows from his bag one by one and span 
them between his fingers to detect any warping in their shafts.   
 The bastards will be back!"  A man with a silver crescent on his 
surcoat strode down the line.   They'll be back for more!  But you've 
done well!"  The silver crescent was half obscured by blood  An 
archer spat and another impulsively stroked his unstrung bow.   
Thomas thought that if he lay down he would probably sleep, but 
he was assailed by the ridiculous fear that the other archers would   
retreat and leave him there, sleeping, and the Scots would find and 
kill him.  The Scots, though, were resting like the English.  Some 
men were bent over as if they caught their breath, others were   
sitting on the grass while a few clustered round a barrel of water 
or ale.  The big drums were silent, but Thomas could hear the scrape   
of stone on steel as men sharpened blades blunted by the battle's 
first clash.  No insults were being shouted on either side now, men 
just eyed each other warily.  Priests knelt beside dying men, praying 
their souls into heaven, while women shrieked because their hus- 
bands, lovers or sons were dead.  The English right wing, its numbers 
thinned by the ferocity of the Scottish attack, had moved back to 
its original place and behind them were scores of dead and dying 
men.  The Scottish casualties left behind by the precipitate retreat 
were being stripped and searched and a fight broke out between 
two men squabbling over a handful of tarnished coins.  Two monks 
carried water to the wounded.  A small child played with broken 
rings from a mail coat while his mother attempted to prise a broken 
visor off a pike that she reckoned would make a good axe.  A Scots- 
man, thought dead, suddenly groaned and turned over and a man- 
at-arms stepped to him and stabbed down with his sword.  The 
enemy stiffened, relaxed and did not move again.   Ain't resurrection 
day yet, you bastard," the man-at-arms said as he dragged his sword 
free.   Goddamn son of a whore," he grumbled, wiping his sword 
on the dead man's ragged surcoat,  waking up like that!  Gave me 
a turn!"  He was not speaking to anyone in particular, but just 
crouched beside the man he had killed and began searching his 
clothes.   
The cathedral towers and castle walls were thick with spectators.   
A heron flew beneath the ramparts, following the looping river 
that sparkled prettily under the autumn sun.  Thomas could hear 
corncrakes down the slope.  Butterflies, surely the last of the year, 
flew above the blood-sucked grass.  The Scots were standing, stretch- 
ing, pulling on helmets, pushing their forearms into their shield 
loops and hefting newly sharpened swords, pikes and spears.  Some 
glanced over to the city and imagined the treasures stored in the 
cathedral crypt and castle cellars.  They dreamed of chests crammed 
with gold, vats overflowing with coin, rooms heaped with silver, 
taverns running with ale and streets filled with women.   In the   
name of the Father and of the Son," a priest called,  and of the Holy 
Ghost.  Saint Andrew is with you. You fight for your King!  The enemy 
are godless imps of Satan!  God is with us!"   
 Up, boys, up!"  an archer called on the English side.  Men stood, 
strung their bows and took the first arrow from the bag.  Some 
crossed themselves, oblivious that the Scots did the same.   
Lord Robert Stewart, mounted on a fresh grey stallion, pushed 
his way towards the front of the Scottish left wing.   They'll have 
few arrows left," he promised his men,  few arrows.  We can break 
them!"  His men had so nearly broken the damned English last time.   
So nearly, and surely another howling rush would obliterate the 
small defiant army and open the road to the opulent riches of the 
south.   
 For Saint Andrew!" Lord Robert called and the drummers began 
their beating,  for our King!  For Scotland!"   
And the howling began again.   
Bernard de Taillebourg went to the cathedral when his business 
in the monastery's small hospital was finished.  His servant was 
readying the horses as the Dominican strode down the great nave 
between the vast pillars painted in jagged stripes of red, yellow, 
green and blue.  He went to the tomb of Saint Cuthbert to say a prayer. 
He was not certain that Cuthbert was an important saint,  he was 
certainly not one of the blessed souls who commanded the ear of 
God in heaven,  but he was much revered locally, and his tomb, 
thickly decorated with jewels, gold and silver, testified to that 
devotion.   
At least a hundred women were gathered about the grave, most 
of them crying, and de Taillebourg pushed some out of his way 
so he could get close enough to touch the embroidered pall that 
shrouded the tomb.  One woman snarled at him, then realized he 
was a priest and, seeing his bloodied, bruised face, begged his for- 
giveness.  Bernard de Taillebourg ignored her, stooping instead to 
the tomb.  The pall was tasselled and the women had tied little 
shreds of cloth to the tassels, each scrap a prayer.  Most prayers 
were for health, for the restoration of a limb, for the gift of sight,   
or to save a child's life, but today they were begging Cuthbert to 
bring their menfolk safely down from the hill.   
Bernard de Taillebourg added his own prayer.  Go to Saint Denis, he 
beseeched Cuthbert, and ask him to speak to God. Cuthbert, even   
if he could not hold God's attention, could certainly find Saint Denis 
who, being French, was bound to be closer to God than Cuthbert. 
Beg Denis to pray that God's speed attend my errand and that 
God's blessing be upon the search and that God's grace give it 
success.  And pray God to forgive us our sins, but know that our 
sins, grievous though they be, are committed only in God's service.   
He moaned at the thought of this day's sins, then he kissed the pall 
and took a coin from the purse under his robe.  He dropped the 
coin in the great metal jar where pilgrims gave what they could to 
the shrine and then he hurried back down the cathedral's nave.  A 
crude building, he thought, its coloured pillars so fat and gross and 
its carvings as clumsy as a child's scratchings, so unlike the new 
and graceful abbeys and churches that were rising in France.  He 
dipped his fingers in the holy water, made the sign of the cross and 
went out into the sunlight where his servant was waiting with their 
mounts.   
 You could have left without me," he said to the servant.   
 It would be easier," the servant said,  to kill you on the road and 
then go on without you."   
 But you won't do that," de Taillebourg said,  because the grace 
of God has come into your soul."   
 Thanks be to God," the servant said.   
The man was not a servant by birth, but a knight and gently 
born.  Now, at de Taillebourg's pleasure, he was being punished for 
his sins and for the sins of his family.  There were those, and Cardinal 
Bessieres was among them, who thought the man should have 
been stretched on the rack, that he should have been pressed by 
great weights, that the burning irons should have scared into his 
flesh so that his back arched as he screamed repentance at the 
ceiling, but de Taillcbourg had persuaded the Cardinal to do nothing 
except show this man the instruments of the Inquisition's torture.   
 Then give him to me," de Taillebourg had said,  and let him lead   
me to the Grail."   
 Kill him afterwards," the Cardinal had instructed the Inquisitor.   
 All will be different when we have the Grail," de Taillebourg had 
said evasively.  He still did not know whether he would have to kill 
this thin young man with the sun-dark skin and the black eyes and 
the narrow face who had once called himself the Harlequin.  He 
had adopted the name out of pride because harlequins were lost 
souls, but de Taillebourg believed he might well have saved this 
harlequin's soul.  The Harlequin's real name was Guy Vexille, Count 
of Astarac, and it had been Guy Vexille whom de Taillebourg had 
been describing when he spoke to Brother Collimore about the man 
who had come from the south to fight for France in Picardy.  Vexille 
had been seized after the battle when the French King had been 
looking for scapegoats and a man who dared display the crest of a 
family declared heretic and rebel had made a good scapegoat.   
Vexille had been given to the Inquisition in the expectation that 
they would torture the heresy out of him, but de Taillcbourg had 
liked the Harlequin.  He had recognized a fellow soul, a hard man, 
a dedicated man, a man who knew that this life meant nothing 
because all that counted was the next, and so de Taillebourg had 
spared Vexille the agonies.  He had merely shown him the chamber 
where men and women screamed their apologies to God, and then 
he had questioned him gently and Vexille had revealed how he 
had once sailed to England to find the Grail and, though he had 
killed his uncle, Thomas's father, he had not found it.  Now, with 
de Taillebourg, he had listened to Eleanor tell Thomas's story.   Did 
you believe her?"  the Dominican now asked.   
 I believed her," Vexille said.   
 But was she deceived?"  The Inquisitor wondered.  Eleanor had 
told them that Thomas had been charged to seek the Grail, but that 
his faith was weak and his search half-hearted.   We shall still have 
to kill him," de Taillebourg added.   
 Of course."   
de Taillcbourg frowned.   You do not mind?"   
 Killing?"  Guy Vexille sounded surprised that de Taillcbourg 
should even ask.   Killing is my job, father," the Harlequin said.   
Cardinal Bessiires had decreed that everyone who sought the Grail 
should be killed, all except those who sought it on the Cardinal's 
own behalf and Guy Vexille had willingly become God's murderer.   
He certainly had no qualms about slitting his cousin Thomas's   
throat.   You want to wait here for him?"  he asked the Inquisitor.   
 The girl said he would be in the cathedral after the battle."   
de Taillcbourg looked across to the hill.  The Scots would win, he 
was sure, and that made it doubtful that Thomas of Hookton would 
come to the city.  More likely he would flee southwards in panic.   
 We shall go to Hookton."   
 I searched Hookton once," Guy Vexille said.   
 Then you will search it again," de Taillebourg snapped.   
 Yes, father."  Guy Vexille humbly lowered his head.  He was a 
sinner; it was required of him that he show penitence and so he 
did not argue.  He just did de Taillcbourg's bidding and his reward, 
he had been promised, would be reinstatement.  He would be given 
back his pride, allowed to lead men to war again and forgiven by 
the Church.   
 We shall leave now," de Taillebourg said.  He wanted to go before 
William Douglas came in search of them and, even more urgently, 
before anyone discovered the three bodies in the hospital cell.  The 
Dominican had closed the door on the corpses and doubtless the 
monks would believe Collimore was sleeping and so would not   
disturb him, but de Taillebourg still wanted to be free of the city   
when the bodies were found and so he pulled himself into the 
saddle of one of the horses they had stolen from Jamie Douglas 
that morning.  It seemed a long time ago now.  He pushed his shoes   
into the stirrups, then kicked a beggar away.  The man had been   
clawing at de Taillebourg's leg, whining that he was hungry, but   
now reeled away from the priest's savage thrust.   
The noise of battle swelled.  The Dominican looked at the ridge 
again, but the fight was none of his business.  If the English and the 
Scots wished to maul each other then let them.  He had greater 
matters on his mind, matters of God and the Grail and of heaven 
and hell.  He had sins on his conscience too, but they would be 
shriven by the Holy Father and even heaven would understand 
those sins once he had found the Grail.   
The gates of the city, though strongly guarded, were open so that 
the wounded could be brought inside and food and drink carried 
to the ridge.  The guards were older men and had been ordered to 
make certain that no Scottish raiders tried to enter the city, but 
they had not been charged to stop anyone leaving and so they took   
no notice of the haggard priest with the bruised face mounted on 
a warhorse, nor of his elegant servant.  So de Taillebourg and the 
Harlequin rode out of Durham, turned towards the York road, put 
back their heels and, as the sound of battle echoed from the city's 
crag, rode away southwards.   
It was mid-afternoon when the Scots attacked a second time, but 
this assault, unlike the first, did not come hard on the heels of 
fleeing archers.  Instead the archers were drawn up ready to receive 
the charge and this time the arrows flew thick as starlings.  Those 
on the Scottish left who had so nearly broken the English line were 
now faced by twice as many archers, and their charge, which 
had begun so confidently, slowed to a crawl and then stopped alto- 
gether as men crouched behind shields.  The Scottish right never 
advanced at all, while the King's central sheltron was checked fifty 
paces from the stone wall behind which a crowd of archers sent 
an incessant shower of arrows.  The Scots would not retreat, they 
could not advance, and for a time the long-shafted arrows thumped 
onto shields and into carelessly exposed bodies, then Lord Robert 
Stewart's men edged back out of range and the King's sheltron 
followed and so another pause came over the red-earthed battle- 
field.  The drums were silent and no more insults were being shouted 
across the littered pastureland.  The Scottish lords, those who still 
lived, gathered under their King's saltire banner and the Archbishop 
of York, seeing his enemies in council, called his own lords together.   
The Englishmen were gloomy.  The enemy, they reasoned, would 
never expose themselves to what the Archbishop described as a 
third baptism of arrows.   The bastards will slink off northwards," 
the Archbishop predicted,  God damn their bloody souls."   
 Then we follow them," Lord Percy said.   
 They move faster than us," the Archbishop said.  He had taken 
off his helmet and its leather liner had left an indentation in his 
hair, circling his skull.   
 We'll slaughter their foot," another lord said wolfishly.   
 Damn their infantry," the Archbishop snapped, impatient with 
such foolery.  He wanted to capture the Scottish lords, the men   
mounted on the swiftest and most expensive horses, for it was their 
ransoms that would make him rich, and he especially wanted to 
capture those Scottish nobles like the Earl of Menteith who had 
sworn fealty to Edward of England and whose presence in the 
enemy army proved their treachery.  Such men would not be ran- 
somed, but would be executed as an example to other men who 
broke their oaths, but if the Archbishop was victorious today then 
he could lead this small army into Scotland and take the traitors" 
estates.  He would take everything from them: the timber from their 
parks, the sheets from their beds, the beds themselves, the slates 
off their roofs, their pots, their pans, their cattle, even the rushes 
from their streambeds.   But they won't attack again," the Arch- 
bishop said.   
 Then we shall have to be clever," Lord Outhwaite put in 
cheerfully.   
The other lords looked suspiciously at Outhwaite.  Cleverness was 
not a quality they prized for it hunted no boars, killed no stags, 
enjoyed no women and took no prisoners.  Churchmen could be 
clever, and doubtless there were clever fools at Oxford, and even 
women could be clever so long as they did not flaunt it, but on a 
battlefield?  Cleverness?   
 Clever?"  Lord Neville asked pointedly.   
 They fear our archers," Lord Outhwaite said,  but if our archers 
are seen to have few arrows, then that fear will go and they might 
well attack again."   
 Indeed, indeed  ."  the Archbishop began and then stopped, for 
he was quite as clever as Lord Outhwaite, clever enough, indeed, 
to hide how clever he was.   But how would we convince them?"   
he asked.   
Lord Outhwaite obliged the Archbishop by explaining what he 
suspected the Archbishop had already grasped.   I think, your grace, 
that if our archers are seen scavenging the field for arrows then the 
enemy will draw the correct conclusion."   
 Or, in this case," the Archbishop laid it on broadly for the benefit 
of the other lords,  the incorrect conclusion."   
 Oh, that's good," one of those other lords said warmly.   
 It could be made even better, your grace," Lord Outhwaite 
suggested diffidently,  if our horses were brought forward?  The   
enemy might then assume we were readying ourselves to flee?"   
The Archbishop did not hesitate.   Bring all the horses up," he   
said.   
 But  ."  A lord was frowning.   
 Archers to scavenge for arrows, squires and pages to bring up 
the horses for the men-at-arms," the Archbishop snapped, under- 
standing completely what Lord Outhwaite had in mind and eager to 
put it into effect before the enemy decided to withdraw northwards.   
Lord Outhwaite gave the orders to the bowmen himself and, 
within a few moments, scores of archers were out in the space 
between the armies where they gathered spent arrows.  Some of the 
archers grumbled, calling it tomfoolery because they felt exposed to 
the Scottish troops who once again began to jeer them.  One archer, 
farther forward than most, was struck in the chest by a crossbow 
quarrel and he fell to his knees, a look of astonishment on his face, 
and choked up blood into his cupped palm.  Then he began weeping 
and that only made the choking worse and then a second man, 
going to help the first, was hit in the thigh by the same crossbow.   
The Scots were howling their derision at the wounded men, then 
cowered as a dozen English archers loosed arrows at the lone cross- 
bowman.   Save your arrows!  Save your arrows!"  Lord Outhwaite, 
mounted on his horse, roared at the bowmen.  He galloped closer 
to them.   Save your arrows!  For God's sake!  Save them!"  He was 
bellowing loud enough for the enemy to hear him, then a group 
of Scotsmen, tired of sheltering from the archers, ran forward in 
an evident attempt to cut off Lord Outhwaite's retreat and all the 
English scampered for their own line.  Lord Outhwaite put back his 
spurs and easily evaded the rush of men who contented themselves 
with butchering the two wounded archers.  The rest of the Scots, 
seeing the English run, laughed and jeered.  Lord Outhwaite turned 
and gazed at the two dead bowmen.   We should have brought those 
lads in," he chided himself.   
No one answered.  Some of the archers were looking resentfully 
at the men-at-arms, supposing that their horses had been brought 
up to aid their flight, but then Lord Outhwaite barked at groups of 
archers to get behind the men-at-arms.   Line up at the back!  Not 
all of you.  We're trying to make them believe we're short of arrows 
and if you didn't have arrows you wouldn't be standing out in   
front, now would you?  Hold the horses where they are!"  He shouted 
this last order to the squires, pages and servants who had brought 
up the destriers.  The men-at-arms were not to mount yet, the horses 
were simply being held at the back of the line, just behind the place   
 I   
where half the archers now formed.  The enemy, seeing the horses,   
must conclude that the English, short of arrows, were contemplating 
flight.   
And so the simple trap was baited.   
A silence fell on the battlefield, except that the wounded were 
moaning, ravens calling and some women crying.  The monks began 
to chant again, but they were still on the English left and to Thomas, 
now on the right, the sound was faint.  A bell rang in the city.   I do 
fear we're being too clever," Outhwaite remarked to Thomas.  His 
lordship was not a man who could keep silent and there was no 
one else in the right-hand division convenient for conversation and 
so he selected Thomas.  He sighed.   It doesn't always work, being 
clever."   
 It worked for us in Brittany, my lord."   
 You were in Brittany as well as Picardy?"  Lord Outhwaite asked.   
He was still mounted and was gazing over the men-at-arms towards 
the Scots.   
 I served a clever man there, my lord."   
 And who was that?"  Lord Outhwaite was pretending to be inter- 
ested, perhaps regretting that he had even begun the conversation.   
 Will Skeat, my lord, only he's Sir William now.  The King 
knighted him at the battle."   
 Will Skeat?"  Lord Outhwaite was engaged now.   You served Will?   
By the good Lord, you did?  Dear William.  I haven't heard that 
name in many a year.  How is he?"   
 Not well, my lord," Thomas said, and he told how Will Skeat, a 
commoner who had become the leader of a band of archers and 
men-at-arms who were feared wherever men spoke French, had 
been grievously wounded at the battle in Picardy.   He was taken 
to Caen, my lord."   
Lord Outhwaite frowned.   That's back in French hands, surely?"   
 A Frenchman took him there, my lord," Thomas explained,  a 
friend, because there's a doctor in the city who can work miracles."   
At the end of the battle, when men could at last think they had   
lived through the horror, Skeat's skull had been opened to the sky 
and when Thomas had last seen him Skeat had been dumb, blind 
and powerless.   
 I don't know why the French make better physicians," Lord 
Outhwaite said in mild annoyance,  but it seems they do.  My father 
always said they did, and he had much trouble with his phlegm."   
 This man's Jewish, my lord."   
 And with his shoulders.  Jewish!  Did you say Jewish?"  Lord 
Outhwaite sounded alarmed.   I have nothing against Jews," he went 
on, though without conviction,  but I can think of a dozen good 
reasons why one should never resort to a Jewish physician."   
 Truly, my lord?"   
 My dear fellow, how can they harness the power of the saints?   
Or the healing properties of relics?  Or the efficacy of holy water?   
Even prayer is a mystery to them.  My mother, rest her soul, had 
great pain in her knees.  Too much praying, I always thought, but 
her physician ordered her to wrap her legs in cloths that had been 
placed on the grave of Saint Cuthbert and to pray thrice a day to 
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and it worked! It worked!  But no Jew 
could prescribe such a cure, could he?  And if he did it would be 
blasphemous and bound to fail.  I must say I think it most ill advised 
to have placed poor Will into a Jew's hands.  He deserves better, 
indeed he does."  He shook his head reprovingly.   Will served my 
father for a time, but was too smart a fellow to stay cooped up on 
the Scottish border.  Not enough plunder, you see?  Went off on his 
own, he did.  Poor Will."   
 The Jewish doctor," Thomas said stubbornly,  cured me.   
 We can only pray."  Lord Outhwaite ignored Thomas's claim and 
spoke in a tone which suggested that prayer, though needful, would 
almost certainly prove useless.  Then he cheered up suddenly.   Ah!   
I think our friends are stirring!"  The Scottish drums had begun to 
beat and all along the enemy's line men were hitching up shields, 
dropping visors or hefting swords.  They could see that the English 
had brought their horses closer, presumably to aid their retreat, and 
that the enemy line was apparently stripped of half its archers, so 
they must have believed that those bowmen were perilously short 
of missiles, yet the Scots still chose to advance on foot, knowing 
that even a handful of arrows could madden their horses and throw   
a mounted charge into chaos.  They shouted as they advanced, as 
much to hearten themselves as put fear in the English, but they 
became more confident when they reached the place where the 
bodies lay from their last charge and still no arrows flew.   
 Not yet, lads, not yet."  Lord Outhwaite had taken command of 
the archers on the right wing.  The Lords Percy and Neville com- 
manded here, yet both were content to allow the older man give 
orders to the bowmen while they waited with their men-at-arms.   
Lord Outhwaite glanced constantly across the field to where the 
Scots advanced on the English left wing, where his own men were, 
but he was satisfied that the hollow of ground would go on protect- 
ing them just as the stone wall shielded the centre.  It was here on 
the side of the ridge closest to Durham where the Scots were strong- 
est and the English most vulnerable.   Let them get closer," he 
warned the archers.   We want to finish them off once and for all, 
poor fellows."  He began tapping his fingers on his saddle's pommel, 
keeping time with the few remaining big Scottish drums and waiting 
until the front rank of Scots was only a hundred paces away.   Fore- 
most archers," he called when he judged the enemy was close 
enough,  that's you fellows in front of the line!  Start shooting!"   
About half the archers were in plain sight in the army's front 
and they now drew their bows, cocked the arrows up into the air 
and loosed.  The Scots, seeing the volley coming, began to run, 
hoping to close the range quickly so that only a handful of the 
arrows would hurt.   
 All archers!"  Lord Outhwaite boomed, fearing he had waited too 
long, and the archers who had been concealed behind the men-at- 
arms began to shoot over the heads of the troops in front.  The Scots 
were close now, close enough so that even the worst archer could 
not fail to hit his mark, so close that the arrows were again piercing 
through mail and bodies, and strewing the ground with more 
wounded and dying men.  Thomas could hear the arrows striking 
home.  Some clanged off armour, some thumped into shields, but 
many made a sound like a butcher's axe when it slaughtered cattle 
at winter's coming.  He aimed at a big man whose visor was raised 
and sent an arrow down his throat.  Another arrow into a tribesman 
whose face was contorted with hate.  Then an arrow's nock split on 
him, spinning the broken missile away when he released the string.   
He plucked the feathered scraps from the string, took a new arrow 
and drove it into another bearded tribesman who was all fury 
and hair.  A mounted Scotsman was encouraging his men forward 
and then he was flailing in the saddle, struck by three arrows and 
Thomas loosed another shaft, striking a man-at-arms clean in the 
chest so that the point ripped through mail, leather, bone and flesh.   
His next arrow sank into a shield.  The Scots were floundering, 
trying to force themselves into the rain of death.   Steady, boys, 
steady!"  an archer called to his fellows, fearing they were snatching 
at the strings and thus not using the full force of their bows.   
 Keep shooting!"  Lord Outhwaite called.  His fingers still tapped 
the pommel of his saddle, though the Scottish drums were faltering.   
 Lovely work!  Lovely work!"   
 Horses!"  Lord Percy ordered.  He could see that the Scots were 
on the edge of despair for the English archers were not after all 
short of arrows.   Horses!"  he bellowed again, and his men-at-arms 
ran back to haul themselves into saddles.  Pages and squires handed 
up the big heavy lances as men fiddled armoured feet into stirrups, 
glanced at the suffering enemy and then snapped down their visors.   
 Shoot!  Shoot!"  Lord Outhwaite called.   That's the way, lads!"  The 
arrows were pitiless.  The Scottish wounded cried to God, called for 
their mothers and still the feathered death hammered home.  One 
man, wearing the lion of Stewart, spewed a pink mist of blood and 
spittle.  He was on his knees, but managed to stand, took a step, 
fell to his knees again, shuffled forward, blew more blood-stained 
bubbles and then an arrow buried itself in his eye and went through 
his brain to scrape against the back of his skull and he went back- 
wards as though hit by a thunderbolt.   
Then the great horses came.   
 For England, Edward and Saint George!" Lord Percy called and a 
trumpeter took up the challenge as the great destriers charged.  They 
unceremoniously thrust the archers aside as the lances dropped.   
The turf shook.  Only a few horsemen were attacking, but the 
shock of their charge struck the enemy with stunning force and 
the Scots reeled back.  Lances were relinquished in men's bodies as 
the knights drew swords and hacked down at frightened, cowering 
men who could not run because the press of bodies was too great.   
More horsemen were mounting up and those men-at-arms who      
did not want to wait for their stallions were running forward to 
join the carnage.  The archers joined them, drawing swords or swing- 
ing axes.  The drums were at last silent and the slaughter had begun.   
Thomas had seen it happen before.  He had seen how, in an 
eyeblink, a battle could change.  The Scots had been pressing all 
day, they had so nearly shattered the English, they were rampant 
and winning, yet now they were beaten and the men of the Scottish 
left, who had come so close to giving their King his victory, were 
the ones who broke.  The English warhorses galloped into their 
ranks to make bloody lanes and the riders swung swords, axes, 
clubs and morningstars at panicked men.  The English archers joined 
in, mobbing the slower Scots like packs of hounds leaping onto deer.   
 Prisoners!"  Lord Percy shouted at his retainers.   I want prisoners!"  A 
Scotsman swung an axe at his horse, missed and was chopped down 
by his lordship's sword, an archer finished the job with a knife and 
then slit the man's padded jerkin to search for coins.  Two carpenters 
from Durham hacked with woodworker's adzes at a struggling man- 
at-arms, bludgeoning his skull, killing him slowly.  An archer reeled 
back, gasping, his belly cut open and a Scot followed him, screaming 
in rage, but then was tripped by a bowstave and went down under a 
swarm of men.  The trappers of the English horses were dripping with 
blood as their riders turned to cut their way back through the Scot- 
tish host.  They had ridden clean through and now spurred back to 
meet the next wave of English men-at-arms who fought with visors 
open for the panicking enemy was not offering any real resistance.   
Yet the Scottish right and centre were intact.   
The right had again been pushed into the low ground, but now, 
instead of archers fighting them from the rim, they faced the English 
men-at-arms who were foolish enough to go down into the hollow 
to meet the Scottish charge.  Mailed men clashed over the bodies 
of the Scottish dead, clambering awkwardly in their metal suits to 
swing swords and axes against shields and skulls.  Men grunted as 
they killed.  They snarled, attacked and died in the muddy bracken, 
yet the fight was futile for if either side gained an advantage they only 
pressed their enemy back up the slope and immediately the losing 
side had the ground as their ally and they would press back down- 
hill and more dead joined the corpses in the hollow's bottom and 
so the fight surged forward and back, each great swing leaving men   
weeping and dying, calling on Jesus, cursing their enemy, bleeding.   
Beggar was there, a great rock of a man who stood astride the   
corpse of the Earl of Moray, mocking the Scots and inviting them 
to fight, and half a dozen came and were killed before a pack of   
Highland clansmen came screaming to kill him and he roared at 
them, swinging his huge spiked mace, and to the Scarecrow, watch- 
ing from above, he looked like a great shaggy bear assailed by 
mastiffs.  Sir William Douglas, too canny to be caught a second time 
in the low ground, also watched from the opposing rim and was 
amazed that men would go willingly down to the slaughter.  Then, 
knowing that the battle would neither be won nor lost in that pit 
of death, he turned back to the centre where the King's sheltron 
still had a chance of gaining a great victory despite the disaster on 
the Scottish left.   
For the King's men had got past the stone wall.  In places they 
had pulled it down and in others it had at last collapsed before the 
press of men, and though the fallen stones still presented a formidable obstacle to soldiers cumbered by heavy shields and coats of 
mail they were clambering across and thrusting back the English 
centre.  The Scots had charged into the arrows, endured them and 
even trapped a score of archers whom they slaughtered gleefully 
and now they hacked and stabbed their way towards the Arch-   
bishop's great banner.  The King, his visor sticky with blood from 
his wounded cheek, was in the forefront of the sheltron.  The King's 
chaplain was beside his master, wielding a spiked club, and Sir 
William and his nephew joined the attack.  Sir William was suddenly 
ashamed of the premonition that had made him advise a retreat.   
This was how Scotsmen fought!  With passion and savagery.  The 
English centre was reeling back, scarce holding its ranks.  Sir William 
saw that the enemy had fetched their horses close up to the battle 
line and he surmised they were readying themselves to flee and so 
he redoubled his efforts.   Kill them!"  he roared.  If the Scots could 
break the line then the English would be in chaos, unable to reach 
their horses, and mere meat for the butchers.   
 Kill!  Kill!"  the King, conspicuous on horseback, shouted at his 
men.   
 Prisoners!"  the Earl of Menteith, more sensible, called.   Take 
prisoners!"   
 Break them!  Break them now!"  Sir William roared.  He slammed 
his shield forward to receive a sword stroke, stabbed beneath it and   
felt his blade pierce a mail coat.  He turned the sword and jerked it 
free before the flesh could grip the steel.  He pushed with his shield,   
unable to see over its top rim, felt the enemy stagger back, lowered 
the shield in anticipation of a lunge underneath, then rammed it 
forward again, throwing the enemy back.  He stumbled forward, 
almost losing his footing by tripping on the man he had wounded, 
but he caught his weight by dropping the bottom edge of the shield 
on the ground, pushed himself upright and thrust the sword into   
a bearded face.  The blade glanced off the cheekbone, taking an eye, 
and that man fell backwards, mouth agape, abandoning the fight.   
Sir William half ducked to avoid an axe blow, caught another sword   
on his shield and stabbed wildly towards the two men attacking 
him.  Robbie, swearing and cursing, killed the axeman, then kicked 
a fallen man-at-arms in the face.  Sir William lunged underhand 
and felt his sword scrape on broken mail and he twisted to stop 
the blade being trapped and yanked it back so that a gush of blood 
spilled through the metal rings of the wounded man's armour.  That 
man fell, gasping and twitching, and more Englishmen came from 
the right, desperate to stop the Scottish attack that threatened to 
pierce clean through the Archbishop's line.   Douglas!"  Sir William 
roared.   Douglas!"  He was calling on his followers to come and 
support him, to shove and to gouge and to hack the last enemy 
down.  He and his nephew had carved a bloody path deep into the 
Archbishop's ranks and it would take only a moment's fierce fight- 
ing to break the English centre and then the real slaughter could 
begin.  Sir William ducked as another axe flailed at him.  Robbie 
killed that man, driving his sword through the axeman's throat, but 
Robbie immediately had to parry a spear thrust and in doing it he 
staggered back against his uncle.  Sir William shoved his nephew 
upright and hammered his shield into an enemy's face.  Where the hell 
were his men?   Douglas!"  Sir William thundered again.   Douglas!"   
And just then a sword or spear tangled his feet and he fell and 
instinctively he covered himself with the shield.  Men pounded past 
him and he prayed that they were his followers who were breaking 
the last English resistance and he waited for the enemy's screaming 
to begin, but instead there was an insistent tap on his helmet.  The   
tapping stopped, then started again.   Sir William?"  a gentle voice 
enquired.   
The screaming had begun so Sir William could scarcely hear, but 
the gentle tapping on the crown of his helmet persuaded him it 
was safe to lower his shield.  It took him a moment to see what was 
happening for his helmet had been wrenched askew when he fell 
and he had to pull it round.   God's teeth," he said when the world 
came into view.   
 Dear Sir William," the kindly voice said,  I assume you yield?  Of 
course you do.  And is that young Robbie?  My, how you've grown, 
young man!  I remember you as a pup.   
 Oh, God's teeth," Sir William said again, looking up at Lord 
Outhwaite.   
 Can I give you a hand?"  Lord Outhwaite asked solicitously, reach- 
ing down from his saddle.   And then we can talk ransoms.   
 Jesus," Sir William said,  God damn it!"  for he understood now 
that the feet pounding past had been English feet and that the 
screaming was coming from the Scots.   
The English centre had held after all, and for the Scots the battle 
had turned to utter disaster.   
It was the archers again.  The Scots had lost men all day and still 
they outnumbered their enemy, but they had no answer to the 
arrows and when the Scottish centre broke down the wall and 
surged across its remains, so the Scottish left had retreated and 
exposed the flank of the King's sheltron to the English arrows.   
It took a few moments for the bowmen to realize their advantage.   
They had joined the pursuit of the broken Scottish left and were 
unaware how close to victory was the Scottish centre, but then one 
of Lord Neville's men understood the danger.   Archers!"  His roar 
could be heard clear across the Wear in Durham.   Archers!"  Men 
broke off their plundering and pulled arrows from the bags.   
The bows began sounding again, each deep harp note driving an 
arrow into the flank of the rampaging Scots.  David's sheltron had 
forced the central English battle back across a pasture, they had 
stretched it thin and they were closing on the Archbishop's great   
banner, and then the arrows began to bite and after the arrows 
came the men-at-arms from the English right wing, the retainers 
of Lord Percy and of Lord Neville, and some were already mounted 
on their big horses that were trained to bite, rear and kick with 
their iron-shod hooves.  The arch ers, discarding their bows yet again, 
followed the horsemen with axes and swords, and this time their 
women came as well with knives unsheathed.   
The Scottish King hacked at an Englishman, saw him fall, then 
heard his standard-bearer shout in terror and he turned to see the 
great banner falling.  The standard-bearer's horse had been ham- 
strung; it screamed as it collapsed and a rabble of archers and men 
at-arms clawed at man and beast, snatched at the banner and hauled 
the standard-bearer down to a ghastly death, but then the royal 
chaplain seized the reins of the King's horse and dragged David 
Bruce out of the melee.  More Scotsmen gathered about their King, 
escorting him away, and behind them the English were hacking 
down from saddles, chopping with their swords, cursing as they 
killed, and the King tried to turn back and continue the fight, but 
the chaplain forced his horse away.   Ride, sir!  Ride!"  the chaplain 
shouted.  Frightened men blundered into the King's horse that 
trampled on a clansman then stumbled on a corpse.  There were 
Englishmen in the Scottish rear now and the King, seeing his 
danger, put back his spurs.  An enemy knight took a swing at him, 
but the King parried the blow and galloped past the danger.  His 
army had disintegrated into groups of desperate fugitives.  He saw 
the Earl of Menteith try to mount a horse, but an archer seized his 
lordship's leg and hauled him back, then sat on him and put a knife 
to his throat.  The Earl shouted that he yielded.  The Earl of Fife was 
a prisoner, the Earl of Strathearn was dead, the Earl of Wigtown 
was being assailed by two English knights whose swords rang on 
his plate armour like blacksmiths" hammers.  One of the big Scottish 
drums, its skins split and tattered, rolled down the hill, going faster 
and faster as the slope steepened, thumping hollow on the rocks 
until at last it fell sideways and slid to a halt.   
The King's great banner was in English hands now as were the 
standards of a dozen Scottish lords.  A few Scots galloped north.   
Lord Robert Stewart, who had so nearly won the day, was free and 
clear on the eastern side of the ridge while the King plunged down   
the western side, going into shadow because the sun was now lower 
than the hills towards which he rode in desperate need of refuge.   
He thought of his wife.  Was she pregnant?  He had been told that 
Lord Robert had hired a witch to lay a spell on her womb so that 
the throne would pass from Bruce to Stewart.   Sir!  Sir!"  One of his 
men was screaming at him and the King came out of his reverie to 
see a group of English archers already down in the valley.  How had 
they headed him off?  He pulled on the reins, leaned right to help 
the horse round and felt the arrow thump into the stallion's chest.   
Another of his men was down, tumbling along the stony ground 
that was tearing his mail into bright shreds.  A horse screamed, blood 
fanned across the dusk and another arrow slammed into the King's 
shield that was slung on his back.  A third arrow was caught in his 
horse's mane and the stallion was slowing, plunging up and down 
as it laboured for breath.   
The King struck back with his spurs, but the horse could not go 
faster.  He grimaced and the gesture opened the crusted wound on 
his cheek so that blood spilled from his open visor down his ripped 
surcoat.  The horse stumbled again.  There was a stream ahead and 
a small stone bridge and the King marvelled that anyone should 
make a masonry bridge over so slight a watercourse, and then the 
horse's front legs just collapsed and the King was rolling on the 
ground, miraculously free of his dying mount and without any 
broken bones and he scrambled up and ran to the bridge where 
three of his men waited on horseback, one with a riderless stallion.   
But even before the King could reach the three men the arrows 
flickered and hammered home, each one making the horses stagger 
sideways from the shock of its impact.  The stallion screamed, tore 
itself free of the man's grasp and galloped eastwards with blood 
dripping from its belly.  Another horse collapsed with an arrow deep 
in its rump, two in its belly and another in its jugular.   Under the 
bridge!"  the King shouted.  There would be shelter under the arch, 
a place to hide, and when he had a dozen men he would make a 
break for it.  Dusk could not be far off and if they waited for nightfall 
and then walked all night they might be in Scotland by dawn.   
So four Scotsmen, one of them a King, huddled under the stone 
bridge and caught their breath.  The arrows had stopped flying, their 
horses were all dead and the King dared to hope that the English   
archers had gone in search of other prey.   We wait here," he whis- 
pered.  He could hear screams from the high ground, he could hear 
hooves on the slope, but none sounded close to the little low bridge.   
He shuddered, realizing the magnitude of the disaster.  His army 
was gone, his great hopes were nothing, the Christmas feast would 
not be in London and Scotland lay open to its enemies.  He peered 
northwards.  A group of clansmen splashed through the stream and 
suddenly six English horsemen appeared and drove their destriers 
off the high bank and the big swords hacked down and there was 
blood swirling downstream to run around the King's mailed feet and 
he shrank back into the shadows as the men-at-arms spurred west- 
wards to find more fugitives.  Horses clattered over the bridge and the 
four Scotsmen said nothing, dared not even look at each other until 
the sound of the hooves had faded.  A trumpet was calling from the 
ridge and its note was hateful: triumphant and scornful.  The King 
closed his eyes because he feared he would shed tears.   
 You must see a physician, sir," a man said and the King opened 
his eyes to see it was one of his servants who had spoken.   
 This can't be cured," the King said, meaning Scotland.   
 The cheek will mend, sir," the servant said reassuringly.   
The King stared at his retainer as though the man had spoken in 
some strange foreign tongue and then, terribly and suddenly, his 
badly wounded cheek began to hurt.  There had been no pain all 
day, but now it was agony and the King felt tears well from his 
eyes.  Not from pain, but shame, and then, as he tried to blink the 
tears away there were shouts, falling shadows and the splash of 
boots as men jumped from the bridge.  The attackers had swords 
and spears and they plunged under the bridge's arch like otter- 
hunters come to the kill and the King roared his defiance and leaped 
at the man who was in front and his rage was such that he forgot 
to draw his sword and instead punched the man with his armoured 
fist and he felt the Englishman's teeth crunch under the blow, 
saw the blood spurt and he drove the man down into the stream, 
hammering him, and then he could not move because other men 
were pinioning him.  The man beneath him, half drowned with 
broken teeth and bloodied lips, began to laugh.   
For he had taken a prisoner.  And he would be rich.   
He had captured the King.  
PART TWO   
England and Normandy, 1346-7   

The Winter Siege   
It was dark in the cathedral.  So dark that the bright colours painted 
on the pillars and walls had faded into blackness.  The only light 
came from the candles on the side altars and from beyond the rood 
screen where flames shivered in the choir and black-robed monks 
chanted.  Their voices wove a spell in the dark, twining and falling, 
surging and rising, a sound that would have brought tears to 
Thomas's eyes if he had possessed any tears left to shed.   Libera me, 
Domine, de morte aeterna," the monks intoned as the candle smoke 
twisted up to the cathedral's roof.  Deliver me, Lord, from everla sting 
death, and on the flagstones of the choir lay the coffin in which 
Brother Hugh Collimore lay undelivered, his hands crossed on his 
tunic, his eyes closed and, unknown to the prior, a pagan coin placed 
beneath his tongue by one of the other monks who feared the devil 
would take Collimore's soul if the ferryman who carried the souls of 
the departed across the river of the afterworld was not paid.   
 Requiem aeternam dana eis, Domine," the monks chanted, request- 
ing the Lord to give Brother Collimore eternal rest, and in the city 
beneath the cathedral, in the small houses that clung to the side of 
the rock, there was weeping for so many Durham men had been 
killed in the battle, but the weeping was as nothing to the tears 
that would be shed when the news of the disaster returned to 
Scotland.  The King was taken prisoner, and so was Sir William 
Douglas and the Earls of Fife and of Menteith and of Wigtown, and 
the Earl of Moray was dead as was the Constable of Scotland and 
the King's Marshal and the King's Chamberlain, all of them butch- 
ered, their bodies stripped naked and mocked by their enemies, and 
with them were hundreds of their countrymen, their white flesh   
laced bloody and food now for foxes and wolves and dogs and 
ravens.  The gorestained Scottish standards were on the altar of 
Durham's cathedral and the remnants of David's great army were 
fleeing through the night and on their heels were the vengeful 
English going to ravage and plunder the lowlands, to take back 
what had been stolen and then to steal some more.   Et lux perpetua 
luceat eis," the monks chanted, praying that eternal light would shine 
upon the dead monk, while on the ridge the other dead lay beneath 
the dark where the white owls shrieked.   
 You must confide in me," the prior hissed at Thomas at the back 
of the cathedral.  Small candles flickered on the scores of side altars 
where priests, many of them refugees from nearby villages sacked 
by the Scots, said Masses for the dead.  The Latin of those rural priests 
was often execrable, a source of amusement to the cathedral's own 
clergy and to the prior who sat beside Thomas on a stone ledge.   I 
am your superior in God," the prior insisted, but still Thomas stayed 
silent and the prior became angry.   The King has commanded you!   
The bishop's letter says so!  So tell me what you seek."   
 I want my woman back," Thomas said, and he was glad it was 
dark in the cathedral for his eyes were red from crying.  Eleanor 
was dead and Father Hobbe was dead and Brother Collimore was 
dead, all of them knifed and no one knew by whom, though one 
of the monks spoke of a dark man, a servant who had come with 
the foreign priest, and Thomas was remembering the messenger he 
had seen in the dawn, and Eleanor had been alive then and they 
had not quarrelled and now she was dead and it was his fault.  His 
fault.  The sorrow came to him, overwhelmed him and he howled 
his misery at the cathedral's nave.   
 Be quiet!"  said the prior, shocked at the noise.   
 I loved her!"   
 There are other women, hundreds of them."  Disgusted, he made 
the sign of the cross.   What did the King send you to find?  I order 
you to tell me."   
 She was pregnant," Thomas said, gazing up into the roof  and I 
was going to marry her."  His soul felt as empty and dark as the 
space above him.   
 I order you to tell me!"  the Prior repeated.   In the name of God, 
I order you!"   
 If the King wishes you to know what I seek," Thomas spoke in 
French though the prior had been using English,  then the King 
will be pleased to tell you.   
The prior stared angrily towards the rood screen.  The French 
language, tongue of aristocrats, had silenced him, making him 
wonder who this archer was.  Two men-at-arms, their mail clink- 
ing slightly, walked across the flagstones on their way to thank 
Saint Cuthbert for their survival. Most of the English army was far to 
the north, resting through the dark hours before resuming their 
pursuit of the beaten enemy, but some knights and men-at-arms 
had come to the city where they guarded the valuable prisoners 
who had been placed in the bishop's residence in the castle.  Perhaps, 
the prior thought, the treasure that Thomas of Hookton sought was 
no longer important; after all, a king had been captured along with 
half the earls of Scotland and their ransoms would wring that 
wretched country dry, yet he could not rid himself of the word 
thesaurus.  A treasure, and the Church was ever in need of money.   
He stood.   You forget," he said coldly,  that you are my guest."   
 I do not forget," Thomas said.  He had been given space in the 
monks" guest quarters, or rather in their stables for there were 
greater men who needed the warmer rooms.   I do not forget," he 
said again, tiredly.   
The prior now gazed up into the roof's high darkness.   Perhaps," 
he suggested,  you know more of Brother Collimore's murder than 
you pretend?"  Thomas did not answer; the prior's words were non- 
sense and the prior knew it, for he and Thomas had both been on 
the battlefield when the old monk had been killed, and Thomas's 
grief over Eleanor's murder was heartfelt, but the prior was angry 
and frustrated and he spoke unthinkingly.  Hopes of treasure did 
that to a man.   You will stay in Durham," the prior commanded, 
 until I give you permission to leave.  I have given instructions that 
your horse is to be kept in my stables.  You understand me?"   
 I understand you," Thomas said tiredly, then he watched the 
prior walk away.  More men-at-arms were entering the cathedral, 
their heavy swords clattering against pillars and tombs.  In the 
shadows, behind one of the side altars, the Scarecrow, Beggar and 
Dickon watched Thomas.  They had been shadowing him since the 
battle's end.  Sir Geoffrey was wearing a fine coat of mail now,   
which he had taken from a dead Scotsman, and he had debated 
whether to join the pursuit, but instead had sent a sergeant and a 
half-dozen men with orders to take whatever they could when the 
pillage of Scotland began.  Sir Geoffrey himself was gambling that 
Thomas's treasure, because it had interested a king, would be 
worthy of his own interest and so he had decided to follow the 
archer.   
Thomas, oblivious of the Scarecrow's gaze, bent forward, eyes 
tight shut, thinking he would never be whole again.  His back and 
arm muscles burned from a day of drawing a bow and the fingers 
of his right hand were scraped raw by the cord.  If he closed his 
eyes he saw nothing but Scotsmen coming towards him and the 
bow making a dark line down memory's picture and the white of 
the arrows" feathers dwindling in their flight, and then that picture 
would vanish and he would see Eleanor writhing under the knife 
that had tortured her.  They had made her speak.  Yet what did she 
know?  That Thomas had doubted the Grail, that he was a reluctant 
searcher, that he only wanted to be a leader of archers, and that 
he had let his woman and his friend go to their deaths.   
A hand touched the back of his head and Thomas almost hurled 
himself aside in the expectation of something worse, a blade, per- 
haps, but then a voice spoke and it was Lord Outhwaite.   Come 
outside, young man," he ordered Thomas,'s omewhere that the 
Scarecrow can't overhear us."  He said that loudly and in English, 
then softened his tone and used French.   I've been looking for you."   
He touched Thomas's arm, encouraging him.   I heard about your 
girl and I was sorry.  She was a pretty thing."   
 She was, my lord."   
 Her voice suggested she was well born," Lord Outhwaite said, 
 so her family will doubtless help you exact revenge?"   
 Her father is titled, my lord, but she was his bastard."   
 Ah!"  Lord Outhwaite stumped along, helping his limping gait 
with the spear he had carried for most of the day.   Then he probably 
won't help, will he?  But you can do it on your own.  You seem 
capable enough."  His lordship had taken Thomas into a cold, fresh 
night.  A high moon flirted with silver-edged clouds while on the 
western ridge great fires burned to plume a veil of red-touched 
smoke above the city.  The fires lit the battlefield for the men and   
women of Durham who searched the dead for plunder and knifed 
the Scottish wounded to make them dead so they could also be 
plundered.   I'm too old to join a pursuit," Lord Outhwaite said, 
staring at the distant fires,  too old and too stiff in the joints.  It's a 
young man's hunt, and they'll pursue them all the way to Edin- 
burgh.  Have you ever seen Edinburgh Castle?"   
 No, my lord."  Thomas spoke dully, not caring if he ever saw 
Edinburgh or its castle.   
 Oh, it's fine!  Very fine!"  Lord Outhwaite said enthusiastically.   
 Sir William Douglas captured it from us.  He smuggled men past 
the gate inside barrels.  Great big barrels.  A clever man, eh?  And 
now he's my prisoner."  Lord Outhwaite peered at the castle as 
though he expected to see Sir William Douglas and the other high- 
born Scottish captives shinning down from the battlements.  Two 
torches in slanting metal cressets lit the entrance where a dozen 
men-at-arms stood guard.   A rogue, our William, a rogue.  Why is 
the Scarecrow following you?"   
 I've no idea, my lord."   
 I think you do."  His lordship rested against a pile of stone.  The 
area by the cathedral was heaped with stone and timber for the 
builders were repairing one of the great towers.   He knows you 
seek a treasure so he now seeks it too."   
Thomas paid attention to that, looking sharply at his lordship, 
then looking back at the cathedral.  Sir Geoffrey and his two men 
had come to the door, but they evidently dared not venture any 
closer for fear of Lord Outhwaite's displeasure.   How can he know?"   
Thomas asked.   
 How can he not know?"  Lord Outhwaite asked.   The monks 
know about it, and that's as good as asking a herald to announce 
it.  Monks gossip like market wives!  So the Scarecrow knows you 
might be the source of great wealth and he wants it.  What is this 
treasure?"   
 Just treasure, my lord, though I doubt it has great intrinsic 
worth."   
Lord Outhwaite smiled.  He said nothing for a while, but just 
stared across the dark gulf above the river.   You told me, did you 
not," he said finally,  that the King sent you in the company of a 
household knight and a chaplain from the royal household?"   
 Yes, my lord."   
 And they fell ill in London?"   
 Theydid."   
 A sickly place.  I was there twice, and twice is more than enough!   
Noxious!  My pigs live in cleaner conditions!  But a royal chaplain,   
eh?  No doubt a clever fellow, not a country priest, eh?  Not some 
ignorant peasant tricked out with a phrase or two of Latin, but a 
rising man, a fellow who'll be a bishop before long if he survives 
his fever.  Now why would the King send such a man?"   
 You must ask him, my lord."   
 A royal chaplain, no less," Lord Outhwaite went on as though 
Thomas had not spoken, then he fell silent.  A scatter of stars showed 
between the clouds and he gazed up at them, then sighed.   Once," 
he said,  a long time ago, I saw a crystal vial of our Lord's blood.   
It was in Flanders and it liquefied in answer to prayer!  There's 
another vial in Gloucestershire, I'm told, but I've not seen that one.   
I did once stroke the beard of Saint Jerome in Nantes; I've held a hair 
from the tail of Balaam's ass; I've kissed a feather from the wing 
of Saint Gabriel and brandished the very jawbone with which Samson 
slew so many Philistines! I have seen a sandal of Saint Paul, a fingernail 
from Mary Magdalene and six fragments of the true cross, one of   
them stained by the very same holy blood that I saw in Flanders. I 
I have glimpsed the bones of the fishes with which our Lord fed   
the five thousand, I have felt the sharpness of one of the arrow 
heads that felled Saint Sebastian and smelt a leaf from the apple tree 
of the Garden of Eden. In my own chapel, young man, I have a 
knuckle bone of Saint Thomas and a hinge from the box in which the 
frankincense was given to the Christ child. That hinge cost me a   
great deal of money, a great deal.  So tell me, Thomas, what relic is 
more precious than all those I have seen and all those I hope to 
see in the great churches of Christendom?"   
   
Thomas stared at the fires on the ridge where so many dead 
lay.  Was Eleanor in heaven already?  Or was she doomed to spend   
thousands of years in purgatory?  That thought reminded him that 
he had to pay for Masses to be said for her soul.   
 You stay silent," Lord Outhwaite observed.   But tell me, young   
man, do you think I really possess a hinge from the Christ child's 
toy box of frankincense?"   
 I wouldn't know, my lord."   
 I sometimes doubt it," Lord Outhwaite said genially,  but my wife 
believes!  And that's what matters: belief.  If you believe a thing 
possesses God's power then it will work its power for you."  He 
paused, his great shaggy head raised to the darkness as if he smelt 
for enemies.   I think you search for a thing of God's power, a great 
thing, and I believe that the devil is trying to stop you.  Satan himself 
is stirring his creatures to thwart you."  Lord Outhwaite turned an 
anxious face on Thomas.   This strange priest and his dark servant 
are the devil's minions and so is Sir Geoffrey!  He is an imp of Satan 
if ever there was one."  He threw a glance towards the cathedral's 
porch where the Scarecrow and his two henchmen had retreated 
into the shadows as a procession of cowled monks came into the 
night.   Satan is working mischief," Lord Outhwaite said,  and you 
must fight it.  Do you have sufficient funds?"   
After the talk of the devil the commonplace question about funds 
surprised Thomas.   Do I have funds, my lord?"   
 If the devil fights you, young man, then I would help you and 
few things in this world are more helpful than money.  You have 
a search to make, you have journeys to finish and you will need 
funds.  So, do you have enough?"   
 No, my lord," Thomas said.   
 Then permit me to help you."  Lord Outhwaite placed a bag of 
coins on the pile of stones.   And perhaps you would take a com- 
panion on your search?"   
 A companion?"  Thomas asked, still bemused.   
 Not me!  Not me!  I'm much too old."  Lord Outhwaite chuckled.   
 No, but I confess I am fond of Willie Douglas.  The priest who I 
think killed your woman also killed Douglas's nephew, and Douglas 
wants revenge.  He asks, no, he begs that the dead man's brother 
be permitted to travel with you."   
 He's a prisoner, surely?"   
 I suppose he is, but young Robbie's hardly worth ransoming.  I 
suppose I might fetch a few pounds for him, but nothing like the 
fortune I intend to exact for his uncle.  No, I'd rather Robbie travelled 
with you.  He wants to find the priest and his servant and I think 
he could help you."  Lord Outhwaite paused and when Thomas did 
not answer, he pressed his request.   He's a good young man, Robbie.   
I know him, I like him, and he's capable.  A good soldier too, I'm 
told."   
Thomas shrugged.  At this moment he did not care if half Scotland 
travelled with him.   He can come with me, my lord," he said,  if 
I'm allowed to go anywhere."   
 What do you mean?  Allowed?"   
 I'm not permitted to travel."  Thomas sounded bitter.   The prior 
has forbidden me to leave the city and he's taken my horse."  Thomas 
had found the horse, brought into Durham by Father Hobbe, tied 
at the monastery's gate.   
Lord Outhwaite laughed.   And you will obey the prior?"   
 I can't afford to lose a good horse, my lord," Thomas said.   
 I have horses," Lord Outhwaite said dismissively,  including two 
good Scottish horses that I took today, and at dawn tomorrow the 
Archbishop's messengers will ride south to take news of this day 
to London and three of my men will accompany them.  I suggest 
you and Robbie go with them.  That will get the two of you safe to 
London and after that?  Where will you go after that?"   
 I'm going home, my lord," Thomas said,  to Hookton, to the 
village where my father lived."   
 And will that murderous priest expect you to go there?"   
 I can't say."   
 He will search for you.  Doubtless he considered waiting for you 
here, but that was too dangerous.  Yet he'll want your knowledge, 
Thomas, and he'll torment you to find it.  Sir Geoffrey will do the 
same.  That wretched Scarecrow will do anything for money, but I 
suspect the priest is the more dangerous.   
 So I keep my eyes open and my arrows sharp?"   
 I would be cleverer than that," Lord Outhwaite said.   I have 
always found that if a man is hunting you then it's best that he 
finds you in a place of your own choosing.  Don't be ambushed, but 
be ready to ambush him."   
Thomas accepted the wisdom of the advice, but sounded dubious   
  all the same.   And how will they know where I go?"   
 Because I will tell them," Lord Outhwaite said,  or rather, when 
the prior complains that you have disobeyed him by leaving 
the city, I shall tell him and his monks will then inform anyone 
whose ears they can reach.  Monks are garrulous creatures.  So where   
would you like to face your enemies, young man?  At your home?"   
 No, my lord," Thomas said hastily, then thought for a few heart- 
beats.   At La Roche-Derrien," he went on.   
 In Brittany?"  Lord Outhwaite sounded surprised.   Is what you 
seek in Brittany?"   
 I don't know where it is, my lord, but I have friends in Brittany.   
 Ah, and I trust you will also see me as a friend."  He pushed the 
bag of coins towards Thomas.   Take it."   
 I shall repay you, my lord."   
 You will repay me," his lordship said, standing,  by bringing me 
the treasure and letting me touch it just once before it goes to the 
King."  He glanced at the cathedral where Sir Geoffrey lurked.   I 
think you had better sleep in the castle tonight.  I have men there 
who can keep that wretched Scarecrow at bay.  Come."   
Sir Geoffrey Carr watched the two men go.  He could not attack 
Thomas while Lord Outhwaite was with him, for Lord Outhwaite 
was too powerful; but power, the Scarecrow knew, came from 
money and it seemed there was treasure adrift in the world, treas- 
ure that interested the King and now interested Lord Outhwaite 
too.   
So the Scarecrow, come hell or the devil to oppose him, intended 
to find it first.   
Thomas was not going to La Roche-Derrien.  He had lied, naming 
the town because he knew it and because he did not mind if his 
pursuers went there, but he planned to be elsewhere.  He would go 
to Hookton to see if his father had hidden the Grail there and 
afterwards, for he did not expect to find it, he would go to France 
for it was there that the English army laid siege to Calais and it was 
there that his friends were, and there that an archer could find 
proper employment.  Will Skeat's men were in the siege lines and 
Will's archers had wanted Thomas to be their leader and he knew 
he could do the job.  He could lead his own band of men, be as 
feared as Will Skeat was feared.  He thought about it as he rode 
southwards, though he did not think consistently or well.  He was 
too obsessed with the deaths of Eleanor and Father Hobbe, and   
torturing himself with the memory of his last look back at Eleanor 
and his remembrance of that glance meant that he saw the country 
through which he rode distorted by tears.   
Thomas was supposed to ride south with the men carrying the 
news of the English victory to London, but he got no further than 
York.  He was supposed to leave York at dawn, but Robbie Douglas 
had vanished.  The Scotsman's horse was still in the Archbishop's 
stables and his baggage was where he had dropped it in the yard, 
but Robbie was gone.  For a moment Thomas was tempted to leave 
the Scot behind, but some vague sense of resented duty made him 
stay.  Or perhaps it was that he did not much care for the company 
of the men-at-arms who rode with their triumphant news and so 
he let them go and went to look for his companion.   
He found the Scot gaping up at the gilded bosses of the Minster's 
ceiling.   We're supposed to be riding south," Thomas said.   
 Aye," Robbie answered curtly, otherwise ignoring Thomas.   
Thomas waited.  After a short while:  I said that we're supposed 
to be riding south."   
 So we are," Robbie agreed,  and I'm not stopping you."  He waved 
a magnanimous arm.   Ride on!"   
 You're giving up the hunt for de Taillebourg?"  Thomas asked.   
He had learned the priest's name from Robbie.   
 No."  Robbie still had his head back as he stared at the magnifi- 
cence of the transept's ceiling.   I'll find him and then I'll gralloch 
the bastard."   
Thomas did not know what gralloch meant, but decided the word 
was bad news for de Taillebourg.   So why the hell are you here?"   
Robbie frowned.  He had a shock of curling brown hair and a 
snub face that, at first glance, made him look boyish, though a 
second look would detect the strength in his jawline and the hard- 
ness of his eyes.  He at last turned those eyes on Thomas.   What I 
can't stand," he said,  are those damned laddies!  Those bastards!"   
It took a couple of heartbeats before Thomas realized he meant 
the men-at-arms who had been their companions on the ride from 
Durham to York, the men who were now two hours south on the 
road to London.   What was wrong with them?"   
 Did you hear them last night?  Did you?"  Robbie's indignation 
flared, attracting the attention of two men who were on a high   
trestle where they were painting the feeding of the five thousand 
on the nave's wall.   And the night before?"  Robbie went on.   
 They got drunk," Thomas said,  but so did we."   
 Telling how they fought the battle!"  Robbie said.   And to hear 
the bastards you'd think we ran away!"   
 You did," Thomas said.   
Robbie had not heard him.   You'd think we didn't fight at all!   
Boasting, they were, and we nearly won.  You hear that?"  He poked 
an aggressive finger into Thomas's chest.   We damn nearly won, 
and those bastards made us sound like cowards!"   
 You lost," Thomas said.   
Robbie stared at Thomas as though he could not believe his ears.   
 We drove you back halfway to bloody London!  Had you running, 
we did!  Pissing in your breeks!  We damn nearly won, we did, and 
those bastards are gloating.  Just gloating!  I wanted to murder the 
pack of them!"  A score of folk were listening.  Two pilgrims, making 
their way on their knees to the shrine behind the high altar, were 
staring open-mouthed at Robbie.  A priest was frowning nervously, 
while a child sucked its thumb and gazed aghast at the shock-headed 
man who was shouting so loudly.   You hear me?"  Robbie yelled.   
 We damn nearly won!"   
Thomas walked away.   
 Where are you off to?"  Robbie demanded.   
 South," Thomas said.  He understood Robbie's embarrassment.   
The messengers, carrying news of the battle, could not resist embel- 
lishing the story of the fight when they were entertained in castle 
or monastery and so a hard-fought, savage piece of carnage had 
become an easy victory.  No wonder Robbie was offended, but 
Thomas had small sympathy.  He turned and pointed at the Scots- 
man.   You should have stayed at home."   
Robbie spat in disgust, then became aware of his audience.   Had 
you running," he said hotly, then leaped over to catch up with 
Thomas.  He grinned and there was a sudden and appealing charm 
in his face.   I didn't mean to shout at you," he said,  I was just 
angry.   
 Me too," Thomas said, but his anger was at himself and it was 
mingled with guilt and grief that did not lessen as the two rode 
south.  They took to the road in mornings heavy with dew, rode   
through autumn mists, hunched under the lash of rain, and for 
almost every step of the journey Thomas thought of Eleanor.  Lord 
Outhwaite had promised to bury her and have Masses said for her 
soul and Thomas sometimes wished he was sharing her grave.   
 So why is de Taillebourg chasing you?"  Robbie asked on the day 
they rode away from York.  They spoke in English for, though Robbie 
was from the noble house of Douglas, he spoke no French.   
For a time Thomas said nothing, and just when Robbie thought 
he would not answer at all he gave a snort of derision.   Because," 
he said,  the bastard believes that my father possessed the Grail."   
 The Grail!"  Robbie crossed himself.   I heard it was in Scotland."   
 In Scotland?"  Thomas asked, astonished.   I know Genoa claims 
to have it, but Scotland?"   
 And why not?"  Robbie bristled.   Mind you," he relented,  I've 
heard there's one in Spain, too."   
 Spain?"   
 And if the Spanish have one," Robbie said,  then the French will 
have to have one as well, and for all I know the Portuguese too."   
He shrugged, then looked back to Thomas.   So did your father have   
another?"   
Thomas did not know what to answer.  His father had been way- 
ward, mad, brilliant, difficult and tortured.  He had been a great 
sinner and, for all that, he might well have been a saint as well.   
Father Ralph had laughed at the wider reaches of superstition, he 
had mocked the pig bones sold by pardoners as relics of the saints, 
yet he had hung an old, blackened and bent spear in his church's 
rafters and claimed it was the lance of Saint George. He had never 
mentioned the Grail to Thomas, but since his death Thomas had 
learned that the history of his family was entwined with the Grail.   
In the end he elected to tell Robbie the truth.   I don't know," he 
said,  I simply don't know."   
Robbie ducked under a branch that grew low across the road.   
 Are you telling me this is the real Grail?"   
 If it exists," Thomas said and he wondered again if it did.  He 
supposed it was possible, but wished it was not.  Yet he had been 
charged with the duty of finding out and so he would seek his 
father's one friend and he would ask that man about the Grail and 
when he received the expected answer he would go back to France   
i 32   
and join Skeat's archers.  Will Skeat himself, his one-time com- 
mander and friend, was stranded in Caen, and Thomas had no 
knowledge whether Will still lived or, if he did, whether he could 
speak or understand or even walk.  He could find out by sending a 
letter to Sir Guillaume d'Evecque, Eleanor's father, and Will could 
be given safe passage in return for the release of some minor French 
nobleman.  Thomas would repay Lord Outhwaite with money plun- 
dered from the enemy and then, he told himself, he would find his 
consolation in the practice of his skill, in archery, in the killing of 
the King's enemies.  Perhaps de Taillebourg would come and find 
him and Thomas would kill him like he would put down a rat.  As 
for Robbie?  Thomas had decided he liked the Scotsman, but he did 
not care whether he stayed or went.   
Robbie only understood that de Taillebourg would seek Thomas 
and so he would stay at the archer's side until he could kill the 
Dominican.  He had no other ambition, just to avenge his brother:   
that was a family duty.   You touch a Douglas," he told Thomas, 
and we'll fillet you.  We'll skin you alive.  It's a blood feud, see?"   
 Even if the killer is the priest?"   
 It's either him or his servant," Robbie said,  and the servant obeys 
the master: either way the priest's responsible, so he dies.  I'll slit 
his bloody throat."  He rode for a while in silence, then grinned.   
 And then I'll go to hell, but at least there'll be plenty of Douglases 
keeping the devil company."  He laughed.   
It took ten days to reach London and, once there, Robbie pre- 
tended to be unimpressed, as though Scotland had cities of this size 
in every other valley, but after a while he dropped the pretence 
and just stared in awe at the great buildings, crowded streets and 
serried market stalls.  Thomas used Lord Outhwaite's coins so they 
could lodge in a tavern just outside the city walls beside the horse 
pond in Smithfield and close to the green where more than three 
hundred traders had their stalls.   And it's not even market day?"   
Robbie exclaimed, then snatched at Thomas's sleeve.   Look!"  Ajug- 
gler was spinning half a dozen balls in the air,  that was nothing 
unusual for any county fair would show the same,  but this man 
was standing on two swords, using them as stilts, with his bare feet 
poised on the swords" points.   How does he do it?"  Robbie asked.   
 And look!"  A dancing bear was shuffling to the tune of a flute just   
beneath the gibbet where two bodies hung.  This was the place 
where London's felons were brought to be sent on their swift way 
to hell.  Both corpses were encased in chains to hold the rotting 
flesh to their bones and the stench of the decaying corpses mingled 
with the smell of smoke and the reek of the frightened cattle who 
were bought and sold on the green, which stretched between 
London's wall and the Priory of Saint Bartholomew where Thomas 
paid a priest to say Masses for the souls of Eleanor and Father 
Hobbe.   
Thomas, pretending to Robbie that he was far more familiar with 
London than was the truth, had chosen the tavern in Smithfield 
for no other reason than its sign was two crossed arrows.  This was 
only his second visit to the city and he was as impressed, confused, 
dazzled and surprised as Robbie.  They wandered the streets, gaping 
at churches and noblemen's houses, and Thomas used Lord Outh- 
waite's money to buy himself some new boots, calfskin leggings, 
an oxhide coat and a fine woollen cloak.  He was tempted by a sleek 
French razor in an ivory case, but, not knowing the razor's value, 
feared he was being cheated; he reckoned he could steal himself a 
razor from a Frenchman's corpse when he reached Calais.  Instead 
he paid a barber to shave him and then, dressed in his new finery, 
spent the cost of the unbought razor on one of the tavern's women 
and afterwards lay with tears in his eyes because he was thinking 
of Eleanor.   
 Is there a reason we're in London?"  Robbie asked him that night.   
Thomas drained his ale and beckoned the girl to bring more.   It's 
on our way to Dorset."   
 That's as good a reason as any.   
London was not really on the way from Durham to Dorchester, 
but the roads to the capital were so much better than those that 
wandered across the country and so it was quicker to travel through 
the great city.  However, after three days, Thomas knew they must 
move on and so he and Robbie rode westwards.  They skirted West- 
minster and Thomas thought for an idle heartbeat of visiting John 
Pryke, the royal chaplain sent to accompany him to Durham who 
had fallen ill in London and now either lived or died in the abbey's 
hospital, but Thomas had no stomach to talk of the Grail and so he 
rode on.   
The air became cleaner as they went deeper into the country.  It 
was not reckoned safe to travel these roads, but Thomas's face was 
so grim that other travellers reckoned he was the danger rather 
than the prey.  He was unshaven and he dressed, as he always had, 
in black, and the misery of the last days had put deep lines on his 
thin face.  With Robbie's mass of unkempt hair, the two of them 
looked like any other vagabonds who wandered the roads, except 
these two were fearsomely armed.  Thomas carried his sword, bow 
and arrow bag, while Robbie had his uncle's sword with the scrap 
of Saint Andrew's hair encased in its hilt. Sir William had reckoned 
he would have small use for the sword in the next few years while 
his family attempted to find the vast ransom, and so he had lent it 
to Robbie with the encouragement to use it well.   
 You think de Taillebourg will be in Dorset?"  Robbie asked Thomas 
as they rode through a stinging rain shower.   
 I doubt it."   
 So why are we going?"   
 Because he may go there eventually," Thomas said,  him and his 
damn servant."  He knew nothing about the servant except what 
Robbie had told him: that the man was fastidious, elegant, dark 
in looks and mysterious, but Robbie had never heard his name.   
Thomas, finding it hard to believe that a priest would have killed 
Eleanor, had persuaded himself that the servant was the killer and 
so planned to make the man suffer in agony.   
It was late afternoon when they ducked under the arch of Dor- 
chester's east gate.  A guard there, alarmed by their weapons, chal- 
lenged them, but backed down when Thomas answered in French.   
It suggested he was an aristocrat and the guard sullenly let the two 
horsemen pass, then watched as they climbed East Street past All 
Saints" church and the county jail.  The houses grew more prosper- 
ous as they neared the town's centre and, close to Saint Peter's church, 
the wool-merchants" homes might not have been out of place in 
London. Thomas could smell the shambles behind the houses where 
the butchers worked their trade, then he led Robbie into Cornhill, 
past the shop of the pewterer who had a stammer and a wall eye, 
then past the blacksmith where he had once bought some arrow 
heads.  He knew most of these folk.  The Dogman, a legless beggar 
who had come by his nickname because he lapped water from the   
River Cerne like a dog, was heaving down South Street on the 
wooden bricks strapped to his hands.  Dick Adyn, brother of the 
town's jailer, was driving three sheep up the hill and paused to 
deliver a genial insult to Willie Palmer who was closing up his 
hosiery shop.  A young priest hurried into an alley with a book 
wrapped in his arms and averted his eyes from a woman squatting 
in the gutter.  A gust of wind blew woodsmoke low into the street.   
Dorcas Galton, brown hair drawn up into a bun, shook a rug out 
of an upstairs window and laughed aloud at something Dick Adyn 
said.  They all spoke in the local accent, soft and broad and buzzing 
like Thomas's own, and he almost curbed the horse to speak with 
them, but Dick Adyn glanced at him and then looked swiftly away 
and Dorcas slammed the window shut.  Robbie looked formidable, 
but Thomas's gaunt looks were even more frightening and none of 
the townsfolk recognized him as the bastard son of Hookton's last 
priest.  They would know him if he introduced himself, but war 
had changed Thomas.  It had given him a hardness that repelled 
strangers.  He had left Dorset a boy, but come back as one of Edward 
of England's prized killers and when he left the town by the south 
gate a constable gave both him and Robbie good riddance and told 
them to stay away.   Be lucky the pair of you am tin jail!"  the man 
called, emboldened by his municipal coat of mail and ancient spear.   
Thomas stopped his horse, turned in the saddle and just stared at 
the man who suddenly found reason to duck back into the alley 
beside the gate.  Thomas spat and rode on.   
 Your home town?"  Robbie asked caustically.   
 Not now," Thomas said and he wondered where home was these 
days, and for some odd reason La Roche-Derrien came unbidden 
to his thoughts and he found himself remembering Jeanette Chenier 
in her great house beside the River Jaudy, and that recollection of 
an old love made him feel guilty yet again for Eleanor.   Where's 
your home town?"  he asked Robbie rather than dwell on memories.   
 I grew up close to Langholm."   
 Where's that?"   
 On the River Esk," Robbie said,  not far north of the border.  It's 
a hard country, so it is.  Not like this."   
 This is a good countryside," Thomas said mildly.  He looked up 
at the high green walls of Maiden Castle where the devil played on   
All Hallow's Eve and where the corncrakes now made their harsh 
song.  There were ripe blackberries in the hedgerows and, as the 
shadows lengthened, fox cubs skittering at the edge of the fields.   
A few miles on and the evening had almost shaded to night, but 
he could smell the sea now and he imagined that he could hear it, 
sucking and surging on the Dorset shingle.  This was the ghost time 
of day when the souls of the dead flickered at the edges of men's 
sight and when good folk hurried home to their fire and to their 
thatch and to their bolted doors.  A dog howled in one of the villages.   
Thomas had thought to ride to Down Mapperley where Sir Giles 
Marriott, the squire of Hookton among other villages, had his hall, 
but it was late and he did not think it wise to arrive at the hall 
after dark.  Besides, Thomas wanted to see Hookton before he spoke 
with Sir Giles and so he turned his tired horse towards the sea and 
led Robbie under the high dark loom of Lipp Hill.   I killed my first 
men up on that hill," he boasted.   
 With the bow?"   
 Four of them," Thomas said,  with four arrows.  That was not 
entirely true for he must have shot seven or eight arrows, maybe 
more, but he had still killed four of the raiders who had come across 
the Channel to pillage Hookton.  And now he was deep in the 
twilight shadow of Hookton's sea valley and he could see the fret 
of breaking waves flashing white in the late dusk as he rode down 
beside the stream to the place where his father had preached and 
died.   
No one lived there now.  The raiders had left the village dead.   
The houses had been burned, the church roof had fallen and the 
villagers were buried in a graveyard choked by nettles, thorn and 
thistles.  It was four and a half years since that raiding party had 
Ilanded at Hookton led by Thomas's cousin, Guy Vexille, the Count 
of Astarac, and by Eleanor's father, Sir Guillaume d'Evecque.  Thomas 
had killed four of the crossbowmen and that had been the beginning 
of his life as an archer.  He had abandoned his studies at Oxford 
and, until this moment, had never returned to Hookton.   This was 
home," he told Robbie.   
 What happened?"   
 The French happened," Thomas said and gestured at the darkling 
 sea.   They sailed from Normandy."   
 Jesus."  Robbie, for some reason, was surprised.  He knew that 
the borderlands of England and Scotland were places where build- 
ings were burned, cattle stolen, women raped and men killed, but 
he had never thought it happened this far south.  He slid down from 
his horse and walked to a heap of nettles that had been a cottage.   
 There was a village here?"   
 A fishing village," Thomas said and he strode down what was 
once the street to where the nets had been mended and the women 
had smoked fish.  His father's house was a heap of burned-out tim- 
bers, choked with bindweed now.  The other cottages were the same, 
their thatch and wattle reduced to ash and soil.  Only the church 
to the west of the stream was recognizable, its gaunt walls open to 
the sky.  Thomas and Robbie tied their horses to hazel saplings in 
the graveyard, then took their baggage into the ruined church.  It 
was already too dark to explore, yet Thomas could not sleep and 
so he went down to the beach and he remembered that Easter 
morning when the Norman ships had grounded on the shingle and 
the men had come shrieking in the dawn with swords and cross- 
bows, axes and fire.  They had come for the Grail.  Guy Vexille 
believed it to be in his uncle's possession and so the Harlequin had 
put the village of Hookton to the sword.  He had burned it, destroyed 
it and gone from it without the Grail.   
The stream made its little noise as it twisted inside the shingle 
Hook on its way to meet the great sound of the sea.  Thomas sat 
down on the Hook, swathed in his new cloak, with the great black 
bow beside him.  The chaplain, John Pryke, had talked of the Grail 
in the same awed tones that Father Hobbe had used when he spoke 
of the relic.  The Grail, Father Pryke said, was not just the cup from 
which Christ had drunk wine at the Last Supper, but the vessel 
into which Christ's dying blood had poured from the cross.   Long- 
inus," Father Pryke had said in his excitable manner,  was the cen- 
turion beneath the cross and, when the spear struck the dolorous 
blow, he raised the dish to catch the blood!"   
How, Thomas wondered, did the cup go from the upper room 
where Christ had eaten his last meal into the possession of a Roman 
centurion?  And, stranger still, how had it reached Ralph Vexille?   
He closed his eyes, swaying back and forwards, ashamed of his 
disbelief.  Father Hobbe had always called him Doubting Thomas.   
 You mustn't seek explanations," Father Hobbe had said again 
and again,  because the Grail is a miracle.  It transcends explana- 
tions.   
 C'est une tasse magique," Eleanor had added, implicitly adding her 
reproof to Father Hobbe's.   
Thomas so wanted to believe it was a magic cup.  He wanted to 
believe that the Grail existed just beyond human sight, behind a 
veil of disbelief, a thing half visible, shimmering, wonderful, poised 
in light and glowing like pale fire.  He wanted to believe that one 
day it would take on substance and that from its bowl, which had 
held the wine and the blood of Christ, would flow peace and heal- 
ing.  Yet if God wanted the world to be at peace and if He wanted 
sickness defeated, why did He hide the Grail?  Father Hobbe's answer 
had been that mankind was not worthy to hold the cup, and Thomas 
wondered if that was true.  Was anyone worthy?  And perhaps, 
Thomas thought, if the Grail had any magic then it was to exagger- 
ate the faults and virtues of those who sought it.  Father Hobbe had 
become more saintlike in his pursuit and the strange priest and his 
dark servant more malevolent.  It was like one of those crystal lenses 
that jewellers used to magnify their work, only the Grail was a 
crystal that magnified character.  What, Thomas wondered, did it 
reveal of his own?  He remembered his unease at the thought of 
marrying Eleanor, and suddenly he began to weep, to heave with 
sobs, to cry more than he had already cried since her murder.  He 
rocked to and fro, his grief as deep as the sea that beat on the 
shingle, and it was made worse by the knowledge that he was a 
sinner, unshriven, his soul doomed to hell.   
He missed his woman, he hated himself, he felt empty, alone and 
doomed, and so, in his father's dead village, he wept.   
It began to rain later, a steady rain that soaked through the new 
cloak and chilled Thomas and Robbie to the bone.  They had lit a 
fire that flickered feebly in the old church, hissing under the rain 
and giving them a small illusion of warmth.   Are there wolves here?"   
Robbie asked.   
 Supposed to be," Thomas said,  though I never saw one."   
 We have wolves in Eskdale," Robbie said,  and at night their eyes 
glow red.  Like fire."   
 There are monsters in the sea here," Thomas said.   Their bodies 
wash ashore sometimes and you can find their bones in the cliffs.   
Sometimes, even on calm days, men wouldn't come back from 
fishing and you'd know the monsters had taken them."  He shivered 
and crossed himself.   
 When my grandfather died," Robbie said,  the wolves circled the 
house and howled."   
 Is it a big house?"   
Robbie seemed surprised by the question.  He considered it for a 
moment, then nodded.   Aye," he said.   My father's a laird."   
 A lord?"   
 Like a lord," Robbie said.   
 He wasn't at the battle?"   
 He lost a leg and an arm at Berwick.  So we boys have to fight 
for him."  He said he was the youngest of four sons.   Three now," 
he said, crossing himself and thinking of Jamie.   
They half slept, woke, shivered, and in the dawn Thomas walked 
back to the Hook to watch the new day seep grey along the sea's 
ragged edge.  The rain had stopped, though a cold wind shredded 
the wave-tops.  The grey turned a leprous white, then silvery as the 
gulls called over the long shingle where, at the top of the Hook's 
bank, he found the weathered remnants of four posts.  They had 
not been there when he left, but beneath one of them, half buried 
in stones, was a yellowish scrap of skull and he guessed this was 
one of the crossbowmen he had killed with his tall black bow on 
that Easter day.  Four posts, four dead men and Thomas supposed 
that the four heads had been placed on the poles to gaze out to sea 
till the gulls pecked out their eyes and flensed the flesh back to the 
bare skulls.   
He stared into the ruined village, but could see no one.  Robbie 
was still inside the church from which a tiny wisp of smoke drifted, 
but otherwise Thomas was alone with the gulls.  There were not 
even sheep, cattle or goats on Lipp Hill.  He walked back inland, his 
feet crunching on the shingle, then realized he still held the broken 
curve of skull and he hurled it into the stream where the fishing 
boats had been flooded to rid them of rats and then, feeling hungry,   
he went and took the piece of hard cheese and dark bread from 
the saddlebag that he had dumped beside the church door.  The 
walls of the church, now he could see them properly in the daylight, 
appeared lower than he remembered, probably because local folk 
had come with carts and taken the stones away for barns or sties 
or house walls.  Inside the church there was only a tangle of thorns, 
nettles and a few gnarled lengths of charred timber that had long 
been overgrown by grass.   I was almost killed in here," he told 
Robbie, and he described how the raiders had beaten on the church 
door as he had kicked out the horn panes of the east window and 
jumped down into the graveyard.  He remembered how his foot had 
crushed the silver Mass cup as he scrambled over the altar.   
Had that silver cup been the Grail?  He laughed aloud at the 
thought.  The Mass cup had been a silver goblet on which was 
incised the badge of the Vexilles, and that badge, cut from the 
crushed cup, was now pinned to Thomas's bow.  It was all that was 
left of the old goblet, but it had not been the Grail.  The Grail was 
much older, much more mysterious and much more frightening.   
The altar was long gone, but there was a shallow clay bowl in 
the nettles where it had stood.  Thomas kicked the plants aside and 
picked up the bowl, remembering how his father would fill it with 
wafers before the Mass and cover it with a piece of linen cloth and 
then hurry it to the church, getting angry if any of the villagers did 
not take off their hats and bow to the sacrament as he passed.   
Thomas had kicked the bowl as he climbed onto the altar to escape 
the Frenchmen, and here it still was.  He smiled ruefully, thought 
about keeping the bowl, but tossed it back into the nettles.  Archers 
should travel light.   
 Someone's coming," Robbie warned him, running to fetch his 
uncle's sword.  Thomas picked up the bow and took an arrow from 
his bag, and just then he heard the thump of hooves and the bay- 
ing of hounds.  He went to the ruins of the door and saw a dozen 
great deerhounds splashing through the stream with tongues loll- 
ing between their fangs; he had no time to run from them, only 
to flatten himself against the wall as the hounds streaked for 
him.   
 Argos!  Maera!  Back off now!  Mind your goddamn manners!"  the 
horseman bellowed at his hounds, reinforcing his commands with   
the crack of a whip over their heads, but the beasts surrounded 
Thomas and leaped up at him.  Yet it was not in threat: they were 
licking his face and wagging their tails.   Orthos!"  the huntsman 
snapped at one dog, then he stared hard at Thomas.  He did not 
recognize him, but the hounds obviously knew him and that gave 
the huntsman pause.   
 Jake," Thomas said.   
 Sweet Jesus Christ!"  Jake said.   Sweet Jesus!  Look what the tide 
brought in.  Orthos!  Argos!  Off and away, you bastards, off and 
away!"  The whip cracked loud and the hounds, still excited, backed 
away.  Jake shook his head.   It's Thomas, isn't it?"   
 How are you, Jake?"   
 Older," Jake Churchill said gruffly, then climbed down from the 
saddle, pushed through the hounds and greeted Thomas with an 
embrace.   It was your damned father who named these dogs.  He 
thought it was a joke.  It's good to see you, boy."  Jake was grey- 
bearded, his face dark as a nut from the weather and his skin scarred 
from countless brushes with thorns.  He was Sir Giles Marriott's 
chief huntsman and he had taught Thomas how to shoot a bow 
and how to stalk a deer and how to go hidden and silent through 
country.   Good Christ Almighty, boy," he said,  but you've fair 
grown up.  Look at the size of you!"   
 Boys do grow up, Jake," Thomas said, then gestured at Robbie.   
 He's a friend."   
Jake nodded at the Scotsman, then hauled two of the hounds 
away from Thomas.  The dogs, named for hounds from Greek and 
Latin myth, whined excitedly.   And what the hell are you two doing 
down here?"  Jake wanted to know.   You should have come up to 
the hall like Christians!"   
 We got here late," Thomas explained,  and I wanted to see the 
place."   
 Nothing to see here," Jake said scornfully.   Nothing but hares 
here now.   
 You're hunting hare now?"   
 I don't bring ten brace of hounds to snaffle hares, boy.  No, Lally 
Gooden's boy saw the pair of you sneaking in here last night and 
so Sir Giles sent me down to see what evil was brewing.  We had 
a pair of vagabonds trying to set up home here in the spring and   
they had to be whipped on their way.  And last week there was a 
pair of foreigners creeping about."   
 Foreigners?"  Thomas asked, knowing that Jake could well mean 
nothing more than that the strangers had come from the next 
parish.   
 A priest and his man," Jake said,  and if he hadn't been a priest   
I'd have loosed the dogs on him.  I don't like foreigners, don't see 
no point to them.  Those horses of yours looks hungry.  So do the 
two of you.  You want breakfast?  Or are you going to stand there 
and spoil those damned hounds by patting them half to death?"   
They rode back to Down Mapperley, following the hounds 
through the tiny village.  Thomas remembered the place as big, twice 
the size of Hookton, and as a child he had thought it almost a 
town, but now he saw how small it was.  Small and low, so that on 
horseback he towered above the thatched cottages that had seemed   
so palatial when he was a child.  The dungheaps beside each cottage 
were as high as the thatch.  Sir Giles Marriott's hall, just beyond 
the village, was also thatched, the moss-thick roof sweeping almost 
to the ground.   He'll be pleased to see you, Jake promised.   
And so Sir Giles was.  He was an old man now, a widower who 
had once been wary of Thomas's wildness, but now greeted him 
like a lost son.   You're thin, boy, too thin.  Ain't good for a man to 
be thin.  You'll have breakfast, the two of you?  Pease pudding and 
small ale is what we've got.  There was bread yesterday, but not 
today.  When do we bake more bread, Gooden?"  This was demanded 
of a servant.   
 Today's Wednesday, sir," the servant said reprovingly.   
 Tomorrow then," Sir Giles told Thomas.   Bread tomorrow, no 
bread today.  It's bad luck to bake bread on Wednesday.  It poisons 
you, Wednesday's bread.  I must have eaten Monday's.  You say 
you're Scottish?"  This was to Robbie.   
 I am, sir."   
 I thought all Scotsmen had beards," Sir Giles said.   There was a 
Scotsman in Dorchester, wasn't there Gooden?  You remember him?   
He had a beard.  He played the gittern and danced well.  You must 
remember him."   
 He was from the Scilly Isles," the servant said.   
 That's what I just said.  But he had a beard, didn't he?"   
 He did, Sir Giles.  A big one."   
 There you are then," Sir Giles spooned some pease pudding into 
a mouth that only had two teeth left.  He was fat, white-haired and 
red-faced and at least fifty years old.   Can't ride a horse these days, 
Thomas," he admitted.   Ain't good for anything now except sitting 
about the place and watching the weather.  Did Jake tell you there 
be foreigners scuttling about?"   
 He did, sir."   
 A priest!  Black and white robes like a magpie.  He wanted to talk 
about your father and I said there was nothing to talk about.  Father 
Ralph's dead, I said, and God rest his poor soul."   
 Did the priest ask for me, sir?"  Thomas asked.   
Sir Giles grinned.   I said I hadn't seen you in years and hoped 
never to see you again, and then his servant asked me where he 
might look for you and I told him not to talk to his betters without 
permission.  He didn't like that!"  he chuckled.   So then the magpie 
asked about your father and I said I hardly knew him.  That was a 
lie, of course, but he believed me and took himself off.  Put some 
logs on that fire, Gooden.  A man could freeze to death in his own 
hall if it was left to you."   
 So the priest left, sir?"  Robbie asked.  It seemed unlike de Taille- 
bourg just to accept a denial and meekly go away.   
 He was frightened of dogs," Sir Giles said, still amused.   I had 
some of the hounds in here and if he hadn't been dressed like a 
magpie I'd have let them loose, but it don't do to kill priests.  There's 
always trouble afterwards.  The devil comes and plays his games if 
you kill a priest.  But I didn't like him and I told him I wasn't sure 
how long I could keep the dogs heeled.  There's some ham in the 
kitchen.  Would you like some ham, Thomas?"   
 No, sir."   
 I do hate winter."  Sir Giles stared into the fire, which now blazed 
huge in his wide hearth.  The hall had smoke blackened beams 
supporting the huge expanse of thatch.  At one end a carved timber 
screen hid the kitchens while the private rooms were at the other 
end, though since his wife had died Sir Giles no longer used the 
small chambers, but lived, ate and slept beside the hall fire.   I reckon 
this'll be my last winter, Thomas."   
 I hope not, sir."   
 Hope what you damned well like, but I won't last it through.  Not 
when the ice comes.  A man can't keep warm these days, Thomas.  It 
bites into you, the cold does, bites into your marrow and I don't 
like it.  Your father never liked it either."  He was staring at Thomas 
now.   Your father always said you'd go away.  Not to Oxford.  He 
knew you didn't like that.  Like whipping a destrier between the 
shafts, he used to say.  He knew you'd run off and be a soldier.  He 
always said you had wild blood in you."  Sir Giles smiled, remem- 
bering.   But he also said you'd come home one day.  He said you'd 
come back to show him what a fine fellow you'd become.   
Thomas blinked back tears.  Had his father really said that?   I 
came back this time," he said,  to ask you a question, sir.  The same 
question, I think, that the French priest wanted to ask you."   
 Questions!"  Sir Giles grumbled.   I never did like questions.  They 
need answers, see?  Of course you want some ham!  What do you 
mean, no?  Gooden?  Ask your daughter to unwrap that ham, will 
you?"   
Sir Giles heaved himself to his feet and shuffled across the hall 
to a great chest of dark, polished oak.  He raised the lid and, groaning 
with the effort of bending over, began to rummage through the 
clothes and boots that were jumbled inside.   I find now, Thomas," 
he went on,  that I don't need questions.  I sit in the manor court 
every second week and I know whether they're guilty or innocent 
the moment they're fetched into the hall!  Mind you, we have to 
pretend otherwise, don't we?  Now, where is it?  Ah!"  He found 
whatever he sought and brought it back to the table.   There, 
Thomas, damn your question and that's your answer."  He pushed 
the bundle across the table.   
It was a small object wrapped in ancient sacking.  Thomas had an 
absurd premonition that this was the Grail itself and was ridicu- 
lously disappointed when he discovered the bundle contained a 
book.  The book's front cover was a soft leather flap, four or five 
times larger than the pages, which could be used to wrap the volume 
that, when Thomas opened it, proved to be written in his father's 
hand.  However, being by his father, nothing in it was straightfor- 
ward.  Thomas leafed through the pages swiftly, discovering notes 
written in Latin, Greek and a strange script which he thought must 
be Hebrew.  He turned back to the first page where only three words   
1were written and, reading them, felt his blood run cold.   Calix meus 
inebrians."   
 Is it your answer?"  Sir Giles asked.   
 Yes, sir."   
Sir Giles peered at the first page.   It's Latin that, isn't it?"   
 Yes, sir."   
 Thought it was.  I looked, of course, but couldn't make head nor 
tail of it and I didn't like to ask Sir John," Sir John was the priest 
of Saint Peter's in Dorchester,   or that lawyer fellow, what's his name? 
The one who dribbles when he gets excited.  He speaks Latin, or he 
says he does.  What does it mean?"   
 'My cup makes me drunk ," Thomas said.   
 'My cup makes me drunk !"  Sir Giles thought that was splen- 
didly funny.   Aye, your father's wits were well off the wind.  A good 
man, a good man, but dear me!   My cup makes me drunk !"   
 It's from one of the psalms," Thomas said, turning to the second 
page, which was written in the script he thought was Hebrew, 
though there was something odd about it.  One of the recurrent 
symbols looked like a human eye and Thomas had never seen that 
in a Hebrew script before though, in all honesty, he had seen little 
Hebrew.   It's from the psalm, sir," he went on,  that begins by saying 
God is our shepherd."   
 He's not my shepherd," Sir Giles grumbled.   I'm not some 
damned sheep."   
 Nor me, sir," Robbie declared.   
 I did hear,"  Sir Giles looked at Robbie,   that the King of Scotland 
was taken prisoner."   
 He was, sir?"  Robbie asked innocently.   
 Probably nonsense," Sir Giles replied, then he began telling a 
long tale about meeting a bearded Scotsman in London, and Thomas 
ignored the story to look through the pages of his father's book.   
He felt a kind of strange disappointment because the book suggested 
that the search for the Grail was justified.  He wanted someone to 
tell him it was nonsense, to release him from the cup's thrall, but 
his father had taken it seriously enough to write this book.  But his 
father, Thomas reminded himself, had been mad.   
Mary, Gooden's daughter, brought in the ham.  Thomas had 
known Mary since they were both children playing in puddles and   
he smiled a greeting at her, then saw that Robbie was gazing at her 
as though she was an apparition from heaven.  She had dark long 
hair and a full mouth and Thomas was sure Robbie would be dis- 
covering more than a few rivals in Down Mapperley.  He waited 
until Mary had gone, then held up the book.   Did my father ever 
talk to you about this, sir?"   
 He talked of everything," Sir Giles said.   Talked like a woman, 
he did.  Never stopped!  I was your father's friend, Thomas, but I 
was never much of a man for religion.  If he talked of it too much, 
I fell asleep.  He liked that."  Sir Giles paused to cut a slice of ham.   
 But your father was mad."   
 You think this is madness, sir?"  Thomas held up the book again.   
 Your father was mad for God, but he was no fool.  I never knew 
a man with so much common sense and I miss it.  I miss the advice."   
 Does that girl work here?"  Robbie asked, gesturing at the screen 
behind which Mary had disappeared.   
 All her life," Sir Giles said.   You remember Mary, Thomas?"   
 I tried to drown her when we were both children," Thomas said.   
He turned the pages of his father's book again though he had no 
time now to tease any meanings from the tangled words.   You do 
know what this is, sir, don't you?"   
Sir Giles paused, then nodded.   I know, Thomas, that many men 
want what your father claims to have possessed."   
 So he did make that claim?"   
Another pause.   He hinted at it , Sir Giles said heavily,  and I 
don't envy you."   
 Me?"   
 Because he gave me that book, Thomas, and he said that if 
anything happened to him I was to keep it until you were old 
enough and man enough to take up the task.  That's what he said."   
Sir Giles stared at Thomas and saw his old friend's son flinch.   But 
if the two of you want to stay for a while," he said,  then you'd be 
welcome.  Jake Churchill needs help.  He tells me he's never seen 
so many fox cubs and if we don't kill some of the bastards then 
there'll be some rare massacres among the lambs next year.   
Thomas glanced at Robbie.  Their task was to find de Taillebourg 
and avenge the deaths of Eleanor, Father Hobbe and Robbie's 
brother, but it was unlikely, he thought, that the Dominican would   
come back here.  Robbie, however, plainly wanted to stay: Mary 
Gooden had seen to that.  And Thomas was tired.  He did not know 
where to seek the priest and so the chance to stay in this hall was 
welcome.  It would be an opportunity to study the book and thus 
follow his father down the long, tortuous path of the Grail.   
 We'll stay, sir," Thomas said.   
For a while.  
It was the first time that Thomas had ever lived like a lord.  Not a 
great lord, perhaps, not as an earl or a duke with scores of men to   
command, but still in privilege, ensconced in the manor,  even if 
the manor was a thatched timber hall with a beaten earth floor,  
the days his to wile away as other people did life's hard work of 
cutting firewood, drawing water, milking cows, churning butter, 
pounding dough and washing clothes.  Robbie was more used to it,   
but reckoned life was much easier in Dorset.   Back home," he said, 
 there's always some damn English raiders coming over the hill to 
steal your cattle or take your grain.   
 Where as you," Thomas said,  would never dream of riding south 
and stealing from the English."   
 Why would I even think of such a thing?"  Robbie asked, grin- 
ning.   
So, as winter closed down on the land, they hunted Sir Giles 
Marriott's acres to make the fields safe for the lambing season and to 
bring back venison to Sir Giles's table; they drank in the Dorchester 
taverns and laughed at the mummers who came for the winter 
fair.  Thomas found old friends and told them stories of Brittany, 
Normandy and Picardy, some of which were true, and he won the 
golden arrow at the fair's archery competition and he presented it 
to Sir Giles who hung it in the hall and declared it the finest trophy 
he had ever seen.   My son could shoot a good arrow.  A very good 
arrow.  I'd like to think he could have won this trophy himself."   
Sir Giles's only son had died of a fever and his only daughter 
was married to a knight who held land in Devon and Sir Giles liked 
neither son-in-law nor daughter.   They'll inherit the property when   
I die," he told Thomas,'s o you and Robbie may as well enjoy it 
now."   
Thomas persuaded himself that he was not ignoring the search 
for the Grail because of the hours he spent poring over his father's 
book.  The pages were thick vellum, expensive and rare, which 
showed how important these notes had been to Father Ralph, but 
even so they made small sense to Thomas.  Much of the book was 
stories.  One told how a blind man, caressing the cup, had received 
his sight but then, disappointed in the Grail's appearance, lost it 
again.  Another told how a Moorish warrior had tried to steal the 
Grail and been turned into a serpent for his impiety.  The longest 
tale in the book was about Perceval, a knight of antiquity who went 
on crusade and discovered the Grail in Christ's tomb.  This time the 
Latin word used to describe the grail was crater, meaning bowl,   
whereas on other pages it was calix, a cup, and Thomas wondered 
if there was any significance in the distinction.  If his father had   
possessed the Grail, would he not have known whether it was a 
cup or a bowl?  Or perhaps there was no real difference.  Whatever, 
the long tale told how the bowl had sat on a shelf of Christ's tomb 
in plain view of all who entered the sepulchre, both Christian pil- 
grims and their pagan enemies, yet not till Sir Perceval entered the 
grotto on his knees was the Grail actually seen by anyone, for Sir 
Perceval was a man of righteousness and thus worthy of having his 
eyes opened.  Sir Perceval removed the bowl, bringing it back to 
Christendom where he planned to build a shrine worthy of the 
treasure, but, the tale laconically recorded,  he died".  Thomas's 
 father had written beneath this abrupt conclusion:  Sir Perceval was 
Count of Astarac and was known by another name.  He married a 
Vexille."   
 Sir Perceval!"  Sir Giles was impressed.   He was a member of your   
family, eh?  Your father never mentioned that to me.  At least I don't, ,  
think he did.  I did sleep through a lot of his tales."   
 He usually scoffed at stories like this," Thomas said.   
 We often mock what we fear," Sir Giles observed sententiously.   
Suddenly he grinned.   Jake tells me you caught that old dog fox 
by the Five Marys."  The Five Marys were ancient grave mounds 
that the locals claimed were dug by giants and Thomas had never 
understood why there were six of them.   
- 15O   
 It wasn't there," Thomas said,  but back of the White Nothe."   
 Back of White Nothe?  Up on the cliffs?"  Sir Giles stared at 
Thomas, then laughed.   You were on Holgate's land!  You rascals!"   
Sir Giles, who had always complained mightily when Thomas had 
poached from his land, now found this predation on a neighbour 
hugely amusing.   He's an old woman, Holgate.  So are you making 
head or tail of that book?"   
 I wish I knew," Thomas said, staring at the name Astarac.  All he 
knew was that Astarac was a fief or county in southern France and 
the home of the Vexille family before they were declared rebel and 
heretic.  He had also learned that Astarac was close to the Cathar 
heartlands, close enough for the contagion to catch the Vexilles, 
and when, a hundred years before, the French King and the true 
Church had burned the heretics out of the land they had also forced 
 the Vexilles to flee.  Now it seemed that the legendary Sir Perceval 
was a Vexille?  It seemed to Thomas that the further he penetrated 
the mystery the greater the entanglement.   Did my father ever talk 
to you of Astarac, sir?"  He asked Sir Giles.   
 Astarac?  What's that?"   
 Where his family came from."   
 No, no, he grew up in Cheshire.  That's what he always said."   
But Cheshire had merely been a refuge, a place to hide from the 
Inquisition: was that where the Grail was now hidden?  Thomas 
turned a page to find a long passage describing how a raiding col- 
umn had tried to attack the tower of Astarac and had been repulsed 
by the sight of the Grail.   It dazzled them," Father Ralph had written, 
so that 364 of them were cut down."  Another page recorded that 
it was impossible for a man to tell a lie while he held his hand on 
the Grail,  or else he will be stricken dead".  A barren woman would 
be granted the gift of children by stroking the Grail and if a man 
were to drink from it on Good Friday he would be vouchsafed a 
glimpse of's he whom he will take to wife in heaven".  Another 
story related how a knight, carrying the Grail across a wilderness, 
was pursued by heathens and, when it seemed he must be caught, 
God sent a vast eagle that caught him, his horse and the precious 
Grail up into the sky, leaving the pagan warriors howling in frus- 
trated rage.   
One phrase was copied over and over in the pages of the book:   
 Transfer calicem istem a me', and Thomas could feel his father's misery 
and frustration reaching through the repeated phrase.   Take this 
cup from me," the words meant and they were the same words 
Christ had spoken in the Garden of Gethsemane as he pleaded with 
God the Father to spare him the pain of hanging on the tree.  The 
phrase was sometimes written in Greek, a language Thomas had 
studied but never mastered fully; he managed to decipher most of 
the Greek text, but the Hebrew remained a mystery.   
Sir John, the ancient vicar of Saint Peter's, agreed that it was a 
strange kind of Hebrew.  I've forgotten all the Hebrew I ever 
learned," he told Thomas,  but I don't remember seeing a letter like 
that!"  He pointed to the symbol that looked like a human eye.   Very 
odd, Thomas, very odd.  It's almost Hebrew."  He paused a while, 
then said plaintively,  If only poor Nathan was still here."   
 Nathan?"   
 He was before your time, Thomas.  Nathan collected leeches and 
sent them to London.  Physicians there prized Dorset leeches, did 
you know that?  But, of course, Nathan was a Jew and he left with 
the others."  The Jews had been expelled from England almost fifty 
years before, an event still green in the priest's memory.   No one 
has ever discovered where he found his leeches," Sir John went on, 
and I sometimes wonder if he put a curse on them."  He frowned 
at the book.   This belonged to your father?"   
 It did."   
 Poor Father Ralph," Sir John said, intimating that the book must 
have been the product of madness.  He closed the volume and care- 
fully wrapped the soft leather cover about the pages.   
There was no sign of de Taillebourg, nor any news of Thomas's 
friends in Normandy.  He wrote a difficult letter to Sir Guillaume 
which told how his daughter had died and begging for any news 
of Will Skeat whom Sir Guillaume had taken to Caen to be treated 
by Mordecai, the Jewish doctor.  The letter went to Southampton 
and from there to Guernsey and Thomas was assured it would be 
sent on to Normandy, but no reply had come by Christmas and 
Thomas assumed the letter was lost.  Thomas also wrote to Lord 
Outhwaite, assuring his lordship that he was being assiduous in his 
search and recounting some of the stories from his father's book.   
Lord Outhwaite sent a reply that congratulated Thomas on what   
he had discovered, then revealed that Sir Geoffrey Carr had left for 
Brittany with half a dozen men.  Rumour, Lord Outhwaite reported, 
claimed that the Scarecrow's debts were larger than ever,  which, 
perhaps, is why he has gone to Brittany".  It would not just be hope 
of plunder that had taken the Scarecrow to La Roche-Derrien, but 
the law which said a debtor was not required to make repayments 
while he served the King abroad.   Will you follow the Scarecrow?"   
Lord Outhwaite enquired, and Thomas sent an answer saying he 
would be in La Roche-Derrien by the time Lord Outhwaite read 
these words, and then did nothing about leaving Dorset.  It was 
Christmas, he told himself, and he had always enjoyed Christmas.   
Sir Giles celebrated the twelve days of the feast in high style.  He 
ate no meat from Advent Sunday, which was not a particular hard- 
ship for he loved eggs and fish, but on Christmas Eve he ate nothing 
but bread, readying himself for the first feast of the season.  Twelve 
empty hives were brought into the hall and decorated with sprigs 
of ivy and holly; a great candle, big enough to burn through the 
whole season, was placed on the high table and a vast log set to 
burn in the hearth, and Sir Giles's neighbours were invited to drink 
wine and ale, and eat beef, wild boar, venison, goose and brawn.   
The wassail cup, filled with mulled and spiced claret, was passed 
about the hall and Sir Giles, as he did every night of Christmas, 
wept for his dead wife and was drunkenly asleep by the time the 
candles burned out.  On the fourth night of Christmas, Thomas and 
Robbie joined the hogglers as, disguised as ghosts and green men 
and wild men, they pranced about the parish extorting funds for 
the Church.  They went as far as Dorchester, encroaching on two 
other parishes as they did, and got into a fight with the hogglers 
from All Saints" and they ended the night in the Dorchester jail 
from which they were released by an amused George Adyn who 
brought them a morning pot of ale and one of his wife's famous 
hog's puddings.  The Twelfth Night feast was a boar that Robbie had 
speared, and after it was eaten, and when the guests were lying 
half drunk and satiated on the hall rushes, it began to snow.  Thomas 
stood in the doorway and watched the flakes whirling in the light 
of a flickering torch.   
 We must be away soon," Robbie had come to join him.   
 Away?"   
 We have work to do," the Scot said.   
Thomas knew that was true, but he did not want to leave.   I 
thought you were happy enough here?"   
 So I am," Robbie said,  and Sir Giles is more generous than I 
deserve."   
 So?"   
 It's Mary," Robbie said.  He was embarrassed and did not finish.   
 Pregnant?"  Thomas guessed.   
Robbie crossed himself.   It seems so."   
Thomas stared at the snow.   If you give her enough money to 
make a dowry," he said,'s he'll thrive."   
 I've only got three pounds left," Robbie said.  He had been given 
a purse by his uncle, Sir William, supposedly with enough money 
to last a year.   
 That should be enough," Thomas said.  The snow whirled in a 
gust of wind.   
 It'll leave me with nothing!"  Robbie protested.   
 You should have thought of that before you ploughed the field," 
Thomas said, remembering how he had been in just this predica- 
ment with a girl in Hookton.  He turned back to the hall where a 
harpist and flautist made music to the drunks.   We should go," he 
said,  but I don't know where.   
 You said you wanted to go to Calais?"   
Thomas shrugged.   You think de Taillebourg will seek us there?"   
 I think," Robbie said,  that once he knows you have that book 
he'll follow you into hell itself."   
Thomas knew Robbie was right, but the book was not proving 
to be of any great help.  It never specifically said that Father Ralph 
had possessed the Grail, nor described a place where a searcher 
might look for it.  Thomas and Robbie had been looking.  They had 
combed the sea caves in the cliffs near Hookton where they had 
found driftwood, limpets and seaweed.  There had been no golden 
cup half hidden in the shingle.  So where to go now?  Where to 
look?  If Thomas went to Calais then he could join the army, but 
he doubted de Taillebourg would seek him out in the heart of 
England's soldiery.  Maybe, Thomas thought, he should go back to 
Brittany and he knew that it was not the Grail or the necessity to 
face de Taillebourg that attracted him to La Roche-Derrien, but   
the thought that Jeanette Chenier might have returned home.  He 
thought of her often, thought of her black hair, of her fierce spirit 
and defiance, and every time he thought of her he suffered guilt 
because of Eleanor.   
The snow did not last.  It thawed and a hard rain came from the 
west to lash the Dorset coast.  A big English ship was wrecked on 
the Chesil shingle and Thomas and Robbie took one of Sir Giles's 
wagons down to the beach and with the aid of Jake Churchill and 
two of his sons fought off a score of other men to rescue six packs 
of wool that they carried back to Down Mapperley and presented 
to Sir Giles who thereby made a year's income in one day.   
And next morning the French priest came to Dorchester.   
The news was brought by George Adyn.   I know as you said we 
should be watching for foreigners," he told Thomas,  and this one 
be real foreign.  Dressed like a priest, he is, but who knows?  Looks 
like a vagabond, he does.  You say the word,"  he winked at Thomas   
-  and we'll give the bugger a proper whipping and send him on 
up to Shaftesbury."   
 What will they do with him there?"  Robbie asked.   
 Give him another whipping and send him back," George said.   
 Is he a Dominican?"  Thomas asked.   
 How would I know?  He's talking gibberish, he is.  He don't talk 
proper, not like a Christian."   
 What colour is his gown?"   
 Black, of course.   
 I'll come and talk to him," Thomas said.   
 He only jabbers away, he does.  Your honour!"  This was in greet- 
ing to Sir Giles, and Thomas then had to wait while the two men 
discussed the health of various cousins and nephews and other 
relatives, and it was close to midday by the time he and Robbie 
rode into Dorchester and Thomas thought, for the thousandth time, 
what a good town this was and how it would be a pleasure to live 
here.   
The priest was brought out into the small jail yard.  It was a fine 
day.  Two blackbirds hopped along the top wall and an aconite was   
blooming in the yard corner.  The priest proved to be a young man, 
very short, with a squashed nose, protuberant eyes and bristling 
black hair.  He wore a gown so shabby, torn and stained that it 
was little wonder the constables had thought the man a vagrant; a 
 misconception that made the little priest indignant.   Is this how the 
English treat God's servants?  Hell is too good for you English!  I 
shall tell the bishop and he will tell the Archbishop and he will 
inform the Holy Father and you will all be declared anathema!  You 
will all be excommunicated!"   
 See what I mean?"  George Adyn asked.   Yaps away like a dog 
fox, but he don't make sense.   
 He's speaking French," Thomas told him, then turned to the 
priest.   What's your name?"   
 I want to see the bishop now.  Here!"   
 What's your name?"   
 Bring me the local priest!"   
 I'll punch your bloody ears out first," Thomas said.   Now what's 
your name?"   
He was called Father Pascal, and he had just endured a journey 
of exquisite discomfort, crossing the winter seas from Normandy, 
from a place south of Caen.  He had travelled first to Guernsey and 
then on to Southampton from where he had walked, and he had 
done it all without any knowledge of English.  It was a miracle to 
Thomas that Father Pascal had come this far.  And it seemed even 
more of a miracle because Father Pascal had been sent to Hookton 
from Evecque, with a message for Thomas.   
Sir Guillaume d'Evecque had sent him, or rather Father Pascal 
had volunteered to make the journey, and it was urgent for he was 
bringing a plea for help.  Evecque was under siege.   It is terrible!"   
Father Pascal said.  By now, calmed and placated, he was by the fire 
in the Three Cocks where he was eating goose and drinking bragget, 
a mixture of warmed mead and dark ale.   It is the Count of Coutances who is besieging him.  The Count!"   
 Why is that terrible?"  Thomas enquired.   
 Because the Count is his liege lord!"  the priest exclaimed, and 
Thomas understood why Father Pascal said it was terrible.  Sir Guil- 
laume held his lands in fief to the Count and by making war on 
his own tenant the Count was declaring Sir Guillaume an outlaw.   
 But why?"  Thomas asked.   
Father Pascal shrugged.   The Count says it is because of 
what happened at the battle.  Do you know what happened at the 
battle?"   
 I know," Thomas said, and because he was translating for Robbie 
he had to explain anyway.  The priest referred to the battle that 
had been fought the previous summer by the forest at Cre'cy.  Sir 
Guillaume had been in the French army, but in the middle of the 
fight he had seen his enemy, Guy Vexille, and had turned his 
men-at-arms against Vexille's troops.   
 The Count says that is treason," the priest explained,  and the 
King has given his blessing."   
Thomas said nothing for a while.   How did you know I was here?"   
he finally asked.   
 You sent a letter to Sir Guillaume.   
 I didn't think it reached him."   
 Of course it did.  Last year.  Before this trouble started."   
Sir Guillaume was in trouble, but his manor of Evecque, Father 
Pascal said, was built of stone and blessed with a moat and so far 
the Count of Coutances had found it impossible to break the wall 
or cross the moat, but the Count had scores of men while Sir 
Guillaume had a garrison of only nine.   There are some women 
too,"  Father Pascal tore at a goose leg with his teeth,   but they 
don't count."   
 Does he have food?"   
 Plenty, and the well is good."   
 So he can hold for a time?"   
The priest shrugged.   Maybe?  Maybe not?  He thinks so, but what 
do I know?  And the Count has a machine, a  ."  He frowned, trying 
to find the word.   
 A trebuchet?"   
 No, no, a springald!"  A springald was like a massive crossbow 
that shot a huge dart.  Father Pascal stripped the last morsel off the 
bone.   It is very slow and it broke once.  But they mended it.  It 
batters at the wall.  Oh, and your friend is there," he mumbled, his 
mouth full.   
 My friend?"   
 Skeat, is that the name?  He's there with the doctor He can talk   
now, and he walks.  He is much better, yes?  But he cannot recognize 
people, not unless they speak."   
 Unless they speak?"  Thomas asked, puzzled.   
 If he sees you," the priest explained,  he does not know you.   
Then you speak and he knows you."  He shrugged again.   Strange, 
eh?"  He drained his pot.   So what will you do, monsieur?"   
 What does Sir Guillaume want me to do?"   
 He wants you close by in case he needs to escape, but he's written 
a letter to the King explaining what happened in the battle.  I sent 
the letter to Paris.  Sir Guillaume thinks the King may relent so he 
waits for an answer, but me?  I think Sir Guillaume is like this goose.   
Plucked and cooked."   
 Did he say anything about his daughter?"   
 His daughter?"  Father Pascal was puzzled.   oh!  The bastard 
daughter?  He said you would kill whoever killed her."   
 I will, too."   
 And that he wants your help."   
 He can have it," Thomas said,  and we'll leave tomorrow."  He 
looked at Robbie.   We're going back to war."   
 Who am I fighting for?"   
Thomas grinned.   Me."   
Thomas, Robbie and the priest left next morning.  Thomas took a 
change of clothes, a full arrow bag, his bow, sword and mail coat 
and, wrapped in a piece of deerskin, his father's book that seemed 
like a heavy piece of baggage.  In truth it was lighter than a sheaf 
of arrows, yet the duty its possession implied weighed on Thomas's 
conscience.  He told himself he was merely riding to help Sir Gull- 
laume, yet he knew he was continuing the quest for his father's 
secret.   
Two of Sir Giles's tenants rode with them to bring back the mare 
that Father Pascal rode and the two stallions which Sir Giles had 
purchased from Thomas and Robbie.   You don't want to take them 
on a boat," Sir Giles said,  horses and boats don't mix."   
 He paid us too much," Robbie remarked as they rode away.   
 He doesn't want his son-in-law to get it," Thomas said.   Besides,   
he's a generous man.  He gave Mary Gooden another three pounds 
as well.  For her dowry.  He's a lucky man."   
Something in Thomas's tone caught Robbie's attention.   'He" 
is?  You mean she's found a husband?"   
 A nice fellow.  A thatcher in Tolpuddle.  They'll be wed next 
week."   
 Next week!"  Robbie sounded aggrieved that his girl was marry- 
ing.  It did not matter that he was abandoning her, it still cut his 
pride.   But why would he marry her?"  he asked after a while.   Or 
doesn't he know she's pregnant?"   
 He thinks the child is his," Thomas said, keeping a straight face, 
and well it might be, I hear."   
 Jesus!"  Robbie swore when that made sense, then he turned to 
look back along the road and he smiled, remembering the good 
times.   He's a kind man," he said of Sir Giles.   
 A lonely one," Thomas said.  Sir Giles had not wanted them to 
leave, but accepted they could not stay.   
Robbie sniffed the air.   There's more snow coming."   
 Never!"  It was a morning of gentle sunlight.  Crocus and aconite 
were showing in sheltered spots and the hedgerows were noisy 
with chaffinches and robins.  But Robbie had indeed smelt snow.   
As the day wore on, the skies became low and grey, the wind went 
into the east and hit their faces with a new bite and the snow 
followed.  They found shelter in a verderer's house in the woods, 
crowding in with the man, his wife, five daughters and three sons.   
Two cows had a byre at one end of the house and four goats were 
tethered at the other.  Father Pascal confided to Thomas that this 
was very like the house in which he had grown up, but be wondered 
if conventions in England were the same as in the Limousin.   Con- 
ventions?"  Thomas asked.   
 In our house," Father Pascal said, blushing,  the women pissed 
with the cows and the men with the goats.  I would not want to do 
the wrong thing.   
 It's the same here," Thomas assured him.   
Father Pascal had proved a good companion.  He had a fine singing 
voice and once they had shared their food with the verderer and 
his family the priest sang some French songs.  Afterwards, as the 
snow still fell and the smoke from the fire swirled thick under the   
thatch, he sat and talked with Thomas.  He had been the village 
priest at Evecque and, when the Count of Coutances attacked, he 
had found refuge in the manor.   But I do not like being cooped 
up," he said, and so he had offered to carry Sir Guillaume's message 
to England.  He had escaped from Evecque, he said, by first throwing 
his clothes across the moat and then swimming after them.   It was 
cold," he said,  I have never been so cold!  I told myself it is better 
to be cold than to be in hell, but I don't know.  It was terrible."   
 What does Sir Guillaume want us to do?"  Thomas asked him.   
 He did not say.  Perhaps, if the besiegers can be discouraged .  .  .  ?"   
He shrugged.   The winter is not a good time for a siege, I think.   
Inside Evecque they are comfortable, they are warm, they have the 
harvest stored, and the besiegers?  They are wet and cold.  If you 
can make them more uncomfortable, who knows?  Perhaps they 
will abandon the siege?"   
 And you?  What will you do?"   
 I have no work left at Evecque," the priest said.  Sir Guillaume 
had been declared a traitor and his goods pronounced forfeited so 
his serfs had been taken off to the Count of Coutances's estates, 
while his tenants, pillaged and raped by the besiegers, had mostly 
fled.   So perhaps I go to Paris?  I cannot go to the Bishop of Caen."   
 Why not?"   
 Because he has sent men to help the Count of Coutances."  Father 
Pascal shook his head in sad wonderment.   The bishop was impover- 
ished by the English in the summer," he explained,'s o he needs 
money, land and goods, and he hopes to get some from Evecque.   
Greed is a great provoker of war."   
 Yet you're on Sir Guillaume's side?"   
Father Pascal shrugged.   He is a good man.  But now?  Now I must 
look to Paris for preferment.  Or maybe Dijon.  I have a cousin there."   
They struggled east for the next two days, riding across the dead 
heaths of the New Forest, which lay under a soft whiteness.  At 
night the small lights of the forest villages glittered hard in the cold.   
Thomas feared if they would reach Normandy too late to help Sir 
Guillaume, but that doubt was not reason enough to abandon the 
effort and so they struggled on.  Their last few miles to Southampton 
were through a melting slush of mud and snow, and Thomas won- 
dered how they were to reach Normandy, which was an enemy   
province.  He doubted that any shipping would go there from South- 
ampton because any English boat going close to the Normandy 
coast was liable to be snapped up by pirates.  He knew plenty of 
boats would be going to Brittany, but that was a long walk from 
Caen.   We go through the islands, of course," Father Pascal said.   
They spent one night in a tavern and next morning found space 
on the Ursula, a cog bound for Guernsey and carrying barrels of 
salt pork, kegs of nails, barrel staves, iron ingots, pots packed in 
sawdust, bolts of wool, sheaves of arrows and three crates of cattle 
horns.  It was also carrying a dozen bowmen who were travelling 
to the garrison of the castle which guarded the anchorage at Saint Peter 
Port. Come a bad west wind, the Ursula's captain told them, and 
dozens of ships carrying wine from Gascony to England could be 
blown up-channel and Saint Peter Port was one of their last harbours 
of refuge, though the French sailors knew it too and in bad weather 
their ships would swarm off the island trying to pick up a prize or 
two.  Does that mean they'll be waiting for us?"  Thomas asked.  The 
Isle of Wight was slipping astern and the ship was plunging into a 
winter-grey sea.   
 Not waiting for us, they won't be, not us.  They know the Ursula, 
they do," the captain, a toothless man with a face horribly scarred 
from the pox, grinned,  they do know her and they do love her."   
Which meant, presumably, that he had paid his dues to the men 
of Cherbourg and Carteret.  However, he had paid no dues to 
Neptune or whatever spirit governed the winter sea for, though 
he claimed some special foreknowledge of winds and waves and 
asserted that both would be calm, the Ursula rolled like a bell swung 
on a beam: up and down, pitching hard over so that the cargo slid 
in the hold with a noise like thunder; and the evening sky was grey 
as death and then sleet began to seethe on the torn water.  The 
captain, clinging to the steering oar with a grin, said it was nothing 
but a little blow that should not worry any good Christian, but 
others in his crew either touched the crucifix nailed to the single 
mast or else bowed their heads to a small shrine on the afterdeck 
where a crude wooden image was wrapped in bright ribbons.  The 
image was supposed to be Saint Ursula, the patron of ships, and Thomas 
said a prayer to her himself as he crouched in a small space under 
the foredeck, ostensibly sheltering there with the other passengers,   
but the overhead deck seams gaped and a mixture of rainwater and 
seawater continually slopped through.  Three of the archers were 
sick and even Thomas, who had crossed the channel twice before 
and had been raised among fishermen and spent days aboard their 
small boats, was feeling ill.  Robbie, who had never been to sea, 
looked cheerful and interested in everything that was happening 
aboard.   
 It's these round ships," he yelled over the noise,  they roll!"   
 You know about ships, do you?"  Thomas asked.   
 It seems obvious," Robbie said.   
Thomas tried to sleep.  He wrapped himself in his damp cloak, 
curled up and lay as still as the pitching boat would let him and, 
astonishingly, he did fall asleep.  He woke a dozen times that night 
and each time he wondered where he was and when he re- 
membered he wondered whether the night would ever end or 
whether he would ever be warm again.   
Dawn was sickly grey and the cold bit into Thomas's bones, but 
the crew was altogether more cheerful for the wind had dropped 
and the sea was merely sullen, the long foam-streaked waves rising 
and falling sluggishly about a wicked group of rocks that appeared 
to be home for a myriad seabirds.  It was the only land in sight.   
The captain stumped across the deck to stand beside Thomas.   
 The Casquets," he said, nodding at the rocks.   A lot of widows have 
been made on those old stones."  He made the sign of the cross, spat 
over the gunwales for luck and then looked up to a widening rift 
in the clouds.   We're making good time," he said,  thanks be to God 
and to Ursula."  He looked askance at Thomas.   So what takes you 
to the islands?"   
Thomas thought of inventing some excuse, family perhaps, then 
thought the truth might elicit something more interesting.   We want 
to go on to Normandy," he said.   
 They don't like Englishmen much in Normandy, not since our 
King paid them a visit last year."   
 I was there."   
 Then you'll know why they don't like us."   
Thomas knew the captain was right.  The English had killed thousands in Caen, then burned farms, mills and villages in a great 
swathe east and north.  It was a cruel way to wage war, but it could   
persuade the enemy to come out of his strongholds and give battle.   
Doubtless that was why the Count of Coutances was laying Evecque's 
lands waste, in hope that Sir Guillaume would be enticed out of 
his stone walls to defend them.  Except Sir Guillaume had only 
nine men and could not hope to face the Count in open battle.   
 We've business in Caen," Thomas admitted,  if we can ever reach 
the place."   
The captain picked at a nostril, then flicked something into the 
sea.   Look for the troy frairs," he said.   
 The what?"   
 Troy Frairs," he said again.   It's a boat and that's her name.  It's 
French.  She ain't big, no larger than that little tub."  He pointed to 
a small fishing boat, her hull tarred black, from which two men 
cast weighted nets into the broken sea about the Casquets.   A man 
called Ugly Peter runs the Troy Frairs.  He might carry you to Caen, 
or maybe to Carteret or Cherbourg.  Not that I told you that."   
 Of course not," Thomas said.  He supposed the captain meant that 
Ugly Peter commanded a boat called Les Trois Freres.  He stared at 
the fishing boat and wondered what kind of life it was to drag 
sustenance from this hard sea.  It was easier, no doubt, to smuggle 
wool into Normandy and wine back to the islands.   
All morning they ran southwards until at last they made landfall.   
A small island lay off to the east and a larger, Guernsey, to the 
west, and from both rose pillars of smoke from cooking fires that 
promised shelter and warm food, but though that promise fluttered 
in the sky, the wind backed and the tide turned and it took the 
rest of the day for the Ursula to beat down to the harbour where 
she anchored under the loom of the castle built on its rocky island.   
Thomas, Robbie and Father Pascal were rowed ashore and found 
respite from the cold wind in a tavern with a fire burning in a wide 
hearth beside which they ate fish stew and black bread washed 
down with a watery ale.  They slept on straw-filled sacks that were 
home to lice.   
It was four days before Ugly Peter, whose real name was Pierre 
Savon, put into the harbour, and another two before he was ready 
to leave again with a cargo of wool on which no duty would be 
paid.  He was happy to take passengers, though only at a price which 
left Robbie and Thomas feeling robbed.  Father Pascal was carried   
free on the grounds that he was a Norman and a priest which 
meant, according to Pierre the Ugly, that God loved him twice over 
and so was unlikely to sink Les Trois Freres so long as Father Pascal 
was aboard.   
God must have loved the priest for he sent a gentle west wind, 
clear skies and calm seas so that Les Trois Freres seemed to fly her 
way to the River Orne.  They went up to Caen on the tide, arriving 
in the morning, and once they were ashore Father Pascal offered 
Thomas and Robbie a blessing, then hitched up his shabby robe 
and began walking east to Paris.  Thomas and Robbie, carrying heavy 
bundles of mail, weapons, arrows and spare clothing, went south 
through the city.   
Caen looked no better than when Thomas had left it the previous 
year after it had been laid waste by English archers who, disre- 
garding their King's orders to discontinue their attack, had swarmed 
over the river and hacked to death hundreds of men and women 
inside the city.  Robbie stared in awe at the destruction on Ile Saint Jean, 
the newest part of Caen, which had suffered most from the English 
sack. Few of the burned houses had been rebuilt and there were 
ribs, skulls and long bones showing in the rivers" mud at the falling 
tide's margin.  The shops were half bare, though a few countryfolk 
were in town selling food from carts and Thomas bought dried fish, 
bread and rock-hard cheese.  Some looked askance at his bowstave, 
but he assured them he was a Scotsman and thus an ally of France.   
 They do have proper bows in Scotland, don't they?"  he asked 
Robbie.   
 Of course we do."   
 Then why didn't you use them at Durham?"   
 We just don't have enough," Robbie said,  and besides, we'd 
rather kill you bastards up close.  Make sure you're dead, see?"   
He stared open-mouthed at a girl carrying a pail of milk.   I'm in 
love."   
 If it's got tits you fall in love," Thomas said.   Now come on."  He 
led Robbie to Sir Guillaume's town house, the place where he had 
met Eleanor, and though Sir Guillaume's crest of three hawks was 
still carved in stone above the door there was now a new banner 
flying over the house: a flag showing a hump-backed boar with 
great tusks.   Whose flag is that?"  Thomas had crossed the small   
square to talk with a cooper who was hammering an iron ring 
down the flanks of a new barrel.   
 It's the Count of Coutances," the cooper said,  and the bastard's 
already raised our rents.  And I don't care if you do serve him."  He 
straightened and frowned at the bowstave.   Are you English?"   
 Ecossais," Thomas said.   
 Ah!"  The cooper was intrigued and leaned closer to Thomas.   Is 
it true, monsieur," he asked,  that you paint your faces blue in 
battle?"   
 Always," Thomas said,  and our arses.   
 Formidable!"  the cooper said, impressed.   
 What's he saying?"  Robbie asked.   
 Nothing."  Thomas pointed at the oak which grew at the centre 
of the small square.  A few shrivelled leaves still clung to the twigs.   
 I was hanged from that tree," he told Robbie.   
 Aye, and I'm the Pope of Avignon."  Robbie heaved up his bundle.   
 Did you ask him where we could buy horses?"   
 Expensive things, horses," Thomas said,  and I thought we might 
save ourselves the bother of buying.   
 We're footpads now?"   
 Indeed," Thomas said.  He led Robbie off the island across the 
bridge where so many archers had died in the frenzied attack, and 
then through the old city.  That had been less damaged than the ile 
Saint Jean because no one had tried to defend the narrow streets, 
while the castle, which had never fallen to the English, had only 
suffered from cannon balls that had done little except chip the 
stones about the gate. A red and yellow banner flew from the 
castle rampart and men-at-arms, wearing the same coloured livery, 
challenged Thomas and Robbie as they were leaving the old city.   
Thomas answered by saying they were Scottish soldiers seeking 
employment from the Count of Coutances.   I thought he'd be here," 
Thomas lied,  but we hear he's at Evecque."   
 And getting nowhere," the guard commander said.  He was a 
bearded man whose helmet had a great split that suggested he had 
taken it from a corpse.   He's been pissing at those walls for two 
months now and got nowhere, but if you want to die at Evecque, 
boys, then good luck to you.   
They walked past the walls of the Abbaye aux Dames and Thomas   
had a sudden vision of Jeanette again.  She had been his lover, but 
then had met Edward Woodstock, the Prince of Wales, and what 
chance did Thomas have after that?  It had been here, in the Abbaye 
aux Dames, that Jeanette and the Prince had lived during the 
brief siege of Caen.  Where was Jeanette now?  Thomas wondered.   
Back in Brittany?  Still seeking her infant son?  Did she ever think 
of him?  Or did she regret fleeing from the Prince of Wales in the 
belief that the Picardy battle would be lost?  Perhaps, by now, 
she would be married again.  Thomas suspected she had taken a 
small fortune in jewels when she had fled the English army, and a 
rich widow, scarce more than twenty years old, made an attractive 
bride.   
 What happens,"  Robbie interrupted his thoughts,   if they find 
out you're not Scottish?"   
Thomas held up the two fingers of his right hand that drew the 
boweord.   They cut those off."   
 Is that all?"   
 Those are the first things they cut off."   
They walked on south through a country of small steep hills, 
tight fields, thick woods and deep lanes.  Thomas had never been 
to Evecque and, though it was not far from Caen, some of the 
peasants they asked had never heard of it, but when Thomas asked 
which way the soldiers had been going during the winter they 
pointed on southwards.  They spent their first night in a roofless 
hovel, a place that had evidently been abandoned when the English 
came in the summer and swept through Normandy.   
They woke at dawn and Thomas put two arrows into a tree, just 
to keep in practice.  He was cutting the steel heads out of the trunk 
when Robbie picked up the bow.   Can you teach me to use it?"  he 
asked.   
 What I can teach you," Thomas said,  will take ten minutes.  But 
the rest will need a lifetime.  I began shooting arrows when I was 
seven and after ten years I was beginning to get good at it ,   
 It can't be that difficult," Robbie protested,  I've killed a stag with 
a bow."   
 That was a hunting bow," Thomas said.  He gave Robbie one of 
the arrows and pointed to a willow that had stubbornly kept its 
leaves.   Hit the trunk."   
Robbie laughed.   I can't miss!"  The willow was scarcely thirty 
paces away.   
 Go on, then."   
Robbie drew the bow, glancing once at Thomas as he realized 
just how much strength was needed to bend the great yew stave.   
It was twice as stiff as the shorter hunting bows he had used in 
Scotland.   Jesus," he said softly as he hauled the string back to his 
nose and realized his left arm was trembling slightly with the tension 
of the weapon, but he peered down the arrow to check his aim 
and was about to loose when Thomas held up a hand.   You're not 
ready yet."   
 I damn well am," Robbie said, though the words came out as 
grunts for the bow needed immense force to hold in the drawn 
position.   
 You're not ready," Thomas said,  because there's four inches of 
the arrow sticking out in front of the bow.  You have to pull it back 
until the arrow head touches your left hand."   
 Oh, sweet Jesus," Robbie said and took a breath, nerved himself 
and pulled until the string was past his nose, past his eye and close 
by his right ear.  The steel arrow head touched his left hand, but 
now he could no longer aim by looking down the arrow's shaft.   
He frowned as he realized the difficulty that implied, then compen- 
sated by edging the bow to the right.  His left arm was shaking with 
the tension and, unable to keep the arrow drawn, he released, then 
twitched as the hemp string whipped along his inner left forearm.   
The arrow's feathers flashed white as they passed a foot from the 
willow's trunk.  Robbie swore in amazement, then handed the bow 
to Thomas.   So the trick of it," he said,  is learning how to aim it?"   
 The trick," Thomas said,  is not aiming at all.  It's something that 
just happens.  You look at the target and you let the arrow fly."   
Some archers, the lazy ones, only drew to the eye and that made 
them accurate, but their arrows lacked force.  The good archers, the 
archers who drove down armies or brought down kings in shining 
armour, pulled the string all the way back.   I taught a woman to 
shoot last summer," Thomas said, taking back the bow,  and she 
became good.  Really good.  She hit a hare at seventy paces.   
 A woman!"   
 I let her use a longer string," Thomas said,'s o the bow didn't   
need as much strength, but she was still good."  He remembered 
Jeanette's delight when the hare tumbled in the grass, squealing, 
the arrow pinned through its haunches.  Jeanette.  Why was he 
thinking of her so much?   
They walked on through a world edged white with frost.  The 
puddles had frozen and the leafless hedgerows were outlined with 
a sharp white rime that faded as the sun climbed.  They crossed 
two streams, then climbed through beechwoods towards a plateau 
which, when they reached it, proved to be a wild place of thin turf 
that had never been cut with a plough.  A few gorse bushes broke 
the grass, but otherwise the road ran across a featureless plain 
beneath an empty sky.  Thomas had thought that the heathland 
would be nothing but a narrow belt of high country and that they 
must soon drop into the wooded valleys again, but the road 
stretched on and he felt ever more like a hare on a chalk upland 
under the gaze of a buzzard.  Robbie felt the same and the two of 
them left the road to walk where the gorse provided some intermit- 
tent cover.   
Thomas kept looking ahead and behind.  This was horse country, 
a firm-turfed upland where riders could go full gallop and where 
there were no woods or gullies in which two men on foot could 
hide.  And the high ground seemed to extend for ever.   
At midday they reached a circle of standing stones, each about 
the height of a man and heavily encrusted with lichen.  The circle 
was twenty yards across and one of the stones had fallen and they 
rested their backs against it while they took a meal of bread and 
cheese.   The devil's wedding party, eh?"  Robbie said.   
 The stones, you mean?"   
 We have them in Scotland."  Robbie twisted round and brushed 
fragments of snail shell from the fallen stone.   They're people who 
were turned into rocks by the devil."   
 In Dorset," Thomas said,  folk say that God turned them into 
stone."   
Robbie wrinkled his face at that idea.   Why would God do that?"   
 For dancing on the sabbath."   
 They'd just go to hell for that," Robbie said, then idly scratched 
at the turf with his heel.   We dig the stones up when we have the 
time.  Look for gold, see?"   
 You ever find any?"   
 We do in the mounds sometimes.  Pots anyway, and beads.  Rub- 
bish really.  We throw it away as often as not.  And we find elf 
stones, of course."  He meant the mysterious stone arrow heads 
that were supposedly shot from elfin bowstrings.  He stretched out, 
enjoying the feeble warmth of the sun that was now as high as it 
would climb in the midwinter sky.   I miss Scotland."   
 I've never been."   
 God's own country," Robbie said forcefully, and he was still talk- 
ing about Scotland's wonders when Thomas fell gently asleep.  He 
dozed, then was woken because Robbie had kicked him.   
The Scot was standing on the fallen stone.   What is it?"  Thomas 
asked.   
 Company."   
Thomas stood beside him and saw four horsemen a mile or more 
to the north.  He dropped back to the turf, pulled upon his bundle 
and took out a single sheaf of arrows, then hooked the bowstring 
over the nocked tips of the stave.   Maybe they haven't seen us," he 
said optimistically.   
 They have," Robbie commented, and Thomas climbed onto the 
stone again to see that the horsemen had left the road; they had 
stopped now and one of them stood in his stirrups to get a better 
look at the two strangers at the stone circle.  Thomas could see they 
were wearing mail coats under their cloaks.   I can take three of 
them," he said, patting the bow,  if you manage the fourth."   
 Ah, be kind to a poor Scotsman," Robbie said, drawing his uncle's 
sword,  leave me two.  I have to make money, remember."  He might 
have been facing a fight with four horsemen in Normandy, but he 
was still a prisoner of Lord Outhwaite and so bound to pay his 
ransom that had been set at a mere two hundred pounds.  His 
uncle's was ten thousand and in Scotland the Douglas clan would 
be worrying how to raise it.   
The horsemen still watched Thomas and Robbie, doubtless 
wondering who and what they were.  The riders would not be fear- 
ful; after all they were mailed and armed and the two strangers 
were on foot and men on foot were almost certainly peasants and 
peasants were no threat to horsemen in armour.   A patrol from 
Evecque?"  Robbie wondered aloud.   
 Probably."  The Count of Coutances would have men roaming 
the country looking for food.  Or perhaps the horsemen were 
reinforcements riding to the Count's aid, but whoever they were 
they would regard any stranger in this countryside as prey for their 
weapons.   
 They're coming," Robbie said as the four men spread into a line.   
The riders must have assumed the two strangers would try to escape 
and so were making the line to snare them.   The four horsemen, 
eh?"  Robbie said.   I can never remember what the fourth one is."   
 Death, war, pestilence and famine," Thomas said, putting the 
first arrow on the string.   
 It's famine I always forget," Robbie said.  The four riders were 
a half-mile away, swords drawn, cantering on the fine solid turf.   
Thomas was holding the bow low so they would not be ready for 
the arrows.  He could hear the hoofbeats now and he thought of 
the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the dreadful quartet of riders 
whose appearance would presage the end of time and the last great 
struggle between heaven and hell.  War would appear on a horse 
the colour of blood, famine would be on a black stallion, pestilence 
would ravage the world on a white mount while death would ride 
the pale horse.  Thomas had a sudden memory of his father sitting 
bolt upright, head back, intoning the Latin:  et ecce equ us pallidus".   
Father Ralph used to say the words to annoy his housekeeper and 
lover, Thomas's mother, who, though she knew no Latin, under- 
stood that the words were about death and hell and she thought, 
rightly as it turned out, that her priest lover was inviting hell and 
death to Hookton.   
 Behold a pale horse," Thomas said.  Robbie gave him a puzzled 
look.   'I saw a pale horse, " Thomas quoted,  'and the name of 
its rider was Death, and Hell followed him. "   
 Is hell another of the riders?"  Robbie asked.   
 Hell is what these bastards are about to get," Thomas said and 
he brought up the bow and dragged back the cord and felt a sudden 
anger and hate in his heart for the four men, and then the bow 
sounded, the cord's note hard and deep, and before the sound had 
died he was already plucking a second arrow from where he had 
stuck a dozen point-down in the turf.  He hauled the cord back and 
the four horsemen were still riding straight for them as Thomas   
aimed at the left-hand rider.  He loosed, took a third arrow, and 
now the sound of the hooves on the frost-hardened turf was as 
loud as the Scottish drums at Durham and the second man from 
the right was thrashing left and right, falling back, an arrow jutting 
from his chest and the rider on the left was lying back on his saddle's 
cantle, and the other two, at last understanding their danger, were 
swerving to throw off Thomas's aim.  Gobbets of earth and grass 
were thrown up from the horses" hooves as they slewed away.  If 
the two unwounded riders had any sense, Thomas thought, they 
would ride away as though Hell and Death were on their heels, 
ride back the way they had come in a desperate bid to escape the 
arrows, but instead, with the rage of men who had been challenged 
by what they believed to be an inferior enemy, they curved back 
towards their prey and Thomas let the third arrow fly.  The first two 
men were both out of it, one fallen from his saddle and the other 
lolling on his horse that just cropped the winter-pale turf; and the 
third arrow flew hard and straight at its victim, but his galloping 
horse tossed up its head and the arrow slid down the side of its 
skull, blood bright on the black hide: the horse twisted away from 
the pain and the rider, unready for the turn, was flailing for balance, 
but Thomas had no time to watch him for the fourth rider was 
inside the stone circle and closing on him.  The man had a vast black 
cloak that billowed behind as he turned the pale grey horse and he 
shouted his defiance as he stretched out the sword to whip the 
point like a lance head into Thomas's chest, but Thomas had his 
fourth arrow on the cord and the man suddenly understood that 
he was a split second too late.   Non!"  he shouted, and Thomas did 
not even draw the bow fully back, but let it fly off the half-string 
and the arrow still had enough force to bury itself in the man's 
head, splitting the bridge of his nose and driving deep into his skull.   
He twitched, his sword arm dropped, Thomas felt the wind as the 
man's horse thundered past him and then the rider fell back over 
the stallion's rump.   
The third man, the one unseated from the black horse, had fallen 
in the stone circle's centre and now approached Robbie.  Thomas 
plucked an arrow from the turf.   No!"  Robbie called.   He's mine."   
Thomas relaxed the string.   
 Chien batard," the man said to Robbie.  He was much older than   
the Scotsman and must have taken Robbie for a mere boy for he 
half smiled as he came fast forward to lunge his sword and Robbie 
stepped back, parried, and the blades rang like bells in the clear air.   
 Batard!"  the man spat and attacked again.   
Robbie stepped back once more, yielding ground until he had 
almost reached the stone ring, and his retreat worried Thomas who 
had stretched his string again, but then Robbie parried so fast and 
riposted so quickly that the Frenchman was going backwards in a 
sudden and desperate hurry.   You English bastard," Robbie said.  He 
swung his blade low and the man dropped his own blade to parry 
and Robbie just kicked it aside and lunged so that his uncle's blade 
sank into the man's neck.   Bastard English bastard," Robbie snarled, 
ripping the blade free in a spray of bright blood.   Bloody English 
pig!"  He freed the sword and swung it back to bury its edge in what 
was left of the man's neck.   
Thomas watched the man fall.  Blood was bright on the grass.   He 
wasn't English," Thomas said.   
 It's just a habit when I fight," Robbie said.   It's the way my uncle 
trained me."  He stepped towards his victim.   Is he dead?"   
 You half cut off his head," Thomas said,  what do you think?"   
 I think I'll take his money," Robbie said and knelt beside the 
dead man.   
One of the first two men to be struck by Thomas's arrows was 
still alive.  The breath bubbled in his throat and showed pink and 
frothy at his lips.  He was the man lolling in his saddle and he 
moaned as Thomas spilled him down to the ground.   
 Is he going to live?"  Robbie had crossed to see what Thomas was 
doing.   
 Christ, no," Thomas said and took out his knife.   
 Jesus!"  Robbie stepped back as the man's throat was cut.   Did 
you have to?"   
 I don't want the Count of Coutances to know there are only 
two of us," Thomas said.   I want the Count of Coutances to be as 
scared as hell of us.  I want him to think the devil's own horsemen 
are hunting his men.   
They searched the four corpses and, after a lumbering chase, 
managed to collect the four horses.  From the bodies and the saddle- 
bags they took close to eighteen pounds of bad French silver   
coinage, two rings, three good daggers, four swords, a fine mail 
coat that Robbie claimed to replace his own, and a gold chain that 
they hacked in half with one of the captured swords.  Then Thomas 
used the two worst swords to picket a pair of the horses beside the 
road and on the horses" backs he tied two of the corpses so that 
they hung in the saddle, bending sideways with vacant eyes and 
white skin laced with blood.  The other two corpses, stripped of their 
mail, were placed on the road and in each of their dead mouths 
Thomas put sprigs of gorse.  That gesture meant nothing, but to 
whoever found the bodies it would suggest something strange, even 
Satanic.   It'll worry the bastards," Thomas explained.   
 Four dead men should give them a twitch," Robbie said.   
 They'll be scared to hell if they think the devil's loose," Thomas 
said.  The Count of Coutances would scoff if he knew there were 
only two young men come as reinforcements for Sir Guillaume 
d'Evecque, but he could not ignore four corpses and hints of weird 
ritual.  And he could not ignore death.   
To which end, when the corpses were arranged, Thomas took 
the big black cloak, the money and the weapons, the best of the 
stallions and the pale horse.   
For the pale horse belonged to Death.   
And with it Thomas could make nightmares.  
A single short burst of thunder sounded as Thomas and Robbie 
neared Evecque.  They did not know how close they were, but they 
were riding through country where all the farms and cottages had 
been destroyed which told Thomas that they must be within the 
manor's boundaries.  Robbie, on hearing the rumble, looked puzzled 
for the sky immediately above them was clear, although there were 
dark clouds to the south.   It's too cold for thunder," he said.   
 Maybe it's different in France?"   
They left the road and followed a farm track that twisted through 
woods and petered out beside a burned building that still smoked 
gently.  It made little sense to burn such steadings and Thomas 
doubted that the Count of Coutances had initially ordered the 
destruction, but Sir Guillaume's long defiance and the bloody- 
mindedness of most soldiers would ensure that the pillage and 
burning would happen anyway.  Thomas had done the same in 
Brittany.  He had listened to the screams and protests of families who 
had to watch their home being burned and then he had touched the 
fire to the thatch.  It was war.  The Scots did it to the English, the 
English to the Scots, and here the Count of Coutances was doing   
-  it to his own tenant.   
  A second clap of thunder sounded and just after its echo had died 
Thomas saw a great veil of smoke in the eastern sky.  He pointed 
to it and Robbie, recognizing the smear of campfires and realizing 
the need for silence, just nodded.  They left their horses in a thicket 
of hazel saplings and then climbed a long wooded hill.  The setting 
sun was behind them, throwing their shadows long on the dead 
leaves.  A woodpecker, red-headed and wings barred white, whirred   
loud and low above their heads as they crossed the ridge line to 
see the village and manor of Evecque beneath them.   
Thomas had never seen Sir Guillaume's manor before.  He had 
imagined it would be like Sir Giles Marriott's hall with one great 
barn-like room and a few thatched outbuildings, but Evecque was 
much more like a small castle.  At the corner closest to Thomas it 
even had a tower: a square and not very tall tower, but properly 
crenellated and flying its banner of three stooping hawks to show 
that Sir Guillaume was not yet beaten.  The manor's saving feature, 
though, was its moat, which was wide and thickly covered with a 
vivid green scum.  The manor's high walls rose sheer from the water 
and had few windows, and those were nothing but arrow slits.  The 
roof was thatched and sloped inwards to a small courtyard.  The 
besiegers, whose tents and shelters lay in the village to the north 
of the manor, had succeeded in setting fire to the roof at some 
point, but Sir Guillaume's few defenders must have managed to 
extinguish the flames for only one small portion of the thatch was 
missing or blackened.  None of those defenders was visible now, 
though some of them must have been peering through the arrow 
slits that showed as small black specks against the grey stone.  The 
only visible damage to the manor was some broken stones at one 
corner of the tower where it looked as though a giant beast had 
nibbled at the masonry, and that was probably the work of the 
springald that Father Pascal had mentioned, but the oversized cross- 
bow had obviously broken again and irremediably for Thomas 
could see it lying in two gigantic pieces in the field beside the tiny 
stone village church.  It had done very little damage before its main 
beam broke and Thomas wondered if the eastern, hidden, side of 
the building had been hurt more.  The manor's entrance must be 
on that far side and Thomas suspected the main siege works would 
also be there.   
Only a score of besiegers were in sight, most doing nothing more 
threatening than sitting outside the village houses, though a half- 
dozen men were gathered around what looked like a small table 
in the churchyard.  None of the Count's men was closer to the 
manor than a hundred and fifty paces, which suggested that the 
defenders had succeeded in killing some of their enemies with cross- 
bows and the rest had learned to give the garrison a wide berth.   
The village itself was small, not much bigger than Down Mapperley, 
and, like the Dorset village, had a watermill.  There were a dozen 
tents to the south of the houses and twice as many little turf shelters 
and Thomas tried to work out how many men could be sheltered 
in the village, tents and turf huts and decided the Count must now 
have about 12O men.   
 What do we do?"  Robbie asked.   
 Nothing for now.  Just watch."   
It was a tedious vigil for there was little activity beneath them.   
Some women carried pails of water from the watermill's race, others 
were cooking on open fires or collecting clothes that had been 
spread out to dry over some bushes at the edge of the fields.  The 
Count of Coutances's banner, showing the black boar on a white 
field spangled with blue flowers, flew on a makeshift staff outside 
the largest house in the village.  Six other banners hung above the 
thatched rooftops, showing that other lords had come to share the 
plunder.  A half-dozen squires or pages exercised some warhorses 
in the meadow behind the encampment, but otherwise Evecque's 
attackers were doing little except wait.  Siege work was boring work.   
Thomas remembered the idle days outside La Roche-Derrien, 
though those long hours had been broken by the terror and excite- 
ment of the occasional assault.  These men, unable to assault Eve- 
cque's walls because of the moat, could only wait and hope to starve 
the garrison into surrender or else tempt it into a sally by burning 
farms.  Or perhaps they were waiting for a long piece of seasoned 
wood to repair the broken arm of the abandoned springald.   
Then, just as Thomas was deciding that he had seen enough, the 
group of men who had been gathered about what he had thought 
was a low table beside the churchyard hedge suddenly ran back 
towards the church.   
 What in God's name is that?"  Robbie asked, and Thomas saw 
that it had not been a table they were crowding round, but a vast 
pot cradled in a heavy wooden frame.   
 It's a cannon," Thomas said, unable to hide his awe, and just 
then the gun fired and the great metal pot and its huge wooden 
cradle both vanished inside a swelling burst of dirty smoke and, 
out of the corner of his eye, he saw a piece of stone fly away from 
the damaged corner of the manor.  A thousand birds flew up from   
hedgerows, thatch and trees as the gun's booming thunder rolled 
up the hill and washed past him.  That vast clap of sound was the 
thunder they had heard earlier in the afternoon.  The Count of 
Coutances had managed to find a gun and was using it to nibble 
away at the manor.  The English had used guns at Caen last summer, 
though not all the guns in their army, nor all the best efforts of the 
Italian gunners, had hurt Caen's castle.  Indeed, as the smoke slowly 
cleared from the encampment, Thomas saw that this shot had made 
little impact on the manor.  The noise seemed more violent than 
the missile itself, yet he supposed that if the Count's gunners could 
fire enough stones then eventually the masonry must give way and 
the tower collapse into the moat to make a rubble causeway across 
the water.  Stone by stone, fragment by fragment, maybe three or 
four shots a day, and thus the besiegers would undermine the tower 
and make their rough path into Evecque.   
A man rolled a small barrel out of the church, but another man 
waved him back and the barrel was taken back inside.  The church 
had to be their powder store, Thomas thought, and the man had 
been sent back because the gunners had shot their last missile for 
the day and would not reload until morning.  And that suggested 
an idea, but he pushed it away as impractical and stupid.   
 Have you seen enough?"  he asked Robbie.   
 I've never seen a gun before," Robbie said, staring down at the 
distant pot as if hoping that it would be fired again, but Thomas 
knew it was unlikely that the gunners would discharge it again this 
evening.  It took a long time to charge a cannon and, once the black 
powder was packed into its belly and the missile put into the neck, 
the gun had to be sealed with damp loam.  The loam would confine 
the explosion that propelled the missile and it needed time to dry 
before the gun was fired, so it was unlikely that there would be 
another shot before morning.   It sounds more trouble than it's 
worth," Robbie said sourly when Thomas had explained it.   So you 
reckon they'll not fire again?"   
 They'll wait till morning."   
 I've seen enough then," Robbie said and they crawled back 
through the beeches until they were over the ridge, then went 
down to their picketed horses and rode into the falling night.  There 
was a half-moon, cold and high, and the night was bitter, so bitter   
they decided they must risk a fire, though they did their best to 
hide it by taking refuge in a deep gully with rock walls where they 
made a crude roof of boughs covered in hastily cut turfs.  The fire 
flickered through the holes in the roof to light the rock walls red, 
but Thomas doubted that any of the besiegers would patrol the 
woods in the dark.  No one willingly went into deep trees at night 
for all kinds of beasts and monsters and ghosts stalked the wood- 
lands, and that thought reminded Thomas of the summer journey 
he had made with Jeanette when they had slept night after night 
in the woods.  It had been a happy time and the remembrance of 
it made him feel sorry for himself and then, as ever, guilty for 
Eleanor's sake and he held his hands to the small fire.   Are there 
green men in Scotland?"  he asked Robbie.   
 In the woods, you mean?  There are goblins.  Evil little bastards, 
they are."  Robbie made the sign of the cross and, in case that was 
not sufficient, leaned over and touched the iron hilt of his uncle's 
sword.   
Thomas was thinking of goblins and other creatures, things that 
waited in the night woods.  Did he really want to go back to Evecque 
tonight?   Did you notice," he said to Robbie,  that no one in Cout- 
ances's camp seemed very disturbed that four of their horsemen 
hadn't returned?  We didn't see anyone going looking for them, did 
we?"   
Robbie thought about it, then shrugged.   Maybe the horsemen 
didn't come from the camp?"   
 They did," Thomas said with a confidence he did not entirely 
feel and for a moment he guiltily wondered if the four horsemen 
had nothing to do with Evecque, then reminded himself that the 
riders had initiated the fight.   They must have come from Evecque," 
he said,  and they'll be worried there by now."   
 So?"   
 So will they have put more sentries on their camp tonight?"   
Robbie shrugged.   Does it matter?"   
 I'm thinking," Thomas said,  that I have to tell Sir Guillaume that 
we re here, and I don't know how to do that except by making a 
big noise."   
 You could write a message," Robbie suggested,  and put it round 
an arrow?"   
Thomas stared at him.   I don't have parchment," he said patiently, 
and I don't have ink, and have you ever tried shooting an arrow 
wrapped up in parchment?  It would probably fly like a dead bird.   
I'd have to stand by the moat and it would be easier to throw the 
arrow from there."   
Robbie shrugged.   So what do we do?"   
 Make a noise.  Announce ourselves."  Thomas paused.   And I'm 
thinking that the cannon will break the tower down eventually if 
we don't do something."   
 The cannon?"  Robbie asked, then stared at Thomas.   Sweet 
Jesus," he said after a while as he thought of the difficulties.   
 Tonight?"   
 Once Coutances and his men know we're here," Thomas said, 
 they'll double their sentries, but I'll bet the bastards are half asleep 
tonight."   
 Aye, and wrapped up warm if they've any damn sense," Robbie 
said.  He frowned.   But that gun looked like a rare great pot.  How 
the hell do you break it?"   
 I was thinking of the black powder in the church," Thomas said.   
 Set fire to it?"   
 There're plenty of campfires in the village," Thomas said and he 
wondered what would happen if they were captured in the enemy 
encampment, but it was pointless to worry about that.  If the gun 
was to be made useless then it was best to strike before the Count 
of Coutances knew an enemy had come to harass him, and that 
made this night the ideal opportunity.   You don't have to come," 
Thomas told Robbie.   It's not as if your friends are inside the manor."   
 Hold your breath," Robbie said scornfully.  He frowned again.   
 What's going to happen afterwards?"   
 Afterwards?"  Thomas thought.   It depends on Sir Guillaume.  If 
he gets no answer from the King then he'll want to break out.  So 
he has to know we're here."   
 Why?"   
 In case he needs our help.  He did send for us, didn't he?  Sent 
for me, anyway.  So we go on making a noise.  We make ourselves 
a nuisance.  We give the Count of Coutances some nightmares."   
 The two of us?"   
 You and me," Thomas said, and the saying of it made him realize   
that Robbie had become a friend.   I think you and I can make 
trouble," he added with a smile.  And they would begin this night.   
In this bitter and cold night, beneath a hard-edged moon, they 
would conjure the first of their nightmares.   
They went on foot and despite the bright half-moon it was dark 
under the trees and Thomas began to worry about whatever 
demons, goblins and spectres haunted these Norman woods.   
Jeanette had told him that in Brittany there were nains and gorics 
that stalked the dark, while in Dorset it was the Green Man who 
stamped and growled in the trees behind Lipp Hill, and the fisher- 
men spoke of the souls of the drowned men who would sometimes 
drag themselves on shore and moan for the wives they had left 
behind.  On All Soul's Eve the devil and the dead danced on Maiden 
Castle, and on other nights there were lesser ghosts in and about 
the village and up on the hill and in the church tower and wherever 
a man looked, which was why no one left his house at night without 
a scrap of iron or a piece of mistletoe or, at the very least, a piece 
of cloth that had been touched by a holy wafer.  Thomas's father 
had hated that superstition, but when his people had lifted their 
hands for the sacrament and he saw a scrap of cloth tied about 
their palms he had not refused them.   
And Thomas had his own superstitions.  He would only ever pick 
up the bow with his left hand; the first arrow to be shot from a 
newly strung bow had to be tapped three times against the stave, 
once for the Father, once for the Son and a third time for the Holy 
Spirit; he would not wear white clothes and he put his left boot on 
before his right.  For a long time he had worn a dog's paw about 
his neck, then had thrown it away in the conviction it brought ill 
luck, but now, after Eleanor's death, he wondered if he should have 
kept it.  Thinking of Eleanor, his mind slid back to the darker beauty 
of Jeanette.  Did she remember him?  Then he tried not to think of 
her, because thinking of an old love might bring ill luck and he 
touched the hole of a tree as he passed to cleanse away the thought.   
Thomas was looking for the red glow of dying campfires beyond 
the trees that would tell him that they were close to Evecque, but   
the only light was the silver of the moon tangled in the high 
branches.  Nains and gorics: what were they?  Jeanette had never told 
him, except to say they were spirits that haunted the country.  They 
must have something similar here in Normandy.  Or perhaps they 
had witches?  He touched another tree.  His mother had firmly 
believed in witches and his father had instructed Thomas to say his 
paternoster if he ever got lost.  Witches, Father Ralph had believed, 
preyed upon lost children, and later, much later, Thomas's father 
had told him that witches began their invocation of the devil by 
saying the paternoster backwards and Thomas, of course, had tried 
it though he had never dared finish the whole prayer.  Olam a son 
arebil des, the backward Paternoster began, and he could say it still, 
even managing the difficult reversals of temptationem and supersub- 
stantialem, though he was careful never to finish the whole prayer 
in case there was a stench of brimstone, a crack of flame and the 
terror of the devil descending on black wings with eyes of fire.   
 What are you muttering?"  Robbie asked.   
 I'm trying to say supersubstantialem backwards," Thomas said.   
Robbie chuckled.   You're a strange one, Thomas."   
 Melait nats bus repus," Thomas said.   
 Is that French?"  Robbie said.   Because I have to learn it."   
 You will," Thomas promised him, then at last he glimpsed fires 
between the trees and they both went silent as they climbed the 
long slope to the crest among the beeches that overlooked Evecque.   
No lights showed from the manor.  A clean and cold moonlight 
glistened on the green-scummed moat that looked smooth as ice,  
perhaps it was ice? ,  and the white moon threw a black shadow 
into the damaged corner of the tower, while a glow of firelight 
showed on the manor's farther side, confirming Thomas's suspicion 
that there was a siege work opposite the building's entrance.  He 
guessed that the Count's men had dug trenches from which they 
could douse the gateway with crossbow bolts as other men tried to 
bridge the moat where the drawbridge would be missing.  Thomas 
remembered the crossbow bolts spitting from the walls of La Roche- 
Derrien and he shivered.  It was bitter cold.  Soon, Thomas thought, 
the dew would turn to frost, silvering the world.  Like Robbie he 
was wearing a wool shirt beneath a leather jerkin and a coat of 
mail over which he had a cloak, yet still he was shivering and he   
wished he was back in the shelter of their gully where the fire 
burned.   
 I can't see anyone," Robbie said.   
Nor could Thomas, but he went on looking for the sentries.  Maybe 
the cold was keeping everyone under a roof?  He searched the 
shadows near the guttering campfires, watched for any movement 
in the darkness about the church and still saw no one.  Doubtless 
there were sentinels in the siege works opposite the manor en- 
trance, but surely they would be watching for any defender trying 
to sneak out of the back of the manor?  Except who would swim a   
moat on a night this cold?  And the besiegers were surely bored by 
now and their watchfulness would be low.  He saw a silver-edged 
cloud sailing closer to the moon.  When the cloud covers the moon," 
he told Robbie,  we go."   
 And God bless us both," Robbie said fervently, making the sign 
of the cross.  The cloud seemed to move so slowly, then at last it 
veiled the moon and the glimmering landscape faded into grey and 
black.  There was still a wan, faint light, but Thomas doubted the 
night would get any blacker and so he stood, brushed the twigs off 
his cloak and started towards the village along a track that had been 
beaten across the eastern slope of the ridge.  He guessed the path 
had been made by pigs being taken to get fat on the beechmast in 
the woods and he remembered how Hookton's pigs had roamed the 
shingle eating fish heads and how his mother had always claimed it 
tainted the taste of their bacon.  Fishy bacon, she had called it, and 
compared it unfavourably with the bacon of her native Weald in 
Kent.  That, she had always said, had been proper bacon, nourished 
on beechmast and acorn, the best.  Thomas stumbled on a tussock 
of grass.  It was difficult to follow the track because the night sud- 
denly seemed much darker, perhaps because they were on lower 
ground.   
He was thinking of bacon and all the time they were getting 
closer to the village and Thomas was suddenly scared.  He had seen 
no sentries, but what about dogs?  One barking bitch in the night 
and he and Robbie could be dead men.  He had not brought the 
bow, but suddenly wished he had,  though what could he do with 
it?  Shoot a dog?  At least the path was easily visible now for it was 
lit by the campfires and the two of them walked confidently as   
   t82 
though they belonged in the village.   You must do this all the time, 
Thomas said to Robbie softly.   
 This?"   
 When you raid across the border."   
 Hell, we stay in the open country.  Go after cattle and horses."   
They were among the shelters now and stopped talking.  A sound 
of deep snoring came from one small turf hut and an unseen dog 
whined, but did not bark.  A man was sitting in a chair outside a 
tent, presumably guarding whoever slept inside, but the guard him- 
self was asleep.  A small wind stirred the branches in an orchard by 
the church and the stream made a splashing noise as it plunged 
over the little weir beside the mill.  A woman laughed softly in one 
of the houses where some men began to sing.  The tune was new 
to Thomas and the deep voices smothered the sound of the church- 
yard gate, which squealed as he pushed it open.  The church had a 
small wooden belfry and Thomas could hear the wind sighing on 
the bell.   Is that you, Georges?"  a man called from the porch.   
 Non."  Thomas spoke more curtly than he intended, and the tone 
brought the man out from the black shadows of the porch's arch 
and Thomas, thinking he had initiated trouble, put his hand behind 
his back to grasp the hilt of his dagger.   
 Sorry, sir."  The man had mistaken Thomas for an officer, maybe 
even a lord.   I've been expecting a relief, sir."   
 He's probably still sleeping," Thomas said.   
The man stretched, yawning hugely.   The bastard never wakes 
up."  The sentry was little more than a shadow in the dark, but 
Thomas sensed he was a big man.   And it's cold here," the man 
went on,  God, but it's cold.  Did Guy and his men come back?"   
 One of their horses threw a shoe," Thomas said.   
 That's what it was!  And I thought they'd found that ale shop in 
Saint-Germain.  Christ and his angels, but that girl with the one 
eye!  Have you seen her?"   
 Not yet," Thomas said.  He was still holding his dagger, one of 
the weapons that the archers called a misericord because it was used 
to put unhorsed and wounded men-at-arms out of their misery.  The 
blade was slender and sufficiently flexible to slide between the joints 
of armour and seek out the life beneath, but he was reluctant to 
draw it.  This sentry suspected nothing and his only offence was to   
want a long conversation.   Is the church open?"  Thomas asked the 
sentry.   
 Of course.  Why not?"   
 We have to pray," Thomas said.   
 Must be a guilty conscience that makes men pray at night, eh?"   
The sentry was affable.   
 Too many one-eyed girls," Thomas said.  Robbie, not speaking 
French, stood to one side and stared at the great black shadow of   
the gun.   
 A sin worth repenting," the man chuckled, then he drew himself 
up.   Would you wait here while I wake Georges?  It won't take a 
moment."   
 Take as long as you like," Thomas said grandly,  we shall be here 
till dawn.  You can let Georges sleep if you want.  The two of us will 
keep watch."   
 You're a living saint," the man said, then he fetched his blanket 
from the porch before walking away with a cheerful goodnight.   
Thomas, when the man was gone, walked into the porch where 
he immediately kicked an empty barrel that rolled over with a great 
clatter.  He swore and went still, but no one called from the village 
to demand an explanation for the noise.   
Robbie crouched beside him.  The dark was impenetrable in the 
porch, but they groped with their hands to discover a half-dozen 
empty barrels.  They stank of rotten eggs and Thomas guessed they 
had once held black powder.  He whispered to Robbie the gist of 
the conversation he had held with the sentry.   But what I don't 
know," he went on,  is whether he's going to wake Georges or not.   
I don't think so, but I couldn't tell."   
 Who does he think we are?"   
 Two men-at-arms probably," Thomas said.  He pushed the empty 
barrels aside, then stood and groped for the rope that lifted the 
latch of the church door.  He found it, then winced as the hinges 
squealed.  Thomas could still see nothing, but the church had the 
same sour stench as the empty barrels.   We need some light," he 
whispered.  His eyes slowly became accustomed to the gloom and 
he saw the faintest glimmer of light showing from the big eastern 
window over the altar.  There was not even a small flame burning 
above the sanctuary where the wafers were kept, presumably   
because it was too dangerous with the gunpowder being stored in 
the nave.  Thomas found the powder easily enough by bumping 
into the stack of barrels that were just inside the door.  There were 
at least two score of them each about the size of a water pail, and 
Thomas guessed the cannon used one or maybe two barrels for 
each shot.  Say three or four shots a day?  So maybe there was two 
weeks" supply of powder here.   We need some light," he said again, 
turning, but Robbie made no response.   Where are you?"  Thomas 
hissed the question, but again there was no answer and then he 
heard a boot thump hollow against one of the empty barrels in the 
porch and he saw Robbie's shadow flicker in the clouded moonlight 
of the graveyard.   
Thomas waited.  A campfire smouldered not far beyond the thorn 
hedge that kept cattle out of the village's graves and he saw a 
shadow crouch beside the dying flames and then there was a sudden 
flare of brightness, like summer lightning, and Robbie reeled back 
and then Thomas, dazzled and alarmed by the flare, could see noth- 
ing.  He had gone to the church door and he expected to hear a 
shout from one of the men in the village, but instead he heard only 
the squeal of the gate and the Scotsman's footsteps.   I used an 
empty barrel," Robbie said,  except it wasn't as empty as I thought.   
Or else the powder gets into the wood."   
He was standing in the porch and the barrel was in his hands; 
he had used it to scoop up some embers.  The powder residue had 
flared, burning his eyebrows, and now fire leaped up the barrel's 
inside.   What do I do with it?"  he asked.   
 Christ!"  Thomas imagined the church exploding.   Give it to me," 
he said, and he took the barrel, which was hot to the touch, and 
he ran with it into the church, his way lit by the flames, and he 
thrust the burning wood deep between two stacks of full barrels.   
 Now we get out," he said to Robbie.   
 Did you look for the poor box?"  Robbie said.   Only if we're going 
to smash the church, we might as well take the poor box.   
 Come on!"  Thomas snatched Robbie's arm and dragged him 
through the porch.   
 It's a waste to leave it," Robbie said.   
There's no bloody poor box," Thomas said,  the village is full of 
soldiers, you idiot!"   
They ran, dodging between graves and pounding past the bulbous 
cannon, which lay in its wooden firing cradle.  They climbed a fence 
that filled a gap in the thorn hedge, then sprinted past the gaunt 
shape of the broken springald and the turf-roofed shelters, not 
caring if they made a noise, and two dogs began to bark, then a third 
howled at them and a man jumped up from beside the entrance of 
one of the big tents.   Qui va la?"   he called, and began to wind his 
crossbow, but Thomas and Robbie were already past him and out 
in the open field where they stumbled on the uneven turf.  The 
moon came from behind the cloud and Thomas could see his breath 
like a mist.   
 Halte!"  the man shouted.   
Thomas and Robbie stopped.  Not because the man had given 
them the order, but because a red light was filling the world.  They 
turned and stared, and the sentry who had challenged them now 
forgot them as the night became scarlet.   
Thomas was not sure what he had expected.  A lance of flame to 
pierce the heavens?  A great noise like thunder?  Instead the noise 
was almost soft, like a giant's inrush of breath, and a soft blossoming 
flame spilled from the church windows as though the gates of hell 
had just been opened and the fires of death were filling the nave, 
but that great red glow only lasted an instant before the roof of the 
church lifted off and Thomas distinctly saw the black rafters splaying 
apart like butchered ribs.   Sweet Jesus Christ," he blasphemed.   
 God in His heaven," Robbie said, wide-eyed.   
Now the flames and smoke and air were boiling above the caul- 
dron of the unroofed church, and still new barrels exploded, one 
after the other, each one pulsing a wave of fire and fumes into 
the sky.  Neither Thomas nor Robbie knew it, but the powder had 
needed stirring because the heavier saltpetre found its way to the 
bottom of the barrels and the lighter charcoal was left at the top 
and that meant much of the powder was slow to catch the fire, but 
the explosions were serving to mix the remaining powder that 
pulsed bright and scarlet to spew a red cloud over the village.   
Every dog in Evecque was barking or howling, and men, women 
and children were crawling from their beds to stare at the hellish 
glow.  The noise of the explosions rolled across the meadows and 
echoed from the manor walls and startled hundreds of birds up   
from their roosts in the woodlands.  Debris splashed in the moat, 
throwing up sharp-edged shards of thin ice that mirrored the fire 
so it seemed the manor was surrounded by a lake of sparkling 
flame.   
 Jesus," Robbie said in awe, then the two of them ran on towards 
the beech trees at the high eastern side of the pastureland.   
Thomas began to laugh as he stumbled up the path to the trees.   
 I'll go to hell for that," he said, stopping among the beeches and 
making the sign of the cross.   
 For burning a church?"  Robbie was grinning, his eyes reflecting 
the brightness of the fires.   You should see what we did to the Black 
Canons at Hexham!  Christ, half Scotland will be in hell for that 
one.   
They watched the fire for a few moments, then turned into the 
darkness of the woods.  Dawn was not far off.  There was a lightness 
in the east where a wan grey, pale as death, edged the sky.   We 
have to go deeper into the forest," Thomas said,  we have to hide."   
Because the hunt for the saboteurs was about to start and in the 
first light, as the smoke still made a great pall above Evecques, the 
Count of Coutances sent twenty horsemen and a pack of hounds 
to find the men who had destroyed his store of powder, but the 
day was cold, the ground hard with frost and the quarry's small 
scent faded early.  Next day, in his petulance, the Count ordered 
his forces to make an attack.  They had been readying gabions,  
great basketwork tubes woven from willow that were filled with 
earth and stones,  and the plan was to fill the moat with the gabions 
and then swarm over the resultant bridge to assault the gatehouse.   
The gateway lacked its drawbridge which had been taken down 
early in the siege to leave an open and inviting archway which was 
blocked by nothing more than a low stone barricade.   
The Count's advisers told him there were not enough gabions, 
that the moat was deeper than he thought, that the time was not 
propitious, that Venus was in the ascendant and Mars in the decline, 
and that he should, in brief, wait until the stars smiled on him and 
the garrison was hungrier and more desperate, but the Count had 
lost face and he ordered the assault anyway and his men did their 
best.  They were protected so long as they held the gabions, for the 
earth-filled baskets were proof against any crossbow bolt, but once   
the gabions were thrown into the moat the attackers were exposed 
to Sir Guillaume's six crossbowmen who were sheltering behind 
the low stone wall that had been built across the manor's entrance 
arch where the drawbridge had once been.  The Count had cross- 
bowmen of his own and they were protected by pavises, full-length 
shields carried by a second man to protect the archer while he 
laboriously wound the cord of the crossbow, but the men throwing 
the gabions had no protection once their burdens were thrown and 
eight of them died before the rest realized that the moat really was 
too deep and that there were not nearly enough gabions.  Two 
pavise-holders and a crossbowman were badly wounded before the 
Count accepted he was wasting his time and called the attackers 
back.  Then he cursed Sir Guillaume on the fourteen hump-backed 
devils of Saint Candace before getting drunk.   
Thomas and Robbie survived.  On the day after they had burned 
the Count's powder Thomas shot a deer, and next day Robbie dis- 
covered a rotting hare in a gap in a hedge and when he pulled the 
body out discovered a snare that must have been set by one of Sir 
Guillaume's tenants who had either been killed or chased off by 
the Count's men.  Robbie washed the snare in a stream and set it 
in another hedge and next morning found a hare choking in the 
tightening noose.   
They dared not sleep in the same place two nights running, but 
there was plenty of shelter in the deserted and burned-out farms.   
They spent most of the next weeks in the country south of Evecque 
where the valleys were deeper, the hills steeper and the woods 
thicker.  Here there were plenty of hiding places and it was in that 
tangled landscape that they made the Count's nightmare worse.   
Tales began to be told in the besiegers" encampment of a tall man 
in black on a pale horse and whenever the man on the pale horse 
appeared, someone would die.  The death would be caused by a 
long arrow, an English arrow, yet the man on the horse had no 
bow, only a staff topped by a deer's skull, and everyone knew what 
creature rode the pale horse and what a skull on a pole denoted.   
The men who had seen the apparition told their womenfolk in 
the Count's encampment and the womenfolk cried to the Count's 
chaplain and the Count said they were dreaming, but the corpses 
were real enough.  Four brothers, come from distant Lyons to earn   
money by serving in the siege, packed their belongings and went.   
Others threatened to follow.  Death stalked Evecque.   
The Count's chaplain said folk were touched by the moon and 
he rode into the dangerous south country, loudly chanting prayers 
and scattering holy water, and when the chaplain survived un- 
scathed the Count told his men they had been fools, that there was 
no Death riding a pale horse, and next day two men died only this 
time they were in the east.  The tales grew in the telling.  The horse- 
man was now accompanied by giant hounds whose eyes glowed, 
and the horseman did not even need to appear to explain any 
misfortune.  If a horse tripped, if a man broke a bone, if a woman 
spilled food, if a crossbow string snapped, then it was blamed on 
the mysterious man who rode the pale horse.   
The confidence of the besiegers plunged.  There were mutterings 
of doom and six men-at-arms went south to seek employment in 
Gascony.  Those who remained grumbled that they did the devil's 
work and nothing the Count of Coutances did seemed to restore 
his men's spirits.  He tried cutting back trees to stop the mysterious 
archer shooting into the camp, but there were too many trees and 
not enough axes, and the arrows still came.  He sent to the Bishop 
of Caen who wrote a blessing on a piece of vellum and sent it back, 
but that had no effect on the black-cloaked rider whose appearance 
presaged death, and so the Count, who fervently believed he did 
God's work and feared to fail in case he incurred God's wrath, now 
appealed to God for help.   
He wrote to Paris.   
Louis Bessieres, Cardinal Archbishop of Livorno, a city he had only 
seen once when he travelled to Rome (on his return, he had made 
a detour so he would not be forced to see Livorno a second time), 
walked slowly down the Quai des Orfe'vres on the lie de la Cite" in 
Paris.  Two servants went ahead of him, using staves to clear the 
way for the Cardinal who appeared not to be paying attention to 
the lean, hollow-cheeked priest who spoke to him so urgently.  The 
Cardinal, instead, examined the wares on offer in the goldsmiths" 
shops lining the quai that was named for their trade: Goldsmith's   
Quay.  He admired a necklace of rubies and even considered buying 
it, but then discovered a flaw in one of the stones.   So sad," he 
murmured, then moved to the next shop.   Exquisite!"  he exclaimed 
of a salt cellar made in silver and emblazoned with four panels on 
which pictures of country life were enamelled in blue, red, yellow 
and black.  A man ploughed on one panel and broadcast seed on 
the next, a woman cut the harvest on the third while on the last 
panel the two sat at table admiring a glowing loaf of bread.   Quite 
exquisite," the Cardinal enthused,  don't you think it beautiful?"   
Bernard de Taillebourg scarcely gave the salt cellar a glance.   The 
devil is at work against us, your eminence," he said angrily.   
 The devil is always at work against us, Bernard," the Cardinal 
said reprovingly,  that is the devil's job.  There would be something 
desperately amiss in the world if the devil were not at work against 
us."  He caressed the salt cellar, running his fingers over the delicate 
curves of the panels, then decided the shape of the base was not 
quite right.  Something crude there, he thought, a clumsiness in the 
design and, with a smile for the shopkeeper, he put it back on the 
table and strolled on.  The sun shone; there was even some warmth 
in the winter air and a sparkle on the Seine.  A legless man with 
wooden blocks on his stumps swung on short crutches across the 
road and held out a dirty hand towards the Cardinal whose servants 
rushed at the man with their staves.   No, no!"  the Cardinal called 
and felt in his purse for some coins.   God's blessing on you, my 
son," he said.  Cardinal Bessieres liked giving alms, he liked the 
melting gratitude on the faces of the poor, and he especially liked 
their look of relief when he called off his servants a heartbeat before 
they used their staves.  Sometimes the Cardinal paused just a fraction 
too long and he liked that too.  But today was a warm, sunlit day 
stolen from a grey winter and so he was in a kindly mood.   
Once past the Sabot d'Or, a tavern for scriveners, he turned away 
from the river into the tangle of alleys that twisted about the laby- 
rinthine buildings of the royal palace.  Parliament, such as it was, 
met here, and the lawyers scuttled the dark passages like rats, yet 
here and there, piercing the gloom, gorgeous buildings reared up 
to the sun.  The Cardinal loved these alleys and had a fancy that 
shops magically disappeared overnight to be replaced by others.   
Had that laundry always been there?  And why had he never noticed   
the bakery?  And surely there had been a lute-makers" business 
beside the public privy?  A furrier hung bear coats from a rack and   
the Cardinal paused to feel the pelts.  De Taillebourg still yapped at 
him, but he scarcely listened.   
Just past the furrier's was an archway guarded by men in blue   
and gold livery.  They wore polished breastplates, plumed helmets 
and carried pikes with brightly polished blades.  Few folk got past 
them, but the guards hastily stepped back and bowed as the Cardinal 
passed.  He gave them a benevolent wave suggestive of a blessing, 
then followed a damp passage into a courtyard.  This was all royal 
land now and the courtiers offered the Cardinal respectful bows for 
he was more than a cardinal, he was also Papal Legate to the throne 
of France.  He was God's ambassador and Bessieres looked the part   
for he was a tall man, strongly built and burly enough to overawe 
most men without his scarlet robes.  He was good-looking and knew 
it, and vain, which he pretended he did not know, and he was 
ambitious, which he hid from the world but not from himself.  After 
all, a cardinal archbishop had only one more throne to mount 
before he came to the crystal steps of the greatest throne of all and 
Bernard de Taillebourg seemed the unlikely instrument that might 
give Louis Bessieres the triple crown for which he yearned.   
And so the Cardinal wearily turned his attention to the Domini- 
can as the two left the courtyard and climbed the stairs into the 
Sainte-Chapelle.   Tell me" Bessieres broke into whatever de Taille- 
bourg had been saying,   about your servant.  Did he obey you?"   
De Taillebourg, so rudely interrupted, took a few seconds to adjust 
his thoughts, then he nodded.   He obeyed me in all things."   
 He showed humility?"   
 He did his best to show humility."   
 Ah!  So he still has pride?"   
 It is ingrained in him," de Taillebourg said,  but he fought it."   
 And he did not desert you?"   
 No, your eminence."   
 So he is back here in Paris?"   
 Of course," de Taillebourg said curtly, then realized what tone 
he had used.   He is at the friary, your eminence," he added humbly.   
 I wonder whether we should show him the undercroft again?"   
the Cardinal suggested as he walked slowly towards the altar.  He   
loved the Sainte-Chapelle, loved the light that flooded between the 
high slender pillars.  This was, he thought, as close to heaven as 
man came on earth: a place of supple beauty, overwhelming bright- 
ness and enchanting grace.  He wished he had thought to order 
some singing, for the sound of eunuchs" voices piercing the high 
fanwork of the chapel's stones could take a man very close to 
ecstasy.  Priests were running to the high altar, knowing what it 
was that the Cardinal had come to see.   I do find," he went on, 
 that a few moments in the undercroft compel a man to seek God's 
grace."   
De Taillebourg shook his head.   He has been there already, your 
eminence.   
 Take him again."  There was a hardness in the Cardinal's voice 
now  Show him the instruments.  Show him a soul on the rack or 
under the fire.  Let him know that hell is not confined to Satan's 
realm.  But do it today.  We may have to send you both away.   
 Send us away?"  de Taillebourg sounded surprised.   
The Cardinal did not enlighten him.  Instead he knelt before the 
high altar and took off his scarlet hat.  He rarely, and only reluc- 
tantly, removed the hat in public for he was uncomfortably aware 
that he was going bald, but it was necessary now.  Necessary and 
awe-inspiring, for one of the priests had opened the reliquary 
beneath the altar and brought out the purple cushion with its lace 
fringe and golden tassels, which he now presented to the Cardinal.   
And on the cushion lay the crown.  It was so old, so fragile, so black 
and so very brittle that the Cardinal held his breath as he reached 
for it.  The very earth seemed to stop in its motion, all sounds went 
silent, even heaven was still as he reached and then touched and 
then lifted the crown that was so light it seemed to have scarce any 
weight at all.   
It was the crown of thorns.   
It was the very crown that had been crammed onto Christ's 
head where it became imbued with his sweat and blood, and the 
Cardinal's eyes filled with tears as he raised it to his lips and kissed 
it gently.  The twigs, woven into the spiky circlet, were spindly.  They 
were frail as a wren's leg bones, yet the thorns were sharp still, as 
sharp as the day when they had been raked over the Saviour's head   
to pour blood down His precious face, and the Cardinal lifted the   
crown high, using two hands, and he marvelled at its lightness as 
he lowered it onto his thinning scalp to let it rest there.  Then, hands 
clasped, he stared up at the golden cross on the altar.   
He knew the clergy of Sainte-Chapelle disliked his coming here 
and wearing the crown of thorns.  They had complained of it to the 
Archbishop of Paris and the Archbishop had whined to the King, 
but Bessieres still came because he had the power to come.  He had 
the Pope's delegated power and France needed the Pope's support.   
England was besieging Calais and Flanders was warring in the north 
and all of Gascony was now again swearing allegiance to Edward 
of England and Brittany was in revolt against its rightful French 
Duke and seethed with English bowmen.  France was assailed and 
only the Pope could persuade the powers of Christendom to come 
to its aid.   
And the Pope would probably do that for the Holy Father was 
himself French.  Clement had been born in the Limousin and had 
been Chancellor of France before being elected to the throne of 
Saint Peter and installed in the great papal palace at Avignon. And 
there, in Avignon, Clement listened to the Romans who tried to 
persuade him to move the papacy back to their eternal city.  They 
whispered and plotted, bribed and whispered again, and Bessieres 
feared that Clement might one day give in to those wheedling 
voices.   
But if Louis Bessieres became Pope then there would be no more 
talk of Rome.  Rome was a ruin, a pestilent sewer surrounded by 
petty states forever at war with each other, and God's Vicar on 
earth could never be safe there.  But while Avignon was a good 
refuge for the papacy, it was not perfect because the city and its 
county of Venaissin both belonged to the kingdom of Naples and 
the Pope, in Louis Bessieres's view, should not be a tenant.   
Nor should the Pope live in some provincial city.  Rome had once 
ruled the world so the Pope had belonged in Rome, but in Avignon?   
The Cardinal, the thorns resting so lightly on his brow, stared up 
at the great blue and scarlet of the passion window above the altar; 
he knew which city deserved the papacy.  Only one.  And Louis 
Bessieres was certain that, once he was Pope, he could persuade 
the King of France to yield the ile de la Cite		" to the Holy Father and 
so Cardinal Bessieres would bring the papacy north and give it a new   
   and glorious refuge.  The palace would be his home, the Cathedral of 
   Notre Dame would be his new Saint Peter's and this glorious Sainte- 
   Chapelle his private shrine where the crown of thorns would be 
   his own relic. Perhaps, he thought, the thorns should be incorpor- 
 I ated into the Pope's triple crown.  He liked that idea, and he imag- 
   ined praying here on his private island.  The goldsmiths and the 
   beggars, the lawyers and the whores, the laundries and the lute- 
   makers would be sent across the bridges to the rest of Paris and the 
   ile de la Cite" would become a holy place.  And then the Vicar of 
   Christ would have the power of France always at his side and so 
   the kingdom of God would spread and the infidel would be slain 
   and there would be peace on earth.   
   But how to become Pope?  There were a dozen men who wanted 
   to succeed Clement, yet Bessieres alone of those rivals knew of the 
   Vexilles, and he alone knew that they had once owned the Holy 
   Grail and might, perhaps, own it still.   
   Which was why Bessieres had sent de Taillebourg to Scotland.   
   The Dominican had returned empty-handed, but he had learned 
   some things.   So you do not think the Grail is in England?"  Bessieres 
   now asked him, keeping his voice low so that Sainte-Chapelle's 
   priests could not overhear their conversation.   
    It may be hidden there," de Taillebourg sounded gloomy,  but it 
   is not in Hookton.  Guy Vexille searched the place when he raided 
   it.  We looked again and it is nothing but ruin."   
    You still think Sir Guillaume took it to Evecque?"   
    I think it possible, your eminence," de Taillebourg said.  Then: 
    Not likely," he qualified the answer,  but possible."   
    The siege goes badly.  I was wrong about Coutances.  I offered 
   him a thousand fewer years in purgatory if he captured Evecque 
   by Saint Timothy's Day, but he does not have the vigour to press a 
   siege. Tell me about this bastard son.   
   de Taillebourg made a dismissive gesture.   He is nothing.  He 
   doubts the Grail even exists.  All he wants is to be a soldier."   
    An archer, you tell me?"   
    An archer," de Taillebourg confirmed.   
    I think you are wrong about him.  Coutances writes to say that 
   their work is being impeded by an archer.  One archer who shoots 
   long arrows of the English type."   
De Taillebourg said nothing.   
 One archer," the Cardinal pressed on,  who probably destroyed 
Coutances's whole stock of black powder.  It was the only supply 
in Normandy!  If we want more it will have to be brought from 
Paris."   
The Cardinal lifted the crown from his head and placed it on the 
cushion.  Then, slowly, reverently, he pressed his forefinger against 
one of the thorns and the watching priests leaned forward.  They 
feared he was trying to steal one of the thorns, but the Cardinal 
was only drawing blood.  He winced as the thorn broke his skin, 
then he lifted his finger to his mouth and sucked.  There was a 
heavy gold ring on the finger and hidden beneath the ruby, which 
was cunningly hinged, was a thorn he had stolen eight months 
before.  Sometimes, in the privacy of his bed chamber, he scratched 
his forehead with the thorn and imagined being God's deputy on 
earth.  And Guy Vexille was the key to that ambition  What you 
will do," he ordered de Taillebourg when the taste of the blood was 
gone,  is show Guy Vexille the undercroft again to remind him 
what hell awaits him if he fails us.  Then go with him to Evecque."   
 You'd send Vexille to Evecque?"  De Taillebourg could not hide 
his surprise.   
 He is ruthless and he is cruel," the Cardinal said as he stood 
and put on his hat,  and you tell me he is ours.  So we shall spend 
money and we shall give him black powder and enough men to 
crush Evecque and bring Sir Guillaume to the undercroft."  He 
watched as the crown of thorns was taken back to its reliquary.   
And soon, he thought, in this chapel, in this place of light and glory, 
he would have a greater prize.  He would have a treasure to bring 
all Christendom and its riches to his throne of gold He would have 
the Grail.   
Thomas and Robbie were both filthy; their clothes were caked with 
dirt; their mail coats were snagged with twigs, dead leaves and 
earth; and their hair was uncut, greasy and matted.  At night they 
shivered, the cold seeping into the marrow of their souls, but by 
day they had never felt so alive for they played a game of life and   
death in the small valleys and tangled woods about Evecque.   
Robbie, clad in a swathing black cloak and carrying the skull on its 
pole, rode the white horse to lead Coutances's men into ambush 
where Thomas killed.  Sometimes Thomas merely wounded, but he 
rarely missed for he was shooting at close range, forced to it by the 
thickness of the woods, and the game reminded him of the songs 
the archers liked to sing and the tales their women told about the 
army's campfires.  They were the songs and tales of the common 
folk, ones never sung by the troubadours, and they told of an outlaw 
called Robin Hood.  It was either Hood or Hude, Thomas was not 
sure for he had never seen it written down, but he knew Hood was 
an English hero who had lived a couple of hundred years before 
and his enemies had been England's French-speaking nobility.  Hood 
had fought them with an English weapon, the war bow, and today's 
nobility doubtless thought the stories were subversive which was 
why no troubadour sung them in the great halls.  Thomas had some- 
times thought he might write them down himself, except no one 
ever wrote in English.  Every book Thomas had ever seen was in 
Latin or French.  But why should the Hood songs not be put between 
covers?  Some nights he told the Hood tales to Robbie as the two 
of them shivered in whatever poor shelter they had found, but the 
Scotsman thought the stories dull things.   I prefer the tales of King 
Arthur," he said.   
 You have those in Scotland?"  Thomas asked, surprised.   
 Of course we do!"  Robbie said.   Arthur was Scots."   
 Don't be so bloody daft!"  Thomas said, offended.   
 He was a Scotsman, Robbie insisted,  and he killed the bloody 
English."   
 He was English," Thomas said,  and he'd probably never heard 
of the bloody Scots."   
 Go to hell," Robbie snarled.   
 I'll see you there first," Thomas spat and thought that if he ever 
did write the Hood tales he would have the legendary bowman go 
north and spit a few Scots on some honest English arrows.   
They were both ashamed of their tempers next morning.   It's 
because I'm hungry," Robbie said,  I'm always short-tempered when 
I'm hungry."   
 And you're always hungry," Thomas said.   
Robbie laughed, then heaved the saddle onto his white horse.   
The beast shivered.  Neither horse had eaten well and they were 
both weak so Thomas and Robbie were being cautious, not wanting 
to be trapped in open country where the Count's better horses 
could outrun their two tired destriers.  At least the weather had 
turned less cold, but then great bands of rain swept in from the 
western ocean and for a week it poured down and no English bow 
could be drawn in such weather.  The Count of Coutances would 
doubtless be beginning to believe that his chaplain's holy water had 
driven the pale horse from Evecque and so spared his men, but his 
enemies were also spared for no more powder had come for the 
cannon and now the meadows about the moated house were so 
waterlogged that trenches flooded and the besiegers were wading 
through mud.  Horses developed hoof rot and men stayed in their 
shelters shivering with fever.   
At every dawn Thomas and Robbie rode first to the woods south 
of Evecque and there, on the side of the manor where the Count 
had no entrenchments and only a small sentry post, they stood at 
the edge of the trees and waved.  They had received an answering 
wave on the third morning that they signalled the garrison, but 
after that there was nothing until the week of the rain.  Then, on 
the morning after they had argued about King Arthur, Thomas and 
Robbie waved to the manor and this time they saw a man appear 
on the roof.  He raised a crossbow and shot high into the air.  The 
quarrel was not aimed at the sentry post and if the men on guard 
there even saw its flight they did nothing, but Thomas watched 
it fall into the pasture where it splashed in a puddle and skidded 
through the wet grass.   
They did not ride out that day.  Instead they waited until evening, 
until the darkness had fallen, and then Thomas and Robbie crept 
to the pasture and, on hands and knees, searched the thick wet 
grass and old cowdung.  It seemed to take them hours, but at last 
Robbie found the bolt and discovered there was a waxed packet 
wrapped about the short shaft.   You see?"  Robbie said when they 
were back in their shelter and shivering beside a feeble fire.   It can 
be done."  He gestured at the message wrapped about the quarrel.   
To make the bolt fly the message had been whipped to the shaft 
with cotton cord that had shrunk and Thomas had to cut it free,   
then he unwrapped the waxed parchment and held it close to the 
fire so he could read the message, which had been written with 
charcoal.   It's from Sir Guillaume," Thomas said,  and he wants us 
to go to Caen."   
 Caen?"   
 And we're to find a,"  Thomas frowned and held the letter with 
its crabbed handwriting even closer to the flames,   we're to find 
a shipmaster called Pierre Villeroy."   
 I wonder if that's Ugly Peter," Robbie put in.   
 No," Thomas said, peering close at the parchment,  this man's 
ship is called the Pentecost, and if he's not there we're to look for 
Jean Lapoullier or Guy Vergon."  Thomas was holding the message 
so close to the fire that it began to brown and curl as he read 
the last words aloud.   Tell Villeroy I want the Pentecost ready by 
Saint Clement's Day and he must provision for ten passengers going 
to Dunkirk. Wait with him, and we shall meet you in Caen.  Set a 
fire in the woods tonight to show you have received this."   
That night they did set a fire in the woods.  It blazed briefly, then 
rain came and the fire died, but Thomas was sure the garrison 
would have seen the flames.   
And by dawn, wet, tired and filthy, they were back in Caen.   
Thomas and Robbie searched the city's quays but there was no sign 
of Pierre Villeroy or of his ship, the Pentecost, but a tavern-keeper 
reckoned Villeroy was not far away.   He carried a cargo of stone to 
Cabourg," the man told Thomas,  and he reckoned he should be 
back today or tomorrow, and the weather won't have held him 
up.  He looked askance at the bowstave.   Is that a goddamn bow?"   
He meant an English bow.   
 Hunting bow from Argentan," Thomas said carelessly and the lie 
satisfied the tavern-keeper for there were some men in every French 
community who could use the long hunting bow, but they were 
very few and never enough to coalesce into the kind of army that 
turned hulsides red with noble blood.   
 If Villeroy's back today," the man said,  he'll be drinking in my 
tavern tonight."   
 You'll point him out to me?"  Thomas asked.   
 You can't miss Pierre," the man laughed,  he's a giant!  A giant 
with a bald head, a beard you could breed mice in and a poxed 
skin.  You'll recognize Pierre without me."   
Thomas reckoned that Sir Guillaume would be in a hurry when 
he reached Caen and would not want to waste time coaxing horses 
onto the Pentecost, therefore he spent the day haggling about prices 
for the two stallions and that night, flush with money, he and 
Robbie returned to the tavern.  There was no sign of a big-bearded 
giant with a bald head, but it was raining, they were both chilled 
and reckoned they might as well wait and so they ordered eel stew, 
bread and mulled wine.  A blind man played a harp in the tavern's 
corner, then began singing about sailors and seals and the strange 
sea beasts that rose from the ocean floor to howl at the waning 
moon.  Then the food arrived and just as Thomas was about to taste 
it a stocky man with a broken nose crossed the tavern floor and 
planted himself belligerently in front of Thomas.  He pointed at the 
bow.   That's an English bow," the man said flatly.   
 It's a hunting bow from Argentan," Thomas said.  He knew it was 
dangerous to carry such a distinctive weapon and last summer, 
when he and Jeanette had walked from Brittany to Normandy, he 
had disguised the bowstave as a pilgrim's staff, but he had been 
more careless on this visit.   It's just a hunting bow," he repeated 
casually, then flinched because the eel stew was so hot.   
 What does the bastard want?"  Robbie asked.   
The man heard him.   You're English."   
 Do I sound English?"  Thomas asked.   
 So how does he sound?"  The man pointed to Robbie.   Or has he 
lost his tongue now?"   
 He's Scottish."   
 Oh, I'm sure, and I'm the goddamn Duke of Normandy."   
 What you are," Thomas said mildly,  is a goddamn nuisance, 
and he heaved the bowl of soup into the man's face and kicked the 
table into his groin.   Get out!"  he told Robbie.   
 Christ, I love a fight!"  Robbie said.  A half-dozen of the scalded 
man's friends were charging across the floor and Thomas hurled a 
bench at their legs, tripping two, and Robbie swung his sword at 
another man.   
 They're English!"  the scalded man shouted from the floor.   
 They're Goddamns!"  The English were hated in Caen.   
 He's calling you English," Thomas told Robbie.   
 I'll piss down his throat," Robbie snarled, kicking the scalded   
man in the head, then he punched another man with the hilt of 
his sword and was screaming his Scottish war cry as he advanced 
on the survivors.   
Thomas had snatched up their baggage and his bowstave and 
pulled open a door.   Come on!"  he shouted.   
 Call me English, you tosspots!"  Robbie challenged.  His sword was 
holding the attackers at bay, but Thomas knew they would summon 
their courage and charge home and Robbie would almost certainly 
have to kill one to escape and then there would be a hue and cry 
and they would be lucky not to end dangling at rope ends from 
the castle battlements, so he just dragged Robbie backwards through 
the tavern door.   Run!"   
 I was enjoying that," Robbie insisted and tried to head back into   
the tavern, but Thomas pulled him hard away and then shoulder- 
charged a man coming into the alley.   
 Run!"  Thomas shouted again and pushed Robbie towards the 
ile's centre.  They dodged into an alley, sprinted across a small square 
and finally went to ground in the shadows of the porch of Saint Jean's 
church. Their pursuers searched for a few minutes, but the night 
was cold and the patience of the hunters limited.   
 There were six of them," Thomas said.   
 We were winning!"  Robbie said truculently.   
 And tomorrow," Thomas said,  when we're supposed to be find- 
ing Pierre Villeroy or one of the others, you'd rather be in Caen's 
jail?"   
 I haven't punched a man since the fight at Durham," Robbie 
said,  not properly."   
 What about the hoggling fight in Dorchester?"   
 We were too drunk.  Doesn't count."  He started to laugh.   Any- 
way, you started it."   
 I did?"   
 Aye," Robbie said,  you chucked the eel stew right in his face!   
All that stew."   
 I was only trying to save your life," Thomas pointed out.   
 Christ!  You were talking English in Caen!  They hate the English!"   
 So they should," Robbie said,'s o they should, but what am I   
supposed to do here?  Keep my mouth shut?  Hell!  It's my language 
too.  God knows why it's called English."   
 Because it is English," Thomas said,  and King Arthur spoke it."   
 Sweet Jesus!"  Robbie said, then laughed again.   Hell, I hit that 
one fellow so hard he won't know what day it is when he wakes 
up.   
They found shelter in one of the many houses that were still 
abandoned after the savagery of the English assault in the summer.   
The house's owners were either far away, or more likely their bones 
were in the big common grave in the churchyard or mired in the 
river's bed.   
Next morning they went down to the quays again.  Thomas 
remembered wading through the strong current as the cross- 
bowmen fired from the moored ships.  The quarrels had spat up 
small fountains of water and, because he dared not get his bowstring 
wet, he had not been able to shoot back.  Now he and Robbie walked   
down the quays to discover the Pentecost had magically appeared in 
the night.  She was as big a ship as any that made it upriver, a ship 
capable of crossing to England with a score of men and horses 
aboard, but she was high and dry now as the falling tide stranded 
her on the mud.  Thomas and Robbie gingerly crossed the narrow 
gangplank to hear a monstrous snoring coming from a small fetid 
cabin in the stern.  Thomas fancied the deck itself vibrated every 
time the man drew breath and he wondered how any creature who 
made such a sound would react to being woken, but just then a 
waif of a girl, pale as a dawn mist and thin as an arrow, climbed 
from the cabin hatch and put some clothes on the deck and a finger 
to her lips.  She looked very fragile and, as she pulled up her robe 
to tug on stockings, showed legs like twigs.  Thomas doubted she 
could have been more than thirteen years old.   
 He's sleeping," she whispered.   
 So I hear," Thomas said.   
 Sh!"  She touched her finger to her lips again then hauled a thick 
woollen shirt over her night-gown, put her thin feet into huge 
boots and wrapped herself in a big leather coat.  She pulled a greasy 
woollen hat over her fair hair and picked up a bag that appeared   
to be made of ancient frayed sailcloth.   I'm going to buy food," she 
said quietly,  and there's a fire to be made in the forepeak.  You'll 
find a flint and steel on the shelf.  Don't wake him!"   
With that warning she tiptoed off the ship, swathed in her great 
coat and boots, and Thomas, appalled at the depth and loudness of 
the snoring, decided discretion was the best course.  He went to the 
forepeak where he found an iron brazier standing on a stone slab.   
A fire was already laid in the brazier and, after opening the hatch 
above to serve as a chimney, he struck sparks from the flint.  The 
kindling was damp, but after a while the fire caught and he fed it 
scraps of wood so that by the time the girl came back there was a 
respectable blaze.   I'm Yvette," she said, apparently incurious as to 
who Thomas and Robbie were,  Pierre's wife," she explained, then 
fetched Out a huge blackened pan onto which she broke twelve 
eggs.   Do you want to eat too?"  she asked Thomas.   
 We'd like to."   
 You can buy some eggs from me," she said, nodding at her sail- 
cloth bag,  and there's some ham and bread in there.  He likes his 
ham.   
Thomas looked at the eggs whitening on the fire.   Those are all 
for Pierre?"   
 He's hungry in the morning," she explained,'s o why don't you 
cut the ham?  He likes it thick."  The ship suddenly creaked and 
rolled slightly on the mud.   He's awake," Yvette said, taking a pewter 
plate from the shelf.  There was a groan from the deck, then footsteps 
and Thomas backed out of the forepeak and turned to find the 
biggest man he had ever seen.   
Pierre Villeroy was a foot taller than Thomas's bow.  He had a 
chest like a hogshead, a smoothly bald pate, a face terribly scarred 
by the childhood pox and a beard in which a hare could have 
become lost.  He blinked at Thomas.   You've come to work," he 
grunted.   
 No, I brought you a message.   
 Only we've got to start soon," Villeroy said in a voice that seemed 
to rumble from some deep cavern.   
 A message from Sir Guillaume d'Evecque," Thomas explained.   
 Have to use the low tide, see?"  Villeroy said.   I've three tubs of 
moss in the hold.  I've always used moss.  My father did.  Others use   
shredded hemp, but I don't like it, don't like it at all.  Nothing works 
half as well as fresh moss.  It holds, see?  And mixes better with the 
pitch."  His ferocious face suddenly creased into a gap-toothed smile.   
 Mon caneton!" he declared as Yvette brought out his plate heaped 
with food.   
Yvette, his duckling, provided Thomas and Robbie with two eggs 
apiece, then produced two hammers and a pair of strange iron 
instruments that looked like blunt chisels.   We're caulking the 
seams," Villeroy explained,'s o I'll heat the pitch and you two can 
ram moss between the planks."  He scooped a mess of egg yolk into 
his mouth with his fingers.   Have to do it while the ship's high and 
dry between tides."   
 But we've brought you a message," Thomas insisted.   
 I know you have.  From Sir Guillaume.  Which means he wants 
the Pentecost for a voyage and what Sir Guillaume wants he gets 
because he's been good to me, he has, but the Pentecost ain't no 
good to him if she sinks, is she?  Ain't no good down on the sea bed 
with all the drowned mariners, is she.  She has to be caulked.  My 
darling and I almost drowned ourselves yesterday, didn't we, my 
duckling?"   
 She was taking on water," Yvette agreed.   
 Gurgling away, it was," Villeroy declared loudly,  all the way 
from Cabourg to here, so if Sir Guillaume wants to go somewhere 
then you two had better start work!"  He beamed at them above his 
vast beard, which was now streaked with egg yolk.   
 He wants to go to Dunkirk," Thomas said.   
 Planning on making a run for it, is he?"  Villeroy mused aloud.   
 He'll be over that moat and on his horses and up and away before 
the Count of Coutances knows what year it is."   
 Why Dunkirk?"  Yvette wondered.   
 He's joining the English, of course," Villeroy said without a trace 
of any resentment for that presumed betrayal by Sir Guillaume.   
His lord has turned against him, the bishops is pissing down his 
gullet and they do say the King has a finger in the pie, so he might 
as well change sides now.  Dunkirk?  He'll be joining the siege of 
Calais."  He scooped more eggs and ham into his mouth.   So when 
does Sir Guillaume want to sail?"   
 Saint Clement's Day," Thomas said.   
 When's that?"   
None of them knew.  Thomas knew which day of the month was 
the feast of Saint Clement, but he did not know how many days away 
that was, and that ignorance gave him an excuse to avoid what he 
was certain would be a disgustingly messy, cold and wet job.  I'll 
find out," he said,  and be back to help you."   
 I'll come with you," Robbie volunteered.   
 You stay here," Thomas said sternly,  Monsieur Villeroy has a 
job for you."   
 A job?"  Robbie had not understood the earlier conversation.   
 It's nothing much," Thomas reassured him,  you'll enjoy it!"   
Robbie was suspicious.   So where are you going?"   
 To church, Robbie Douglas," Thomas said,  I'm going to church."  
The English had captured Caen the previous summer, then occupied   
the city just long enough to rape its women and plunder its wealth.   
They had left Caen battered, bleeding and shocked, but Thomas 
had stayed when the army marched away.  He had been sick and   
doctormordecai had treated him in Sir Guillaume's house and later,   
when Thomas had been well enough to walk, Sir Guillaume had 
taken him to the Abbaye aux Hommes to meet Brother Germain, 
the head of the monastery's scriptorium and as wise a man as 
any Thomas had ever met. Brother Germain would certainly know 
when Saint Clement's Day was, but that was not the only reason 
Thomas was going to the abbey. He had realized that if any man 
could understand the strange script in his father's notebook it was 
the old monk, and the thought that perhaps this morning he would 
find an answer to the Grail's mystery gave Thomas a pang of excite- 
ment.  That surprised him.  He often doubted the Grail's existence 
and even more frequently wished the cup would pass from him, 
but now, suddenly, he felt the thrill of the hunt.  More, he was   
suddenly overwhelmed with the solemnity of the quest, so much 
so that he stopped walking and stared into the shimmering light 
reflected from the river and tried to recall his vision of fire and gold 
in the northern English night.  How stupid to doubt, he thought 
suddenly.  Of course the Grail existed!  It was just waiting to be 
found and so bring happiness to a broken world.   
 Mind out!"  Thomas was startled from his reverie by a man push- 
ing a barrow of oyster shells who barged past him.  A small dog was 
tied to the barrow and it lunged at Thomas, snapping ineffectually 
at his ankles before yelping as the rope dragged it onwards.  Thomas   
was hardly aware of man or dog.  Instead he was thinking that the 
Grail must hide itself from the unworthy by giving them doubts.   
To find it, then, all he had to do was believe in it and, perhaps, to   
request a little help from Brother Germain.   
A porter accosted Thomas in the abbey's gateway, then immedi- 
ately suffered a coughing fit.  The man doubled over, gasped for 
breath, then straightened slowly and blew his nose onto his fingers, 
 I've caught my death," he wheezed,  that's what it is, I've caught 
my death."  He hawked up a gob of mucus and spat it towards the 
beggars by the gate.   The scriptorium's that way," he said,  past the 
cloister."   
Thomas made his way to the sunlit room where a score of monks 
stood at tall, sloping desks.  A small fire burned in a central hearth, 
ostensibly to keep the ink from freezing, but the high room was 
still cold enough for the monks" breath to mist above their parch- 
ments.  They were all copying books and the stone chamber clicked   
and scratched with the sound of the quills.  Two novice monks were 
pounding powder for paints at a side table, another was scraping 
a lambskin and a fourth was sharpening goose quills, all of them 
nervous of Brother Germain who sat on a dais where he worked 
at his own manuscript.  Germain was old and small, fragile and bent, 
with wispy white hair, milky myopic eyes and a bad-tempered 
expression.  His face had been just three inches from his work until 
he heard Thomas's footsteps, then he abruptly looked up and, 
though he could not see well, he did at least observe that his unan- 
nounced visitor had a sword at his side.   What business does a 
soldier have in God's house?"  Brother Germain snarled.   Come to 
finish what the English started last summer?"   
 I have business with you, brother," Thomas said.  The scratching 
of the quills had abruptly ceased as the monks tried to overhear 
the conversation.   
 Work!"  Brother Germain snapped at the monks.   Work!  You are 
not translated to heaven yet!  You have duties, attend to them!"   
Quills rattled in ink pots and the scratching and pounding and 
scraping began again.  Brother Germain looked alarmed as Thomas 
stepped up onto the dais.   Do I know you?"  he snarled.   
 We met last summer.  Sir Guillaume brought me to see you.   
 Sir Guillaume!"  Brother Germain, startled, laid his quill down.   
 Sir Guillaume?  I doubt we'll see him again!  Ha!  Mewed up by 
Coutances, that's what I hear, and a good thing.  You know what 
he did?"   
 Coutances?"   
 Sir Guillaume, you fool!  He turned against the King in Picardy!   
Turned against the King.  He made himself a traitor.  He was always 
a fool, always risking his neck, but now he'll be lucky to keep his 
head.  What's that?"   
Thomas had unwrapped the book and now placed it on the desk.   
 I was hoping, brother," he said humbly,  that you could make some 
sense of. . .      
 You want me to read it, eh?  Never learned yourself and now 
you think I have nothing better to do than read some nonsense so 
you can determine its value?"  Folk who could not read sometimes 
came into possession of books and brought them to the monastery 
to have them valued, hoping against hope that some collection of 
pious advice might turn out to be a rare book of theology, astrology 
or philosophy.   What did you say your name was?"  Brother Germain 
demanded.   
 I didn't," Thomas said,  but I'm called Thomas."   
The name held no apparent memories for Brother Germain, but 
nor was he interested any longer for he was immersed in the book, 
mouthing words under his breath, turning pages with long white 
fingers, lost in wonder, and then he leafed back to the first page 
and read the Latin aloud.   'Calix meus inebrians"."  He breathed the 
words as if they were sacred, then made the sign of the cross and 
turned to the next page which was in the strange Hebrew script 
and he became even more excited.   'To my son, " he said aloud, 
evidently translating,  'who is the son of the Tirshatha and the 
grandson of Hachaliah. "  He turned his short-sighted eyes on 
Thomas.   Is that you?"   
 Me?"   
 Are you the grandson of Hachaliah?"  Germain asked and, de- 
spite his bad eyesight, he must have detected the puzzlement on 
Thomas's face.   Oh, never mind!"  he said impatiently.   Do you know 
what this is?"   
 Stories," Thomas said.   Stories of the Grail."   
 Stories!  Stories!  You're like children, you soldiers.  Mindless,   
cruel, uneducated and greedy for stories.  You know what this script 
is?"  He poked a long finger at the strange letters which were dotted 
with the eye-like symbols.   You know what it is?"   
 It's Hebrew, isn't it?"   
 'It's Hebrew, isn't it? "  Brother Germain mocked Thomas with 
mimicry.   Of course it's Hebrew, even a fool educated at the univer- 
sity in Paris would know that, but it's their magical script.  It's the 
lettering the Jews use to work their charms, their dark magic."  He 
peered close at one of the pages.   There, you see?  The devil's name, 
Abracadabra!"  He frowned for a few seconds.   The writer claims 
Abracadabra can be raised to this world by invoking his name above 
the Grail.  That seems plausible."  Brother Germain made the sign of 
the cross again to ward off evil, then peered up at Thomas.   Where 
did you get this?"  He asked the question sharply, but did not wait 
for an answer.   You're him, aren't you?"   
 Him?"   
 The Vexille that Sir Guillaume brought to me," Brother Germain 
said accusingly and made the sign of the cross again.   You're Eng- 
lish!"  He made that sound even worse.   Who will you take this book 
to?"   
 I want to understand it first," Thomas said, confused by the 
question.   
 Understand it!  You?"  Brother Germain scoffed.   No, no.  You must 
leave it with me, young man, so I can make a copy of it and then 
the book itself must go to Paris, to the Dominicans there.  They sent 
a man to ask about you."   
 About me?"  Thomas was even more confused now.   
 About the Vexille family.  It seems one of your foul brood fought 
at the King's side this summer, and now he has submitted to the 
Church.  The Inquisition have had  ."  Brother German paused, 
evidently seeking the right word,  .  .  .  conversations with him."   
 With Guy?"  Thomas asked.  He knew Guy was his cousin, knew 
Guy had fought on the French side in Picardy and he knew Guy 
had killed his father in search of the Grail, but he knew little more.   
 Who else?  And now, they do say, Guy Vexille is reconciled to 
the Church," Brother Germain said as he turned the pages.   Rec- 
onciled to the Church indeed!  Can a wolf lay down with lambs?   
Who wrote this?"   
 My father."   
 So you are Hachaliah's grandson," Brother Germain said with 
reverence, then he closed his thin hands over the book.   Thank you 
for bringing it to me," he said.   
 Can you tell me what the Hebrew passages say?"  Thomas asked, 
baffled by Brother Germain's last words.   
 Tell you?  Of course I can tell you, but it will mean nothing.  You 
know who Hachaliah was?  You are familiar with the Tirshatha?  Of 
course not.  The answers would be wasted on you!  But I thank you 
for bringing me the book."  He drew a scrap of parchment towards 
him, took up his quill and dipped it in the ink.   If you take this 
note to the sacristan he will give you a reward.  Now I have work."   
He signed the note and held it towards Thomas.   
Thomas reached for the book.   I can't leave it here," he said.   
 Can't leave it here!  Of course you can!  Such a thing belongs to 
the Church.  Besides, I must make a copy."  Brother Germain folded 
his hands over the book and hunched over it.   You will leave it," 
he hissed.   
Thomas had thought of Brother Germain as a friend, or at least 
not as an enemy, and even the old monk's harsh words about Sir 
Guillaume's treachery had not altered that opinion, Germain had 
said that the book must go to Paris, to the Dominicans, but Thomas 
now understood that Germain was allied with those men of the 
Inquisition who, in turn, had Guy Vexille on their side.  And Thomas 
understood too that those formidable men were seeking the Grail 
with an avidity he had not appreciated until this moment, and their 
path to the Grail lay through him and this book.  Those men were 
his enemies, and that meant that Brother Germain was also his foe 
and it had been a terrible mistake to bring the book to the abbey.   
He felt a sudden fear as he reached for the book.   I have to leave," 
he insisted.   
Brother Germain tried to hold onto the book, but his twig-like 
arms could not compete with Thomas's bow-given strength.  He 
nevertheless clutched it stubbornly, threatening to tear its soft 
leather cover.   Where will you go?"  Brother Germain demanded, 
then tried to trick Thomas with a false promise.   If you leave it," he 
said,  I shall make a copy and send the book to you when it is 
finished."   
Thomas was going north to Dunkirk so he named a place in the 
other direction.   I'm going to La Roche-Derrien," he lied.   
 An English garrison?"  Brother Germain still tried to pull the book 
away, then yelped as Thomas slapped his hands.   You can't take 
that to the English!"   
 I am taking it to La Roche-Derrien," Thomas said, finally retriev- 
ing the book.  He folded the soft leather cover over the pages, then 
half drew his sword because several of the younger monks had 
slipped from their high stools and looked as though they wanted 
to stop him, but the sight of the blade dissuaded them from any 
violence.  They just watched as he walked away.   
The porter was coughing still, then leaned against the arch and 
fought for breath while tears streamed from his eyes.   At least it 
ain't leprosy," he managed to say to Thomas,  I know it ain't leprosy.   
My brother had leprosy and he didn't cough.  Not much anyway."   
 When is Saint Clement's Day?" Thomas remembered to ask.   
 Day after tomorrow, and God love me if I live to see it ,   
No one followed Thomas, but that afternoon, while he and Robbie   
were standing up to their crotches in flooding cold river water and 
pounding thick moss into the Pentecost's planking, a patrol of soldiers 
in red and yellow livery asked Pierre Villeroy if he had seen an 
Englishman dressed in mail and a black cloak.   
 That's him down there," Villeroy said, pointing to Thomas, then 
laughed.   If I see an Englishman," he went on,  I'll piss down the 
bastard's throat till he drowns."   
 Bring him to the castle instead," the patrol's leader said, then led 
his men to question the crew on the next boat.   
Villeroy waited till the soldiers were out of earshot.   For that," he 
said to Thomas,  you owe me two more rows of caulking."   
 Jesus Christ!"  Thomas swore.   
 Now He was a properly skilled carpenter," Villeroy observed 
through a mouthful of Yvette's apple pie,  but He was also the Son 
of God, wasn't he?  So he didn't have to do menial jobs like caulking, 
so it's no damn good asking for His help.  Just bang the moss in 
hard, boy, bang it in hard."   
Sir Guillaume had held the manor from its attackers for close on 
three months and did not doubt he could hold it indefinitely so 
long as the Count of Coutances did not bring more gunpowder to 
the village, but Sir Guillaume knew that his time in Normandy was 
ended.  The Count of Coutances was his liege lord, Sir Guillaume 
held land of him as the Count held land of the King, and if a man 
was declared a traitor by his liege lord, and if the King supported 
the declaration, then a man had no future unless he was to find 
another lord who owed fealty to a different King.  Sir Guillaume 
had written to the King and he had appealed to friends who had 
influence at court, but no reply had come.  The siege had continued, 
and so Sir Guillaume must leave the manor.  That saddened him 
for Evecque was his home.  He knew every inch of its pastures, 
knew where to find the shed deer antlers, knew where the young 
hares lay trembling in the long grass, and knew where the pike 
brooded like demons in the deeper streams.  It was home, but 
a man declared a traitor had no home and so, on the eve of 
Saint Clement's, when his besiegers were sunk in a damp winter gloom, 
he made his escape.   
He had never doubted his ability to escape.  The Count of Cout- 
ances was a dull, unimaginative, middle-aged man whose experi- 
ence of war had always been in the service of greater lords.  The 
Count was averse to risk and given to a blustery temper whenever 
the world escaped his understanding, which happened frequently.   
The Count certainly did not understand why great men in Paris 
were encouraging him to besiege Evecque, but he saw the chance 
of enriching himself and so he obeyed them, even though he was 
wary of Sir Guillaume.  Sir Guillaume was in his thirties and had 
spent half his life fighting, usually on his own account, and in Nor- 
mandy he was called the lord of the sea and of the land because 
he fought on both with enthusiasm and effectiveness.  He had been 
handsome once, hard-faced and golden-haired, but Guy Vexille, 
Count of Astarac, had taken one eye and had left scars that made Sir 
Guillaume's face even harder.  He was a formidable man, a fighter, 
but in the hierarchy of kings, princes, dukes and counts he was a 
lesser being and his lands made it tempting to declare him a traitor.   
There were twelve men, three women and eight horses inside 
the manor, which meant every horse but one had to carry two   
riders.  After nightfall, when rain was softly falling across Evecque's 
waterlogged fields, Sir Guillaume ordered planks, put across the 
gap where the drawbridge should have been, and then the horses, 
blindfolded, were led one by one across the perilous bridge.  The 
besiegers, huddled from the cold and rain, saw and heard nothing, 
even though the sentries in the forwardmost works had been placed 
to guard against just such an attempt to escape.   
The horses" blindfolds were taken off, the fugitives mounted and 
then rode northwards.  They were challenged just once by a sentry 
who demanded to know who they were.   Who the hell do you 
think we are?"  Sir Guillaume retorted, and the savagery in his voice 
persuaded the sentry not to ask any more questions.  By dawn they 
were in Caen and the Count of Coutances was still none the wiser.   
It was only when one of the sentries saw the planks spanning the 
moat that the besiegers realized their enemy was gone, and even 
then the Count wasted time by searching the manor.  He found 
furniture, straw and cooking pots, but no treasures.   
An hour later a hundred black-cloaked men arrived at Evecque.   
Their leader carried no banner and their shields had no badges.   
They looked battle-hardened, like men who earned their living by 
renting their lances and swords to whoever paid the most, and they 
curbed their horses beside the makeshift bridge over Evecque's moat 
and two of them, one a priest, crossed into the courtyard.   What's 
been taken?"  the priest demanded curtly.   
The Count of Coutances turned angrily on the man who wore 
Dominican robes.   Who are you?"   
 What have your men plundered here?"  the priest, gaunt and 
angry, asked again.   
 Nothing," the Count assured him.   
 Then where's the garrison?"   
 The garrison?  Escaped."   
Bernard de Taillebourg spat in his rage.  Guy Vexille, next to him, 
gazed up at the tower which now flew the Count's banner.   When 
did they escape?"  he asked.   And where did they go?"   
The Count bridled at the tone.   Who are you?"  he demanded, for 
Vexille wore no badge on his black surcoat.   
 Your equal," Vexille said coldly,  and my lord the King will want 
to know where they have gone.   
No one knew, though a few questions eventually elicited that 
some of the besiegers had been aware of horsemen going north- 
wards in the cold night and that surely meant that Sir Guillaume 
and his men had ridden to Caen.  And if the Grail had been hid- 
den in Evecque then that would have gone north as well and so 
de Taillebourg ordered his men to remount their tired horses.   
They reached Caen in the early afternoon, but by then the Pente- 
cost was halfway down the river to the sea, blown northwards by 
a fitful wind that barely gave headway against the last of the flood- 
ing tide.  Pierre Villeroy grumbled at the futility of trying to stem 
the tide, but Sir Guillaume insisted for he expected his enemies to 
appear at any moment.  He had only two men-at-arms with him 
now, for the rest had not wanted to follow their lord to a new 
allegiance.  Even Sir Guillaume had little enthusiasm for that 
enforced loyalty.  You think I want to fight for Edward of England?"   
he grumbled to Thomas.  But what choice do I have?  My own lord 
turned against me.  So I'll swear fealty to your Edward and at least 
I'll live."  That was why he was going to Dunkirk, so that he could 
make the small journey to the English siege lines about Calais and 
make his obeisance to King Edward.   
The horses had to be abandoned on the quay, so all Sir Guillaume 
brought aboard the Pentecost was his armour, some clothes and three 
leather bags of money that he dumped on the deck before offering 
Thomas an embrace.  And then Thomas had turned to his old friend, 
Will Skeat, who had glanced at him without recognition and then 
looked away.  Thomas, about to speak, checked himself.  Skeat was 
wearing a sallet and his hair, white as snow now, hung lank beneath 
its battered metal brim.  His face was thinner than ever, deep-lined, 
and with a vague look as though he had just woken and did not 
know where he was.  He also looked old.  He could not have been 
more than forty-five, yet he looked sixty, though at least he was 
alive.  When Thomas had last seen him he had been dreadfully 
wounded with a sword cut through the scalp which had laid his 
brain open and it had been a miracle he had lived long enough to 
reach Normandy and the skilled attentions of mordecai, the Jewish 
doctor who was now being helped across the precarious gang- 
plank.   
Thomas took another step towards his old friend who again   
glanced at him without recognition.   Will?"  Thomas said, puzzled.   
 Will?"   
And at the sound of Thomas's voice light came into Skeat's 
eyes.   Thomas!"  he exclaimed.   By God, it is you!"  He stepped to- 
wards Thomas, stumbling slightly, and the two men embraced.   By 
God, Thomas, it's grand to hear an English voice.  I've heard nowt 
but foreign jabber all winter.  Good God, boy, you look older."   
 I am older," Thomas said.   But how are you, Will?"   
 I'm alive, Tom, I'm alive, though I sometimes wonder if it 
wouldn't have been better to die.  Weak as a kitten, I am."  His speech 
was slightly slurred, as if he had drunk too much, but he was plainly 
sober.   
 I shouldn't call you plain Will now, should I," Thomas asked, 
 for you're Sir William now.   
 Sir William!  Me?"  Skeat laughed.   You're full of crap, boy, just 
like you always were.  Always too clever for your own good, eh, 
Tom?"  Skeat did not remember the battle in Picardy, did not remem- 
ber the King knighting him before the first French charge.  Thomas 
had sometimes wondered whether that act had been pure desper- 
ation to raise the archers" spirits for the King had surely seen how   
hugely his little, sick army was outnumbered and he could not have 
believed his men would survive.  But survive they did, and win, 
though the cost to Skeat had been terrible.  He took off his sallet to 
scratch his pate and one side of his scalp was revealed as a wrinkled 
horror of lumpy scar, pink and white.   Weak as a kitten," Skeat said 
again,  and I haven't pulled a bow in weeks."   
Mordecai insisted that Skeat had to rest.  Then he greeted Thomas 
as Villeroy let go the mooring lines and used a sweep to shove the 
Pen tecost into the river's current.  Mordecai grumbled about the cold, 
about the privations of the siege and about the horrors of being 
aboard a ship, then he smiled his wise old smile.   You look good, 
Thomas.  For a man who was once hanged you look indecently 
good.  How's your urine?"   
 Clear and sweet."   
 Your friend Sir William, now   Mordecai jerked his head 
towards the forecabin where Skeat had been bedded down in a pile 
of skeepskins,   his urine is very murky.  I fear you did me no 
favours by sending him to me."   
 He's alive."   
 I don't know why."   
 And I sent him to you because you're the best."   
 You flatter me."  Mordecai staggered slightly because the ship had 
rocked in a small river wave that no one else had noticed, yet he 
looked alarmed; had he been a Christian he would doubtless have 
warded off imminent danger by the sign of the cross.  Instead he 
looked worriedly at the ragged sail as though he feared it might 
collapse and smother him.   I do detest ships," he said plaintively.   
 Unnatural things.  Poor Skeat.  He seems to be recovering, I admit, 
butt cannot boast that I did anything except wash the wound and 
stop people putting charms of mouldy bread and holy water on his 
scalp.  I find religion and medicine mix uneasily.  Skeat lives, I think, 
because poor Eleanor did the right thing when he was wounded."   
Eleanor had put the broken piece of skull on the exposed brain, 
made a poultice of moss and spider web, then bandaged the wound.   
 I was sorry about Eleanor.   
 Me too," Thomas said.   She was pregnant.  We were going to 
marry.   
 She was a dear thing, a dear thing."   
 Sir Guillaume must be angry?"   
Mordecai rocked his head from side to side.   When he received 
your letter?  That was before the siege, of course."  He frowned, trying 
to remember.   Angry?  I don't think so.  He grunted, that was all.   
He was fond of Eleanor, of course, but she was a servant's child, 
not .  .  ."  He paused.   Well, it's sad.  But as you say, your friend Sir 
William lived.  The brain is a strange thing, Thomas.  He understands, 
I think, though he cannot remember.  His speech is slurred, and 
that might have been expected, but strangest of all is that he does 
not recognize anyone with his eyes.  I will walk into a room and 
he'll ignore me, then I speak and he knows me.  We have all got 
into the habit of speaking as we get near him.  You'll get used to 
it."  Mordecai smiled.   But it is good to see you.   
 So you travel to Calais with us?"  Thomas asked.   
 Dear me, no!  Calais?"  He shuddered.   But I couldn't stay in Nor- 
mandy.  I suspect that the Count of Coutances, cheated of Sir Guil- 
laume, would love to make an example of a Jew, so from Dunkirk 
I shall travel south again.  To Montpellier first, I think.  My son   
is studying medicine there.  And from Montpellier?  I might go to 
Avignon.   
 Avignon?"   
 The Pope is very hospitable to Jews," Mordecai said, reaching 
out for the gunwale as the Pentecost shivered under a small wind 
gust,  and we need hospitality."   
Mordecai had intimated that Sir Guillaume's reaction to Eleanor's 
death was callous, but that was not evident when Sir Guillaume 
spoke of his lost daughter with Thomas as the Pentecost cleared the 
river's mouth and the cold waves stretched to the grey horizon.  Sir 
Guillaume, his ravaged face hard and grim, looked close to tears 
as he heard how Eleanor had died.   Do you know anything more 
about the men who killed her?"  he asked when Thomas had finished 
his tale.  Thomas could only repeat what Lord Outhwaite had told 
him after the battle, about the French priest called de Taillebourg 
and his strange servant.   
 De Taillebourg," Sir Guillaume said flatly,  another man to kill, 
eh?"  He made the sign of the cross.   She was illegitimate,"  he spoke 
of Eleanor, not to Thomas, but to the wind, instead,   but she was 
a sweet girl.  All of my children are dead now."  He gazed at the 
ocean, his dirty long yellow hair stirring in the breeze.   We have 
so many men to kill, you and I,"  he spoke to Thomas now,   and 
the Grail to find."   
 Others are looking for it," Thomas said.   
 Then we must find it before them," Sir Guillaume growled.   But 
we go to Calais first, I make my allegiance to Edward and then we 
fight.  By God, Thomas, we fight."  He turned and scowled at his two 
men-at-arms as if reflecting on how his fortunes and following had 
been shrunk by fate, then he saw Robbie and grinned.   I like your 
Scotsman."   
 He can fight," Thomas said.   
 That's why I like him.  And he wants to kill de Taillebourg too?"   
 Three of us want to kill him."   
 Then God help the bastard because we'll serve his tripes to the 
dogs," Sir Guillaume growled.   But he'll have to be told you're in 
the Calais siege lines, eh?  If he's to come looking for us he has to 
know where you are.   
To reach Calais the Pentecost needed to go east and north, but   
 rn     
once clear of the land she merely wallowed instead of sailing.  A 
small south-west wind had taken her clear of the river mouth, but 
then, long before she was out of sight of the Norman shore, the 
breeze faded and the big ragged sail flapped and slatted and banged 
on the yard.  The ship rolled like a barrel in a long dull swell that 
came from the west where dark clouds heaped like some gloom- 
laden range of hills.  The winter day faded early, the last of its cold 
light a sullen glint beneath the clouds.  A few spots of fire showed 
on the darkening land.   The tide will take us up the sleeve," Villeroy 
said gloomily,  then float us down again.  Then up and down and 
up and down till God or Saint Nicholas sends us wind."   
The tide took them up the English Channel as Villeroy had pre- 
dicted, then drifted them down again.  Thomas, Robbie and Sir Guil- 
laume's two men-at-arms took it in turns to go down into the 
stone-filled bilge and hand up pails of water.   Of course she leaks," 
Villeroy told a worried Mordecai,  all ships leak.  She'd leak like a 
sieve if I didn't caulk her every few months.  Bang in the moss and 
pray to Saint Nick. It keeps us all from drowning."   
The night was black.  The few lights ashore flickered in a damp 
haze.  The sea broke feebly against the hull, and the sail hung use- 
lessly.  For a time a fishing boat lay close, a lantern burning on its 
deck, and Thomas listened to the low chant as the men hauled a 
net, then they unshipped oars and rowed eastwards until their tiny 
glimmering light vanished in the haze.   A west wind will come," 
Villeroy said,  it always does.  West from the lost lands."   
 The lost lands?"  Thomas asked.   
 Out there," Villeroy said, pointing into the black west.   If you go 
as far as a man can sail you'll find the lost lands and you'll see a 
mountain taller than the sky where Arthur sleeps with his knights."   
Villeroy made the sign of the cross.   And on the clifftops under 
the mountain you can see the souls of the drowned sailors calling 
for their womenfolk.  It's cold there, always cold, cold and fog- 
smothered."   
 My father saw those lands once," Yvette put in.   
 He said he did," Villeroy commented,  but he was a rare drinker."   
 He said the sea was full of fish," Yvette went on as if her husband 
had not spoken,  and the trees were very small."   
 Cider, he drank," Villeroy offered.   Whole orchards went down   
his gullet, but he could sail a boat, your father.  Drunk or sober, he 
was a seaman."   
Thomas was staring into the western darkness, imagining a voy- 
age to the land where King Arthur and his knights slept under the 
fog and where the souls of the drowned called for their lost lovers.   
 Time to bail ship," Villeroy said to him, and Thomas went down 
into the bilge and scooped the water into buckets until his arms 
were aching with tiredness, and then he went to the forepeak and 
slept in the cocoon of sheepskins that Villeroy kept there because, 
he said, it was colder at sea than on land and a man should drown 
warm.   
Dawn came slow, seeping into the east like a grey stain.  The 
steering oar creaked in its ropes, doing nothing as the ship rocked 
on the windless swell.  The Norman coast was still in sight, a grey- 
green slash to the south, and as the winter light grew Thomas saw 
three small ships rowing out from the coast.  The three headed up 
channel until they were east of the Pentecost; Thomas assumed they 
were fishermen and he wished that Villeroy's boat had oars and so 
could make some progress in this frustrating stillness.  There was a 
pair of great sweeps lashed to the deck, but Yvette said they were 
only useful in port.   She's too heavy to row for long," she said, 
especially when she's full."   
 Full?"   
 We carry cargo," Yvette said.  Her man was sleeping in the stern 
cabin, his snores seeming to vibrate the whole ship.   Up and down 
the coast we go," Yvette said,  with wool and wine, bronze and iron, 
building stone and hides."   
 You like it?"   
 I love it."  She smiled at him and her young face, which was 
strangely wedgelike, took on a beauty as she did so.   My mother 
now," she went on,'s he was going to have me put into the bishop's 
service.  Cleaning and washing, cooking and cleaning till your hands 
are fair worn away by work, but Pierre told me I could live free as 
a bird on his boat and so we do, so we do."   
 Just the two of you?"  The Pentecost seemed a large ship for just 
two, even if one of them was a giant.   
 No one else will sail with us," Yvette said.   It's bad luck to have 
a woman on a boat.  My father always said that."   
    A" 
 He was a fisherman?"   
 A good one," Yvette said,  but he drowned all the same.  He was 
caught on the Casquets on a bad night."  She looked up at Thomas 
earnestly.   He did see the lost lands, you know.   
 I believe you."   
 He sailed ever so far north and then west, and he said the men 
from the north lands know the fishing grounds of the lost lands 
well and there's fish as far as you can see.  He said you could walk 
on the sea it was so thick with fish, and one day he was creeping 
through the fog and he saw the land and he saw the trees like 
bushes and he saw the dead souls on shore.  They were dark, he 
said, like they'd been scorched by hell's fires, and he took fright 
and he turned and sailed away.  It took him two months to get there 
and a month and a half to come home and all his fish had gone 
bad because he wouldn't go ashore and smoke them."   
 I believe you," Thomas said again, though he was not really sure 
that he did.   
 And I think if I drown," Yvette said,  then me and Pierre will go 
to the lost lands together and he won't have to sit on the cliffs and 
call for me."  She spoke very matter-of-factly, then went to ready 
some breakfast for her man whose snoring had just ceased.   
Sir Guillaume emerged from the forecabin.  He blinked at the 
winter daylight, then strolled aft and pissed across the stern rail 
while he stared at the three boats which had rowed out from the 
river and were now a mile or so east of the Pentecost.   So you saw 
Brother Germain?"  he asked Thomas.   
 I wish I hadn't."   
 He's a scholar," Sir Guillaume said, pulling up his trews and tying 
the waist knot,  which means he doesn't have balls.  Doesn't need 
to.  He's clever, mind you, clever, but he was never on our side, 
Thomas.   
 I thought he was your friend."   
 When I had power and money, Thomas," Sir Guillaume said,  I 
had many friends, but Brother Germain was never one of them.   
He's always been a good son of the Church and I should never 
have introduced you to him."   
 Why not?"   
 Once he learned you were a Vexille he reported our conversation   
to the bishop and the bishop told the Archbishop and the Arch- 
bishop told the Cardinal and the Cardinal spoke to whoever gives 
him his crumbs, and suddenly the Church got excited about the 
Vexilles and the fact that your family had once owned the Grail.   
And it was just about then that Guy Vexille reappeared so the 
Inquisition took hold of him."  He paused, gazing at the horizon, 
then made the sign of the cross.   That's who your de Taillebourg 
is, I'd wager my life on it.  He's a Dominican and most Inquisitors 
are hounds of God."  He turned his one eye on Thomas.   Why do 
they call them the hounds of God?"   
 It's a joke," Thomas said,  from the Latin.  Domini can is: the hound 
of God."   
 Doesn't make me laugh," Sir Guillaume said gloomily.   If one of 
those bastards gets hold of you it's red-hot pokers in the eyes and 
screams in the night.  And I hear they got hold of Guy Vexille and 
I hope they hurt him."   
 So Guy Vexille is a prisoner?"  Thomas was surprised.  Brother 
Germain had said his cousin was reconciled with the Church.   
 That's what I heard.  I heard he was singing psalms on the Inqui- 
sition's rack.  And doubtless he told them that your father had pO5- 
sessed the Grail, and how he sailed to Hookton to find it and how 
he failed.  But who else went to Hookton?  Me, that's who, so I think 
Coutances was told to find me, arrest me and haul me to Paris.   
And meanwhile they sent men to England to find out what they 
could."   
 And to kill Eleanor," Thomas said bleakly.   
 Which they'll pay for," Sir Guillaume said.   
 And now," Thomas said,  they've sent men here."   
 What?"  Sir Guillaume asked, startled.   
Thomas pointed at the three fishing boats which now were row- 
ing directly towards the Pentecost.  They were too far away for him to 
see who or what was on board, but something about their deliberate 
approach alarmed him.  Yvette, coming aft with bread, ham and 
cheese, saw Thomas and Sir Guillaume staring and she joined them, 
then uttered a curse that only a fisherman's daughter would ever 
have learned and ran to the stern cabin and shouted for her man 
to get on deck.   
Yvette's eyes were accustomed to the sea and she knew these   
were no fishing boats.  They had too many men aboard for a start 
and after a while Thomas could see those men for himself and his 
eyes, which were more used to looking for enemies among the 
green leaves, saw that some of them wore mail and he knew that 
no man went to sea in mail unless he was intent on killing.   
 They'll have crossbows."  Villeroy was on deck now, tying the 
neck cords of a swathing leather cloak and looking from the 
approaching boats up to the clouds as if he might see a breath of 
wind coming from the heavens.  The sea was still heaving in great 
swells, but the water was smooth as beaten brass and there were no 
wind-driven ripples streaking the swells" long flanks.   Crossbows," 
Villeroy repeated gloomily.   
 You want me to surrender?"  Sir Guillaume asked Villeroy.  His 
voice was sour, suggesting the question was nothing but sarcasm.   
 Ain't for me to tell your lordship what to do,"  Villeroy sounded 
just as sarcastic,   but your men could fetch some of the bigger 
stones out of the bilge."   
 What will that achieve?"  Sir Guillaume asked.   
 I'll drop  em on the bastards when they try to board.  Those little 
boats?  A stone'll go straight through their bottoms and then yon 
bastards will be trying to swim with mail strapped to their chests."   
Villeroy grinned.   Hard to swim when you're wrapped in iron."   
The stones were fetched, and Thomas readied his arrows and 
bow.  Robbie had donned his mail coat and had his uncle's sword 
at his side.  Sir Guillaume's two men-at-arms were with him in the 
waist of the boat, the place where any boarding attempt would be 
made for there the gunwale was closest to the sea.  Thomas went 
to the higher stern where Will Skeat joined him and though he did 
not recognize Thomas he did see the bow and held out a hand.   
 It's me, Will," Thomas said.   
 I know it's you," Skeat said.  He lied and was embarrassed.   Let 
me try the bow, boy."   
Thomas gave him the great black stave and watched in sadness 
as Skeat failed to draw it even halfway.  Skeat thrust the weapon 
back to Thomas with a look of embarrassment.   I'm not what I 
was," he muttered.   
 You'll be back, Will."   
Skeat spat over the gunwale.   Did the King really knight me?"   
 He did."   
 Sometimes I think I can remember the battle, Tom, then it fades.   
Like a fog."  Skeat stared at the three approaching boats, which had 
spread into a line.  Their oarsmen were pulling hard and Thomas 
could see crossbowmen standing in the bows and stern of each 
craft.   Have you ever shot an arrow from a boat?"  Skeat asked.   
 Never."   
 You're moving and they're moving.  It makes it hard.  But take 
it slow, lad, take it slow."   
A man shouted from the closest boat, but the pursuers were 
still too far away and whatever the man said was lost in the air.   
 Saint Nicholas, Saint Ursula," Villeroy prayed,'s end us wind, and send 
us plenty of it ,   
 He's having a go at us," Skeat said because a crossbowman in 
the bows of the central boat had raised his weapon.  He seemed 
to cock it high in the air, then he shot and the bolt banged with 
astonishing force low into the Pentecost's stern.  Sir Guillaume, ignor- 
ing the threat, climbed onto the rail and took hold of the backstay 
to keep his balance.   They're Coutances's men," he told Thomas, 
and Thomas saw that some of the men in the nearest boat were 
- wearing the green and black livery that had been the uniform of 
Evecque's besiegers.  More crossbows twanged and two of the bolts 
thudded into the stern planks and two others whipped past Sir 
Guillaume to slap into the impotent sail, but most splashed into the 
sea.  It might have been calm, but the crossbowmen were still having 
a hard time aiming their weapons from the small boats.   
And the three attacking boats were small.  Each held eight or ten 
oarsmen and about the same number of archers or men-at-arms.   
The three craft had plainly been chosen for their speed under oars, 
but they were dwarfed by the Pentecost which would make any 
attempt to board the bigger vessel very perilous, though one of the 
three boats seemed determined to come alongside Villeroy's ship.   
 What they're going to do," Sir Guillaume said,  is let those two 
boats shower us with quarrels while this bastard,"  he gestured at 
the boat that was pulling hard to close on the Pentecost,   puts her 
men on board."   
More crossbow bolts thumped into the hull.  Two more quarrels 
pierced the sail and another hit the mast just above a weathered   
crucifix that was nailed to the tarred timber.  The figure of Christ, 
white as bone, had lost its left arm and Thomas wondered if that 
was a bad omen, then tried to forget it as he drew the big bow and 
shot off an arrow.  He only had thirty-four shafts left, but this was 
not the time to stint on them and so, while the first was still in the 
air, he loosed a second and the crossbowmen had not finished 
winding their cords back as the first arrow slashed a rower's arm 
and the second drove a splinter up from the boat's bow, then a 
third arrow hissed above the oarsmen's heads to splash into the 
sea.  The rowers ducked, then one gasped and fell forward with an 
arrow in his back, and the next instant a man-at-arms was struck 
in the thigh and fell onto two of the oarsmen and there was sudden 
chaos aboard the boat which slewed sharply away with its oars 
clattering against each other.  Thomas lowered the big bow.   
 Taught you well," Will Skeat said fervently.   Ah, Tom, you always 
were a lethal bastard."   
The boat pulled away.  Thomas's arrows had been far more accu- 
rate than the crossbow bolts for he had been shooting from a much 
larger and more stable ship than the narrow and overburdened 
rowboats.  Only one of the men aboard those smaller ships had been 
killed, but the frequency of Thomas's first arrows had put the fear 
of God into the rowers who could not see where the missiles came 
from, but only hear the hiss of feathers and the cries of the 
wounded.  Now the other two boats overtook the third and the 
crossbowmen levelled their weapons.   
Thomas took an arrow from the bag and worried what would 
happen when he had no more shafts, but just then a swirl of ripples 
showed that a wind was coming across the water.  An east wind, 
of all things, the most unlikely of all winds in this sea, but it came 
from the east nonetheless and the Pentecost's big brown sail filled 
and slackened, then filled again, and suddenly she was turning 
away from her pursuers and the water was gurgung down her 
flanks.  Coutances's men pulled hard on their oars.   Down!"  Sir 
Guillaume shouted and Thomas dropped behind the rail as a volley 
of crossbow bolts punched into the Pentecost's hull or flew high to 
tear the ragged sail.  Villeroy shouted at Yvette to man the steering 
oar, then he sheeted down the mainsail before diving into the stern 
cabin to fetch a huge and evidently ancient crossbow that he cocked   
with a long iron lever.  He loaded a rusty bolt into the groove, 
then shot it at the nearest pursuer.   Bastards," he roared.   Your 
mothers were goats!  They were whoring goats!  Poxed whoring 
goats!  Bastards!"  He cocked the weapon again, loaded another 
corroded missile and shot it away, but the bolt plunged into the 
sea.  The Pentecost was gathering speed and already out of crossbow 
range.   
The wind filled and the Pentecost drew further away from her 
pursuers.  The three rowboats had first gone up channel in the 
expectation that the flooding tide and a possible western wind 
would bring the Pentecost to them, but with the wind coming from 
the east the oarsmen could not keep up with their quarry and so 
the three boats fell astern and finally abandoned the chase.  But just 
as they gave up, so two new pursuers appeared in the mouth of 
the River Orne.  Two ships, both of them large and equipped with 
big square sails like the Pentecost's mainsail, were coming out to sea.   
 The one in front is the Saint-Esprit," Villeroy said.  Even at this 
distance from the river mouth he could distinguish the two boats, 
 and the other is the Marie.  She sails like a pregnant pig, but the 
Saint-Esprit will catch us."   
 The Saint-Esprit?"  Sir Guillaume sounded appalled.   Jean Lapoul- 
her?"   
 Who else?"   
 I thought he was a friend!"   
 He was your friend," Villeroy said,'s o long as you had land and 
money, but what do you have now?"   
Sir Guillaume brooded on the truth of that question for a while.   
 So why are you helping me?"   
 Because I'm a fool," Villeroy said cheerfully,  and because you'll 
pay me damn well."   
Sir Guillaume grunted at that truism.   Not if we sail in the wrong 
direction," he added after a while.   
 The right direction," Villeroy pointed out,  is away from the Saint- 
Esprit and downwind, so we'll stand on west.   
They stood on westwards all day.  They made good speed, but still 
the big Saint-Esprit slowly closed the gap.  In the morning she had 
been a blur on the horizon; by midday Thomas could see the little 
platform at her masthead where, Villeroy told him, crossbowmen   
would be stationed; and by mid-afternoon he could see the black 
and white eyes painted on her bows.  The east wind had increased 
all through the day until it was blowing strong and cold, whipping 
the wavetops into white streamers.  Sir Guillaume suggested going 
north, maybe as far as the English shore, but Villeroy claimed not 
to know that coastline and said he was unsure where he could find 
shelter there if the weather turned bad.   And this time of year it 
can turn fast as a woman's temper," Villeroy added, and as if to 
prove him right they ran into violent sleet squalls that hissed on 
the sea and buffeted the ship and cut visibility down to a few yards.   
Sir Guillaume again urged a northward course, suggesting they turn 
while the ship was hidden inside the squall, but Villeroy stubbornly 
refused and Thomas guessed that the huge man feared being 
accosted by English ships that loved nothing better than capturing 
French vessels.   
Another squall crashed past them, the rain bouncing up a hand's 
breadth from the deck and the sleet making a slushy white coating 
on the eastern flank of every halyard and sheet.  Villeroy feared 
that his sail would split, but dared not shorten the canvas because 
whenever the squalls passed, leaving the sea white and frantic, the 
Saint-Esprit was always in sight and always a little closer.   She's a 
quick one," Villeroy said grudgingly,  and Lapoullier knows how to 
sail her."   
Yet the short winter day was passing and night would offer a 
chance for the Pentecost to escape.  The pursuers knew that and they 
must have been praying that their ship would be given a little extra 
speed; as dusk fell, she was closing the gap inch by inch, yet still 
the Pentecost kept her lead.  They were out of sight of land now, two 
ships on a seething and darkening ocean, and then, when the night 
was almost complete, the first flame arrow streaked out from the 
Saint-Fsprit's bow.   
It was shot from a crossbow.  The flames seared the night, arcing 
up and then plunging to fall in the Pentecost's wake.   Send him an 
arrow back," Sir Guillaume growled.   
 Too far," Thomas said.  A good crossbow would always outrange 
a yew stave, though in the time it took to reload the crossbow the 
English archer would have run within range and loosed half a dozen 
arrows.  But Thomas could not do that in this gathering darkness,   
nor did he dare waste arrows.  He could only wait and watch as a 
second fire bolt slashed up against the clouds.  It too fell behind.   
 They don't fly as well," Will Skeat said.   
 What's that, Will?"  Thomas had not heard clearly.   
 They wrap the shaft in cloth and it slows them down.  You ever 
shot a fire arrow, Tom?"   
 Never."   
 Takes fifty paces off the range," Skeat said, watching a third arrow 
plunge into the sea,  and plays hell with accuracy.   
 That one was closer," Sir Guillaume said.   
Villeroy had put a barrel on the deck and he was filling it with 
seawater.  Yvette, meanwhile, had nimbly climbed the rigging to 
perch herself on the crosstrees where the one yard hung from the 
masthead and now she hauled up canvas pails of water which she 
used to soak the sail.   
 Can we use fire arrows?"  Sir Guillaume asked.   That thing must 
have the range."  He nodded at Villeroy's monstrous crossbow.   
Thomas translated the question for Will Skeat whose French was 
still rudimentary.   
 Fire arrows?"  Skeat's face wrinkled as he thought.   You have to 
have pitch, Tom," he said dubiously,  and you must soak it into the 
wool and then bind the woollen cloth onto the arrow real hard, 
but fray the edges a little to get the fire burning nicely.  Fire has to 
be deep in the cloth, not just on the edge because that won't last, 
and when it's burning hard and deep you send the arrow off before 
it eats through the shaft."   
 No," Thomas translated for Sir Guillaume,  we can't."   
Sir Guillaume cursed, then turned away as the first fire arrow 
thumped into the Pentecost, but the bolt struck low on the stern, so 
low that the next heave of a wave extinguished the flames with 
an audible hiss.   We must be able to do something!"  Sir Guillaume 
raged.   
 We can be patient," Villeroy said.  He was standing at the stern 
oar.   
 I can use your bow?"  Sir Guillaume asked the big sailor and, 
when Villeroy nodded, Sir Guillaume cocked the huge crossbow 
and sent a quarrel back towards the Saint-Esprit.  He grunted as he 
pulled on the lever to cock the weapon again, astonished at the   
strength needed.  A crossbow drawn by a lever was usually much 
weaker than the bows armed with a wormscrew and ratchet, but 
Villeroy's bow was massive.  Sir Guillaume's bolts must have struck 
the pursuing ship, but it was too dark to tell if any damage had 
been done.  Thomas doubted it for the Saint-Esprit's bows were high 
and her gunwales stout.  Sir Guillaume was merely driving metal 
into planks, but the Saint-Esprit's fiery missiles were beginning to 
threaten the Pentecost.  Three or four enemy crossbows were firing 
now and Thomas and Robbie were busy dousing the burning bolts 
with water, then a flaming quarrel hit the sail and creeping fire 
began to glow on the canvas, but Yvette succeeded in extinguish- 
ing it just as Villeroy pushed the steering oar hard over.  Thomas 
heard the oar's long shank creak under the strain and felt the ship 
lurch as she turned southwards.   The Saint-Esprit was never quite 
as quick off the wind," Villeroy said,  and she wallows in a cross 
sea.   
 And we're quicker?"  Thomas asked.   
 We'll find out," Villeroy said.   
 Why didn't we try to find out earlier?"  Sir Guillaume snarled the 
question.   
 Because we didn't have sea room," Villeroy answered placidly as 
a flaming bolt seared over the stern deck like a meteor.   But we're 
well clear of the cape now."  He meant they were safely to the west 
of the Norman peninsula and south of them now were the 
rock-studded sea reaches between Normandy and Brittany.  The 
turn meant that the range suddenly shortened as the Saint-Esprit 
held on westwards and Thomas shot a clutch of arrows at the dim 
figures of armoured men in the pursuing ship's waist.  Yvette had 
come down to the deck and was hauling on ropes and, when she 
was satisfied with the new set of the sail, she clambered back up 
to her eyrie just as two more fire bolts thumped into the canvas 
and Thomas saw the flames leap up the sail as Yvette dragged up 
buckets.  Thomas sent another arrow high into the night so that it 
plunged down onto the enemy deck and Sir Guillaume was shooting 
the heavier crossbow bolts as fast as he could, but neither man was 
rewarded with a cry of pain.  Then the range opened again and 
Thomas unstrung his bow.  The Saint-Esprit was turning to follow 
the Pentecost south and, for a few heartbeats, she seemed to disappear   
in the dark, but then another fire arrow climbed from her deck and 
in its sudden light Thomas saw she had made the turn and was 
again in the Pentecost's wake.  Villeroy's sail was still burning, giving 
the Saint-Esprit a mark she could not fail to follow and the pursuing 
bowmen sent three arrows together, their flames flickering hungrily 
in the night, and Yvette heaved desperately on the buckets, but the 
sail was ablaze now and the ship was slowing as the canvas lost its 
force and then, blessedly, there was a seething hiss and a squall 
came lashing in from the east.   
The sleet pelted down with an extraordinary violence, rattling 
on the charred sail and drumming on the deck, and Thomas thought 
it would last forever, but it stopped as suddenly as it had begun 
and all on board the Pentecost stared astern, waiting for the next fire 
bolt to climb from the Saint-Esprit's deck, but when the flame finally 
seared into the sky it was a long way off, much too far away for its 
light to illuminate the Pentecost and Villeroy grunted.   They reckoned 
we'd turn back west in that squall," he said with amusement,  but 
they were being too clever for their own good."  The Saint-Esprit had 
tried to head off the Pentecost, thinking Villeroy would put his ship 
straight downwind again, but the pursuers had made the wrong 
guess and they were now a long way to the north and west of their 
quarry.   
More fire arrows burned in the dark, but now they were being 
shot in all directions in hope that the small light of one would glint 
a dull reflection from the Pentecost's hull, but Villeroy's ship was 
drawing ever farther away, pulled by the remnants of her scorched 
sail.  If it had not been for the squall, Thomas thought, they would 
surely have been overhauled and captured, and he wondered 
whether the hand of God was somehow sheltering him because he 
possessed the book of the Grail.  Then guilt assailed him; the guilt of 
doubting the Grail's existence; of wasting Lord Outhwaite's money 
instead of spending it on the pursuit of the Grail; then the greater 
guilt and pity of Eleanor and Father Hobbe's wasteful deaths, and so 
he dropped to his knees on the deck and stared up at the one-armed 
crucifix.  Forgive me, Lord, he prayed, forgive me.   
 Sails cost money," Villeroy said.   
 You shall have a new sail, Pierre," Sir Guillaume promised.   
 And let's pray that what's left of this one will get us somewhere,"   
Villeroy said sourly.  Off to the north a last fire arrow etched red   
across the black, and then there was no more light, just the endless 
dark of a broken sea in which the Pentecost survived under her 
tattered sail.   
Dawn found them in a mist and with a fitful breeze that fluttered   
a sail so weakened that Villeroy and Yvette doubled it on itself so 
that the wind would have more than charred holes to blow upon, 
and when they reset it the Pentecost limped south and west and 
everyone on board thanked God for the mist because it hid them 
from the pirates that haunted the gulf between Normandy and 
Brittany.  Villeroy was not sure where they were, though he was 
certain enough that the Norman coast was to the east and that all 
the land in that direction was in fealty to the Count of Coutances 
and so they held on south and west with Yvette perched in the 
bows to keep a lookout for the frequent reefs.   They breed rocks, 
these waters," Villeroy grumbled.   
 Then go into deeper water," Sir Guillaume suggested.   
The big man spat overboard.   Deeper water breeds English pirates 
out of the isles."   
They pushed on south, the wind dying and the sea calming.  It 
was still cold, but there was no more sleet and, when a feeble sun 
began to burn off the shredding mists, Thomas sat beside Mordecai 
in the bow.   I have a question for you," he said.   
 My father told me never to get on board a ship," Mordecai 
responded.  His long face was pale and his beard, which he usually 
brushed so carefully, was tangled.  He was shivering despite a make- 
shift cloak of sheepskins.   Did you know," he went on,  that Flemish 
sailors claim that you can calm a storm by throwing a Jew 
overboard?"   
 Do they really?"   
 So I'm told," Mordecai said,  and if I was on board a Flemish 
ship I might welcome drowning as an alternative to this existence.   
What is that?"   
Thomas had unwrapped the book that his father had bequeathed 
him.   My question," he said, ignoring Mordecai's question,  is who 
is Hachaliah."   
 Hachaliah?"  Mordecai repeated the name, then shook his head.   
 Do you think the Flemings carry Jews aboard their ships as a   
   precaution?  It would seem a sensible, if cruel, thing to do.  Why die 
   when a Jew can die?"   
   Thomas opened the book to the first page of Hebrew script where 
   Brother Germain had deciphered the name Hachaliah.   There," he 
   said, giving the book to the doctor,  Hachaliah."   
   Mordecai peered at the page.   Grandson of Hachaliah," he trans- 
   lated aloud,  and son of the Tirshatha.  Of course!  It's a confusion 
   about Jonah and the great fish."   
    Hachaliah is?"  Thomas asked, staring at the page of strange script.   
    No, dear boy!"  Mordecai said.   The superstition about Jews and 
   storms is a confusion about Jonah, a mere ignorant confusion."  He 
   looked back at the page.   Are you the son of the Tirshatha?"   
    I'm the bastard son of a priest," Thomas said.   
   And did your father write this?"   
    Yes.   
    For you?"   
   Thomas nodded.   I think so."   
    Then you are the son of the Tirshatha and the grandson of 
   Hachaliah," Mordecai said, then smiled.   Ah!  Of course!  Nehemiah.   
   My memory is almost as bad as poor Skeat's, eh?  Fancy forgetting 
   that Hachaliah was the father of Nehemiah."   
   Thomas was still none the wiser.   Nehemiah?"   
    And he was the Tirshatha, of course he was.  Extraordinary, isn't 
   it, how we Jews prosper in foreign states and then they tire of us 
   and we get blamed for every little accident.  Then time passes and 
   we are restored to our offices.  The Tirshatha, Thomas, was the 
   Governor of Judaea under the Persians.  Nehemiah was the Tirsh- 
   atha, not the King, of course, just Governor for a time under the 
   rule of Artaxerxes."  Mordecai's erudition was impressive, but hardly 
   enlightening.  Why would Father Ralph identify himself with Nehe- 
   miah who must have lived hundreds of years before Christ, before 
   the Grail?  The only answer that Thomas could conjure up was 
   the usual one of his father's madness.  Mordecai was turning the 
   parchment pages and winced when one cracked.   How people do 
   yearn," he said,  for miracles."  He prodded a page with a finger 
   stained by all the medicines he had pounded and stirred.   'A golden 
   cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunk , now what 
   on earth does that mean?"   
 He's talking about the Grail," Thomas said.   
 I had understood that, Thomas," Mordecai chided him gently, 
 but those words were not written about the Grail.  It refers to 
Babylon.  Part of the lamentations of Jeremiah."  He turned another 
page.   People like mystery.  They want nothing explained, because 
when things are explained then there is no hope left.  I have seen 
folk dying and known there is nothing to be done, and I am asked 
to go because the priest will soon arrive with his dish covered by 
a cloth, and everyone prays for a miracle.  It never happens.  And 
the person dies and I get blamed, not God or the priest, but I!"  He 
let the book fall on his lap where the pages stirred in the small 
wind.   These are just stories of the Grail, and some odd scriptures 
that might refer to it.  A book, really, of meditations."  He frowned.   
 Did your father truly believe the Grail existed?"   
Thomas was about to give a vigorous affirmative, but paused, 
remembering.  For much of the time his father had been a wry, 
amused and clever man, but there had been other times when he 
had been a wild, shrieking creature, struggling with God and des- 
perate to make sense of the sacred mysteries.   I think," Thomas said 
carefully,  that he did believe in the Grail."   
 Of course he did," Mordecai said suddenly,  how stupid of me!   
Of course your father believed in the Grail because he believed that 
he possessed it!"   
 He did?"  Thomas asked.  He was utterly confused now.   
 Nehemiah was more than the Tirshatha of Judaea," the doctor 
said,  he was cupbearer to Artaxerxes.  He says so at the beginning 
of his writings.   I was the King's cupbearer."  There."  He pointed 
to a line of Hebrew script.    I was the King's cupbearer."  Your 
father's words, Thomas, taken from Nehemiah's story."   
Thomas stared at the writing and knew that Mordecai was right.   
That was his father's testimony.  He had been cupbearer to the 
greatest King of all, to God Himself, to Christ, and the phrase con- 
firmed Thomas's dreams.  Father Ralph had been the cupbearer.  He 
had possessed the Grail.  It did exist.  Thomas shivered.   
 I think,"  Mordecai spoke gently,   that your father believed he 
possessed the Grail, but it seems unlikely."   
 Unlikely!"  Thomas protested.   
 I am merely a Jew," Mordecai said blandly,'s o what can I know   
of the saviour of mankind?  And there are those who say I should 
not even speak of such things, but so far as I understand Jesus was 
not rich.  Am I right?"   
 He was poor," Thomas said.   
 So I am right, he was not a rich man, and at the end of his life 
he attends a seder."   
 A seder?"   
 The Passover feast, Thomas.  And at the seder he eats bread and 
drinks wine, and the Grail, tell me if I am wrong, was either the 
bread dish or the wine goblet, yes?"   
 Yes.   
 Yes," Mordecai echoed and glanced off to his left where a small 
fishing boat rode the broken swell.  There had been no sign of the 
Saint-Esprit all morning, and none of the smaller boats they passed 
showed any interest in the Pentecost.   Yet if Jesus was poor, 
Mordecai said,  what kind of seder dish would he use?  One made 
of gold?  One ringed with jewels?  Or a piece of common pottery?"   
 Whatever he used," Thomas said,  God could transform."   
 Ah yes, of course, I was forgetting," Mordecai said.  He sounded 
disappointed, but then he smiled and gave Thomas the book.   When 
we reach wherever we are going," he said,  I can write down transla- 
tions of the Hebrew for you and I hope it helps."   
 Thomas!"  Sir Guillaume bellowed from the stern.   We need fresh 
arms to bail water!"   
The caulking had not been finished and the Pentecost was taking 
water at an alarming rate and so Thomas went down into the bilge 
and handed up the pails to Robbie who jettisoned the water over 
the side.  Sir Guillaume had been pressing villeroy to go north and 
east again in an attempt to run past Caen and make Dunkirk, but 
Villeroy was unhappy with his small sail and even more unhappy 
with the leaking hull.   I have to put in somewhere soon," he 
growled,  and you have to buy me a sail."   
They dared not call into Normandy.  It was well known through- 
out the province that Sir Guillaume had been declared a traitor and 
if the Pentecost was searched,  and it was probable on this smuggling 
coast that she would be,  then Sir Guillaume would be discovered.   
That left Brittany and Sir Guillaume was eager to make Saint-Malo 
or Saint-Brieuc, but Thomas protested from the bilge that he and   
Will Skeat would be considered enemies by the Breton authorities 
who, in those towns, held allegiance to Duke Charles who was 
struggling against the English-backed rebels who reckoned Duke   
Jean was Brittany's true ruler.   So where would you go?"  Sir Guil- 
laume demanded.   England?"   
 We'll never make England," Villeroy said unhappily, looking at 
his sail.   
 The islands?"  Thomas suggested, thinking of Guernsey or Jersey.   
 The islands!"  Sir Guillaume liked that idea.   
This time it was Villeroy who objected.   Can't do it," he said   
bluntly and explained that the Pentecost was a Guernsey boat and 
he had been one of the men who helped capture her.   I take her 
into the isles," he said,  and they'll take her back and me with her."   
 For God's sake!"  Sir Guillaume snarled.   Then where do we go?"   
 Can you make Treguier?"  Will Skeat asked and everyone was 
so astonished he had spoken that for a few heartbeats no one 
responded.   
 Treeguier?"  Villeroy asked after a while, then nodded.   Like as 
not," he said.   
 Why Treguier?"  Sir Guillaume demanded.   
 It was in English hands last I heard," Skeat said.   
 Still is," Villeroy put in.   
 And we've got friends there," Skeat went on.   
And enemies, Thomas thought.  Treguier was not just the closest 
Breton port in English hands, but also the harbour closest to La 
Roche-Derrien where Sir Geoffrey Carr, the Scarecrow, had gone.   
And Thomas had told Brother Germain that he was headed for the 
same small town, and that would surely mean de Taillebourg would 
hear of it and follow.  And perhaps Jeanette was there too, and 
suddenly, though Thomas had been saying for weeks that he would 
not go back, he desperately wanted to reach La Roche-Derrien.   
For it was there in Brittany, he possessed friends, old lovers and 
enemies he wanted to kill.  
PART THREE  
Brittany, Spring 1347  
The King's Cupbearer  
Jeanette Chenier, Comtesse d'Armorique, had lost her husband,
her parents, her fortune, her house, her son and her royal lover,  
and all before she was twenty years old.  
Her husband had been lost to an English arrow and had died in
agony, weeping like a child.  
Her parents had died of the bloody flux and their bed clothes had  
been burned before they were buried near the altar of Saint Renan's
church. They had left Jeanette, their only remaining child, a small
fortune in gold, a wine-shipping business and the great merchant's
house on the river in La Roche-Derrien.  
Jeanette had spent much of the fortune on equipping ships and
men to fight the hated English who had killed her husband, but
the English won and thus the fortune vanished.  
Jeanette had begged help from Charles of Blois, Duke of Brittany
and her dead husband's kinsman, and that was how she had lost
her son.  The three-year-old Charles, named for the duke, had been
snatched from her.  She was called a whore because she was a  
merchant's daughter and thus unworthy to be an aristocrat and
Charles of Blois, to show Jeanette how much he despised her,
had raped her.  Her son, now the Count of Armorica, was being
raised by one of Charles of Blois's loyal supporters to ensure that
the boy's extensive lands stayed sworn to the house of Blois.  So
Jeanette, who had lost her fortune in the attempt to make Duke
Charles the undisputed ruler of Brittany, learned a new hatred and
found a new lover, Thomas of Hookton.  She fled north with him
to the English army in Normandy and there she had caught the
eye of Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, and so Jeanette had  
abandoned Thomas.  But then, fearing that the English would
be crushed by the French in Picardy and that the victorious
French would punish her for her choice of lover, she had fled
again.  She had been wrong about the battle, the English had won,
but she could not go back.  Kings, and the sons of Kings, did not
reward fickleness and so Jeanette Chenier, dowager Countess of
Armorica, had gone back to La Roche-Derrien to find she had lost
her house.  
When she had left La Roche-Derrien she had been deeply in debt
and Monsieur Belas, a lawyer, had taken the house to pay those
debts.  Jeanette, on her return, possessed money enough to pay all
she owed, for the Prince of Wales had been generous with jewels,
but Belas would not move from the house.  The law was on his
side.  Some of the English who occupied La Roche-Derrien showed
sympathy for Jeanette, but they did not interfere with the decision
of the court and it would not have mattered overmuch if they
had, for everyone knew the English could not stay in the small
town for long.  Duke Charles was gathering a new army in Rennes
and La Roche-Derrien was the most isolated and remote of all the
English strongholds in Brittany, and when Duke Charles snapped
up the town he would reward Monsieur Belas, his agent, and scorn
Jeanette Chenier whom he called a whore because she was not
nobly born.  
So Jeanette, unable to claim back her house, found another,
much smaller, close to La Roche-Derrien's southern gate and she
confessed her sins to the priest at Saint Renan's church, who said she
had been wicked beyond man's measure and perhaps beyond God's
measure as well; the priest promised her absolution if she would
sin with him and he hoisted up his robes and reached for her, then
cried aloud as Jeanette kicked him. She continued to take mass at
Saint Renan's, for it was her childhood church and her parents were
buried beneath the painting of Christ emerging from the tomb with
a golden light about His head, and the priest dared not refuse her
the sacrament and dared not meet her eyes.  
Jeanette had lost her servants when she fled north with Thomas,
but she hired a fourteen-year-old girl to be her kitchen maid and
the girl's idiot brother to draw water and collect firewood.  The
Prince's jewels, Jeanette reckoned, would last her a year and  
something would turn up by then.  She was young, she was truly
beautiful, she was filled with anger, her child was still a hostage
and she was inspired by hatred.  Some in the town feared she was
mad because she was much thinner than when she had left La
Roche-Derrien, but her hair was still raven-black, her skin as
smooth as the rare silk that only the wealthiest could afford and
her eyes were big and bright.  Men came and begged her favours,
but were told they could not speak to her again unless they brought
her the shrivelled heart of Belas the lawyer and the shrivelled prick
of Charles of Blois.   Bring them both to me in reliquaries," she told
them,  but bring me my son alive."  Her anger repelled men and
some of them spread the tale that she was moon-touched, perhaps
a witch.  The priest of Saint Renan's confided to the other clergy in the
town that Jeanette had tried to tempt him and he spoke darkly of
bringing in the Inquisition, but the English would not permit it for
the King of England refused to let the torturers of God work their
dark arts in his possessions.  There's enough grumbling," Dick Totesham, commander of the English garrison in La Roche-Derrien said,
 without bringing in damned friars to stir up trouble."  
Totesham and his garrison knew that Charles of Blois was raising
an army that would attack La Roche-Derrien before marching on
to besiege the other English strongholds in Brittany, and so they
worked hard to make the town's walls higher and to build new
ramparts outside the old.  Local farm labourers were whipped to the
work.  They were forced to push barrowloads of clay and rock, they
drove timbers into the soil to make palisades and they dug ditches.  
They hated the English for forcing them to work without pay, but
the English did not care for they had to defend themselves and
Totesham pleaded with Westminster to send him more men and
on the feast of Saint Felix, in the middle of January, a troop of Welsh
archers landed at Tre'guier, which was the small harbour an hour
and a half's walk upriver from La Roche-Derrien, but the garrison's
only other reinforcements were a few knights and men-at-arms
who were down on their luck and came to the small town in hope
of plunder and prisoners. Some of those knights came from as far
away as Flanders, lured by false rumours of the riches to be had
in Brittany, and another six men-at-arms arrived from northern
England, led by a malevolent, raw-faced man who carried a whip  
and a heavy load of grudges, and they were La Roche-Derrien's last
reinforcements before the Pentecost came to the river.  
La Roche-Derrien's garrison was small, but Duke Charles's army
was large and grew even larger.  Spies in English pay told of Genoese
crossbowmen arriving at Rennes in companies a hundred strong,
and of men-at-arms riding from France to swear fealty to Charles
of Blois.  His army swelled and the King of England, apparently
careless of his garrisons in Brittany, sent them no help.  Which
meant that La Roche-Derrien, smallest of all the English fortress
towns in Brittany and the one closest to the enemy, was doomed.  
Thomas felt strangely unsettled as the Pentecost slipped between the
low rocky outcrops that marked the mouth of the River Jaudy.  Was
it a failure, he wondered, to be coming back to this small town?  
Or had God sent him because it was here that the enemies of the
Grail would be seeking him?  That was how Thomas thought of
the mysterious de Taillebourg and his servant.  Or perhaps, he told
himself, he was merely nervous of seeing Jeanette again.  Their
history was too tangled, there was too much hate mixed with the
love, yet he did want to see her and he was worried she would not
want to see him.  He tried and failed to conjure a picture of her face
as the incoming tide carried the Pentecost into the river's mouth,
where guillemots spread their ragged black wings to dry above rocks
fretted with white foam.  A seal raised its glistening head, stared
indignantly at Thomas and then went back to the depths.  The river 
banks came closer, bringing the smell of land.  There were boulders
and pale grass and small wind-bent trees, while in the shallows there
were sinuous fish traps made from woven willow stakes.  A small
girl, scarce more than six years old, used a stone to knock limpets
from the rocks.   It's a poor supper, that," Will Skeat remarked.  
 It is, Will, it is."  
 Ah, Tom!"  Skeat smiled, recognizing the voice.   You never had
limpets for supper!"  
 I did!"  Thomas protested.   And for breakfast too.  
 A man who speaks Latin and French?  Eating limpets?"  Skeat
grinned.   You can write, ain't that so, Tom?"  
 Good as a priest, Will."  
 I reckon we should send a letter to his lordship," Skeat said,
meaning the Earl of Northampton,  and ask for my men to be
shipped here, only he won't do that without money, will he?"  
 He owes you money," Thomas said.  
Skeat frowned at Thomas.   He does?"  
 Your men have been serving him these last months.  He has to
pay for that."  
Skeat shook his head.   The Earl was never slow to pay for good
soldiers.  He'll be keeping their purses full, I'll be bound, and if I
want them here I'll have to persuade him to let them go and I'll
have to pay their passages too."  Skeat's men were contracted to
fight for the Earl of Northampton who, after campaigning in Brit 
tany, had joined the King in Normandy and now served him near
Calais.   I'll have to pay passage for men and horses, Thomas," Skeat
went on,  and unless things have changed since I got slapped about
the head that won't be cheap.  Won't be cheap.  And why would
the Earl want them to leave Calais?  They'll have a bellyful of fight 
ing come springtime."  
The question was a good one, Thomas thought, for there surely
would be some vicious fighting near Calais when the winter ended.  
So far as Thomas knew the town had not fallen, but the English
had surrounded it and the French King was said to be raising a
great army that would attack the besiegers in springtime.  
 There'll be plenty of fighting here come spring," Thomas said,
nodding at the riverbank, which was very close now.  The fields
beyond the banks were fallow, but at least the barns and farmhouses
still stood for these lands fed La Roche-Derrien's garrison and so
they had been spared the pillage, rape and fire that had crackled
across the rest of the dukedom.  
 There'll be fighting here," Skeat agreed,  but more in Calais.  
Maybe you and I should go there, Tom?"  
Thomas said nothing.  He feared Skeat could no longer command a band of men-at-arms and archers.  His old friend was too
prone to forgetfulness or to sudden bouts of vagueness and melancholy, and those attacks were made worse by the times when Skeat
seemed like his old self,  except he never was quite like the old
Will Skeat who had been so swift in war, savage in decision and  
clever in battle.  Now he repeated himself, became confused and
was too frequently puzzled,  as he was now by a guardboat flying
England's red cross on its white field that pulled downstream
towards the Pentecost.  Skeat frowned at the small craft.   Is he an
enemy?"  
 Flying our flag, Will."  
 He is?"  
A mail-clad man stood up in the rowboat's bows and hailed the
Pentecost.   Who are you?"  
 Sir William Skeat!"  Thomas shouted back, using the name that
would be most welcome in Brittany.  
There was a pause, maybe of incredulity.   Sir William Skeat?"  the
man called back.   Will Skeat, you mean?"  
 The King knighted him," Thomas told the man.  
 I keep forgetting that myself," Skeat said.  
The portside oarsmen backed water so that the guard boat turned
in the tide alongside the Pentecost.   What are you carrying?"  the man
asked.  
 Empty!"  Thomas shouted.  
The man stared up at the ragged, scorched, doubled sail.   You
had trouble?"  
 Off Normandy."  
 Time those bastards were killed once and for all," the man grumbled, then gestured upriver to where Tre'guier's houses smeared
the sky with their woodsmoke.   Tie up outboard of the Edward,"
he ordered them.   There's a harbour fee you'll have to pay.  Six
shillings."  
 Six shillings?"  Villeroy exploded when he was told.   Six bloody
shillings!  Do they think we pull money off the seabed in nets?"  
Thus Thomas and Will Skeat came back to Treguier where the
cathedral had lost its tower after Bretons who supported Charles
of Blois had fired crossbows at the English from its summit.  In
retaliation the English had pulled the tower down and shipped the
stone to London.  The little harbour town was scantily populated
now for it had no walls and Charles of Blois's men some times raided
the warehouses behind the quay.  Small ships could go all the way
upriver to La Roche-Derrien, but the Pentecost drew too much water
and so she tied herself alongside the English cog and then a dozen  
men in red-crossed jupons came aboard to take the harbour fee
and look for contraband or else a healthy bribe to persuade them
to ignore whatever they might discover, but they found neither
goods nor bribe.  Their commander, a fat man with a weeping ulcer
on his forehead, confirmed that Richard Totesham still commanded
at La Roche-Derrien.   He be there," the fat man said,  and Sir Thomas
Dagworth commands in Brest."  
 Dagworth!"  Skeat sounded pleased.   He's a good one, he is.  So's
Dick Totesham," he added to Thomas, then looked puzzled as Sir
Guillaume emerged from the forecabin.  
 It's Sir Guillaume," Thomas said in a low voice.  
  Course it is," Skeat said.  
Sir Guillaume dropped the saddlebags on the deck and the chink
of coins drew an expectant gaze from the fat man.  Sir Guillaume
met his gaze and half drew his sword.  
 Reckon I be going," the fat man said.  
 Reckon you do," Skeat said with a chuckle.  
Robbie heaved his baggage onto the deck, then stared across the
waist of the Edward to where four girls were gutting herrings and
chucking the offal into the air where gulls snatched it in mid flight.  
The girls strung the gutted fish on long poles that would be placed
in the smokers at the quay's end.   Are they all as pretty as that?"  
Robbie asked.  
 Prettier," Thomas said, wondering how the Scot could see the
girl's faces under their bonnets.  
 I'm going to like Brittany," Robbie said.  
There were debts to be paid before they could leave.  Sir Guillaume
paid off villeroy and added enough cash to buy a new sail.   You
might do well," he advised the big man,  to avoid Caen for a while."  
 We'll go on down to Gascony," villeroy said.   There's always
trade in Gascony.  Maybe we'll even poke on down to Portugal?"  
 Perhaps," Mordecai spoke shyly,  you would let me come?"  
 You?"  Sir Guillaume turned on the doctor.   You hate goddamn
ships."  
 I have to go south," Mordecai said wearily,  to Montpellier first
of all.  The further south a man is, the friendlier the people.  I would
rather suffer a month of sea and cold than meet Duke Charles's
men."  
 Passage to Gascony",  Sir Guillaume offered Villeroy a gold coin  
-  for a friend of mine."  
Villeroy glanced at Yvette, who shrugged, and that persuaded the
big man to agree.   You're welcome, doctor," he said.  
So they said farewell to Mordecai and then Thomas and Robbie,
Will Skeat and Sir Guillaume and his two men-at-arms went ashore.  
A boat was going upstream to La Roche-Derrien, but not till later
in the day and so the two men-at-arms were left with the baggage
and Thomas led the others along the narrow track that followed
the river's western bank.  They wore mail and carried weapons for
the local peasantry were not friendly to the English, but the only
men they passed were a dozen drab labourers pitch-forking dung
from two carts.  The men paused to watch the soldiers pass, but
said nothing.   And by this time tomorrow," Thomas commented,
 Charles of Blois will know we've arrived."  
 He'll be quaking in his boots," Skeat said with a grin.  
It began to rain as they reached the bridge which led into La
Roche-Derrien.  Thomas stopped under the arch of the protective
barbican on the bank opposite the town and pointed upstream
to the ramshackle quay where he and Skeat's other archers had
sneaked into La Roche-Derrien on the night it first fell to the Eng 
lish.   Remember that place, Will?"  he asked.  
  Course I remember," Skeat said, though he looked vague and
Thomas did not say more.  
They crossed the stone bridge and hurried down the street to
the house by the tavern that had always been Richard Totesham's
headquarters and Totesham himself was just sliding out of his saddle
as they arrived.  He turned and scowled at the neweomers, then
recognized Will Skeat and stared at his old friend as though he had
seen a ghost.  Skeat looked blankly back and his lack of recognition
troubled Totesham.   Will?"  the garrison commander asked.   Will?  
Is it you, Will?"  
A look of astonished delight animated Skeat's face.   Dick Totesham!  Of all the folk to meet!"  
Totesham was puzzled that Skeat should be surprised to meet
him in a garrison he commanded, but then he saw the emptiness
in his old friend's eyes and frowned.   Are you well, Will?"  
 I had a bash on the head," Skeat said,  but a doctor cobbled me  
together again.  Things get blurred here and there, just blurred."  
The two clasped hands.  They were both men who had been born  
penniless and become soldiers, then earned the trust of their masters
and gained the profits of prisoners ransomed and property plun 
dered until they were wealthy enough to raise their own bands
of men, which they hired to the King or to a noble and so became
richer still as they ravaged more enemy lands.  When the trouba 
dours sang of battle they named the King as the fighting hero, and
extolled the exploits of dukes, earls, barons and knights, but it was
men like Totesham and Skeat who did most of England's fighting.  
Totesham clapped Skeat good-naturedly on the shoulder.   Tell
me you've brought your men, Will."  
 God knows where they are," Skeat said.   I haven't laid eyes on
them in months."  
 They're outside Calais," Thomas put in.  
 Dear God."  Totesham made the sign of the cross.  He was a squat
man, grey-haired and broad-faced, who held La Roche-Derrien's
garrison together by sheer force of character, but he knew he had
too few men.  Far too few men.   I've a hundred and thirty-two men
under orders," he told Skeat,  and half of those are sick.  Then there's
fifty or sixty mercenaries who might or might not stay till Charles
of Blois arrives.  Of course the townsfolk will fight for us, or most
of them will."  
 They will?"  Thomas interrupted, astonished at the claim.  When
the English had captured the town the previous year the town's
people had fought bitterly to defend their walls, and when they
had lost they had been subjected to rape and plunder, yet now they
supported the garrison?  
 Trade's good," Totesham explained.   They've never been so rich!  
Ships to Gascony, to Portugal, to Flanders and to England.  Making
money, they are.  They don't want us to leave, so yes, some will
fight for us and it'll help, but it's not like having trained men."  
The other English troops in Brittany were a long way to the west
so when Charles of Blois came with his army, Totesham would
have to hold the small town for two or three weeks before he could
expect any relief and, even with the inhabitants" help, he doubted
he could do it.  He had sent a petition to the King at Calais begging
that more men be sent to La Roche-Derrien.   We are far from help,"  
his clerk had written to Totesham's dictation,  and our enemies
gather close about."  Totesham, seeing Will Skeat, had assumed that
Skeat's men had arrived in answer to his petition and he could
not hide his disappointment.   You'll write to the King yourself?"  
Totesham asked Will.  
 Tom here can write for me."  
 Ask for your men to be sent," Totesham urged.   I need three or
four hundred more archers, but your fifty or sixty would help."  
 Tommy Dagworth can't send you any?"  Skeat asked.  
 He's as hard pressed as I am.  Too much land to hold, too few
men and the King won't hear of us surrendering a single acre to
Charles of Blois."  
 So why doesn't he send reinforcements?"  Sir Guillaume asked.  
 Because he ain't got men to spare," Totesham said,  which is no
reason for us not to ask."  
Totesham took them inside his house where a fire blazed in a
big hearth and his servants brought jugs of mulled wine and plates
of bread and cold pork.  A baby lay in a wooden cradle by the fire and
Totesham blushed when he admitted it was his.   Newly married," he
told Skeat, then ordered a maid to take the baby away before it
began crying.  He flinched when Skeat took off his hat to reveal his
scarred, thick-ridged scalp, then he insisted on hearing Will's story,
and when it was told he thanked Sir Guillaume for the help the
Frenchman had given his friend.  Thomas and Robbie got a cooler
welcome, the latter because he was Scottish and the former because
Totesham remembered Thomas from the previous year.   You were
a bloody nuisance," Totesham said bluntly,  you and the Countess
of Armorica."  
 Is she here?"  Thomas asked.  
 She came back, aye."  Totesham sounded guarded.  
 We can go back to her house, Will," Thomas said to Skeat.  
 No you can't," Totesham said firmly.   She lost the house.  It was
sold to pay her debts and she's been screaming about it ever since,
but it was sold fair and square.  And the lawyer who bought it has
paid us a quittance to be left in peace and I don't want him dis 
turbed, so the two of you can find yourself space at the Two Foxes.  
Then come and have supper."  This invitation was to Will Skeat and
to Sir Guillaume and pointedly not to Thomas or Robbie.  
Thomas did not mind.  He and Robbie found a room to share in
the tavern called the Two Foxes and afterwards, as Robbie had his
first taste of Breton ale, Thomas went to Saint Renan's church, which
was one of the smallest in La Roche-Derrien, but also one of the
wealthiest because Jeanette's father had endowed it. He had built
a bell tower and paid to have fine pictures painted on its walls,
though by the time Thomas reached Saint Renan's it was too dark to
see the Saviour walking on Galilee's water or the souls tumbling
down to their fiery hell. The only light in the church came from
some candles burning on the altar where a silver reliquary held
Saint Renan's tongue, but Thomas knew there was another treasure
beneath the altar, something almost as rare as a saint's silent tongue,
and he wanted to consult it. It was a book, a gift from Jeanette's
father, and Thomas had been astonished to find it there, not just
because the book had survived the fall of the town,  though in
truth not many soldiers would seek books for plunder,  but because
there was any book in a small church in a Breton town.  Books
were rare and that was Saint Renan's treasure: a bible. Most of the
New Testament was missing, evidently because some soldiers had
taken those pages to use in the latrines, but all of the Old Testament
remained.  Thomas threaded his way through the black-dressed old
ladies who knelt and prayed in the nave and he found the book
beneath the altar and blew off the dust and cobwebs, then put it
beside the candles.  One of the women hissed that he was being
impious, but Thomas ignored her.  
He turned the stiff pages, sometimes stopping to admire a painted
capital.  There was a bible in Saint Peter's church in Dorchester and
his father had possessed one, and Thomas must have seen a dozen
in Oxford, but he had seen few others and, as he searched the
pages, he marvelled at the time it must take to copy such a vast
book. More women protested his annexation of the altar and so,
to placate them, he went a few steps away and sat cross-legged
with the heavy book on his lap.  He was now too far from the
candles and found it hard to read the script, which was mostly ill
done.  The capitals were pretty, suggesting they had been done by
a skilled hand, but most of the writing was cramped and his task
was made no easier by his ignorance of where to look in the huge
book.  He began at the end of the Old Testament, but did not find  
what he wanted and so he leafed back, the huge pages crackling
as he turned them.  He knew what he sought was not in the Psalms
so he turned those pages fast, then slowed again, seeking words
out of the ill-written script and then, suddenly, the names jumped
from the page.   Neemias Athersatha filius Achelal',  Nehemiah the
Governor, son of Hachaliah".  He read the whole passage, but did
not find what he sought, and so he leafed still further back, page
by stiff page, knowing he was close, and there, at last, it was.  
 Ego enim eram pincerna regis."  
He stared at the phrase, then read it aloud.    Ego enim eram
pincerna regis. "  
 For I was the King's cupbearer."  
Mordecai had thought Father Ralph's book was a plea to God to
make the Grail true, but Thomas did not agree.  His father did not
want to be the cupbearer.  No, the notebook was a way of confessing
and of hiding the truth.  His father had left a trail for him to follow.  
Go from Hachaliah to the Tirshatha and realize that the Governor
was also the cupbearer: ego enim eram pincerna regis.   Was', Thomas
thought.  Did that mean his father had lost the Grail?  It was more
likely that he knew Thomas would only read the book after his
death.  But Thomas was certain of one thing: the words confirmed
that the Grail did exist and his father had been its reluctant keeper.  
I was the King's cupbearer; let this cup pass from me; the cup makes
me drunk.  The cup existed and Thomas felt a shiver go through his
body.  He stared at the candles on the altar and his eyes blurred
with tears.  Eleanor had been right.  The Grail existed and it was
waiting to be found and to put the world right and to bring God
to man and man to God and peace on earth.  It existed.  It was the
Grail.  
 My father," a woman said,  gave that book to the church."  
 I know he did," Thomas said, then he closed the bible and he
turned to look at Jeanette and he was almost frightened to see her
in case she was less beautiful than he remembered, or perhaps he
feared the sight of her would engender hatred because she had
abandoned him, but instead he felt tears in his eyes when he saw her
face.   Merle," he said softly, using her nickname.  It meant Blackbird.  
 Thomas."  Her voice was toneless, then she flicked her head
towards an old woman dressed and veiled in black.   Madame  
Verlon," Jeanette said,  who is nervous of life, told me that an
English soldier was stealing the bible."  
 So you came to fight the soldier?"  Thomas asked.  A candle gut 
tered to his right, its flame flickering as fast as a small bird's heart.  
Jeanette shrugged.   The priest here is a coward and would not
challenge an English archer, so who else would come?"  
 Madame Verlon can rest safe," Thomas said as he put the bible
back under the altar.  
 She also said" Jeanette's voice had a quaver in it,   that the
man stealing the bible had a big black bow."  Which was why, she
implied, she had come herself instead of sending for help.  She had
guessed it was Thomas.  
 At least you did not have to come far," Thomas said, gesturing
to the side door which led into the yard of Jeanette's father's house.  
He was pretending not to know that she had lost the house.  
Her head jerked back.   I do not live there," she said curtly,  not
now.  
A dozen women were listening and they stepped nervously back
as Thomas came towards them.   Then perhaps, madame," he said
to Jeanette,  you will let me escort you home?"  
She nodded abruptly.  Her eyes seemed very bright and big in the
candlelight.  She was thinner, Thomas thought, or perhaps that was
the darkness in the church shadowing her cheeks.  She had a bonnet
tied under her chin and a great black cloak that swept on the flag 
stones as she followed him to the western door.   You remember
Belas?"  she asked him.  
 I remember the name," Thomas said.   Wasn't he a lawyer?"  
 He is a lawyer," Jeanette said,  and a thing of bile, a creature of
slime, a cheat.  What was that English word you taught me?  A
tosspot.  He is a tosspot.  When I came home he had bought the
house, claiming it was sold to pay my debts.  But he had bought
the debts!  He promised to look after my business, waited till I was
gone, then took my house.  And now I am back he won't let me
pay what I owed.  He says it is paid.  I said I would buy the house
from him for more than he paid, but he just laughs at me.  
Thomas held the door for her.  Rain was spitting in the street.  
 You don't want the house," he told her,  not if Charles of Blois
comes back.  You should be gone by then."  
 You're still telling me what to do, Thomas?"  she asked and then,
as if to soften the harshness of her words, she took his arm.  Or
perhaps she put her hand through his elbow because the street was
steep and slippery.   I will stay here, I think."  
 If you hadn't escaped from him," Thomas said,  Charles was going
to marry you to one of his men-at-arms.  If he finds you here he'll
do that.  Or worse.  
 He already has my child.  He has already raped me.  What more
can he do?  No",  she clutched Thomas's arm fiercely,   I shall stay
in my little house by the south gate and when he rides into the
town I will sink a crossbow quarrel in his belly."  
 I'm surprised you haven't put a quarrel into Belas's belly."  
 You think I would hang for a lawyer's death?"  Jeanette asked
and gave a short, hard laugh.   No, I shall save my death for the life
of Charles of Blois and all Brittany and France will know he was
killed by a woman."  
 Unless he returns your child?"  
 He won't!"  she said fiercely.   He answered no appeals."  She
meant, Thomas was sure, that the Prince of Wales, maybe the King
as well, had written to Charles of Blois, but the appeals had achieved
nothing, and why should they?  England was Charles's most bitter
enemy.   It's all about land, Thomas," she said wearily,  land and
money."  She meant that her son, who at three years old was the
Count of Armorica, was the rightful heir to great swathes of western
Brittany that were presently under English occupation.  If the child
were to give fealty to Duke Jean, who was Edward of England's
candidate to rule Brittany, then the claim of Charles of Blois to
sovereignty of the duchy would be seriously weakened and so
Charles had taken the child and would keep him till he was of an
age to swear fealty.  
 Where is Charles?"  Thomas asked.  It was one of the ironies of
Jeanette's life that her son had been named after his great-uncle
in an attempt to win his favour.  
 He is in the Tower of Roncelets," Jeanette said,  which is south
of Rennes.  He is being raised by the Lord of Roncelets."  She turned
on Thomas.   It's almost a year since I've seen him!"  
 The Tower of Roncelets," Thomas said,  it's a castle?"  
 I've not seen it.  A tower, I suppose.  Yes, a castle."  
 You're sure he's there?"  
I'm sure of nothing," Jeanette said wearily,  but I received a letter
which said Charles was there and I have no reason to doubt it."  
 Who wrote the letter?"  
 I don't know.  It was not signed."  She walked in silence for a few
paces, her hand warm on his arm.   It was Belas," she said finally.  
 I don't know that for sure, but it must be.  He was goading me,
tormenting me.  It is not enough that he has my house and Charles
of Blois has my child, Belas wants me to suffer.  Or else he wants
me to go to Roncelets knowing that I would be given back to Charles
of Blois.  I'm sure it was Belas.  He hates me."  
 Why?"  
 Why do you think?"  she asked scornfully.   I have something he
wants, something all men want, but I won't give it to him."  
They walked on through dark streets.  Singing sounded from some
taverns, and somewhere a woman screamed at her man.  A dog
barked and was silenced.  The rain pattered on thatch, dripped from
the eaves and made the muddy street slippery.  A red glow slowly
appeared ahead, growlng as they came closer until Thomas saw the
flames of two braziers warming the guards on the south gate and
he remembered how he and Jake and Sam had opened that gate
to let in the English army.   I promised you once," he said to Jeanette,
 that I would fetch Charles back."  
 You and I, Thomas," Jeanette said,  made too many promises."  
She still sounded weary.  
 I should start keeping some of mine," Thomas said.   But to reach
Roncelets I need horses."  
 I can afford horses," Jeanette said, stopping by a dark doorway.  
 I live here," she went on, then looked into his face.  He was tall,
but she was very nearly the same height.   The Count of Roncelets
is famous as a warrior.  You mustn't die to keep a promise you
should never have made."  
 It was made, though," Thomas said.  
She nodded.   That is true.  
There was a long pause.  Thomas could hear a sentry's footsteps
on the wall.   I   he began.  
 No," she said hastily.  
 I didn't.  .  
 Another time.  I must get used to your being here.  I'm tired of
men, Thomas.  Since Picardy  ."  She paused and Thomas thought
she would say no more, but then she shrugged.   Since Picardy I
have lived like a nun."  
He kissed her forehead.   I love you," he said, meaning it, but
surprised all the same that he had spoken the thought aloud.  
For a heartbeat she did not speak.  The reflected light from the
two braziers glinted red in her eyes.   What happened to that girl?"  
she asked.   That little pale thing who was so protective of you?"  
 I failed to protect her," Thomas said,  and she died."  
 Men are such bastards," she said, then turned and pulled the
rope that lifted the latch of the door.  She paused for a moment.  
 But I'm glad you're here," she said without looking back, and then
the door was shut, the bolt slid home and she was gone.  
Sir Geoffrey Carr had begun to think his foray to Brittany was a
mistake.  For a long time there had been no sign of Thomas of
Hookton and once the archer arrived he had made little effort to
discover any treasure.  It was mysterious and all the time Sir Geof 
frey's debts were growlng.  But then, at last, the Scarecrow dis 
covered what plans Thomas of Hookton was hatching.  That new
knowledge took Sir Geoffrey to Maitre Belas's house.  
Rain poured on La Roche-Derrien.  It was one of the wettest
winters in memory.  The ditch beyond the strengthened town wall
was flooded so it looked like a moat, and many of the River Jaudy's
water meadows resembled lakes.  The streets of the town were sticky
with mud, men's boots were thick with it and women went to
market wearing awkward wooden pattens that slipped treacher 
ously on the steeper streets and still thick mud was smeared on the
hems of their dresses and cloaks.  The only good things about such
rain was the protection it offered against fire and, for the English,
the knowledge that it would make any siege of the town difficult.  
Siege engines, whether catapults, trebuchets or guns, needed a solid
base, not a quagmire, and men could not assault through a marsh.  
Richard Totesham was said to be praying for more rain and giving
thanks every morning that dawned grey, heavy and damp.  
 A wet winter, Sir Geoffrey," Belas greeted the Scarecrow, then
gave his visitor a covert inspection.  A raw and ugly face, he thought,
and while Sir Geoffrey's clothes were of a fine quality, they had
also been made for a fatter man which suggested that either the
Englishman had recently lost weight or, more likely, the clothes
had been taken from a man he had killed in battle.  A coiled whip
hung at his belt, which seemed a strange accoutrement, but the
lawyer never presumed to understand soldiers.   A very wet winter,"
Belas went on, waving the Scarecrow into a chair.  
 It's a pissing wet winter," Sir Geoffrey snarled to cover his ner 
vousness,  nothing but rain, cold and chilblains."  He was nervous
because he was not certain that this thin and watchful lawyer was
as sympathetic to Charles of Blois as tavern rumour suggested, and
he had been forced to leave Beggar and Dickon in the courtyard
below and he felt vulnerable without their protective company,
especially as the lawyer had a great hulking attendant who was
dressed in a leather jerkin and had a long sword at his side.  
 Pierre protects me," Belas said.  He had seen Sir Geoffrey glancing
at the big man.   He protects me from the enemies all honest lawyers
make.  Please, Sir Geoffrey, sit yourself."  He gestured again at a chair.  
A small fire burned in the hearth, the smoke vanishing up a newly
made chimney.  The lawyer had a face as hungry as a stoat and pale
as a grass-snake's belly.  He was wearing a black gown and a black
cloak edged with black fur and a black hat with flaps that covered
his ears, though he now pushed one flap up so he could hear the
Scarecrow's voice.   Parlez-vous francais?"  he asked.  
 No."  
 Brezoneg a ouzit?"  the lawyer enquired and, when he saw the
dumb incomprehension on the Scarecrow's face, shrugged.   You
don't speak Breton?"  
 I just told you, didn't I?  I don't talk French."  
 French and Breton are not the same language, Sir Geoffrey."  
 They're not bloody English," Sir Geoffrey said belligerently.  
 Indeed they are not.  Alas, I do not speak English well, but I learn
fast.  It is, after all, the language of our new masters."  
 Masters?"  the Scarecrow asked.   Or enemies?"  
Belas shrugged.   I am a man of, how do you say?  Of affairs.  A
man of affairs.  It is not possible, I think, to be such and not to make  
enemies."  He shrugged again, as if he spoke of trivialities, then he
leaned back in his chair.   But you come on business, Sir Geoffrey?  
You have property to convey, perhaps?  A contract to make?"  
 Jeanette Chenier, Countess of Armorica," Sir Geoffrey said
bluntly.  
Belas was surprised, but did not show it.  He was alert, though.  
He knew well enough that Jeanette wanted revenge and he was
ever watchful for her machinations, but now he pretended indiffer 
ence.   I know of the lady," he admitted.  
 She knows you.  And she don't like you, Monsieur Belas," Sir
Geoffrey said, making his pronunciation of the name sound like a
sneer.   She don't like you one small bit.  She'd like to have your
collops in a skillet and kindle a fierce fire under them."  
Belas turned to the papers on his desk as though his visitor was
being tedious.   I told you, Sir Geoffrey, that a lawyer inevitably
makes enemies.  It is nothing to worry about.  The law protects
me."  
 Piss on the law, Belas."  Sir Geoffrey spoke flatly.  His eyes, curi 
ously pale, watched the lawyer, who pretended to be busy sharpen 
ing a quill.   Suppose the lady got her son back?"  the Scarecrow
went on.   Suppose the lady takes her son to Edward of England
and has the boy swear fealty to Duke Jean?  The law won't stop
them chopping off your collops then, will it?  One, two, snip, snip
and stoke the fire, lawyer."  
 Such an eventuality," Belas said in apparent boredom,  could
have no possible repercussions for me.  
 So your English ain't bad, eh?"  Sir Geoffrey sneered.   I don't
pretend to know the law, monsieur, but I know folk.  If the Countess
gets her son then she'll go to Calais and see the King."  
 So?"  Belas asked, still pretending carelessness.  
 Three months",  Sir Geoffrey held up three fingers,   four,
maybe, before your Charles of Blois can get here.  And she might
be in Calais in four weeks" time and back here with the King's piece
of parchment inside eight weeks, and by then she'll be valuable.  
Her son has what the King wants and he'll give her what she wants,
and what she wants is your collops.  She'll bite them off with her
little white teeth and then she'll skin you alive, monsieur, and the
law won't help you.  Not against the King, it won't."  
Belas had been pretending to read a parchment, which he now
released so that it rolled up with a snap.  He stared at the Scarecrow,
then shrugged.   I doubt, Sir Geoffrey, that what you describe is
likely to happen.  The Countess's son is not here."  
 But suppose, monsieur, just suppose, that a party of men is
readying themselves to go to Roncelets and fetch the little tosspot?"  
Belas paused.  He had heard a rumour that just such a raid was
being planned, but he had doubted the rumour's truth for such
tales had been told a score of times and come to nothing.  Yet
something in Sir Geoffrey's tone suggested that this time there
might be some meat on the bone.   A party of men," Belas responded
flatly.  
 A party of men," the Scarecrow confirmed,  that plans to ride
to Roncelets and watch until the little darling is taken out for his
morning piddle and then they'll snatch him, bring him back here
and put your collops in the frying pan."  
Belas unrolled the parchment and pretended to read it again.   It
is hardly surprising, Sir Geoffrey," he said carelessly,  that Madame
Chenier conspires for the return of her son.  It is to be expected.  
But why should you bother me with it?  What harm can it do me?"  
He dipped the newly sharpened quill in his ink pot.   And how do
you know about this planned raid?"  
 Because I ask the right questions, don't I?"  the Scarecrow
answered.  
In truth the Scarecrow had heard rumours that Thomas planned
a raid on Rostrenen, but other men in the town had sworn that
Rostrenen had been picked over so often that a sparrow would die
of starvation there now.  So what, the Scarecrow had wondered,
was Thomas really doing?  Sir Geoffrey was certain that Thomas
was riding to find the treasure, the same treasure that had taken
him to Durham, but why would it be at Rostrenen?  What was
there?  Sir Geoffrey had accosted one of Richard Totesham's deputies
in a tavern and bought the man ale and asked about Rostrenen
and the man had laughed and shaken his head.   You don't want
to ride on that nonsense," he told Sir Geoffrey.  
 Nonsense?"  
 They ain't going to Rostrenen.  They're going to Roncelets.  Well,
we don't know that for certain," the man had continued,  but the  
Countess of Armorica is up to her pretty neck in the whole business,
so that means it must be Roncelets.  And you want my advice, Sir
Geoffrey?  Stay out of it.  They don't call Roncelets the wasp's nest
for nothing."  
Sir Geoffrey, more confused than ever, asked more questions and
slowly he came to understand that the thesaurus Thomas sought
was not thick golden coins, nor leather bags filled with jewels, but
instead was land: the Breton estates of the Count of Armorica, and
if Jeanette's little son swore allegiance to Duke Jean, then the Eng 
lish cause in Brittany was advanced.  It was a treasure in its way, a
political treasure: not so satisfying as gold, but it was still valuable.  
Quite what the land had to do with Durham the Scarecrow did not
know.  Perhaps Thomas had gone there to find some deeds?  Or a
grant made by a previous duke?  Some lawyer's nonsense, and it
did not matter; what mattered was that Thomas was riding to seize
a boy who could bring political muscle to the King of England, and
Sir Geoffrey had then wondered how he could benefit from the
child and for a time he had toyed with the wild idea of kidnapping
the boy and taking him to Calais himself, but then he had realized
there was a far safer profit to be made by simply betraying Thomas.  
Which was why he was here, and Belas, he suspected, was inter 
ested, but the lawyer was also pretending that the raid on Roncelets
was none of his business and so the Scarecrow decided it was time to
force the lawyer's hand.  He stood and pulled down his rain-soaked
jerkin.   You ain't interested, monsieur?"  he asked.   So be it.  You
know your business better than I do, but I know how many are
going to Roncelets and I know who leads them and I can tell you
when they're going."  The quill was no longer moving and drips of
ink were falling from its tip to blot the parchment, but Belas did
not notice as the Scarecrow's harsh voice ground on.   Of course
they ain't told Mr Totesham what they're doing, on account that
officially he'd disapprove, which he might or he might not, I
wouldn't know, so he thinks they're going to burn some farms
near Rostrenen, which maybe they will and maybe they won't, but
whatever they say and whatever Master Totesham might believe,
I know they're going to Roncelets."  
 How do you know?"  Belas asked quietly.  
 I know!"  Sir Geoffrey said harshly.  
Belas put down the pen.   Sit," he ordered the Scarecrow,  and
tell me what you want."  
 Two things," Sir Geoffrey said as he sat again.   I came to this  
damned town to make money, but we're having thin pickings,
monsieur, thin pickings."  Very thin, for English troops had been
pillaging Brittany for months and there were no farms within a
day's ride that had not been burned and robbed, while to ride
further afield was to risk strong enemy patrols.  Beyond the walls
of its fortresses Brittany was a wilderness of ambush, danger and
ruin and the Scarecrow had quickly discovered that it would be a
hard landscape in which to make a fortune.  
 So money is the first thing you want," Belas said acidly.   And
the second?"  
 Refuge," Sir Geoffrey said.  
 Refuge?"  
 When Charles of Blois takes the town," the Scarecrow said,  then
I want to be in your courtyard."  
 I cannot think why," Belas said drily,  but of course you will be
welcome.  And as for money?"  He licked his lips.   Let us first see
how good your information is."  
 And if it is good?"  the Scarecrow asked.  
Belas considered for a moment.   Seventy ecus?"  he suggested.  
 Eighty, perhaps?"  
 Seventy ecus?"  The Scarecrow paused to convert it into pounds,
then spat.   Just ten pounds!  No!  I want a hundred pounds and I
want them in English-struck coin."  
They settled on sixty English pounds, to be paid when Belas had
proof that Sir Geoffrey was telling him the truth, and that truth
was that Thomas of Hookton was leading men to Roncelets and
they were leaving on the eve of Valentine's Feast which was just
over two weeks away.  
 Why so long?"  Belas wanted to know.  
 He wants more men.  He's only got half a dozen now and he's
trying to persuade others to go with him.  He's telling them there's
gold to be had at Roncelets."  
 tf you want money," Belas asked acidly,  why don't you ride
with him?"  
 Because I'm seeing you instead," Sir Geoffrey answered.  
Belas leaned back in his chair and steepled his pale, long fingers.  
 And that is all you want?"  he asked the Englishman.   Some money
and refuge?"  
The Scarecrow stood, bending his head under the room's low
beams.   You pay me once," he said,  and you'll pay me again."  
 Perhaps," Belas said evasively.  
 I give you what you want," Sir Geoffrey said,  and you'll pay
me."  He went to the door, then stopped because Belas had called
him back.  
 Did you say Thomas of Hookton?"  Belas asked and there was an
undeniable interest in his voice.  
 Thomas of Hookton," the Scarecrow confirmed.  
 Thank you," Belas said, and he looked down at a scroll he had
just unrolled and it seemed he found Thomas's name written there
for his finger checked and he smiled.   Thank you," he said again
and, to Sir Geoffrey's astonishment, the lawyer took a small purse
from a chest beside his desk and pushed it towards the Scarecrow.  
 For that news, Sir Geoffrey, I do thank you."  
Sir Geoffrey, back down in the courtyard, found he had been
given ten pounds of English gold.  Ten pounds for just mentioning
Thomas's name?  He suspected there was much more to learn about
Thomas's plans, but at least he had gold in his pocket now, so the
visit to the lawyer had been profitable and there was the promise
of more lawyer's gold to come.  
But it was still bloody raining.  
Thomas persuaded Richard Totesham that instead of writing
another plea to the King they should appeal to the Earl of North 
ampton who was now among the leaders of the army besieging
Calais.  The letter reminded his Lordship of his great victory in captur 
ing La Roche-Derrien and stressed that achievement might all be
for naught if the garrison was not reinforced.  Richard Totesham
dictated most of the words and Will Skeat put a cross beside his
name at the foot of the letter which claimed, truthfully enough,
that Charles of Blois was assembling a new and mighty army in
Rennes.  
 Master Totesham," Thomas wrote,  who sends your lordship
humble greetings, reckons that Charles's army already numbers a
thousand men-at-arms, two times that number in crossbowmen
and other men besides, while in our garrison we have scarce a
hundred healthy men, while your kinsman, Sir Thomas Dagworth,
who is a week's march away, can raise no more than six or seven
hundred men.  
Sir Thomas Dagworth, the English commander in Brittany, was
married to the Earl of Northampton's sister and Totesham was
hoping that family pride alone would persuade the Earl to avoid a
defeat in Brittany, and if Northampton were to send Skeat's archers,
just the archers and not the men-at-arms, it would double the
number of bowmen on La Roche-Derrien's walls and give Totesham
a chance to resist a siege.  Send the archers, the letter pleaded, with
their bows, their arrows, but without their horses and Totesham
would send them back to Calais when Charles of Blois was repulsed.  
 He won't believe that," Totesham grumbled,  he'll know I'll want
to keep them, so make sure he knows it's a solemn promise.  Tell
him I swear on Our Lady and on Saint George that the archers will
go back."  
The description of Charles of Blois's army was real enough.  Spies
in English pay sent the news which, in truth, Charles was eager for
his enemies to learn for the more La Roche-Derrien's garrison was
outnumbered the lower its hopes would be.  Charles already had
close to four thousand men, more were coming every week, and
his engineers had hired nine great siege engines to hurl boulders
at the walls of the English towns and fortresses in his duchy.  La
Roche-Derrien would be attacked first and few men gave it a hope
of lasting longer than a month.  
 It is not true, I trust," Totesham said sourly to Thomas when the
letter was written,  that you have designs on Roncelets?"  
 On Roncelets?"  Thomas pretended not to have heard of the place.  
 Not Roncelets, sir, but Rostrenen."  
Totesham gazed at Thomas with dislike.   There's nothing at Ros 
trenen," the garrison commander said icily.  
 I hear there's food there, sir," Thomas said.  
 Where as",  Totesham continued as if Thomas had not spoken  
 the Countess of Armorica's son is said to be held at Roncelets."  
 Is he, sir?"  Thomas asked disingenuously.  
 And if it's a swiving you want," Totesham ignored Thomas's lies  
-  then I can recommend the brothel behind Saint Brieuc's chantry."  
 We're riding to Rostrenen," Thomas insisted.  
 And none of my men will ride with you," Totesham said, meaning
none that took his wages, though that still left the mercenaries.  
Sir Guillaume had agreed to ride with Thomas, though he was
uncomfortable about the prospects for success.  He had bought
horses for himself and his two men but he reckoned they were of
poor quality.   If it comes to a chase out of Roncelets," he said,  we'll
be trounced.  So take a lot of men to put up a decent fight."  
Thomas's first instinct had been to ride with just a handful of
others, but a few men on bad horses would be easy bait.  More men
made the expedition safer.  
 And why are you going anyway?"  Sir Guillaume demanded.   Just
to get into the widow's skirts?"  
 Because I made a promise to her," Thomas said, and it was true,
though Sir Guillaume's reason had the more truth.   And because,"
Thomas went on,  I need to let our enemies know that I'm here."  
 You mean de Taillebourg?"  Sir Guillaume asked.   He knows
already."  
 You think so?"  
 Brother Germain will have told him," Sir Guillaume said confi 
dently,  in which case I reckon your Dominican is already in Rennes.  
He'll come for you in good time."  
 If I raid Roncelets," Thomas said,  they'll hear of me.  Then, I can
be sure they'll come."  
By Candlemas he knew he could rely on Robbie, on Sir Guillaume
and his two men-at-arms and he had found seven other men
who had been lured by the rumours of Roncelets" wealth or by
the prospect of Jeanette's good opinion.  Robbie wanted to leave
straightaway, but Will Skeat, like Sir Guillaume, advised Thomas
to take a larger party.   This ain't like northern England," Skeat said,
 you can't run for the border.  You get caught, Tom, and you'll need
a dozen good men to lock shields and break heads.  Reckon I ought
to come with you.  
 No," Thomas said hastily.  Skeat had his lucid moments, but too
often was vague and forgetful, though now he tried to help Thomas  
by recommending other men to go on the raid.  Most turned the
invitation down: the Tower of Roncelets was too far off they
claimed, or the Lord of Roncelets was too powerful and the odds
against the raiders too great.  Some were frightened of offending
Totesham who, fearing to lose any of his garrison, had decreed that
no raids should go farther than a day's ride from the town.  His
caution meant there was little plunder to be had and it was only
the poorest mercenaries who, desperate for anything they could
turn into cash, offered to ride with Thomas.  
 Twelve men is enough," Robbie insisted.   Sweet Christ, but I've
been on enough raids into England.  My brother and I once took a
herd of cattle from Lord Percy with just three other men and Percy
had half the county searching for us.  Go in fast and come out
quicker.  Twelve men is enough."  
Thomas was almost convinced by Robbie's fervent words, but he
worried that the odds were still too uneven and the horses too
badly conditioned to allow them to go swiftly in and come out
quicker.   I want more men," he told Robbie.  
 If you go on dithering," Robbie told him,  the enemy will hear
about you.  They'll be waiting for us.  
 They won't know where to wait," Thomas said,  or what to think."  
He had spread a score of rumours about the raid's purpose and
hoped that the enemy would be thoroughly confused.   But we'll
go soon," he promised Robbie.  
 Sweet God, but who's left to ask?"  Robbie demanded.   Let's ride
now!"  
But that same day a ship came to Treguier and three more Flemish
men-at-arms rode into the garrison.  Thomas found them that night
in a tavern by the river's edge.  The three complained how they had
been in the English lines at Calais, but there was too little fighting
there and thus few prospects of wealthy prisoners.  They wanted to
try their luck in Brittany and so they had come to La Roche-Derrien.  
Thomas spoke to their leader, a gaunt man with a twisted mouth
and with two fingers missing from his right hand, who listened,
grunted an acknowledgement and said he would think about it.  
Next morning all three Flemings came to the Two Foxes tavern and
said they were willing to ride.   We came here to fight," their leader,
who was called Lodewijk, said,'s o we go."  
 So let's leave!"  Robbie urged Thomas.  
Thomas would have liked to recruit still more men, but he knew
he had waited long enough.   We'll go," he told Robbie, then he
went to find Will Skeat and made the older man promise to keep
an eye on Jeanette.  She liked and trusted Skeat and Thomas was
confident enough to leave his father's notebook in her keeping.  
 We shall be back," he told her,  in six or seven days."  
 God be with you," Jeanette said.  She clung to Thomas for an
instant.   God be with you," she said again,  and bring me my son."  
And next dawn, in a mist that pearled their long mail coats, the
fifteen horsemen rode.  
Lodewijk,  he insisted it was Sir Lodewijk though his two companions sniggered whenever he did,  refused to speak French, 
claiming that the language made his tongue sour.  It is a people of 
filth," Lodewijk maintained,  the French.  Filth.  The word is good, 
ja?  Futh?"   
 The word is good," Thomas agreed.   
Jan and Pieter, Sir Lodewijk's companions, spoke only in guttural 
Flemish spiced with a handful of English curses they must have 
learned near Calais.   
 What's happening in Calais?"  Thomas asked Sir Lodewijk as they 
rode south.   
 Nothing.  The town is   .  what you say?"  Sir Lodewijk made a 
circling motion with his hand.   
 Surrounded."   
 Ja  the town is goddamn surrounded.  By the English, ja?  And 
He paused, uncertain of the word he wanted, then pointed   
to a stretch of waterlogged ground that lay east of the road.   By 
that."   
 Marshes."   
 Ja!  By bloody marshes.  And the goddamn bloody French, they 
are on  ."  Again he was lost for words, so jabbed his mailed finger 
at the lowering sky.   
 Higher ground?"  Thomas guessed.   
 Ja!  Bloody high ground.  Not so bloody high, I think, but 
higher.  And they  ."  He put a hand over his eyes, as if shading 
them.   
 Stare?"   
 Ja!  They stare at each other.  So nothing is happens but they and 
we gets bloody wet.  Pissing wet, ja?"   
They got wet later that morning when the rains swept in from 
the ocean.  Great curtains of grey lashed the deserted farmlands and 
upland heaths where the trees were permanently bent towards the 
east.  When Thomas had first come to Brittany this had been a 
productive land of farms, orchards, mills and grazing, but now it 
was blasted naked.  The fruit trees, untended, were thick with bull- 
finches, the fields were choked with weeds and the pastures tangled 
with couch grass.  Here and there a few folk still tried to scratch a 
living, but they were constantly being forced to La Roche-Derrien 
to work on the ramparts and their harvests and livestock were 
forever being stolen by English patrols.  If any such Bretons were 
aware of the fifteen horsemen they took care to hide themselves and 
so it seemed as though Thomas and his companions rode through a 
deserted country.   
They rode with one spare horse.  They should have had more 
because only the three Flemings were mounted on good stallions.   
Sea voyages usually winds, ja?"  He whirled his hand and made a whooshing noise to 
suggest the strength of the winds which had brought the destriers 
through in such fine fettle.   Quick!  Bloody quick!"   
The Flemings were not only well mounted, but well equipped.   
Jan and Pieter had fine mail hauberks while Sir Lodewijk had his 
chest, both thighs and one arm protected by good plate that was 
strapped over a leather-backed mail haubergeon.  The three wore 
black surcoats with a broad white stripe running down front and 
back, and all had undecorated shields, though Sir Lodewijk's horse's 
trapper displayed a badge showing a knife dripping blood.  He tried 
to explain the device, but his English could not cope and Thomas 
was left with the vague impression that it was the mark of a trading 
guild in Bruges.   The butchers?"  he suggested to Robbie.   Is that 
what he said?  Butchers?"   
 Bloody butchers don't make war.  Except on pigs," Robbie said.   
He was in a fine mood.  Raiding was in his blood and he had heard 
stories in La Roche-Derrien's taverns of the plunder that could be 
stolen if a man was willing to break Richard Totesham's rule and   
 Ja!  They stare at each other.  So nothing is happens but they and 
we gets bloody wet.  Pissing wet, ja?"   
They got wet later that morning when the rains swept in from 
the ocean.  Great curtains of grey lashed the deserted farmlands and 
upland heaths where the trees were permanently bent towards the 
east.  When Thomas had first come to Brittany this had been a 
productive land of farms, orchards, mills and grazing, but now it 
was blasted naked.  The fruit trees, untended, were thick with bull- 
finches, the fields were choked with weeds and the pastures tangled 
with couch grass.  Here and there a few folk still tried to scratch a 
living, but they were constantly being forced to La Roche-Derrien 
to work on the ramparts and their harvests and livestock were 
forever being stolen by English patrols.  If any such Bretons were 
aware of the fifteen horsemen they took care to hide themselves and 
so it seemed as though Thomas and his companions rode through a 
deserted country.   
They rode with one spare horse.  They should have had more 
because only the three Flemings were mounted on good stallions.   
Sea voyages usually had a bad effect on horses, but Sir Lodewijk 
made it plain their journey had been unusually quick.   Bloody 
winds, ja?"  He whirled his hand and made a whooshing noise to 
suggest the strength of the winds which had brought the destriers 
through in such fine fettle.   Quick!  Bloody quick!"   
The Flemings were not only well mounted, but well equipped.   
Jan and Pieter had fine mail hauberks while Sir Lodewijk had his 
chest, both thighs and one arm protected by good plate that was 
strapped over a leather-backed mail haubergeon.  The three wore 
black surcoats with a broad white stripe running down front and 
back, and all had undecorated shields, though Sir Lodewijk's horse's 
trapper displayed a badge showing a knife dripping blood.  He tried 
to explain the device, but his English could not cope and Thomas 
was left with the vague impression that it was the mark of a trading 
guild in Bruges.   The butchers?"  he suggested to Robbie.   Is that 
what he said?  Butchers?"   
 Bloody butchers don't make war.  Except on pigs," Robbie said.   
He was in a fine mood.  Raiding was in his blood and he had heard 
stories in La Roche-Derrien's taverns of the plunder that could be 
stolen if a man was willing to break Richard Totesham's rule and   
ride further than a day's journey from the town.   The trouble in 
the north of England," he told Thomas,  is that if it's worth stealing 
then it's behind big bloody walls.  We scratch up some cattle now 
and then, and a year ago I stole a fine horse off my Lord Percy, but 
there's not any gold and silver to be had Nothing that you'd call 
real plunder.  The Mass vessels are all wood or pewter or clay, and 
the poor boxes are poorer than the poor.  And ride too far south 
and the bastards will be waiting for you on the way home.  I hate 
bloody English archers."   
 I'm a bloody English archer."   
 You're different," Robbie said, and he meant it for he was puzzled 
by Thomas.  Most archers were country born, the sons of yeomen 
or smiths or bailiffs, while a few were the sons of labourers, but 
none in Robbie's experience was well born, which Thomas plainly 
was for he spoke French and Latin, he was confident in the company 
of lords and other archers deferred to him.  Robbie might look like 
a wild Scottish fighter, but he was the son of a gentleman and 
nephew to the Knight of Liddesdale, and thus he regarded archers 
as inferior beings who, in a properly arranged universe, could be 
ridden down and slaughtered like game, but he liked Thomas.   
 You're just bloody different," he said.   Mind you, when my ran- 
som's paid and I'm safe home, I'll come back and kill you."   
Thomas laughed, but it was forced laughter.  He was nervous.  He 
put the nervousness down to being in the unfamiliar position of 
leading a raid.  This was his idea, and it had been his promises that 
brought most of these men on the long ride.  He had claimed that 
Roncelets, being so far from any English stronghold, lay in unplun- 
dered country.  Snatch the child, he had promised them, and they 
could then pillage as much as they wished or at least until the 
enemy woke up and organized a pursuit, and that promise had 
persuaded men to follow him and the responsibility of it weighed 
on Thomas.  He also resented worrying.  His ambition, after all, was 
to be the leader of a war band like Will Skeat had been before his 
injury, and what hope did he have of being a good leader if he 
fretted over a little raid like this?  Yet fret he did, and he worried 
most of all that he might not have anticipated everything that could 
go wrong; and the men who had joined him gave him small conso- 
lation for, except for his friends and the newly arrived Flemings,   
they were the poorest and least well equipped of all the adventurers 
who had come to La Roche-Derrien in search of wealth.  One of 
them, a quarrelsome man-at-arms from western Brittany, became 
drunk on the first day and Thomas discovered he had two water 
skins filled with a fierce apple spirit.  He broke both skins, where- 
upon the enraged Breton drew his sword and attacked Thomas, but 
he was too drunk to see properly and a knee to his groin and a 
thump over the head put him down hard.  Thomas took the man's 
horse and left him groaning in the mud, which meant he was 
down to fourteen men.   That will have helped," Sir Guillaume said 
cheerfully.   
Thomas said nothing.  He deserved to be mocked, he thought.   
 No, I mean it!  You knock a man down one day and you might 
do it again.  You know why some men are bad leaders?"   
 Why?"   
 They want to be liked."   
 That's bad?"  Thomas asked.   
 Men want to admire their leaders, they want to fear them, 
and above all they want them to be successful.  What does being 
liked have to do with any of that?  If the leader is a good man he 
will be liked and if he's not, he won't, and if he is a good man 
and a bad leader then he is better off dead.  You see?  I am full of 
wisdom."  Sir Guillaume laughed.  He might be down on his luck, 
his manor lost and fortune gone, but he was riding to a fight and 
that cheered him.   The good thing about this rain," he said,  is that 
the enemy won't expect you to be riding in it.  It's stay-at-home 
weather."   
 They'll know we've left La Roche-Derrien," Thomas said.  He was 
certain that Charles of Blois had as many spies in the town as the 
English had in Rennes.   
 He won't know yet," Sir Guillaume said.   We're travelling faster 
than any message can go.  Anyway, while they know we've left 
La Roche-Derrien, they don't know where we're going."   
They rode south in hope that the enemy would think they were 
planning to scavenge the farms near Guingamp, then late in the 
first day they turned eastwards and climbed into a high, empty 
country.  The hazels were in blossom and rooks were calling from 
the bare elm tops, signs that the year was turning away from winter.   
   
They camped in a deserted farm, sheltered by low scorched stone 
walls, and before the last glimmer of dusk faded they had a good 
augury when Robbie, rooting about in the ruins of the barn, dis- 
covered a leather bag half buried beside the broken wall.  The exorbi- 
tant rain had washed the earth away above the bag which held a 
small silver plate and three handfuls of coins.  Whoever had buried 
the money must have thought the coins too heavy to carry or else 
had feared being robbed during their exile from the house.   
 We, how do you say?"  Sir Lodewijk made a chopping motion 
with his hand as if he cut up a pie.   
 Share?"   
 Ja!  We share?"   
 No," Thomas said.  That had not been the agreement.  He would 
have preferred to have shared, for that was how Will Skeat had 
treated spoils, but the men who rode with him wanted to keep 
whatever they found.   
Sir Lodewijk bridled.   It is how we do it, ja?  We share."   
 We don't share," Sir Guillaume said harshly,  it's been agreed."   
He spoke in French and Sir Lodewijk reacted as though he had 
been struck, but he understood well enough and just turned and 
walked away.   
 Tell your Scottish friend to watch his back," Sir Guillaume said 
to Thomas.   
 Lodewijk's not so bad," Thomas said,  you just don't like him 
because he's Flemish."   
 I hate the Flemish," Sir Guillaume agreed,  they're dull, stupid 
porkwits.  Like the English."   
The small argument with the Flemings did not fester.  Next morn- 
ing Sir Lodewijk and his companions were cheerful and, because 
their horses were much fresher and fitter than any others, they 
volunteered, with much broken English and elaborate hand signals, 
to ride ahead as scouts and all day their black and white surcoats 
appeared and reappeared far ahead and each time they waved the 
main party on, signalling that there was no danger.  The deeper they 
went into enemy territory the greater the risk, but the Flemings" 
watchfulness meant that they made good progress.  They were 
weaving a path either side of the main highway that ran east and 
west along Brittany's spine, a road flanked by deep woods, which   
hid the raiders from the few people who travelled on the road.   
They saw only two drovers with their skinny cattle and a priest 
leading a band of pilgrims who walked barefoot, waved tattered 
branches and sang a dirge.  No pickings there.   
Next day they went south again.  They were now entering a 
country where the farms had escaped English raiders and so the 
people were unafraid of horsemen and the pastures were filled with 
ewes and their newborn lambs, many of which had been torn to 
bloody scraps because the men of Brittany were too busy hunting 
each other and so the foxes thrived and the lambs died.  Shepherds" 
dogs barked at the grey-mailed men, and now Thomas no longer 
had the Flemings ride ahead, but instead he and Sir Guillaume led 
the horsemen and, if challenged, they answered in French, claiming 
to be supporters of Charles of Blois.   Where's Roncelets?"  they con- 
stantly asked and at first found no one who knew, but as the 
morning wore on they discovered a man who had at least heard 
of the place, then another who said his father had once been there 
and he thought it was beyond the ridge, the forest and the river, 
and then a third who gave them precise directions.  The tower, he 
said, was no more than a half-day's journey away at the far end of 
a long wooded ridge that ran between two rivers.  He showed them 
where to ford the nearer river, told them to follow the ridge crest 
southwards and then bowed his head in thanks for the coin Thomas 
gave him.   
They crossed the river, climbed the ridge and rode south.  Thomas 
knew they must be close to Roncelets when they stopped for the 
third night, but he did not press on for he reckoned it would be 
better to come to the tower in the dawn and so they camped under 
beech trees, shivering because they dared not light a fire, and 
Thomas slept badly because he was listening to the strange things 
crackle and rustle deep in the woods and he feared those noises 
might be made by patrols sent out by the Lord of Roncelets.  Yet no 
patrols found them.  Thomas doubted there were any patrols except 
in his imagination, yet still he could not sleep and so, very early, 
while the others snored, he blundered through the trees to where 
the ridge's flank fell steeply away and he stared into the night in 
hope of seeing a glimmer of light cast from the battlements of the 
Tower of Roncelets.  He saw nothing, but he heard sheep bleating   
piteously further down the slope and he guessed that a fox had got 
among the lambs and was slaughtering them.   
 The shepherd's not doing his job."  Someone spoke in French and 
Thomas turned, thinking it was one of Sir Guillaume's men-at-arms, 
but saw, in the small moonlight, that it was Sir Lodewijk.   
 I thought you wouldn't use French?"  Thomas said.   
 There are times when I do," Sir Lodewijk said and he strolled to 
stand beside Thomas and then, smiling, he rammed a makeshift 
club into Thomas's belly and when Thomas gasped and bent over 
the Fleming slammed the broken branch over his head and then 
kicked him in the chest.  The attack was sudden, unexpected and 
overwhelming.  Thomas was fighting for breath, half doubled over, 
staggering, and he tried to straighten and claw at Sir Lodewijk's 
eyes, but the club hit him a resounding blow on the side of the 
head and Thomas was down.   
The Flemings" three horses had been tied to trees a small way 
from the others.  No one had thought that strange and no one had 
remarked that the beasts had been left saddled and no one woke 
as the horses were untethered and led away.  Sir Guillaume alone 
stirred when Sir Lodewijk collected his pieces of plate armour.   Is 
it dawn?"  he asked.   
 Not yet," Sir Lodewijk answered in soft French, then carried his 
armour and weapons out to the wood's edge where Jan and Pieter 
were lashing Thomas's wrists and ankles.  They slung him belly 
down on a horse's back, tied him to the beast's girth strap and then 
took him eastwards.   
Sir Guillaume woke properly twenty minutes later.  The birds 
were filling the trees with song and the sun was a hint of light in 
the misted east.   
Thomas had vanished.  His mail coat, his arrow bag, his sword, 
his helmet, his cloak, his saddle and his big black bow were all still 
there, but Thomas and the three Flemings were gone.   
Thomas was taken to the Tower of Roncelets, a foursquare, 
unadorned fortress that reared from an outcrop of rock high above 
a river bend.  A bridge, made of the same grey stone as the tower,   
carried the high road to Nantes across the river and no merchant 
could move his goods across the bridge without paying dues to the 
Lord of Roncelets whose banner of two black chevrons on a yellow 
field flew from the tower's high ramparts.  His men wore the black 
and yellow stripes as a livery and were inevitably called gue es,   
   wasps.  This far east in Brittany the folk spoke French rather than 
   Breton and their tower was nicknamed the Guepier, the wasp's 
   nest, though on this late winter's morning most of the soldiers in 
   the village wore plain black liveries rather than the waspish stripes 
   of the Lord of Roncelets.  The neweomers were quartered in the 
   little cottages that lay between the Gue pier and the bridge and it was 
   in one of those cottages that Sir Lodewijk and his two companions 
   rejoined their comrades.   He's up in the castle,"  Sir Lodewijk jerked 
   his head towards the tower,   and God help him."   
    No trouble?"  a man asked.   
    No trouble at all," Sir Lodewijk said.  He had drawn a knife and 
   was cutting off the white stripes that had been sewn onto his sur- 
   coat.   He made it easy for us.  A stupid bloody Englishman, eh?"   
     So why do they want him?"   
    God knows and who cares?  All that matters is that they've got 
   him and the devil will have him soon."  Sir Lodewijk yawned hugely.   
     And there's a dozen more of them out in the woods so we're riding 
   out to find them.   
   Fifty horsemen rode westwards from the village.  The sound of 
   their hooves and their curb chains and creaking leather armour 
   was loud, but quickly faded when they rode into the ridge's thick 
   woods.  A pair of kingfishers, startling blue, whipped up the river 
   and vanished in shadows.  Long weeds waved in the current where 
   a flash of silver showed that the salmon were returning.  A girl 
   carried a pail of milk down the village street and wept because in 
   the night she had been raped by one of the black-liveried soldiers 
   and she knew it was futile to complain for no one would protect 
   her or even make a protest on her behalf.  The village priest saw 
   her, understood why she was weeping, and reversed his course so 
   he would not have to face her.  The black and yellow flag on the 
   Guepier's ramparts flapped in a small gust of wind, then hung limp.   
   Two young men with hooded falcons perched on their arms rode 
   out of the tower and turned south.  The great door grated shut 
behind them and the sound of the heavy locking bar dropping into 
its brackets could be heard throughout the village.   
Thomas heard it too.  The sound shuddered through the rock on 
which the Guepier was built and reverberated up the winding stair 
to the long, bare room where he had been taken.  Two windows lit 
the chamber, but the wall was so thick and the embrasures so deep 
that Thomas, who was chained between the windows, could not 
see through either of them.  An empty hearth stood on the opposite 
wall, the stones of its chimney hood stained black.  The floor's wide 
wooden boards were scarred and worn by too many nail-studded 
boots and Thomas guessed this had been a barrack room.  It probably 
still was, but now it was needed as his prison and so the men-at- 
arms had been ordered out and Thomas carried in and manacled 
to the iron ring set into the wall between the two windows.  The 
manacles encircled his wrists and held them behind his back and 
were connected to the iron ring in the wall by three feet of chain.   
He had tested the ring, seeing if he could shift it or perhaps snap 
a link of the chain, but all he did was hurt his wrists.  A woman 
laughed somewhere in the tower.  Feet sounded on the circular 
stairs beyond the door, but no one came into the room and the 
footsteps faded.   
Thomas wondered why the iron ring should have been cemented 
into the wall.  It seemed an odd thing to have so high up the tower 
where no horse would ever need to be tied.  Maybe it had been 
placed there when the castle had been built.  He had watched once 
as men hauled stones to the top of a church tower and they had 
used a pulley attached to a ring like this one.  It was better to think 
of the ring and of stones and of masons making the tower than to 
reflect on his idiocy in being so easily captured, or to wonder what 
was about to happen to him, though of course he did wonder about 
that and nowhere in his imagination was the answer comforting.   
He tugged on the ring again, hoping that it had been there a long 
time and that the mortar that bedded it would have been weakened, 
but all he did was break the skin of his wrists on the manacles" 
sharp edges.  The woman laughed again and a child's voice sounded.   
A bird flew in one of the windows, fluttered for a few heartbeats 
and then vanished again, evidently rejecting the room as a nesting 
site.  Thomas closed his eyes and softly recited the prayer of the   
   Grail, the same prayer that Christ had uttered in Gethsemane:  Pater, 
   si vis, transfer calicem istem a me."  Father, if you're willing, take this 
   cup from me.  Thomas repeated the prayer over and over, suspecting 
   it was a waste of breath.  God had not spared his own son the agony 
   of Golgotha so why would He spare Thomas?  Yet what hope did 
   he have without prayer?  He wanted to weep for his own naivete" 
   in thinking he could ride here and somehow snatch the child from 
   this stronghold that stank of woodsmoke, horse dung and rancid 
   fat.  It had all been so stupid and he knew he had not done it for 
   the Grail, but to impress Jeanette.  He was a fool, such a damned 
   fool, and like a fool he had walked into his enemy's trap and he 
   knew he would not be ransomed.  What value did he have?  So why 
   was he even alive?  Because they wanted something from him and 
   just then the door to the room opened and Thomas opened his 
   eyes.   
   A man in a monk's black robe carried two trestles into the room.   
   He had untonsured hair, suggesting he was a lay servant to a monastery.   Who are you?"  Thomas asked.   
   The man, who was short and had a slight limp, gave no answer, 
   but just placed the two trestles in the centre of the floor and, a 
   moment later, brought in five planks that he laid across the trestles 
   to make a table.  A second untonsured man, similarly robed in black, 
   entered the room and stared at Thomas.   Who are you?"  Thomas 
   asked again, but the second man was as silent as the first.  He was 
   a big man with bony ridges over his eyes and sunken cheeks and 
   he inspected Thomas as if he were appraising a bullock at slaughter 
   time.   
    Are you going to make the fire?"  the first man asked.   
    In a minute," the second man said and he pulled a short-bladed 
   knife from a sheath at his belt and walked towards Thomas.   Stay 
   still," he growled,  and you don't get hurt."   
    Who are you?"   
    No one you know and no one you'll ever know," the man said, 
   then he seized the neck of Thomas's woollen jerkin and, with one 
   savage cut, slit it down the front.  The blade touched, but did not 
   break Thomas's skin.  Thomas pulled back, but the man simply followed him, slashing and tugging at the torn cloth until Thomas's 
   chest was naked, then he slit down the sleeves and pulled the jerkin 
away so that Thomas was naked from the waist up.  Then the man 
pointed at Thomas's right foot,  lift it," he ordered.  Thomas hesitated 
and the man sighed.   I can make you do it," he said,  and that will 
hurt, or you can do it yourself and it won't hurt."   
He pulled off both of Thomas's boots, then cut the waist of his 
breeches.   
 No!"  Thomas protested.   
 Don't waste your breath," the man said, and he sawed and tugged 
and ripped with the blade until he had cut through the breeches 
and could pull them away to leave Thomas shivering and naked.   
Then the man scooped up the boots and torn clothes and carried 
them out of the room.   
The other man was carrying things into the room and placing 
them on the table.  There was a book and a pot, presumably of ink, 
because the man placed two goose feathers beside the book and a 
small ivory-handled knife to trim the quills.  Then he put a crucifix 
on the table, two large candles like those that would grace the altar 
of a church, three pokers, a pair of pincers and a curious instrument 
that Thomas could not see properly.  Last of all he put two chairs 
behind the table and a wooden bucket within Thomas's reach.   You 
know what that's for, don't you?"  he asked, knocking the bucket 
with his foot.   
 Who are you?  Please!"   
 Don't want you to make a mess on the floor, do we?"   
The bigger man came back into the room carrying some kindling 
and a basket of logs.   At least you'll be warm," he said to Thomas 
with evident amusement.  He had a small clay pot filled with glowing 
embers that he used to light the kindling, then he piled on the 
smaller logs and held his hands to the growlng flames.   Nice and 
warm," he said,  and that's a blessing in winter.  Never known a 
winter like it!  Rain!  We should be building an ark."   
A long way off a bell tolled twice.  The fire began to crackle and 
some of the smoke seeped out into the room, perhaps because the 
chimney was cold.   What he really likes," the big man who had laid 
the fire said,  is a brazier."   
 Who?"  Thomas asked.   
 He always likes a brazier, he does, but not on a wooden floor.  I 
told him."   
    Who?"  Thomas demanded.   
    Don't want to burn the place down!  Not a brazier, I told him, 
   not on a wooden floor, so we had to use the hearth."  The big man 
   watched the fire for a while.   That seems to be burning proper, 
   don't it?"  He heaped a half-dozen larger logs on the fire and then 
   backed away.  He gave Thomas a casual look, shook his head as if 
   the prisoner was beyond help and then both men left the room.   
   The firewood was dry and so the flames blazed high, fast and 
   fierce.  More smoke billowed into the room and gusted out of the 
   windows.  Thomas, in a sudden spurt of rage, dragged at the manacles, heaving with all his archer's strength to pull the iron ring from 
   the wall, but all he achieved was to cut the iron gyves further into his 
   bleeding wrists.  He stared up at the ceiling, which was simply planks 
   over beams, presumably the floor of the chamber above.  He had 
   heard no footsteps up there, but then there came the sound of feet 
   just beyond the door and he stepped back to the wall.   
   A woman and a small child came in.  Thomas crouched to hide 
   his nakedness and the woman laughed at his modesty.  The child 
   laughed too and it took Thomas a few seconds to realize that the boy 
   was Jeanette's son, Charles, who was gazing at him with interest, 
   curiosity, but no recognition.  The woman was tall, fair-haired, very 
   pretty and very pregnant.  She wore a pale blue dress that was belted 
   above her swollen belly and was trimmed with white lace and little 
   loops of pearls.  Her hat was a blue spire with a brief veil that she 
   pushed away from her eyes to see Thomas better.  Thomas drew up 
   his knees to hide himself, but the woman brazenly crossed the room 
   to stare down at him.   Such a pity," she said.   
    A pity?"  Thomas asked.   
   She did not elaborate.   Are you really English?"  she demanded 
   and looked peeved when Thomas did not answer.   They're making 
   a rack downstairs, Englishman.  Windlasses and ropes to stretch you.   
   Have you ever seen a man after he's been racked?  He flops.  It's 
   amusing, but not, I think, for the man himself."   
   Thomas still ignored her, looking instead at the small boy who 
   had a round face, black hair and the fierce dark eyes of Jeanette, 
   his mother.   You remember me, Charles?"  Thomas asked, but the 
   boy just stared at him blankly.   Your mother sends you greetings," 
   Thomas said and saw the surprise on the boy's face.   
 Mama?"  Charles, who was almost four, asked.   
The woman snatched at Charles's hand and dragged him away 
as though Thomas carried a contagion.   Who are you?"  she asked 
angrily.   
 Your mother loves you, Charles," Thomas told the wide-eyed 
boy.   
 Who are you?"  the woman insisted, and then turned as the door 
was pushed open.   
A Dominican priest came in.  He was gaunt, thin and tall with 
short grey hair and a fierce face.  He frowned when he saw the 
woman and child.   You should not be here, my lady," he said 
harshly.   
 You forget, priest, who rules here," the pregnant woman retorted.   
 Your husband," the priest said firmly,  and he will not want you 
here, so you will leave."  The priest held the door open and the 
woman, whom Thomas assumed to be the Lady of Roncelets, hesi- 
tated for a heartbeat and stalked out.  Charles looked back once, 
then was dragged out of the room just before another Dominican 
entered, this one a younger man, small and bald, with a towel 
folded over one arm and a bowl of water in his hands.  He was 
followed by the two robed servants who walked with folded hands 
and downcast eyes to stand beside the fire.  The first priest, the 
gaunt one, closed the door, then he and his fellow priest walked 
to the table.   
 Who are you?"  Thomas asked the gaunt priest, though he sus- 
pected he knew the answer.  He was trying to remember that misted 
morning in Durham when he had seen de Taillebourg fight Robbie's 
brother.  He thought it was the same man, the priest who had 
murdered Eleanor or else ordered her death, but he could not be 
certain.   
The two priests ignored him.  The smaller man put the water and 
towel on the table, then both men knelt.   In the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," the older priest said, making 
the sign of the cross,  amen."  He stood, opened his eyes and looked 
down at Thomas who was still crouching on the pitted floorboards.   
 You are Thomas of Hookton," he said formally,  bastard son of 
Father Ralph, priest of that place?"   
 Who are you?"   
 Answer me, please," the Dominican said.   
Thomas stared up into the man's eyes and recognized the terrible 
strength in the priest and knew that he dared not give in to that 
strength.  He had to resist from the very first and so he said nothing.   
The priest sighed at this display of petty obstinacy.   You are 
Thomas of Hookton," he declared,  Lodewijk says so.  In which case, 
greetings, Thomas.  My name is Bernard de Taillebourg and I am a 
friar of the Dominican order and, by the grace of God and at the 
pleasure of the Holy Father, an Inquisitor of the faith.  My brother 
in Christ,"  here de Taillebourg gestured at the younger priest, who 
had settled at the table where he opened the book and picked up 
one of the quills,   is Father Cailloux, who is also an Inquisitor of 
the faith."   
 You are a bastard," Thomas said, staring at de Taillebourg,  you're 
a murdering bastard."   
He might have spared his breath for de Taillebourg showed no 
reaction.   You will stand, please," the priest demanded.   
 A motherless murdering bastard," Thomas said, making no move.   
De Taillebourg made a small gesture and the two servants ran 
forward and took Thomas by his arms and dragged him upright 
and, when he threatened to collapse, the bigger one slapped him 
hard in the face, stinging the bruise left by the blow Sir Lodewijk 
had given him before dawn.  de Taillebourg waited till the men 
were back beside the fire.   I am charged by Cardinal Bessieres," he 
said tonelessly,  to discover the whereabouts of a relic and we are 
informed that you can assist us in this matter, which is deemed to 
be of such importance that we are empowered by the Church and 
by Almighty God to ensure that you tell us the truth.  Do you 
understand what that means, Thomas?"   
 You killed my woman," Thomas said,  and one day, priest, you're 
going to roast in hell and the devils will dance on your shrivelled 
arse.   
de Taillebourg again showed no reaction.  He was not using his 
chair, but standing tall and arrow-thin behind the table on which 
he rested the tips of his long, pale fingers.   We know," he said,  that 
your father might have possessed the Grail, and we know that he 
gave you a book in which he wrote his account of that most precious 
thing.  I tell you that we know of these matters so that you do not   
waste our time or your pain by denying them.  Yet we shall need 
to know more and that is why we are here.  You understand me, 
Thomas?"   
 The devil will piss in your mouth, priest, and shit in your nostrils."   
De Taillebourg looked faintly pained as if Thomas's crudity was 
tiresome.   The Church grants us the authority to question you, 
Thomas," he continued in a mild voice,  but in her infinite mercy 
she also commands that we do not shed blood.  We may use pain, 
indeed it is our duty to employ pain, but it must be pain without 
bloodshed.  This means we may employ fire,"  his long pale fingers 
touched one of the pokers on the table,   and we may crush you 
and we may stretch you and God will forgive us for it will be done 
in His name and in His most holy service."   
 Amen," Brother Cailloux said and, like the two servants, made 
the sign of the cross.  De Taillebourg pushed all three of the pokers 
to the edge of the table and the smaller servant ran across the room, 
took the irons and plunged them into the fire.   
 We do not employ pain lightly," de Taillebourg said,  or wantonly, 
but with prayerful regret and with pity and with a tearful concern 
for your immortal soul."   
 You're a murderer," Thomas said,  and your soul will sear in 
hell."   
 Now," de Taillebourg continued, apparently oblivious to 
Thomas's insults,  let us start with the book.  You told Brother Ger- 
main in Caen that your father wrote it.  Is that true?"   
And so it began.  A gentle questioning at first to which Thomas 
gave no answers for he was consumed by a hatred for de Taille- 
bourg, a hatred fed by the memory of Eleanor's pale and blood-laced 
body, yet the questioning was insistent and unceasing, and the 
threat of an awful pain was in the three pokers that heated in the 
fire, and so Thomas persuaded himself that de Taillebourg knew 
some things and there could be very little harm in telling him 
others.  Besides, the Dominican was so very reasonable and so very 
patient.  He endured Thomas's anger, he ignored the abuse, he 
expressed again and again an unwillingness to employ torture and 
said he only wanted the truth, however inadequate and so, after 
an hour, Thomas began to answer the questions.  Why suffer, he 
asked himself, when he did not possess what the Dominican   
wanted?  He did not know where the Grail was, he was not even 
certain that the Grail existed and so, hesitantly at first, and then 
more willingly, he talked.   
There was a book, yes, and much of it was in strange languages 
and scripts and Thomas claimed to have no idea what those mysteri- 
ous passages meant.  As for the rest he admitted a knowledge of 
Latin and agreed he had read those parts of the book, but he dis- 
missed them as vague, repetitive and unhelpful.   They were just 
stories," he said.   
 What kind of stories?"   
 A man received his sight after looking at the Grail and then, 
when he was disappointed in its appearance, he lost his sight again."   
 God be praised for that," Father Cailloux interjected, then dipped 
the quill in ink and wrote down the miracle.   
 What else?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 Stories of soldiers winning battles because of the Grail, stories of 
healings," Thomas said.   
 Do you believe them?"   
 The stories?"  Thomas pretended to think, then nodded.   If God 
has given us the Grail, father," he said,  then it will surely work 
miracles."   
 Did your father possess the Grail?"   
 I don't know.   
So de Taillebourg asked him about Father Ralph and Thomas told 
how his father had walked the stony beach at Hookton wailing for 
his sins and sometimes preaching to the wild things of the sea and 
the sky.   
 Are you saying he was mad?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 He was mad with God," Thomas said.   
 Mad with God," de Taillebourg repeated, as though the words 
intrigued him.   Are you suggesting he was a saint?"   
 I think many saints must have been like him," Thomas replied 
cautiously,  but he was also a great mocker of superstitions."   
 What do you mean?"   
 He was very fond of Saint Guinefort," Thomas said,  and called on 
him whenever some minor problem occurred."   
 Is it mockery to do that?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 Saint Guinefort was a dog," Thomas said.   
 I know what Saint Guinefort was," de Taillebourg said testily,  but 
are you saying God could not use a dog to effect His sacred 
purposes?"   
 I am saying that my father did not believe a dog could be a saint, 
and so he mocked."   
 Did he mock the Grail?"   
 Never," Thomas answered truthfully,  not once."   
 And in his hook,"  de Taillebourg suddenly reverted to the earlier 
subject,   did he say how the Grail came to be in his possession?"   
For the last few moments Thomas had been aware that there 
was someone standing on the other side of the door.  De Taillebourg 
had closed it, but the latch had been silently lifted and the door 
pushed gently ajar.  Someone was there, listening, and Thomas 
assumed it was the Lady of Roncelets.   He never claimed that the 
Grail was in his possession," he countered,  but he did say that it 
was once owned by his family."   
 Once owned," de Taillebourg said flatly,  by the Vexilles."   
 Yes," Thomas replied and he was sure the door moved a fraction.   
Father Cailloux's pen scratched on the parchment.  Everything   
Thomas said was being written down and he remembered a wander,                                    
ing Franciscan preacher at a fair in Dorchester shouting at the people   
that every sin they ever committed was being recorded in a great   
book in heaven and when they died and went to the judgement 
before God the book would be opened and their sins read out, and 
George Adyn had made the crowd laugh by calling out that there 
was not enough ink in Christendom to record what his brother was 
doing with Dorcas Churchill in Puddletown.  The sins, the Franciscan 
had angrily retorted, were recorded in letters of fire, the same fire 
that would roast adulterers in the depths of hell.   
 And who is Hachaliah?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
Thomas was surprised by the question and hesitated.  Then he 
tried to look puzzled.   Who?"   
 Ha chaliah," de Taillebourg repeated patiently.   
 I don't know," Thomas said.   
 I think you do," de Taillebourg declared softly.   
Thomas stared at the priest's strong, bony face.  It reminded him 
of his father's face for it had the same grim determination, a hard- 
jawed inwardness which hinted that this man would not care what   
others thought of his behaviour because he justified himself only 
to God.   Brother Germain mentioned the name," Thomas said cau- 
tiously,  but what it means I don't know."   
 I don't believe you, de Taillebourg insisted.   
 Father," Thomas said firmly,  I do not know what it means.  I 
asked Brother Germain and he refused to tell me.  He said it was 
beyond someone of my wits to understand."   
De Taillebourg stared at Thomas in silence.  The fire roared hollow 
in the chimney and the big servant shifted the pokers as one of the 
logs collapsed.   The prisoner says he doesn't know," de Taillebourg 
dictated to Father Cailloux without taking his gaze from Thomas.   
The servants put more logs on the fire and de Taillebourg let Thomas 
stare at the pokers and worry about them for a moment before he 
resumed his questioning.   So," the Dominican asked,  where is the 
book now?"   
 In La Roche-Derrien," Thomas said promptly.   
 Where in La Roche-Derrien?"   
 With my baggage," Thomas said,  which I left with an old friend, 
Will Skeat."  That was not true.  He had left the book in Jeanette's 
keeping, but he did not want to expose her to danger.  Will Skeat, 
even with a damaged memory, could look after himself better than 
the Blackbird.   Sir William Skeat," Thomas added.   
 Does Sir William know what the book is?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 He can't even read!  No, he doesn't know."   
There were other questions then, scores of them.  De Taillebourg 
wanted to know the story of Thomas's life, why he had abandoned 
Oxford, why he had become an archer, when he had last made 
confession, what had he been doing in Durham?  What did the King 
of England know of the Grail?  What did the Bishop of Durham 
know?  The questions went on and on until Thomas was faint from 
hunger and from standing, yet de Taillebourg seemed indefatigable.   
As evening came on and the light from the two windows paled 
and darkened he still persisted.  The two servants had long looked 
rebellious while Father Cailloux kept frowning and glancing at the 
windows as if to suggest that the time for a meal was long past, 
but de Taillebourg did not know hunger.  He just pressed and 
pressed.  With whom had Thomas travelled to London?  What had 
he done in Dorset?  Had he searched for the Grail in Hookton?   
Brother Cailloux filled page after page with Thomas's answers and, 
as the evening wore on, he had to light the candles so he could see 
to write.  The flames of the fire cast shadows from the table legs 
and Thomas was swaying with fatigue when at last de Taillebourg 
nodded.   I shall think and pray about all your answers tonight, 
Thomas," he said,  and in the morning we shall continue.   
 Water," Thomas croaked,  I need water."   
 You shall be given food and drink," de Taillebourg said.   
One of the servants removed the pokers from the fire.  Father 
Cailloux closed the book and gave Thomas a glance which seemed 
to have some sympathy.  A blanket was fetched and with it came a 
meal of smoked fish, beans, bread and water, and one of Thomas's 
hands was unmanacled so he could eat it.  Two guards, both in 
plain black surcoats, watched him eat, and when he was done they 
snapped the manacles back about his wrist and he sensed a pin 
being pushed through the clasp to secure it.  That gave him hope 
and when he was left alone he tried to reach the pin with his 
fingers, but both the gyves were deep bracelets and he could not 
reach the clasp.  He was trapped.   
He lay back against the wall, huddled in the blanket and watching 
the dying fire.  No heat crossed the room and Thomas shivered 
uncontrollably.  He contorted his fingers as he tried to reach the clasp 
of the manacles, but it was impossible and he suddenly moaned 
involuntarily as he anticipated the pain.  He had been spared torture 
this day, but did that mean he had escaped it altogether?  He 
deserved to, he thought, for he had mostly told the truth.  He had 
told de Taillcbourg that he did not know where the Grail was, that 
he was not even certain it existed, that he had rarely heard his 
father speak of it and that he would rather be an archer in the King 
of England's army than a seeker of the Grail.  Again he felt a terrible 
shame that he had been captured so easily.  He should have been 
on his way back to La Roche-Derrien by now, riding home to the 
taverns and the laughter and the ale and the easy company of 
soldiers.  There were tears in his eyes and he was ashamed of that 
too.  Laughter sounded from deep in the castle and he thought he 
could hear the sound of a harp playing.   
Then the door opened.   
He could only see that a man had come into the room.  The visitor   
was wearing a swathing black cloak that made him appear a sinister 
shadow as he crossed to the table where he stopped and stared 
down at Thomas.  The fire's dying timbers were behind the man, 
edging his tall cloaked figure with red, but illuminating Thomas.   I 
am told," the man said,  that he did not burn you today?"   
Thomas said nothing, just huddled under the blanket.   
 He likes burning people," the visitor said.   He does like it.  I have 
watched him.  He shudders as the flesh bubbles."  He went to the 
fire, picked up one of the pokers and thrust it into the smouldering 
embers before piling new logs over the dying flames.  The dry wood 
burned quickly and, in the flaring light, Thomas could see the man 
for the first time.  He had a narrow, sallow face, a long nose, a strong 
jaw and black hair swept back from a high forehead.  It was a good 
face, intelligent and hard, then it was shadowed as the man turned 
away from the fire.   I am your cousin," he said.   
A stab of hatred coursed through Thomas.   You're Guy Vexille?"   
 I am the Count of Astarac," Vexille said.  He walked slowly 
towards Thomas.   Were you at the battle by the forest of Crecy?"   
 Yes."   
 An archer?"   
 Yes."   
 And at the battle's end," Guy Vexille said,  you shouted three 
words in Latin."   
 Calix meus inebrians," Thomas said.   
Guy Vexille perched on the edge of the table and gazed at Thomas 
for a long time.  His face was in shadow so Thomas could see no 
expression, only the faint glimmer of his eyes.    Calix meus inebri- 
ans ," Vexille said at last.   It is the secret motto of our family.  Not 
the one we show on our crest.  You know what that is?"   
 No."   
 'Pie repone te ," Guy Vexille said.   
 'In pious trust ," Thomas translated.   
 You're strangely well educated for an archer," Vexille said.  He 
stood and paced up and down as he spoke.   We display  pie repone 
te , but our real motto is  calix meus inebrians".  We are the secret 
guardians of the Grail.  Our family has held it for generations, we 
were entrusted with it by God, and your father stole it."   
 You killed him," Thomas said.   
 And I am proud of that," Guy Vexille said, then suddenly stop- 
ped and turned to Thomas.   Were you the archer on the hill that 
day?"   
 Yes."   
 You shoot well, Thomas.   
 That was the first day I ever killed a man," Thomas said,  and it 
was a mistake."   
 A mistake?"   
 I killed the wrong one.   
Guy Vexille smiled, then went back to the fire and pulled out 
the poker to see its tip was a dull red.  He pushed it back into the 
heat.   I killed your father," he said,  and I killed your woman in 
Durham and I killed the priest who was evidently your friend."   
 You were de Taillebourg's servant?"  Thomas asked, astonished.   
He had hated Guy Vexille because of his father's death.  Now he 
had two more deaths to add to that hatred.   
 I was indeed his servant," Vexille confirmed.   It was the penance 
put on me by de Taillebourg, the punishment of humility.  But now 
I am a soldier again and charged with recovering the Grail."   
Thomas hugged his knees under the blanket.   If the Grail has so 
much power," he asked,  then why is our family so powerless?"   
Guy Vexille thought about the question for a moment, then 
shrugged.   Because we squabbled," he said,  because we were sin- 
ners, because we were not worthy.  But we shall change that, 
Thomas.  We shall recover our strength and our virtue."  Guy Vexille 
stooped to the fire and took the poker from the flames and swept 
it like a sword so that it made a hissing sound and its red-hot tip 
seared an arc of light in the dim room.   Have you thought, Thomas," 
he asked,  of helping me?"   
 Helping you?"   
Vexille paced close to Thomas.  He still swung the poker in great 
scything cuts so that the light trailed like a falling star to leave wispy 
lines of smoke in the dark room.   Your father," he went on,  was 
the elder brother.  Did you know that?  If you were legitimate, you 
would be Count of Astarac."  He dropped the poker's tip so that it 
was close to Thomas's face, so close that Thomas could feel the 
scorching heat.   Join me," Guy Vexille said intensely,  tell me what 
you know, help me retrieve the book and go with me on the quest   
for the Grail."  He crouched so that his face was at the same height 
as Thomas's.   Bring glory to our family, Thomas," he said softly, 
 such glory that you and I could rule all Christendom and, with the 
power of the Grail, lead a crusade against the infidel that will leave 
them writhing in agony.  You and I, Thomas!  We are the Lord's 
anointed, the Grail guardians, and if we join hands then for gen- 
erations men will talk of us as the greatest warrior saints that the 
Church ever knew."  His voice was deep, even, almost musical.   Will 
you help me, Thomas?"   
 No," Thomas said.   
The poker came close to Thomas's right eye, so close that it 
loomed like a great sullen sun, but Thomas did not twitch away.   
He did not think his cousin would plunge the poker into his eye, 
but he did think Guy Vexille wanted him to flinch and so he stayed 
still.   
 Your friends got away today," Vexille said.   Fifty of us rode to 
catch them and somehow they avoided us.  They went deep into 
the trees."   
 Good."   
 But all they can do is retreat to La Roche-Derrien and they'll be 
trapped there.  Come the spring, Thomas, we shall close that trap."   
Thomas said nothing.  The poker cooled and went dark, and Thomas 
at last dared to blink.   Like all the Vexilles," Guy said, taking the 
poker away and standing,  you are as brave as you are foolish.  Do 
you know where the Grail is?"   
 No."   
Guy Vexille stared at him, judging that answer, then shrugged.   
 Do you think the Grail exists, Thomas?"   
Thomas paused, then gave the answer he had denied to de Taille- 
bourg through all the long day.   Yes.   
 You're right," Vexille said,  you're right.  It does exist.  We had it 
and your father stole it and you are the key to finding it."   
 I know nothing of it!"  Thomas protested.   
 But de Taillebourg won't believe that," Vexille said, dropping the 
poker onto the table.   De Taillebourg wants the Grail as a starving 
man wants bread.  He dreams of it.  He moans in his sleep and he 
weeps for it."  Vexille paused, then smiled.   When the pain becomes 
too much to bear, Thomas, and it will, and when you are wishing   
that you were dead, and you will, then tell de Taillebourg that you 
repent and that you will become my liege man.  The pain will stop 
then, and you will live."   
It had been Vexille, Thomas realized, who had been listening 
outside the door.  And tomorrow he would listen again.  Thomas 
closed his eyes.  Pater, he prayed, si vis, transfer calicem istem a me.   
He opened his eyes again.   Why did you kill Eleanor?"  he asked.   
 Why not?"   
 That is a ridiculous answer," Thomas snarled.   
Vexille's head snapped back as if 	he had been struck.   Because 
she knew we existed," he said,  that's why."   
 Existed?"   
 She knew we were in England, she knew what we wanted," Guy 
Vexille said.   She knew we had spoken to Brother Collimore.  If the 
King of England had learned that we were searching for the Grail 
in his kingdom then he would have stopped us.  He would have 
imprisoned us.  He would have done to us what we are doing to 
you.   
 You think Eleanor could have betrayed you to the King?"  Thomas 
asked, incredulous.   
 I think it was better that no one knew why we were there," Guy 
Vexille said.   But do you know what, Thomas?  That old monk could 
tell us nothing except that you existed.  All that effort, that long 
journey, the killings, the Scottish weather, just to learn about you!   
He didn't know where the Grail was, couldn't imagine where your 
father might have hidden it, but he did know about you and we 
have been seeking you ever since.  Father de Taillebourg wants to 
question you, Thomas, he wants to make you cry with pain until 
you tell him what I suspect you cannot tell him, but I don't want 
your pain.  I want your friendship."   
 And I want you dead," Thomas said.   
Vexille shook his head sadly, then stooped so that he was near 
to Thomas.   Cousin," he said quietly,  one day you will kneel to   
me.  One day you will place your hands between my hands and 
you will pledge your allegiance and we shall exchange the kiss of   
lord and man, and thus you will become my liege man and we shall 
ride together, beneath the cross, to glory.  We shall be as brothers, 
I promise it."  He kissed his fingers then laid the tips on Thomas's   
cheek and the touch of them was almost like a caress.   I promise 
it, brother," Vexille whispered,  now goodnight."   
 God damn you, Guy Vexille," Thomas snarled.   
 Calix meus inehrians," Guy Vexille said, and went.  
Thomas lay shivering in the dawn.  Every footstep in the castle made 
him cringe.  Beyond the deep windows cockerels crowed and birds 
sang and he had an impression, for what reason he did not know, 
that there were thick woods outside the Tower of Roncelets and 
he wondered if he would ever see green leaves again.  A sullen 
servant brought him a breakfast of bread, hard cheese and water 
and, while he ate, the manacles were unpinned and a wasp-liveried 
guard watched him, but the gyves were again fixed onto his wrists 
as soon as he had finished.  The bucket was carried away to be 
emptied and another put in its place.   
Bernard de Taillebourg arrived shortly after and, while his ser- 
vants revived the fire and Father Cailloux settled himself at the 
makeshift table, the tall Dominican greeted Thomas politely.   Did 
you sleep well?  Was your breakfast adequate?  It's colder today, 
isn't it?  I've never known a winter as wet.  The river flooded in 
Rennes for the first time in years!  All those cellars under water."   
Thomas, cold and frightened, did not respond and de Taillebourg 
did not take offence.  Instead he waited as Father Cailloux dipped 
a quill in the ink, then ordered the taller servant to take Thomas's 
blanket away.   Now," he said when his prisoner was naked,  to 
business.  Let us talk about your father's notebook.  Who else is 
aware of the book's existence?"   
 No one," Thomas said,  except Brother Germain and you know 
about him."   
De Taillebourg frowned.   But, Thomas, someone must have given 
it to you!  And that person is surely aware of it!  Who gave it to 
you?"   
 A lawyer in Dorchester," Thomas lied glibly.   
 A name, please, give me a name."   
 John Rowley," Thomas said, making the name up.   
 Spell it, please," de Taillebourg said and after Thomas had obeyed 
the Inquisitor paced up and down in apparent frustration.   This 
Rowley must have known what the book was, surely?"   
 It was wrapped in a cloak of my father's and in a bundle of other 
old clothes.  He didn't look."   
 He might have done."   
 John Rowley," Thomas said, spinning his invention,  is old and 
fat.  He won't go searching for the Grail.  Besides, he thought my 
father was mad, so why would he be interested in a book of his?   
All Rowley's interested in is ale, mead and mutton pies."   
The three pokers were heating in the fire again.  It had started to 
rain and gusts of cold wind sometimes blew drops through the open 
windows.  Thomas remembered his cousin's warning in the night 
that de Taillebourg liked to inflict pain, yet the Dominican's voice 
was mild and reasonable and Thomas sensed he had survived the 
worst.  He had endured a day of de Taillebourg's questioning and 
his answers seemed to have satisfied the stern Dominican who was 
now reduced to filling in the gaps of Thomas's story.  He wanted 
to know about the lance of Saint George and Thomas told how the 
weapon had hung in Hookton's church and how it had been stolen 
and how he had taken it back at the battle outside the forest of 
Crecy. Did Thomas believe it was the real lance?  de Taillebourg 
asked and Thomas shook his head.   I don't know," he said,  but my 
father believed it was."   
 And your cousin stole the lance from Hookton's church?"   
 Yes.   
 Presumably," de Taillebourg mused,'s o that no one would realize 
he sailed to England to search for the Grail.  The lance was a dis- 
guise."  He thought about that and Thomas, not feeling the need to 
comment, said nothing.   Did the lance have a blade?"  de Taillebourg 
asked.   
 A long one."   
 Yet, surely, if this was the lance that killed the dragon," de Taille- 
bourg observed,  the blade would have melted in the beast's blood?"   
 Would it?"  Thomas asked.   
 Of course it would!" de Taillebourg insisted, staring at Thomas 
as though he were mad.   Dragon's blood is molten!  Molten and 
fiery."  He shrugged as if to acknowledge that the lance was irrelevant 
to his quest.  Father Cailloux's pen scratched as he tried to keep up 
with the interrogation and the two servants stood by the fire, 
scarcely bothering to hide their boredom as de Taillebourg looked 
for a new subject to explore.  He chose Will Skeat for some reason 
and asked about his wound and about his memory lapses.  Was 
Thomas really sure Skeat could not read?   
 He can't read!"  Thomas said.  He sounded now as though he were 
reassuring de Taillebourg and that was a measure of his confidence.   
He had begun the previous day with insults and hate, but now he 
was eagerly helping the Dominican towards the end of the interro- 
gation.  He had survived.   
 Skeat can't read," de Taillebourg said as he paced up and down 
 I suppose that's not surprising.  So he won't be looking at the 
notebook you left in his keeping?"   
 I'll be lucky if he doesn't use its pages to wipe his arse.  That's 
the only use Will Skeat has for paper or parchment."   
De Taillebourg gave a dutiful smile then stared up at the ceiling.   
He was silent for a long time, but at last shot Thomas a puzzled 
look.   Who is Hachaliah?"   
The question took Thomas by surprise and he must have shown 
it.   I don't know," he managed to say after a pause.   
De Taillebourg watched Thomas.  The room was suddenly tense; 
the servants were fully awake and Father Cailloux was no longer 
writing, but gazing at Thomas.  De Taillebourg smiled.   I'm going to 
give you one last chance, Thomas," he said in his deep voice.   Who 
is Hachaliah?"   
Thomas knew he must brazen it out.  Get past this, he thought, 
and the interrogation would be done.   I'd never heard of him," he 
said, doing his best to sound guileless,  before Brother Germain 
mentioned his name."   
Why de Taillebourg seized on Hachaliah as the weak point of 
Thomas's defences was a mystery, but it was a shrewd seizure for 
if the Dominican could prove that Thomas knew who Hachaliah 
was then he could prove that Thomas had translated at least one 
of the Hebrew passages in the book.  He could prove that Thomas   
had lied through the whole interrogation and he would open whole   
new areas of revelation.  So de Taillebourg pressed hard and when   
Thomas continued with his denials the priest beckoned to the ser- 
vants.  Father Cailloux flinched.   
 I told you," Thomas said nervously,  I really don't know who 
Hachaliah is."   
 But my duty to God," de Taillebourg said, taking the first of the 
red-hot pokers from the tall servant,  is to make sure you are not 
telling lies."  He looked at Thomas with what appeared to be sympathy,  I don't want to hurt you, Thomas.  I just want the truth.  So 
tell me, who is Hachaliah?"   
Thomas swallowed.   I don't know," he said, then repeated it in 
a louder voice,  I don't know!"   
 I think you do," de Taillebourg said, and so the pain began.   
 In the name of the Father," de Taillebourg prayed as he placed 
the iron against the bare flesh of Thomas's leg,  and of the Son and   
of the Holy Ghost."  The two servants held Thomas down and the 
pain was worse than he could have believed and he tried to twist 
away from it, but he could not move and his nostrils were filled 
with the stench of burning flesh and still he would not answer the 
question for he thought that by revealing his lies he would open 
himself to more punishment.  Somewhere in his shrieking head he 
believed that if he persisted in the lie then de Taillebourg must 
believe him and he would cease to use the fire, but in a competition 
of patience between torturer and prisoner the prisoner has no 
chance.  A second poker was heated and its tip traced down 
Thomas's ribs.   Who is Hachaliah?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 I've told you- 
The red-hot iron was put to his chest and drawn down to his   
belly to leave a line of burning, puckered, raw flesh and the wound 
was instantly cauterized so it left no blood and Thomas's scream 
echoed from the high ceiling.  The third poker was waiting and the 
first was being reheated so that the pain did not need to stop, and 
then Thomas was turned onto his burned belly and the strange 
device which he had not been able to recognize when it was first 
put on the table was placed over a knuckle of his left hand and he 
knew it was an iron vice, screw-driven, and de Taillebourg tightened 
the screw and the pain made Thomas jerk and scream again.  He   
lost consciousness, but Father Gailloux brought him back to his 
senses with the towel and cold water.   
 Who is Hachaliah?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
Such a stupid question, Thomas thought.  As if the answer was 
important!   I don't know!"  He moaned the words and prayed that 
de Taillebourg would believe him, but the pain came again and the 
best moments, other than pure oblivion, were when Thomas drifted 
in and out of consciousness and it seemed that the pain was a dream   
- a bad dream, but still only a dream,  and the worst moments 
were when he realized it was not a dream and that his world was 
reduced to agony, pure agony, and then de Taillebourg would apply 
more pain, either tightening a screw to shatter a finger or else 
placing the hot iron on his flesh.   
 Tell me, Thomas," the Dominican said gently, just tell me and 
the pain will end.  It will end if you just tell me.  Please, Thomas, 
you think I enjoy this?  In the name of God, I hate it so tell me, 
please, tell me.   
So Thomas did.  Hachaliah was the father of the Tirshatha, and 
the Tirshatha was the father of Nehemiah.   
 And Nehemiah," de Taillebourg asked,  was what?"   
 Was the cup bearer to the King," Thomas sobbed.   
 Why do men lie to God?"  de Taillebourg asked.  He had put the 
finger-vice back on the table and the three pokers were all in the 
fire.   Why?"  he asked again.   The truth is always discovered, God 
ensures that.  So, Thomas, after all, you did know more than you 
claimed and we shall have to discover your other lies, but let us 
talk first, though, about Hachaliah.  Do you think this citation from 
the book of Esdras is your father's way of proclaiming his possession 
of the Grail?"   
 Yes," Thomas said,  yes, yes, yes."  He was hunched against the 
wall, his broken hands manacled behind him, his body a mass of 
pain, but perhaps the hurt would end if he confessed all.   
 But Brother Germain tells me that the Hachaliah entry in your 
father's book," de Taillebourg said,  was written in Hebrew.  Do you 
know Hebrew, Thomas?"   
 No."   
 So who translated the passage for you."   
 Brother Germain."   
 And Brother Germain told you who Hachaliah was?"  de Taille- 
bourg asked.   
 No," Thomas whimpered.  There was no point in lying for the 
Dominican would doubtless check with the old monk, but the 
answer opened a new question that, in turn, would reveal other 
areas where Thomas had lied.  Thomas knew that, but it was too 
late to resist now.   
 So who did tell you?"  de Taillebourg asked.   
 A doctor," Thomas said softly.   
 A doctor," de Taillebourg repeated.   That doesn't help me, 
Thomas.  You want me to use the fire again?  What doctor?  A doctor 
of theology?  A physician?  And if you asked this mysterious doctor 
to explain the significance of the passage, was he not curious why 
you wished to know?"   
So Thomas confessed it was Mordecai, and admitted that Mor- 
decai had looked at the notebook and de Taillebourg thumped the 
table in the first display of temper he had shown in all the long 
hours of questioning.   You showed the book to a Jew?"  He hissed 
the question, his voice incredulous.   To a Jew?  In the name of God 
and of all the precious saints, what were you thinking?  To a Jew!   
To a man of the race that killed our dear Saviour!  If the Jews find 
the Grail, you fool, they will raise the Antichrist!  You will suffer 
for that betrayal!  You must suffer!"  He crossed the room, snatched 
a poker from the fire, and brought it back to where Thomas huddled 
against the wall.   To a Jew!"  de Taillebourg shouted and he scored 
the poker's glowing tip down Thomas's leg.   You foul thing!"  he 
snarled over Thomas's screams.   You are a traitor to God, a traitor 
to Christ, a traitor to the Church!  You are no better than Judas 
Iscariot!"   
The pain went on.  The hours went on.  It seemed to Thomas that 
there was nothing left but pain.  He had lied when there had been 
no pain and so now all his previous answers were being checked 
against the measure of agony he could endure without losing con- 
sciousness.   
 So where is the Grail?"  de Taillebourg demanded.   
 I don't know," Thomas said and then, louder,  I don't know!"  He 
watched the red-hot iron come to his skin and by now he was 
shrieking before it even touched.   
The screaming did no good because the torture went on.  And on.   
And Thomas talked, telling all he knew, and he was even tempted to 
do as Guy Vexille had suggested and beg de Taillebourg to let him 
swear allegiance to his cousin, but then, somewhere in the red 
horror of his torment, he thought of Eleanor and kept silent.   
On the fourth day, when he was quivering, when even a twitch 
of de Taillcbourg's hand was enough to make him whimper and 
beg for mercy, the Lord of Roncelets came into the room.  He was 
a tall man with short bristling black hair and a broken nose and 
two missing front teeth.  He was wearing his own waspish livery, 
the two black chevrons on yellow, and he sneered at Thomas's 
scarred and broken body.   You didn't bring the rack upstairs, father."   
He sounded disappointed.   
 It wasn't necessary," de Taillebourg said.   
The Lord of Roncelets prodded Thomas with a mailed foot.   You 
say the bastard's an English archer?"   
 He is."   
 Then cut off his bow fingers," Roncelets said savagely.   
 I cannot shed blood," de Taillebourg said.   
 By God, I can."  Roncelets pulled a knife from his belt.   
 He is my charge!"  de Taillebourg snapped.   He is in God's hands   
and you will not touch him.  You will not shed his blood!"   
 This is my castle, priest," Roncelets growled.   
 And your soul is in my hands," de Taillebourg retorted.   
 He's an archer!  An English archer!  He came here to snatch the 
Chenier boy!  That's my business!"   
 His fingers have been shattered by the vice," de Taillebourg said, 
 so he's an archer no longer."   
Roncelets was placated by that news.  He prodded Thomas again.   
 He's a piece of piss, priest, that's what he is.  A piece of feeble piss."   
He spat on Thomas, not because he hated Thomas in particular, but 
because he detested all archers who had dethroned the knight from 
his rightful place as king of the battlefield.   What will you do with 
him?"  he asked.   
 Pray for his soul," de Taillebourg said curtly and when the Lord 
of Roncelets was gone he did exactly that.  It was evident he had 
finished his questioning for he produced a small vial of holy oil and 
he gave Thomas the final rites of the church, touching the oil to   
his brow and to his burned breast and then he said the prayers for 
the dying.   Sana me, Domine," de Taillebourg intoned, his fingers 
gentle on Thomas's brow,  quoniam conturhata sunt ossa mea."  Heal 
me, Lord, for my bones are twisted with pain.  And when that was 
said and done Thomas was carried down the castle stairs into a 
dungeon sunk into a pit in the rock crag on which the Guepier was 
built.  The 		floor was the bare black stone, as damp as it was cold.   
His manacles were removed as he was locked in the cell and he 
thought he must go mad for his body was all pain and his fingers 
were shattered and he was no longer an archer for how could he 
draw a bow with broken hands?  Then the fever came and he wept 
as he shivered and sweated and at night, when he was half sleeping, 
he gibbered in his nightmares; and he wept again when he woke 
for he had not endured the torture, but had told de Taillebourg 
everything.  He was a failure, lost in the dark, dying.   
Then, one day, he did not know how many days it was since he 
had been taken down to the Guepier's cellars, de Taillebourg's two 
servants came and fetched him.  They put a rough woollen shirt on 
him, pulled dirty woollen breeches over his soiled legs and then 
they carried him up to the castle yard and threw him into the 
back of an empty dung cart.  The tower's gate creaked open and, 
accompanied by a score of men-at-arms in the Lord of Roncelets's 
livery and dazzled by the pale sun light, Thomas left the Guepier.   
He was hardly aware of what was happening, he just lay on the 
dirty boards, hunched in pain, the stink of the cart's usual cargo 
sour in his nostrils, wanting to die.  The fever had not gone and he 
was shaking with weakness.   Where are you taking me?"  he asked, 
but no one answered; maybe no one even heard him for his voice 
was so feeble.  It rained.  The cart rumbled northwards and the vil- 
lagers crossed themselves and Thomas drifted in and out of a stupor.   
He thought he was dying and he supposed they were taking him 
to the graveyard and he tried to call out to the cart's driver that he 
still lived, but instead it was Brother Germain who answered him 
in a querulous voice, saying he should have left the book with him 
in Caen.   It's your own fault," the old monk said and Thomas decided 
he was dreaming.   
He was next aware of a trumpet calling.  The cart had stopped 
and he heard the flapping of cloth and looked up and saw that one   
of the horsemen was waving a white banner.  Thomas wondered if 
it was his winding sheet.  They wrapped a baby when it came into 
the world and they wrapped a corpse when it went out and he 
sobbed because he did not want to be buried, and then he heard 
English voices and he knew he was dreaming as strong hands lifted 
him from the remnants of dung.  He wanted to scream, but he was 
too weak, and then all sense left him and he was unconscious.   
When he woke it was dark and he was in another cart, a clean 
one this time, and there were blankets over him and a straw mat- 
tress beneath him.  The cart had a leather cover on wooden half- 
hoops to keep out the rain and sunlight.   Will you bury me now?"   
Thomas asked.   
 You're talking nonsense," a man said and Thomas recognized 
Robbie's voice.   
 Robbie?"   
 Aye, it's me."   
 Robbie?"   
 You poor bastard," Robbie said and stroked Thomas's forehead.   
 You poor, poor bastard."   
 Where am I?"   
 You're going home, Thomas," Robbie said,  you're going home.   
To La Roche-Derrien.   
He had been ransomed.  A week after his disappearance and two 
days after the rest of the raiding party had returned to La Roche- 
Derrien a messenger had come to the garrison under a flag of truce.   
He brought a letter from Bernard de Taillebourg that was addressed 
to Sir William Skeat.  Surrender Father Ralph's book, the letter said, 
and Thomas of Hookton will be delivered back to his friends.  Will 
Skeat had the message translated and read to him, but he knew 
nothing of any book so he asked Sir Guillaume if he had any idea 
what the priest wanted and Sir Guillaume spoke to Robbie who, 
in turn, talked to Jeanette and next day an answer went back to 
Roncelets.   
Then there was a fortnight's delay because Brother Germain had 
to be fetched from Normandy to Rennes.  De Taillebourg insisted   
on that precaution because Brother Germain had seen the book 
and he could confirm that what was exchanged for Thomas was 
indeed Father Ralph's notebook.   
 And so it was," Robbie said.   
Thomas stared up at the ceiling.  He vaguely felt it had been wrong 
to exchange him for the book, even if he was grateful to be alive, 
to be home and among his friends.   
 It was the right book," Robbie went on with indecent relish, 
 but we added some stuff to it."  He grinned at Thomas.   We copied 
it all out first, of course, and then we added some rubbish to mis- 
lead them.  To confuse them, see?  And that shrivelled old monk 
never noticed.  He just pawed at the book like a starving dog given 
a bone."   
Thomas shuddered.  He felt as if he had been stripped of pride, 
strength and even manhood.  He had been utterly humiliated, 
reduced to a shivering, whining, twitching thing.  Tears ran down 
his face though he made no sound.  His hands hurt, his body hurt, 
everything hurt.  He did not even know where he was, only that 
he had been brought back to La Roche-Derrien and carried up a 
steep flight of stairs to this small chamber under a roof's steep 
rafters where the walls were roughly plastered and a crucifix hung 
at the head of the bed.  A window screened with opaque horn let 
in a dirty brown light.   
Robbie went on telling him about the false entries they had added 
to Father Ralph's book.  It had been his idea, he said, and Jeanette 
had copied out the book first, but after that Robbie had let his 
imagination run wild.   I put some of it in Scots," he boasted,  how 
the Grail is really in Scotland.  Have the bastards searching the 
heather, eh?"  He laughed, but could see that Thomas was not listen- 
ing.  He went on talking anyway, and then another person came 
into the room and wiped the tears from Thomas's face.  It was 
Jeanette.   
 Thomas?"  she asked,  Thomas?"   
He wanted to tell her that he had seen and spoken to her son, 
but he could not find the words.  Guy Vexille had said Thomas 
would want to die while he was being tortured and that had been 
true, but Thomas was surprised to find it was still true.  Take a man's 
pride, he thought, and you leave him with nothing.  The worst   
memory was not the pain, nor the humiliation of begging for 
the pain to stop, but the gratitude he had felt towards de Taille- 
bourg when the pain did stop.  That was the most shameful thing 
of all.   
 Thomas?"  Jeanette asked again.  She knelt by the bed and stroked 
his face.   It's all right," she said softly,  you're safe now.  This is my 
house.  No one will hurt you here."   
 I might," a new voice said and Thomas shook with fear, then 
turned to see that it was Mordecai who had spoken.  Mordecai?  The 
old doctor was supposed somewhere in the warm south.   I might 
have to reset your finger and toe bones," the doctor said,  and that 
will be painful."  He put his bag on the floor.   Hello, Thomas.  I do 
hate boats.  We waited for the new sail and then when they'd 
finished sewing it up they decided there wasn't enough caulking 
between the planks and when that was corrected they decided the 
rigging needed work and so the wretched boat is still sitting there.   
Sailors!  All they ever do is talk about going to sea.  Still, I shouldn't 
complain, it gave me the time to concoct some new material for 
your father's notebook and I rather enjoyed doing that!  Now I hear 
you need me.  My dear Thomas, what have they done to you?"   
 Hurt me," Thomas said and they were the first words he had 
spoken since he had come to Jeanette's house.   
 Then we must mend you," Mordecai said very calmly.  He peeled 
the blanket back from Thomas's scarred body and, though Jeanette 
flinched, Mordecai just smiled.   I've seen worse come from the 
Dominicans," he said,  much worse.   
So Thomas was again tended by Mordecai and time was measured 
by the clouds passing beyond the opaque window and the sun 
climbing ever higher in the sky and the noise of birds plucking 
straw from the thatch to make their nests.  There were two days of 
awful pain when Mordecai brought a bone-setter to rebreak and 
splint Thomas's fingers and toes, but that pain went after a week 
and the burns on his body healed and the fever passed.  Day after 
day Mordecai peered at his urine and declared it was clearing.   You 
have the strength of an ox, young Thomas."   
 I have the stupidity of one," Thomas said.   
 Just brashness," Mordecai said, just youth and brashness."   
 When they  ."  Thomas began and flinched from remembering   
what de Taillebourg had done.   When they talked to me," he said 
instead,  I told them you had seen the notebook."   
 They can't have liked that," Mordecai said.  He had taken a spool 
of cord from a pocket of his gown and now looped one end of the 
line around a spur of wood that protruded from an untrimmed 
rafter.   They can't have liked the thought of a Jew being curious 
about the Grail.  They doubtless thought I wanted to use it as a 
pisspot?"   
Thomas, despite the impiety, smiled.   I'm sorry, Mordecai."   
 For telling them about me?  What choice did you have?  Men 
always talk under torture, Thomas, that is why torture is so useful.   
It is why torture will be used so long as the sun goes on circling 
the earth.  And you think I am in more danger now than I was?   
I'm Jewish, Thomas, Jewish.  Now, what do I do with this?"  He was 
speaking of the cord, which now hung from the rafter and which 
he evidently wished to attach to the floor, but there was no obvious 
anchor point.   
 What is it?"  Thomas asked.   
 A remedy," Mordecai said, staring helplessly at the cord, then at 
the floor.   I was ever unpractical with matters like this.  A hammer 
and nail, you think?"   
 A staple," Thomas suggested.   
Jeanette's idiot servant boy was sent out with careful instructions 
and managed to find the staple that Mordecai asked Thomas to 
hammer into the floorboard, but Thomas held up his crooked right 
hand with its fingers bent like claws and said he could not do it, 
so Mordecai clumsily banged the staple in himself and then tight- 
ened the cord and tied it off so that it stretched taut from floor to 
ceiling.   What you must do," he said, admiring his handiwork,  is 
pluck it like a boweord."   
 I can't," Thomas said in panic, holding up his crooked hands 
again.   
 What are you?"  Mordecai asked.   
 What am I?"   
 Ignore the specious answers.  I know you're an Englishman and 
I assume you're a Christian, but what are you?"   
 I was an archer," Thomas said bitterly.   
 And you still are," Mordecai said harshly,  and if you are not an   
archer then you are nothing.  So pluck that cord!  And keep on 
plucking it until your fingers can close on it.  Practise.  Practise.  What 
else do you have to do with your time?"   
So Thomas practised and after a week he could tighten two fin- 
gers opposite the thumb and make the cord reverberate like a harp 
string, and after another week he could bend the fingers of both   
hands about the cord and he plucked it so vigorously that it finally 
broke under the strain.  His strength was coming back and the burns   
had healed to leave puckered welts where the poker had scored his 
skin, but the wounds in his memory did not heal.  He would not 
talk of what had been done to him for he did not want to remember 
it, instead he practised plucking the cord until it snapped and then 
he learned to grip a quarterstaff and fought mock battles in the 
house yard with Robbie.  And, as the days had lengthened out of 
winter, he went for walks beyond the town.  There was a windmill 
on a slight hill that lay not far from the town's eastern gate and at 
first he could hardly manage the climb because his toes had been 
broken in the vice and his feet felt like unyielding lumps, but by 
the time April had filled the meadows with cowslips he was walking 
confidently.  Will Skeat often went with him and though the older 
man never said much his company was easy.  If he did talk it was 
to grumble about the weather or complain because the food was 
strange or, more likely, because he had heard nothing from the 
Earl of Northampton.   You think we should write to his lordship 
again, Tom?"   
 Maybe the first letter didn't reach him?"   
 I never did like things written down," Skeat said,  it ain't natural.   
Can you write to him?"   
 I can try," Thomas said, but though he could pluck a bowcord   
and hold a quarterstaff or even a sword he could not manage the 
quill.  He tried but his letters were scratchy and uncontrolled and in 
the end one of Totesha m's clerks wrote the letter, though Totesham 
himself did not think the message would do any good.   
 Charles of Blois will be here before we get any reinforcements,"   
he said.  Totesham was awkward with Thomas, who had disobeyed 
him by riding to Roncelets, but Thomas's punishment had been far 
more than Totesham would have wanted and so he felt sorry for the 
archer.   You want to carry the letter to the Earl?"  he asked Thomas.   
Thomas knew he was being offered an escape, but he shook his 
head.   I'll stay," he said, and the letter was entrusted to a shipmaster 
who was sailing the next day.   
The letter was a futile gesture and Totesham knew it for his 
garrison was almost certainly doomed.  Each day brought news of 
the reinforcements reaching Charles of Blois, and the enemy's raid- 
ing parties were now coming within sight of La Roche-Derrien's 
walls and harassing the forage parties that searched the countryside 
for any cattle, goats and sheep that could be driven back to the 
town to be slaughtered and salted down.  Sir Guillaume enjoyed 
such foraging raids.  Since losing Evecque he had become fatalistic 
and so savage that already the enemy had learned to be wary of 
the blue jupon with its three yellow hawks.  Yet one evening, 
coming home from a long day that had yielded only two goats, he 
was grinning when he came to see Thomas.   My enemy has joined 
Charles," he said,  the Count of Coutances, God damn his rotten 
soul.  I killed one of his men this morning and I only wish it had 
been the Count himself."   
 Why's he here?"  Thomas asked.   He's not a Breton."   
 Philip of France is sending men to help his nephew," Sir Guil- 
laume said,'s o why won't the King of England send men to oppose 
him?  He thinks Calais is more important?"   
 Yes."   
 Calais," Sir Guillaume said in disgust,  is the arsehole of France."   
He picked a shred of meat from between his teeth.   And your friends 
were out riding today," he went on.   
 My friends?"   
 The wasps."   
 Roncelets," Thomas said.   
 We fought half a dozen of the bastards in some benighted village," 
Sir Guillaume said,  and I put a lance clean through a black and 
yellow belly.  He was coughing afterwards."   
 Coughing?"   
 It's the wet weather, Thomas," Sir Guillaume explained,  it gives 
men a cough.  So I left him alone, killed another of the bastards, 
then went back and cured his cough.  I cut his head off."   
Robbie rode with Sir Guillaume and, like him, amassed coins 
taken from dead enemy patrols, though Robbie also rode in hope   
of meeting Guy Vexille.  He knew that name now because Thomas 
had told him that it was Guy Vexille who had killed his brother 
just before the battle outside Durham and Robbie had gone to 
Saint Renan's church, put his hand on the altar's cross and sworn 
revenge.  I shall kill Guy Vexille and de Taillebourg," he vowed.   
 They're mine," Thomas insisted.   
 Not if I get to them first," Robbie promised.   
Robbie had found himself a brown-eyed Breton girl called Oana 
who hated to leave his side and she came with him whenever he 
walked with Thomas.  One day, as they set out for the windmill, 
she appeared with Thomas's big black bow.   
 I can't use that!"  Thomas said, frightened of it.   
 Then what bloody use are you?"  Robbie asked and he patiently 
encouraged Thomas to draw the bow and praised him as his strength 
returned.  The three of them would take the bow to the windmill 
and Thomas would drive arrows into the wooden tower.  The shots 
were feeble at first for he could scarcely pull the cord halfway and 
the more power he exerted the more treacherous his fingers seemed 
to be and the more wayward his aim, but by the time the swallows 
and swifts had magically reappeared above the town's roofs he 
could pull the cord all the way back to his ear and put an arrow 
through one of Oana's wooden bracelets at a hundred paces.   
 You're cured," Mordecai told him when Thomas told him that 
news.   
 Thanks to you," Thomas said, though he knew it was not only 
Mordecai, any more than it was the friendship of Will Skeat or of 
Sir Guillaume or of Robbie Douglas that had helped him recover.   
Bernard de Taillebourg had wounded Thomas, but those bloodless 
wounds of God had not just been to his body, but to his soul, and 
it was on a dark spring night when the lightning was flickering 
in the east that Jeanette had climbed to her attic.  She had not left 
Thomas until the town's cockerels greeted the new dawn and if 
Mordecai understood why Thomas was smiling the next day he 
said nothing, but he noted that from that moment on Thomas's 
recovery was swift.   
Thereafter Thomas and Jeanette talked every night.  He told her 
of Charles and of the look on the boy's face when Thomas had 
mentioned his mother; Jeanette wanted to know everything about   
   that look and she worried that it meant nothing and that her son 
   had forgotten her, but eventually she believed Thomas when he 
   said the boy had almost wept when he heard news of her.   You 
   told him I loved him?"  she asked.   
    Yes," Thomas said, and Jeanette lay silent, tears in her eyes, and 
   Thomas tried to reassure her, but she shook her head as if there 
   was nothing Thomas could say that would console her.   I'm sorry," 
   he said.   
    You tried," Jeanette said.   
   They wondered how the enemy had known Thomas was coming 
   and Jeanette said that she was sure that Belas the lawyer had had 
   a hand in it.   I know he writes to Charles of Blois," she said,  and 
   that horrid man, what did you call him?  Epouvantail?"   
    The Scarecrow.   
    Him," Jeanette confirmed,  l'e'pouvantail.  He talks to Belas."   
    The Scarecrow talks to Belas?"  Thomas asked, surprised.   
    He lives there now.  He and his men live in the storehouses."   
   She paused.   Why does he even stay in the town?"  Others of the 
   mercenaries had slipped away to find employment where there was 
   some hope of victory rather than stay and endure the defeat that 
   Charles of Blois threatened.   
    He can't go home," Thomas said,  because he has too many debts.   
   He's protected from his creditors so long as he's here."   
    But why La Roche-Derrien?"   
    Because I'm here," Thomas said.   He thinks I can lead him to 
   treasure.   
    The Grail?"   
    He doesn't know that," Thomas said, but he was wrong because 
   the next day, while he was alone at the windmill and shooting 
   arrows at a wand he had planted a hundred and fifty paces away, 
   the Scarecrow and his six men-at-arms came riding out of the 
   town's eastern gate.  They turned off the Pontrieux road, filed 
   through a gap in the hedge and spurred up the shallow slope 
   towards the mill.  They were all in mail and all with swords except 
   for Beggar who, dwarfing his horse, carried a morningstar.   
   Sir Geoffrey reined in close to Thomas, who ignored him to shoot 
   an arrow that just brushed the wand.  The Scarecrow let the coils 
   of his whip ripple to the ground.   Look at me," he ordered Thomas.   
Thomas still ignored him.  He took an arrow from his belt and 
put it on the string, then jerked his head aside as he saw the whip 
snake towards him.  The metal tip touched his hair, but did no 
damage.   I said look at me," Sir Geoffrey snarled.   
 You want an arrow in your face?"  Thomas asked him.   
Sir Geoffrey leaned forward on his saddle's pommel, his raw red 
face twisted with a spasm of anger.   You are an archer" he pointed 
his whip handle at Thomas,   and I am a knight.  If I chop you 
down there's not a judge alive who would condemn me.   
 And if I put an arrow through your eye," Thomas said,  the devil 
will thank me for sending him company."   
Beggar growled and spurred his horse forward, but the Scarecrow 
waved the big man back.   I know what you want," he said to 
Thomas.   
Thomas hauled the string back, instinctively corrected for the 
small wind rippling the meadow's grass, and released.  The arrow 
made the wand quiver.   You have no idea what I want," he told 
Sir Geoffrey.   
 I thought it was gold," the Scarecrow said,  and then I thought 
it was land, but I never understood why gold or land would take 
you to Durham."  He paused as Thomas shot another arrow that 
hissed a hand's breadth past the distant wand.   But now I know, 
he finished,  now at last I know."   
 What do you know?"  Thomas asked derisively.   
 I know you went to Durham to talk with the churchmen because 
you're seeking the greatest treasure of the Church.  You're looking 
for the Grail."   
Thomas let the boweord slacken, then looked up at Sir Geoffrey.   
 We're all looking for the Grail," Thomas said, still derisive.   
 Where is it?"  Sir Geoffrey growled.   
Thomas laughed.  He was surprised the Scarecrow knew about 
the Grail, but he supposed that gossip in the garrison had probably 
let everyone in La Roche-Derrien know.   The best questioners of 
the Church asked me that," he said, holding up one crooked hand, 
 and I didn't tell them.  You think I'll tell you?"   
 I think," the Scarecrow said,  that a man searching for the Grail 
doesn't lock himself into a garrison that only has a month or two 
to live."   
    Then maybe I'm not looking for the Grail," Thomas said and shot 
   another arrow at the wand, but this shaft was warped and the 
   arrow wobbled in flight and went wide.  Above him the great sails 
   of the mill, furled about their spars and tethered by ropes, creaked 
   as a wind gust tried to turn them.   
   Sir Geoffrey coiled the whip.   You failed the last time you rode 
   out.  What happens if you ride again?  What happens if you ride 
   after the Grail?  And you must be going soon, before Charles of Blois 
   gets here.  So when you ride you're going to need help."  Thomas, 
   incredulous, realized that the Scarecrow had come to offer him 
   help, or perhaps Sir Geoffrey was asking for help.  He was in La 
   Roche-Derrien for only one reason, treasure, and he was no nearer 
   to it now than he had been when he first accosted Thomas outside 
   Durham.   You daren't fail again," the Scarecrow went on,'s o next 
   time take some real fighters with you."   
    You think I'd take you?"  Thomas asked, astonished.   
    I'm an Englishman," the Scarecrow said indignantly,  and if the 
   Grail exists I want it in England.  Not in some scab of a foreign 
   place."   
   The sound of a sword scraping from its scabbard made the Scare- 
   crow and his men turn in their saddles.  Jeanette and Robbie had 
   come to the meadow with Oana at Robbie's side; Jeanette had her 
   crossbow cocked and Robbie, as though he did not have a care in 
   the world, was now slashing the tops from thistles with his uncle's 
   sword.  Sir Geoffrey turned back to Thomas.   What you don't need 
   is a damned Scotchman," he said angrily,  nor a damned French 
   bitch.  If you look for the Grail, archer, look for it with loyal English- 
   men!  It's what the King would want, isn't it?"   
   Again Thomas did not answer.  Sir Geoffrey hung the whip on a 
   hook attached to his belt, then jerked his reins.  The seven men 
   cantered down the hill, going close to Robbie as if tempting him 
   to attack them, but Robbie ignored them.   What did that bastard 
   want?"   
   Thomas shot at the wand, brushing it with the arrow's feathers.   
    I think," he said,  that he wanted to help me find the Grail."   
    Help you!"  Robbie exclaimed.   Help you find the Grail?  Like hell.   
   He wants to steal it.  That bastard would steal the milk from the 
   Virgin Mary's tits."   
 Robbie!"  Jeanette said, shocked, then aimed her crossbow at the 
wand.   
 Watch her," Thomas said to Robbie.   She'll close her eyes when 
she shoots.  She always does."   
 Damn you," Jeanette said, then, unable to help it, closed her 
eyes as she pulled the trigger.  The bolt slapped out of the groove 
and miraculously clipped the top six inches from the wand.  Jeanette 
looked at Thomas triumphantly.   I can shoot better than you with 
my eyes closed," she said.   
Robbie had been on the town's walls and had seen the Scarecrow 
accost Thomas and so he had come to help, but now, with Sir 
Geoffrey gone, they sat in the sun with their backs against the mill's 
wooden skirt.  Jeanette was staring at the town's wall which still 
showed the scars where the English-made breach had been repaired 
with a lighter-coloured stone.   Are you really nobly born?"  she 
asked Thomas.   
 Bastard born," Thomas said.   
 But to a nobleman?"   
 He was the Count of Astarac," Thomas said, then laughed be- 
cause it was strange to think that Father Ralph, mad Father Ralph 
who had preached to the gulls on Hookton's beach, had been a 
count.   
 So what's the badge of Astarac?"  Jeanette asked.   
 A yale," Thomas told her,  holding a cup," and he showed her 
the faded silver patch on his black bowstave that was engraved with 
the strange creature that had horns, cloven hooves, claws, tusks 
and a lion's tail.   
 I'll have a banner made for you," Jeanette said.   
 A banner?  Why?"   
 A man should display his badge," Jeanette said.   
 And you should leave La Roche-Derrien," Thomas retorted.  He 
kept trying to persuade her to leave the town, but she insisted she 
would stay.  She doubted now she would ever get her son back and 
so she was determined to kill Charles of Blois with one of her 
crossbow's bolts, which were made of dense yew heartwood tip- 
ped with iron heads and fledged, not with feathers, but with stiff 
pieces of leather inserted into slits cut crosswise into the yew and 
then bound up  with cord and glue.  That was why she practised sO   
assiduously, for the chance to cut down the man who had raped 
her and taken her child.   
Easter came before the enemy arrived.  The weather was warm 
now.  The hedgerows were full of nestlings and the meadows echoed 
with the shriek of partridges and on the day after Easter, when folk 
ate up the remnants of the feast that had broken their Lenten fast, 
the dreaded news at last arrived from Rennes.   
That Charles of Blois had marched.   
   More than four thousand men left Rennes under the white ermine 
   banner of the Duke of Brittany.  Two thousand of them were cross- 
   bowmen, most wearing the green and red livery of Genoa and 
   bearing the city's badge of the Holy Grail on their right arms.  They 
   were mercenaries, hired and prized for their skill.  A thousand 
   infantrymen marched with them, the men who would dig the 
   trenches and assault the broken walls of the English fortresses, and 
   then there were over a thousand knights or men-at-arms, most 
   of them French, who formed the hard armoured heart of Duke 
   Charles's army.  They marched towards La Roche-Derrien, but the 
   real aim of the campaign was not to capture the town, which was 
   of negligible value, but rather to draw Sir Thomas Dagworth and 
   his small army into a pitched battle in which the knights and men- 
   at-arms, mounted on their big armoured horses, would be released 
   to smash their way through the English ranks.   
   A convoy of heavy carts carried nine siege machines, which 
   needed the attentions of over a hundred engineers who understood 
   how to assemble and work the giant devices that could hurl boulders the size of beer barrels further than a bow could drive an arrow.   
   A Florentine gunner had offered six of his strange machines to 
   Charles, but the Duke had turned them down.  Guns were rare, 
   expensive and, he believed, temperamental, while the old mechanical devices worked well enough if they were properly greased with 
   tallow and Charles saw no reason to abandon them.   
   Over four thousand men left Rennes, but far more arrived in the 
   fields outside La Roche-Derrien.  Country folk who hated the English joined the army to gain revenge for all the cattle, harvests, 
   property and virginity their families had lost to the foreigners.  Some 
   were armed with nothing more than mattocks or axes, but when 
   the time came to assault the town such angry men would be useful.   
   The army came to La Roche-Derrien and Charles of Blois heard 
   the last of the town's gates slam shut.  He sent a messenger to 
   demand the garrison's surrender, knowing the request was futile, 
   and while his tents were pitched he ordered other horsemen to 
   patrol westwards on the roads leading to Finisterre, the world's 
end.  They were there to warn him when Sir Thomas Dagworth's 
army marched to relieve the town, if indeed it did march.  His spies 
had told Charles that Dagworth could not even raise a thousand 
men.   And how many of those will be archers?"  he asked.   
   At most, your grace, five hundred."  The man who answered was 
a priest, one of the many who served in Charles's retinue.  The Duke 
was known as a pious man and liked to employ priests as advisers, 
secretaries and, in this case, as a spymaster.   At most five hundred," 
the priest repeated,  but in truth, your grace, far fewer."   
 Fewer?  How so?"   
 Fever in Finisterre," the priest answered, then smiled thinly.   God 
is good to us."   
 Amen to that.  And how many archers are in the town garri- 
son?"   
 Sixty healthy men, your grace",  the priest had Belas's latest 
report,  just sixty."   
Charles grimaced.  He had been defeated by English archers 
before, even when he had so outnumbered them that defeat had 
seemed impossible, and, as a result, he was properly wary of the 
long arrows, but he was also an intelligent man and he had given 
the problem of the English war bow a deal of thought.  It was 
possible to defeat the weapon, he thought, and on this campaign 
he would show how it could be done.  Cleverness, that most despised 
of soldierly qualities, would triumph, and Charles of Blois, styled 
by the French as the Duke and ruler of Brittany, was undeniably 
a clever man.  He could read and write in six languages, spoke Latin 
better than most priests and was a master of rhetoric.  He even 
looked clever with his thin, pale face and intense blue eyes, fair 
beard and moustache.  He had been fighting his rivals for the duke- 
dom almost all his adult life, but now, at last, he had gained the   
ascendancy.  The King of England, besieging Calais, was not reinforc- 
ing his garrisons in Brittany while the King of France, who was 
Charles's uncle, had been generous with men, which meant that 
Duke Charles at last outnumbered his enemies.  By summer's end, 
he thought, he would be master of all his ancestral domains, but 
then he cautioned himself against over-confidence.   Even five hun- 
dred archers," he observed,  even five hundred and sixty archers 
can be dangerous."  He had a precise voice, pedantic and dry, and 
the priests in his entourage often thought he sounded very like a 
priest himself.   
 The Genoese will swamp them with bolts, your grace," a priest 
assured the Duke.   
 Pray God they do," Charles said piously, though God, he thought, 
would need some help from human cleverness.   
Next morning, under a late spring sun, Charles rode around La 
Roche-Derrien, though he kept far enough away so that no English 
arrow could reach him.  The defenders had hung banners from 
the town walls.  Some of the flags displayed the English cross of 
Saint George, others the white ermine badge of the Montfort Duke 
that was so similar to Charles's own device. Many of the flags were 
inscribed with insults aimed at Charles.  One showed the Duke's 
white ermine with an English arrow through its bleeding belly, and 
another was evidently a picture of Charles himself being trampled 
under a great black horse, but most of the flags were pious exhor- 
tations inviting God's help or displaying the cross to show the 
attackers where heaven's sympathies were supposed to lie.  Most 
besieged towns would also have flaunted the banners of their noble 
defenders, but La Roche-Derrien had few nobles, or at least few 
who displayed their badges, and none to match the ranks of the 
aristocrats in Charles's army.  The three hawks of Evecque were 
displayed on the wall, but everyone knew Sir Guillaume had been 
dispossessed and had no more than three or four followers.  One 
flag showed a red heart on a pale field and a priest in Charles's 
entourage thought it was the badge of the Douglas family in Scot- 
land, but that was a nonsense for no Scotsman would be fighting 
for the English.  Next to the red heart was a brighter banner showing 
a blue and white sea of wavy lines.   Is that .  .  ."  Charles began to 
ask, then paused, frowning.   
 The badge of Armorica, your grace, the Lord of Roncelets 
answered.  Today, as Duke Charles circled the town, he was accom- 
panied by his great lords so that the defenders would see their 
banners and be awed.  Most were lords of Brittany; the Viscount 
Rohan and the Viscount Morgat rode close behind the Duke, then 
came the lords of Chateaubriant and of Roncelets, Laval, Guingamp, 
Rouge', Dinan, Redon and Malestroit, all of them mounted on high- 
stepping destriers, while from Normandy the Count of Coutances 
and the lords of Valognes and Carteret had brought their retainers 
to do battle for the nephew of their King.   
 I thought Armorica was dead," one of the Norman lords 
remarked.   
 He has a son," Roncelets answered.   
 And a widow," the Count of Guingamp said,  and she's the trai- 
torous bitch flying the banner."   
 A pretty traitorous bitch, though," the Viscount Rohan said, and 
the lords laughed for they all knew how to treat unruly but pretty 
widows.   
Charles grimaced at their unseemly laughter.   When we take the 
town," he ordered coldly,  the dowager Countess of Armorica will 
not be hurt.  She will be brought to me."  He had raped Jeanette 
once and he would rape her again, and when that pleasure was 
done he would marry her off to one of his men-at-arms who would 
teach her to mind her manners and to curb her tongue.  Now he 
reined in his horse to watch as more banners were hung from the 
ramparts, all of them insults to him and his house.   It's a busy 
garrison," he said drily.   
 Busy townspeople," the Viscount Rohan snarled.   Busy goddamn 
traitors."   
 Townsfolk?"  Charles seemed puzzled.   Why would the townsfolk 
support the English?"   
 Trade," Roncelets answered curtly.   
 Trade?"   
 They're becoming rich," Roncelets growled,  and they like it."   
 They like it enough to fight against their lord?"  Charles asked in 
disbelief.   
 A disloyal rabble," Roncelets said dismissively.   
 A rabble," Charles said,  that we shall have to impoverish."  He   
spurred on, only checking his horse when he saw another noble- 
man's banner, this one showing a yale flourishing a chalice.  So far 
he had not seen a single banner that promised a great ransom if its 
lord was captured, but this badge was a mystery.   Whose is that?"   
he asked.   
No one knew, but then a slim young man on a tall black horse 
answered from the rear of the Duke's entourage.   The badge of 
Astarac, your grace, and it belongs to an imposter."  The man who 
had answered had come from France with a hundred grim horse- 
men liveried in plain black and he was accompanied by a Dominican 
with a frightening face.  Charles of Blois was glad to have the black- 
liveried men in his army, for they were all hard and experienced 
soldiers, but he did feel somewhat nervous of them.  They were 
somehow too hard, too experienced.   
 An imposter?"  he repeated and spurred on.   Then we do not 
need to worry ourselves about him."   
There were three gates on the town's landward side and a fourth, 
opening onto the bridge, facing the river.  Charles planned to besiege 
each of those gates so that the garrison would be trapped like foxes 
with their earths stopped.   The army," he decreed when the lords 
returned to the ducal tent, which had been raised close to the 
windmill that stood on the slight hill to the east of the town,  will 
be divided into four parts, and one part will face each gate."  The 
lords listened and a priest copied down the pronouncement so that 
history would have a true record of the Duke's martial genius.   
Each of the four divisions of Charles's army would outnumber 
any relief force that Sir Thomas Dagworth could gather, but, to 
make himself even more secure, Charles ordered that the four en- 
campments were to surround themselves with earthworks so that 
the English would be forced to attack across ditches, banks, palisades 
and thorn hedges.  The obstacles would conceal Charles's men from 
the archers and give his Genoese crossbowmen cover while they 
rewound their weapons.  The ground between the four encamp- 
ments was to be cleared of hedges and other obstacles to leave a 
bare wilderness of grass and marsh.   
 The English archer," Charles told his lords,  is not a man who 
will fight face to face.  He kills from a distance and he hides behind 
hedges, thus frustrating our horses.  We shall turn that tactic against   
him."  The tent was big, white and airy, and the smell inside was of 
trampled grass and men's sweat.  From beyond the canvas walls   
came the sound of dull thudding as the engineers used wooden 
mallets to assemble the biggest of the great siege engines.   
 Our men," Charles further decreed,  will stay within their own 
defences.  We shall thus make four fortresses that will stand at the 
four gates of the town and if the English send a relief force then 
those men will have to attack our fortresses.  Archers cannot kill 
men they cannot see."  He paused to make sure those simple words   
were understood.   Archers," he said again,  cannot kill men they 
cannot see.  Remember that!  Our crossbows will be behind banks 
of earth, we will be screened by hedges and hidden by palisades, 
and the enemy will be out in the open where they can be cut 
down.   
There were growls of agreement for the Duke made sense.   
Archers could not kill invisible men.  Even the fierce Dominican 
who had come with the soldiers in black looked impressed.   
The midday bells rang from the town.  One, the loudest, was 
cracked and gave a harsh note.   La Roche-Derrien," the Duke con- 
tinued,  does not matter.  Whether it falls or not is of little con- 
sequence.  What matters is that we draw our enemy's army out 
to attack us.  Dagworth will probably come to protect La Roche- 
Derrien.  When he arrives we shall crush him and once he is broken 
then only the English garrisons will be left and we shall take them 
one by one until, at summer's end, all Brittany is ours."  He spoke 
slowly and simply, knowing it was best to spell out the campaign 
for these men who, though they were tough as rams, were not 
renowned as thinkers.   And when Brittany is ours," he went on, 
 there will be gifts of land, of manors and of strongholds."  A much 
louder growl of approbation sounded and the listening men grinned 
for there would be more than land, manors and castles as the 
rewards of victory.  There would be gold, silver and women.  Lots 
of women.  The growl turned into laughter as the men realized they 
were all thinking the same thing.   
 But it is here",  Charles's voice called his audience to order,  
 that we make our victory possible, and we do it by denying the 
English archer his targets.  An archer cannot kill men he cannot 
see!"  He paused again, looking at his audience and he saw them   
nodding as the simple truth of that assertion at last penetrated 
their skulls.   We shall all be in our own fortress, one of four fort- 
resses, and when the English army comes to relieve the siege 
they will attack one of those fortresses.  That English army will be 
small.  Fewer than a thousand men!  Suppose, then, that it begins 
by attacking the fort I shall make here.  What will the rest of you 
do?"   
He waited for an answer and, after a while, the Lord of Roncelets, 
as uncertain as a schoolboy giving a response to his master, frowned 
and made a suggestion.   Come to help your grace?"   
The other lords nodded and smiled agreement.   
 No!"  Charles said angrily.   No!  No!  No!"  He waited, making sure 
they had understood the simple word.   If you leave your fortress," 
he explained,  then you offer the English archer a target.  It is what 
he wants!  He will want to tempt us from behind our walls to cut 
us down with his arrows.  So what do we do?  We stay behind our 
walls.  We stay behind our walls."  Did they understand that?  It was 
the key to victory.  Keep the men hidden and the English must lose.   
Sir Thomas Dagworth's army would be forced to assault earth walls 
and thorn hedges and the crossbowmen would spit them on quar- 
rels and when the English were so thinned that only a couple 
of hundred remained on their feet the Duke would release his 
men-at-arms to slaughter the remnant.   You do not leave your 
fortresses," he insisted,  and any man who does will forfeit my 
generosity."  That threat sobered the Duke's listeners.   If even one 
of your men leaves the sanctuary of the walls," Charles continued, 
we shall make sure that you will not share in the distribution of 
land at the end of the campaign.  Is that plain, gentlemen?  Is that 
plain?"   
It was plain.  It was simple.   
Charles of Blois would make four fortresses to oppose the four 
gates of the town and the English, when they came, would be 
forced to assault those newly made walls.  And even the smallest of 
the Duke's four forts would have more defenders than the English 
had attackers, and those defenders would be sheltered, and their 
weapons would be lethal, and the English would die and so Brittany 
would pass to the House of Blois.   
Cleverness.  It would win wars and make reputations.  And once   
Charles had shown how to defeat the English here he would defeat 
them through all France.   
Because Charles dreamed of a crown heavier than Brittany's 
ducal coronet.  He dreamed of France, but it must begin here, in 
the flooded fields about La Roche-Derrien, where the English archer 
would be taught his place.   
In hell.   
The nine siege engines were all trebuchets, the largest of them 
capable of throwing a stone weighing twice the weight of a grown 
man for almost three hundred paces.  All nine had been made at 
Regensburg in Bavaria and the senior engineers who accompanied 
the gaunt machines were all Bavarians who understood the intri- 
cacies of the weapons.  The two biggest had throwing beams over 
fifty feet long and even the two smallest, which were placed on the 
far bank of the Jaudy to threaten the bridge and its barbican, had 
beams thirty-six feet long.   
The biggest two, which were named hellgiver and Widowmaker, 
were placed at the foot of the hill on which the windmill stood.  In 
essence each was a simple machine, merely a long beam mounted 
on an axle like a giant's balance or a child's see-saw, only one end 
of the see-saw was three times longer than the other.  The shorter 
end was weighted with a huge wooden box that was filled with 
lead weights, while the longer end, which actually threw the missile, 
was attached to a great windlass which drew it down to the ground 
and so raised the ten tons of lead counterweights.  The stone missile 
was placed in a leather sling some fifteen feet long, which was 
attached to the longer arm.  When the beam was released so that 
the counterweight slammed down, the longer end whipped up into 
the sky and the sung whipped even faster and the boulder was 
released from the sling's leather cradle to curve through the sky 
and crash down onto its target.  That much was simple.  What was 
hard was to keep the mechanism greased with tallow, to construct 
a winch strong enough to haul the long beam down to the ground, 
to make a container strong enough to thump down again and again 
and not spill the ten tons of lead weights and, trickiest of all, to   
fashion a device strong enough to hold the long beam down against 
the weight of the lead yet capable of releasing the beam safely.   
These were the matters on which the Bavarians were experts and 
for which they were paid so generously.   
There were many who said that the Bavarians" expertise was 
redundant.  Guns were much smaller and hurled their missiles with 
greater force, but Duke Charles had applied his intelligence to the 
comparison and decided on the older technology.  Guns were slow 
and prone to explosions that killed their expensive gunners.  They 
were also painfully slow because the gap between the missile and 
the gun's barrel had to be sealed to contain the powder's force and 
so it was necessary to pack the cannon ball about with wet loam, 
and that needed time to dry before the powder could be ignited, 
and even the most skilful gunners from Italy could not fire a weapon 
more than three or four times a day.  And when a gun fired it spat 
a ball weighing only a few pounds.  While it was true that the small 
ball flew with a velocity so great that it could not even be seen, 
nevertheless the older trebuchets could throw a missile of twenty 
or thirty times the weight three or four times in every hour.  La 
Roche-Derrien, the Duke decided, would be hammered the old- 
fashioned way, and so the little town was surrounded by the nine 
trebuchets.  As well as Hellgiver and Widowmaker, there was Stone- 
Hurler, Crusher, Gravedigger, Stonewhip, Spiteful, Destroyer and 
Hand of God.   
Each trebuchet was constructed on a platform made of wooden 
beams and protected by a palisade that was tall and stout enough 
to stop any arrow.  Some of the peasants who had joined the army 
were trained to stand close to the palisades and be ready to throw 
water over any fire arrows that the English might use to burn the 
fences down and so expose the trebuchets" engineers.  Other peas- 
ants dug the ditches and threw up the earthen banks that formed 
the Duke's four fortresses.  Where possible they used existing ditches 
or incorporated the thick blackthorn hedges into the defences.  They 
made barriers of sharpened stakes and dug pits to break horses" 
legs.  The four parts of the Duke's army ringed themselves with such 
defences and, day after day, as the walls grew and the trebuchets 
took shape from the pieces transported on the wagons, the Duke 
had his men practise forming their lines of battle.  The Genoese   
crossbowmen manned the half-finished walls while behind them 
the knights and men-at-arms paraded on foot.  Some men grumbled 
that such practices were a waste of time, but others saw how the 
Duke intended to fight and they approved.  The English archers 
would be baffled by the walls, ditches and palisades and the cross- 
bows would pick them off one by one, and finally the enemy would 
be forced to attack across the earth walls and the flooded ditches 
to be slaughtered by the waiting men-at-arms.   
After a week of back-breaking work the trebuchets were as- 
sembled and their counterpoise boxes had been filled with great 
pigs of lead.  Now the engineers had to demonstrate an even subtler 
skill, the art of dropping their great stones one after the other onto 
the exact same spot of the wall so that the ramparts would be 
battered away and a path opened into the town.  Then, once the 
relieving army was defeated, the Duke's men could assault La 
Roche-Derrien and put its treasonous inhabitants to the sword.   
The Bavarian engineers selected their first stones carefully, then 
trimmed the length of the slings to affect the range of their 
machines.  It was a fine spring morning.  Kestrels soared, buttercups 
dotted the fields, trout were rising to the mayflies, the wild garlic 
was blossoming white and pigeons flew through the new leaves of 
the green woods.  It was the loveliest time of the year and Duke 
Charles, whose spies told him that Sir Thomas Dagworth's English 
army had yet to leave western Brittany, anticipated triumph.   The 
Bavarians," he told one of his attendant priests,  may begin."   
The trebuchet named hellgiver shot first.  A lever was pulled that 
extracted a thick metal pin from a staple attached to the long arm 
of Hellgiver's beam.  Ten tons of lead dropped with a crash that 
could be heard in Treguler, the long arm whipped up and the sling 
whirled at the arm's end with the sound of a sudden gale and a 
boulder arched into the sky.  It seemed to hang for a moment, 
a great stone lump in the kestrel-haunted sky, and then, like a 
thunderbolt, it fell.   
The killing had begun.  
The first stone, thrown by Hellgiver, crashed through the roof of a   
dyer's house close to Saint Brieuc's church and took off the heads of 
an English man-at-arms and the dyer's wife. A joke went through   
the garrison that the two bodies were so crushed together by the 
boulder that they would go on coupling throughout eternity.  The 
stone which killed them, a rock about the size of a barrel, had 
missed the eastern ramparts by no more than twenty feet and the 
Bavarian engineers made adjustments to the sling and the next 
stone thumped just short of the wall, spewing up filth and sewage 
from the ditch.  The third boulder hit the wall plumb and then a 
monstrous thump announced that Widowmaker had just shot its 
first missile and one after the other Stone-Hurler, Crusher, Grave- 
digger, Stonewhip, Spiteful, Destroyer and Hand of God added their 
contributions.   
Richard Totesham did his best to blunt the assault of the trebuchets.  It was evident that Charles was attempting to make four 
breaches, one on each side of the town, and so Totesham ordered 
vast bags to be sewn and stuffed with straw and the bags were 
placed to cushion the walls, which were further protected by baulks 
of timber.  Those precautions served to slow the process of making 
the breaches, but the Bavarians were sending some of their missiles 
deep into the town and nothing could be done to shield the houses 
from those plunging boulders.  Some townsfolk argued that Tote- 
sham should construct a trebuchet of his own and try to break the 
enemy's machines, but he doubted there was time and instead a 
giant crossbow was fashioned from ships" spars that had been 
brought upstream from Treguier before the siege began.  Treguier   
was now deserted for, lacking walls, its inhabitants had either come 
to La Roche-Derrien for shelter, fled to sea in their ships or gone 
over to Charles's camp.   
Totesham's springald was thirty feet in width and shot a bolt 
eight feet long propelled by a cord made from braided leather.  It 
was cocked by means of a ship's windlass.  It took four days to make 
the weapon and the very first time they tried to use it the spar-arm 
broke.  It was a bad omen, and there was an even worse one next 
morning when a horse drawing a cart of night soil broke free from 
its harness and kicked a child in the head.  The child died.  Later 
that day a stone from one of the smaller trebuchets across the river 
plunged into Richard Totesham's house and brought down half 
the upper floor and very nearly killed his baby.  Over a score of 
mercenaries tried to desert the garrison that night and some must 
have got clean away, others joined Charles's army and one, who 
had been carrying a message for Sir Thomas Dagworth concealed 
in a boot, was caught and beheaded.  Next morning his severed 
head, with the letter fixed between his teeth, was hurled into the 
town by the trebuchet called the Hand of God and the spirits of the 
garrison plummeted even further.   
 I am not sure," Mordecai told Thomas,  whether omens can be 
trusted."   
 Of course they can."   
 I should like to hear your reasons.  But show me your urine first."   
 You said I was cured," Thomas protested.   
 Eternal vigilance, dear Thomas, is the price of health.  Piss for 
me."   
Thomas obeyed, Mordecai held the liquid up to the sun, then 
dipped a finger in it and dabbed it onto his tongue.   Splendid!"  he 
said.   Clear, pure and not too saline.  That is a good omen, is it not?"   
 That's a symptom," Thomas said,  not an omen.   
 Ah."  Mordecai smiled at the correction.  They were in the small 
back yard behind Jeanette's kitchen where the doctor watched the 
house-martins bringing mud to their new nests beneath the eaves.   
 Enlighten me, Thomas," he said with another smile,  on the matter 
of omens.   
 When our Lord was crucified," Thomas said,  there was darkness 
in daytime and a curtain in the temple was torn in two."   
 You are saying that omens are secreted at the very heart of your 
faith?"   
 And yours too, surely?"  Thomas asked.   
Mordecai flinched as a boulder crunched down somewhere in   
the town.  The sound reverberated, then there was another splin- 
tering crash as a weakened roof or floor gave way.  Dogs howled 
and a woman screamed.   They're doing it deliberately," Mordecai 
said.   
 Of course," Thomas said.  Not only was the enemy sending boul- 
ders to fall on the tight small houses of the town, but they sometimes   
used the trebuchets to lob the rotting corpses of cattle or pigs or 
goats to splatter their filth and stench through the streets.   
Mordecai waited till the woman had stopped screaming.   I don't 
think I believe in omens," he said.   We suffer some bad luck in the 
town and everyone assumes we are doomed, but how do we know 
there is not some ill fortune afflicting the enemy?"   
Thomas said nothing.  Birds squabbled in the thatch, oblivious 
that a cat was stalking just below the roof ridge.   
 What do you want, Thomas?"  Mordecai asked.   
 Want?"   
 What do you want?"   
Thomas grimaced and held out his right hand with its crooked 
fingers.   For these to be straight."   
 And I want to be young again," Mordecai said impatiently.   Your 
fingers are mended.  They are misshapen, but mended.  Now tell me 
what you want."   
 What I want," Thomas said,  is to kill the men who killed Eleanor.   
To bring Jeanette's son back.  Then to be an archer.  Just that.  An 
archer."  He wanted the Grail too, but he did not like to talk of that 
with Mordecai.   
Mordecai tugged at his beard.   To kill the men who killed 
Eleanor?"  he mused aloud.   I think you'll do that.  Jeanette's son?   
Maybe you will do that too, though I don't understand why you 
wish to please her.  You don't want to marry Jeanette, do you?"   
 Marry her!"  Thomas laughed.   No."   
 Good."   
 Good?"  Thomas was offended now.   
 I have always enjoyed talking with alchemists," Mordecai said,   
 and I have often seen them mix sulphur and quicksilver.  There is 
a theory that all metals are composed of those two substances, did 
you know?  The proportions vary, of course, but my point, dear 
Thomas, is that if you put quicksilver and sulphur into a vessel, 
then heat it, the result is very often calamitous."  He mimed an 
explosion with his hands.   That, I think, is you and Jeanette.   
Besides, I cannot see her married to an archer.  To a king?  Yes.  To 
a duke?  Maybe.  To a count or an earl?  Certainly.  But to an archer?"   
He shook his head.   There is nothing wrong with being an archer, 
Thomas.  It's a useful skill in this wicked world."  He sat silent for a 
few heartbeats.   My son is training to be a doctor."   
Thomas smiled.   I sense a reproof."   
 A reproof?"   
 Your son will be a healer and I'm a killer."   
Mordecai shook his head.   Benjamin is training to be a physician, 
but he would rather be a soldier.  He wants to be a killer."   
 Then why   Thomas stopped because the answer was obvious.   
 Jews cannot carry weapons, Mordecai said,  that is why.  No, I 
meant no reproof.  I think, as soldiers go, Thomas, that you are a 
good man."  He paused and frowned because another stone from 
one of the bigger trebuchets had slammed into a building not far 
away and, as the echoing crash subsided, he waited for the screams.   
None came.   Your friend Will is a good man, too," Mordecai went 
on,  but I fear he's no longer an archer."   
Thomas nodded.  Will Skeat was cured, but not restored.   It would 
have been better, I sometimes think   Thomas began.   
 If he had died?"  Mordecai finished the thought.   Wish death on 
no man, Thomas, it comes soon enough without a wish.  Sir William 
will go home to England, no doubt, and your Earl will look after 
him."   
The fate of all old soldiers, Thomas thought.  To go home and die 
on the charity of the family they served.   Then I'll go to the siege 
of Calais when all this is over," Thomas said,  and see if Will's arch ers 
need a new leader."   
Mordecai smiled.   You won't look for the Grail?"   
 I don't know where it is," Thomas said.   
 And your father's book?"  Mordecai asked.   It didn't help?"   
Thomas had been poring over the copy Jeanette had made.  He   
thought his father must have used some kind of code, though try 
as he might he could not pierce the code's workings.  Or else, in 
its ramblings, the book was merely a symptom of Father Ralph's 
troubled mind.  Yet Thomas was sure of one thing.  His father had   
believed he possessed the Grail.   I will look for the Grail," Thomas 
said,  but I sometimes think the only way to seek it is not to search 
for it."  He looked up, startled, as there was a sudden scrabbling 
sound on the roof.  The cat had made a rush and almost lost its 
footing as birds scattered upwards.   
 Another omen?"  Mordecai suggested, looking up at the escaping 
birds.   Surely a good one?"   
 Besides," Thomas said,  what do you know of the Grail?"   
 I am a Jew.  What do I know of anything?"  Mordecai asked 
innocently.   What would happen, Thomas, if you found the Grail?"   
He did not wait for an answer.   Do you think," he went on instead,   
 that the world will become a better place?  Is it just lacking the 
Grail?  Is that all?"  There was still no answer.   It's a thing like Abraca- 
dabra, is that it?"  Mordecai said sadly.   
 The devil?"  Thomas was shocked.   
 Abracadabra isn't the devil!"  Mordecal answered, equally 
shocked.   It's simply a charm.  Some foolish Jews believe if you 
write it in the form of a triangle and hang it about your neck then 
you'll not suffer from the ague!  What nonsense!  The only cure for 
an ague is a warm poultice of cow dung, but folk will put their 
trust in charms and, I fear, in omens too, yet I do not think God 
works through the one or reveals Himself through the other."   
 Your God," Thomas said,  is a very long way away.   
 I rather fear he is."   
 Mine is close," Thomas said,  and He does show Himself."   
 Then you're fortunate," Mordecai said.  Jeanette's distaff and 
spindle were on the bench beside him and he put the distaff under 
his left arm and tried to spin some thread from the wool bundled 
about its head, but he could make nothing of it.   You are fortunate," 
he said again,  and I hope that when Charles's troops break in that 
your God stays close.  As for the rest of us, I suppose we're doomed?"   
 If they break in," Thomas said,  then either take refuge in a 
church or try and escape by the river.   
 I can't swim."   
 Then the church is your best hope."   
 I doubt that," Mordecai said, putting down the distaff.   What 
Totesham should do," he said sadly,  is surrender.  Let us all leave."   
 He won't do that."   
Mordecai shrugged.   So we must die."   
Yet, the very next day, he was given a chance to escape when 
Totesham said that anyone who did not want to suffer the privations 
of the siege could leave the town by the southern gate, but no 
sooner was it thrown open than a force of Charles's men-at-arms, 
all in mail and with their faces hidden by their helmets" grey visors, 
blocked the road.  No more than a hundred folk had decided to go, 
all of them women and children, but Charles's men-at-arms were 
there to say they would not be allowed to abandon La Roche- 
Derrien.  It was not in the besiegers" interest to have fewer mouths 
for the garrison to feed and so the grey men barred the road and 
Totesham's soldiers shut the town gate and the women and children 
were stranded all day.   
That evening the trebuchets ceased their work for the first time 
since the stone had killed the dyer's wife and her lover and, in the 
strange silence, a messenger came from Charles's encampment.  A 
trumpeter and a white flag announced that he wanted a truce and 
Totesham ordered an English trumpeter to respond to the Breton 
and for a white banner to be waved above the southern gate.  The 
Breton messenger waited until a man of rank came to the walls, 
then he gestured at the women and children.   These folk," he said, 
cannot be allowed to pass through our lines.  They will starve here."   
 This is the pity your master has for his people?"  Totesham's envoy 
responded.  He was an English priest who spoke Breton and French.   
 He has such pity for them," the messenger answered,  that he 
would free them of England's chains.  Tell your master that he has 
until this evening's angelus to surrender the town, and if he does 
he will be permitted to march out with all his weapons, banners, 
horses, families, servants and possessions."   
It was a generous offer but the priest did not even consider it.   I 
will tell him," the priest said,  but only if you tell your master that 
we have food for a year and weapons enough to kill all of you 
twice over    
The messenger bowed, the priest returned the compliment and   
the parley was over.  The trebuchets began their work again and, at 
nightfall, Totesham ordered the town gates opened and the fugitives 
were allowed back inside to the jeers of those who had not fled.   
Thomas, like every man in La Roche-Derrien, served time on the 
ramparts.  It was tedious work for Charles of Blois took great care 
to ensure that none of his forces strayed within bowshot of the 
English archers, but there was some diversion to be had in watching 
the great trebuchets.  They were cranked down so slowly that it 
seemed the vast beams were hardly moving, but gradually, almost 
imperceptibly, the big wooden box with its lead weights would rise 
from behind the protective palisade and the long arm would sink 
out of sight.  Then, when the long arm was winched as low as it could 
go, nothing would happen for a long time, presumably because 
the engineers were loading the sling and then, just when it seemed 
nothing ever would happen, the counterweight would drop, the 
palisade would quiver, startled birds flash up from the grass and 
the long arm would slash up, judder, the sling would whip about 
and a stone arc into the air.  The sound would come then, the 
monstrous crash of the falling counterweight, followed a heartbeat 
later by the thump of the stone onto the broken ramparts.  More 
straw-filled bags would be thrown onto the growlng breach, but 
the missiles still did their damage and so Totesham ordered his men 
to begin making new walls behind the growlng breaches.   
Some men, including Thomas and Robbie, wanted to make a 
sally.  Put together sixty men, they argued, and let them stream out 
of the town at first light.  They could easily overrun one or two of 
the trebuchets, soak the machines in oil and pitch and throw burn- 
ing brands into the tangle of ropes and timber, but Totesham 
refused.  His garrison was too small, he argued, and he did not want 
to lose even a half-dozen men before he needed to fight Charles's 
men in the breaches.   
He lost men anyway.  By the third week of the siege Charles of 
Blois had finished his own defensive works and the four portions 
of his army were all protected behind earth walls, hedges, palisades 
and ditches.  He had scoured the land between his encampments of 
any obstacles so that when a relieving army came its archers would 
have nowhere to hide.  Now, with his own encampments fortified 
and the trebuchets biting ever bigger holes in La Roche-Derrien's   
walls, he sent his crossbowmen forward to harass the ramparts.   
They came in pairs, one man with the crossbow and his partner 
holding a pavise, a shield so tall, wide and stoutly made that it 
could protect both men.  The pavises were painted, some with holy 
imprecations, but most with insults in French, English and, in some 
cases, because the crossbowmen were Genoese, Italian.  Their quar- 
rels battered the wall, whistled about the defenders" heads and 
smacked into the thatch of the houses beyond the walls.  Sometimes 
the Genoese would shoot fire arrows and Totesham had six squads 
of men who did nothing except chase down fires in thatch and, 
when they were not extinguishing flames, they hauled water out 
of the River Jaudy and soaked the thatch roofs that were nearest 
the ramparts and thus most in danger from the crossbowmen.   
The English archers shot back, but the crossbowmen were mostly 
hidden behind their pavises and, when they did shoot, they exposed 
themselves for only a heartbeat.  Some died all the same, but they 
were also bringing down archers on the town's walls.  Jeanette often 
joined Thomas on the southern rampart and loosed her bolts from 
a crenellation by the gate.  A crossbow could be fired from a kneeling 
position so she did not expose much of her body to danger, while 
Thomas had to stand to loose an arrow.   You shouldn't be here," 
he told her every time and she would mimic his words, then stoop 
to rewind her bow.   
 Do you remember," she asked him,  the first siege?"   
 When you were shooting at me?"   
 Let's hope I'm more accurate now," she said, then propped the 
bow on the wall, aimed and pulled the trigger.  The bolt smacked 
into a pavise that was already stuck with feathered English arrows.   
Beyond the crossbowmen was the earth wall of the closest encamp- 
ment above which showed the ungainly beams of two trebuchets 
and, beyond them, the gaudy flags of some of Charles's lords.   
Jeanette recognized the banners of Rohan, Laval, Malestroit, and 
Roncelets, and the first sight of that wasplike banner had filled her 
with anger and then she had cried for the thought of her son in 
Roncelets's distant tower.   I wish they'd assault now," she said,  and 
I could put a bolt in Roncelets as well as Blois."   
 They won't attack until they've defeated Dagworth," Thomas 
said.   
 You think he's coming?"   
 I think that's why they're here," Thomas said, nodding towards 
the enemy, then he stood, drew the bow and launched an arrow 
at a crossbowman who had just stepped out from behind his shield.   
The man ducked back a heartbeat before Thomas's arrow hissed 
past him.  Thomas crouched again.   Charles knows he can pluck us 
whenever he wants," he said,  but what he really wants is to crush 
Dagworth     
For when Sir Thomas Dagworth was crushed there would be no 
English field army left in Brittany and the fortresses would inevi- 
tably fall, one by one, and Charles would have his duchy.   
Then, a month after Charles had arrived, when the hedges 
about his four fortresses were white with hawthorn blossom and 
the petals were blowing from the apple trees and the banks of 
the river were thick with iris and the poppies were a brilliant 
red in the growlng rye, there was a drift of smoke in the south- 
western sky.  The watchers on La Roche-Derrien's walls saw scouts 
riding from the enemy encampment and they knew that the smoke 
must come from campfires which meant that an army was coming.   
Some feared it might be reinforcements for the enemy, but they 
were reassured by others who claimed, truly, that only friends 
would be approaching from the south-west.  What Richard Tote- 
sham and the others who knew the truth did not reveal was that 
any relieving force would be small, much smaller than Charles's 
army, and that it was coming towards a trap that Charles had 
made.   
For Charles's ploy had worked and Sir Thomas Dagworth had 
taken the bait.   
Charles of Blois summoned his lords and commanders to the big 
tent beside the mill.  It was Saturday and the enemy force was now 
a short march away and, inevitably, there were hotheads in his 
ranks who wanted to strap on their plate armour, hoist up their 
lances and clatter off on horseback to be killed by the English 
archers.  Fools abounded, Charles thought, then dashed their hopes 
by making it clear that no one except the scouts was to leave any   
of the four encampments.   No one!"  He pounded the table, almost 
upsetting the ink pot belonging to the clerk who copied down his 
words.   No one will leave!  Do you all understand that?"  He looked 
from face to face and thought again what fools his lords were.   We 
stay behind our entrenchments," he told them,  and they will come 
to us.  They will come to us and they will be killed."   
Some of the lords looked disgruntled, for there was little glory 
in fighting behind earth walls and damp ditches when a man could 
be galloping on a destrier, but Charles of Blois was firm and even 
the richest of his lords feared his threat that any man who disobeyed 
him would not share in the distribution of land and wealth that 
would follow the conquest of Brittany.   
Charles picked up a piece of parchment.   Our scouts have ridden 
close to Sir Thomas Dagworth's column," he said in his precise voice, 
 and we now have an accurate estimate of their numbers."  Knowing 
that every man in the tent wanted to hear the enemy's strength, 
he paused, because he wanted to invest this announcement with 
drama, but he could not help smiling as he revealed the figures.   Our 
enemies," he said,  threaten us with three hundred men-at-arms and 
four hundred archers."   
There was a pause as the numbers were understood, then came 
an explosion of laughter.  Even Charles, usually so pallid, unbending 
and stern, joined in.  It was risible!  It was actually impertinent!   
Brave, perhaps, but utterly foolhardy.  Charles of Blois had four 
thousand men and hundreds of peasant volunteers who, though 
not actually encamped inside his earthworks, could be relied on 
to help massacre an enemy.  He had two thousand of the finest 
crossbowmen in Europe, he had a thousand armoured knights, 
many of them champions of great tournaments, and Sir Thomas 
Dagworth was coming with seven hundred men?  The town might 
contribute another hundred or two hundred, but even at their most 
hopeful the English could not muster more than a thousand men 
and Charles had four times that number.   They will come, gentle- 
men," he told his excited lords,  and they will die here.   
There were two roads on which they might approach.  One came 
from the west and it was the most direct route, but it led to the far 
side of the River Jaudy and Charles did not think Dagworth would 
use that road.  The other curled about the besieged town to approach   
from the south-east and that road led straight towards the largest 
of Charles's four encampments, the eastern encampment where 
he was in personal command and where the largest trebuchets 
pounded La Roche-Derrien's walls.   
 Let me tell you, gentlemen",  Charles stilled the amusement of 
his commanders,   what I believe Sir Thomas will do.  What I would 
do if I were so unfortunate as to be in his shoes.  I believe he will 
send a small but noisy force of men to approach us on the Lannion 
road",  that was the road that came from the west, the direct route   
-  and he will send them during the night to tempt us into believing 
that he will attack our encampment across the river.  He will expect 
us to reinforce that encampment and then, in the dawn, his real 
attack will come from the east.  He hopes that most of our army 
will be stranded across the river and that he can come in the dawn 
and destroy the three encampments on this bank.  That, gentlemen, 
is what he will probably attempt and it will fail.  It will fail because 
we have one clear, hard rule and it will not be broken!  No one 
leaves an encampment!  No one!  Stay behind your walls!  We fight 
on foot, we make our battle lines and we let them come to us.  Our 
crossbowmen will cut down their archers, then we, gentlemen, shall 
destroy their men-at-arms.  But no one leaves the encampments!  No 
one!  We do not make ourselves targets for their bows.  Do you 
understand?"   
The Lord of Chateaubriant wanted to know what he was sup- 
posed to do if he was in his southern encampment and there was 
a fight going on in another of the forts.   Do I just stand and watch?"   
he asked, incredulous.   
 You stand and watch," Duke Charles said in a steely voice.   You 
do not leave your encampment.  You understand?  Archers cannot 
kill what they cannot see!  Stay hidden!"   
The Lord of Roncelets pointed out that the skies were clear and 
the moon nearly full.   Dagworth is no fool," he went on,  and he'll 
know we've made these fortresses and cleared the land to deny 
them cover.  So why won't he attack at night?"   
 At night?"  Charles asked.   
 That way our crossbowmen can't see their targets, but the English 
will have enough moonlight to see their way across our entrench- 
ments."   
It was a good point that Charles acknowledged by nodding 
brusquely.   Fires," he said.   
 Fires?"  a man asked.   
 Build fires now!  Big fires!  When they come, light the fires.  Turn 
night into day!"   
His men laughed, liking the idea.  Fighting on foot was not how 
lords and knights made their reputations, but they all understood 
that Charles had been thinking how to defeat the dreaded English 
archers and his ideas made sense even if they offered little chance 
for glory, but then Charles offered them a consolation.   They will 
break, gentlemen," he said,  and when they do I shall have my 
trumpeter give seven blasts.  Seven!  And when you hear the trum- 
pet, you may leave your encampments and pursue them."  There 
were growls of approval, for the seven trumpet blasts would release 
the armoured men on their huge horses to slaughter the remnants 
of Dagworth's force.   
 Remember!"  Charles pounded the table once more to get his 
men's attention.   Remember!  You do not leave your encampment 
until the trumpet sounds!  Stay behind the trenches, stay behind 
the walls, let the enemy come to you and we shall win."  He nodded 
to show he was finished.   And now, gentlemen, our priests will 
hear confessions.  Let us cleanse our souls so that God can reward 
us with victory."   
Fifteen miles away, in the roofless refectory of a plundered and 
abandoned monastery, a much smaller group of men gathered.   
Their commander was a grey-haired man from Suffolk, stocky and 
gruff, who knew he faced a formidable challenge if he was to relieve 
La Roche-Derrien.  Sir Thomas Dagworth listened to a Breton knight 
tell what his scouts had discovered: that Charles of Blois's men 
were still in the four encampments placed opposite the town's four 
gates.  The largest encampment, where Charles's great banner of a 
white ermine flew, was to the east.   It is built around the windmill," 
the knight reported.   
 I remember that mill," Sir Thomas said.  He ran his fingers through 
his short grey beard, a habit when he was thinking.   That's where 
we must attack," he said, so softly that he could have been talking 
to himself.   
 It's where they're strongest," a man warned him.   
 So we shall distract them."  Sir Thomas stirred himself from his 
reverie.   John",  he turned to a man in a tattered mail coat,   take 
all the camp servants.  Take the cooks, clerks, grooms, anyone who 
isn't a fighter.  Then take all the carts and all the draught horses 
and make an approach on the Lannion road.  You know it?"   
 I can find it."   
 Leave before midnight.  Lots of noise, John!  You can take my 
trumpeter and a couple of drummers.  Make  em think the whole 
army's coming from the west.  I want them sending men to the 
western encampment well before dawn.   
 And the rest of us?"  the Breton knight asked.   
 We'll march at midnight," Sir Thomas said,  and go east till we 
reach the Guingamp road."  That road approached La Roche-Derrien 
from the south-east.  Since Sir Thomas's small force had marched 
from the west he hoped that the Guingamp road was the very last 
one Charles would expect him to use.   It'll be a silent march," he 
ordered,  and we go on foot, all of us!  Archers in front, men-at-arms 
behind, and we'll attack their eastern fort in the darkness."  By 
attacking in the dark Sir Thomas hoped he could cheat the cross- 
bowmen of their targets and, better still, catch the enemy asleep.   
So his plans were made: he would make a feint in the west and 
attack from the east.  And that was exactly what Charles of Blois 
expected him to do.   
 Night fell.  The English marched, Charles's men armed themselves 
and the town waited.   
   Thomas could hear the armourers in Charles's camp.  He could hear 
   their hammers closing the rivets of the plate armour and hear the 
    scrape of stones on blades.  The campfires in the four fortresses did 
   not die down as they usually did, but were fed to keep them bright 
   and high so that their light glinted off the iron straps that fastened 
   the frames of the big trebuchets outlined against the fires" glow.   
   From the ramparts Thomas could see men moving about in the 
   nearest enemy encampment.  Every few minutes a fire would glow 
   even brighter as the armourers used bellows to fan the flames.   
   A child cried in a nearby house.  A dog whined.  Most of Totesham's 
small garrison was on the ramparts and a good many of the towns- 
people were there too.  No one was quite sure why they had gone 
to the walls for the relief army had to be a long way off still, yet 
few people wanted to go to bed.  They expected something to happen 
and so they waited for it.  The day of judgement, Thomas thought, 
would feel like this, as men and women waited for the heavens to 
break and the angels to descend and for the graves to open so that 
the virtuous dead could rise into the sky.  His father, he remembered, 
had always wanted to be buried facing the west, but on the eastern 
edge of the graveyard, so that when he rose from the dead he would 
be looking at his parishioners as they came from the earth.   They 
will need my guidance," Father Ralph had said, and Thomas had 
made sure it had been done as he wished.  Hookton's parishioners, 
buried so that if they sat up they would look eastwards towards 
the glory of Christ's second coming, would find their priest in front 
of them, offering them reassurance.   
Thomas could have done with some reassurance this night.  He 
was with Sir Guillaume and his two men-at-arms and they watched 
the enemy's preparations from a bastion on the town's south-east 
corner, close to where the tower of Saint Barnabe's church offered a 
vantage point. The remnants of Totesham's giant springald had been 
used to make a rickety bridge from the bastion to a window in the 
church tower and once through the window there was a ladder 
that climbed past a gaping hole torn by one of the Widowmaker's 
stones to the tower parapet.  Thomas must have made the journey 
a half-dozen times before midnight because, from the parapet, it 
was just possible to see over the palisade into the largest of Charles's 
camps.  It was while he was on the tower that Robbie came to the 
rampart beneath.   I want you to look at this," Robbie called up to 
him, and flourished a newly painted shield.   You like it?"   
Thomas peered down and, in the moonlight, saw something red.   
 What is it?"  he asked.   A blood smear?"   
 You blind English bastard," Robbie said,  it's the red heart of 
Douglas!"   
 Ah.  From up here it looks like something died on the shield."   
But Robbie was proud of his shield.  He admired it in the moon- 
light.   There was a fellow painting a new devil on the wall in 
Saint Goran's church," he said,  and I paid him to do this."   
 I hope you didn't pay him too much," Thomas said.   
 You're just envious."  Robbie propped the shield against the para- 
pet before edging over the makeshift bridge to the tower.  He vanished through the window then reappeared at Thomas's side.   What   
are they doing?"  he asked, gazing eastwards.   
 Jesus," Thomas blasphemed, because something was at last hap- 
pening.  He was staring past the great black shapes of Hellgiver and 
Widowmaker into the eastern encampment where men, hundreds 
of men, were forming a battle line.  Thomas had assumed that any 
fight would not start until dawn, yet now it looked as though 
Charles of Blois was readying to fight in the night's black heart.   
 Sweet Jesus," Sir Guillaume, summoned to the tower's top, 
echoed Thomas's surprise.   
 The bastards are expecting a fight," Robbie said, for Charles's 
men were lining shoulder to shoulder.  They had their backs to   
the town and the moon glinted off the espaliers that covered the 
knights" shoulders and touched the blades of spears and axes white.   
 Dagworth must be coming."  Sir Guillaume said.   
 At night?"  Robbie asked.   
 Why not?"  Sir Guillaume retorted, then shouted down to one 
of his men-at-arms to go and tell Totesham what was happening.   
 Wake him up," he snarled when the man wanted to know what 
he should do if the garrison commander was asleep.   Of course he's 
not asleep," he added to Thomas.   Totesham might be a bloody 
Englishman, but he's a good soldier."   
Totesham was not asleep, but nor had he been aware that the 
enemy was formed for battle and, after he had negotiated the pre- 
carious bridge to Saint Barnabe's tower, he gazed at Charles's troops 
with his customary sour expression.  Reckon we'll have to lend a 
hand," he said.   
 I thought you didn't approve of sorties beyond the wall?"  Sir 
Guillaume, who had chafed under that restriction, observed.   
 This is the battle that saves us," Totesham said.   If we lose this 
fight then the town falls, so we must do what we can to win it."   
He sounded bleak, then he shrugged and turned back to the tower's 
ladder.   God help us," he said softly as he climbed down into the 
shadows.  He knew Sir Thomas Dagworth's relieving army would 
be small and he feared it would be much smaller than he dared   
imagine, but when it attacked the enemy encampment the garrison 
had to be ready to help.  He did not want to alert the enemy to the 
likelihood of a sortie from the battered gates and so he did not 
sound the church bells to gather his troops, but rather sent men   
through all the streets to summon the archers and men-at-arms to   
the market square outside Saint Brieuc's church. Thomas went back 
to Jeanette's house and pulled on his mail haubergeon, which 
Robbie had brought back from the Roncelets raid, then he strapped 
his sword belt in place, fumbling with the buckle because his fingers 
were still clumsy at such finicky things.  He hung the arrow bag on 
his left shoulder, slid the black bow out of its linen cover, put a 
spare boweord in his sallet, then pulled the sallet onto his head.  He 
was ready.   
And so, he saw, was Jeanette.  She had her own haubergeon and 
helmet and Thomas gaped at her.   You can't join the sortie!"  he 
said.   
 Join the sortie?"  She sounded surprised.   When you all leave the 
town, Thomas, who will guard the walls?"   
 Oh."  He felt foolish.   
She smiled, stepped to him and gave him a kiss.   Now go," she 
said,  and God go with you."   
Thomas went to the marketplace.  The garrison was gathering 
there, but they were desperately few in number.  A tavern-keeper 
rolled a barrel of ale into the square, tapped it and let men help 
themselves.  A smith was sharpening swords and axes in the light   
of a cresseted torch that burned outside the porch of Saint Brieuc's and 
his stone rang on long steel blades, the sound strangely mournful in 
the night. It was warm.  Bats flickered about the church and dipped 
into the tangled moon-cast shadows of a house ruined by a trebu- 
chet's direct hit.  Women were bringing food to the soldiers and 
Thomas remembered how, just the year before, these same women 
had screamed as the English scrambled into the town.  It had been 
a night of rape, robbery and murder, yet now the townsfolk did 
not want their occupiers to leave and the market square was becom- 
ing ever more crowded as men from the town brought makeshift 
weapons to help the foray.  Most were armed with the axes they 
used to chop their firewood, though a few had swords or spears, 
and some townsmen even possessed leather or mail armour.  They   
far outnumbered the garrison and would at least make the sally 
seem formidable.   
 Christ Jesus."  A sour voice spoke behind Thomas.   What in 
Christ's name is that?"   
Thomas turned and saw the lanky figure of Sir Geoffrey Carr 
staring at Robbie's shield, which was propped against the steps of 
a stone cross in the market's centre.  Robbie also turned to look at 
the Scarecrow who was leading his six men.   
 Looks like a squashed turd," the Scarecrow said.  His voice was 
slurred and it was evident he had spent the evening in one of the 
town's many taverns.   
 It's mine," Robbie said.   
Sir Geoffrey kicked the shield.   Is that the bloody heart of Douglas, 
boy?"   
 It's my badge," Robbie said, exaggerating his Scottish accent,  if 
that's what you mean.  Men all about had stopped to listen.   
 I knew you were a Scot," the Scarecrow said, sounding even 
more drunk,  but I didn't know you were a damned Douglas.  And 
what the hell is a Douglas doing here?"  The Scarecrow raised his 
voice to appeal to the assembled men.   Whose side is bloody Scot- 
land on, eh?  Whose side?  And the goddamn Douglases have been 
fighting us since they were spawned from the devil's own arsehole!"   
The Scarecrow staggered, then pulled the whip from his belt and 
let its coils ripple down.   Sweet Jesus," he shouted,  but his goddamn 
family has impoverished good Englishmen.  They're goddamn 
thieves!  Spies!"   
Robbie dragged his sword free and the whip lashed up, but Sir 
Guillaume shoved Robbie out of the way before the clawed tip 
could slash his face, then Sir Guillaume's sword was drawn and he 
and Thomas were standing beside Robbie on the steps of the cross.   
 Robbie Douglas," Sir Guillaume shouted,  is my friend."   
 And mine," Thomas said.   
 Enough!"  A furious Richard Totesham pushed through the 
crowd.   Enough!"   
The Scarecrow appealed to Totesham.   He's a damned Scot!"   
 Good God, man," Totesham snarled,  we've got Frenchmen, 
Welshmen, Flemings, Irishmen and Bretons in this garrison.  What 
the hell difference does it make?"   
 He's a Douglas!"  the Scarecrow insisted drunkenly.   He's an 
enemy!"   
 He's my friend!"  Thomas bellowed, inviting to fight anyone who 
wished to side with Sir Geoffrey.   
 Enough!"  Totesham's anger was big enough to fill the whole 
marketplace.   We have fight enough on our hands without be- 
having like children!  Do you vouch for him?"  he demanded of 
Thomas.   
 I vouch for him."  It was Will Skeat who answered.  He pushed 
through the crowd and put an arm about Robbie's shoulders.   I 
vouch for him, Dick."   
 Then Douglas or not," Totesham said,  he's no enemy of mine."   
He turned and walked away.   
 Sweet Jesus!"  The Scarecrow was still angry.  He had been impov- 
erished by the house of Douglas and he was still poor,  the risk he 
had taken in pursuing Thomas had not paid off because he had 
found no treasure,  and now all his enemies seemed united in 
Thomas and Robbie.  He staggered again, then spat at Robbie.   
 I burn men who wear the heart of Douglas," he said,  I burn 
them!"   
 He does too," Thomas said softly.   
 Burns them?"  Robbie asked.   
 At Durham," Thomas said, his gaze on Sir Geoffrey's eyes,  he 
burned three prisoners."   
 You did what?"  Robbie demanded.   
The Scarecrow, drunk as he was, was suddenly aware of the 
intensity of Robbie's anger, and aware too that he had not gained 
the sympathy of the men in the marketplace, who preferred Will 
Skeat's opinion to his.  He coiled the whip, spat at Robbie, and 
stalked uncertainly away.   
Now it was Robbie who wanted a fight.   Hey, you!"  he shouted.   
 Leave it be," Thomas said.   Not tonight, Robbie."   
 He burned three men?"  Robbie demanded.   
 Not tonight," Thomas repeated, and he pushed Robbie hard back 
so that the Scotsman sat on the steps of the cross.   
Robbie was staring at the retreating Scarecrow.   He's a dead 
man," he said grimly.   I tell you, Thomas, that bastard is a dead 
man.   
 We're all dead men," Sir Guillaume said quietly, for the enemy 
was ready for them and in overwhelming numbers.   
And Sir Thomas Dagworth was nearing their trap.   
John Hammond, a deputy to Sir Thomas Dagworth, led the feint 
that came from the west along the Lannion road.  He had sixty men, 
as many women, a dozen carts and thirty horses and he used them 
to make as much noise as possible once they were within sight of 
the westernmost of Duke Charles's encampments.   
Fires outlined the earthworks and firelight showed in the tiny 
slits between the timbers of the palisade.  There seemed to be a 
lot of fires in the encampment, and even more blazed up once 
Hammond's small force began to bang pots and pans, clatter staves 
against trees and blow their trumpets.  The drummers beat frantic- 
ally, but no panic showed on the earthen ramparts.  A few enemy 
soldiers appeared there, stared for a while down the moonlit road 
where Hammond's men and women were shadows under the trees, 
then turned and went away.  Hammond ordered his people to make 
even more noise and his six archers, the only real soldiers in his 
decoy force, went closer to the camp and shot their arrows over 
the palisades, but still there was no urgent response.  Hammond 
expected to see men streaming over the river that Sir Thomas's 
spies had said was bridged with boats, but no one appeared to be 
moving between the enemy encampments.  The feint, it seemed, 
had failed.   
 If we stay here," a man said,  they'll goddamn crucify us.   
 They goddamn will," Hammond agreed fervently.   We'll go 
back down the road a bit," he said, just a bit.  Back into deeper 
shadow."   
The night had begun badly with the failure of the feint assault, 
but Sir Thomas's men, the real attackers, had made better progress 
than they expected and arrived off the eastern flank of Duke 
Charles's encampment not long after the decoy group began its 
noisy diversion three miles to the west.  Sir Thomas's men crouched 
at the edge of a wood and stared across the felled land to the shape 
of the nearest earthworks.  The road, pale in the moonlight, ran   
empty to a big wooden gate where it was swallowed up by the 
makeshift fort.   
Sir Thomas had divided his men into two parties that would 
attack either side of the wooden gate.  There was to be nothing 
subtle in the assault, just a rush through the dark then a swarming 
attack over the earth wall and kill whoever was discovered on its 
farther side.   God give you joy," Sir Thomas said to his men as he 
walked down their line, then he drew his sword and waved his 
party on.  They would approach as silently as they could and Sir 
Thomas still hoped he would achieve surprise, but the firelight on 
the other side of the defences looked unnaturally bright and he had 
a sinking feeling that the enemy was ready for him.  Yet none 
showed on the embanked wall and no crossbow quarrels hissed in 
the dark, and so he dared to let his hopes rise and then he was at 
the ditch and splashing through its muddy bottom.  There were 
archers to left and right of him, all scrambling up the bank to the 
palisade.  Still no crossbows shot, no trumpet sounded and no enemy 
showed.  The archers were at the fence now and it proved more 
flimsy than it looked for the logs were not buried deeply enough 
and they could be kicked over without much effort.  The defences 
were not formidable, and were not even defended for no enemy 
challenged as Sir Thomas's men-at-arms splashed through the ditch, 
their swords bright in the moonlight.  The archers finished demol- 
ishing the palisade and Sir Thomas stepped over the fallen timbers 
and ran down the bank into Charles's camp.   
Except he was not inside the camp, but rather on a wide open 
space that led to another bank and another ditch and another pall- 
sade.  The place was a labyrinth!  But still no bolts flew in the dark 
and his archers were running ahead again, though some cursed 
as they tripped in holes dug to trap horses" hooves.  The fires were 
bright beyond the next palisade.  Where were the sentries?  Sir 
Thomas hefted his shield with its device of a wheatsheaf and looked 
to his left to see that his second party was across the first bank and 
streaming over the grass towards the second.  His own archers pulled 
at the new palisade and, like the first, it tumbled easily.  No one 
was speaking, no one was shouting orders, no one was calling on 
Saint George for help, they were just doing their job, but surely the 
enemy must hear the falling timbers? But the second palisade was   
down and Sir Thomas jostled with the archers through the new 
gap and there was a meadow in front and a hedge beyond it, and 
beyond that hedge were the enemy tents and the high windmill 
with its furled sails and the monstrous shapes of the two biggest 
trebuchets, all of them lit by the bright fires.  So close now!  And Sir 
Thomas felt a fierce surge of joy for he had achieved surprise and 
the enemy was surely his, and just at that moment the crossbows 
sounded.   
The bolts flickered in from his right flank, from an earth bank 
that ran between the second earthwork and the hedge.  Archers 
were falling, cursing.  Sir Thomas turned towards the crossbowmen 
who were hidden, and then more bolts came from the thick hedge 
in front and he knew he had surprised no one, that the enemy had 
been waiting for him, and his men were screaming now, but at 
least the first archers were shooting back.  The long English arrows 
flashed in the moonlight, but Sir Thomas could see no targets and 
he realized the archers were shooting blindly.   To me!"  he shouted.   
 Dagworth!  Dagworth!  Shields!"  Maybe a dozen men-at-arms heard 
and obeyed him, making a cluster who overlapped their shields 
and then ran clumsily towards the hedge.  Break through that, Sir 
Thomas thought, and at least some of the crossbowmen would be 
visible.  Archers were shooting to their front and their side, confused 
by the enemy's bolts.  Sir Thomas snatched a glance across the road 
and saw his other men were being similarly assailed.   We have to 
get through the hedge," he shouted,  through the hedge!  Archers!   
Through the hedge!"  A crossbow bolt slammed into his shield, half 
spinning him round.  Another hissed overhead.  An archer was twist- 
ing on the grass, his belly pierced by a quarrel.   
Other men were shouting now.  Some called on Saint George, others 
cursed the devil, some screamed for their wives or mothers. The 
enemy had massed his crossbows and was pouring the bolts out 
of the darkness.  An archer reeled back, a quarrel in his shoulder.   
Another screamed pitiably, hit in the groin.  A man-at-arms fell to 
his knees, crying Jesus, and now Sir Thomas could hear the enemy 
shouting orders and insults.   The hedge!"  he roared.  Get through 
the hedge, he thought, and maybe his archers would have clear 
targets at last.   Get through the hedge!"  he bellowed, and some of 
his archers found a gap closed up with nothing but hurdles and   
they kicked the wicker barriers down and streamed through.  The 
night seemed alive with bolts, fierce with them, and a man shouted 
at Sir Thomas to look behind.  He turned and saw the enemy had 
sent scores of crossbowmen to cut off his retreat and that new force 
was pushing Sir Thomas's men on into the heart of the encamp- 
ment.  It had been a trap, he thought, a goddamned trap.  Charles 
had wanted him to come into the encampment, he had obliged and 
now Charles's men were curling about him.  So fight, he told him- 
self, fight!   
 Through the hedge!"  Sir Thomas thundered.   Get through the 
damned hedge!"  He dodged between the bodies of his men, pounded 
through the gap and looked for an enemy to kill, but instead he 
saw that Charles's men-at-arms were formed in a battle line, all 
armoured, visors down and shields up.  A few archers were shooting 
at them now, the long arrows smacking into shields, bellies, chests 
and legs, but there were too few archers and the crossbowmen, 
still hidden by hedges or walls or pavises, were killing the English 
bowmen.   Rally on the mill!"  Sir Thomas shouted for that was the 
most prominent landmark.  He wanted to collect his men, form 
them into ranks and start to fight properly, but the crossbows were 
closing on him, hundreds of them, and his frightened men were 
scattering into the tents and shelters.   
Sir Thomas swore out of sheer frustration.  The survivors of the 
other assault party were with him now, but all of his men were 
entangled in the tents, tripping on ropes, and still the crossbow 
bolts slammed through the dark, ripping the canvas as they hurtled 
into Sir Thomas's dying force.   Form here!  Form here!"  he yelled, 
choosing an open space between three tents, and maybe twenty or 
thirty men ran to him, but the crossbowmen saw them and poured 
their bolts down the dark alleys between the tents, and then the 
enemy men-at-arms came, shields up, and the English archers were 
scattering again, trying to find a vantage point to catch their breath, 
find some protection and look for targets.  The great banners of 
the French and Breton lords were being brought forward and Sir 
Thomas, knowing he had blundered into this trap and been compre- 
hensively beaten, just felt a surge of anger.   Kill the bastards," he 
bawled and he led his men at the nearest enemy, the swords rang 
in the dark, and at least, now that it was hand to hand, the   
crossbowmen could not shoot at the English men-at-arms.  The 
Genoese were hunting the hated English archers instead, but some 
of the bowmen had found a wagon park and, sheltered by the 
vehicles, were at last fighting back.   
But Sir Thomas had no shelter and no advantage.  He had a small 
force and the enemy a great one, and his men were being forced 
backwards by sheer pressure of numbers.  Shields crashed on shields, 
swords hammered on helmets, spears came under the shields to 
tear through men's boots, a Breton flailed an axe, beating down 
two Englishmen and letting in a rush of men wearing the white 
ermine badge who shrieked their triumph and cut down still more 
men.  A man-at-arms screamed as axes hacked through the mail 
covering his thighs, then another axe battered in his helmet and 
he was silent.  Sir Thomas staggered backwards, parrying a sword 
blow, and saw some of his men running into the dark spaces 
between the tents to find refuge.  Their visors were down and they 
could hardly see where they were going or the enemy who came 
to kill them.  He slashed his sword at a man in a pig-snout helmet, 
backswung the blade into a shield striped yellow and black, took a 
step back to make space for another blow and then his feet were 
tangled by a tent's guy ropes and he fell backwards onto the canvas.   
The knight in the pig-snout helmet stood over him, his plate mail 
shining in the moon and his sword at Sir Thomas's throat.   
 I yield," Sir Thomas said hurriedly, then repeated his surrender 
in French.   
 And you are?"  the knight asked.   
 Sir Thomas Dagworth," Sir Thomas said bitterly and he held up 
his sword to his enemy who took the weapon and then pushed up 
his snouted visor.   
 I am the Viscount Morgat," the knight said,  and I accept your 
surrender."  He bowed to Sir Thomas, handed back his sword and 
held out a hand to help the Englishman to his feet.  The fight was 
still going on, but it was sporadic now as the French and Bretons 
hunted down the survivors, killed the wounded who were not 
worth ransoming and hammered their own wagons with crossbow 
bolts to kill the English bowmen who still sheltered there.   
The Viscount Morgat escorted Sir Thomas to the windmill where 
he presented him to Charles of Blois.  A great fire burned a few   
yards away and in its light Charles stood beneath the furled sails 
with his jupon smeared with blood for he had helped to break Sir 
Thomas's band of men-at-arms.  He sheathed his sword, still bloody, 
and took off his plumed helmet and stared at the prisoner who had 
twice defeated him in battle.   I commiserate with you," Charles said 
coldly.   
 And I congratulate your grace," Sir Thomas said.   
 The victory belongs to God," Charles said,  not to me," yet all the 
same he felt a sudden exhilaration because he had done it!  He had 
defeated the English field army in Brittany and now, as certain as 
blessed dawn follows darkest night, the duchy would fall to him.   
 The victory is God's alone," he said piously, and he remembered it 
was now very early on Sunday morning and he turned to a priest 
to tell the man to have a Te Deum sung in thanks for this great 
victory.   
And the priest nodded, eyes wide, even though the Duke had 
not yet spoken, and then he gasped and Charles saw there was 
an unnaturally long arrow in the man's belly, then another white- 
fledged shaft hammered into the windmill's flank and a raucous, 
almost bestial, growl sounded from the dark.   
For though Sir Thomas was captured and his army was utterly 
defeated, the battle, it seemed, was not quite finished.  
Dick Totesham watched the fight between Sir Thomas's men
and Charles's forces from the top of the eastern gate tower.  He
could not see a great deal from that vantage point for the palisades
atop the earthworks, the two great trebuchets and the windmill
obscured much of the battle, but it was abundantly clear that no
one was coming from the other three French encampments to help
Charles in his largest fortress.   You'd think they'd be helping each
other," he said to Will Skeat who was standing next to him.  
 It's you, Dick!"  Will Skeat exclaimed.  
 Aye, it's me, Will," Totesham said patiently.  He saw that Skeat
was dressed in mail and had a sword at his side, and he put a hand
on his old friend's shoulder.   Now, you're not going to be fighting
tonight, Will, are you?"  
 If there's going to be a scrap, Skeat said,  then I'd like to help."  
 Leave it to the young ones, Will," Totesham urged,  leave it to the
young ones.  You stay and guard the town for me.  Will you do that?"  
Skeat nodded and Totesham turned back to stare into the enemy's
camp.  It was impossible to tell which side was winning for the only
troops he could see belonged to the enemy and they had their
backs to him, though once in a while a flying arrow would flash a
reflection of the firelight as proof that Sir Thomas's men still fought,
but Totesham reckoned it was a bad sign that no troops were coming
from the other fortresses to help Charles of Blois.  It suggested the
Duke did not need help, which in turn suggested that Sir Thomas
Dagworth did and so Totesham leaned over the inner parapet.   Open
the gate!"  he shouted.  
It was still dark.  Dawn was two hours or more away, yet the moon was bright and the fires in the enemy camp threw a garish 
light.  Totesham hurried down the stairs from the ramparts while 
men pulled away the stone-filled barrels that had formed a barricade 
inside the gateway, then lifted the great locking bar that had not   
been disturbed in a month.  The gates creaked open and the waiting 
men cheered.  Totesham wished they had kept silent for he did not 
want to alert the enemy that the garrison was making a sortie, but 
it was too late now and so he found his own troop of men-at-arms 
and led them to join the stream of soldiers and townsmen who 
poured through the gate.   
Thomas went to the attack alongside Robbie and Sir Guillaume 
and his two men.  Will Skeat, despite his promise to Totesham, had 
wanted to come with them, but Thomas had pushed him onto the 
ramparts and told him to watch the fight from there.   You ain't fit 
enough, Will," Thomas had insisted.   
 If you say so, Tom," Skeat had agreed meekly, then climbed the 
steps.  Thomas, once he was through the gate, looked back and saw 
Skeat on the gate tower.  He raised a hand, but Skeat did not see 
him or, if he did, could not recognize him.   
It felt strange to be outside the long-locked gates.  The air was 
fresher, lacking the stench of the town's sewage.  The attackers 
followed the road which ran straight for three hundred paces before 
vanishing beneath the palisade which protected the timber plat- 
forms on which Heligiver and Widowmaker were mounted.  That 
palisade was higher than a tall man and some of the archers were 
carrying ladders to get across the obstacle, but Thomas reckoned 
the palisades had been made in a hurry and would probably topple 
to a good heave.  He ran, still clumsy on his twisted toes.  He expected 
the crossbows to start at any moment, but no bolts came from 
Charles's earthworks; the enemy, Thomas supposed, were occupied 
with Dagworth's men.   
Then the first of Totesham's archers reached the palisade and the 
ladders went up, but, just as Thomas had reckoned, a whole length 
of the heavy fence collapsed with a crash when men put their 
weight on the ladders.  The banks and palisades had not been built 
to keep men out, but to shelter the crossbowmen, but those cross- 
bowmen still did not know that a sortie had come from the town 
and so the bank was undefended.   
Four or five hundred men crossed the fallen palisade.  Most were 
not trained soldiers, but townsmen who had been enraged by the 
enemy's missiles crashing into their houses.  Their women and chil- 
dren had been maimed and killed by the trebuchets and the men 
of La Roche-Derrien wanted revenge, just as they wanted to keep 
the prosperity brought by the English occupation, and so they 
cheered as they swarmed into the enemy camp.   Archers!"  Totesham 
roared in a huge voice.   Archers, to me!  Archers!"   
Sixty or seventy archers ran to obey him, making a line just 
to the south of the platforms where the two biggest trebuchets 
were set.  The rest of the sortie were charging at the enemy who 
were no longer formed in their battle line, but had scattered into 
small groups who were so intent on completing their victory over 
Sir Thomas Dagworth that they had not been watching behind 
them.  Now they turned, alarmed, as a feral roar announced 
the garrison's arrival.   Kill the bastards!"  a townsman shouted in 
Breton.   
 Kill!"  An English voice roared.   
 No prisoners!"  another man bellowed, and though Totesham, 
fearful for lost ransoms, called out that prisoners must be taken, no 
one heard him in the savage roar that the attackers made.   
Charles's men-at-arms instinctively formed a line, but Totesham, 
ready for it, had gathered his archers and now he ordered them to 
shoot: the bows began their devil's music and the arrows hissed 
through the dark to bury themselves in mail and flesh and bone.   
The bowmen were few, but they shot at close range, they could 
not miss, and Charles's men cowered behind their shields as the 
missiles whipped home, but the arrows easily pierced shields and 
the men-at-arms broke and scattered to find shelter among the 
tents.   Hunt them down!  Hunt them down!"  Totesham released his 
- archers to the kill.   
Less than a hundred of Sir Thomas Dagworth's men were still 
fighting and most of those were the archers who had gone to ground 
in the wagon park.  Some of the others were prisoners, many were 
dead, while most were trying to escape across the earthworks and 
palisades, but those men, hearing the great roar behind them, 
turned back.  Charles's men were scattered: many were still hunting 
down the remnants of the first attack and those who had tried to   
resist Totesham's sortie were either dead or fleeing into shadows.   
Totesham's men now struck the heart of the encampment with the 
savagery of a tempest.  The townsmen were filled with rage.  There 
was no subtlety in their assault, just a lust for vengeance as they 
swarmed past the two great trebuchets.  The first huts they encoun- 
tered were the shelters of the Bavarian engineers who, wanting no 
part of the hand-to-hand slaughter that was finishing off the sur- 
vivors of Sir Thomas Dagworth's assault, had stayed by their billets 
and now died there.  The townsmen had no idea who their victims 
were, only that they were the enemy, and so they were chopped 
down with axes, mattocks and hammers.  The chief engineer tried 
to protect his eleven-year-old son, but they died together under a 
frenzy of blows, and meanwhile the English and Fleming men-at- 
arms were streaming past.   
Thomas had shot his bow with the other archers, but now 
he sought Robbie whom he had last seen by the two big tre- 
buchets.  Widowmaker had been winched down ready to launch 
its first missile in the dawn and Thomas stumbled over a stout 
metal spike that protruded a yard from the beam and acted as an 
anchor for the sling.  He cursed, because the metal had hurt his 
shins, then he climbed onto the trebuchet's frame and shot an 
arrow above the heads of the men slaughtering the Bavarians.   
He had been aiming at the enemy still clustered at the foot of 
the windmill and he saw a man fall there before the gaudy shields 
came up.  He shot again, and realized that his wounded hands were 
doing what they had always done and were doing it well, and so 
he plucked a third arrow from the bag and drove it into a firelit 
shield painted with a white ermine, then the English men-at-arms 
and their allies were climbing the hill and obscuring his aim so 
he jumped down from the trebuchet and resumed his search for 
Robbie.   
The enemy was defending the mill stoutly and most of Totesham's 
men had veered away into the tents where they had more hope of 
finding plunder.  The townsmen, their Bavarian tormentors killed, 
were following with bloody axes.  A man in plate armour stepped 
from behind a tent and cut at a man with a sword, folding him at 
the belly, and Thomas did not think, but put an arrow on the cord, 
drew and loosed.  The arrow went through the slit in the enemy's   
visor as cleanly as if Thomas had been shooting on the butts at 
home and moon-glossed blood, glistening like a jewel, oozed from 
the visor slits as the man fell backwards onto the canvas.   
Thomas ran on, stepping over bodies, edging past half-fallen tents.   
This was no place for a bow, everything was too cramped, and so 
he slung the yew stave on his shoulder and drew his sword.  He 
ducked into a tent, stepped over a fallen bench, heard a scream 
and twisted, sword raised, to see a woman on the ground, half 
hidden by bedding, shaking her head at him.  He left her there, 
went out into the firelit night and saw an enemy aiming a crossbow 
at the English men-at-arms who attacked the mill.  He took two 
steps and stabbed the man in the small of the back so that his victim 
arched his wounded spine and twisted and shook.  Thomas, dragging 
the sword free, was so appalled by the noise the dying man made 
that he hacked the blade down again and again, chopping at the 
fallen, twitching man to make him silent.   
 He's dead!  Christ, man, he's dead!"  Robbie shouted at him, then 
snatched at Thomas's sleeve and pulled him towards the mill and 
Thomas took the bow from his shoulder and shot two men wearing 
the white ermine badge on their jupons.  They had been trying 
to escape, running down the back side of the hill.  A dog streaked 
across the shoulder of the slope, something red and dripping in its 
jaws.  There were two great bonfires on the hill, flanking the mill, 
and a man-at-arms fell backwards into one, driven there by the 
strike of an English arrow.  Sparks exploded upwards as he fell, then 
he began to scream as his flesh roasted inside his armour.  He tried 
to scramble out of the flames, but a townsman thrust him back 
with the butt of a spear and laughed at the man's desperate squeals.   
The clash of swords, shields and axes was huge, filling the night, 
but in the strange chaos there was a peaceful area at the back of 
the windmill.  Robbie had seen a man duck through a small doorway 
there and he pulled Thomas that way.   He's either hiding or running 
away!"  Robbie shouted.   He must have money!"   
Thomas was not sure what Robbie was talking about, but he 
followed anyway; he just had time to sling his bow again and draw 
the sword a second time before Robbie smashed the door down 
with his mail-clad shoulder and plunged into the darkness.   Come 
here, you English bastard!"  he shouted.   
 You want to be killed?"  Thomas roared at him.   You're fighting 
for the goddamn English!"   
Robbie swore at that reminder, then Thomas saw a shadow to 
his right, only a shadow, and he swung his sword that way.  It 
clanged against another sword and Robbie was screaming in the 
dusty dark and the man was shouting at them in French and 
Thomas pulled back, but Robbie just slammed his sword down once, 
twice, and the blade chopped through bone and flesh and there 
was a crash as an armoured man fell onto the upper milistone.   
 What the hell was he saying to me?"  Robbie wanted to know.   
 He was trying to surrender."  A voice spoke from across the mill 
and Thomas and Robbie both spun towards the sound, their swords 
banging against the wooden tangle of joists, beams, cogwheels and 
axles, and then the unseen man called out again.   Whoa, boys, 
whoa!  I'm English."  There was a thump as an arrow struck the 
outside wall.  The furled sails tugged against their tethers and made 
the wooden machinery squeal and shudder.  More arrows thumped 
into the boards.   I'm a prisoner," the man said.   
 You're not now," Thomas said.   
 I suppose not."  The man climbed over the milistones and pushed 
open the door and Thomas saw he was middle-aged with grey hair.   
 What's happening?"  the man asked.   
 We're gralloching the devils," Robbie said.   
 Pray God you are.  The man turned and offered his hand to 
Robbie.   I'm Sir Thomas Dagworth, and I thank you both."  He drew 
his sword and ducked out into the moonlit night, and Robbie stared 
at Thomas.   
 Did you hear that?"   
 He said thank you," Thomas said.   
 Aye, but he said he was Sir Thomas Dagworth!"   
 Then maybe he was?"   
 So what the hell was he doing in here?"  Robbie asked, before 
taking hold of the man he had killed and, with much effort and 
the clank of armour against stone and timber, dragged him to the 
door where the fires offered light.  The man had discarded his helmet 
and Robbie's sword had split his skull, but under the gore there 
was the glint of gold and Robbie dragged a chain from beneath the 
man's breastplate.   He must have been an important fellow," Robbie   
said, admiring the gold chain, then he grinned at Thomas.   We'll 
split it later, eh?"   
 Split it?"   
 We're friends, aren't we?"  Robbie asked, then pushed the gold 
under his haubergeon before shoving the corpse back into the mill.   
 Valuable armour that," he said.   We'll come back when it's over 
and hope no bastard has stolen it."   
There was tangled, bloody horror in the encampment now.   
Survivors of Sir Thomas Dagworth's attack still fought, notably 
the archers in the wagon park, but as the town's garrison swept 
through the tents they released prisoners or brought other sur- 
vivors out of the dark places where they had been hiding.  Charles's 
crossbowmen, who could have stemmed the garrison's attack, were 
mostly fighting against the English archers in the wagon park.  The 
Genoese were using their huge pavises as shelters, but the new 
attackers came from behind and the crossbowmen had nowhere 
to hide as the long arrows hissed through the night.  The war bows 
sang their devil's melody, ten arrows flying to every quarrel shot, 
and the crossbowmen could not endure the slaughter.  They fled.   
The victorious archers, reinforced now by the men who had been 
among the wagons, turned back to the shelters and tents where a 
deadly game of hide and seek was being played in the dark avenues 
between the canvas walls, but then a Welsh archer discovered that 
the enemy could be flushed out if the tents were set on fire.  Soon 
there were smoke and flames spewing all across the encampment 
and enemy soldiers were running from the fires onto the arrows 
and blades of the incendiarists.   
Charles of Blois had retreated from the windmill, reckoning his 
position on the hill made him conspicuous, and he had tried to 
rally some knights in front of his own sumptuous tent, but an 
overwhelming rush of townsmen had swept those knights under- 
foot and Charles watched, appalled, as butchers, coopers, wheel- 
wrights and thatchers massacred their betters with axes, cleavers 
and reaping hooks.  He had hastily retreated into his tent, but now 
one of his retainers unceremoniously pulled him towards the back 
entrance.   This way, your grace."   
Charles shook off the man's hand.   Where can we go?"  he asked 
plaintively.   
 We'll go to the southern camp, sir, and bring men back to 
help."   
Charles nodded, reflecting that he should have ordered that him- 
self and regretting his insistence that none of his men leave their 
encampments.  Well over half his army was in the other three camps, 
all of them close by and all of them eager to fight and more than 
capable of sweeping this disorganized horde aside, yet they were 
obeying his orders and standing tight while his encampment was 
put to the sword.   Where's my trumpeter?"  he demanded.   
 Sir?  I'm here, your grace!  I'm here."  The trumpeter had miracu- 
lously survived the fight and stayed close to his lord.   
 Sound the seven blasts," Charles ordered.   
 Not here!"  a priest snapped and, when Charles looked offended, 
made a hasty explanation.   It will attract the enemy, your grace.   
After two blasts they'll be onto us like hounds!"   
Charles acknowledged the wisdom of the advice with a curt nod.   
A dozen knights were with him now and they made a formidable 
force in this night of fractured battle.  One of them peered from the 
tent and saw flames searing the sky and knew the Duke's tents 
would be fired soon.   We must go, your grace," he insisted,  we 
must find our horses."   
They left the tent, hurrying across the patch of beaten grass where 
the Duke's sentinels usually stood, and then an arrow flickered 
from the dark to glance off a breastplate.  Shouts were suddenly 
loud and a rush of men came from the right and so Charles retreated 
to his left, which took him back up the slope towards the firelit 
windmill, and then a shout announced that he had been seen and 
the first arrows slashed up the hill.   Trumpeter!"  Charles shouted.   
 Seven blasts!  Seven blasts!"   
Charles and his men, barred from reaching their horses, now had 
their backs against the mill's apron, which was stuck with scores 
of white-feathered arrows.  Another arrow spitted a man in the 
midriff, drilling through his mail, piercing his belly and the mail 
on his back to pin him to the mill's boards, then an English voice 
roared at the archers to stop shooting.   It's their Duke!"  the man 
roared,  it's their Duke!  We want him alive!  Stop shooting!  Bows 
down!"   
The news that Charles of Blois was cornered at the mill prompted   
a growl from the attackers.  The arrows stopped flying and Charles's   
battered, bleeding men-at-arms who were defending the hill stared   
down the slope to see, just beyond the light of the mill's two fires,   
a mass of dark creatures prowling like wolves.   God help us," a   
priest said in a scared voice.   
 Trumpeter!"  Charles of Blois snapped.   
 Sir," the trumpeter acknowledged.  He had found his instrument's 
mouthpiece mysteriously plugged by earth.  He must have fallen, 
though he did not remember doing so.  He shook the last of the soil 
out of the silver mouthpiece, then put the trumpet to his mouth 
and the first blast sounded sweet and loud in the night.  The Duke 
drew his sword.  He only had to defend the mill long enough for 
his reinforcements to come from the other camps and sweep this 
impertinent rabble into hell.  The second trumpet note rang out.   
Thomas heard the trumpet, turned and saw the flash of silver by 
the mill, then he saw the reflection of flamelight rippling off the 
instrument's bell as the trumpeter raised it to the moon for the 
third time.  Thomas had heard no order to stop shooting arrows and 
so he hauled his bow's cord back, twitched his left hand up a fraction 
and released.  The arrow whipped over the heads of the English 
men-at-arms and struck the trumpeter just as he took breath for 
the third blast and the air hissed and bubbled out of his pierced 
lung as he spilled sideways onto the turf.  The dark prowling things 
at the hill's base saw the man fall and suddenly charged.   
No help came to Charles from the three remaining fortresses.   
They had heard two trumpet blasts, but only two, and they reckoned 
Charles must be winning; besides, they had his strict and constantly 
repeated orders to stay where they were on pain of losing out when 
the conquered lands were distributed among the victors.  So they 
did stay, watching the smoke boil out of the flames and wondering 
what happened in the large eastern encampment.   
Chaos was happening.  This fight, Thomas reckoned, was like 
the attack on Caen: unpianned, disordered and utterly brutal.  The 
English and their allies had been keyed up, nervous, expecting 
defeat, while Charles's men had been expecting victory,  indeed 
they had gained the early victory,  but now the English nervousness 
was being turned into a maddened, bloody, vicious assault and the 
French and Bretons were being harried into terror.  A ragged clash   
sounded as the English men-at-arms slammed into Charles's men 
defending the windmill.  Thomas wanted to join that fight, but 
Robbie suddenly pulled at his mail sleeve.   Look!"  Robbie was 
pointing back into the burning tents.   
Robbie had seen three horsemen in plain black surcoats and with 
them, on foot, a Dominican.  Thomas saw the white and black robes 
and followed Robbie through the tents, trampling over a collapsed 
spread of blue and white canvas, past a fallen standard, running 
between two fires and then across an open space that whirled with 
smoke and burning scraps of flying cloth.  A woman with a dress 
half torn away screamed and ran across their path and a man 
scattered fire with his boots as he pursued her into a turf-roofed 
hut.  For a moment they lost sight of the priest, then Robbie saw 
the black and white robes again: the Dominican was trying to mount 
an unsaddled horse that the men in black surcoats held for him.   
Thomas drew his bow, let the arrow fly and saw it bury itself up 
to its feathers in the horse's breast; the beast reared up, yellow 
hooves flailing, and the Dominican fell backwards.  The men in 
black surcoats galloped away from the bow's threat and the priest, 
abandoned, turned and saw his pursuers and Thomas recognized 
de Taillebourg, God's torturer.  Thomas screamed a challenge and 
drew the bow again, but de Taillebourg ran towards some remain- 
ing tents.  A Genoese crossbowman suddenly appeared, saw them, 
raised his weapon and Thomas let the cord go.  The arrow slashed 
the man's throat, spilling blood down his red and green tunic.  The 
woman screamed inside the shelter, then was abruptly silenced as 
Thomas followed Robbie to where the Inquisitor had disappeared 
among the tents.  The door flap of one was still swinging and Robbie, 
sword drawn, thrust the canvas aside and ducked into what proved 
to be a chapel.   
De Taillebourg was standing at the altar with its white Easter 
frontal.  A crucifix stood on the altar between two flickering candles.   
The camp outside was an uproar of screams and pain and arrows, 
of horses whimpering and men shouting, but it was oddly calm in 
the makeshift chapel.   
 You bastard," Thomas said, drawing his sword and advancing on 
the Dominican,  you goddamn stinking turd-faced piece of priestly 
shit."   
Bernard de Taillebourg had one hand on the altar.  He raised the 
other to make the sign of the cross.   Dominus vobiscum," he said 
in his deep voice.  An arrow scraped over the tent's roof with a 
high-pitched scratching sound and another whipped through a side 
wall and span down behind the altar.   
 Is Vexille with you?"  Thomas demanded.   
 God's blessings on you, Thomas," de Taillebourg said.  He was 
fierce-faced, stern, eyes hard, and he made the sign of the cross 
towards Thomas, then stepped back as Thomas raised the sword.   
 Is Vexille with you?"  Thomas demanded again.   
 Can you see him?"  the Dominican asked, peering about the 
chapel, then smiled.   No, Thomas, he's not here.  He's gone into the 
dark.  He rode to fetch help and you cannot kill me."   
 Give me a reason, Robbie said,  because you killed my brother, 
you bastard."   
De Taillebourg looked at the Scotsman.  He did not recognize 
Robbie, but he saw the anger and offered him the same blessing 
he had given Thomas.   You cannot kill me," he said after he had 
made the sign of the cross,  because I am a priest, my son, I am 
God's anointed, and your soul will be damned through all time if 
you so much as touch me.   
Thomas's response was to lunge his sword at de Taillebourg's 
belly, forcing the priest hard back against the altar.  A man screamed 
outside, the sound faltering and fading, ending in a sob.  A child 
wept inconsolably, her breath coming in great gasps, and a dog 
barked frantically.  The light of the burning tents was lurid on the 
chapel's canvas walls.   You are a bastard," Thomas said,  and I don't 
mind killing you for what you did to me."   
 What I did!"  De Taillebourg's anger flared like the fires outside.   
 I did nothing!"  He spoke in French now.   Your cousin begged me 
to spare you the worst and so I did.  One day, he said, you would 
be on his side!  One day you would join the side of the Grail!  One 
day you would be on God's side and so I spared you, Thomas.  I left 
you your eyes!  I did not burn your eyes!"   
 I'll enjoy killing you," Thomas said, though in truth he was 
nervous of attacking a priest.  Heaven would be watching and the 
recording angel's pen would be writing letters of fire in a great 
book.   
 And God loves you, my son," de Taillebourg said gently,  God 
loves you.  And God chastises whom he loves."   
 What's he saying?"  Robbie interrupted.   
 He's saying that if we kill him," Thomas said,  our souls are 
damned."   
 Till another priest undamns them," Robbie said.   There ain't a 
sin done on earth that some priest won't absolve if the price is 
right.  So stop talking to the bastard and just kill him."  He advanced 
on de Taillebourg, sword raised, but Thomas held him back.   
 Where's my father's book?"  Thomas asked the priest.   
 Your cousin has it," de Taillebourg replied.   I promise you, your 
cousin has it."   
 Then where is my cousin?"   
 I told you, he rode away to fetch help," de Taillebourg said,  and 
now you must go too, Thomas.  You must leave me here to pray."   
Thomas almost obeyed, but then he remembered his pathetic 
gratitude to this man when he had ceased the torture, and the 
memory of that gratitude was so shaming, so painful, that he sud- 
denly shuddered and, almost without thinking, swung the sword 
at the priest.   
 No!"  de Taillebourg shouted, his left arm cut to the bone where 
he had tried to defend himself from Thomas's sword.   
 Yes," Thomas said, and the rage was consuming him, filling him, 
and he cut again and Robbie was beside him, stabbing with his 
sword, and Thomas swung a third time, but so lavishly that his 
blade got tangled with the tent roof.   
De Taillebourg was swaying now.   You can't kill me!"  he shouted.   
 I'm a priest!"  He screamed that last word and was still screaming as 
Robbie chopped Sir William Douglas's sword into his neck.  Thomas 
disentangled his own blade.  De Taillebourg, the front of his robes 
soaked with blood, was staring at him with astonishment, then the 
priest tried to speak and could not, and the blood was spreading 
through the weave of his robes with an extraordinary swiftness.  He 
fell to his knees, still trying to speak, and Thomas's sword blow 
took him on the other side of his neck, and more blood spurted 
out to slash drops across the white altar frontal.  De Taillebourg 
looked up, this time with puzzlement on his face, then Robbie's 
last blow killed the Dominican, tearing his windpipe out of his neck.      
Robbie had to leap back to avoid the spray of blood.  The priest 
twitched and in his death throes his left hand pulled the blood- 
drenched frontal off the altar, spilling candles and cross.  He made 
a rattling noise, twitched and was still.   
 That did feel good," Robbie said in the sudden dark as the candles 
went out.   I hate priests.  I've always wanted to kill one."   
 I had a friend who was a priest," Thomas said, making the sign 
of the cross,  but he was murdered, either by my cousin or by this 
bastard."  He stirred de Taillebourg's body with his foot, then stooped 
and wiped his sword blade clean on the hem of the priest's robes.   
Robbie went to the tent door.   My father reckons that hell is full 
of priests," he said.   
 Then there's one more on his way down there now," Thomas 
said.  He picked up his bow and he and Robbie went back into the 
dark where the screams and arrows laced the night.  So many tents 
and huts were now aflame that it might as well have been daylight 
and in the lurid glare Thomas saw a crossbowman kneeling between 
two picketed and terrified horses.  The crossbow was aimed up the 
hill to where so many English were fighting.  Thomas put an arrow 
on his cord, drew, and at the very last second, just as he was about 
to put the arrow through the crossbowman's spine, he recognized 
the blue and white wavy pattern on the jupon and he jerked his 
aim aside so that his arrow hit the crossbow instead and knocked 
it out of Jeanette's hands.   You'll get killed!"  he shouted at her 
angrily.   
 That's Charles!"  She pointed up the hill, equally angry with him.   
 The only crossbows are with the enemy," he said to her.   You 
want to be shot by an archer?"  He picked up her bow by its crank 
and tossed it into the shadows.   And what are you goddamn doing 
here?"   
 I came to kill him!"  she said, pointing again at Charles of Blois 
who, with his retainers, was warding off a desperate assault.  He 
had eight surviving knights with him and they were all fighting   
savagely even though they were hugely outnumbered and every 
one of them was wounded.  Thomas led Jeanette up the slope just   
in time to see a tall English man-at-arms hack at Charles who 
caught the blow on his shield and slid his own sword under its rim 
to stab the Englishman in the thigh.  Another man attacked and   
was slashed down by an axe, a third pulled one of Charles's retainers 
away from the mill and hacked at his helmet.  There seemed to be 
a score of Englishmen trying to reach Charles, smashing their shields 
into his retainer's weapons, thrusting swords and chopping with 
big war axes.   
 Give him room!"  an authoritative voice shouted.   Give him room!   
Back away!  Back away!  Let him yield!"   
The attackers reluctantly moved back.  Charles had his visor up 
and there was blood on his pale face and more blood on his sword.   
A priest was on his knees beside him.   
 Yield!"  a man shouted at the Duke, who seemed to understand 
because he impulsively shook his head in refusal, but then Thomas 
put an arrow on his cord, drew and pointed it at Charles's face.   
Charles saw the threat and hesitated.   
 Yield!"  another man shouted.   
Only to a man of rank!"  Charles called in French.   
 Who has rank here?"  Thomas called in English, then again in 
French.  One of Charles's remaining men-at-arms slowly collapsed, 
first to his knees, then onto his belly with a crash of plate armour.   
A knight stepped out of the English ranks.  He was a Breton, one 
of Totesham's deputies, and he announced his name to prove to 
Charles that he was a man of noble birth and then he held out his 
hand and Charles of Blois, nephew to the King of France and claim- 
ant of the Duchy of Brittany, stepped awkwardly forward and held 
out his sword.  A huge cheer went up, then the men on the hill 
divided to let the Duke and his captor walk away.  Charles expected 
to be given his sword back and looked surprised when the Breton 
did not make the offer, then the defeated Duke walked stiffly down 
the hill, ignoring the triumphant English, but suddenly checked for 
a black-haired figure had stepped into his path.   
It was Jeanette.   Remember me?"  she asked.   
Charles looked her up and down and flinched as though he had 
been struck when he recognized the badge on her jupon.  Then he 
flinched again when he saw the anger in her eyes.  He said nothing.   
Jeanette smiled.   Rapist," she said, then spat through his open 
visor.  The Duke jerked his head away, but too late, and Jeanette 
spat into his face again.  He shivered with anger.  She was daring 
him to strike her, but he restrained himself and Jeanette, unable   
to do the same, spat a third time.   Ver," she said scornfully and 
walked away to an ironic cheer.   
 What's ver?"  Robbie asked.   
 Worm," Thomas said, then smiled at Jeanette.   Well done, my lady."   
 I was going to kick his goddamn balls," she said,  but I re- 
membered he was wearing armour."   
Thomas laughed, then stepped aside as Richard Totesham ordered 
a half-dozen men-at-arms to escort Charles back into La Roche- 
Derrien.  Short of capturing the King of France, he was as valuable 
a captive as any to be had in the war.  Thomas watched him walk 
away.  Charles of Blois would now be joining the King of Scotland 
as England's prisoner and both men would have to raise a fortune 
if they wished to be ransomed.   
 It isn't finished!"  Totesham shouted.  He had seen the crowd of 
jeering men following the captured Duke and hurried to pull them 
away.   It isn't done!  Finish the job!"   
 Horses!"  Sir Thomas Dagworth called.   Take their horses!"   
The fight in Charles's encampment was won, but not ended.  The 
assault from the town had hit like a storm and driven clean through 
the centre of Duke Charles's carefully prepared battle line and what 
was left of his force was now split into small groups.  Scores were 
already dead, and others were fleeing into the darkness.   Archers!"   
a shout went up.   Archers to me!"  Dozens of archers ran to the back 
of the encampment, where the escaping French and Bretons were 
trying to reach the other fortresses, and the bows cut the fugitives 
down mercilessly.   
 Clean them out!"  Totesham shouted.   Clean them out!"  A rough 
kind of organization had emerged in the shambles as the garrison 
and the townsmen, augmented by the survivors of Sir Thomas 
Dagworth's force, hunted through the burning encampment to 
drive any survivors back to where the archers waited.  It was slow 
work, not because the enemy was making any real resistance, but 
because men were constantly stopping to pillage tents and shelters.   
Women and children were pulled out into the moonlight and their 
men were killed.  Prisoners worth a huge ransom were slaughtered 
in the confusion and darkness.  The Viscount Rohan was chopped 
down, as were the lords of Laval and of Chateaubriant, of Dinan 
and of Redon.   
A grey light glimmered in the east, the first hint of dawn.  Whim- 
pering sounded in the burned camp.   
 Finish them off?"  Richard Totesham had at last found Sir Thomas   
Dagworth.  The two men were on the encampment's ramparts from 
where they stared at the southern enemy fortress.   
 Can't leave them sitting there," Sir Thomas said, then held out 
a hand.   Thanks, Dick."   
 For doing my job?"  Totesham responded, embarrassed.   So let's   
scour the bastards out of the other camps, eh?"   
A trumpet called the English to assemble.   
Charles of Blois had told his men that an archer could not shoot 
a man he could not see, and that was true, but the men of the 
southern encampment, who formed the second largest portion of   
Charles's army, were crowding onto their outer rampart in an effort 
to see what was happening in the eastern encampment about the 
windmill.  They had lit fires to give their own crossbowmen illumi- 
nation, but those fires now served to outline them as they stood 
on the earth bank, which had no palisade, and the English archers, 
given such a target, could not miss.  Those archers were in the 
cleared ground between the encampments, shadowed by the loom 
of the long earthworks, and their arrows flickered out of the night 
to strike the watching French and Bretons.  Crossbowmen tried to 
shoot back, but they made the easiest targets for few of them pOssessed mail, and then, with a roar, the English men-at-arms were 
charging over the defences and the killing began again.  Townsmen, 
eager for plunder, followed the charge and the archers, seeing the 
earthwork stripped of defenders, ran to catch up.   
Thomas paused on the earth rampart to shoot a dozen arrows 
into the panicked enemy who had made this encampment where 
the English siege camp had stood the previous year.  He had lost 
sight of Sir Guillaume and, though he had told Jeanette to go back 
to the town, she was still with him, but now armed with a sword 
she had taken from a dead Breton.   You shouldn't be here!"  he 
snarled at her.   
 Wasps!"  she called back, and pointed to a dozen men-at-arms   
wearing the black and yellow surcoats of the Lord of Roncelets.   
The enemy here made small resistance.  They had been unaware   
of the disaster that had overcome Charles, and they had been sur- 
prised by the sudden assault from the darkness.  The surviving cross- 
bowmen now retreated panicking into the tents and the English 
again snatched brands from the great fires and hurled them onto 
the canvas roofs to flare bright and garish in the predawn darkness.   
The English and Welsh archers had slung their bows and were 
grimly working their way through the tent lines with axes, swords 
and clubs.  It was another slaughter, fuelled by the prospect of plunder, and some of the French and Bretons, rather than face the   
screaming mass of maddened men, took to their horses and fled 
east towards the thin grey light that now leaked a touch of red 
along the horizon.   
Thomas and Robbie headed for the men wearing Roncelets's 
waspish stripes.  Those men had attempted to make a stand beside 
a trebuchet that had the name Stonewhip painted on its big frame, 
but they had been outflanked by archers and now they and Thomas scabbarded his wet sword and unslung his bow before 
running into a big unburned tent that stood beside a pole flying 
the black and yellow banner and there, between a bed and an open 
chest, was the Lord of Roncelets himself.  He and a squire were 
scooping coins from the chest into small bags and they turned as 
Thomas and Robbie entered and the Lord of Roncelets snatched up 
a sword from the bed just as Thomas dragged back the boweord.   
IThe squire lunged at Robbie, but Thomas loosed the arrow and the 
squire jerked back as if tugged by a massive rope and the blood 
from the wound in his forehead pattered red on the tent roof.  The 
squire jerked a few times and then was still, and the Lord of Ronce- 
lets was still three paces from Thomas when the second arrow was 
placed on the string.   Come on, my lord," Thomas said,  give me a 
reason to send you to the devil."   
The Lord of Roncelets looked like a fighter.  He had short bristly 
hair, a broken nose and missing teeth, but there was no belligerence   
in him now.  He could hear the screams of defeat all about him, he 
could smell the burning flesh of the men trapped among the tents 
and he could see the arrow on Thomas's bow that was aimed at 
his face and he simply held out his sword in instant surrender.   You 
have rank?"  he asked Robbie.  He had not recognized Thomas and, any- 
way, presumed that any man carrying a bow had to be a commoner.   
Robbie did not understand the question, which had been asked 
in French, and so Thomas answered for him.   He's a Scottish lord," 
Thomas said, exaggerating Robbie's status.   
 Then I yield to him," Roncelets said angrily and threw his sword 
at Robbie's feet.   
 God," Robbie said, not understanding the exchange,  but he 
scared quick!"   
Thomas gently released the boweord's tension and held up the 
crooked fingers of his right hand.   It's a good job you surrendered," 
he told Roncelets.   Remember you wanted to cut these off?"  He 
could not help smiling as first recognition, then abject fear showed 
on Roncelets's face.   Jeanette!"  Thomas shouted, his small victory 
gained.   Jeanette!"  Jeanette came through the tent flap and with 
her, of all people, was Will Skeat.   What the hell are you doing 
here?"  Thomas demanded angrily.   
 You wouldn't keep an old friend from a scrap, would you, Tom?"   
Skeat asked with a grin and Thomas thought he could see his 
friend's true character in that grin.   
 You're an old fool," Thomas grumbled, then he picked up the 
Lord of Roncelets's sword and gave it to Jeanette.   He's our pris- 
oner," he said,  yours as well."   
 Ours?"  Jeanette was puzzled.   
 He's the Lord of Roncelets," Thomas said, and he could not help 
another smile,  and I've no doubt we can squeeze a ransom from 
him.  And I don't mean that cash",  he pointed at the open chest,  
 that's ours anyway."   
Jeanette stared at Roncelets and it slowly dawned on her that if 
the Lord of Roncelets was her prisoner then her son was as good 
as returned to her.  She laughed suddenly, then gave Thomas a kiss.   
 So you do keep your promises, Thomas."   
 And you keep good guard of him," Thomas said,  because his 
ransom is going to make us all rich.  Robbie, you, me and Will.   
We're all going to be wealthy."  He grinned at Skeat.   You'll stay 
with her, Will?  Look after him?"   
 I'll stay," Will agreed.   
 Who is she?"  the Lord of Roncelets asked Thomas.   
 The Countess of Armorica," Jeanette answered for him and 
laughed again when she saw the shock on his face.   
 Take him back to the town now," Thomas told them, and he 
ducked outside the tent where he found two townsmen searching 
for plunder among the nearest tents.   You two!"  he snapped at 
them,  you're going to help guard a prisoner.  Take him back to the 
town and you'll be well rewarded.  Guard him well!"  Thomas pulled 
the two men into the tent.  He reckoned the Lord of Roncelets could 
not escape if Jeanette, Skeat and the two men were watching him.   
 Just guard him," he told them,  and take him to your old house."   
This last was to Jeanette.   
 My old house?"  she was puzzled.   
 You wanted to kill someone tonight," Thomas said,  and you 
can't kill Charles of Blois, so why don't you go and murder Belas?"   
He laughed at the look on her face, then he and Robbie slammed 
down the chest lid and covered it with blankets from the bed in 
hope of hiding it for a few moments and then they went back to 
the fight.   
All through the flame-lit battle Thomas had caught glimpses of 
men in plain black surcoats and he knew that Guy Vexille must be 
nearby, but he had not seen him.  Now there were shouts and the 
clash of blades from the encampment's southern edge and Thomas 
and Robbie ran to see what the commotion was.  They saw that a 
group of horsemen in black surcoats were fighting off a score of 
English men-at-arms.   Vexille!"  Thomas shouted.   Vexille!"   
 It's him?"  Robbie asked.   
 It's his men, anyway," Thomas said.  He guessed his cousin had 
been in the eastern encampment with de Taillebourg and that he 
had come here in hope of bringing a relief force to Charles's aid, 
but he had been too late and now his men were fighting a rearguard 
battle to protect other men who were fleeing.   
 Where is he?"  Robbie demanded.   
Thomas could not see his cousin.  He shouted again.   Vexille!   
Vexille !"   
And there he was.  The Harlequin, Count of Astarac, armoured 
in plate, visor lifted, mounted on a black destrier and carrying a 
plain black shield.  He saw Thomas and raised his sword in an ironic 
salute.  Thomas unslung his bow, but Guy Vexille saw the threat, 
turned away and his horsemen closed protectively about him.   Vex- 
ille!"  Thomas yelled and he ran towards his cousin.  Robbie called a 
warning and Thomas ducked as a horseman swung a blade at him, 
then he pushed against the horse, smelling leather and sweat, and 
another horseman banged into him, almost throwing him off his 
feet.   Vexille!"  he bellowed.  He could see Guy Vexille again, only 
now his cousin was turning back, spurring towards him, and 
Thomas drew the boweord, but Vexille held up his right hand to 
show he had scabbarded his sword and the gesture made Thomas 
lower the black bow.   
Guy Vexille, his visor raised and his handsome face lit by the 
fires, smiled.   I have the book, Thomas."   
Thomas said nothing, but just raised the bow again.   
Guy Vexille shook his head in reproof.   No need for that, Thomas.   
Join me."   
 In hell, you bastard," Thomas said.  This was the man who had 
killed his father, had killed Eleanor, had killed Father Hobbe, and 
Thomas drew the arrow fully back and Vexille took a small knife 
that had been concealed in his shield hand and calmly leaned for- 
ward and cut the boweord.  The broken string made the bow jump 
violently in Thomas's hand and the arrow spewed away harmlessly.   
The cord had been cut so swiftly that Thomas had been given no 
time to react.   
 One day you'll join me, Thomas," Vexille said, then he saw that 
the English archers had at last noticed his men and were beginning 
to take their toll and so he turned his horse, shouted at his men to 
retreat and spurred away.   
 Jesus!"  Thomas swore in frustration.   
 Calix meus inebrians!"  Guy Vexille shouted, then he was lost 
among the horsemen galloping south.  A flight of English arrows 
followed them, but none struck Vexille.   
 Bastard!"  Robbie swore at the retreating figure.   
A woman's scream sounded from the burning tents.   
 What did he say to you?"  Robbie asked.   
 He wanted me to join him," Thomas said bitterly.  He threw away 
the slashed cord and took the spare from under his sallet.  His clumsy 
fingers fumbled as he restrung the bow, but he managed to do it 
on the second try.   And he said he's got the book."   
 Aye, well, much good that will bloody do him," Robbie com- 
mented.  The fight had died and he knelt by a black-dressed corpse 
and began searching for coins.  Sir Thomas Dagworth was shouting 
for men to assemble at the encampment's western edge to assault 
the next fortress where some of the defenders, realizing that the 
battle was lost, were already running away.  Church bells were ring- 
ing in La Roche-Derrien, celebrating that Charles of Blois had 
entered the town as a prisoner.   
Thomas stared after his cousin.  He was ashamed because one 
small part of him, one small and treacherous part, had been tempted 
to take the offer.  Join his cousin, be back in a family, look for the 
Grail and harness its power.  The shame was sour, like the shame 
of the gratitude he had felt towards de Taillebourg when the torture 
ceased.   Bastard!"  he yelled uselessly.   Bastard."   
 Bastard!"  It was Sir Guillaume's voice that cut across Thomas's.   
Sir Guillaume, with his two men-at-arms, was prodding a prisoner 
in the back with a sword.  The captive wore plate armour and 
the sword scraped on it with every prod.   Bastard!"  Sir Guillaume 
bawled again, then saw Thomas.   It's Coutances!  Coutances!"  He 
pulled off his prisoner's helmet.   Look at him!"   
The Count of Coutances was a melancholy-looking man, bald as 
an egg, who was doing his best to appear dignified.  Sir Guillaume 
poked him again.   I tell you, Thomas",  he spoke in French,   that 
this bastard's wife and daughters will have to whore themselves to 
raise this ransom!  They'll be swiving every man in Normandy to 
buy this gutless bastard back!"  He jabbed the Count of Coutances 
again.   I'm going to squeeze you witless!"  Sir Guillaume roared and 
then, exultant, marched his prisoner onwards.   
The woman screamed again.   
There had been many women screaming that night, but some- 
thing about this sound cut through Thomas's awareness and he 
turned, alarmed.  The scream sounded a third time and Thomas 
began to run.   Robbie!"  he shouted.   To me!"   
Thomas ran across the remnants of a burning tent, his boots   
throwing up sparks and embers.  He swerved round a smoking bra- 
zier, almost tripped on a wounded man who was vomiting into 
an upturned helmet, ran down an alley between armourers" huts 
where anvils, bellows, hammers, tongs and barrels full of rivets and 
mail rings were spilt on the grass.  A man in a farrier's apron with 
blood streaming from a head wound staggered into his path and 
Thomas shoved him aside to run towards the black and yellow 
standard that still flew outside the Lord of Roncelets's burning tent.   
 Jeanette!"  he called.   Jeanette!"   
But Jeanette was a prisoner.  She was being held by a huge man 
who had pressed her spine against the windlass of the trebuchet 
called Stonewhip that stood just beyond the Lord of Roncelets's 
tent.  The man heard Thomas shouting and looked round, grinning.   
It was Beggar, all beard and rotted teeth, and he shoved Jeanette 
hard as she struggled to escape him.   
 Hold her, Beggar!"  Sir Geoffrey Carr shouted.   Hold the bitch!"   
 The pretty ain't going anywhere," Beggar said,  going nowhere, 
darling," and he tried to haul up her coat of mail, but it was too 
heavy and awkward and Jeanette was struggling too frantically.   
The Lord of Roncelets, still without his sword, was sitting on 
Stonewhip's frame.  He had a red mark on his face, suggesting he 
had been struck, and Sir Geoffrey Carr with five other men-at-arms 
was standing over him.  The Scarecrow stared defiantly at Thomas.   
 He's my prisoner!"  he insisted.   
 He belongs to us," Thomas said,  we took him."   
 Listen, boy," the Scarecrow said, his voice still slurred by drink, 
 I am a knight and you are a turd.  You understand me?"  He staggered 
slightly as he stepped towards Thomas.   I am a knight," he said 
again, louder,  and you are nothing!"  His red face, made lurid by 
the flames, was twisted in derision.   You are nothing!"  he shouted 
again, then whipped round to make sure that his men were 
guarding the Lord of Roncelets.  Such a wealthy captive would solve 
all Sir Geoffrey's problems and he was determined to hold onto 
him and take the ransom for himself.   She can't take a captive," he 
said, pointing his sword at Jeanette,  because she's got tits, and you 
can't take him because you're a turd.  But I'm a knight!  A knight!"   
He spat the word at Thomas who, goaded by the insults, drew his 
bow.  The new string was slightly too long and he could feel the   
lack of power in the black stave because of it, but he reckoned 
there was enough strength for his purpose.  Beggar!"  the Scarecrow 
shouted,  if he looses that bow, kill the bitch."   
 Kill the pretty," Beggar said.  He was drooling spittle, which ran 
down his big beard as he stroked the mail rings above Jeanette's 
breasts.  She still fought, but he had her bent painfully back across 
the windlass and she could hardly move.   
Thomas kept the bow drawn.  The trebuchet's long beam, he saw, 
had been winched down to the ground though the engineers must 
have been interrupted before they could load a stone because the 
great leather sling was empty.  A heap of stones stood off to the 
right and a sudden movement there made Thomas see there was 
a wounded man leaning against the boulders.  The man was trying 
to stand, but could not.  There was blood on his face.   Will?"  Thomas 
asked.   
 Tom!"  Will Skeat tried to push himself upright again.   It's you, 
Tom!"   
 What happened?"  Thomas asked.   
 Not what I was, Tom," Skeat said.  The two townsmen who had 
been helping to guard the Lord of Roncelets were dead at Skeat's 
feet, and Skeat himself seemed to be dying.  He was white-faced, 
feeble and every breath was a struggle.  There were tears on his 
face.   I tried to fight," he said pitiably,  I did try, but I'm not what 
I was.   
 Who attacked you?"  Thomas asked, but Skeat seemed unable to 
answer.   
 Will was just trying to protect me," Jeanette shouted, then she 
screamed as Beggar thrust her back so hard that at last she was 
forced onto the top of the windlass and Beggar could push her 
mail skirts up.  He gabbled excitedly just as Sir Geoffrey roared in 
anger.   
 It's the Douglas bastard!"   
Thomas loosed the cord.  With a new boweord he liked to shoot 
a couple of arrows to discover how the new hemp would behave, 
but he had no time for such niceties now, he just loosed the arrow 
and it sliced through the tangles of Beggar's beard to cut his throat, 
the broad arrow head slitting his gullet as cleanly as a butcher's 
knife, and Jeanette screamed as the blood spurted across her jupon   
and face.  The Scarecrow bellowed in rage and ran at Thomas who 
rammed the horn-tipped bowstave into the red face then let the 
weapon fall as he drew his sword.  Robbie ran past him and thrust 
his uncle's sword at the Scarecrow's belly, but even drunk Sir Geof- 
frey was quick and he managed to parry the blow and strike back.   
Two of his men-at-arms were running to help,  the others were 
guarding the Lord of Roncelets,  and Thomas saw the two men 
coming.  He went to his left, hoping to put the big frame of 
Stonewhip between himself and the men wearing Sir Geoffrey's 
badge of the black axe, but Sir Geoffrey almost cut him off and   
Thomas gave a desperate backswing with his newly drawn sword 
that slammed against the Scarecrow's blade with a force that 
numbed Thomas's arm.  The blow rocked the Scarecrow back, then 
he recovered and leaped forward and Thomas was desperately 
defending himself as the Scarecrow rained blows down on him.   
Thomas was no swordsman and he was being beaten down to his 
knees and Robbie could not help him because he was fending off 
Sir Geoffrey's two followers, and then there was an almighty crash, 
a bang that sounded as though the gates of hell had just opened, 
and the ground shook as the Scarecrow screamed in utter agony.   
His howl, trailing blood, seared into the sky.   
Jeanette had pulled the lever that released the long beam.  Ten 
tons of counterweight had thumped to the ground and the thick 
metal pin that held the sling had jerked up between Sir Geoffrey's 
legs and torn a bloody hole from his crotch to his belly.  He should 
have been hurled halfway to the town by the trebuchet's beam, 
but instead the pin had been trapped in his entrails and he was 
caught on the beam's end where he writhed in agony, his blood 
pouring down to the ground.   
His men, seeing their master dying, stepped back.  Why fight for a 
man who could offer no reward?  Robbie gaped up as the Scarecrow 
twisted and jerked, and somehow the dying man managed to tear 
himself free of the great iron stake and he fell, trailing intestines 
and spraying blood.  He hit the ground with a thump, bounced 
bloodily, yet still he lived.  His eyes were twitching and his mouth 
was drawn back in a snarl.   Goddamn Douglas," he managed to 
gasp before Robbie stepped to him, lifted his uncle's sword, and 
rammed it down once, straight between the Scarecrow's eyes.   
The Lord of Roncelets had watched it all happen with disbelief.   
Now Jeanette was holding a sword to his face, daring him to run 
away, and he dumbly shook his head to show that he had no 
intention of risking his life among the drunken, screaming, savage 
men who had come out of the night to destroy the greatest army 
the duchy of Brittany had ever raised.   
Thomas crossed to Sir William Skeat, but his old friend was dead.   
He had been wounded in the neck and he had bled to death on 
the stone pile.  He looked strangely peaceful.  A first shaft of the new 
day's sun cut across the world's edge to light the bright blood at 
the top of Stonewhip's beam as Thomas closed his mentor's eyes.   
 Who killed Will Skeat?"  Thomas demanded of Sir Geoffrey's men 
and Dickon, the young one, pointed at the wreckage of mail, flesh, 
entrails and bone that had been the Scarecrow.   
Thomas inspected the dents in his sword.  He must learn to use 
one, he thought, or else he would die by the sword, then he looked 
up at Sir Geoffrey's men.   Go and help the attack on the next fort," 
he told them.  They stared at him.   Go!"  he snapped and, startled, 
they ran westwards.   
Thomas pointed his sword at the Lord of Roncelets.   Take him 
back to town," he told Robbie,  and guard him well."   
 What about you?"  Robbie asked.   
 I'm going to bury Will," Thomas said.   He was a friend."  He 
thought he must shed some tears for Will Skeat, but there were 
none.  Not now, anyway.  He sheathed the sword, then smiled at 
Robbie.   You can go home, Robbie."   
 I can?"  Robbie seemed puzzled.   
 De Taillebourg's dead.  Roncelets will pay your ransom to Lord 
Outhwaite.  You can go to Eskdale, go home, go back to killing 
Englishmen."   
Robbie shook his head.   Guy Vexille lives."   
 He's mine to kill."   
 And mine," Robbie said.   You forget he killed my brother.  I'm 
staying till he's dead."   
 If you can ever find him," Jeanette said softly.   
The sun was lighting the smoke of the burning encampments 
and casting long shadows across the ground where the last of 
Charles's army abandoned their earthworks and fled towards   
Rennes.  They had come in their great splendour and now they 
scuttled away in abject defeat.   
Thomas went to the engineers" tents and found a pickaxe, a 
mattock and a shovel.  He dug a grave beside Stonewhip and tipped 
Skeat into the damp soil and tried to say a prayer, but he could not 
think of one, and then he remembered the coin for the ferryman 
and so he went to the Lord of Roncelets's tent and pulled the 
charred canvas away from the chest and took a piece of gold and 
went back to the grave.  He jumped down beside his friend and put 
the coin under Skeat's tongue.  The ferryman would find it and 
know from the gold that Sir William Skeat was a special man.   God 
bless you, Will," Thomas said, then he scrambled out of the grave 
and he filled it in, though he kept pausing in hope that Will's eyes 
would open, but of course they did not and Thomas at last wept 
as he shovelled earth onto his friend's pale face.  The sun was up 
by the time he finished and women and children were coming from 
the town to look for plunder.  A kestrel flew high and Thomas sat 
on the chest of coins and waited for Robbie to return from the 
town.   
He would go south, he thought.  Go to Astarac.  Go and find his 
father's notebook and solve its mystery.  The bells of La Roche- 
Derrien were ringing for the victory, a huge victory, and Thomas 
sat among the dead and knew he would have no peace until he 
had found his father's burden.  Calix meus inebrians.  Transfer calicem 
istem a me.  Ego enim eram pincerna regis.   
Whether he wanted the job or not he was the King's cupbearer, 
and he would go south.   
The novel begins with the battle of Neville's Cross.  The name of 
the battle is derived from the stone cross that Lord Neville erected 
to mark the victory, though it is possible there was another cross 
already on the site which Lord Neville's memorial replaced.  The 
battle, fought by a large Scottish army against a small scratch force 
hastily assembled by the Archbishop of York and the northern lords, 
was a disaster for the Scots.  Their King, David II, was captured as 
described in Vagabond, trapped under a bridge.  He managed to knock 
out some of his captor's teeth, but then was subdued.  He spent a 
long time at Bamburgh Castle recovering from his facial wound, 
then was taken to London and put into the Tower with most of the 
other Scottish aristocracy captured that day, including Sir William 
Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale.  The two Scottish Earls who had 
previously sworn fealty to Edward were decapitated, then quar- 
tered, and the parts of their body displayed around the realm as a 
warning against treachery.  Later that year Charles of Blois, nephew 
to the King of France and would-be Duke of Brittany, joined David   
II in the Tower of London.  It was a remarkable double by the 
English who will, in another decade, add the King of France himself 
to the haul.   
The Scots invaded England at the request of the French to whom 
they were allied, and it is probable that David II truly believed 
England's army was all in northern France.  But England had fore- 
seen just this kind of trouble and certain northern lords were 
charged with staying at home and being ready to raise forces if the 
Scots ever marched.  The backbone of those forces was, of course, 
the archer, and this is the great age of English (and, to a lesser   
extent, Welsh) archery.  The weapon used was the longbow (a name 
that was coined much later) which was a yew bow at least six feet 
in length with a draw weight of over a hundred pounds (more than 
double the weight of modern competition bows).  It is a mystery 
why England alone could field armies of lethal archers who did, 
indeed, become kings of the European battlefield, but the likeliest 
answer is that mastery of the longbow was an English enthusiasm, 
practised as a sport in hundreds of villages.  Eventually laws were 
passed making archery practice obligatory, presumably because the 
enthusiasm was fading.  It was, certainly, an extraordinarily difficult 
weapon to use, requiring immense strength, and the French, though 
they tried to introduce the weapon into their ranks, never mastered 
the longbow.  The Scots were accustomed to these archers and had 
learned never to attack them on horseback, but in truth there was 
no answer to the longbow until firearms were deployed on the 
battlefield.   
Prisoners were important.  A great man like Sir William Douglas 
would only be released on payment of a vast ransom, though Sir 
William was given early parole to help negotiate the ransom of the 
King of Scotland and when he failed he dutifully returned to his 
imprisonment in the Tower of London.  The ransoms for men like 
Charles of Blois and King David II were massive and might take 
years to negotiate and raise.  In David's case the ransom was 
 66 OOO, a sum that has to be multiplied at least a hundred times 
to get even a rough approximation of its modern value.  The Scots 
were allowed to pay it in ten instalments and twenty noblemen 
had to be surrendered as hostages for the payment before David 
was released in 1357 by which time, ironically, his sympathies had 
become entirely pro-English.  Sir Thomas Dagworth was officially 
the captor of Charles of Blois and he sold him to Edward III for the 
much smaller sum of  3 5OO, but doubtless it was better to have 
that money in hand than wait while a larger ransom was collected 
in France and Brittany.  King David's captor had been an Englishman 
called John Coupland who also sold his prisoner to Edward, in 
Coupland's case for a knighthood and land.   
Charles's defeat at La Roche-Derrien is one of the great unsung 
English triumphs of the period.  Charles had faced archers before 
and had worked out, rightly as it happened, that the way to defeat   
them was to make them attack well-protected positions.  What the 
archer could not see he could not kill.  The tactic worked against 
Sir Thomas Dagworth's assault, but then came Richard Totesham's 
frenetic sortie from the town and, because Charles had insisted that 
the four parts of his army stay behind their protective earthworks, 
he was overwhelmed and the other parts of his army were then 
defeated in turn.  His defeat and capture were an immense shock 
to his allies, the French, who were failing to relieve the siege of 
Calais.  I must record my debt to Jonathan Sumption whose book, 
Trial by Battle, the first volume of his superb history of the Hundred 
Years War, was of particular use to me.  The errors in the novel are 
entir		ely mine, of course, though in the interests of lightening my 
post bag may I gently point out that Durham Cathedral only pOssessed two towers in 1347 and that I placed the Hachaliah reference 
in the book of Esdras, instead of in Nehemiah, because I was using 
the Vulgate and not the King James Bible.  
  
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