And who would have thought that getting wet with foul water would cause a pox that made a man’s chest hurt and made it hard for him to walk?
****** Commander George Courtenay.
Henry immediately galloped to the camp of the states’ forces to meet with Prince Ivan. They would spread the word about the sally and the coins that would be paid for weapons and prisoners. Richard went with him. It was then that I knew for sure that Henry thought the sally was important—because it was well known that he absolutely hated to ride aboard a horse and usually refused to do so. He said it always made his arse sore and rubbed it red.
I waited and watched until I saw my father get safely across the moat. Then I rode back to the Commandery with Nicholas to await the return of Michael Oremus and the coin chests he had been sent to fetch from the galley where they were stored. The chests were, of course, kept safely in the hold of a well-crewed galley in case we needed to make a fast getaway.
Michael had been accompanied by the entire strength of one of the galley companies to help him guard the coins. The company’s men were fresh and ready to go because it was one of the two companies that had remained behind to guard the gate whilst the others were off on their successful but ill-fated sally across the moat.
It was early in the afternoon of a very hot and tiring day. At first, whilst I was riding back to the Commandery in the sun, my clothes had steam rising from them, but now they were dry.
Eric appeared while I was waiting at the Commandery for the coins to arrive. He reported the city had been relatively quiet during the night. The die-hard Orthodox supporters of the Patriarch had switched their efforts to daytime attacks on people coming and going from the markets and the Latin churches. Some of the Empress’s own servants had been attacked.
******
Wagons carrying the coins, two of them, arrived at the Commandery about two hours before sundown. We immediately set off for the gate in the city’s inner wall that opened on to the road that ran through the states’ encampment. Henry and Prince Ivan had both said they thought it was important for the men to actually see the coins.
Once again a translator rode ahead and repeated his cries in both crusader French and Greek.
“Make way for the coins to pay for the captured weapons” … “Make way for the Empress’s Commander” … “Make way for the coins to pay for the captured weapons.” … “Make way….
Our arrival in the states’ encampment caused great excitement. It began as soon as we passed through the gate and entered the camp. That was no surprise since the coins and the terms had already been announced throughout the camp, as had the fact that they would soon be arriving for all to see and would be waiting at the sally gate tomorrow to immediately pay the returning salliers for the weapons and prisoners they brought in.
What was also interesting was that Henry now had the gate through the city’s inner wall being guarded by an entire galley company of archers. They were letting people into the camp of states’ forces, but allowing no one to leave it no matter how much they pleaded. There were also pairs of archers walking all along the top of the interior walls that penned in the states encampment and turned it into one long and narrow enclosure running for three or four miles all the way along the roadway from the gate in the outer city wall to the inner wall.
It did not take a longbow craftsman to understand why so many archers were at the gate and on the walls—Henry and Prince Ivan were trying to keep word of tomorrow’s sally from reaching the Greek army via its spies in the city.
Chapter Twenty-three
Good news and bad news.
“The excitement of the states’ men is understandable,” Henry said by way of greeting as I dismounted near the gate and the coin-carrying wagons came to a halt behind me. He had seen me waving to the people in the states’ camp and heard the cheering.
“Most of them are in the village levies and have never had a silver coin of their own in their entire lives. Ivan has announced that his men and all the others may keep any coins they receive for the weapons they bring in, and do not have to turn them over to their lords. And, get this, George, he said they can also keep the weapons and do whatever they want with them.
“Keeping both the weapons and the prize money is unheard of, and the men seem to believe him, probably because they want it to be true. As a result, the response of the states’ forces has been very encouraging. It looks to me that tomorrow’s sally is going to be stronger and much more aggressive than the one that went out this morning.”
I told him I agreed, at least about the enthusiasm of the men of the states’ forces. And I really did; it had taken an unexpectedly long time to bring the coins to the gate because of the enthusiastic response we received as we rode through the states’ camp with the coin chests.
And then Henry chuckled and leaned closer, and whispered in my ear.
“Prince Ivan told his men that the latest Greek arrivals brought wagons full of swords and spears for the men who are already here, and that they are on the other side of the Greek camp where he told them the Greek commander has his headquarters.
“Some of his knights are so anxious for coins they can use to buy land of their own that they plan to take wagons with them to carry back the weapons they intend to capture. He says the men of the other states’ forces are equally enthusiastic.”
I was surprised at what he told me and said as much.
“Ivan and the other princes are actually agreeable to letting their men keep the coins instead of demanding a share? And they are also going to let them keep the captured weapons as well? That surprises me.”
I made the comment with a question in my voice. And Henry had an answer.
“I do not know about the kings and princes of the Empire’s other states, but Prince Ivan is more interested in getting his hands on some disputed lands that a couple of other states are also claiming.”
Then he smiled and added something that sounded more believable.
“Besides, he thinks he will soon get the coins by increasing everyone’s taxes and selling some of the disputed lands to his knights so they can be lords over the lands and serve as buffers between his state and the others.
“He undoubtedly sees it as a win-win opportunity for everybody, and so do I.” Henry said it quite adamantly and waved his hands about to help make his point.
Henry smiled a very smug and knowing smile as he explained what Prince Ivan had told him about the facts of life in the Empire, the reality of its various kings and princes’ ambitions, and the great risks the rulers of its various states were willing to have their men to undertake to achieve the rulers’ goals.
“But what makes Ivan think he will get the disputed lands?” I asked Henry when he finished.
“Because I promised him that you and the Company would see that he got them if he contributed more to the Empress’s victory than any of her other princes.”
“Of course we will.” It was all I could think to say.
I was completely done in and said as much.
“It has been a long day and I am too exhausted to continue. I am going back to the Citadel for a good night’s sleep and, hopefully, to find a new tunic. I smell like the damn moat, which is no surprise since I went swimming in it.
“I used to think Brereton’s moat was the blackest and foulest in the world, from when I visited Chester with Uncle Thomas years ago to buy some ambler mares. But Constantinople’s foul moat has Brereton’s beat by a county mile and then some.”
Henry wrinkled his nose and agreed that a new tunic was a good idea—and that from a man who never bathed and never even took off his tunic until it was threadbare or a woman insisted.
******
It was whilst I was just finishing my talk with Henry that I first heard about my father. A messenger came from the Citadel informing me that my father was seriously poxed and the Empress’s personal physician had been summoned. The messenger knew nothing else.
“I wi
ll be back before dawn and make the final decision then,” I said as I swung aboard my horse and pointed at Nicholas.
“Nicholas, you are to place the coin wagons where I showed you and make sure the coins are heavily guarded all night long. Then return to the stables and get a good night’s sleep. Just make sure I am awake an hour before sunrise so we can ride back here before dawn.”
With that, I dug my heels into my horse’s side and started down the road with my horse guards following along behind me. We rode at the fastest gait possible, which was mostly not very fast at all because so many people were on the road and in the city streets. I did my best; I rode straight to the Citadel as fast as I could.
******
“Oh George, I am so worried. I do not want to lose him again.”
A tearful Empress greeted me with those chilling words and a brief hug when I rushed into the Citadel. She had gotten word of my imminent arrival and been waiting for me at the bottom of the steps. We hurried up the steps together.
My father was in the smaller room next to the Empress’s reception room. Her bedroom with its several entrance doors was immediately behind her reception room. The windowless room that was Empire’s treasury was behind her bedroom which had the only door by which the treasury could be entered. There was a door into her bedroom from the room where my father was being examined.
“I put him there so I could be close to him in case he needed me,” she explained as she gestured towards the room where he was being treated.
We started to enter my father’s room, but stopped immediately when one of the physicians in attendance held up the flat of one of his hands to warn us not to come in. He did so without even looking at us. We immediately stopped in the doorway.
I could see my father lying on his bed with his eyes closed. He was covered by a piece of linen and clearly had no clothes on under it. He was not moving and appeared to be either asleep or dead. The room was very warm from the heat of the day despite the wooden shutters on its two small wall openings being open. They would, of course, be closed at night when the air became dangerous.
The physician was a tall and gaunt man wearing a robe with all sorts of symbols and signs embroidered on it. He kept his eyes on my father as he spoke.
“The foul smell that causes the chest pox is still in the room from his body and clothes, so it is too dangerous for you to enter. My assistant and I have bathed him and cut his hair to remove as much as possible of the dangerous smells clinging to it, and I have given him a potion to help him sleep. There is no need to bleed him, and I do not recommend it for such a pox. Potions mixed by an expert and lots of sleep are always much better for the chest pox.”
“What did you say caused it?” I asked because I was not sure that I had heard the physician correctly. His crusader French was not the best.
“The foul smells of the moat water he stood in are almost certainly what caused the sudden onset of the painful pox inside his chest and arm. It happens when men breathe such smells for too long. Mostly it strikes older men with great pains in their chests and arms and shortness of breath.
“You are younger, but, even so, if you were near enough to smell your father after he was wet with moat water, you should change your clothes and rub the smell off your body with wet rags. And you should trim off as much of your hair as possible as the smell is known to linger there.”
A cold chill gripped me and made my arms prickle. My God! I was in the moat for hours and went all the way under. Everyone can smell it on me. Even Henry commented on it.
******
The physician started to tell me that he would come to my room and tell me more about my father’s condition in a few minutes. I hardly heard him; I had already turned around and was rushing down the Citadel’s long hallway towards my sleeping room at the other end of the hall.
As I did, I began calling for clean water and rags, “and a tunic, any tunic.” Then something suddenly struck me as I was jogging towards my room; did the Empress just say lose him again?
There was one of the Empress’s servants standing at the top of the stairs. It was his duty station where he waited to be given orders. As I hurried past him, I ordered him to run and get me a bowl of water and some rags. Immediately after I got into my room I began pulling my tunic over my head and once again shouted for water and rags.
It was already dark but I had had no trouble finding my way to my room because the hall candles were lit, as were both of the candles in my room.
Elizabeth must have heard me shouting and seen that I had left the door open, for she came in without knocking a few moments after the water and rags arrived. She gaped at me when she saw me standing there holding a wet rag and wearing nothing except my wrist knives.
“Get out, you damn fool,” I shouted at her. “Do you want to catch the chest and arm pox like my father? Save yourself; go to your room and light candles to kill the smell?”
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped open and she put her hands to her mouth in shocked surprise. A moment later she spun around and rushed out of the room.
I know, I know. Women rarely catch it. But I was tired and needed a good night’s sleep.
By the light of the hallway candles I saw Nicholas hurrying down the hall towards my room as Elizabeth went flying out the door and passed him going in the other direction. Nicholas looked serious and worried about something. I did not give him a chance to tell me what was on his mind.
“Nicholas,” I shouted. “The Empress’s physician says the smell of foul moat water can cause the painful chest pox that kills men if they smell it too strongly for too long. That means you and I are both at risk, and so are all the men who waded through the moat water to get back from the attack.
“So here is what I want you to do—you are to immediately go to the stables and stand in one of the horse troughs to wash your legs until the smell of the moat is gone. Then, to be sure, I want you to throw away your tunic if the moat-smell is on it.
“But on your way back to the stables, I want you to tell the captain of my guards that he is to ride along the wall telling each galley company’s captain that he and every one of his men who got wet with moat water must throw away their tunics if their tunics smell; and they are to use rags and good water wash off the smell of the moat off their bodies.
“Also tell the captain of the guards to send his lieutenant and a wagon to our galleys to raid their slop chests for new tunics. He is to take a new tunic to every man who walked in the moat water. He will need at least four hundred.”
Nicholas eyes widened in alarm at the terrible news, and he left at a run without telling me why he had come from the stables to see me. And, with that, I blew out the candles, gave a good scratch around my bollocks, and climbed on to my bed to sleep naked in the heat.
And then I cursed and put both my feet back on the floor—I had to wait for the physician.
******
The physician showed up a few minutes later. He was a Greek. That surprised me even though Greek physicians are well known to be the best. We were, after all, fighting with a Greek army and the Greek-gobbling people of the city had risen against us. But if the Empress trusted him, then so would I.
His name was Andreas something or other and he came straight to the point.
“I cannot stay long because I must return to your father. My diagnosis has not changed. He is suffering from the painful, and often fatal, chest and arm pox caused by particularly foul smells. I understand he spent hours wading in the waters of the outer moat so his sad condition is no surprise.
“On the other hand, there is reason to be hopeful. His death is not certain because I may have gotten my potions into him in time. They are very rare and expensive, but they offset the effects of the foul smells if they are administered soon enough. I used all I had because the Empress said I was to spare no expense.”
I thanked him for his efforts, and then started to ask him if other smells such as those a man makes when he eats bad cheese ca
n cause the chest pox. But then I decided against it. He was a physician so his fee was undoubtedly already too high.
Chapter Twenty-four
To sally or not to sally; that was the question.
There were no pains in my chest or arm the next morning when Nicholas rapped on my door to wake me. It was about an hour and a half before the first light of dawn. I immediately inquired about my father and was pleased to learn that he was still alive after a quiet night and would likely survive if he did not suffer a relapse. The family luck was still holding and I felt much better because I had gotten a good night’s sleep.
Nicholas, as had become our custom, had stopped at the Citadel’s kitchen to pick up bread and cheese that we could eat as we rode off to wherever we were bound. This time we ate as we rode to meet Henry at the gate from which the states’ forces would almost certainly launch their second sally in as many days.
The early morning darkness was pleasantly cool and we talked as we rode. I asked about the distribution of the tunics, and then, after I nodded my appreciation at what I had been told, inquired as to if he had heard anything at the stables about the Alchemist and his work on the ribaldis. That is when I finally heard the sad news about the alchemist’s betrothed and her mother—there would be no wedding; the girl and her mother had been killed by rioters yesterday as they walked home from the market.
“Aron is absolutely distraught, Commander. “He is overbalanced with more anger and despair than I have ever seen in a man. James Howard fears for him and so do I.”
******
Our ride to the sally gate though the city’s quiet streets in the moonlight took us to the one remaining usable gate in the inner defensive wall on the landward side of the city. We passed through the gate and immediately entered another world; the totally awakened camp of the state’s forces. There was much more activity than usual for this time of day. Cooking fires were being lit and people were moving about everywhere in the moonlit darkness.
The Alchemist's Revenge Page 17