He quickly hurried along the paddock fence until he reached the place where the knights’ saddles were arranged on several poles. He searched until he found the saddle with the Greifenklaus’ arms. With his knife he began to work carefully on the belly band. The groom must not to notice anything when saddling the horse. That’s why Gero cut the strap at the seam on the underside, where the belly band was attached to the saddle. The strap would hold for a few jousts, he hoped, but when it broke both rider and saddle would fall off the horse.
Gero checked his work once again and quickly returned to his tent, unseen.
Chapter XII
Later than usual the next morning as Anna, Berbelin and an unusually quiet and bad-tempered Brother Thomas were sitting at breakfast, there was a sudden knock on the door. The knocking was so persistent that the three of them were alarmed and wondered why the unexpected visitor did not come in as the door was unlocked. Brother Thomas jumped up and pulled the door open, with Anna following right behind. It was Chassim’s groom, holding his horse by the reins. Anna recognised him immediately by his many freckles and got a fright when she saw him. He was totally out of breath, white as a sheet and so excited that he couldn’t manage to get a word out.
Brother Thomas addressed him: ‘What’s the matter with you, boy? What do you want?’
‘My master . . . he . . . he . . .’ stammered the groom at last, ‘my master sent me. You must come immediately.’
‘Who is your master?’ Brother Thomas asked but Anna was already pushing him away.
‘What happened to Sir Chassim?’ she asked trying to repress a sense of foreboding.
‘He is seriously injured and the army surgeon wants to amputate his leg!’ the groom burst out.
Anna and Brother Thomas exchanged a quick glance. There was no room for mistakes and they couldn’t afford to forget anything.
Anna asked: ‘How is your master injured?’
‘It’s his leg. During the joust he fell off his horse and fractured his leg. He has lost a lot of blood.’
‘We are coming. Wait for us, we are just going to get our horses.’
She ran to the treatment room where Brother Thomas was already gathering up the most essential items.
‘Take along the sleep sponges. And sufficient aqua vitae as well as bandages and dressing materials!’ she instructed him.
‘What about the bone saw?’ Brother Thomas asked and Anna stared at him for a moment as if he were responsible for Chassim’s accident. ‘If his leg has to be amputated . . .’ Brother Thomas added, almost apologetically lifting his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
‘Take it along,’ Anna said curtly. ‘And needles and threads in case we need to suture.’
She took her satchel from him and hurried on into the barn, saddling the horses as fast as she could. Brother Thomas followed to help.
Then he opened the barn door and they hurried off after the groom, who rode ahead. Having been taught well by Father Urban in the monastery, Anna was a competent rider, and she could keep up with the groom’s fast pace. At a full gallop they followed the city walls around to the tournament arena.
Anna’s thoughts chased each other as they rode. A terrible accident had taken place. She who the previous day had decided not to return to the tournament out of inexplicable defiance and because she had said ‘no’ to Chassim now blamed herself for not having been present with her medical equipment. If Chassim was as seriously injured as his groom claimed, every moment was precious. God only knew what the bungling army surgeon had already done to Chassim! She didn’t dare think of it. But then she chided herself, remembering that she had to stay calm at all costs. Things would be hectic around the tournament arena and all eyes would be on her. She couldn’t allow herself any weakness or mistake, if only for Chassim’s sake.
Glancing around she saw that Brother Thomas was far behind. Ahead of her she could see the tents and the stands. Onlookers who were in their way were chased by the groom who shouted, ‘Away with you! Get out of our way!’ People scattered, forming a path through which they finally reached the arena. Proceedings appeared to have been interrupted following Chassim’s accident and groups of spectators were standing around talking or gawking. The groom slowed down as they headed through the tents. He stopped in front of Chassim’s quarters and pointed to the entrance. Anna jumped off her horse and pushing the reins into the groom’s hand, grabbed her satchel and entered the tent.
Chassim was lying on a blood-stained couch. Anna saw immediately that his shin-bone was fractured. The injured leg lay at an unnatural angle with a bone fragment protruding through the skin and Chassim was moaning with pain. The army surgeon, a grey-bearded burly man who was standing behind Chassim’s head with his sleeves rolled up took the bowl with saws and forceps which was being handed to him through the back entrance of the tent. He had just cut away one leg of the trousers exposing the injured limb while the countess cooled her brother’s forehead with a damp cloth and held his hand.
All eyes were on Anna as she stood at the entrance looking around. The count was present and a handful of other noblemen whom she did not recognise. Anna briefly got a fright when first she saw Gero von Hochstaden standing there dressed in chain mail, his helmet under his arm.
The countess, with tears in her eyes, was the first to speak: ‘Thanks be to God, it’s you, medica. Can you please do something; my brother is in great pain!’
Anna nodded briefly, curtsied and crossed immediately to where Chassim lay and took his outstretched hand.
‘Medica,’ he moaned, ‘Medica. I fell off my horse.’
She almost burst into tears when she saw his wretched condition but she was here to bring him relief and help as quickly as possible. She leaned down saying in a firm voice: ‘I came as fast as I could, sir. Please conserve your energy and tell me if you are injured anywhere other than your leg?’
‘No,’ Chassim answered weakly. ‘I know it may not be possible any more to save my leg. Tell me the truth, medica. I have waited for your opinion though the army surgeon was ready to amputate.’
She nodded, straightened up and glared at the army surgeon who gave her a hostile stare and reached for the saw.
‘May I now with your gracious permission begin?’ he asked scornfully. ‘Or do you intend to wait until the count has bled to death?’
For a brief moment the tension in the tent was tangible. Everyone was waiting for the medica’s reply.
Anna looked around and announced calmly and firmly: ‘I thank you for coming to the count’s aid. But now I must entreat you noblemen to leave the tent. We need the space to treat him. Please leave, for Sir Chassim’s sake!’
It was very crowded in the tent. Nevertheless, what Anna had just asked for was outrageously arrogant given that most in the tent were people of rank. But she continued unperturbed: ‘The army surgeon can stay; I need to talk to him.’
Anna no longer cared what those present might think or say as she examined the gaping wound in Chassim’s lower leg and the bone that was sticking out. She briefly looked up when Brother Thomas burst in and stood at the entrance. Then, using her belt, she made a tourniquet which she put on Chassim’s thigh to stop the bleeding.
Regaining her composure first, the countess stood up.
‘The medica is right. I know her very well; she saved my life and she will know what to do. And I know that she will do her utmost.’ The last sentence she directed imploringly at Anna. ‘Please, gentlemen, follow me. We are of no help anyway. All is in God’s hands now.’
The countess leaned down to Anna and whispered into her ear: ‘Do everything in your power, medica, to save his leg.’
Then she spread her arms and directed the others out of the tent. Brother Thomas stepped aside to let the noblemen pass.
Anna squeezed Chassim’s hand and said: ‘You will very soon feel no more pain, but just sleep.’
She nodded to Brother Thomas who in no time at all had laid out on a cloth besi
de the couch everything necessary for the procedure. At the same time he shouted to the groom who had anxiously stuck his head in: ‘Bring me clean water, but quick!’
Anna now turned to the army surgeon who was playing provocatively with his saw waiting to see what she had to say.
‘So you are of the opinion that the lower leg needs to be amputated?’ she asked him.
He nodded. ‘Everybody who knows anything about this would advise you thus. Trust me, I have treated several such injuries. If the count hadn’t objected, his leg would long have been amputated and Sir Chassim would be over the worst. I’m telling you that the leg cannot be saved!’
‘I do not want to argue with you about this, army surgeon. Nor do I want to deny that you are much more experienced in this area than I am.’
She signalled to Brother Thomas that he should get everything ready for the procedure. Having just been handed a bowl of water by the groom, he held a prepared sleep sponge in his hand and was only waiting for Anna’s instruction. As soon as she nodded to him he soaked the sponge in water and then held it against the mouth and nose of the patient who was moaning and almost fainting with pain.
‘Breathe in deeply, Sir Chassim!’ he said and waited. The army surgeon was keen to follow what Brother Thomas was doing but Anna held his gaze. She knew that she could trust her infirmarius completely and did not want to let the army surgeon out of her sight.
Addressing him she said: ‘I ask you, is not the first duty of a medicus towards a man thus afflicted to do everything to save his leg? Or would you wish Sir Chassim to spend the rest of his life in a chair by the fire watching logs burn?’
Her voice had become loud and vehement, but the stubborn army surgeon would not give in. ‘Better to be sitting in a chair than dead. Your eminence has probably never heard of something called gangrene,’ he continued with sarcasm, ‘which will inevitably set in if you try to treat this open fracture. Sir Chassim will develop a fever and be dead within two weeks. I can assure you of one thing that during those two weeks he will damn you to Hell because he will be roaring with pain whenever he is not unconscious.’
‘That’s enough,’ Anna said to Brother Thomas whose progress she had been watching out of the corner of her eye. Brother Thomas removed the sleep sponge from Chassim’s face and threw it out of the tent. Then he prepared the aqua vitae.
‘Would you leave me your saw?’ Anna asked the army surgeon, holding out her hand. He handed it to her, surprised.
She checked its teeth and handed it to Brother Thomas saying, ‘It seems suitable for wood.’ She pointed to the numerous wooden lances in the corner. ‘Take as many as you need and saw them off in such a way that we can splint the leg.’
Brother Thomas set to work immediately while the army surgeon, red with rage, shook his head in disbelief and contempt.
‘Then let him go to the dogs for all I care!’ he said scornfully. ‘I do not want to have any part in this.’ With that he spat in front of both of them and left the tent.
Ignoring him, Anna had already started to clean Chassim’s wound carefully with a cloth dipped in aqua vitae. Brother Thomas, muttering something unintelligible, assisted her. Then they both inspected the wound more closely. The bleeding had stopped and Anna removed her belt from around Chassim’s thigh.
Brother Thomas said: ‘This is not a straightforward fracture, and what the surgeon said about gangrene is correct. If Sir Chassim develops a fever and gangrene, he is as good as dead.’
‘That much I know. But I also know that he expects us to try and do everything to save his leg.’
They looked at each other and finally Brother Thomas nodded.
‘Yes, perhaps you are right. Let’s try.’
The two worked together after they had washed their hands carefully in a light solution of aqua vitae. Brother Thomas immersed all the instruments in the full strength disinfectant before using them. Then Anna cleaned the wound of sand and small bone fragments, carefully removing splinter after splinter with a tweezers. Afterwards, as Brother Thomas dabbed away the blood, she enlarged the wound with the knife and inspected it carefully until every last grain and splinter was removed. The difficult part followed, during which the leg had to be set. Anna uttered a silent prayer of thanksgiving to Aaron for having taught her the use of the sleep sponge. This saved Chassim the inhuman pain that merely touching the open wound would have caused him and which he would have had to endure with nothing but a piece of wood between his teeth. Fortunately it was only the tibia and not also the calf bone that was fractured. Together and with extreme care Anna and Brother Thomas set the muscles, tendons and bones without causing more bleeding or further injury. The bone had fractured at an angle so that Anna managed to join and stabilise the fracture point by pushing together the two parts and wrapping them with strong animal sinews while Brother Thomas pulled the wound edges together with hooks. The shin bone would have to grow back together by itself, and of course Anna could not restore the parts that had splintered off. It was impossible to do more. Should the bone heal well, Chassim would likely limp for the rest of his days, but that was better than the initial prognosis. Anna sutured the gaping wound then dressed and bandaged it tightly with linen cloths. After that she stabilised the leg with four pieces of wood fashioned from the lances and tied together with strings.
When at last they had finished, Anna and Brother Thomas, quite exhausted, washed their hands and opened the flap over the entrance to let in some air. After checking Chassim’s breathing and heartbeat once more, Anna followed Brother Thomas outside.
It was slowly getting dark and there was a gentle refreshing breeze. There was nobody around as Anna shook Brother Thomas’s hand. ‘Thank you’, she said, ‘I couldn’t have managed without you’.
Brother Thomas sat down on a tree trunk and Anna sat next to him. Only now was it dawning on her what she had just done to Chassim and what responsibility she had incurred by so doing. She started slightly when Brother Thomas put his hand caringly on hers.
‘You’ve done good work,’ he said. ‘Nobody could have done more than that and now all we can do is wait.’ When he did not get an answer he looked at her carefully. ‘You are very fond of him, aren’t you?’
Anna swallowed. He had hit the mark. She had to pull herself together not to burst into tears hearing his unexpected question. But two tears did escape and she wiped them off hurriedly as she nodded hesitantly. It was unlikely she could hide her inner turmoil from Brother Thomas, even though she had always thought that he didn’t understand such things. He pulled out a clean cloth and handed it to her.
Cautiously the two young grooms who had been waiting approached.
Anna asked: ‘Were you present when the accident happened? Did you see it with your own eyes?’
The two boys exchanged an unsure glance before the one with the freckles replied.
‘Yes, we were both present at the joust. After all it was our task to hand the lances to our master. It happened during the last passage of arms. Our master would definitely have won if this hadn’t happened,’ he said with an embarrassed expression.
‘It was not our fault. Honestly it wasn’t. You must believe us, medica. We did everything as usual. I saddled the horse and re-checked everything carefully as I always do,’ the other one added in a tone of utter desperation.
‘Nobody is reproaching you. But tell me, what exactly happened?’ Anna asked encouragingly.
The freckled boy began again. ‘Our lord won all his jousts. Then came the last and decisive combat for the prize.’
‘Against whom did he have to fight?’
‘Against Baron Meinhard von Geldern.’
‘Who is that? Do I know him?’
‘He was in the tent earlier. The knight with the red beard. He was very worried about our master. But combat is combat and something like this can happen, our own master has said so himself.’
Though Anna had recognised Gero von Hochstaden the moment she had entered the tent,
she had not had time to spare him a thought. Why did he now call himself Baron Meinhard von Geldern? She couldn’t make any sense of it, but that was not important now. Or maybe it was? Had he perhaps also recognised her?
The groom continued: ‘They were riding towards each other and the baron struck our master in such a way that he was knocked from his horse, saddle and all. Then he just lay there unconscious. We ran to him immediately and saw that he was seriously injured.’
The other groom nodded affirmatively: ‘We fetched a stretcher and then brought him to his tent. The Count of Landskron ended the tournament and Meinhard von Geldern was declared the winner.’ He hesitated.
‘And then?’ Anna asked.
‘Well, when our master came to he was in terrible pain. The army surgeon hurried over but our master did not want to be treated by him and asked for you. When the Count von Landskron ordered me to inform you, I rode off immediately to fetch you. And you know the rest.’
Brother Thomas enquired again: ‘You say the saddle fell with him as Sir Chassim came off the horse? Had you not fastened the belly band properly?’
‘By all that is high and holy to me, sir: I fastened it as I always did and did not notice anything.’
Brother Thomas stood up. ‘Could we have a look at the saddle?’ he asked.
‘Certainly. Follow me,’ the groom said and went on ahead with Anna and Brother Thomas following.
The saddle was lying discarded on the ground behind the tent. Brother Thomas turned it over.
‘Baron von Geldern’s lance hit my master on the chest,’ the groom with freckles explained. ‘At the same moment the belly band must have snapped.’
The groom knelt down and showed them the broken strap. Anna and Brother Thomas inspected it carefully.
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