by Paul Doherty
Monsieur Simon also brought me food, some clothes and a psalter, as well as a copy of Joinville’s Chronicle of the Crusades. He refused to tell me what was happening in Paris.
Weeks passed. Looking out of the window, an arrow slit aperture, I watched the frost harden, the trees shed their leaves. One night Monsieur Simon came to see me. He asked how I was, said my imprisonment would soon be over and that tomorrow morning he would take me out. I was roused before dawn. The room was freezing cold, the small charcoal brazier had long smoked itself to ash and the candles had guttered to blackened wicks.
‘Quick, quick.’ Monsieur Simon gestured. ‘Quick, quick, come!’
I dressed swiftly. The merchant gave me a heavy robe with a deep cowled hood.
‘Wear that,’ he ordered.
We went down the stairs and broke our fast in the scullery on a bowl of steaming oatmeal and some watered ale served by the sleepy-eyed maid. We left the house, slipping into the alleyway. I recalled the night I fled here. Now the streets were fairly deserted. I glimpsed certain images as we hurried along. A cowled Capuchin priest, preceded by little boys swinging a lantern and ringing a bell, carried the viaticum in a pyx to someone at death’s door. Beggars cried for alms. Cripples slouched on the icy steps of churches, clacking-dishes out, pale, pinched faces pleading for mercy. A group of roisterers staggered by, bellies full of ale, mouths spitting curses. A prostitute in a tawny gown, an orange wig on her balding head, shouted abuse from a doorway. Monsieur Simon, grasping my arm, hurried me on. Every so often he would pause to ensure the hood and cowl were pulled close over my head. We entered the main thoroughfare. Doors were opening, stalls being laid out. The stench was rich, a mixture of saltpetre strewn to cover the odours from emptied cesspots, and piles of rotting vegetables heaped in corners.
‘Monsieur Simon,’ I murmured, ‘where are we going?’
‘Shut up,’ he urged. ‘Keep your face hidden.’
We turned and twisted. Eventually I recognised the thoroughfare leading down to Montfaucon, the execution place, the slaughteryard of Paris. Crowds were already thronging. Monsieur Simon approached the men-at-arms guarding the path. He whispered to a serjeant, coins changed hands, and we were allowed a place close to the road. I could see the entrance to the Maison des Filles de Dieu. The good nuns were already clustered on the steps, goblets of wine in their hands. Somewhere close, a beggar boy chanted a death carol, ‘La mort de vie’, his dirge deepening my sombre mood.
The crowds grew quickly, more people spilling out on to the thoroughfare, eager to catch a glimpse of what was going to happen. The blast of a trumpet cut through the morning air, followed by the dull beat of the tambours. I strained my neck, peering over the guards. The heralds came first in their blue and silver tabards, trumpets blowing, drums rattling; behind them lines of men-at-arms, steel helmets glistening. A company of royal archers followed, leading the execution carts, the hangman and his assistants dressed in black leather tunics, red masks concealing their faces. The tumbril they sat in was full of their torture implements as well as the ladders, ropes, and chains used to hang their victims. This was followed by another cart. Six grey figures huddled there. I found it difficult to breathe, my heart racing, stomach lurching. I wanted to be sick. I knew who was in that cart! It approached slowly, wheels creaking, the oxen pulling it being guided by a red-masked executioner who kept cutting the air with his whip. The cart drew alongside. I slipped through the guards and, like others, grabbed the side of the tumbril as if I enjoyed studying the faces of men about to die. They all looked the same, dressed in soiled robes, feet bare, their faces masks of injuries, bruises, welts and cuts, beards and hair a tangled mess. They reeked of the prison, the filth and mud they had squatted in for weeks.
‘Monsieur,’ I gasped. A man inside the cart lifted his face and I gazed into Uncle Reginald’s eyes. They were dulled; his nose was strangely twisted and swollen; a bruise on his right cheek had blossomed purple and ripe.
‘Uncle,’ I whispered.
He shook his head. ‘Vengeance is mine, said the Lord,’ he hissed. ‘Remember that, Mathilde, vengeance is His.’ I caught the foul stench of his body then, with surprising strength, he pushed me away as if I was a tormentor. I staggered back. Monsieur Simon caught me by the arm and pulled me away. I stood and watched the execution carts reach the gibbet of Montfaucon soaring above the deep pit beneath. The executioners scrambled like monkeys up the ladders. The ropes were fixed, the nooses hung. Once ready, the prisoners were hustled from the cart and up the ladders. These were taken away and the bodies danced in the air, as the victims, strangling in their nooses, fought for breath. I felt ice cold, as if all my blood, all my humours had frozen. I can’t remember how Uncle died. All I saw were six men perform that danse macabre, before falling silent, heads down, feet slightly swinging, as death gave them blessed relief.
Monsieur Simon dragged me away, pushing me ahead of him back down the streets to his house. When we reached it, he took me into his comfortable solar. Tapestries and paintings adorned the walls, its floorboards, polished to gleaming, were covered with thick Turkey rugs, whilst a fire roared in the mantled hearth. He led me to a stool, brought me a cup of posset and sat next to me, shaking his head, whispering under his breath. I allowed my body to thaw even as I tried to curb the rage boiling within me.
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘I have told you why. Philip of France lusts after the wealth of the Templars. The knights themselves he does not need. They all face charges of sorcery, wizardry, sodomy, idolatry, as well as crimes I’ve never even heard of!’
He let me stay near the fire most of that morning. I remember studying the triptych on the wall which celebrated the martyrdom and glory of St Agnes. Strange, isn’t it, how God works His secret purposes? I would see that painting again in a place I least expected. For the rest I warmed myself and wept. I wept for what I had seen and for what I had lost. I wept for my uncle and raged at Philip of France. My anger didn’t subside; I just grew weary. Monsieur Simon called his steward and maid. They brought up a chair and the good merchant moved me, like a mother would her child, to huddle there, shrouding me in a woollen robe. Afterwards he crouched beside me, whispering his warnings. How I was to keep my name changed and do exactly what he said.
‘And what is that?’ I asked sleepily, wearily. I recognised the goodness of this man; hard-headed, sharp and acquisitive, nevertheless Monsieur Simon had kept his promise to my uncle.
‘The best place to hide you,’ the mercer’s face creased into a smile, ‘is where no one will look: the royal household! I have friends. I have, how can I put it, people who owe me money. In return for a favour, such debts will be cancelled.’ He paused. ‘You must leave France, Mathilde, and never return. It’s best for both of us.’
‘But how?’ I stirred in my chair, my sleepiness forgotten, the pain of seeing my uncle hang now dulled by the drugged wine this merchant had given me. ‘How can I leave France, where do I go? My life is here. My mother is little more than a peasant woman.’ I laughed. ‘What help can she provide? What assistance can you give, Monsieur Simon?’
‘Listen now.’ He brought the stool closer. ‘As I said, the best place for you to hide is the one place they will never look, the royal household. No, no, listen.’ He lifted a hand. ‘I know members of the retinue of Charles de Valois, the king’s brother. I will discharge their debts in return for a favour. You know Edward of England?’
I shrugged. ‘A warrior king,’ I replied. ‘My uncle talked of his wars against the Welsh somewhere to the west and against the Scots in the north.’
‘A warrior king,’ Monsieur Simon agreed. ‘I have met Edward of England on many an occasion as I have . . .’ He paused, as if checking himself. ‘Anyway, many years ago, during the reign of Pope Boniface VIII, Edward of England was trapped by Philip of France. Gascony, the great wine fields around Bordeaux, still belonged to the English. Philip, through trickery, occupied it. Edward, busy in his own wars, h
ad to swear to Pope Boniface that his eldest son, also named Edward, would marry Philip’s infant daughter Isabella. At the same time Edward of England, a widower, agreed to marry Philip’s whey-faced, pale-skinned sister Margaret; that marriage went ahead, a treaty was sealed and Gascony was restored to the English. Edward of England, however, did not wish to marry what he calls his Prince of Wales, his heir apparent, to a French princess. Do you know why?’
I shook my head.
‘Philip of France dreams other dreams,’ Monsieur Simon whispered. ‘That one day he will become the new Charlemagne of Europe. He has three sons, Louis, Philippe and Charles. He has married them, or he intends to marry them, to the heiresses of Burgundy so as to take that rich land back within the fiefdom of the crown of France. The same is true of Gascony. In the marriage treaty Philip has stipulated that one grandson will sit on the throne of the Confessor at Westminster; another will become Duke of Gascony. You see the plan, sooner or later, preferably sooner rather than later: Gascony will be brought under Philip’s rule, while he will control his grandson the English heir, first through the marriage of Isabella and secondly because any fruit of that union will be his kinsman.’ Monsieur Simon spread his hands. ‘Peter Dubois, Philip’s own lawyer, has seen France’s future, a kingdom with natural borders: the sea in the west, mountains to the south, the Rhine to the east.’
‘And the northern principalities?’ I asked. ‘Flanders, Brabant, Hainault?’
‘Weak,’ Monsieur Simon retorted. ‘To be taken by conquest. Only Philip found to his cost that it is not as easy as he thinks.’
I nodded in agreement. Five years earlier, France’s finest armies, its massed chivalry, had been humiliatingly defeated by Flemish pikemen at Courtrai.
‘But Philip still dreams on.’ Monsieur Simon was talking as if to himself. ‘Edward of England died last July near the Scottish border, still determined to bring that kingdom under his rule. His heir apparent, the Prince of Wales, Edward of Caernarvon, is not of the same mould as his father; he’s a courtier, a poet. He broke off the war with Scotland and hastened south to the fleshpots of London and the loving embraces of his close friend Peter Gaveston, a Gascon, the son of a witch or so they say. Whatever the truth, young Edward loves Gaveston more than anyone in the world.’
‘Yet he is to be married to Isabella?’
‘Two problems have flourished like weeds.’ Monsieur Simon winked at me. ‘Edward of Caernarvon refuses to believe the allegations against the Templars.’
My heart warmed to this prince I’d never met.
‘That came as a surprise to Philip,’ Monsieur Simon whispered. ‘But the second was an even greater insult. Edward of Caernarvon seems, how can I put it, most unwilling to fulfil the obligations of the treaty and marry Philip’s daughter Isabella.’
‘And what has that to do with me?’
‘Oh, everything.’ Monsieur Simon stared down at the floor, lost in his own thoughts. ‘I know that,’ he whispered. ‘Truly I do, the machinations of princes. In the end,’ he lifted his head, ‘Edward of Caernarvon is a weakling. He is playing games. Sooner or later he will succumb to Philip’s demands. The Templars of England will be arrested, the order destroyed. More importantly, Edward of Caernarvon will do what Philip of France says. He will marry Isabella, either in France or in England, but that marriage will take place. Now I’ve been to that mist-strewn island with its rough-tongued people. Philip of France wishes to organise a household for his young daughter, to accompany her to England. In many ways it will mean exile for life. As you can imagine, Mathilde, very few are eager to join her.’
‘And I am to go with her?’
The merchant tapped me gently on the cheek.
‘It’s the safest place for you. The persecution of the Templars will continue. Philip will ask for lists to be drawn up. It’s only a matter of time before some sharp-eyed lawyer, scrutinising such lists, wonders where your uncle’s niece Mathilde de Ferrers disappeared to. They will want you. You’ve just reached your twentieth year; more importantly, you’re associated with the Temple, however lowly your status might be. Marigny and other royal ministers will interrogate you. Do you hold any of its wealth? Do you know where any is hidden? Do you know the whereabouts of other Templars? Did you carry any messages? Do you have any information? Mathilde, your uncle was a high-ranking officer; you are valuable. You could be used, tortured to provide false evidence. Oh, don’t worry, searches will be made, but by then, God willing, you’ll be gone.’
‘To England?’ I gasped. ‘With the Princess Isabella?’ I pulled myself up in my chair and, try as I might, I couldn’t stop the shivering, as if suffering from a sudden attack of the ague. The logs crackled, flames burst out, sparks rose, black dust floated up. The voices in the house sounded hollow. I was standing at a crossroads. I could, if I wanted, get up from that chair, step out from that house and return to my mother’s farm. Yet I would only bring the terror with me. When the royal serjeants came, they wouldn’t care about a solitary woman or her daughter too stupid enough not to flee.
Monsieur Simon seized my wrist; surprisingly strong, he squeezed tightly.
‘That is all I can do for you, Mathilde. To stay here is dangerous. To return to your mother even more of a hazard. You’ve seen enough of Paris, Mathilde! Do you want to become a beggar, join the Coquillards roaming the Latin Quarter? Waiting for the day when you’ll be arrested for a brawl, some crime or felony? You too will take the cart to Montfaucon. Or will some pimp seize you as his whore? I must have your decision, yes or no?’
I’d rolled the dice. I’d made my choice. ‘I have to go,’ I whispered. ‘And the only way is what you describe.’
‘Good.’ Monsieur Simon heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Tomorrow morning you leave.’ Then he added in a mysterious whisper, ‘Before my next guest arrives.’
I was roused before dawn. Servants clattered up the stairs with pails of hot water, followed by others carrying Monsieur Simon’s heavy tub. I was told to strip, to wash carefully and dress in the sombre clothes Monsieur Simon had brought: blue hose, soft leather boots from Spain, linen undergarments, a dark blue gown with a waistband which had a concealed fold for a dagger and a ring for my hand.
‘A gift,’ Monsieur Simon explained.
Finally a heavy dark-brown cloak fastened round the neck with a silver clasp. Monsieur Simon also provided a money belt with little pouches sewn along the edge, each crammed with silver coins.
‘I would like to say this is also a gift from me.’ He shook his head. ‘The wealth was your uncle’s. You have it now. I can give you nothing else. Remember, you are Mathilde de Clairebon, distant kinsman of Monsieur Simon de Vitry. Look,’ he urged, coming up close and peering up at me, ‘I’ve studied you, Mathilde. You have a ready ear and a quick tongue!’ He smiled. ‘Your knowledge of physic, herbs and potions is truly remarkable. Your uncle also told me you know Italian, you can speak the Norman French of the court; it’s only a matter of time before you study English, learn their customs, adopt their ways.’
‘What will I be?’
‘What the Princess Isabella decides. You will be introduced as a demoiselle de chambre.’
Chapter 2
Perfidy reigns and Malice is engendered.
‘A Song of the Times’, 1272-1307
I breakfasted, the last time I ate in that house, and left. Monsieur de Vitry carried the panniers containing all I possessed. Advent was approaching; sprigs of green festooned doorposts close to where the lantern horns glowed on their hooks. Horses dragging huge logs plodded along the streets. A water-seller, a gaunt figure, shouted briskly at the top of his voice, about how he sold the purest water from the clearest spring. A man on the corner cooked hot pies on the stove he’d set up well away from the watchful eye of beadles and market bailiffs. Glimpses of life I’d never forget. We hurried down cobbled streets, shop signs creaking in the bitterly cold breeze. We passed a church; on its steps a choir of young scholars were singing lustily about the V
irgin giving birth to a royal child. I still felt sleepy, as if walking through a dream.
We crossed bridges and on to the causeway leading to the royal palace close by the church of La Sainte Chapelle. Men-at-arms milled about; a group of mailed knights clattered by. Under the yawning, gaped-mouth gatehouse, Brabantine mercenaries, the nose guards of their helmets almost hiding their faces, stopped us. Passes were produced and we continued on, up cobbled track-ways, through another gateway and into the maze of tunnels and passages which connected one palace building to another; a dizzyingly changing place, soaring turrets, crenellated walls, steps which seemed to lead nowhere. Mist swirled like smoke from a cauldron, cloaking the servants hurrying by. The smell of the stables, dung and wet straw, mingled with the sweet odours from the kitchens and butteries. We crossed rutted yards and baileys where the palace folk thronged around steaming pots. Butchers hacked at carcasses, their tables flowing with blood which drove the roaming dogs frenetic with excitement. Smiths, armourers, carpenters and masons filled the air with the clamour of their work-places. Women washed laundry, ostlers exercised horses. A madman, locked by his feet in the stocks, pretended to be a priest celebrating mass. So witless; the fellow ignored the three corpses dangling from a nearby gibbet pole. I glanced away as hideous memories blossomed. A great hangman, King Philip! I later learnt how his favourite punishment was to hang court malefactors from the branches of the apples trees in his orchard.
We went inside, along dark passages. Meagre candles glowed, lanterns hanging on chains glimmered like beacon lights. Guards stood everywhere, lances poised. The deeper we went into the palace, the more luxurious the surroundings became: tiled floors, whitewashed walls decorated with paintings, elaborate crucifixes, cloths of gold and resplendent tapestries. The sweet smell of perfumed sandalwood and costly incense became more noticeable. The guards here weren’t mercenaries but knight bannerets wearing the blue and gold livery of the royal household. They stood at the entrance to doorways or at the foot of polished staircases, swords drawn. Time and again they stopped us. Time and again Monsieur Simon produced his letters and warrants. Eventually we reached the royal quarters, where a chamberlain greeted us in the hallway. The floor was of black and white tiles, the walls covered in tapestries depicting glorious white swans on silver lakes where the rushes sprouted a vivid green. I studied these as Monsieur Simon explained our presence. The chamberlain looked askance at me, tapping his white wand of office against his shoulder as if he was inspecting a bundle of cloth. He pulled a face.