The Knowledge Stone

by Jack McGinnigle

  As the Head Stableman spoke, the Judge’s irritation turned to anger: ‘Is this all you have to say? You are wasting my time.’

  The Head Stableman paused for a second and then spoke again: ‘Learned Judge, there is one other matter I must bring to your attention. When the horse threw the Master’s daughter upon the ground, there were two stable workers present in the yard, the boy and an older stable hand. The one caught the distressed horse and calmed it while the other went to the aid of the Master’s daughter.’

  The Judge interrupted loudly: ‘Yes, yes, – and that’s when the attack on the girl took place …’

  ‘Learned Judge, the boy said it was he who caught the horse while the man went to the aid of the Master’s daughter. The man confirmed that this was the case. There were many other witnesses there when they both said this, some of whom are here in the Court today.’ Many loud cries of agreement came from the Citizens’ Enclosure.

  The Judge snorted loudly and his voice became very strident: ‘Well, then, it’s obvious; it must have been the older man who attacked …’ His voice faltered and stopped as he realised the implication of what he had just said.

  Utter silence filled the Courtroom. The Head Stableman’s voice shattered this silence as he said quietly: ‘But it is the stable boy that you have before you, Learned Judge …’

  These words opened wide the floodgates of human tumult. Within a split second, the Courtroom was filled with the solid, deafening noise of many outraged voices, each shouting as loudly as they could. The Judge was clearly confused, paralysed, head lowered and staring blindly at his papers as he tried to decide what to do. How could he bring this troublesome case to closure? How could he recover the situation without loss of face?

  A blessed intervention came with a folded paper which was passed up to him by one of the Court Officers. He opened it and read the words: “I have no objection to lenience.” The paper was marked with the Master’s seal. The Judge looked across at the Master and the Master nodded. Much relieved, the Judge began the difficult process of restoring order. This took many minutes but gradually, order and quiet were restored to the room.

  The Judge then looked around the Court with baleful eyes: ‘This is my verdict. The boy is guilty of the crime. I have his confession here. This is his punishment for the crime. At midday today, he will receive fifty lashes at the Whipping Post in the Town Square and then he will be placed in the Standing Stocks until midday tomorrow. I was going to imprison him for ten years with hard labour but now, because there are some difficulties in this case, I have decided to be lenient. I sentence him to four months in prison which he has already served. Therefore, at midday tomorrow he may be freed. This is my judgement and I record it now. Take the prisoner away and prepare the next case.’

  There was an uproar of celebration in the Court. The boy was totally bewildered. As expected, he had been found guilty but his sentence meant that he would not return to prison! He knew that the whipping would be very painful and would leave him with many scars on his back. In the past, he had occasionally seen criminals whipped and his flesh crawled as he thought of it. He knew that his time in the standing stocks would be humiliating, exhausting and very painful. Sometimes criminals put in the stocks were badly ill-treated and injured by town ruffians who enjoyed inflicting pain on others who were helpless.

  ‘I’ll just need to be very brave,’ the boy thought. ‘I know I’ll scream and cry when I am being whipped (everyone does) and I’ll just have to hope that the townspeople do not hurt me too badly when I’m helpless in the stocks. But after these ordeals, I will be free!’ The boy felt a pulse of elation as he thought that, quickly extinguished as he remembered that his life afterwards would be the life of a convicted criminal: ‘Afterwards, I’ll need to leave here and seek my fortune elsewhere.’ The boy felt sad because he had lived the whole of his life in the town and then at the Manor House.

  The Court Jailer’s assistant placed his hands and feet in manacles and said: ‘You will be taken to the centre of the town in the wagon and kept there until it is midday. Then you will be whipped and put into the stocks. I think you are a very lucky boy; all the criminals I have known who attacked defenceless girls were sent to hard labour – and most of them died there. How you got off I’ll never know.’ The assistant shook his head in puzzlement as he bundled the boy into the back of the wagon.

  It was not long before the details of the stable boy’s sentence reached Kati at the Manor House. Predictably, she was absolutely furious!

  ‘Only a whipping and time in the stocks! No prison, no hard labour. But he deserved to be beaten much more, he deserves to be starved and worked to death.’ Kati knew that many criminals sentenced to hard labour did not survive. ‘This is monstrous! I will not allow him to be freed like this. Meanwhile, I must not miss the punishment. I must hurry.’

  So saying she left the Manor House and was soon leaving the estate driving a horse-drawn light wagon with a distinctive green painted canvas top – a small vehicle used only by Kati and her mother.

  A considerable crowd had gathered at the Whipping Post. As always at these occasions, the mood was gay and festive. As midday approached, the Town Executioner appeared, carrying a large whip and accompanied by two Court Officials. A hush fell on the crowd. The boy was taken from the Court Jailer’s wagon and the manacles removed. No words were spoken as his clothes were stripped off and his hands tied firmly to the ring near the top of the Whipping Post. The Town Executioner took up his position to one side of the boy and the officials stood nearby to record the strokes. As midday struck on the Town Clock, a light wagon with a green painted canvas top moved slowly to the edge of the crowd, its driver completely concealed within the cowl of its canopy.

  The Town Executioner liked to take his time with his punishments, so that the crowd could derive the maximum enjoyment from the process. He was, after all, a public servant! Nevertheless, just ten minutes later, it was all over. The crowd had gasped and cried involuntary with the crack of each stroke. The lash had violated skin and flesh and now the boy hung semi-conscious. A bucket of ice-cold water brought him some way back towards consciousness and his reeling figure was untied from the Whipping Post and dragged towards the Town Stocks, conveniently nearby. The Court Officials studied their papers: ‘The Standing Stocks are to be used. We will return to release him at midday tomorrow.’ The boy, barely able to stand, was fastened into the stocks, head and hands thrust through the holes in the vertical wooden board set over a metre from the ground, then the heavy top board was locked down tightly over his neck and wrists.

  By now the crowd was generally good-humoured. They had seen a really good whipping, there had been plenty of blood and they had heard a lot of screaming; now they were content and could go home and rest. Before they did, there was one more ritual to carry out. They gathered up any leftover food they had in their baskets and threw it at the unfortunate boy in the stocks. Bread rolls, soft fruit and the occasional egg splattered against the board of the stocks and some burst upon his face and hands. When this happened, the crowd cheered and clapped their hands in glee.

  While all this was taking place, the Head Stableman stood back and looked at the scene with sadness. He was pleased with what he had achieved at the Court although he thought that luck must have been with him. In planning his strategy, he had decided to try for clemency first; then, if that did not work, he would suggest there was some doubt about the accusation. It had been obvious that the Judge had no sympathy for clemency so he had moved on to the second part of his strategy. In the event, that had worked brilliantly; the Judge falling neatly into the trap. Of course the Head Stableman did not know that his plea for clemency had been supported by the Master himself and that this had been a major factor in the outcome.

  Looking over the heads of the crowd, the Head Stableman suddenly noticed a distinctive small green wagon. He recognis
ed it instantly as one of two light wagons from the Manor House, the one which was used only by the Mistress and Miss Kati. He was unable to identify the driver because the canvas cover hid whoever it was. As he watched, he saw that the driver was speaking to one of the town urchins who were always present at public events of humiliation and he saw a coin changing hands. The urchin ran off and, shortly after, returned with a villainous-looking man, dressed in dirty peasant clothes. This man spoke to the driver of the wagon for some time; eventually, the Head Stableman saw a cloth bundle passed from the wagon to the man. Galvanised into action, the Head Stableman began to stride towards the vehicle but it drove off at speed before he could reach it.

  Now that the crowds had all but gone, the Head Stableman went to the boy who had recovered full consciousness and was in considerable pain. He cleaned all the food and dirt from the boy’s face and said to him: ‘You need not worry because I am going to look after you until you are released from these stocks tomorrow. I am leaving now but I will return shortly.’ The man soon returned with a healing balm which he spread on the boy’s many wounds. Then, as the light faded and the temperature dropped, he wrapped a thick blanket around him to keep him warm. ‘I will stay with you during the night so that you may be protected. I will watch over you,’ he told the boy. The boy was bewildered but deeply grateful.

  The night hours passed. Suddenly, the Head Stableman was aware of a dark shadowy figure approaching the stocks. The boy awoke with a start as a gag tightened over his mouth. As his eyes focussed, he saw a strange, bearded man standing in front of him. Speaking in a whisper, the man said: ‘I have come to kill you, boy. But I have been told to kill you in a very special way. I am going to cut your neck with this small knife and you will bleed to death. It will take you a long time to die. I will enjoy watching you.’

  The boy was terrified. He screamed but the tight gag stopped all sound. The man laughed: ‘I really enjoy it when my victims are terrified. But I must not waste any more time. Are you ready to be cut? Are you ready to die?’ His teeth gleamed briefly in the dim light as he seized the boy by the hair and twisted his head round to expose the area of the neck below which one of his carotid arteries pulsated strongly. He brought his other hand up and prepared to make the deep slicing cut which would sever the artery completely. The boy froze, his mind locked in total panic.

  Suddenly the knife had gone. His head was free to move again. He opened his eyes to see his attacker’s neck in the murderous grip of the Head Stableman. As he watched, the man’s body slipped unconscious to the ground.

  ‘I’ll deal with him in a minute,’ the Head Stableman said as he removed the gag, ‘are you unhurt?’

  ‘Yes, Sir,’ the boy gasped, ‘why should anyone want to kill me like a horse?’

  ‘We’ll see,’ the Head Stableman replied as he threw a bucket of water over the assailant. The man spluttered and began pleading: ‘Let me go, Master, I am only a poor peasant and I just wanted to steal from the boy …’

  He screamed as the Head Stableman grasped him by the hair: ‘Tell me the truth. You know that a criminal in the stocks has nothing to steal.’

  ‘Please, Master, I am a kind and gentle man. I only wished to please the lady …’

  ‘What lady?’ The Head Stableman drew back his fist. The man answered in a panic: ‘A lady in a green covered wagon. She told me the boy criminal was very evil and deserved to die. She asked me to kill him by cutting his neck so that he would bleed to death. She told me how to do it. She gave me the small knife to make the cut.’

  ‘Was this lady young or old?

  ‘Master, do not hurt me. She was very young, dark-haired, no more than a girl.’

  ‘How much did she pay you?’

  ‘Nothing, Master, I did it only to please her. I took no money.’ The Head Stableman smashed his fist into the body of the man. ‘How much did she pay you?’

  With a scream of pain, the man scrabbled in his pouch and produced a small heavy bag of coins. The Head Stablemen put the bag and the knife into his pocket: ‘Go, before I decide to kill you.’ The man staggered away into the shadows, bent double and clutching his body.

  The sun rose over the horizon and the temperature began to rise. The boy had been dozing fitfully, supremely uncomfortable in the grip of the stocks but deeply reassured by the presence of the Head Stableman who had already saved his life.

  The man now approached: ‘I must now take this blanket away. You must be seen to complete your punishment,’ he murmured to the boy.

  Few townspeople paid any attention to the boy in the stocks as they passed. A few made rude or derisive comments and rotten fruit or eggs were thrown a few times. When a group of youths came with the intention of throwing stones at the boy, the Head Stableman chased them away with angry words; in the past, criminals in the standing stocks had been seriously injured in this way. The morning hours crept by with agonising slowness, each minute as dangerous and terrifying as the last. Eventually, the town clock wound its hands towards midday. The sound of the clock’s midday bell marked the end of the boy’s period of punishment but the Court Officials were nowhere to be seen. Some fifteen minutes later, they were seen to be walking leisurely towards the Town Square.

  ‘Your punishment has come to an end,’ they told the exhausted boy, throwing his clothes on the ground and releasing him from the cruel, constricting grip of the Standing Stocks, ‘here is a paper to say that the whole of your criminal sentence has been served.’

  Released from the stocks, the boy could not stand and collapsed in a heap upon the ground. The Court Officials dropped the paper on his limp body and left without a backward glance.

  The Head Stableman came forward and lifted the boy in his arms, taking him and his belongings away to a secluded shady area by the river. Here, he washed the boy and helped him to dress. Then he encouraged the boy to sleep for a while: ‘I will watch over you,’ he said again.

  The boy whispered: ‘Why are you so kind to me? I am a despised and convicted criminal.’

  The man smiled: ‘It is because I know that you are not a criminal. I know you to be innocent of the crime for which you have been punished.’ The exhausted boy smiled dreamily and passed into a deep sleep.

  Back in the Manor House another boy was hard at work planning and implementing an important piece of work. Kati’s brother knew that his sister would at some time mount an attack on his wonderful astrarium – indeed, on the very day of his birthday, she had told him that she would do just that. He knew this would be a total tragedy, because if the delicate machine was broken, it would be impossible to put together again.

  ‘I know that this instrument is very valuable and that my father paid a very large amount of gold for it. Should it be damaged, he would feel betrayed and be extremely angry and sad. I, too, would be very sad, because I know that no one here would have the metalworking skill to repair its parts, even if I could tell them how it should be fitted together. So I must do all I can to look after its safety.’

  This was the reason that the boy was constructing a very clever system of protection for the astrarium. When it was finished, he decided that he should be fair; he would warn Kati to stay away from the instrument.

  As he worked, the boy mused: ‘And to think I used to be so frightened of Kati. She used to terrify me and hurt me in so many ways. But now, I don’t know why, I am no longer afraid of her. She hasn’t changed. She’s still as terrifying as ever but somehow she doesn’t frighten me anymore.’ The boy now remembered how he had dealt with Kati the week before when she came on a mission of torture and destruction. ‘I think, in the end, she was the one who was terrified!’ At the memory, the boy laughed out loud.

  Several days later, the protection system was ready and Kati’s brother installed its complex parts into the top of the astrarium case. He fastened a prominent notice on the case which read: />
  This instrument is protected.

  Do not attempt to move or open the case.

  You will suffer serious injuries if you do.

  The boy stood back and looked at his handiwork with satisfaction: ‘The protection system is fine. Now I will be really kind and warn Kati personally about this.’

  Later that day, the boy sought out his sister in her room.

  ‘What do you want?’ Kati voice was harsh and unwelcoming but she was surprised to see her brother. Normally he stayed well away from her and she could never remember him coming to her room before. Then she had a moment of inspiration – maybe he has come to apologise? If he has, she would certainly make him suffer! The girl looked at her brother coldly: ‘What is it? Be quick, I’m busy.’

  ‘I need to speak to you about my astrarium,’ the boy said calmly.

  ‘Oh really,’ Kati said sarcastically, ‘what about it? Have you broken it already? Don’t think for a moment that’s going to stop me. I’m going to smash it to pieces and then I’m going to tell Father that you did it.’

  The boy looked at her with pity: ‘If you told Father I had broken it, what makes you think he would believe you?’

  Kati’s face fell. It was true that her father and brother were very close these days. On the other hand, nowadays her father always seemed to be angry and impatient with her. He used to be so kind to her, believing everything she said. She didn’t know why everything had changed. It was all very unfair! Tears of sadness, anger and frustration filled her eyes: ‘So what is it you want?’ This screamed loudly at the boy.

  ‘Stay away from my astrarium, Kati. I have protected it with a special mechanism so that anyone trying to damage it will be injured. You will be very sorry if you touch it, Kati. Do you understand this warning?’