by S. J. Parris
I held up my hands in apology, but I saw the light of adventure spark in Sidney 's eyes, and he rubbed his hands together, shunting over on the bench to make room for Norris.
"Philosophers are notoriously bad at cards," Sidney said, waving a hand at me to move over and make room for Norris's friends beside me.
"All the more reason for Doctor Bruno to stay and join our game," Norris said, smiling widely at me. He reached into his doublet and drew out a pack of cards, which he proceeded to shuffle expertly with the ease of long practice. I realised with a prickle of discomfort why he bothered me: it was not so much that I resented the hearty backslapping bonhomie of English upper-class gentlemen, for I could tolerate it well enough in Sidney on his own. It was the way Sidney fell so easily into this strutting group of young men, where I could not, and the fear that he might in some ways prefer their company to mine. Once again, I felt that peculiar stab of loneliness that only an exile truly knows: the sense that I did not belong and never would again.
Norris snapped the pack against the flat of his hand and began swiftly to deal three cards to each player, two facedown and one faceup.
"Shall we put in a shilling each to begin? If you hope to hold on to any of your money, Tobie," he remarked to the dark-haired young man seated opposite, "you had better start praying to Saint Bernardino of Siena, the patron saint of gamblers, for I am feeling lucky today."
"Praying to saints, Gabe?" said the young man named Tobie with a sly grin, picking up his cards and considering them. "Do not let anyone overhear you encouraging that, or they will think you gone over to Rome."
Norris snorted.
"I speak in jest, you dull-wit. Gentlemen should never debate theology at the card table. But am I not right, Doctor Bruno, that your countryman is said to intercede for gamblers? By those who believe that kind of folly," he added, throwing a handful of coins into the middle of the table.
"Actually, in Italy, he is more renowned for his tirades against sodomites," I replied, rising from the table. Norris looked up sharply from his hand and regarded me with interest.
"Is that so?"
"He lamented that in the last century the Italians were famed throughout Europe as the greatest nation of sodomites."
"And are you?" he asked, a smile twitching at the edge of his mouth.
"We are the greatest nation at everything, my friend," I said, returning the half smile.
"Bruno spent most of his life inside a monastery," Sidney said, leaning over to dig Norris in the ribs. "He should know."
The group fell into raucous laughter then as Lizzy slapped two large pitchers of ale down on the table. I decided it was time to leave.
"Well, I will leave you to rob one another with the blessing of Saint Bernardino," I said, attempting to sound lighthearted. "I have more pressing business."
"Bruno must reorder the cosmos before five o'clock," Sidney said, though he was intent on the cards he held.
"We are all most eager to hear it," Norris said, his head still bent to his cards, then he flung down an ace of diamonds with a great cry of triumph and swept all the coins from the table as the others exploded in a riot of cursing. None of them looked up as I left.
Chapter 6
The Divinity School was the most breathtaking building I had yet seen in Oxford. Inside its high wooden doors a magnificent fan-vaulted ceiling of blond stone arched over a plainly furnished room perhaps ninety feet long, bathed in natural light from the ten great arched windows that reached from floor to ceiling the full length of the room, so that the north and south walls seemed almost entirely of glass. These windows were surmounted by elegant tracery and their panes decorated with designs of coloured shields and heraldic devices of benefactors and university dignitaries, according to the custom. From the supporting arches at the top of the windows the ribs of the vault fanned out in symmetrical patterns across the ceiling before dovetailing again in points decorated with elaborately carved bosses and pendants inset with statues, drawing the eye constantly upward and inward to the centre. There was a pungent smell of warm wax from the plentiful candles, lamps, and torches that had been set blazing along the walls, and their light was welcome despite the grand windows, for the sky was still overcast and the day already fading. At the west end of the hall a stage had been erected and high-backed chairs set with plump velvet cushions placed there for the most eminent persons-the palatine sat in the centre, with Sidney on his left and the vice-chancellor in his ermine-trimmed robes on his right, their chairs surrounded by the other university dignitaries in their crimson-and-black gowns and the velvet caps of professors, ranged according to their degree. Below this, tiered seating had been built facing the length of the hall toward the east doorway, and was now filled with the figures of senior men in Fellows' gowns, while in the second of the five grand bays from the west end, two carved wooden pulpits were set opposite each other on the north and south walls, where Rector Underhill and I now prepared to take up our positions for the confrontation.
Further to the eastern end, rows of low benches had been set out for the undergraduates, who were even now still pouring into the hall, jostling and shoving one another to take their places amid a great murmur of animated conversation. For a moment my stomach tightened as I mounted the steps to the lectern that was to be my platform for the next hour, but as I cast my eyes over the expectant rows of faces I was buoyed again by the old thrill of public performance, my first in England, and found I was anticipating the coming debate just as a sportsman might relish the challenge of a good fencing match.
I glanced at the stage to my left and caught Sidney 's eye; he winked encouragement. The palatine slumped next to him, legs akimbo, picking his teeth with his thumbnail and examining whatever he extracted with more interest than he seemed prepared to devote to the coming argument. I noticed Coverdale, Slythurst, and Bernard sitting in the centre of the second row. Coverdale cast only a brief glance at me with complete composure, while Slythurst allowed his cold gaze to slide over me before pointedly turning away. Bernard cracked his bony hands together and nodded to me once; I chose to interpret this as encouragement. Rector Underhill climbed his podium opposite and leaned forward over his lectern, fixing me with a combative stare. A stillness fell on the assembled crowd. I cleared my throat.
EARLIER THAT AFTERNOON, at a quarter to five, a student had been sent to escort me to the Divinity School from my chamber, a stocky and sensible-looking undergraduate with dark hair who introduced himself as Lawrence Weston and explained that the rector, who had gone on ahead, had sent him to show me the way to the place of our disputation. This seemed a courteous gesture, and I followed young Weston across the quadrangle to the tower gatehouse. As we drew nearer, I noticed two servants coming from the tower-room staircase hefting a large wooden chest between them; behind them followed another, his arms laden with books.
"They are clearing Doctor Mercer's belongings already?" I asked Weston, trying not to reveal the alarm in my voice. The boy shrugged, as if the matter were not his to question.
Outside, in St. Mildred's Lane, we came upon Cobbett, who stood looking on as his old dog pissed copiously against the wall of the college.
"Afternoon, Doctor Bruno!" he called cheerfully, raising a hand in salute. "Off to bandy words with the rector?"
"Buona sera, Cobbett." I gestured casually to the gatehouse behind us. "I see they are clearing the tower room."
Cobbett chuckled. "They don't hang about with these matters, the senior rooms are great prizes here. Doctor Coverdale wants to move in as soon as possible."
"He is to take over as subrector, then?"
"It's not official yet, but that won't stop him. Come on, now, Bessie, home again." The old dog had finished her business and was hobbling painfully toward the gate, Cobbett ushering her gently along. "Oh, by the bye, Doctor Bruno-here is another mystery for you." He grinned, showing decayed gums.
"What is that?" I turned back, eager for information.
"Th
at spare key to Doctor Mercer's room I said had been taken from my lodge-well, Master Slythurst brought it to me this morning. Found it on the northwest staircase just outside the tower room, he says. Whoever took it must have let it fall there the day before and not noticed-it is gloomy on those stairs at the best of times. Well, at least I have the full complement back again ready for our new subrector."
"On the staircase? But how did the bursar come to find it there?" I asked, wondering how Slythurst had covered this lie.
"I suppose he was on his way to the strong room." He shuffled to the gate and pushed it open, then turned back to me. "Good luck with your disputation, sir," he added. "And may the best man win."
"Thank you," I said, but I was distracted by this new information. It now seemed almost certain that Slythurst had taken that missing key and used it to let himself into Mercer's room: if he had truly been there on official business he would have had no need to confect such a story for the porter.
"Sir, we…ah…do need to hasten our steps, you are expected at five," Weston said awkwardly. I nodded and ran my hands through my hair as if to untangle my thoughts; it would not do to have my brains running on locks and keys while I was supposed to be disputing the laws of the cosmos in front of all Oxford.
"Yes, I am sorry. Let us make haste-you lead the way," I said.
"They were saying you were right there this morning, sir, when Gabe Norris shot the dog. Did you see the whole thing?"
Weston spoke with a boyish excitement, looking at me eagerly as he showed the way into Brasenose Lane, a narrow alley running along the north side of the college. Here the ground was muddy underfoot and the alley smelled as if it were a favourite place to piss. I took a deep breath and followed him.
"I was there, yes. But we were all too late-something for which I cannot forgive myself. Young Norris is a true shot. If we had been just a few moments earlier, poor Doctor Mercer might have stood a chance."
Weston pursed his lips. "Aye, well-the likes of Gabe Norris have nothing else to do with their time except practise their sports. It won't matter a jot to him whether he even takes his degree- Oxford is just one more amusement to his sort, strutting about in his London finery. Not so for us poor scholars obliged to go into the Church, alas." He laughed bitterly.
"You don't like him, I deduce?" I said, smiling.
Weston appeared to relent.
"Oh, he's all right. I resent the commoners in principle-in a community of scholars one should feel oneself among equals, and their presence reinforces the notion of degree. And it is galling the way most of them don't care for their studies at all. But Gabe Norris is not the worst-he is quite generous with his fortune really, and not as stupid as some. Do you know, he has his own horse, sir?" Weston paused, shaking his head with a young man's envy. "A roan gelding, the finest creature you ever saw. He stables it outside the city walls, for students are not supposed to keep their own mounts. But he does what he likes, for who would punish him?"
"He does seem very sure of himself," I agreed. "I imagine he gets more than his fair share of women, too, with that face."
Weston only turned his head to glance at me, a sly grin curling at the corners of his mouth.
"You might imagine so, aye," he said, and his peculiar emphasis, together with the mischievous smile, caught my attention.
"Ah," I said, guessing at his meaning. "You mean to say that women are not Master Norris's principal area of interest?"
"I would speak no slander against him, sir. I have no idea what he does in private, it is only what is said."
"Much may be said in envy," I observed as we walked. "Why is it said of him, do you know?"
Weston looked down, embarrassed. "Well, for one, he does not like to visit the bawdy houses, sir."
"It does not follow that he is therefore a sodomite." Privately, though, it would not surprise me to learn that it was true of Norris, with his dandyish ways. I remembered the curious look he had given me when I mentioned Saint Bernardino's tirade against sodomites. "And you should be careful with such gossip-sodomy is a hanging offence in this country, is it not?"
"Yes, sir. You are right, of course." Weston looked chastened. "But we have all noticed it. If a beautiful girl makes eyes at you like a calf, while you show yourself so entirely indifferent, it cannot be that you have a man's blood, would you not say, sir?" His cheeks were flushed crimson, and I guessed from this outburst that he was speaking of matters close to home. Since there was only one female in the immediate orbit of the young scholars, it was not hard to figure whom he meant.
"You are talking of the rector's daughter?" It should not have surprised me; as the only young woman in the college, why should she not set her fancy at the handsomest of the rich young men there? Yet I felt somehow disappointed by the revelation, as if I had imagined a girl with Sophia's quick mind would not be blinded by such superficial qualities. "She has confided in you?"
"Oh no, sir-and I have said too much already."
He tried to change the subject but at that moment I stopped abruptly, realising that we were now at the end of Brasenose Lane and the wall running to our right was the wall of Lincoln Grove. The thick wooden door set into the wall was firmly shut. This must have been where the dog was released into the garden.
"Wait a moment," I said, crouching down to examine the mud around the base of the door. It was undoubtedly churned up, but the passage of feet in the wet ground since the morning had obliterated any clear trace of prints and I cursed myself for not having had the wit to go and look for evidence straightaway. I stood up and tried the handle to the door; it was locked. I was about to turn away when something caught my eye among the tufts of grass growing at the foot of the gate. I crouched again and drew out a thin leather strap, torn at one end-the kind of strap one might use for muzzling a dog. I did not know what use it might be, but I slipped it into my pocket just in case.
"Sir, we shall be late." Weston seemed agitated, but I had noticed him watching me with curiosity as I pocketed the strap. "Just at the end of the lane, and we are almost there."
We passed into a wide square bordered by St. Mary's church to the right and, just visible to the left, above the wall of Exeter College garden, the pinnacles of the Divinity School. Ahead I could see the bulk of the city wall, its crenellated battlements outlined against the sky. Rounding the corner, we were dwarfed by the spectacular facade of the Divinity School and I paused to admire it, craning my neck up to the turrets above the grand arched window. Usually only ecclesiastical buildings were designed in such splendour, but here was a secular edifice built like a cathedral, consecrated to the pursuit of knowledge, quite equal to the grand church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples where I had first learned the art of disputation. To think that my ideas would join the echoes in its magnificent vaults was almost humbling, and I was about to make a remark to that effect to my guide, when I prickled with the discomfiting sense that I was being watched. I turned and saw, leaning up against the blackened stone of the city wall, a tall man with folded arms, staring at me quite blatantly. He was dressed in an old leather jerkin and breeches of worn brown cloth, his hair was severely receded on top but long at the back, leaving his large forehead bare, and his face was pitted with the marks of pox. He might have been my own age or he might have been fifty, but the most striking aspect of his appearance was that he had no ears. Ugly welts of scar tissue surrounded the holes where they would once have been, betraying the fact that he had at one time been brought to justice as a petty criminal. He continued to watch me with a cool, level gaze in which I could discern no malice, rather a kind of mocking curiosity. I wondered if he was staring at me in particular, or if he were an opportunist pickpocket or some such, on the lookout for opportunity among the crowds gathering for the disputation. I had noted on my travels through Europe how petty thieves always seem to assume that men of education are necessarily also men of wealth; in my experience the two are rarely found together. If so, the man was bold; a further
arrest for theft and he would risk the rope.
On another occasion I might have challenged his insolent stare, but there was no time to spare, so I turned toward the great porch of the Divinity School and was about to mount the stairs when I saw Doctor James Coverdale hurrying down them, pushing his way against the tide of young men in black gowns crowding to get in. He noticed me and stopped, a look of relief on his face; from the corner of my eye, I saw the figure in brown against the wall stir himself and take a step forward. Coverdale also noticed; he froze for a moment and stared at the man with no ears, who looked directly at him and appeared to nod. It was clear that they recognised each other. Coverdale glared at him for a moment, his expression divided, it seemed to me, between irritation and concern, then he pasted on a smile for my benefit and guided me gently by the elbow to the right of the doorway, away from the man's inquisitive gaze.
"Thank you, Weston, for delivering our guest safely-you may join your friends inside," Coverdale said pleasantly to my young guide, though his face seemed to have turned pale. Weston bowed to me before galloping up the steps and into the throng.
"Doctor Bruno, I wondered if I might have a brief word before we go in?" Coverdale murmured. "Don't worry, we have time-our royal visitor is not yet arrived and it cannot go ahead without him."
I nodded; it would be typical of the palatine not to bother arriving on time on my account. I adopted an air of polite attention; Coverdale seemed uncomfortable with what he needed to say.
"There is to be an inquest into the death of poor Doctor Mercer, you understand, and those who were first to arrive on the scene will be required to give evidence," he began, his hand still clutching my elbow; I could not tell if this was supposed to be reassuring or menacing. "I understand you were there early, together with the rector and Master Norris."