Hope and the Knight of the Black Lion

by Mary C. Findley

  Justitia enim Dei in eo revelatur

  ex fide in fidem : sicut scriptum est : Justus autem ex fide vivit.’

  The gospel makes clear a righteousness from God, a righteousness that is by faith from beginning to end, as it is written: “The righteous will live by their faith. “

  Romans 1:17

  Et facti sumus ut immundus omnes nos, et quasi pannus menstruatæ universæ justitiæ nostræ ; et cecidimus quasi folium universi, et iniquitates nostræ quasi ventus abstulerunt nos.

  “ ‘And we became all like the unclean, all our righteous deeds are like bloody rags. All of us are like falling leaves, and our sins blow us away like the wind.’ “

  Isaiah 64:6

  I wept bitterly and flung the book away from me. Sir Chris came quietly into the cottage at that moment. He must have thought I had fallen asleep because he did not even look in my direction but sat down in a chair before the fire and stared into it. I had scarcely stifled my sobs and a snuffle escaped me as I tried to dry the tears. Sir Chris looked over at me and started to his feet.

  “Lady Hope, mall amr? Why do you weep?” he asked gently. “I wish with all my heart I had been able to bring you some good news, but…”

  “Oh, it is not that,” I said, sitting up and unleashing another flood of tears. “I know you are doing all that can be done. I was reading … I was reading the book that Sadaquah gave me, and it ends ... Oh, it ends, and there is no more.”

  “Why does that make you weep?” he seemed genuinely puzzled. I stared up at him. Suddenly I looked at the tunic he wore – blood red, with the black lion upon it. In my mind I struggled to understand what I was seeing. I even reached out to touch it to see if it was real.

  “How can you wear that?” I demanded. “How can you? Was he … was he your friend too? Did he give it to you when he died?”

  Sir Chris started violently when I touched his tunic and jerked away from me. “When he … when he died? Ah! You speak of that fellow in Sadaquah’s book. Why, my lady! Is he such a mystery to you still?”

  “There is no mystery. All his goodness, all his longing to see his father – How he helped that poor woman even as he lay so helpless and in torment – I am sure that it was God’s mercy, but if only … if only .. “

  “Nay, lady, please, waghif – stop – I cannot endure this weeping,” Sir Chris said. “What if … what if I told you God spared his life? What if I told you he was healed? Would that comfort you?”

  “I am not a fool,” I spat. “Dragged apart by horses for four hours? How could anyone live? It is a fantasy. Either the whole story is fiction, or the man is dead. Do not speak so, Sir Chris. It does no credit to you or to the memory of this great man. I do not think even Sadaquah would mock me this way.”

  “Hah,” Sir Chris said, a dry, humorless sound. “La, that he would not. Sadaquah’s opinion of you grows better by the hour. He amazed me by saying that he thought you had great courage and that perhaps I was not such a fool to spend my time helping you.”

  “He thinks I am stupider even than most women. He told me so,” I responded.

  “Lady, I…” Sir Chris worked the muscles in his face. “I cannot speak of that. It is … it is Sadaquah’s way to assume a woman cannot possibly have a mind. But he said you understood what he cannot understand.”

  I was glad to change the subject away from the knight in the book. It hurt me just to think that I would never know him. But it was hard to talk about anything else. “What is it that Sadaquah does not understand?”

  “That all who name the name of Christ are not Christians,” Sir Chris replied. “He believes so strongly in his faith, and all the people he knew back home did the same. But he has met many Christians, and he knows only one or two whom he says truly believe in Christ.”

  “The man in the book … he is one. Sadaquah told me so,” I said, tears escaping down my cheeks once again. Sir Chris reached out his hand and gently wiped the wetness away. “My Uncle John ... He is one. I thought he was a heretic, but he cannot be, can he? He must know the truth.”

  “The Church teaches you to work,” Sir Chris spat. “Yet Christ gave us the gift of eternal life. You need only repent and accept His finished work.”

  “I believe in Christ,” I said, insulted. “I pray, I go to confession and I do everything the priest tells me. Robert ridicules me and says I am schooling for the cloister!”

  Sir Chris jumped to his feet. “You do not understand, then,” he fumed. “It is the same with Sadaquah. He thinks he can work his way to paradise. You think you can work your way out of Purgatory.”

  “Sir Chris…” I began, but he was not to be halted.

  “Do not tell me Baron Colchester did not make you read the Scriptures yourself – that he did not show you exactly what I have just told you.”

  “He did,” I admitted. “But…”

  “He showed you where it says, ‘Justitia enim Dei in eo revelatur ex fide in fidem : sicut scriptum est : Justus autem ex fide vivit.’ Tell me what it says in the English.”

  I took a deep breath. This seemed a strange time and place to resume my Latin lessons but I wanted to show him that I did know. “‘The gospel makes clear a righteousness from God, a righteousness that is by faith from beginning to end, as it is written: “The righteous will live by their faith. “ ‘ “

  “What of the Scripture that says, ‘Et facti sumus ut immundus omnes nos, et quasi pannus menstruatæ universæ justitiæ nostræ ; et cecidimus quasi folium universi, et iniquitates nostræ quasi ventus abstulerunt nos.’? You know that one as well, I am sure.”

  “ ‘And we became all like the unclean, all our righteous deeds are like bloody rags. All of us are like falling leaves, and our sins blow us away like the wind.’ “

  “Lady, good works cannot save! It is Christ’s righteousness alone! Do not be damned thinking your works can please God. They cannot! No one’s can. Min fadliki – Please -- Let me urge you to believe in Christ alone, for you cannot save yourself. How could you think to do so?”

  “You sound just like my uncle,” I spat. “It is heresy to believe such things. I do not care to be burned at the stake.”

  “They have taught you that you cannot be saved apart from the Church,” Sir Chris said. “They tell you no one can understand the Scriptures except by their interpretation. Is it not so? It is because it gives them power over you. They would send you to Hell to get power. But you need only believe. I beg you, Lady Hope, to believe. It is what Baron Cloyes prayed for, if I know him at all. It is what he taught you every chance he had, I am certain.”

  I picked up the book Sadaquah had given me and clutched it to my breast. “Let me read again what he says to the Arab lady,” I said uneasily. “When I read his words it was so simple. I almost believed it. I need to read what he says again.”

  Sir Chris started to speak again. “Na’am, aye, indeed, e’en so, read it all you like,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I only pray that it convinces you. God guard you tonight, my lady. God grant that Christian dog in the book can persuade you where I have failed.”

  Sadaquah burst into the cottage at that moment. He looked back and forth from me to Sir Chris. “Shall I tell my news?” he asked.

  “You have news?” Sir Chris asked. “How so?”

  “While you were speaking with the lady, I went out scouting,” Sadaquah replied. “I saw visitors on the road headed for the earl’s castle.”

  “What sort of visitors?” Sir Chris asked.

  “Unexpected. The castle is all turned upside down. People run about like the rats in the bilge of those ships we traveled on. I bethought me it is an opportunity.”

  “Opportunity for what?”

  “They will be so concerned with their hospitality and their company that they will not be so much on guard against some careful spying,” Sadaquah suggested. “They may not even notice that we are not part of the visitors’ retinue. There are Arabs among them.”

  “Arabs!” Sir Chris exclai
med. “Are you sure?”

  “Oh, my brother, I think I know an Arab when I see him,” Sadaquah sighed. “Aye, Arabs. We should be able to pass among them if we are careful and borrow some appropriate attire for you. You cannot wear the black lion.”

  “What insignia do they wear?” I asked eagerly.

  “It is a dark purple tunic with a red unicorn,” Sadaquah replied.

  “It is the house of Godwin,” I crowed. “Oh, Sir Chris, I have it in my collection!”

  “Your collection?” Sir Chris repeated.

  “Under the manor house is a passageway,” I explained hastily. “It leads to a vault. I collected examples of heraldry, and I kept my collection there. The fire will not have reached so deep. We can get into it easily. I will show you.”

  “There is no need, my lady,” said Sir Chris with a smile. “I know the way to the vault. I hid things there myself when a child.”

  “You?” I gasped. “But I thought only family would know of it – Oh, but I did forget you said you visited and knew the baron well. You must have been a friend of my Cousin Richard. I should have known that, since you are of an age. Richard kept some curious things down there, to be sure. I found a letter my uncle must have written him when he was last away at school in England.

  “Uncle John told how I was growing prettier every day and Lord Richard wrote thus in the margin: ‘I have heard pretty Hope is a terror and a tomboy. A wildcat is pretty too but I should rather have its fur for a collar than marry it.’“

  “Did he?” Sir Chris laughed. “He could not see your potential then. How could he know you would grow to be the most beautiful woman in all of England, my lady?”

  I blushed furiously. “At least he will have no cause to be wounded if he ever returns and I tell him I will not marry him,” I said.

  “You would throw up in his face something he said almost a score of years ago?”

  “He kept it as a treasure,” I snapped. “And there was in his room a pledge never to marry me, writ a hundred times.”

  “It is no matter,” sighed Sir Chris. “I will get what trappings of Godwin I can and we will go to the earl’s castle and see what we can learn. You have done well, Sadaquah.”

  “But you will not leave me here, alone, while you go spying?” I demanded.

  Sir Chris had already turned away from me. He turned back, and his face showed he had not thought of that. “Nay, la oreed -- that I cannot, lady,” he said. “You outthink me again. What is to be done, Sadaquah?”

  “The earl and his whelp want her at the castle,” Sadaquah shrugged. “Let her ith’hab -- go to the castle.”

  “And let that Frenchman have his try at her again?” Sir Chris exclaimed. “It shall not be.”

  “Nay, let it be as Sadaquah has said,” I exclaimed. “Surely Hugo Brun cannot risk having me killed while there are visitors in the castle. The earl will be very much on his guard to preserve his honor. He will keep me safe. Wait! I know something even better.” The two of them stared at me in anticipation, but I had a hard time saying what I knew must be done.

  “I will throw myself upon Hugo Brun’s protection and claim him as my true knight! Gil told me people do not believe the fire at Colchester was an accident. I will force him to investigate further as his duty to his liege lady. It will drive him mad and he may slip up and reveal something. Take me there now. We will get Sir Chris his Godwin trappings straight away and go at once. The two of you can come openly to the gate and say you were detained behind the rest of your lord’s party and found me as you made haste to catch up. I will faint, or some such womanly device. They will throw open the gates to you, and you can disappear before Godwin learns he has two new attendants he knows naught of.”

  “It must be as she has said,” Sir Chris nodded.

  “But my brother – You have had no rest,” Sadaquah protested.

  “Of course,” I said quickly. “I do forget any good sense I ever had. On the morrow we will do this.”

  “Not so,” Sir Chris rumbled. “Tomorrow Godwin’s party will be settled and looking about them. They will not let us pass. It must be tonight. Lady, when you are at the castle do not spend more time in Hugo Brun’s company than you must. Give out that you – that this tragedy disordered your mind, as they have all thought, and you wandered off in a daze and have just come to yourself.”

  “Oh, Sir Chris, you ask too much. I cannot agree to their claims that I was mad.”

  “You can, and you must, if we are all to live to get justice,” Sir Chris said sharply. “If you will not swear to obey this my word, we go nowhere. Do not think I am in anything but the most deadly earnest.”

  I looked at him for a long time. “I will do as you have said,” I replied at last. “But we must quickly bring this to a close, for this is not a part I can play for long.”

  “We will speed the thing along as much as God allows, lady,” Sir Chris replied. “Kulna maabahd. All of us together. Let us go.”

  Chapter Ten: A Part to Play, An Unexpected Ally, A Trust Betrayed

  Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

  Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

  Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

  Psalm 32:7-8, 10-11

  Ho, the castle!” Sir Chris called out. “Retainers of the House of Godwin seek admittance. We have a sick lady with us!” I languished in Sir Chris’s arms like one half-dead. Guards came quickly at his call. Sir Chris told the story we had agreed upon. The guards seemed scarcely to attend. I thrashed about and moaned. They recognized me this time, and we were inside the castle in a moment. Everyone was so busy tending to me – I had a positive fit as they tried to take me to a room. Sir Chris and Sadaquah faded into the background and no one regarded their presence at all.

  The earl came to speak to me as I lay in bed and I grasped for his hands. “My lord Earl,” I said weakly, “You must ask Hugo Brun to help me. I have tried to seek the truth on my own but it is all a muddle to me now. He is your trusted retainer and I want to trust him too. Tell him he must be my true knight and swear to help me. Please, you must tell him!” I burst into tears and then fell back.

  “Of course, Lady Hope, I will tell Sir Hugo what you have said.” I actually thought the earl was going to start weeping. “He has just this day given me evidence that the burning of Colchester Manor may not have been an accident. We are seeking those who may have done this deed. Would that my son were already made a knight or that I were free to devote myself to your cause. But Brun will see that you are served as a lady should be by a faithful knight.”

  They left me alone with an old nurse to attend me. The woman fell asleep within two minutes of her coming and I started to jump out of bed so I could do some spying of my own. A knock and the sound of the door opening made me scoot back under the covers.

  Lady Hélène, Robert’s aunt, entered with her attendants and Hugo Brun. Hélène was younger than her brother the earl, a silly, primping creature with dyed and frizzed henna-red hair and a rich pink and sky blue parti-colored bliaut and a fantastic liripipe that rose two feet above her brow and trailed silk pennants almost to the floor. Her maids clustered around her and tittered as they admired Brun’s great size and lordly bearing. He was dressed in beautiful silver chain mail and a blue and white parti-colored surcoat with silver fleurs-de-lis. His blond hair was combed into curls and lightly perfumed. I paled as he approached my bed. His eyes bored into me and I wondered if he thought I was mad. I sat bolt upright and held out my hands.

  “Sir Hugo, my true knight!” I cried. The Frenchman stepped quickly backward and stared harder. “The earl has already sworn for you, my champion, and I know you will help me get justice,”


  I went on. The Lady Hélène smiled her approval and the ladies-in-waiting giggled. I concealed my disgust with difficulty.

  “It is mah honor to serve, Mademoiselle,” he said finally, dropping on one knee and presenting his sword. “This Ah place in your service and swear fealty to you, mah liege lady.” I touched his sword and motioned him to rise.

  “Be assured Ah ‘ave already an idea ‘oo ‘as committed this crime against your family, mah lady,” Brun said. “Soon ‘e will be in custody.”

  “And it was only today that you learned that it was a crime and not an accident?” I exclaimed. “You work speedily, Sir knight. And I have no doubt you will recover my uncle and mother safely as well.”

  “Pardon, Mademoiselle?” he faltered. “So many were killed in the fire. Surely you do not think anyone survived.”

  “I know my mother and my uncle are alive,” I said firmly. “I charge you to find them and bring them safely back to me.” I did not for a moment think that this man would be bound to me by chivalry to be truthful when the code had not kept him from attacking Colchester. I merely hoped to bluff him and force him to admit the truth.

  Hugo Brun stiffened. “You know they are alive,” he said coldly. “ ‘Ow do you know?”

  His arrogance thinly veiled by pretended submission infuriated me. I had intended to dismiss him quickly but an idea occurred to me. I fumbled in my sleeve as if I had something secreted there. “I received a note from my mother. She is being held prisoner and bribed a guard to send me word that she is alive but in desperate need. She could not say where she was but she must be nearby since this reached me just a day or two after the fire.”

  “Ah will need to see this note,” Brun demanded, holding out a huge hand. I froze. Wisely had Sir Chris warned me not to spend much time with this man. He was too shrewd.

  I thought rapidly. “I cannot. It is all I have of my mother.” Tears squeezed out of my fluttering lids. “I feel so faint. Leave me now and report to me later on your progress.”