Gulling The Kings Read online

  I was coughing badly, half asleep, and shivering, wet through and through, and bone-tired by the time I took off my chain mail shirt and sat with Helen and Tori in Restormel’s great hall with a bowl of ale in one hand and a chicken leg in the other. I barely remember being led upstairs or which of the two sisters got in bed with me to keep me warm.

  ******

  “Ah, you’re awake. Here, try to sit up and drink some of this morning ale; how are you feeling?”

  “Thank you. My God, I ache all over” ... “Ugh. What’s that smell?” I asked as I tried to sit up and get out of bed—and was so weak I could barely move.

  “It’s you. You must have shite yourself again. Tori already rubbed it off you once this morning. It looks like she’ll have to do it again, won’t she? But it’s good you’re thinking inside your head enough to notice. That’s very encouraging, isn’t it?”

  “What, the sun’s already reached us? I’ve got to get up. The Germans are coming and we've got to get the men ready in case there’s fighting. Here, help me. What happened?”

  “You’ve got a coughing and sweating pox, that's what happened. Tori’s already gone to fetch you a clean tunic and a bucket of water and rags to wash you again.”

  ******

  I was awake with my eyes closed some hours later when I heard the clatter of hooves and men’s voices talking in the bailey below the plugged up archer slit near Tori’s bed. A minute or so later, Lieutenants Peter and Henry came hurrying up the stairs to report. Raymond was with them.

  Their voices reached me and I heard the sound of their sandals slapping as they came up the stairs. I had barely managed to sit up and get my feet on the floor before they saw me. I only knew who it was because Helen had sent someone off to fetch them when I made a fuss about needing to know what was happening with the Germans and the state of our men. And, thank goodness, I had put on a new tunic and Helen and Tori had helped me move to Tori’s bed.

  They had much to tell me.

  “Hoy, captain. It’s good to see you looking better,” Peter offered as Henry and Raymond nodded their agreement and we all shook hands. “We’ve much to report.”

  I waved to acknowledge their arrival, gave a friendly “hoy” of my own, and I tried to sit up straighter so I could look at them whilst we talked. It wouldn’t do to have them think I was as weak as I felt.

  “As you know,” Peter said, “we took the galleys and most of the able-bodied archers in their crews down the river yesterday morning to the mouth of the river. Yesterday? No I didn’t know.

  “A couple of German galleys were already there and several more came in yesterday afternoon and one this morning. They’re mostly crewed by a handful of sailors with a lot of seasick landsmen and slaves to do the rowing. No knights and no archers; just sailors and rowers, and three German priests, not a one of whom can gobble English or French.

  “They were anchored off the mouth of the river so Henry and George rowed out in a dinghy to talk to them. Those two went because they both can gobble French and we hoped the Germans would be able to gobble it as well. And it was a good thing they did. They also took along one of the wrights from our galley yard who can gobble German as an interpreter. I stayed behind in case there was trouble and a rescue had to be organized.

  “Henry can tell you all about what he and George found.”

  “Aye, that I can,” Henry agreed. “In one sense, our meeting with the Germandy men went well. The German priests couldn’t understand English or French, but they were friendly and pleased that we’d brought someone who could gobble German. They didn’t argue when I suggested they moor their galleys along the shore across from the village so they’d be on the other side of the river. The Germans went along with it without complaining, so that’s where they’re now camped.

  “But, Captain. The priests told us the rest of the German armada got scattered in a storm. That would explain why there were still only five of their galleys at the mouth of the river when we left this afternoon to ride back up the river path to report to you.

  “What’s interesting and surprising is that all of their galleys are quite small with only one tier of eighteen or nineteen oars to a side and old fashioned leather sails. They’re smaller and slower than our galleys, that’s for sure; only forty or fifty men in each crew, and mostly sailors without swords and rowers who look like poor village serfs and slaves.” That’s strange; the message from Jeffrey said there was an entire army on its way to Cornwall including horse transports and Teutonic knights.

  Then Henry explained what he and George had heard from the Germans that bothered them and made them think something might be wrong.

  “The German priests told me and George that they wanted to immediately come to Restormel to see the relics. That was understandable; but they also talked as if they did not believe we could deliver the relics at the mouth of the Fowey as was specified in the parchment Thomas sent to their Prince. They said that if we did not let them come up to Restormel and inspect the relics, they would know we didn’t have them and would leave. Very arrogant, wasn’t they?

  “But here’s the thing, Captain, George listened while their priests gobbled to each other in church-talk believing that he could not understand them because he was so obviously a soldier and not a priest. George thinks, and Peter and I agree, that something is wrong, very wrong.

  “For one thing, the German priests were obviously surprised to see so many fighting men rowing our galleys. They were also surprised when we told them that the exchange of the relics for the coins would occur on the water off the mouth of the river, just as Thomas had scribed in his parchment to their prince.

  “George said that when I walked back to their galley’s shite nest to take a piss, one of the German priests told the other two that what we were telling them was either all lies or we didn’t yet know that the barons were coming and there would be a siege until we surrendered the relics.

  “For another thing, the local fishermen told us there was no storm to scatter their fleet. For another, none of their fighting men have shown up yet. And for yet another, the Germans are strangely adamant that they must be taken to Restormel to see the relics instead of waiting for us to bring them down the river.

  “From listening to them gobble in church-talk when I went off to piss, George said he got the impression they were much more interested in seeing the castle’s ability to withstand a siege than they were in seeing the relics.

  “That’s why George didn’t come with us, Captain,” Peter chimed in with a smile.

  “The German priests think he's only a simple soldier and can’t gobble in church-talk because he carries a bow and wears a chain mail shirt and an archer’s tunic instead of a priest’s robe. He stayed behind so he could spend some time with the German priests and listen when they gobble at each other thinking that he doesn’t understand what they are saying.”

  “What does Thomas think?” I asked. And why hasn't he come to see me. No one said a word. Everyone just looked at each other. Helen finally spoke up.

  “Thomas may not know about the Germans being at the mouth of the river, William.”

  There was a long pause until Helen softly and sadly explained his absence.

  “He and many of the men and their families, and some of his students, have come down with a coughing and shivering pox just like yours. He’s in his bed at the school being tended by his students and Master Priestly.” I’m not going to tell my husband that some of them have died and more look likely.

  ****** William

  I was still feeling poorly in my legs but I was up and moving around by the time George rode in from Fowey Village. He came as soon as I sent a galloper to fetch him.

  My lieutenants and I gathered around Thomas’s bed so he too could listen to George’s report. It was most interesting—George was certain, from listening to the German priests talk among themselves, that the priests think the relics are here at Restormel and that Restormel is either under siege b
y the barons’ army or soon will be.

  But George had no idea how the German priests knew about the relics being here at the castle or why they think there is, or would be, a siege. Based on the church-talk George overheard, and the priests’ questions and comments, he thought the Germans didn’t know we had already fought the barons and soundly defeated them.

  After much thought and lots of discussion, I told George to ride back to Fowey Village and bring the three German priests to Restormel “so they can inspect the relics and tell us what they know.” Thomas looks terrible and he’s not talking.

  “And encourage them to bring their prince’s coins with them to pay for the relics, if they actually have the coins, which I very much doubt. And, George, bring the German priests here by force if they won’t come voluntarily—but try not to let the German sailors see you take them if you have to take them by force.

  “Invite them to come up to the castle to sup with you or something. And, whatever you do, don’t let the German priests know that you and I can gobble Latin.”

  We’ll listen to them for a while and then use the Saracen approach and find out what they know one finger joint at a time. Their prince won’t care so long as he ends up with the relics and we start with their hands that haven’t been learnt to scribe.

  Chapter Three

  The Germans are coming.

  George rode back to Restormel from Fowey Village early the next afternoon after leaving the German priests at our nearby training camp. The Germans were not my only visitors; it was an unexpectedly busy day made even more difficult because Thomas’s pox had taken a turn for the worse and I still felt weak and overbalanced from mine.

  Just before George returned, one of our transport galleys had come in from London and rowed up the river carrying two heavy wooden crates from David Levi. The crates were carried from our floating wharf to the castle by four of David’s men who wouldn’t let anyone so much as touch the crates until they were inside the castle walls and I personally put my hand on them and made my mark on the parchment they presented. As you might imagine, I had them carry the crates up the stairs to my room, and then leave, before I opened them. I didn’t want anyone standing around to see what was in them.

  The man who brought the crates to me was Simon, David’s eldest son. He was a young man I only vaguely remembered meeting in London. He and George, however, had gotten to know each other by supping and drinking together in London. They had a most friendly reunion when George walked in a few minutes later.

  In addition to the crates, Simon brought me a parchment reckoning from his father specifying the coins due in payment for their contents. He also asked with the greatest respect, at the request of his father, if the rumours in London were true that there had been a great battle and the barons’ army had been soundly defeated.

  The German priests, of course, knew none of this. They were happy enough when they reached the archers’ training camp, George reported, to able to climb down and have something to eat after a long a bone jarring cart ride up the path which ran along the river. Following my orders, George had left them at the archers’ training camp with a responsible sergeant standing guard with orders to treat them well, but not to let them speak to anyone.

  George had gotten a horse at the training camp and rode the final mile alone. He had been delighted to find that Simon had just arrived. We didn’t have time to talk about what George might have learned as he rode with the priests.

  After inquiring about Simon’s family and having a bowl of ale to celebrate his safe arrival, George and I opened the crates and inspected their contents with Simon standing by to explain what it was we were seeing. Thomas was feeling poorly and did not join us. My lieutenants were not invited and neither were Simon’s men.

  What George and I saw took me breath away and was exactly what I hoped to see. Simon’s father had filled my request most thoroughly. George was stunned, as well he should have been; the gold smiths working for Simon’s father had done good work, very good work. Immediately afterwards, the three of us sat down at the wooden table in the great hall and had another bowl of ale to celebrate whilst I scribed a parchment thanking Simon’s father for handling things so splendidly and arranging the payment of coins due to him and the smiths for their services.

  In my parchment to David, I confirmed the safe arrival of the crates and that the barons’ army had been totally routed. I also suggested that some or all of the long swords, lances, and armour we’d captured from the barons’ knights, things we would not keep for our own use, might soon be available for his father and his fellow merchants to sell.

  After I finished scribing the parchment, I read it to Simon and suggested he might want to go to Okehampton to see the captured long swords and knights’ armour for himself so his father would know what it was that we would soon have to sell—after cautioning him that we would be keeping some or all of the rest of the captured weapons and equipment for our own use. The company can always use more short swords, chain shirts, helmets, daggers, shields, saddles, sandals, and such like.

  Simon accepted my offer and I immediately sent him and his men, along with a strong escort of Raymond’s horse archers under a steady sergeant, riding off to Okehampton to inspect the weapons and armour we’d taken off the barons’ men. George and Raymond did not go with him; I wanted them here to help prepare for the arrival of the Germans.

  Before Simon and the horse archers, left, I had a private word with the sergeant to make sure he and his men understood that our visitors were good and important friends of the company and were to be protected and kept safe, sound, and happy at all times.

  *****

  There was a good and important reason why George and Raymond did not ride to Okehampton with Simon. While we were inspecting the contents of the crate, word had come in from old Sir Percy at Trematon that a bishop from Germandy and a large force of heavily armed Germans had reached the little fishing village of St. Ives on Cornwall’s northern coast and were unloading their men and their knights’ horses—and had sacked the village in a drunken rage and killed many of the villagers.

  According to Sir Percy’s messenger, the news came from an alewife’s daughter fleeing St. Ives who had reached Trematon. She said that before she fled, she’d heard the drinkers in her mother’s alehouse say that the Germans intend to march across Cornwall to join some English barons in besieging Restormel Castle—because “something our king wants is in the castle.” Join with English barons?

  The alewife’s daughter also told Sir Percy that the unloading of the German army seemed to be going slowly because they were having trouble getting their knights’ horses off their transports and safely ashore. It had apparently had made the Germans very angry that their transports couldn’t get close enough to the village’s little wharf and they’d taken it out on the villagers. Sir Percy told his messenger to tell me that he would “send out a couple of my men to see if the woman’s story is true, but I think it is.”

  ******

  George listened whilst Sir Percy’s messenger told me his message. Then he took me aside and told me what he’d learned whilst riding with the German priests in the horse cart from Fowey Village.

  “I hate to say it, father, but Sir Percy’s message would seem to confirm what I learnt from listening to the priests talk during our ride up from Fowey Village this morning when they were gobbling in Latin. They didn’t use German because I had our German-speaking wain wright ride with us. As a result, they used Latin and once again talked freely because they thought I couldn’t understand what they were saying to each other.

  “They think we’re illiterate commoners and will be no match for the Teutonic Knights who are leading their king’s army. Something new that I learned is that Otto is the king of a land in Germandy called Swabia and he is not with his army; it is being led by a knight named Von Hildesheim with some bishop they don’t like in charge of everything else. From the way the priests talked about Hildesheim, he’s almost
certainly a Teutonic knight who fought in the crusades and a favourite of King Otto.

  “I also got the impression that the main body of Germans that landed in St. Ives do have the coins with them to pay for relics and that they very much want them. The bishop whose name I didn’t catch is apparently a very important person and in charge of the coins; he must be the one charged with buying the relics if they have to buy them.

  “As I told you earlier, the priests seemed to be overly interested in our ability to defend the relics. They several times asked me how many knights and men we have, and seemed pleased, very pleased, to hear that we had no knights or armour-wearing men in our ranks.”

  “And I very clearly heard one of them say ‘we’ll have to hurry before the English lords get here.’”

  ****** William

  “Jack,” I called down to one of the stable boys standing about in the bailey, “run and fetch all the lieutenants you can find and pass the word for the others; tell them to come to Lieutenant Thomas’s room for a meeting with me and George as soon as possible.”

  Sooner or later the Germans will discover the barons are not coming and never will. Then what will they do? Should we keep the relics here at Restormel or send them someplace safer while we still have time to move them?

  When everyone had arrived, we sat on the benches where the boys usually sit around Thomas’s scribing table when he is putting the learning on them, and I told my lieutenants about the message that had just come in from Sir Percy. Then I had George repeat what he told me he’d heard the German priests say during their cart ride up from Fowey Village.

  What really upset everyone was when George said “and I very clearly heard one of the priests say we’ll have to hurry before the English lords get here.” The implications were staggering and we all recognized them immediately.