Free The She Wolf of France by Maurice Druon Page B

my lord. You must know that King Edward is very heavily in debt to our companies. When you have money outstanding, you watch it. And for a long time past your
    King has ceased to honour his seal, at least as far as we're concerned, He wrote to us through Monseigneur, the Bishop of Exeter, his treasurer, that the poor receipts from taxes, the heavy expenses of his wars and the intrigues of his barons did not allow of his doing better by us. And yet, the duty he places on our merchandis e, in the Port of London alone, should suffice to discharge his debt.'
    A servant brought hippocras and sugared almonds, which were always offered to visitors' of importance. Tolomei poured t he aromatic wine into goblets, helping himself to no more than one finger of the liquor to which he barely put his lips.
    `At the moment, the French Treasury seems to be in a better state than that of England,' he added. `Is it known yet, Monseigneur Robert, what the figures for the year are likely to be?'
    `Provided there's no sudden calamity during the month to run - plague, famine, or, indeed, the marriage or funeral of one of our royal relations - there'll be a surplus of tw elve thousand livres, according to the figures Messire Mille de Noyes, Master of the Exchequer, placed before us at the Counci l this morning. Twelve thousand livres to the good! The Treasury was certainly never in so healthy a state during the reigns of Philippe IV and V - may God put a term to the list of them!'
    `How do you manage to have a surplus at the Treasury, Monseigneur?' Mortimer asked. 'Is it due to the absence of war?'
    `On the one hand to the absence of war and, on the other, to the fact that war is continually being prepared, but is never in fact being waged. Not to put too fine a point on it - the Crusade. I must say, Charles of Valois uses the Crusade to fabulous advantage. But don't go thinking I look on him as a bad Christian. He is extremely concerned to deliver Armenia from the Turks, indeed just as much as he is to re-establish the Empire of Constantinople, whose crown he once wore though he was never able actually to occupy the throne. But a crusade cannot be organized in a day. You have to arm ships and forge weapons; above all, you have to find the crusaders, to negotiate with Spain and Ger many. And the first step must be always to obtain a tithe on the clergy from the Pope. My dear father-in-law has obtained that tithe and, at the moment, the Treasury is being subsidized by the Pope.'
    `That interests me very much, Monseigneur,' said Tolomei. `You see, I'm the Pope's banker - to the extent, at least, of a quarter-share with the Bardi, but even a quarter-share is a very large sum - and if the Pope should become impoverished. ..'
    Artois, who was taking a big gulp of hippocras, exploded into the silver goblet and made signs that he was choking.
    `Impoverished, the Holy Father!' he cried as soon as he had swallowed the wine. `He's worth hundreds of thousands of florins. There's a man who could teach you your business, Spinello! What a banker he'd have made, had he not entered the priesthood. For he found the Papal Treasury emptier than was my pocket six years ag .. . '
    `I know, I know,' Tolomei murmured.
    'The fact is, you see, the priests are the best tax-collectors God ever put on earth, and Monseigneur of Valois has grasped that fact. Instead of being ruthless about the taxes., whose collectors are hated anyway, he makes the priests collect the tithe. Oh, we shall set out on a crusade, one of these days. But, meantime, the Pope pays by shearing his sheep.'
    Tolomei was gently rubbing his right leg; for some time past he had felt a sensation of cold in it, and some pain in walking.
    `You were saying, Monseigneur, that a Council was held this morning. Was anything of particular interest decided on?' he asked.
    `Oh, just the usual stuff. We discussed the price of candles and forbade the mixing of tallow with wax, and the mingling of old jam with new. For all