Free Doctor Mirabilis by James Blish Page A

only that he was guilty of embezzlement, the privilege all soldiers claim, my lord, as I have just
     heard it from your lips. Upon this, Peter des Roches, of course, ruled that the charter died with King John – and then, by
     ill luck, Henry asked Hubert to produce revenues from a place called Yeo Manse, that was this my familiar’s property till
     Hubert took it; and there were none at all – not a groat, nor a broken brass penny for the Crown; a singular accident, but
     had it not come thus about, the King would have found something as suitable; Henry means to crush Hubert entire.’
    ‘I heard,’ Simon said thoughtfully, ‘that the King near stabbed him at Portsmouth four years ago – solely for wantof ships to send against the French provinces’
    ‘That is true,’ Adam said. ‘I was there. Henry was mad as wolves.’
    ‘Well,’ Simon said. ‘I must think on this. Pray for me, most Christian Adam, for I need this King.’
    ‘Certes, and he needs you. Only keep my counsel—’
    ‘That I’ll not swear, for you know I shall.’ Simon bowed briefly to the stunned Roger and vanished into the crowd with a grace
     not even Adam could have equalled.
    ‘Is it true—’ Roger began, inadvertently in English.
    ‘’Tis true entire – and forget thou every word. Thy bag of coins is Henry’s, should he or any of his o’erhear thee. And speak
     no more English, or thou’lt be taken as a spy of Hubert’s, aye, and so shall I.’
    ‘But this de Montfort—’
    ‘Trust him; and hush, thou’rt being far too far a plauderer for the role I cast thee in. I brought thee here to listen; listen
     thou!’
    ‘Yes,’ Roger said, ‘but, Adam—’
    Adam ducked his head in a brief nod of satisfaction and began to worm his way through the gathering once more. He had only
     just disappeared again, however, when a blast of sackbuts and clarions froze the whole small cave world upon the instant.
     King Henry, having finished with feasting, was ready to begin those ceremonies by which, could he but keep his head sufficiently
     cool, he would complete the severance of his right arm.
    Knowing well enough what course the King’s evenings of state took by ordinary, and how to clock them by the clepsydra of the
     wine in Henry’s glass, Adam Marsh escaped by first intention the theatre of this proposed amputation before the heralds of
     it had properly tautened their lips against their instruments. This he did with some misgivings, especially on behalf of Roger
     Bacon left behind in the flickering underwater darkness of the feast-hall among many fish all strange to him, and not a few
     dangerous, too; but Adamwas impelled, for he had already spied escaping before him with her ladies the King’s sister, Eleanor of Pembroke, whose confessor
     he was, and whom he followed forthwith in the utmost disquiet.
    He knew well enough where to find the Lady Eleanor where else she might have gone in drafty Beaumont; but once out of the
     hall he did not hurry, walking instead as gravely as he might in his youth through the barrel-vaulted corridors with their
     smoke-blackened hangings, appearing not to notice the gleam of the occasional torches against the chain-mail of the King’s
     sentries standing in their niches like statues of saints militant. It was his duty not to alarm his ‘penitent – she who had
     so much to alarm her already, though but barely turned twenty-four: not only sister of this royally incontinent King, but
     widow scarce two years of the son of William earl-Marshal of the realm, once holder of those Pembroke estates (which she could
     never convey) for the stewardship of which Hubert de Burgh had failed to account. Small marvel that she had found herself
     unable to stand placidly at her brother’s side while he trumpeted wrath on the beloved stern guardian of her bridal fief,
     the green pleasaunces of which – now nothing to Henry but money, and the heady possibility of blood – encompassed as well
     all