CHAPTER XIII
IT MUST BE MAINTAINED
Rogier broke into a roar of laughter, when Cadell, with white face andin agitated voice, told him that Pabo was not dead.
"'Sdeath!" he exclaimed. "I never quite believed that he was."
"Not that he was dead?" cried the chaplain. "Did you ever see a manburnt as black as a coal and live after it?"
"That was not he. I doubted it then."
"It must have been he. He was buried as a dog in a dungheap,and"--Cadell lowered his voice--"he is no longer there."
"Because these fellows here have removed the body and laid it inconsecrated ground. It was a trick played on us, clever in its way,though I was not wholly convinced. Now I shall let them understand whatit is to play jokes with me. I can joke as well."
"But what do you mean, Rogier?"
"That these Welsh rogues have endeavored to make us believe that the oldArchpriest is dead, so that our vengeance might be disarmed and heallowed to escape. He is in hiding somewhere. Where is that fellow whoinformed you?"
"Nothing further is to be got out of him."
"We shall see."
"I pray you desist. He may be useful to us; but it must not be suspectedthat he is in treaty with us."
"There is some reason in this. I shall find out without his aid."
"Do nothing till I have seen the bishop. He will be verydistressed--angry. For I assured him that a miracle had been wrought. Itwas such an important miracle. It showed to all that Heaven was on ourside."
Rogier laughed.
"We can cut and carve for ourselves without the help of miracles," saidhe.
"I shall go at once," said Cadell; "the bishop must be communicated withimmediately--and his pleasure known."
Bernard of St. David's was at his castle of Llawhaden, near Narberth. Hewas there near his Norman friends and supporters. He had no relish forbanishment to the bare and remote corner of Pembrokeshire stretching asa hand into the sea, as though an appeal from Wales to Ireland forassistance. Moreover, Bernard was by no means assured that his presencewhere was the throne would be acceptable, and that it might not provokesome second popular commotion which would cost him a further loss ofteeth. Llawhaden lay in a district well occupied by Norman soldiers andFlemish settlers. The residence there was commodious in a well-woodedand fertile district. The castle was strong, secure against surprises,built by architect and masons imported from Normandy, as were all thoseconstructed by the conquerors throughout the South of Wales.
In Llawhaden Bernard lived like a temporal baron, surrounded by fightingmen, and never going abroad without his military retinue. It was saidthat he ever wore a fine steel-chain coat of mail under his woolenecclesiastical habit. In his kitchen, as about his person, no native wassuffered to serve, so suspicious was he lest an attempt should be madeon his life, by poison or by dagger.
Happily, he was not required to perform any ecclesiastical functions,for he was profoundly ignorant of these; but the situation was such thathe was not required to ordain clergy or consecrate churches. Clergy werenot lacking. The ne'er-do-weels of England, men who were for theirimmorality or crimes forced to leave their cures, hasted to Wales, wherethey readily found preferment, as the great object in view with theinvaders was to dispossess the natives of their land and of theirchurches.
"So you are here," said the bishop. He spoke with inconvenience, as onefront tooth had been knocked out and another broken. Unless he drew downhis upper lip, his words issued from his mouth indistinctly, accompaniedby a disagreeable hiss. "Hah!--have the bumpkins paid up so readily thatyou are here with the money? How many marks have they had to disgorge?"
"Your fatherliness," said the chaplain, "I have brought nothing with mesave unsatisfactory tidings."
"What! They will not pay?"
"They can be made to find the silver," said Cadell; "that I do notdoubt. For centuries those men of Caio have prospered and have hoarded.Other lands have been wasted, not theirs; other stores pillaged, theirshave been untouched."
"It is well. They will bear further squeezing. But what ails thee? Thoulookest as though thou hadst bitten into a crab-apple."
"I have come touching the miracle."
"Ah! to be sure--the miracle. I have sent despatches containing completeaccounts thereof to his Majesty King Henry, and to my late graciousmistress, the Queen. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who consecrated me atWestminster, looked as sour as do you. He would fain have had theconsent of the Pope, as father of Christendom, but the King would brookno delay, and the Archbishop was not so stubborn as to hold out--glad inthis, to get a bishop of St. David's to swear submission to the stool ofAugustine. I have sent him as well a narrative of the miracle; it willsalve his conscience to see that Heaven is manifestly with me. Moreover,I have had my crow over Urban of Llandaff. _He_ has not a miracle toboast of to bolster up his authority."
"My gracious master and lord, I grieve to have to assure you that therehas been some mistake in the matter for which I am in no wayblameworthy."
"How a mistake?" asked Bernard testily.
"There has been no miracle."
"No miracle! But there has. I have it in your own handwriting."
"I wrote under a misapprehension."
"Misapprehension, you Welsh hound! You misapprehend your man, if youthink I will allow you to retract in this matter."
"I really do not know what to say, for I do not know what to think aboutthe circumstance. It is, I fear, certain that Pabo lives."
"Pabo lives! Why you saw him burnt to a coal! I have your writtentestimony. You invoked the witness of the Dean of Llandeilo, and he hasformally corroborated it. I have it under his hand. You declared thatthere were hundreds who could bear testimony to the same."
"Lord Bishop, I cannot now say what is the truth. It is certain thatyour brother and we all were shown the charred relics of a man, whom theinhabitants of Caio were proceeding to inter with the rites of religion,as their late Archpriest. When I learned that he had died by fire, bythe judgment of God, then I stayed the ceremony, and bade that his bodyshould be laid under a dungheap."
"You did well. It is there still."
"It is not, my Lord Bishop."
"Do you mean to declare that he is risen from his grave?"
"Your brother is of opinion that we have been deceived by the tribesmenof Caio, so as to make us suppose that this their Archpriest and chiefwas dead, and that he is now in concealment somewhere. He further saiththat the people have secretly removed the dead man from the place wherecast, and have laid him in the churchyard."
"But--who can he have been?"
"I know not."
"And I care not," said the bishop. "Pabo was struck by fire from heaven,because he opposed me. Why when Ahaziah sent captains of fifty withtheir fifties against the prophet Elijah, did not lightning fall andconsume them and their fifties twice? Is a ragged old prophet under thelaw of Moses to be served better than me, a high prelate under theGospel? I see but too plainly, Cadell, you, being a Welshman, would robme of the glory that appertains to me. What grounds have you for thispreposterous assertion?"
"There is a young man, the son of a former Archpriest, who has beenslighted and overpassed, and has harbored resentment against Pabo. Hecame to me secretly and told me that we had been deceived--they usedsubtlety so as to be able the more effectually to conceal their chieffrom your just resentment."
"I do not believe a word of it. I have written and sent certifiedtestimonies that Pabo was burned by fire from Heaven. Where is thisalleged Pabo?"
"I know not. The young man I speak of is ready to assist us to securehim."
"I do not want him. I want and will have my miracle. Did you not hearme? When I visited Caio, I said to Pabo that I would call down fire fromHeaven upon his head. I take you to witness that you heard me."
"But what, my dear master and lord, if he were to appear, and all menwere to discover that there had been no miracle?"
"I _will_ have my miracle," pe
rsisted Bernard in petulant tones. "I havegone too far with it to retract. Odds' life! I should become alaughing-stock all through Wales; and I know well the humor of hisMajesty. Over his cups he would tell the tale and burst his sides withlaughing; and he would cast it in the teeth of my gracious mistress, theQueen. I have gone too far--I will have my miracle. If there be a manwho is going about calling himself Pabo the Archpriest, let him bearrested as an impostor."
"There will be talk concerning it."
"There must be no noise. By the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, we must hushit up! As a minister of the Truth, a prelate of the Church, it is mysovereign duty to put down all imposition. Go now! I will even send aletter to Gerald of Windsor, who is at his castle of Carreg Cennen, in aretired vale away from every road, and from most habitations. I will bidhim receive this false Pabo, and take such measures that the wretchedimpostor trouble us no more. As to my brother, bid him, if he lay handon this dissembler and deceiver of men, this lying rogue, to get himaway unnoticed, and with no noise, out of Caio, where he may beobserved, and to send him under escort and by night to Gerald at CarregCennen."
"It shall be so. And--with regard to the young man of whom I spake?"
"That young man is a pest. Why should he have disturbed us with hissuggestions?"
"I venture to remind your fatherliness that he has but allowed us to seewhat is at work behind our backs. He tells us what is known to all menin Caio. Pabo might come forward at any time and show that he is alive."
"That is true. What further about this young man?"
"He offers to be the means of putting Pabo in our power."
"And his price?"
"In the event of your fatherliness transferring me to some other placeof usefulness, such as a canonry at St. Davids, he protests that were henamed to the Archpriesthood, he would in all ways subserve yourinterests. As he belongs to the chieftain's family, he would be wellreceived by the people, and their suspicions disarmed."
"Well, well, promise him anything--everything. I shall not be bound toperformance. But hark you, Master Cadell! If this miracle be a littlebreathed upon, then you must contrive me another that cannot be upset byscoffers. Find me a paralytic or a blind person whom I may recover. Thatwould go mightily to confirm the miracle of the burning of Pabo. Andbid my brother act warily and proceed secretly, require him to treatthis dissembler as what he is--a personator of a man who is on surewarrant dead, slain by the judgment of God."
"I would fain have it under your hand and seal," said Cadell. "Yourbrother Rogier acts after his own will, and is not amenable to myadvice."
"You shall have it--also a letter to Gerald of Windsor. Get you awaynow. The epistles shall be ready by night, and you shall ride atcockcrow. And, mind you this, Master Cadell, if you lust after acanonry, provide me a new miracle. As to that already wrought, at allhazards it must be maintained. Not on my account. I am a poor worm, anothing! But for policy, for the good of the Cause; lest these Welshshould come to crow over us."
Pabo, the Priest: A Novel Page 13
