I tried to see the situation fairly. If the war continued it would indeed be hard to return. But suppose I were recreant? How could I speak to my children? I would have no chance to speak to Melisande, for she would leave me. To be alone and shunned in Lamorie would be worse than sharing the captivity of so many brave men.
I answered firmly. "If need be I shall return with you, my lord. But if you recommend this treaty the parliament will accept it. The barons of Lamorie will follow your advice."
"I'm not so sure that I do approve of this treaty," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Perhaps it would be better for the Franks of Lamorie if they hung on to all their castles and left us to die in prison. But if my uncle sends me I must support his plan, since I go as his advocate. It's settled, then. Through Nicene territory you ride as my groom, and when we reach the Frankish knds you become my household knight. We shall start as soon as the oaths have been exchanged."
That took time. The Grifons are a ceremonious race, and their schismatic priests make every religious function into a long liturgy. The oaths were sworn on the high altar of their great cathedral, a huge building reaching to the sky, its walls covered with terrifying pictures of menacing, self-righteous angels and saints. But the relics which gave sanctity to the oaths had been fetched from Nice; for the unfortunate Emperor Baldwin had dispersed the halidom of Constantinople, selling holy bones to buy his daily bread.
In addition to the oath-swearing, Prince William stood sponsor to one of the Emperor's children at a great baptism in the cathedral. Among Grifons the tie between father and godfather is as strong as between brothers, and it is unthinkable that one should make war on the other. At the same time our Prince swore to a perpetual peace. I may add that he swore in good faith, intending to keep his oath. Of course the Emperor Michael attacked us as soon as he thought he had us at a disadvantage, just as among the Grifons brother often makes war on brother. They are a faithless people, though amusing companions to live with.
9. THE PARLIAMENT OF LADIES
In the early autumn Sir Geoffrey and I rode out from the Golden Gate of Constantinople. Before us stretched the paved road built by the mighty men of old, running straight as an arrow from Constantinople to Salonique, throughout its length within the dominions of the Emperor Michael, We carried an imperial pass which entitled us to impress post horses at every stage; in addition my lord carried a heavy bag of gold, for our travelling expenses when we reached the Frankish castles bordering on Satines.
We made good time, bearing in mind that our comrades must remain in prison until our return; but on that wonderful road it was easy to travel fast. There are fine stone bridges over every stream, comfortable inns in every village, and little forts garrisoned by Pecheneg mercenaries wherever the country is wild enough to shelter robbers. But few stretches are waste. For most of the way good farmland lies on either side, farmland as carefully cultivated as any garden; at this season they were ploughing after a fruitful harvest.
Every few miles we came to a little town, its ancient walls neatly repaired with gleaming freestone; the road led straight through, from one gate to another. The churches glowed with coloured mosaic inside and out, and the markets were thronged with orderly crowds. The whole land was most wonderfully peaceful and prosperous.
"This is Romanie without the Franks," said Sir Geoffrey as we gazed about us. "It seems a pity to spoil it I suppose the Marquis of Montferrat came this way, when our fathers were setting up the Empire which has just vanished. But these Grifons have been quick to repair the damage. Would you like to end your days in a civilised land such as this?"
"No, my lord," I answered, "and neither would you. It's no place for a good knight, or indeed for any free man. These people have plenty to eat and some of them wear silk. But they are all slaves to an Emperor who won his throne by blinding a child. Even now their next Emperor may be scratching himself on a dunghill, or cutting throats on a mountain. They will obey him, whoever he may be. No self-respecting Frank could be happy among Grifons."
"Very forcefully put, cousin William. I suppose there are two ways of living in the world, and we may choose between them. You can be safe and clean, with a fine church to worship in and a strong stone wall round you. But then you must pay taxes to some lord who has appointed himself your guardian, and he will fix the amount you pay to him. Or you can carry a sword and guard your own head night and day. Then you may choose your own lord and overthrow him if he breaks the ancient custom. But you can't have safety and freedom together. We have chosen the second way."
We rode through Salonique, a great city almost as splendid as Constantinople, and soon afterwards passed the evening in a little village buying horses; for we had reached the limit of the Empire, and no postmaster lets out a horse to be ridden beyond the frontier. We climbed a steep pass, where the path was broken and overgrown since few travellers came that way; and saw on the next hilltop the castle of La Bondonice.
I cannot describe the sensation of freedom, release, and well-being which came over me as I answered the challenge of the sergeant by the gate. I was not in fact free, for if our mission failed we were both bound in honour to return to Constantinople; but I was once more among Franks, free men who upheld their own rights with their, own swords and themselves decided in their lawcourts the penalties they must enforce with their own power. I had left behind that murderous palace where a tyrant gave wealth to one fawning courtier and removed the eyes of another, making new law at his whim.
At La Bondonice they lent me a sword, and a kind lady sat up all night sewing the blazon of Briwerr to the front of my surcoat. We were heroes, with the added attraction that we seemed to have returned from the grave. From La Bondonice to Estives, and then on to Satines, it was roses all the way and they rang the church bells to welcome us. Best of all, I was a knight once more; though my lord, with his usual kindness, had never given me any order which would make my pose as his servant irksome or dishonourable.
We rode fast, for everyone pressed fresh horses on us; but we could not ride fast enough to keep up with the news of our coming. At Satines they were ready for us. The Archbishop came down in procession from his great cathedral on the citadel, as we were led up the steep ascent we passed a fountain running with wine, and in the marble gateway at the summit we found the Duke of Satines waiting to greet us. As my lord dismounted the lady Isabel ran forward to fling herself into his arms.
That night Duke Guy gave a feast in the tall marble gatehouse, a feast which spread itself over the whole citadel and the town below. At La Bondonice and Estives we had been greeted by ladies and old men; but here there were gallant knights in plenty, for Guy de la Roche had taken a numerous mesnie to France. They inquired tenderly after various de la Roches and St. Omers who had fought at Pelagonie, but once they knew that their kinsmen were either alive or dead, as the case might be, they seemed to lose interest in Sir Geoffrey's mission. All the talk was of the hawking, the Te Deums, and the tournaments which would be organised to celebrate his return from captivity. He kept on explaining that he must hasten on to Nicies, or wherever the parliament of Lamorie would meet, as quickly as possible; no one paid any attention.
His lady was obviously delighted to see him, and as much in love with him as ever. She sat beside him at the high table, danced with him afterwards, passed the whole evening at his side, in a manner most unusual between husband and wife. Good manners demanded that I leave them alone together, so I did not hear what they talked about. But the lady Isabel was evidently telling him a great deal; andit seemed that he did not like everything she told him.
I discovered from the ladies of her suite that my Melisande was at home in Carytena; our children were well, and the castellan had kindly given my household a proportion of my pay, on the assumption that wherever I might be I was still serving my lord. I gathered that on the whole Lamorie was quiet and peaceful, obedient to the Princess Anna in spite of her Grifon birth; though of course the land was very nearly defencel
ess if an enemy should invade it.
The lady Isabel had been in Satines for two years, ever since her father returned from France. She was quite open in her dislike of Carytena as a home, and displayed no interest in the governing of her barony. She seemed to take more pride in her new status as a Duke's daughter than in her position as chatelaine of a great fee. The Princess, knowing her dislike of Carytena, had invited her to join the court at Andreville; but she had refused, with contemptuous remarks about a court ruled by a Grifon lady, and invidious comparisons between the amenities of Lamorie and Satines. The vassals would not be pleased to see her when her husband brought her home again.
Rather late the next morning my lord sent for me. He was lounging in the sunshine, gazing casually at the carving outside the lovely cathedral. He greeted me pleasantly, as though there was nothing in particular on his mind.
"I never get tired of looking at this," he said with a smile. "Quite unlike the normal work of St. Luke, such as you see in every good collection of relics. The subjects are as interesting as the exquisite carving. That lady-devil, for example, sitting her pony so gracefully while she whacks with an axe at that holy man. If there are others like her in Hell it can't be such a bad place after all. The holy man himself repays study. He handles his sword like a veteran, but his dress is really very curious. When you arm, do you first put on your helm? A job to get the hauberk over it. Yet that's what this fellow did, and he was interrupted while arming. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone into battle as St. Luke saw him, with sword and helm and shield, and the rest of him stark naked."
"Perhaps the carving does not represent a holy man overcoming a lady-devil?" I hazarded.
"What other subject could they choose to adorn the Church of Our Lady of Satines? Some secular legend? Perish the thought. Unless indeed this place was not built to be a church, but is some ancient idol-house taken over by the clergy. Don't say that where any de la Roche can hear you. They are all so proud of their beautiful and holy cathedral."
"It is a very fine building, my lord. Are we going to stare at it much longer?"
He gave me a searching glance. "Have a heart, cousin William. Last night I saw my wife for the first time for two years. Of course you have not yet met your Melisande, so you are still eager for travel. You are in a hurry to reach Lamorie?"
"The longer we delay, my lord, the longer do Prince William and our unfortunate comrades remain in prison. We ought to deliver our message as soon as possible. Though I agree that I am also eager to see my wife and children."
"Exactly, cousin William. The parliament of Lamorie should be summoned without delay. But serious obligations may detain me here in Satines. That's why I want to speak with you in private. Come into the open, where we cannot be overheard."
We stood looking over a sheer drop to the distant sea, with behind us an acre of blinding white marble floor where no eavesdropper could hide.
"You'd think, wouldn't you, that everyone would want peace with the Grifon Emperor?" my lord began in a low voice. "Our best knights lie in a confounded uncomfortable prison, Lamorie is defenceless, and our gallant Prince William has offered to ransom all his followers by giving up castles which belong to him alone. Certainly no one in Satines should object to such a practical arrangement. Yet Duke Guy has made all sorts of engagements for me, and won't hear of me moving on just yet. My dear wife also wants to keep me by her. She fears that hard riding at this season might injure her health. You know how it is—difficult to get away from a pressing host without seeming rude to him." He gave an eloquent shrug.
"So I want you, cousin William, to go on ahead and tell Princess Anna to summon the parliament of Lamorie. She'll do it as soon as she knows I bring tenns from the Prince. A pity I can't give you credentials, but after two years in captivity no one has a ring or a seal. You will just have to persuade her to trust you. Once parliament has been summoned Duke Guy must attend it, as protector of Lamorie; and if he goes he must take me with him. But nothing will be done until the Princess has summoned parliament."
"You want me to ride to Princess Anna? When do I start?"
"No time like the present. Here's a rope, curiously enough, coiled up behind this column. If I tie one end here, and throw over the other end, you could scramble down the wall and no one the wiser. The only difficulty is that I have no money, and I don't know where they have stabled our horses. So you may have to do more walking than riding. But you have your sword with you, I'm glad to see. In some lonely part of the road you might try asking a traveller to lend you his mount."
With my heart in my mouth I scrambled down the sheer man-made cliff. It was not so high as the precipices which encircle Carytena, but it was high enough for a fall to break my skull. The rope held firm, and I reached the bottom safely. I looked back at the citadel before slithering down the rocky slope; any sentry who saw me escaping like a thief would raise the alarm. But Sir Geoffrey had an eye for castles and their limitations; he had chosen a projecting corner of the ramparts where no sentry could see me unless he leaned over to peer down.
It was not until I was dodging among the cottages at the foot of the slope that I realized the full implications of my flight. I was always slow to understand the politics of Romanie. Sir Geoffrey had done it all so smoothly and calmly, beginning with that flippant dissertation on sacred art, that it was hard to grasp that he was engineering my escape from his father-in-law's stronghold, where we were lodged as honoured guests; and that in his view my mission was so urgent that it justified highway robbery and horse-stealing.
Two miles along the western road I met a Grifon priest, titupping along on a tiny donkey. There was no one else in sight. I did not try to explain myself in his foreign language; I showed him my sword and he lent me his donkey. The beast carried me as far as the monastery of Dalphinet, then occupied by a community of French Cistercians.
The guest-master at Dalphinet believed my tale. He could judge from my speech that I was a Frankish knight, and he chose to take me for an honest one. He promised to return the donkey, and in exchange lent me one of the Prior's riding-mules. Next morning I passed close under the great rock of Chorinte, and knew I was home again in the principality of Lamorie.
I was hungry and cold by the time I reached Carytena, urging my mule over the tricky mountain road from the north. The sentry on the lower gate did not recognise me, but after I had sworn at him in French he weakened so far as to let me climb to the inner bailey. Soon I was lolling in a hot bath, with baby William gurgling in his cradle. Melisande listening to my adventures, and little Geoffrey Briwerr standing by with a dry towel.
Melisande saw at once why Sir Geoffrey had sent me to carry his message in secret "The castellan here will give you horse and arms, and a couple of sergeants to attend you. In your proper state as a household knight of Escorta you will easily get an audience with the Princess Anna. She will be very glad to hear your news. As soon as messengers can ride out the parliament will be summoned. After that even Duke Guy, though he's capable of anything, will not dare to detain the envoy who has come to arrange the release of Prince William from his long captivity. Don't you see, dear honest William? Duke Guy is the only lord of Frankish Romanie who escaped imprisonment. He is also the only lord with a strong mesnie, since most of his knights went with him to France. He is the obvious protector of Lamorie, in the absence of our natural defenders. Once he wanted to be independent of the Prince, and fought a bitter war to gain his freedom. In his wildest dreams he never thought that Lamorie would be subject to his lordship. Now it has happened, and he is reluctant to end his rule."
"But his daughter is lady of Carytena," I objected. "Surely he would not dispossess the son-in-law who fought for him at Mount Caride?"
"Why should he dispossess Sir Geoffrey? If he is suzerain of Lamorie Sir Geoffrey can be lord of Carytena under him..."
"Sir Geoffrey would never hold Escorta from a traitor lord. He is loyal to Prince William, and will never desert him."
"He deserted him not long ago," Melisande reminded me, "and for love of la Roche. That's where the Duke makes his mistake. He takes it for granted that Sir Geoffrey will fall in with his plan. He doesn't understand the mind of his son-in-law. Perhaps no one understands it. But perhaps I do, who also was born in Romanie and suckled by a Grifon nurse. In Sir Geoffrey the Frankish tie of homage has been weakened by his foreign upbringing. But that has not made him a Grifon. He sees himself as a paladin out of the old romances. He is a hero ruling by the sword in an unwarlike land. So naturally he is always tempted to help the weaker side."
She ended with an elaborate Grifon wave of the hand, which was meant to explain everything though it left me no wiser.
"Eh, what's that? Help the weaker side? But it may not be the right side," I said in bewilderment.
"The ordinary laws of fealty do not bind the great Sir Geoffrey de Bruyere of Escorta," Melisande explained patiently. "He is so great that he may follow his own conscience, and that naturally inclines to the weaker side. His alliance ought to make it the stronger, of course. Perhaps he may now have noticed that in both his great battles, Mount Caride and Pelagonie, his side was defeated despite his prowess. He may yet learn wisdom. For the sake of his future happiness I hope he does. But at present he cannot join his father-in-law to pillage his uncle, while his uncle lies defeated in prison. No hero could behave so."
"This is all too subtle for me. Sir Geoffrey is a good and faithful knight."
I may have been right, even though my mind is slow. Dear Melisande with her Grifon blood is apt to see subtlety in the plainest transactions.
Lord Geoffrey's Fancy Page 16
