The Priests' Code

by B. B. Balthis

  ‘I clearly need to do more research about him. Many believe he had some involvement with the Rennes-le Château mysteries, through requests made by Noel Corbu to the Vatican for education grants for his children. He was the man who bought everything from Marie Dénarnaud, Saunière’s sole heir, and she lived with his family until she died. My belief is that he knew of the discoveries well before that, probably through information filtering down the line from Pope Leo XIII. Corbu got the grants, by the way, even though the local bishopric refused the request initially.’

  ‘The number of people who seem to have been involved over the years is huge. Oh, and I’m sure that the Franco she mentioned is the Italian and, of course, the parchments she mentions are the ones he recently sent to me. I must say, I feel a bit stunned by Hortense’s revelations. I think she was right in what she said about the war, and it having devastating effects on them all. Hortense and Charles were from a different mould… I can see that now. Our birth parents were very serious people. Do you know, I don’t think I ever saw our mother laugh, not once.’

  ‘You’re wrong there, Ben, because I saw her laugh twice. Once was at a birthday party of yours when you were running around like a mad thing, and the second time was when we were playing with Bruin, my dog. He was doing tricks and she found that very amusing. But generally, yes, they were very serious, and Christiane was too. She always worried about everything. In hindsight, I think her past had shown her the very worst of humanity and life, and she was scarred by it… they all were. What do we know of hardship and the horrors of war? In comparison, our childhoods and most of our lives have been idyllic. It’s all so sad.’

  At that point, the doorbell rang, and I ran up the stairs to check who it was. Two officers stood outside, and I shouted down to open the door. They were polite and professional and we recounted the events of the past few hours as best we could. They were particularly interested in who might have shot Peter, and what we saw when we ran outside. We truthfully had no idea, had seen nothing, and told them so. Caro’s shoe was returned to her in a clean plastic bag.

  We both sat quietly for a few minutes. Caro was the first to move, placed another of the letters on the table in front of her, and started to read.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  March 2015

  My dear Caro and Benoît

  I have noticed a few strange things happening around the village and there are people here that do not look like tourists. You may know that the church at Antugnac was ripped apart by ‘archaeologists’ in recent years. I doubt that archaeology was their purpose, but it is clearly time to tell you more. I know far too much, and this places me in danger. I have no worries about that, but I would not want to die without telling you all that you need to know.

  In the 1950s three bodies were found in Saunière’s domain. There has been much speculation about them, most of it complete rubbish, and I want to tell you the truth. The Nazis took over Villa Bethany for a while during the war. They were vile, filthy devils, but let me tell you that this does not come anywhere close enough in explaining to you what they were really like. They even took to dynamiting holes all over the place looking for buried gold. Fools. Anyway, one evening, they were very drunk, and demanded at gunpoint that girls from the village were brought in to satisfy their needs. The villagers refused, and one was shot. Several young girls, one of them only fourteen, were eventually brought to them.

  I had only just got back from a long mission, but was used to subterfuge, and watched from behind some bushes into the room where they were. I waited until the moment was exactly right, and I shot them through the window, one by one. The fools were so drunk they had no idea what was happening. We threw them into one of their dynamite holes and covered them over. We celebrated that night and even got to drink some of our own wine. I have no regrets whatsoever apart from not having killed an awful lot more of them than I did.

  The next thing I wish to tell you about is the money that will, by now, have been given to you by your parents, both lots, and by me now that I am dead. As you will have gathered, the amount that we had between us was considerable. We all worked, of course, including your grandparents in their time, and were very well paid. Indeed, we lived very simple lives, spending little. We never felt the need to spend more, and I suppose there was something of the French peasant in all of us. When you have been through war and starvation, you always keep something back.

  However, as you will have seen, there is far more than we could have accumulated, even with extreme frugality, and I want to tell you about this. As an archaeologist, Charles was always very interested in the many rumours that were around regarding treasure in the area. People today have made it into big business, of course, because of the media that you have available, but we were always aware of the possibilities, and this has been the case for many hundreds of years. Given the history of Rennes-le-Château, and its occupation over thousands of years, there were bound to be some hoards stashed away. This is the same everywhere. Just because you do not hear that a hoard has been found does not mean that it hasn’t. You must remember, we had been through Nazi occupation and we learned to keep things to ourselves and protect our own.

  Of course, you know all about Saunière, our delightful village priest. I was born about six years after he died, but there was plenty of talk amongst the villagers and elsewhere even then, although most remained entirely loyal to him. Your grandparents knew him, of course, and he even spent some time as the priest at Antugnac. He has been in your house, Benoît, many times, and was very interested in history and archaeology, as was his brother Alfred. He was a charming man by all accounts, but full of sadness, which I am told he never entirely shook off.

  I will write to you again about this, but for now I want to explain our wealth. The four of us, that is, Charles, myself, and your parents (Christiane refused to have any part in it), used information that Saunière did not have, which we discovered in the cellars of your home. We found well-preserved parchments in the painted cell. I know you both discovered this room when you were children, much to your mother’s fury. I must tell you that after her reaction and the walling up of the cellar entirely I didn’t speak to your parents for two years. I have never understood her reaction, and never will. You saw the room, and walling it up wouldn’t remove the images from your mind. My brother persuaded me for your sakes to engage with them again, which of course I did. Anyway, the parchments were written in Latin and thanked the owners of the château for giving sanctuary to several of the Templar knights during difficult times and allowing them to escape. They left the gold discs buried in the wall in gratitude. There was a considerable amount of them.

  On the second parchment, they wrote about small pockets of gold buried around the cistern at Blanchefort, one of their watch towers. Interestingly, its location used the dial of a clock combined with a sundial, and gave times on the dial to pinpoint the area around the cistern where the gold was. Most of the monies were long gone of course. They were intelligent men and knew that trouble was coming. Over the centuries their compatriots came back and took what was left, but we found three pockets of buried discs that were of considerable worth. Gold was in very short supply in the years after the war, particularly of that purity, and we sold most of it to a wealthy American for a very large sum of money. I have no idea of its whereabouts now. I kept a few discs for you, as did Charles, and hope that by now you have them. Your parents didn’t want to keep any of theirs and sold them all.

  Charles found a few smaller stashes of gold in the vicinity, some very ancient indeed, and this added to your inheritance, as did Charles’s buying and selling of antiquities. Celestine and Henrikas also earned large amounts of money on their missions. It is no more intriguing than that. I have hidden the parchments for you. They should be well preserved as Charles did this himself. They haven’t been opened since we first found them. I am hoping that you have removed the small leat
her suitcase from the loft with the photograph trunk. This was the suitcase I used for most of my time in the Secret Service. It has a hidden compartment at the bottom. Look carefully and you will find it. That is where the parchments are. I must go now but will write more soon.

  Your loving Aunt Hortense

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  ‘The fog begins to lift! I thought it would be something like that. Charles was always coming home with odd things. I don’t doubt that there are still a few more hoards around, and I suppose that at some time or other they’ll be found. I’d like to do something useful with part of my money. I’m not sure what yet, but I’m going to think about it.’

  ‘Good idea. Given how things are right now, if we both died the whole lot would go to the government and I would hate that. And the painted room… even if I never open it again, it needs to be noted somewhere that it exists. It’s an important part of history. I felt rather odd hearing what she said about not speaking to Celestine and Henrikas for two years. I don’t think there was much love lost there. They were both strong, dominant women, with very different viewpoints. I fear I have some work to do though with regards to our mother. Even now when I think of her I feel anger and resentment. As for Henrikas, he seems to have lived his life in her shadow. Why do you think that was?’

  ‘She appeared to be so much stronger and bolder than him, but things aren’t always what they seem.’ She gave a huge sigh and wiped away a few tears with the back of her hand.

  ‘I know, I’m feeling pretty low myself. It’s been a difficult time and Peter’s death has just about finished us off, but I don’t think it’s over yet. Let’s keep going through the letters… at least we’ll have accomplished something and I’ll make us some tea.’

  Caro picked up another of the letters. I was grateful to Hortense for writing to us in this way. I doubted that she was going to tell us ‘everything,’ but neither of our parents had bothered at all, and in my head, I thanked her and hoped she could hear me.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  April 2015

  Dear Caro and Benoît

  Time is moving on, and I am writing to explain the golden cube, which is now, hopefully, in your possession, along with the golden-topped walking stick and the watch.

  Firstly, I need to tell you about the family that Charles and I come from. As you will have gathered, de Morny is an old French name. You may have come across the papers in the suitcase that I left for you. Our great-great-grandfather was also a Charles de Morny. He was the illegitimate son of Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine (who was married to Napoleon I) and Charles Comte de Flahaut. There were several other illegitimacies along the line, but of course, they are not blood relatives of yours. These few objects ended up in the possession of Charles and so now, of course, they belong to you. Charles believed that the stick and the watch may have belonged to Napoleon himself, but quite clearly the cube is of Templar descent and more likely to be of the de Morny line, but, at the end of the day, who knows? One reads things about the Beauharnais being of Merovingian descent, but it seems to me that half of France is claiming that these days.

  I am sure you will recognise the other photographs. They are of the village church where you have been living, Benoît. I visited there many years ago, and always thought it quite odd that you should end up living and working there, but I have seen a synchronicity developing over the past couple of years that is rare, and may not happen again in your lifetime. I know this sounds strange, especially from one who is not given to fanciful imaginings, but none the less it is so.

  Rennes-le-Château is a place of unusual events. This has been the case throughout history, and undoubtedly will continue to be so. Bérenger Saunière was involved in a similar event that carried him along on a wave of discoveries that altered the course of his life. He continued with the passing on of the knowledge in the best way he could, and this responsibility has now been given to you both. It’s like a giant wave, and there is no way of getting off. One can only ride it, use one’s wits, and do the best one can.

  The church in your English village, Benoît, is also such a place. That is why it was chosen many hundreds of years ago to hold the secret. It was thought to be for the best at that time. It may no longer be for the best now. I am sorry, I don’t want to talk in riddles. You have had enough held back from you throughout your lives, but as I write this I am concerned if someone else should read this letter and the impact that might have.

  Saunière found four documents in all. I have seen copies of two of them through my work, but, as cunning as I was, it was impossible to get my hands on the originals. The other two were elsewhere, but I am fully aware of their contents.

  There are more documents in your church, Benoît, most likely of all four. I am not entirely sure where, but Saunière knew and if you follow his clues to where they are hidden here I suspect the clues will lead you to the parchments in England too. The letter he found from Bigou told him everything. Some say that Saunière went to your church in England, Benoît, but I cannot confirm that. I am sure you already know where they are here, but, my children, I suspect that they are now gone. I deeply regret not trying to get them when I had the chance, for it was inevitable that the Vatican would take them if they could. Please look anyway. One can always hope that they were stupid enough to be unable to decipher the narrative of truth. A narrative of lies and greed is always preferable, n’est-ce pas? Do not wait, though. The sooner you look the better. There is something explosive in the atmosphere and it does not bode well. My final letter will tell you everything else I know. You can do with it what you will.

  Your loving Aunt Hortense.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  ‘I can’t find any more letters, although the deeds to her house are here. Some of the names seem so familiar, it’s like I personally know them, and they go back more than three hundred years. And more photographs… look at these of the three of us sitting at her kitchen table. We must have been eight or nine. She looks so young, and very attractive too, and that casserole is beginning to smell marvellous… when will it be ready?’

  I got up to check the casserole, gave it a stir, and dropped in a handful of pearl barley.

  ‘About an hour, I reckon. What are we going to do now? If she said she would write again, then I’m sure she has. Perhaps it’s in the suitcase with the Templar parchments. To be honest, I’m sure I know what she’ll say, and I expect you do too.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose so. I need to tell you about Asmodeus, as well. He’s the missing link to much of what Saunière left.’

  ‘I’d thought as much. Even years ago, we saw Asmodeus as a key player.’

  ‘I haven’t quite finished writing it all out, but I’ll give you a copy as soon as I have. In essence, I’ve worked out where Bérenger found and re-hid some of the documents. I’m almost positive that I know where they are. Of course, someone else may have worked it out too, and they may well be gone. It’s difficult because I shall need some form of permission to access where they are, and the minute I ask for that someone’s going to ask me why, and then the whole thing will go to pot. If I tell them why, then undoubtedly, they’ll get there before me. Like I said, they might be gone already. It wasn’t that easy to work out, but surely in one hundred and twenty years someone else has, apart from you, of course. I don’t doubt that you’ve worked it out and have just kept it to yourself.’

  She looked at me and waited for me to concede to this point, which I did.

  She continued to speak. ‘But I’m not sure what to do, and secondly I don’t want to put either of us in any more danger that we already are. In some ways, I wish I’d never found out. And yet to know and not be able to get to it is equally as bad.’

  ‘We need to look, and if they’re gone they’re gone… we’ll deal with it. I’ve been happy enough to put it all to the back of my mind, but Hortense was r
ight, and we mustn’t wait any longer.’

  ‘That’s a real surprise coming from you. Just when I think I’ve worked you out, you change tack! I take it you agree with me that they are in the piscina pedestal here at Antugnac, along with the possibility of them being behind Joan of Arc’s flag somewhere?’

  ‘Yes, to all of that. And, yes, that’s where I think he re-hid them, although I hadn’t made the Joan of Arc connection. I’m sure I can get a key, and it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to look. Let’s see what we find when we get in there. Have you thought any more about the funeral?’

  ‘I’ll sort it out if you like, Ben. It should be quiet, but people from the village will want to come, and she was very fond of the mayor, so I’m sure he’ll be there. Can you give the priest a ring? Do you think we should contact Merry or go to Peter’s funeral? Would she even want us to?’

  ‘I’ll send her an email from both of us, and express our sadness at what happened and offer help. She may ignore it, but at least we tried. We mustn’t forget that we still have a problem. Harcourt’s on the loose and so is the bishop. I wish Niort would tell us what he knows about him… at least we would know what we were dealing with, but the bishop confuses me even more. What is he doing getting mixed up with all of this? It could lose him his position, unless he’s working on behalf of the Vatican.’

  ‘Somehow I don’t think so. Surely they would choose someone much more able: younger, meaner, and leaner.’

  ‘I still can’t believe I’ve misjudged him so badly. As for Peter, I think he got involved with a dangerous group of people, and went off the rails. He certainly wasn’t compos mentis when we saw him, was he?’