The She Wolf of France (32 page)

He was sharing the command of the expedition on equal terms with Jean de Hainaut. This was reasonable, since Mortimer had to his account only his good cause, a few English lords and the Lombard money; whil
e the other had provided the 2,
757 fighting men. Nevertheless, Mortimer thought that Jean de Hainaut should devote himself exclusively to the management of his troops, while he himself would undertake the supreme direction of the operations. The Earl of Kent, for his part, did not appear eager to push himself forward; for if, in spite of the information they had received, part of the nobility remained loyal to King Edward, the King's troops would be commanded by the Earl of Norfolk, the Marshal of England, that is to say, Kent's own
brother. And to rebel against a half-brother who is a bad king and twenty years your, senior is one thing; but it is quite another to draw your sword against a beloved brother from whom you are
separated. in

age by only a single year.

Mortimer, in search of information, had sen
t for the Mayor of Harwich. Did
he know where the royal troops were? Where was the nearest castle which could shelter the Queen while the troops were being disembarked and the ships unloaded?

`We are here,' Mortimer told the Mayor, `to help King Edward get rid of his bad councillors who are ruining the kingdom, and to restore the Queen to the position that is her due. We have, therefore, no intentions other than those which are in accord with the will of the barons and all the people of England.'

This was brief and clear, and Roger Mortimer was to repeat it at every halt, to explain the surprising arrival of a foreign army.

The Mayor, his white hair fluttering on each side of his skull, and trembling in his robe, not from cold, but from fear of his responsibilities, appeared to have no information. The King? It was said that he was in London, unless he was at Portsmouth. In any case a large fleet was to be gathered at Portsmouth, since orders had been received last month for every ship to assemble there to repel a French invasion; this explained why there were so few ships in the harbour.

At this Lord Mortimer showed considerable pride; particularly when he turned to Messire de Hainaut. For he had cleverly spread it abroad through agents that it was his intention to land on the South Coast, and the trick had clearly succeeded. But Jean de Hainaut, on his side, could be proud of his Dutch sailors, who had held their course in spite of the storm.

The district was unguarded; the Mayor had no knowledge of any troop movements in the neighbourhood, nor had he received any orders for more than the usual coastal watch to be kept. A place to stay? The Mayor suggested Walton Abbey, about three leagues to the south, along the estuary. In his heart of hearts he very much wanted to get rid of the responsibility for lodging this company on to the monks.

An escort to protect the Queen had to be organized.

`I'll command it!' cried Jean de Hainaut.

`And who'll see to the disembarkation of your Hennuyers, Messire?' asked Mortimer. `And how long will it take?'

`Three full days, before they'll be in marching order. I'll leave my chief equerry, Philippe de Chasteaux, in charge.'

Mortimer's chief anxiety was concerning the secret messengers he had sent from Holland to Bishop Orleton and the Earl of Lancaster. Had contact been made with them, had they been warned in time, and where were they at this moment? No doubt he would be, able to get information from the monks and could send couriers who, posting from monastery to monastery, would reach the two leaders of the internal resistance.

Authoritative and
outwardly calm, Mortimer strode up and down Harwich High
Street, which
was lined with, low houses, impatient to see the escort organized. He went down to the harbour to hurry on the disembarkation of the horses, and then returned to the Three Goblets where the, Queen and Prince Edward were awaiting their horses. For several centuries to come the history of England was to pass through this street in which he was now walking.
37

At last the escort was ready; the knights arrived, forming, up four abreast and filling the whole width of the High Street. The grooms were running beside: the horses fastening the last buckles of the horse-armour; the lances waved in front of the narrow windows; swords clattered against iron knee-caps.

The Queen was helped on to her p
alfrey, and then the ride began
through the rolling country, with its thinly scattered trees, its tidal flats and rare thatched cot
tages. Behind low hedges, sheep
with thick fleeces grazed round brackish pools. On the whole, a melancholy countryside with the sea-mist lying over the farther bank of the estuary. But the handful of Englishmen; Kent, Cromwell, Alspaye, and Maltravers himself, though' he was still feeling far from well, gazed at the countryside and then looked at each other, tears; shining in their eyes. This land was England!

And suddenly, owing to a carthorse neighing through the halfdoor of its stable as the cavalcade went by, Roger Mortimer felt a sudden wave of emotion at being home again. The long-awaited joy, which had so far eluded him because of all the wei
ghty matters he had on his mind
and all the decisions he had to take, now suddenly overwhelmed him in the middle of the countryside because an English horse had neighed at the horses from Flanders.

Three years in exile abroad, three years of waiting and hoping. Mortimer remembered the night of his
escape from the Tower, when wet
through he had crossed the Thames in a boat to take horse on the farther bank. And now he was back, his coat-of
-
arms embroidered on his chest, and a thousand lances to do battle
with him. He had come back as the lover of the Queen of whom he had dreamed so much in prison. Dreams sometimes came true, and then one could truly call oneself happy.

He turned to Queen Isabella with an expression of gratitude and complicity, towards that beautiful profile framed in steel mail from which the eyes shone out like sapphires. But Mortimer saw that Messire Jean de Hainaut, who was riding on the Queen's other side, was also looking at her, and his happiness immediately disappeared. He had a sudden feeling that he had already known this moment, that he was living it over again, and it disquieted him, for there are indeed, few things more disturbing than the feeling that sometimes assails us of recognizing a road down which we have never been. And then' he remembered the Paris arrival, and Robert of Artois riding beside the Queen, as Jean de Hainaut was doing now. The similarity of his reaction had aroused in Mortimer this false sense of recognition.

And he heard the Queen say: `Messire Jean, I owe you everything, and especially my being here.'

Isabella was also much moved at riding over the soil of her realm. But Mortimer scowled, and turned sombre, distant and abrupt during the rest of the journey; and he was still in the same state of mind when they reached the monks of Walton, where some of them were lodged in the Abbot's lodgings, some in the guest-house, and the men-at-arms mostly in the barns. Indeed, so much was this so, that when Queen Isabella was alone with her lover that evening, she said: `What has been the matter with you all afternoon, sweet Mortimer?'

`The fact, Madam, that I thought I had well served my Queen and my lover.'

`And who has said, my sweet lord, that you h
ave not done so?' `I thought it wa
s to me you owed your r
eturn to your kingdom, Madam.'

'And who has said that I do not owe it to you?'

`Yourself, Madam, yourself. You said so in my presence to Messire de Hainaut and thanked him for all that has been done.'

`Oh, Mortimer, my dear friend,' cried the Queen, `what umbrage you take at the slightest word! What harm can there be in thanking people who have served you?'

`I take umbrage at the facts,' cried Mortimer. `I take umbrage at words as I take umbrage also at certain glances which I had hoped, in all loyalty, you owed only to me. You're a flirt, Madam, which I did not expect. You flirt!'

The Queen was tired. Three days on a rough sea, the anxieties of an adventurous landing and, on top of all the rest, a ride of four leagues, had been a sufficient ordeal. Were there many women who would have borne as much without ever a word of complaint nor even causing anyone a moment's anxiety? She was expecting compliments on her courage rather, than jealous remonstrances.

`I ask you, my love, what flirtation?' she said impatiently. "The chaste regard Messire de Hainaut has for me may be laughable but it comes from a kind heart; and don't forget we owe to it the troops we have with us. Allow me,' therefore, without,, encouraging him, to make some little response; for you have only to compare the number of our English with his, Hennuyers. It is
also for your' sake I
smile, at this man who irritates you so much.'

`One can always find excuses for behaving badly. Messire de Hainaut is serving you out
of love, I admit it, but not to
t
he point of refusing the gold he is paid
for it. You have therefore no need to smile so tenderly at him. It humiliates me for your, sake to see you descend from that high pedestal of purity, on which I had placed you.'

`You did not seem hurt, dear
Mortimer, the day I descended
from that pedestal of purity into your arms.'

It was their first quarrel. Did it really have to take place on the very day for which they had longed so much and for which they had united all their efforts during the last three months?

'
My love,' the Queen went on more gently, 'is not your anger due to the fact that I am now less far from my husband, and that our love will be less easy?'

Mortimer
bowed his head, his rough eyebrows, made a bar across his, forehead,

`Indeed, Madam, I think that now you are on the soil of your kingdom, you must sleep alone.'

`That is what I was going to ask of you, dear love,' replied Isabella.

He left the room. He would not see his mistress' tears. Where were those happy nights-of France?

In the corridor of the Abbot's lodgings, Mortimer found himself face to face with young Prince Edward. He was holding a candle and it lit up his thin white face: Was he there to spy on ahem?

`Are you not going to sleep, my lord?' Mortimer asked.

`No, I was looking for you, my lord, to ask you to send me
your secretary. On this night of our return to the kingdom, I should like to send a letter to Madam Philippa.'

2. The shining hour

`To THE most powerful and excellent Seigneur Guillaume, Count of Hainaut. Holland and Zeeland.

`My very dear and beloved brother, I salute you in the name of God.

`We were still
in process of organizing our banners round the port of Harwich, and the Queen was staying in Walton Abbey, when the good news reached us that Monseigneur Henry of Lancaster, who is cousin to King Edward and commonly called here Lord Crouchback, because his neck is all askew, was marching to meet us with a whole army of barons, knights and men-at-arms raised on their lands, and also with the Bishops of Hereford, Norwich and Lincoln, all to place themselves at the service of the Queen, my Lady Isabella. And Monseigneur of Norfolk, Marshal of England, has also declared his intention of doing the same together with his valiant troops,

`Our banners and those of the Lords of Lancaster and Norfolk met at a place called Bury St Edmunds, where there happened to be a market in the streets that day.

`The meeting took place amid indescribable joy. The knights leapt from their horses, welcomed each other and embraced, Monseigneur of Kent and Monseigneur of Norfolk held each other breast to breast and shed tears like real brothe
rs who had been separated for a
long time, and my Lord Mortimer was doing the same with my Lord Bishop of Hereford, and Monseigneur, Crouchback was kissing Prince Edward on both cheeks, and all running to the Queen's horse to welcome her and place their lips to the hem of her dress. Had I come to the Kingdom of England merely to see so much love and joy surrounding my Lady Isabella, I should have felt sufficiently repaid for my trouble. All the more since the people of Bury St Edmunds, abandoning their stalls of poultry and vegetables, joined in the general rejoicing, while people were continually arriving from the neighbouring countryside.

`The Queen presented me with great kindness and many compliments to all the English lords; and I had the distinction of having our thousand Dutch lances behind me, and I was proud, my much loved brother, of the noble appearance our knights made before the foreign lords.

`Nor did
the Queen fail to declare to all the members of her family and party that it was thanks to Lord Mortimer that she had been able to return so strongly supported; she praised his services highly and ordered that Lord Mortimer's opinion should prevail in all things. Besides, my Lady Isabella herself never issues a decree wit
hout having first consulted him.
She loves him and shows it; but it can be only a chaste love, whatever the ready tongue of scandal may say, for she would take more care to dissimulate were it otherw
ise, and I also know full well,
from the way she looks at me, that she could not make eyes at me as she, does if her troth were plighted. I was rat
her afraid at Walton that their
friendship
, for some reason I do not know
had grown somewhat colder; but everything goes to show that' it was' nothing and that they are as united as ever, for which I am glad, since it is natural to love my Lady Isabella for all the good and fine qualities she has, and I would wish everyone to have the same love for her as I have myself.

`My lords bishops brought sufficient funds with them, and promised that more would be collected in their dioceses, and this has reassured me as to the pay for our Hennuyers, for I feared that Lord Mortimer's Lombard subsidies would be too quickly exhausted,' This all happened on the twenty-eighth day of September.