The She Wolf of France (6 page)

The lords, bishops, and Yorkshire notables, who were standing at the back of the room, looked at each other, by no means afraid, but shocked rather at this impotent anger which strayed so far from its object, and revealed to them not only the difficulties of the kingdom, but also the character of the King. Was this the Sovereign who, asked them for subsidies for his Treasury, to whom they owed obedience en -
everything, and for whom they
were to risk their lives when he summoned them to
take part i
n his wars? Lord Mortimer must have had good
reasons for rebellion.

Even the
intimate councillors seemed ill at
ease, though they well knew the King's habit of recapitulating, even en his correspondence, all the troubles of his reign whenever a new difficulty arose.

Chancellor Baldock was mechanically rubbing his Adam's apple above his archideaconal robe. The Bishop of Exeter, the Lord Treasurer, was nervously biting his thumbnail and watching his neighbours out of the corner of his eye. Only Hugh Despenser the Younger, too curled, sc
ented and overdressed for a man
of thirty-three, showed satisfaction. The King's hand resting on his shou
lder made i
t clear to everyone how important and powerful he was.,

He had a short, snub nose and a well-shaped mouth and was now raising and lowering his chin like a horse pawing the ground, as he approved every word Edward said with a little throaty murmur. His expression seemed to imply: `This time things have really gone too far; we shall have to take stern measures!' He was then, tall, rather narrow-chested and had a bad, spotty skin.

`Messire de Bouville,' King Edward said suddenly, turning to the ambassador, `you well reply to Monseigneur of Valois that the marriage he proposes, and of which we appreciate the honour, well most certainly not take place. We have other views for our eldest son. And we shall thus put a term to the deplorable custom by which the Kings of England take their wives from France, without ever deriving any benefit from it.'

Fat Bouville paled at the affront and bowed. He looked sadly at the Queen and went out.

The first and most unexpected consequence of Roger Mortimer's escape was that the King of England was breaking his traditional alliance. By this outburst he had wanted to wound his wife;
but he had also succeeded i
n wounding his half-brothers of Norfolk and Kent, whose mother was French. The two young men turned to their Cousin Crouchback, w
ho shrugged his heavy shoulder i
n resigned indifference. Without reflection, the King had casually alienated for ever the powerful Count of Valois who, as everyone knew, governed France en the name of his nephew Charles the Fair. Caprices such as this have sometimes lost kings both their thrones and their lives.

Young Prince Edward,
still motionless by the window,
was
silently watching his mother and judging his father. After all, it was his marriage that was being discussed and he was allowed to have no say in it. But if he had been asked to choose between his English and French blood, he would have shown a preference for the latter.

The three younger children had stopped playing: the Queen signed to the maidservants to take them away.

And then, with the greatest calm, looking the King straight in the eye, she said: `When a husband hates his wife it is natural he should hold her responsible for everything.'

Edward was not the man to make a direct answer to that.

`My whole Tower guard dead-drunk,' he cried, `the Lieutenant in flight with that felon, and my constable sick to death with the drug they gave him. Unless the traitor's malingering to avoid the punishment he deserves. It was up to him to see my prisoner did not escape. Do you hear, Winchester?'

Hugh Despenser the Elder, who had been responsible for the appointment of Constable Seagrave, bowed to the storm. He was thin and narrow-shouldered, with a stoop that was in part natural and in part acquired during a long career as a courtier. His enemies had nicknamed him `the Weasel'. Cupidity, envy, meanness, self-seeking, deceit, and all the gratifications these vices can procure for their possessor were manifest, in the lines of his face and beneath his red eyelids. And yet he was not lacking in courage; but he had human feelings only for his son and a few rare friends, of which Seagrave indeed was one. You could better understand the son's character when you had observed the father for a moment.

`My lord,' he said in a calm voice, `I feel sure that Seagrave is in no way to blame.'

`He's to blame for negligence and laziness; he's to blame for allowing himself to be made a fool of; he's to blame for not suspecting that a plot was being hatched under his nose; he's to blame perhaps for his bad luck. And I never forgive bad luck. Though Seagrave is one of your proteges, Winchester, he shall be punished; and people will no longer be able to say that I'm unfair and that my favours are lavished only on your creatures. Seagrave will take Mortimer's place in prison; and perhaps his successor will take care to keep a better watch. That, my son, is how you rule,' the King added, coming to a halt in front of the heir to the throne.

The boy raised his eyes to him and immediately lowered them again. -

Hugh the Younger, who knew how to turn Edward's anger aside, threw back his head and, gazing up at the beams of the ceiling, said: `It's the other criminal, dear Sire, who's defying you most contemptuously. Bishop Orleton organized the whole thing himself and seems to fear you so little that he has not even taken the trouble to fly or go into hiding.'

Edward looked at Hugh the Younger with gratitude and admiration. How could one not be moved by that profile, by the fine attitudes he struck when speaking, by that high, well-modulated voice, and that way, at once so
tender
and respectful, of saying `dear Sire', in the French manner, as sweet Gaveston, whom the barons and bishops had killed, used to do? But Edward had learned from experience, he knew how wicked men were and that you never won by coming to terms. He was determined never to be separated from Hugh, and all who opposed him would be pitilessly struck down, one after the other.

`I announce to you, my lords, that Bishop Orleton will be brought before my Parliament to be tried and sentenced.'

Edward crossed his arms and looked round to see the effect of his words. The Archdeacon-Chancellor and the Bishop-Treasurer, though they were Orleton's worst enemies, looked disapproving for they could not help standing by members of the cloth.

Henry
Crouchback, who was by nature a wise and moderate man, could not help making an effort to bring the King back to the path of reason. He observed calmly that a bishop could be brought only before an ecclesiastical court consisting of his peers.

`Everything has to have a beginning, Leicester. Conspiracy against kings is not, so far as I know, taught by the Holy Gospels. Since Orleton has forgotten what should be rendered to Caesar, Caesar will remind him of it. Another favour I owe your family, Madam,' the King went on, addressing Isabella, `since it, was your brother Philippe V who, against my will, had Adam Orleton provided to the See of Hereford by his French Pope. Very well. He shall be the first prelate to be sentenced by the royal judiciary and his punishment shall be exemplary.'

`Orleton was not originally hostile to you, Cousin,' argued Crouchback, `nor would he have had any reason to become so if you had not opposed, or
if your Council had not
opposed, the Holy Father's giving him the mitre. He is a man of great learning and strength of character. And you might even now perhaps, precisely because he is guilty, rally him to your support more
easily by an act of clemency than by a trial at law which, among all your other difficulties, will draw upon you the anger of the clergy.'

`Clemency, forbearance! Every time I'm scorned, provoked or betrayed, that's all you have to say, Leicester. I, was implored to spare the Baron of Wigmore, and how wrong I was to listen to that advice. You must admit that had I dealt with him as I did with your brother, the rebel would not be fleeing down the roads today.'

Crouchback shrugged his heavy shoulder and closed his eyes with an expression of weariness. How very irritating was Edward's habit, which he considered royal, of calling the members of his family and his principal councillors by the names of their counties, addressing his cousin german by shouting `Leicester' instead of simply saying; `my cousin', as' did everyone else including the Queen herself. And his bad taste in mentioning the execution of Thomas on every possible occasion, as if he gloried in it. Oh, what a strange man he was and what a bad king. To imagine you could behead your nearest relations and that no one resented it, to believe that mourning could be eff
aced by an embrace, to demand
devotion from those you had wronged, and expect loyalty from everyone while you yourself were so cruelly inconstant.

`No doubt you're right,
- my; lord,' said Crouchback, `and since you've now reigned for sixteen years you must know the consequences of your actions. Hail your bishop before Parliament. I won't stand in your way.'

And, muttering between his teeth' so that no one should hear but the young Earl of Norfolk, he added: 'My head may be set askew on my shoulders, but I'd rather keep it where it is.'

`You must admit,' Edward went on, his hand fluttering, `that it's simply snapping his fingers at me to escape by piercing the walls of a tower I built myself especially so that no one should escape from it.'

`Perhaps, Sire my husband,' the Queen said, `when it was building you were more preoccupied with the charms of the masons than with the solidity of the stonework.'

A sudden silence fell over the company. The insult was flagrant, and most unexpected. They all held their breath and stared, some with defence, some with hatred, at the rather fragile-looking woman who sat so upright and lonely in her chair, and held her own like this. Her lips drawn back a little and her mouth half open, she was showing her fine little teeth; they were
clenched, sharp, carnivorous. Isabella was clearly delighted with the blow she had dealt, whatever the consequences might be.

Hugh the Younger was blushing scarlet; Hugh the Elder made a pretence of not having heard.

Edward would certainly have his revenge.. But what means would he adopt? The retort lagged. The Queen watched the drops of sweat pearling her husband's brow. And nothing disgusts a woman more than the sweat of the man she has ceased to love.

`Kent,' cried the King, `I've made you Warden of the Cinque Ports and Governor of Dover. What are you doing here? Why aren't you on the coast you're supposed to be guarding and from which our felon must inevitably take ship?'

`Sire my Brother,' said the young Earl of Kent, somewhat taken aback, `it was you yourself
who ordered me to accompany you
on your journey ...'

`Well, now I'm giving you another. Go back to your county; have the towns and countryside searched for the fugitive, and see to it personally that every ship in port is visited.'

`Send agents on board the ships and apprehend Mortimer, dead or alive, if he embarks,' said Hugh the Younger.

`Sound advice, Gloucester,' Edward approved. `As for you, Stapledon...'

The Bishop of Exeter stopped gnawing at his thumbnail and murmured: `My lord...'

`You will make haste to London and go immediately to the Tower on the pretext of checking- the Treasure, which is in your charge. Then, furnished with an order under my seal, you will take command of the Tower and supervise it till a new constable is appointed. Baldock will make out the commissions at once, so that you will have the necessary powers.'

Henry Crouchback, his eyes turned towards the window and his ear propped on his shoulder, seemed to be dreaming. He was calculating that six days had elapsed since Mortimer's escape,
9
that it would take at least eight days more before these orders could
be executed, and that unless h
e was a fool, which Mortimer most certainly was not, he must already have left the kingdom. He congratulated himself on having joined with the greater part of the bishops and lords who, after Boroughbridge, had succeeded in obtaining a reprieve for the Baron of Wigmore. For now that Mortimer had escaped, the opposition to the Despensers might well find the leader it had lacked since the death of Thomas of Lancaster, and a stronger, cleverer, and more effective leader than Thomas had been.

The King's back bent
s
inuously; Edward pirouetted on
his heels and came face to face with his wife.

`What's more, Madam, I hold you entirely responsible. And, in the first place, let go that hand you've been holding ever since I came into the room. Let go Lady Jeanne's hand!' cried Edward, stamping his foot. `It's going surety for a traitor to keep his wife so ostentatiously at your side. The people who helped Mortimer to escape well knew they had the Queen's support. Besides, you can't escape without money. Treason has to be paid for. Walls aren't pierced without gold. But the conduit's evident: the Queen to her lady-in-waiting, the lady-in-waiting to the Bishop, the Bishop to the rebel. I shall have to look more closely into your privy purse.'

`Sire, my husband, I think my privy purse is already sufficiently controlled,' said Isabella, indicating Lady Despenser.

Hugh the Younger seemed suddenly to have lost interest in the discussion. The King's anger was turning at last, as indeed it usually did, against the Queen. Edward had found an object for his vengeance, and Hugh felt all the more triumphant. He picked up a book that was lying nearby and which Lady Mortimer had been reading to the Queen before the Count de Bouville had come in. It was a collection of the lays of Marie of France; the silk marker signalled this passage:

En Lorraine ni en Bourgogne,

Ni en Anjou ni en Gascogne,

En ce temps ne pouvait trouver

Si bon ni si grand chevalier.

Sous ciel n'etait dame ou pucelle,

Qui taut fiat noble et taut Jilt belle

Qui n'en voulut amour avoir ...:
10

`France, it's always France. She never reads anything that doesn't relate to that country,' Hugh thought. `And who's the knight they're dreaming of in their t
houghts? Mortimer, no doubt...'

'My lord, I do not superintend the charities,' said Alienor Despenser.

The favourite looked up and smiled. He would congratulate his wife on that remark.

`I foresee I shall have to give up my charities too,' said Isabella. `I shall soon have no queenly prerogative left, not even that of charity.'

`And also, Madam, for the love you bear me, of which everyone is aware,' Edward went on, `you must part with Lady Mortimer; for not a soul in the kingdom will understand her being near you now.'

And now the Queen turned pale and sank back a little in her chair. Lady Jeanne's long pale hands were trembling.

`A wife, Edward, cannot be held responsible for all her husband's actions. I am an example of it myself. You must believe that Lady Mortimer has as little to do with her husband's errors as I have with your sins, supposing you commit any.'

But this time the attack was unsuccessful.

`Lady Jeanne will leave for Wigmore Castle, which from now, on will be under the supervision of my brother of Kent, and will remain there until I have decided what to do with the property of a man whose name will never again be mentioned in my presence except to sentence him to death. I believe, Lady Jeanne, that you would prefer to, go to your house of your own-free will rather than be taken there by force.'