|
|
|
|
|
|
life of a tiny, dark-haired fairy of a girl, just five years old, who now swung from a gibbet in the castle bailey. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There was no need to tell Joanna that. Geoffrey took his hands from his face, wiping the wet from his cheeks so that no drop would mark the page. He hoped Joanna would not remember that there were such little ones among the hostages. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The king then summoned us to meat. I would not go, being somewhat heavy of heart through friendship with the kin of some of those newly dead. Thus I do not know the truth of what next befell, but I have been told it was like unto a play. Hardly were the diners seated when a messenger from William of Scotland craved leave to bring the king letters, these being of so urgent import, he claimed, that they could not wait the ending of the meal. Hard upon his heels, when the king had scarce read what was in that letter, came another messenger, crying the same urgency, this time from the king's daughter Joan." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Geoffrey was sorry he had missed the event. Perhaps if he had seen it with his own eyes, he could have guessed whether the messengers were genuine and the time of their arrival a coincidence or whether the letters had come earlier and the scene had been contrived by the king. In fact, each description he had heard had been so colored by the prejudice of the teller that he could not even guess at the truth. One had said that the king was dumbfounded, white, and stricken by shock and fear. A less sympathetic observer commented wryly upon John's histrionic gestures but remarked that his eyes, rather than perusing the written words, slid slyly from face to face while he held the letters before him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"What I do know," Geoffrey continued more slowly now thatfrom his point of viewthe worst poison was expelled, "is that the tale told in each letter was the same. Both wrote to warn John that a plot was afoot to destroy him, either by taking him prisoner or by killing him outright and that the army assembled in Chester was to be used for this purpose. I wish I could believe that this was only a de- |
|
|
|
|
|