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''Are you asking me to believe that John's character is altered?" |
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"No, but John is not stupid and never was. From the time he took the throne from Richard, one threat after another haunted him, and the loss of Normandy shook his power so that, had Arthur still lived, John believesand I do toothat he would no longer hold the throne. Then things began to mend. Scotland bowed to him, then Ireland, and then Wales. He had even, or so he believes, defied the Church successfully. With each increase of power, his arrogance also grew. None defied him, some because of fear; others, like Pembroke, because, although the king was morally wrong to suspect and punish an innocent man, he was nonetheless within his right in what he demanded." |
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"I know all this," Alinor suggested tartly. |
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"But you have not added the events together. With the gathering of the army to invade Normandy, John seemed to reach a new peak in power. He was poised on the point of eating first Normandy and then France also. At this, so near the summit of his desires, he has been struck downnot completely, not deposed or killed or defeated utterly, but firmly smitten as by the chiding hand of the greatest Father of all." |
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"Do you believe this is God's work?" Alinor asked in a tentative, slightly awed voice. |
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"I do not set myself up as one who knows the unknowable," Ian said slowly. "From what Salisbury has been able to determine, the rebellion was well knit, well planned, and kept remarkably secret for so wide-spread a conspiracy. He is not a religious man, not out of the ordinary, yet he credits the revelation of the conspiracy as miraculous." |
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"Geoffrey thinks John knew beforeor rather that the way and time of arrival of the messengers was the king's doing," Alinor protested. |
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Ian smiled. "Geoffrey has keen eyes and keen ears for one so young and may well be right. I said John was not stupid. What could better convince his barons of his change of heart than to make them believe that God has warned him of the evil of his ways and he has ac- |
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