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Perhaps all was not lost, Sir Palance continued. It might be possible to achieve Lady Marie's purpose in another way. He was returning to the west and would stay at Craswall Priory. If she wished to pursue the business they had discussed, she could write to him at that place and he would come to her at her convenience or meet her at any place she chose to name. He added a sentence or two to indicate that he would be only too happy to see her even if she no longer wished to transact business. |
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Sir Heribert allowed his letter to imply that he was really coming west for no other purpose than to see Marie again. In fact, he was coming because he wished to be as far away as possible from Winchester when he fell from power, and he had to leave before the final crisis. Heribert had discovered that the bishop planned to use him to ignite Henry's wrath against the rebels again; Winchester had discussed with him what he must say and how to say it. |
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However, Heribert had felt the temper of the court and sensed the growing despair of Peter of Rivaulx and Stephen de Seagrave, Winchester's most important adherents, and he guessed that the bishop's use of him was an act of desperation that had little hope of success. Moreover, it would cost Winchester nothing. Heribert would be the sufferer if the attempt failed, because the king would be angry, and if Henry did not choose to vent his anger on the rebels, he would doubtless vent it on those who tried to make trouble between him and his "loyal" subjects. |
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There was nowhere but west for Heribert to go. He knew no one at all in the east of England, and he clung to the hope that Marie had not forgotten her spite. Somehow, he might still use her to destroy Walter. If he could do that, he might manage to recover Knight's Tower. The king did not know that he had ever been associated with the Bishop of Winchester. |
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Two other letters went out the same day, with faster couriers mounted on better horses. Geoffrey wrote to Richard a far fuller accounting of Edmund's lecture to the king and a far more perceptive analysis of what might be expected. Since these confirmed what Richard had hoped when he heard that King Henry had abandoned the western strongholds and returned to Westminster, he promptly put into effect plans he |
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