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Knight's Tower, at the service of the Earl of Pembroke and sent the garrison with him toward Shrewsbury." |
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"Walter de Clare is not proscribed," Winchester said. |
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Sir Heribert shrugged. "He should be, and proof of his treason would be easy enough to get." |
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Winchester thought for a moment, calling to mind everything he knew about Walter. One fact leapt to the forefront: de Clare was long and intimately connected with Pembroke. But almost immediately that was overridden by the memory of a recent rumor that de Clare had been accepted by Geoffrey FitzWilliam as husband for his eldest daughter. That was not so good. Henry had a deep fondness for Lord Geoffrey. In Henry's present mood, the bishop knew, he had only to present Sir Heribert, and de Clare would be an outlaw. But although the king was very angry with Geoffrey just now and would not care if he hurt him by punishing de Clare, Henry's delayed reaction at hurting a member of his family would be ten times as bitter. |
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Yet Winchester felt it would be unwise to give away the possibility of "discovering" de Clare was a traitor. There was the chance, Winchester thought, of using the rage generated in the king by the evidence of a new defectionalthough de Clare had been a rebel by intent from the beginningto provide a few days' grace if Henry seemed about to turn on him. But this was not the time for a measure that might have desperate repercussions. Just now Henry was angry enough, and not yet sufficiently afraid of losing his kingdom altogether, to give up his dreams of glory. In fact, evidence of de Clare's open support for Pembroke might tip the scales the other way and terrify Henry into rejecting Winchester and all he stood for. |
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"This is no time for more prescriptions that will further enrage the barons," Winchester said, "but I suppose your absence from Knight's Tower at this time will have been noted by Sir Walter?" |
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"He bade me return," Heribert replied, "and I have failed. He knew I had no love for the rebel cause." The statement was not true, but Heribert preferred that lie to admitting that he had given Walter cause to desire his death. "Thus I believe I have lost my place and my livelihood." |
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Again Winchester considered for a moment. Then he said, |
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