The Straw Men(10)

‘Thank you,’ Athelstan whispered. ‘You did not strike. God be my witness, I did not know the attack would be launched.’

‘Father, shrive me of all my sins.’ The dying man tried to speak but the blood gathering at the back of his throat choked him. Athelstan whispered the words of absolution even as he watched the life light die in the stricken man’s eyes. He gave a gasp summoning up his last energy, what Aquinas called the ‘last leap of the soul’ before it left the body. He grasped Athelstan’s hand.

‘Your name?’ the friar asked gently.

‘No name.’ The dying man sighed. ‘Tell my beloved to continue gleaning.’

‘Gleaning?’ Athelstan leaned over the man. ‘What do you mean?’

The Upright Man tried to rise and twist his head as if searching for someone or something. ‘Tell her to glean; I won’t see her.’ His grasp on Athelstan’s hand tightened and relaxed. He sighed out his soul, body trembling; he coughed blood then lay still. Athelstan sketched a blessing and rose to his feet. The attack was now deep in the tavern, the Upright Men retreating into the upper galleries. The tap room was like a battlefield across which echoed screams and yells, the strident screech and scrape of sword on sword yet the struggling shapes, the fire licking at the shutters and the noise of battle seemed eerily distant as if muffled by a sound like that of pounding waves in a storm. Athelstan stared around, trying to make sense of the confusion. The smoke was now thinning, drifting out through the main door. The Friar of the Sack and his whore had disappeared. Minehost Simon and his two servants lay stretched out on the cobbles, corpses stiffening, their throats slit, a mess of blood congealing at neck and chest. Athelstan went out and administered the last rites but he fumbled and forgot the words. He paused, took a deep breath and began again. He whispered the words of forgiveness and that final petition to the Lords of Light to go out and greet all these souls: ‘Lest they fall into the power of the enemy.’ He felt a hand on his shoulder. Cranston stood there, holding his chancery satchel. Athelstan had never seen the coroner look so sad; his ruddy face was pale and those glaring blue eyes dimmed. Even the glorious white whiskers seemed to droop.

‘By Mary and the Mass,’ Cranston breathed. ‘Athelstan, I swear, I did not realize this was going to happen and yet, as you know,’ he blinked, ‘from the moment we arrived I smelt treachery. I was asked to accompany the Flemings around the wall to the back of the tavern. When I got there, the mangonels released their first shots, fiery, pitch-coated bundles of bracken and old cloth. Only then did I realize what was about to take place. I hastened back but the assault had already begun. Athelstan . . .’ The Dominican simply shrugged off the coroner’s hand, grasped his chancery satchel and strode over to the gate where Thibault stood, legs apart, hands on his hips, head slightly back as he watched his archers drag out the corpses from the Roundhoop. The Master of Secrets narrowed his eyes, lips twisted in a smirk as the Dominican confronted him.

‘Brother, I gave them no promises except one!’ Thibault held up a hand. ‘They wanted to speak to you and so they did. They were traitors, rebels, taken in arms plotting against the Crown. They were murderers and ravagers. Now they are dead and their heads will provide further decoration for London Bridge.’ He leaned forward, the smirk replaced by false concern. ‘Brother?’

‘Once a scorpion asked a wolf to take him across a fast-flowing river. The wolf,’ Athelstan held Thibault’s gaze, ‘at first refused. “You will sting me and we shall both die”. The scorpion denied this, promising all would be well so the wolf allowed the scorpion to stand on his head as he braved the waters.’

‘And?’ Thibault drew his head back, glancing over his shoulder at his archers now kicking and abusing the corpses.

‘The scorpion stung the wolf, who protested, saying the scorpion had given him his word and now they would both die, so why had he stung him? You know the scorpion’s response?’

‘No, Brother, I don’t.’

‘The scorpion replied, “Because it is in my nature”. Good day, Master Thibault.’ Athelstan stepped around him and, clutching his chancery satchel, strode down the lane, ignoring Thibault’s cry of ‘Very good, very good!’ as well as Cranston’s shouts to wait awhile. Athelstan walked on through the cordon of men-at-arms now fighting to keep back the gathering crowd, whose mood was turning ugly. Athelstan glimpsed faces he recognized: the pious fraud, the Sanctus Man, with his tray of religious artefacts; Mudfog, a member of Moleskins’ Guild of St Peter; and Shrimp and Castoff, two members of the Fisher of Men’s company, that strange individual who made his living by gathering corpses from the Thames. Athelstan did not pause but passed on, taking the path down to London Bridge. His mind was in turmoil, angry at what he had witnessed yet relieved to be free though still deeply anxious about the doings of some of his parishioners. Would they also be trapped to be cut down or hanged? He recalled the dying Upright Man’s last words about asking a woman to glean. What did that mean? What had that unfortunate man been looking for?