In the morning, Eric went ashore tired and not slept, because, carried away, worked on the development projects of his offspring all night. He was met by John in the company of his entourage.
"Good morning to you, prince. "
" And good morning to you, holy fathers. "What will please a poor person in such a beautiful morning?
" We have nothing to please you. "Because everything is very bad. Meletios was only a small piece of the cobweb that the Roman spider spread out on our land.
- Tell me, maybe I will help you in your sorrow.
" Only you can help. "The fact is that the Abbot of Esfigmen, together with the whole brotherhood, secretly accepted the Latin faith and even received the title of abbot of the monastery from the hands of Innocent himself at a personal meeting. So he tried hard to set strong and powerful people against us so that we would suffer losses.
"How did you find this out? "
- When we practically all Twenty sentenced to extradite Meletios, he first tried to dissuade us, calling you bad words, but as he saw our inflexibility, he also gave birth to the speech that we are all heretics who turned away from the true God, and similar triads. The rector of Esfigmen issued himself with a head of his own pride and incontinence. And when he realized what he had done, he hastily retired to his monastery and locked himself there with his brothers, who also retreated from the faith for the sake of worldly vanity, and prepared for the siege.
It is clear. What are we going to do now? I understand that the monastery is a tough nut to take it is not easy.
"First, we decided to untie your hands, so that no one in the Orthodox clergy considers Prince Bosporsky for the villain, we officially excommunicated the entire monastery brotherhood from the church, and we give you our blessing for a military feat against the apostates.
"Thank you, holy fathers, for your wisdom and foresight. "
" That's not all. "We know that you have few warriors, because we decided to collect the militia from all the monasteries and put you under command. You just look there, do not ruin so much, do not ruin, then we'll live there.
Excellent! Then let's get to the point: can a monastery be taken as a siege? Is there a large volume of food? Is there a source of drinking water? Are there serf crossbows or other protective mechanisms? Are there many people inside? What are they qualities like warriors?
- It stands on the seashore itself, and there is no river nearby, so water is brought there. However, own stocks in the basement tanks should be enough for a couple of months. Food is enough for about two months, according to our information, although what is really going on there is known to God alone. Siege, if you can take, then a long, many months. According to our data, there are no strong crossbows, no, no, powerful fortresses. We can not tell on hand weapons, since he stands on the outskirts and that they bought on the sly not knowingly. There are about a hundred people there, none of them had previously fought.
It is clear. And what will be the militia from the monasteries? How much number, how armed, in what armor? Do you provide them with food?
" We can set up hundreds of four strong monks. "Of weapons - spears and shields. We do not have armor, so there will not be any. We will not only supply them with food, but also you, as you do a good deed.