As this happened beside the scaffold which had been erected in the forecourt of Notre Dame, there was no way of hushing it up because many people had gathered to see the end of these men. Their voices rang out clearly and the crowd was hushed and it seemed, said some, that God himself was speaking through the Grand Master.
In view of the fact that they had rescinded and to placate the growing apprehension and rising anger of the crowd, it was announced that their death sentence should be temporarily waived and the men taken back to their prison.
When the King heard what had happened he was furious. He could not rest while de Molai lived. He had waited a long time to finish him, as he said, and now to have the matter delayed again was more than he could endure.
Meanwhile the prisoners had been sent back to the Provost of Paris.
‘More delay!’ raged the King. ‘There will be no real peace until those men are dead.’ He made a sudden decision. He was not going to wait for more arguments. ‘To when they shall meet their end,’ he declared, ‘They shall be burned at the stake in the Ile de la Cité at the hour of vespers.’
The King’s word was law; and news of what was about to happen spread through the city. That was why shortly before the appointed time, the streets were crowded and it seemed that the whole of Paris was making its way to the spot where the burnings were to take place.
The people were overawed by the sight of Jacques de Molai and his companion for they seemed to glow with some special power.
The poor broken men they had been were no longer there. Jacques held his head high and the light in his eyes seemed to illumine his face. People noticed that his hands did not tremble as he bared his chest.
When his hands were about to be tied, he said to the guards, ‘Suffer me to fold my hands awhile and make my prayer to God for verily it is time. I am presently to die, but wrongfully, God knows. Death is near, and I am innocent of that which I am accused. Because of this, woe will come ere long to those who have condemned us without cause.’
Then he cried out on in a loud voice which could be heard throughout that crowded square: ‘God will avenge our death.’
There was a deep silence. Some lowered their heads and prayed. The spectacle of men burning to death no longer excited them. There was a deep sense of foreboding in the crowd that day.
The crackle of the wood seemed ominous and as it burst into flame and the smoke rose many people fell to their knees and prayed.
No good would come to France, they believed. The King of France was cursed. So was the Puppet Pope. For it was those two who had been at the very heart of the Templars’ destruction.
The legend grew and when one month later the Pope died, people were certain that the curse existed. Philip himself lived only eight months after that day when Jacques de Molai and the Master of Normandy were burned to death in the Ille de la Cité.
BANNOCKBURN
EDWARD had something on which to congratulate himself. Since the death of Gaveston, his people had warmed towards him. This was largely due to the Queen whose beauty appealed to them and whose outward resignation to her husband’s conduct won their admiration. The fact that the King and Queen were seen more frequently together and had the lusty young Edward as a certain sign that they now and then lived together as husband and wife, had pleased the people. The King could never be like the great Edward the First but perhaps with his evil genius Gaveston gone forever, there was hope of a return to a normal way of life.
Moreover the feud between the barons was in his favor for they no longer stood together against him. Lancaster’s party was strong but the powerful Earl of Pembroke had quarreled with it over the death of Gaveston, and Pembroke had joined himself with the King.
Edward felt that he could enjoy a period of peace, as far as that were possible without Gaveston. Then there was trouble from the North.
The Scots had rejoiced in the death of Edward the First and the accession of his son which had resulted in their salvation. Scotland under Robert the Bruce had grown stronger, as England under Edward the Second had become weaker.
Bruce was just the man to take advantage of such a position. He had gradually but steadily begun to free his country from the English domination set up by Edward, the Hammer of the Scots.
It was clear, that the second Edward had no heart for a fight.
He was not the strong warlike figure that his father had been. He had retired from the scene of action as soon as it was possible for him to do so and had left the Earl of Richmond in the north, bestowing on him the title of Guardian of Scotland. His task was far from enviable and intermittent warfare between the Scots and English and recently Bruce had made raids over the border into England on each occasion returning with valuable spoils.
The situation was becoming dangerous. One by one those fortresses held by the English were falling to the Scots. Edward groaned and cursed the Scots but he did little to prevent the disintegration of power. Bruce, inwardly exultant, often wondered what Great Edward would think if he could see what was happening Had he lived, the conquest of Scotland would have been brought about. Indeed, it was a happy day for the Scots when he died and his son took the crown.
The Scots had no respect for Edward and an army without a leader, however well equipped, could not fail to arouse wild hopes in the hearts of its opponents.
One by one the fortresses fell. Perth, Dumfries and Roxburg were taken.
Linlithgow had been cleverly taken when a soldier from the Douglas clan, disguised as a carter, had asked leave to take a hay cart into the castle. As it drew up in the gate‚ way beneath the great portcullis, from under the hay armed men sprang out, entered the castle and took the defenders by surprise. Such incidents put heart into Bruce’s army. They were not so well equipped as the English and must rely on cunning. It seemed they had plenty of this and under Bruce’s leadership, their hopes ran high.
The Castle of Edinburgh seemed to present the greatest difficulty of all as it was surrounded by three sides which were declared to be impassable precipices.
The Scots were in despair when one of the soldiers came to his commander Randolph and told him that as a youth he had had a mistress who was in the Castle and he had cut out steps in the cliff face so that he might visit her. He realized that every time he had visited her he had risked his life but he had come through safely and now he could show them the way.
They decided to try it and with the aid of rope ladders actually made their way up the steep cliff-face to the walls of the castle. They ascended, invaded the castle, killed the unsuspecting sentinels and took it.
This was the greatest triumph and incidents like this were, said Bruce, worth a thousand men.
At this time only three important castles remained in English hands: Stirling, Dunbar and Berwick. Of these, Stirling was the most important and Bruce decided that they must take it, but the castle was well defended and Bruce knew that to attempt to storm it would mean the loss of men and ammunition which he could ill afford to lose. As a great soldier, he was less sangillnary than his men and he realized they would achieve successes in the existing circumstances it would be a very different matter if the English army marched up to Scotland.
However, the more fortresses he could wrest from them before the main attack the better, and Stirling was of the utmost importance.
Therefore he sent his brother Edward Bruce to besiege the castle; Edward harried its occupants in every way and the Governor, Sir Philip Mowbray, was unable to procure the supplies he needed. Edward Bruce however lacked astuteness of his brother and was beguiled by Sir Philip into conferring with him. To take the castle would be expensive for the Scots in men and arms; moreover there was a possibility that the operation might not be successful.