Afterwards, of course, all that sacrifice had been made irrelevant by the self-serving greed of the French King and Pope, who had agreed a pact between them to have all the Templars arrested and all their valuables and treasure confiscated. The Templars had been branded heretics and, worse, accused of devil-worship and other atrocities, and many were tortured and killed.
‘Those fellows know they are fighting in a good cause,’ Redcliffe said.
‘Perhaps. But many more will not know why they fight, nor for whom,’ Baldwin said firmly. ‘This war, if it comes, will pit brother against brother or father. It will be a woeful battle that seeks to put another’s interest between members of the same family.’
‘The answer to that is easy, Sir Baldwin. The foul enemies of the King must surrender, as they did before during the Marcher Wars.’
‘I have taken my oath for the King. I do not need reminding of the duty of his knights and men to protect him,’ Baldwin said. ‘Jack, do you bring the food bags. We shall have a little bread and cheese.’
He was tempted to say more to explain the horror of war, but when he looked at Redcliffe, he thought he saw a cynical twist to the man’s mouth. Baldwin suddenly had the feeling that Redcliffe was jesting, and that thought made him wary. Who would dare to joke about fidelity to the King at a time like this? But no, he told himseslf, he was merely being over-sensitive. To him, warfare was no joking matter.
He held out his hand and took the satchel from Jack, but his eyes were drawn back to the lines of men marching in the dust.
‘You feel sorry for them?’ Jack asked quietly.
Baldwin looked at him, and rested a hand on his shoulder. The boy had also seen battle, and had shown himself valorous. ‘Do you?’
‘I feel sorry for all of us,’ Jack said.
‘That is good,’ Baldwin said heavily. ‘They serve, and it is good that they answered the summons – but I hope and pray that Mortimer and Isabella will come to their senses and stop before we have more bloodshed!’
Bank of the River Severn
Bernard was not happy. It was clear in the way that he scowled ahead, eyes always studying the ground as he searched out any possible dangers.
They had waited the previous evening with all the other members of the royal household, watching as the King and his closest guards boarded the ship and moved away from the shore into the middle of the River Severn, where the sails began to fill, and the ship rolled slightly as the wind caught at them.
There they had remained on the banks of the river, Bernard keeping watch, Pagan and Alexander moodily hunkered down beside a fire, casting glances at the two religious until a large boat arrived. Despenser had arranged for it to take them across the river, which was very broad here, and before too long they had managed to get horses, packhorses and friars on board, and were crossing to the other side, where they camped for the evening.
It was very curious. Over on the Welsh shore, almost as soon as the King had gone, his men began to disappear. When Edward boarded, there had been 200 men there, but when Ralph left to supervise the loading of his goods on the ship, that number had already halved, and when he looked back at the banks from the river as they coasted along, he saw only a few men, all standing about the fire Pagan had abandoned. The others seemed to have faded away into the trees to escape the Queen when she arrived.
They slept the night on the eastern bank, one standing guard through the watches in case a man from the Queen’s host should happen by, since they had no idea where her forces were yet. All were glad when the sun finally appeared.
Not that it was visible for very long. The day was dry, which was a blessed relief after the last days of rain and misery, but the sky was overcast before they had broken their fasts, and all wrapped themselves tightly in cottes and jacks before they mounted their horses, Sir Ralph tying his kerchief about his neck to keep the worst of the cold from his throat.
‘Where shall we find her, do you think?’ Bernard asked as they set off.
‘Last you heard, she was at Gloucester, wasn’t she? I’d wager she was somewhere between there and Bristol,’ Sir Ralph said. ‘The speed she has followed us, she cannot be far.’
Bernard absorbed this with an expression that matched the skies. ‘So we should walk into her before long.’
‘I fear so.’
‘Where are we heading?’
‘First to Bristol, then we shall see what we can hear of her.’
Bernard nodded and dropped back a little. They were all riding at a moderate pace now, and Sir Ralph checked to see how the friars were coping with the speed.
The pair were of a similar age, between eight-and-twenty and thirty, and both had the reputation of being well-versed in the practice of negotiation. One, Brother Mark, was very short and had a goitre that clearly gave him trouble, but his blue eyes were bright with intelligence. His tonsure was very wide, and the hair fringing it was pale brown. The other, Brother Daniel, was a little taller, but his features were marred by a thick scar that cut across his cheek and left his nose broken. His brown eyes were full of merriment, Sir Ralph thought.
Seeing his glance, Brother Daniel grinned broadly. ‘Don’t worry about Brother Mark here. He’ll fall off soon enough, and unless you tie him up, he’ll keep on denting the roadway every few yards, but he won’t feel it.’
‘The danger, Sir Ralph, is that this fool should fall on his arse,’ Brother Mark said. ‘It would irreparably damage his brains if he were to do that.’
For all their banter, the pair appeared perfectly comfortable on horseback, and Sir Ralph guessed that both were quite wellborn. ‘Let me know, Brothers, if you need to take a little rest,’ he said. ‘I would prefer to hurry our pace for we have some distance to cover.’
‘The faster, the better,’ Brother Mark said. He had the look of a man who was keen to undertake his task. ‘We should meet Queen Isabella before there is any bloodshed.’
‘God willing,’ Brother Daniel intoned.
‘God willing,’ Sir Ralph repeated.
He understood Bernard’s discontent; he felt much the same himself. The idea of riding into their enemies’ camp was not one which appealed to his own sense of self-preservation, and yet the Queen herself was very keen to honour the rules of chivalry. Men who were arrived in order to negotiate should be welcomed with offers of safe conduct. That, at least, was what he hoped.
They reached a hill overlooking the city of Bristol some time before noon, and Sir Ralph gazed ahead in search of signs that the Queen was near. Certainly the vills outside the city looked dead, and he suspected that the peasants had fled before the Queen’s mercenaries could arrive and begin to lay the area waste. The city itself looked secure for now.
‘I think we should go to the city and learn where she is supposed to be,’ he said.
Bernard nodded. ‘Why not? That’ll put off the moment when we actually have to greet her and hope she doesn’t lop off our heads before she hears us out.’
‘Thank you, Bernard. I needed that reminder,’ Sir Ralph said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Outskirts of Bristol
Thomas Redcliffe watched as Baldwin and Jack prepared a loaf of bread, breaking it roughly into three large pieces, then cutting wedges from a cheese they had bought earlier.