[Roger the Chapman 02] - The Plymouth Cloak Read Online Free PDF Page A

remains of your breakfast I saw on the table.'
    'I'm always ready to eat,' I answered with a cheerfulness I was far from feeling. I was no more looking forward to Philip Underdown's company than he was to mine.' According Io His Grace, they're expecting us in the Bishop's kitchen. Shall we go and find it?'

    When we were finally seated at a comer of one of the long tables in the outer scullery, surrounded by all the hubbub and uproar attendant upon the King's brother dining with the Bishop, I determined to take the Duke's advice and get to know my companion better. Knowing more about his past might possibly be of assistance later. As two large bowlfuls of beef stew were placed before us, I said: 'The dwarf, Paolo, didn't seem to like you very much, from which I gather you two have met before.'
    Philip Underdown laughed, a sound without any warmth in it, and dipped a hunk of bread in the steaming broth. 'Oh, we've met all right. He's the reason I was recruited into this employment in the first place.' He saw my look of incomprehension and laughed again. 'My brother and I were traders. We bought and sold anything that could be got cheap and disposed of it at a profit. We fought our way up from small beginnings until we had our own ship. Then our horizons widened; Ireland, Italy, France, Brittany. I've made a small fortune in my time - and lost it. Drink. Gambling. And of course women.' His teeth showed momentarily in a predatory grin. 'Then, on that last trip home from Italy, two years ago, we were attacked by pirates off the Corsican coast. My brother was killed and the vessel badly damaged. I managed to make it back to these shores and up the Channel to London, but I knew the old Speedwell would never go to sea again, so I paid off the crew and set about selling the cargo as quickly and as profitably as I could, with the prospect of having to start from scratch once more.'
    A scullion, detailed to wait on us, and only too pleased to have a brief respite from washing his greasy pots and pans, placed two mazers of ale in front of us, managing to slop most of the liquid on the table. He withdrew hurriedly before we could complain. I stared after his retreating back without really seeing it. 'But what's all that got to do with the dwarf?' I queried.
    Philip Underdown sucked his teeth. 'He was part of the cargo.'
    It was a moment or two before his words sank in, then I exclaimed in horror: 'You were a slaver!' I knew also why his accent was familiar to me. He came from Bristol, and the people of that city have been involved in slavery for centuries, trading mostly with their neighbours in southern Ireland.
    There is a story, often repeated in my part of the world, that long, long ago, King John complained that there were more Bristolians to be found in Dublin than Irishmen; people sold by their own families as servants.
    My companion looked at me with cold amusement. 'I bought and sold unfortunates like Paolo. Parents and relatives of these creatures are only too willing to be rid of them, and most of them are very poor. A few shillings can make all the difference between starvation and survival. As for the midgets themselves, they often end up well clothed and fed in some noble household. What do you think Paolo's life would have been if I'd left him in Italy? Laughed at, derided, an outcast from his own kind. When I came across him, he was living with his father's pigs in their sty.'
    I felt confused by this argument. Instinct told me that trading in human flesh was evil, but at the same time I could see that its results might sometimes be beneficial. I mustered the only counter-argument I could think of on the spur of the moment. 'But Paolo hates you.'
    Philip Underdown smiled scornfully and said thickly, through a mouthful of stew: 'Of course he hates me. They all hated me and my brother. These creatures were our merchandise. We had no time to wet-nurse them through all the hazards of a journey, either to or from these shores.