The Pilgram of Hate Read Online Free PDF Page A

country, where
we now offer her—he said!—our whole-hearted fealty.”
    So
the legate had extricated himself as adroitly as possible from his predicament.
But for all that, so resolute, courageous and vindictive a lady as the empress
was going to look somewhat sidewise at a whole-hearted fealty which had already
once been pledged to her, and turned its back nimbly under pressure, and might
as nimbly do so again. If she was wise she would curb her resentment and take
care to keep on the right side of the legate, as he was cautiously feeling his
way to the right side of her; but she would not forget or forgive.
    “And
there was no man raised a word against it?” asked Hugh mildly.
    “None.
There was small opportunity, and even less inducement. And with that the bishop
announced that he had invited a deputation from the city of London, and
expected them to arrive that day, so that it was expedient we should adjourn
our discussion until the morrow. Even so, the Londoners did not come until next
day, and we met again somewhat later than on the days previous. Howbeit, they
did come. With somewhat dour faces and stiff necks. They said that they represented
the whole commune of London, into which many barons had also entered as members
after Lincoln, and that they all, with no wish to challenge the legitimacy of
our assembly, yet desired to put forward with one voice the request that the
lord king should be set at liberty.”
    “That
was bold,” said Hugh with raised brows. “How did his lordship counter it? Was
he put out of countenance?”
    “I
think he was shaken, but not disastrously, not then. He made a long speech—it
is a way of keeping others silent, at least for a time—reproving the city for
taking into its membership men who had abandoned their king in war, after
leading him astray by their evil advice, so grossly that he forsook God and
right, and was brought to the judgement of defeat and captivity, from which the
prayers of those same false friends could not now reprieve him. These men do
but flatter and favour you now, he said, for their own advantage.”
    “If
he meant the Flemings who ran from Lincoln,” Hugh allowed, “he told no more
than truth there. But for what other end is the city ever flattered and wooed?
What then? Had they the hardihood to stand their ground against him?”
    “They
were in some disarray as to what they should reply, and went apart to confer.
And while there was quiet, a man suddenly stepped forward from among the
clerks, and held out a parchment to Bishop Henry, asking him to read it aloud,
so confidently that I wonder still he did not at once comply. Instead, he
opened and began to read it in silence, and in a moment more he was thundering
in a great rage that the thing was an insult to the reverend company present,
its matter disgraceful, its witnesses attainted enemies of Holy Church, and not
a word of it would he read aloud to us in so sacred a place as his chapter
house. “Whereupon,” said the abbot grimly, “the clerk snatched it back from
him, and himself read it aloud in a great voice, riding above the bishop when
he tried to silence him. It was a plea from Stephen’s queen to all present, and
to the legate in especial, own brother to the king, to return to fealty and
restore the king to his own again from the base captivity into which traitors
had betrayed him. And I, said the brave man who read, am a clerk in the service
of Queen Matilda, and if any ask my name, it is Christian, and true Christian I
am as any here, and true to my salt.”
    “Brave,
indeed!” said Hugh, and whistled softly. “But I doubt it did him little good.”
    “The
legate replied to him in a tirade, much as he had spoken already to us the day
before, but in a great passion, and so intimidated the men from London that
they drew in their horns, and grudgingly agreed to report the council’s
election to their citizens, and support it as