If she had the chance. So much had to pass before that dream could become a reality.
She turned a little, shading her eyes against the noonday sun. There walked her husband, Thomas, some ten or eleven paces distant.
Here in Halstow Thomas had abandoned the clothes of the courtier, and was dressed comfortably in a country linen tunic and leggings. He was looking north toward the Thames estuary and river. Soon, surely, he would leave her and Rosalind, and depart back to court, there to resume his friendship and service with Hal.
Her face sobered, and she drew in a deep breath. These months spent here were but a time beyond reality. When Thomas returned to court, returned to Hal, returned to his damnable quest to find Wynkyn de Worde’s casket, then Margaret knew her nightmares would return.
And when Thomas did find the casket, as he inevitably would, then those nightmares would become reality. A walking, daylight vengeance. What Thomas would do when he read that book … when he discovered what had been done …
Margaret went cold at the thought of what must inevitably come.
She watched as Thomas lowered his head, and smiled at the four-month child he carried in his arms. Rosalind was one of the few things that could save her … as all hers.
A tiny child—and no child yet had turned an angel’s heart.
Could this one turn Thomas’?
“Don’t condemn me to hell,” Margaret whispered, staring at her husband. “Please, Thomas, learn to love a little before you open hell’s gates to me…”
Thomas turned, almost as if he had heard Margaret’s plea, and then he began to walk slowly toward her through the sweet, mown field.
GLOSSARY
ALPINE PASSES: all travelers and trade between Europe and Italy had to use the great alpine passes in order to get to and from Italy—unless they wanted to risk the greater uncertainties of a sea voyage. The main passes were the BRENNER PASS, the St. Gothard Pass and the Greater St. Bernard Pass. Travelers could only access the passes in summer or winter, as avalanches in autumn and spring made passage too dangerous. THOMAS NEVILLE’s journey through the BRENNER PASS is an accurate description of the travails of medieval and early modern travelers. A significant percentage of men and horses died on the way through.
AQUITAINE: a large and rich province covering much of the southwest of France. Aquitame was not only independent of France, it was ruled by the English kings after Eleanor of Aquitame brought the province as part of her dowry to her marriage with Henry II.
ARMOR: the armoring of a knight was a complex affair, done in different ways in different countries and generations. Generally, knights wore either chain mail or plate armor or a combination of both, depending on fashion or the military activity involved. Cham mail was formed of thousands of tiny iron or steel rings riveted together to form a loose tunic (sometimes with arms); plate armor consisted of a series of metal plates fashioned to fit a knight’s body and joints—the full suit of
armor was rarely seen before the fifteenth century. Helmets (whether BASINETS or the full-visored helms), mail or plate gloves, and weapons completed the knight’s outfitting. See also HAUBERK, SHAFFRON and PEYTRAL.
ASTERLADEN: a prosperous village a day’s ride north of Nuremberg.
AUDE: a peasant woman of ASTERLADEN, wife to RAINARD.
AVIGNON: now part of France, in the medieval period the city was nominally independent. However, its citizens spoke French, and the city was surrounded by French lands. In the early fourteenth century, Pope Clement V, who had gained the papal throne through the aid of the French King, Philip IV, removed the entire papacy, all its servants, officials and administration, to the city of Avignon, where the papacy remained until 1377. This period of French “subjection” was known as the BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY when most Europeans believed the French monarchs exercised an undue degree of influence over the popes. babylonian captivity: see avignon.
BALLADS: all the ballads in The Crucible are traditional medieval English songs and carols.
BASINET: an open-faced helmet (although many knights wore them with a visor attached) that was either rounded (globular) or conical in shape. See also ARMOR.
BEAUFORT, HENRY: illegitimate son of JOHN OF GAUNT and his mistress, KATHERINE SWYNFORD, Henry became the Bishop of Winchester.
BEAUFORT, JOAN: illegitimate daughter of JOHN OF GAUNT and his mistress KATHERINE SWYNFORD.
BERT RAND: prior of ST. ANGELO’S FRIARY in Rome.
BlERMAN, CHRISTOFFEL: a Flemish cloth merchant.
BlERMAN, JOHAN: son of CHRISTOFFEL BlERMAN.
BLACK PRINCE: Edward, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, eldest son of EDWARD III.
BLAYE: a small coastal town just to the north of BORDEAUX.
BOHUN, MARY: heiress to the dukedom and lands of Hereford.
BOLINGBROKE, HENRY OF (HAL): son of JOHN OF GAUNT and his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster.
BORDEAUX: a port on the Garonne estuary in southwest France and capital of the duchy of AQUITAINE. Bordeaux is the BLACK PRINCE’s base in France (and in fact his son, RICHARD, was born there).
BRAMHAM MOOR FRIARY: a small and poor friary located on the edge of Bramham Moor to the southwest of York, England.
BRENNER PASS: see alpine passes.
CASTEL ST. ANGELO: an ancient fortification in Rome in the walls of the LEONINE (Vatican) CITY at which it is said the archangel St. Michael once appeared. According to rumor, there is a tunnel running from the papal apartments in the LEONINE CITY to the fortress.
CATHERINE: daughter of Prince LOUIS of France and ISABEAU DE
BAVIÈRE, younger sister to the DAUPHIN, CHARLES.
CHARLES, THE DAUPHIN: grandson of the French King JOHN, son of Prince
LOUIS and ISABEAU DE BAVIÈRE and heir to the French throne. Older brother of CATHERINE.
CHATELLERAULT: a heavily fortified town some twenty miles north of CHAUVIGNY in central France.
CHAUCER, GEOFFREY: a popular English poet and writer. Married to Phillipa Roet, sister of KATHERINE SWYNFORD.
CHAUVIGNY: a town consisting of five interlaced castles situated on a hill overlooking the Vienne River. It is just to the east of POITIERS and some two hundred and twenty miles south of Paris.
CINQUE PORTS: the five (thus “cinque”) important medieval southeastern ports of England: Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney and Sandwich. The barons of the Cinque Ports, as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, were very powerful offices.
CLEMENT VII: the man elected by the breakaway cardinals to the papal throne after the election of URBAN VI was declared void because of the interference of the Roman mob. Clement rules from AVIGNON while URBAN, who refused to resign, continues to rule from Rome.
D’ARC, JACQUES: sergeant of the village of Domremy, in the province of Lorraine, France.
D’ARC, JEANNETTE (JEANNE, OR JOAN): second daughter of JACQUES
D’ARC.
D’ARC, ZABILLET (ISABELLE: wife of jacques d’arc and mother of jeannette d’arc.
DATING: medieval Europeans almost never used calendar dates; they orientated themselves within the year by the religious cycle of Church festivals, holy days and saints’ days. Although there were saints’ days every day of the year, most regions observed only a few of them. The average number of holy days observed within the English year, for example, was between forty and sixty. In Florence it was as high as 120. Years tended to be dated by the length of a monarch’s reign, each successive year starting on the date the monarch was crowned—EDWARD III was crowned on i February 1327, so, according to popular use, each new year during his reign would begin on 1st February. The legal year in England was calculated from Lady Day (25th March), so for legal purposes the new year began on 26th March. See also HOURS OF THE DAY, and my web page on medieval time for a full explanation on calculating the medieval year (www.saradouglass.com/medtime.html).
DAUPHIN: the official title of the heir to the French throne, Prince CHARLES, grandson of King JOHN.
EDWARD III: King of England.
GASCONY: a province in the south of France famed for its wine and horses.
GERARDO: Italian man, keeper of the northern gate (the Porta del Popolo) of Rome.
GlSETTE: wife of RAYMOND, a Parisian carpenter.
GLOUCESTER, ELEANOR, DUCHESS OF: wife of THOMAS OF
WOODSTOCK, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER.
GREGORY XI: pope of the Roman Church. He died in 1378.
HANSEATIC LEAGUE: group of northern European cities, banded together in a trading consortium. The Hanseatic League was second only to the great Italian trading cities as the most powerful trading organization in medieval Europe.
HAUBERK: a tunic made of chain mail. Generally it had sleeves (sometimes of chain mail, sometimes of plate armor) and reached to a knight’s knees. See also ARMOR.
HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: a loose conglomeration of some three hundred virtually independent states in central Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor had once been a mighty office until its power was broken in a protracted war with the papacy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
HOOPER, GARLAND: a physician in Lincoln.