第54章 HOW NORMAN LESLIE WAS ABSOLVED BY BROTHER THOMAS C

"Had I been a false traitor,"he said,"would not her brethren of heaven have warned the blessed Maid against me?And I have also a written safe-conduct from the holy sister Colette."Then I knew that he had fallen into my trap,and,weak as I was,Icould have laughed to think of his face,when the words I had written came out in place of the words he had bidden me write.For a clerk hath great power beyond the simple and unlettered of the world,be they as cunning even as Brother Thomas.

"Nom Dieu!this is another story,"said D'Aulon,turning the paper about in his hands and looking doubtfully at me.But I smiled upon him,whereby he was the more perplexed."The ink is hardly dry,and in some places has run and puddled,so that,poor clerk as I am,Ican make little of it";and he pored on it in a perplexed sort.

"Tush,it is beyond my clerkhood,"he said at last."You,Messire Saint-Mesmin,"--turning to the physician--"must interpret this.""Willingly,fair sir,"said the physician,moving round to the shutter,which he opened,while the cordelier's eyes glittered,for now there was one man less between him and the half-open door.Inodded to D'Aulon that he should shut it,but he marked me not,being wholly in amaze at the written scroll of my confession.

The physician himself was no great clerk,and he read the paper slowly,stumbling over the words,as it were,while Brother Thomas,clasping his crucifix to his breast,listened in triumph as he heard what he himself had bidden me write.

"I,Norman Leslie,of--of Peet--What name is this?Peet--I cannot utter it.""Passez outre,"quoth D'Aulon.

"I,Norman Leslie,being now in the article of death"--here the leech glanced at me,shaking his head mournfully--"do attest on my hope of salvation,and do especially desire Madame Jeanne La Pucelle,and all Frenchmen and Scots loyal to our Sovereign Lord the Dauphin,to accept my witness that Brother Thomas,of the Order of St.Francis,called Noiroufle while of the world,has been most truly and righteously accused by me of divers deeds of black treason."At these words the cordelier's hand leaped up from his breast,his crucifix dagger glittered bright,he tore his frock from D'Aulon's grip,leaving a rag of it in his hand,and smote,aiming at the squire where the gorget joins the vambrace.Though he missed by an inch,yet so terrible was the blow that D'Aulon reeled against the wall,while the broken blade jingled on the stone floor.Then the frock of the friar whisked through the open door of the chamber;we heard the stairs cleared in two leaps,and D'Aulon,recovering his feet,rushed after the false priest.But he was in heavy armour,the cordelier's bare legs were doubtless the nimbler,and the physician,crossing himself,could only gape and stare on the paper in his hand.As he gazed with his mouth open his eyes fell on me,white as my sheets,that were dabbled with the blood from my mouth.

"Nom Dieu!"he stammered,"Nom Dieu!here is business more to my mind and my trade than chasing after mad cordeliers that stab with crucifixes!"Then,coming to my side,he brought water,bathed my face,and did what his art might do for a man in such deadly extremity as was mine.In which care he was still busy when D'Aulon returned,panting,having sent a dozen of townsfolk to hunt the friar,who had made good his flight over garden walls,and was now skulking none knew where.D'Aulon would fain have asked me concerning the mystery of the confession in which Brother Thomas had placed his hope so unhappily,but the physician forbade him to inquire,or me to answer,saying that it was more than my life was worth.But on D'Aulon's battered armour there was no deeper dint than that dealt by the murderous crucifix.

Thus this second time did Brother Thomas make his way out of our hands,the devil aiding him,as always;for it seemed that ropes could not bind or water drown him.

But,for my part,I lay long in another bout of sore fever,sick here at Orleans,where I was very kindly entreated by the people of the house,and notably by the daughter thereof,a fair maid and gentle.To her care the Maid had commanded me when she left Orleans,the English refusing battle,as later I heard,and withdrawing to Jargeau and Paris.But of the rejoicings in Orleans I knew little or nothing,and had no great desire for news,or meat,or drink,but only for sleep and peace,as is the wont of sick men.

Now as touches sickness and fever,I have written more than sufficient,as Heaven knows I have had cause enow.A luckless life was mine,save for the love of Elliot;danger and wounds,and malady and escape,where hope seemed lost,were and were yet to be my portion,since I sailed forth out of Eden-mouth.And so hard pressed of sickness was I,that not even my outwitting of Brother Thomas was a cause of comfort to me,though to this day I cannot think of it without some mirthful triumph.