Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [317]
Just before the Commissioners left, they were given a gracious reception by the Queen-Dauphine at the Tourelles, followed by a final convocation by the Council. They were there subjected to a long harangue by the Chancellor, in which he invited them yet again to deliver the Crown, the Sceptre and the Sword of Scotland to the Dauphin their monarch.
When they replied, yet again, that such a matter was not entertained within their commission the Chancellor required them to give under their hands their personal consent to the demand, and an undertaking to present it to the Scots Parliament.
This request they refused, as being neither reasonable to desire nor lawful for them to grant. Then, with a smiling hauteur on both sides, the Commissioners for Scotland parted at last from their hosts, and setting out for Dieppe, took ship for the country which was their own, and had some honesty in it.
*
On the Picardy plain, the army of King Philip decided to move to better foraging territory, and the Duke of Alva with six hundred cavalry issued at dawn to reconnoitre a possible site.
While there, he had a sharp encounter with a French force of pistoliers and hackbutters under the Marshal de Sevigny, at the end of which both forces disengaged to return to camp, with the damage heavily on the Spanish side.
It followed a cavalry sweep of Lymond’s own which had lasted half the night, and which was only one of the succession of small expert forays he had conducted ever since the work of settling the great camp had been completed. The only difference now was that he had no need to observe the other half of his self-imposed régime which dictated that, by taking proper sleep, food and medical help where it would be beneficial, he could display what self-respect and maturity he had left, and cause no one to grieve over his negligence.
Habit on that score died hard, even though he was now alone. Also, even a little thought showed that to take what Philippa had given him and turn it instantly to his own private relief would be a paltry way to repay her. And besides, there was the duty he owed the men under him.
So he continued, through all the degradation and pain, with his routine. He reposed without sleep in his bed for the proper number of hours and ate food patiently which his body would not accept, and at first would take nothing, either of drink or of drugs, which would break the invisible pact he had made with himself.
Only when, with lack of food and sleep, he found his skill in the field less than constant did he let Archie bring him an opiate, and some stronger relief for the headaches.
It was known now that, as de Thermes his gout and St André the pox, the Marshal had his weakness, and when he returned to his tent at the end of his tour, he wished privacy. The Duke de Guise sent his own physician, expressing the deepest solicitude, and Lymond admitted him, smiling, and was examined and given a powder, which he delivered to Archie. About the blindness no one else knew except, now, his four officers, and so far it had only struck on his return, in times of exhaustion.
Only, as his strength grew less predictable, the spells of prostration were lengthening. Now, he could rest between actions. But on the day that one of these two great armies finally lost patience and launched a general attack on the other, he would be committed to a command he could no longer justify.
He had said nothing to anyone of that, but he knew it must be in the minds of Jerott and Alec, Danny and Fergie, who had come from their outposts to join him.
News from beyond Amiens still reached him. Applegarth had taken over the bureau of correspondence left by Philippa, and he knew that peace was likely unless something went seriously wrong: that these two armies were here as holding-posts: dog eyeing dog while the statesmen discussed terms elsewhere.
He knew, from a scribbled note sent from Gravelines, that Adam had reached Philippa and Austin in time, and had sailed for England with them; but not, as yet, if they had landed.