Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [342]
‘I am glad you think so,’ said Richard, his voice agreeably quiet. ‘Because, my dear comte de Sevigny, I think you are about to require them.’
*
The men at arms who blocked the exit of the former Marshal de Sevigny and his brother from the Episcopal Palace were perfectly polite but quite immune to persuasion. My lord of Culter, with their assistance, was to be escorted to his lodging, there to complete his arrangements to leave Amiens. As for M. de Sevigny, their orders were to convey him elsewhere.
M. de Sevigny, extremely splendid in Shemakha silk and wearing once more the black taffeta cross-sash of the Order showed no sign of alarm. ‘Naturally,’ he said. ‘My time is yours. I have two amendments to make. I go nowhere without my brother. Nor do I move from the palace without an escort supplied by Monseigneur the Cardinal of Lorraine. You may arrange it if you please. If not, I shall do so.’
There was a pause. The sergeant in charge said, ‘My lord … we are carrying out the Cardinal’s orders.’
‘Then where is your livery?’ said Lymond. ‘Find someone of good character who can identify you. Perhaps it would be quickest to ask the Cardinal himself to step into the courtyard?’
It took less than five minutes to have the men at arms publicly established, to Richard’s silent admiration. Then, very soon after that, he found himself in a room he did not know, in a building he did not know, with swift footsteps following along the passage. Then the door opened and Charles de Guise, the second, and cleverest and the most dangerous of all the brilliant princes of Lorraine, entered and closed the door.
‘M. de Culter,’ he said. ‘In this court, as no doubt in that of Scotland, there are many eminent noblemen of opposing views who may yet be of great value to the crown if their views are not openly flouted. For that reason, interviews are sometimes best conducted in privacy. What I have to say concerns M. de Sevigny but may be positively harmful if overheard by a third person. I would therefore ask you to have the goodness to withdraw. I shall not detain your brother long. You may wait for him below.’
It was not a day on which Richard was to be allowed a great deal of initiative. He opened his mouth.
‘Monseigneur,’ Lymond said, ‘what you wish to say to me may also be said before my brother. I can vouch for his perfect discretion.’
‘I have no doubt,’ the Cardinal said. Unlike his monarch, he met resistance with no more than sweet tranquillity. ‘But this, M. de Sevigny, touches your honour. Do you wish to continue before the head of your house?’
Richard moved. ‘I should take it extremely badly,’ Lymond said, ‘if after that, my brother felt constrained to leave. You have heard the King dismiss me and I am anxious, monseigneur, to set out for Paris.’
‘To pay your last respects, as I suppose, to my niece,’ the Cardinal said. ‘Both she and my master, M. de Sevigny, are over-lenient towards those who please their fancy. This I am sure you have noted in the years you have spent here during the building of your career. It has always been my duty and that of my brother to prevent either the Queen or his grace the King from having their kindness imposed upon. I speak to the point, as you will see. I wonder if you, or your brother, recognize this ring?’
It lay on the table between them, a heavy gold ring Richard had seen many times on his brother’s hand. He kept silent. Lymond said, ‘Where did you find this?’
‘In the possession of a youth,’ the Cardinal said. ‘What would you say, my lord of Culter, should be the penalty for impersonating a prince of the church?’
Richard said, ‘I think, monseigneur, I should require to know the details.’
‘Would you?’ said the Cardinal. ‘Then you will require to ask your brother. What then, would you say should be the punishment for the concealment of lewd and heretical meetings, and the abetting of those attempting to escape justice after such orgies?’
‘I should