Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett [343]
‘Ah,’ said the Cardinal. ‘But the proof is not in doubt. And the punishment, one would say, should not be less than the punishment which has already attended those malefactors who have already been brought to justice, despite the impassioned appeal on their behalf put forward by this impudent Scotsman.… What is his name, M. de Sevigny? You stayed together in Dieppe, I am told. You even approved the manuscript of the blasphemous articles he has just published against the name and rank of your Queen. Knox, is it not?’
‘You have the name correctly,’ Lymond said. Richard, staring at him transfixed, saw that there was no surprise on his face; nor indeed any expression other than a hardness about the eyes which matched the Cardinal’s own. Lymond added, ‘We have never met. I have read his writings, but have not given sanction to them.’
‘You have never met? But he claims to be your admirer,’ the Cardinal said. ‘Certainly, you stayed with the widow Bouchard, his staunch hostess in Dieppe, where you had your first secret meetings with the Protestant lords who came over so boldly as emissaries to my niece’s wedding. You may well have attended further meetings of the sect in the rue Marie-Egyptienne in Paris. Certainly, your wife was there. And both of you, with a daring unparalleled, entertained the dregs of the Reformers and their adherents at an occasion in which you took care to involve your innocent Queen.
‘You were not a participant in the Protestant processions, M. de Sevigny, but your brother here was. You were on campaign, and it has been clear which of our court has found most favour with you: M. d’Estrée, M. d’Andelot, M. de Fors, the Prince of Condé, the King of Navarre.… Do those names surprise you, my lord of Culter? Or have you been able sufficiently to develop your Calvinist sympathies to identify those in this country of France who are about to bring her to ruin? I am told that one-third of the people of this country think as you do. It is my task to uproot these poisoned shoots, to raze the temples and make sweet the sewers of heresy. It is also my task to remove from the land any who may set themselves at the head of this devilish army, and lead it further to flout the Lord.’
He picked up the trinket from the desk and turned to Lymond. ‘You are such a man. That is your ring. These are your deeds. You have accepted the King’s bounty and spat in the face of the Evangile.’
‘You surprise my brother,’ said Lymond quietly. ‘Most of the occurrences you mention came about, as you must know, by pure chance.’
‘Was the gathering of Reformers in the presence of your Queen in the Hôtel d’Hercule by pure chance?’ the Cardinal asked.
‘Yes,’ said Lymond. ‘In so far as most of them, including my wife, had been invited by Marshal Strozzi.’
‘Marshal Strozzi! Why should he trouble to do such a thing?’ the Cardinal asked. ‘And of course, alas, he is not present to vouch for you.’
‘Alas, as you say,’ Lymond said. ‘His purpose, I am sorry to say, was probably to discredit me.’
‘To discredit you! His friend?’ said the Cardinal of Lorraine. ‘But the quibble is of no importance, so much exists in evidence against you. I have all these papers, M. de Sevigny. They lie locked in my cabinet: evidence against a foreigner who came here and travailed to solicit the love of a King, while working to wrest a people from their salvation.
‘Do you know the worst punishment that can befall a man who would take from another his body? I see you do. What, then, would you recommend for a man who purloins the soul of a nation?’
‘A hearing,’ said Lymond. ‘Otherwise you make a martyr of him.’
A trace of colour this time had risen in the Cardinal’s pale-skinned face. For a long moment he met the other’s gaze, grey to blue; then slowly, he shifted his eyes to the older man. To Richard he said, ‘You are fortunate to leave France with your life. Quit this country as soon as you can and do not return. Till your fields and care for your tenants and leave the cultivation of the soul to those who