Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [296]
‘Think, mon ami,’ Nicolas de Nicolay had said, wandering from tussock to tussock, hopping a burn, stopping to pick and twirl the straw fingers of willowherb from the hedgerow. ‘Think of it. A man may make his vows and his life may move into other paths, so that the vows are overlaid and forgotten. It is sad, but common. But here is a man who daily, hourly renews his vows and his protestations on his knees, who searches out God as his dearest confidant and friend and by nothing, by no amazement or defeat or tragedy, will let for one second the sacred mask slip. This is a true prince of darkness, is he not? A man worthy of fear.’
‘For of all men, my God could love you; and I too.’ So Gabriel had told Francis Crawford in those early days when, with magnificent artistry, he had crooked his finger and passed on, smiling, expecting Lymond to follow.
‘Why?’ Jerott said suddenly. ‘Why, when Sir Graham saw that Lymond was going to resist both himself and his Religion, did he simply redouble the pressure? Why try in the first place to make Lymond of all people a disciple? A personal challenge?’
‘A challenge?’ The little geographer, stopped in mid-flight, turned and stared at him. ‘Does such a thing exist? Not to Gabriel. Or not to Gabriel then. Ah no. One thinks this was merely one of many gambits our friend Sir Graham was playing, in his growing disillusionment with the Order. He is a Grand Cross of Grace. He might legitimately have expected to be considered for the Grand Mastership and then the world should shrink and bow the knee! But here is this old man de Homedès, who will not die, who is draining the Treasury and weakening Gabriel’s rightful patrimony so that, when the Turks have finished with it, what will there be in Malta for him? And worse, new names are coming forward: la Valette, de Romegas, even Leone Strozzi. It is by no means sure that he will even become Grand Master in the end. So he looks at the possibilities. There are two. The Grand Master may die, or Gabriel may seek his advancement elsewhere. Where? By crossing, first, to the Turk. If the Turk is to win Malta, then Graham Malett would be well-advised to be on the Turk’s side. Or he could look for a niche elsewhere: another principality which one day he might make his own.
‘So he was interested in our young friend for two reasons. He might, by evangelical fervour, incite Lymond to kill the Grand Master, or start an insurrection which would lead to his death. Gabriel himself could not do this and hope to obtain the appointment himself either from the Emperor or the Pope with his hands sullied so. Or, he might discover from the young man all that was possible about his own land of Scotland, and whether a welcome might await a long-lost son who might be forced to leave his life-long vocation. In this case, there was more: he found Lymond knew Dragut, and was able to size up that old corsair long before he met him with his offer.
Graham Malett might have thrown in his lot with the Turks, had he not learned of Lymond’s plan for this army of St Mary’s. He had already made approaches. That was why he advised against fortifications, why he persuaded the knights the Turk would attack St Angelo, and not Gozo as he did. That was why Sir Graham was one of the seven men—the seven brave men, my friend—who went with de Villegagnon from Birgu to beleaguered Mdina. If Lymond had not kept him in sight throughout the whole of that journey, Dragut would have known by morning that only seven men had entered Mdina.