The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [325]
They called from their boats and she answered, though not as she said she would answer. When asked why she had allowed a ship bound for France to take Lymond, she complained that she had been told the French ship was the Primrose. And they believed her, she gathered. Nor did they query the number and style of her oarsmen.
The French on board that brave, painted caravel would make Francis Crawford welcome, for England had closed its gates on them, as on him. Awaiting him, he would find all his possessions, privily loaded by secret and powerful hands; and the four men: Guthrie, Hoddim, Blacklock and Hislop who, like herself, had conspired against him and had defeated him, through the strength of the bond he had spent two years attempting to sever.
It was proper that he should be prevented from going to Russia. It was proper that the means used should be those which offered least hurt, in a situation where hurt was implicit. But standing there, steadfast in the small boat, rising and falling in the wake of that high, bannered stern, its sails, flower on flower, moving incandescent towards the dawn sun Philippa wept, her eyes on the brightening sky, for the vision which was not hers, and which was over.
*
On July 5th, 1557, Philip, by the grace of God King of England, left that country, never to return. After he had gone the Queen, believing herself pregnant, made her last will.
Since it has pleased His Divine Majesty, far above my merits, to show me so great favour in this world and to appoint me so noble, virtuous and worthy a Prince to be my husband as my said most dear and entirely beloved husband the King’s Majesty is, whose endeavour, care and study hath been and chiefly is, to reduce this realm to the unity of Christ’s Church and true religion …
Forasmuch as I have no legacy or jewel that I covet more to leave to his Majesty to requite the nobility of his heart towards me and this realm, nor he more desirous to have, than the love of my subjects, I do specially recommend the same duty and love unto his Highness, as a legacy the which I trust he shall enjoy.
*
On July 12th, 1557, the four ships bound for Muscovy, sailing, passing and travailing together in one flote, ging and conserve of society, to be kept indissolubly and not to be severed, entered and dropped anchor in the road of St Nicholas, with their twenty-five fardels of sorting cloths, their cottons, their kerseys and the nine barrels which were not of pewter, of Thomas Hasel’s making.
Their letters recommended one Anthony Jenkinson, gentleman: a man well travelled, and commissioned to travel farther. Their passengers included, in good health, Osep Grigorievich Nepeja, the first Muscovite Envoy to England.
And in Muscovy the Tsar Ivan waited; and the woman Güzel waited; and then did not wait any more.
There is no land uninhabitable or sea unnavigable.
They made the whole world to hang in the air.
Reader’s Guide
1. For discussion of The Ringed Castle
In The Ringed Castle Lymond assembles a group of Western military and civil experts to help him build a new Russia. Why does he also want to build a new life and career for himself so far from his home? Despite his growing power and the genuine good he is doing in Russia, why do his friends believe he is “destroying himself” there?
2. The novel features extensive portraits of two of the most famous, or infamous, monarchs in history, “Bloody” Mary Tudor, and Ivan the Terrible. In what ways are these monarchs good or bad for their nations? In what ways do the monarchies to which they were born shape and even damage them as people?
3. A central and fascinatingly real character in this novel is the English navigator Richard Chancellor. How does he reflect his times? What is his role in the novel with regard to the relationships between Lymond and Philippa and between Lymond and his brother? The time and manner of Chancellor’s death are historical fact, but why, from the standpoint of the development of plot and character, must he die?
Dorothy Dunnett was born