S.J. Parris - Sacrilege

“I can only presume that foreigners are not much liked in this town, Your Honour. We are easy scapegoats. Anything can be blamed on our barbarous ways—it is so much easier than acknowledging one of our friends or neighbours could be a murderer. As for the witnesses—words can be bought.”

Another wave of outraged roars and cries of “For shame!” from those standing. Hale tilted his head to one side.

“You seem to be suggesting that someone in this town would have paid people to speak against you under oath. Who do you suppose that person to be?” His eyes bore into me. “Bearing in mind that this would be a very serious accusation indeed.”

I glanced at Langworth, whose lizard tongue flicked nervously over his lips. Hale’s gaze followed mine. A deathly silence hung over the room.

“I make no such direct accusation, Your Honour.”

Hale picked up his pen, examined its nib for a moment, replaced it. “Have you anything else to say?”

I hesitated. Olivier and Sophia. I could publicly accuse them both now; I owed them nothing. Olivier: my jaw clenched at the thought of his curled lip, his hauteur. Were they already lovers, or was he just another poor credulous fool like me, persuaded to risk everything for the promises held in those mesmerising amber eyes? She was clever. I had always known she was clever—was that not what drew me to her, more than her beauty? I should have seen it in her that day at Smithfield; after all, she had told me the truth with her first words. The dreamy-eyed, romantic girl I had met in Oxford was dead; life had replaced that softness with something cold and hard, a shard of ice in her heart. She had loved once; she would not make that mistake again. I did not truly believe she had room for Olivier in her imagined future any more than she had room for me. But her plan had failed. Neither of us had managed to deliver what she wanted—her husband’s money, legitimately inherited. So what would she do now?

“Did you hear me, Doctor Savolino? I asked if you have anything to add.”

Hale puffed his cheeks out; his patience was wearing thin.

I could deliver them both to their deaths now, if I chose, in revenge. Or I could show mercy.

“Nothing, Your Honour. Except to assure you that I am innocent.”

“Very well. For myself, I am not remotely satisfied by the evidence for the murder of William Fitch. But the attack on Master Kingsley and the business of the stolen money are more difficult to dismiss, I grant. Nevertheless, I do not say these testimonies nor the evidence shown are conclusive.” He drew himself upright in his great high-backed chair, resting his elbows on its ornately carved arms, and turned the full severity of his stare on the jury. “Goodmen of the inquest. You have heard what these witnesses say against the prisoner. You have also heard what he says for himself. Bear in mind that he is an educated man, with connections at Her Majesty’s court, his reputation defended by the dean of the cathedral and one of the canons, who stood bail for him. Have an eye to your oath and to your duty. If you stand in any doubt as to the prisoner’s guilt, an acquittal is the appropriate verdict. Discharge your consciences well on this matter.” He began to shuffle his next batch of papers. “Let the prisoner stand down. Call the next.”

As I was hurried away from the bar, he looked up and met my eye and gave me the briefest nod.

I was bundled back into the holding pen while the other prisoners’ cases were heard: larceny, coining, theft of livestock. They were dealt with briskly, as if speed were all that mattered. Sunlight striped the walls of the hall; its bulging plaster, its peeling whitewash. All around me, the other prisoners scratched at the lice in their ragged clothes. It was a sordid, dispiriting business; little wonder, I thought, that the justice felt the need to surround the occasion with such pomp and feasting. I kept my eyes to the ground, wondering what that nod was supposed to signify.

When the charges against all ten prisoners had been heard, the jurymen were given a note of each man’s name and his crime and retired to consider their verdict.

“Do not give them food or drink while they are out,” Hale directed the bailiff. “I want this over quickly. Tell them no more than twenty minutes or we shall be sitting all night.”

It took them little over ten, by my count, though the spectators had already grown restless and noisy by the time they returned. The bailiff stamped; Hale looked up, unhurried, from his paperwork and steepled his fingers together expectantly. The foreman of the jury rose to pronounce the verdict.

“The monk known as Brother Anselm—guilty.” Whoops from the crowd. “John Mace of Canterbury—guilty.” The man accused of horse theft slumped like a marionette with its strings cut; the people cheered again. “The Italian, Filippo Savolino—” He had trouble reading it from the sheet. He paused for effect and looked up, enjoying his moment of playing to the crowd. “Guilty, of all charges.”

The spectators screamed in triumph; hats were thrown in the air, and a chant of “Hang the papist!” went up from those standing, who began to stamp their feet like the beat of a victory drum. It’s not personal, the guard had said, but as my gaze raked across those rows of faces, I saw raw hatred there; lips snarled back, teeth bared, fists pounding the air, eyes blazing bloodlust. I was the jewel of this assizes, the star attraction, and they felt this verdict as a triumph for—for what, exactly? A triumph of theirs over everything they wanted me to represent: murdering papists, foreigners who took bread from the mouths of good Englishmen, those who believed their connections put them above the law. I was all these things to them, and I realised in the din that they would not have accepted any other verdict. Langworth folded his arms and smiled, a death’s-head grin. I stared up at Justice Hale, questioning. He gave a minute shake of his head, barely perceptible.

The remaining verdicts were read. All ten prisoners were declared guilty; the spectators seemed ready to carry us on their shoulders to the gallows that very instant if they were given the chance. Justice Hale stood; the bailiff banged for silence.

“The court has heard the verdict.” Hale surveyed the court and adjusted his black cap. “It remains for me to pass sentence of death by hanging on those prisoners found guilty …” The spectators crowed again; beside me, Brother Anselm gave a low moan and one of the other prisoners cried out to Jesus for mercy. I laid a hand on the old monk’s bony shoulder, but my chest was tight and I struggled to catch my breath.

“Except,” Hale continued, and the cheers turned to noises of protest. “ Except ,” he repeated, raising his formidable voice to a shout, so that even the rowdiest onlookers subsided, “those for whom I see special reason for leniency. In the case of the former monk Anselm and the Italian Savolino, I will allow benefit of clergy.”

I slumped back against the wooden partition, afraid my legs would no longer support me. Brother Anselm fell to his knees with a hiccupping sob of relief. Benefit of clergy, as far as I understood, was an ancient loophole in English law that allowed clemency to those who could read; in place of execution they might hope for a fine or a prison term.

“But Your Honour—murder is not a clergyable offence!” Langworth cried, stepping forward.

“I preside over this court, Canon Langworth, not you,” Hale said, with steel in his voice. “Perhaps I could refer this case back to Westminster instead. Would that be better, do you think—that Doctor Savolino should make his defence in the Star Chamber, before the Privy Council?”

Langworth turned white; his Adam’s apple bounced in his throat as he tried to swallow his rage and I knew then that Harry must have reached the justice and told him what he knew. But the crowd were not to be deprived of their prize. A low roar began to swell among them, like the rumble of a great wave, until it seemed their force could not be contained; as the outcry reached a crescendo, some among those standing surged forward, knocking the dignitaries on their benches, jostling the clerks at their tables, and they were joined by others, swarming in from the entrance hall towards the pen where the prisoners were held. The guards did their best to hold the mob back, but they were outnumbered and they seemed reluctant to use their weapons for anything more than ineffectual buffeting. The bailiff climbed on a table and pounded with his staff, calling in vain for order, until he was pulled down by the spectators into the crush. More people seemed to be pressing in from outside the courtroom and a great cry went up from the street; I heard women screaming as I felt hands close over my arms, dragging me through the other prisoners into the tumult. Faces blurred in front of my eyes and I felt a fist strike me on the jaw as the mob bayed for the hangman; fear pulsed in my throat as I was pulled out into the courtroom, into the hands of the crowd. Did they mean to hang me themselves, to dispense the justice they felt Hale had denied them? I could not see the justice now, though I thought his was among the voices bellowing from above me.