Paul Doherty - Spy in Chancery

Corbett threw the piece of parchment at Tuberville. 'You can go through others of your letters and they bear similar messages. You talk about travelling through Flanders yet you never intended to go there. Later, in the same letter, you actually refer to a friend called Aspale but no such friend exists. What you were doing was informing de Craon about a clerk, Robert Aspale, who has been sent to France to spy on our behalf.' Corbett stood up.

'You killed my friend, you killed others, you are a traitor and you deserve to die!'

Tuberville looked down at his hands which lay clenched in his lap. 'Is there any more?' he said.

'Oh, yes,' Corbett replied heatedly. 'There is more! I do not know what instructions the French gave you regarding Scotland but you were certainly in correspondence with that misbegotten rebel, the Lord Morgan! The King constantly sent messengers there insisting that the Lord Morgan keep his peace. You just ensured that you prepared the horse, using a special saddle, one with a secret cavity for your own treasonable messages. Waterton thought that was strange. The King's spy in Wales discovered this and so Morgan killed him. Now,' Corbett concluded drily, 'Do we have the evidence? As the King said,' and the clerk looked down where the King sat on the garden wall, 'The evidence we have will be acceptable before any court, English or French. You are the traitor! And for what? A bag of gold?'

'No!' Tuberville's head suddenly shot up, his eyes glaring at both Corbett and the King. 'Not gold!' He too rose, chest heaving to confront Corbett. 'I am not a traitor! I fought for the King in Gascony! I served him here at home but that misbegotten noble, the Earl of Richmond, he spoilt it all. He lost the army, he lost the province, he lost our honour and he had the impunity to accuse me of being rash, whereas his laziness and insolence were the biggest treasons of all. Because of him I was captured and led like some fool through the streets while the French laughed. Because of him I had to send my own children to France as hostages, and on my return to England Richmond scarcely punished, hardly reprimanded!' Tuberville glared down at the King. 'I believe you lost your own honour. Richmond should have died for what happened in Gascony!' Tuberville sat down again. 'While I was in Paris, de Craon visited me. He praised my courage in attempting to break out of the French encircling force. He also said my children would be sent to France as hostages but added he would take great care of them.

'Indeed, he made further promises about giving me lands and a manor house and being able to join them there, so I accepted. De Craon told me to garner any information I knew about the English troops on the south coast, or the King's intentions with regard to Gascony. When de Craon heard that I had been made captain of the guard protecting the royal council chamber, his promises were all the more lavish, that once Philip's terms had been accepted by Edward, I and my children would be created nobles in France and given extensive lands where I could begin a new life.'

The only thing you will begin,' the King interrupted harshly, 'is a sentence of imprisonment which will lead to a trial for high treason and execution according to the form and due process of law!' Edward's raised voice brought a group of soldiers into the garden. The King looked up. 'I trusted you, Sir Thomas, I advanced your career. I would have looked after you. Richmond has been punished for his incompetence in France, but I always draw a line between mistakes and malice, between carelessness and treason. You are a traitor, Sir Thomas, and will suffer the full rigours of the law!'

Tuberville just shrugged, east a look of hatred towards Corbett and, without making further resistance, allowed himself to be marched away.

'What will happen to him?' Gorbett asked.

'He will stand trial,' the King replied, 'Before his peers and my judges at Westminster Hall. The evidence you have accumulated will send him to the execution block. He will be hanged, drawn and quartered. A warning to any other person who even thinks of committing treason in my realm! Waterton alone will demand that,' the King added bitterly. 'It was clever, very clever of de Craon to arrange events to throw the blame on him.' He looked sharply at Corbett. 'Were you always convinced that Waterton was innocent?'

'Yes, yes, I think I was,' the clerk replied slowly. 'Something in my heart which became clearer when П met Richmond's daughter in Paris but, really, de Craon told me. I watched his face that day in the great council chamber when your brother announced that we had discovered and arrested the traitor. I saw the flicker of delight in de Craon's face and eyes. He must have known we had arrested the wrong man and so he betrayed himself. During Lancaster's embassy to France,' Corbett continued, 'de Craon deliberately misled me. He favoured Waterton so as to arouse our suspicions.'

'But de Craon tried to kill you in Paris.'

'Just to throw suspicion on Waterton, the same applies to the French seal left in our diplomatic pouches..It was put there by de Craon, who also fed similar lies to his Scottish allies in the hope they would be passed on to you.'

The King nodded and stared at a rose in full bloom. He could scarcely believe what he had heard and seen. Tuberville a traitor! And such a devious one. God knows, the King thought, what a proper study of his letters would reveal. No wonder the Scottish and Welsh rebels had been so arrogant in their defiance. Edward glared at the rose as he plotted his revenge.

Corbett broke the ensuing silence by going down on one knee in front of the King.

'Your Grace,' he said. 'You did promise me that if I found the traitor, I could ask for anything in your kingdom.'

Edward looked down slyly.

'I was angry then, Master Corbett. And it is wrong to quote a prince's words back to him, words which were said in the heat of the moment.'

Corbett smiled wanly. 'And the psalmist says "Put not your trust in princes", your Grace. Is this an example of it?'

Edward laughed softly. 'No, no, Hugh. I keep my word.'

'Good,' Corbett said. 'There are two things I wish, your Grace. First, for Tuberville's punishment to be commuted, let him be executed, let him be hanged, not the drawing and the quartering, the dismembering of a man's body. Justice does not demand that.'

The King looked up at the blue sky. 'Your request is granted,' he replied sharply, 'There is something else?'

'Yes,' Corbett continued, 'The Lord Morgan in Wales.'

'The Lord Morgan in Wales,' Edward interrupted harshly 'has already felt my displeasure! I have moved troops down from Caernarvon and Caerphilly Castles. They are all over the Lord Morgan's estates as well as the surrounding countryside. I doubt if that Welshman will ever give me further trouble!'

'It's not the Lord Morgan,' Corbett interrupted rather abruptly, 'But his niece, the Lady Maeve.'

Edward looked sharply at Corbett before throwing his head back and guffawing with laughter.

It is funny, Hugh,' he said, 'that you ask me about her, because we received a message from Lord Morgan along with one from his niece. Lord Morgan humbly submitted to our peace and begs for pardon for any mistakes or crimes he may have made. Of course, I will grant it after a while, but the Lady Maeve'smessage was much more simple. We were asked to give you this.'

The King dug into his purse and drew out the ring that Corbett had last seen in Maeve's hand, on the beach outside Neath Castle.

'She sent you this,' the King dropped the ring into Corbett's hand and smiled at the clerk's evident disappointment.

'Oh, there was a message, Master Clerk. The Lady Maeve wrote in support of her uncle's pleas for clemency, adding the postscript that she enclosed the ring for you in the hope that you would return it to her personally so that she could keep it for ever.'