К Сэнсом - Revelation

TWO DAYS LATER, on the Tuesday after Easter, Barak and I walked down to the river to catch a boat to Westminster. I had on a new coat; I had left my old coat with the coroner; stained as it was with Roger’s blood, I could never wear it again. I had a busy day ahead, five poor men’s pleas to be heard before the Master of Requests. I hoped I would also get a date for hearing Adam Kite’s application.

The morning had a real touch of spring at last, the breeze gentle and moist. Normally that would have lifted my spirits; but not with what lay on my heart now. As we crossed Fleet Street on our way down to Temple Bar, we saw a penitent heretic being led along to St Paul’s. He was dressed in a grey smock and carried a faggot of birch twigs in trembling hands. Ashes had been tipped over his head and shoulders, turning his hair and face grey. A rope was round his neck, and he was led along by one of Bishop Bonner’s men. Three halberdiers followed, wearing swords, the little procession led by a man beating a drum. Passers-by stopped, some jeering and others looking serious. Someone called, ‘Courage, brother!’ and the soldiers looked round angrily. I was taken aback to see that the tethered man was the wild preacher from Newgate market; he must have been taken for unlicensed preaching. He would be brought to St Paul’s Cross where Bonner would preach to him of the evils of heresy. If he were caught again he could burn.

The ice had quite gone from the river now, which was high, the grey water flowing rapidly. The wherrymen had had a hard winter, as always when the river froze, and the man at the oars of the boat we took at Temple Stairs had a pinched, hungry look. I told him to make for Westminster.

‘The stairs there are broken, sir. The ice has crushed the supports, they’ll have to be replaced.’

‘Whitehall Stairs, then,’ I said with a sigh, not relishing a walk through the Westminster crowds. The man pulled out. I sat staring over the river. I had spent much of the previous day looking through Roger’s cases and giving instructions to his clerk. Then I had written a letter to young Stephen Elliard in Bristol. When I went up to see his mother again in the evening, I found she had retreated into herself and sat staring into the fire, her maid holding her hand. At length she was persuaded away to bed.

‘’Eard about those great fish?’ the wherryman asked, interrupting my sad thoughts.

‘What? Oh, yes.’

‘Just bobbed up from under the ice. Almost as big as houses they are.’ He nodded and smiled. ‘I’ve seen ’em.’

‘What are they like?’ Barak asked curiously

‘Grey, with huge heads full of the strangest teeth you ever saw. They’re starting to stink now. They’re cutting them open to get the fish oil, though some say they’re cursed. My vicar claims they are the Leviathan, the great monster from the deep whose appearance portends the Second Coming.’

‘Maybe they’re whales,’ I said. ‘A kind of giant fish that lives in the deep sea. Fishermen speak of them.’

‘This ain’t the deep sea, sir. And they’re bigger than any fish could be. Giant heads they’ve got. I’ve seen them, like half London.’

The boat pulled up at Whitehall Stairs. We walked under the Holbein Gate and down into King Street. I kept a hand on my purse, for Westminster was as disorderly a place as could be found in England. Ahead of us loomed the vast bulk of Westminster Abbey, dwarfing even its neighbour, Westminster Hall, where most of the courts sat. Behind Westminster Hall lay a warren of buildings, those which had survived the fire a generation ago that destroyed much of the old Westminster Palace. The House of Commons met in the Painted Chamber there, and the Court of Requests was near by.

Around Westminster Hall and the abbey was a chaos of buildings, shops, inns and taverns, serving the lawyers and churchmen and MPs who came to Westminster. Pedlars, hucksters and prostitutes always thronged the streets, and the presence of the Sanctuary at Westminster had long drawn rogues to the area. Westminster’s government was chaotic, for the requests of rich citizens to have it incorporated as a city had always been rejected, and now that the abbey had been dissolved, the old secular powers of the abbot had gone.

PARLIAMENT WAS in session, and King Street was even more crowded and colourful than usual. Shops and houses were set higgledy-piggledy along the road, the large houses of rich traders with their overhanging top stories next to run-down hovels. The street stank of the many tanneries and of the brickworks on the outskirts. I remembered the complaints the judges had made last year, that during their robed annual procession to Westminster Hall they had had to squeeze their way past sheep and cattle being led to the market.

We jostled our way down to Palace Yard, past shopkeepers calling their wares. There were innumerable pedlars, some calling from donkey carts, others with trays of cheap, skimble-skamble stuff round their necks. Barak waved them off if they approached. I saw a gang of ragged but muscular young men watching as a haughty-looking middle-aged man dressed in a long sable-lined coat and a fine doublet slashed to show the silk lining, walked slowly along. An MP up from the country, probably, who knew no better than to parade his wealth in King Street. Had it been after dark, I would not have given much for his chances.

‘The inquest is tomorrow,’ I told Barak. I had a message first thing. ‘I am sorry, I forgot to tell you.’

‘Will I need to be there?’

‘Yes. Dorothy too, poor woman. It will be terrible for her. They were devoted.’

‘Will she be up to the inquest?’

‘I hope so. She is strong. I went in to see her first thing. She is still very quiet, white as a sheet.’ I bit my lip. ‘I hope the pamphleteers do not get hold of the story and start spreading it round the city.’

‘They would love it.’

‘I know. God’s death, that coroner Browne is useless. The inquest should have been yesterday. The killer could be in another county by now.’ I shook my head. ‘I am taking it on myself to visit Guy later, see what he has found about the state of the body.’

A ragged pedlar with a tray of cheap trinkets round his neck stepped into my path. ‘Rings and brooches, sir, for your lady, straight from Venice –’ I sidestepped him. We were almost at New Palace Yard now; the great gate that led to Westminster Abbey precinct was just ahead. The crowds were thicker and as I walked under the gate I almost tripped over a card sharper sitting beside it with his marked cards, calling people to try their luck. We passed into Westminster Yard, the wide space already busy with lawyers. The big clock tower showed half past nine. We were in time, almost.

‘Tammy says you called in a few nights ago,’ Barak said. ‘Came to visit us.’

So she had told him. Was that to pressure me into speaking to him? This was not the time. I made my voice light. ‘I passed the Old Barge on the way home from Guy’s. That tenement of yours is very damp.’

He shrugged, looked sullen. ‘I’d have moved if the baby lived. But it didn’t.’

‘Tamasin seemed a little – downcast.’

‘She should get over the baby, I’ve had to.’ His voice went hard. ‘She’s full of womanish weakness. I don’t know where her old spirit’s gone.’ He did not meet my eyes as he spoke, which was rare for him. I saw that the domed fountain in the centre of the yard, frozen through the winter, was working again, water splashing merrily. I remembered the fountain at Lincoln’s Inn, and closed my eyes for a moment.

THE WHITE HALL was a small chamber. A crowded little entrance hall was set with benches along the walls. There plaintiffs sat huddled, watching the lawyers talking in the body of the hall. Poor folk from all over the country came to have their suits pleaded here, by me and my fellow state-funded barrister, and many wore the homespun clothes of country gruffs. Most seemed overwhelmed to find themselves among these great old buildings, though some had determined expressions. I saw my first client sitting there: Gib Rooke, a short stocky man in his thirties with a square face. He wore a red surcoat, far too gaudy for court. He was frowning at two men who stood talking in the body of the hall. One was a tall, expensively dressed man; the other, to my surprise, was Bealknap. I saw that my old rival looked gaunt in his black gown as he fiddled with some papers in his knapsack. The tall man did not look pleased with him.