Rory Clements - Holy Spy

So it was mere political expediency. Shakespeare laughed; Walsingham and Burghley proving yet again that they had learnt their statecraft at the knee of Niccolò Machiavelli. Morality had no part to play in such considerations. Whatever means were needed to defend England would be employed: deceit, torture, theft, supping with devils like Cutting Ball. Anything. And perhaps they were right. The alternative – Spain’s heel of iron, sword of steel and Inquisition of fire – had to be fought with any means at England’s disposal, however dirty.

‘What is to happen to the woman, Abigail Colton?’

‘Would you see a mother-to-be hanged?’

‘No. Let her stew with Huckerbee. I pity the child, whoever its father may be.’

‘And before you inquire, I can tell you that there is no sign of Arthur Giltspur. It seems likely that he has fled abroad. Nor is he the only one gone to foreign parts. I have had word from Henbird in Paris that Gilbert Gifford has turned up.’

‘Ah, the little pink pigling has made good his escape. I thought it would be so.’

‘Little pink pigling?’

‘It is a private jest, Mr Secretary.’

‘It is apt. But what made you think he would go to France?

Does he not know that Her Majesty values him highly? Why, she means to grant him a pension of one hundred pounds for his services.’

‘I saw his eyes when he spotted Mr Phelippes’s gallows drawn on the letter out of Chartley.’

Walsingham threw Shakespeare an apologetic smile. ‘Tom should not have done that. But there were few mistakes. Even the exposure of Harry Slide did not break us. You know he is back in London, demanding money? He claims for every inn between here and Edinburgh.’

‘He did dangerous work. As did Robin Poley. I truly believe Babington fell in love with him.’

Shakespeare finished his brandy. Anthony Babington. A vain fool who had brought fourteen young men to their doom. Shakespeare could no longer shut out the knowledge of what would happen on the morrow. He wanted to get away from this room for he could not share in Walsingham’s rejoicing. He felt sick; he could smell the blood in nostrils. In the morning, the first seven men would die in the most horrible way imaginable. And the day after that, seven more. A hard price to pay for snaring the Queen of Scots.

He rose from the chair. ‘Sir Francis, I fear I am not yet well. If it please you, I will return to London.’

‘As you will, John. I shall have my best rowers take you.’

Shakespeare bowed to his master.

‘And John, thank you.’

Shakespeare could not suppress a shudder as he stepped through the gate into the Tower. This time he was a free man, but he knew that his mind would never free itself of the dark and fiery vault beneath the White Tower where the living body of Father Ballard, a man of flesh and blood, had been fixed in iron, crouched in agony, enclosed in the Scavenger’s Daughter.

A man in a machine made with no purpose other than pain. Such black dreams did not disappear with the dawning day.

John Savage was praying in his cell. He had a makeshift cross clasped in his hands and was muttering, In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum . Commending his spirit to God, his last hope of salvation.

Shakespeare stood in the doorway and allowed him to complete his supplications. Finally Savage said Amen , crossed himself and turned towards Shakespeare. He peered closely as though struggling to see who his visitor might be.

‘Forgive me, Goodfellow, I intrude.’

‘Ah, John Shakespeare. You are more welcome than any man. We are friends, are we not? I will die your friend.’

‘You honour me, Goodfellow.’

‘And you have my horse, I trust?’

‘I have indeed retrieved it. I thank you for it. A good beast.’

‘Take it in repayment of the two pounds and an angel you gave me.’

‘I told you, that was a gift.’

‘Then so is the horse.’

‘But the horse is not why I am here. I came because I had to say farewell, though you would be within your rights to club me to the ground.’

‘You are a fine man, though wrong-headed.’

‘I did what I had to do, Goodfellow.’

Savage climbed to his feet. He still looked more the soldier than the scholar. ‘And I would have done the same to you, so I cannot hold your actions against you. We were two soldiers on opposing sides of the field. Kill or be killed. In all my life I never expected quarter nor gave it.’

Shakespeare’s injuries had, at least, given him an excuse not to appear in court and testify against Savage; not that his testimony was needed, for Savage had confessed all, as had the other conspirators. ‘I take no pleasure in winning this battle.’

Savage smiled. ‘My death is nothing. In truth I welcome it, for my eyesight fails me by the day. I pray that God will restore my vision so that I might see the Lamb in all His glory.’

A pair of spectacles would have done that, thought Shakespeare, but he did not say it. ‘Be honest with me, Goodfellow. With your eyesight, you would never have spotted the Queen, let alone have had the aim to shoot her.’

‘God would have guided me, had He wanted it. It seems He did not . . .’

‘You still have a few hours. Can I have anything brought to you?’ He held up a small flagon. ‘Perhaps some aqua vitae.’

‘I crave no food but I will drink with you. It may ease my passing. Will you be at St Giles Fields in the morning?’

‘Do you want me there?’

‘No.’ He shook his head firmly. ‘Remember me as a man, not meat. And grant me one boon if it is in your power: do not allow any of your pseudo-ministers near me – either here or at the scaffold. Their babbling offends me more than the rack or butcher’s knife.’

‘I will do what I can.’

‘And now, the aqua vitae, if you will . . . let us see if we can get roaring drunk together one last time.’

The mud-covered boys poked their fingers into the eye sockets, made faces of disgust and laughed. One of them caught Shakespeare’s gaze, stuck out his tongue, then graced him with a toothless grin. ‘Here, mister, want to know what happened to their bollocks and glazers? Give us a penny and I’ll tell you.’

Shakespeare ignored the boys, who were eight or nine years old. Joshua Peace stepped forward to examine the two bodies, which were naked and bound back to back against a tall fence-pole that had been hammered deep into the mud at the water’s edge.

‘Come on, mister. Only a penny. Nothing to a gent like you. They’ve both had their balls and their glazers cut away. You must want to know what happened to them.’ They giggled, then one of the boys threw a fistful of the dark clay mud at the other one and got the same returned to him.

Peace, meanwhile, was examining the dead face of Sir Robert Huckerbee.

‘As you will, mister, a halfpenny.’ The taller of the two boys took a breather from his mudfight, determined to make some profit from the corpses. ‘Tell you what, I’ll give you what I know, then you, being a gent, will give me the money. So here goes: their bollocks were shoved down each other’s throats and their glazers were poked up each other’s arses.’

Peace turned away from his examination. ‘How do you know?’ he asked.

‘Because the men as put them here told us. And they told us to stay with them.’

‘When was this?’

‘Last night, an hour before high tide. We was told to watch until the water covered their heads and drowned them, and so we did. Gave us these for our trouble.’ The boys both drew bollock-daggers from their belts. ‘Said we could join their crew when we’re growed.’

‘Why did you not fetch help?’