Bernard Cornwell - A Crowning Mercy

Copyright Copyright Dedication Prologue 1633 Part One: The Seal of St Matthew Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two: The Seal of St Mark Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Part Three: The Seal of St Luke Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Part Four: The Gathering of the Seals Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Keep Reading About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher

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First published in Great Britain 1983

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2003

Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018 Cover image © The Print Collector/Getty Images (scene); Shutterstock.com(texture)

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780007168231

Ebook Edition © February 2016 ISBN: 9780007289998

Version: 2018-10-01

Dedication Dedication Prologue 1633 Part One: The Seal of St Matthew Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two: The Seal of St Mark Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Part Three: The Seal of St Luke Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Part Four: The Gathering of the Seals Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Keep Reading About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher

For Michael, Todd and Jill

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, The bed be blest that I lie on, Four angels to my bed, Four angels round my head, One to watch, and one to pray, And two to bear my soul away.

Thomas Ady

Contents

Cover

Title Page A CROWNING MERCY BERNARD CORNWELL and SUSANNAH KELLS

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue 1633

Part One: The Seal of St Matthew

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Part Two: The Seal of St Mark

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Part Three: The Seal of St Luke

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Part Four: The Gathering of the Seals

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Keep Reading

About the Author

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

1633

The boat slammed into a wave. Wind howled in the rigging and brought water stinging down the treacherous deck, driving the shuddering timbers into the next roller.

‘Cap’n! You’ll take the bloody masts out of her!’

The captain ignored his helmsman.

‘You’re mad, Cap’n!’

Of course he was mad! He was proud of it, laughing at it, loving it. His crew shook their heads; some crossed themselves, others, Protestants, just prayed. The captain had been a poet once, before all the troubles, and all poets were touched in the head.

He shortened sail an hour later, letting the ship go into irons so that it jerked and rolled on the waves as he walked to the stern rail. He stared through the rain and windspray, stared for a long while at a low, black land. His crew said nothing, though each man knew the sea room they would need to weather the low, dark headland. They watched their captain.

Finally he walked back to the helmsman. His face was quieter now, sadder. ‘Weather her now.’

‘Cap’n.’

They passed close enough to see the iron basket atop the pole that was the Lizard’s beacon. The Lizard. For many this was their last sight of England, for too many it was their last sight of any land before their ships were crushed by the great Atlantic.

This was the captain’s farewell. He watched the Lizard till it was hidden in the storm and still he watched as though it might suddenly reappear between the squalls. He was leaving.

He was leaving a child he had never seen.

He was leaving her a fortune she might never see.

He was leaving her, as all parents must leave their children, but this child he had abandoned before birth, and all that wealth he had left her did not assuage his shame. He had abandoned her, as he now abandoned all the lives that he had touched and stained. He was going to a place where he promised himself he could start again, where the sadness he was leaving could be forgotten. He took only one thing of his shame. Beneath his sea-clothes, hung about his neck, was a golden chain.

He had been the enemy of one king and the friend of another. He had been called the handsomest man in Europe and still, despite prison, despite wars, he was impressive.

He took one last, backward look and then England was gone. His daughter was left behind to life.

PART ONE

The Seal of St Matthew

1

She first met Toby Lazender on a day that seemed a foretaste of heaven. England slumbered under the summer heat. The air was heavy with the scent of wild basil and marjoram, and she sat where purple loosestrife grew at the stream’s edge.

She thought she was alone. She looked about her like an animal searching for enemies, nervous because she was about to sin.

She was sure she was alone. She looked left where the path came from the house through the hedge of Top Meadow, but no one was there. She stared at the great ridge across the stream, but nothing moved among the trunks of heavy beeches or in the water meadows beneath them. The land was hers.

Three years before, when she had been seventeen and her mother dead one year, this sin had seemed monstrous beyond imagination. She had feared then that this might be the mysterious sin against the Holy Ghost, a sin so terrible that the Bible could not describe it except to say it could not be forgiven, yet still she had been driven to commit it. Now, three summers later, familiarity had taken away some of her fear, yet she still knew that she sinned.