The Brothers of Gwynedd (155 page)

  "We have no record of this writ," said Hopton smoothly, "and since the defendant pleads that as a baron he should not answer without a writ, it seems that we cannot proceed at this sitting, but must make enquiry further to try and recover it."

  Now the pattern of deceit began to appear all too clearly, for courts surely keep records, and those records should be complete, and even if the clerking of the Hopton commission proved inefficient, the writ must have been listed in the chancery rolls. It should have been a simple matter enough to refer to chancery and prove the issue, though it was a reflection upon Hopton himself that such a reference should have been necessary. But he made no mention of chancery, and no apology for his inability to prove the writ by the archives of his own court.

  "My colleagues," said Master William, "will bear witness that I brought and handed over the prince's writ at the first hearing. It must be in existence, and it should not be impossible to find it. I must protest against any further delay."

  "It is regrettable," said Hopton magisterially, as though it reflected not at all upon him, "but since we have not the writ, and cannot proceed without it, there is no other course open to the bench but to adjourn until it can be recovered." And he ordered that word should be sent to Ralph de Fremingham, to enquire if he held the writ and the opening of the process, and bid him send them into court the eighth day of December, by which date he trusted to be able to proceed with the case. And on that, with Griffith grinning like a gargoyle on a tower, Hopton adjourned the plea until December.

  As for us, we went out dashed into a new kind of despair, not because the pretext in this case was itself so grave a matter, for writs can be taken out a second time if need arise, but because it came as a plain indication that however many obstacles we overcame in this cause, there would always be others raised to baulk us. The plain truth was, that Edward had served notice upon the prince that whatever happened, he should never have Arwystli.

  "In the name of God," said Adam, as we went dispiritedly to the stables for our horses, "why should Fremingham have that or any other writ, or any part of the records? Is that how they run their courts, and Edward so proud of his gift for law? In Wales we should be ashamed of such wretched clerking."

  "He will not and cannot have it," said Master William bleakly. "He may very well recollect that it was brought, and say so, but of course he'll say he has kept none of the records in his hands, and why should he? And he at least will be telling the truth. The prince's original writ will never be seen again. Nor, I warrant, will the entry of that first hearing survive long in the roll of the court after this, even if it has not already been removed. No, it is not a mere delay of two months they've secured by this stratagem, it is the time it takes to swear out a new writ from chancery and begin the process at law all over again. If," he said heavily, "the prince's heart can stand so grievous a mockery and humiliation. He has been bled slowly of his heart's-blood for years. Somewhere there is an end to what even the saints themselves can bear."

That lamentable news we took back to Llewelyn at Radnor with very heavy hearts. He knew from our faces not only that his just hopes were dashed yet again, but that they would always be dashed, for the hands that held supreme power had themselves set up an impassable barrier against them, in Edward's interest and Edward's will.

  He heard us in silence to the end, and then with an equable voice and a face chilled and stony said some words of reassurance and comfort to the old man, whose voice trembled in the telling, and who ended nearly in tears. Then he commended him for his courage and pertinacity in a very unrewarding cause, and dismissed him gently, and his colleagues with him. But he asked me to stay. We had found him closeted with Mortimer when we came, and there was then no other left in the room but we three and Roger's chaplain and secretary. The silence hung heavy upon us all for a while, and Mortimer leaned his elbows upon the table and watched his cousin's face doubtfully, as Llewelyn sat straight and still in his chair, following with fixed eyes the departure of an old regard.

  Remembering, I find it astonishing how often his respect and liking for Edward received wounds that might well have been mortal, and yet revived to live again. Even after this, I know he had some illusions left, and still believed there were things to which Edward would not stoop. It took another and a stranger stroke, perhaps the only one Edward ever struck at him in innocence, to give his lingering liking the
coup de grâce.

  When the prince had thus sat still and alone among us some while, Mortimer reached out a lean hand and grasped him by the shoulder. "You are used very shabbily," he said bluntly, "and I am sorry for it. I tell you openly, if you had beaten Griffith at his own game, and whipped Arwystli from under his nose, I should have been as happy about it even as you. The man is insufferable to me and to many."

  Llewelyn stirred into life again, the dark colour flooding back into his face. "Unhappily not so to the king," he said harshly.

  "He has been useful," said Mortimer, and shrugged.

  "In helping to contain and discipline me," said Llewelyn remorselessly, "and is still being used to the same end."

  "His plea will stand," warned Mortimer with compunction. "The law will uphold him, he has a right to demur at answering without a writ. I don't presume to guess who was obliging enough to make away with it for him, since he could hardly get at it himself. As to the king's Grace, he is my liege, and I'll say no word of him. But what

will you do now? Will you send your men to court in December?"

  "To be subjected again to what they have suffered so often on my behalf? No! I'll rather write yet again to the king, and deal directly with him, though in my heart I know it will be fruitless. At least he shall know that if I am cheated, I know it, and despise the act and the cheat."

  Mortimer got up abruptly and began to pace the room, making two or three rapid prowls about the table, until he halted as suddenly behind Llewelyn's chair, and dropped both hands upon his shoulders. "I take it," said he, "that we are in confidence here?"

  "You may trust Samson as you trust me," said Llewelyn.

  "And that I do," he said heartily, "for though we've fought often enough and hard enough, I should be a fool indeed if I thought you could ever fight unfairly, with eyes in your head like yours. I am more likely to do a little conniving and insinuating myself, and I'm no great hand at it, either. I've been long in coming at what I had to say to you, chiefly by reason of this cause of yours. I waited to see what tricks Griffith would shake out of his sleeve this time, and whether you and I were as close in enmity to him as I thought. It seems you have even better reason than I to man your defences against him. But make no mistake, he has not done with me, either, he is only waiting for another chance. There's no end to his effrontery, and none to his greed. I am in fealty to the king, and I am his man, and there's an end of it, whether all his acts seem good to me or whether they do not. But as to Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn, he is a very different matter. You and I have a common enemy, and a common use for reliable allies. Why should not we two enter into a treaty of alliance? To support and aid each other in all matters whatsoever, saving only our fealty to Edward? Old foes or not, we've dealt honestly with each other, and we come of the same blood, and I'm no happier when you fall victim to an overweening trickster than when the same snake comes striking at my heels. What do you say?"

  "I say," said Llewelyn, flushed with surprise, for he had not guessed at this, and it had a warmth and candour about it that came very gratefully to him then, "that there's never an Englishman with whom I would rather be on good terms, and never one I'd rather have to keep my back against a false world. I have an oath of fealty to keep, like you, but you of all men are never likely to lead me into imperilling that. Yes! I say yes, such a pact I'll gladly make with you. As solemnly as you will."

  "I mean it solemnly," said Mortimer. "I have a soul to stake, and I'm willing to take that load upon me, if you are."

  "In time of peace?" said Llewelyn. "On what terms?"

  "Peace and war and all," said Mortimer hardly. "Why not? Saving our vows to Edward, that goes without saying."

  Llewelyn considered, and saw in his mind an embattled neighbour to Arwystli, and neighbour to him if ever he won Arwystli, a strong line of defence deep into mid-Wales, a way into the south. All the prohibitions against enlargement he knew, and all the dangers barring his way, and yet the offer was honest and greatly to be desired, and the ally, impetuous and ungovernable as he was, honest to the backbone. And that was pure delight to him, after so much dishonesty. He said: "Saving

It was but three days later that they drew up between them, and sealed with the most solemn sanctions, their treaty of mutual assistance and perpetual peace and accord against all enemies, saving only their obligations to King Edward, and in Roger's case also to the Lord Edmund, the king's brother, under pain of excommunication if they failed of their promises. The bishops of Hereford and St. Asaph took cognisance of their vows, which bound them, as in peace, so in war, the one to the other.

  Thus those cousins, one half-English, half-Welsh, the other wholly Welsh, were brought together by their mutual hostility to Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn, and their common detestation of greed, malice and falsity. And fortified with this pledge, and embittered and stiffened by the duplicity of Edward's court at Montgomery, we turned homeward in mid-October, to meet with Eleanor at Bala.

She came out to the gate of the maenol to meet us when we rode in, having caused the watch on the wall to notify her as soon as the prince's banners were seen in the distance. She was bravely adorned, and so beautiful with joy that the heart ached, beholding her. She walked like a queen, erect and ceremonious, her head raised and her gaze high and bright, as though she had been a crystal cup full to the brim of magical wine, and must not shake one drop from the rim.

  When he set eyes on her he trembled and checked his horse, knowing that something miraculous had befallen her, but not knowing what it could be, and so dazzled that he had no heart to question or wonder. I was close at his side, and I saw the severity and sadness and dour resolution cast out of him in a moment, as though a fresh wind had blown drifts of cobweb and mist away, and left him, too, bright as the sun with the reflection of her certainty.

  He lighted down to her like a man in a dream, and took her face between his hands and held her so, gazing at her face for a long time before he kissed. And she wound her arms about his body and strongly embraced him, and neither of them had a word to say, not then nor all the while they walked together, hand in hand, back into the maenol. On that occasion she did not welcome him home in words, for there was no need when her every look and movement and every thread of her vestments was a prince's welcome. Nor did he feel any wish to ask how she did, and how she had done those days without him, for that, too, was in her face. And if she had seen in his distant countenance, before he was transfigured, how his affairs had sped at Montgomery, she spared to ask and remind him, for she had other plans.

  Afterwards, in hall among the whole household, everything went as it always went, yet with a kind of secret and ceremonious wonder, as if we played a pageant of our own daily life, with redder torches, richer laughter, sweeter music and stronger wine than ever graced meal in hall on working days. Until the prince and princess, surely at her instance, withdrew early to their own chamber. And there, I think, in his bed, in his arms, on his heart, there she told him.