A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and TearsParker, Gilbert
History
A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and Tears
Parker, Gilbert
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; Huguenots -- Fiction; Jersey (Channel Islands) -- Fiction
Short of actual battle, this new strife was the keenest ever known,
for Sir Hugh Pawlett was ranged on the side of the Seigneur of Rozel.
Kinsman of the Comtesse de Montgomery, of Queen Elizabeth’s own
Protestant religion, and admiring De la Forêt, he had given every
countenance to the Camisard refugee. He had even besought the royal
court of Jersey to grant a pardon to Buonespoir the pirate, on
condition that he should never commit a depredation upon an
inhabitant of the island--this he was to swear to by the little
finger of St. Peter. Should he break his word he was to be banished
the island for ten years, under penalty of death if he returned. When
the hour had come for Buonespoir to take the oath he failed to
appear, and the next morning the Seigneur of St. Ouen’s discovered
that during the night his cellar had been raided of two kegs of
canary, many flagons of muscadella, pots of anchovies and boxes of
candied “eringo,” kept solely for the visit which the Queen had
promised the island. There was no doubt of the misdemeanant, for
Buonespoir returned to De Carteret from St. Brieuc the gabardine of
one of his retainers, in which he had carried off the stolen
delicacies.
This aggravated the feud between the partisans of St. Ouen’s and
Rozel, for Lemprière of Rozel had laughed loudly when he heard of the
robbery, and said: “’Tis like St. Ouen’s to hoard for a queen and
glut a pirate. We feed as we get at Rozel, and will feed the court
well, too, when it comes, or I’m no butler to Elizabeth!”
But trouble was at hand for Michel and for his protector. The spies
of Catherine de Medici, mother of the King of France, were
everywhere. These had sent word that De la Forêt was now attached to
the meagre suite of the widow of the great Camisard Montgomery, near
the Castle of Mont Orgueil. The Medici, having treacherously slain
the chief, became mad with desire to slay the lieutenant. She was set
to have the man, either through diplomacy with England, or to end him
by assassination through her spies. Having determined upon his death,
with relentless soul she pursued the cause as closely as though this
exiled soldier were a powerful enemy at the head of an army in
France.
Thus it was that she wrote to Queen Elizabeth, asking that “this
arrant foe of France, this churl, conspirator, and reviler of the
sacraments, be rendered unto our hands for well-deserved punishment
as warning to all such evil-doers.” She told Elizabeth of De la
Forêt’s arrival in Jersey, disguised as a priest of the Church of
France, and set forth his doings since landing with the Seigneur of
Rozel. Further she went on to say to “our sister of England” that
“these dark figures of murder and revolt be a peril to the soft peace
of this good realm.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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