Page 132 of A Column of Fire

Pierre rubbed it in. ‘The Protestants, like everyone in town, must know that your grace is due here this morning,’ he said. ‘This looks very much like a deliberate personal insult.’

Gaston Le Pin was listening. He was a soldier who believed in avoiding violence if possible – which may have been why he was still alive at thirty-three. Now he said: ‘We could bypass the town, duke. We don’t want to risk losing men before we even get to Paris. We need a good show of strength there.’

Pierre did not like that line of argument. ‘You can’t overlook this affront, your grace,’ he murmured. ‘It would appear weak.’

‘I don’t intend to appear weak,’ Scarface said hotly, and he kicked his horse on.

Le Pin gave Pierre a black look, but his soldiers followed Scarface eagerly, their spirits lifting at the prospect of action. Pierre decided to encourage them tactfully. He dropped back and spoke to a group. ‘I smell loot,’ he said, and they laughed. He was reminding them that when there was violence, there was usually pillage too.

As they entered the town, the bells stopped. ‘Send for the parish priest,’ the duke ordered.

The host moved slowly along the street to the town centre. Within a walled precinct stood a royal law court, a castle and a church. In the market square to the west of the church they found, waiting for them, the squadron of heavy cavalry they had come here to pick up: fifty men, each with two warhorses and a pack animal loaded with armour. The big horses whinnied and shifted as they smelled the newcomers.

Gaston Le Pin ordered the duke’s men-at-arms to dismount in the partly roofed market, and parked Cardinal Louis’s gunmen in the cemetery on the south side of the church. Some of the men went into the Swan tavern, on the square, to breakfast on ham and beer.

The parish priest came hurrying with crumbs of bread on his surplice. The provost of the castle was close behind him. Scarface said: ‘Now, tell me, are Protestants holding a blasphemous service here in Wassy this morning?’

‘Yes,’ said the priest.

‘I can’t stop them,’ said the provost. ‘They won’t listen.’

Scarface said: ‘The edict of tolerance – which has not been ratified – would permit such services only outside the town.’

The provost said: ‘Strictly speaking, they aren’t in the town.’

‘Where are they, then?’

‘Within the precincts of the castle, which is not considered part of the town, legally speaking. At least, that’s what they argue.’

Pierre commented: ‘A contentious legal quibble.’

Impatiently, Scarface said: ‘But where are they, exactly?’

The provost pointed across the graveyard to a large, dilapidated barn with holes in its roof, standing up against the castle wall. ‘There. That barn is within the grounds of the castle.’

‘Which means it’s my barn!’ said Scarface angrily. ‘This is intolerable.’

Pierre saw a way to escalate the situation. ‘The edict of tolerance gives royal officials the right to oversee Protestant assemblies, duke. You would be within your rights to inspect the service going on over there.’

Again Le Pin tried to avoid conflict. ‘That would be sure to cause unnecessary trouble.’

But the provost liked the idea. ‘If you were to speak to them today, duke, with your men-at-arms behind you, perhaps it would scare them into obeying the law in the future.’

‘Yes,’ said Pierre. ‘You have a duty, duke.’

Le Pin rubbed his mutilated ear as if it itched. ‘Better to let sleeping dogs lie,’ he said.

Scarface looked thoughtful, weighing up the conflicting advice, and Pierre feared he might be calming down and leaning towards Le Pin’s cautious approach; then the Protestants started to sing.

Communal singing was not part of normal Catholic services, but the Protestants loved it, and they sang psalms loudly and enthusiastically – and in French. The sound of hundreds of voices raised in song carried clearly across the cemetery to the market square. Scarface’s indignation boiled up. ‘They think they’re all priests!’ he said.

Pierre said: ‘Their insolence is insufferable.’

‘It certainly is,’ said Scarface. ‘And I shall tell them so.’

Le Pin said: ‘In that case, let me go ahead with just a couple of men to forewarn them of your arrival. If they understand that you have the right to speak to them, and they are prepared to listen to you in peace, perhaps bloodshed can be avoided.’

‘Very well,’ said Scarface.