Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

manfully. His part was to see to it that the prisoners were properly fed, if austerely; with the authorities rested the overseeing of their incarceration, and the judgement of their causes.
    "But there is still a suspicion of murder against him," cried Herluin, aggressively triumphant as he recalled the secular charge. "He cannot be allowed to evade that. The king's law has a duty to recover the criminal, if the Church has not."
    "You are mistaken," said Radulfus, severely patient. "The sheriff has already assured me, yesterday, that he is satisfied on the proofs he holds that Brother Tutilo did not kill the young man Aldhelm. The secular law has no charge to bring against him. Only the Church can accuse him, and the Church has no sergeants to despatch about the country in pursuit of its failures."
    The word 'failure' had stung sharp colour into Herluin's face, as if he felt himself personally held to blame for being unable to keep his subordinates in better control. Cadfael doubted if any such significance had been intended. Radulfus was more likely to accuse himself of inadequate leadership than to make the same charge against any other. Even now that might well be his meaning. But Herluin took to himself, while he strenuously denied, every failure that had cropped his dignity and authority, and threatened to send him home humbled and in need of tolerance and consolation.
    "It may be, Father Abbot," he said, stiffly erect and smouldering with doomladen prophecy, "that in this matter the Church will need to examine itself closely, for if it fail to contend against the evildoers wherever they may be found, its authority may fall into disrepute. Surely the battle against evil, within or without our pale, is as noble a Crusade as the contention within the Holy Land. It is not to our credit if we stand by and let the evildoer go free. This man has deserted his brotherhood and abandoned his vows. He must be brought back to answer for it."
    "If you esteem him as a creature so fallen from grace," said the abbot coldly, "you should observe what the Rule has to say of such a case, in the twenty-eighth chapter, where it is written: 'Drive out the wicked man from among you.' "
    "But we have not driven him out," persisted Herluin, still incandescent with rage, "he has not waited the judgement nor answered for his offences, but taken himself off secretly in the night to our discomfiture."
    "Even so," murmured Cadfael as to himself but very audibly, unable to resist the temptation, "in the same chapter the Rule commands us: 'If the faithless brother leaves you, let him go.' "
    Abbot Radulfus gave him a sharp glance, not altogether approving; and Robert Bossu gleamed into that brief, private, unnerving smile of his, that was gone before any target it might be aimed at could take offence.
    "I am responsible to my abbot," said Herluin, doggedly diverting the argument into a different channel, "for the novice committed to my charge, I must at least make enquiry after him as best I may."
    "I fear," said Robert Bossu with relentless sweetness, "that time is too short even for that. If you decide to remain and pursue this quest, I fear you must resume your journey in less favourable circumstances. As soon as the early Mass is over we muster and leave. You would be wise, all the more as you are now one man short, to take advantage of our numbers and travel with us."
    "If your lordship could delay only a couple of days..." began Herluin, writhing.
    "I regret, no. I have malefactors of my own needing my presence," said the earl, gallingly gentle and considerate. "Especially if a few rogues and vagabonds like those who attacked your wagon are still making their way out of the Fens into safer fastnesses through my lands. It is high time I went back. I have lost my wager for Saint Winifred, but I don't grudge it, for after all, it was I who brought her back here, so even if she eludes me, I must have been doing her will to the last scruple, and there will surely be a minor blessing in it for my pains. But now I'm needed nearer home. When Mass is over," said Earl Robert firmly, and made to rise, for it was nearly time. "I would advise you join us, Father Herluin, and do as Saint Benedict bids you, let the faithless brother go."
    The valedictory Mass began early and was briskly conducted, for the earl, once roused for departure, somehow conveyed the ardour of his mood to all those about him. When they came out into the early sunight the bustle