Spy in Chancery

of King Henry III.' Waterton bitterly commented, scratching an open sore which seemed to glare out through the shreds of his leggings.
    'Do you share his views?' Corbett quietly asked.
    'No. Traitors swing to a choking death. I do not want that.' Waterton eased himself up, the steel gyves chafing his wrists, the chains clanking in protest.
    'And my mother,' he almost jibed, 'Is it high treason for her to be French?'
    'No,' Corbett snapped, 'But it is high treason to consort with the French.'
    Waterton jerked up the chains screeching and clashing as the man moved in fury.
    'You cannot prove that!'
    'So, you do not deny it.'
    'Yes, I do,' Waterton snarled, 'Don't be such a clever bastard, stop putting words in my mouth. I do not know what you are asking.'
    'In Paris,' Corbett answered, 'In Paris, the French paid special attention to you, singling you out for favours and gifts.'
    Waterton shrugged wearily.
    'I did not know and still do not, why such favours were shown to me.'
    'Or why you should meet de Craon and a young, blond woman, secretly at night in some Parisian tavern'?'
    Even in the dim light of the sconce torch Corbett saw the blood drain from Waterton's gaunt face.
    'I do not know what you mean!'
    'By God you do!' Corbett shouted, 'Are you the traitor, the spy? Did you send Aspale and others to their deaths? An entire ship's crew? For what? To satisfy the itch in your cock!'
    Waterton lunged forward like a dog, teeth bared, his usual saturnine face twisted into a snarl of rage. Corbett stared at him as, held back by the chains, the man clawed furiously at the air.
    'Tell me,' Corbett continued as Waterton slumped sobbing, back on to his filthy bed. 'Tell me the truth. If you are innocent, in hours you'll be free but now you are in deep mire, held fast as any fly in a spider's web.'
    Corbett paused. 'Why did the French favour you? Who was the girl you met with de Craon? Have you been in correspondence with Lord Morgan of Neath?'
    Waterton breathed deeply.
    'My father was a rebel against the crown,' he began slowly. 'But I am not. My mother was French but I am not. My wealth is my own. My allegiance is to Edward of England. I do not know why de Craon favoured me. I was the clerk responsible for sending the King's letters to him but I would no more correspond secretly with that treacherous Welshman than you!'
    'And the young woman in Paris?'
    'That, Corbett, is my affair. My only secret. For God's sake!' Waterton shouted, 'If every man who secretly met a woman was charged with being a traitor, then we are all dead men.'
    'Tell me her name!'
    'I will not!'
    Corbett shrugged and, turning, knocked on the cell door.
    'Corbett!'
    Hugh turned and flinched at the hate in Waterton's eyes.
    'Listen, Corbett,' he rasped, 'If I told you, you would not believe me, not you. You're a lonely man, Corbett, a righteous man with a sharp brain and a dead soul. You may have loved once but now, you have forgotten even how to. So. why should О tell you? I hate you, your cold emptiness, from the very bowels of Hell, Satan and all his demons will surely come to fill it!'
    Corbett turned and banged on the door. He wanted to get out, he had come to make Waterton face the truth and now hated having to confront it himself.

SIXTEEN
    Six days later, after a quiet and uneventful journey, Gorbett and the French envoys landed at Boulogne-su-Mer. Corbett was accompanied by an ever-grumbling Ranulf, angry at being snatched away from the pleasures and joys of London's low life. Another Englishman accompanied them, William Hervey, a small, mouse-like man, a scribe by profession and timid by nature. He was used to working in the Court of Common Pleas and was totally overawed by the company in which he now travelled. The French left them alone. De Craon and Corbett exchanged pleasantries but, in the main, the relationship, if one could call it that, was one of mutual distrust. Actually, Corbett felt safer with the French than he had since his return from Wales: they had guaranteed the safety and security of his person; awesome oaths sworn over sacred relics and the Bible that he would be allowed a safe return to the English court.
    Lancaster had also given him a stream of verbal instructions; what to say, what not to say, what to offer, what not to offer, when to leave and when to stay. Corbett ignored most of them. He realised that the Earl was telling him to seek the best offer he could get and accept it. It was openly agreed at the English court