The Relic Murders

laid before the judges. They asked him how he was to plead. He told them to go to Hell so they sentenced him to hang but Benjamin intervened.
    'Master Cerberus,' he began. 'Master Cerberus was most cooperative in telling us about these outlaws' depredations. He is not to hang. His head is to be severed from his body.'
    Isn't life strange? Cerberus cackled with laughter when he heard this and began to bless my name as if I had given him a king's pardon. Kempe and the judges objected but Benjamin was obdurate. 'He is not to hang!'
    A squabble would have broken out but Egremont got to his feet, clapping his gloved hands. He said something to one of his retainers. The man ran across and brought back a small log from a pile heaped at the far end of the green.
    'If he is not to hang,' Egremont declared, 'justice will still be done.' He rapped out another order. Two of his liveried servants rolled Cerberus off the door and positioned him so his neck lay against the log. Egremont took off his cloak, drew his sword and positioned himself carefully. He brought the sword up and, in one clean sweep, took Cerberus's head sheer off at the neck.
    Of course, I had walked away, hand to my mouth. I don't like the sight of blood, even if it's not my own. By the time I returned, archers from the garrison had placed Cerberus's body and severed head on the door and were taking them away to be buried in a lime pit in a desolate part of the Tower.
    Egremont looked like a man who has done a good day's work. He accepted Kempe's offer of refreshment but first walked round the scaffold, carefully inspecting the corpses as if he was suspicious that one of them might still be alive. Eventually he conferred with Kempe, then Benjamin, Cornelius and myself followed them across the green and up into the great hail.
    'A satisfactory morning's work,' Kempe announced as he sat at the top of the great table waving us to the benches on either side. 'But the last man,' he continued, 'the one who didn't want to hang: what did he have to say to you? What did he confess?' My master's boot tapped my leg. 'Nothing much,' I replied. 'Come, come.' Egremont beat his wine cup against the table. 'Did he mention the Orb?' Cornelius snapped.
    'He said that the outlaws and wolfsheads had heard about the theft but nothing else.' Cornelius's eyes slid away. He knew that I was lying.
    'Surely,' my master intervened. 'Surely, Lord Egremont, you, too, have made careful searches?'
    'Oh yes, we have.' Lord Egremont took his gloves off and played with the small, leather tassel on one of them. 'Rumours spring as thick as weeds.' His voice took on a harsh tone. 'Such as?' I asked. Egremont didn't even look at me.
    'Rumours that the Orb is in the hands of the French or the Papal Envoys. His Imperial Highness Charles V will not be pleased.'
    'My Lord Theodosius, your command of the English tongue is admirable,' Benjamin commented.
    'I studied in the Halls of Cambridge,' Egremont replied. 'The quadrivium, the trivium, logic and metaphysics.' 'And you, Master Cornelius?' I asked.
    'For a while I lived in England,' Cornelius retorted. 'Many years ago I was apprenticed to a cloth merchant, a Hanse at the Steelyard.'
    'What has this got to do with the Orb of Charlemagne?' Egremont snapped. 'Nothing,' Benjamin murmured.
    'In which case-' Egremont got up and, smacking his gloves against his thigh, he bowed to Sir Thomas and Benjamin and strode from the room.
    Cornelius followed as silently as a shadow. Kempe watched them go. 'Are you skilled in tongues?' Benjamin asked him. Sir Thomas narrowed his eyes. 'In French, Italian,' he replied. 'And German?' Benjamin asked. 'Yes.' 'And you have worked in the Empire?'
    Sir Thomas became uneasy. He opened his mouth to reply and looked longingly at the door, as if he wished to be gone.
    'These matters are not your business,' he snapped. 'But to answer you bluntly, yes, I have been a royal envoy to Lubeck and yes, Master Daunbey, before you ask, I have met Lord Egremont and Cornelius on a number of occasions. However, I believe I have got something to show you.' And Kempe strode from the hall. 'Why these questions?' I asked.
    'What,' Benjamin whispered, 'if this is all one plot, Roger? An alliance between Egremont and Kempe, with Cornelius party to it, to steal from both the Emperor and our King and so become rich on the profits?'

Chapter 11
    We sat and murmured about the possibilities. What proof did we have that this mysterious assassin, the