Chapter III: Arrival in Auxerre
At the college, Signoret spoke with Father Duquesne, the rector of the
college and the senior Jesuit in Auxerre. Rector Duchesne agreed to arrange a
small room at the college where Father Signoret could stay. Signoret told the
Rector about his mission. In turn, Duchesne confirmed the stories they had
heard about vicious wolves plaguing the countryside around Auxerre.
Duchesne discounted any supernatural origin to the wolves as well as the belief
of some that the wolves were sent by the Devil as a warning against heretics,
though he allowed that the town governor, Noel Meunier Baron de Fressain, had
been entirely unsuccessful in killing the wolves. Then he told Signoret of the
local rumors about the Black Riders.
“Most of the stories
refer to the horsemen’s black helms. The superstitious believe that these black
helmed horsemen work for a sorcerer and their victims are sacrificed to the
devil. Those who are more fearful than superstitious say that the Black Riders
are heretics who have returned to this region to start a new Religious War.
There is also a most pernicious rumor, believed by fools and sinners that these
black horsemen act at the bidding of our order who, like the mysterious horsemen,
also go about garbed all in black. I believe that this slander is spread by
heretic preachers who secretly move about the region deluding the credulous and
spreading their lies to seduce people from the true church.”
Father Signoret
thanked Duchesne for the information then, since the college did not have
anywhere to stable his horse, the Jesuit returned to town to arrange stabling
for his horse at the inn where the others were staying. His faithful servant
Claude would sleep in the stable with the horses. The inn, a coaching
house run by a bald, heavyset man named Boniface, was called the Blue Bottle[1].
Talk in the Blue Bottle’s common room mostly concerned the wolves plaguing the
area and their effect on the price of food. Several patrons suggested that the
wolves were a curse set on the region by Huguenots.
Signoret told the
others what he had learned from the College’s Rector, Father Duchesne. Gaston
and Lucien decided that from the descriptions of the Black Riders—their
identical helms, uniform dress, and heavy weapons—that they were no ordinary
bandits. Someone must be recruiting, equipping, and paying them. The four
friends decided that the next day, Father Signoret would see what more he could
learn at the Jesuit College while Lucien and Gaston would speak with Captain
de Maubrant, the commander of the Auxerre town guard to learn what he might
know. Then Father Signoret walked back to the Jesuit College.
Meanwhile Claude, who was still hungry after supper, went to
the stable where he asked Bernard the stableman, “Is there anywhere here in
town to get good food cheap?” Bernard told Claude to come back after eight
o’clock that night. So after his master’s departure, Claude returned to the
stable and Bernard directed him to the Dog’s Head tavern, a river-side dive
where Claude could get all the stew he could eat for less than a sou if he said
that Bernard had sent him.
At the Dog’s Head tavern, Claude announced that Bernard had
sent him. Almost immediately the cook brought out a bowl of stew. He also
bought Claude a mug of wine and chatted with him. Claude happily guzzled the
wine, slurped the soup, and told the cook all about his brave master and his
mission to look for the Black Riders. The cook went back to the kitchen to get
Claude another bowl of soup. After eating this bowl and drinking some more wine
Claude became very tired. He put his head down on the table and soon fell into
a deep sleep.
The next morning when the four friends gathered at the inn,
they discovered that Claude was missing. They questioned the inn keeper and the
servants who could tell them nothing. Since Claude was to have slept in the
stable, they questioned Bernard the stableman. When questioned Bernard panicked
and tried to run, but Gaston halted him saying, “If you run I will blow your
brains out with this pistol.” Despite Bernard’s obvious fear, their questions
didn’t yield satisfactory answers. Bernard insisted that he knew nothing other
than that “Claude left to find some cheap food.”
Signoret threatened to see that the stableman was turned
over to the Inquisition for torture. At this, Bernard trembled in fear as he
fell to his knees, crying and pleading not to be given to the Inquisition for
torture. He told them that he had sent Claude to a place called the sign of the
Dog’s Head, a tavern in Auxerre’s Marina district. He said he had an arrangement
with someone called Robert to get five livres a head for steering lone
travelers to the Dog’s Head. Signoret said they should hang on to Bernard while
they searched the Dog’s Head for Claude. “And if you’ve lied to us, I will see
that you are broken on the wheel.”
They decided to take Bernard to the Jesuit College for
safekeeping. But before they could move him, the watch arrived, called by the
innkeeper who had heard Bernard’s cries. They quickly knocked Bernard
unconscious and left by the rear door, but they ran right into the watch. Quickly
Guy said to his friends in a drunken voice, “Help keep our poor drunken friend
here on his feet.” Fooled by Guy’s trick, the guards allow the friends to pass
supporting Bernard. They hid Bernard in a cart full of straw that they found
and took him to the Jesuit College. The Rector was reluctant to help. He said
that the College’s charter did allow him to discipline citizens of the town and
he was worried that this greatly exceeded his authority. Father Signoret used
his membership in the Jesuit order to persuade the reluctant Rector to keep the
stableman locked up in a root cellar for at least a day or two.
Afterward, Gaston asked Signoret if he would really have had
Bernard broken on the rack. The Jesuit calmly explained that Bernard was a
criminal and that he believed that was the penalty for such crimes.
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