What I'm Reading: Loyal in Love by Jean Plaidy

One thing I have noticed is that number of books about French history during the reign of Louis XIII are few in number compared to the number of books written about the Tudors in England Stuarts, especially after James I/VI. The same holds true for fiction set after Elizabeth I and before the English Civil War. There are shelf loads of books about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I or set during their reigns. Similarly the English Civil War and the romantic figure of the gallant highwayman that the failure of the Royalist cause spawned have caused more shelf loads of books to be written. Which seems odd in a way since Richelieu is such a historically important and well known figure even to English speakers. Obviously part of the reason that I see this big discrepancy is that I look almost exclusively for books in English. Like most Americans of my generation I'm more or less monolingual. So if there are vast numbers of books written in French or other languages they are likely to escape my notice and my Amazon book recommendations.

Thus I was pleased  to come across a book written about Henriette Marie, the youngest sister of Louis XIII. Lucky in Love is written as a reminiscence of Queen Henriette about her life. The author, Jean Plaidy (real name Eleanor Hibbert) is a well known writer of English historical romances. 

Before I started the book I read a few reviews on line. One prevalent theme of the reviewers was how little they liked Henriette and how unsympathetic they found her as a protagonist. My interest in reading the book was to pick up additional historical trivia, especially about France, and to maybe get a better feel for the period. Eleanor Hibbert is a popular and prolific writer of historical fiction so I figured that I was likely to get what I was looking for even if Henriette was completely unsympathetic. Perhaps that set the bar for the character really low, but in any even I thought the author did a good job of depicting the thoughts, attitude, and behaviors of a Princess like Henriette. She was the youngest daughter of one of France's greatest kings. She was thought to be pretty and undoubtedly she was spoiled from birth - like many royal children. She was also from birth surrounded by strongly religious, even extremely religious advisors and confessors and whose only surviving parent, Marie de Medici was the leader of the devot party in France. 

On the plus side the book gave me exactly what I was looking for. I picked up a few bits of trivia. Here is a sampling.

• The names of several diplomats and in tracking down one of the diplomats the fortuitous discovery of a source listing all the English and French envoys and ambassadors for the entire time period I'm interested in.
• A couple of Anne of Austria's attendants and supporters (and their names) of whom I was either unaware or did not know their names.
• That Maréchal Bassompierre owned a fine country house on the hill at Chaillot that was given to him by Louis XIII. 

“The windows overlooked the Seine and the Avenue of the Cours La Reine.” After Bassompierre’s death it stood empty. “I have asked the price. It is six thousand pistoles.” It was purchased by Queen Anne so that she and her sister-in-law, the exiled Queen Henriette Marie of England, could found a convent there.  The French site on Wikipedia adds the additional detail that in 1583, at the request of Catherine de Medici, a country house inspired by the ancient villas was built under the direction of the architect Étienne Dupérac. The Queen Mother expanded the house east of the enclosure of the  bonshommes (snowmen), this House took the name of "L'ermitage" or "Beauregard." In the 17th century, it was acquired by Pierre Jeanin. Then in 1630 it was acquired by Marshal Bassompierre. In 1651 the Convent of the Order of the Visitation was founded by Queen Henriette of England and this was where she was buried. The house was destroyed during the French Revolution.

I don't know when the house took the name of "L'ermitage" or "Beauregard" but on a 1620 3D view of Paris I have there is the label #46. Les Bonshomes that seems to correspond to the right location. The same name is used in 1761 for a convent that seems to be (more or less) in the same location. Note that this house should not be confused with the Château de Chaillot located in Vierzon, France.

While the book was interesting to me mostly due to my esoteric interest in the reign of Louis XIII the book was a bit plodding with less drama than one might have hoped and an overall tone of a somewhat dull reportage of events. Thus I give it only 2 out of 4 stars.

Wolfwalkers

Wolfwalkers: Oscar-nominated animators' new 17th century feature.

The March 23rd post on the English Civil War blog mentioned an interesting animated movie. It's called Wolfwalkers and it is by an Oscar nominated animator. The film is set in Ireland during Cromwell's attempt to subdue the population through the killing of wolves. Which sounds like one of the crazier plots of one of the more out there comic book supervillains.  Unless we posit there were a lot of Irish werewolves trying to defend their land from the English invader.

Which seems like an odd premise or to be more accurate the underlying history seems damned odd. But anything with the potential of showing Cromwell as a villain always appeals to me. 

And if I needed to make an argument for Irish werewolves I could come up with a couple. 

1. Celtic tutelary spirits were often animals. Boars were common for warriors, but wolf spirits makes sense. So we posit some folks who still worship the old gods. Shamanic magic allows those who know and believe in the old ways to be possessed by the totem spirit of the wolf to become a wolf. What with the the pressures of war, famine, and invasion more people are turning to belief in the old ways and maybe even the old gods and the Wolf Clan rises again.

2. Similar to the above but we posit old bloodlines of folks. Here the Wolf Clan is an actual bloodline. Maternal of course since Irish Celts. These folks have been laying low under the Christian faith. But the Catholic turn pagan gods into Saints trick won't work with a dour and serious Puritan like Cromwell. So the scattered members of the Wolf Clan gather to fight their oppressor because they know with Cromwell it is kill or be killed.

3. Instead of a Celtic connection we go with a Nordic one. Norse Berserkers. Lots of Norse settled in Ireland. Instead of a Wolf Clan this would be a looser grouping of related families in the areas where the Norse settled like Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Dublin seems too big city for a lot of wolfwalkers to me, but it certainly has the Viking connection.

I wrote all of the above without watching any of the previews. I didn't want to be tainted. I'll watch the videos and check out the links and post a follow up. Probably tomorrow.

The Historical D'Artagnan

Over on the Osprey Publishing Forum I came across a post that mentioned this nice video (translated from French into English) about Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan the historical inspiration for Dumas' D'Artagnan. It features a lot of great art as well as actual period music by Lully.

Fiction Friday - Vol 7 Tales of Vengeance, Bk III: Full Moon, Ch 1 & 2

Volume 7: Tales of Magic
and Mayhem

 Book III: Full Moon

Chapter 1: Return to Soissons

The report Father Signoret had written about the hunt for the werewolf of Soissons had alarmed Pére Joseph and he, in turn, had spoken to and alarmed Cardinal Richelieu. The Cardinal decided that this was information that should not become widely known amongst the people lest social disorder, loss of faith, anarchy, and chaos be the result. The Cardinal decided that he needed to take action to ensure that the werewolf problem in Soissons was truly solved and, at the same time just in case Gaston was infected or cursed by the loup garou, he needed to get Captain Gaston Thibeault out of Paris before the next full moon. Therefore the Cardinal assigned Gaston to lead the survivors of the first mission back to Soissons to verify that the loup garou was truly dead and to make certain that no new Loup Garou would appear. 

Unknown to Gaston, Pére Joseph had also sent his trusted agent, the Baron Simon Ile-de-Batz, to Soissons. The Baron’s job was to watch Gaston and to observe events. If the Captain needed help in destroying another werewolf and ending the curse in Soissons, then the Baron would help. And if he learned that Gaston was subject to the curse or had transformed into a Loup Garou, then if necessary the Baron would destroy Gaston and as many as necessary to ensure that if such an event should occur it did not subtract from the reputation of the Cardinal or of his new Red Guards.

Before they left Paris, Captain-Lieutenant Gaston Thibeault had ordered that each of the men on the mission should be issued with either special silver ammunition or weapons in quantities equal to 6 silver pistol balls, 4 musket balls, two silver tipped quarrels, or a single silver tipped half pike. Since pistol and musket balls were of different sizes they were not interchangeable. In addition, the Cardinal had given Gaston the gift of a silver inlaid dagger to replace the silverware he had used to kill the first werewolf. In addition to himself, the hunting party consisted of Father Signoret, Gaston’s giant cousin Norbert, Jacques Dlancey, and the other five surviving Red Guards who had accompanied them on the first werewolf hunt in Soissons.

Father Signoret had personally blessed each silver weapon. The Jesuit too carried blessed silver bullets for his pistol. In addition, he carried the Wolf Trap Lantern that he had found in the vaults beneath the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the silver. Inside it had a beeswax candle that he had taken from the Cathedral. He also carried the Silver Nail of St. Hubertus which was essential for performing the ritual that could prevent someone wounded by a loup garou from being tainted by the curse of lycanthropy. 

Gaston was determined that if there was another Loup Garou that they would eliminate in such a way so as not to detract from their previous success. The party left at the beginning of the last week of February. The next full moon would not occur until the fifth of March, which should allow them plenty of time to travel to Soissons and begin their investigations.

The first day’s travel was fairly uneventful. Patches of sunshine shone through the clouds and the weather was much warmer than it had been on their first visit to Soissons. Even the delay when one of their horses threw a shoe was minor. The next day was even warmer and they traveled long hurrying to reach an inn for the night. But the sun was setting behind the trees leaving the wooded path on which they rode in a dim twilight. Just around a bend in the road they only just noticed in time a rope strung between two trees on opposite sides of the road. The rope was just high enough to catch a mounted rider in the neck or upper chest. They quickly reacted to what was probably an ambush. But the ambush had not been aimed at them. They found a horse, still saddled grazing nearby and blood smeared on a nearby tree. They scouted the area and Father Signoret found the dead body of a man that had been tossed in some bushes. The body had been stripped of its boots or shoes and outer garments. Signoret also found a narrow game trail that it looked like the ambushers had used to make their getaway. The trail headed in the direct of what, from the chimney smoke, must be a nearby village. Not far from the body, Signoret a dead body narrow game trail that the ambushers had used. 

While the Jesuit followed the trail, Gaston led the others at the trot to the village. Signoret was able to find tracks leading to a home on the outskirts of the village and judicious questioning allowed the heroes to uncover the two brigands who lived there. It was possible that the villagers were aware of or even complicit with the brigands, so Gaston decided they should either hang them now or take them to Soissons. He was persuaded to do the latter and he ordered the two brigands under guard and that the villagers should collect the body of the victim of the ambush and give it a proper burial. They victim’s horse would be used to transport the prisoners. 

The next day they left the village with their two prisoners under guard. Travel that day was uneventful as was the day after. The only noticeable event a coach heading to Paris from the north stopped at lunchtime at the same roadside in as the hunting party. The passengers of the coach were foreigners traveling to Paris. They were curious about the unusual, red uniforms of the Guards and seemed especially interested in the unusual sight of giant riding a great horse and clad in the incarnadine red of the Cardinal’s new Guard.

They reached the town of Soissons before dark. While Father Signoret made arrangements to stay with Brother Crispin, his friend and correspondent, Gaston and the other Red Guards took rooms at the now familiar Two Saints Tavern. Several other guests from out of town were staying there. One was a mysterious noble from Paris[i] who they never saw as he seemed to spend the entire time in his room, though they often saw his two attendants either in the common room or walking about town. One named Duclos was French and the other named Alemany was Spanish. Both clearly appeared to be like soldiers and swordsmen and neither looked anything like a servant or a valet. In regards to their noble companion the two maintained a discrete silence. 

The last guest was Maurice Pépin, a card player from Paris. Pepin said that he was in the country for his health. “Country air is very bracing. Especially when one has won altogether too much money from a very poor loser. The first thing Norbert saw when he entered the Two Saints Tavern was Old Naudin, a one legged former soldier and who now lived off the charity he found in Soissons, especially in the flower market or at the Two Saints Tavern. Before Norbert could say anything the beggar began to berate Norbert, then warned him to stay away from Yvette the flower seller. “Poor girl hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep after what you put her through.” Naudin continued to warn and complain about Norbert’s treatment of Yvette. He clearly didn’t like the giant, but he seemed sincere in his desire to look out for the young flower seller.

Chapter 2: Hunting for Answers

The party asked questions of the citizens of Soissons and the Town Governor, Bertin de Labrousse. Based on the answers they received as well as their prior mission to Soissons and knowledge of the Governor, they were very suspicious of de Labrousse and they became convinced that he was hiding his brother Armand somewhere, probably inside the Governor’s Mansion. Father Signoret confirmed that the night of March the 5^th was a full moon and, based on his research, he told them that the new loup garou would be most likely to transform or manifest that night. 

Gaston had them prepare to surreptitiously enter the mansion. They obtained a small boat to cross the moat and rope and grapples to get over the wall. On the night of March 5^th they waited by the boat as they waited for the full moon to rise. While they waited, Gaston repeated his instructions to the men.

“Our mission is to find Armand de Labrousse and to learn if he or anyone else in the mansion has become a loup garou. And any loup garou we find, we send back to hell. Remember these guards are not your enemies. They are soldiers of France who are just doing their duty. Try not to hurt them and don’t kill anyone unless you absolutely have to do so.

“No gunshots. We can’t afford to alert the garrison before our mission is done. So no firing until I give the order. All pistols are to be kept unwound and unlocked until I give the command. If we can, we will depart the same way we got in. If we get back out without alerting the garrison, then so much the better. If not, then we get the gate open any way we can and hold it until all of us get out. No one, dead or alive, is to be left behind. 

“Our rendezvous is the big tree to the left of the road to Compèigne where Claude will be waiting with our horses already saddled.”

---

[i] Unknown to the heroes, the noble is Baron Simon Ile-de-Batz who was there to observe Gaston and kill him if he turned into a Loup Garou.

Fiction Friday: Vol 7 - Tales of Vengeance | Book II: Mayhem, Ch 4 & 5

Chapter 4: The Raid

The prostitute Margot had told the heroes that Durgo’s gang had their lair in an old apartment house located close to The Temple. Presumably the location allowed the gang to quickly flee to the Temple for sanctuary to avoid arrest. The heroes planned to attack the gang’s hideout. Gaston led a force of Cardinal’s Guards including Norbert, Cobweb, and Jacques. While some of the Guards surrounded the building, the heroes led the assault. Norbert smashed down the front door and the others followed. They killed or captured most of the gang except for Durgo and his lieutenant, the pistol packing Bart Two-Gun.

Durgo ran up a narrow stair that led to a trap door to the apartment house’s attic. He was pursued by Cobweb, Gaston, and several of the others. When the Guards reached the attic they saw it was empty and unused except by the flock of pigeons that roosted there. Someone or something had startled the birds, but through the storm of wings Cobweb managed to notice a half-opened, dirt encrusted window that provided access to the apartment house’s steeply sloped roof. He and Gaston climbed out the window and began to traverse the roof, but the nimble Cobweb had years of practice climbing on roofs and in and out of windows from before he had entered the Cardinal’s Guard and he soon outdistanced Gaston. Ahead he could see Durgo slide down a drain pipe and run atop a garden wall that led to a neighboring courtyard. Durgo jumped down into the courtyard.

When Cobweb reached the courtyard the only thing in sight was an old well. He ran towards it and listened. Faintly he could hear the sound of footsteps fading away below. A closer look revealed a dry well shaft with hand rungs leading down to a narrow, low-ceilinged tunnel. Without a light source, Cobweb could not continue. Reluctantly he climbed back up the shaft where he found Gaston who ordered two of his Guards to check the gang’s hideout for lamps, candles, or torches that they could use to search the well tunnel.

Meanwhile a passerby told them that she had seen a man fitting Durgo’s description climb over the cemetery wall and run down the street towards Saint Martin’s. From that direction they heard cries of “Stop in the name of the law!” They set out in pursuit.

Gaston soon began to outdistance Cobweb. The Captain’s long legs ate up the distance and the ferocious expression on his face caused others to leap out of his way. Ahead, Durgo tried to run towards the Temple, but a patrol of Cardinal’s Guards cut him off and he had to turn northwest.

Instead of trying to outrun his Captain, Cobweb hitched a ride on a coach that was racing down the street at breakneck speed. He barely managed to keep hold and he heard his pistol clatter to the street. It’s loaded and wound. I hope the damn thing doesn’t go off and kill someone. He climbed on top of the coach and the height allowed him to see Durgo who was running about a block ahead of him. He seemed to be heading for the church of Saint Martins. Probably looking for sanctuary. And in one hand he clutched a large butcher knife that he used to frighten or slash his way past the other pedestrians. Cobweb commandeered the coach at swordpoint and ordered the driver. “In the name of the Cardinal, follow that man!”

The coach was already traveling at breakneck speed, but the driver applied his whip to the horses and made it go even faster. The coach caught up with Durgo at the next corner, which it took on just two wheels. Cobweb was afraid it would tip over so he leapt from the roof and flipped to the ground between Durgo and the sanctuary of St. Martins. He ordered Durgo to surrender, but Durgo attacked him. They fought. Durgo tried to draw his hatchet, but it was knocked aside in the battle. Still his frenzied offense drove Cobweb back long enough for the athletic Durgo to climb the side of a building and swing up onto the balcony. Cobweb tossed Durgo’s hatchet after him, but it harmlessly stuck in the balcony railing. Cobweb climbed after Durgo.

The climb continued up the facade of St. Martin’s Bell Tower. Cobweb followed the gang leader as he climbed through an open archway into the bell tower of the church. The two fought up and down the bell tower stairs, Cobweb’s rapier against Durgo’s knife and axe. The gang leader was bleeding in two places before the superior swordsmanship of the Cardinal’s Guard forced him to concede defeat. He surrendered and Cobweb made Durgo climb back down to the building where they were both soon spotted by Gaston and the other Cardinal’s Guards. Durgo climbed the rest of the way under the guns of the Guards. He and the rest of the prisoners were sent to the Little Chateau with an escort of Paris Archers and Red Guards led by Jacques and Norbert. One of the gang was unaccounted for. While most of the Guards had followed the gang leader, Durgo’s lieutenant, Bart Two-Gun had somehow escaped.

Chapter 5: The Tunnels

Cover of Discours des Sorceirs (1602) by Henry Boguet

Other events intervened before Gaston could return to explore the escape tunnel from the dry well. While researching the Loup Garou, Father Signoret had met a fellow scholar of the occult named Jean-Yves Barreau. Barreau had pointed Signoret towards a book called Discours des Sorceirs (English: Hateful Speech from Wizards) which was first published in Lyon in 1602 by the Magistrate, Henry Boguet. Boguet, who had died in 1619, was a well known jurist and judge in the County of Burgundy. His renown was to a large degree based on his fame as a demonologist and for his book, which had been reprinted twelve times in the years since it was first published. The Discours had a lengthy chapter on werewolves.

 The chapter included pictures (unexplained) of what the author called a “Piège à Loup” (English: Wolf Cage or Wolf Trap). The object depicted appeared to be a lantern of an unusual design, but a design that was familiar to the Jesuit for it was identical to an odd lantern that Signoret had seen in the museum-like Wunderkammer room in Amsterdam during a trip to Holland. And it also looked identical to the lantern shown hanging from the scaffold in an illustration entitled the Death of Le Courtaud that he had seen in Bernard Guenée’s Les Chroniques de Paris. Guenée’s book described the attacks by an enormous pack of wolves on the city of Paris itself during the middle of the 15^th century. The pack’s leader was Le Courtaud.

Barreau was able to confirm two things about the mysterious lantern or lanterns. First that a Piège à Loup lantern was said to somehow act as a sort of trap to catch or hold a Loup Garou and second that the lantern from the scaffold was rumored to still be in Paris, kept in the basement vaults of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Father Signoret thanked the Lord that his research had uncovered an object that would help in the struggle against the cursed Loup Garou. Unfortunately there was a complication.

During a previous mission for the Society of Jesus, Father Signoret had lost a holy relic, the Thigh Bone of St. Anthony, and had made an enemy of Friar Fitellus, an Inquisitor of the Roman Inquisition who had been seeking the same relic. The last time Fitellus had been in Paris he had filed several severe accusations against Father Signoret with the ecclesiastical authorities. Now Fitellus had reappeared in Paris along with a group of Inquisition familiars some of whom the Friar had assigned to constantly and openly follow the Jesuit.

Father Signoret was worried for his own safety, but in he was even more worried about being followed for other reasons. Through his research regarding legends of shape changers, he had discovered the existence of an artifact known as the Wolf Trap Lantern that could prove useful in combating werewolves. The artifact was located in the vaults beneath the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and while Signoret did not have permission to take the Lantern, he nevertheless intended to borrow it without permission for the greater good and the glory of God. But he could not afford to be spotted doing that by his shadows. Therefore he asked Gaston to help safeguard his person while he tried to temporarily lose his pursuers. They were successful and the Jesuit managed to obtain the Lantern and to smuggle it out of the Cathedral vaults.

At last Gaston was able to return and resume his exploration. He was accompanied by Cobweb and several of the Cardinal’s Guards who had taken part in the hunt for the Wolf of Soissons and this time they were prepared with an ample supply of lanterns and torches. By the light of their lanterns they could see that the tunnel at the bottom of the dry well was low, narrow, and dirt-lined. To proceed they had to shuffle along hunched over and with heads bent.

The tunnel smelled of earth and mold with a whiff of putrescence like a long dead corpse. In places old tree roots reached out from the walls like bony fingers. Occasionally the support beams creaked and a trickle of dirt sifted slowly down from the ceiling. At first the tunnel was shored up by charred pieces of scrap wood scavenged from burned-out buildings, but as they continued to follow the tunnel this changed and they saw that now the walls were held up by macabre support beams fashioned from the decayed wood of old coffin lids. Beneath their feet was a litter of human and animal bones which they vainly tried not to tread upon.

Eventually their tunnel split into many side passages. Some seemed to run parallel to each other and many were barely tall enough to crawl through. All were home to hundreds of sleeping bats which their lights soon disturbed as the air was filled with the whirring of bat wings. Cobweb had heard rumors of clouds of bats that were occasionally glimpsed in the Paris sky at dusk. They found several dead ends where the branch was too low or narrow to traverse and once the tunnel ended in the broken open side of an empty coffin. One tunnel was so choked with tree roots that Gaston had to hack and force his way forward. This tunnel ended with a stone which, when levered out of the way, revealed the interior of the ancient crypt of some noble family. They entered, and through the crypt’s wrought iron gate, they saw the uneven rows of tombstones of one of Paris’s lesser cemeteries. They found a key hanging from a wall just inside the gate and used it to exit the crypt. Outside they found the cemetery gate and a sign which identified this as the Cemetery of Saint Nicolas. Through the cemetery gate they saw the apartment house hideout of Durgo’s gang. They wondered how many other passages would lead into an old mausoleum and or someone’s family crypt.

They returned to the crypt. Further investigation revealed a second concealed entrance that led to a long winding passage that led back underground. It had several branches most of which they did not take the time to explore. Ahead Cobweb saw a pair of glowing eyes in the dark. Thinking that this might be Durgo’s missing lieutenant, they gave chase, but either the eyes disappeared or the creature fled in the dark. They continued to follow the passage which eventually opened through a hole in the wall into a brick-lined cellar or subbasement. The saw a trap door on the ceiling, but it was either locked or blocked from above. In the wall near the trap door was a darkened hole with a mound of dirt and broken beneath. They crawled over the mound into the hole. They crawled along a winding passage that gradually increased in size until they could again stand and shuffle along with bent heads. The reached another fork and where they again held to the right hand path.

Here the tunnel’s ceiling was festooned with numerous small, narrow roots that seemed to dangle and sway with motion in the flickering light of their lanterns. But soon they realized that the motion was not an illusion and that what they saw were not small roots but large worms wriggling in the earth of the tunnel’s ceiling. As Cobweb shuddered in horror, he and Gaston heard a sound, a sort of low moan. They moved closer and found a small side tunnel or alcove from which the sound seemed to emanate. Inside they saw a human figure clad in rags. It recoiled from their light and moaned again, this time clearly in fear. They spoke calmly to the figure who they soon realized was a man, his clothing tattered and torn to mere rags encrusted with mud and filth.

They dimmed their lanterns, the light of which seemed to pain the poor fugitive and reassured perhaps by their voices or maybe just their presence he eventually looked towards them. His widely staring eyes contained fear and possibly madness. He babbled about “Them” and when they carefully asked who he was and how he came to be there they could get little sense from him. He kept frantically asking if “They are coming” and for the heroes to save him “from Them.” He told them that “They” had poked and prodded him in the dark and had made strange sounds that frightened him, “sometimes it sounded like a kind of gibbering but as I listened it seemed I could almost make out some kinds of words.” From what he told them, it seemed the fugitive had been running from some sort of pursuit and had gotten into the tunnels to hide, but he had become lost and then “they” had found him and from then on his stay was darkness and fear.

Cobweb and Gaston assured the man that they were not lost and that they would protect him from “Them.” Comforted by this, the madman became friendlier. Cobweb offered to lead him out of the tunnels and into the light of the world above. He thanked Cobweb and behind his back he pulled up a handful of earthworms which he offered to Cobweb to eat. Cobweb, who said he was not feeling especially hungry, declined. But the gesture of offering seemed oddly familiar and the former thief and present guardsman who realized that the crazed fugitive was someone he knew from the old days, a pickpocket and beggar named Romain Light Fingers who had been one of the teachers of his misspent youth.

The heroes decided that by now, if Bart Two-Gun ever was here he had long since fled so they returned to the surface world and brought Romain back into the light of day. Once they were out of the cemetery, Cobweb took Romain to a tavern and bought him a meal and a drink, questioned him, then let him go.

---

EDIT: I found some old notes and used them to revise this.