Book VI: Witchcraft
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Madame Corbeau
On
April 12, while Guy returned to Paris, Father Signoret and the Seigneur de
Chambré continued their investigation. They went to the site of the fourth
murder. They learned that the victim was a 19-year old farm girl named
Jeannette. She had been ritually murdered on a cliff above an island in the Little
Rhone River near Ermenouville. Once they had scaled the cliff they saw that the
rocky ground at the top still showed signs of a pentacle drawn in blood. When Signoret
had investigated the body he had found bruises on herwrists where she had been cuffed
or held along with several wooden splinters in her wrists at the site of the
bruises. When the body had been found her feet had been secured with rope to a
pair of unusual stones each with a single, smooth hole through it so that the
stone could act as a ring bolt. The holes were smooth either from polishing or
years of use. Clearly before she was killed her feet had been tied to the
stones with rope while her hands had been held or bound with wood in some
fashion.
Then
they went to the cottage in the valley where Jeannette had lived to look for additional
clues. It was clear someone or something had attacked the cottage. The front
door was smashed, the inside was wrecked, and all other family members had been
bludgeoned to death by unknown persons of great strength wielding what seemed
to be branches or wooden clubs. The Jesuit was an experienced hunter and tracker.
Outside the cottage he found three sets of blockish, inhuman footprints and one
set of smaller footprints of a woman or youth. The inhuman footprints looked
like those strange blockish footprints without heel or toe that he had found at
the first murder site. Marks between two of the pairs of inhuman footprints
showed where someone, probably Jeannette, had been dragged towards the cliff
and her death. The Jesuit prayed that the young girl had been unconscious
during the trip and afterward.
Another
trail made by three sets of inhuman prints and the one set of the smaller
footprints led away from the murder site. They followed those tracks south and east
until they reached the toll bridge over the Rouillon River at Dugny. The bridge
was stone which showed no tracks. Signoret and de Chambré asked about any
unusual events or strangers both at the church in Dugny and at the local inn. At
the inn they discovered that one stranger, a dark haired woman ho had stayed at
the Auberge Les Herbes Folles (Wild Grasses Inn). The inn keeper told them that
she had given the name Mme Corbeau. They returned to the bridge and questioned
the toll keeper who remembered that a woman matching the description of Madame
Corbeau had crossed the bridge and entered the village sometime after midnight.
They
returned to the inn where they ate a late lunch. While they were dining they
noticed a noble house guard seated in the common room of the inn. De Chambré asked
the innkeeper about the man and learned that he worked for a local noble. He
and his companion accompanied their master who had stopped at the inn some five
hours earlier. He had rented a room for his private amusements. De Chambré
adopted a man of the world attitude as he continued his questions. He learned
that the noble was named Charles de Machault and that he was the son and heir
of the Seigneur of Ermenouville a château not far from the scene of the most
recent murder. Machault had arrived that morning. He had spotted Mme Corbeau in
the inn’s common room. The two had flirted for a while and then they retired to
a room that Machault had rented on the spot. While de Chambré was speaking with
the innkeeper a second house guard came down the stairs. He walked over to his
companion, mentioned something about the insatiability of the woman, and told
his fellow that the master wanted both of them back upstairs right away.
While
Mme Corbeau and the others were disporting themselves in the noble’s rented inn
room, Signoret let himself into Corbeau’s room where he found a satchel filled
with herbs. He took samples of the various herbs. From the innkeeper he learned
that the village of Dugny had its own apothecary. He left de Chambré to keep an
eye on things at the inn while he took the samples to be analyzed. The
apothecary told him that most of the samples were herbs commonly used for headache
remedies, simples, and treating wounds. However two of the samples were from
plants that were unknown to him. Signoret thought he would ask Guy to have his
man Fabré try to identify the two unknown herbs.
While
Signoret was with the apothecary, de Chambré kept watch for Mme Corbeau. It was
not long before the noble and his two guards came back downstairs and de
Chambré introduced himself. His good manners and looks allowed him to easily
ingratiate himself with Charles de Machault. Machault was a successful robe
noble in his mid thirties. He held several offices and would, in time, inherit
his father’s titles as well. Although married, he was quite open about being at
the inn for amorous pursuits outside of wedlock. He mentioned an especially
diverting and exhausting encounter he had already had that very day. From
Machault, de Chambré obtained a more detailed description of Madame Corbeau.
She was in her twenties, pretty with dark curly hair, and a single earring
shaped like a claw in her right ear. She wore a green cloak accented with a
feather and a ribbon fascinator on the left side of her head. While the two
noblemen were talking a black cat ran down the stairs and out the inn’s open
door.
When Signoret returned he and de Chambré went
upstairs to question Mme Corbeau. They were surprised to find her room empty
and her belongings gone. Somehow even though she was cornered in the inn she
had escaped from right under de Chambré’s nose.[i] Signoret
was perplexed at how de Chambré could have allowed the witch to escape and he
berated him for his failure. Since Mme Corbeau was gone, the Jesuit tried but couldn’t
find a new trail leaving the village. So he decided to stay overnight in hopes
that he might find another clue in the morning. He located a Jesuit sympathizer
in the village who allowed him to stay for the night for free while de Chambré,
discouraged by his failure to spot the witch, returned to Paris.
Chapter
2: Return of the Left Hand of God
By
the twelfth of April the Red Brotherhood had noticed that the Brothers Vitoria
Bank was under observation. They sent men to follow the watchers and learned
they were members of the Cardinal’s Red Guards. In response they shifted the
focus of their operations away from the bank. That night the Spanish Ambassador
was informed of the spying by the Red Guards. He decided that a response was
necessary. He ordered his assassin, the Left Hand of God, to personally see to the
elimination of the Captain of the Red Guards, “as a message not to interfere in
our holy business.”
Late
that night Guy received a report from his best agent. He had assigned Le
Serpent to watch the Baron Saint-Giron and the little spy reported that earlier
that evening Saint-Giron had visited the Seigneur le Renault at the latter’s
home. Renault held a grudge against Guy for the conviction and execution of his
only child on charges of poisoning. The little spy was able to overhear the
words “Curse you Guy de Bourges!” repeated several times by the two men. It
seemed likely to Le Serpent that the two nobles were forming an alliance
against his Chief.
After
he left le Renault’s house, Saint-Giron went to the Black Cross Club. He was
not a member of that club as he, like Guy, belonged to the Bishop’s Club. Le
Serpent, not being a member, was unable to enter. He remained outside. Shortly
after Saint-Giron's arrival the spy saw Brother Philippe enter the club. The little
spy was unable to observe them inside so he could not conclusively report that
the two had actually met, but the timing seemed suspicious.
The
next day was Saturday and Guy, Signoret, and de Chambré rode through the
morning fog to the Sorbonne. They bribed the porter to let them onto the
university grounds so that they could consult Master Dubert, a mathematician who
Guy hoped could provide an analysis of any pattern to the previous murder sites
so that they could predict the location of the next ritual murder and stop it. Based
on the intervals between the ritual killings they expected that the next murder
would occur Sunday night. Dubert was a slow, and painstaking scholar. Guy
thought that the sites might form a pentagram and he guessed that the next spot
was the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Livry. Dubert told Guy that he was off. He used
various arcane looking measuring instruments, wrote down figures on a separate
piece of paper, consulted the maps that Guy had provided, and pronounced that “if
this followed a pentagrammical pattern then the next point would be in the
woods near Nonneville northwest of the Abbey you have mentioned.”
Cardinal
Richelieu traveled by coach through a dense morning fog to the Louvre. Today
would be his first council meeting since his reappointment. As was often the
case, Gaston led his escort. Neither Gaston nor the other guards in the escort
were allowed in the council chambers so they waited for Richelieu in the Great
Hall of the Louvre. There Gaston was accosted by a Spanish nobleman. The nobleman
said, “Buenos dias, my name is Don Martin Santiago de Rodriguez y Alta-Marino.
You killed my father.” Then he struck Gaston in the face with his glove and
challenged him to a duel.
Enraged
at the assault, Gaston nearly struck the Spaniard in the face. He just managed
to restrain his impulse since he was both on duty and in the Great Hall of the
Louvre. Instead he said, “Monsieur your behavior surprises me, as does the fact
that you actually knew who your father was. Still, I will be more than happy to
have my seconds call on your seconds to arrange a time so that I may kill you.”
Don Martin told him that his seconds could be found at the Spanish Embassy by
asking for Don Roderigo Diego de Salamanca y Ribera. After this the Spaniard
left the Great Hall.
By early afternoon the King and his Royal
Council had finished their deliberations. They had come to a decision regarding
the Flanders Frontier. Richelieu departed the Louvre to return to his
apartments in the Place Royale. Gaston again led the escort. As the Cardinal’s
coach slowly wended its way north towards the Rue de Saint Honoré, a quarrel
flew towards the coach hitting Gaston and piercing his buffcoat.[ii]
The
wound was agonizing and Gaston swayed in the saddle but despite the burning
pain, he ordered the Cardinal’s coachman to drive at top speed for the Place
Royal and ordered his men to surround the coach rather than chasing after the
assassin. They escorted Richlieu directly to his hôtel. Once there, Gaston sent
one of his men to Guy’s apartments for Fabré who soon arrived with the antidote
that he had previously developed for the Spanish poison known as The Burning. Then he cleaned the wound
and applied a healing poultice for the puncture. Gaston recalled all the Red
Guards to duty and trebled the security around the Cardinal in case assassins
should strike again.
Afterwards
Guy, who had been informed by Fabré of Gaston’s wounding, arrived at the Cardinal’s
residence. He updated Gaston on Baron Saint-Giron’s recent meetings with M.
Renault and Brother Phillipe. In turn Gaston told Guy about his upcoming duel
with Don Martine and asked him to act as one of his seconds. Gaston sent a
letter to Father Signoret asking him to also act as his second.
That
evening Father Signoret and Guy went as Gaston’s seconds to the Spanish Embassy
to speak to Don Martine’s second, Don Roderigo. They were accompanied by the
Seigneur de Chambré. Guy had an ulterior motive in the visit which was why he
had asked de Chambré to accompany them. While Signoret and de Chambré sipped
Spanish wine and chatted with Don Roderigo, Guy excused himself for what he
said was an urgent call of nature. While he was out of the room Guy found and
broke into the Ambassador’s study. On the desk he found an enciphered message
along with a deciphered version. He quickly read and memorized the message.
This Monday night at ten PM, travel by
coach along the road from St. Cloud to the King’s hunting lodge at Versailles.
Take the second path to the right after you enter the woods outside of Saint
Cloud. Continue to the second crossing of the paths. Stop there and wait. You
will be met.
Signoret
found making small talk with the Ambassador’s aide difficult because the aide, Don
Roderigo Diego de Salamanca y Ribera, was the brother of Colonel Don Alvaro
Francisco de Salamanca y Ribera. The Colonel was known to Father Signoret and
to several of his friends. Before the Siege of Bergen op Zoom Don Alvaro’s men had
captured Signoret, Gaston, Guy, and the other members of the diplomatic mission
to the Netherlands. They had escaped captivity but had been caught inside the
town during the siege. Signoret had accompanied the envoy when he escaped the
town. Gaston and the others had several additional encounters with the
Spaniard. Don Alvaro’s men were several times defeated by men under the
leadership of Gaston and the two had fought hand-to-hand twice—once during Don
Alvaro’s assault on a redoubt that Gaston and his men were defending and once
on the stairs to the town’s fortress wall. Don Alvaro had been forced to
retreat at the redoubt. Gaston had kicked him off the redoubt wall into the
ditch. On the stair Don Alvaro had been surrounded and forced to surrender to
Gaston.
Fortunately
the exquisite manners of the Seigneur de Chambré came to Signoret’s rescue as de
Chambré engaged in a series of meaningless pleasantries with the Ambassador’s
aide. This was just as Guy had anticipated. He soon returned from his necessary
visit. Next Guy engaged in some verbal legerdemain with Don Roderigo. Delivered
in perfect Castillian Guy initiated a confusing conversation about who’s the
first second and who’s the second second. This had the effect of making Don
Roderigo forget Guy’s absence. It also ended up dragging the Seigneur de
Chambré into the mix of second seconds as a third second. Don Roderigo became
flustered as he realized he needed to find at least one additional second for
Don Martine. He excused himself.
After
a time Don Roderigo returned with the other seconds. Señor Guzman was always intended
to be one of Don Martine’s seconds. Now that there was a third second on
Gaston’s side the Spaniards brought in a minor nobleman named Alvarro Pietro de
Santos. De Santo was tall, with a weathered face scarred over the right eye and
his long graying hair pulled back in a pony tail. He spoke not at all, but he moved
with the feline grace of a master swordsman.
Now
Guzman did the talking. He spoke at some length about the righteousness of Don
Martine’s cause and how God would determine the victor. Meanwhile de Santos said
nothing. Father Signoret suspected that de Santos didn’t even speak French. Guy
was interested in Guzman. He suspected that the noble was actually the Spanish
Assassin known as the Left Hand of God who, like Guy, was a master of disguise.
But Guy knew he would recognize the eyes of the fanatic. He tried to get a good
look at Guzman’s eyes, but the Spaniard seemed aware of his efforts. Throughout
his speech Guzman kept his eyes either downcast or lifted up to heaven thus preventing
Guy from getting a direct look.
Because
of their commitments to stop the ritual murders Gaston’s seconds were not
available until the following Tuesday evening. Therefore after some discussion it
was agreed that the duel would take place on Tuesday outside the city at Mont
Parnasse at one hour after sundown. The principals and their seconds were to
equip themselves with bull’s-eye lanterns.
The
second report was from Guy’s network of spies. In the morning, Brother Philippe
left a letter on the steps in front of the Spanish Embassy. The message briefly
sat there before it was picked up. After this Brother Phillipe went to the
Temple. At noon he met Benedict LeVan the bank clerk and Spanish agent just
outside the Temple. He passed LeVan a letter. Which LeVan took to the Brothers
Vitoria Bank where he immediately went into the bank manager’s office
undoubtedly to deliver the message.
The
second report was from his network of spies. In the morning, Brother Philippe left
a letter on the steps in front of the Spanish Embassy. The message briefly sat
there before it was picked up. After this he went to the Temple. At noon he met
Benedict LeVan the bank clerk and Spanish agent just outside the Temple. He
passed LeVan a letter. Which LeVan took to the Brothers Vitoria Bank where he
immediately went into the bank manager’s office.
Before
he went to bed Guy wrote down a to-do list for himself.
1. Sunday
stop ritual sacrifice.
2. Monday
catch St Giron red handed in treason.
3. Tuesday
duel at Mont Parnasse as a second.
Yes, he thought. The next
few days certainly are going to be busy.
[i]
Mme Corbeau used Walk Unseen to avoid de Chambre’s notice.
[ii]
Crossbow bolt damage -2LB past buffcoat armor, -2LB for the poison, plus the
pain of the Burning.
