Doctor Who_ The Massacre Part 7

'Their war with the Spanish Low Countries is a just one and merits our aid,' de Coligny continued, ignoring the remark.

'My dear Admiral, didn't our brother-in-law, King Henri of Navarre, who stands beside you, raise an English army to aid the Sea Beggars?' the Duke of Anjou asked sarcastically. 'And wasn't it thrashed by the Spanish last month at Mons?'

It was a mercenary force, sire, privately raised because of your reluctance to see justice done.' Navarre was unperturbed. 'Their hearts were not in the fight.'

'G.o.d's right and G.o.d's might will always be with the one truth faith,' the Abbot intervened.

'We talk of unjust territorial claims by the Spanish against the Dutch.' De Coligny shook his head sadly. 'All you can see is Protestant against Catholic, a continuing religious war.'

'I hate Spaniards as much as I love tennis,' the King spluttered from the throne.

'Then, my Liege, lend our force of arms to the Dutch, to the Sea Beggars,' de Coligny cried.

'Your Majesty, the Treasury could not support a French intervention,' Tavannes protested to the Queen Mother.

'I need some fresh air,' the King said.

'My Lords, your opinions will be taken carefully into consideration.' With that Catherine, the Queen Mother, ended the audience.

Henri, Duke of Anjou, speculated on how much longer his elder brother had to live and how best he could diminish the Huguenot influence over his mother. The Abbot of Amboise now knew the lie of the land and the three devoted secretaries, Duval, Lerans and Muss, had not missed a word.

Within an hour the dog cart with Lerans was racing through the tunnels towards the cave and an impatient, anxious Doctor.

8.

The Escape Despite Lerans's a.s.surances, Steven was worried about the Doctor. If he were not pretending to be the Abbot, then where was he? He had been gone for a day and although Steven thought that it was possible for the Doctor to be still with Preslin he didn't think it probable. He decided that there was only one solution to go to Preslin's home and find out for himself. But when he tried to leave the Admiral's house he was politely restrained and told that he required the signed permission of either Lerans or Muss.

Angrily he demanded to see one or the other but was told that Muss was with the Admiral and could not be disturbed and Lerans had gone to the King of Navarre's residence.

As he stormed back to his room he met Anne in a corridor beside the pantry. He drew her to one side and discreetly asked if she knew a way out of the house without being observed.

'I haven't been here long enough to know anything like that, sir,' she replied.

'Isn't there some way through the kitchens?' Steven persisted.

Anne thought for a moment before replying. 'Not really, sir,' she said, 'unless you talk about putting out the rubbish.'

'How do you do that?' Steven asked.

'By the tunnel from the scullery. It leads to the other side of the wall but it's ever so scary,' she replied.

Steven smiled. 'Will you show it to me?' he asked.

Being mid-afternoon, the kitchens were deserted while everyone took a siesta so Steven and Anne reached the scullery without being seen. She pointed to a small door in the wall.

'That's it, through there,' she said.

'Thank you, Anne, and not a word to anyone.' Steven smiled and put his forefinger to his lips.

'Make sure you leave the outside door open because you can't get back if you don't,' Anne advised as she lit a taper and handed it to Steven.

'Bye bye,' he said and touched her cheek with his hand.

'Where are you going?' she asked suddenly.

'Montparna.s.se, to find a friend,' Steven replied.

Anne let out a little squeal. 'Oh, my aunt and my brother live near there. Take me with you, sir.'

'How can I, Anne, when you're here for safekeeping?'

Steven asked.

Anne looked at Steven for a moment before replying.

'I'll tell them where you've gone,' she said.

Steven was astounded. 'There's a name for people who do that, young lady.'

Anne smiled. 'Yes, I know,' she admitted.

'It'll be dangerous,' Steven reminded her.

'I'll be safe with you,' she replied beguilingly.

Steven sighed. 'This is against my better judgement but come along if you must,' he said and opened the door to the tunnel which was about thirty metres long.

'They say there are lots of these but much bigger under Paris,' Anne announced as they bent down to make their way along it. Halfway along a tunnel led off to the right.

'Where does that one go?' Steven asked as they pa.s.sed it.

'I don't know and I don't want to,' Anne's reply was a frightened whisper which made Steven chuckle. They came to the door at the far end which opened inwards. He extinguished the taper before peering outside. It was a small three-sided enclosure, like a stable with a wicker gate closing off the fourth side. He stepped out and Anne followed him, shutting the door behind them. Steven opened the wicker gate and looked up and down the street at the back of the house. There were no sentinels in sight and they hurried away in search of a carriage to take them to Montparna.s.se.

As the Doctor changed into his Abbot's habit, Lerans explained the plan to him.

'You'll be taken to the entrance in Notre Dame,' he began.

'There's one in the Cathedral?' The Doctor was surprised.

'We have ways in almost everywhere. The Catholics sealed them and then forgot about them. We remembered them and opened them. You entered the Cardinal's palace through the scullery yesterday,' Lerans reminded him.

'True, but why am I not going back there?' the Doctor asked as he finished dressing and Lerans produced a transcript of the royal audience which he gave to the Doctor to read.

'That's where we start undermining them,' he said, tapping the doc.u.ment with his forefinger, 'with Tavannes.

And you have two hours, Doctor, as the Abbot should he in his quarters resting and reading his Office.'

'Should be, not will be,' the Doctor remarked.

'Almost certainly will be,' Lerans replied with a smile.

A few minutes later the Doctor was on his helter-skelter ride through the dark tunnels until the driver drew in the reins and the dogs stopped.

'Up the steps over there, sir,' the driver said, handing him a lit taper. 'There's a judas-hole in the door and when you come back, I'll be waiting here.'

The Doctor went up the steps to the door and blew out the taper which he laid down on the top step. He peered through the judas-hole and saw that he was looking into a small crypt.

No one was in sight so he cautiously opened the door, went into the crypt and closed it behind him. Light filtered in and he saw that on either side of the crypt was a stone tomb, with the effigy of a reclining knight in armour on one and a woman in a flowing robe on the other.

At the end of the crypt was a wooden door with an iron grill. The Doctor pushed down the latch and pulled the door open. In front of him was a short flight of steps leading up to one aisle of the Cathedral. The Doctor put his hands in prayer in front of his face to conceal it and went up the steps into the main body of the Cathedral. He made his way swiftly to the west entrance and drew the cowl over his head as he stepped out into the suns.h.i.+ne.

With his head bowed he crossed the square and entered the Cardinal's palace, threw the cowl back off his head and then, ignoring the salutes of the palace guards, made his way to Duval's office on the second floor.

Duval was seated at his desk rereading reports of the vain attempts to find the Huguenot apothecaries when the Abbot's presence was announced. He stood up quickly and respectfully as the Doctor swept into the room.

'I wish a word with Marshall Tavannes,' the Doctor announced, 'so escort me to his residence.'

'I'll summon a carriage, my Lord,' Duval replied.

'No, we'll walk, my son,' the Doctor replied. 'A prelate should be as one with his flock.'

'Yes, my Lord,' Duval agreed, although the last thing he wanted to do was walk through the crowded streets on a sweltering afternoon. But the people stood aside to permit them free pa.s.sage and the Doctor acknowledged their politeness with little gestures of one hand.

'Watchfulness is the mark of a good shepherd,' he observed as they made their way towards Tavannes's home, ''lest some predator fall upon his charges and devour them.'

'I agree, my Lord, we must always be on the alert for an enemy in our midst,' Duval replied with conviction.

'Quite so, quite so,' the Doctor murmured as they entered the Marshall's house. They were received in Tavannes's study.

'If unprepared for it, my Lord, I am honoured by your visit,' said Tavannes, a portly man with a flowing moustache who was in his mid-sixties.

'I do not procrastinate, Marshall.' The Doctor was curt.

'Catholic must not fight Catholic. So I agree with your hypothesis. France cannot afford a war with Spain.'

'That's the truth, my Lord, and the Queen Mother knows it.' Tavannes raised his arms in emphasis. 'Also she fears Spain's force of arms.'

'Yet both Catherine and her son favour de Coligny,' the Doctor reminded him.

Tavannes stroked his moustache and smiled. 'The King perhaps, but the Queen Mother has been wooed away.'

'That was not evident today, Marshall,' the Doctor snapped.

'It suits our purposes for the Admiral to believe he still has her high esteem,' Tavannes replied, 'hut let me a.s.sure you, my Lord, that the Court will soon be rid of the Huguenot's influence.'

The Doctor raised a protesting hand. 'I serve only the faith, Marshall, and I repeat, Catholic must not fight Catholic,' he said. 'The politics of France are no concern of mine.'

Looking at his face, Duval, who relished the thought of Lerans's and Muss's humiliation, was convinced that the Abbot could out-politic the Devil, if need be.

As they walked back towards the Cardinal's palace, the Doctor announced his intention of going to the Cathedral to meditate and instructed Duval to return to his office.

'I shall transcribe your conversation with Marshall Tavannes at once, my Lord,' Duval said.

The Doctor looked suitably horrified, 'No, no, my son', he replied, 'we spoke informally as man to man. What was said will remain a secret between the three of us.'

'Of course, my Lord, you may rely on my discretion.'

Duval bowed his head in respect and left.

The Doctor entered the Cathedral and, as he walked along the aisle, was about to push the cowl off his head when he saw the Abbot of Amboise walking in the opposite direction along the nave.

Hastily, the Doctor dropped to his knees and bowed his head as if in prayer whilst thinking that with 'should be's'

and 'will be's' the sooner he and Steven were quit of Paris the better.

9.

A Change of Clothes Steven and Anne found Preslin's shop without much difficulty and walked along the narrow lane to the back as the Doctor had done on the previous day. Steven knocked several times at the door but there was no reply.

'Three of them's in there hiding somewhere,' the rosy-checked, stout woman announced from the next door window. 'Unless they crept out in the middle of the night.'

She added that not much missed her eyes, either on the street or behind it.

'Hiding?' Steven exclaimed.