‘Kill them all. God will know his own’ – extract from my Robin Hood novel
I’ve just published the eBook and paperback versions of my new novel: Robin Hood and the Heretic Prince. I am in negotiations for the audio book and that may take a while. In the meantime, here is an extract from the last part of the book. The scene is the Castle of Béziers, in the Languedoc, at the start of the Albigensian Crusade, and the fanatical Christian crusaders, under the command of papal legate Arnaud-Amalric and Simon de Montfort, have just broken through the castle defences.
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We lingered a moment in the arch of the doorway, looking out a scene of utter chaos.
There were terrified townsmen and women running all over the courtyard, screaming and calling to their friends, and ribaldi, too – young rascally camps servants – in amongst them, laughing with unholy glee and slashing with swords and knives at passing citizens of Béziers. There were scores of enemy men-at-arms out there too, ruthlessly cutting down the unarmed people of the town. It seemed that the invaders were simply killing anyone and everyone they encountered, slaying unarmed men, women begging for mercy, and terrified children. No quarter would be given, the French knight had said. No mercy at all.
I saw a ribaldi lad of sixteen or so, hammer an axe into the skull of a cowering man, a skinny fellow old enough to be his father. I could see scores of bodies already littering the cobbles, and puddles of fresh blood, and a wounded woman, half-naked, breasts exposed, crying out piteously for help. I could not believe how fast this had happened. Half an hour earlier, I’d been leaning on the parapet watching the enemy set up their camp. Now they were inside our high walls and running riot.
I saw a crowd of townspeople over by the open doors of the cathedral-church of St-Nazaire, mostly women and children, and one of them I spotted was Alazais, and her timid maid beside her, shaking with fear. Tronc’s sister was briskly ushering the panicked townsfolk into the dark interior of the church, bidding them to hurry into this place of sanctuary, and it was in my mind to go to her and help get the people inside. But there were scores of enemy troops between us now, roaming all over the courtyard, men-at-arms, knights too, as well as hundreds of the lightly armed ribaldi.
Some of these lads were already inside the bishop’s palace, filled with a lust for episcopal loot, and I saw that red and orange flames were already licking up the side of the tall wooden building, too. Skeins of grey smoke, drifted across the the courtyard. One tubby boy, his round face red with the heat and excitement, came stumbling out of the open palace door. He had a golden cup and silver plates crooked under his left arm, and a jug of wine in his right hand.
He yelled out, “Havoc, boys, let us cry havoc!” and took a huge gulp from the jug, his fat lips already stained a liverish hue. I looked over and saw that the doors of the cathedral were now shut tight and all the people were inside its precincts. They will be safe in there, I thought, safe in the House of God. Safe from these holy zealots who would slaughter folk in the name of Jesus Christ.
Little John was tugging hard at my mailed sleeve. “We must go, Alan – come on! Now. There is nothing useful to be done here. We must get to Robin at the St-Joan’s Gate.”
At that very moment, there was a clattering on the cobbles and a group of a dozen mailed horsemen cantered into the courtyard by the entrance between the bishop’s palace and the viscomital residence, and I recognised by his shock of white hair Simon, lord of Montfort, and beside him, on a magnificent chestnut destrier was Arnaud-Amalric, the papal legate, Abbot of Cîteaux, in gorgeous red and gold robes, his face pink with righteous anger. And this emissary of the Pope, this Man of God, was brandishing a long, vicious-looking spiked mace in his right hand.
For a moment, I was taken aback. How had the leader of the Army of God got here so fast? Then I remembered Guy de Montmorency’s words in the cathedral that morning – that the papal legate had been hearing Montfort’s confession in their encampment across the river. There were armed foot guards all around the abbot – I recognised the device on livery of his men-at-arms from the fighting in London: a white cross in the centre of a scarlet bleeding heart, on a black field. I even thought I recognised one of his men – a veteran brute with a white scar across his big nose.
Little John and Gammo were physically pulling me away from the doorway by now, shoving me bodily towards the north part of the courtyard where there was a second exit. But I was spellbound by the sight of the fat papal legate high on his horse in all his martial splendour. A man of God, who thought himself equally a man of war. This is your doing, I thought. All your doing.
A squad of crucesignati, over by the cathedral, was hacking at the wooden door with axes. A man-at-arms ran up to Arnaud-Amalric’s horse, shouting: “They’re all in there, Your Excellency. All the heretics. Cowering like rats in God’s House. Shall we fetch them all out? Or leave them be?”
“Burn it to the ground!” thundered the papal legate, brandishing his mace. “Burn it all, every church, every workshop, every house, down to the meanest hovel. Start with the defiled church over yonder. We will cleanse the foul sin of heresy from this benighted place with a righteous and holy fire!”
“With the greatest respect, Your Excellency,” said Simon de Montfort, “there may also be Christians in there. How can we tell which of them is a heretic, and which is a good Catholic?”
Arnaud-Amalric turned to look at Montfort. I shall never forget his chilling words.
“Kill them all,” the papal legate said. “Kill every last one. God will know his own.”
Robin Hood and the Heretic Prince is available as an eBook and paperback from Amazon.
In other news . . .
I shall be reissuing Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones, an earlier book in the Outlaw Chronicles. I have a new cover, and I am going through it now, editing out a lot of typos. More on that soon!
The Heretic Prince has just arrived through my door. Very excited to get stuck in with this new book.
I really hope you enjoy it, Sam!