The King's High Justice

Part The Fifth: The Next day and Beyond

Once again, Raul and the jailer descended the stone steps in the prison. They heard the echo of the noon cannon early on and smiled knowingly to each other. Once again, the jailer's keys unlocked the door, and the two men stepped inside the cell to confront its current occupant, Lord Grimsley.

"Well, my lord," said Raul, with mock servility, "I'm afraid it'll be crucifixion for you."

"A nobleman cannot be crucified, you fool!" spat Grimsley. "That is a punishment reserved for commoners." And he sneered when he spoke that last word as if it were a curse.

"I suppose the report from the noon cannon's firing wouldn't be heard this far below ground," began the jailer, "but since it is officially now afternoon, you might be interested to learn, Grimsley, that a proclamation is being read at this very moment. The king is decreeing that your estates are forfeit, and your title revoked. Congratulations, my lord," he said while grandly bowing with mock reverence, "you are now a commoner." And he laughed. "So we have come to humbly advise you that you must now take leave of your apartments here and relocate to accommodations more suited to your present status. In other words, the common holding area."

"Yes," added Raul in a sickly-sweet voice. "I certainly hope it's to your liking. I am sure you will be to the liking of the inhabitants there, who will surely enjoy partaking of a tender morsel such as yourself," and Raul's voice changed to a barely controlled rage as he continued, "an effete, conniving scoundrel who never did a day's labor in his entire life. A blackguard who was only too willing to send an innocent and fair lady to her grave in order to satisfy his lust for property. Yes, we discovered your scheme to appropriate Lady Constance's estates after her demise." Then he calmed down. "Well, a couple of days mixing it with those chaps and you'll be ready for the riggers to hoist you up and nail you in place. Or so you'll think. Do have fun, now." And the two men opened the cell door. Guards who had been waiting outside entered and took Grimsley out, who was screaming and clawing at the walls and the door frame as he was dragged away.

"You didn't even tell him of your own good fortune," the jailer told Raul.

"It would only have gotten him more upsot," observed the former executioner. "Do you suppose if Grimsley's polite the first bugger will allow him to spit on it beforehand?" And they both laughed at the thought.

Even though her part in the matter had been involuntary, June was sentenced to a hundred lashes on the whipping horse. It was thought that God had the option of providing grace for her to endure the punishment if He chose to show mercy. If she lived through it, she would spend the remainder of her days as Lady Constance's servant. The fact was, nobody had ever before survived even fifty stripes, so it was more or less a given that June had received a death sentence. On the morning of her punishment, people were surprised to learn that Lady Constance herself had opted to mete out the sentence, which of course was her right, given that she was the aggrieved party in the matter. Constance had experience administering corporal punishments during the course of running her estate, so she well knew how to wield the whip.

June's bare midsection was lowered over the padded and leather covered whipping horse, and her wrists and ankles were tied. A crowd had gathered to witness the event. Lady Constance stood back and took aim with the whip and let it fly. It landed square on June's naked buttocks, and the poor woman shrieked hideously. Another strike, and the tears began to flow. An onlooker called out, "Tuppence says she'll swoon before she's 'ad a baker's dozen," but there were no takers to that wager.

By the time five strokes had been meted out, Constance calling out each one, June knew full well that she would never even reach fifty. She only hoped and prayed that soon the point would come where she'd lose touch with her feelings and begin to drift away. And by the ninth stoke, indeed she could no longer feel the pain of the fresh lashes any more. Then the tenth stroke came, and June could feel the rush of air as it landed, but no pain from impact. "Twenty," she announced next. June was not so far gone that she couldn't help but wonder how this could be, and when Constance called the next stroke, "Thirty," June realized that the whip was striking the leather of the whipping horse instead of her tortured arse. "Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, an hundred," called Lady Constance as the strokes hit the horse.

Then, "It is finished, June," and she was released from her bonds.

She realized she had been spared. She would have her life! She fell at Constance's feet and kissed her boots as her tears of pain turned to tears of gratitude. "I could not do it, June," whispered Constance, defending her decision. "God showed me mercy when I had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. How could I not also show mercy to you?" And Constance ordered soothing salve be applied to her weals at once.

June would spend the rest of her life serving her ladyship with loving devotion.

Lord Raul and Lady Constance became husband and wife a week later in a solemn ceremony presided over by the high priest and attended by no less than the king himself. He presented the newlyweds with an ornate wooden box which had their newly created family crest carved into the top. Inside, resting in red velvet, were the very two knives that had been intended as the instruments of the execution. With the personal blessings of the sovereign made publicly manifest, the loving couple's place in the hierarchy of the kingdom was secure.

The newlyweds set about building their married life together. At first, Raul was overwhelmed with all the new responsibilities he had as a nobleman and a landlord of a large estate, but Lady Constance's gentle suggestions rooted in her own experience helped him grow into a wise and fair master while edifying him in the eyes of those who looked to him for direction. Theirs was a happy household where the ale and the wine flowed freely, and even the servants went about their tasks with a skip in their steps. They would smile to themselves as, long into the nights, faint, passionate cries of blissful harmony between a bass voice and a soprano voice could be heard, accompanied by the lusty rhythm of the creaking from the massive old bed in the master's chamber.

Not many months following, however, Lady Constance began to feel ill, especially upon awakening. She remarked about it to June, now her maidservant, who offered a slight smile. "You might be with child, m'lady," June suggested.

Constance dismissed that idea out of hand. "I was never able to provide a child for my first husband, so how could I become pregnant now?"

"But that might not have been your fault, m'lady," said June. "Sometimes, it's the man who is unable to proffer good seed to his ladyship."

And, indeed, it soon became evident that Lady Constance truly was with child, and some months later, she bore Raul the first of what would ultimately be three strapping sons, fine, worthy and honorable men, handsome like their father, who were a credit to the family name; and then, a daughter. Raul was proud of his boys, but if his sons were his pride, then surely his daughter was his joy, the apple of his eye. He was convinced that the sun itself rose and set just for her. Her beauty, grace and kindness were legendary, and there was no end of the suitors who came to call upon her. It was unheard of, but Raul saw to it that she inherited a portion of the estate equal to those of her brothers.

But all of that was ages ago, and all of those people had long since returned to dust.

Scores and scores of years hence, a young boy found a wooden box, carved with his family crest of two knives arranged in the form of an holy cross. He opened the box and found two sharp knives nestled in faded red velvet bedding, and he took the box to his father to inquire about it.

"That box, Raul, was given to your great-great-grandfather by the king, many years ago. It marked the beginning of our family's nobility. His courage helped to start the rule of law that we enjoy today. Your great-great grandmother's faith also played a large part in this. Whenever God finds great courage and great faith together, He can use that combination to make miraculous things come to pass."

"How did it happen, father?" the boy asked innocently.

The man and his son settled in for what would be a long story. "Well, son" the father began, "it started one afternoon when a man descended some stone steps into a cold, dark prison..."

(THE END)