‘Oh … near St Paul’s you say?’
‘Yes, I think I’ve heard his name mentioned before. Seems to be quite a fashionable sort of rogue. It was Bolingbroke – Roger Bolingbroke.’
The Duchess felt a little faint. She steadied herself by taking his arm.
‘Are you all right, my love?’
‘I’m all right, Humphrey.’
‘Are you …’
No, she thought angrily, not pregnant. And Roger arrested. What does this mean?
She was soon to find out. The whole Court was talking of it. The arrest and questioning of Roger Bolingbroke had led to his accomplice Thomas Southwell being brought in, and they had had some connection with Margery Jourdemayne the Witch of Eye who had faced charges at Windsor some years before and owing to the dark powers she possessed had somehow escaped conviction.
The interest was growing. The houses of the prisoners had been searched and there was an upsurge of interest when a halfmelted figure of the King was discovered.
‘You can be sure,’ was the comment, ‘that people in high places are concerned with this.’
It seemed possible, for why should men in the position of these two, and a poor old woman of Eye, risk their lives to replace one King with another?
Passions were rising. This was not merely the discovery of another witch. This was witchcraft with treason.
The Duke of Gloucester was very uneasy. As the next in line for the throne he felt eyes were turned to him. He was afraid to raise the subject with Eleanor for a terrible suspicion had come to him.
As for Eleanor she was in a state of great anxiety. They must not mention her. She must not be involved in this. But if they decided to put the men and Margery to the torture what would they divulge?
They were not brave men, either of them. They were clerks, minor prelates … growing rich on practising the black arts.
And Margery, she had been in trouble before. How would she stand up to questioning? She had been ready to serve her Duchess assiduously … but that was when she was being paid.
Anxious days followed and when the two men and the Witch of Eye were found guilty of practising witchcraft and of treason no one was surprised.
It was a Sunday in July, hot and sultry. Bolingbroke was to be present at St Paul’s Cross where a stage had been set up. There he was to confess to the vast crowd which had gathered that he had practised the black arts. He now fully repented of his sins and was ready to pay whatever penalty was demanded of him.
Eleanor would have liked to be there but she dared not. She knew that Humphrey felt the same. He was not with her. He avoided her and she knew why.
But she had sent one of her women to mingle with the crowd and to report back to her everything that had been said.
She shut herself into her bedchamber. She must be alone. And at the same time she must give no indication that she felt an especial anxiety.
Already she knew that suspicious eyes were turned on her. People were asking themselves who would make a wax image of the King.
There was a knock at her door. It was the woman she had sent to St Paul’s. The woman’s eyes were wide and frantic.
‘My lady,’ she cried, ‘you must fly. Roger Bolingbroke has admitted he practised black magic and treason and he says he did so on your command.’
She stood up and was at once afraid her legs would not support her. This was what she had feared. She looked about her frantically.
Where was Humphrey? But could Humphrey help her now?
Then she knew what she must do.
‘Bring me my riding habit,’ she said.
‘My lady, where are you going?’
‘Away from here … before they come for me.’
She was helped into her riding habit. Her hands were trembling.
‘My lady, you will not get far …’
‘I know … but as far as I need, please God. I am going into sanctuary at Westminster.’
It was but a temporary refuge. She had needed it while she thought of what she must do.
Humphrey did not come to her. He dared not. This was entirely her affair. If he showed his sympathy with her he would immediately stand with her, accused.
No, she had used Humphrey. She had arranged this alone; now she must pay the penalty.
For a few days she was comfortless in Westminster. Some of her attendants came to her and brought her news of what was going on. Bolingbroke, Southwell and the Witch of Eye were all in the Tower. It would go ill with them. Old Margery would not escape this time.
It was no comfort to know that a tribunal was being set up in St Stephen’s Chapel, that it was headed by the Cardinal Beaufort and Archbishop Ayscough to enquire into charges of necromancy, witchcraft, heresy and treason. A formidable list of accusations.
Eleanor lay in discomfort in the sanctuary. To think she had come to this after her spectacular rise to fortune! The serving-woman of no account to become Duchess of Gloucester ! Oh, if only she had remained content. But when were the ambitious ever content? First she had sought to displace the Duke’s wife and having done that, to displace the King.
It would have worked, she thought angrily, but for those fools Bolingbroke and Southwell. How could they be so foolish as to get arrested … and then to mention her! It was unforgivable.
She was called upon to attend St Stephen’s to answer the charges brought against her. She would stand up to them. She had always been able to defend herself.
She was brought before them. Defiantly she faced them.
Yes, she had visited the Witch of Eye. She had bought lotions from her. She might have bought a spell.
She had used this, had she, to lure the Duke of Gloucester from his wife?
Oh no. It was only after he had parted from his wife, when she, Eleanor, had become his mistress. She had wanted to make their love respectable.
‘Did the Duke know of these spells used against him?’
‘The spells, my lords, would have been useless had they been known. And they were not used against him … only to procure his greater happiness.’
‘And the waxen image?’
She would confess to the lords that she longed for a child. She had been foolish. She had thought these people could help her. That was why she had asked them to make a waxen image.
‘And to burn it slowly …’
‘My lords, I knew nothing of that.’
She might be wily but she did not deceive them. All the accused were indicted of treason. The three necromancers were sent back to the Tower, and Eleanor was placed under constraint in Leeds Castle until such time as there should be a further inquiry.
Leeds Castle in the lovely county of Kent was very beautiful, standing on two islands as it did, connected by a double drawbridge, but the beauty of her surroundings meant nothing to Eleanor. She was now awaiting a summons to appear before her judges and she was afraid.
Humphrey had not been near her. In a way she understood. He dared not. By coming to her he risked his life. He was the first suspect in this plot to murder the King; and he must show that he was entirely ignorant of it.
She was alone. She must defend herself. She wondered what they would do to her. They did not believe her when she said that the image was of a baby she longed to have.
October had come; the leaves were being torn from the trees; there was a warning of winter in the chill which came off the water that lapped the castle walls. She looked from her window across that water to the profusion of trees and the bronze carpet of leaves beneath them. She wanted to go out there and ride in the woods. She wanted to be free to go and come as she pleased.