The brothers fumed and ranted for a while and the bailiff, the steward and others tried to assist the armourer in chasing after the villagers, who were melting away like frost on a sunny morning. Naturally no one would admit to having thrown down these contemptuous offerings, and as the sexton and another villein shovelled the earth back into the hole the outrage gradually subsided.
The Peverels and Richard de Revelle also left, pointedly ignoring the coroner and offering him no refreshment in the manor hall before he departed for Exeter.
John de Wolfe had one last task to perform, however, before he shook the mud of Sampford from his boots.
Beckoning the bailiff away from the family group, he look him aside just within the lych-gate.
'Walter, I spoke to you on Monday about this armourer fellow, Longus. He deliberately refused to appear before my inquest in Exeter, so I am going to attach him in the sum of two marks to attend when I resume the inquiry into the death of a silversmith just before the fair.'
Walter Hog nodded; he was an intelligent man and knew that de Wolfe had the power to make trouble when necessary.
'I do not have a date for that inquest, but I shall send a message well beforehand. I trust that you will see to it that he understands the gravity of his situation and will give him leave to travel to the city. If he repeatedly fails to obey, then he may well be outlawed and nothing your manor-lord can do will prevent that, understand?'
'I will do my best, Crowner.' The bailiff looked around to make sure that the Peverels were well out of earshot. 'There may well be resistance from my masters, sir. Robert Longus is a favourite with Sir Ralph, because of their interests in the tourney, so he may try to protect him. But I will tell him the penalties if he fails — I can do no more than that.'
John clapped Walter on the shoulder. 'You do that, and I'll impress the same upon him before I leave. But tell me, is there any other fellow who is thick with this Longus? The matter I am investigating involved two men.'
Again the bailiff looked around uneasily. John had the impression that Walter, an outsider from Somerset who had not been long in this manor, was not all that happy with his position here and would be glad to move on when the opportunity arose. 'There is his assistant in the armoury, the man who was on the church door with him. By virtue of their common tasks with the weaponry, both in the forge and in the armoury, they spend much time together.'
John looked across to the corner of the churchyard, where Longus and the big, coarse-faced fellow were still haranguing a cottager about the offensive objects in the grave.
'His name is Alexander Crues — a man of little brains, but much muscle, commented the bailiff disparagingly. 'They accompanied Lord William to every tournament and now do the same for Ralph.'
'What about Hugo Peverel?' asked de Wolfe, which caused Walter Hog to shrug before answering.
'Longus was Hugo's armourer and he depended on him greatly. They were more like master and squire, though of late they seemed to have become more distant with each other. I suspect that some animosity grew between them, and Longus seemed to cleave more to Ralph.'
John pondered this as he strode across towards the armourer, with Gwyn close behind. Thomas de Peyne had emerged from the church with Father Patrick and was looking uncertainly at his master, not wishing to get mixed up in any brawl, which seemed a possibility from the grim expression on the coroner's face as he advanced on Robert Longus.
'I want a word with you, fellow!' he snapped, looking from the man's truculent face to the rather piggish features of his clumsy-looking assistant. The armourer glared back at de Wolfe.
'If it's about my not coming to your damned inquest, then you can blame him!' he snarled, indicating the almost completed mound of earth which the sexton was hammering down with the flat of his shovel.
'What d'you mean?'
'Sir Hugo forbade me to stay behind in Exeter that day. He said he needed me at home here, to prepare for a tourney in Bristol the next week.'
Robert was a big man, but the coroner topped him by half a head and now he glared down at him. 'That's no excuse. It was you I summoned, not your master.'
'Then you try telling him that, Crowner! Though I'm a freeman, my bread and meat depend on the manor lord, so I'm not going to cross him.'
'Very convenient, especially when the man is dead and can't confirm what you say,' retorted de Wolfe, but the armourer seemed determined to argue to the bitter end.
'You heard what he said that day! He said I was with him all that Sunday and Monday and couldn't have been… been wherever you said I was, on the word of some half-crazed craftsman who was still out of his wits from a knock on the head. Sir Hugo said that as there could be no truth in the matter, there was no point my wasting his time by absenting myself at some useless inquest!'
'That's for me to judge, damn you!' snapped the irate coroner. 'So you'll appear at my court in Exeter when I send for you, within the next week or so. Understand?'
'I'll have to ask the new lord, Sir Ralph,' growled Longus reluctantly. 'If he says it's all right, then maybe I'll come, though he'll vouch for it being a wicked waste of time and travelling. And if it falls near a tourney day, then you can be sure he'll not let me go!' It was all John could do not to grab the man and shake him till his few remaining teeth rattled. Gwyn was obviously of the same opinion.
'Shall I give him a few clouts to mend his manners?' he offered.
'You will attend or it will cost you two marks on the first failure, Longus! And then I'll attach you to the county court in the sum of five marks … and if you persist in absenting yourself, you'll find yourself an outlaw, not an armourer. It's not your job you'll have lost then, but maybe your head!'
For the first time, the man had no answer and stood sullenly scowling at de Wolfe, hate radiating from him like heat from an open fire.
The coroner jabbed a finger towards Alexander Crues, who stood open mouthed and loose lipped, listening to this heated exchange.
'This fellow, he is your assistant in the armouring?' Robert jerked his head in reluctant reply.
'And was he in Exeter with you at the time of the fair and the tournament?'
'Where I go, he goes! We both attend on the lords when they are at the jousting.'
'And was he lurking near Topsham with you when you attacked and robbed that silversmith?' John had no scruples about bending the rules of legal procedure when he was not presiding in a court, but Longus failed to let slip anything incriminating.
'I was never at bloody Topsham, as well you know! Even if Sir Hugo can't speak for me, Sir Ralph will attest that I was with him all the time.'
De Wolfe prodded Alexander in the chest with a long linger. 'And I suppose you'll stick to the same story, eh?'
'I dunno what you're on about, sir,' he mumbled thickly. 'I was with Robert here all the time.' He said this with a mechanical certainty that sounded as if he had memorised it after numerous repetitions.
'Wasting our time here, Crowner,' murmured Gwyn.
John sighed his agreement. 'Right, Longus! When you are summoned to Exeter, you will bring this other fellow with you, understand? I'm attaching you both, so it will cost you a couple of marks apiece if you don't show up.'
With that, he turned on his heel and marched away, frustrated by his inability to make any impression on the two men, especially given that they were backed up by the support of Ralph Peverel. Unless he could obtain some further evidence from somewhere, even getting them to a new inquest would probably be a fruitless excercise. As they walked back to the manor stockade to get their horses for the journey home, he thought that the silversmith's death would remain as much a mystery as that of Hugo Peverel, unless someone came across with more information.