“Less than two weeks after he arrived, the towers started to crack and fall. We did not know it then, but the Saracens had mined deep under the walls, baulking the tunnels with timbers soaked in oil. Then they fired the tunnel. As the wood burned, the tunnels collapsed, pulling down the walls and towers above. I have seen it since, but at the time it was a shock, it was as if the ground under us was rejecting our claim to defend the Holy Land as the towers fell.
“And then they attacked. They came against all parts of the wall; there was nothing we could do, we did not have enough men to defend the whole area, and they managed to capture the middle tower – it was called the Accursed Tower, and it was well-named.” He fell silent, but soon continued.
“The hordes worked their way along the top of the walls, and when they managed to get to the middle they opened the gates and the rest flooded in. We had to fight in the streets, hacking and stabbing as best we could in the narrow alleys, struggling to contain them, but it was futile. If we held them off in one street, they would work behind us in another and come at us from behind. We had to give in.
“De Grandison took some Venetian galleys and the English climbed aboard. Everyone who could was leaving now, but I was delayed. I saw Edgar was hit by an arrow as I ran for the docks, and I stopped to help him. He would have died for certain otherwise, so I tried to carry him to the ships, but we were too late. With Edgar suffering so much in his pain, we couldn’t hurry, and by the time we got to the port the ships had already gone. In the end we just managed to get to the Temple, to the fortress of the Templars, before they bolted the door.
“It was madness in there. The place was filled with people. Everyone who could not get to the ships had flocked there, and it was full of women and children, the wives and children of the men who had died on the walls and in the streets. There were not enough men to protect it from the hordes, though, there were only some two hundred Knights Templar. The Muslims ran through the streets, killing all the men, catching all the women for slaves, killing any who were too old or top young. They stole everything, destroying all the churches and temples as they went. God! It was awful to hear the cries of the people as we sat inside, but what else could we do?
“The Templar in charge was Peter de Severy, God bless him! I owe him my life. He had some boats and ships at his disposal, and he sent some of the wounded away. I was one, Edgar another. I had managed to break my leg when I stumbled over stones while I helped in the defence, and I could help no longer. Edgar’s wound was bad too, so we left together. It was only a few days later that the Temple fell, and all inside were killed by the Saracens.
“Edgar and I were taken to Cyprus, where we were looked after by the Templars and nursed back to health. We were lucky – many others died. I was still young, but I had no cause to fight for and no land to keep me, and Edgar was without a knight to serve. It seemed to us that we were part of a divine plan, we had been given a new reason for existence. We were able to speak to the knights and observe their ways, and we were so grateful, and so impressed with them, that we decided to join them. I had nothing to come back to England for -I had no home, not since my brother had taken the estates – so I think it was from a feeling of loyalty and a sense of God’s will that I joined the knights. They had helped me and shown me kindness, and I wanted to repay the debt.”
“You were a Templar!” said Simon, sitting bolt upright and staring at him with horror.
“I was honoured to become a Templar,” said Baldwin calmly. “Do not believe the stories. Do not think we were blasphemers or heretics. How could we be? My companions had fought and died for the Holy Land, to win back Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Would they have done that if they were heretics? Would they have accepted death rather than renounce Christ? Have you heard of Safed? No? When the castle at Safed was taken by the Saracens, two hundred Templars were captured and offered life if they would renounce their faith. Two hundred, and all chose to die. They were killed, one at a time, in front of the others. Not one agreed to denounce his faith, not one! Can you really believe that such men were heretics?
“No. I was proud to become a Templar, to be accepted as a warrior for God. My only regret is’ – his voice dropped a little as he stared at Simon – ”that I was still alive when the Order was destroyed.“
Simon and Hugh stared at him as he spoke. Simon could remember clearly the stories about the Templars, the dreadful knights who had betrayed the whole of Christendom with their revolting crimes, and yet… It seemed that this man, for whom he had respect, revered them. How could that be, unless he was badly misled by them? Could he be guilty of the same crimes?
Baldwin continued, a little defensively now as he read the expression on Simon’s face. “We were warrior monks, you understand? We took the same vows as monks – of poverty, chastity and obedience. We were the oldest order of knights, far older than the Teutonic Knights, and older even than the Hospitallers. We were created after the First Crusade to defend the pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land, and we were in every battle from then until the fall of Acre – that’s two hundred years.”
“So why were you all-” Hugh started, sarcastically.
“Shut up, Hugh, let him finish,” Simon snapped.
“Well, maybe you will understand when I have finished,” the knight continued. “I joined the Order. I was sent back to France to learn how to fight and to be shown how best to serve the Order, and I lived there, in Paris, for several years.” He looked over at his servant as he spoke, and there was a softening in his eyes. “Edgar was with me. I had saved his life, and when I joined the Order he asked to join me there. He had no knightly training, no training in how to use a sword, but he could work with me, so he became my esquire.
“It was good to feel a part of the army of Christ, to have forsworn the earthly pleasures and to be able to live a life dedicated to the honour of God and Christ. It was all I really wanted.
“But one day – it was Wednesday the fourth of October in the year thirteen hundred and seven. I remember it so well!
– I was sent to the coast to deliver a message to a vessel sailing for Crete. I do not know what was in the message, but it was urgent, apparently. The new Grand Master,
Jacques de Molay, had asked that it be sent quickly and, because he too was English, he asked me to take it. That is why Edgar and I were out of Paris when it happened.
“On Friday the thirteenth the Temple in Paris and all other temples in France were raided by men sent by the French king. God! That date will live forever as the blackest in history – only the death of Christ himself could be more deplorable!” His eyes gleamed with an almost maniacal rage as he shouted the words, but he calmed himself with an effort and fell back, tired by the burst of energy it had taken.
“We were on our way back when we were warned about what was happening in Paris. It seemed impossible, incredible, that the Order should be arrested. But it was.” His voice was flat now, dead; as if his life had ended with the destruction of the Temple he had served for so long. He shuddered once, in a great convulsion that made him spill some of the wine in his mug, but then he smiled sadly, staring again at the flames.
“Edgar refused to let me go and find out. He insisted that I stay outside the city while he went inside to discover what was happening. We parted in a wood outside Paris, and arranged to meet again two days later. Well, we met as we had agreed, and he confirmed what we had been told. The Temple was accused of crimes so revolting that the king himself was forced to take matters into his own hands. He did so, with great enthusiasm!