Lost Legend of the Thryberg Hawk by Jack Holroyd

Author:Jack Holroyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: FIC000000; FICTION / General
ISBN: 9781473838567
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2014-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Carving of John Wakefield, Abbot of Roche at St Peter’s church Conisbrough.

Chapter Nine

Seven Shields of Lancaster – Die Schraube des Silbers

SCREAMING OUT LOUD was the last thing John wished to do, but to his everlasting shame he could do no other, for the pain was searing through his hindquarters as if he were stung by a thousand bees. Forty strokes, less one, had been decreed by Alvar Fleischer. Their misdemeanor? ‘Absent at Appell’. They had been charged, judged, found guilty and punished by him. ‘Province decreed by their betters’ served as no mitigation at their short hearing held in St Peter’s church. John’s protest that they had missed the calling of the roll because their presence was required at the castle was ignored.

The Fähnlein had been mustered and, in turn, they were stretched over a barrel and the two jesters, first Daub and then Wattle, had been detailed to lay about them with a broken longbow stave. Edmund had been first to suffer the painful indignity, taking the punishment without blubbering, or giving even the slightest indication of suffering discomfort. The gangling Didi Wattle had whispered to John that he would hold back his blows where he could. However, Fleischer was alert and had cracked Daub about the head with his mace upon detecting his pulling back strokes on Edmund.

Counting each blow was done aloud by the entire Fähnlein so that the maximum forty strokes, as outlined in the book of Deuteronomy, were not exceeded, thirty-nine being considered the course of wisdom, otherwise the one administering the beating could himself be punished should he inflict one stroke more than forty.

John’s howls brought an end to his suffering at twenty-three strokes exactly. Mater, along with the archer Robin Carle, intervened and an argument ensued between them and the enraged Fleischer. The matter was settled when the fearsome Hauptmann Dietz arrived and ruled against his Unteroffizier, directing him to some chore or duty away from the church. With their tormentor absent, the boys gathered round and offered many a novel and well-meaning remedy to assuage the burning agony Edmund and John were suffering. All looked upon Edmund with especial awe, he having received the full thirty-nine without so much as a whimper. A goodly number of them had suffered the same or similar punishment at the hands of the Rottmeister and had been compelled to cry out during its administering. Fleischer was feared and loathed, by all. Even his loader, his Ladenshütze, ‘Spotty’ Spence, despite his being shown special favour, dreaded and abhorred him.

Willie Daub, the small, cheeky-faced tubby one of the jester duo, could not offer to do enough for Edmund. ‘Forgive me, please forgive me, I didn’t, I tried,’ the distraught youngster stammered. Horrified at what he had done, he struggled to find some form of address. To have used the Wespen nickname ‘Grunt’ would have been unseemly. Then, to the amazement of the entire Fähnlein, the youthful jester suddenly dropped to one knee and bowed his head in subjection before Edmund.

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