Richard Cowper SF Gateway Omnibus by Cowper Richard

Author:Cowper, Richard [Cowper, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2014-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

Throughout the remainder of that year the shock waves from the Southern Kingdoms reached Tallon as a series of diminished ripples. Of these the strongest by far were those generated from New Exeter. In the first week of September the Magpie loaded his van with four crates of Jane’s pots and set out for the capital. When he returned four days later he brought with him an ill-printed two-penny broadsheet. It was the first of its kind that any of them had ever seen which did not carry the official Imprimatur stamped upon it. In its place was the Earl Robert’s coat of arms and below it in bold black type the stirring injunction: Tell The Truth And Fear No Man .

The main story, which occupied two of the four columns of print, purported to be an eye-witness account of the trial by common jury of the arch-traitor Simon, Bishop of Leicester, on the charge that he did in his own mischievous person plot and plan the treacherous subversion and overthrow of the Civil Government of Our Most Noble Lord and Ruler, Earl Robert the Blessed, Defender of the Faith, Prince of the First Kingdom.

The Chief Witness for the Prosecution was that erstwhile Lord Marshal of the Secular Arm, Richard of Hawkridge, who now as General in Chief commanded the Earl’s forces throughout the Kingdom. He described to the court how he had received sealed and secret instructions from the Bishop who, as Acting Head of the Secular Arm during Cardinal Constant’s absence abroad, was his immediate Superior in Office. These instructions (produced as Documents in Evidence before the court) contained a detailed plan by which the forces of the Secular Arm were to usurp the authority of the Civil Guard throughout the Kingdom and, most iniquitously, to incarcerate the Noble Earl Robert together with all the members of his family.

Horror-stricken by the evidence of such diabolical treachery the honorable Lord Marshal had galloped straightway to the castle where he had laid all before the Earl. Having sworn a solemn and binding oath of undying liege loyalty he had then contrived to engineer the brilliant counter-stroke whereby the authority of the Secular Arm was privily transferred to the Civil Power where, with Divine Approval, it was rested.

The Accused, who had sustained certain complex fractures of the lower limbs during his pretrial Examination, was graciously permitted to give evidence in his own defense from a seated position. His replies were uttered in a low voice and were rendered somewhat indistinct by the fact that most of his teeth were missing. He admitted the truth of all the charges brought against him, acknowledged his own signature upon the Documents Offered in Evidence and also upon the detailed Confession which was read out to the court and then formally presented as part of a Deposition in Plea for Clemency.

The Judge summed up damningly and the jury conferred briefly in situ before pronouncing a unanimous verdict of Guilty Upon All Charges.

Before passing sentence the

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