The Spanish Cave by Geoffrey Household

Author:Geoffrey Household
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween

CHAPTER FIVE

FATHER JUAN slowly read the manuscript through to himself, while the others looked over his shoulder. Then he translated it aloud:

“These things having been suffered, the elders of the haven went to Count Roger of Ribadasella, he being lord of all the plain and their protector against the Moors, and begged that he would permit them to depart from the haven and leave the site of their village desolate.

“Now, the said count was a scoffer, and damned to all eternity, for he beat Brother Sebastian when he found him in the castle cellar, though the said Sebastian had been locked in by misfortune and had become inebriated solely with the smell of the liquor.”

“Hm’m!” said Father Juan. “I suspect Brother Sebastian of being the writer, so we shall hear nothing good of poor Count Roger.”

“The elders being assembled in the great hall, Count Roger called on them to produce witnesses who should testify to the evil fortune of the haven. And they answered him truly: ‘Most noble lord, there is no need of witnesses. It is commonly known among all thy people that many have died of the perils of the sea and of bestial hunger.’ Then did Roger the Count rise up in wrath and bellowed, saying: ‘Shall I abandon my coasts to the Norsemen and the Basques, and shall I give up my tithes of fish, because ye come to me with old women’s tales?’

“And he battered with his axe upon the high table so that all were afraid.

“Then up spoke one Thomas of Leon, swearing that he had seen a mermaid. On that the count pressed him closely, asking him whether she had dark or golden tresses, and many other questions that would have occurred to none save to this beastly count. And upon Thomas answering that her tresses were of gold, our lord asked him why he had not brought the said mermaid to his castle, seeing that all things found upon the foreshore belonged to him as of right.

“And he fined the said Thomas one bushel of wheat.

“Then a Moor named Omar who built the count’s galleys swore that he had seen a great fish. To him answered Count Roger that there were indeed great fishes in the sea and that none should know it better than he, Roger of Ribadasella, who had sailed to the country of the Franks and back. Whereupon he asked the Moor whether he were a Christian or no—a question that was not wont to be of interest to our lord—and upon the Moor replying that there was one God and Mahomet was his prophet, Count Roger smote him with his fist, and he was buried in his sins.

“So the witnesses, of whom there were yet many, deemed it more prudent not to say what they had seen, and the elders departed. And shortly afterwards, Count Roger being slain in battle with a black oath on his lips, they burned the village to the ground and left the coast deserted.

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