A Plague on Both Your Houses Read Free Page A

thoughts constantly
    straying back to Sir John.
    Bartholomew looked at Wilson in his finery seated
    in the huge wooden chair at the head of the high table in Michaelhouse’s hall, and suddenly felt a surge of
    anger against Sir John. He had done so much to bring long-standing disputes between the University and the town to a halt, and, as a brilliant lawyer and stimulating teacher, had attracted many of the best students to
    the College. His lifelong ambition had been to write
    a book explaining the complexities of English law for
    students, a book that still lay unfinished in his rooms.
    Everything had been going so well for Sir John and
    for the College under his care, so why had he killed
    himself?
    Bartholomew, Father Aelfrith, and Robert Swynford
    had dined with Sir John the night before his death, and he had been in fine spirits then, full of enthusiasm for starting a new section of his book, and looking forward to a sermon he had been invited to give at the University Church. Bartholomew and the others had left Sir John
    around eight o’clock. Cynric had seen Sir John leave the College a short time later, the last to see him alive. The following morning, Sir John’s body had been found in
    the water-wheel.
    As a practising physician and the College’s Master
    of Medicine, Bartholomew had been summoned to the
    river bank, where the white-faced miller stood as far away as he could from the corpse. Bartholomew shuddered
    as he thought about Sir John’s body that morning. He
    tried to concentrate on Father William’s rapid Latin in the ceremony that would install Thomas Wilson as the
    new Master of Michaelhouse.
    Finally, Father William nodded to Cynric, who began
    to ring the bell to proclaim that the College ceremony was over. Noisily, the students began to clatter out of the hall, followed rather more sedately by the Fellows and commoners, all moving towards St Michael’s Church,
    where the College would ask God’s blessing on Wilson’s appointment. Bartholomew paused to offer his arm to
    Augustus of Ely, one of the commoners, who had taught
    law at the University for almost forty years before old age made his mind begin to ramble, and he had been
    given permission by Sir John to spend the rest of his days housed and fed by the College. Michaelhouse had ten
    commoners. Six were old men, like Augustus, who had
    given a lifetime’s service to the University; the others were visiting scholars who were using Michaelhouse’s
    facilities for brief periods of study.
    Augustus turned his milky blue eyeson Bartholomew
    and gave him a toothless grin as he was gently escorted out of the dim hall into the bright August sunshine.
    ‘This is a sad day for the College,’ he crowed to
    Bartholomew, drawing irritable looks from some of the
    other scholars.
    ‘Hush, Augustus,’ said Bartholomew, patting the
    veined old hand. ‘What is done is done, and we must
    look to the future.’
    ‘But such sin should not go unpunished,’ the old
    man continued. ‘Oh, no. It should not be forgotten.’
    Bartholomew nodded patiently. Augustus’s mind
    had become even more muddled after the death of
    Sir John. ‘It will not be forgotten,’ he said reassuringly.
    ‘Everything will be well.’
    ‘Fool!’ Augustus wrenched his arm away from
    Bartholomew, who stared at him in surprise. ‘Evil is
    afoot, and it will spread and corrupt us all, especially those who are unaware.’ He took a step backwards, and
    tried to straighten his crooked limbs. ‘Such sin must not go unpunished,’ he repeated firmly. ‘Sir John was going to see to that.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ asked Bartholomew, bewildered.
    ‘Sir
    John had begun to guess,’ said Augustus, his
    faded blue eyes boring into Bartholomew. ‘And see what happened.’
    ‘The man is senile.’ Robert Swynford’s booming
    voice close behind him made Bartholomew jump.
    Augustus began to sway back and forth, chanting a
    hymn under his breath. ‘See? He does not know