The Elixir of Death Read Free

common public in the nave by the rood screen. Later it became known as the 'choir'.  

    REEVE  
    There were various grades, the lowest official in a village being the manor-reeve, who organised the daily routine of the workers on the land. He was elected by his fellow villeins, theoretically to protect their interests at the manor court. A sheriff (shire-reeve) was the King's representative in each county.  

    ROUNSEY  
    An ordinary saddle-horse, for general riding, smaller than a destrier or warhorse  

    STRADEGUND  
    A sixth-century Frankish queen, who founded a monastery in Poitiers. In the twelfth century there was an altar to her in Exeter cathedral.  

    SANCTUARY  
    The right of a fugitive from the law to evade arrest by hiding in a church for up to forty days. At the end of that time, he either confessed his guilt to the coroner, 'abjuring the realm' (q.v.), or was locked in and starved te death. If he emerged, he could be beheaded by anyone.  

    SENNIGHT  
    A week or 'seven nights', similar to a fortnight (fourteen nights).  

    SHINGLES  
    Wooden tiles for a roof, an alternative to thatch or stone tiles.  

    SHRIEVALTY  
    The office of sheriff.  

    SUMPTER  
    A packhorse for carrying goods.  

    TRANSMUTATION  
    The goal of alchemists for many centuries, the conversion of base metals into gold. Claims were made for all kinds of processes, usually involving mercury, sulphur, lead, silver and copper.  

    TRENCHER  
    Plates were rarely used at mealtimes, a thick slice of stale bread being placed on the scrubbed boards of a table to accommodate the food. Afterwards, especially at feasts, the used trenchers were given to the poor and the beggars who gathered at- the door.  

    UNDERCROFT  
    A semi-basement of a castle keep or manor-house, usually used for storage. For defence reasons, it was accessible only from outside. The main door to the building was on the floor above, and the wooden steps granting access could be thrown down in case of attack.  

    VULGATE  
    The Catholic Bible, translated into Latin by St Jerome in AD 405. The Church resisted an English translation until the Reformation, as losing their monopoly of interpretation by priests, would have weakened their authority over the lay public.  

CHAPTER ONE  

    November 1195  

    In which Crowner John is called to the shore  

    'He should never have been at sea this late in the season!'  
    The coroner's deep voice competed with the wind whistling past the ears of the two horsemen. They waited on the seaward end of a long ridge, high above the beach, while a third man laboured up behind them, his pony trudging wearily after the tedious journey west from Exeter.  
    'Not this far down-channel, now that we're well into the autumn,' agreed his henchman, a huge disheveled Cornishman astride a large brown mare. Gwyn of Polruan had ginger hair poking from under his shabby leather hood and a bushy moustache of the same colour hanging down on either side of his mouth. All were damp from the spray and fitful rain that half a gale was hurling at them from the west, under dark clouds that scudded across the afternoon sky.  
    'Are you sure that's Thorgils' vessel, Crowner?' asked the thin figure on the pony, as he pulled alongside them. Thomas de Peyne was the coroner's clerk, his sallow face looking as miserable as the Dartmoor pony on which he sat side-saddle like a woman.  
    'Of course I'm not sure!' snapped Sir John de Wolfe.  
    His meagre patience was worn even thinner by almost two days' riding from Devon's county town. 'But the bailiff claimed that it was - and I see no reason to doubt him.'  
    Gwyn, having been a fisherman farther down the coast before he became Sir John's bodyguard, considered himself an expert on things maritime. At least he knew more than the other two, and now he pointed with an air of authority down to the mouth of the river, where the low tide had exposed a broad expanse of sand. It lay about a quarter of a mile