Is it not so?”
“Some compounds of pepper and sulfur and saltpeter, according to Paracelsus, are said to render a man incapable of drunkenness.”
“If wine hath no power to make a man drunk, perhaps it will have no worse effect upon the same man’s gout.” Tristram looked down at his swollen hands and feet. He shook his head, the great gray mustachios wagging like a pair of hound’s tails. “My physician says that I have drunk enough wine in my lifetime already.”
“I fear I agree with him, Uncle.”
“Oh, damn you both. I have sworn before the Blessed Virgin never to lose my head to strong drink again. But I have not forsworn all habit of honor, you. I will drink a salute to my king.”
“Even if it kills thee?”
“I have not forsworn honor, I say. Besides, lad, it will not kill me.”
Although there was neither love in me for the king nor respect for whatever honors were due that murderer, I understand what honor is. Tristram and I had many differences as men, but he had been a kindly and amusing fixture during my youth. I had no doubt that his physician refused to concoct Paracelsus’s tincture because he believed Tristram’s heart looked more to love of drink than to honor.
“My dear old Uncle,” I said. “Even with such a potion in your belly, you could not withstand a night of drinking with the king and his men. If it did not kill you, it would surely lay you very low.”
“Ah.” Tristram waggled his index finger at me. “That is not what I intend. The king rides out tomorrow, do you know? He has a hundred men digging out the highway even now. There will be no feasting nor rouse with wine this evening. Christian will want his men to be clear-headed come daybreak. No, I need only be fortified such that I might bring a bottle of Rhenish to the king’s chamber tonight and drink a single goblet with him, as a man with his lord, in honorable fashion. Can you do me this? What can be the harm?”
An image came to me of Tristram alone with the king, both of them drinking from a bottle Tristram supplied. I saw the bottle, saw into it and imagined the contents and what could be dissolved into the blood red liquid. I saw Tristram drink a single cup, savoring each drop while the king poured cup after cup down his own gullet, laughing at his prowess and fortitude. This image was clear and strong and true as if it happened before me while I sat in the library, as if it had already happened and I merely recalled to mind an event I knew in detail.
“Uncle,” I said. “Fetch me up a bottle of your best Rhenish, and before nightfall I will infuse it with a compound that will render it safe for my gout-ridden old friend to drink. But only one glass, Tristram. Do you hear me?”
“Aye, lad. One glass.”
“One, Uncle. More than that and the ill effects of the wine will be doubled, or worse. You won’t rise from your bed for a week. Do you promise, Tristram?”
“Upon my soul, lad. A single cup.”
“Let his Majesty the king take all he likes.”
“It’ll be a fine bottle. Christian will drink it all down and bless me.”
“Excellent, Uncle.”
“Need I send to town, to the apothecary mayhap, for aught you will require?”
“Nay, Uncle. I can make do. Just bring me the wine an hour before you visit the king.”
{ Chapter Nine }
IN THE ECHO OF HIS THUNDER
THE KING’S GENERALS ASSEMBLED ON HORSEBACK IN the courtyard the next morning. The sky was cloudless and hard, the blue of agate, and Christmas was but a week away. I stood next to the prince with his groom and horse, shivering under my cloak. Prince Christian looked fine in his armor, very like a hero of old. I thought it almost a pity that at any moment the king would be discovered dead in his chamber, and the prince’s valiant sally against Jaaperson would not happen.
“You look indeed the warrior this day, my lord.”
“Thank you, Soren. Where is my father? His squire left to seek him a quarter hour ago.”
“It is curious, my lord. The army has never waited for the king; he has always been the first man ready to do battle. I hope no misfortune has befallen him.”
“Tush, my friend. Such talk brings ill luck. Ah, here comes my father even now.”
And it was true.