World Without End Page 0,184

here he felt the opposite, and the insecurity drove him to distraction.

His consolation was Gregory Longfellow. A friend of Godwyn's from university days, Gregory had a devious mind well suited to the law. The royal court was familiar to him. Aggressive and cocksure, he had guided Godwyn through the legal maze. He had presented the priory's petition to Parliament, as he had presented many petitions before. It was not debated by Parliament, of course, but passed to the king's council, which was overseen by the chancellor. The chancellor's team of lawyers - all of them friends or acquaintances of Gregory's - might have referred the matter to the king's bench, the court that dealt with disputes in which the king had an interest; but, again as Gregory had foreseen, they had decided this was too petty to bother the king with, and had instead sent the case to the common bench, or court of common pleas.

All this had taken a full six weeks. It was late November, and the weather was getting colder. The building season was nearly over.

Today at last they stood before Sir Wilbert Wheatfield, an experienced judge who was said to be liked by the king. Sir Wilbert was the younger son of a northern baron. His elder brother had inherited the title and the estate, and Wilbert had trained as a priest, studied law, come to London and found favour at the royal court. His inclination would be to side with an earl against a monk, Gregory warned; but he would put the king's interests ahead of all else.

The judge sat on a raised bench against the east wall of the palace, between windows that looked out on to the Green Yard and the River Thames. In front of him were two clerks at a long table. There were no seats for the litigants.

"Sir, the earl of Shiring has sent armed men to blockade the quarry owned by Kingsbridge Priory," Gregory said as soon as Sir Wilbert looked at him. His voice quivered with simulated indignation. "The quarry, which is within the earldom, was granted to the priory by King Henry I some two hundred years ago. A copy of the charter has been lodged with the court."

Sir Wilbert had a pink face and white hair, and looked handsome until he spoke, when he showed rotten teeth. "I have the charter before me," he said.

Earl Roland spoke without waiting to be invited. "The monks were given the quarry so that they could build their cathedral," he said, speaking in a bored-sounding drawl.

Gregory said quickly: "But the charter does not restrict their use of it to any one purpose."

"Now they want to build a bridge," Roland said.

"To replace the bridge that collapsed at Whitsun - a bridge that itself was built, many hundreds of years ago, with timber that was a gift of the king!" Gregory spoke as if he was outraged by the earl's every word.

"They don't need permission to rebuild a pre-existing bridge," Sir Wilbert said briskly. "And the charter does say that the king wishes to encourage the building of the cathedral, but it does not say they have to relinquish their rights when the church is finished, nor that they are forbidden to use the stone for any other purpose."

Godwyn was heartened. The judge seemed to have seen the priory's side of the argument immediately.

Gregory made a spreading gesture with his hands, palms up, as if the judge had said something blindingly obvious. "And, indeed, sir, that has been the understanding of priors of Kingsbridge and earls of Shiring for three centuries."

That was not quite right, Godwyn knew. There had been disputes about the charter in the time of Prior Philip. But Sir Wilbert did not know that, nor did Earl Roland.

Roland's attitude was haughty, as if it was beneath his dignity to squabble with lawyers, but this was deceptive: he had a firm grip on the argument. "The charter does not say the priory may escape tax."

Gregory said: "Why, then, has the earl never imposed such a tax until now?"

Roland had his answer ready. "Former earls forgave the tax, as their contribution to the cathedral. It was a pious act. But no piety compels me to subsidize a bridge. Yet the monks refuse to pay."

Suddenly the argument had swung the other way. How fast it moved, Godwyn thought; not like arguments in the monks' chapter house, which could go on for hours.

Gregory said: "And the earl's