The Knowledge Stone (28 page)

Afterwards, with her brother totally cowed, weeping with pain and nursing his injuries, she would stampede around his room, destroying his most favourite possessions, warning him to tell no-one about the destruction. On this occasion, she continued to set out her intentions: ‘After I have you crying like a little baby, I’m going to take all your lovely new books and throw them out the window into the storm so that they will be ruined and destroyed forever.’

She was surprised when her brother did not move or make a sound. Instead, his eyes locked on to hers and she felt a bewildering sensation of fear coursing through her. Then her brother spoke, still the immature voice of a young boy of just ten years old but now somehow infused with a new lower tone, calm, unafraid and in control. ‘Put the knife away, Kati. Don’t be so stupid.’

Stupid? Her fury rose to choke her and she darted forward, the knife arcing down to slash across his upper leg. A piercing scream. The crack of joints twisted beyond their limit. An unbearable pain in her hand and arm. The knife quivering in the floorboards. Her brother re-seated, completely still but watching her narrowly. ‘I said, “Don’t be stupid”,’ he repeated.

Kati screamed like a banshee and lunged for the knife. His powerful sideways thrust against her body knocked her off her feet and sent her tumbling helplessly across the polished floor for several metres: ‘Are you deaf, Kati? I said, “Don’t be stupid”.’

Unhurriedly, the boy pulled the knife from the floorboards and put it in a drawer in the table. Then, striding across to his sister, he pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards the door. ‘Get out!’

‘He can’t speak to me like that!’ Her rage rekindled, Kati turned and drew back her fist to strike him as hard as she could in the face. (She would aim for his eye in the hope this would blind him.) He did not move but fixed his eyes upon hers – now she recognised a spark of anger within. The utter stillness of the scene was punctuated only by the ticking of the astrarium.

Moments passing, Kati’s world contracting; his eyes seeming to fill her whole being … A howl accompanied by flood of tears as her hand fell limply by her side.

The boy spoke just once more: ‘Get out!’ The words quiet but uttered with great force.

Without conscious movement, Kati found herself outside the door, her mind in a whirl: ‘What’s happened? How can he have changed so much?’

The progress of days cannot be stopped. The sun had risen and set the required number of times and it was now the day of the stable boy’s trial at the Court. A very early morning call had awakened the boy. He had already washed himself thoroughly and put on fresh, neat clothes. As he sat with the two jailers, sharing their food, they tried to tell him what to expect at the Court: ‘Listen, boy, you will stand in the accused enclosure which is opposite the Judge’s bench – it’s set very high in the Court – you can’t miss it. All the lawyers, notaries and court officers will be in the centre of the Court below you. One lawyer will accuse you of the crime and another lawyer will defend you. If anyone else speaks they will speak from an enclosure at the side of the Court. When all has been said, the Judge will pronounce the sentence. That is when you will learn what your punishment is to be. Do you understand all this?’

‘Yes, Sir. It is good to hear that a skilled lawyer will defend me.’

The men looked at each other and shook their heads: ‘Listen again, boy, you must understand. You have confessed to the crime – you know that, don’t you – so there is no doubt that you will be convicted, that is, found guilty. What you must do this morning is make the best possible impression on the Town Judge, so that your punishment will be made as little as possible. Here is our best advice for you. You must stand up straight. Listen carefully and, if you are asked a question, speak clearly. Say as little as possible. Look directly at the Judge but do not be bold. Try to look innocent!’

‘Yes Sir, I am innocent – but I will not say that …’ the boy added with a slight smile as the jailers threw up their hands. ‘May I now ask you a question?’

‘You may.’

‘Will Miss Kati attend the Court?’

‘Boy, we do not know but, if she does, I do not think she will be called to speak.’

‘Why not?’ The boy was puzzled. ‘She was the victim of the crime.’

‘Boy, I say again, you have confessed, the matter of evidence is not required.’

‘Will the Master be there?’

‘Yes, I believe he will be.’ The man hesitated, ‘and it is possible that some others from the Manor House may also be present. If they are, they will be in the Citizens’ Enclosure at the back of the room.’

After a short silence, the boy asked in a small voice: ‘What is likely to happen to me?’

‘You must expect punishment,’ the First Jailer answered quietly, ‘maybe prison with hard labour; perhaps whipping or time in the stocks. We do not know.’

The boy was silent, his face reflecting his terror, his eyes filled with tears. Then the rumble of the Court Jailer’s wagon was imposed upon this scene from outside.

‘Good luck, boy,’ the jailers said, averting their eyes to hide their own tears.

The stable boy felt very nervous as he looked around the Court. It was a very large room and there were already many people assembled there, sitting at tables below him, talking loudly to each other and waving pieces of paper. No-one took any notice of the boy standing in the Accused Enclosure, his guard (the Court Jailer’s assistant) standing behind him. Straight in front of him on the other side of the room was a very large panelled desk of dark wood; at present, no-one sat there.

On each side of the room, there were other enclosures with seats within them. In one of these areas, he recognised the Master, sitting with two other men who were busy writing. Behind the boy, there was a large enclosure which was rapidly filling up with ordinary townspeople, sitting on low benches. It was all very strange and frightening; he was glad the jailers had told him a little of what to expect. He looked down at the lawyers below and wondered which of them would defend him. He hoped that a good defence would be spoken.

The boy started violently as someone made a very loud noise by bringing a large wooden hammer down on the top of a table.

‘The Learned Judge enters,’ a very loud voice shouted. Everyone became quiet and rose to their feet. A small elderly man dressed in a long red robe and wearing a large complex head covering entered from a door behind the large desk. This man swept his eyes around the Court but did not even glance at the boy standing in the Accused Enclosure. When he had finished his inspection, he sat down in a large carved chair and began to read some papers. The hammer was brought down on the desk again with a deafening sound.

The loud voice shouted: ‘The Town Court meets. All may sit.’

Silence, apart from the sound of fidgeting and coughing. Finally the Judge spoke without looking up from his papers: ‘Is the boy in Court?’

‘Yes, Learned Judge.’

‘Who is accusing?’

‘I am, Learned Judge.’

A tall impressive man in a black robe rose from the centre of the Court and spoke these words.

‘Proceed.’

‘Learned Judge, it is the Master of the Manor House who brings this case.’ The Judge gave a nod of recognition towards the Master and the Master reciprocated. The lawyer continued: ‘This is a very simple case. The accused worked as a stable boy at the Manor House. The daughter of the Master had been out riding and, on her return, the horse threw her from the saddle in the stable yard. Because of this fall, her clothes were in disarray and the stable boy took the opportunity to place his hand on the lower part of her female body, touching her bare flesh. The boy has confessed to this crime and you have his confession with his mark upon it. The boy is guilty without doubt.’ The tall man sat down to complete silence.

‘Who speaks in defence?’

A very young man, also dressed in black, rose nervously to his feet: ‘I do, Learned Judge.’ The stable boy gripped the front of his enclosure tightly.

‘Proceed.’

‘Learned Judge, the defence has nothing to say.’

A gasp followed by a hubbub of noise filled the Court. The boy went white with shock, his heart pounding in his chest.

‘Quiet!’ The loud shout was accompanied by deafening hammering. Order in the court was slowly restored. When all was quiet, the Judge said: ‘I find the boy guilty of the charge. I will apply a severe punishment …’

As the Judge spoke, another voice was heard, emanating from the back of the room: ‘Learned Judge, I would ask to speak on this case.’

The Judge looked up in annoyance: ‘Who it is who speaks?’

‘I am the Head Stableman at the Manor House. The stable boy worked for me. I wish to speak about his character.’

‘What difference will that make?’ The Judge was testy. ‘The boy is guilty and I am deciding on his punishment …’ As the judge was speaking, a considerable commotion was building up in the Court.

There were many voices from the Citizens’ Enclosure shouting: ‘Let him speak! Let him speak!’

The Judge assessed the situation. He could clear the Court but that would take a considerable time and he wanted to get through his case load quickly so that he could spend the afternoon in comfortable relaxation.

‘Very well,’ he said with bad grace, ‘come forward and enter the Witness Enclosure.’

The boy was astounded when the Head Stableman came forward. ‘Why should such an important man bother about me, a mere stable boy and now a criminal?’ He looked fearfully at the Master to see whether this intervention had angered him. The Master sat impassively and the boy could not see whether he was annoyed or not.

The Head Stableman entered the Witness Enclosure and swore to be truthful in the formal words of the Court: ‘God will see that I tell the truth.’

The Judge leaned forward angrily: ‘What do you have to say? Be quick!’

‘Learned Judge, I have known this boy for many years and he was a good worker at the stables. He had developed well and I believe that, in time, he may have progressed to a more senior position at the stables. He was always polite to everyone and especially to the Master and the members of his family. I have observed this myself many times. Therefore, Learned Judge, I ask you most humbly to take into consideration his very good character when you decide upon his punishment. As you know, he has already spent many months in the Town Jail.’

As the Head Stableman spoke, the Judge’s irritation turned to anger: ‘Is this all you have to say? You are wasting my time.’

The Head Stableman paused for a second and then spoke again: ‘Learned Judge, there is one other matter I must bring to your attention. When the horse threw the Master’s daughter upon the ground, there were two stable workers present in the yard, the boy and an older stable hand. The one caught the distressed horse and calmed it while the other went to the aid of the Master’s daughter.’

The Judge interrupted loudly: ‘Yes, yes, – and that’s when the attack on the girl took place …’

‘Learned Judge, the boy said it was he who caught the horse while the man went to the aid of the Master’s daughter. The man confirmed that this was the case. There were many other witnesses there when they both said this, some of whom are here in the Court today.’ Many loud cries of agreement came from the Citizens’ Enclosure.

The Judge snorted loudly and his voice became very strident: ‘Well, then, it’s obvious; it must have been the older man who attacked …’ His voice faltered and stopped as he realised the implication of what he had just said.

Utter silence filled the Courtroom. The Head Stableman’s voice shattered this silence as he said quietly: ‘But it is the stable boy that you have before you, Learned Judge …’

These words opened wide the floodgates of human tumult. Within a split second, the Courtroom was filled with the solid, deafening noise of many outraged voices, each shouting as loudly as they could. The Judge was clearly confused, paralysed, head lowered and staring blindly at his papers as he tried to decide what to do. How could he bring this troublesome case to closure? How could he recover the situation without loss of face?

A blessed intervention came with a folded paper which was passed up to him by one of the Court Officers. He opened it and read the words: “I have no objection to lenience.” The paper was marked with the Master’s seal. The Judge looked across at the Master and the Master nodded. Much relieved, the Judge began the difficult process of restoring order. This took many minutes but gradually, order and quiet were restored to the room.

The Judge then looked around the Court with baleful eyes: ‘This is my verdict. The boy is guilty of the crime. I have his confession here. This is his punishment for the crime. At midday today, he will receive fifty lashes at the Whipping Post in the Town Square and then he will be placed in the Standing Stocks until midday tomorrow. I was going to imprison him for ten years with hard labour but now, because there are some difficulties in this case, I have decided to be lenient. I sentence him to four months in prison which he has already served. Therefore, at midday tomorrow he may be freed. This is my judgement and I record it now. Take the prisoner away and prepare the next case.’

There was an uproar of celebration in the Court. The boy was totally bewildered. As expected, he had been found guilty but his sentence meant that he would not return to prison! He knew that the whipping would be very painful and would leave him with many scars on his back. In the past, he had occasionally seen criminals whipped and his flesh crawled as he thought of it. He knew that his time in the standing stocks would be humiliating, exhausting and very painful. Sometimes criminals put in the stocks were badly ill-treated and injured by town ruffians who enjoyed inflicting pain on others who were helpless.

‘I’ll just need to be very brave,’ the boy thought. ‘I know I’ll scream and cry when I am being whipped (everyone does) and I’ll just have to hope that the townspeople do not hurt me too badly when I’m helpless in the stocks. But after these ordeals, I will be free!’ The boy felt a pulse of elation as he thought that, quickly extinguished as he remembered that his life afterwards would be the life of a convicted criminal: ‘Afterwards, I’ll need to leave here and seek my fortune elsewhere.’ The boy felt sad because he had lived the whole of his life in the town and then at the Manor House.

The Court Jailer’s assistant placed his hands and feet in manacles and said: ‘You will be taken to the centre of the town in the wagon and kept there until it is midday. Then you will be whipped and put into the stocks. I think you are a very lucky boy; all the criminals I have known who attacked defenceless girls were sent to hard labour – and most of them died there. How you got off I’ll never know.’ The assistant shook his head in puzzlement as he bundled the boy into the back of the wagon.

It was not long before the details of the stable boy’s sentence reached Kati at the Manor House. Predictably, she was absolutely furious!

‘Only a whipping and time in the stocks! No prison, no hard labour. But he deserved to be beaten much more, he deserves to be starved and worked to death.’ Kati knew that many criminals sentenced to hard labour did not survive. ‘This is monstrous! I will not allow him to be freed like this. Meanwhile, I must not miss the punishment. I must hurry.’