Plot summary
In 1141, the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the translation of Saint Winifred's casket to Shrewsbury Abbey on 22 June.
Brother Cadfael shares a secret with Hugh Beringar, as he recalls what happened in Wales four years ago. Cadfael removed Winifred's remains from the casket, returned them to her Welsh soil and replaced them with the body of a monk who died on their mission to seek the holy bones. [2] The saint has continued to work miracles in Wales, but not in Shrewsbury. Cadfael wants a sign that the saint is not displeased with him.
In early June, Abbot Radulfus returns from the legatine council called by Henry, Bishop of Winchester. The council ends with murder in Winchester when King Stephen's wife Queen Matilda asks the turncoat Henry to seek the King's release. Supporters of Empress Maud ambush the Queen's messenger, who is saved by the intervention of Rainald Bossard, a knight of the Empress, who is killed.
Among the pilgrims streaming into the Abbey is the widow Dame Alice Weaver with her crippled nephew Rhun and his sister, Melangell. Alice wants help for Rhun; Rhun wants a happier life for his sister. Two young men arrive with them. Ciaran is under vow to walk barefoot to Aberdaron in Wales to die in peace, hampered by a great iron cross around his neck and protected by a bishop's ring. His inseparable friend Matthew has vowed to be at Ciaran's side for the penitential journey. En route, Matthew gave aid to Rhun, and he likes Melangell. Cadfael sees a third party of pilgrims, four suspicious-looking merchants. With a tip from Brother Adam, Cadfael warns Beringar that they are thieves.
Setting a net to catch the thieves, Beringar meets Olivier de Bretagne, messenger from the Bishop's conference, whom Hugh first met when they worked together to save the Hugonin children. [3] Olivier requests that Hugh accept Empress Maud as queen; Hugh politely refuses. Olivier's second mission is to search for Bossard's adopted son, Luc Meverel, who has been missing since the murder in April.
Beringar breaks up a crooked dice game, and recovers a ring stolen from Ciaran, which is found on the hand of local man Daniel Aurifaber, who bought it from Simeon Poer. Near dawn on the day of the procession, Ciaran tells Melangell that he is leaving Shrewsbury for Wales now that his "safe-passage" ring is returned to him. She promises to keep his secrets.
After St. Winifred's reliquary is set on her altar, pilgrims line up to make their requests of the saint. Prior Robert presides. As Rhun approaches, he drops his crutches; as he puts his foot to the ground and climbs to the altar, the congregation sees his leg become stronger and his foot untwist. He prays in complete silence; when he steps back, his foot whole and fully functional, and the church is filled with praise for the saint who has performed this miracle.
When Matthew cannot find Ciaran, Melangell tries to detain him. Matthew reacts with unusual violence, and leaves the Abbey, hot on Ciaran's trail.
Olivier and Hugh seek out Cadfael for help in finding Luc. The description of Luc applies to both Ciaran and Matthew. The Abbot learns they are both gone. Olivier leaves to search for them, on the road to Wales. Abbot Radulfus asks Cadfael if Rhun's recovery was feigned. Cadfael believes it was not. Radulfus, reassured of this miracle, speaks with Rhun, who states his wish to stay at the Abbey.
Melangell tells Cadfael that the two young men left separately, heading over the fields, not along the road. The Abbot opens a scrip left behind, finding a book with Luc Meverel's name in it. Sending word to Hugh, Cadfael goes on horseback to follow the two young men on the overland route. At the edge of twilight, he hears Ciaran and Matthew in a clearing around a great beech tree. Matthew is fighting off the three felons, who now await darkness. Cadfael, unarmed, approaches on foot, bellowing as if he is part of a large party in pursuit, and attacks Simeon Poer. His cries lead Hugh and his men to the scene, and they catch the three attackers.
In the brawl, Poer has pulled the cross off Ciaran's neck. Looking to Matthew, Ciaran says 'I am forfeit, now take me.' Cadfael agrees, understanding these men now. Matthew throws down his dagger and walks away with Olivier close behind. Ciaran, once in Bishop Henry's service, tells how he stabbed Bossard, wrongly believing that his master would condone the impulsive crime. Henry banished Ciaran, telling him to make his journey to Dublin on two conditions, with his life forfeit if he failed in either. Luc Meverel overheard these words, as he followed the attacker to the Bishop's house after Bossard died. Luc, motivated by grief turned to hate and vengeance, appoints himself enforcer of the vow.
Faced with the broken Ciaran, Luc turns away from vengeance. Hugh lets Ciaran walk away, to take up his issues with God on his own. Olivier returns with Luc/Matthew to Shrewsbury, where Luc again pays court to Melangell. He begins life anew with confession to the Abbot, and marriage to Melangell. Rhun stays at the Abbey as a prospective novice.
Olivier tells Cadfael that he and Ermina Hugonin were married this past Christmas, delighting Cadfael. Hugh arrives with the latest news from London: the Empress Maud has lost London, retreating to the southwest. The weight of the failure rests on her shoulders. The Queen's army remains in Kent. Olivier must leave Shrewsbury before he wanted.
Hugh says that Olivier resembles Cadfael in a way; the monk says, Oh, no, he is altogether the image of his mother. "I always meant to tell you, some day," he said tranquilly, "what he does not know, and never will from me. He is my son." [4]
Historical background and continuity
This novel, like the rest of the series, is set during The Anarchy, a civil war which raged through England from 1135 to 1154. During the course of the story, King Stephen, having been captured by Robert of Gloucester at the Battle of Lincoln (February 1141), is now imprisoned in Bristol by the Empress Maud. [6] The plot, which takes place in June 1141, also details the unsuccessful attempt by Maud and her brother Robert to have her crowned in London, where she took the title Lady of the English, one step before coronation. [7] She was chased out by the Londoners before she could be crowned Queen. [8] As this novel explains, Maud made herself extremely unpopular by the strictures of her government, her arrogant disposition, and her demands for money. [9] [10] [11] Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen, takes over the leadership of his armies while her husband is imprisoned, and does well in keeping up the pressure against the forces of the Empress.
The story describes a miracle, manifest before the brothers and the faithful pilgrims. This era of English religious belief included widespread belief in miracles, attributed to the power of a saint's intercession and the belief of the person benefitting from the miracle. Amidst the chaos of the royalty and the landed aristocracy, the miracle was believed, even sought, for the lives of everyday people.
The events take place in real places in England. Shrewsbury Abbey is real, and is from 180 to 200 miles on modern roads from Winchester. It is over 160 miles on modern roads from Reading. Abingdon is about 35 miles along the way to Shrewsbury in Shropshire. Rhun, Melangell and their aunt are from Campden in the Cotswolds wool district, over 80 miles from Shrewsbury. Ciaran has the ambitious plan to walk to Aberdaron in Wales, which is over 100 miles on modern roads from Shrewsbury. Bishop Henry of Winchester gathered his bishops and abbots in Winchester for the legatine council, [12] while the Empress Maud was in London and Oxford in the time of this story.
As he promised in the previous novel, Dead Man's Ransom, Hugh Beringar took Caus Castle from the Welsh of Powys, so it could no longer be used as a base for raids into Shropshire. Done in April, it was not soon enough for the nearby farms and asarts to be resettled.
The next novel in the series, An Excellent Mystery , details Maud's retreat to Winchester, where she was besieged and routed, and her legendary escape from snowbound Oxford in 1142 is mentioned at the start of a later novel, The Confession of Brother Haluin .
Besides its setting at a crucial moment of the progress of the civil war, this novel ties to events and characters in earlier novels, and sets the scene for those in later novels. The religious festival is keyed on the events of the first novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones , carrying (translating) the holy relics from Wales to the Abbey. The son Cadfael never knew he had until their encounter in The Virgin in the Ice returns to him by the chances of the political events. The neutrality of this monk in the political scene is strengthened by the contrast between the two young men now most important in Cadfael's life—his son Olivier and Sheriff Hugh Beringar. Each is aligned for different reasons with opposite sides in this conflict. Not all clerics or monastics in that era were neutral, of course, highlighted by the actions of King Stephen's brother, Henry, Bishop of Winchester.
