第II章
訳：すいた
South of the armory of Westminster Palace lay the gardens, and here, on the third day following the King's affront to De Vac, might have been a seen a black-haired woman gowned in a violet cyclas, richly embroidered with gold about the yoke and at the bottom of the loose-pointed sleeves, which reached almost to the similar bordering on the lower hem of the garment. A richly wrought leathern girdle, studded with precious stones, and held in place by a huge carved buckle of gold, clasped the garment about her waist so that the upper portion fell outward over the girdle after the manner of a blouse. In the girdle was a long dagger of beautiful workmanship. Dainty sandals encased her feet, while a wimple of violet silk bordered in gold fringe, lay becomingly over her head and shoulders.
By her side walked a handsome boy of about three, clad, like his companion, in gay colors. His tiny surcoat of scarlet velvet was rich with embroidery, while beneath was a close-fitting tunic of white silk. His doublet was of scarlet, while his long hose of white were cross-gartered with scarlet from his tiny sandals to his knees. On the back of his brown curls sat a flat-brimmed, round-crowned hat in which a single plume of white waved and nodded bravely at each move of the proud little head.
The child's features were well molded, and his frank, bright eyes gave an expression of boyish generosity to a face which otherwise would have been too arrogant and haughty for such a mere baby. As he talked with his companion, little flashes of peremptory authority and dignity, which sat strangely upon one so tiny, caused the young woman at times to turn her head from him that he might not see the smiles which she could scarce repress.
Presently the boy took a ball from his tunic, and, pointing at a little bush near them, said, "Stand you there, Lady Maud, by yonder bush. I would play at toss."
The young woman did as she was bid, and when she had taken her place and turned to face him the boy threw the ball to her. Thus they played beneath the windows of the armory, the boy running blithely after the ball when he missed it, and laughing and shouting in happy glee when he made a particularly good catch.
In one of the windows of the armory overlooking the garden stood a grim, gray, old man, leaning upon his folded arms, his brows drawn together in a malignant scowl, the corners of his mouth set in a stern, cold line.
He looked upon the garden and the playing child, and upon the lovely young woman beneath him, but with eyes which did not see, for De Vac was working out a great problem, the greatest of all his life.
For three days, the old man had brooded over his grievance, seeking for some means to be revenged upon the King for the insult which Henry had put upon him. Many schemes had presented themselves to his shrewd and cunning mind, but so far all had been rejected as unworthy of the terrible satisfaction which his wounded pride demanded.
His fancies had, for the most part, revolved about the unsettled political conditions of Henry's reign, for from these he felt he might wrest that opportunity which could be turned to his own personal uses and to the harm, and possibly the undoing, of the King.
For years an inmate of the palace, and often a listener in the armory when the King played at sword with his friends and favorites, De Vac had heard much which passed between Henry III and his intimates that could well be turned to the King's harm by a shrewd and resourceful enemy.
With all England, he knew the utter contempt in which Henry held the terms of the Magna Charta which he so often violated along with his kingly oath to maintain it. But what all England did not know, De Vac had gleaned from scraps of conversation dropped in the armory: that Henry was even now negotiating with the leaders of foreign mercenaries, and with Louis IX of France, for a sufficient force of knights and men-at-arms to wage a relentless war upon his own barons that he might effectively put a stop to all future interference by them with the royal prerogative of the Plantagenets to misrule England.
If he could but learn the details of this plan, thought De Vac: the point of landing of the foreign troops; their numbers; the first point of attack. Ah, would it not be sweet revenge indeed to balk the King in this venture so dear to his heart !
A word to De Clare, or De Montfort would bring the barons and their retainers forty thousand strong to overwhelm the King's forces.
And he would let the King know to whom, and for what cause, he was beholden for his defeat and discomfiture. Possibly the barons would depose Henry, and place a new king upon England's throne, and then De Vac would mock the Plantagenet to his face. Sweet, kind, delectable vengeance, indeed ! And the old man licked his thin lips as though to taste the last sweet vestige of some dainty morsel.
And then Chance carried a little leather ball beneath the window where the old man stood; and as the child ran, laughing, to recover it, De Vac's eyes fell upon him, and his former plan for revenge melted as the fog before the noonday sun; and in its stead there opened to him the whole hideous plot of fearsome vengeance as clearly as it were writ upon the leaves of a great book that had been thrown wide before him. And, in so far as he could direct, he varied not one jot from the details of that vividly conceived masterpiece of hellishness during the twenty years which followed.
The little boy who so innocently played in the garden of his royal father was Prince Richard, the three-year-old son of Henry III of England. No published history mentions this little lost prince; only the secret archives of the kings of England tell the story of his strange and adventurous life. His name has been blotted from the records of men; and the revenge of De Vac has passed from the eyes of the world; though in his time it was a real and terrible thing in the hearts of the English.王のド・ヴァックに対する侮辱から３日後、ウエストミンスター宮殿の武器庫南にある庭に襟やゆったりとした袖の縁が金糸で豊かに刺繍されたスミレ色（?：a violet cyclas)の外出着をまとう一人の婦人の姿が見られた。宝石の飾り鋲と大きな金の留め金のついた革細工のガードルの上位の部分を覆うように上着を着て、ガードルには美しい細工のされた短剣。繊細なサンダルが彼女の足を包み、黄金の縁取りのされたスミレ色の絹のベールが頭と肩を覆っていた。
その婦人の傍には３歳くらいの端正な姿の少年がいて、彼女はその世話係のようだった。少年は豪華な刺繍をされた深紅のビロードの外衣の下に体にぴったりな白い絹の短衣をまとい、長めの白いズボンの膝から下は深紅で装われている。カールした褐色の髪の上には彼の動きにあわせて白い羽がゆれる、彼が王族であることを示す帽子が乗っていた。
彼の率直な明るい目は少年らしい寛容な印象を与えるものだったが、他方、幼児にありがちな我侭さをも示していた。少年が彼の世話係に話かけてると、彼のあるかないかの横柄さと人の上に立つ小さな威厳のために、彼の世話係である若い女性は少年から顔をそむけたので、少年は彼女がかろうじて押さえつけた微笑が見えなかったようだ。
程なくして、少年は彼の短衣からボールを取りだし、近くの茂みを示してこういった。「このボールを投げるよ。だから、向こうに茂みにいって受け取って、レディ・モード」
世話係の若い婦人は言いつけられたとおりにその場所に行き、少年の方を向くと、彼は彼女に向かってボールを投げた。少年が自分の受け損なったボールを楽しそうに追いかけたり、うまく受け取れた時には歓声をあげたりしながら、彼らは武器庫の窓の下で遊んでいたのである。
庭を見渡せる武器庫の窓の一つに、冷酷そうで陰気な老人が腕を組んでよりかかっていた。彼の眉は悪意に満ち、その口の端は鋼のように冷たかった。
その老人、ド・ヴァックは窓の下で遊ぶ子供と愛らしい若い婦人…こちらは目にはいってないようだった…をみて、一つの大問題、それも彼の人生でもっとも困難なそれを片付けたと思った。
というのも、彼はこの３日間、ヘンリー王の彼に対する侮辱への復讐の方法に頭を悩ませていたからである。いくつかの計画をたてたものの、これまでのものは彼の誇りを傷つけた代償としては手ぬるいものだったのだ。
彼はヘンリー王の治世を動揺させる計画に思いをめぐらせていた。というのも、このことで彼は王の害…それも破滅をして自らの喜びとする機会をもぎ取ろうと考えていたからだ。
ド・ヴァックは、この数年間、宮廷の同輩や王が友人や取り巻きとともに剣を競う時に武器庫にやってくる者から、巧妙な敵によって王の害となった王の親友たちのことを聞いていた。
彼は、ヘンリー王が保持するマグナ＝カルタの条文を維持するために、その王として誓いとともにしばしばそれ自体を破っていることが全英国で軽蔑されていることを知っていた。しかし、全英国が知っていたわけでない、ド・ヴァックが武器庫での会話の切れ端から知り得たことは以下のようなことがあった。ヘンリー王は今でも彼の直臣たちとの終わりない戦争を行うに十分な騎士や武装兵の軍をもつ、外国人傭兵団の指揮者たち、そしてフランスのルイ九世と英国を誤って統治しかねないプランタジネット朝の王の特権によって、今後、彼らによる全ての妨害を停止するための交渉を続けていた
もしこの計画の詳細を知ることができなければ、ド・ヴァックは外国軍の上陸地点、その兵力、最初の攻撃地点について考えていた。ああ、王を苦しめるこの企てのなんと甘美なことよ！
ド・クレア、あるいははド・モンフォールへの言葉は王の軍を圧倒する直臣および彼ら自身の家臣四万を率いるだろう。
そして彼は王にどのような原因によって、敗北と挫折をもたらさられたのかを知らしめるのだ。恐らく、王の直臣たちはヘンリーを退位させ、新たな王を英国の王座につけるだろう。それから、ド・ヴァックはプランタジネット朝をあざけるだろう。全く、なんと甘く、優しく、楽しい復讐であることか！ 老人はその薄い唇をあたかもそこにわずかに残る甘い味を味わうようになめた。
機会は小さな革のボールとともの老人の立つ窓の下へとやってきた。少年が笑いながらそれを拾うのをド・ヴァックが見たとき、彼の復讐の計画は真昼の太陽の前の霧のように消えた。秘められた恐るべき復讐の計画が、彼の目の前に広げられた本に書かれたように明瞭にそこに開かれたのである。そして、それは、彼が意図できる限りで、彼が２０年の間考えた大層不愉快な傑作の詳細とほとんど変わらなかったのだ。
王の庭で無邪気に遊ぶ幼い少年…それはヘンリー三世の三歳になる息子、リチャード王子であった。公の歴史はこの失われた王子についての言及はない。ただ、英国王たちの秘められた文書のみが彼の奇妙で冒険にみちた人生を語っているのだ。彼の名は人々の記憶から抹消され、ド・ヴァックの復讐は世界の耳目から覆い隠された。しかしそれは英国の中心における真実のそして恐るべき事態の一つであった。