Temple Sword

Chapter 67 Black Friday

1307th day of All Hallows' Month (October), 10

Kingdom of France

—

France at night is lit with hundreds of torches.The soldiers marched with unstoppable momentum, the army surging like a sea of ​​​​fire, approaching the Templars in silence, this scene made the hair stand on the spine of those who were not afraid of the iron king's wrath.

In the poorly furnished tower room, there were only a few candles flickering.The autumn wind whizzed through the Gothic arched windows, the forehead of the young man sitting at the table was still covered with beads of sweat, and he was writing a letter dictated by the Grand Master.

"Take it easy," said Jacques de Molay encouragingly, "don't let the ink stain the words."

"Sorry, Grand Master!" the boy apologized, although he held the quill very hard to keep his hands from shaking, but what he wrote was not flawless engraved letters, but clumsy cat claw marks.

"Try to relax, kid," said the Grand Master, looking out the window. "They'll be here soon."

"I'm done." The boy typed the last punctuation mark. "Now it is only necessary to seal the letter."

He took a candle, melted red sealing wax with it, and dripped some onto the letter with the warning and plea for help.Jacques de Molay, No. 20 and Third Grand Master of the Knights Templar, pressed his signet ring to the soft wax, and glanced at the writing.

"Very well," he nodded, though the boy knew the Grand Master could not read. "It doesn't matter if you're shaking a bit, what's important is what's written on the letter."

A shiver ran down the boy's spine.

The moment has come, he thought.

"Now take this letter and ride east, Andrea!" said the Grand Master, "before you give it to Dean Gaillard and see him read it, or have it read to him Don't rest until the contents of the letter are written."

"How can I get out of the crowd of flames?" the boy asked in horror.The bearded man replied that he walked to the north wall and pressed down two square stones with his fist, and a secret door would appear in front of him.Behind the door there will be a narrow stone staircase leading underground.

"Go down these steps, my boy!" commanded the Grand Master, "and remember, whatever fork you find below, you must take the middle one! If you do this, you will reach the river On the other side, my best horse is there waiting for you, saddled."

"I'm afraid, my lord!" The little one hugged the old knight as if hugging his own father. "You come with me too! We can all escape, I'm sure!"

The man smiled bitterly and stroked the child's head soothingly.

"I cannot go, Andrey," he said firmly, "I must stay here, and the Grand Master must face his fate."

At this time, someone knocked anxiously on the door of the tower.

"They are no more than a stone's throw away, my lord!" A voice came from outside the door. "We must be ready!"

"Don't attack them!" The Grand Master responded, "Be patient, I'll be right there!"

"Be patient, my lord?" the voice outside the door was about to speak, but another voice quickly stopped him before he could say anything rash.

"You have to go, Andre." The man looked into the boy's tearful eyes. "Take off your robe, you won't get very far in this."

The little guy obediently took off his temple robe, under which was a chain mail, and a belt.

"Smart." The grand master pointed to the chain mail, then walked to a box, and took out a helmet with a nose guard and a one-handed sword. "This is what I prepared for you when you were knighted. I wanted to give them to you six years later, but fate dictates that you need them now."

He put the helmet on the boy's head, fastened his sword to his belt, and drew his own, muttering Latin, and touched the boy's shoulders and the top of his head with the blade.

"From this day on, you are a knight, André Grenouille de Avignon," he said in the most dignified voice possible at this critical moment. "Never forget who you learned the most from!"

The boy who was hastily knighted was so surprised that he could barely speak.

"My master……"

"Stop it!" The grand master drew a sign of the cross on his forehead. "Take the letter and go, we don't have time to say goodbye."

Andre nodded firmly, and disappeared into the secret passage with the torch in his hand and the new courage in his heart.Jacques de Molay closed the passage behind him, the secret passage hitherto known only to himself, and he strode towards the door with a terrible feeling that he would never see the boy again.

—

The door of the monastery was knocked a third time, and the Grand Master stepped out into the courtyard.Some had led their horses and were ready to mount them, others held their swords and maces and lances tightly in their hands, but the old knight waved them to lay down their weapons.

"We're not at war," he said, hoping they wouldn't do anything stupid. "We can't make it worse."

"But, Grand Master!" Master Hugh de Perrault walked up to him, "We can't just do nothing and let them catch us obediently!"

"Of course we can," the grand master's eyes sparkled, "they still have no evidence against us. If we attack them now, we will only bring more trouble to ourselves."

"Open the door!" The door was knocked for the fourth time. "Open the door immediately!"

After all the Templars put away their weapons and led their horses back, the Grand Master stepped forward to open the gate in person.

Outside the monastery walls, in the smoke of torches, hundreds of soldiers with halberds were waiting for them, and the Grand Master recognized their leader at once.

"What do you want from us at this late hour?" asked Jacques de Molay. "What event is so important that we have to give up our evening prayers?"

Guillaume de Nogaret, the leader of the soldiers, grinned at the Grand Master on horseback, unfolded the letter in his hand, and pointed.

"Do you recognize this seal, de Molay?" he asked irreverently, although the Grand Master could not see the content of the letter from a distance, he still knew whose seal it was.

"I know it," he nodded sullenly. "I've seen it countless times. Tell me, Nogaret, what do you want from the Knight of Christ?"

"I have the king's order in my hand," cried Nogaret, "and I have received a definite order to arrest immediately the members of the Knights Templar, who will be judged by the Roman Church, shamed by the king, and put Put in prison, awaiting further orders, if anyone wants to arrest by force..."

"You don't need to continue talking!" The Grand Master raised his hand, "We will not attack you, because we are fearless. All the accusations against us are wrong, and we will prove our innocence."

"We'll see, de Molay," said the Keeper of the Seal, through gritted teeth, who hated the Templars even more than the Iron King himself.He thinks they're big-headed pompous bastards who've lost their Holy Land and deserve to be burned at the stake, all of them.It was a privilege for him to arrest the Grand Master and his entourage.

"We didn't resist, did we?" The grand master turned to look at the nervously waiting knights. "We have nothing to fear because God is with us and He is watching us!"

"It's touching, de Molay," said Guillaume de Nogaret, riding through the gates, followed by his men, looking at the Templars. "Everyone now take off your belts and weapons so no one will get hurt. Now we're going to put shackles on you all, and whoever resists hides a dagger, a knife, or even a Needle, the head will fall. Anyone who hides in the monastery, I warn you now, do not try to escape our search! We will turn this monastery upside down, and anyone found will not be able to survive! Let's begin , don't make me wait until dawn!"

An hour later, Nogaret took the seal of King Philip and the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and went out in a carriage, along with all the people in the monastery.

There was one person he hadn't caught, a young knight named André Grenouille de Avignon. beside the horse.

Thinking of him, Jacques de Molay stalked toward his doom.He pursed his lips, sure that his little knight would sweep the kingdom like a whirlwind and notify at least a few monasteries in time.

However, the Grand Master's letter never reached its destination.

On that Friday night that was as dark as death, the Iron King's soldiers attacked every monastery, Templar church and manor in the land at almost the same moment, and threw thousands of French Templars into the dungeon inside.

Anyone who did not draw his sword on the night of No. 13 of the All Saints' Month, even if he was not hanged on the spot by Philip's confidants, would die after suffering a series of long and terrifying tortures.

(End of this chapter)