The Star of Lancaster - Plaidy Jean - Страница 25

'It will take them away again,' she said, 'but at least it will be on a peaceful mission,*

Mary toyed with the idea of telling Catherine about the fears that came to her and how after each pregnancy she felt a little weaker. But somehow she could not bring herself to do so. Catherine looked so full of health although she was so much older and she had borne the Duke four children and her husband two with, it seemed, the utmost ease.

Mary felt ashamed of herself for being so weak. After all it was a woman's mission in life to be a mother.

So she said nothing and instead discussed the prospects of peace with France.

In due course the embassy left and by this time Mary was once more pregnant.

The terrible foreboding came to her. She felt ill as the months passed. I must tell Henry, she promised herself. There must be an end to this. We have four sons and now there is this other child.

That must be enough.

She had the feeling that she must get away from Boling-broke. Perhaps a stay in pleasant Peterborough would do her good. In any case a change of scene would be beneficial. There was excitement in moving from castle to castle. After his adventure in the bear pit Harry had lost some of his devotion to the bears. He was more interested in a falcon which he had had given to him. The children would enjoy a move.

So they travelled to Peterborough.

Strangely enough Mary's health improved. The months passed quickly and there was news from France. Everywhere the English went they were treated with honour and courtesy by the French; there were tournaments and banquets at which as usual each tried to outdo the other in splendour.

Henry excelled as always at the joust and there he met those on pilgrimages to the Holy Land. It occurred to him then that that was something he would like to undertake. The truth was that he needed adventure. ^Vhen he had joined with the Lords Appellant there had been plenty of that, but now that the King had settled down and the Queen was beside him to keep a steadying influence on him, life had changed in England; and there was not enough to keep a man like Henry occupied.

He fancied going on a pilgrimage and discussed it with his father, who thought it a good idea.

He had heard from Mary that she was once again pregnant. She seemed to be having a child almost every year which was very commendable. The more his family grew, the happier Henry was. Boys to stand beside him and support him in his quarrels, girls to make good alliances and bring more strength to his house. They were young yet. Mary was no^v t;venty-two; she had years of childbearing before her. Yes, they were going to rival Ed^vard and Philippa.

Meanwhile Mary waited in Peterborough.

She was aware of the anxious looks of Joan Waring and Mary Hervey; she knew that they whispered about her and feared the worst.

Joan was indignant. Ladies had more to do in life than bear child after child. This was for gipsies and the poor, My lord should understand this. Of course he did not know what toll these pregnancies took of the Lady Mary. When he came home there was a baby smiling—or yelling—in its cradle and his

lady wife smiling as though it had all been as easy as she could have wished it to be.

It was spring and the buds were opening and the birds were going wild with joy when Mary's pains started. A cold fear took possession of her as her women helped her to bed.

Tet me come through this,' she prayed. 'What of the children if I do not? They need their mother. Oh God, let me live and let this be the last.'

It seemed as though her prayers were answered for it was an easier birth than the others; the baby was small but perfectly formed.

A little girl.

It was a change after the four boys. She marvelled at the dainty creature and in that moment she thought it was all worthwhile. She had five wonderful children. She must not complain because she had had to pay a certain price for them. The painful birth ... the deterioration of health ... they could be forgotten while she held her baby girl in her arms.

Would Henry be pleased? She believed so. After all they had their four boys.

She thought of a name for the child. She should be named after Henry's mother. Blanche, that was a good family name. So Blanche it should be.

The little girl thrived and Mary was delighted that she should feel so much better than she usually did after her confinements.

Henry was as delighted as Mary had known he would be. He was pleased that she should be called after his mother whom the poet Chaucer had extolled in his verses but whom Henry could not remember. He sent silks from Champagne and Flanders to decorate the font in Peterborough Cathedral and there Mary's fifth child was baptized.

Henry returned to England but almost immediately set out again. He was going to travel across Europe to the Holy Land. On the way the King wished him to call on the Queen's brother Wenceslas who was also the Holy Roman Emperor. He was to pay his respects and to let Wenceslas know how devoted Richard was to his Queen. Indeed there was no need because the devotion of the royal pair was well known throughout Europe. However it was a friendly gesture and one

which Henry was delighted to make.

From Bohemia he w^ent to Venice where he arranged that a ship was commissioned and when it was built and filled wdth the requisite stores he set out for Palestine which he reached in due course. He paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the Mount of Olives and glowing with righteousness he began to journey home. He stayed for a while on the island of Cyprus where he was entertained by its King and when he had w atched the performing bears he could not resist telling the story of how his first-born had fearlessly descended into the pit to play wath the bear. The boy's valour was applauded and when he was leaving, the King presented him with a leopard.

'To amuse the young Lord Harry/ was the comment, 'but tell him he must not come too close to this one.'

'Which,' replied Henry, 'would be the way in which to make him doso!'

'Oh he is a bold brave Prince, that one,' was the laughing reply and a cage was found for the leopard so that it might accompany Henry when he returned to England.

John of Gaunt sent a message to him. It w^as time he came back. A new situation was arising in the country. The Earl of Arundel, one of the five Lords Appellant who had faced the King wdth Henry, was circulating rumours about John of Gaunt, doubting his loyalty to the King.

The Duke was soon able to deal with these and so strongly had he w^on the King's confidence that Richard commanded Arundel to apologize to his uncle.

Richard had come to believe that John of Gaunt was his most trusted ally. He was too old now to want the crown for himself, moreover it was understood that Richard was undoubtedly the true heir to the crow^n and that it would be folly to attempt to shift it from his head. These were uneasy days when those about the throne must take care how they w^alked.

Henry returned and Mary, to her dismay, discovered that she was once more pregnant. Her spirits drooped for this time she felt really ill.

There must be an end to this incessant childbearing. She would have to tell Henry how she dreaded it. He was naturally not aware of this because he was generally if not out of the country away from the family circle. Soon after she had

made this alarming discovery news was brought to the castle of the death of Henry's stepmother, Constanza of Castile. Mary had met Constanza only rarely and she had always seemed remote, for Henry's stepmother was entirely Spanish and had never fitted into the English way of life. She and her husband had rarely lived together and since they had returned from Castile after arranging the marriage of their daughter Catherine with the heir of that country, Constanza seemed even more like a stranger to them all. The Duke's wife was in all but legality Catherine Swynford and it was Catherine who interested herself in family affairs and whom the children loved. Still it was a shock as death must always be and Henry, who came back to the family for a brief spell, expressed his curiosity as to what would happen now.