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Автор: Bernard Cornwell
Издательство: HarperCollins
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Жанр произведения: Историческая литература
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9780007338795
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      VAGABOND

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      BERNARD CORNWELL

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      Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2002

      Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2002

      Map © John Gilkes 2013

      Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007310319

      Ebook Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 9780007338795

      Version: 2018-08-16

      VAGABOND

       is for June and Eddie Bell

       in friendship and gratitude

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Map

       Part One: ARROWS ON THE HILL

       It was October …

       A rush of …

       Thomas, Father Hobbe …

       Sir William Douglas …

       Part Two: THE WINTER SIEGE

       It was dark …

       It was the …

       A single short …

       The English had …

       Part Three: THE KING’S CUPBEARER

       Jeanette Chenier, Comtesse …

       Lodewijk – he insisted …

       Thomas lay shivering …

       The first stone …

       Richard Totesham watched …

       Historical Note

       Keep Reading

       About the Author

       Praise

       Also by Bernard Cornwell

       About the Publisher

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      PART ONE

      England, October 1346

       Arrows on the Hill

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      It was October, the time of the year’s dying when cattle were being slaughtered before winter and when the northern winds brought a promise of ice. The chestnut leaves had turned golden, the beeches were trees of flame and the oaks were made from bronze. Thomas of Hookton, with his woman, Eleanor, and his friend, Father Hobbe, came to the upland farm at dusk and the farmer refused to open his door, but shouted through the wood that the travellers could sleep in the byre. Rain rattled on the mouldering thatch. Thomas led their one horse under the roof that they shared with a woodpile, six pigs in a stout timber pen and a scattering of feathers where a hen had been plucked. The feathers reminded Father Hobbe that it was St Gallus’s day and he told Eleanor how the blessed saint, coming home in a winter’s night, had found a bear stealing his dinner. ‘He told the animal off!’ Father Hobbe said. ‘He gave it a right talking-to, he did, and then he made it fetch his firewood.’

      ‘I’ve seen a picture of that,’ Eleanor said. ‘Didn’t the bear become his servant?’

      ‘That’s because Gallus was a holy man,’ Father Hobbe explained. ‘Bears wouldn’t fetch firewood for just anyone! Only for a holy man.’

      ‘A holy man,’ Thomas put in, ‘who is the patron saint of hens.’ Thomas knew all about the saints, more indeed than Father Hobbe. ‘Why would a chicken