Lamentation

‘Perhaps. I do not know.’ His manner had become evasive again, and he avoided my eye. Myldmore was young and callow but he was not stupid. He must have realized, as I had, that with their belief in adult baptism and their fierce criticism of the social order, he had found himself among a group which at least sympathized with the revolutionary Anabaptists. And if they themselves were Anabaptists, planning some extreme act, for them to gain a recruit in the Tower, having already secured one in the Queen’s household, could be very useful.

‘I am sure you did right,’ I said, weighing my words carefully. I was desperate to get to the matter of the book, but must not push him too hard. And I must give Barak time to deliver the note and for Lord Parr to react. I said, ‘It must have been sad, though, to break with these folk just as you were getting to know them.’

Myldmore sighed. ‘They were not easy people. Curdy was a decent fellow; he would ask how I fared, alone in the world as I am now. And though I think he had succeeded in his business, and had money, he always dressed soberly. I think he supported the Scotchman with money, and Greening’s business, too. From things Master Curdy said I think his people were Lollards from the old days, that used to read bibles secretly written in English. Well, he was generous, he practised what he preached about sharing.’ Myldmore looked at me, and asked suddenly, ‘Are they dead, sir?’

‘I think not. But I need to find them. Not to harm them, but perhaps to prevent them from unwittingly doing something foolish.’

‘They were not men of violence,’ Myldmore said. ‘They renounced it as wrong. Though they often spoke most hotly — ’ He smiled sadly. ‘Elias said that all rich men should be cast down and made to labour in the fields like common folk.’

I remembered Okedene saying that he had heard them arguing loudly with each other in Greening’s shed, especially recently. ‘Did they disagree much between themselves?’

Myldmore nodded. ‘Often, though usually on points I found obscure, like whether someone baptized as a child needs a complete immersion when they are rebaptized as an adult.’

‘What about matters concerning the social order? Did anyone disagree with Elias’s remarks about throwing down the rich, for example?’

‘No. No, they all agreed on that.’

I smiled back. ‘People fierce in their righteousness?’

‘Ay. Though Greening was a gentle and amiable man until you got him on to religion. The Dutchman was the worst; sometimes his accent was hard to understand, but that did not stop him calling you names like “blind simpleton” and “foolish sinner destined for Hell” if you disagreed with him. He was the one who spoke most often of John Bale.’ I wondered, did Vandersteyn know the English exile? As a Dutchman involved in the cross-Channel trade it was not impossible.

Myldmore went on. ‘The Scotchman, too, was an angry man, bitter, I think, at being thrown out of his own land. He could be frightening, big glowering man that he was. I think they treated him badly in his own country. I know he had a wife left behind there.’

‘And Leeman?’

‘The gentleman from Whitehall? I felt a brotherly spirit with him, for he was much worried, as I am, over the question of whether God had elected him for salvation. Like them all, Leeman was always talking about the coming of the End Time, as foretold in the Book of Revelation; how the Antichrist was about to come and we must be ready for judgement. I did not understand it all.’

The coming of the Antichrist prophesied in the Book of Revelation. It was another belief characteristic of the Anabaptists and other radical Protestants. Okedene had mentioned Bertano in that connection, and his name had been on the lips of Greening’s killers at the inn yesterday. I asked, as casually as I could, ‘Many have identified the Antichrist with a particular individual. Did the group ever mention a name?’

He looked genuinely puzzled. ‘No, sir.’

‘An Italian one, perhaps?’

‘The Pope, you mean? They mentioned the Pope only to curse him.’

I realized that if the group had decided this Bertano was the Antichrist they would not mention his name to someone they did not fully trust. I said quietly, ‘And this whole group has disappeared now. Why do you think that may be?’

A muscle in Myldmore’s cheek twitched for a moment. Then he said, ‘I think perhaps they have fled because of the book.’

I looked at his anguished, worried face. Then I took the plunge. ‘You mean the book which Michael Leeman took?’

He stared at me blankly. ‘Leeman? No, it was I who smuggled the book from the Tower and gave it to Greening. Anne Askew’s account of her examinations.’

For a moment my head span. We stared at each other. As calmly as I was able, I said, ‘Tell me about Anne Askew’s book, Thomas.’

He frowned. ‘Do you not know? I thought that was why you were at the Tower yesterday.’ He shifted in his seat, and for a moment I feared he might panic and run.