See Low Clouds.
The place is Castle Beynac. (See also image.) The person is Ashcroft Lorens Mayn, brother of Iern's estranged wife, Faylis. Lorens has come as the new castlekeeper in place of the fugitive Ierns or any other member of Clan Ferlay but is met - not greeted - by an unfriendly and unwelcoming reception committee. When he greets and addresses them, wishing them "'...peace and welfare...,'" (p. 301) the wind responds for them:
"'Wind seized the formality and scattered it like the dead leaves that tumbled past." (p. 301)
We have had dead leaves before.
Lorens is a good man serving a bad usurper. He is in a much less tenable position than Flandry under Molitor.
When the reception committee formally refuses to accept or admit Lorens or even to offer hospitality for the night, he must respond "...through the wind..." (p. 302) and, when he turns to lead his men in search of an inn:
"It began to rain in earnest." (p. 302)
The weather confirms the local hostility and inhospitality. Apart from the fact that he serves Jovain, Lorens behaves impeccably. When asked, he states his errand and, when required to go, goes.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Matters might have turned out otherwise if the usurper had sent a strong MILITARY escort with Lorens. Then, unless the people at Castle Beynac had been willing and able to undergo a siege, they would have been forced to yield.
I think it helped that Hans Molitor was not only a strong and able leader, but also a RELUCTANT usurper, who accepted being proclaimed Emperor after Josip died only because the Wang dynasty had irretrievably collapsed and his rivals were far worse. And Flandry liked and respected Old Hans.
And we are both familiar with that name BEYNAC, in other books!
Ad astra! Sean
Castles were one of the reasons that feudal kingdoms were decentralized -- and that Renaissance monarchs set out to remove them.
It wasn't that castles were invulnerable; it was that they were expensive to reduce -- and that there were so many of them.
That was why medieval wars in the core areas of European feudalism were usually so indecisive, petering out in a series of costly sieges, even if one side beat the other in pitched battle. The English found this very frustrating in the 100 Years War... until cannon became availble.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Because cannon made castles far more VULNERABLE and sieges more winable by the besiegers. As the English found out after Joan of Arc rallied the French in their hour of despair. I think the French used cannon to batter down the castles held by the English in those parts of France occupied by them.
Ad astra! Sean
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