The Brotherhood Of The Holy Shroud

36

The due de Valant had requested an audience with the chancellor. He arrived at the appointed hour in the company of a richly dressed young merchant.

"Tell me, my lord," the chancellor asked, "what is this urgent matter that you wish to discuss with the emperor?"

"My dear de Molesmes, I bid you attend this gentleman, who honors me with his friendship. He is a respected merchant in the city of Edessa."

Pascal de Molesmes, with a bored expression but out of courtesy to the duke, listened to the young merchant, who with no courtly flourishes went directly to the reason for his journey to Constantinople.

"I know of the empire's financial difficulties, and I come with an offer for the emperor."

"You come with an offer for the emperor?" the chancellor repeated with a mixture of irritation and amusement. 'And what offer might that be?"

"I represent a group of wealthy nobleman merchants in Edessa. As you know, many years ago the armed forces of a certain Byzantine emperor removed from the protection of my city its most treasured relic, the Mandylion. We are men of peace; we live honestly, but we wish to return to our community what once belonged to it but was stolen. I come not to supplicate that you return to us what now belongs to the emperor, for it is known to all that he forced the bishop to deliver it into his keeping and that the king of France swears that his nephew did not sell it to him. If the Mandylion is in the hands of Balduino, we wish to buy it. Whatever the price, we will pay it."

"What community are you speaking of? Edessa is in Muslim hands, is it not?"

"We are Christians, but we maintain good relations with the governors of Edessa. They have never troubled us. We pay substantial tributes, and in return we carry out our lives in peace. We have nothing to complain of. But the Mandylion belongs to us, and it must return to our city."

De Molesmes stared intendy at the impertinent young man who so brazenly dared to suggest that the Mandylion was for sale.

'And how much are you disposed to pay?"

"Ten sacks of gold of the weight of a man."

The amount was beyond anything the chancellor had imagined. The empire was once again in debt, and Balduino was desperately seeking sources of loans, even though his uncle the king of France had not abandoned him.

De Molesmes remained impassive. "I will communicate your offer to the emperor, and I will send for you when there is a reply."

Balduino listened sorrowfully to his counselor. He knew without doubt that if he broke his vow to the Templars it could cost him his life.

"You must tell this merchant that I reject his offer."

"But my lord, consider it!"

"No, I cannot. And I forbid you ever again to ask me to sell the Mandylion! Ever!"

Pascal de Molesmes left the throne room crestfallen. He was suspicious of Balduino's discomfort when he spoke to him of the Mandylion. The cloth had been in the possession of the emperor for many months, though no one had seen it, not even he, the emperor's chancellor.

Rumors circulated that the generous amount of gold brought to the palace by the superior of the Templars of Constantinople, Andre de Saint-Remy, had been payment for possession of the Mandylion. But Balduino vehemently denied those rumors; he swore that the sacred shroud was in his safekeeping.

When King Louis had been freed and returned to France, he once more sent the Comte de Dijon to Constantinople, with an even more generous offer for the Mandylion. To the surprise of everyone at court, the emperor remained inflexible, and he proclaimed before them all that he would not sell his uncle the relic. Now once more he had rejected a truly substantial offer. Pascal de Molesmes knew the emperor as no other. It was becoming clear to him that Balduino no longer possessed the Mandylion, that he had indeed sold it to the Templars.

That evening he sent for the due de Valant and his young protege to inform them of the emperor's decision. De Molesmes was surprised when the Edessan merchant told him that he was willing to double the offer. But the chancellor would not have the young man harbor false hopes.

"Then it is true what they say at court?" the due de Valant asked.

'And what is it they say at court, my friend?"

"That the emperor is no longer the guardian of the Mandylion, that he has delivered it over to the Templars in exchange for the gold the Temple gave him to pay Venice and Genoa. That is the only way one can fathom the emperor's rejection of this very generous offer."

"I pay no mind to rumors or the other intrigues of the court-and I counsel you not to believe everything you hear. I have brought you the emperor's decision, and there is nothing further to say."

Pascal de Molesmes had seen men tortured and seen them die. But he would never forget the expression on the young merchant's face when he told him his quest was hopeless. As he saw his visitors out, he knew they had the same suspicions he did: the Templars. The Holy Shroud of the Savior Jesus Christ was now in the hands of the Order of Knights Templar.

The Templar fortress stood on a rocky promontory on the coast. The golden color of the rock it was built upon resembled the sands of the nearby desert, and its height provided it with perspectives over miles of land around it. Saint-Jean d'Acre was one of the last Christian bastions in the Holy Land.

Robert de Saint-Remy rubbed his eyes as though the vision of the fortress were a mirage. He calculated that in but a few minutes they would be surrounded by knights, who for two or three hours now had been observing them. Both he and Francois de Charney looked like authentic Saracens; even their horses, purebred Arabians, helped to maintain the illusion.

Ali, his squire, had once more shown himself to be an expert guide and loyal friend. Indeed, Robert owed him his life, for Ali had saved him when the four travelers were attacked by an Ayubi patrol. He fought fiercely by Robert's side, and when a spear was launched straight at Robert's heart, he stepped in front of the Templar and took what could have been a mortal wound to his own flesh. Not one of the Ayubis survived the attack, but Ali lay feverish and on the verge of death for several days. Robert never left his side.

Ali had been returned to life by medicinal compounds made up by Said, de Charney's squire, who had learned special remedies from the Temple's physicians and also from the Muslim physicians whom he had met in his travels. It was Said who pulled the spearhead from Ali's chest and thoroughly cleaned the wound, which he then covered with an unguent he had made from certain herbs he always carried with him. He also had made Ali drink a foul-smelling liquid, which put the young man into a calming sleep.

When asked if Ali would live, Said invariably answered, to the frustration of the two Templars, 'Allah alone knows." On the seventh day, Ali awoke from the sleep into which he had fallen and which had seemed so much like death. There was a sharp and fiery pain in his lung, and breathing was difficult, but Said at last pronounced that he would live, and at that, the Templars' spirits revived.

It was another seven days before Ali was able to sit up, and seven more before he could ride on his docile steed, to which he lashed himself with leather straps so that should he once more lose consciousness he would not fall off. Over the next days and weeks he recovered, and now here he was, alongside the others, on the last approach to the fortress, when they were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of dust raised by the hooves of a dozen horses. The captain of the patrol shouted at them to halt.

When Saint-Remy and de Charney revealed who they were, they were escorted to the fortress and taken immediately into the presence of the Grand Master.

Renaud de Vichiers, the Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, received them warmly. Despite their weariness, Saint-Remy and de Charney sat with de Vichiers for an hour, reporting on the details of their journey and delivering to him the letter and documents that Andre de Saint-Remy had given them, as well as the cloth sack that held the Mandylion.

Then the Grand Master sent them off to rest and gave orders that AH be exempted from any service until he had completely recovered.

When he was alone, with trembling hands Renaud de Vichiers took from the sack the coffer that held the Mandylion. He felt his senses almost overwhelmed by emotion, for he was about to see the face of Jesus, the Christ.

He unfolded the cloth and fell to his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God for having allowed him to contemplate this miracle.

It was dusk on the day after the arrival of Robert de Saint-Remy and Francois de Charney when the Grand Master called all the knights of the order into the chapter's grand hall. There on a long table lay the Mandylion, at full length. One by one, they passed before the shroud of Christ, and some of those hardened knights could hardly contain their tears. After prayers, Renaud de Vichiers explained to his brothers that the grave cloth of Jesus would be placed in a cask, hidden from prying eyes. It was the most precious jewel of the order's possessions, and they were to defend it with their lives.

Gathered together, the knights swore a sacred oath: No matter what transpired, until death and after, they would never reveal where the shroud was held. Its very possession would become one of the great secrets of the Order of the Knights Templar.