The Nostradamus File

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Selena's room had a balcony and a view of Cambridge University's King's College. The chapel bell tower dominated the skyline. Nick and Ronnie sat on a couch in front of a low, glass-topped coffee table. Selena took a chair by the desk.

"Richard Cromwell was forced out of power in 1659," she said. "He went into exile in France in 1660. I found a letter he wrote from France to his daughter, Elizabeth. I think he had the Ark and hid it before he left and she was in on it. In the letter he begins with the usual Puritan thinking, telling her to be mindful of her place before God. Then he talks about his illness and having blood let. Doctors back then would bleed you for just about anything."

"Did it do any good?"

"Not enough. There are some who think his doctors killed him." She paused. "Cromwell was a Puritan. To understand the letter, you have to understand how the Puritans thought about things."

"Tall black hats," Ronnie said. "Blunderbusses. Thanksgiving."

Selena ignored him. "In Puritan society women and men were considered equal in a spiritual sense, but subservient to men in every other way, except with things that concerned the home and raising children. In the home, the women made the decisions."

"Took a while to change that, didn't it?" Ronnie said.

"Who said it's changed? Anyway, Richard appears to have had a great love for his daughter. He treated her in a way somewhat different than you might expect, more as an equal. She was devoted to him as well. In the letter he refers to the English Restoration of 1660. That was when the Anglican Church was restored to it's former position as the official Church of England."

"You should have been a history professor," Nick said.

"Sorry. The point is that when the Restoration took place, many of the churches that had been Presbyterian or Calvinist under Oliver Cromwell went back to being Anglican. I think Richard hid the Ark in a Presbyterian church when he was forced out of power. That church later became Anglican."

"Do you know which one it is?"

"My best guess is St. John's, near the town of Chesthunt. It's not far from London."

"Why there?"

"Chesthunt is where Richard Cromwell died. He had a wealthy friend there, a merchant named Thomas Pengally. Cromwell stayed on his estate before and after he came back from France. It makes sense that if he had the Ark he'd keep it nearby. The letter refers to 'That whiche is fairre to be tresr'd, nor cast before swine'. He cautions his daughter to remain silent about it before men and speak of it only to God. I think he means the Ark. In the next sentence he describes the pleasing simplicity of the altar at St. John's. It's an odd thing to put in where he did."

"That which is fair?" Nick said. "He could have been referring to his daughter."

"I don't think so. I think he could have hidden the Ark in that altar."

"Slim."

"It's all we've got and it's not that far away."

She waited.

"Like you say, it's all we've got. We'll go down there tonight and find out."

"I'll see what I can find out about the church online," Selena said.

In the hotel room directly below, a man put down a set of headphones. He turned to another figure standing nearby.

"Got it," the man with the headphones said.

Nigel McKenzie nodded. "Get the men ready."