The Leper of Saint Giles

Ellis Peters

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Brother Cadfael set out from the gatehouse, that Monday afternoon ofOctober, in the year 1139, darkly convinced that something ominous would havehappened before he re-entered the great court, though he had no reason tosuppose that he would be absent more than an hour or so. He was bound only tothe hospital of Saint Giles, at the far end of the Monks’ Foregate, barely halfa mile from Shrewsbury abbey, and his errand was merely to replenish with oils,lotions and ointments the medicine cupboard of the hospital.

They were heavy on such remedies at Saint Giles. Even when there were fewlepers, for whose control and assistance the hospice existed, there were alwayssome indigent and ailing souls in care there, and the application of Cadfael’sherbal remedies soothed and placated the mind as well as the skin. He made thispilgrimage on an average every third week, to replace what had been used. Thesedays he made it with all the better will because Brother Mark, his much-prizedand dearly-missed assistant in the herbarium, had felt it to be his destiny togo and serve with the unfortunate for a year, and a visit to Saint Giles wasnow a blessed reminder of peaceful days departed.

For to make all plain, Cadfael’s forebodings had nothing whatever to do with