“Bad luck for his reverence the papal legate,” saidCadfael, “who cannot make himself small or go unregarded,whatever he does. His turning has to be done in broad daylight,with every eye on him. And twice in one year is too much to ask ofany man.”

“Ah, but in the name of the Church, Cadfael, in the nameof the Church! It’s not the man who turns, it’s therepresentative of Pope and Church, who must preserve theinfallibility of both at all costs.”

Twice in one year, indeed, had Henry of Blois summoned hisbishops and abbots to a legatine council, once in Winchester on theseventh of April to justify his endorsement of the Empress Maud asruler, when she was in the ascendant and had her rival King Stephensecurely in prison in Bristol, and now at Westminster on theseventh of December to justify his swing back to Stephen, now thatthe King was free again, and the city of London had put a decisiveend to Maud’s bid to establish herself in the capital, andget her hands at last on the crown.

“If his head is not going round by now, it shouldbe,” said Cadfael, shaking his own grizzled brown tonsure inmingled admiration and deprecation. “How many spins does thismake? First he swore allegiance to the lady, when her father diedwithout a male heir, then he accepted his brother Stephen’sseizure of power in her absence, thirdly, when Stephen’s staris darkened he makes his peace—a peace of sorts, at anyrate!—with the lady, and justifies it by saying that Stephenhas flouted and aggrieved Holy Church… Now must he turn thesame argument about, and accuse the Empress, or has he somethingnew in his scrip?’

“What is there new to be said?’ asked Hugh,shrugging. “No, he’ll wring the last drop from hisstewardship of Holy Church, and make the best of it that every soulthere will have heard it all before, no longer ago than last April.And it will convince Stephen no more than it did Maud, buthe’ll let it pass with only a mild snarl or two, since he canno more afford to reject the backing of Henry of Blois than couldMaud in her day. And the bishop will grit his teeth and stare hisclerics in the eyes, and swallow his gall with a brazenface.”