'So, His Grace the king has sent you,' he said.

'Yes,' Corbett replied. 'I have to find out about Master de Montfort.'

The priest turned and nodded towards where the corpse lay. 'De Montfort has gone to a different court, Master Corbett.'

'What is that priest doing?' Corbett asked. 'Anointing him.'

'I thought that only happened when a man was dying, not when he was dead.'

The priest shrugged his shoulders.

'You have read your theology, Master Clerk? Aquinas and Bonaventure say the soul may not leave the body till hours after the heart has stopped beating. For de Montfort's sake let us hope that this is so and his soul has been cleansed of sin.'

Corbett was about to go towards the table but the priest put his hand gently on the clerk's arm.

'Let the priest finish, Master Clerk,' he said. 'Then you can look.'

'And who are you?'

'I am Sir Philip Plumpton, canon of St Paul's,' the fellow replied.

Corbett nodded.

The young priest, who must also have been a celebrant at the fateful mass, had finished the anointing and now began the Psalm for the Dead: 'De Profundis Clamavi ad Le'. Once that was ended, the young priest, head bowed so that his complete tonsure was showing, began the final invocation, telling the dead man's soul to go out, invoking the Archangels Michael and Gabriel to meet him with the heavenly host, praying the dead man's soul would not fall into the hands of the Evil One, the Son of Perdition.

Corbett shivered. Here in the house of God, surrounded by priests, he felt a malevolence, a deep-seated malice.