Revelation

'Yes. From the bishop's jail where they put him. I was summoned to appear. I went to Whitehall Palace, to a room where four men all dressed in rich robes sat at a table in a great room.' His voice shook and a sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead at the memory. 'Adam was there, chained and with a gaoler.' He glanced at his vicar. 'Reverend Meaphon came too but they wouldn't let him speak.'

'No, they would not hear me,' Meaphon said. 'I did not expect them to,' he added with scorn.

That was probably just as well, I thought. 'Who were the men?'

'One in white robes was Archbishop Cranmer; I've seen him preach at St Paul's. There was another cleric, a big angry-looking man with brown hair. I think the two others wore robes with fur and jewels. One was a little pale man, he had a sharp voice. The other had a long brown beard and a thin face.'

I nodded slowly. The little pale man would be Sir Richard Rich, Thomas Cromwell's former protege who had joined the conservatives when Cromwell fell; a ruthless, vicious opportunist. The other man resembled descriptions I had heard of Lord Hertford, brother of the late Queen Jane and a reformer. And the angry-looking cleric was almost certainly Bishop Bonner of London.

'What did they say to you?'

'They asked me how Adam had got into the state he was and I answered them honestly. The pale man said it sounded like heresy and the boy should be burned. But just then Adam slipped off his chair and before his guard could grab him he was down on the floor frantically asking God to save him. The councillors ordered him to rise but he took no more notice of them than if they were flies. Then the Archbishop said Adam was clearly out of his wits and he should be sent to the Bedlam to see if they could find a cure. The pale man still wanted him accused as a heretic but the other two wouldn't agree.'

'I see.' Rich, I guessed, would think having another radical Protestant burned would raise him in the favour of the traditionalists. But Cranmer, as well as being naturally merciful, would not want to further inflame London. Having Adam shut away in the Bedlam would dispose of the problem, for a while at least.

I nodded slowly. 'That raises the crucial issue.' I looked at them. 'Is Adam in fact mad?'

'I think he must be,' Minnie replied.

'If he is not mad, sir,' Daniel Kite said, 'we fear the case may be something even worse.'

'Worse?' I asked.

'Possession,' Meaphon said starkly. 'That is my fear. That a demon has hold of him and is urging him to mock God's mercy in public. And if that is so, then only by praying with Adam mightily, wrestling with the devil, can I save him.'

'Is that what you believe?' I asked the stonemason.

He looked at Meaphon, then buried his head in his big hands. 'I do not know, sir. God save my son if that should be true.'

'I think Adam is only in great confusion and fear.' Minnie looked up and met Meaphon's eye, and I realized that she was the stronger of the pair. She turned to me. 'But whatever the truth, being in the Bedlam will kill him. Adam lies in the chamber they have locked him in. It is cold, no fire. He will do nothing for himself, he just crouches there, praying, praying. And they only allow us to visit for an hour a day. They ask us for three shillings a month in fees, more than we can afford, yet they will not make him eat nor take care of himself. The keeper will be happy if he dies.' She looked at me imploringly. 'They are afraid of him.'

'Because of the fear he is possessed?'

She nodded.

'And you doubt he is?'

'I don't know, I don't know. But if he stays in the Bedlam he will die.'

'He should be released to my care,' Meaphon said. 'But they will not do that. Not the backsliders and papists on the Council.'

'Then on one thing you are all agreed,' I said. 'That he should not be in the Bedlam.'

'Ay, ay.' The boy's father nodded eagerly, relieved to find some common ground.

I thought hard a moment, then spoke quietly. 'There are two problems with this case. One is jurisdiction. Anyone who cannot afford a lawyer may bring his case before the Court of Requests, but the judge may say the matter is one of state, and should go back before the Privy Council. However, if you cannot afford the fees they charge in the Bedlam, the court may ask the Council to pay. And the court may intervene to stop poor treatment. But the matter of releasing Adam is much more difficult.' I took a deep breath. 'And what if he were released? If he were to escape again, if there were a repeat of what happened at St Paul's, he might find himself accused of heresy after all. If we could get his conditions improved, in all honesty the Bedlam may be the safest place for him, unless he can be brought to his right mind. To tangle with the Privy Council could be very dangerous.' I had not mentioned poor John Collins, but I could tell from their faces that they remembered the horror of what had happened to him.