Page 308 of The Pillars of the Earth
Elizabeth shouted: “Everyone keep calm. These messengers will confirm my orders.”
There was a shout from the battlements: one of the guards cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled down: “Michael! Attack! We’re being attacked! Scores of them!”
“Treachery!” Michael roared, and drew his sword. But two of Richard’s men were on him instantly, their blades flashing. Blood gushed and he went down. Aliena looked away.
Some of Richard’s men had taken possession of the gatehouse and the winding room. Two of them made it to the battlements, and Michael’s guards surrendered to them.
Through the gateway Aliena saw the main force galloping across the fields toward the castle, and her spirits rose like the sun.
Elizabeth shouted at the top of her voice: “This is a peaceful surrender. No one is going to be hurt, I promise you. Just stay where you are.”
Everyone stood stock-still, listening to the thunder as Richard’s army pounded closer. Michael’s men-at-arms looked confused and uncertain, but none of them did anything: their leader had fallen, and their countess had told them to surrender. The castle servants were paralyzed by the rapidity of events.
Then Richard came through the gateway on his war-horse.
It was a great moment, and Aliena’s heart swelled with pride. Richard was handsome, smiling, and triumphant. Aliena shouted: “The rightful earl!” The men entering the castle behind Richard took up the cry, and it was repeated by some of the crowd in the courtyard—most of them had no love for William. Richard rode around the compound at a slow walk, waving and acknowledging the cheers.
Aliena thought about all she had gone through for the sake of this moment. She was thirty-four years old and she had spent half of those years fighting for this. The whole of my adult life, she thought; that’s what I gave. She remembered stuffing wool into sacks until her hands were red and swollen and bleeding. She recalled the faces she had seen on the road, greedy and cruel and lascivious faces of men who would have killed her if she had given the least sign of weakness. She thought of how she had hardened her heart against dear Jack, and married Alfred instead; and she thought of the months during which she had slept on the floor at the foot of his bed like a dog; and all because he had promised to pay for weapons and armor so that Richard could fight to win back this castle. “There it is, Father,” she said aloud. Nobody heard her: they were cheering too loud. “This is what you wanted,” she said to her dead father, and there was bitterness as well as triumph in her heart. “I promised you this, and I kept my promise. I took care of Richard, and he fought all these years, and now we’re home again at last, and Richard is the earl. Now ...” Her voice rose to a shout, but everyone was shouting, and no one noticed the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Now, Father, I’ve done with you, so go to your grave, and let me live in peace!”
