Then, suddenly, a red-haired lad, wearing a ragged leather jerkin, stepped forward and clambered up on to the wool bales beside Stephen.
‘My friends,’ he called out, ‘we have followed a fool! We have left our homes and our good folk only to be deceived by this fraud! Who will now follow me back? Come forward all those who despise this trickster, those who are willing to accept me as their leader, back to sanity and comfort!’
As these words echoed across the harbour, Stephen rose again, his hands out, imploringly. But the lad in the ragged jerkin struck out at him and Stephen went down, rolling to the cobblestones, all the power gone from him.
This was too much for Geoffrey. Two great strides carried him to where the red-haired youth stood laughing. He drew back his fist and punched the other as hard as he could.
‘That’s for you, coward!’ he heard himself shout. Then the red-haired fellow rose and seemed for a moment as though he would leap at Geoffrey, but, seeing what manner of opponent faced him, thought better of it and, with a sneer, pushed his way through the crowd of children who now hemmed them in.
And as he went, many followed him, their faith in Stephen broken; yet many who had intended to desert the shepherd lad from Cloyes now stayed because of Geoffrey’s stout action.
Alys had helped Stephen to his feet and tried to sponge away the blood from his nose. He looked back at her with a sad smile and said, ‘I thank you, my lady. I am not worth your pity, though. Go with those who are turning to their homes, I beg you.’
Then the piper stepped forward and slapped Stephen on the back. ‘Cheer up, lad,’ he said, smiling, ‘every leader of men must learn what it is like to be despised by his followers. But the greatest leaders know that glory is not gained without a fight, and they press forward their attack even when all seems lost. Have courage, friend, and I promise you, you will yet live to see the Holy Land!’
Then he led Stephen and a few of the others to a tavern, where the vine leaves hung over the door, and bought them a meal of new white bread and veal cutlets.
Stephen’s spirits rose a little after he had eaten, and he left his companions to pray in a little white church by the dockside.
Alys and Geoffrey walked in the town, wondering what they should do now, hoping that the piper’s words might come true, yet hardly knowing how that could be.
Towards evening, they came to a little winding street, which circled round on itself up the hill, so that they could look down on the houses below. Alys suddenly stopped and pointed. ‘Look who is there,’ she said in a whisper.
Geoffrey followed her pointing finger and saw a small square garden, enclosed by high grey stone walls. In the garden, seated on a bench at a trestle-table laden with food and wine, sat the piper. Two other men sat with him, talking urgently in low voices. One of them was immensely fat, and wore a blue robe held in by a broad belt of gold. His short fingers glittered with rings. The other man was small and hunched, and seemed always to be laughing silently at some jest which only he knew of. His face was pale, his nose as hooked as the beak of a hawk. He wore a black patch over his left eye.
‘Look,’ said Alys suddenly, ‘the piper is showing them the golden cup which he stole from the church!’
Geoffrey’s anger rose now. ‘So that is it!’ he said. ‘They must be money-lenders and the piper is the rogue we took him for, after all!’
Geoffrey strode back down the hill, his sister finding it hard to keep up with his angry steps. But when they reached the stone wall and went through the open gate into the little garden, his fury faded away at the piper’s words.
‘Geoffrey and Alys of Beauregard,’ he said, placing his hands on their shoulders, as though they were the closest friends in the world, ‘I want you to meet William “The Pig” and Hugh “The Iron”.’
First the fat man, then the thin one, bowed as their names were spoken, though Alys thought they seemed annoyed that the piper should have mentioned their rather uncomplimentary nicknames.
The piper went on. ‘They are two merchants of Marseilles. They saw what happened this morning by the harbourside and they feel sympathetic to poor Stephen, and to all of you who followed him.’
William ‘The Pig’ rolled his eyes and rubbed his beringed hands across his vast stomach.
‘Alas, alas!’ he said. ‘Such a disaster would be insupportable, if there were not good Christian men left in the world to put such a sad situation to rights again!’
Hugh ‘The Iron’ nodded in agreement, his pale face seeming paler, by contrast with his great black patch.
‘True! True!’ he said. ‘Praise be to God that we are both willing and able to help Stephen and his army of children towards their ambition.’
Geoffrey and his sister gazed at the two men, bewildered. But the piper, smiling, clapped them both on the shoulder.
‘You can go back to the harbour, my friends, and tell poor Stephen that all is now well, for I have been able to arrange with these Christian gentlemen that you shall have your desires. You shall go to the Holy Land—but not on foot. William and Hugh, generous souls, have agreed to put seven good ships at your disposal and to carry you, without cost to any of you, to the Land of your hearts’ desire!’
As the children gazed at the men in that little secluded garden, William ‘The Pig’ smiled again and rubbed his stomach.
‘We are honoured to serve such as you,’ he said.
‘Aye, that we are,’ echoed Hugh ‘The Iron’, his white face wrinkled into a grinning mask.
On the way down to the harbour, Alys said, ‘This is fine news—but I do not like the looks of the two merchants, brother!’
Geoffrey strode on, anxious to be first to tell Stephen of the good fortune which had befallen them.
‘You are only a girl, Alys,’ he said breathlessly, ‘and you do not understand the ways of the world. Consider how you misjudged the piper, good fellow that he is! Don’t you understand now that he was paying for those ships with the golden chalice?’
Alys said doubtfully, ‘Yes, but it was not his in the first place. He stole it from the church.’
Geoffrey clucked with impatience. ‘There you are,’ he said, ‘just like a girl—you can’t see further than your silly nose! The piper is acting as God’s agent; he has borrowed something belonging to God so as to do God’s will. That golden cup will get us to the Holy Land,—indeed, it will be as though God Himself rolled back the sea! No one believes that prophecies will come to pass exactly according to the letter; one must interpret them, you see?’
Alys nodded. ‘And you still think that William and Hugh are good men, in spite of their faces?’
Geoffrey laughed and tugged at her hair.
‘Of course they are!’ he said. ‘They cannot help what their faces look like, and that doesn’t matter. Their hearts are of gold!’
And then they reached the harbour and went in search of Stephen.