The Grail Quest Books 1-3: Harlequin, Vagabond, Heretic
Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling Grail Quest Trilogy in one complete eBook for the first time. Follow the famed archer Thomas of Hookton as he avenges his father’s death and retrieves a stolen relic.HARLEQUIN1342. The English, led by Edward III, are laying waste to the French countryside. The archers, the common men, are England’s secret weapon. The French know them as Harlequins. Thomas Hookton is one of these archers. But he is also on a personal mission: to avenge his father’s death and retrieve a stolen relic. Thomas begins a quest that will lead him to finally where the two armies face each other at Crecy.VAGABOND1346. England lies exposed to the threat of invasion. Thomas of Hookton finds himself back in the north as the Scots invade on behalf of the French. He is determined to pursue his quest: to discover whether a relic he is searching for is the Holy Grail.HERETICThe Hundred Years War has been suspended. The truce release Thomas of Hookton to pursue his arch enemy and resume his quest for the prized relic: the Holy Grail. But fate strikes and the plague grips hold. And the Holy Grail is needed more than ever as a sign of God’s favour.
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The Grail Quest Trilogy
HARLEQUIN
VAGABOND
HERETIC
Bernard Cornwell
Copyright
These novels are entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in them, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Harlequin first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000
Vagabond first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2002
Heretic first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004
Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2000, 2002, 2004
Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of these works
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
EBook Edition © June 2013 ISBN: 9780007531509
Version: 2017-05-08
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Table of Contents
HARLEQUIN
BERNARD CORNWELL
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000
Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2000
Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source ISBN: 9780007310302
EBook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007338788
Version: 2017-05-08
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
HARLEQUIN
is for Richard and Julie Rutherford-Moore
‘… many deadly battles have been fought, people slaughtered, churches robbed, souls destroyed, young women and virgins deflowered, respectable wives and widows dishonoured; towns, manors and buildings burned, and robberies, cruelties and ambushes committed on the highways. Justice has failed because of these things. The Christian faith has withered and commerce has perished and so many other wickednesses and horrid things have followed from these wars that they cannot be spoken, numbered or written down.’
JEAN II, KING OF FRANCE, 1360
Harlequin, probably derived from the old French
hellequin: a troop of the devil’s horsemen.
CONTENTS
The treasure of Hookton was stolen on Easter morning 1342.
It was a holy thing, a relic that hung from the church rafters, and it was extraordinary that so precious an object should have been kept in such an obscure village. Some folk said it had no business being there, that it should have been enshrined in a cathedral or some great abbey, while others, many others, said it was not genuine. Only fools denied that relics were faked. Glib men roamed the byways of England selling yellowed bones that were said to be from the fingers or toes or ribs of the blessed saints, and sometimes the bones were human, though more often they were from pigs or even deer, but still folk bought and prayed to the bones. ‘A man might as well pray to St Guinefort,’ Father Ralph said, then snorted with mocking laughter. ‘They’re praying to ham bones, ham bones! The blessed pig!’
It had been Father Ralph who had brought the treasure to Hookton and he would not hear of it being taken away to a cathedral or abbey, and so for eight years it hung in the small church, gathering dust and growing spider webs that shone silver when the sunlight slanted through the high window of the western tower. Sparrows perched on the treasure and some mornings there were bats hanging from its shaft. It was rarely cleaned and hardly ever brought down, though once in a while Father Ralph would demand that ladders be fetched and the treasure unhooked from its chains and he would pray over it and stroke it. He never boasted of it. Other churches or monasteries, possessing such a prize, would have used it to attract pilgrims, but Father Ralph turned visitors away. ‘It is nothing,’ he would say if a stranger enquired after the relic, ‘a bauble. Nothing.’ He became angry if the visitors persisted. ‘It is nothing, nothing, nothing!’ Father Ralph was a frightening man even when he was not angry, but in his temper he was a wild-haired fiend, and his flaring anger protected the treasure, though Father Ralph himself believed that ignorance was its best protection for if men did not know of it then God would guard it. And so He did, for a time.
