Iacobus by Matilde Asensi Page A

Templar friends, Ádâb Al-Aqsa and Fath Al-Yedom and that they came to Pont-Sainte-Maxence with enough time to prepare their next trap: They knew that sooner or later the King would go out hunting. A rumor started amongst the servants about a marvelous deer and when the King showed up, they climbed the hill and waited for the right moment. Luck was on their side, and the King separated from the group believing that he had seen the animal. So …,” he paused for a second to reflect, and then continued. “But that can’t be right, because if they were on the hill ….”
    “They weren’t on the hill,” I helped.
    “But the old woman said …!”
    “Let’s go back to the beginning. How do you know that they were our Templars?
    “Well, I don’t have any proof but don’t you think it’s strange that the Arab names and the French names begin with the same letters, A and F? They must be the same Templars who were at François’ inn in Roquemaure, don’t you think?”
    “That’s a good deduction but there’s something that confirms it much better. The Templars are expressly forbidden from hunting by their Rule. Did you hear when the woodman’s wife said that Auguste and Felix never went hunting? A Templar knight cannot hunt with fowl, with a bow, with bullets or with dogs. They are only allowed to hunt the lion, and not the real lion but the symbolic lion, Evil. That’s why Auguste and Felix never killed deer in the forest.”
    “What the …!”
    “Young man,” I said ironically, “you are swearing!”
    “That’s not true!”
    “Yes, it is, I heard you! You will have to confess your sin,” I said slyly.
    “I’ll do it first thing in the morning.”
    “That’s what I like to hear. But let’s continue. You said before I interrupted that they couldn’t have killed the King because they were on top of the hill.”
    “And you said no, that they weren’t there.”
    “Of course not. If they had been on the hill they wouldn’t have been able to kill the King which they most certainly did.”
    “So where were they?”
    I huddled into my coat and hoped that Lady Hirson didn’t take too long.
    “First, we must accept that there was a deer, but not the prodigious deer but rather what was probably a large deer, with long antlers and domesticated which today must be roaming free in the same forest that we visited two days ago. Auguste and Felix must have trapped it shortly after arriving there (we must consider that it was shortly after killing William of Nogaret, who died after Pope Clement and before King Philip). They domesticated it, more or less, and built false antlers with twelve tines out of the remains of the antlers from other animals. Don’t forget that they were in charge of the skin of the deer hunted by the inhabitants of the forest, which also implied taking the heads. So, they built the false antlers in such a way so as to fit them perfectly on the head of the animal. They must have also prepared some device so that in a matter of seconds those staffs, which they used to walk through the forest, turned into a perfect cross which also fit between the false antlers. Can you imagine the effect? The King sees the deer and separates from the group; every now and again the animal disappears from sight amongst the bushes but he finds it again and continues with his crazy chase that separates him more and more from his retinue. It is probable, and we are on uncertain ground here, that at some point Auguste or Felix hid the animal in a previously planned location and the King had to stop and wait for it to jump out again from somewhere. So Auguste or Felix appears and says that he can help him find the deer. He takes him all over the place, saying that he can see it over here or over there, and the King confidently lets himself be guided, as he’s dying to catch such a rare deer whose antlers will astonish the court. The animal suddenly reappears and the King, grateful, says to his friend: ‘You