#50.6, Tues., Nov. 14, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress  

Here are some stones laid as steps down into the darkness. I let the door down above me in the basilica, with the rug staying nearly in place, and I descend into the darkness seeing only as far as the puddle of candlelight.

         The smell of oily smoke mingled in the stench of unkempt prisoners tells me more of the end to this tunnel than does my own candle. This is not the tunnel to the outside as I had hoped. I find I am now in that little make-shift space under the Father’s cell, where old stone supports were reinforced with an arch to strengthen the rotting Roman floors under the cage currently elevated from the dungeon onto the main level.  

         Just now the bishop is coming down the ladder and as the guard locks the cell behind the bishop he is telling him a monk is waiting in the church to see the Father next. But I can guess he won’t find this monk there.

         Here I am just where I first waited by the ladders on the dungeon level, under the cage. I’m avoiding the guard and the bishop just now, as I don’t want to alert anyone’s curiosity. I extinguish the candle so no one will notice me here in the shadows – here at the end of the church tunnel holding a candle with a still smoking wick. The guard is following the bishop down the ladder from the cell, so I slip back behind the wood laid against the back wall of this space under the cage.

         Oh, this isn’t a wall! These boards are hiding an opening into another tunnel. Of course! This is the tunnel I intended to find! I have no flame now and barely a leak of light seeping through the boards.  But surely this must be the way those young soldiers go when they make their clandestine pilgrimage to the alehouse. The wall sconce holds no torch but there are rags and tallow aplenty here, if I only had a flame. I feel my way through the darkness of this tunnel hopefully, to end up beyond the wall where I will find the others are waiting. Of course, it could be a maze of tunnels. But how can I know without risking that search? Dear God, stay close.

(Continues tomorrow)