Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress
In the midst of this escape, two of the freed prisoners do run to the ladder and start the climb, as the guard sees them he draws his sword shouting “Stop in the name of the King!”
The third prisoner is unable to walk, so surely he can’t run. He is scooting himself across the earth toward the ladder and I realize these other two who are still here are blind. I take one on my back, and the other is grasping onto the arm of my robe and following.
The guard has a drawn sword and is shouting and slashing at the air as he hurries toward the lame man who has now reached the low rung of the ladder to the main level, but he clearly can’t climb. I shout to the guard, “Stop! In the name of God! Help that fellow up the ladder!”
The guard seems confused by whose name we are stopping in.
He sees me, a monk with a helpless man on my back, and another at my arm, and he sees that third prisoner unable to climb the ladder. What he doesn’t see behind him, descending the cell’s ladder, is the Brother Ezra–Gabe and the Father. All this time the Father is calling out blessings for the prisoners, calling on God to forgive them and set them free pending their pleas of repentance.
Immediately Gabe and the Father are gone into the tunnel.
The guard slides his sword into the sheath, and picks up the man at the bottom of the ladder, and lays him across his shoulders like a cloak. Then he goes up the ladder ahead of me still bringing the two who are blind.
On the main level there is a ruckus. The two prisoners who escaped ahead of these have gone to the church and are beating on the locked doors with their prison chains and shouting. Some of the young soldiers practicing nearby are coming with wooden swords, and now the door of the church opens. Here is Greg, standing boldly, as a fully armed soldier flashing an actual sword, threatening these young soldiers. He guards the two prisoners as they enter the church then goes in behind them and the door is locked again. The soldiers go back to their pretend wars, and the prison guard and I arrive at the doors to the church with these other three freed prisoners still in our care.
The guard has the key to the church doors.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 