Historical Setting: Jarrow, 794 C.E.
We are approaching the pauper’s wood, now in the dark. It is our instinct to follow the river more closely here to avoid crossing through this dreary wilderness at night. Watching our steps with the light puddle of the lantern, Ousbert’s soldier’s boots and my finely stitched shoes seem ill-suited for a visit to the paupers. Yet we carry a lantern and speak in our normal chatter so we must be a bold bright noise interrupting anyone who would be sleeping here this night.
We are confronted immediately. An old man is standing in our path, leaning on a stout, pointed stick, either a cane to support him, or a weapon to ward us off — I’m not sure of the purpose of that stick — but it is a solid branch.
“Ahh!” He speaks. “Not the King’s wood now. ‘Tis ours nee!”
Ousbert hands the lantern to me, as his right-hand rests on the hilt of his sword. He answers calmly.
“These forests are all the King’s lands.”
“Nay, no more! See this letter from the King?”
He reaches into his sash as though he has a dagger prepared for a confrontation. But Ousbert chooses to listen before he brings out his sword. And that’s good, because what the old man fumbles to finally bring forth is no knife. It is a scroll of parchment, dirty and tattered as is the man himself. He unrolls it and holds it up for Ousbert to see. Oustbert reaches for it, but the man pulls it away from him.
“It’s upside down.”
“It is a writing from the King.”
“May I see it?”
He holds it closer to Ousbert. By the light of the lantern, even though the man is holding it upside-down, it is easy to see it is written in the same hand as that ealdorman’s log book we’ve just been reading.
It says, “The king permits paupers to hunt rabbits in this wood.”
The man says, “Ye can’t read? It’s them scrawls in King’s ink that say the woods is ours. It were a deal we made. We traded the orphan girl for a King’s litter given every tree and beast in this wood to us. So let any man or beast that walk this path, beware!”
“It says the rabbits, in particular, should beware.”
“No, it says now we takes the toll from thems that passes this way.”
(Continues Tuesday, March 17, 2026)
Lazarus Ink 