The rain shone against the leather of the tent, the light of lightning penetrated through the cracks at the top of the cone, King Edgar opened the tent with his scabbard, let the raindrops of mercury fall on his face, and felt the coolness of the turn of spring and summer on the end of his soft beard, and in this moment he remembered not the failure of the contest with the emperor or the anger of some Italian widow, but a lake of eyes and long hair darker than a raven's feathers.

How many years has it been? He couldn't help but think that she had probably forgotten about herself. The king's golden brooch vibrated slightly under the thunder, and the green leaf-shaped shading seemed to contain magic, and he heard his heart roar like a roaring dragon in the torrent of rain - hell, I am the king, should I leave all this behind and beg her to forgive me, for the sake of the child whom he had forsaken?

Edgar recalls over and over the sentence of Margaret's letter, the piece of paper he had thrown into the fireplace, but he will never forget its contents—his child is still alive, but he has lost all shelter, and may starve to death in the northern countryside at any moment.

Re-entering the tent, suddenly, a clear spring flowed out of the scabbard, and the silver sword arced in the air, and then fell, the rain was still falling outside, and Edgar felt a bitter throat, and an evil disease had seized him, it was the trick of the elves, and the creatures of the darkness often played tricks on humans.

The storm brought an early end to Cambrai's feast, and the King of England had to stay there to recuperate, until a month after Easter, when news came unexpectedly.

"Your Majesty, we must get out of here at once!" The Bishop of Canterbury spoke in a very anxious tone.

Edgar had gradually regained his senses, and he glanced at the Saxon guards who were on guard: "Is it finally started?" ”

"Has Your Majesty heard about it?" The bishop was taken aback, he felt a little incredulous, and then he looked suspicious.

"There's no need to panic, everything has already been arranged." Edgar said as a new guest walked in.

"Lord Godfrey?" The Bishop of Canterbury had already seen who the other party was.

Godfrey de Bouillon looked very calm, and behind him, a group of Flemish knights stood outside the tent and waited.

"Your Majesty, Henry's army has entered western Thuringia, and Rudolph is now unable to get out and can only rely on the army of the Duke of Saxony for protection. That Frederick of Weiblingen, after being canonized by the Emperor as Duke of Swabia, was occupying Rudolf's domain, and the position of the Zeelingens was unknown. "If it had been last year, every sentence from the mouth of the Flemish knight would have been enough to make a splash, but now it seems almost insignificant.

"Got it, let's go now, the matter of the emperor's split sect will soon spread around here, and we will talk about it on the road if there is anything." Edgar waved his hand and motioned for Ulf to prepare his horse.

The Bishop of Canterbury was a little distraught, but the crowd had no care to appease the old man, and the sound of the tents and carriages outside overshadowed everything, and when the Bishop went out into the sun, the soldiers were brushing off the dry mud from the tents and shouting at the others, which almost struck him a kind of absurdity: the whole of Christendom was collapsing, and yet these simple people seemed so calm, as if it were just another ordinary day in the sun.

As the hustle and bustle of the carriage and horses faded away, Cambrai fell silent again, no different from before.

When he saw the White Channel of Dover again, a voice came from Edgar's ear, and it was Bishop Leofrick exhaling in relief. Edgar didn't say anything, he couldn't bear to tell the old man that he was about to leave the shores of England again, wrestling with an unknowable fate.

But going home is going home after all, and the West Saxons cheered, just like the sailors Edgar had seen in his previous life who drank rum: return home safe and sound, and let him be stormy and vicious!

King Philip of France was at this time angry at Edgar's stupidity: this brother-in-law dragged himself into the trap of the treacherous Teutonic king without hesitation, and now in the eyes of Rome, I am afraid that the kings of England and France could not be separated from that appalling thing, after all, Henry had chosen the "Clement III" after meeting them, and anyone might think that there might be some tacit understanding between the three of them.

Worse still, Philip knew that he could only choose neutrality instead of clarifying himself to Rome, after all, the situation was chaotic now, and who knew if that Salian would conquer Rome and manipulate the high priest's throne like his father? Of course, if it weren't for the Council of Cambrai, his choice of neutrality between the emperor and the pope would not have been a great rebellion, but at the moment such neutrality may well have been naked malice in the eyes of Rome.

"That fool, how could I have listened to him......" Philip cursed in annoyance, "I'd like to see what else this fool can do." ”

Philip admits that he was a little careless in the face of Henry's wolf, but it is nothing compared to the stupid goose "Cousin Edgar" who took the initiative to crash into someone's snare. He couldn't believe that he had ever been jealous of that fool, and now it seemed that this guy was a wild boar, who knew nothing but rampage, and that he had overcome the Normans by his luck, and that he had made him famous, and Philip almost felt sorry for William, Duke of Normandy.

"Did the King of England really say that?"

"Yes, Holy Father." Madame Matilda replied respectfully that she was only an old man with a modest appearance, and that if it were not for the ring engraved with the fisherman's motif on his finger, almost no one would have believed that it was Pontifical Gregory VII himself.

The "pseudo-monk Hildebrand", as the emperor referred to him, had always disliked the ornate costumes, and he once joked to a cardinal: "My old skin and old face may only defile the precious silk in the eyes of the laity." However, no one in Christendom despised the Most Holy Father because of his appearance, and many years later, the Emperor Henry even offered to surrender his own Pope, Clement III, during the siege of the city, if he could be forgiven.

"We will pray for the soul of the King of England," Hildebrand seemed a little tired, but then became almost ferocious, "as for the soul of the puppet emperor, I am afraid that there is nothing we can do, and only the mighty God can judge ......"

The Pope's voice was so loud that it almost woke up the apostles on the wall: "We need to write at once to all the monarchs of Christendom to expose the sins of the usurpers, the Lord teaches us that only those who enter through the door are shepherds, and those who climb in from elsewhere are thieves!" Since the Puppet Emperor claimed that the power to defend the whole world belonged to Caesar, then we should give the King of England the title of 'Guardian of the Faith'. ”