Chapter 37
In awed silence the family gathered inside the black iron fence. Only the twins were absent. Iain, having decided they were too young to be involved, had sent them to visit a friend. Agnes had accompanied them. Only Meleri and Lady Margaret stood quietly watching as Robert, Iain and Hugh dug into the soft earth beneath the wide spread of a marble angel’s wings.
“I pray ’tis not the grave of a child,” Lady Margaret said.
“‘I have returned, I did not lie,’” Meleri said, reciting the last lines from the rhyme. “Everything will be as he said and ‘from these ashes a fire shall awaken.’ The jewels will be there.” Wrapped in memory, she stood as still and silent as a tree. The grave was deep. It would not be long now.
The scraping sound of metal dragged against damp wood sent a cold shiver over her, and her heart stilled when Robert said, “We’ve found it. It is a casket.”
“A grave,” Lady Margaret said, her voice heavy with disappointment.
“No. It isn’t a grave. Open it,” she said to Robert. “Open it and see what is inside. You won’t find a body…there will be nothing there except the jewels.”
The men lifted the small wooden casket out of the ground. Meleri felt limp with a mixture of relief and anxiety. Her heart was beating suffocatingly fast. Robert turned to glance at his wife, then said something to Iain before he went to stand beside her. He gathered her to his side and stood with his arm around her as they watched together. The wood was soft and rotten in places, which enabled Hugh and Iain to break it apart easily. Inside, lay a smaller stone casket.
Iain and Hugh exchanged glances, then turned to look at Robert. Nothing stirred. Nothing moved. The moment was here at last, she thought. After almost three centuries, the wait would soon be over. At last, when no one could stand the tension any longer, Robert said, “Open it.”
He pulled her more tightly against him and took her hand in his, to bring it to his lips, where he kissed her palm, then folded her fingers over it. “Hold on to that,” he whispered.
She did as he asked, clutching her fist so tightly she could feel the bite of her nails digging into her skin. She glanced up once into his deep blue eyes and found not only the understanding, the patience that he had always shown her, but also love and reassurance. Together, they turned to watch.
Hugh let forth a jubilant cry. “A jewel casket! By the love of St. Andrew, we have found it.”
Iain lifted it up so everyone could see. The lock was corroded and broke easily. Meleri held her breath.
With one swift movement, Iain threw back the lid of the casket and she heard him exclaim, “It’s empty. There is nothing here but a small oiled pouch.”
She stood there, weak kneed and feeling as if she had stared too long into the sun. She was certain it would be here. But it was not. I have returned. I did not lie. She clutched Robert’s arm. “It is here. He wouldn’t lie to us. I know it. We have to keep looking. It is here.”
“See what is inside the pouch,” Robert said
Iain unwrapped it and removed a ragged bit of linen. Inside that he found an aged piece of leather. He opened the leather and withdrew an old, yellowed piece of parchment, folded in half and in half again. He unfolded the parchment and spread it out on the top of a marble gravestone. Everyone gathered around. “What does it say?” Meleri asked.
“It’s a map,” Iain said.
“Of the crypts,” Robert added, turning the map.
After studying it for several minutes, Robert said, “It looks like there is another burial chamber behind the crypt where Andrew Douglas is buried.”
“Aye,” Iain said. “We would have to remove Andrew’s casket in order to get to the other chamber.”
“The jewels are hidden there?” asked Lady Margaret.
“That is what we intend to find out,” Robert said.
Soon, they had all gathered near the crypts. The stone that sealed the crypt of Andrew Douglas was removed. Stale, dead air rushed out into the room, and Meleri turned her head away, not watching, but listening to the scraping sound of Andrew’s casket being pulled from the small chamber it occupied. Only when it was safely laid on the chapel floor did she turn to look at the empty crypt.
Robert looked inside. “Bring a lamp.”
Hugh held one up for Robert, who climbed inside the crypt. “Here is the stone at the back, but I’m not certain how to open it.” He crawled back out. “It seems solidly set in between the other stones. I don’t know how we could move it, other than to tear into the wall.” He began to look at the crypt again. “I wonder…”
“What are you thinking?” Iain asked.
“Look at the way these slabs are set. It would appear that the top, back and side stones were set first, with the bottom slab put in last, almost as if it were pushed into place.”
Iain studied the crypt. “If that is the case, then we should be able to pull the slab out.”
Iain, Hugh and Robert worked for more than an hour, trying to remove the slab, but could not. “There must be another way,” Hugh said.
Meleri’s curiosity got the better of her and she came closer and looked into the crypt. She studied the stone slabs and understood why Robert thought the bottom slab had to be removed, for it held the other slabs in place. “What if you didn’t remove the slab, but lifted it up and stood it on its side?”
The three men stared at one another, then Iain laughed and slapped the other two on the back. “It takes a lass,” he said.
The three of them tried for several minutes to push the right side of the stone upward, but it would not budge. Meleri couldn’t understand why they persisted, but stubbornness seemed to be the way the mind of a man worked, especially if he was a Scot. “Why don’t you try the other side?” she asked.
Robert gave her an irritated look that said he did not think that was going to do anything, either, but he followed Iain and Hugh’s lead and began to put all his weight behind a mighty push. Suddenly, the slab moved, so quickly it seemed to have a power all its own. The moment it reached a position that was perpendicular to its former position, the other slabs began to move, folding and falling like toppled gravestones, one after the other, until Robert exclaimed, “There’s a small stairway beneath here.”
They removed one remaining slab that blocked their way. Meleri could see that now the crypt looked more like a small entry that led to the hidden stairs. Robert took the lamp and walked inside, ducking his head. Meleri fell in behind him, then Hugh and Lady Margaret, who was helped by Iain. They went down the staircase, which was circular and opened into a small chamber below the chapel floor. There in the chamber were five chests. A stone table stood in the middle of the room. The top of the table was a stone slab with hieroglyphic writing, which no one understood. Strange symbols and writings were etched in the stonework along the walls. “What do you make of it?” Hugh asked.
“These look remarkably like the symbols etched in the stone-work of Rosslyn Chapel,” Iain said.
“Where is that?” Meleri asked.
“It’s near Hawthornden Castle, home of the Sinclairs,” Robert replied.
“I was there once, many years ago,” continued Iain. “The etchings are said to be Templar and Holy Grail symbols. Rosslyn was at one time spelled Roslin, which means Blood of Christ. Legend has long had it that many of the Knights Templar settled in Scotland after they were forced out of France, where many of their numbers were burned at the stake. It was said they fought beside Robert the Bruce. Sir Henry St. Clair of Roslin also befriended them. Sir Henry’s son, Sir William, accompanied our ancestor, Sir James Douglas, with the heart of Bruce, and died with him, fighting the Moors in Spain. Before long, they changed the spelling of their name from the Norman spelling to Sinclair.”
“But why would there be Templar markings here, in this chapel?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know,” Iain said.
“Why don’t you open some of the chests and see if there is anything in there to give you a clue,” Lady Margaret said.
One by one, the chests were opened, and for some time, everyone was too stunned to speak. The chests were filled with far more than the Douglas jewels, which were found in a small chest. The family jewels were quite valuable, with a sapphire that was, as Lady Margaret said, “as big as hope.” It also contained a gold crown set with rubies, a golden mermaid set with jewels and eyes of large emeralds. There was a heavy gold necklace with an Egyptian scarab, a large engraved amethyst, a very heavy bracelet with hieroglyphic markings, as well as pearl hat pins, emerald and diamond brooches, and rings set with stones of every color. But these jewels were minimal in comparison to what was found in the other chests, for inside those were vast amounts of silver and gold, mostly in the form of jewelry and coins. Two chests contained nothing but ingots.
“It can only be part of the Templar wealth,” Iain said. “At one time, the Templars owned over nine thousand manors and castles all over Europe. Their wealth supported the largest banking systems. It also caused suspicion and jealousy among the European nobility, primarily, King Philip IV of France. He convinced the pope that the Knights Templar were not defenders of the faith, but were trying to destroy it. The pope ordered the king to arrest them, but when the king’s men went to the castles, many of the manors were abandoned, and the large naval force anchored at La Rochelle was gone. Where those eighteen vessels and all the wealth they carried went, no one knows.”
“You think this might be part of it?” Robert asked.
“Aye, I think it must have come from the connection between William Sinclair and James Douglas, and that ties in some way with our ghost and Meleri’s Templar ancestor.”
“Perhaps we can delve into this more. We might start by going to Rosslyn,” Robert said.
“Never explore a gift too critically,” Lady Margaret said. “To do so might be a good way to lose it.”
“There is more here than we can spend in a lifetime,” Hugh said.
“I don’t want to take it,” Meleri said, and everyone turned to look at her.
“What do you mean?” Hugh asked.
“I don’t want to remove any of it.”
“You want to leave it here?” Robert asked.
“Some of it, yes. It is obvious we don’t need all of this, just as Hugh said. It can only cause problems for us. Soon we would worry about being swindled, or robbed. It would change our lives. I don’t know why, but I feel very strongly that we should take the Douglas jewels and leave the rest here.”
“Don’t you want to take a little of the other?” Hugh asked. “A few coins, a bar of gold?”
“No. I think we should take what is ours and leave the rest. Perhaps another Douglas living in another time will have need of it. I would like to think it would be here for him.”
“She is right,” Robert said, and he put his arm around her and hugged her tightly. “Our own family wealth is ample enough and will see us through the restoration of our home and lands. What would we do with so much wealth?”
“I can give you a list,” Hugh said.
“I agree with Meleri,” Lady Margaret said. “Too much money can ruin a family. I would not want the results of greed to destroy us.”
“I think you are right,” Iain said. “I think we will fare much better by taking what is rightfully ours.”
Robert, Meleri, Lady Margaret and Iain all stared at Hugh, who laughed and said, “Don’t look at me. When have I ever gone against anything this family did? Besides, I intend to marry a rich lassie.”
Robert glanced at Meleri with a teasing look. “And where do you plan to find such a lassie?” he asked.
“England,” Hugh said, and everyone laughed.