Harlequin

Harlequin
Bernard Cornwell

Harlequins are lost souls, so loved by the devil that he would not take them to hell, but left them to roam the earth. In French, the word is hellequin – the name given to the English archers who crossed the Channel to lay waste the towns and countryside.In the fourteenth century the English were just beginning to discover their national identity, and one of the strongest elements of this was the overwhelming success in battle of the English bowmen.England’s archers crossed the Channel to lay a country to waste. Thomas of Hookton was one of those archers. When his village is sacked by French raiders, he escapes from his father’s ambition to become a wild youth who delights in the opportunities which war offers – for fighting, for revenge and for friendship.But Thomas is hounded by his conscience. He has made a promise to God to retrieve a relic stolen in the raid from Hookton’s church. The search for the relic leads him into a world where lovers become enemies, enemies become friends and always, somewhere beyond the horizon that is smeared with the smoke of fires set by the rampaging English army, a terrible enemy awaits him.That enemy would harness the power of Christendom’s greatest relic – the grail itself. In this, the first book of a new series, Thomas begins the quest that will lead him through the fields of France, until at last the two armies face each other on a hillside near the village of Crecy.

BERNARD CORNWELL

Harlequin

Copyright (#u88eac42e-d5ef-5f8b-8f53-e6e6424c966b)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2000

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007338788

Version: 2018-04-20

HARLEQUIN

is for

Richard and Julie Rutherford-Moore

‘…many deadly battles have been fought, people slaughtered, churches robbed, souls destroyed, young women and virgins deflowered, respectable wives and widows dishonoured; towns, manors and buildings burned, and robberies, cruelties and ambushes committed on the highways. Justice has failed because of these things. The Christian faith has withered and commerce has perished and so many other wickednesses and horrid things have followed from these wars that they cannot be spoken, numbered or written down.’

JEAN II, KING OF FRANCE, 1360

Harlequin, probably derived from the Old French hellequin: a troop of the devil’s horsemen.

CONTENTS

Cover (#ue668f149-9b4a-5a35-acc5-27a8463c8f9e)

Title Page (#u6560fbdf-350f-5576-9793-b0120c5a7535)

Copyright (#ufb65e550-7dc2-56cc-bf09-cdab9d452157)

Dedication (#u347cd844-1339-54b2-97ea-801aeb41fd45)

Epigraph (#u65e65ea3-d310-592c-94fd-0de8c35e92b1)

Prologue (#u5254ffc3-1c41-5617-8621-6d09404742af)

Part One BRITTANY (#u11760d50-fdf2-5611-a607-1e5a30e429bf)

Chapter 1 (#u93feb441-3fa4-5a42-b4b2-bde151a53aa2)

Chapter 2 (#u5b7eecbb-324c-5766-85f5-092d16076ebf)

Chapter 3 (#ubf0a2aef-5da3-5919-9bef-51932bb71bbf)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two NORMANDY (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three CRÉCY (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Historical Note (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Bernard Cornwell (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#u88eac42e-d5ef-5f8b-8f53-e6e6424c966b)