Cadfael

Brother Cadfael:
If what we see as justice is denied us, who knows what we will do. 'A man may step outside his nature.' Peredur's words, not mine.

[first lines]

Brother Oswin:
My first bleeding.

Abbot Radulfus:
I give you this [hands Cadfael a purse] for safe-keeping. The journey being long and uncertain there may be need of funds. Let your brothers' eyes be raised to Heaven, Cadfael, but pray keep their feet on the ground

[last lines]

Brother Oswin:
Brother Cadfael, may I ask a question?

Brother Cadfael:
You may *ask* anything, Oswin.

Brother Oswin:
Do you really believe in the miraculous power of... bones?

Prior Robert:
Well, Brother Cadfael, answer your novice. Was your doubting of our rightness not misplaced? Will our saint not reach out to those who need her?

Brother Cadfael:
Oh, indeed, Brother Prior. I understand she even still works miracles in Wales.

[last lines]

Richildis:
Shall I see you again?

Brother Cadfael:
Under the certainty of heaven, all that we can be sure of is tomorrow. When yesterday is already ours, what more can we ask?

Brother Cadfael:
No man is measured by the love he gives to others but by how much he is loved.

Prior Robert:
[Hugh Beringar has been defending Cadfael's actions] My lord Beringar, it is not your place to intefere in the business of this Abbey!

Abbot Radulfus:
And it is not *your* place, Brother Prior, to speak to guests of this House in such a way! Furthermore, it is not your place to say who is fit to serve this House... but *mine*.

Richildis:
Oh, Cadfael... did you take it so hard? Did it have to be the cloister? I have wondered about you so often and for so long... I never knew I had done you such an injury.

Brother Cadfael:
The whole fault was mine. And I have wished you well always... as I do now.

Brother Cadfael:
[after Meurig has begged that Cadfael deliver him up to the authorities] What benefit to the world would your death bring?

Meurig:
What must I do, brother?

Brother Cadfael:
Give your love freely and look for nothing in return.

Richildis:
I thought you must have died fighting in the Holy Land. What happened? Did you forget your promise?

Brother Cadfael:
No, not forget, not that. But whenever my thoughts strayed towards home, there was always something... it seemed important then.

Richildis:
I waited, Cadfael. Eight years. You vowed to return laden with honors to claim me as your bride.

Brother Cadfael:
So I did. Well, the honors were too few and my return was too late.

Richildis:
I never thought to look on your face again in this world.

Brother Cadfael:
You are happy?

Richildis:
To have found you again, yes!

Richildis:
I know the pains you went to on Edwin's behalf were not without cost.

Brother Cadfael:
I did what had to be done, no more... and whatever the cost, it was but little against what I owed... and well worth the pains.

Richildis:
You are not in debt to me, Cadfael, real or imagined. You have delivered my son from the executioner's rope; if there's anything owed-...

Brother Cadfael:
To part in friendship is a reward greater than I could have hoped for.

Richildis:
Must it be a parting? Come with me!

Brother Cadfael:
[pause, then] I took my vows for life, Richildis.

[last lines]

Hugh Beringar:
I would know more of you, Cadfael. In this new town of mine I shall need a good friend. And I can think of none better than a rare Benedictine.

Brother Cadfael:
Then in this end there is a beginning as well. And that is as it should be.

Brother Cadfael:
All questions find answers if you wait long enough.

[Cadfael and Hugh return to Cadfael's workshop]

Brother Cadfael:
Would you like to taste my wine?

Hugh Beringar:
Oh, gladly! And I'll drink to your better success, against all opponents but Hugh Beringar.

Brother Cadfael:
[finding his wine] This at least the mercenaries missed...

[Hugh opens the treasure sack, and finds nothing inside except stones]

Hugh Beringar:
And I've been commiserating with you all this time, when you had this in store for me! What a fool I was to think I could out-trick you...

Brother Cadfael:
[handing him wine] Now I'll drink to your better success, against all opponents but Cadfael.

Hugh Beringar:
[as he and Cadfael watch Godith and Torold depart] You'll miss her.

Brother Cadfael:
Like a fiber gone from my heart.

Brother Cadfael:
[to Godith and Torold] All I have to do now is conjure two good horses out of empty air, retrieve your hidden treasure for you and see you safely into Wales... well, harder things are done daily by the saints.

Sergeant Rhys:
Your voice is familiar to me. I should know you, brother.

Brother Cadfael:
So you should, Sergeant Rhys. But small wonder if my name escapes you. Forty years have gone by since we fought together... at the taking of Jerusalem.

Sergeant Rhys:
[turns aside, trying to remember, then:] No... no! Cadfael? [Cadfael nods, grinning] CADFAEL! [He throws his arms around Cadfael and the two men embrace]

Brother Cadfael:
[to Hugh Beringar] There's little I would put out of your scope... but killing by stealth? No, that I would never look for.

Brother Cadfael:
I wonder about you too. A natural conspirator, I'd say.

Hugh Beringar:
Yes, well, one knows another.

Hugh Beringar:
[he comes upon Cafdael working in his herb garden] A pleasant change from harvesting dead men, brother.

Brother Cadfael:
I hope we've finished with *that* kind of crop in Shrewsbury.

Hugh Beringar:
They say you had a wide-ranging career before coming to the cloister. You must find it unbearably dull here after such battles, with no enemy left to fight.

Brother Cadfael:
Well, I'm not finding it at all dull these days.

Brother Cadfael:
Is there something here I can help you to? Or are you just curious to learn about these simple herbs of mine?

Hugh Beringar:
I'd hardly say it was any simplicity I came to study.

Godith:
[referring to Brother Cadfael] *He* at least can tell a hart from a hind!

Hugh Beringar:
[after Adam Courcelles has been killed in the trial-by-combat] I trust I've proven my case?

King Stephen:
Your opponent proved it for you, all too well.

Brother Cadfael:
We deal with what is. Leave what might have been to eyes that can see it plainly.

Hugh Beringar:
And none see plainer than yours.

Hugh Beringar:
[before the trial-by-combat begins] I knew you wouldn't fail me.

Brother Cadfael:
Now see that *you* don't fail *me*.

Hugh Beringar:
No dread. I shall never be readier, and your arm will be seconding mine.

Brother Cadfael:
Yes, at every stroke.

Brother Cadfael:
Oswin. When you entered these walls you renounced the world... not your senses!

[first lines]

Leoric Ashby:
Master Clemence.

Peter Clemence:
Leoric.

Leoric Ashby:
[to Meriet] Take his horse, boy. Welcome to Ashby Manor.

Peter Clemence:
[dismounts into a puddle] The pleasure is all yours... cousin.

Brother Cadfael:
You could have been excommunicated. Assault upon your priest and confessor! Though I won't deny I have wanted to strangle Brother Jerome at times myself.

Abbot Radulfus:
How is Brother Jerome?

Brother Cadfael:
Oh, his throat will mend, but a week or two will pass before his voice returns.

Abbot Radulfus:
Then even in the worst deed, there is some good.

[last lines]

Brother Cadfael:
Well then, off you go. Your vocation is elsewhere.

Meriet Ashby:
And yours is truly here?

Brother Cadfael:
Oh, yes, it is. And not merely from atonement and weariness. In middle life you too may stop and look inside yourself and wonder, "what now?" I was ripe for change, and I find that change refreshing.

Meriet Ashby:
But I shall be married then, with twelve children.

Isobel:
We'll see about the twelve. [Meriet laughs] God keep you, Brother Cadfael.

Brother Cadfael:
I hope he will.

[Meriet and Isobel leave]

Brother Cadfael:
I hope he will.

[Clemence is "regaling" the company at dinner]

Peter Clemence:
...and the Church is not sure which side the nobles favor in the civil war.

[pause]

Peter Clemence:
You *do* know that there is a civil war between King Stephen and his frightful cousin Maud, for the crown of England?

Meriet Ashby:
[levelly] We have had friends die in it, sir.

[an arrow hits a tree over Cadfael's head. He ducks. Isobel appears, carrying her bow]

Isobel:
Sorry, brother, I mistook you for a wild pig. Well, not strictly true, I sought you out.

Brother Cadfael:
You're not the first today.

Isobel:
Shall we talk... or must you not sit with women?

Brother Cadfael:
[smiles] I will sit with pleasure.

Leoric Ashby:
I have misprized you, Meriet. Almost from the day that you were born.

Meriet Ashby:
The fault was not all yours, sir. No man could have had a more irksome son.

[Leoric laughs, then begins to cry and hugs Meriet close]

Leoric Ashby:
Come home.

Abbot Radulfus:
What is your prayer, my son?

Meriet Ashby:
Father, to enter the cloistered life and serve God.

Abbot Radulfus:
The life you seek is a hard one. Are you ready to accept that hardship, to obey and to bear ignominy for the love of Christ?

Meriet Ashby:
Yes, by the grace of God.

Abbot Radulfus:
Stand.

[Meriet does]

Abbot Radulfus:
Are you freeborn, in good health, and free from incurable disease?

Meriet Ashby:
Yes, by the grace of God.

Abbot Radulfus:
Are you free from debt and irregularities?

Meriet Ashby:
Yes, by the grace of God.

Abbot Radulfus:
Are you bound by promise of marriage?

Meriet Ashby:
No, by the grace of God.

Abbot Radulfus:
Then your prayer is granted.

[Eluard is called to examine the burned skeleton found in the forest]

Canon Eluard:
My Bishop will be sorely grieved.

Sergeant Warden:
It is Clemence, my lord?

Canon Eluard:
[looks at the bare skull] The smile is the same.

Leoric Ashby:
It was not well done, and against my conscience, but I did it. And I did it not for Meriet's sake, not for my own flesh and blood - that's the real shame - but to preserve that worthless thing called "honor."

Brother Cadfael:
No, honor is not worthless. But you sought to protect a family name. And a name, alone, has no value at all.

Prior Robert:
Brother Cadfael was a soldier.

Prior Herluin:
He came to God late then?

Brother Cadfael:
I came when he called.

Prior Robert:
You can;t take St; Winifred. Without her, Shrewsbury would be nothing!

Daalny:
You mean it's just bones?

Prior Herluin:
Those bones connect the earth to Heaven, and your presence defiles them.

Lady Donata Blount:
[Smelling Cadfael's medicine] Ooh... snails again!

Brother Cadfael:
It'll help with the pain.

Brother Cadfael:
Ambition is a vicious mistress.

Lady Donata Blount:
At my age I can tempt fate.

Prior Herluin:
If you think I've walked 200 miles so you can sing with a tavern slut, you can think again.

Lord Hugh Beringar:
The church disapproves of slavery but not the slave.

[last lines]

Brother Cadfael:
Remember, my lord de Massard... God sees not with the eyes of man. Man beholds only the outward appearance. God looks on the heart.

Lazarus the Leper:
Then he shall find it here.

Brother Cadfael:
And he shall find it beautiful. As I do.

[examining a dead body]

Brother Cadfael:
But the most interesting aspect of this matter--

Prior Robert:
Interesting? We don't all share your morbid propensities, Brother.

Brother Cadfael:
Revealing, then.

Brother Cadfael:
You know, I sometimes think that the senses are the gateway to the soul. We should celebrate them more.

Avice of Thornbury:
Sounds rather heretical, Cadfael.

Brother Cadfael:
Sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith.

Godfrid Piccard:
You'll not get your hands on Iveta's fortune so easily, boy.

Joscelyn:
Don't judge all men by your own base measure, Master Piccard.

Brother Cadfael:
But your leprosy is no longer contagious! You are a danger to no man or woman, and whatever name you've been using these past years you are still Guimar de Massard. Iveta would revere you and delight in you... why not give her hand in marraige to young Joscelyn?

Lazarus the Leper:
Brother, you speak of what you do not understand! Leave my bones and my grave and my legend alone! I am a dead man!

Brother Cadfael:
But there was one Lazarus who did rise again from his tomb, to the great joy of his kinswomen.

Lazarus the Leper:
Is *this* the face that made his sisters glad? [He pulls aside his veil to reveal his horribly disfigured face] Let me remain dead, Brother Cadfael.

Brother Cadfael:
Iveta and Joscelyn intend coming here to see you.

Lazarus the Leper:
Well, we wandering lepers are notoriously vague. Relics, we drift from shrine to shrine staying nowhere long. The fit takes us and the wind blows us away like dust. Tell them all is well with me... for with the dead, all is very well. Pray for me, brother... I shall come no more to Shrewsbury.

Avice of Thornbury:
In all my life, I've avoided one sin at least... I do not lie.

Brother Cadfael:
[reviewing the death of Godfrid Picard] A man dies, strangled... yet he was armed. And he'd had time to draw his dagger... to draw but not strike; it lay by his side, unbloodied. Now those who kill with their hands do so because they have no other weapon.

Hugh Beringar:
Who, then? Who would engage with an armed man with nothing but his bare hands? None but a fool.

Brother Cadfael:
[pause, then] Or one with little left to lose.

Avice of Thornbury:
We all need companionship, don't you think?

Brother Cadfael:
Yes, I do.

Avice of Thornbury:
Have you ever sought the companionship of another human being?

Brother Cadfael:
I have, yes, but it was not to be. Now I have the company of my fellow brothers and the companionship of Christ.

Avice of Thornbury:
That gives you joy?

Brother Cadfael:
Contentment, yes. That is all I ask for.

Avice of Thornbury:
You've no regrets?

Brother Cadfael:
Which of us can say that?

Lazarus the Leper:
You speak only of Domville. What of the second murder? I hope that no innocent man has been accused of that.

Brother Cadfael:
Godfrid Picard was not murdered.

Lazarus the Leper:
What do you mean?

Brother Cadfael:
He was stopped in the forest, and challenged to single combat. He was armed with a dagger, his opponent had only his bare hands. Picard must have thought it would be so easy, but he didn't know that his opponent possess the lion's heart.

Lazarus the Leper:
It must have been some very grave quarrel between these two.

Brother Cadfael:
The oldest and the gravest: the shameful mistreatment of a lady.

Lazarus the Leper:
Take me one step further, Brother, and tell me his name.

Brother Cadfael:
It was you... Guimar de Massard.

Lazarus the Leper:
Should I know that name?

Brother Cadfael:
My Lord de Massard, I was present at the fall of Jerusalem, twenty years ago, I saw you breach the gate. I was at Ascalon too, against the Fatimids of Egypt. Why, after that, did you let yourself be given up for dead?

Lazarus the Leper:
[chuckles] Brother, I think you ask what you already know. The Fatimids have excellent physicians, wiser than any here. They recognized the first bitter signs. I had to protect my wife and my son from contagion. I went to live in a hermitage, and sent my sword and my shield back.

Brother Cadfael:
Iveta treasures them.

Lazarus the Leper:
I returned, when I heard that my son had died, leaving behind an orphaned child. My granddaughter, Iveta. I wanted to see her enjoy her fortune. Instead, I found that Picard was ruining her life! So I ended his.

Gunnild:
Bread and shelter! Bread and shelter! What about my other needs?

Lord Hugh Beringar:
[to Cadfael] People do die by other than murder.

Abbot Radulfus:
What plague have we brought upon the town! If she took her own life, then she is damned and must be buried in unconsecrated ground, but if she was murdered, she may have Christian burial and be at peace. Brother Cadfael, her immortal soul is at stake! You must find the truth!

Brother Cadfael:
Truth and justice are not always wholly compatible.

Cadfael:
Oswin, it surely is not in your vows to listen to gossip.

Brother Oswin:
No, brother.

Cadfael:
Well, don't let that stop you.

Cadfael:
The Law judges the crime, not the man.

Sister Magdalen:
Strange that love can be more dangerous than hate!

[last lines]

Sheriff Hugh Beringar:
Old friend, I doubt even you can get Susanna into the fold among the lambs. Now she chose her way and it's taken her far out of the reach of man's mercy. Oh, and now I suppose you'll tell me that God's reach is longer than man's.

Brother Cadfael:
It had better be. Otherwise we're all lost.

Sheriff Hugh Beringar:
Hmmm...

Susanna Aurifaber:
In this world, what we deserve and what we receive are rarely the same.

Brother Cadfael:
[to Daniel Aurifaber] Put up that dagger or court your soul's damnation!

Prior Robert:
[a mob is yeling for Liliwin's blood] Surely they will deliver him up to the law!

Brother Cadfael:
Yes, by way of the nearest tree!

Liliwin:
Oh, brother, I want to tell you, but I doubt it's in your understanding. We never intended evil, but we committed a terrible sacrilege here in the church. How can I tell one who's never known?

Brother Cadfael:
You lay together as lovers.

Liliwin:
Are we damned, brother?

Brother Cadfael:
Do you love tbis girl?

Liliwin:
Love her? With all my heart I love her; she's my life's breath!

Brother Cadfael:
Where there is mutual love, I find it hard to consider any place too holy to house it... any place.

Sheriff Hugh Beringar:
I tell you they came to the castle this afternoon, under Margery's urging no doubt. His face, Cadfael... you should have seen his face. Daniel Aurifaber, the true penitent.

Brother Cadfael:
But do you believe him, that he spent that night with another women?

Sheriff Hugh Beringar:
You may wear the cowl now, Cadfaekl, but it was not always so. You're not entirely without experience of these matters... more so than me, I sometimes think.

Brother Cadfael:
[to Juliana Aurifaber] I wonder I shouldn't be telling you to stamp about the house all day. Hm? Then perhaps you might do the opposite.

Susanna Aurifaber:
I have my pride... even if no other regards it.

Juliana Aurifaber:
[her dying words] I bred them... but for all that, I... would have liked to... hold my... great-grandchild.

Sheriff Hugh Beringar:
[to Cadfael] From experience, you're not easily deceived... but I also know you'd seek goodness in the blackest of hearts.

Susanna Aurifaber:
[to Cadfael] This is not the Holy Church's child! He belongs with me and Iestyn... no other shall ever cradle him!

Brother Cadfael:
He is *not* wholly yours. He is his own, your may-be child Why should he pay the price of your sins? It was not he who trampled Baldwin Peche into the mud of the Severn!

Susanna Aurifaber:
We three here together are made one! The only trinity I acknowledge now!

Brother Cadfael:
There is a fourth... she also loves! Why destroy another pair of lives as little blessed as yourselves?

Susanna Aurifaber:
If I must pull the roof down on myself, I will not go alone into the dark!

Susanna Aurifaber:
[to Walter Aurifaber] May you be fed molten gold in Hell until your belly and throat burn into ashes!

Brother Cadfael:
There's no shame in tears when they are worth the shedding.

[after hearing a ridiculous theory]

Hugh Beringar:
You might equally suggest that the earth moves around the sun with as little proof!

[first lines]

Sister Hilaria:
I can't go on, Brother Oswin.

Brother Oswin:
You can. You must. Here, take my cloak, Sister Hilaria.

[they struggle on through the storm]

Brother Oswin:
Praise God! Look, Sister, look. Shelter.

Brother Cadfael:
The sister, Ermina, is fifteen, and fair like her brother. The sub-prior wrote that she could be reckoned very beautiful. [Hugh Beringar grins widely] Even sub-priors know beauty when they see it.

Ermina Hugonin:
Why did it happen to Hilaria, the kindest and most innocent of souls? What had she done?

Brother Cadfael:
Prior Robert would have it that such things are sent to test our faith. There must be a better way.

[last lines]

Hugh Beringar:
Got the children away then?

Brother Cadfael:
What else should I have done? Their safety was entrusted to Sister Hilaria, and when I found her that responsibility became mine. I would not have her mission fail.

Hugh Beringar:
Well. They'll be with their uncle in good time for Christmas. My only regret is I never met their guardian, Ermina's woodsman. Who was he, Cadfael?

Brother Cadfael:
He was... he was a son any father would be proud of.

Abbot Radulfus:
[as Cadfael is preparing to go out in search of Yves and Oswin] Must you go?

Brother Cadfael:
Yes, Father, I must. Ever since Brother Oswin first came to our House, he's been as a son to me. I should never have left him alone with Yves... now my foolishness has lost them both. I must put it right. [He mounts his horse]

Abbot Radulfus:
And if I order against it? [Cadfael looks at him, but says nothing. Radalfus nods, then makes the sign of the Cross over him] Then go with my blessing.

Ermina Hugonin:
If I'd not set my heart on marrying Richard... if I'd consented to go with Brother Oswin, Sister Hilaria would be living now!

Brother Cadfael:
There's no profit in ifs, child. We go drom where we stand. We answer for our own evil and we leave the rest to God.

Ermina Hugonin:
And where was God when she was violated and murdered?

Brother Cadfael:
He was taking note of all... and making a place for her beside Him.

Brother Cadfael:
[to the unconscious Oswin] Come back to us, Oswin... I miss you, boy. I would sacrifice a thousand pots to your clumsiness if you come back.

Le Gaucher:
[to Oswin before his men attack him] A fine evening, brother.

Oliver de Bretagne:
[his dagger is at Cadfael's throat] I think I have the better of you, brother.

Brother Cadfael:
And I think we should both have died. [Olivier looks down to see Cadfael's dagger at his heart]

Oliver de Bretagne:
You're quick... for an old man.

Brother Cadfael:
And you're over-careless for a young one. You must always beware of the unexpected stroke... Olivier.

Hugh Beringar:
[discussing with Cadfael Brother Oswin's near-murder] Christ God, Cadfael, what kind of man would do such a thing?

Brother Cadfael:
The kind that kills for sport... or pleasure.

Brother Cadfael:
[meeting Ermina Hugonin and narrowly avoiding her dagger] Good day, my lady Ermina.

Brother Cadfael:
Truth is never a wrong answer.

Brother Cadfael:
[to Oswin] You are the best of us... but you ask too much of yourself and you undervalue what you do give.

Ermina Hugonin:
I never thought to hear myself say it before, but Yves means more to me than Richard ever could.

Brother Cadfael:
Strange how it's often the threat of loss that makes us realize what we value most.

Brother Cadfael:
[in voiceover, while praying] This was an unexpected stroke. I never thought... that so marvelous a creature could be in this world with mine and Mariam's blood in his veins. Should I have told him? No... what needs he now of a father? But by Your Grace, I have seen him... I have sat and talked with him of times past... I have kissed him... I have had cause to glad of him. And shall have cause to feel glad all life long. What does it matter if these eyes may ever see him again? And yet... they may.

Oliver de Bretagne:
[telling Cadfael of his English father and Syrian mother] She often praised him as brave and kind. There cannot be much wrong with a mating that left her with such fondness and pride. My mother bore the same name as your lady Mary, though in our tongue is would be said Mariam. Perhaps you met her if you were in the Holy Land or knew my father?

Brother Cadfael:
[realizing Olivier is his son, his face is sturned away so that Olivier can't see his expresion] Some one like him, perhaps... once, long ago. But your mother... from what you've told me, I'm certain I should have remembered her... all my life