The Omega Factor(37)
“He came,” Andre told him when he answered. “Then left in a hurry, with the two crosses.”
Perfect. Exactly what he wanted to happen.
“Were you able to record him?”
“I have a full video and pictures. His presence is well documented. He removed his collar before entering.”
“Little good that will do him.”
He prided himself on being quite knowledgeable about Cathar history and philosophy. But there was one other subject he’d become an expert on too. Gerard Vilamur. He’d studied that prelate for a long time and knew, without question, that once the archbishop saw that video he’d go straight to Tallard. He’d have no choice. That was why he’d so carefully phrased the text that accompanied it, and edited out the last part where Tallard admitted that Vilamur knew it all.
That, he would save for the next message.
The idea right now had been to draw the archbishop to the scene and create more incriminating evidence.
“Send me the video,” he told Andre. “Then head back here.”
He ended the call.
Things were on track with Vilamur.
And also in Ghent.
No one, other than Sister Deal, himself, and the curator, had laid eyes on the original Just Judges since 1934. Of the twelve panels for the Ghent Altarpiece only one had been stolen, then its back side returned, so only the Just Judges itself would be gone.
Why?
Investigators had pondered that mystery for a long time.
As had he.
What later generations would call the Hundred Years’ War raged from 1337 to 1453. It pitted the English, along with some rebellious French allies, against the remaining French nobles in a struggle not only for territory but over who should be the rightful king of France. Over the course of 116 years, five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought incessantly for the throne of the largest kingdom in western Europe. By 1429 it had devolved into a battle over whether Henry VI of England or the French dauphin, Charles, would assume that throne.
And the English were winning.
Then something wholly unexpected happened.
The appearance of seventeen-year-old Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans sparked a revival of French spirit, and the tide began to turn against the English. They had laid siege to Orléans in 1428 but had been unable to take the city. In 1429 Joan persuaded Charles to send her to Orléans, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. Her religious fervor raised the morale of the troops, and they attacked, lifting the siege. Inspired by Joan, the French claimed several more English strongholds along the river Loire. Those victories opened the way for the dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII, which happened on July 16, 1429.
Ultimately, the war affected alliances throughout France. Some nobles remained loyal to Charles, while others aligned with the English. The most powerful to take the English side was Philip, Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, Artois, and Franche-Comté. Philip fervently believed that Charles had been involved with the murder of his father, John the Fearless. So he waged a civil war on Charles, which eventually entangled itself in the larger Hundred Years’ conflict. In 1420 Philip formally allied himself with Henry V of England against Charles.
On May 23, 1430, Philip’s Burgundian troops captured Joan of Arc and sold her to the English, who orchestrated a heresy trial against her conducted by pro-Burgundian clerics that ended in her execution. The Hundred Years’ War continued for twenty-two years after her death. Eventually, Philip switched sides and joined with Charles VII, helping the French to finally banish the English from the continent. That move cemented his control over Burgundy and elevated him to the status of kingmaker.
Philip’s reign as duke was a long and enlightened one. So much so that he acquired the label of the Good. He eventually presided over an extended period of peace, which encouraged a flourishing of thought dominated by knightly chivalry. Though poverty remained rife, burghers grew wealthy from increased commerce and developed a highly genteel lifestyle. Philip himself maintained no fixed capital and moved between his two richest territories, Burgundy and Flanders, and his various palaces, the main ones being in Brussels, Bruges, and Lille. His court was regarded as the most splendid in Europe, a leader in taste and fashion, which catapulted Flemish goods into the most sought-after commodities in Europe.
During his forty-eight-year reign Philip added six hundred illuminated manuscripts to the ducal collection. He commissioned tapestries, jewelry, paintings, and other works of art. The Burgundian school of composers and singers rose to prominence. He was a serious patron of artists and only the best of the best worked for him.
One artist in particular always had his favor.
Jan van Eyck.
Bernat had studied van Eyck.
Born in Belgium sometime between 1380 and 1390. No one knew which year for sure. By 1422 he worked at The Hague as a master painter, then in 1425 he became Philip the Good’s court painter and confidant. So close were they that Philip became godfather to one of van Eyck’s sons. He also undertook a number of confidential spy missions abroad on Philip’s behalf for both diplomatic and intelligence purposes, and the Duke of Burgundy came to rely upon him.
Only about twenty works have ever been definitively attributed to van Eyck, all signed with his Als ich kan, As I can, which he added in Greek characters. He painted both secular and religious subjects as well as commissioned portraits. Philip paid him well and allowed him the artistic freedom to create whatever and whenever he pleased. All of his works emphasized naturalism and realism, creating a new level of virtuosity in the use of oil paint, the Ghent Altarpiece his crowning achievement. History labeled van Eyck a Renaissance man a hundred years before there was such a thing, and he lived a full life, dying in 1441. Now the resurrected Just Judges, existing only as images on a computer screen, was set to reappear before the world.