The Earl's ManChapter 14 free porn video

The quiet undercurrent of conversation in the Main Hall ceased when one of the guards hurriedly entered and announced that the new Pope had arrived in Rouen and, “humbly requests an audience with Grand Duke Miller.”

I quickly dispatched a messenger to let him know he was welcome. Evidently, he chose to walk from the docks, declining offers of horses or a carriage. I called out the city’s militia to keep order along the route from the docks to the castle, and had a messenger stand by ready to take a message to Clairvaux’s family as soon as I learned anything from the Pope.

Periodic messengers kept us informed of his progress, although none knew the identity of the new Pope. None of those who accompanied him would speak his name, and the Pope himself wore a simple, unadorned white wool cloak with a hood hiding his face since he walked with his head bowed.

“His Holiness Pope Michael I,” the guard announced loud enough to hush the entire packed hall once the Pope entered. Hoping to avoid the same animosity that had festered between the last Pope and myself, I rose to meet him as he walked in. Almost immediately, he genuflected, holding his position noticeably longer than expected. When he rose and threw back his hood, it still took me a moment to recognize Clairvaux.

Grinning mischievously when he saw the realization on my face, he finally approached. “I hope I cause no offense by taking your name as my Regnal name, but felt it was only appropriate to call myself after the man I hope to emulate,” he said.

“Not at all,” I answered, still stunned and barely able to think just then.

“Pope Boniface elevated me to the station of Cardinal, hoping it would help appease you and ease tensions between the two of you. Evidently, someone who knew what he was going to do called all the other Cardinals to Rome as soon as I arrived, and then proceeded to poison Pope Boniface. Nobody claims to know who it was, but I let it be known I expect the person to be gone permanently from Rome when I return.

“You were the first thing the Cardinals talked about. They wanted to know everything I knew about you, hoping to use it against you. I told them what I knew. I told them I didn’t always agree with you, but I had yet to find anyone to whom you broke your word.

“I told them how you and your wives worked side-by-side that first winter with the thousands of peasants who had been relocated here and how you let thousands of them live and eat in the castle to keep them alive through the winter when you were almost overrun with refugees. I reminded them that you had never attacked anyone who did not first attack you or an ally, and that most of your enemies quickly become staunch allies. They were amazed at the story of Mayor Bayard, and of the attack on the troops of Duke de Melun when they arrived at Paris.

“I also told them that you made me face my own shortcomings and realize that, without the forgiveness available through our Lord and Savior, I wouldn’t be worthy of being a priest or bishop, let alone Archbishop or even Cardinal. I told them about getting my current wife pregnant before I was allowed to marry. I told them about remaining inside my comfortable residence or the cathedral all through the first winter while you and everyone else were outside, building homes for the new arrivals.

“I told them how I waited impatiently for my servants to prepare my lavish meals while you and others went out in the cold, wet weather to hunt enough game for the rest of the population to survive that first winter. I explained how I felt a smug sense of satisfaction watching everyone working together to help the poor until I realized that you did it all winter. While I was inside, complaining each time someone opened a door and let in a cold draft, you were out in the cold and snow, wearing the same clothing as the peasants because you had given your good clothing to them to keep them alive.

“My smugness had been suddenly replaced by an acute realization of what a pompous, arrogant fool I was. While I grudgingly doled out small coins to the needy, you gave them your time, your clothing, and the available food, eating the same food they did, and even shared your home.

“After that admission, I was stunned when my name was still raised to be the new Pope, and even more stunned when mine was the only one. I learned afterwards that they were tired of the politics, tired of the infighting, tired of the worldly distractions, and tired of the pompousness. They wanted someone humble to set an example. The fact that you were willing to protect me impressed them immensely and they hope to get beyond the previous animosity between you and the church.”

“My animosity was only directed towards one individual within the church and that problem has been eliminated,” I clarified.

A minor commotion in the crowd turned out to be Clairvaux’s two wives and four children, surprised and excited to see him. Decorum was forgotten as they rushed to him, more relieved to find that he was safe than impressed with his new station.

His family was invited to stay for dinner. During dinner, Clairvaux asked if I would consider accompanying him to meet Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad so he could personally give his pledge there would be no further Crusades. He also hoped to be allowed to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before returning to Rome. Messengers were dispatched to make the arrangements so we could sail in a couple of days--after Clairvaux had a chance to spend some time with his family. A ship was dispatched immediately to let Al-Nasir know that we would be arriving a few days after the messenger.

Salih and her brother left Rouen the day before Clairvaux and I left. She had been upset to learn that she had insisted her husband lead a lifestyle that was far more lavish than even mine was. She also found a new outlet for her energy--helping her husband direct the changes he was making in his Emirate instead of collecting an army of servants to direct.

Even with the advance warning of our pending arrival, Al-Nasir was amazed to see me accompanying the new Pope, and even more amazed when Clairvaux bowed to him. The two of them hit it off immediately, despite their religious differences.

The team sent to survey the canal route had returned by then, reporting that they found where nearly a quarter of the canal was still visible above the shifting desert sands. When they dug across those sections, the canal appeared mostly intact beneath the sand. The one section where they estimated the location and dug showed the completely buried portions to be in as good of condition as well. The canal was a one hundred fifty feet wide and thirty feet deep. It was ‘U’-shaped with steep sides and a relatively flat bottom.

The survey team had discussed various ideas while they traveled and suggested raising a vertical stone bank four feet higher than it already was to make it impossible for crocodiles to get out of the canal. They also devised sluice gates with multiple narrow openings only two inches wide for irrigation. The narrow gaps would keep all but baby crocodiles in the canal. Any that got through into the irrigation ditches would be small enough to be no threat to anything but bare toes, fingerlings, and small waterfowl. When the ditches dried out between irrigation sessions, the baby crocodiles would be easy to spot and eliminate.

With Al-Nasir’s brother as their guide, Clairvaux and his family thanked me before heading to Jerusalem while Al-Nasir and I headed to Bilbay and the beginning of the ancient canal. A single day of exploring the section of canal the survey team had uncovered convinced me that the task could be accomplished. Al-Nasir and I marked the agreed-upon spot where my part of what we would call the Cairo Canal would begin, and I told the engineers to hire any available help to start uncovering the first ten miles of the old canal.

I ordered stone from the quarries above Cairo for the additions and repairs, as well as for the special sluice gates. Once we finished the first twenty miles of the canal, we could dig a perpendicular canal a few miles to the south and open our own quarry. I also sent messages to Alexandria for Baha, and to Fes for Anuk. Any further slaves from trading with the Mali nation were to go to Bilbay where they would help dig the canal. Baha was to spend three-quarters of his profits to purchase food and slaves from the east coast of Africa and transport them overland via the Wadi Tumilat until they found where the engineers were working on the canal. Each slave was to be thoroughly documented, and would be granted their freedom after eight years.

Our plans included digging offset irrigation canals every mile that were perpendicular to the completed sections of the Cairo Canal. One canal would go north for ten miles and a mile later one would go south. These would be used to flood and then irrigate the area between them. For now, they would simply be dug in the sand and the underlying dirt. Eventually, after the main canal was finished, we would line them with limestone.

Halfway between each set of irrigation canals they would build a stone pier big enough for a large ship to dock, as well as a couple of smaller fishing boats. The dirt and sand that we dug out of the ancient canal went to build a raised area where we would build a village. That raised area was level with and adjacent to each dock. Eventually, we would enclose and protect the raised area with a rock wall. That wall would start below the original ground level, rising to several feet above the final elevated ground level. It would keep the raised area from washing away in the annual flooding as well as providing a defensive wall for the village. It would be similar to a small manor wall around each village. Each village would tend the crops and livestock in their two-mile by ten-mile area.

At first, the villages would grow wheat, rice, oats, millet, and vegetables to help feed the expected influx of slaves. Once the canal was well under way, we could introduce cotton, more livestock, and orchards of citrus and dates. After the annual flood, each village would be responsible for dredging one mile of the canal to prevent the accumulation of sand that would eventually make the canal too shallow. The dredged sand would be added to the fields or used to enlarge the village if necessary. Satisfied with the plans, I left one of the engineers in charge with instructions to send monthly progress reports via our agent in Alexandria.

A very excited Captain Huurluyt awaited me when I got back to Rouen. His exploration and trading expedition had been successful beyond imagination. They traded the goods for forty pounds of gold, twenty-five-hundred slaves, and, incredibly, twenty elephant tusks. He knew from experience each tusk would be worth between £3,000 and £4,000. The Mali were interested in more iron cooking pots, steel knives, weapons, horses, saddles and tack, as well as more salt and copper.

Well aware of my continued refusal to allow them to name new towns, streets, buildings, or even ships after me, the men who founded the new port in Mali named it Margaretville in honor of their first Duchess. With Huurluyt’s permission, one ship stayed behind to continue mapping and exploring the coast farther south, taking a couple of natives from Margaretville to act as interpreters in hopes of finding more countries, tribes, or empires beyond the Mali Empire that might be interested in trade.

He had also forwarded Anuk’s suggestion that we redirect the annual salt caravan that traveled between Taghaza and Oualata or Niani. A smaller, weekly caravan from Taghaza to Agadir would make the entire process simpler. The trip from Taghaza to Agadir would only take three or four weeks compared to seven or eight weeks to Oualata. Each weekly caravan would only be two to three hundred camels, rather than ten thousand or more. Water was much more plentiful along the route to Agadir. By sending one small caravan each week, fresher food, and even barrels of fresh water could be taken back to Taghaza. With twelve sets of camels--still only a third of what would be required for one overland trip--the camels could rest for between four and six weeks between trips. Besides, aside from our ships, no European or Mediterranean ships ever visited Agadir. Salt and copper could be stored there and transported to Margaretville once a month along with any cargo from Rouen. That way, the Emperor’s representative would know when to expect us each time and could meet us there.

Huurluyt also commented that the coins he had with him had intrigued the representative. The Mali allowed trading only with gold dust to control the amount of gold available. He felt that the coins could accomplish the same thing and would be easier to carry and use, especially if they came in two or three different denominations.

I agreed to the plan for using the port of Agadir, sending word to Anuk to expand the facilities there enough to warehouse the salt, copper, and other goods. In addition, they needed housing for the crews and enough food and water to re-supply the ships. With the amount of salt Taghaza was producing, a monthly shipment could bring us sixty or seventy pounds of gold in addition to whatever we profited on the other items. That would definitely help to offset the cost of the Cairo Canal.

Eight weeks later, another convoy of ships sailed for Agadir on their way to Margaretville. In addition to more iron pots, iron and steel tools and weapons, they carried a thousand horses to trade, complete with saddles and tack, as well as more axes and large saws for the new town to use to make useful lumber from the trees in the area.

Not even a week later, most of our troops from the Maghreb made their homecoming. A detachment of Marinid troops with a lieutenant in charge remained in Taghaza to protect the city. Rolt liked the idea of sending the salt to the coast every week rather than storing it for a year and transporting it all at once. The troops and slaves would definitely appreciate the new source of fresher food, and especially water that wasn’t salty.

Several small, fortified manor houses were well underway in the southern area to provide continued protection against future raiders, and Anuk had appointed a military commander for each manor as well as supplying 200 troops.

Most importantly, aside from the long-overdue return of our troops, was what they brought with them. Wagons paraded through town and into the palace grounds carrying a thousand pounds of gold remaining from the gold Rolt had originally sent to Fes from Taghaza. In addition, they brought eight hundred pounds of gold from the salt caravan, two hundred pounds of silver, and thirty elephant tusks. Four hundred of the three thousand slaves they purchased came to Rouen for military training. The rest had been sent to Bilbay to work on the Cairo Canal. The slaves were excited when they learned that they would be freed after eight years, four for the men in the military, and that we would treat them fairly until then.

Suddenly flush with wealth, I sent two hundred pounds of gold to Baha to purchase as many slaves as he could find. One thousand pounds of gold was delivered to a local man to smelt into one-pound and five-pound bars for easier handling. As an afterthought, and remembering the comment Huurluyt attributed to the Mali trade representative, I had him instead design a coin weighing exactly one Troy ounce. The front would have Margaret’s relief on it and the back would be stamped “GRTCO” for Grand Rouen Trading Company Ounce. He suggested having the edges rilled to prevent unscrupulous people from “shaving” the coins. Little did I know at the time how quickly the coins would earn the moniker of “Maggies” across the globe, and would become the most common and most oft imitated standard form of payment in the trading world.

By the time the Nile flooded next, we had eight miles of the Cairo Canal cleared and repaired. It took an entire ship to transport my wives, consorts, and children there to witness nearly a hundred-fifty square miles of parched desert inundated by the floodwaters. Each town was ready to plant rice nearest to the town (and their water source), and then various vegetables--many of which Baha had obtained seeds for--and then wheat, oats, millet, and alfalfa. There was a second raised area near the village, where cattle, horses, goats, chickens, and even camels were kept.

The following year they had pressed on beyond the twenty-three-mile mark where they veered off and built a new, smaller canal south to the new limestone quarry. That canal would also be one of the irrigation canals but we immediately lined it with limestone cut from the new quarry it accessed. Camels pulled barges eight miles from the quarry to the Cairo Canal. The Quarry Canal was only forty feet wide and fifteen feet deep, but two camel-drawn barges could pass each other easily. Camels traveling north used the east bank and those traveling south used the west bank.

By the third year, the canal had reached Lake Timseh, and a set of locks had been installed to allow ships into the canal without emptying too much fresh water into the salt-water lake. We also completed a canal from Lake Timseh to the Bitter Lakes, leaving only a fifteen-mile stretch to complete from the southern end of the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea. Since work on the final section could continue through the flood season, it was finished completely by the end of the fourth year.

Al-Nasir and several of his wives accompanied my family and me on a very large ship for the three-day, wind-driven trip from Cairo to the Red Sea. The return trip against the prevailing winds took a week but was still faster, safer, more comfortable, and easier than crossing the desert on foot or using camels. Each trip brought out everyone now living in the province as the people lined the canal banks waving at us along much of the route. Once back in Cairo, Al-Nasir held a ceremony officially making me Emir of the new Tumilat Canal Province.

Since we now had so much land along the canal, I traded him back the original section of land we used to grow cotton in exchange for making the Province thirty miles wide all along the length of the canal. He got valuable, prime agricultural land in exchange for nearly worthless, mostly arid desert that we could now turn into productive agricultural land--from which he would enjoy the increased taxes.

While digging the irrigation canals, we came across the ruins of a large city buried by the desert sands. Located along the route of the ancient canal, it was only a short distance from Lake Timseh. Further digging indicated that, at the time, it was a large port on the shore of Lake Timseh, which was obviously much bigger back then. The fact that the old canal ended nearby instead of continuing on to the current location of the lake was further proof of the larger size of the lake back then.

Even before the Cairo Canal had been finished, we turned our attention to the ancient port. Workers dug a large basin fifty feet deep and mile in diameter, making dikes along the edges of the basin with the soil they dug out of it. We hoped to re-shape the lake during the next flood cycle and bring the old port back to life.

When the plan worked, we were ecstatic and work began immediately to repair the ancient docks. Plenty of stone had previously been stockpiled there in case our plan worked. The inside of the city was surprisingly cool since it was well below ground level. We raised the ancient walls another twenty feet to keep the wind and sand from burying the city again and set about rebuilding or repairing the buildings.

The walls were also re-shaped so one corner faced southwest, the most common direction the Khamaseen winds blew from. The corner was elongated much like the prow of a ship in hopes that it would split the wind. Also like the prow of a ship, the top of the wall curved slightly outwards in hopes of using the force of the wind against itself. Since nobody is interested enough to stand out in a sandstorm to watch, we don’t really know if it works or not. Several people who have previously experienced the winds claim that they are much less severe in the city of Timseh than in other walled cities.

Shortly after the canal was finished, the rebuilt port of Timseh opened, allowing ships to drop off their cargo there if they so choose, rather than having to continue through the canal. It was an immediate hit and became the new capital of my Emirate. Baha excitedly accepted my offer to become my Earl there, passing his previous trade responsibilities on to his vast army of capable assistants.

The engineers built a second set of docks along the north side of the city where the newly widened Canal allowed ships to dock without blocking the canal. That way, cargo was easy to transfer from the larger sea-going vessels to river craft that could immediately use the canal without having to go through the locks into the lake. We could handle much bigger and deeper draft ships at the port, ships that would have a difficult or impossible time getting into the canal. The ships for the canal were built so they could be rowed by oarsmen or pulled by camels and horses if they were sailing into the wind.

While extending the irrigation canals the last five miles, the ones to the south of the Cairo Canal frequently ended up running into the stony hills in the area. While it limited the agriculture, we opened two more limestone quarries, a quarry with rare purple granite, a moderate gold mine, and a green emerald mine. Most villages that had the stony area as part of their territory moved their livestock to the stony section, building walls with the stone to keep the livestock from straying. Instead of artificially raising an area to house the animals like the other areas did, they used the area to grow crops.

The sea expeditions along the west coast of Africa had not only discovered a way around Africa by sea, but they opened up trading with a dozen different kingdoms along the west coast, securing land and permission to build twenty trading posts along the west coast. The final one, Sanville, was at the base of a small promontory about a hundred miles from the southern tip of the continent. By always getting permission, and paying the existing tribes for the right to build the outposts, we avoided trouble with the natives in the area. In fact, many of the natives came to join the communities we set up, awed by the abundance and variety of foods we grew, the steel tools we used, as well as the comparative safety of our walled forts and our well-armed troops. The influx of new people frequently required us to buy even more land from the local tribes to support the larger population.

The trading post Khoi at the mouth of the Khoi River is about four hundred miles north of Sanville. We named it Khoi after the nomadic tribe in the area from which we purchased the land. We had originally purchased an area of five miles on either side of the river and ten miles upriver to ensure adequate arable and irrigated land in the hostile environment, as well as an adequate water supply for farming, drinking, and re-supplying our ships. Several months after building the outpost, we purchased the rights along the river for an additional ten miles upstream, as well as five more miles north of the river.

We also kept several large pastures planted in alfalfa just for the local nomadic tribes to use to graze their animals when they were in the area, a gesture they greatly appreciated. In addition, we shared our extra food in times of need.

One of the men in the town found a rough diamond while they were digging an irrigation canal. Within a month, they had found over three hundred rough diamonds to ship back to Rouen. Needless to say, agriculture quickly became a secondary consideration to everyone there, at least until the people started going hungry. We finally worked out a schedule where each man worked five days at their regular job, and worked one day looking for diamonds. Even the troops from the garrison were given this privilege. Nobody was allowed to look for diamonds on their one day off.

To keep the diamonds secure, we built a special two-story, thick-walled building inside the city walls with one sturdy door and no windows. The door was made of solid stone and required at least six men to open it each evening when the diamonds were put away. Inside the building, located in the very center of town, each family had a niche--a place on a sturdy shelf holding a wooden box with an Egyptian padlock of sorts on it. If someone were determined, the locks wouldn’t deter them for long, but they were impossible to re-lock without the key so we would know that someone had broken in.

Every day, they logged each new diamond. The town’s bailiff weighed it, measured it, and described anything he could about each stone before it was locked up. Mining was only allowed from sunrise to sunset and every diamond had to be “logged and locked” before a miner could go home. Generally, the bailiff had a logbook at the river from noon to sunset, resting in the shade of a tree or a pavilion. Like everyone else, he was only allowed to mine the diamonds one day a week, and the captain of the garrison took over the bailiff’s position on his mining day as well as his day off.

Anybody caught hiding even one tiny diamond, caught mining a second day during a week, caught mining between sunset and sunrise, or breaking any of the mining laws forfeited everything. They spent at least a week shackled in the dungeon to make sure they hadn’t swallowed any diamonds and were then sent to Rouen on the next ship with only one set of clothes provided for them by the captain of the ship. If a woman was involved, the bailiff’s wife or concubine was required to perform a more “in depth” search for diamonds before she was jailed.

With so much to lose, very few people try to cheat--only three to date. A man (or woman) could earn £200 to £300 a year, easily as much or more than many nobles make in a year. To ensure that all dealings were honest and above-board, I, or Henna Neale if I wasn’t available, personally selected two gem cutters to travel to Khoi to buy the gems every three months.

The same man never went more than once every three years. We immediately placed the two selected men aboard separate ships bound for Khoi. Once there, the men stayed in houses on opposite sides of town, under guard. Everyone selling diamonds visited one buyer one day and the second buyer another day. Afterwards, the diamonds were purchased by the captain of the primary ship for the average of the two appraisals.

Each man (or woman) received one third of the value of their diamonds in gold. Many chose to keep part of the gold with them and have part kept in the Rouen Treasury in their name. We filled one room in the basement of the treasury in the new palace with alcoves covering every inch of wall space. Each alcove was eight feet wide and eight feet deep, and contained thirty-six niches on each of the three alcove walls. Niches were one foot deep, one foot high, and one foot wide. A wooden box fit snugly into each niche, and had a person’s name engraved on the box along with their city of residence. Mostly gemstones, ingots of precious metal, and coins of gold or silver filled the boxes, and every transaction was carefully noted in a ledger by the treasurer and witnessed by someone else.

There were two guards posted outside the door day and night, with nobody allowed in without a witness, not even me. We quickly outgrew the original room housing 1320 niches. We remodeled the room, making a doorway into the neighboring room by putting an arch in the back wall of the original room. In addition, we filled the previously open center of the two rooms with more walls and niches, leaving only a three-foot wide corridor around the perimeter of the room to access the niches. The niches in the middle of the room were actually just twenty-six-foot long hallways running from one side of the room to the other between thick walls filled with more niches. Merchants using the niches regularly usually have their niches near the doorway, while those who had never been there and who sent their goods via ship or courier were in the second room.

After the excitement of their first diamond transaction, most people choose to send a significant portion of their gold to Rouen. The bailiff keeps a record of what they have in Rouen and they are able to sign a note to the bailiff if they need to borrow against what they have until the next purchasing week. Since I own the land and pay their salary while they search for diamonds, half of what the diamonds were worth goes to me. Five percent goes for taxes (standard trading taxes for GRTC and among the lowest anywhere), and ten percent is tithed to any religion they choose (also standard). The finder keeps a third of the value. The remaining one and a fraction percent I keep just to make the calculations easier. I call it a shipping fee for transporting the stones to Rouen.

Gem cutters from all over the world wait anxiously in Rouen for the gems to arrive. Up to ten percent of the best stones are kept separate from the others--usually due to their color, quality, large size, or some other unique characteristic. The rest are sold in lots ranging from five carats for better stones to twenty carats for lesser quality stones. Most lots are a hair over their designated weight since it is nearly impossible to weigh out exact amounts.