The Chamber decided, after a short argument and a longer silence, to send a fair copy of the builders’ lease to the Lessaran wardens at the ford. Lune had not expected it to decide anything at all. She had come into the Great Hall at the candle-clock with the rod-book under her arm and the Crown’s sealed case still in her hand, meaning only to say what the wardens had asked for, and she had found the Hands already at the table, and the minute-book open, and Tallow standing at its foot with his face the colour of parchment and his pen behind both ears.
Tallow had argued against it.
He had argued in the dry capitals he kept for the minutes, and he had quoted the Charter of Settlements, which bound the Lantern Ford march to the Dovereach League’s law in matters of tolls, and the Census’s Article Nine, which said that a seat held by no subject was vacant. He had quoted the Writ of Survey, too, and the Charter of the Survey, and the Hold’s own definition of its bounds, which was the walked March. He had given the range for what the wardens would do with a copy of the builders’ lease, which was wide, and had ended on the one figure he was certain of, which was the figure of the Crown’s own clerks, who would read the tenant’s line and find it was not blank.
