Chapter 13 Summary

Watching buzzards circle the desert, the abbot has forebodings of death. An assistant rereads a letter from Msgr. Apollo Dom Paulo already knows by heart. Sheba will come to Solomon after all, perhaps to denounce him as a charlatan, which means Taddeo, the brilliant, well-meaning, anticlerical, anti-monastic potential loose cannon, has given up on receiving the Memorabilia and will arrive on the Assumption, protected against bandits by a small party of cavalry. Paulo is certain his old friend is saying something ominous between the lines, but cannot figure out what The courier bearing Apollo's letter has explained Taddeo's embarrassing past. He was educated by Benedictines after illegitimate birth to a serving maid. He intellectually outstrips his cousin, who, despite his illiteracy, is being groomed for the throne. He is then recalled to the duke's court as a bitter 15-year-old, when the duchess, who...