When the castle of Shrewsbury is taken during the war between Empress Maud and King Stephen, 94 prisoners are taken, 94 are hanged. When Brother Cadfael arrives to perform the burial rites, he finds one corpse too many among the bodies stacked about the fortress. Cadfael reports the discrepancy to Stephen’s newly appointed Sheriff Gilbert Prescote, who reluctantly announces it to the town, asking if anyone can identify the unknown man.Godith identifies the murdered man as Nicholas Faintree, a squire of the rebel leader FitzAlan.
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