AVIGNON 5 January 1348 AD
It was with a heavy heart that Marius approached the Magistrate"s office. An icy blast bit into his face on a sad, grey, January afternoon. He should have been excited by his first day working at the docks for the wool merchant, Pagnol, but not so. "If it were my own child, wrenched away from me in its infancy - there can be nothing under the Heavens more hideous!" Winter daylight was fading but there was no mistaking the Justice"s cabin in the distance, a candle flickering, the only light to suggest any living soul on the quay. "Are the warehouse doors shut out of respect? No, don"t be so foolish, they cannot yet know what has befallen Luc"s family."
“Ah, Marius, good to see you. You have a manifest for me then…the bargees arrive early, and we never know from o
