The Kingdom of Heaven Page #2

He sees:

AN ORCHARD. It smokes with frost. (Perhaps there is a

particularly memorable tree). He looks then at: A prosperous,

strong, thatched farm with a workshop building (a FORGE); but

it is still. No smoke rises from the chimneys.

A grubby APPRENTICE (his job, of which he is certainly

incapable, to defend the farm in its owner’s absence) stares

out at the passing nights from behind a hedge. The HOSPITALER

looks curiously at Godfrey, who is staring towards the forge.

HOSPITALER:

You know this place, my lord?

GODFREY:

I know all of it.

He spurs on. The TRAVELLERS continue towards...

THE LOCAL CASTLE.

5.

EXT. THE CROSSROADS. CONTINUOUS

The PRIEST is staring after the knights with interest, fear,

speculation. The workmen begin to throw the body into the

finished grave.

PRIEST:

You’ve forgotten.

An AXE falls to the frozen ground. The GRAVEDIGGERS look at

each other.

GRAVEDIGGER:

She was your brother’s wife.

PRIEST:

She was a suicide. Cut off her

head.

(hurries away)

And return the axe!

The PRIEST hurries after the KNIGHTS. White ambitious face.

EXT. THE VILLAGE. LATER THAT MORNING

A cloister is being added to an existing town church. The

local BISHOP, fat, shrewd, a politician, but fundamentally a

decent man, anxiously watches the progress, the PRIEST with

hm, both clerics holding up their skirts from the mud.

BISHOP:

Your brother. You have spoken to

him?

PRIEST:

(mock-concerned)

He is insane with grief, my lord,

and still arrested.

BISHOP:

The burial was...

PRIEST:

Yes.

BISHOP:

Yet you did not mutilate the

person.

PRIEST:

(lying piously)

No.

(CONTINUED)

6.

CONTINUED:

BISHOP:

A law can go too far.

(chewing a thumbnail)

It can go too far. I ask myself

“Would Jesus do it thusly?” There

is so much done in Christendom of

which Christ would not be capable.

One day we must look into it.

(walking)

You must release your brother. I

cannot do without him.

PRIEST:

My brother, my lord Bishop, is

possessed by the Devil, and must

be...

(with relish)

examined.

BISHOP:

Talk of the Devil much more and I

shall begin to wonder how well you

know him.

(moving on)

Your brother is as mad as I am. He

grieves.

(a beat)

Without your brother I cannot

finish the church. Let him out.

(as the PRIEST, thwarted,

submits to this, the

BISHOP digs in his robes)

Give him this

(a chinking fat, PURSE)

and tell him...that he is at the

very center of my praters.

PRIEST is unhappy, but takes the PURSE, and complies. He goes

off down the muddy street. Turning a corner, he quickly

shakes out half the money into his own purse. Then more than

half.

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