My craft I learned from my father, but he also sent me to the madras for instruction in cyphering and reading. My two younger brothers, Diego and Domingo, serve the Templar brothers in the management of the estates, one in the clerks office and the Domingo aids the almoner in dispensing charity. My darling sister Maria is a midwife like her mother, and she was the jewel of my fathers eye. I can still remember their faces clearly, even with the years since I left.

Those lands had been reconquered from the Moors by the Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1148. The estate had been bequethed to the Templars many years ago, and the convents income was used to secure horses for their operations in the Holy Land. In my eighteenth summer the bailiff of the convent decided that my services would be of use in constructing castles and keeps in the Holy Land, and sent me there with a shipment of horses. I had never been to sea, nor had I any idea of what would be required of me. The hands aboard the galley Veratus took pity, and not only did I survive the passage, but I also acquired a working knowledge of their rope handling. I could see how that might be useful in some constructions.

We landed at Tortosa, where I spent the next three years in service to the Order repairing and building their fortresses, including work at Chassellet, LaFeve, and laying the foundations at Merle (Tel Dor). Although I was a workman, and not considered a comrade in arms by the regular soldiers, I trained with them because there where just not enough to garrison most of the time. The knights were amused, but I still learned well enough to best some in the list from time to time.

I could never really twist my tongue around that Gallic language of the Brothers or the majority of the other soldiers. When there was time, the madras was one place to spend it. At least they speak the same language as the Muslims of my hometown. The madras scholars are fascinated by the Greek philosophers and their matheous. The works of Euclid are of particular interest to me in the methods of measuring the earth and other large objects.

The Muhammadins seem to think that stone masonry is skill that only we Christians have solved the mystery of. Perhaps this is true, but in the town there are many works that are amazingly well done. Fountains, wells, cisterns and baths all show remarkable workmanship that perhaps, someday, I will use in one of my buildings.

It was in the third summer that my fate took a turn. The army of the Arab fell upon the supply train we rode with, and though the four Knights fought most valiantly, we were soon overcome by the sheer weight of the assault. A spear had laid open the length of my thigh, nearly spilling all of my lifes blood then and there. Fainting overtook me, and perhaps saved my life. When I awoke from my swoon, only ten of the company remained alive.

(to be continued...)

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