The Sad tale of William De Lindfield

During the reign of Henry VII the castle and manor were given by the crown to Thomas, Lord De La Warr, and his heirs, and during the time of their possession the castle was occupied by Lord Hubert De Hurst. Though 50 years of age, Hubert was married to a local beauty, Maud Willmott, known as Maud of Ditchling. who was half his age . Maud was as poor as her husband was rich, and she had married him out of compulsion rather than love. He was the scourge of the household and very jealous of his attractive young wife.

Shortly after they were married, there came to the castle a young knight by the name of William De Lindfield, the last member of a family that has once been wealthy but had lost a great proportion of its estate through political misfortune. A good field sportsman, he has been invited by Lord Hubert to spend Christmas at the Castle. Unbeknown to his host, De Lindfield had once been on terms of intimacy with young Maud Willmott, now Lady De Hurst. For the first few days of his visit, De Lindfield and Maud maintained a respectable disposition towards one another; until Christmas day when Maud, her husband having sunk into a drunken slumber, seized the opportunity and beckoned William away from the festivities.

She led him through darkened halls to a room known as the crimson chamber, which adjoined the tower, near the church. The chamber was said to be haunted, and for that reason was rarely used. There De Lindfield and Maud embarked on protestations of renewed love, he was fully sympathetic to her plight as the captive wife in a loveless marriage. As they enjoyed their tryst, however their voices were overheard by Lord Hubert’s maiden sister who had been praying in the chapel and who acted as her brother’s spy. Within minutes she had located the chamber and entered while De Lindfield and Lady Maud were still ensconced. Fortunately for them, she had the night vision of bat and the two lovers managed to escape the room without being caught. Not so fortunately, however in her haste Maud left one of her gloves behind, which Hubert, alerted by his sister, discovered the next morning. By the time of his discovery though, De Lindfield had left Bramber, returning to his home in Brighthelmstone for the rest of the winter.

He did not return to Bramber until summer. Once again he was deferential in his bearing towards Maud; and Hubert gave no indication of his suspicions concerning his wife and the young knight. The opportunities for De LindField to be alone with Maud were few indeed; until Hubert suffered an attack of gout and was ordered by his physician to retire early each night. William and Maud took full advantage of these early nights to rendezvous in a pleasure house within the grounds of the Castle. Soon rumours filtered back to Hubert.

It was only a matter of days before Hubert’s attack of gout cleared, but once it had he maintained the pretence and Maud and William, believing him still incapacitated continued to rendezvous. One evening Hubert hid himself and spied William and Maud indulging in Language too warm for friendship, too corrupt for modesty. At that very moment, his fiery temperament concocted a ghastly resolution to this unhappy state of affairs.The next day De Lindfield left for Yorkshire, but he was due to return in one month.During his absence Hubert visited the pleasure house, under which was a cave that
Was used to house corn during times of war. Here Hubert laboured day and night until he had removed a portion of the arch immediately beneath the main seat in the pleasure house. Then he cut away a portion of the house, forming it into a sort of trap door, secured with a bolt underneath.When William returned to the castle in early September, Hubert feigned gout once more and kept early hours as before. One evening when William sought the pleasure house Hubert was already waiting, his sister having engaged Maud so that she mightbe delayed beyond the hour of her assignation. As soon as William sat on the seat in the house Hubert (from the cave below) released the bolt and sent plummeting into the vault beneath. Hubert then dragged the stunned De Lindfield  for some distance into the vault before imprisoning him behind a locked gate.

Having captured De Lindfield, Hubert made his way back to the pleasure house andtook the place in the darkened room where William had seated. Soon after Maud appeared and speaking William’s name, crossed over the figure in the dark, kissing him as she uttered gentle excuses for having been delayed.

“The first kiss of affection the Lady Maud has ever bestowed upon her husband,” growled Hubert, thrusting her away from him and raising himself from the seat.At the realisation of her discovery Maud fainted and was removed to her chamber by Hubert, who promptly threatened to cut out her tongue should she ever tell ofher disgrace and his dishonour.

It was assumed that William had returned to his home in Brighthelstone, whereas in fact he languished in his pitch-black dungeon with only the Castle rats for company,his heartbeat the only sound. Two nights after his imprisonment, Lord Hubert appeared with bread and water for his captive. As William ate, he watched asHubert produced a mason’s trowel and lay a bed of mortar, upon which he lay arow of stones across the passage leading to the cell, one yard from the iron door.

Each night Hubert returned and laid another course until, at the end of a month, onlyfour courses remained in the laid. With the realisation of Hubert’s hideous intention and each day’s step nearer to his horrendous fate, De Lindfield’s appearance had altered beyond recognition - his hair had turned as white as snow, his eyes were bloodshot and sore and his cheeks pale and hollow. Each night he pleaded with his captor for leniency, until that fateful night in the middle of October when the lastthin ray of light from Herbert’s lantern was extinquished as the final stone was slotted
into is place.

One hundred and fifty years later, during the English Civil War, when the pleasure house was destroyed by Parliamentarian troops, a skeleton was discovered in a corner, the head resting up on his hands, the elbows on his knees – the mortal remains of
William De Lindfield.