Dear Mr. Cornwell, I have already in the past praised your Warlord trilogy as being one of the best things I have ever read in my life. And so I won’t do it again (although I should say there is not enough praise for them). I’d just like to share a thought with you. I always nourished the idea (being Sansum such a dislikeable character) that Derfel would only endure all the abuse by Sansum (at the monastery, I mean, while he was writing his story), because he meant to find the best opportunity and use Hywelbane on him at the end of the book, so he could die a free man (at least, free from an oath to a vicious man, he that was once so proud of having an oath towards such a noble man as Arthur). I always thought that the last pages of Excalibur would be dedicated to this sweet simple retribution, and that Sansum would finally have what he deserved, because Derfel had despised him throughout his life (and one could feel it deeply in Derfel’s notes towards him in his writings -‘the mouse lord’) and I felt it overly restrained of him (having been such a proud man all of his life) to endure all that abuse from Sansum (even though he had an oath). Did you imagine such an ending to the story, and decided against it, or did it never cross you mind? By the way, I’ll devour ‘The Last Kingdom’. Thanks for everything. Best Regards Carlos Miguel da Silva