Clipper has a slightly better idea of what happened to Stephane and Deborah than Connor but not by much. It would have proven too dangerous to allow the Assassins to know of each other in case they manage to contact each other or cause difficulties for the Templars again.
James would've told Clipper that Stephane and Deborah are alive, but then begged off on any details. He is very loyal to the Templars.
Clipper actually does know what happened to the homesteaders. They are watched now and then, but the Templars don't really care too much about them. They're mostly harmless, true innocents that just happen to be Connor's friends but have nothing to do with the struggle between the Assassins and the Templars.
Charles gave Clipper to James mostly consolidate the Templar's power. When he captured the three Assassin recruits, there were only a few things he could do to make sure they could not cause future trouble. The first is to kill them. But since Connor would probably fight against him a lot more if he killed them, that was removed from consideration. The second is to leave them imprisoned indefinitely. That seemed like an inefficient method to Charles (you have to feed them, etc).
The second is to have them neutralized. That's effectively what he tried to do. He gave Clipper to James because he thought that James would be able to control Clipper and keep him from interfering with Templar business. He very probably had something done to both Deborah and Stephane so that they are not able to fight anymore, and then let them go.
In a way, I think he thought he was being merciful. His relationship with Connor is complex, full of lust and disgust at Connor's maternal heritage with a great deal of frustration/anger that Connor killed his brothers. But Stephane, Clipper and Deborah are more abstract concepts to him. Dangerous in theory because they're Assassins, but otherwise, he doesn't care too much about them except as Connor's recruits and friends.
Re: Master of the House - part 8
James would've told Clipper that Stephane and Deborah are alive, but then begged off on any details. He is very loyal to the Templars.
Clipper actually does know what happened to the homesteaders. They are watched now and then, but the Templars don't really care too much about them. They're mostly harmless, true innocents that just happen to be Connor's friends but have nothing to do with the struggle between the Assassins and the Templars.
Charles gave Clipper to James mostly consolidate the Templar's power. When he captured the three Assassin recruits, there were only a few things he could do to make sure they could not cause future trouble. The first is to kill them. But since Connor would probably fight against him a lot more if he killed them, that was removed from consideration. The second is to leave them imprisoned indefinitely. That seemed like an inefficient method to Charles (you have to feed them, etc).
The second is to have them neutralized. That's effectively what he tried to do. He gave Clipper to James because he thought that James would be able to control Clipper and keep him from interfering with Templar business. He very probably had something done to both Deborah and Stephane so that they are not able to fight anymore, and then let them go.
In a way, I think he thought he was being merciful. His relationship with Connor is complex, full of lust and disgust at Connor's maternal heritage with a great deal of frustration/anger that Connor killed his brothers. But Stephane, Clipper and Deborah are more abstract concepts to him. Dangerous in theory because they're Assassins, but otherwise, he doesn't care too much about them except as Connor's recruits and friends.