The Four Swans

by Winston Graham

  Demelza said: ‘I think I disfancy so large a house for so small a family.’

  ‘It’s expected of great men. Look at that swan flying; she has just come up from the lake, how her wings are gilded by the sun!’

  ‘You are fond of birds?’

  ‘Of everything just now, ma’am. When one has been in prison so long all the world looks fresh minted. One observes it with wonder – with a child’s eyes again. Even after some months I have not lost that appreciation.’

  ‘It’s good to enjoy a little compensation for that ill time.’

  ‘Not little compensation, believe me.’

  ‘Perhaps, Lieutenant, you would recommend it for us all.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Some months in prison to sharpen our savour for ordinary life.’

  ‘Well . . . life is contrast, isn’t it? Day is always the more welcome after a long night. But I think you joke with me, ma’am.’

  ‘Not so. Not at all.’

  Ahead of them Miss Mary Basset said: ‘Well, it is a pity it is a girl; for at the rate Prinny topes on one wonders if he will survive his father.’

  ‘He’s deserted Princess Caroline altogether,’ said Mr Rogers. ‘It happened just before we left Town. Almost so soon as the child was delivered he deserted them both and went to live openly with Lady Jersey.’

  ‘And Lady J. so flagrant about it all,’ said Miss Cathleen Basset. ‘It would matter far less if it were done in a decent discreet fashion.’

  ‘I’m told,’ said Caroline Enys, ‘that my namesake stinks.’

  There was a brief silence. ‘Well she does!’ Caroline said with a laugh. ‘In addition to being fat and vulgar, she smells to high heaven. Any man would spend his wedding night with a bottle of whisky and his head in the grate if he were expected to couple with such a creature! However handicapped by her humours, I do not think a woman ought to be offensive to a man’s nose.’

  ‘Else it might be put out of joint, eh?’ said General Macarmick and broke into a guffaw. ‘By God, you’re right, ma’am! Not to a man’s nose – ha! ha! – not to a man’s nose – else it might be put out of joint! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!’

  His laughter echoed back from the young pine trees and was so infectious that everyone joined in.

  Hugh Armitage said: ‘Shall we walk to the lake first? I think Lady Basset told me there were some interesting wild fowl.’

  Demelza hesitated, and then went with him. Their interchange so far had been pleasant, formal and light. A pleasant post-prandial stroll in a country garden in the company of a pleasant polite young man. Compared to the predatory conquerers she had kept at bay in the past, such as Hugh Bodrugan, Hector McNeil and John Treneglos, this was completely without risk, danger or any other hazard. But it didn’t feel like it – which was the trouble. This young man’s hawk profile, deeply sensitive dark eyes and gentle urgent voice moved her strangely. And some danger perhaps existed not so much in the strength of the attack as in the sudden weakness of the defence.

  They walked down together towards the lake and began to discuss the water fowl they found there.

  Chapter Five

  I

  Sir Francis Basset said: ‘I have thought for some time, Poldark, that we should know each other better. I remember your uncle, of course, when he was on the bench, but by the time I was old enough to take an active part in the affairs of the county he seldom left his estate. And your cousin – I think he was not of a mind for public life.’

  ‘Well, after Grambler Mine closed he was impoverished, and this disinclined him for much that he might normally have done’

  ‘I am glad to learn Wheal Grace is now so productive.’

  ‘It was a gamble that came off.’

  ‘All mining is a gamble. I only wish conditions were better in the industry as a whole. Within a three-mile radius of this house there used to be thirty-eight mines open. Now there are eight. It’s a grim picture.’

  There seemed to be nothing to say to that, so Ross said nothing.

  ‘You have, I know, been something of the non-conformer yourself, Poldark,’ Basset said, looking up at his tall companion. ‘I, too, though in less drastic ways, have been – unorthodox – intolerant of precedent. Some of the more conventional families still look on me as an obstreperous young man – as indeed I was a few years ago.’

  Ross smiled. ‘I have long admired your concern for the conditions in which miners work.’

  Basset said: ‘Your cousin was financially embarrassed. Until two years ago you were in a like condition. Now that has changed.’

  ‘You seem to know something of my affairs, Sir Francis.’

  ‘Well, you may remember I have banking interests in Truro and many friends. I think my estimate is probably right?’ Ross did not dissent. ‘So have you not time for some public service? You are now a well-known name in Cornwall. You could put it to account.’

  ‘If you refer to the possibility of my going on the bench . . .’

  ‘I know that. Ralph-Allen Daniell told me you’d refused it, and why. They don’t seem to me valid reasons but I imagine they haven’t changed?’

  ‘They haven’t changed.’

  There was more laughter from the main group, of which Caroline was the centre. Basset said: ‘I have planted all these conifers. Already they are acting as a protection against the worst winds. But they will not be fully grown until I am dead.’

  ‘Have patience,’ Ross said. ‘You may still have a long way to go.’

  Basset glanced at him. ‘I hope I have. There is still much to do. But no one approaches forty . . . Are you a Whig, Poldark?’

  Ross raised his eyebrows. ‘I’m little inclined either way.’

  ‘You admire Fox?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘I still do, in a qualified way. But reform must come by able administration from above, not revolution from below.’

  ‘On the whole I would agree with that – provided it comes.’

  ‘There is much, I think, on which we should find ourselves in agreement. I take it you don’t believe in Democracy?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Some of my erstwhile colleagues – a few only, I’m glad to say – still nourish the most extravagant ideas. What would be the consequences of these measures they propose? I’ll tell you. The executive power, the press, the great commoners, would lose all their proper interest and be forced to acquire power by the baneful means of bribery and corruption, and this—’

  ‘I would have thought there was ample bribery and corruption in the electoral system today.’

  ‘Indeed, and I don’t condone it, although I am obliged to make use of it. But equal representation would increase corruption, not diminish it. The Crown and the House of Lords would become cyphers, and all power would centre in the House of Commons which would, as in France, be chosen from the dregs of the people. Our government would then degenerate into the worst of all governments, namely that democracy that some people pretend to see as the ultimate goal. To be governed by a mob would be to see the end of civil and religious liberties, and all would be stamped down to a common level in the sacred name of equality.’

  ‘Men can never be equal,’ Ross said. ‘A classless society would be a lifeless society – there would be no blood flowing through its veins. But there should be far more traffic between the classes, far more opportunity to rise and fall. Particularly there should be much greater rewards for the industrious in the lower classes and greater penalties for those in the upper classes who misuse their power.’

  Basset nodded. ‘All this is well said. I have a proposition to put to you, Captain Poldark.’

  ‘I’m afraid I may offend you by refusing it.’

  II

  Hugh Armitage said: ‘Shall we climb up to join the others? I think there is a prospect of a handsome sunset.’

  Demelza rose from where she had been crouching, trying to encourage a little mandarin duck to swim nearer. ‘We have no pond or pool in our place. Ther
e is but a stream, and that more often than not flows discoloured with the tin washings.’

  ‘Perhaps some time I might be permitted to call on you – both? You are some miles farther north?’

  ‘I’m sure Ross would be pleased.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Of course . . . But we do not have an estate, nor even a mansion.’

  ‘Nor I. My father’s family come from Dorset. We have a manor house hidden in the steep small hills near Shaftesbury. Do you travel up-country much?’

  ‘I have never been out of Cornwall.’

  ‘Your husband should bring you. You should not hide your light – either of you.’

  Twice it seemed Lieutenant Armitage had included Ross in his remarks as an afterthought.

  They began to climb the hill, wending a way along a part-overgrown path through holly, laurel and chestnut. The others were now out of sight, though their voices could be heard.

  Demelza said: ‘Shall you return to the Navy soon?’

  ‘Not immediate. I cannot yet see at distances. The surgeons say it is a matter of time for my eyes to right themselves, but it has been brought on by trying to read and write in semi-darkness.’

  ‘. . . I’m sorry.’

  ‘Also my uncle would like me to stay at Tregothnan for the time being. Since his wife died his sister, my aunt, has taken over the management of the house, but he lacks company and has become morose.’

  Demelza paused and looked back towards the house. It might have been a great square mosque guarded by its four pavilions. A group of deer bounded across a patch of sunlight falling through the trees. She said: ‘Were you able to write letters home? Dwight was not. At least Caroline only received one in near a year.’

  ‘No . . . I was writing for my own satisfaction. But paper was so short that every scrap was covered both ways, horizontal and vertical, and in a tiny script that sometimes now I cannot read.’

  ‘Writing? . . .’

  ‘Poetry. Or perhaps verse would be a more modest estimate.’

  Demelza blinked. ‘I’ve never met a poet before.’

  He flushed. ‘It is not to be taken serious. But you asked. At the time it helped to keep me sane.’

  ‘And shall you do more of it?’

  ‘Oh, yes. It becomes, in however small a way, a part of one’s life.’

  They began to climb again, and presently came out on the terrace from which they were to observe the sunset, but still ahead of the others who had stopped somewhere on the way. The terrace was brick floored, with two stone lions guarding the steps up to it, and as its centre piece a small Grecian temple with a statue of Bacchus stared towards the sea.

  The sun was already flaring behind a ridge of cloud. It was as if someone had opened a furnace door and the redhot glow was showing behind unburnt coal. Cliffs jutted black and jagged into a porcelain sea. Seagulls whirled like scimitars, silently cutting the afternoon air.

  Hugh Armitage said: ‘Captain Poldark has now conferred two great favours on me.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘My liberty, and the opportunity of meeting his wife.’

  Demelza said: ‘I’m not skilled in such courtesies, Lieutenant, but thank you. Is it not . . .’

  ‘What were you going to say?’

  ‘I was going to say, is it not wrong to mention such different matters in the same breath? As if . . .’ She stopped again. The others were now mounting the steps behind them.

  ‘I was not trying to be courteous,’ he said. ‘Only truthful.’

  ‘Oh, no—’

  ‘When may I see you again?’

  ‘I will ask Ross when he can invite you.’

  ‘Pray do.’

  ‘Ho, there!’ said General Macarmick, coming up the steps like a sun himself, his round jovial face inflamed by the sunset. ‘Ho, there! So you were here before us!’

  III

  Sir Francis Basset had to take almost three steps to Ross’s two. He said: ‘I have two farms in hand – the one of about three hundred acres, the other a bare fifty. The land is not good – there is much thin soil and spar stone; and overall it is not worth more than twelve shillings an acre. Does yours exceed that?’

  ‘No. Nine to ten, I would guess, when it is worked.’

  ‘I intend to try some experimental crops – turnips, cabbage, artificial grass – things not yet known in this part of the country, so that the farmers in the neighbourhood may see what answers best without going to personal expense. Also I have a deal of waste ground, where I have encouraged the poor to build cottages, and I have allotted three acres to each. They pay two and sixpence an acre as rent; often good land is made of it, the tenants being chiefly miners who cultivate their ground in their spare hours.’

  Ross said: ‘You are suggesting, Sir Francis – you are suggesting something of a revolt in the pocket borough of Truro, is that it? Whereby, at this by-election now pending, the corporation of the town should fail to vote for Lord Falmouth’s nominee and should instead vote for the candidate you put forward? That is the proposition?’

  ‘Roughly that is the proposition. As you may know, the voting rests with the aldermen and the capital burgesses, who total twenty-five in all. I believe I may count on enough of them now. They are heartily sick of their treatment at the hands of Lord Falmouth, whose manner of choosing Members to represent the borough in Parliament is so high-handed as to make the burgesses feel corrupt and prostituted to the sale of their votes at his absolute direction.’

  ‘Would that not be a fair approximation to the truth?’

  Basset smiled thinly. ‘I think you are trying to provoke me. Compared to many boroughs, their record is not an ill one. They receive favours for their votes but no money changes hands. It is understandable that they should feel insulted by being treated as lackeys.’

  ‘And this – palace revolution. Who would lead it?’

  ‘The new mayor, William Hick.’

  ‘Who no doubt made protestations of loyalty to Falmouth before he was elected.’

  ‘No doubt he meant them. There is a difference between wishing well of a man and allowing oneself to be trampled on by him.’

  They paused in their walk. A flock of jackdaws was chattering in the trees.

  Ross said: ‘I am honoured by your thought. But I would be quite the wrong man.’

  ‘Possibly. That would remain to be seen. Before you say more, allow me to be explicit. If your name went forward it would do so free of all cost to yourself. This is exceptional, as you must know. If you were elected you would serve until the end of the present parliament, however long that might be. At that stage you would consider whether you wished to continue – or whether I wished you to continue. It might be one year, or of course it might be several yet. I am not in Pitt’s confidence.’

  ‘But you would expect me to vote as you directed.’

  ‘Not directed. I am not a Falmouth. But generally as Pitt’s supporter. Naturally there could be occasions when I and my colleague at Penryn, together with several others – and yourself – might wish to take an independent line.’

  ‘Individually or collectively?’

  Sir Francis looked at him. ‘Collectively.’

  They walked on. They had not taken the direct route up to the terrace and were walking parallel to the rise of the hill.

  Basset said: ‘My proposition comes unexpectedly to you. Take a week to consider it before you reply.’

  Ross inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘My father used to quote Chatham, who said that the rotten boroughs of England were excrescences which must be amputated to save the whole body from mortification. I have accepted his view without bothering to verify it; but I suspect that this prejudice will be hard to dislodge.’

  They broke off the main path, and Basset led the way through some undergrowth until they reached another and narrower path climbing upward. For a time they were in single file; then Sir Francis paused to get his breath and to look back at the house. He said: ‘Thomas Edw
ardes of Greenwich designed it – he who added the steeple to St Mary’s in Truro. Considering how comparative new the house is, it has all merged into the countryside very well . . .’

  ‘Did you tell me the ceiling in the library had been done recent?’

  ‘Re-done. I did not like the previous design.’

  ‘I am making a small extension to my own house and shall need a plasterer soon. Is he a local man?’

  ‘From Bath.’

  ‘Oh . . . then hardly so!’

  ‘Remind me, I’ll give you his name when we return to the house. He might come into this area again and combine a number of engagements.’

  ‘Thank you.’ They moved on.

  Basset said: ‘You have a son, Poldark?’

  ‘One son, one daughter, so far.’

  ‘You’re fortunate. We have only Frances. A gifted girl; musically gifted; but not a son. It seems likely now that she will inherit all that I have. We are not a prolific family.’

  ‘Yet enduring.’

  ‘Oh, yes, since the time of the Conqueror. Whoever marries Frances I hope will take the name.’

  They were near the steps up to the terrace.

  He said: ‘Think of what I’ve said, Poldark. Return me your answer in a week. Or if you have other things to ask about it, come over and see me before.’

  IV

  Ross and Demelza and Dwight and Caroline rode part of the way home together. Since the track was narrow Ross and Dwight rode ahead, Demelza and Caroline following, with Caroline’s groom bringing up the rear. There was the soft clop of hooves on muddy ground, the creak of saddles, the click of reins, an occasional snort from a horse punctuating the murmur of voices rising into the empty dusk. Bats fluttered against the star-lit sky.

  Caroline said: ‘D’you know, all this talk about the war and the Frenchies, I believe my husband has some sneaking sympathy for ’em, in spite of his treatment at their hands. He has sympathy for all sorts of strange things. D’you know he does not believe in the death penalty for any crime; he believes the criminal should be made to work off his misdeeds! Well, I believe I shall never make him into an English squire.’