The Cabinet of Curiosities

by Paul Dowswell

  As soon as Dorantes ceased to breathe, Grunewald took Pistorius to one side. Shortly after, they both hurried to the Emperor’s quarters.

  .

  Anselmus and Lukas spent what was left of the day contemplating the burning braziers in the dungeon and wondering how long they would be able to withstand the attentions of the torturers – especially when they had nothing to confess.

  Lukas told his uncle all he knew, carefully missing out his own connection to the culprits. But when he had exhausted the tale of his adventure in the city centre, and Hlava’s lurid fate, they fell into an uneasy silence. Anselmus shook his head. ‘Only this Hlava could have saved us. And now he’s dead.’ There was something else he wanted to say. ‘Lukas, I always wanted a son, someone to whom I could pass on my craft, but God gave me a daughter – kind and dutiful, but one with no interest in reading and writing, or even conversation. So when you came I tried to raise you as my son. You have kept me company, good company, and been a worthy student, and although you did a terrible wrong you redeemed yourself when you took poison to save my sister. But you know, what upsets me, what I really can’t forget, is that you repaid my taking you to the Cabinet, a place so few have been privileged to see, by stealing the timepiece. We went three or four times. When did you take it? What was I doing at that time? It haunts me.’

  Lukas felt compelled to tell his uncle the truth. ‘I went there myself, with Celestina. It was another wicked thing I should never have done, but I wanted her to like me.’

  He expected Anselmus to be angry. Instead he looked sad. Lukas wanted to cry. ‘I’m sorry, Uncle. You have been so kind to me and I have not deserved it.’

  ‘Did she encourage you to take it?’ He sounded hopeful – plainly he wanted to feel Lukas had been tempted.

  But Lukas had lied enough. ‘No. She would have been horrified to see me steal from the Cabinet. I took it while she was distracted by something else.’

  Anselmus put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I blame myself for your ill behaviour. I should have known you would want to find company your own age . . . have a life away from your stuffy old uncle. I should have made more of an effort to find you some suitable friends.’

  Then he said, ‘I took Otka’s mother to the Cabinet too, in secret, when I was a young man. To try to impress her. It worked.’

  Lukas raised a smile. They settled down to wait the worst, but at least they were at peace with each other.

  The long-awaited banging at the door and footsteps on the stairs eventually came, and they feared their ordeal was about to begin. But instead the door to their cell was unlocked and they were released into the bracing freshness of an autumn evening to make their own way back to their quarters at the top of the Emperor’s palace.

  .

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  They climbed the stone staircase in a daze and as they opened the heavy wooden door Otka rushed up to greet them both with a tearful hug. She was so relieved to see Anselmus she forgot she was no longer friends with Lukas. Grunewald came to congratulate them on their release. Anselmus asked him to join them for supper and opened a bottle of his finest vintage wine.

  Grunewald told them of Dorantes’s confession and how he and Pistorius had spoken at once to the Emperor. He thought it best not to mention Lukas’s own admission to him. After all, the boy had not let him down.

  Anselmus was lost for words. ‘What a fool I was,’ was all he said.

  ‘It is a febrile time,’ said Grunewald. ‘The strangest tales circulate around the Castle. I heard just now that the Grand Inquisitor has been found dead in the forest near Dablicky. They say he was kidnapped by Devil worshippers and sacrificed to the Evil One. It is a terrible fate – even for such a detestable man.’

  As they ate their evening meal there was a gentle tapping at the door. It was Celestina and Perpetua. Celestina was almost too distressed to talk. The Spanish envoys had all been arrested, she told them. There were too many for Daliborka Tower and they were being held in a cellar beneath the palace. Back at their quarters, there were just distraught wives, children and servants, waiting anxiously to see what would happen next.

  For her, something even worse had happened. Her father had been denied a Christian burial. The imperial executioner had come to decapitate the body and then cut it into four quarters. Dorantes’s head was to be displayed on the Stone Bridge tower alongside the common criminals. The rest of him was to be buried in unconsecrated ground. ‘Why must they violate his body like this?’ she sobbed.

  Anselmus answered plainly that this was the way with enemies who had committed grave crimes against the Emperor. He also advised that she should leave the Castle immediately. ‘I’ve never been a great admirer of punishing the child for the sins of the father,’ he said, ‘but it would be prudent for you and your maid to flee, before someone decides to take their revenge on you.’

  ‘But I have nowhere to go. I heard my father’s confession. I am so sorry. He acted without authority. The Spanish court will disown him – and me also. I cannot even go home.’

  ‘Then you must leave the city. I have a friend in Zidice. You may stay there. Go and pack. Tomorrow morning Lukas will go with you and your maid to hire a horse and carriage. You must take only what you can carry. I will give you a letter of introduction. Then, when the dust has settled and we see what has happened to the other members of the Spanish party, we will send word.’

  Celestina looked dumbstruck. ‘But why should your friend help me?’

  Anselmus gave her a tight little smile. ‘I will send a purse sufficient to cover your board and lodgings. Come back tomorrow morning at sunrise.’

  She and Perpetua left with a flustered curtsy.

  Lukas was speechless too. He had still not got over his infatuation with Celestina, but she had caused them all so much trouble. He thought about how much he had shown and told her and wondered guiltily what she had then told her father to use against them.

  ‘Why are you being so helpful to her?’ asked Lukas.

  Anselmus gave him an impish grin. ‘As a punishment! They came here detesting our philosophy, our quest for knowledge and our “heresies”. Think what this will do to that girl. Grunewald here tried to save her father, you saved her life, now I am helping her! We represent everything she has been taught to despise. Perhaps this will make her question her actions and those of her father. If that makes her a better character, then that is good. She is still young. She can be redeemed.’

  Grunewald gave a hearty laugh. ‘And if she cannot see the error in her thinking, then she will lie awake at night wondering why Satan’s accomplices saved her life and were kind to her when she was alone in the world. That will certainly torment her!’

  They drank the rest of their wine and stared at the twinkling torchlight in the city below. After a while Anselmus said quietly, ‘I have done my best to heal his mind. And serving him has allowed me to indulge my interests in the world. But I can no longer attend a man who has betrayed me like this. I no longer wish to be a servant of the Emperor.’

  Grunewald urged caution. ‘My dear friend, you will never hold such a position again. You will never reside in such splendour. Do not give these things away so hastily.’

  Lukas listened sadly to their conversation. He did not want to give this life up either.

  ‘I am utterly certain of it,’ said Anselmus. He sat at his desk and began to draft a letter of resignation.

  Grunewald let him write for a while. Then he said, ‘I am concerned that His Highness will see your actions as treasonable. Perhaps –’ he looked at Lukas and Otka – ‘perhaps all of you will be seen as traitors for leaving. His Highness is of such unsound mind I can no longer imagine what he will think.’

  Anselmus stared out of his window for a long time. Then he tore up the letter. ‘Maybe I will stay another few months . . .’

  There was a forceful knock at the door. ‘What now?’ said Anselmus in despair. Lukas tensed, expecting the worst. It was an office
r of the guard, with another soldier, who was staggering under the weight of the large box he carried in his arms. ‘I have a message from the Emperor,’ he said, and handed Anselmus a scroll. The soldier placed the box on the floor and they both left.

  Otka and Lukas studied Anselmus’s face for clues as he hurriedly scanned the message. He looked alarmed and then relieved.

  ‘He wants me to go,’ he explained. ‘He thanks me for my many years’ loyal service and wants me to take up the vacant post of chief physician at the hospital in Plzen. The box contains a generous contribution towards the upkeep and establishment of my new household.’

  Lukas feared his uncle would feel further betrayal. But he seemed happy to accept this new position.

  Grunewald came over to him and shook his hand. ‘You have been a dear friend to me, Declercq. I shall miss you immensely.’ Then he returned to his quarters.

  ‘Grunewald has long coveted the view from my rooms,’ said Anselmus. ‘He would be most welcome to them.’

  ‘So you don’t mind going?’ was all Lukas could think to say.

  Anselmus smiled. ‘Here in the Castle we are like those gaudy parrots in the Royal Gardens – curious creatures kept for the entertainment of others and shackled to the trees with a golden chain. Much needs to be done in the world – and I am not doing it here. Will you come with me, Lukas? Will you still be my apprentice? And you, Otka? Will you come too?’

  .

  Chapter Forty

  To Etienne Lambert

  c/o The Three Violins

  Mala Strana

  Prague

  .

  21st November, 1598

  .

  Dear Etienne,

  We have now been at the hospital for three weeks. My Uncle Anselmus has been given an imposing residence overlooking the river. I continue with my medical studies and often accompany him on his rounds.

  Uncle was disappointed that Otka chose to stay with her stepfather in Golden Lane. She has been greatly distressed by these recent events. But this has worked out well. Aunt Elfriede refused to come away with us, much to my great relief! Now Otka has promised to look in on her as often as she can. She also promises to visit us frequently. It is not too arduous a journey from Prague to Plzen. We are greatly in need of a housekeeper and cook, and Anselmus has written to Celestina and Perpetua in Zidice to offer them accommodation and work, should they be willing to accept it.

  I miss Prague, but I feel safer here. When I went for a last look around the city before we left, I saw Hlava’s head up there on the Stone Bridge tower, next to Dorantes’s. Are they still there now? Over the last few months I often wondered if our own heads would end up there too, but we’ve been lucky so far.

  When we first met you said you would help me get to Prague but I would have to do something for you in return. You never kept me to this, but I would like to do so now. The last time we spoke you said you had had enough of Prague, so perhaps you would like to make a fresh start in Plzen. There is a flourishing market here, with merchants from all over the Empire, and someone with your talent for foreign tongues will find his services in great demand.

  My uncle has said you can stay with us until you are able to afford to rent somewhere. I hope you will decide to come here.

  .

  Your friend,

  Lukas

  .

  Fact and Fiction

  This book was inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s fruit and vegetable portrait of Rudolph II, Vertumnus – easy to find on the internet. A culture that produced something so magnificently strange and original sparked further investigation.

  Prague and its Castle are well worth a visit. Woodcuts and engravings from the era show that much of the city remains from Rudolph’s time. The contents of his Cabinet of Curiosities are well documented. Many of these artefacts were scattered to the four corners of Europe when Prague fell to Swedish troops during the Thirty Years’ War. A fraction remain in Prague. The rest can be found in museums and art galleries around the world.

  Rudolph was plagued throughout his life by severe depression – all the more reason to admire his open-mindedness, tolerance and passion for art and science. In a Europe haunted by the Inquisition, his Prague was an oasis of freethinking, where Catholics, Protestants and Jews lived side by side. Here, ‘natural philosophers’ could investigate and share their knowledge of the newly emerging sciences without fear of being burned at the stake as heretics. In his patronage of alchemy, and fascination with the world, Rudolph was an early champion of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.

  I have tried to portray Rudolph as I imagine he would have been, and Anselmus Declercq is very loosely based on Rudolph’s Belgian physician, and curator of his Cabinet, Anselmus de Boodt. Father Johannes Pistorius, who makes a brief appearance at the end of the story, was Rudolph’s real-life confessor. All other characters in the book are fictitious.

  Although the plot by Spanish envoys to remove him is also invented, Rudolph had plenty of enemies in the Holy Roman Empire and there were many court intrigues and even assassination attempts against him.

  I based Hrusosky Hlava’s alchemy confidence trick on an incident reported in Henry Carrington Bolton’s book described below.

  Dorantes’s Aztec knife can be seen in the British Museum. You can also see it on their website.

  If you would like to read more about Rudolph and his era, you might like to dip into The Mercurial Emperor: The Magic Circle of Rudolph II in Renaissance Prague, Peter Marshall (Pimlico 2007), which I think is the most accessible introduction to this subject.

  There’s also:

  Rudolph II and Prague: The court and the city, edited by Eliska Fucikova (Thames and Hudson 1997). This features acres of academic articles – many in translation – but it is also crammed with fascinating illustrations.

  The Follies of Science at the Court of Rudolph II: 1576–1612, by Henry Carrington Bolton is worth a look. It was originally published in 1904. You can download it from the internet.

  You could also try John Hale’s very readable The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (Harper Perennial 1993 and new edition 2008), which is a more general introduction to the era.

  .

  Acknowledgements

  Many thanks to Ele Fountain at Bloomsbury for her patient moulding of the story, Talya Baker and Margaret Histed for their sterling edits, and Dilys Dowswell for wading through the first drafts. Their advice is much appreciated. Kate Clarke and The Parish produced the evocative cover.

  Thanks also to Jenny and Josie Dowswell and Charlie Viney for looking after me; Sally Hoban and Christine Whitney for lending me two beautiful books; Adam Guy, Jeremy Lavender and John Dowswell for their sound advice, and Ben and Jana Anderson, and Nina Jelnikova of Prague Tours, for making me so welcome in Prague.

  .

  About the Author

  Paul Dowswell is a former researcher and editor. Published in the UK and internationally, he has written over sixty books and has twice been shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award. Paul lives in Wolverhampton with his family.

  .

  Also by Paul Dowswell

  Ausländer

  .

  The Adventures of Sam Witchall in reading order:

  Powder Monkey

  Prison Ship

  Battle Fleet

  .

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in July 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  36 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QY

  Text copyright © Paul Dowswell 2010

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  This electronic edition published in August 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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  ISBN 978 1 4088 1183 2

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title page

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34