The wanton princess rb-8

by Dennis Wheatley

  'I have no idea. Moreover my orders are to hold no discourse with you.'

  While Roger seethed with silent rage the coach bowled along. For a few minutes he contemplated an attempt to open the door and throw himself out: but he was silting on the back seat and the two officers were sitting facing him so it was certain that at his first movement they would lean for­ward and grab his arms. As the blinds of the coach were down he could not sec the route it was taking but by that time, he judged that it was probably in the Strand and approaching Temple Bar. Being aware of the ancient City privilege that no troops might enter it without the permission of the Lord Mayor he thought it just possible that, when they reached the Bar, there might occur a hold-up of which he could take advantage; but another ten minutes passed without the carriage being halted, so the chance of a Beadle opening the door and seeing the uniforms of his companions had by then gone.

  When it did halt, the door was opened by a Guards sergeant at the entrance to the Tower. The Captain gave the password of the day then, as the coach clattered over the drawbridge, he put up the blinds. Roger caught a glimpse of the arches of the Middle and Byward Towers as he passed beneath them, and of Water Lane until, opposite Traitor's Gate, the carriage turned left up a steep slope and drew up in the square beyond it outside the King's House, in which the Mayor of the Tower had his residence.

  After a short wait the Mayor, Colonel Matthew Smith, received them in his office and the Captain handed him a letter. Roger at once began a heated protest about his arbitrary arrest, but Colonel Smith sat down at his desk and, ignoring him, read through the despatch, then he said:

  'Mr. Brook, this is an order from the Prime Minister to me to detain you here during His Majesty's pleasure. No reason for so doing is given and it is not for me to ask for one or to take notice of the protest you have just made. I am instructed to provide you with comfortable quarters and to feed you from my table; but you are not to be allowed to write to anyone and are to be held incommunicado; so your warders will receive orders not to enter into conversation with you.'

  After a moment he went on. 'Enclosed is a letter which you are required to copy in your own hand. It concerns the collecting and bringing here of your personal belongings.' He then handed Roger the letter. It was addressed to Lord Edward Fitz-Deverel, and read:

  'Dear Ned,

  Unforeseen circumstances have caused me to change my plans. Be good enough to have my belongings packed and handed to the hearer of this note. I will explain matters when next we meet. In the meantime my thanks for your hospitality.'

  While the Colonel pulled up a chair for him and produced pen and paper Roger's mind was racing. His arrest had been so managed that no-one had witnessed it. And no-one, other than Droopy Ned, would be aware of his disappearance so set enquiries on foot about him. If he copied the letter, that would put Droopy's mind at rest, so it appeared evident that it had been designed for that purpose. Quickly he shook his head:

  'No, sir. I'll not copy that letter and become a party to concealing Mr. Pitt's illegal and most extraordinary treatment of me. If I fail to appear at Amesbury House at latest by tomorrow Lord Edward will have the town scoured for me. There is a chance that he may learn the truth, and should he do so he'll raise all hell to get me out of here.'

  The Colonel shrugged, 'I cannot" force you to put pen to paper, Mr. Brook; but there is another passage in the Prime Minister's letter of which I have not yet informed you. Should you refuse his request his instructions are that I should put you in an unfurnished cell and your fare is to be bread and water.'

  Roger's face went pale with rage, and he cried indignantly, 'By God. this is intolerable! He cannot keep me here indefi­nitely, and when I get free I'll see to it that he never hears the last of this. The stink made in Parliament when Captain Jenkins produced his car that the Spaniards had lopped off will be nothing to the stench I'll raise.'

  'With what you may do in the future, Mr. Brook. I am not concerned. We are speaking of the present. And I must warn you, do you prove adamant you will find life here as His Majesty's guest most uncomfortable.'

  Fighting down his fury, Roger let his judgment get the better of his urge to resist further. As he had been spirited away without trace, even if Droopy did raise a hue and cry for him the odds were all against his whereabouts being discovered. Realizing that he snapped 'Very well,' and plumping himself down at the desk scrawled a copy of the letter. Then, pushing it towards the Colonel, he said;

  'And now, sir, I demand that you send for an attorney, in order that he may issue a writ of Habeas Corpus on my behalf."

  Colonel Smith shook his head. ‘I have already informed you that you are to be held incommunicado, in any case, owing to the riots in the industrial centres brought about by agitators infected by the pestilence of the French Revolution, the right to issue writs of Habeas Corpus was among those suspended by the Government some considerable time ago.'

  Picking up a hand bell on his desk he rang it loudly. A Sergeant of the Yeomen of the Guard entered. Clicking the butt of his pike sharply on the floor he stood stiffly at attention while the Mayor said to him, 'You are to take this prisoner to cell five in the Lamthorn Tower, and he will be known by that number. If he mentions his name it is not to be repeated. He is to send or receive no letters or messages and no-one is to enter into conversation with him.'

  Realizing that the Mayor and officers had only been doing their duty, Roger bowed to them and said. ‘Gentlemen, I pray you pardon me for my rudeness towards you. It was caused by my having become somewhat overwrought from the shock of learning that my arrest had been ordered, for I know not what reason, by one whom I have always accounted a friend.'

  All three returned his bow and Colonel Smith replied,

  'You have my sympathy, sir, and may rest assured that I will do my best to make your stay here as little disagreeable as possible. 'The two officers then saluted and took their leave; after which Roger followed the Sergeant out and, escorted by two other Yeomen who were waiting in the hall, was taken to the Lamthorn Tower.

  The chamber into which he was locked was lofty, spacious and reasonably well-equipped with oak furniture of a con­siderable age, most of the pieces having the names or initials of past prisoners carved on them. The early winter dusk had already fallen and three candles and a tinder box had been left for him. He lit two of them but the light they gave made only a pool in the centre of the gloomy room and, as he moved about, threw grotesque shadows of himself on the bare walls. On examining the bed he found it far from soft but he had slept on worse ones when in camps or passing a night at poor inns. Lying down on it, he stared up at the vaulting of the stone ceiling and considered his position.

  When he had declared that he did not know the reason for his arrest he had been telling the truth; but, while silting silent in the semi-darkness of the carriage on the way to the Tower, he had already made a fair guess at it for, preposterous as it seemed, he could think of no other. It was that Mr. Pitt looked on his decision to follow a career in France as one of Bonaparte's staff officers as so fraught with danger to the interests of England that he had resolved to detain him forcibly. In one sense it was a compliment, but in another a gross slander on his loyalty to the country of his birth; and he resented it intensely.

  The more he thought about the circumstances of his arrest the more shocked he became at the Prime Minister's action. He had broken no law, yet here he was as good as in a dungeon. Since he had not been charged with any crime he was denied the right to a trial at which he might defend himself. Still worse he was being held incommunicado, so he could not write to friends asking their help to secure his release, or even to Mr. Pitt asking for an explanation. He had been picked up without warning, incarcerated in a fortress from which he knew it was impossible to escape and orders had been given to keep him there during His Majesty's—or what amounted to Mr. Pitt's—pleasure.

  And this was England. The boasted Land of the Free. Not France in the days of the a
bsolute monarchy when, at the whim of a King's mistress, her Royal lover signed a lettre de cachet consigning indefinitely to the Bastille some wretched scribbler who had lampooned her. But that was precisely what had happened to him.

  It was said that at times such unfortunates had been for­gotten and left for years in prison until they died there. But Roger endeavoured to console himself with the thought that such a fate was most unlikely to be his. It seemed reasonable to assume that Mr. Pitt had simply taken prompt action to prevent any possibility of his leaving London in a ship that was sailing on the night tide. Having insured against that the Prime Minister must think again, and produce either a bribe or a threat which might deter him from carrying out his inten­tion of returning to France.

  For a while Roger speculated on what form Mr. Pitt's approach would take, but his treatment of him and the aspersion on his loyalty made him more than ever determined to return lo Bonaparte's service.

  At seven o'clock a supper of cold meat and apple tart, with a bottle of passable wine, was brought to him and, not long after he had finished his meal, his valise arrived. Having unpacked it he was glad to find that it contained a book he had been reading: so he went to bed and read until close on ten, then he snuffed out the candles. For a while he mused on the extraordinary situation he was in, but he was no longer particularly troubled by it as he felt confident that Mr. Pitt would send for him next day; so he soon fell into a sound sleep.

  But Mr. Pitt did not send for him next day, nor the next, nor the next, and gradually his anxiety about what the future held for him increased. His routine each day never varied. Every morning he was taken out for an hour's exercise and for the rest of the day he remained locked in his room. The meals brought up to him were plentiful but plain, so he thought it probable that the Governor fared much better at his own table. Moreover the food lost much of its attraction from the fact that, having to be carried a long way from the kitchen, it was nearly always no more than luke-warm when it reached him; but the Governor sent him half a dozen books, for which he was duly grateful.

  Several times he attempted to start a conversation with his gaolers, but they obeyed their orders in refusing to reply to him. In vain he racked his brains for a way in which he could communicate with the outside world. From the narrow, barred window of his room he could look down on the Pool of London. In it there lay scores of tall-masted ships, any one of which might have carried him to freedom, but he was as remote from them as though he were standing on the Moon; and, even if he had had writing materials, an appeal for help dropped out of the window would only have fluttered down inside the outer wall of the fortress.

  Another three days dragged by. In vain now he en­deavoured to concentrate on reading. For hours he restlessly paced his chamber cursing Pitt and vowing that he would get even with him. There were other long periods when he tossed restlessly on the bed endeavouring to gain freedom in sleep from his tormenting anxiety. Sometimes he dropped off for an hour or two, but that made it more difficult for him to get to sleep at night. And he found the long dark evenings almost insupportable. The shadows of the big gloomy chamber seemed to close round him making a prison within a prison and emphasizing his utter isolation. Mr. Pitt, he knew, had a thousand matters to engage his attention; so it now seemed to Roger quite on the cards that by this time the Prime Minister had forgotten him. If so it might even be many months before the thought would recur to him that on an impulse he had had his once most trusted secret agent arrested. Meanwhile Roger must continue to fret away the seemingly endless hours pacing up and down between the stone walls; for there was no way in which he could bring an end to his captivity.

  He had been confined in the Tower for exactly a week when, now to his surprise and sudden resurgence of hope, the Mayor sent for him. Fighting down his excitement he fol­lowed the Beefeater Sergeant, with his swinging lantern and bunch of big keys, down to the Mayor's office. In it were the Captain and his Ensign who had arrested Roger. Colonel Smith greeted him pleasantly and said with a smile:

  'Mr. Brook, these two gentlemen have brought me an order for your release. ‘I hope that it may prove a permanent one. But you must consider yourself as still under arrest while they escort you to the Prime Minister, who has asked that you should be brought to him.'

  Roger smiled, ‘I thank you, sir, for your good wishes, and for your fair treatment of me while I have been your prisoner. I hope that when next we meet it will be in happier circumstances.'

  Five minutes later he was in the same coach that had brought him to the Tower, sitting facing the two officers. The blinds were again down so he saw nothing of the darkening streets through which they passed until the coach pulled up outside 10 Downing Street. They were admitted to the house and, after standing silent in the waiting room for some ten minutes, the Groom of the Chambers came to them. Bowing, he asked Roger to follow him, and requested his escort to remain there in attendance. With a firm step and a smile that had no trace of humour in it, Roger accompanied the servant upstairs. He was shown in to Mr. Pitt and the door closed behind him.

  Giving him a nod of greeting that lacked any suggestion of cordiality, the Prime Minister indicated that he should take a chair. Instead Roger remained standing in front of the desk and said coldly, 'While I continue to be your prisoner, sir, it is more fitting that I should listen to what you have to say as would a convicted criminal in the dock before a judge.'

  Mr. Pitt made an impatient gesture, 'So you are as stiff-necked as ever, and have failed to learn the lesson that I hoped a week in the Tower would teach you.'

  'Oh, I've learnt it, and full well,' Roger flared, his dark blue eyes now nearly black with rage. 'It is that Charles Fox, whom I have long regarded as near a traitor, from his advocacy of revolutionary ideas, is in truth far from that and a true champion of Liberty. Whereas you, under the guise of patriotism, have taken on yourself the mantle of a tyrant. Your treatment of me has not differed in the least from that of King Louis XV when he had pcrsons who were obnoxious to him flung into the Bastille without trial, justice or thought of mercy. How dare you behave towards a freeborn Eng­lishman in such a manner! Your conduct is an outrage and. Prime Minister though you be, I'll have the law upon you for it.'

  The Prime Minister's grey tired face remained unmoved and he gave a slight shrug of his narrow shoulders, as he said, 'About any such intention, Mr. Brook, I must disabuse your hopes. Having been so long abroad you may not have heard how His Majesty's coach was stoned while on its way to Parliament, of the riots in Bristol, Norwich and other cities during which the mobs were incited to seize private property, or that twenty thousand Londoners congregated not long since at Islington to demand the abolition of the Monarchy and the establishment of a Republic here. To suppress such grievous disorders I was compelled to lake strong measures. They included arrest without warrant, the suspension of Habeas Corpus and confinement in prison during His Majesty's pleasure. So I was entirely within my rights when ordering your detention.'

  'But why?' Roger burst out. 'What possible cause have you for inflicting this ignominy and discomfort on me?'

  'The answer to that is simple. When last we met you told me that you had been present at the debate in the House on February 3rd. You must then surely recall that the basis of my reply to Tierney's attack upon me was the necessity for protecting the security of the realm. You, Mr. Brook, threat­ened to become a menace to that; therefore I had no option but to have you locked up. I must add that my view about you remains unchanged. As an adherent of Bonaparte you could not be other than a danger to this country. In conse­quence I am determined not to permit you to rejoin him.'

  'How do you propose to prevent that?' Roger inquired. 'By returning me to the Tower and holding me a prisoner there indefinitely?'

  'I could, but I should be loath to do so. Under the emergency law, should more than four persons congregate in the street to discuss politics they could be transported to the plantations in the Indies. I could arrange such a vo
yage for you and it might serve to chasten you. At all events it would keep you out of mischief for many months to come. But again, in consideration of your past services, I am reluctant to be harsh with you. Therefore I give you a choice. It is either that, or you will proceed to New Holland—Australia as we now prefer to call it—and furnish me with a report on the facilities for our establishing a Colony there.'

  'Should I accept, what guarantee would you have that I would ever go to this outlandish place?'

  'Your word as a gentleman, which I am prepared to accept.'

  'I thank you, sir, but I'll not give it. I will neither go to New Holland nor allow you to send mc to the Indies.'

  Suddenly Roger gave a harsh laugh, ‘I warned you that you had made a grave error in rejecting General Bonaparte's overture. You have made a still greater one in sending for me today. In the field of politics I would never dream of chal­lenging you; but you have had the temerity to challenge me on my own ground. We are face to face here in this room and, to my great regret, as enemies. You are set on thwarting my will. I am determined to regain the freedom of which you have arbitrarily deprived me and to pursue in future any mode of life that I please. In the past had some person sought to prevent me from bringing back to England secret information of great importance, do you think that I should have hesitated to kill him? Why then, since you are proving an obstacle to my plans, should I refrain now from killing you?'

  Stepping forward, Roger swiftly snatched up the thick, two-foot-long ebony ruler from the desk that lay between them and waved it threateningly.

  The Prime Minister sat back with a jerk, stared at him round-eyed and exclaimed, 'You would not dare!'

  'Why should you think that?' Roger smiled. 'While in your service I've killed a score of people. And to kill you would establish me for life in General Bonaparte's good graces.'

  'You are gone mad!' Mr. Pitt murmured. 'It must be so. ‘Tis the only possible explanation of this threat to kill me.'