“Over the past months,” Reginald said, “I have continued to be startled by Frederica’s loveliness and good heart. I had wanted to write some verses as a memorial to these discoveries, but they are now so extensive they would form a volume, so I will read just these few lines.” Reginald started reading from a loose paper.
Blest tho’ she is with ev’ry human grace,
The mien engaging, and bewitching face;
“Mien engaging?” Sir Reginald asked Charles sotto voce.
“Yes,” Charles replied. “‘Mien’—appearance or countenance—from the French ‘mine,’ I believe. I could find you the citation.”
After a look of admiration, or great regard, towards Frederica, Reginald continued:
Yet still an higher beauty is her care,
Virtue, the charm that most adorns the fair;
Long may they those exalted pleasures prove
That spring from worth, constancy and love.
Re-reading these verses now, decades later, I am struck by their quality. The question arises, were they Reginald DeCourcy’s own, or might he have found “inspiration” from other sources? In any case, when he concluded, those present applauded his (or someone’s) beautiful composition.
“As you may already know,” Frederica said, “I take Lady DeCourcy’s requests as commands… Therefore, I will sing this piece.”
Frederica paused, searching for the right tone, then began her song, first hesitantly then in beautiful voice, far preferable in my opinion to the over-praised, irritating cheep-cheep of the nightingale:
Over the mountains
And over the waves,
Under the fountains
And under the graves,
Under floods that are deepest,
Which Neptune obey
Over rocks that are the steepest,
Love will find out the way.
If the allusions and images (“Neptune”) in the opening stanza of this ancient, traditional air now sound rather fanciful to our ears, the next stanza was perhaps more pertinent.
You may esteem him
A child for his might,
Or you may deem him
A coward from his flight.
But if she, whom Love doth honour,
Be concealed from the day
Set a thousand guards upon her,
Love will find out the way.
With Frederica and Reginald’s marriage, and the imminent birth of my cousin Edward Martin, this history has largely concluded. The reader will perhaps appreciate the restraint I have exercised in removing myself from the narrative. Many, though, have urged me to recount my own part of this story, that I relate something of my connection to it and my own history from which I have hitherto refrained, with a few punctual exceptions.
The vindication of my aunt, Lady Susan Grey Vernon Martin, has, I believe, been entirely accomplished. But other important propositions remain to be addressed.
Perhaps the first should be self-evident and is so except in the minds of the bigoted: Merely to be in prison does not make one a criminal. Incarceration is not some certain, invariable, tell-tale sign of evil-doing, or anything of the kind. Certainly the ignoble abode from which I now write is not where I intended to reside at this stage of my life. Yet, while humiliating, the series of events—or, occasionally, lack of event—which led to my arrival here does not paint the dire picture that the small-minded—or nasty-minded, such as the DeCourcys—might describe.
In fact the entire controversy regarding my financial and legal difficulties involved at most three matters. The first and perhaps the easiest to explain was that which related to the Barings bank loan. Martin-Colonna & Smith, the joint stock company which Smith* and I had begun for the importation of rare and precious woods, prospered almost immediately. Year after year sales mounted, with shipments of rare woods that were ever more abundant and precious. After the disappointment of my law career I was pleased to discover that I had a certain “genius for business.” Scarcity and demand indicated the trajectory of the precious woods trade could only continue upward, so we envisioned expansion. The respected and highly reliable Barings Brothers endorsed our plans, partners Thomas Baring and Russell Sturgis taking a particular interest, which was highly gratifying to us. Barings approved a substantial loan to enable the firm to purchase woods on a far larger scale. The first setback was the discovery of insects of a boring kind in a shipment of teak from Rangoon (detritivores, especially dangerous for rare woods). What dramatically undercut our expansion plans—which were reasonable, precise, and well-laid and of which I remain immensely proud—was the unforeseen collapse of the mahogany market, which no one anticipated or could have done. The laws of scarcity and demand dictated that the direction of prices for this remarkably valuable and handsome wood—properly cut, treated, and polished, it is strikingly beautiful, with dark, ingrained patterns fascinating to contemplate—could only increase. To have thought otherwise would have shown a complete disregard for what the great Adam Smith* has described as the law of the market.
The change in attitude of our bankers at Barings, who had seemed such good fellows and whom we had considered friends, was striking and rather chilling. I will accept that perhaps I did not have sufficient assets to sign a personal note guaranteeing repayment of the loan in the event of default—but who could have anticipated such an eventuality? I do not believe anyone could have though the bank documents seemed to have made detailed provision for such an eventuality, which, I must say, I now greatly resent.
Second, at the law chambers with which I maintained a connection—perhaps against my better judgement but not wanting to leave our clients without reliable advice—there were some simple and easily resolvable problems regarding the escrow and trustee accounts. I have never bragged or boasted of expertise in the clerical or bookkeeping area, and if Messrs. Sampson, Thales, and West had shown more patience, I am convinced everything could have been resolved without recourse to drastic and insulting procedures.
These matters will be sorted out one day, but my friendship and respect they have lost forever.
Finally, I have to stand corrected as to the meaning of the term “co-mingling” which I understood as referring to something quite different. I had every intention of restoring the funds as soon as the price of mahogany again turned upwards, which I had reason to believe it soon would.
Suffice it to say that all those who were supposedly “injured” by my alleged actions or inactions are going about their lives essentially as before, while I am punished and humiliated. That my vindication will ultimately come and be complete I am certain. At that point, if still alive, I will take a glass of port wine and think pleasant thoughts, taking pride in never having myself been vindictive or a tattletale.
Like my uncle I prefer to see life’s goblet not as half-empty but as adequately-filled, adapted well for portability or, perhaps, for raising in an enthusiastic toast, without the spills and mess and ruined clothes an entirely-full goblet would almost certainly occasion.
As I see it, while the door to triumph in the rare woods trade has closed, the door to literature has opened.
Appendix
The True Account of Lady Susan Vernon, Her Life & Loves
By a Lady
A Note on the Title: Four fair copies of this account were circulated in manuscript among the DeCourcys’ intimates, then among their acquaintances, and so on, until an extensive readership had been reached. The objective: to damage as far as possible an admirable Lady’s reputation. The addition of the phrase “Her Life & Loves” is to suggest scandal where there was none, or comparatively little.
Calling this farrago of misrepresentation a “True Account” is the boldest of libels. The author meanwhile hides her identity under the mask of anonymity, a privilege not afforded her victim, whose actual name is announced in the very title.
A “Table of Contents” listing forty-one letters was added to give the work an air of veracity. Most of these letters,
in fact, never existed. The version which the printer, Mr. John Murray, has chosen to include is the last she prepared, in which she turned her account of this history (already decidedly false) into the “epistolary” form then fashionable, despite (or perhaps attracted by) the additional level of falsity added: the contortions and anachronistic affectation required to transform conversations and scenes of life into an “exchange of letters.”
Not long after this work acquired its initial notoriety, the great Sir Walter Scott published his epic Marmion, with the memorable lines below appearing to reflect directly upon it:
Marmion, Canto VI. Stanza 17:
Yet Clare’s sharp questions must I shun
Must separate Constance from the nun
Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!
The anonymous Lady’s false “account” is published here the same way a physician might seek to heal a wound by expelling its pus.
Table of Contents
Letter 1. Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. Vernon.
Letter 2d. Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 3. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 4. Mr. De Courcy to Mrs. Vernon.
Letter 5. Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 6. Mrs. Vernon to Mr. De Courcy.
Letter 7. Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 8. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 9. Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan.
Letter 10. Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 11. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 12. Sir Reginald De Courcy to his Son.
Letter 13. Lady De Courcy to Mrs. Vernon.
Letter 14. Mr. De Courcy to Sir Reginald.
Letter 15. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 16. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 17. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 18. From the same to the same.
Letter 19. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 20. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 21. Miss Vernon to Mr. De Courcy.
Letter 22. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 23. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 24. From the same to the same.
Letter 25. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 26. Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan.
Letter 27. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Letter 28. Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan.
Letter 29. Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 30. Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. De Courcy.
Letter 31. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 32. Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan.
Letter 33. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 34. Mr. De Courcy to Lady Susan.
Letter 35. Lady Susan to Mr. De Courcy.
Letter 36. Mr. De Courcy to Lady Susan.
Letter 37. Lady Susan to Mr. De Courcy.
Letter 38. Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon.
Letter 39. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.
Letter 40. Lady De Courcy to Mrs. Vernon.
Letter 41. Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Conclusion
Genealogical table of Vernons and De Courcys*
Letter 1
Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. Vernon.
Langford, December.
My dear Brother
I can no longer refuse myself the pleasure of profiting by your kind invitation, when we last parted, of spending some weeks with you at Churchill, & therefore, if quite convenient to you & Mrs. Vernon to receive me at present, I shall hope within a few days to be introduced to a Sister whom I have so long desired to be acquainted with. My kind friends here are most affectionately urgent with me to prolong my stay, but their hospitable & chearful dispositions lead them too much into society for my present situation & state of mind; & I impatiently look forward to the hour when I shall be admitted into your delightful retirement. I long to be made known to your dear little children, in whose hearts I shall be very eager to secure an interest. I shall soon have need for all my fortitude, as I am on the point of separation from my own daughter. The long illness of her dear Father prevented my paying her that attention which Duty & affection equally dictated, & I have too much reason to fear that the Governess to whose care I consigned her was unequal to the charge. I have therefore resolved on placing her at one of the best Private Schools in Town, where I shall have an opportunity of leaving her myself, in my way to you. I am determined, you see, not to be denied admittance at Churchill. It would indeed give me most painful sensations to know that it were not in your power to receive me.
Yr. most obliged & affec: Sister
S. VERNON.
Note on Letter the First: The Anonymous Lady’s account has been “salted” with a few actual letters in the same way that those touting the sale of shares in fraudulent mines “salt” them with quantities of valuable ore. Yet, like the counterfeiter who cannot stop, she adds two menacing lines at the letter’s end that Lady Susan never would nor could have written.
Letter 2d
Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson.
Langford.
You were mistaken, my dear Alicia, in supposing me fixed at this place for the rest of the winter. It grieves me to say how greatly you were mistaken, for I have seldom spent three months more agreeably than those which have just flown away. At present, nothing goes smoothly; the Females of the Family are united against me. You foretold how it would be when I first came to Langford, & Manwaring is so uncommonly pleasing that I was not without apprehensions for myself. I remember saying to myself, as I drove to the House, “I like this Man; pray Heaven no harm come of it!” But I was determined to be discreet, to bear in mind my being only four months a widow, & to be as quiet as possible: & I have been so, My dear Creature; I have admitted no one’s attentions but Manwaring’s. I have avoided all general flirtation whatever; I have distinguished no Creature besides, of all the Numbers resorting hither, except Sir James Martin, on whom I bestowed a little notice, in order to detach him from Miss Manwaring; but if the World could know my motive _there_, they would honour me. I have been called an unkind Mother, but it was the sacred impulse of maternal affection, it was the advantage of my Daughter that led me on; & if that Daughter were not the greatest simpleton on Earth, I might have been rewarded for my Exertions as I ought.
Sir James did make proposals to me for Frederica; but Frederica, who was born to be the torment of my life, chose to set herself so violently against the match that I thought it better to lay aside the scheme for the present. I have more than once repented that I did not marry him myself; & were he but one degree less contemptibly weak, I certainly should, but I must own myself rather romantic in that respect, & that Riches only will not satisfy me. The event of all this is very provoking: Sir James is gone, Maria highly incensed, & Mrs. Manwaring insupportably jealous; so jealous, in short, & so enraged against me, that, in the fury of her temper, I should not be surprised at her appealing to her Guardian, if she had the liberty of addressing him—but there your Husband stands my friend; & the kindest, most amiable action of his Life was his throwing her off forever on her Marriage. Keep up his resentment, therefore, I charge you. We are now in a sad state; no house was ever more altered: the whole family are at war, & Manwaring scarcely dares speak to me. It is time for me to be gone; I have therefore determined on leaving them, & shall spend, I hope, a comfortable day with you in Town within this week. If I am as little in favour with Mr. Johnson as ever, you must come to me at No. 10 Wigmore Street; but I hope this may not be the case, for as Mr. Johnson, with all his faults, is a Man to whom that great word “Respectable” is always given, & I am known to be so intimate with his wife, his slighting me has an awkward Look.
I take Town in my way to that insupportable spot, a Country Village; for I am really going to Churchill. Forgive me, my dear friend, it is my last resource. Were there another p
lace in England open to me, I would prefer it. Charles Vernon is my aversion, & I am afraid of his wife. At Churchill, however, I must remain till I have something better in view. My young Lady accompanies me to Town, where I shall deposit her under the care of Miss Summers, in Wigmore Street, till she becomes a little more reasonable. She will make good connections there, as the Girls are all of the best Families. The price is immense, & much beyond what I can ever attempt to pay.
Adieu, I will send you a line as soon as I arrive in Town.—
Yours Ever,
S. VERNON.
Note on Letter the Second: As can be seen, the many interpolations greatly alter the letter’s tone and meaning. Here, in contrast with the prior letter, it is the actual words which are marked in bold.
Letter 3
Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy.
Churchill.
My dear Mother
I am very sorry to tell you that it will not be in our power to keep our promise of spending our Christmas with you; & we are prevented that happiness by a circumstance which is not likely to make us any amends. Lady Susan, in a letter to her Brother, has declared her intention of visiting us almost immediately—& as such a visit is in all probability merely an affair of convenience, it is impossible to conjecture its length. I was by no means prepared for such an event, nor can I now account for her Ladyship’s conduct; Langford appeared so exactly the place for her in every respect, as well from the elegant & expensive stile of living there, as from her particular attachment to Mrs. Manwaring, that I was very far from expecting so speedy a distinction, tho’ I always imagined from her increasing friendship for us since her Husband’s death, that we should at some future period be obliged to receive her. Mr. Vernon, I think, was a great deal too kind to her when he was in Staffordshire; her behaviour to him, independent of her general Character, has been so inexcusably artful and ungenerous since our Marriage was first in agitation that no one less amiable & mild than himself could have overlooked it all; & tho’, as his Brother’s widow, & in narrow circumstances, it was proper to render her pecuniary assistance, I cannot help thinking his pressing invitation to her to visit us at Churchill perfectly unnecessary. Disposed, however, as he always is to think the best of every one, her display of Greif, & professions of regret, & general resolutions of prudence were sufficient to soften his heart, & make him really confide in her sincerity. But as for myself, I am still unconvinced; & plausibly as her Ladyship has now written, I cannot make up my mind till I better understand her real meaning in coming to us. You may guess, therefore, my dear Madam, with what feelings I look forward to her arrival. She will have occasion for all those attractive Powers for which she is celebrated, to gain any share of my regard; & I shall certainly endeavour to guard myself against their influence, if not accompanied by something more substantial. She expresses a most eager desire of being acquainted with me, & makes very gracious mention of my children, but I am not quite weak enough to suppose a woman who has behaved with inattention if not unkindness to her own child, should be attached to any of mine. Miss Vernon is to be placed at a school in Town before her Mother comes to us, which I am glad of, for her sake & my own. It must be to her advantage to be separated from her Mother, & a girl of sixteen who has received so wretched an education could not be a very desirable companion here. Reginald has long wished, I know, to see the captivating Lady Susan, & we shall depend on his joining our party soon. I am glad to hear that my Father continues so well; & am,
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