We are blessed, Sarah says, and she spends much time with me, helping with her nieces and nephew, although she claims that the calm quiet of her own home is always wonderful after an hour or two with us.
Today, Nat kisses Sarah’s cheek as she leaves and then winks at me. I know that look of old. More often than not, he can still tempt me up the stairs with his eyes, but sometimes I like to remember I’m a mature married lady and shake my head at him.
This is not one of those times.
Chapter Forty-Three
William
I go and watch.
It gives me no pleasure, but every April I do it all the same. Anne never mentions Titus Oates, but for the next three years, when they return from the country, Nat asks me if I have watched Titus take his punishment and I tell him that I have. Beyond that, we do not talk of him, although Henry’s name is often on our lips as we speak of what he might have said of this or that. As time ticks by, the truth of what we went though seems incredible, and this sensation only increases when Titus is whipped and pilloried every Spring. Each year he grows thinner and weaker, more like the boy he was when I knew him first than that bombastic, vigorous, cursing beast that Nat and I saw dragged from Whitehall in chains. I remind myself of his victims. In their name, I watch him suffer.
When King Charles dies, his brother, James Duke of York, becomes King, but only two years later he is overthrown. Now James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband William of Orange sit on the throne. Titus Oates is pardoned and released from the King’s Bench Prison in Southwark.
This I also go and watch.
He shuffles out alone. For a moment, it appears that no-one will meet him. The sycophants and the pleasers that surrounded him in his heady days of fine living in Whitehall are long gone. I’m about to turn away when I notice someone walking toward him. It is Titus’s father, Samuel Oates. Samuel does not smile but he does put his arm around his son. It is an everyday gesture. They are two men, father and son, walking down a quiet street; nothing more. Something leaves me in that moment. Some of the bitterness, some of the pain, some of the sorrow, that this man brought into my life.
I would not call the moment happy, but the following year, when there is nothing to watch, my heart is lighter.
Historical Afterword
The Road to Newgate is a work of fiction inspired by real historical events. Most of the characters are based on real people and only a handful are entirely fictional. History books about the Popish Plot show a much more complex picture, with more informers, more trials, and more lies, but the aspects I have focused on – the character of Titus Oates, the mysterious death of St Edmund Berry Godfrey, and the importance of public opinion in bringing Oates to justice – provide a solid representation of this complex period in history.
The man who did most to bring down Titus Oates was Sir Roger L’Estrange. He was the Licenser until his post disappeared in the chaos brought about by Oates’s plot revelations. He also wrote The Observator, was entrapped by Simpson Tonge, and had a wife called Anne. A man called Nathaniel Thompson wrote in a similar vein, and was involved in efforts to expose Miles Prance’s perjury in the murder trial of Green, Berry, and Hill, but little is known about him. My character, Nat, is based on these two men. His personality is invented.
Every story in the novel concerning Titus Oates’s upbringing, education, and employment, up until the point he set London on fire with his revelations, is based on the historical record. Where he interacts with my fictional characters, his words and actions are invented, but I believe they are in line with his known character. The storyline of his blackmailing of William Smith is conjecture on my part, but it does account for Smith’s various mentions in the historical record. The club that met in Fuller’s Rent did exist, and the suggestion of homosexuality in Titus’s relationships there, although unproven, is a recurring theme in historical analyses of these events.
Women had a very limited role in public life in the 17th century, but printing was one industry in which a woman could work and gain a level of independence. Although often silent in the historical record, women cannot have been silent in their own lives. This background informed the development of Anne’s storyline. Other characters – Henry Broome, Sir Robert Southwell, Valentine Greatrakes, Miles Prance, Mistress Pamphlin, and Henry Moor, for example – were all real people.
The court proceedings in The Road to Newgate are based on the historical record. Many of the words – particularly the most extreme and bigoted comments ascribed to Scroggs and Jeffreys – are direct quotes from transcripts of the various trials that took place.
Finally, a note on the timeline. Oates lived the high life in London for several years longer than I allowed him in this novel. Anne, Nat, and William could not wait for the historical chronology of events to play out before they were allowed to move on with their lives. For the record, although his reputation was much diminished from 1681 onwards, Oates was not tried for perjury until after the death of Charles II in 1685. When James II, a Catholic, succeeded to the throne, Oates was tried and convicted as described here. Then, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when Protestant rule was re-established under William and Mary, Oates was released from prison. He died in 1705.
For suggestions for further reading and more historical background, please visit my website, www.kate-braithwaite.com
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