The Shadow of Tyburn Tree (23 page)

For a time they talked of the troubles of the French monarchy, then Henry Dundas joined them.

He was a big raw-boned Scot, who possessed little refinement or literary taste, but had enormous political sagacity and was indefatigably industrious. Coming from a well-known Scottish legal family, he had rapidly made his way up in that profession to become solicitor-general for Scotland at the age of twenty-four. As a speaker, although steady and logical, he
was rated poor; but he was a tower of strength at Westminster, since he not only ruled the
bloc
of Scottish members with a rod of iron, but also controlled the election of the Scottish representative Peers. This was in part due to the fact he had pushed a Bill through Parliament by which Scottish estates forfeited after the Jacobite rising of ‘45 had been restored to their owners. So powerful was he north of the Tweed that he was known as Harry the Ninth of Scotland. In Pitt's administration he still occupied the comparatively minor post of Treasurer of the Navy, but in recent years the Prime Minister had tended more and more to treat him as his principal lieutenant; and by haying made him a member of the new Board of Control for India, had opened the way for him to dominate it, so that he had soon become, in all but name, the ruler of that great country. He was now forty-six years of age; he drank like a fish and swore like a trooper.

Shortly after his arrival, dinner was announced, and over it their quick minds led them to comment on and dismiss a vast variety of subjects. Roger, with becoming modesty, said little, except when directly addressed, until towards the end of the meal. Harris brought up the subject of Sir Humphrey Ether-edge's tragic death as the result of an All Fools' Day joke, which had been the talk of the town during the preceding week. He had had the story from his friend Charles Fox and, glancing at Roger, said: ‘If my memory serves me, Mr. Brook, Charles mentioned that you were of the company at Stillwaters when the fatality occurred.'

Roger was at once pressed by the others to give a first-hand account of the affair, and he did so as casually as he could. When he had done, Dundas remarked in his rich Scots accent; Weel! 'Tis an ill wind that blows nae man any guid. By this Isaiah Etheredge becomes a bonny Baronet; though he'll no be aware of it for many a week yet to come.'

Why say you that, Sir?' asked Roger.

‘Because, Sir, I know him ta ha' taken ship for Jamaica a se'n-night before the tragedy,' came the prompt answer. ‘He has a wee bit of a plantation there, and was of the opeenion that by a visit he might screw a few more bawbees out of his factor.'

To Roger these were the most excellent tidings. During the past week he had heard nothing from Stillwaters, and although he had endeavoured to take comfort from the old adage that ‘no news is good news,' he had felt a constant anxiety lest Sir Isaiah should nose out something during his visit. Now it was clear that the new Baronet could not have attended his nephew's funeral, and better still, would not be back in England
for several months to come, by which time the whole business would be ancient history. It was a minute or more before Roger realised to the full the strain that he had been living under and the magnitude of the relief that Dundas's casual words had brought him. By keeping their heads he and Georgina had escaped the awful fate that had threatened them. The affair could now be considered as closed, and he could go abroad free of all worry that she might yet be overtaken by Nemesis.

As Roger brought his thoughts back to his present surroundings he realised that the port had been put on the table, the servants had left the room, and that Pitt was telling his friends of his project for endeavouring to ascertain the Czarina's secret intentions.

Harry Dundas swigged back his first glass of port and grinned at Roger. ‘If ye're the man ye look, Mr. Brook, ye'll no regret this enterprise. The Russian men are fine hard drinkers, and the women as free with their charms as any young laird could wish, so I'm told.'

Carmarthen offered Roger his snuff-box and said: ‘Indeed, Sir, I wish you all the pleasures that Mr. Dundas implies, but also a more solid success. From the very nature of their position our diplomatic representatives are often prevented from learning facts not meant for their ears, which are yet almost common talk at the courts to which they are accredited. With so pleasing a presence and address as you possess, if you convey the impression that you are but an idle fellow travelling for pleasure you may well secure for us information of considerable value.'

‘You have taken my very thought, Francis,' nodded Pitt, as Roger murmured his thanks for the compliment paid him, and the Foreign Secretary went on:

‘As the Prime Minister may have told you, he does not share my belief that the French continue to bear us malice for the past, and out of jealousy will, when they have found a solution to their internal troubles, become a serious menace to us again. His optimism may be justified, but I feel that we should at least leave nothing undone to guard ourselves against such a contingency.'

‘Hear! Hear!' exclaimed Harris heartily.

‘ 'Tis for that reason,' Carmarthen continued, ‘that I am most anxious to regain Russia's friendship, and that of Austria as well. England was Russia's first friend when she emerged from her own borders, and until quite recent times we enjoyed the traditional good-will of the Court of Vienna. Yet, during the late war we lost both, and instead they now look to
France as the protector of their interests in Western Europe. By the new Triple Alliance we have bound Prussia and the United Provinces to us, and are in a fair way to add Sweden and the Turk to our
bloc
. Yet I would willingly sacrifice the two latter, could we but regain Russia and Austria, and thus isolate France.'

I too would welcome a
rapprochement
with the two Imperial powers,' declared Pitt, ‘but not from the project of isolating France, and thus driving her into renewed suspicion and enmity. Rather we should strive to win the goodwill of all. 'Tis not by secret pacts aimed at individual nations that we shall ever secure a lasting peace, but by sound commercial treaties which need cause fear to none.'

‘You agree though, Billy, that Mr. Brook should send us such data as he can which might assist in our gaining Russia as an ally?'

‘I do. Yet seeing that James Harris, here, and Alleyne Fitzherbert have both failed in that, I see little hope that Mr. Brook will be able to furnish us with anything to act upon. ‘I would be unreasonable to ask him to seek for a goodwill in the existence of which none of us have the least cause to believe. His function, rather, as I see it, will be to inform us as far as possible regarding Russia's intentions in the north, in order that we may take such steps as we can to put a check on her further aggrandisement.'

Carmarthen then took the opportunity to press Pitt into agreeing that, as a gesture of goodwill to Russia, her fleet, which was fitting out in the Gulf of Finland, should again be allowed the freedom of the British ports on its voyage round to the Ionian Sea; and this led to a discussion on the role of Austria, as Russia's ally in her war against the Turks. Dundas joined in with his usual vigour, leaving Harris and Roger, who were seated side by side, temporarily out of the conversation.

The thoughts of both the latter were still on St. Petersburg and, after a few minutes, the ex-ambassador said: ‘I wish you better fortune in your mission to the Venice of the North, than I had in mine. 'Tis a fine city and the Russians, although crafty and unreliable, are a gay and hospitable folk. I soon took their measure and would I think, in time, have succeeded in pinning them down; but I confess that the Czarina bested me. She is as slippery as an eel, and never seemed to tire of lending a favourable ear to my arguments, while all the time she was secretly planning to embarrass us in our war with the French, by forming the League of Armed Neutrality and leading it against us. I take it you are acquainted with her history?'

Roger shook his head. ‘I fear I know very little about her
except that she was the daughter of a petty German Prince, and, having married the heir apparent to the Russian throne, deposed him by a successful conspiracy some six months after he had ascended it as Peter III. That was before I was born, and for the past quarter of a century she has continued to occupy the throne herself, apparently illegally, as her son is long past his majority and should be seated on it as the Emperor Paul.'

That is so. She was the daughter of Prince Christian of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg; and her husband was also a German Princeling. His father was only a Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, but his mother, Anne, was the elder daughter of Peter the Great. It was her younger sister who became the Empress Elizabeth. She had many lovers but never married, so in due course, she selected her nephew, the little Holstein-Gottorp, as her heir, and had him brought to Petersburg at the age of fourteen. Three years later she picked Catherine, who was then sixteen, for him as a wife. He had the ill-luck to contract the smallpox just before the wedding, and it left him hideously disfigured. Added to which his parts were tied, and since he funked a small operation it was several years before he was able to consummate the marriage.'

‘How prodigious strange,' remarked Roger, ‘that Marie Antoinette should have found herself in exactly the same case with Louis XVI. 'Twas eight years, I'm told, before he would bring himself to face a nick with a knife so that they could lie together.'

‘ 'Twas a year or so more, than that for Katinka.'

‘Such a situation must have been a sore trial for both Princesses.'

‘Mightily so,' Harris agreed, ‘since through no fault of their own they became the mock of their courts from failing to produce heirs; and one could scarce blame either for consoling themselves with a lover. 'Tis averred that the fair Austrian kept her virtue; but the beautiful little German succumbed to the blandishments of her husband's Chamberlain, a fellow named Soltikof, about a year before her spouse succeeded in cohabiting with her. By that time she had long since lost any affection she may ever have had for the boorish, pock-marked Peter, but his having shared her bed at least saved her from any question being raised as to the legitimacy of her only son, Paul Petrovitch, who was born in October ‘54.'

‘The man who should be Czar is now thirty-four, then?'

‘He is. But I'd give long odds against his ever ascending the throne while his mother is alive.'

‘How old is she now?'

‘Nearly sixty; and for the past twenty-six years she has been the most powerful woman in the world. The Empress Elizabeth, after a long illness during which she was drunk the greater part of the time, died early in ‘62. Peter succeeded her but reigned only six months, then Catherine deposed him and he died in mysterious circumstances a week or so later. Technically she assumed power as regent for her infant son, but she soon forgot that convenient fiction. Meanwhile, Soltikof had become only a memory of the past. Poniatowski, whom she afterwards made King of Poland, succeeded him in her affections; then Gregory Orlof, who arrested her husband for her during the
coup d'étát
. Since then she has taken scores of lovers, so she is well named the Semiramis of the North. In her youth and prime she was a great beauty and of a most lively disposition, so must have proved a fine bedfellow for many a lusty young gallant, but I pity the poor devils whose duty it is to tumble her now.'

‘What! She has lovers still!'

‘Aye,' Harris nodded. ‘Though she be fat, grey and toothless, I'm told she shows no decline in that respect. And an invitation from the Empress is a command.'

‘ 'Tis unnatural,' Roger declared.

‘Unusual, would be the more suitable word,' commented Harris quietly. ‘And, believe me, little Katinka is an unusual—nay, a remarkable—woman. So arbitrary, violent and licentious has been her private life that she may well go down to history as a second Messalina; yet she is far more highly cultured and intelligent than any other monarch of our age. She is not merely absolute in theory but makes her autocratic power felt in every department of the State. In her own hand she recodified and modernised the whole of Russia's laws. She has colonised great empty spaces of her Empire with poor but hardworking Teutons, and has founded innumerable schools. She selects her own military commanders and lays down their objectives for each campaign. Her foreign Minister is merely a cipher, for 'tis she who furnishes all her diplomats with their instructions. Despite these herculean labours she finds ample time to indulge her love of pleasure, and to carry on a vast correspondence concerning art and literature with such men as Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert. In her private relationships she is as capricious as a flighty minx of eighteen; yet her mind is so well balanced when it turns to affairs of State that she never allows her personal prejudices to interfere with her judgment. In her love for Russia she has become more Russian than the Russians; and at her order the most powerful army
in the world will march east, south or west as she may choose to direct it.'

Harris paused for a moment, then added: ‘I trust that what I have said may have given you some conception of the real greatness of the wicked little old woman whose hand you may soon be privileged to kiss.'

‘It has indeed,' Roger said thoughtfully. ‘And you would make me still further your debtor if, before I leave, I might consult you on various aspects of my mission.'

‘I had been about to suggest placing my small experience of life at the Court of Petersburg at your disposal. Would it suit you to dine with me at Brook's on Tuesday?'

‘I'd be honoured, Sir; and more than grateful to you for your guidance.'

Seeing that they had finished their semi-private conversation. Pitt leaned forward and said to Roger: ‘Have you spoken to Sir James with regard to some method of sending me your despatches privately?'