Jane and the Barque of Frailty

Chapter 24 The Gentleman in His Cups

Monday, 29 April 1811, cont.

SHE LAY IN A CRUMPLED HEAP OF FEATHERS AND silk on the flagway, but a yard from the door.

“Eliza!” I cried in horror. “Manon — Manon, come quickly! Your mistress has swooned!”

I hastened back across the threshold and knelt over the limp form. Eliza’s arms were flung above her head, and her reticule had slipped from her hand; in the glow of the streetlamp her pallor was dreadful.

“Good God, what can have happened?” I placed my arm behind her shoulders to support her, and raised her from the stones. She groaned pitiably.

“Sacre dieu!” Manon muttered beside me. She wore her nightdress and cap; the faint scent of lavender rose from the fresh linen on the chill night air. The maid’s fingers, where they touched my arm, were icy; and I saw that she had not stayed even to don a dressing gown. “Let us take her inside.”

I grasped Eliza’s torso, and Manon supported her knees; and so we half-carried, half-dragged my sister’s lifeless form inside the house. Madame Bigeon was standing in the front passage, her candle raised, her aged face piteously crumpled.

“Pauvre madame! She fainted?”

“I must suppose it to be so — and then struck her head, perhaps, on the flagway. She is certainly insensible.”

“With that little indisposition, and her delicate constitution — she ought not to have gone out. I told Monsieur Henri how it should be, if he left her — how she would be gay to the point of dissipation, at the very risk of her life—”

“Lay her on the sopha, Manon, and Madame Bigeon — some hartshorn, please, or feathers we might burn beneath her nose—”

“Brandy is what she requires,” Madame Bigeon said bluntly, and turned towards the kitchen.

We settled Eliza on the sopha, and I bent to untie her bonnet strings. Manon threw a log on the drawing-room fire, which had been allowed to go out, and began to work the bellows.

“Never mind that! Chafe her wrists,” I commanded, and removed the bonnet.

Eliza groaned more violently than before, and her eyelids fluttered open. Then, with an expression of acute agony, she murmured, “Oh, Lord! My head,” and fell back once more into a swoon.

“I shall step next door to Mr. Haden’s,” I said hurriedly, and ran for the surgeon.

“SHE WAS STRUCK A FEARSOME BLOW FROM BEHIND,” I told Mr. Chizzlewit when he called in Sloane Street this morning, in answer to the summons I had penned in the wee hours and despatched at first light in the hands of Henry’s manservant. “The instrument was a cobblestone, Mr. Haden believes — and but for the cushioning effect of her bonnet, the force might well have cracked her skull. We may thank God that my sister lives; and other than a tenderness in the region, a lump the size of a potato, and a good deal of indignation at the way in which she has been served, she suffers no severe effects. Indeed, she will not even allow me to inform my brother of the event — which shows her to remain unaffectedly silly, despite her sufferings.”

“I am shocked,” he said with unwonted gravity— “indeed, I am grieved. That so lovely a creature as Mrs. Henry should be assaulted with such violence— But is there no one who can describe her assailant?”

“Sloane Street — all of Hans Town — is a rural vicinity,” I reminded him, “and its denizens are not much in the habit of such dissipation as dining out late on a Sunday night. It must have been all of eleven o’clock when our hackney arrived at the door; and by then, nearly every candle was extinguished. We have not your expensive gas-lighting in these parts; the oil lamps are dim at best; and even I, who was but three yards from her position, heard and saw nothing— until it was too late. Can you have an idea how I blame myself?”

I broke off, and shielded my eyes with my hand. “Forgive me. I passed an uneasy night.”

“Not at all,” he murmured. “And the surgeon — Haden? Has he given you cause for concern?”

“He believes she will recover fully — and when I hear how she orders all of us about, and how thoroughly she enjoys the attention, as she reigns like a queen among her bedclothes, supplied with draughts, and panadas, and surrounded by the latest numbers of the Ladies Monthly Museum and La Belle Assemblée, I should laugh to think she gives me the smallest moment of anxiety![24] If it were not that my brother charged me expressly with taking the utmost care of her in his absence—”

“She saw nothing, heard nothing, of her attacker?”

I shook my head. “The wheels of the departing hackney obscured every sound; and in the darkness—”

“Of course.” Mr. Chizzlewit turned the brim of his curly beaver between his hands; it was a handsome article, as was everything about his neat and elegant form. “But what I must demand is why? Why should anyone chuse to strike down Mrs. Austen? Her reticule was not stolen, I collect?”

“Nor anything else she carried on her person. The sole object of violence was Eliza herself. And so we must conclude that the attack found its motivation in this dreadful business of the Princess’s murder.” I held the solicitor’s gaze. “For my part, I can think of only one person who has reason to fear my sister — and that is the Comtesse d’Entraigues, who may now believe she divulged too much of a private nature, in her various interviews. Perhaps she has learned somehow of the jewels’ discovery, and restoration to Prince Pirov — perhaps her entire story was a fabrication, intended to obscure a far more malevolent history — I do not know. I may only say that the Comtesse was promised to dine with us last evening, then sent her son as proxy, complaining of a sick headache.”

“—So that she might lurk in wait for your carriage in Sloane Street, and murder her friend?” Sylvester Chizzlewit’s brows soared. “I should call the idea fantastic — were the whole business not already so!”

I raised my hands in supplication. “One has only to consider of her story as a farrago of lies from beginning to end, to admit that she is ideally positioned to have murdered the Princess — and thus to fear my sister’s knowledge of her affairs. A woman who has killed once, should not hesitate to kill again.”

“But happily, she failed to do so. I think perhaps I should consult my grandfather — and enquire whether he knows of a likely personage in Barnes, Surrey, who might be set upon the d’Entraigues household. We ought to be informed of their movements — provided the informer acts with discretion.”

A bell sounded somewhere above — from Eliza’s room, no doubt — and Mr. Chizzlewit said, “I have trespassed too long. I stay only to enquire if there is any way I may serve you, Miss Austen? — Any want of Mrs. Henry’s I might supply?”

“You are very good! For of course you must apprehend that I called you hither only to presume upon your generosity. I should like the hackney driver questioned, if possible. He may, indeed, have seen something as he drove off that he failed to put to the proper account.”

“Of course! The jarvey! You engaged him in Portman Square?”

“There is a stand of such men, waiting on the custom of the inhabitants. It is possible that our driver makes a habit of loitering there—”

“—and thus might be readily found. I am happy to oblige you — and shall search for him instantly.”

“Not so swiftly, I hope.” I raised a hand as tho’ to hold him back. “There is one other who might well have observed Eliza’s attacker — tho’ if he should have done so, I am all amazement that he did not come forward.”

“Indeed? You observed someone in the street — or a neighbour, perhaps, whose lamp was yet lit?”

I shook my head. “Nothing so comforting. For the past several days, I have been aware that the Bow Street Runner, William Skroggs, has dogged our movements — following us when we leave the house, much as you desire someone to watch the d’Entraigueses. I have said nothing of this to Eliza, not wishing to alarm her. But it is possible Skroggs witnessed the whole of last evening’s episode.”

“The scoundrel!” Mr. Chizzlewit cried. “And if he did so, he should better have sounded a hue and cry! I shall certainly seek Mr. Skroggs in his lair — for I have been desiring to inform him of my interest in your affairs. The shadow of a reputable solicitor may well be enough to dim a Runner’s ardour for the hunt. We have a nasty tendency to make them prove their allegations.”

Mr. Chizzlewit bowed, and would have set his beaver upon his head, and departed without another word; but not even the press of events could entirely quell my curiosity.

“Sir, before you go—”

He halted, and looked his enquiry.

“May I know whether your dinner engagement with Mr. Charles Malverley proved of interest?”

“Malverley!” he repeated, as tho’ recalling an old acquaintance long since laid to rest. “To be sure, it was a delightful evening, full of reminiscence and interest! Particularly as pertains to our present enquiries. But have you the time — the energy — to devote to a recital?”

“I should like nothing better,” I told him. “From something that was said last evening, I have a burning desire to know more of the gentleman. Pray — sit down.”

Mr. Chizzlewit obliged me, and commenced his tale.

“I keep a suite of rooms in Ryder Street, near St. James, and it was there I had engaged to dine with Malverley. He arrived at half-past six o’clock, and at seven we sat down to the meal my man had prepared; beefsteaks and Yorkshire pudding, with a couple of roasted fowls. I took care to see Malverley amply supplied with claret — which you must know my grandfather himself laid down years since, when our family’s intercourse with France was customary, and not subject to the Monster’s embargoes. I intended that he should be pretty well to liveby the conclusion of dinner, when the decanters of port and brandy were set out; and he did not disappoint me. He set aside the air of reserve acquired so lately in Berkeley Square, and talked with a freedom more characteristic of the Malverley I recalled from Oxford days.”

“So you thought him altered, then, from when you last knew him?”

“Much altered. The Malverley of memory was a rackety fellow enough, full of high living and dash; the sighing object of every maiden’s heart; not the sort to set up as a statesman’s clerk, bowing and scraping to a man whose bloodlines he may best by a full five centuries. I confess I was astonished to learn of his accepting such a position of Lord Castlereagh — I should rather have expected him to follow a rake’s progress, dicing in the clubs and embarrassing his father the Earl with his obligations; wagering on horses that always fail to place; pursuing an heiress when nothing else served to tow him from the River Tick.[25] But I collect that in his final year at Oxford he overstepped the line too rashly — and committed a sin so unpardonable he was banished for a time to the Continent — or that part of it unfettered by the Monster’s chains. I do not know the whole, but must conclude that he returned a reformed character, ready to earn his bread by honourable means, in the service of his country. His father the Earl of Tanborough being a notable Tory in Lords, the position of secretary to Lord Castlereagh was readily obtained — my friend’s return to England coinciding with Lord Castlereagh’s resignation from office, some eighteen months since.”

“How convenient. And has Malverley enjoyed his honest labour?”

Sylvester Chizzlewit hesitated. His gaze turned inward, as tho’ in consideration of the evening’s talk. “I should not describe his feelings in those terms,” he concluded. “The reserve descends once more, in speaking of his lordship. Perhaps the events of recent months — the publication of the letters — the estimation of the Regent — the possibility of high office — the Princess Tscholikova’s death—”

“Perhaps he does not like his employer.”

“I have thought that too,” the solicitor admitted. “I noticed that Malverley could not meet my gaze when he spoke of Castlereagh, tho’ his words were entirely correct — such phrases of admiration as one might expect to fall from the lips of a grateful follower.”

“Could Lady Castlereagh be the cause? The idea of an improper liaison was pregnant in the air at the inquest.”

“Lady Castlereagh!” Mr. Chizzlewit’s countenance broke in amusement. “I wish you might hear the way Malverley speaks of her! If it were not so callous, I should repeat his endearments in this room — but that my good manners forbid it! She is a creature of caprice, and malice, and self-consequence, to hear him tell it — a lady who dearly loves to sway Society, and influence politics, but whose use for her husband ended at the altar!”

“I see. And her use for Malverley—?”

“From the bitterness with which he refers to her ladyship, I should judge that she treats him as a lackey — attractive in company, and caressingly addressed before the Great, in tribute to his style and beauty and breeding; but sent about his business as soon as they are shut into the carriage together.”

“Deplorable! And is his heart bestowed on another?”

Again, Mr. Chizzlewit hesitated. “I cannot undertake to say. I collect that he is in the habit of patronising the Muslin Company — but has resisted the respectable lures thrown out to him by enterprising mammas. In truth, I should wonder that any such lures are thrown — for he is but a third son, after all, with limited expectations. If Castlereagh’s star should rise again, he may go far in politics—”

“—But if scandal and suicide dim the star to the point of extinction, friend Malverley shall be forced to desert the ship,” I concluded, with a lamentable mixing of metaphors.

“Exactly. Hence the restraint I detect when he speaks of his lordship. He does not wish to commit his loyalties too far. In fact, at one point—” He broke off, biting his lip. “Malverley was in his cups. He burst out, as tho’ in the grip of passion, By God, there are some things no gentleman will do, even for hire.”

“And you took this to refer to Castlereagh?” “I did. I collect the demand his lordship made was of a personal nature, and repugnant to Malverley.”

“How intriguing. And what of your friend’s loyalties on the night in question? Were you able to divine anything of Malverley’s real movements during the early hours of Tuesday morning?”

“If I failed, it was not for lack of trying.” Mr. Chizzlewit smiled. “We are now come to the latter part of the evening I spent, in trespassing on the trust of an old friend — when we sat down, rather more foxed than not, to play at picquet.[26] Malverley was bosky enough to throw caution to the winds, and suggest pound points; but I had not so far shot the cat as to render me agreeable to such folly, and insisted upon shillings. It was after the third hand that he began to talk of the horror of that night.”

My interest quickened. “He felt it to be so?” “Horrible? It was the very word he used. I cannot tell you what he found to do in Castlereagh’s office for so many hours before dawn — I cannot believe that a man whose present pursuit is the raising of merino sheep on his country estate, may be deluged with letters requiring immediate reply — but in any case, Malverley’s dismay at finding the Princess’s body at the door was real enough. He broke down when he spoke of it, choking with sobs over his hand of cards — and every attempt at play had to be abandoned.”

“What exactly did he say?”

“God, her throat! is what I chiefly recall; and, the poor creature, to use herself so vilely! He shuddered like a child in the grip of nightmare — and seemed deeply affected by the memory. It was all I could do to calm him.”

“Then I collect, in such a fit of hysteria, you could get little more of sense from him?”

Mr. Chizzlewit grimaced. “Very little. But I would swear to it that Malverley was astonished to discover the corpse in Berkeley Square. His aspect last evening was not that of guilt, but of misery and regret. The death was perhaps more deeply felt, for having burst upon him like a shell.”

“I see. You explain it very well. What did you then?”

“I called for ale and coffee, a judicious mixture of which will invariably set the brandy-drinker to rights; and a little after three o’clock, he toddled home towards the Albany. He would have walked, but that I insisted on putting him into a hackney.”

“The Albany?” I repeated, much struck.

“Yes. Any number of single gentlemen lodge there — you must know it: the old Duke of Albany’s pile, converted to some seventy apartments, just off Piccadilly.”

“Indeed I do! My brother Henry kept a branch of his bank there some years ago, before moving to Henrietta Street. It is possible Malverley referred to his rooms at the inquest. But the Albany! It is just—” I stopped short, considering.

“Go on,” he said.

“I, too, dined out last evening — and one of the party was the young Comte d’Entraigues, Monsieur Julien. He professes to have seen the Princess Tscholikova some hours before her death, standing alone in the middle of the Albany’s courtyard. He lodges there himself, and says he witnessed the lady’s arrival from an upper storey window.”

“Good God! Then you think she went in search of Malverley? But why?”

“To plead his intercession with Lord Castlereagh, perhaps? Malverley admitted to a glancing social acquaintance with the lady.” I paused. “But we are too previous. As you say, some seventy gentlemen lodge in the Albany — including young d’Entraigues. We cannot assume it was Malverley she sought.”

“Not without we know more — whether there was indeed a connexion between my friend and the Princess.”

“That alone might account for his sense of horror at finding her dead … ” I raised my eyes and met Sylvester Chizzlewit’s. “Of one connexion, however, I would know a good deal more. A something exists between Julien d’Entraigues and Charles Malverley; I am certain of it.”

Mr. Chizzlewit frowned. “What would you imply?”

“The young Count spoke of your friend in such terms, last night, that I should judge he hated him,” I said.