The Rape Of Venice

Chapter 9

The Trials of an Uncle

Glibly as Roger had told Clarissa the story he had thought up to account for her presence on board, he was by no means confident that Captain Finch would swallow it hook, line and sinker. If he did not, he might discuss the matter with his Purser, or others, and that could lead to most undesirable speculations. It might, just possibly, emerge that, although Roger claimed to be Clarissa's uncle, he was not in fact; and, anyway, he knew himself to be too young and good looking for it not to cause at least mild surprise that he should be the uncle of a fully grown woman. In the close confines of a ship, it needed only a rumour that it was Clarissa's eagerness not to visit the gorgeous East, but to be with him, that had brought her among them, and his whole plan to protect her reputation would fail to the ground.

It was, therefore, of the first importance that he should play his cards in such a way that Captain Finch would believe him from the beginning and not be left with doubts which he might mention to anyone else.

Having made up his mind on the line he meant to take, he went up to the poop and asked the officer of the watch to secure him an interview with the Commander. The officer sent a Midshipman down with his request and the youth disappeared through a doorway under the poop. Two minutes later he reappeared and led Roger to a handsomely furnished cabin with tall sloping windows that looked out onto the churning wake of the ship.

Captain Finch politely rose from the desk table at which he was seated but, as he was a stickler for cleanliness in the small community of which, while it was at sea, he was the absolute master, he gave a quick frown of disapproval at Roger's dishevelled appearance. Before his visitor could even speak, he said sharply:

'Mr. Brook, it is one thing for me to see a passenger on deck with unshaven chin and hair like a bird's nest at six in the morning, and quite another for him to present himself before me in that state at this hour. Kindly retire and tidy yourself.'

Roger had purposely refrained from doing so before asking for an interview because he counted on the fact of his still being ungroomed being taken as sound corroborative evidence that he had not considered himself free to use his own cabin. Standing his ground, he said:

'My most humble apologies, Sir; but when I have informed you of the trouble I am in, I feel confident 1 may count on your forgiveness.'

'Well; what have you to say to me?'

It is about the packet, Sir, of which I spoke to you earlier this morning.'

'I have already told you that there is no possibility whatever of my putting in to land your packet.'

'Unfortunately, Sir, the packet is a woman.'

"What!' Captain Finch's blue eyes almost shot sparks. 'D'you mean to tell me that you had the temerity to bring aboard some trollop at Deal, for the purpose of a last-​night fling before putting her off at Lymington?'

Pretending righteous wrath, Roger drew himself up and let him have it back. "Were that the case I would count it no cause for you to make such a display of indignation. I am informed, Sir, that not infrequently men of quality bring aboard, in the guise of servants, trollops, as you term them, to provide them with amusement through the whole voyage.'

The sailor flinched a trifle, but he replied stoutly, 'Sir! Were such an irregularity brought to the knowledge of a Commander of one of the Company's ships, he would not tolerate it for an instant.'

'No doubt," retorted Roger. 'But I'll wager some of them take good care that it is not brought to their knowledge. At all events that is so if the table talk of Mr. Secretary Dundas is to be relied upon.'

Again Captain Finch's stern glance wavered for a second and, in a slightly less belligerent tone, he asked:

'Are you, then, well acquainted with Mr. Dundas?

'Indeed, yes: he is an old friend and I have dined at his house out at Wimbledon in company with Mr. Pitt and others many times.'

In that, Roger told no lie, although he had made a completely unscrupulous use of Dundas's name when introducing it into the conversation. Harry Dundas was the Prime Minister's most powerful colleague in the Cabinet. He was a man of great ability and boundless energy. He managed their party, ruled the Scottish members with a rod of iron, and did all the unsavoury political jobbery with which Mr. Pitt did not care to soil his hands. In addition to being Minister of War he had, two years earlier, become President of the India Board, a new creation that now gave Parliament control over the affairs of the East India Company which, under its ancient Charter, had previously enjoyed complete immunity from interference in its activities.

It was, therefore, not to be wondered at that even a stout-​hearted man like Captain Finch should, in those days when nepotism and patronage were almost universal, now display a somewhat greater readiness to deserve the good opinion of a gentleman possessing such powerful friends as did the tousle-​haired and unshaven Mr. Roger Brook. With an abrupt little bow, he said:

'I can only regret, Sir, that I am unable to oblige you. To land your, er, hum-​packet, now would be contrary to my duty to the Company. With such a stiff breeze blowing the delay might even cause us permanently to lose touch with the convoy and our escort.'

Roger had feared as much, but the sailor's change of tone told him that his tactics of first treading on his corns, then revealing himself as a man with too much political influence behind him to be offended lightly, had served their purpose. The thing which concerned him was that the Commander should accept his story without question, whether he entirely believed it or not, and give his willing co-​operation to transforming Clarissa as smoothly as possible from her present state to that of a respectable passenger. Judging that he had now been manoeuvred into a suitable state of mind, Roger returned his bow and said:

'Believe me, Sir, I fully understood how you were situated when we first spoke of the matter this morning; and in coming here I had no intention of endeavouring to persuade you to alter your decision. Moreover, I am happy to be able to assure you that the unauthorised presence aboard of this young woman is in no way due to moral turpitude on my part. Far from it. She is, I admit, a flighty, spoilt, adventurous-​minded minx and has played upon me a most wicked prank. But she is no trollop, Sir. She is my niece.'

'God bless me!' exclaimed the stalwart sailor, his prawn-​like eyebrows shooting up into his square forehead. 'This is a fine kettle of fish!'

'It is one, Sir,' rejoined Roger grimly, 'that not only causes me grave embarrassment, but is like to put me to considerable expense, and she should be punished for it.'

Captain Finch suddenly sat down, motioned Roger to a chair and said with quick sympathy, 'You imply that you did not know her to be aboard until after we had sailed. If so I can appreciate the intense annoyance you must feel. Pray disclose the whole matter to me without delay.'

At this friendly invitation Roger turned on all his charm, told the story he had made up, and put forward his proposals for dealing with the affair. When he had done, Captain Finch said:

'One must admit the young lady has shown exceptional spirit in her determination to see the East, and I trust you will not deal too harshly with her by confining her to her cabin for a while, or anything of that kind. The ladies aboard are few upon this trip, so she will make a welcome addition to our company. I would have suggested saying that on her coming aboard I showed her straight down to her cabin myself and that suffering from a malaise last night she decided against leaving it. But, unfortunately, her joining the ship at Margate and her face having since become familiar to the other servants puts that out of the question. There can be no concealing her escapade, so we must make of it the best we can. In any case, it was most wise of you to elect to spend a wretchedly uncomfortable night rather than occupy the other berth in your cabin, as many uncles would have done. Your forethought in that was most praiseworthy, as there will now be no grounds for wagging tongues. Since you wish her to retain your cabin, I'll order your luggage to be removed to another, then have hers retrieved from the hold and sent down to her. I shall look forward to your presenting her to the company when we meet for dinner.'

He coughed and added, 'It only remains now for us to arrange about her passage money.'

The officers in the Company's ships were paid only a nominal salary, but were more than amply compensated for that by being allowed, on a scale in accordance with their rank, free shipping space to conduct a private trade of their own. On outward voyages the allowances ranged from fifty-​six tons for a Commander to one ton for a Midshipman; and even the petty officers were allowed a certain number of cubic feet. On the homeward voyages the allowances were reduced by roughly one third all round but, even so, sound buying could bring them very handsome profits. In addition, while the commander was responsible for feeding the passengers, any profit he could make out of their passage money was also part of his perquisites. For the Company's Servants there were fixed rates of from £95 to £250 according to rank for the one way trip out, but private passengers had to make their own bargain with the Commanders and in a good ship, homeward bound, for which the rates were considerably higher, they often asked as much as £1,000.

Droopy had secured for Roger a passage at a cost of £500, which included £100 for the privilege of sitting at the Commander's table, where the food served was of a far higher standard than the ordinary passengers' fare. Now, Roger had no option but to enter into a bond for a further £500 to secure for Clarissa the same amenities as he was to enjoy himself. While making the transaction he was hard put to it to conceal his chagrin, and Captain Finch to conceal his delight. The latter was under no obligation to purchase a single extra chicken or bottle of wine; so if, on account of this extra passenger, his table had to go a little short towards the end of the voyage, he could not be blamed for it, and the £500 could be regarded as clear profit. A few minutes later he bowed Roger out of his cabin with the greatest affability and his assurance that he would give the necessary orders forthwith.

Within a quarter of an hour, Roger's trunks were transferred to another cabin and, shortly afterwards, Clarissa's were brought to her; so they were able to set about making themselves presentable. When Roger emerged clad with his usual elegance, he again looked in on her to tell her to remain below until he came to fetch her, then he went up on deck to carry out another and, he hoped, less tricky part of his programme for protecting her reputation.

As he had expected, most of the passengers were now on deck enjoying the sunshine; and near the quarter-​deck, a little apart from the rest, Sir Curtis and Lady Beaumont were occupying two chairs that had been specially placed there for them. Halting before them he made his bow and with a grave face enquired how they had slept.

'Not too badly for a first night at sea,' Lady Beaumont smiled, and her hook-​nosed husband added, 'Tolerably, tolerably; and I hope, Sir, you fared no worse?' Then he offered Roger snuff.

Roger accepted a pinch, flicked his lace handkerchief and replied with a sigh, 'Alas, I got not a wink of sleep, but was kept from my berth all night by the most plaguey infuriating happening that ever did befall a man.'

On their both expressing their surprise, and asking him to tell them the cause of his plight, he turned towards the judge's plump, motherly wife, and said, 'It is to you, Ma'am, that I should principally address myself; for, unless you consent to afford me your charitable assistance, I know not what I shall do.'

Then he told them the same story about Clarissa as he had told Captain Finch; and ended by saying, 'So you see, I am landed for the voyage with a wilful though, to give the chit her due, quite passably good-​looking niece. Since she is unmarried it is a certainty that she will become the centre of attraction for all the young officers abroad; and, as I entirely lack experience in handling such a situation, I fear it will prove beyond my control. Would you, therefore… could you… may I beg that you will do me the honour and kindness to act as her chaperon?'

"Why, of course I will,' Lady Beaumont replied at once. 'She certainly sounds a most wayward miss and, I trust, will not prove too much of a handful for me. But your request is a most proper one. 'Tis unthinkable that an unmarried girl of good family should make so long a voyage without an older woman to act as her confidante, and protect her reputation; so I will willingly oblige.'

Roger overwhelmed her with thanks and, declaring that she had taken a great weight off his mind, became his usual gay self again. Sitting down on a nearby coil of rope he gave the Beaumont’s an account of Clarissa's background and, on learning that she was an orphan, Lady Beaumont exclaimed:

'Having lacked a mother's care is some excuse, at least, for her unruly, headstrong act; it makes me all the more willing to take the poor child under my wing. I am all eagerness to meet her.'

'I doubt if she will have finished titivating herself,' Roger replied, 'so we had best give her another half-​hour; then I'll go fetch and present her to you, Ma'am.'

When he did go down to the cabin, he found Clarissa fully dressed but still fiddling with her hair. It had lost its curl and she had cut off the last six inches of the golden lovelocks which she normally displayed so attractively dangling over her breast. As she had no means of heating her curling irons she was in a great state about how best to dress it.

Roger pointed out that she would have ample time to experiment with new styles later, and that for the early part of the voyage it would be all to the good that she should wear it simply dressed, as the younger she looked the more appropriate she would appear in her role as his niece. As he helped her fix it finally with a big bow at the back of her neck, he told her that Lady Beaumont had agreed to chaperon her, then they went up on deck.

The whole of its forepart was now crowded with soldiers, and the remainder of it well sprinkled with officers and passengers. A moment after they emerged from the hatchway, the laughter and chatter dwindled, then it ceased completely. In dead silence and with a hundred pairs of surprised, curious eyes fixed upon them, Roger, with Clarissa on his arm and a severe expression on his face, led her to the quarter deck.

The judge and his wife stood up as they approached. Spreading her skirts wide, Clarissa sank down in a graceful curtsy and, instead of rising at once, remained there with her head bowed for a moment. Lady Beaumont stepped quickly forward, raised her by the arms and kissed her on both cheeks, exclaiming:

'You sweet, wicked child! How lovely you are, and how pleased I am that for a while you are to be my daughter.'

The stern 'Uncle' now permitted himself a smile. "Sweet and wicked', he was thinking, were fair enough, but 'child' hardly applicable if one knew the truth; and he wondered what the good lady would say if she learned that only a few hours ago Clarissa had been hoping to pass the night in his arms. But, after Lady Beaumont's reception of her in front of nearly the whole ship's company, there was no danger of anyone suspecting that. He had played his cards well and timed her presentation perfectly.

Half- an-​hour later, the after-​deck began to clear, as the passengers went down either to change or at least tidy them selves for dinner. At two o'clock they assembled in the cuddy for the meal. Clarissa was duly presented to Captain Finch, Lady Beaumont introduced her to Mrs. and Miss Armitage, and the other officers and passengers were in turn presented to her. The only sour looks came from Mrs. Armitage and her pimply daughter, Jane. Everyone else expressed themselves as enchanted that Clarissa was to make the voyage with them. Within a few minutes all the younger men were buzzing round her like bees around a honey-​pot, and as the dishes were brought in had to be almost driven away to their tables.

The Commander's table consisted of the Beaumont’s, Roger, Clarissa, Mr. Winters, a senior servant of the Company named Cruishank, a Colonel Jeffs, a Major Routledge, and a dashing young subaltern of Hussars, the Honourable Gerald Keeble. The last, it soon became known, belonged to a rich and influential family, but was going out to India on account of the mountain of debts he had accumulated at home. The Major was an engineer and a taciturn man who seemed to have few pleasures in life except food. Mr. Cruishank and Sir Curtis were old friends and both had the dry pleasant wit that so frequently accompanies a high degree of education, coupled with a sense of humour. The Colonel was a red-​faced gouty man, but of cheerful and kindly disposition when not suffering from a bout of his affliction.

Such a well-​assorted little company could provide many topics of conversation and, the majority of them being genial by nature, bade fair to make the voyage more enjoyable than was usually the case with small parties cooped up for many months together. The meal was a leisurely one and the ladies did not leave the table till nearly four o'clock; the men sat over their port for an hour, then joined them in the saloon. Tea was served at six and a light supper at nine. Ten o'clock was the ritual hour for them to retire to their cabins.

Next day was Sunday, and for the first time Roger and Clarissa were able fully to appreciate how different an East Indiaman was to any other ships in which they had sailed. The average tonnage of merchant ships trading across the Atlantic or to the Baltic was little more than 300 tons, whereas the hundred-​odd ships that made up the Company's fleet were incomparably larger. They were of three grades, the smallest being 500 tons, the mediums 800, and the top class over 1,100, The Minerva was an 800 tonner.

But the difference did not lie in size alone. Most merchant ships were officered by men who had worked their way up from before the mast; sometimes no more than two of them were really capable navigators, and their Captains were often drunkards; whereas the officers of the Company's ships ranked nearly as high as those of the Royal Navy. Indeed transferences between the two Services were frequent, particularly from the Navy to the Company in peace time, as the Commander of an Indiaman, although usually financed by City Merchants, could often show a profit of as much as £10,000 on his personal trading in a single voyage.

In addition to six mates and four midshipmen, the average Indiaman carried a purser, surgeon, surgeon's mate, boatswain, gunner, coxswain, six quartermasters, captain's steward, captain's cook, barber, armourer, sailmaker, caulker, cooper, butcher, baker, poulterer, and teams of carpenters, cooks and stewards. The crews of such ships were well-​drilled in arms and they were equipped with as many as thirty-​two guns; so convoys had nothing to dread from sea-​rovers, and had often given a good account of themselves when attacked by enemy squadrons during the wars with France.

It was on Sunday mornings that these fine ships were seen at their best, as the officers donned their uniforms, which differed only slightly from those of the Royal Navy, all beardless seamen had to shave, the whole ship's company put on their best clothes, and everything was made spick and span for the Commander's inspection. He began by making a round of the whole ship while the men stood to attention at their various posts. When he had finished, drums beat to quarters and everyone, including the male passengers who were armed with boarding-​pikes, went to their action stations. Afterwards the Commander held a service, and the rest of the day was one of leisure for the crew.

On week days, weather permitting, from eight o'clock onward, a good part of the deck was occupied by the army officers drilling their men to keep them as fit as possible. By half-​past eight the space reserved for passengers began to fill up, and they either read their books or played games such as quoits, cup and ball, darts and shuttle cock, until one o'clock, when they went down to change for dinner. In the evenings they amused themselves with music, amateur theatricals, charades, spelling bees, poetry readings and guessing games.

At table the conversation, as was to be expected, turned frequently to Indian affairs. Even those who were going out for the first time were fairly well informed upon them, as for the past quarter of a century they had been the subject of many a heated discussion in England, and Parliament had given as much time to debating them as it was later to do in the 1890's and 1900's to the affairs of Ireland.

Within living memory the whole sub-​continent had been the Empire of the Great Moguls, whose capital was at Delhi, For two centuries they had ruled it through their Nizams or Nawabs, as were called the Viceroys to whom they delegated their authority over vast areas of the country. But early in the reign of King George II the Mogul Empire had begun to disintegrate.

The Persians invaded, and for a time annexed, the provinces in the north-​west; the Nawabs of Oudh, Bihar and Bengal, in the north-​east, asserted their independence, and all central and southern India also broke away. Hyderabad, Mysore, and the Carnatic became great sovereign states in the south. The Rajput Princes formed their own confederacy, and below it the whole of central India, from Gujaret on the Arabian sea to Orissa on the Bay of Bengal, became a still more powerful confederacy under the Maratha Princes, who had their capital at Poona. The result had been that during the middle decades of the century, these many nobles, great and small, had torn the country with a score of wars, each seeking to enlarge his territories or to overrun temporarily and plunder those of his neighbours.

This long period of strife and uncertainty had had a profound effect on the affairs of the Honourable East India Company. For a hundred and fifty years the Company had adhered to the Charter granted to it by Queen Elizabeth, in the heart of which stood the noble phrase, 'for the honour of this our realm of England as for the increase of our navigation and the advancement of trade…' The Company had never sought conquest and had resorted little to arms, except against its competitors: the Portuguese, Dutch and French; and its monopoly of the right to trade, which included China and the whole of South East Asia, had brought it enormous wealth. But with India divided into as many states as Europe, and a number of them ruled by treacherous warrior adventurers, the Company found itself compelled not only to wage minor wars in the protection of its interests, but, in certain cases, to protect them for the future by assuming permanent control over territories in which those interests lay.

Apart from outlying trading posts, these territories were three in number. The most important was in the most distant part of India: its extreme north-​eastern province of Bengal. In the wide mouth of the Hooghly river there the Portuguese had very early established a settlement, but in 1632 Shah Jahan had exterminated it and soon afterwards, the Dutch and English managed to get a foothold; although it was not until sixty years later the Company received permission to move its headquarters farther up the river to a little fishing village, later to become the great city of Calcutta.

In the hundred years that followed, the Company's Servants penetrated deep into the interior to the north-​west, through the rich provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Oudh up to Delhi and far beyond into the Punjab and Kashmir. The river of trade that flowed back had, by Roger's day, made Calcutta one of the great metropoli of India with its British residents and garrison already numbering several thousands.

The Company's next most important centre was at Madras, another small fishing village a thousand miles south-​west of Calcutta, on the Carnatic coast, at which in 1640 they had been given permission to erect a fort. From it they traded right up the east coast of India, across its tip through Mysore to the Malabar coast on the west, and up into the great province of Hyderabad, which occupied nearly the whole of the central part of Southern India.

Lastly, more than half way up the west coast, six hundred miles from Madras and over a thousand from Calcutta-​both across country as the crow flies-​lay the island of Bombay. It had come to the British crown as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, and in 1667 King Charles II had leased it to the Company for £10 per annum. It was the finest natural harbour in India, no greater distance from London than Madras and a thousand miles nearer than Calcutta; but it had not developed to anything approaching the other two, the reason being that it was too far north to handle the Malabar coast trade and was cut off by difficult mountain country from the productive regions to the north and east. Nevertheless, it had grown into a considerable city and was a most valuable naval base.

The anarchy following the dissolution of the Mogul Empire had been further aggravated by the outbreak of war between Britain and France in 1743 over the question of the Austrian Succession. By this time the French, who had come later into the field than the Portuguese, Dutch and British, had also established powerful trading centres, notably at Chander-​nagore on the Hooghly and at Pondicherry, about a hundred miles south of Madras.

Pondicherry was the French headquarters and its able and energetic governor, the Marquis de Dupliex, promptly attempted to bring the whole of Southern India under French influence. He captured Madras and forced the remnant of the British community there to shut themselves up in Fort St. David. He then supported the claims of two pretenders to the thrones of Hyderabad and the Carnatic and ousted the pro-​British potentates who occupied them.

It was then that Robert, afterwards Lord, Clive had first made a name for himself. Originally a young writer to the Company, he had early transferred to a cadetship in its armed forces. By 1751 the British cause was in a parlous state. Mohammed Ali, whom they were supporting as the rightful ruler of the Carnatic, had been driven from his capital at Arcot and, heavily outnumbered, was besieged in Trichinopoly. Clive's force was so meagre that he could not possibly hope to defeat the besieging army. Instead, with the intention of drawing them off, he surprised and took Arcot, the capital newly won by the pretender.

This brilliant stroke succeeded. Mohammed Ali was saved from surrender and death by the pretender's hurriedly abandoning the siege and hastening back with his army to Arcot; but he now bottled Clive up in it. With only eight young officers, two hundred Europeans and six hundred Indian troops, Clive withstood for fifty days a siege and assaults by an army twenty thousand strong. At length a Maratha Prince, out of admiration for his bravery, brought an army to his assistance. Arcot was relieved and the Carnatic preserved as a sphere of British influence.

In Hyderabad, things went the other way. Dupliex's talented second-​in-​command, the Comte de Bussy, secured this vast central territory for the French and became, in effect, for several years, its ruler.

In 1754, peace in Europe brought peace in India. Dupliex was recalled and Clive went home. But the peace was only a very temporary one. In '56, the general war broke out again, and it was in that year that the young, dissolute and avaricious Nawab of Bengal, Surajah Dowlah, inspired by the French, made a treacherous surprise attack on Calcutta. The fortress was in an ill state of repair and the garrison below strength, but that hardly excuses the cowardly conduct of the governor who fled with his council to the ships in the harbour, leaving 146 Europeans to the mercy of the enemy. They were jammed into in old prison known as the Black Hole, and only 23 of them were still alive next morning.

In the meantime, Clive was on his way out again, now with full powers as the Company's General. The following January he took the field. With nine hundred British soldiers and fifteen hundred 'sepoys', as the European trained Indian troops were called, he recaptured Calcutta and repulsed the forty-​thousand-​strong army of Surajah Dowlah. In the spring, the French settlement of Chandernagore was captured and, in June, Clive again faced Surajah Dowlah's army at Plassey. The young Prince's contemptuous treatment of his nobles had made him many enemies at his own court, and his principal General, Mir Jafer, treacherously advised retreat. Clive then fell upon and routed Surajah Dowlah's army; he was murdered and Mir Jafer placed on his throne.

That was the end of French influence in Northern India and they were soon to lose their hold in the south. In January 1760, they were decisively defeated at Waniswash and a year later had to surrender Pondicherry. Meanwhile, a year earlier, Clive had defeated a powerful Dutch expedition, and when he left India no European power remained there capable of challenging British interests.

The Indian States were, however, far from permanently pacified, and in 1765 Clive was sent back for a further term of office. With a diplomacy equalling his military renown, he entered into treaties with numerous potentates, including the titular Emperor in Delhi, which gave the Company control of the state revenues in Bengal and Bihar, made it the virtual master of Oudh and the Carnatic, and gave it the trading rights in the Northern Circas, which had previously been enjoyed by the French.

There followed the events which for the whole of Roger's lifetime had caused an almost constant succession of heated debates in the British Parliament.

The struggle with France and Clive's activities had changed the Company from a great organisation concerned only with trade to one also responsible for the administration of vast territories. The Company had not sought, and was actually averse to assuming, such responsibilities, and the majority of its Servants were unsuited, by habits they had already acquired, to be trusted with such work.

Those habits arose from the fact that the Company paid its Servants hopelessly inadequate salaries, compensating them with the right to trade on their own account, and that in the East immemorial custom decreed that anyone who benefited from a transaction should give the other party to it a present. Mir Jafer, for example, on being placed by the British on the throne of Bengal, had distributed among Clive and his officers half-​a-​million pounds. Later Clive had been called to account by Parliament. His reaction had been to protest that he stood astonished that he had been content with such a modest sum, and Parliament, knowing the circumstances, unanimously acquitted him of having used his power to enrich himself unreasonably. But, now that the Servants of the Company, great and small, had become officials with such wide powers of patronage, they proceeded to use them most unscrupulously.

Stories came home to England of Indian merchants and land-​owners being blackmailed and otherwise oppressed. Such tales were soon followed by an influx of middle-​class and often vulgar Servants of the Company who had brought home fortunes, were termed in no friendly spirit 'Nabobs', and whose ostentation gave considerable offence in the country areas where they bought properties from the worse-​off of the old land-​owning class. The misery of the Indian people had been further increased in 1770 by the most terrible famine on record, and hundreds of influential people in Britain were agitating for their interests to be protected.

This national outcry led to the Regulating Act of 1773, by which the Company's nominee for Governor-​General had to be approved by Government and, although given authority over Madras and Bombay as well as Calcutta, his every act had to receive the sanction of a Council, a majority of whom could, if they disagreed with his policy, obstruct it with a veto. The Act also created a High Court of Justice to which Indians could appeal without fear that it would favour the Company, since its Judges were responsible only to the Home Government.

This was the first shackle put upon the complete independence of the Company, and it fell heaviest on Warren Hastings, whom they had appointed as Governor of Bengal the previous year. Hastings was a man of integrity, vision and vigour, but he was faced with the still unsettled state of India and the competing ambitions of its many Princes.

The Marathas, who had combined under the Peshwa at Poona, were again in control in the north at Delhi. To the east of it an Afghan chief had usurped the throne of Rohilkhand and was threatening Oudh. In the west, owing to a trade route dispute, the Marathas were threatening Bombay. In the south Hyderabad had become hostile to the Company and the throne of Mysore had been seized by a Mohammedan adventurer named Hyder Ali, who threatened to. and later did, overrun the Carnatic.

The new Council consisted of five members: Hastings, who was its chairman, Barwell, a Senior Servant who understood the problems of the Company and so loyally supported Hastings, and three nominees of Parliament whose ignorance of India was such that, on landing in Calcutta, they thought that because the natives had bare feet it was because the Company had inflicted taxes so crushing upon them that they could no longer afford boots. Led by Philip Francis, the newcomers at once adopted a line of violent opposition to Hastings, and by their majority in Council consistently thwarted his attempts to bring order out of chaos.

For two years his position was made intolerable, then one of Francis's supporters died, giving Hastings control through his casting vote as chairman. But the bitter struggle continued for another four years until Francis, after having been wounded in a duel by Hastings, went home.

During those years Britain had become involved in war with her American Colonists, France, Holland and Spain, and once more events in Europe had their repercussions in India. Although Britain's enemies could no longer put an army in the field there, they could still stimulate avaricious Princes to take up arms against the Company, and Hastings had to wage wars against the Marathas who menaced Bombay, the Rohillas in support of Britain's ally Oudh, and Hyder Ali the bold usurper of the throne of Mysore. With the aid of three fine soldiers, General Sir Eyre Coote and Colonels Goddard and Popham, all three wars were won. and by brilliant diplomacy Hastings secured the paramountcy of the Company over vast areas of India.

But the wars had to be paid for. The Company grudged every penny spent on military operations and, owing to many years of rapacity and mismanagement by its Servants, its funds had dwindled alarmingly. The war in America and Europe had strained the resources of the Government at home to such a point that it could not afford to give help. So Hastings had to find the money himself. He found it in the only way possible for him: by withholding subsidies the Company had contracted to pay to certain potentates whose friendship was now doubtful, and by extracting great sums from the Indian allies whose territories he was protecting.

In 1873 a general peace was agreed by the Powers. The following year young Mr. Pitt, who had recently become Prime Minister, put through Parliament his India Act. Its object was to put an end to corrupt and arbitrary administration by the Company's Servants. In effect, Parliament took over the responsibility for ruling all areas that were, or should come, under British control. An India Board was created with Dundas as its President, and for the future the Company was required to frame its policy, and nominate its senior Servants, in consultation with the Board. Thus after two hundred years the Company finally lost all power in India other than its trading monopoly.

In the teeth of extraordinary difficulties, Hastings had already introduced many of the reforms which were the object of Pitt's Bill. He was the best friend that the people of India ever had, and he laid the foundations for the just and honourable administration of the Indian Civil Service which, in the following century, did so much to develop the country and bring western civilisation to it.

But in 1784 he returned home to be met with ingratitude and obloquy. With almost unbelievable venom his old enemy Francis stirred up Parliament against him. He was made the scapegoat for his corrupt predecessors and colleagues, and impeached. Burke, the most brilliant orator of the day, had taken up the cause of the oppressed people of India and hurled invective at him. Fox and Sheridan resorted to every mean trick their excellent intelligences could devise to pull him down.

The trial dragged on for seven years. Every act of Hastings during his fourteen years of administration was gone into minutely in the hope of finding evidence of his corruption. The main charges concerned his conduct in connection with the Rohilla war, and the way in which he had raised money for that and other wars, particularly his extraction of a large sum from Chait Singh, the Rajah of Benares, and his attempts to secure from the Begums of Oudh a million pounds that these two Princesses had been left by the late Nawab of that country. At last he was acquitted on all charges and, although his defence had cost him his fortune, the Company supported him in his old age. In 1813, at the age of 81, he was called on to give evidence before Parliament on a matter concerning India. The House then did him the honour of receiving him standing and bareheaded.

Hastings was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis, another honourable and intelligent Governor, who was also a fine soldier. He did much to strengthen and improve upon Hastings' wise measures for the administration of the British controlled territories; but, like his predecessor, he was not left to do so in peace. Hyder Ali's son, Tipoo Sahib, launched his warrior hordes from Mysore, first against his neighbours to the north, then against Travancore, a small state in the south-​west which was in alliance with Britain. Cornwallis came to the rescue, Tipoo Sahib was defeated and compelled to surrender a great part of his territories.

In 1793 Cornwallis was succeeded by Sir John Shore, an able civilian who had been in the Company's service for a quarter of a century. Wars were still going on in the north and west. An Afghan adventurer seized the throne in Delhi, the Maratha Princes were fighting among themselves, and the Maharaja of Sindhia was involved in a long conflict with the Rajputs. But Sir John Shore was a man of peace and, as British territory was not actually threatened, he refused to allow himself to be drawn into any of these struggles.

That was still the situation in July 1796, so the company aboard the Minerva had every reason to hope that when they landed in Calcutta they would not be met with the news of any fresh alarms and excursions.

Clarissa played well the part assigned to her by Roger. Although like everyone else, she knew the main trend that events in India had taken, she lost no suitable opportunity when they met at meals of asking questions about Clive and Hastings, its more recent wars, Calcutta and Madras, its Princes and peoples, religions, jungles, animals and flowers.

Her principal informant was Mr. Sidney Winters. He was a big, paunchy man just on the right side of fifty. Most of his life had been spent in India and he was the senior partner of a Calcutta firm which, under the Company's licence, had grown and prospered with the years. His hair was grey, his face florid, and he carried his large stomach on two absurdly short legs but he had a pleasant disposition and, while not an educated man in the same sense as Sir Curtis Beaumont or Mr. Cruishank, there was nothing about India that he did not know. He delighted in drawing on this bottomless fund of knowledge for Clarissa and, as she was genuinely interested, at times she even made him come and sit with her up on deck, to the annoyance of the little group of beaux who constantly pursued her.

Of these, the Honourable Gerald Keeble had a big advantage, as he also sat at the Commander's table; but Clarissa was inclined to prefer Robert Mclvor, a young Scot who by patronage of Dundas was being sent out to fill an administrative post because he had more brains and Mr. Fenton, of the 61st Foot-​because he had a readier sense of humour. A heavy featured Captain of Dragoons and a wiry little Lt-​Colonel from the Ordnance Department made up her regular court, but a number of others were generally hovering in the offing.

With regard to Roger himself, she also played her part well almost too well he was inclined to think as the voyage progressed. It was one thing that she should never permit her glance to linger on him with any hint of more than a niece's affection, but another that she hardly spoke to him unless he first addressed her. It was not that she was deliberately rude to him, but she was so fully occupied talking to other men; and his situation made it impossible for him to appear a competitor for her interest or company.

As a means of keeping his mind off her, he determined to learn Persian. That was then the diplomatic language of India and spoken at all its Courts; so, even during the brief stay he contemplated, he thought it might come in useful if he visited any of them. Warren Hastings, himself a fine Persian scholar, had initiated and encouraged the study, by Servants of the Company, of languages used in India; so Roger had no difficulty in finding among those aboard the Minerva one who could speak Persian fluently. He was a middle-​aged man named James Griffin and under his tuition Roger, having a flair for languages, was soon making good progress.

As far as the weather was concerned, they were remarkably fortunate. After they had been at sea a week, they met with one bad patch which, for a few days, caused them a certain amount of discomfort and resulted in a sharp decline in the variety of the dishes served at dinner; but it was not anything approaching a tempest, and Roger succeeded in stalling off his dreaded seasickness. After calling at Madeira, they picked up the South-​West Trades, to be wafted by them right across the Atlantic and over the Equator till they sighted Cape St. Roque, the westernmost point of Brazil.

When they crossed the Line, several sailors disguised as King Neptune and his Court clambered up over the ship's side and the usual ceremonies, followed by much rough horseplay, were performed. As similar rites were customary in ships sailing to the West Indies on crossing the Tropic of Cancer, Roger had already 'met' Neptune; so he was not expected either to participate or to exercise his privilege as a first-​class passenger of paying a forfeit to be excused a ducking. All the same, he made the Sea King a handsome present, and was given, a front row seat to watch the fun.

As was almost always the case with East India convoys, when they reached the neighbourhood of Cape St. Roque they lay for some days almost completely becalmed. It was intolerably hot; so much so that the pitch became soft in the caulking of the upper decks and their planks so roasting that even the sailors, with their hardened feet, could not bear to walk about them for any length of time without shoes. Normally, the crew and the troops slept in hammocks, slung head to tail, and so close together that they resembled sardines in a tin; so, even at the best of times, their quarters were terribly overcrowded. Now, the greater part of them slept near naked on deck and the passengers, in their stifling cabins, envied them.

As long as the Minerva was becalmed, her boats were kept lowered, tow ropes were attached to all of them and relays of the crew laboured at their oars, dragging the heavy ship a mile or so an hour while her sails hung slack but still set to catch the faintest puff of breeze. For ten days, with the sweat running from them at every movement, the passengers and crew endured this inferno; then at last the South-​East Trades picked up the ship and life aboard once more became liveable.

Cape Town was their next scheduled port of call, but again, by custom dictated by the prevailing winds, the convoy did not head straight for it. Instead, it let the Trades carry it in a great sweep far to the south of the tip of Africa and some way round the corner, until it reached the 'roaring forties'; only then did it turn north-​west in the direction of the port.

It was now early September and so on the verge of spring in the Southern Hemisphere. This saved them from the winter gales they might otherwise have encountered; although the climate had become chilly compared with that to which for so many weeks they had been accustomed. But it was still warm enough to spend long hours sitting about the deck, and the competition for a place near Clarissa showed no signs of lessening.

Lady Beaumont had long proclaimed her to be the 'dearest girl' and she certainly gave no trouble to her chaperone by being discovered with chosen admirers on deck after lights out at night, or being found in other such compromising situations. For that Roger had little doubt about the reason, and now and then he felt a cynical satisfaction in the knowledge that he had only to say the word for her to brush aside all her beaux and come running to his arms.

Yet that was a poor compensation for the fact that, except at table, he hardly had a word with her. Her face, now tanned by the sun and framed in her pale gold hair, which had grown again, was more than ever lovely to look at, and he knew her to be an intelligent and charming companion. Through the long weeks of his automatic exclusion from her playtime circle, he had gradually developed a sub-​conscious jealousy of the men she favoured with her smiles, and he even envied old Sydney Winters the tete-​a-​tetes she still accorded him now and then to natter to her about India.

The Cape was barely half-​way to Calcutta; so there were at least another two months to go before there could be any change in their relationship and, even then, the final result of any such change provoked speculations about which he did not care to think. He only knew that being within sight of her nearly all of every day, yet debarred from the friendly intimacy they had previously enjoyed, made him see her differently and had immensely increased his desire for her.

At dinner on the 10th September, Captain Finch told them that he estimated the Minerva now to be no more than forty-​eight hours out of Cape Town. That evening, about nine o'clock, the portly Mr. Winters came up to Roger in the saloon and asked him if he would favour him with a short conversation up on deck. Somewhat surprised, but by no means averse to a breath of fresh air, Roger agreed; so the two men collected their cloaks and met again at the top of the hatchway.

After they had covered a few paces side by side, Winters said: 'I understand that we shall reach Cape Town the day after tomorrow; and I owe you a sincere apology, Mr. Brook for not having addressed you before this on the subject of which I am now about to speak.'

Roger had not the faintest idea what the subject could be but he replied politely, 'No matter, Sir. Be kind enough to inform me of it.'

'It is,' Winters coughed, then went on suddenly, 'a formal request that you will permit me to pay my addresses to your niece.'

The idea seemed so preposterous that Roger did not take it seriously. Swiftly suppressing a desire to laugh, and wishing to let the elderly merchant down lightly, he said: 'Your proposal being an honourable one, I feel sure Miss Marsham will be flattered by it; but before replying to your request, I must speak to her on the matter,'

Winters coughed again, then said hurriedly, 'You must be aware, Sir, that during the voyage, I have spent many hours in. conversation with Miss Marsham. I had no intention of marrying again, but I have found her such a paragon of virtue, sensibility and charm that I can now think of no greater bliss than to make her Mrs. Winters. I should add that I am in a position to support her, even to the extent of providing her with every reasonable luxury.'

"Yes. yes.' Roger now spoke a shade testily. 'But you must forgive me for pointing out, Sir, that attentions of the kind you have in mind from a gentleman so much her senior might prove unwelcome to her.'

'It was with reference to that, Sir, that I made you an apology. As Miss Marsham and I conversed we became ever more fully aware of the similarity of our feelings upon a great variety of subjects. Almost with…'

'I pray you do not build false hopes on that,' Roger cut in.

Ignoring his remark, Winters continued, 'Almost unrealised by me, a point was reached at which, without awaiting your consent, I laid my heart and fortune at her feet.'

Roger halted in his tracks. Only the darkness hid his expression of swift apprehension. After a moment he regained sufficient control over himself to ask in a normal voice, 'What reply did she make to your proposal?'

'Why, Sir!' exclaimed the merchant rapturously, 'to my eternal joy she has accepted me.'

A dozen different emotions, none of them pleasant, simultaneously whirled and fought for first place in Roger's mind. It was obvious that Clarissa had determined to adopt the course she had implied she might on the first night of the voyage and that she had ensnared the poor fool who stood before him in order to achieve her object more quickly as, with him already engaged to her, she could be married within a week of their arrival in Calcutta. But Winters was far from being the sort of man Roger had had in mind when he had so thoughtlessly put the idea into her head. The merchant was neither old enough to be impotent, nor of a fitting station in life to make a suitable parti for her. Roger could only thank his stars that there were at least two months yet to go before the Minerva reached Calcutta. The time should be ample for him to dissuade her from the folly of taking such a husband, even for the purpose she had in mind. After a moment he said:

'It seems then that I have little option but to sanction this engagement, Sir; but I would ask you to keep it secret for a while, in case Miss Marsham should change her mind before we arrive in India.'

Winters gave a sudden laugh. 'There is no fear of that, Sir. I gather that revictualling at Cape Town will require the Minerva to lie in the port for some ten days; and it is Miss Marsham's own wish that we should be married there,'