The Rape Of Venice

Chapter 10

Clarissa makes her Bed

Roger's life had hung too often on his ability to absorb an. unpleasant shock without giving himself away for him to be stampeded into showing his surprise and fury on this occasion. Instead, he said in a not unfriendly voice:

'Then I must offer you my congratulations… Sir,'

Winters thanked him effusively and began to babble about his good fortune, but Roger cut him short by saying: 'I think, Sir, this conversation has fulfilled its purpose. We will speak further on the matter when I have discussed it with my niece.'

Taking quick alarm, Winters stammered, 'I… I trust, Mr. Brook, you.,. you do not intend to use your influence with your niece in an attempt to make her change her mind?'

I have so far to meet the woman who has a stronger mind than Miss Marsham,' declared Roger, with cynical truth, 'and without consulting me she has already made her intentions clear to you. Let us go below.'

Down in the saloon, Clarissa was playing a game of backgammon against Robert Mclvor, while three officers stood behind her chair, giving her good advice and endeavouring to make witty remarks that would discomfit her opponent Roger's bow to her included the whole group, and he said in the authoritative voice that he occasionally used to her in his guise of uncle:

'Gentlemen; perhaps one of you would take over my niece's hand. I regret to break up her game; but we shall shortly be in Cape Town and I wish to discuss with her how we can best employ our time there."

Demure as ever. Clarissa rose, made her apologies to Mclvor and laid a hand on the arm that Roger offered her. As soon as they were out of earshot of the group, she whispered:

So Sidney has told you?'

Sidney, forsooth!' he hissed back. 'Clarissa, how could you? But this is no place to discuss it. Get your cloak and meet me up on deck near the main mast.'

Five minutes later he saw the pale blur of her face above the outline of her long grey cloak as she came towards him in the semi-​darkness. Stepping forward, he took her by the arm and drew her into the still deeper shadow behind the bollards with their masses of rope and tackle.

Well, dear Uncle?' He could guess at her wicked smile from her tone as she asked. 'Was it really necessary to get me up here in order to congratulate me?'

Clarissa!' he said earnestly. 'This is no laughing matter… You are proposing to do a great wrong to a very decent man and also make a mess of your whole life.'

She shrugged. 'He's mad about me, but knows that I am not drawn to him by passion. How could I be? I do him no wrong, but on the contrary bring him great happiness. Think of the pride he will feel on producing me in Calcutta as his wife, and the joy he will get from seeing the amazement and envy of his friends.'

'Maybe; but their envy will turn to derision the moment it gets out that you have provided him with a pair of horns. Besides, he is utterly unsuited for the role that I most foolishly put into your head.'

'Why so?'

'To start with he is only in his late forties and has 'already been married once, so there is no reason whatever to suppose him impotent.'

'I have dealt with that.' Clarissa gave a low laugh. 'I told him that, as first pregnancies were often difficult, I considered it a great unkindness to get a new made bride with child, and that doing so had ruined many a marriage. I asked a year to enjoy myself before starting to provide him with a family; and it is part of our agreement that our marriage should not be consummated for twelve months.'

'For cleverness I vow you beat the Devil!' Roger exclaimed in grudging admiration. "But what when the twelve months are up? And that's not all! He is not, as I suggested, an old fellow with one foot in the grave whose last hours you could make happy in exchange for the fortune he would leave you.'

She shrugged again, 'Let the future take care of itself.'

'Futures do not take care of themselves. You will have saddled yourself with this man. And who is he? A nobody! A tradesman! Even if you can continue to deny him his rights indefinitely he will be your husband. From his talk at table on several occasions, he has made it plain that in a few years he intends to retire from business and settle down in England. To be- married to a rich merchant in Calcutta is one thing, but do you return home with him your marriage will be regarded as an appalling misalliance. Neither men nor women of breeding can defy custom in such a matter. No doubt Georgina would receive him for your sake but, decent fellow though he is, he would be a constant source of shame and embarrassment to you; and in the main you would find yourself ostracised by the sort of society you were brought up to mix with.'

'Roger, dear Roger,' she shook her head. 'Your concern for me is needless. No doubt had I waited till we reached Calcutta, I would have found a man to whom there would not have been these objections. But Sidney was ready to hand and he will serve my purpose well enough. In fact he has proved a godsend for I'll be able to hold you to your promises so much sooner.'

'But it's the future, girl! You must think of the future!'

'I'll not be thwarted by consideration for it. In the last event I can always leave him.'

'You'd still be his wife, and he'd have every reason to refuse to support you.'

'Then I'd support myself.'

'How? By returning to Europe and becoming a kept woman? No, I'll not have it. I'll not allow you to marry Sidney Winters.'

'How do you propose to prevent me?'

'You are not yet twenty-​one.'

'You've no proof of that and, if need be, I'll take an oath that I am. You've no proof even that you are my Uncle. It will be said that you are trying to prevent my marrying him on snobbish grounds. They are no legal objections, and there are no others.'

'There is one way I can stop you,' he said suddenly. 'That is by marrying you myself.'

'Roger! D'you mean that?'

'Yes. Why not? This voyage has been hell for me. Day after day I've had to watch you flirting with those nincompoops, while having got myself into a situation where I could hardly exchange a word alone with you. Although I know I have no right to be, and that you have given me no cause, there have been nights when I have been driven half insane with jealousy and longing for you.'

'Then you do love me!'

'Did I ever say that I did not?' Throwing his arm round her waist, he made to draw her to him, but she swiftly put a hand on his chest and pushed him back.

Wait!' she gasped. 'One moment! Don't kiss me yet or I too shall lose my head.'

Both their hearts were hammering wildly. He refrained from tightening his hold and, when her breathing eased, she said: It's no good, Roger. Everyone believes you to be my Uncle.'

Hell!' he muttered. 'I had forgotten that. But we'll get round it somehow. I'll swear an affidavit that we agreed to call one another “niece” and “uncle” only to make our association appear more conventional while travelling and that you are, in fact, only my deceased wife's cousin.'

She gave a sob. 'It… it's not only that! I cannot take you at the price.'

Price!' he repeated, frowning. 'What price?'

'Why, at the price of knowing that you are doing this only to save me from myself again. You made it abundant plain how much it meant to you to keep your freedom. We'd be deliriously happy for a time, I know. But later you'd come to hate me for the restraint I put upon you. I came aboard the Minerva to be your mistress, not to trap you into taking me as your wife; and I'll not do it.'

For a quarter of an hour they argued about it, but she remained firm in her determination. All she would agree to was that if, after she had been his mistress for six months, he then wished to marry her she would, by hook or by crook, make Winters secure an annulment of their union on the grounds of non-​consummation.

Even then Roger still strove to persuade her at least to postpone her marriage to Winters until they reached Calcutta, hoping that during the two or three months the voyage had yet to run something might occur to make her change her mind about going through with it. At length he wrung a reluctant promise from her that for the next twenty-​four hours she would consider the question of a postponement, and that she would tell Winters that in the meantime he was not to mention their engagement to anyone else.

Still intensely worried, Roger accompanied her across the deck then down the companionway. At the bottom they separated to take their cloaks back to their cabins. As he hung his up his natural buoyancy of spirit came to his aid. He had before now countered in much less than twenty-​four hours worse blows of Fate.

Having secured a night to think in and a day to work in, he felt that he would have lost his touch if he could not prevent Clarissa marrying Winters in Cape Town. There must be some way of sabotaging the old fool's joyful expectations; and in the long run that would be for his own good, however much Clarissa might have persuaded herself to the contrary. If there were no other way, Roger decided, he could always force a duel on him; although it would be hateful to have to do so. The odds were all against the merchant's daring to fight and, if he refused, Clarissa, who admired bravery above all things, would never marry him after he had displayed cowardice.

But wouldn't she? There was no question of her admiring, or not admiring, Sidney Winters. She was simply making use of him for her own ends. She would probably marry him all the same and all he, Roger, would have done would be to earn the frigid disapproval of the whole ship's company for having challenged a man who was so obviously unable to meet him on equal terms. He would be sent to Coventry and Winters would have everyone's sympathy. No, that would not do. But there must be a way and he was determined to find it.

He met Clarissa again at the entrance of the saloon and they went in together. On their appearance there fell a sudden hush. The various games that had been in progress twenty minutes earlier had all broken up; the passengers had congregated in a little crowd at the far end of the saloon, and in their centre stood Sidney Winters. Lady Beaumont broke from it and came hurrying towards Clarissa.

'My dear!' she exclaimed, fluttering her plump hands, uncertainly. 'My dear; can this really be true? If so, I'm sure I wish you happiness.'

Winters, a seraphic grin on his face, came forward just behind her. Clarissa, frowning at him over her chaperone's shoulder, said quickly: 'It seems, Sir, you have deprived me of the pleasure of informing our friends of our intentions.'

'My love,' he replied, with a smile of contrition. 'Having obtained your uncle's consent to our engagement, how could you expect me to wait one moment longer before publicly declaring myself to be the happiest man in the world?'

At that Roger really was hard put to it to restrain an impulse to stride forward and smack the ecstatic smile from the merchant's face. He felt certain that Winters, having seen him take Clarissa up on deck, had feared that he would persuade her to change her mind; so to make it more difficult for her to do so he had deliberately made the announcement while they were still absent. And he had played an ace. Clarissa had been loath to postpone the announcement for twenty-​four hours; so she would not now retract. Winters had, too, been justified hi saying that Roger had 'sanctioned the engagement. That was another ace; for, although Roger had actually prefixed the words with 'it seems I have little option but to…he could not now flatly deny that he had done so. Seething with concealed fury, he was compelled to admit to himself that, for the time being at least, Winters had got the better of him.

Everyone was now crowding round Clarissa offering congratulations. Even the sour Mrs. Armitage and her pimply Jane politely hid their surprise by gushing and simpering. Winters sent a steward for champagne and, as it was now getting on for ten o'clock, asked the Second Mate, who happened to be present, to use his good offices with the Commander to secure an hour's extension of 'lights out', and to request his presence at the celebration.

Captain Finch and the champagne arrived together. The engaged couple's health was drunk, their plan for marrying in Cape Town was discussed, and Clarissa, all smiles, graciously asked Jane to be her bridesmaid. The ladies retired soon after eleven, but the Commander did not insist on the extra time being limited to an hour; so it was near one o'clock before the party broke up and most of the men, having taken full advantage of Winter's liberal supplies of champagne, staggered tipsy to their bunks.

Next day a more sober atmosphere prevailed. Winters proudly paraded Clarissa about the deck but whenever they paused to talk with some of her young men conversation proved slow and awkward. None of her ex-​court now attempted to laugh and jest with her; they seemed to regard her with different eyes, as though she were some strange bright-​plumaged bird that might without the least warning either lay a golden egg or suddenly peck at them.

Roger went into private conference with the Beaumont’s. He told them that the engagement had been sprung upon him, that he had been more or less trapped into giving his consent and most strongly disapproved of the match. He then admitted that Clarissa called him 'uncle' only as a courtesy and because his late wife, being considerably older than herself, had been looked on by her as an aunt.

The Beaumont’s also regarded Clarissa's choice as most unsuitable, but her conduct in the matter tallied with the way in which she was supposed to have smuggled herself aboard from a wilful determination to see the gorgeous East. As Roger unburdened himself to them, they received his confidences with the deepest sympathy; but the judge ruled that since Roger was, in fact, only a kinsman of Clarissa's by marriage, and had been vested with no powers as her guardian, although she was under twenty-​one, there was no legal step that he could take to stop her marriage.

Roger then detached Winters from Clarissa on the plea of discussing business with him. As soon as they had found a quiet corner, the merchant said, 'From your manner last night and your abruptness this morning, Mr. Brook, I very much fear that you do not approve of me as a husband for Miss Marsham.'

'Frankly, I do not,' Roger replied crisply. 'I have nothing against you personally, Sir, but I consider you far too old for my niece; and, without offence, I have no reason to believe that your family is one with whom mine would ordinarily seek an alliance.'

Winters made a slight bow. 'I will not argue with you on either point. I can only say that no man could be prepared to do more to make her happy.'

'Whatever you may do it will not be enough,' Roger retorted brutally. 'Within three months she'll have a gallant in your bed.'

'Sir!' Winter’s heavy face went as red as a turkey cock's. 'You have no right…'

'Right be damned!' Roger cut him short. 'Although I am twenty years your junior, I'll vow that I have forgotten more about women than you have ever learned. Once Clarissa's natural passions are aroused you'll never be able to satisfy her. She will swiftly come to desire young, handsome men, and soon take one or more as lovers. If you truly love her, your life will become a misery and you will become the laughing stock of all your friends. Have some sense, man! Relinquish her before it is too late. I'll deal with any tantrum she may throw, while you save your face by leaving this ship at Cape Town and transferring to another.'

Drawing himself up to the limited height that his absurdly short legs would allow, Winters replied with dignity: 'You insult me, Sir; and I count your conduct in traducing the virtue of your own niece infamous.'

Roger bared his teeth for a second in an ugly grin.

'So far, I have prophesied only what any reasonable man would agree with me is most likely to come about. Now I intend to insult you. But before giving open vent to any umbrage you may take, be good enough to get it clearly into your mind that with my sword I could spit you in thirty seconds like a turkey-​cock, and that with a pistol I could shoot you dead at a hundred yards. All your life you have been a man of business. Act like one now. Accept the substance and reject the shadow. If you will repudiate your engagement to Miss Marsham, I will enter into a bond to pay you the sum of ten thousand pounds.'

'No, Sir!' came the swift retort. 'I'd not do it if you paid me a hundred thousand.'

'Then you must be richer than I thought,' Roger sneered. 'I'll wager, though, that you could not yourself produce the hundred thousand that you so glibly speak about.'

'I could, Sir, and fifty thousand more!'

Roger had now extracted the information the obtaining of which had been his object should his offer be rejected. With a shrug, he said, 'Very well, then. Since you will not see sense, your blood be upon your own head. It remains only for me to safeguard my niece's interests. How much do you propose to settle on her?'

After a moment's hesitation, Winters replied, 'I have a son, Sir, and too great a withdrawal of capital would handicap him in the business. I would suggest fifty thousand pounds.'

With a slightly contemptuous look, Roger said, 'At home Miss Marsham would have had only to lift her finger to get an Earl, or a quarter of a million pounds. As your son is already established in trade, I am sure he will be able to look after himself well enough. I would prefer to spare her any part in discussions on such a sordid subject; but, in the circumstances, I feel she would have grave reasons to doubt your regard for her do you settle on her less than a hundred thousand.'

Before the implied threat, Winters wilted. 'So be it, then,' he murmured. 'I will make it a hundred thousand.'

'Good,' Roger nodded. 'That would be in the event of your death, of course. And now, should you part company for any reason? Shall we say twenty-​five thousand?'

'But.,, but…' Winters stammered, 'such a possibility is not normally envisaged in a marriage contract.'

'Your experience appears to be limited, Sir,' Roger said stiffly. 'In good families it is far from unusual. If I am to leave my niece in India, many thousand miles from home, the least I can do is to protect her against the possibility of your turning her out of house and home. I am her uncle, remember, and,, whatever she may say, I will ask the Court in Cape Town to forbid her marriage on the grounds that she is not yet twenty-​one unless you agree my very reasonable requirements.'

For a moment Winters hesitated, then he asked, 'May I take it that if I do agree you will raise no further objection to the marriage?'

'Yes,' Roger nodded rather grudgingly. 'My niece has made it plain that it is her wish; and I've no desire to quarrel with her, or yourself. But I've a duty to fulfil. Do you agree my terms and I'll say no more.'

'It is a bargain, then.' The merchant held out his hand and Roger took it. Each gave the other a formal smile, then they separated.

As Roger turned away he could not remember a time when he had felt so awful. It gave him no satisfaction at all to know that, though Winters had got the best of him overnight, he had been made to pay for it by mortgaging a large part of his fortune in the morning. Now, if Clarissa could put up with him until he died, she would come into a hundred thousand pounds. That was fair enough. But if she chose to leave him at any time, he would have to pay her twenty-​five thousand. And she intended to refuse him his marital rights while deceiving him with someone else. He would find out, they would quarrel, she would leave, and he, poor wretch, would have to pay up.

Roger felt that if he had been a professional swindler and Clarissa his moll they could not have devised a better plan for robbing an honest man of his money. As she was unaware of the arrangements he had made on her behalf, she was not quite as guilty as himself; but nearly so as she was entering on the marriage with the deliberate intent to cheat. Yet, since he no longer had any hope of preventing the marriage, he had felt impelled to do what he could while he could to insure her against the future which she refused to contemplate for herself.

Only one thought came to console him for the part he had played, and it lightened his shame a little. His object, at least in part, had been to provide Clarissa with a lever that she could use should Winters prove obdurate when, in due course, she asked him to procure an annulment. But now he realised that that would work both ways. Unless she decided to take the money rather than secure her freedom to marry again, it put Winters in a position to bargain with her. He could refuse to apply to the Court for an annulment unless she "was prepared to forgo the twenty-​five thousand.

Still sick at heart, Roger sought out Mr. Musgrove, the dried up old stick of a lawyer who had been one of their companions throughout the voyage and asked him to draw up a marriage contract on the lines agreed.

That evening he again took Clarissa up on deck and, in the shadows, pleaded with her to exercise a woman's privilege of changing her mind. He told her plainly that, greatly as he longed to have her in his arms, he would not even so much as kiss her until she was established in Calcutta; and urged her once more to postpone her marriage until their arrival there.

Angrily she took him to task for adhering to the letter of their agreement rather than observing its spirit. Calmly he countered her attack by pointing out that she would no longer be free to come and go as she chose, but sharing a cabin with her husband, and that, in the close confines of a ship packed with several hundred passengers and crew, it would be impossible to carry on an intrigue for more than a week without it being discovered. He added that the scandal of a bride betraying her husband on her honeymoon would be bad enough, but she must remember that everyone still believed him to be her uncle, so if they were caught it would be regarded as incest, into the bargain; and that being a criminal offence, the Commander might order him to be put in irons for the rest of the voyage.

These arguments swiftly brought Clarissa to reason, but she would not alter her decision to be married in Cape Town, as that would the sooner give them a more open field to become lovers on reaching India.

The next day passed in a bustle of activity as everyone was excited at the prospect of being on land again after so many weeks at sea. Before they went down to dinner, the vague blur of Table Mountain had already been sighted on the horizon, By five o'clock it reared high above Table Bay, a blanket of white cloud standing out against the blue sky on its flat top. The Minerva dropped anchor in the roads just as darkness fell.

Until the previous year, the Cape had been a Dutch possession, the Netherlands East India Company having used it as a naval base since 1652. From 1685 they had colonised it, but very few Dutch families of good standing had been persuaded to go out; so the first colonists had mainly been ne'er-​do-​wells, and batches of poor orphan girls sent out by order of the Government. Among the first settlers, too, there had been 150 French Protestants, driven from France by the Edict of Nantes. They were greatly superior in culture to the Dutch, but their numbers were insufficient to raise to any marked extent the general level of poverty, idleness and illiteracy. So great was the latter that after the colony had been shamefully neglected by its Home Government for a hundred years, the majority of its inhabitants could not speak their parent language, but were using a meagre patois, called Taal, which consisted of only a few hundred words.

After the conquest of Holland in 1795 by the French Republican armies, Admiral Elphinstone had taken over the Cape, which was now held by Britain in the name of their ally in exile, the Prince of Orange; but few British families had as yet settled there, and the little town was still a poor ramshackle place.

When they all went ashore the following morning, Clarissa was bitterly disappointed to find so few shops and in them such a limited choice of materials for her trousseau. But Roger bought for her everything suitable they could find, and the Governor, who had received them most cordially, later procured half a dozen needlewomen who set to work on garments that she had to design for herself.

The Governor had sent messages to the Captains of all ships in the convoy inviting them to dine that afternoon, and to bring with them a few of their principal passengers. Captain Finch selected the Beaumont’s, Roger, Clarissa and, on account of her engagement, Winters, whom he would not normally have included. This big party, including a dozen of the leading colonists whom the Governor had also asked, numbered nearly seventy people; so the meal provided was a cold buffet, but such a gathering provided a delightful change.

Among the colonists were a couple named Marais. Both were descended from old French families through Huguenot settlers who had come out to the Cape a hundred years earlier, and they owned one of the best estates in the Colony. Clarissa was introduced to them and when the topic of her marriage came up, both the Governor and the Marais agreed that it was quite out of the question for her to be married from, or spend the first days of her honeymoon at; one of the inns in the town, as even the best of them was hopelessly primitive. Everyone was anxious to be helpful to such a lovely bride; so it was decided that she should be married from the Residence by the Governor's Chaplain, and that afterwards the newly-​weds should occupy the guest wing of the Marais's comfortable home until the Minerva was ready to sail again.

Captain Finch had already given them to understand that watering and re-​provisioning the ship would take about ten days, and Clarissa had secretly made up her mind to make her stay on land with her bridegroom as brief as possible; so, in spite of Sidney Winter’s pressing, she insisted that her trousseau would not be finished for a week, and the day of the wedding was fixed accordingly. Clarissa then asked the Governor's pretty daughter to act as a second bridesmaid; after which the ladies withdrew to further elaborate plans for the wedding.

As the men circulated the wine, the talk turned as usual to affairs in Europe and the progress of the war. A frigate that had left Portsmouth ten days after the Minerva sailed had reached Cape Town two days earlier; so it was the Governor who gave them the latest news instead of receiving it.

In June, the armies of Generals Moreau and Jourdan had launched a new campaign against the Austrians and crossed the Rhine, threatening to overrun Swabia. In Italy their colleague, General Buonaparte, was laying siege to Mantua, but it was said that the Emperor Francis had mustered a great army of Austrians, Hungarians and Tyrolese to send to the relief of this all-​important fortress.

Before Roger left England, he had heard only vague rumours of an abortive conspiracy in Paris led by a man named Babeuf; since then a fairly full account of it had come to hand. After the fall of Robespierre, a strong reaction against the extremists of the Revolution had set in. Only a handful of the most notorious had been sent to the guillotine; a few, such as Tallien and Freron, who had taken an active part in pulling the 'Incorruptible' down, had by so doing saved their own skins and positions as leaders; but all over France the smaller ex-​terrorists had been deprived of their offices and were being proscribed and hunted by the people of the middle-​classes who had suffered at their hands.

In Paris these blood-​stained criminals congregated regularly at the Pantheon Club to discuss measures for their mutual protection, and their numbers had been swollen to over four thousand by other ex-​Jacobins being driven from the Provinces seeking refuge in the capital.

As Roger had known, since it was his business to do so, there existed a secret club within the club, which was known as the Societe des Egaux. Among its most prominent members were 'Gracchus' Babeuf, the editor of the Tribune du Peuple, Antonelle, an ex-​juryman of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and Jean-​Antoine Rossignol who, as a General of the Convention, had ordered whole villages in La Vende to be burnt with their inhabitants in them. These, and others of their kidney, had planned yet another revolution, in which the Directors and the Corps Legislatif were to be murdered and a Government of Anarchists set up.

They had endeavoured to win over the six-​thousand-​strong Legion of Police which was stationed at Grenelle, and was also largely composed of ex-​terrorists. In May, owing to its semi-​mutinous condition, the Legion had been broken up and one of the agents employed to corrupt it informed Carnot of the conspiracy. The Directory had acted promptly and on the eve of the insurrection had arrested Babeuf and his friends; so temporarily, at least, the capital had been saved from further bloodshed, and the Whites were still in the ascendant.

While listening to the rather garbled account of this conspiracy, Roger felt as though he were being told of events in another world. He had known both Antonelle and Rossignol and, little more than six months ago, had been on intimate terms with Barras, Carnot, Dubois-​Crance and a dozen others of the 'moderates' who had now taken over the leadership of the Revolution; but during the long voyage he had hardly given them a thought. General Buonaparte's Italian campaign and Mr. Pitt's idea of securing the Serene Republic as an ally had, too, soon lost interest for him, simply because he had no possible chance of learning how matters were progressing.

During the next few days the company made up excursions to see the sights in the vicinity, riding through wooded country in which there were many trees and plants strange to them, to the vineyards at Constantia and to False Bay, and making the ascent of Table Mountain in basket chairs borne by native bearers.

On September 14th Clarissa was duly married to Sidney Winters. Roger, with a reluctance which he found it difficult to conceal, gave her away and, with a genuine good will inspired by secret pity, did his utmost now to show friendliness to the bridegroom. A guard of honour was formed by Clarissa's officer admirers, Roger paid for the reception at the Residence, to which all the Minerva's passengers were invited, and stood free beer to the troops and crew. Half the town also turned out, so as the newly-​wed couple drove away they were cheered by over a thousand people, and by six o'clock in the evening the greater part of them, both inside as well as outside the Residence, were well on their way to getting drunk. Except for Roger, and a few more thoughtful people, like the Beaumont’s, who feared that a union between parties so divergent in age and circumstances could bring no lasting happiness, the whole affair was a roaring success.

On the evening of the 16th the Minerva sailed again. That afternoon, on coming aboard, Clarissa had greeted everyone with a good display of cheerfulness, but her face was pale and behind her smile Roger saw signs of strain in her blue eyes. She went straight to the double cabin that she was now to share with Winters, and it was not until the ship had sailed that Roger managed to get her a little apart from the other passengers for a few moments.

As they stood side by side watching the little town beneath the great mountain gradually becoming more indistinct in the evening light, he asked in a low voice:

'Is all well with you? For the past forty-​eight hours I have been consumed with anxiety on your account. Though I could not stop you, short of making us both notorious for the rest of our lives by creating some frightful scene, I've cursed myself a thousand times for letting you carry out your plan."

'I hated every moment of it,' she replied in an equally low tone. 'He is uncouth beyond anything I had imagined. But I have no right to complain. I brought it on myself.'

'What happened?' Roger snapped out the question. 'Did he go back on his agreement with you? If so, I'll wring his neck and throw him overboard.'

'Be careful!' she whispered. 'Keep your voice low or someone will overhear us. No; he did not attempt to break his word. On the first night he could not have, even if he had had a mind to. After we had dined with the Marais he became drunk as a hog and was, incapable of even undressing himself.'

'You must blame me for that,' Roger murmured. 'I feared that the excitement of having you to himself in a bedroom for the first time might prove too much for him; so I laced his drink at the reception. After that it was odds on that, unless he stuck to water with his dinner, more wine would bowl him over.'

'Then I'm grateful to you. It saved me during the first night from anything more unpleasant than his being sick on the floor, then snoring till morning like a grampus!'

'But what of the second?'

'I have survived it, so I beg you not to worry; but it was a hideous experience. He maintained, fairly I suppose, that my bargain with him that we should not consummate our marriage for a year did not debar him from kissing me, and taking other liberties. I submitted for a while with the best grace that I could, then evaded his further unpleasant attentions by pretending I had the vapours. But it is his habits I find so repulsive. He slobbers, belches and conceals nothing of himself, maintaining that a husband and wife when alone should be natural with one another.'

'Clarissa! This cannot be allowed to continue.' Roger's blue eyes had gone a shade darker than usual, and his finger nails were digging into the palms of his hands. 'I feel such shame for this business as I have never felt before in my whole life. How we ever allowed ourselves to get into such a ghastly tangle, I cannot think.'

'It is my fault. I should never have pursued you onto the Minerva.'

'In the first place, yes. But I am the man of the party, and am supposed to have some brains. I should never have let matters come to this.'

'You could not help it. You offered to marry me before we landed in Cape Town. You could not have done more.'

'I could have disclosed the truth to Winters, then sworn to cut his gizzard out if he breathed one word of it. Had he known your reason for accepting him he would have backed out of his engagement. I wish to God I'd thought of that.'

'Well, as you didn't, I've made my bed and must lie on it.'

'No! There's a way out yet. It's not too late for us to land again in Cape Town. I'll see Captain Finch and pay him whatever he asks to have a boat lowered to take us back there.'

'Roger, no! That would indeed be madness. I am Mrs. Winters now. The scandal you have so long sought to avoid would be ten times as great as if we had been discovered as lovers before my marriage. It would stink to high heavens, and we'd never live it down. Should you do as you suggest, I'll refuse to come with you. For me the worst is already over. I'll not have to share a double bed with him again. Things will be easier for me now we'll occupy a cabin and sleep in separate bunks. I warn you, I won't come, I swear it.'

At that moment Winters came waddling up to them, bringing an abrupt end to their private conversation.

After a few days, Life on shipboard settled down to normal. Clarissa's old admirers soon got over the shock they had sustained by their divinity's strange choice of a husband, and once more clustered around, discreetly flirting with her as they would have with any other pretty young married woman. Winters looked on, beaming with self-​satisfaction and the pride of ownership. Roger, too, frequently joined the group. Previously he had been ultra cautious from fear that an unguarded word or glance might arouse suspicions that he and Clarissa had some secret understanding; but now she was just married such an idea would have been so preposterous that he felt it safe to spend much more time in her company.

Having rounded the Cape, the Minerva spent close on a fortnight beating up the east coast of Africa and through the Mozambique Channel. After clearing the northern tip of Madagascar she altered course to north-​east, in order to pick up the favourable south-​west winds that would carry her in the direction of Ceylon; but now, for the first time during the voyage, she met with really rough weather.

For two days she battled against a heavy cross-​sea. The buffet of each great wave made her shudder from stem to stern, and she rolled atrociously so that any article left unsecured, even for a few moments, fell and smashed, or was flung across the cabins. At times there were downpours of torrential rain, which blotted out from view the other heaving ships in the convoy. Captain Finch took charge himself and was almost permanently up on the poop. The food at his table deteriorated sadly to snacks of cold meat and ship's biscuits, for those who could still keep food down.

Roger was not among them. Quite early in the storm, seasickness overcame him and for the next few days he lay wretchedly ill in his bunk. On the second day most of the passengers, including Winters, who had stuck out the first night also succumbed. Clarissa was one of the few who remained unaffected. She was something more than a splendid sailor; she actually enjoyed a storm at sea. During a hurricane on the way to the West Indies, she had had herself lashed to a stanchion on deck, so that she could feel the wind tearing at her hair and the rain driving into her face. Now, she staggered from cabin to cabin, doing what she could to look after her husband, Roger, the Beaumont’s, the Armitages and one of the sailors who had missed his footing on a ladder, fallen and broken his leg.

It was on the third day that tragedy overtook them. In mid-​morning a sudden squall, more violent than any they had yet encountered, snapped off the main top-​gallant and it came crashing down on the poop. By the most evil chance it smashed in the left side of the Wheel House, demolishing the wheel, injuring the Quartermaster and killing Captain Finch. Thus, at one stroke, the ship was put temporarily out of control and deprived of her most capable officer.

Immediately, she began to veer round sideways on to the great white-​crested waves. It was the watch of the First Mate, Mr Evans. In a gallant attempt to save the situation he ran towards the emergency steering wheel at the stern of the vessel. For many hours no one had been able to move about the deck without using a succession of hand-​holds. Evans paid the penalty of his rashness. He was flung off his feet and fractured his skull against a chicken coop.

The Third Mate then took charge. Having sent another Quartermaster to the stern, he had all hands piped on deck and ordered the taking in of the remaining sails with which the ship had been fighting the storm. But by now the Minerva had swung right round; the sails went slack then suddenly billowed out again with reports like cannon. Two of them were rent from top to bottom and their canvas flapped wildly on either side like streaming banners in the howling wind.

A moment later there came an awful rending sound. The foremast had snapped off low down. It fell across the fo’c’sle, its yards, spars and rigging forming an incredible tangle, and killing or injuring another half-​dozen sailors.

A part of the crew managed to haul in the mainsail, while the rest strove to clear the fallen mast. Its upper part dragged in the water, giving the ship a terrifying list to port; but the troops were called up to help. Under the direction of the Second Mate, Mr. Garner, who had now come on deck, and the boatswain, a hundred desperate hands wielding axes, cutlasses and knives managed to hack through scores of ropes.

The huge broken column of timber slid overboard and the ship righted herself.

She was now running before the storm under bare, broken masts, and soon all the other ships in the convoy were lost to view. Her emergency wheel in the stern was manned, but no use could be made of it until the storm lessened and it was safe to attempt to turn her back onto her course by hoisting sail again. There were now a dozen casualties in the sick-​bay and wreckage still littered all the fore part of the deck. During the afternoon it was gradually cleared, but the tempest showed no sign of abating and the weighty foretop had stove in the port side of the fo’c’sle. From time to time waves broke over the bow and the water rushed down the gaping hole, rendering the crew's quarters untenable, and necessitating the manning of the pumps.

That night Mr. Garner, who was now acting Commander, told the army officers and the few civilian passengers who were not helpless in their cabins from seasickness, that the position was dangerous but not desperate. The ship was being driven at great speed north-​westwards, back towards the coast of Africa, but it was still several hundred miles distant, so there was no risk of her being driven ashore. Efforts to get a sail over the wrecked section of the fo’c’sle had failed, so water was gaining in the fore hold, but not to an alarming degree. He had hopes that the storm would have blown itself out by morning, and, if so, all would be well.

But as the hours wore on, it increased in fury. All through the night the helpless ship was rushed up mountainous waves to crash through their tops and come slithering down into seemingly bottomless gulfs. Each time she breasted one its spume hissed through her rigging, and now and then a following sea curled right up over her poop to come cascading down into her well, filling it for some moments waist high with water Her timbers groaned, her rigging screamed, the hundreds of tons of water hit her decks with a boom like thunder. It seemed to all the passengers, and the wretched troops crowded vomiting on the lower deck, that every time the ship plunged downward would be the last, and that she could not possibly survive till morning.

Yet, when morning came, she was still afloat and the tempest had perceptibly moderated. The waves were no longer white-​crested; a heavy swell now made them look like vast rolling downs, with a blue-​green glassy surface; the wind had ceased to tear wildly at severed ropes and the remnants of torn sails. But things were far from well with the Minerva.

During the night she had shipped a great deal of water, three of her boats had been stove in and some of her cargo had shifted. She was much lower in the water than she should have been, again had a list to port, and was down at the head. All through the forenoon, relays of men worked frantically at the pumps while others laboured feverishly lashing together gratings and spars to form rafts. Despite all efforts, the level of the water in the holds rose steadily.

The officers came to the conclusion that the cargo which had come adrift must have struck the ship's side with such force that she had sprung a leak, but the water had now risen in the holds to a height that made it impossible for the carpenters to get at the seat of the trouble.

It was shortly after one o'clock that the Minerva gave a sudden lurch. More of the cargo had shifted, and increased her list to port by several degrees. Mr. Garner realised that the position was now critical and that with little warning she might dive bows first to the bottom. Calling his officers together, he told them to pass the word that he intended shortly to give the order to abandon ship.

When Clarissa heard the news, she was with the Captain's cook collecting packets of cold meat and biscuits to take down to her invalids who, with the abating of the tempest, were beginning to show signs of recovery. Stuffing all the packets of food into the capacious pockets of her cape, she ran along to Roger's cabin. Throwing open the door, she cried:

'Get up! Get your clothes on! The ship may go down at any moment!'

Roger tumbled from his bunk, staggered slightly owing to weakness from his three days of sickness, then pulled himself together and muttered: 'So it's come to that, eh? Last night I would have been pleased rather than otherwise at the idea of being swiftly carried down to Davy Jones's Locker. But now I feel better, I've no mind for a watery grave. How is Winters showing in this emergency?'

'He's been near as ill as you,' she replied quickly. 'I haven't told him yet, and I've no need to. The stewards are knocking on every cabin door warning people to get ready. Whatever may betide I'll not now risk being separated from you for a moment.'

'I'll not let you be until I've got you into a boat. With Captain Finch gone there may be panic and fighting up on deck. Mr. Cruishank told me that with troops aboard there are never enough boats to take off everybody. The ships haven't the space to carry them.'

'Three have been smashed by the waves last night; but the men have been making rafts this morning.'

'It takes a lot of rafts to make up for a boat. Unless the discipline proves better than one can expect, there will be a horrible scrimmage for a chance of survival. As a woman you are entitled to a first place in a boat; but if there is a panic the rush may deprive you of it.'

'In any case, I'd not take it unless you could come with me.'

Roger shrugged. 'There are few women aboard; so I'd have as much right to a place beside you as any other man. But in such circumstances, boats are liable to become dangerously overcrowded. I believe we'd stand a better chance on a raft, especially if we could get one to ourselves.'

'I'll do whatever you think best; but hurry! Hurry!'

He had been swiftly pulling his clothes on. Having buckled on his sword, he snatched his pistols from a drawer and thrust them into the pockets of his coat. As he did so he muttered. 'At least, being in tropical waters we'll be in no danger from the cold.' But, all the same, he swung his heavy cloak round his shoulders. Quickly, he collected all his papers, put them into a large waterproof wallet made of fish-​skin, with which he travelled in case of emergencies, and strapped it round his waist. Lastly he grabbed a flask of cognac, and another of powder for his pistols; then they ran from the cabin and up to the upper deck.

Already, although no panic showed, it was a seething mass of people, many of whom were working on rafts with desperate haste, while others, whose faces showed them to be half-​stunned with fear, stood staring in horrified silence at the fo’c’sle, which was now awash with water.

A boat towards the stern on the port side was being lowered. Lady Beaumont was in it. Catching sight of Clarissa she shouted and beckoned, but her voice was drowned by the din; next moment the falls were let go and the boatload of people disappeared from view.

Another boat on the starboard side was being manned. A midshipman ran up to Clarissa, seized her by the arm and tried to drag her towards it. She shook him off and refused to go. It was as well. A few minutes later, as the boat, now crammed with people, was lowered, the after fall jammed; its bows went dawn with a rush, precipitating everyone in it into the heaving sea.

Some rafts, heavily loaded, mostly with soldiers, were already floating off from the half-​submerged fo’c’sle. Groups of men, odd passengers and officers, either squatted on, or stood near, all the others. Desperately Roger looked round for something buoyant which would support Clarissa and himself. Suddenly his eye lit on a stack of deck chairs which had already been firmly lashed together to prevent their being swept overboard.

Pieces of torn sail and lengths of severed rope littered the deck about them. Snatching up one of the pieces of rope, Roger set frantically to work. With Clarissa's help he threaded it twice through the chairs and twice right round the stack. Next he tied one end of the rope round Clarissa's waist and the other end round his own. Then he cut the cords that held the stack of chairs to the deck.

They had hardly done, and climbed on to the stack, when the squat figure of Winters came blundering through the crowd towards them.

'Clarissa!' he cried. 'Clarissa! I have been searching for you everywhere! Why did you not seek a place in one of the boats?'

'Because they are too heavy laden,' Roger replied tersely for her. 'If the wind gets up again the water will wash over their gunwales; they'll be swamped and everyone in them drowned.'

'Then… then…' Winters stammered, 'you'll be safer using these chairs as a raft. Make room for me, I implore you.'

In this crisis, which might so soon lead to their deaths, the last thing that either Roger or Clarissa wanted was to have Winters with them; yet they could hardly refuse. The whole of the front half of the ship was now under water. A wavelet lapped at the chairs on which they were sitting. Although there was barely room Winters, without waiting for a reply, scrambled up beside Clarissa.

A moment later the deck suddenly tilted, launching the stack of chairs onto the water. Above them the tip of the mainmast seemed to sweep forward. The stern of the ship rose up against the sky. There were shrieks, cries and imprecations. As the sea surged across the deck, the rafts were thrown one against another; many of the occupants were pitched into the water Shouts, prayers and a great roar of rushing waters filled the air.

Through the babbling water, Roger caught a glimpse of the deck, now sliding swiftly away twelve feet below them. A wave swept several of the rafts, and the stack of chairs, just clear of the bulwark. The Minerva, only a few feet from them, was now standing on end, her bowsprit ten fathoms down, her poop reared up towards the sky. A cluster of men dived from it; without a sound it slid swiftly downwards. With the rush of waters, the windows of the stern cabin shattered and through them fountains of foam spurted into the air. In a matter of moments, it was all over. The fine ship had totally disappeared.

Some of the crowded rafts had already overturned and the men from them were fighting in the water. The men on the others were awed into silence. Suddenly there was a shout:

'The whirlpool! The whirlpool!'

The cluster of rafts began to circle. A hideous conical pit had formed at the spot where the Minerva had gone down. Raft after raft was drawn into it and sucked under. The chairs, in turn, raced round it for a moment then the stack tilted and was engulfed. Roger threw an arm round Clarissa. Next second they were plunged beneath the surface; blinded, their mouths full of water, they felt themselves rushing downwards to die with the ship from which they thought they had escaped.