‘Come, Jem; come, Jem,’ I called as I pulled. But it was a dead weight, though he was not yet dead.
He looked up towards me, his face grey.
‘Carlo,’ he said. ‘I have wronged … forgive me….’ Then he died.
I rolled back from the edge, sat up and looked at Lauder.
‘Well, Lauder,’ I said.
‘Well, Fantom,’ he said.
‘What hope of quarter?’ I asked.
‘Man, we’ve made carrion of a couple of their regiments!’ he exaggerated. ‘If we had a hundred lives apiece, they’d torture us out of each of them in turn.’
‘What’s o’clock?’ I asked.
‘What the devil have you to do any more with clocks?’ he asked.
I looked at the sky. It was now broad daylight and had been for an hour or more. It must be soon after eight.
‘I could eat a breakfast,’ I said.
‘Man, your appetites will kill ye,’ he said.
We both laughed.
They came rushing up the stair.
The first to appear wore a major’s insignia. Lauder struck his sword from his hand and I thrust forward on my knees but as I did so I heard trumpets sound, from all quarters of the town it seemed, and the din of distant cheering, so I stayed my sword with its point at the man’s throat.
‘Major,’ I said. ‘The Prince has come to terms. We are your prisoners.’
I pushed myself upright and sheathed my sword.
‘I would be honoured, sir, if you would join me in my quarters for breakfast,’ I said, hoping to God my interpretation of the din was right.
‘For Christ’s sake, keep down!’ urged Lauder anxiously. ‘They’ll kill you anyway.’
He was right. These men had fought too long and seen too many of their comrades slain to be thwarted by a few seconds.
There was a rattle of musketry. Several balls whistled past my head, one glanced off my shoulder. I staggered but remained standing.
‘Are these the terms General Fairfax will have offered?’ I asked. I bent and picked up the Major’s sword and returned it to him, reminding him without words how close to death he too had been for he flushed and turned, shouting angrily, ‘Hold your fire there! The battle is over.’
One spurred up on a horse at that moment and excitedly shouted confirmation of the news and in a trice the mood of our conquerors changed. They cheered wildly, slapping each other on the back; some sank on their knees in thanksgiving but the most, I was glad to see, began to hurry away in search of plunder before their fellows in the city had taken it all. Well, go to, I thought. They had fought bravely and deserved it.
‘Gentlemen, will you come below till we hear the terms of your surrender?’ said the Major courteously.
Slowly I limped down the stairs, past Jem Croft, his glazed eyes still pleading for forgiveness (for what, in Christ’s name?); past Nob Parkin, huger than ever in death; past Tom Turner, shrouded deep in blood; past all my brave lads who had died in honour with their wounds on the front. For a moment I was moved, then I saw Obadiah Jones who had crumpled on his knees in death, like a Mussulman at his prayers. My dagger still protruded from his arsehole like a stiff tail. The sight did me good.
I looked back once more at my lads and wondered where they had all cached their money.
1645
Oxford
We came off from Bristol quite well, I believe, being permitted by the terms of surrender safe convoy to Oxford with our horses and baggage. Though they took our firearms, we kept our swords and to one who had but a few hours earlier composed himself (in a manner of speaking) to death, this trek from the city felt like a wedding procession.
‘So much for your cards!’ I mocked Lauder.
‘There were three Queens,’ he muttered darkly. ‘Best still that you board your lugger.’
I laughed. Even the pain from the gash in my thigh could not flaw my joy at being alive and on my way to Oxford and Annette.
Rupert and those nearest to him were less joyful, however. Well, I suppose it mattered to them that the war in the west was now virtually lost, and in addition there is always a doubt gnaws in the mind of a man who surrenders a garrison at whatever stage. Colonel Fiennes had come close to death for surrendering this same town but two years earlier; Frank Windebank had paid the full penalty for giving over Bletching-don House and one of Prince Maurice’s lieutenants who gave up Taunton Castle to my old commander, Robert Pye, had faced a firing squad too. Not that any such risk faced Rupert even were he at fault, which not a man who came alive out of that battle would dare accuse! Indeed I wished he had surrendered an hour or more earlier, whereby I might still have men under my command instead of being like so many others a trooper-less reformado. Still, I had my life and I had recovered Petrarch and Athene before they were stolen, and that was the main thing.
At Oxford we were received well though without much ceremony. Those who survive a pitched battle on the field may claim an honourable glow or even, as time passes, a degree of victory, but there’s no way the loss of a large and important port with all its arsenal and provisions, can be turned into a triumph.
My intention was to seek out Annette instantly and discover the reason for her long silence but when I dismounted from my horse outside my lodging, my wounded leg pained me so much that I fainted with it. When they got me into the house and removed the dressing placed there in haste at our departure from Bristol and not touched since, the wound was discovered to be deeply infected. The chirurgeon said it was gangrenous and recommended amputation but I drew the sword I kept always ready by my bed and assured him that any man who would cut off my leg must needs suffer the same operation himself first. After that I lay in a tertian fever, awaking from each bout with the fear strong in me that my leg had been sawn off as I lay unconscious. Lauder assured me, however, that as I tossed and turned in my burning, my sword never left my hand and none save himself dared approach me. He fed me the medicines the chirurgeon had prescribed, plus his own catholicon of brandy and hot water, but the potion which did me most good I believe was a double infusion of my old herb, used both as a draught and to bathe my hurt. So efficacious was this that the doctor, greedy for profit as all his profession, offered me a hundred crowns for the name of the herb (which was not identifiable in its dried up form) but I only laughed and told him to go cut off more legs.
Still, the cure was a drawn out business and it was some time before I was well enough to make my way to Olwyn Matthias’s house. My reception was extreme, even for that household. The servant who opened the door looked at me aghast, then ran from me, calling for her master. Matthias when he appeared was so flushed with rage that I would have laid odds that apoplexy would carry him off before he reached the threshold. Perhaps he felt the same for, while still some yards distance down the long corridor which ran from the entrance hall, he drew a pistol and took a pot at me. The ball struck the ground between my feet and without thinking I pulled out my own pistol which was primed but not spanned.
As I spanned it, I collected my wits sufficiently to speak to him.
‘Sir Olwyn,’ I said. ‘It is not willingly that I approach your doors but I have urgent business with Mistress Annette which if it be brought to a satisfactory conclusion will mean that you see me no more.’
This seemed a very reasonable offer to me, but it only served to eurage him the more and now he came running at me with his sword raised, so I shot him in the foot.
A man in pain on one foot is fairly easy to push aside and I made my way rapidly to Annette’s quarters. It was no time to observe the courtesies and I pushed open the door without knocking. Annette stood before me, pale but composed.
‘Then you have returned, Captain Fantom,’ she said.
‘Did you ever doubt it?’ I demanded. I rushed forward to embrace her. She neither flinched nor responded, but it was not this coolness that made me draw back, it was the realization that something stood between us. I looked down.
�
��God’s womb, madam!’ I said. ‘You are in foal!’
She smiled then, without much humour.
‘Look not so surprised, sir,’ she said. ‘You are the only begetter.’
I was amazed. It was a possibility which had not entered my mind, perhaps because my relations with women have generally been of such a nature that I have rarely stayed to discover the outcome.
‘The child is mine?’ I said, calculating quickly in my mind.
‘Aye, sir,’ she replied. ‘It is your doing.’
‘Well then,’ I said. ‘Well then. Let it be mine!’
For the prospect suddenly began to please. I saw the new Fantom in my mind’s eye, rich, respected, his loving wife waving from the door of his mansion as he rode out to the hunt on his fine horse with a convoy of children behind.
‘Is it for this that you did not answer my letters?’ I asked. ‘You goose!’
I laughed but her answer stopped my laughter.
‘Letters?’ she said. ‘I neither had nor wanted letters from you.’
‘What?’ I said, beginning to feel angry at this coyness. ‘Will you play with me, madam?’
Behind me I heard the noise of men approaching. I turned meaning to shut the door and bar it, but before I could act, two troopers of the King’s guard with weapons drawn entered followed by a lieutenant.
‘Captain Fantom?’ he enquired.
‘Yes.’
‘Good-day, to you, Captain. I must require you to disarm and come with me, sir.’
‘What?’
‘You are arrested, sir.’
‘No!’ I protested. ‘ ’Tis monstrous. I did but shoot him in the foot and he had tried to kill me.’
Now he looked puzzled.
‘There is nothing in the charge of shooting,’ he said. ‘Come sir. Can you not see you offend the lady?’
Annette indeed looked most offended.
‘I’m glad you are come,’ she said to the Lieutenant.
‘Has he menaced your person, madam?’ he asked pompously.
For answer she gestured eloquently at the smoking pistol I still held in my hand. The Lieutenant looked at me angrily and nodded at his men who moved forward and seized my arms.
‘Do you treat a gentleman thus?’ I demanded, struggling.
‘Gentleman!’ he retorted. ‘No gentleman would have acted as you have. And this is strange impudence for a gentleman to come here again.’
‘What mean you? What is the charge against me?’
‘Will you make me speak it before the lady, sir? Why then, you are charged that in May of this year you did most unlawfully ravish this lady here present and the evidence of your misdemeanour is most plain to be seen. Fetch him awayl’
Lauder came to see me that night. They had taken my parole so I had avoided the indignity of a cell, but I was close confined to quarters with a large well-armed trooper hanging around outside my door. What small value they place upon an officer’s word, I thought gloomily as I considered whether it was worthwhile slitting the oaf’s throat and making my escape. Yet what had I to fear?
‘Lauder,’ I said. ‘This business, I understand nothing of it. What have you found out? Tell me, for God’s sake.’
‘It seems the lady concealed her condition until some weeks ago, about the time of our return from Bristol.’
‘What? Is that significant?’ I asked.
‘Who knows? But she steadfastly refused to name her seducer until this very morning when she had Sir Olwyn lay a complaint against you, alleging that you ravished her in May and shame and fear for reputation kept her quiet till she was certain of her pregnancy.’
I was bewildered stilll.
‘But why? And why this morning? They could not know I would go to her this very day.’
‘Nay, they knew not that. They came to your quarters first to arrest you and, learning you had gone a-visiting, followed you to Matthias’s house. But I think the reason for waiting till now to name you has little to do with your health.’
‘What then?’
He looked at me doubtfully as though gauging my strength.
‘Have you not heard?’ he asked. ‘Your protector, the Prince Rupert, was himself arrested last night.’
This was such heavy news that for a moment I was rendered speechless.
‘Whatl’ I said incredulously. ‘Rupert arrested? And who do they say he has ravished?’
‘ ’Tis not the only crime, Fantom,’ said Lauder. ‘He is suspected of collusion with the enemy in this business of surrendering Bristol. The King has revoked his commission and commanded him from the country. He and Colonel Legge, the Governor, are placed under arrest.’
‘Oh shit!’ I said.
‘Indeed,’ said Lauder. ‘You’re a hanged man, Fantom. You have enemies enough to stretch your neck a dozen times now your patron has become a thing of straw.’
‘Nay, but Rupert will have power still,’ I said, alarmed.
‘Not to pardon a guilty man. That is the General’s prerogative.’
‘And who will be general now?’
Lauder shrugged.
‘God knows. The King himself must direct for want of a better. He has a close adviser.’
‘Digby! But he is not a malicious man, Lauder. He would not advise against the pardoning of an innocent just to settle a private score!’
‘Innocent!’ echoed Lauder. ‘Innocent! If they put you through a mincer there would not be found one particle of you to call innocent! If the lady’s testimony stands firm, you must tread air, Carlo.’
He enjoyed his image so much that I heard him chuckling in the distance as he made his way from me. Despite all, I could not believe that Annette would bear false witness against me. What motive could she have? She had given herself willingly. I searched my memory, there was no mistake. I had not been carried away by an excess of zeal to force her against her will. Then she had had my letters in which my honourable intent was clearly stated. How could she say she had had no word from me? They could not all be lost – unless Matthias had found a means to intercept them. That must be it! I decided. He was behind it. Perhaps he had convinced her that I had slain his brother, her husband. Or perhaps after the taking of Bletchingdon House, that long turd Hector had spoken of me, telling the tale of the black stallion which I had taken from the dead cavalier. But that would mean she knew of my connection with her husband before we had lain together.
My head was spinning. I was still weak from my time in bed and these coils of thought were too much for me. I drank half a bottle of brandy and fell asleep.
By the time of my trial, I had convinced myself that some simple misunderstanding lay at the base of Annette’s accusation and all would yet be well. But as I listened to her statement to the court martial, I realized that things were far more complicated. She wasn’t just mistaken, she was lying. With downcast eyes and faltering voice, she described how I had brutally assaulted her and at pistol point forced her to submit to me. I was furious with indignation at this calumny. Never in any of my tangles with women had I resorted to such barbaric methods. A man who cannot ravish without resort to physical threat is no man at all.
Suddenly everything began to ring most sinisterly. She denied my letters. I had no acknowledgement of them and the messenger who had carried mail between the army and Oxford had been slain in the late siege at Bristol. Witnesses were produced all of whom denied ever having heard Annette treat me, or even talk of me, in terms other than of indifference or dislike, while at the same time testifying that I had pestered her to her great discomfort. Only Lauder could I produce to counter these allegations but he made a very poor impression staring fixedly at Annette all the time and sounding like some senile drunkard bribed to report mythical conversations. He left the court immediately, in shame, I hoped. Other testimony was brought which portrayed me as an evil, licentious man and even the fact that I had come to the King’s party from the other side was educed as a blight on my character. Hypocrites!
; Eventually the officers of the court withdrew to meditate their verdict but I had no doubts what it would be. After a while Lauder appeared in the antechamber where I was placed till the court should re-assemble.
‘Thanks for your help,’ I said sarcastically. ‘You did not even stay in the court after you had spoken, as a friend would, but left most suddenly like a man in need of drink!’
‘I was,’ he said. ‘This woman of yours, do you know yet why she is lying?’
‘No. Can you tell me?’ I asked eagerly.
‘Today I saw her for the first time,’ he answered. ‘You find her beautiful?’
‘Surpassing all,’ I answered indignantly as though I were in a position to be offended by any slur against Annette. ‘Her face is the fairest I ever saw, didst not think so?’
‘And you never saw her before?’
‘No. I think not,’ I said, puzzled.
‘Oh, Fantom, Fantom. Think of those features. Do they not bring one to mind, one who you knew well of old?’
I thought, conjuring Annette’s lovely face to my mind’s eye. I regarded it in bafflement for a while wondering what the old fool could mean. Then gradually the hair shortened, the eyebrows thickened, a polished steel helmet domed above that fair white brow.
‘Oh Christ,’ I said, hardly believing. ‘The beautiful boy. D’Amblève! Oh Christ! It is not true?’
‘Ay, is it. As soon as I saw her, I knew. I have been to talk with various of her acquaintance and in particular with her maid, that French lassie. She was adamant, her mistress was not French, but Belge. From another I received her maiden name, Annette D’Amblève. I believe if we look closer we will find she was the boy prick’s young sister.’
I still found it hard to believe.
‘But even so! Why should she be so cunning in revenge against me? I did her no harm!’
Captain Fantom Page 20
