A Maggot

by John Fowles

  Jurat die annoque praedicto coram me

  Henry Ayscough

  * * *

  Lincoln's Inn, the 27th August

  Your Grace,

  What Yr Grace will here read attached speaks for itself, and I proceed now as Yr Grace may guess. My men are already upon the road to Wales. If the rogue Jones be in his native place, they shall find him more soon than late, I doubt not. My nose tells me Lacy is no liar, and may be credited, tho' he credited far too much himself. He is a child at heart, behind his airs, like all his kind, and would be seen better bred and more important than he is; Yr Grace may judge him a fool, but not a perjuring villain. The bawd Claiborne should have her back flogged to the bone, were there justice in this world, and spend the rest of her shameless life in the colonies. Plain hanging is too sweet for such as her.

  I waited upon Lord B. this forenoon and showed him Yr Grace's letter and my authority, and then laid such facts as was needful before him. He declared he was innocent of all knowledge of them until this day; had supposed his Lordship abroad; confessed he was a party to the matter at the bagnio, and thought the wench gone likewise abroad for his Lordship's pleasure. I asked Lord B. if he had at any time suspected that his Lordship's intentions were not what he publicly pretended. He replied that his Lordship had talked much of his tour of Europe and he had believed him.

  Upon my further questions Lord B. vouchsafed that tho' he had seen his Lordship but infrequently since their Cambridge days, he counted him an honoured friend and was always pleased to renew their old intimacy, when he was in town; that he found himself somewhat surprised, on this last occasion, when his Lordship pressed to be introduced to Claiborne's bagnio, since he had always supposed his Lordship insusceptible to the temptations of the flesh and indeed seeming indifferent to womankind in general, since he had never yet married; but that his Lordship now appeared determined (ipsissima verba) to make up for lost time.

  (I spare Yr Grace some more particular expressions of this determination that Lord B. described, since I believe them but said to add colour to a supposed debauchery and cloak his Lord, ship's true purpose.)

  Lord B. further said that he himself had first proposed that his Lordship should seek the favours of the woman in question; that he himself had been their recipient and had vouched for her shills and charms. Lord B. then used a blasphemous figure I dare not repeat to your Grace, but so as to say there was no better at her lewd traffick in London. I requested to know in what these charms consisted, beyond the carnal. Lord B. replied that it was part in a seeming modesty, the more striking for being found in a world of brass; that it lay not in any particular faculty of wit or speech, since she spoke little, and then simply; that he knew of more than one who had gone in boldly to her, not believing report, yet had come out tamed; that since to the accustomed rake the most prized flesh is the newest, some now counted her stale meat, but he knew of none better for such as his Lordship, who took their first step in the Cyprian rites, which is why he proposed her to him; that in some licentious imitation of Tacitus he had lately read she was described meretricum regina initiarum lenis, which he deemed just.

  I asked then if subsequent upon this first visit his Lordship had spoken to Lord B. of her, and in what terms. He said that he had, and that very next day, and seemed much pleased; and to Lord B.'s recollection said that were he seeking a wench for his private use and satisfaction, yet with whom he need form no closer attachment, then this was such a one; that on some further occasion Lord B. had of speaking with his Lordship, to his best memory some six or seven days later, his Lordship now broached the matter of bribing the woman away from Claiborne's to amuse him during his stay in Paris, and how it might be managed, and at what cost, et coetera; that he (Lord B.) had declared he thought it could be done, but his Lordship must not delay his departure for France, as Claiborne might cry scandal and make trouble if she knew her whore still in London.

  Furthermore that (it might be three or four days later still) his Lordship had called on Lord B. and told him a difficulty lay with the whore, who was not unwilling to suit, but greatly feared her mistress's anger if she were discovered, which fear neither the money his Lordship offered to procure her running away nor assurances of his protection would stifle; that Claiborne kept too close a watch and was notorious cruel on any that dared quit her service in such manner, and in fine that if his Lordship could hire her away, openly with Claiborne, upon a pretext (some other than to accompany him to France, which she would never allow), she would come, but otherwise feared it was more than her life was worth to accede to his Lordship's wishes.

  Lord B. said he thereupon advised his Lordship, if his mind was set on having her, to proceed as the girl advised, though it might seem the more expensive way; because that there lay some justice behind her fear for herself, since it is common knowledge no pandaress may afford to let one of her whores escape unpunished, lest the others should follow her example; and that the arrangement had this to be said for it that if, the time elapsed, his Lordship had grown tired of the wench, then he had but to send her back, and no one the wiser as to what was first intended.

  Upon my closer questioning Lord B. admitted that he had helped devise the pretext his lordship employed to deceive Claiborne, and had done as the creature accuses as to the substantiation of it, when called upon; but considered it no sin to practise upon such as she, who live by evil practice.

  I am confident Your Grace knows sufficient of Lord B.'s character to know what worth to set upon his unsworn evidence, but will permit me to add that I took no suspicion in our interview of matters being hid, tho' it is sadly plain the noble lord played no noble part in all that transpired.

  I thought finally to ask Lord B. whether his Lordship had declared his private feelings to him, as regards the severity, eminently just and merited though it was, that he had provoked in his most noble father. I pray Yr Grace will remember, in what 1 repeat of what Lord B. replied, that it was his command that 1 should attempt to ascertain this. Lord B. said that though he had heard, before they met anew, that his Lordship was most angry with his parent, he was at first surprised to find him seemingly the rather resigned to his fate than determined not to submit to it. Yet that on a later and more intimate occasion his Lordship stated that he did not believe himself Yr Grace's son, for he could not countenance such a person as his father; and did say he would rather lose the strawberry leaves than believe Yr Grace was so. Lord B. said he then made use of other most opprobrious epithets, the more so for being uttered not when he was inebriated or in a rage, but in his apparent senses, and most icy cold in manner, as if Yr Grace were some Turkish bashaw or other Oriental despot into whose cruel hands he had fallen. Lord B. said further that he did conclude his Lordship's new will to play the rake might be placed upon this malevolent resentment in him for so sacred a figure as a father should be; but added in some small extenuation of his Lordship that these things were said to him alone (on an occasion when they strolled apart together in the Mall) and he never heard his Lordship to express himself thus in more public company; and in extenuation of himself that he had suggested to his Lordship (as Yr Grace will know, Lord B. was on ill terms with his own father, before that noble gentleman's late decease) that in his experience it was best to stifle one's resentments and to leave time as arbiter, that must in the nature of things be upon a son's side; and that after all, Heaven agreeing, his Lordship and he should one day themselves be fathers also. To that his Lordship appeared to acquiesce, and no more was said on the matter.

  I am asked to convey to Yr Grace Lord B.'s profoundest regrets that matters have taken this unforeseen turn and his assurances that he remains as ignorant as Yr Grace's self as to his Lordship's real intentions and present whereabouts; and respectfully to suggest to Yr Grace that bearing in mind the notorious risk of infection from French whores and seeing that his Lordship's mind seemed fixed on its course of pleasure, he could not advise against what he was led (falsely) to believe were hi
s plans, but on the contrary saw good reasons for seconding them; that he had given his Lordship his word that he would keep the matter entirely secret and also that he would find means to silence Claiborne's resentment if need arose, which he has done and will continue to do; and finally begs to insist that if he can be of any further assistance to Yr Grace in the affair, Your Grace will not hesitate to call upon him.

  Yr Grace's ever most humble and obedient servant,

  Henry Ayscough

  * * *

  Lincoln's Inn, The 8th of September

  Your Grace

  I write late and in great haste, so as not to delay the news my clerk Tudor has this minute brought. Jones is found, with an ease I had scarce hoped, and brought to London. They arrived but two hours since, and he is safe lodged. I shall begin upon the rogue tomorrow morning.

  He was found by the greatest fortune at Cardiff, as they passed for Swansea; for my man says Jones was drinking in the very inn where they chanced to lodge; and that they might most easily not have remarked him, had not another spake his name, that they heard; and then watched close and listened, and so knew their good fortune. At first he would deny, but my clerk soon had him well sifted; then would run off, but to no avail; then cried he was false arrested, but changed his tune most swiftly when he was offered by my clerk to be brought before the justices of Cardiff to plead his innocence. They have since kept silence with him, nor let him speak as he would, and my man says he is much dejected and alarmed-in his words, well hung for the roasting, the which Yr Grace will believe me he shall have.

  Yr Grace will, I pray, permit me at this present not to re, mark upon the justly outraged paternal sentiments he deigned to vouchsafe in his last letter. I am persuaded he knows that they are most respectfully shared. Like Yr Grace, I am confounded in all my understandings and expectations, as regards his L'dship. Quantum mutatus ab itlo! Nothing shall be undone that may cast light upon this most unhappy affair.

  Yr Grace's most humble and diligent servant,

  Henry Ayscough

  I adjoin a copy of the letter that I have received of Mr Saunderson of Cambridge, that Yr Grace may see how his younger son's talents was esteemed by academy. Of Mr Whiston Yr Grace knows, d doubt not; he is quarrelsome dissenter and dangerousmouthed, ter-veneficus that did lose him the position at Cambridge that Mr Saunderson now fills, these twenty-five years past; and is grown more poisonous violent and turbulent since, for I hear now he waits upon that gentleman's decease, that he may once more put forward and take again the place he so deservedly was ejected from. H.A.

  the 8 of her, Christ's College, Cambridge.

  Sir,

  I am in sad receipt of your letter of the 27 August, to which I hasten to reply, albeit deficiency doth oblige me to dictate to an amanuensis. I fear, sir, I can be of no assistance in the most pressing of what you request. I have not had the pleasure of meeting his Lordship in these two years past; I had last that pleasure at the time of the election, that is, in the April Of '34. His Lordship then did me the honour of visiting me here, when he was in this town. Some letters we have exchanged since that meeting; all have been confined to matters mathematick and algebraical. The last such I received was of the 24th March last, that wished me well of the coming year, and did announce that his Lordship intended soon to be in town, and designed a summer tour to France and Italy; yet hoped before he left, when the weather was more clement, that he might make an excursion to Cambridge to call upon me, for he sought my advice on whom he might visit during his tour. Alas, since then I have had no further letter nor other news of him, and had presumed him gone. I am as perplexed as I am dismayed by this news of a disappearance. The letter of March contained naught, beyond the above-mentioned, of more personal import.

  Of his Lordship I may most sincerely state that I have had few pupils to equal him, and none to surpass. You may know, sir, that I am fourth Lucasian professor at this university, and have been so since the year 1711; and thus in commending him so highly I lack not grounds for comparison. Did not his rank preclude him, I consider his talents such as would have most usefully adorned this University; I cannot say the like of many others, far his inferior, that have been elected fellows this last twenty years.

  I am alas the more accustomed, with young gentlemen of his rank, to find that whatever interest and assiduity in study they may show when here is swift to disappear when they go out upon the world. It has not been so with his Lordship; he has most pertinaciously continued his studies in the mathematick science and in all to which it pertains. I have found him always well read, and a most excellent practiser. For this it is not only I who vouch; this has been also the opinion of my eminent predecessor, Mr Whiston, whose religious views one may deplore, but not his mathematick ability, and of a far greater still, my most illuminate ante-predecessor in cathedra Lucasiana, Sir Isaac Newton. To the attention of both have I-more than once brought propositions or solutions advanced by his Lordship; and though they did, before Sir Isaac's lamented death, fall out with each other, in this they concurred: that here was a young philosopher worthy their attention.

  I would not bore you, sir, yet I may add that I have myself these several years been engaged upon a method by board for the easier computation of great numbers; that in this design I have several times discussed with his Lordship the problems of method that I have encountered; and that I have found him by no means the least skilled in assisting me to surmount them. His talents here are not common ones; for the common mind in such matters will attempt to solve by small refinement and improvement of the proposed method; whereas his Lordship did proceed by the most close examination of the principles of the method; and more than once he hath hit upon a better and more advantageous one. I count myself fortunate to have had such a noble coadjutor.

  If I am to find fault in him, it is that he was sometimes seized by beliefs or theories of this physical world that I must term more phantasies than probable or experimental truths. The one that you require me to explain is such; in my view. The series of numbers to which you allude appears first in the Liber Abaci of one Leonardo da Pisa, a learned Italian. He did devise it, but, upon his own admission, for no more than to calculate the multiplication of conies in a warren. Yet his Lordship would find this rate of proportion (which doth stay the same however superfetatiously its parts be increased) everywhere in nature besides, indeed even discernible in the motions of the planets and the arrangement of stars in the heavens; and saw it likewise in all plants, in the disposition of their leaves, for which ordering he would make a name, that is, from the Greek, phyllotaxis. And he did believe also that this same most elementary sequence might be traced in the history of this world, both past and to come; and thus that were it fully understood, the chronology of the future might be mathematically prophesied as well that of the past explained.

  There, sir, I believe he put far too much upon some trifling coincidences in the base phenomena of physical nature; and must believe also that in this he did suffer, though through no fault of his own, from his aristocratic place in society, viz., that he lacked the daily commerce of a world of common learning and discussion upon it; and thus suffered from what may be called a dementia in exsilio, if you will forgive me. Or as it is said here, In delitescentia non est scientia, those who lie hidden, or live far, from knowledge, may never fully have it.

  Now, sir, in matters of my science I am accustomed to speak my mind; and when his Lordship did first put his notions on this matter before me, I was somewhat strict upon them, and found them ill-grounded. This happened some five years ago, and did at the first occasion a coldness between his Lordship and myself, that I did venture to criticize many of the too extravagant deductions he would make upon his premisses. Yet am I happy to say we have made truce since then, upon terms proposed by his Lordship himself: that he valued his relation with me far too highly to lose it for a dispute over a matter that he conceded he could not prove (this was in allusion to his chimerical notion that a chronology
of the future might be established from the aforesaid sequence). He proposed then that we should, as amici amicitiae (so he put it), ban this bone of contention from our conversation. And so since has it been, sir; and I had believed it no longer his study, for he has been good to his word in all our subsequent meetings and in all correspondence.

  As I say, sir, I am perplexed as to where his Lordship now might be, and cannot advise you; and must pray one I have the honour to count as a most worthy, talented, amiable and noble friend shall soon be found.

  Your obedient servant,

  Nicholas Saunderson A. M.

  Regalis Societatis Socius

  Written by me, Anne Saunderson, daughter.

  Historical Chronicle September 1736

  The Examination and Deposition of

  David Jones

  the which doth attest upon his sworn

  oath, this ninth day of September in

  the tenth year of the reign

  of our sovereign Lord George the

  second, by the grace of God King of

  Great Britain and of England, &c.

  * * *

  My name is David Jones. I am Swansea born, as old as the century, thirty-six years. I am not married. I am at this present ship-chandler's clerk at Cardiff.

  * * *

  Q. Jones, I have been at great cost to find you.

  A. I know it, sir, and am most sorry.

  Q. You have read this summary of Mr Francis Lacy's deposition?

  A. I have, sir.

  Q. You do not deny you are he Mr Lacy speaks of?

  A. No, sir. I cannot.

  Q. But you denied it to him I sent to fetch you hither?

  A. I knew him not, sir. He said at first nothing of Mr Lacy, and I consider myself with respect that worthy gentleman's friend, and bound in honour to protect him if I could. For I knew him as innocent as Jones, sir, in what passed last April. One must look for one's friends, as the saying goes.