Anthony Wilding

by Rafael Sabatini

  “It is as I would wish,” said he, but his livid face and staring eyes belied the valour of his words. He cleared his huskiness from his throat. “Sir Rowland,” said he, “will you act for me?”

  “Not I!” cried Blake with an oath. “I’ll be no party to the butchery of a boy unfledged.”

  “Unfledged?” echoed Trenchard. “Body o me! ’Tis a matter Wilding will amend tomorrow. He’ll fledge him, never fear. He’ll wing him on his flight to heaven.”

  Of set purpose did Trenchard add this fuel to the blazing fire. It was no part of his views that this encounter should be avoided. If Richard Westmacott were allowed to live after what had passed, there were too many tall fellows might go in peril of their lives.

  Richard, meanwhile, had turned to the man on his left – young Vallancey, a notorious partisan of the Duke of Monmouth’s, a hare-brained gentleman who was his own worst enemy.

  “May I count on you, Ned?” he asked.

  “Aye – to the death,” said Vallancey magniloquently.

  “Mr Vallancey,” said Trenchard with a wry twist of his sharp features, “you grow prophetic.”

  Chapter 2

  SIR ROWLAND TO THE RESCUE

  From Scoresby Hall, near Weston Zoyland, young Westmacott rode home that Saturday night to his sister’s house in Bridgwater, a sobered man and an anguished. He had committed a folly which was like to cost him his life tomorrow. Other follies had he committed in his twenty-five years – for he was not quite the babe that Blake had represented him, although he certainly looked nothing like his age. But tonight he had contrived to set the crown to all. He had good cause to blame himself and to curse the miscalculation that had emboldened him to launch himself upon a course of insult against this Wilding, whom he hated with all the currish and resentful hatred of the worthless for the man of parts.

  But there was more than hate in the affront that he had offered; there was calculation – to an even greater extent than we have seen. It happened that through his own fault young Richard was all but penniless. The pious, nonconformist soul of Sir Geoffrey Lupton – the wealthy uncle from whom he had had great expectations – had been so stirred to anger by Richard’s vicious and besotted ways that he had left every guinea that was his, every perch of land, and every brick of edifice to Richard’s half-sister Ruth. At present things were not so bad for the worthless boy. Ruth worshipped him. He was a sacred charge to her from their dead father, who, knowing the stoutness of her soul and the feebleness of Richard’s, had in dying imposed on her the care and guidance of her graceless brother. But Ruth, in all things strong, was weak with Richard out of her very fondness for him. To what she had he might help himself, and thus it was that things were not so bad with him at present. But when Richard’s calculating mind came to give thought to the future he found that this occasioned him some care. Rich ladies, even when they do not happen to be equipped in addition with Ruth’s winsome beauty and endearing nature, are not wont to go unmarried. It would have pleased Richard best to have had her remain a spinster. But he well knew that this was a matter in which she might have a voice of her own, and it behoved him betimes to take wise measures where possible husbands were concerned.

  The first that came in a suitor’s obvious panoply was Anthony Wilding, of Zoyland Chase, and Richard watched his advent with foreboding. Wilding’s was a personality to dazzle any woman, despite – perhaps even because of – the reputation for wildness that clung to him. That he was known as Wild Wilding to the countryside is true; but it were unfair – as Richard knew – to attach to this too much importance; for the adoption of so obvious an alliteration, the rude country minds needed but a slight encouragement.

  From the first it looked as if Ruth might favour him, and Richard’s fears assumed more definite shape. If Wilding married her – and he was a bold, masterful fellow who usually accomplished what he aimed at – her fortune and estate must cease to be a pleasant pasture land for bovine Richard. The boy thought at first of making terms with Wilding; the idea was old; it had come to him when first he had counted the chances of his sister’s marrying. But he found himself hesitating to lay his proposal before Mr Wilding. And whilst he hesitated Mr Wilding made obvious headway. Still Richard dared not do it. There was a something in Wilding’s eye that cried him danger. Thus, in the end, since he could not attempt a compromise with this fine fellow, the only course remaining was that of direct antagonism – that is to say, direct as Richard understood directness. Slander was the weapon he used in that secret duel; the countryside was well stocked with stories of Mr Wilding’s many indiscretions. I do not wish to suggest that these were unfounded. Still, the countryside, cajoled by its primitive sense of humour into that alliteration I have mentioned, found that having given this dog its bad name, it was under the obligation of keeping up his reputation. So it exaggerated. Richard, exaggerating those exaggerations in his turn, had some details, as interesting and unsavoury as they were in the main untrue, to lay before his sister.

  Now established love, it is well known, thrives wondrously on slander. The robust growth of a maid’s feelings for her accepted suitor is but further strengthened by malign representations of his character. She seizes with joy the chance of affording proof of her great loyalty, and defies the world and its evil to convince her that the man to whom she has given her trust is not most worthy of it. Not so, however, with the first timid bud of incipient interest. Slander nips it like a frost; in deadliness it is second only to ridicule.

  Ruth Westmacott lent an ear to her brother’s stories, incredulous only until she remembered vague hints she had caught from this person and from that, whose meaning was now made clear by what Richard told her, which, incidentally, they served to corroborate. Corroboration, too, did the tale of infamy receive from the friendship that prevailed between Mr Wilding and Nick Trenchard, the old ne’er-do-well, who in his time – as everybody knew – had come so low, despite his gentle birth, as to have been one of a company of strolling players. Had Mr Wilding been other than she now learnt he was, he would surely not cherish an attachment for a person so utterly unworthy. Clearly, they were birds of a plumage.

  And so, her maiden purity outraged at the thought that she had been in danger of lending a willing ear to the wooing of such a man, she had crushed this love which she blushed to think was on the point of throwing out roots to fasten on her soul, and was sedulous thereafter in manifesting the aversion which she accounted it her duty to foster for Mr Wilding.

  Richard had watched and smiled in secret, taking pride in the cunning way he had wrought this change – that cunning which so often is given to the stupid by way of compensation for the intelligence that has been withheld them.

  And now what time discountenanced, Wilding fumed and fretted all in vain, Sir Rowland Blake, fresh from London and in full flight from his creditors, flashed like a comet into the Bridgwater heavens. He dazzled the eyes and might have had for the asking the heart and hand of Diana Horton – Ruth’s cousin. Her heart, indeed, he had without the asking, for Diana fell straightway in love with him and showed it, just as he showed that he was not without response to her affection. There were some tender passages between them; but Blake, for all his fine exterior, was a beggar, and Diana far from rich, and so he rode his feelings with a hard grip upon the reins. And then, in an evil hour for poor Diana, young Westmacott had taken him to Lupton House, and Sir Rowland had his first glimpse of Ruth, his first knowledge of her fortune. He went down before Ruth’s eyes like a man of heart; he went down more lowly still before her possessions like a man of greed; and poor Diana might console herself with whom she could.

  Her brother watched him, appraised him, and thought that in this broken gamester he had a man after his own heart; a man who would be ready enough for such a bargain as Richard had in mind; ready enough to sell what rags might be left him of his honour so that he came by the wherewithal to mend his broken fortunes.

  The twain made terms. They haggled like any pair
of traders out of Jewry, but in the end it was settled – by a bond duly engrossed and sealed – that on the day that Sir Rowland married Ruth he should make over to her brother certain values that amounted to perhaps a quarter of her possessions. There was no cause to think that Ruth would be greatly opposed to this – not that that consideration would have weighed with Richard.

  But now that all essentials were so satisfactorily determined a vexation was offered Westmacott by the circumstance that his sister seemed nowise taken with Sir Rowland. She suffered him because he was her brother’s friend; on that account she even honoured him with some measure of her own friendship; but to no greater intimacy did her manner promise to admit him. And meanwhile, Mr Wilding persisted in the face of all rebuffs. Under his smiling mask he hid the smart of the wounds she dealt him, until it almost seemed to him that from loving her he had come to hate her.

  It had been well for Richard had he left things as they were and waited. Whether Blake prospered or not, leastways it was clear that Wilding would not prosper, and that, for the season, was all that need have mattered to young Richard.

  But in his cups that night he had thought in some dim way to precipitate matters by affronting Mr Wilding, secure, as I have shown, in his belief that Wilding would perish sooner than raise a finger against Ruth’s brother. And his drunken astuteness, it seemed, had been to his mind as a piece of bottle glass to the sight, distorting the image viewed through it.

  With some such bitter reflection rode he home to his sleepless couch. Some part of those dark hours he spent in bitter reviling of Wilding, of himself, and even of his sister, whom he blamed for this awful situation into which he had tumbled; at other times he wept from self-pity and sheer fright.

  Once, indeed, he imagined that he saw light, that he saw a way out of the peril that hemmed him in. His mind turned for a moment in the direction that Trenchard had feared it might. He bethought him of his association with the Monmouth Cause – into which he had been beguiled by the sordid hope of gain – and of Wilding’s important share in that same business. He was even moved to rise and ride that very night for Exeter to betray to Albemarle the Cause itself, so that he might have Wilding laid by the heels. But if Trenchard had been right in having little faith in Richard’s loyalty, he had, it seems, in fearing treachery made the mistake of giving Richard credit for more courage than was his endowment. For when, sitting up in bed, fired by his inspiration, young Westmacott came to consider the questions the Lord-Lieutenant of Devon would be likely to ask him, he reflected that the answers he must return would so incriminate himself that he would be risking his own neck in the betrayal. He flung himself down again with a curse and a groan, and thought no more of the salvation that might lie for him that way.

  The morning of that last day of May found him pale and limp and all a-tremble. He rose betimes and dressed, but stirred not from his chamber till in the garden under his window he heard his sister’s voice, and that of Diana Horton, joined anon by a man’s deeper tones, which he recognised with a start as Blake’s. What did the baronet here so early? Assuredly it must concern the impending duel. Richard knew no mawkishness on the score of eavesdropping. He stole to his window and lent an ear, but the voices were receding, and to his vexation he caught nothing of what was said. He wondered how soon Vallancey would come, and for what hour the encounter had been appointed. Vallancey had remained behind at Scoresby Hall last night to make the necessary arrangements with Trenchard, who was to act for Mr Wilding.

  Now it chanced that Trenchard and Wilding had business – business of Monmouth’s – to transact in Taunton that morning; business which might not be delayed. There were odd rumours afloat in the West; persistent rumours which had come fast upon the heels of the news of Argyle’s landing in Scotland; rumours which maintained that Monmouth himself was coming over from Holland. These tales Wilding and his associates had ignored. The Duke, they knew, was to spend the summer in retreat in Sweden, with (it was alleged) the Lady Henrietta Wentworth to bear him company, and in the meantime his trusted agents were to pave the way for his coming in the following spring. Of late the lack of direct news from the Duke had been a source of mystification to his friends in the West, and now, suddenly, the information went abroad – it was something more than rumour this time – that a letter of the greatest importance had been intercepted. From whom that letter proceeded, or to whom it was addressed, could not yet be discovered. But it seemed clear that it was connected with the Monmouth Cause, and it behoved Mr Wilding to discover what he could. With this intent he rode with Trenchard that Sunday morning to Taunton, hoping that at the Red Lion Inn – that meeting-place of dissenters – he might cull reliable information.

  It was in consequence of this that the meeting with Richard Westmacott was not to take place until the evening, and therefore Vallancey came not to Lupton House as early as Richard thought he should expect him. Blake, however, – more no doubt out of a selfish fear of losing a valued ally in the winning of Ruth’s hand than out of any excessive concern for Richard himself – had risen early and hastened to Lupton House, in the hope, which he recognised as all but forlorn, of yet being able to avert the disaster he foresaw for Richard.

  Peering over the orchard wall as he rode by, he caught a glimpse through an opening between the trees of Ruth herself and Diana on the lawn beyond. There was a wicket gate that stood unlatched, and availing himself of this Sir Rowland tethered his horse in the lane and threading his way briskly through the orchard came suddenly upon the ladies. Their laughter reached him as he advanced, and told him they could know nothing yet of Richard’s danger.

  On his abrupt and unexpected apparition Diana paled and Ruth flushed slightly, whereupon Sir Rowland might have bethought him, had he been book-learned, of the axiom, “ Amour qui rougit, fleurette; amour qui pâlit, drame du coeur.”

  He doffed his hat and bowed, his fair ringlets tumbling forward till they hid his face, which was exceeding grave.

  Ruth gave him good morning pleasantly. “You London folk are earlier risers than we are led to think,” she added.

  “’Twill be the change of air makes Sir Rowland matutinal,” said Diana, making a gallant recovery from her agitation.

  “I vow,” said he, “that I had grown matutinal earlier had I known what here awaited me.”

  “Awaited you?” quoth Diana, and tossed her head archly disdainful. “La! Sir Rowland, your modesty will be the death of you.” Archness became this lady of the sunny hair, tip-tilted nose, and complexion that outvied the apple-blossoms. She was shorter by a half-head than her darker cousin, and made up in sprightliness what she lacked of Ruth’s gentle dignity. The pair were foils, each setting off the graces of the other.

  “I protest I am foolish,” answered Blake, a shade discomfited. “But I want not for excuse. I have it in the matter that brings me here.” So solemn was his air, so sober his voice, that both ladies felt a premonition of the untoward message that he bore. It was Ruth who asked him to explain himself.

  “Will you walk, ladies?” said Blake, and waved the hand that still held his hat riverwards, adown the sloping lawn. They moved away together, Sir Rowland pacing between his love of yesterday and his love of today, pressed with questions from both. He shaded his eyes to look at the river, dazzling in the morning sunlight that came over Polden Hill, and, standing thus, he unburdened himself at last.

  “My news concerns Richard and – Mr Wilding.” They looked at him, Miss Westmacott’s fine level brows were knit. He paused to ask, as if suddenly observing his absence, “Is Richard not yet risen?”

  “Not yet,” said Ruth, and waited for him to proceed.

  “It does credit to his courage that he should sleep late on such a day,” said Blake, and was pleased with the adroitness wherewith he broke the news. “He quarrelled last night with Anthony Wilding.”

  Ruth’s hand went to her bosom; fear stared at Blake from out her eyes, blue as the heavens overhead; a grey shade overcast the usual warm
pallor of her face.

  “With Mr Wilding?” she cried. “That man!” And though she said no more her eyes implored him to go on, and tell her what more there might be. He did so, and he spared not Wilding. The task, indeed, was one to which he applied himself with a certain zest; whatever might be the outcome of the affair there was no denying that he was by way of reaping profit from it by the final overthrow of an acknowledged rival. And when he told her how Richard had flung his wine in Wilding’s face when Wilding stood to toast her, a faint flush crept to her cheeks.

  “Richard did well,” said she. “I am proud of him.”

  The words pleased Sir Rowland vastly; but he reckoned without Diana. Miss Horton’s mind was illumined by her knowledge of herself. In the light of that she saw precisely what capital this tale-bearer sought to make. The occasion might not be without its opportunities for her; and to begin with, it was no part of her intention that Wilding should be thus maligned and finally driven from the lists of rivalry with Blake. Upon Wilding, indeed, and his notorious masterfulness did she found what hopes she still entertained of winning back Sir Rowland.

  “Surely,” said she, “you are a little hard on Mr Wilding. You speak as if he were the first gallant that ever toasted lady’s eyes.”

  “I am no lady of his, Diana,” Ruth reminded her, with a faint show of heat.

  Diana shrugged her shoulders. “You may not love him, but you can’t ordain that he shall not love you. You are very harsh, I think. To me it rather seems that Richard acted like a boor.”

  “But, mistress,” cried Sir Rowland, half out of countenance, and stifling his vexation, “in these matters it all depends upon the manner.”

  “Why, yes,” she agreed; “and whatever Mr Wilding’s manner, if I know him at all, it would be nothing but respectful to the last degree.”