But he had not risen when we set out, nor would the illnatured landlord
reveal his name. It mattered little to me, since I desired to forget him
as quickly as possible. For here was one of my own people of quality, a
gentleman who professed to believe what I told him, and yet would do
no more for me than recommend me an inn and a tailor; while a poor
sea-captain, driven from his employment and his home, with no better
reason to put faith in my story, was sharing with me his last penny.
Goble, in truth, had made us pay dearly for our fun with him, and the
hum of the vast unknown fell upon our ears with the question of lodging
still unsettled. The captain was for going to the Star and Garter,
the inn the gentleman had mentioned. I was in favour of seeking a more
modest and less fashionable hostelry.
“Remember that you must keep up your condition, Richard,” said John
Paul.
“And if all English gentlemen are like our late friend,” I said, “I
would rather stay in a city coffee-house. Remember that you have only
two guineas left after paying for the chaise, and that Mr. Dix may be
out of town.”
“And your friends in Arlington Street?” said he.
“May be back in Maryland,” said I; and added inwardly,
“God forbid!”
“We shall have twice the chance at the Star and Garter. They will want
a show of gold at a humbler place, and at the Star we may carry matters
with a high hand. Pick out the biggest frigate,” he cried, for the tenth
time, at least, “or the most beautiful lady, and it will surprise you,
my lad, to find out how many times you will win.”
I know of no feeling of awe to equal that of a stranger approaching for
the first time a huge city. The thought of a human multitude is ever
appalling as that of infinity itself, a human multitude with its
infinity of despairs and joys, disgraces and honours, each small unit
with all the world in its own brain, and all the world out of it! Each
intent upon his own business or pleasure, and striving the while by hook
or crook to keep the ground from slipping beneath his feet. For, if he
falls, God help him!
Yes, here was London, great and pitiless, and the fear of it was upon
our souls as we rode into it that day.
Holland House with its shaded gardens, Kensington Palace with the broad
green acres of parks in front of it stitched by the silver Serpentine,
and Buckingham House, which lay to the south over the hill,--all were
one to us in wonder as they loomed through the glittering mist that
softened all. We met with a stream of countless wagons that spoke of
a trade beyond knowledge, sprinkled with the equipages of the gentry
floating upon it; coach and chaise, cabriolet and chariot, gorgeously
bedecked with heraldry and wreaths; their numbers astonished me, for
to my mind the best of them were no better than we could boast in
Annapolis. One matter, which brings a laugh as I recall it, was the
oddity to me of seeing white coachmen and footmen.
We clattered down St. James's Street, of which I had often heard my
grandfather speak, and at length we drew up before the Star and Garter
in Pall Mall, over against the palace. The servants came hurrying out,
headed by a chamberlain clad in magnificent livery, a functionary we had
not before encountered. John Paul alighted to face this personage, who,
the moment he perceived us, shifted his welcoming look to one of such
withering scorn as would have daunted a more timid man than the captain.
Without the formality of a sir he demanded our business, which started
the inn people and our own boy to snickering, and made the passers-by
pause and stare. Dandies who were taking the air stopped to ogle us with
their spying-glasses and to offer quips, and behind them gathered
the flunkies and chairmen awaiting their masters at the clubs and
coffee-houses near by. What was my astonishment, therefore, to see a
change in the captain's demeanour. Truly for quick learning and the
application of it I have never known his equal. His air became the one
of careless ease habitual to the little gentleman we had met at Windsor,
and he drew from his pocket one of his guineas, which he tossed in the
man's palm.
“Here, my man,” said he, snapping his fingers; “an apartment at once, or
you shall pay for this nonsense, I promise you.” And walked in with his
chin in the air, so grandly as to dissolve ridicule into speculation.
For an instant the chamberlain wavered, and I trembled, for I dreaded a
disgrace in Pall Mall, where the Manners might hear of it. Then fear, or
hope of gain, or something else got the better of him, for he led us
to a snug, well-furnished suite of a parlour and bedroom on the
first floor, and stood bowing in the doorway for his honour's further
commands. They were of a sort to bring the sweat to my forehead.
“Have a fellow run to bid Davenport, the tailor, come hither as fast
as his legs will carry him. And you may make it known that this young
gentleman desires a servant, a good man, mind you, with references, who
knows a gentleman's wants. He will be well paid.”
That name of Davenport was a charm,--the mention of a servant was
its finishing touch. The chamberlain bent almost double, and retired,
closing the door softly behind him. And so great had been my surprise
over these last acquirements of the captain that until now I had had no
breath to expostulate.
“I must have my fling, Richard,” he answered, laughing; “I shall not be
a gentleman long. I must know how it feels to take your ease, and stroke
your velvet, and order lackeys about. And when my money is gone I shall
be content to go to sea again, and think about it o' stormy nights.”
This feeling was so far beyond my intelligence that I made no comment.
And I could not for the life of me chide him, but prayed that all would
come right in the end.
In less than an hour Davenport himself arrived, bristling with
importance, followed by his man carrying such a variety of silks and
satins, flowered and plain, and broadcloths and velvets, to fill the
furniture. And close behind the tailor came a tall haberdasher from
Bond Street, who had got wind of a customer, with a bewildering lot of
ruffles and handkerchiefs and neckerchiefs, and bows of lawn and lace
which (so he informed us) gentlemen now wore in the place of solitaires.
Then came a hosier and a bootmaker and a hatter; nay, I was forgetting
a jeweller from Temple Bar. And so imposing a front did the captain wear
as he picked this and recommended the other that he got credit for
me for all he chose, and might have had more besides. For himself he
ordered merely a modest street suit of purple, the sword to be thrust
through the pocket, Davenport promising it with mine for the next
afternoon. For so much discredit had been cast upon his taste on the
road to London that he was resolved to remain indoors until he could
appear with decency. He learned quickly, as I have said.
By the time we had done with these matters, which I wished to perdition,
some score of applicants was in waiting for me. And out of them I
hired one who had been valet to the young Lord Rereby, and whose
recommendation was excellent. His name was Banks, his face open and
ingenuous, his stature a little above the ordinary, and his manner
respectful. I had Davenport measure him at once for a suit of the Carvel
livery, and bade him report on the morrow.
All this while, my dears, I was aching to be off to Arlington Street,
but a foolish pride held me back. I had heard so much of the fashion
in which the Manners moved that I feared to bring ridicule upon them in
poor MacMuir's clothes. But presently the desire to see Dolly took
such hold upon me that I set out before dinner, fought my way past the
chairmen and chaisemen at the door, and asked my way of the first civil
person I encountered. 'Twas only a little rise up the steps of St.
James's Street, Arlington Street being but a small pocket of Piccadilly,
but it seemed a dull English mile; and my heart thumped when I reached
the corner, and the houses danced before my eyes. I steadied myself by a
post and looked again. At last, after a thousand leagues of wandering,
I was near her! But how to choose between fifty severe and imposing
mansions? I walked on toward that endless race of affairs and fashion,
Piccadilly, scanning every door, nay, every window, in the hope that I
might behold my lady's face framed therein. Here a chair was set down,
there a chariot or a coach pulled up, and a clocked flunky bowing a
lady in. But no Dorothy. Finally, when I had near made the round of
each side, I summoned courage and asked a butcher's lad, whistling as he
passed me, whether he could point out the residence of Mr. Manners.
“Ay,” he replied, looking me over out of the corner of his eye, “that I
can. But y'ell not get a glimpse o' the beauty this day, for she's but
just off to Kensington with a coachful o' quality.”
And he led me, all in a tremble over his answer, to a large stone
dwelling with arched windows, and pillared portico with lanthorns
and link extinguishers, an area and railing beside it. The flavour of
generations of aristocracy hung about the place, and the big knocker on
the carved door seemed to regard with such a forbidding frown my shabby
clothes that I took but the one glance (enough to fix it forever in my
memory), and hurried on. Alas, what hope had I of Dorothy now!
“What cheer, Richard?” cried the captain when I returned; “have you seen
your friends?”
I told him that I had feared to disgrace them, and so refrained from
knocking--a decision which he commended as the very essence of wisdom.
Though a desire to meet and talk with quality pushed him hard, he would
not go a step to the ordinary, and gave orders to be served in our room,
thus fostering the mystery which had enveloped us since our arrival.
Dinner at the Star and Garter being at the fashionable hour of half
after four, I was forced to give over for that day the task of finding
Mr. Dix.
That evening--shall I confess it?--I spent between the Green Park and
Arlington Street, hoping for a glimpse of Miss Dolly returning from
Kensington.
The next morning I proclaimed my intention of going to Mr. Dix.
“Send for him,” said the captain. “Gentlemen never seek their men of
affairs.”
“No,” I cried; “I can contain myself in this place no longer. I must be
moving.”
“As you will, Richard,” he replied, and giving me a queer, puzzled look
he settled himself between the Morning Post and the Chronicle.
As I passed the servants in the lower hall, I could not but remark an
altered treatment. My friend the chamberlain, more pompous than ever,
stood erect in the door with a stony stare, which melted the moment he
perceived a young gentleman who descended behind me. I heard him cry out
“A chaise for his Lordship!” at which command two of his assistants
ran out together. Suspicion had plainly gripped his soul overnight, and
this, added to mortified vanity at having been duped, was sufficient for
him to allow me to leave the inn unattended. Nor could I greatly blame
him, for you must know, my dears, that at that time London was filled
with adventurers of all types.
I felt a deal like an impostor, in truth, as I stepped into the street,
disdaining to inquire of any of the people of the Star and Garter where
an American agent might be found. The day was gray and cheerless, the
colour of my own spirits as I walked toward the east, knowing that the
city lay that way. But I soon found plenty to distract me.
To a lad such as I, bred in a quiet tho' prosperous colonial town, a
walk through London was a revelation. Here in the Pall Mall the day was
not yet begun, tho' for some scarce ended. I had not gone fifty paces
from the hotel before I came upon a stout gentleman with twelve hours
of claret inside him, brought out of a coffee-house and put with vast
difficulty into his chair; and I stopped to watch the men stagger off
with their load to St. James's Street. Next I met a squad of redcoated
guards going to the palace, and after them a grand coach and six rattled
over the Scotch granite, swaying to a degree that threatened to shake
off the footmen clinging behind. Within, a man with an eagle nose sat
impassive, and I set him down for one of the king's ministers.
Presently I came out into a wide space, which I knew to be Charing Cross
by the statue of Charles the First which stood in the centre of it, and
the throat of a street which was just in front of me must be the Strand.
Here all was life and bustle. On one hand was Golden's Hotel, and a
crowded mail-coach was dashing out from the arch beneath it, the horn
blowing merrily; on the other hand, so I was told by a friendly man in
brown, was Northumberland House, the gloomy grandeur whereof held my
eyes for a time. And I made bold to ask in what district were those who
had dealings with the colonies. He scanned me with a puzzling look of
commiseration.
“Ye're not a-going to sell yereself for seven year, my lad?” said he. “I
was near that myself when I was young, and I thank God' to this day that
I talked first to an honest man, even as you are doing. They'll give
ye a pretty tale,--the factors,--of a land of milk and honey, when it's
naught but stripes and curses yell get.”
And he was about to rebuke me hotly, when I told him I had come from
Maryland, where I was born.
“Why, ye speak like a gentleman!” he exclaimed. “I was informed that all
talk like naygurs over there. And is it not so of your redemptioners?”
I said that depended upon the master they got.
“Then I take it ye are looking for the lawyers, who mostly represent the
planters. And y e'll find them at the Temple or Lincoln's Inn.”
I replied that he I sought was not an attorney, but a man of business.
Whereupon he said that I should find all those in a batch about the
North and South American Coffee House, in Threadneedle Street. And he
pointed me into the Strand, adding that I had but to follow my nose to
St. Paul's, and there inquire.
I would I might give you some notion of the great artery of London in
those days, for it has changed much since I went down it that heavy
morning in April, 1770, fighting my way. Ay, truly, fighting my way, for
the street then was no place for the weak and timid, when bullocks ran
through it in droves on the way to market, when it was often jammed from
wall to wall with wagons, and carmen and truckmen and coachmen swung
their whips and cursed one another to the extent of their lungs. Near
St. Clement Danes I was packed in a crowd for ten minutes while two of
these fellows formed a ring and fought for the right of way, stopping
the traffic as far as I could see. Dustmen, and sweeps, and even
beggars, jostled you on the corners, bullies tried to push you against
the posts or into the kennels; and once, in Butchers' Row, I was stopped
by a flashy, soft-tongued fellow who would have lured me into a tavern
near by.
The noises were bedlam ten times over. Shopmen stood at their doors and
cried, “Rally up, rally up, buy, buy, buy!” venders shouted saloop
and barley, furmity, Shrewsbury cakes and hot peascods, rosemary
and lavender, small coal and sealing-wax, and others bawled “Pots to
solder!” and “Knives to grind!” Then there was the incessant roar of
the heavy wheels over the rough stones, and the rasp and shriek of the
brewers' sledges as they moved clumsily along. As for the odours, from
that of the roasted coffee and food of the taverns, to the stale fish on
the stalls, and worse, I can say nothing. They surpassed imagination.
At length, upon emerging from Butchers' Row, I came upon some stocks
standing in the street, and beheld ahead of me a great gateway
stretching across the Strand from house to house.
Its stone was stained with age, and the stern front of it seemed to mock
the unseemly and impetuous haste of the tide rushing through its arches.
I stood and gazed, nor needed one to tell me that those two grinning
skulls above it, swinging to the wind on the pikes, were rebel heads.
Bare and bleached now, and exposed to a cruel view, but once caressed
by loving hands, was the last of those whose devotion to the house of
Stuart had brought from their homes to Temple Bar.
I halted by the Fleet Market, nor could I resist the desire to go into
St. Paul's, to feel like a pebble in a bell under its mighty dome; and
it lacked but half an hour of noon when I had come out at the Poultry
and finished gaping at the Mansion House. I missed Threadneedle Street
and went down Cornhill, in my ignorance mistaking the Royal Exchange,
with its long piazza and high tower, for the coffeehouse I sought: in
the great hall I begged a gentleman to direct me to Mr. Dix, if he knew
such a person. He shrugged his shoulders, which mystified me somewhat,
but answered with a ready good-nature that he was likely to be found at
that time at Tom's Coffee House, in Birchin Lane near by, whither I went
with him. He climbed the stairs ahead of me and directed me, puffing, to
the news room, which I found filled with men, some writing, some talking
eagerly, and others turning over newspapers. The servant there looked me
over with no great favour, but on telling him my business he went off,
and returned with a young man of a pink and white complexion, in a green
riding-frock, leather breeches, and top boots, who said:
“Well, my man, I am Mr. Dix.”
There was a look about him, added to his tone and manner, set me strong
against him. I knew his father had not been of this stamp.
“And I am Mr. Richard Carvel, grandson to Mr. Lionel Carvel, of Carvel
Hall, in Maryland,” I replied, much in the same way.
He thrust his hands into his breeches and stared very hard.
“You?” he said finally, with something very near a laugh.
“Sir, a gentleman's word usually suffices!” I cried.
He changed his tone a little.
“Your pardon, Mr. Carvel,” he said, “but we men of business have need
to be careful. Let us sit, and I will examine your letters. Your
determination must have been suddenly taken,” he added, “for I have
nothing from Mr. Carvel on the subject of your coming.”
“Letters! You have heard nothing!” I gasped, and there stopped short
and clinched the table. “Has not my grandfather written of my
disappearance?”
Immediately his expression went back to the one he had met me with.
“Pardon me,” he said again.
I composed myself as best I could in the face of his incredulity,
swallowing with an effort the aversion I felt to giving him my story.
“I think it strange he has not informed you,” I said; “I was kidnapped
near Annapolis last Christmas-time, and put on board of a slaver, from
which I was rescued by great good fortune, and brought to Scotland. And
I have but just made my way to London.”
“The thing is not likely, Mr.--, Mr.--,” he said, drumming impatiently
on the board.
Then I lost control of myself.
“As sure as I am heir to Carvel Hall, Mr. Dix,” I cried, rising, “you
shall pay for your insolence by forfeiting your agency!”
Now the roan was a natural coward, with a sneer for some and a smirk for
others. He went to the smirk.
“I am but looking to Mr. Carvel's interests the best I know how,” he
replied; “and if indeed you be Mr. Richard Carvel, then you must applaud
my caution, sir, in seeking proofs.”
“Proofs I have none,” I cried; “the very clothes on my back are borrowed
from a Scotch seaman. My God, Mr. Dix, do I look like a rogue?”
“Were I to advance money upon appearances, sir, I should be insolvent
in a fortnight. But stay,” he cried uneasily, as I flung back my chair,
“stay, sir. Is there no one of your province in the town to attest your
identity?”
“Ay, that there is,” I said bitterly; “you shall hear from Mr. Manners
soon, I promise you.”
“Pray, Mr. Carvel,” he said, overtaking me on the stairs, “you will
surely allow the situation to be--extraordinary, you will surely commend
my discretion. Permit me, sir, to go with you to Arlington Street.” And
he sent a lad in haste to the Exchange for a hackney-chaise, which was
soon brought around.
I got in, somewhat mollified, and ashamed of my heat: still disliking
the man, but acknowledging he had the better right on his side. True
to his kind he gave me every mark of politeness now, asked particularly
after Mr. Carvel's health, and encouraged me to give him as much of my
adventure as I thought proper. But what with the rattle of the carriage
and the street noises and my disgust, I did not care to talk, and
presently told him as much very curtly. He persisted, how: ever, in
pointing out the sights, the Fleet prison, and where the Ludgate stood
six years gone; and the Devil's Tavern, of old Ben Jonson's time, and
the Mitre and the Cheshire Cheese and the Cock, where Dr. Johnson might
be found near the end of the week at his dinner. He showed me the King's
Mews above Charing Cross, and the famous theatre in the Haymarket, and
we had but turned the corner into Piccadilly when he cried excitedly at
a passing chariot:
“There, Mr. Carvel, there go my Lord North and Mr. Rigby!”
“The devil take them, Mr. Dix!” I exclaimed.
He was silent after that, glancing at me covertly from while to while
until we swung into Arlington Street. Before I knew we were stopped
in front of the house, but as I set foot on the step I found myself
confronted by a footman in the Manners livery, who cried out angrily to
our man: “Make way, make way for his Grace of Chartersea!” Turning, I
saw a coach behind, the horses dancing at the rear wheels of the chaise.
We alighted hastily, and I stood motionless, my heart jumping quick and
hard in the hope and fear that Dorothy was within, my eye fixed on the
coach door. But when the footman pulled it open and lowered the step,
out lolled a very broad man with a bloated face and little, beady eyes
without a spark of meaning, and something very like a hump was on the
top of his back. He wore a yellow top-coat, and red-heeled shoes of the
latest fashion, and I settled at once he was the Duke of Chartersea.
Next came little Mr. Manners, stepping daintily as ever; and then,
as the door closed with a bang, I remembered my errand. They had got
halfway to the portico.
“Mr. Manners!” I cried.
He faced about, and his Grace also, and both stared in wellbred
surprise. As I live, Mr. Manners looked into my face, into my very
eyes, and gave no sign of recognition. And what between astonishment and
anger, and a contempt that arose within me, I could not speak.
“Give the man a shilling, Manners,” said his Grace; “we can't stay here
forever.”
“Ay, give the man a shilling,” lisped Mr. Manners to the footman. And
they passed into the house, and the door eras shut.
Then I heard Mr. Dix at my elbow, saying in a soft voice: “Now, my
fine gentleman, is there any good reason why you should not ride to Bow
Street with me?”
“As there is a God in heaven. Mr. Dix,” I answered, very low, “if you
attempt to lay hands on me, you shall answer for it! And you shall hear
from me yet, at the Star and Garter hotel.”
I spun on my heel and left him, nor did he follow; and a great lump was
in my throat and tears welling in my eyes.
What would John Paul say?