Part 2 (1/2)
”Do you know what they were doing?”
”That I do, sir, for I was in the church too, though I must admit, in a less expensive pew...”
” 'Expiating the horrid Sin committed in the execrable Murder of the Royal Martyr! Remembrancing his rank Butchery at the Hands of the Mobb!' ”
”This confirms that we did attend the same service.”
”I was there,” Daniel said-referring to the rank Butchery-”and to me it looked like a perfectly regular and well-ordered proceeding.” He had, by this time, had a few moments to compose himself, and did not feel that he was spewing flames any more. He uttered this last in a very mild conversational tone. Yet it affected Mr. Threader far more strongly than anything Daniel could have screamed or shouted at him. The conversation stopped as dramatically as it had begun. Little was said for an hour, and then another, as the carriage, and the train of wagons bringing up the rear, found its way along town streets to the Oxford Road, and turned towards the City, and made its way eastwards across a green, pond-scattered landscape. Mr. Threader, who was facing forward, stared out a side window and looked alarmed, then pensive, then sad. Daniel recognized this train of emotions all too well; it was a treatment meted out by evangelicals to d.a.m.nable Sinners. The sadness would soon give way to determination. Then Daniel could expect a fiery last-ditch conversion attempt.
Daniel was facing backwards, watching the road pa.s.s under the wheels of the baggage-cart. On that cart, he knew, was Mr. Threader's strangely over-organized collection of strong-boxes. This put him in mind of a much-needed change of subject.
”Mr. Threader. How shall I compensate you?”
”Mm-Dr. Waterhouse? What?”
”You have not only transported me but boarded me, entertained me, and edified me, for two weeks, and I owe you money.”
”No. Not at all, actually. I am a very particular man, Mr. Waterhouse, in my dealings. Had I desired compensation, I'd have said as much before we set out from Tavistock, and I'd have held you to it. As I did not do so then then I cannot accept a penny from you I cannot accept a penny from you now. now.”
”I had in mind more than a penny penny-”
”Dr. Waterhouse, you have made a lengthy journey-an unimaginable journey, to me-and are far from home, it would be a sin to accept so much as a farthing from your purse.”
”My purse need not enter into it, Mr. Threader. I have not undertaken this journey without backing. My banker in the City will not hesitate to advance you an equitable sum, on the credit of the Person who has underwritten my travels.”
Now Mr. Threader was, at least, interested; he stopped looking out the window, and turned his attention to Daniel. ”I'll not take anyone's anyone's money-yours, your banker's, or your backer's, sir. And I'll not ask who your backer money-yours, your banker's, or your backer's, sir. And I'll not ask who your backer is is, for it has gradually become obvious to me that your errand is-like a bat-dark, furtive, and delicate. But if you would be so good as to indulge my professional curiosity on one small matter, I should consider your account paid in full.”
”Name it.”
”Who is your banker?” is your banker?”
”Living as I do in Boston, I have no need of a bank in London-but I am fortunate enough to have a family connexion in that business, whom I can call upon as the occasion demands: my nephew, Mr. William Ham.”
”Mr. William Ham! Of Ham Brothers! The money-goldsmiths who went bankrupt!”
”You are thinking of his father father. William was only a boy then.” Daniel began to explain young William's career at the Bank of England but he bated, seeing a gla.s.sy look on Mr. Threader's face.
”The money-goldsmiths!” Mr. Threader reiterated, ”The money-goldsmiths.” Something in his tone put Daniel in mind of Hooke identifying a parasite under a microscope. ”Well, you see then, it's of no account anyway, Dr. Waterhouse, as I do not think that Mr. Ham's money would have any utility utility for me.” for me.”
Daniel understood now that Mr. Threader had set a trap by asking for the name of his banker. Saying to Mr. Threader, a money-scrivener, My banker is a money-goldsmith My banker is a money-goldsmith, was like mentioning to an Archbishop I attend church in a barn I attend church in a barn: proof that he belonged to the Enemy. The trap had sprung on him now; and, whether by design or no, it happened at the moment they trundled through Tyburn Cross, where limbs of freshly quartered criminals were spiked to the scaffold, festooned with unraveled bowels. Mr. Threader proclaimed, ”Coiners!” with the finality of a Norn.
”They're drawing and quartering people for that that now?” now?”
”Sir Isaac is determined to root them out. He has brought the judicial Powers round to his view, which is that counterfeiting is not just a petty crime-it is high treason! High treason, Dr. Waterhouse. And every coiner that Sir Isaac catches, ends up High treason, Dr. Waterhouse. And every coiner that Sir Isaac catches, ends up thusly thusly, torn by flies and ravens at Tyburn Cross.”
Then, as if it were the most natural Transition imaginable, Mr. Threader-who had leaned far forward and screwed his head around to contemplate, at greater length, the festering shreds of Sir Isaac's latest kills-fell back into his repose with a contented sigh, and fastened the same sort of look on the tip of Daniel's nose. ”You were there when Charles the First was decapitated?”
”That is what I told you, Mr. Threader. And I was startled, startled, to say the least, to enter a church three score and five years later, and be confronted with evidence that these High Church folk have not yet recovered from the event. Do you have any idea, Mr. Threader, how many Englishmen perished in the Civil War? In accordance with our norms, I shall not even mention Irishmen.” to say the least, to enter a church three score and five years later, and be confronted with evidence that these High Church folk have not yet recovered from the event. Do you have any idea, Mr. Threader, how many Englishmen perished in the Civil War? In accordance with our norms, I shall not even mention Irishmen.”
”No, I've no idea...”
”Precisely! And so to make such a bother about one chap seems as bizarre, idolatrous, fetis.h.i.+stic, and beside the point to me, as Hindoos venerating Cows.”
”He lived in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Threader, meaning Windsor.
”A local connexion that was not even mentioned in the homily-not, I say, in the first, the second, or the third hour of it. Rather, I heard much talk that sounded to me like politics. politics.”
”To you. Yes. But Yes. But to me to me, Dr. Waterhouse, it sounded like church. church. Whereas, if we were to go there-” and Mr. Threader pointed at a barn in a field to the north side of Tyburn Road, surrounded by carriages, and emanating four-part harmony; i.e., a Meeting-House of some Gathered Church ”-we would hear much that would sound like church to Whereas, if we were to go there-” and Mr. Threader pointed at a barn in a field to the north side of Tyburn Road, surrounded by carriages, and emanating four-part harmony; i.e., a Meeting-House of some Gathered Church ”-we would hear much that would sound like church to you you, and politics to me me.”
”To me me it would sound like common sense,” Daniel demurred, ”and I hope that in time you would come round to the same opinion-which would be an impossibility for it would sound like common sense,” Daniel demurred, ”and I hope that in time you would come round to the same opinion-which would be an impossibility for me me, in there there-” Fortuitously, they had just crossed over some important new street that had not existed, or had been just a cow-path, in Daniel's day; but never mind, as looking north he saw Oxford Chapel just where it had always been, and so he was able to thrust his finger at an Anglican church-steeple, which was all he wanted to ill.u.s.trate his point. ”-in that there is no sense to it whatever, only mindless ritual!”
”It is naturally the case that Mysteries of Faith do not lend themselves to commonsensical explanation.”
”You, sir, might as well be a Catholic, if that is what you believe.”
”And you, sir, might as well be an Atheist-unless, like so many of the Royal Society, you have, on your way to Atheism, chosen to pause for refreshment at the Spring of Arianism.”
Daniel was fascinated. ”Is it widely known-or supposed supposed, I should say-that the Royal Society is a nest of Arianism?”
”Only among those capable of recognizing the obvious, obvious, sir.” sir.”
”Those capable of recognizing the obvious obvious might conclude from the service you and I have just been subjected to, that this country is ruled by Jacobites-and ruled, I say, thusly from the very might conclude from the service you and I have just been subjected to, that this country is ruled by Jacobites-and ruled, I say, thusly from the very top top.”
”Your powers of perception put mine to shame, Dr. Waterhouse, if you know the Queen's mind on this question. The Pretender may be a staunch Catholic, and he may be in France, but he is is her brother! And at the end of a poor old lonely woman's life, to expect that she'll not be swayed by such considerations is inhumane.” her brother! And at the end of a poor old lonely woman's life, to expect that she'll not be swayed by such considerations is inhumane.”
”Not nearly as inhumane as the welcome her brother would receive if he came to these sh.o.r.es styling himself King. Consider the example just cited, so tediously, in church.”
”Your candor is bracing. Among my circle, one does not allude so freely to Decapitation of Kings by a Mobb.”
”I am glad that you are braced, Mr. Threader. I am merely hungry.”
”To me you seem thirsty thirsty-”
”For blood?”
”For royal royal blood.” blood.”
”The blood of the Pretender is not royal, for he is no King, and never will be. I saw his father's blood, streaming out of his nostrils in a gin-house at Sheerness, and I saw his uncle's blood being let from his jugulars at Whitehall, and his grandfather's plas.h.i.+ng all round the scaffold at the Banqueting House, sixty-five years ago today, and none of it looked different from the blood of convicts that we put up in jars at the Royal Society. If spilling the Pretender's blood prevents another Civil War, why spill it.”
”You really should moderate your language, sir. If the Pretender did come to the throne, the words you just spoke would be high treason, and you would be dragged on a sledge to the place we have just put behind us, where you would be half-hanged, drawn, and quartered.”
”I simply find it inconceivable that that man would ever be suffered to reign over England.”
”We call it the United Kingdom now. If you were fresh from New England, Dr. Waterhouse, which is a hot-bed of Dissidents, or if you had been dwelling too long in London, where Whigs and Parliament lord it over ordinary sensible Englishmen, then I should understand why you feel as you do. But during our journey I have showed you England as it is, as it is, not as Whigs phant'sy it to be. How can a man of your intelligence not perceive the wealth of this country-the wealth not as Whigs phant'sy it to be. How can a man of your intelligence not perceive the wealth of this country-the wealth temporal temporal of our commerce and the wealth of our commerce and the wealth spiritual spiritual of our Church? For I say to you that if you did comprehend that wealth you would of our Church? For I say to you that if you did comprehend that wealth you would certainly certainly be a Tory, be a Tory, possibly possibly even a Jacobite.” even a Jacobite.”
”The spiritual spiritual side of the account is balanced, and perhaps o'er-balanced, by the congregations who gather together in Meeting-Houses, where one does not need to sign a lease, to sit on a pew. So we may leave Church-disputes out of the reckoning. Where side of the account is balanced, and perhaps o'er-balanced, by the congregations who gather together in Meeting-Houses, where one does not need to sign a lease, to sit on a pew. So we may leave Church-disputes out of the reckoning. Where money money is concerned, I shall confess, that the prosperity of the countryside quite overtopped my expectations. But it comes to little when set against the wealth of the City.” is concerned, I shall confess, that the prosperity of the countryside quite overtopped my expectations. But it comes to little when set against the wealth of the City.”
Timing once again favored Daniel, for they were now on Oxford Street. To the carriage's left side, the Green Lane stretched northwards across open country, threading its way between parks, gardens and farms, darting into little vales and bounding over rises. To the right side it was all built-up: a development that had been only a gleam in Sterling's* eye twenty years ago: Soho Square. Gesturing first this way, then that, Daniel continued: ”For the country draws its revenue from a fixed stock: sheep eating gra.s.s. Whereas, the City draws its wealth from foreign trade, which is ever-increasing and, I say, inexhaustible.” eye twenty years ago: Soho Square. Gesturing first this way, then that, Daniel continued: ”For the country draws its revenue from a fixed stock: sheep eating gra.s.s. Whereas, the City draws its wealth from foreign trade, which is ever-increasing and, I say, inexhaustible.”
”Oh, Dr. Waterhouse, I am so pleased that Providence has given me the opportunity to set you right on that score, before you got to London and embarra.s.sed yourself by holding views that stopped being true while you were gone. For look, we are come to Tottenham Court Road, the city begins in earnest.” Mr. Threader pounded on the roof and called out the window to the driver, ”High Street is impa.s.sable for re-paving, jog left and take Great Russell round to High Holborn!”