He had given me what money he had, and his watch and the diamond buckles off his shoes, and his two rings and a gold chain.
“Sell an for what you can get. There is a man called Fulbright in Old Jewry who’s as honest as such knaves go. Save only the gold ring, which was my father’s before me. Pawn that, for who knows, we may redeem it some day. Though, God’s life, I’ve little personal hope. I’m finished, done for, shall be left here to rot. This is what all my service “
“You’ve been arrested before.”
“On private suit, yes. But this is different. There can be no intervention, even if any were willing to attempt it. I am at the Queen’s mercy.”
“Which may be forthcoming. I don’t think she is a vindictive woman.”
“Pray God. I’ve known her nourish grudges before now. As to finding œ2,000 … Nor will it only be that. Watch the jackals pounce …”
Anslowe, the jailer, was a stout dog-faced man with stiff redgrey hair and a stench about him. He demanded at once œ3 as Garnish money, and said 20s. a week would ensure my father a bed and a ground floor chamber which he would share with five others. If less, his new prisoner went into the Common Ward. On the way in we had passed the gratings through which came cries for bread and meat, and some thin talons stretching through the bars. All the inside of the jail, which was small, was dark and stinking, and the only hope of survival seemed to be to live where some air would penetrate and one could see out at the carriages and people passing through the Gate House. My father grabbed money from me and gave it to Anslowe, and he was then taken into a dark foul room in which already were three men squatting in rags by the single long window waiting to shout their appeals to any passer-by. They glowered at the newcomer, and Anslowe jerked with his thumb at some boards and a sheet “There’s yet bed” then waited for me to go. This I did with a heavy heart, leaving Mr Killigrew standing like a stout, sick bird in a circle of vultures.
Ralegh said: “So, Maugan, when we had thought you gone … The news only reached me in your father’s letter. What an adventure you have had! “
It was a splendid welcome, full of goodwill and esteem; yet I fancied I had chosen the wrong time, for Bell was with him, and a new secretary, and he was preparing to return to Bath. And as always, when he was with others, even servants, he was less personally approachable. There were so many Walter Raleghs: the vigorous enthusiast, the thinker, the subtle politician, the unpretentious friend, the ambitious statesman, the poet, the strategist, the man of affairs. Today he was nearest this last.
“Poor Victor … It was a bad day when I sent you both home. When I sought to preserve his life I lost it. By the living God, how we exist by chance! “
His complexion was sallow and his face lined; the stick was beside his desk, though he did not use it to move about the room.
“I came to bring my thanks, Sir Walter and my father’s. Without your help he might have fared much worse.”
“Ah, the Privy Council. I should be on it, but Her Majesty knows if I were I should be ruling all the rest. Was there ever such nonsense as suspecting John Killigrew of treating with the enemy!”
I could not speak then.
He said: “Oh, I know he has been no angel. I do not applaud what he does, and some new blood to captain the castle will be a good thing: its condition when I reached it last month was lamentable. But to confuse that with treason is to misuse the meaning of words.”
His secretary was requesting his attention to some document just signed. While he attended to it I went to the window. A passenger vessel with seven sails was sweeping down river at a fine pace.
The secretary went out, and only Bell remained. The moment was still not a favourable one, but I must have some answer before he left for Bath.
“Sir, my duty takes me back to Arwenack, to see what can be done to help the family. But my halfbrother John will soon be home and he must take over this duty. As soon as he does, I “
“Ah, your father has a young brood, but one or two are old enough to be of value at this time. I would young Wat were of an age.” Sir Walter picked up a book and slipped the end of a pen in it to keep the place. “Pack this, Bell, I have other things for tonight … Perhaps in due course you’ll be in a position to return into my service, boy “
“That’s what I wished to ask you about “
The door had opened behind me. “Sir, Lord Cobham has called.”
“Ask him into the gallery. I’ll be there as soon as he.”
The secretary withdrew. I said: “May I take it that you can still offer me a post, sir?”
“Of course. Lady Ralegh was much taken with you. At Sherborne there is much to see to, and there is more than a likelihood that Irish affairs will occupy me for some time. I believe a revolt is brewing, and command of our forces must be given to a soldier of experience and resource … I wonder what Cobham wants now.”
“Sir, I have to thank you again for your intervention for my father. It could well have saved his head.”
“It was the least I could do when appealed to. Now make yourself at home in the quarters below. I have business on hand.”
“Can you spare me one minute more?”
At the door he stopped, his eyes distant and preoccupied. “Two if you have need of them. But Lord Cobham is below.”
“Sir, I wish to marry.”
“Do you need my sanction? If so you have it.”
“If I am married I need a position, Sir Walter. While personally I should be happy and honoured to act as a scrivener or in any other capacity you desired, the need to maintain a wife and later a family “
“There’s room enough at Sherborne. Bring your wife. You can make her happy there.”
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, for I agreed with him. “Gladly. Thank you. Thank you … But perhaps I might ask you for the favour of some preferment or some recommendation. When when one marries one becomes ambitious.”
He twirled his stick impatiently. “Oh … ambitious. Ambition is the lodestone that leads us all. Bring your wife to Sherborne, Maugan, if you wish to. Preferment will come later. I am not one to forget my friends.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I sold my horse, keeping Mr Killigrew’s, and sold or pawned the jewellery and other trinkets he had given me. Most of this money I gave to Thomas Rosewarne, who was determined to stay in Westminster and take work as a clerk in order to be on hand. He thought that some legal aid might yet be brought to contrive my father out of jail; but personally I wondered whether even a full discharge of his debts to the Queen would set him free again. There was even the risk that new evidence would yet come to light and he would be removed from the Gatehouse to the Tower. How far would the Spanish keep their plans secret now they had gone awry? What if Captain Elliot or Richard Burley were caught?
I saw Mr Killigrew again the following morning. He had spent a restless night and had been badly bitten by bugs. He was very cold, so I left him two extra coats. The covering for his board was rotten, he said, and there was nothing but filthy straw for a pillow. The food he had paid to have cooked in the jail kitchen had come in blackened to cinders. Anslowe had denied him even the liberty of the prison, saying it was against the orders he had been given.
“Go tell Mrs Killigrew how I am situated. Do not spare the description, for there is still some money coming into the house from time to time and the first claim on it must now be mine. If I cannot obtain releasement leave me alone, manl I have nothing for you!” This to one of the ragged skeletons who had been importuning him as he spoke to me through the bars. I threw the wretch a penny. “And curb your generosity, Maugan! When you are rich you may use your money as you please. Not now! “