Charles, weeping with gratitude, readily promised; then, having given Roger another opium drink, sat by him until he managed to get off to sleep.
The days that followed were agonising for Roger and very anxious ones for Charles. Twenty-four hours after his arrival at Schloss Bergedorf, Roger's leg. began to swell and the wound go purple at the edges. There could be no doubt that the blue dye in the strips of cloth he had wound round his leg had got into his bloodstream and poisoned it.
He had to submit to the pain of having the gangrenous strips of flesh cut away and the wound being restitched. But that failed to avert the menace. The following day the signs of poisoning appeared again, and the surgeon gave his opinion that the only certain way of saving Roger's life was to amputate his leg below the knee. However, on being pressed by Charles, the sawbones admitted that there was just a chance that further cutting away of the flesh might make amputation unnecessary. Upon this the wretched Roger, his brain a prey to delusions caused by opium and three-parts drunk on brandy, yet still capable of feeling acute pain, submitted for the third time to the surgeon's knife and needle.
A period of great anxiety followed, but on November 1st, Roger's sixth day at Schloss Bergedorf, the surgeon was satisfied that the second operation had been successful. These days of constant pain had cost Roger a stone in weight. Combined with the loss of blood and fear of being crippled for life, they had left him very weak. It was no surprise to him, therefore, when he was told that it would be several weeks before he could hope to travel and, anxious as he was to get home, he made no protest.
* * *
It was during the time when Roger was so desperately ill that an event occurred in London which was to bring Susan into dire peril.
One morning towards-the end of October, just as Jemima was about to go,out shopping with Lady Luggala, a running footman arrived with a letter for her. It was from her mother, and asked that both of them should come to her as a matter of the utmost urgency. As their carriage was already at the door, they drove straight to Islington.
There they found the witch's house a scene of great activity. The servants were packing silver and linen into hampers in the hall, while the witch and her high priest, the lean Father Damien, were busily parcelling up magical implements and packets of precious drugs in the drawing room.
No sooner had the door closed behind her visitors than the witch cried angrily, 'My dears, it is a shocking blow that we have suffered. That fool Cornelius Quelp has allowed himself to be trapped.'
'Oh dear!' exclaimed Jemima. 'How did it happen?'
'A French emigre, one of the old, sour kind who refused to return to France when the Emperor proclaimed an amnesty and has long been in the pay of the English, wormed his way into the Dutchman's confidence. He was arrested yesterday and charged at Bow Street with being a French secret agent. The evidence against him was irrefutable and it is in the Tower that he is now. A friend of his brought the news to me in the middle of the night.'
'Obviously you are leaving, so I take it you fear he may betray us,' said Maureen Luggala unhappily.
It was Father Damien who answered her. 'The Mynheer is a courageous man and much attached to us, so I do not believe he would betray us lightly, but the brutal English may force him to.'
'The English are not brutal in that way,' Jemima volunteered. 'They have long given up torturing prisoners.'
'There are other means of securing information from prisoners,' the priest retorted. 'They could promise to release him if he provided them with a list of his associates.'
'It is that I fear,' the witch put in, 'and Father Damien and I would head the list, since it was from us that he obtained the greater part of the information he took to France.'
'Oh my! Oh my!' Lady Luggala wrung her hands. 'Then all of us are ruined.'
'Nay. 'Tis I who am ruined. Another year or two in London and I could have made a fortune out of the Hell Fire Club. Now I must abandon it and leave the country.'
'You mean to return to Ireland ?'
'Yes, although since the English rule there, even that may be dangerous if Quelp discloses his dealings with me,. Where else could I go ?'
'You might find a smuggler who would run you over to France,' Jemima suggested.
'It would take time to find one, child, and time is precious. Besides, the stars are no longer favourable to the Emperor. He is far from finally defeated yet, but Leipzig was, I am convinced, the turn of the tide for him. This latest combination of so many nations allied against him must end in his downfall. Those stupid Bourbons will then return. But they are not such fools as to neglect having all the secret papers they secure gone through most carefully. Quelp's will show the sums paid to me for the information supplied to him. Then, should I be in France, I'd be in constant danger of being identified and sent to the gallows. No, Ireland it must be; and that, Maureen, is why I sent for you.'
'You mean to take Jemima and me with you ?'
'No, no!' the witch spoke impatiently. 'The fact that you both met the Dutchman here a few times is no proof that you were involved in his activities, any more than were the men and women who came to participate in our Hell Fire orgies. Neither of you is in any danger; but I need your help in securing a safe refuge in Ireland. I dare not settle in Dublin. It is too well that I am known there. And I've no mind to pig it in some peasant's cottage. It occurred to me that Father Damien and I could lie low in that castle of your late husband's, at Luggala. But I'll need a letter of authority from you for us to occupy it.'
Greatly relieved that she would not, as she had feared, have to flee the country, Maureen replied eagerly, 'What an excellent idea. I'll write to the bailiff with pleasure. But you do realise, don't you, that the castle has not been lived in for many years, so a lot will have to be done to make it really comfortable.'
'That is of no great moment. Father Damien and I will need the use of only a few rooms, and your bailiff can get people in from the village to clean them up for us.'
While they were talking, the priest had left the room and returned with a decanter of Madeira. As he poured the wine for all of them, the witch finished packing the last bag of herbs into a straw basket. Sitting down, she asked Jemima:
'Tell me, child, how do your relations with young Susan progress? It is some weeks since we have talked of this.'
Jemima pulled a face. 'Alas, I cannot tell you that they do progress., It is now long since I established myself as her best friend. We see one another frequently and talk with the greatest intimacy. She has no secrets from me—that I'll swear. And in many things I can influence her without difficulty, yet I am no nearer dominating her mind than I was six months ago.'
'That is disappointing. I'd hoped with time you would achieve hypnotic power over her, and so be able to make her commit acts which would ruin her in Charles's eyes when he returns.'
‘I have tried, Mama, but my efforts have proved in vain. It is not that she is a prude or sexually frigid. Indeed, she confessed to me not long since that, at the time Charles made that unfortunate scene here during a meeting of the Club, she was in half a mind to take a lover and, heaven knows, there are a dozen beaux into whose arms I have tried to push her. Yet she'll not give more than a kiss to any of them. She says that when Charles went to the wars, she vowed to herself that she'd remain a virgin until his return, however long that might be.'
'It may not now be very long, for all the portents tell me that, in a matter of months, the war will be over. I've not told you of it, child, but in recent weeks I've been much worried for Charles. Some great danger seemed to hang over him; something quite unforeseeable, for owing to the ritual that you and I performed upon his leaving, he is protected from all the normal hazards of war. But he has passed through this period of adversity unharmed.'