But he never had an opportunity to do so for Carl John had other matters than his brother’s education on his mind. The first indication Philip had of this was when Captain Vratz, one of his brother’s men, called at his lodgings.
Philip leaped at the man and cried: ‘My brother! Where is my brother?’
‘Still in France, young sir. But I’ll swear it won’t be long before he is in London.’
‘Then I rejoice. I want to show him what advances I have made. I am going to ask him to forget all about the university and let me go straight to the army.’
Captain Vratz said: ‘Your brother is concerned in a matter of great importance to him.’
‘What matter!’ Philip was eager. His brother only had to hint at returning and life was exciting again.
‘The Count is most disturbed as to the ill-treatment of a certain young lady living at The Hague, and I have come over here to challenge a fellow known as Tom of Ten Thousand to a duel. Once the challenge is accepted your brother will come to England to kill the fellow.’
‘He has said this, Vratz?’
‘It is his intention.
‘Is it a secret?’
‘All London will soon be talking of it.’
‘I wish my brother were not going to fight a duel. What if he should be killed?’
‘The Count! Never. It is this Thynne man who will die. Then it will be for the Count to console the widow and she will be very ready to be consoled by such a handsome gentleman.’
‘Still … it is dangerous.’
‘Don’t you fret, young gentleman. Your brother has come through worse danger than this, I can assure you.’
Philip tried not to. But it was difficult when one was outside an adventure not to fret. If he were partaking in it he would know only the excitement; as it was he kept wondering what would happen if his brother were killed. And if he killed Thomas Thynne, would that be called murder? It seemed to him that whatever the outcome, there was cause for anxiety.
Vratz returned to his lodgings to tell him he was leaving for France. He was furious because Thynne had laughed in his face and declined the challenge; and the Captain had discovered that Thynne had sent six men to France to murder Count Königsmarck.
‘Go to him quickly,’ cried Philip. ‘Warn him.’
‘You can trust me. It won’t be the Count who’s murdered I can tell you that.’
A few days later, Philip was surprised and delighted by another visitor: his brother had returned to London.
‘In secret,’ Carl John told him, his eyes gleaming with a mingling of anger, excitement and love of adventure.
‘What are you going to do?’ Philip begged to know.
‘You’ll see,’ his brother promised him.
He did. On the following Sunday, in the murk of a February evening Thomas Thynne’s coach was stopped when he was riding in Pall Mall by Vratz, but it was one of Count Königsmarck’s two servants – one Pole, one Swede – who fired the blunderbuss which killed Thomas Thynne.
The hue and cry went up through London and early next morning Philip heard the excitement in the streets, and leaned out of his window to call to a passer-by to tell him the news.
‘Tom of Ten Thousand’s been murdered, sir. And they say it’s all along of his having married a wife.’
Philip was alarmed. If Thomas Thynne had been murdered, his brother was involved. He stayed in his rooms waiting for Mr. Hanson, not daring to go out.
Where was Carl John? He had not come to his brother’s lodging last night, nor had he sent any message.
Mr. Hanson at last came breathlessly running up the stairs – but not to stay.
‘I thought I should warn you,’ he said. ‘Your brother’s two servants, Stern and Boroski, have been arrested with Captain Vratz and they have admitted to the murder they committed on the orders of your brother.’
‘And my brother?’
‘I heard he was on his way to the Continent. Whether he has reached there I don’t know. I shan’t stay. There is nothing I can do … and they’ll be coming here to ask you questions at any minute.’
Hanson left him and he was alone, bewildered and afraid. His brother’s servants prisoners! His brother in flight! What was happening to Carl John and what would they do to him if they caught him? And what could his young brother do alone in a foreign country?
Those were anxious days. Carl John, attempting to leave England, had been captured at Gravesend and was now waiting to face a charge of murder. Strange men came to Philip’s lodgings to question him. What did he know of this affair? Had his brother confided in him? To all these questions he gave discreet answers; and when he was in difficulties feigned an imperfect knowledge of the language. Fearful as he was of his brother’s safety, he could congratulate himself that he had done nothing to endanger it. Hanson was summoned to appear at the trial; and there he spoke so cleverly in Count Königsmarck’s defence that it was said he had an influence on the trial. Of the murder he knew nothing; all he knew was that Count Carl John had entrusted him with the care of his young brother’s education, for he wanted him to be brought up a good Protestant and he felt he could become this better in England than anywhere else; he wanted him to have the best military education and he believed that this could be acquired more thoroughly in England; he wanted his brother to be educated at that seat of learning, Oxford, which he believed to be the best in the world. Such admissions although they had little to do with the murder of Thomas Thynne showed Count Königsmarck to the English as a highly discerning man.
Philip went to the Old Bailey to hear the trial; he was even called upon to give evidence which he did in a firm voice, implying that it was quite impossible for his brother to be involved in such a case. He was aware of Carl John’s approval coming across the court to him. But he was frightened by the solemnity about him, by the sight of his brother – the bold adventurer standing side by side with his servants who had betrayed him.
Going back to his lodgings through those crowded streets Philip heard the name Königsmarck on many tongues.
‘Of course Königsmarck’s the real villain. Those others were only his tools.’
‘He should hang by his neck. These foreigners …’
Those merry streets became very sinister for Philip during those days.
And then … the verdict. Vratz, Stern and Boroski guilty and condemned to be hanged in chains. Königsmarck acquitted.
There was murmuring in the streets. All the men were foreigners and therefore little concern of the English, but one of them, the leader, Königsmarck, had murdered an Englishman, and the English wanted retribution.
‘Hang Königsmarck!’ cried the people in the streets.
And Philip, making his way to his lodgings, trembled for his brother.
Life could not go on in the same way after such an episode. For one thing, Carl John had to leave England before outraged public opinion caused the law to take some action against him or the mob decided to take the law into its own hands. He left for Sweden, but Philip did not go with him. Carl John really had believed that his brother could acquire in England the education which would be of most use to him, so he wished his young brother to stay on under the care of Mr. Hanson.
For a few weeks Philip studied miserably in his lodgings; but he was a Königsmarck and the people of London did not like one who bore such a name. ‘Brother to the murderer!’ they declared. ‘The murderer who got off scot free while his servants paid for his crimes.’ London was not a healthy place for a Königsmarck, and Mr. Hanson made Carl John aware of this. In a short time Philip heard that he was to travel to Sweden in the care of his tutor.