Dennis Wheatley - The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

Sir James Harris, with his brilliant eyes and bold, handsome face, was a much more flamboyant personality. On entering the Diplomatic service he had been sent as secretary to. the Embassy in Madrid. In the summer of 1770, his seniors having all gone on leave during the great heats, he found himself temporarily acting in the role of Chargé d'Affaires . At this juncture he learned that the Spaniards were secretly fitting out an expedition in Buenos Aires for the capture of the Falkland Islands. Although only aged twenty-four he took so high a tone with the Spanish Prime Minister that the attempt was abandoned. This spirited act had gained him swift promotion; at twenty-six he was sent as Minister to Berlin, at thirty-one as Ambassador to St. Petersburg, and at thirty-seven, having retired to amuse himself with politics, he had been persuaded to re-enter the diplomatic arena at the Hague, then the danger-spot of Europe; and there, with his audacity, courage and genius for intrigue, had created and matured a counter-revolution in the interests of Britain.

Lord Carmarthen was a stranger to Roger, but Harris hardly waited for them to be introduced before clapping him on the shoulder, and recalling the festivities in which they had shared the previous October when Prince William V of Orange was happily restored to authority in his own capital.

Roger inquired after the Princess, who had treated him with special kindness, and Harris gave a jovial laugh. "So you fell a victim to her, too, eh! Well, I don't wonder. She's a monstrous fine woman, and those gay blue eyes of hers near made me forget her exalted station more than once. And where we'd have been without her high courage I know not. I left her in good health, but chafing as ever at being tied to that miserable weakling of a husband who makes so plaguey poor a showing as Stadtholder."

" Tis a strange coincidence," remarked Carmarthen, "that there should be so close a similarity between the rulers of the Dutch Nether­lands and those of France. In both cases' the men are poor vacillating creatures, while the women are not only beautiful and high-spirited but possess the forceful personalities fitted to the wearing of a crown."

"Is there aught fresh out of France?" Pitt inquired.

"Nay, nothing of moment. The Parliament of Paris is still striving to force the King to surrender his right of issuing Lettres de Cachet ; and the Provincial Parliaments are, as usual, at loggerheads with the Royal authorities on a score of matters. His Grace of Dorset has just gone on leave, but Mr. Hailes wrote me this week, that notwithstanding the very extraordinary advantages with which the last loan was offered it is now below par, so confidence in the Government is clearly declin­ing still further."

For a time they talked of the troubles of the French monarchy, then Henry Dundas joined them.

He was a big raw-boned Scot, who possessed little refinement or literary taste, but had enormous political sagacity and was indefatigably industrious. Coming from a well-known Scottish legal family, he had rapidly made his way up in that profession to become solicitor-general for Scotland at the age of twenty-four. As a speaker, although steady and logical, he was rated poor; but he was a tower of strength at Westminster, since he not only ruled the bloc of Scottish members with a rod of iron, but also controlled the election of the Scottish representative Peers. This was in part due to the fact he had pushed a Bill through Parliament by which Scottish estates forfeited after the Jacobite rising of '45 had been restored to their owners. So powerful was he north of the Tweed that he was known as Harry the Ninth of Scotland. In Pitt's administration he still occupied the com­paratively minor post of Treasurer of the Navy, but in recent years the Prime Minister had tended more and more to treat him as his prin­cipal lieutenant; and by having made him a member of the new Board of Control for India, had opened the way for him to dominate it, so that he had soon become, in all but name, the ruler of that great country. He was now forty-six years of age; he drank like a fish and swore like a trooper.

Shortly after his arrival, dinner was announced, and over it their quick minds led them to comment on and dismiss a vast variety of subjects. Roger, with becoming modesty, said little, except when directly addressed, until towards the end of the meal. Harris brought up the subject of Sir Humphrey Etheredge's tragic death as the result of an All Fools' Day joke, which had been the talk of the town during the proceeding week. He had had the story from his friend Charles Fox and, glancing at Roger, said: "If my memory serves me, Mr. Brook, Charles mentioned that you were of the company at Stillwaters when the fatality occurred."

Roger was at once pressed by the others to give a first-hand account of the affair, and he did so as casually as he could. When he had done, Dundas remarked in his rich Scots accent: "Weel! 'Tis an ill wind that blows nae man any guid. By this Isaiah Etheredge becomes a bonny Baronet; though he'll no be aware of it for many a week yet to come."

"Why say you that, Sir?" asked Roger.

"Because, Sir, I know him ta ha’ taken ship for Jamaica a se'n-night before the tragedy," came the prompt answer. "He has a wee bit of a plantation there, and was of the opeenion that by a visit he might screw a few more bawbees out of his factor."

To Roger these were the most excellent tidings. During the past week he had heard nothing from Stillwaters, and although he had endeavoured to take comfort from the old adage that "no news is good news," he had felt a constant anxiety lest Sir Isaiah should nose out something during his visit. Now it was clear that the new Baronet could not have attended his nephew's funeral, and better still, would not be back in England for several months to come, by which time the whole business would be ancient history. It was a minute or more before Roger realised to the full the strain that he had been living under and the magnitude of the relief that Dundas's casual words had brought him. By keeping their- heads he and Georgina had escaped the awful fate that had threatened them. The affair could now be considered as closed, and he could go abroad free of all worry that she might yet be overtaken by Nemesis.

As Roger brought his thoughts back to his present surroundings he realised that the port hadbeen put on the table, the servants had left the room, and that Pitt was telling his friends of his project for endeavouring to ascertain the Czarina's secret intentions.

Harry Dundas swigged back his first glass of port and grinned at Roger. "If ye're the man ye look, Mr. Brook, ye'll no regret this enterprise. The Russian men are fine hard drinkers, arid the women as free with their charms as any young laird could wish, so I'm told."

Carmarthen offered Roger his snuff-box and said: "Indeed, Sir, I wish you all the pleasures that Mr. Dundas implies, but also a more solid success. From the very nature of their position our diplomatic representatives are often prevented from learning facts not meant for their ears, which are yet almost common talk at the courts to which they are accredited. With so pleasing a presence and address as you possess, if you convey the impression that you are but an idle fellow travelling for pleasure you may well "secure for us information of considerable value."

"You have taken my very thought, Francis," nodded Pitt, as Roger murmured his thanks for the compliment paid him, and the Foreign Secretary went on:

"As the Prime Minister may have told you, he does not share my belief that the French continue to bear us malice for the past, and out of jealousy will, when they have found a solution to their internal troubles, become a serious menace to us again. His optimism may be justified, but I feel that we should at least leave nothing undone to guard ourselves against such a contingency."