Mason & Dixon这辈子能读懂就安息了
OneLatitudes and Departures
1
Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr'd the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins, carried Hats away into the brisk Wind off Delaware,— the Sleds are brought in and their Runners carefully dried and greased, shoes deposited in the back Hall, a stocking'd-foot Descent made upon the great Kitchen, in a purposeful Dither since Morning, punctuated by the ringing Lids of various Boilers and Stewing-Pots, fragrant with Pie-Spices, peel'd Fruits, Suet, heated Sugar,— the Children, having all upon the Fly, among rhythmic slaps of Batter and Spoon, coax'd and stolen what they might, proceed, as upon each afternoon all this snowy Advent, to a comfortable Room at the rear of the House, years since given over to their carefree Assaults. Here have come to rest a long scarr'd sawbuck table, with two mismatch'd side-benches, from the Lancaster County branch of the family,— some Second-Street Chippendale, including an interpretation of the fam'd Chinese Sofa, with a high canopy of yards of purple Stuff that might be drawn all 'round to make a snug, dim tent,— a few odd Chairs sent from England before the War,— mostly Pine and Cherry about, nor much Mahogany, excepting a sinister and wonderful Card Table which exhibits the cheaper sinusoidal Grain known in the Trade as Wand'ring Heart, causing an illusion of Depth into which for years children have gaz'd as into the illustrated Pages of Books...along with so many hinges, sliding Mortises, hidden catches, and secret compartments that neither the Twins nor their Sister can say they have been to the end of it. Upon the Wall, banish'd to this Den of Parlor Apes for its Remembrance of a Time better forgotten, reflecting most of the Room,— the Carpet and Drapes a little fray'd, Whiskers the Cat stalking beneath the furniture, looking out with eyes finely reflexive to anything suggesting Food,— hangs a Mirror in an inscrib'd Frame, commemorating the "Mischianza," that memorable farewell Ball stag'd in '77 by the British who'd been Occupying the City, just before their Withdrawal from Philadelphia.
This Christmastide of 1786, with the War settl'd and the Nation bickering itself into Fragments, wounds bodily and ghostly, great and small, go aching on, not ev'ry one commemorated,— nor, too often, even recounted. Snow lies upon all Philadelphia, from River to River, whose further shores have so vanish'd behind curtains of ice-fog that the City today might be an Isle upon an Ocean. Ponds and Creeks are frozen over, and the Trees a-glare to the last slightest Twig,— Nerve-Lines of concentrated Light. Hammers and Saws have fallen still, bricks lie in snow-cover'd Heaps, City-Sparrows, in speckl'd Outbursts, hop in and out of what Shelter there may be,— the nightward Sky, Clouds blown to Chalk-smears, stretches above the Northern Liberties, Spring Garden and Ger-mantown, its early moon pale as the Snow-Drifts,— smoke ascends from Chimney-Pots, Sledging-Parties adjourn indoors, Taverns bustle,— freshly infus'd Coffee flows ev'ryplace, borne about thro' Rooms front and back, whilst Madeira, which has ever fuel'd Association in these Parts, is deploy'd nowadays like an ancient Elixir upon the seething Pot of Politics,— for the Times are as impossible to calculate, this Advent, as the Distance to a Star.
It has become an afternoon habit for the Twins and their Sister, and what Friends old and young may find their way here, to gather for another Tale from their far-travel'd Uncle, the Revd Wicks Cherrycoke, who arriv'd here back in October for the funeral of a Friend of years ago,— too late for the Burial, as it prov'd,— and has linger'd as a Guest in the Home of his sister Elizabeth, the Wife, for many years, of Mr. J. Wade LeSpark, a respected Merchant, active in Town Affairs whilst in his home yet Sultan enough to convey to the Revd, tho' without ever so stipulating, that, for as long as he can keep the children amus'd, he may remain,— too much evidence of Juvenile Rampage at the wrong moment, however, and Boppo! 'twill be Out the Door with him, where waits the Winter's Block and Blade.
Thus, they have heard the Escape from Hottentot-Land, the Accursed Ruby of Mogok, the Ship-wrecks in Indies East and West,— an Herodotic Web of Adventures and Curiosities selected, the Revd implies, for their moral usefulness, whilst avoiding others not as suitable in the Hearing of Youth. The Youth, as usual, not being consulted in this.
Tenebras has seated herself and taken up her Needlework, a piece whose size and difficulty are already subjects of Discussion in the House, the Embroidress herself keeping silence,— upon this Topick, at least. Announc'd by Nasal Telegraph, in come the Twins, bearing the old Pewter Coffee-Machine venting its Puffs of Vapor, and a large Basket dedicated to Saccharomanic Appetites, piled to the Brim with fresh-fried Dough-Nuts roll'd in Sugar, glaz'd Chestnuts, Buns, Fritters, Crullers, Tarts. "What is this? Why, Lads, you read my mind."
"The Coffee's for you, Nunk,— " "— last Time, you were talking in your sleep," the Pair explain, placing the Sweets nearer themselves, all in this Room being left to seize and pour as they may. As none could agree which had been born first, the Twins were nam'd Pitt and Pliny, so that each might be term'd "the Elder" or "the Younger," as might day-today please one, or annoy his Brother.
"Why haven't we heard a Tale about America?" Pitt licking Gobbets of Philadelphia Pudding from his best Jabot.
"With Indians in it, and Frenchmen," adds Pliny, whose least gesture sends Cookie-crumbs everywhere.
"French Women, come to that," mutters Pitt.
"It's not easy being pious for both of us, you know," Pliny advises.
"It's twenty years," recalls the Revd, "since we all topped the Allegheny Ridge together, and stood looking out at the Ohio Country,— so fair, a Revelation, meadow'd to the Horizon— Mason and Dixon, and all the McCleans, Darby and Cope, no, Darby wouldn't've been there in 'sixty-six,— howbeit, old Mr. Barnes and young Tom Hynes, the rascal.. .don't know where they all went,— some fought in the war, some chose peace come what might, some profited, some lost everything. Some are gone to Kentucky, and some,— as now poor Mason,— to Dust.
' 'Twas not too many years before the War,— what we were doing out in that Country together was brave, scientifick beyond my understanding, and ultimately meaningless,— we were putting a line straight through the heart of the Wilderness, eight yards wide and due west, in order to separate two Proprietorships, granted when the World was yet feudal and but eight years later to be nullified by the War for Independence."
And now Mason's gone, and the Revd Cherrycoke, who came to town only to pay his Respects, has linger'd, thro' the first descent of cold, the first drawings-in to the Hearth-Side, the first Harvest-Season meals appearing upon the next-best Dishes. He had intended to be gone weeks ago, but finds he cannot detach. Each day among his Devoirs is a visit, however brief, to Mason's grave. The Verger has taken to nodding at him. In the middle of the night recently he awoke convinc'd that 'twas he who had been haunting Mason,— that like a shade with a grievance, he expected Mason, but newly arriv'd at Death, to help him with something.
"After years wasted," the Revd commences, "at perfecting a parsoni-cal Disguise,— grown old in the service of an Impersonation that never took more than a Handful of actor's tricks,— past remembering those Yearnings for Danger, past all that ought to have been, but never had a Hope of becoming, have I beach'd upon these Republican Shores,— stoven, dismasted, imbecile with age,— an untrustworthy Remembrancer for whom the few events yet rattling within a broken memory must provide the only comfort now remaining to him,—
"Uncle," Tenebrse pretends to gasp, "— and but this Morning, you look'd so much younger,— why I'd no idea."
"Kindly Brae. That is from my Secret Relation, of course. Don't know that I'd phrase it quite like that in the present Company."
"Then...?" Tenebrae replying to her Uncle's Twinkling with the usual play of Eye-lashes.
"It begins with a Hanging."
"Excellent!" cry the Twins.
The Revd, producing a scarr'd old Note-book, cover'd in cheap Leather, begins to read. "Had I been the first churchman of modern times to be swung from Tyburn Tree,— had I been then taken for dead, whilst in fact but spending an Intermission among the eventless corridors of Syncope, due to the final Bowl of Ale,— had a riotous throng of medical students taken what they deem'd to be my Cadaver back beneath the somber groins of their College,— had I then been 'resurrected' into an entirely new Knowledge of the terms of being, in which Our Savior,— strange to say in that era of Wesley and Whitefield,— though present, would not have figur'd as pre-eminently as with most Sectarians,— howbeit,— I should closely resemble the nomadic Parson you behold today...."
"Mother says you're the Family outcast," Pitt remarks.
"They pay you money to keep away," says Pliny.
"Your Grandsire Cherrycoke, Lads, has ever kept his promise to remit to me, by way of certain Charter'd Companies, a sum precise to the farthing and punctual as the Moon,— to any address in the World, save one in Britain. Britain is his World, and he will persist, even now, in standing sham'd before it for certain Crimes of my distant Youth."
"Crimes!" exclaim the Boys together.
"Why, so did wicked men declare 'em.. .before God, another Tale— "
"What'd they nail you on?" Uncle Ives wishes to know, "strictly professional interest, of course." Green Brief-bag over one shoulder, but lately return'd from a Coffee-House Meeting, he is bound later this evening for a slightly more formal version of the same thing,— feeling, here with the children, much as might a Coaching Passenger let off at Nightfall among an unknown Populace, to wait for a connecting Coach, alone, pedestrian, desiring to pass the time to some Revenue, if not Profit.
"Along with some lesser Counts," the Revd is replying, " 'twas one of the least tolerable of Offenses in that era, the worst of Dick Turpin seeming but the Carelessness of Youth beside it,— the Crime they styl'd 'Anonymity.' That is, I left messages posted publicly, but did not sign them. I knew some night-running lads in the district who let me use their Printing-Press,— somehow, what I got into pz'inting up, were Accounts of certain Crimes I had observ'd, committed by the Stronger against the Weaker,— enclosures, evictions, Assize verdicts, Activities of the Military,— giving the Names of as many of the Perpetrators as I was sure of, yet keeping back what I foolishly imagin'd my own, till the Night I was tipp'd and brought in to London, in Chains, and clapp'd in the Tower."
"The Tower!”
"Oh, do not tease them so," Tenebrse prays him.
"Ludgate, then? whichever, 'twas Gaol. It took me till I was lying among the Rats and Vermin, upon the freezing edge of a Future invisible, to understand that my name had never been my own,— rather belonging, all this time, to the Authorities, who forbade me to change it, or withhold it, as 'twere a Ring upon the Collar of a Beast, ever waiting
for the Lead to be fasten'd on One of those moments Hindoos and
Chinamen are ever said to be having, entire loss of Self, perfect union with All, sort of thing. Strange Lights, Fires, Voices indecipherable,— indeed, Children, this is the part of the Tale where your old Uncle gets to go insane,— or so, then, each in his Interest, did it please ev'ryone to style me. Sea voyages in those days being the standard Treatment for Insanity, my Exile should commence for the best of Medical reasons."
Tho' my Inclination had been to go out aboard an East Indiaman (the Revd continues), as that route East travers'd notoriously a lively and youthful World of shipboard Dalliance, Gale-force Assemblies, and Duels ashore, with the French Fleet a constant,— for some, Romantic,— danger, "Like Pirates, yet more polite," as the Ladies often assur'd me,— alas, those who controll'd my Fate, getting wind of my preference at the last moment, swiftly arrang'd to have me transferr'd into a small British Frigate sailing alone, upon a long voyage, in a time of War,— the Seahorse, twenty-four guns, Captain Smith. I hasten'd in to Leadenhall Street to inquire.
"Can this be Objection we hear?" I was greeted. "Are you saying that a sixth-rate is beneath you? Would you prefer to remain ashore, and take up quarters in Bedlam? It has made a man of many in your Situation. Some have come to enjoy fairly meaningful lives there. Or if it's some need for the Exotic, we might arrange for a stay in one of the French Hospitals—"
"Would one of my Condition even know how to object, my Lord? I owe you everything."
"Madness has not impair'd your memory. Good. Keep away from harmful Substances, in particular Coffee, Tobacco and Indian Hemp. If you must use the latter, do not inhale. Keep your memory working, young man! Have a safe Voyage.”
So, with this no doubt well-meant advice finding its way into the mid-watch sounds of waves past my sleeping-place, I set sail upon an Engine of Destruction, in the hope that Eastward yet might dwell something of Peace and Godhead, which British Civilization, in venturing Westward, had left behind,— and thus was consternation the least of my feelings when, instead of supernatural Guidance from Lamas old as time, here came Jean Crapaud a-looming,— thirty-four guns' worth of Disaster, and only one Lesson. 2
To Mr. Mason, Assistant to the Astronomer Royal, At Greenwich Esteem'd Sir,—
As I have the honor of being nam'd your Second, upon the propos'd Expedition to Sumatra, to observe the Transit of Venus, I hope I do not err, in introducing myself thus. Despite what Re-assurances you may have had from Mr. Bird and Mr. Emerson, and I hope others, as to my suitability,— yet, yourself being Adjunct to the Prime Astronomer of the Kingdom, 'twould be strange,— not odd of course, but unexpected, rather,— if you did not entertain a professional Doubt, or even two, as to my Qualifications.
Tho' 'tis true, that in my own Work I have recourse much more often to the Needle, than to the Stars,— yet, what I lack in Celestial experience, I pray I may counterpend with Diligence and a swift Grasp,— as, clearly, I cannot pretend to your level of Art, Sir, gladly would I adopt, as promptly as benefit from, any suggestions you might direct toward improving the level of my own.
In this, as in all else,—
Y'r obd't s'v't.
Jeremiah Dixon.—
A few months later, when it is no longer necessary to pretend as much as they expected they'd have to, Dixon reveals that, whilst composing this, he had delib'rately refrain'd from Drink. "Went thro' twenty Revisions, dreaming all the while of the Pint awaiting me down at The Jolly Pitman. Then the Pint after that, of course, and so forth— Growing more desirable with each stricken Phrase, if tha follow me,—
Mason in turn confesses to having nearly thrown the Letter away, having noted its origin in County Durham, and assumed it to be but more of the free provincial advice that it was one of his Tasks to read thro' in the Astronomer Royal's behalf, and respond to. "Yet, 'twas so sincere,— I instantly felt sham'd,— unworthy,— that this honest Country soul believ'd me wise.—Ahhrr! bitter Deception...."
To,— Mr. Jeremiah Dixon Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham. Sir,—
I have yours of the 26th Ult. and am much oblig'd for your kind opinion.—Yet I fear, the Doubts may with justice fall more upon your side, for I have never taught anyone, upon any Subject, nor may I prove much skill'd at it. Howbeit,— pray you hesitate not, in asking what you like, as I shall ever try to answer honestly,— if probably not in toto.
Each of us is to have his own twin Telescope, by Mr. Dollond, fitted with the latest of his marvellous Achromatics,— our Clock by Mr. Shelton,— and of course the Sector by your Mr. Bird,— none but the best for this Party, I should say!
Wishing you a journey south as safe as His Ways how strange, may allow, I wait your arrival in a Spirit happily rescu'd by your universally good Name, from all Imps of the Apprehensive,— an Exception most welcome, in the generally uneasy Life of
y'r obdt. Svt.,
Charles Mason
was not there when they met,— or, not in the usual Way. I later heard from them how they remember'd meeting. I tried to record, in what I then projected as a sort of Spiritual Day-Book, what I could remember of what they said,— tho' 'twas too often abridg'd by the Day's Fatigue.
("Writing in your sleep, too!" cry the Twins.)
0 children, I even dream'd in those Days,— but only long after the waking Traverse was done.
Howsobeit,— scarcely have they met, in the Saloon of Mason's Inn at Portsmouth, than Mason finds himself coming the Old London Hand, before Dixon's clear Stupefaction with the Town.
"Eeh! Fellow was spitting at my Shoes...? Another pushing folk one by one into the Gutters, some of them quite dangerous to look ah'...? How can Yese dwell than' closely together, Day upon Day, without all growing Murderous?"
"Oh, one may, if one wishes, find insult at ev'ry step,— from insolent Stares to mortal Assault, an Orgy of Insult uninterrupted,— yet how does one proceed to call out each offender in turn, or choose among 'em, and in obedience to what code? So, one soon understands it, as yet another Term in the Contract between the City and oneself,— a function of simple Density, ensuring that there never be time enough to acknowledge, let alone to resent, such a mad Variety of offer'd Offense.” 3
"Just so,— why, back in Bishop, it might take half the night to find an excuse to clash someone i' the Face, whilst in London, Eeh! 'tis the Paradise of the Quarrelsome, for fair."
"You'd appreciate Wapping High Street, then,— and, and Tyburn, of course! put that on your list."
"Alluring out there, is it?"
Mason explains, though without his precise reason for it, that, for the past Year or more, it has been his practice to attend the Friday Hangings at that melancholy place, where he is soon chatting up Hangmen and their 'Prentices, whilst standing them pints at their Local, The Bridport Dagger, acquiring thus a certain grisly intimacy with the Art. Mason has been shov'd about and borne along in riots of sailors attempting to wrest from bands of Medical Students the bodies of Shipmates come to grief ashore, too far from the safety of the Sea,— and he's had his Purse, as his Person, assaulted by Agents public and private,— yet, "There's nothing like it, it's London at its purest," he cries. "You must come out there with me, soon as we may."
Taking it for the joke it must surely be, Dixon laughs, "Ha, ha, ha! Oh, thah's a bonny one, all right. Eeh."
Mason shrugging, palms up, "I'm serious. Worse than that, I'm sober. A man's first time in town, he simply can't miss a hanging. Come, Sir,— what's the first thing they'll ask when you get back to County Durham? Eh? 'Did ye see them rahde the Eeahr at Taahburn?''
Is it too many nights alone on top of that fam'd Hill in Greenwich? can this man, living in one of the great Cities of Christendom, not know how to behave around people?— Dixon decides to register only annoyance. "Nooah, the first thing they'll ask is, 'Did thoo understand 'em the weeay theey talk, down theere... ?''
"Oh, damme, I say, I didn't mean,—
So Dixon for the second time in two minutes finds himself laughing without the Motrix of honest Mirth,— this time, a Mr. Mason-how-you-do-go-on laugh, sidewise and forbearing, the laugh of a hired Foil. Feeling it his Duty to set them at Ease, Dixon begins, "Well. There's this Jesuit, this Corsican, and this Chinaman, and they're all riding in a greeat Cooach, going up to Bath...? and the fourth Passenger is a very proper Englishwoman, who keeps giving them these scandaliz'd Glances...? Finally, able to bear it no longer, the Corsican, being the most hot-headed of the three, bursts out, and here I hope You will excuse my Corsican Accent, he says, ' 'Ey! Lady! Whatta Ye lookin' ah'?' And she says,—
Mason has been edging away. "Are you crazy?" he whispers, "- - People are staring. Sailors are staring."
"Eeh!" Dixon's nose throbbing redly. "You have heard it, then. Apologies," reaching to clasp Mason's arm, a gesture Mason retreats from in a Flinch as free of deliberation as a Sneeze. Dixon withdrawing, broken into a Sweat, "Why aye, it took me weeks of study to fathom that one, but I see You've a brisk Brain in Your gourd there, and I'm pleas'd to be working with such as it be...?" Resolutely a-beam, pronouncing the forms of You consciously, as if borrowing them from another Tongue.
The two sit staring, one at the other, each with a greatly mistaken impression,— likewise in some Uncertainty as to how the power may come to be sorted out betwixt 'em. Dixon is a couple of inches taller, sloping more than towering, wearing a red coat of military cut, with brocade and silver buttons, and a matching red three-corner'd Hat with some gaudy North-Road Cockade stuck in it. He will be first to catch the average Eye, often causing future strangers to remember them as Dixon and Mason. But the Uniform accords with neither his Quaker Profession, nor his present Bearing,— a civilian Slouch grown lop-sided, too often observ'd, alas, in Devotees of the Taproom.
For Dixon's part, he seems disappointed in Mason,— or so the Astronomer, ever inclined to suspicion, fears. "What is it? What are you looking at? It's my Wig, isn't it."
"You're not wearing a Wig...?"
"Just so! you noted that,— you have been observing me in a strange yet, I must conclude, meaningful way."
"Don't know...? Happen I was expecting someone a bit more...odd...?"
Mason a-squint, "I'm not odd enough for you?"
"Well it is a peculiar station in Life, isn't it? How many Royal Astronomers are there? How many Royal Astronomers' Assistants are there likely to be? Takes an odd bird to stay up peering at Stars all night
in the first place, doesn't it... ? On the other hand, Surveyors are runnin' about numerous as Bed-bugs, and twice as cheap, with work enough for all certainly in Durham at present, Enclosures all over the County, and North Yorkshire,— eeh.' Fences, Hedges, Ditches ordinary and Ha-Ha Style, all to be laid out.. .1 could have stay'd home and had m'self a fine Living...?"
"They did mention a Background in Land-Surveying," Mason in some Surprize, "but, but that's it? Hedges? Ha-Has?"
"Well, actually the Durham Ha-Ha boom subsided a bit after Lord Lambton fell into his, curs'd it, had it fill'd in with coal-spoil. Why, did You think I was another Lens-fellow? 0 Lord no,— I mean I've been taught the lot, Celestial Mechanics, all the weighty lads, Laplace and Kepler, Aristarchus, the other fellow what's his name,— but that's all Trigonometry, isn't it... ?"
"Yet you,— " how shall he put this tactfully? "you have look'd... ehm... through a...ehm..."
Dixon smiles at him encouragingly. "Why aye,— my old Teacher, Mr. Emerson, has a fine Telescope Ah believe the word is, encas'd in Barrel-Staves tho' it be, and many's the Evening I've admir'd the Phases of Venus, aye those and the Moons of Jupiter too, the Mountains and Craters of our own Moon,— and did You see thah' latest Eclipse...? canny,— eeh...Mr. Bird, as well, has shar'd his Instruments,— being kind enough, in fact, just in this last fortnight, to help me practice my observing and computing skills,— tho' so mercilessly that I was in some doubt for days, whether we'd parted friends...?"
Mason, having expected some shambling wild Country Fool, remains amiably puzzl'd before the tidied Dixon here presented,— who, for his own part, having despite talk of Oddity expected but another overdress'd London climber, is amus'd at Mason's nearly invisible Turn-out, all in Snuffs and Buffs and Grays.
Mason is nodding glumly. "I must seem an Ass."
"If this is as bad as it gets, why I can abide thah'. As long as the Spirits don't run out."
"Nor the Wine."
"Wine." Dixon is now the one squinting. Mason wonders what he's done this time. " 'Grape or Grain, but ne'er the Twain,' as me Great- Uncle George observ'd to me more than once,— 'Vine with Corn, beware the Morn.' Of the two sorts of drinking Folk this implies, than' is, Grape People and Grain People, You will now inform rne of Your membership in the Brotherhood of the, eeh, Grape...? and that You seldom, if ever, touch Ale or Spirits, am I correct?"
"Happily so, I should imagine, as, given a finite Supply, there'd be more for each of us, it's like Jack Sprat, isn't it."
"Oh, I'll drink Wine if I must...?— and now we're enter'd upon the Topick,— "
"— and as we are in Portsmouth, after all,— there cannot lie too distant some Room where each of us may consult what former Vegetation pleases him?"
Dixon looks outside at the ebbing wintry sunlight. "Nor too early, I guess...?"
"We're sailing to the Indies,— Heaven knows what's available on Board, or out there. It may be our last chance for civiliz'd Drink."
"Sooner we start, the better, in thah' case...?"
As the day darkens, and the first Flames appear, sometimes reflected as well in Panes of Glass, the sounds of the Stables and the Alleys grow louder, and chimney-smoke perambulates into the Christmastide air. The Room puts on its Evening-Cloak of shifting amber Light, and sinuous Folds of Shadow. Mason and Dixon become aware of a jostling Murmur of Expectancy.
All at once, out of the Murk, a dozen mirror'd Lanthorns have leapt alight together, as into their Glare now strolls a somewhat dishevel'd Norfolk Terrier, with a raffish Gleam in its eye,— whilst from somewhere less illuminate comes a sprightly Overture upon Horn, Clarinet, and Cello, in time to which the Dog steps back and forth in his bright Ambit.
Ask me anything you please, The Learned English Dog am I, well-Up on ev'rything from Fleas Unto the King's Mon-og-am-eye,
Persian Princes, Polish Blintzes, Chinamen's Geo-mancy,—
Jump-ing Beans or Flying Machines, Just as it suits your Fan-cy.
I quote enough of the Classickal Stuff To set your Ears a-throb, Work logarith-mick Versed Sines Withal, within me Nob, - Only nothing Ministerial, please, Or I'm apt to lose m' Job, As, the Learned English Dog, to-ni-ight!
There are the usual Requests. Does the Dog know "Where the Bee Sucks"? What is the Integral of One over (Book) d (Book)? Is he married? Dixon notes how his co-Adjutor-to-be seems fallen into a sort of Magnetickal Stupor, as Mesmerites might term it. More than once, Mason looks ready to leap to his feet and blurt something better kept till later in the Evening. At last the Dog recognizes him, tho' now he is too key'd up to speak with any Coherence. After allowing him to rattle for a full minute, the Dog sighs deeply. "See me later, out in back."
"It shouldn't take but a moment," Mason tells Dixon. "I'll be all right by myself, if there's something you'd rather be doing...."
With no appetite for the giant Mutton Chop cooling in front of him, Mason mopishly now wraps it and stows it in his Coat. Looking up, he notes Dixon, mouth cheerfully stuff'd, beaming too tolerantly for his Comfort.
"No,— not for me,— did you think I was taking it for myself?— 'tis for the Learned Dog, rather,— like, I don't know, perhaps a Bouquet sent to an Actress one admires, a nice Chop can never go too far off the Mark."
Starting a beat late, "Why aye, 'tis a...a great World, for fair...? and Practices vary, and one Man certainly may not comment upon—
"What...are you saying?"
Dixon ingenuously waving his Joint, eyes round as Pistoles. "No Offense, Sir." Rolling his Eyes the Moment Mason switches his Stare away, then back a bit late to catch them so much as off-Center.
"Dixon. Why mayn't there be Oracles, for us, in our time? Gate-ways to Futurity? That can't all have died with the ancient Peoples. Isn't it worth looking ridiculous, at least to investigate this English Dog, for its obvious bearing upon Metempsychosis if nought else,— 4
There is something else in progress,— something Mason cannot quite confide. Happen he's lost someone close? and recently enough to matter, aye,— for he's a way of pitching ever into the Hour, heedless, as Dixon remembers himself, after his father passed on— "I'll come along, if I may...?"
"Suture Self, as the Medical Students like to say."
They go out a back door, into the innyard. A leafless tree arches in the light of a single Lanthorn set above a taut gathering of card-players, their secret breathing visible for all to try to read, and Wigs, white as the snow on the Roofslates, nodding in and out of the Shadows.
Sailors, mouths ajar, lope by in the lanes. Sailors in Slouch-Hats, Sailors with Queues, puffing on Pipes, eating Potatoes, some who'll be going back to the Ship, and some who won't, from old sea-wretches with too many Explosions in their Lives, to Child-Midshipmen who have yet to hear their first,— passing in and out the Doors of Ale-Drapers, Naval Tailors, Sweet-shops, Gaming-Lairs, upstart Chapels, calling, singing Catches, whistling as if Wind had never paid a Visit, vomiting as the Sea has never caus'd them to.
"Happen his Dressing-Room's close by," Dixon suggests, "• - in with the Horses, maybe...?"
"No one would keep a talking Dog in with Horses, it'd drive them mad inside of a Minute."
"Occurs often, does it, where you come from?"
"Gentlemen," in a whisper out of a dark corner. "If you'll keep your voices down, I'll be with you in a trice." Slowly into their shifting spill of lantern-light, tongue a-loll, comes the Dog, who pauses to yawn, nods, "Good evening to ye," and leads them at a trot out of the stables, out of the courtyard, and down the street, pausing now and then for nasal inquiries.
"Where are we going?" Mason asks.
"This seems to be all right." The Learned English Dog stops and pisses.
"This dog," Mason singing sotto voce, "is causing me ap-pre-hen-sion,— surely creatures of miracle ought not to, I mean,...Flying horses? None of them ever—
"The Sphinx...?" adds Dixon.
"My Thought precisely."
"Now, Gents!" 'Tis a sudden, large Son of Neptune, backed by an uncertain number of comparably drunken Shipmates. "You've an interest in this Dog here?"
"Wish'd a word with him only," Mason's quick to assure them.
"Hey! I know you two,— ye're the ones with all the strange Machinery, sailing in the Seahorse. Well,— ye're in luck, for we're all Seahorses here, I'm Fender-Belly Bodine, Captain of the Foretop, and these are my Mates,— " Cheering. " - But you can call me Fender. Now,— our plan, is to snatch this Critter, and for you Gents to then keep it in with your own highly guarded Cargo, out of sight of the Master-at-Arms, until we reach a likely Island,—
"Island..." "Snatch..." both Surveyors a bit in a daze.
"I've been out more than once to the Indies,— there's a million islands out there, each more likely than the last, and I tell you a handful of Sailors with their wits about them, and that talking Dog to keep the Savages amused, why, we could be kings."
"Long life to Kings!" cry several sailors.
"Aye and to Cooch Girls!"
"— and Coconut-Ale!"
"Hold," cautions Mason. "I've heard they eat dogs out there."
"Wrap 'em in palm leaves," Dixon solemnly, "and bake 'em on the beach...?"
"First time you turn your back," Mason warns, "that Dog's going to be some Savage's Luncheon."
"Rrrrrraahff! Excuse me?" says the Learned D., "as I seem to be the Topick here, I do feel impelled, to make an Observation?"
"That's all right, then, Fido," Bodine making vague petting motions,
- trust us, there's a good bow-wow...."
A small, noisy party of Fops, Macaronis, or Lunarians,— it is difficult quite to distinguish which,— has been working its way up the street and into Ear-shot. Thro' several window-panes, moving candlelight appears. Hostlers roll about disgruntled upon feed-sack Pillows and beds. Unengaged Glim-jacks look in, to see if they can cast any light on matters.
The Dog pushes Mason's Leg with his Head. "We may not have another chance to chat, even upon the Fly.”
"There is something I must know," Mason hoarsely whispers, in the tone of a lover tormented by Doubts, "- - Have you a soul,— that is, are you a human Spirit, re-incarnate as a Dog?"
The L.E.D. blinks, shivers, nods in a resign'd way. "You are hardly the first to ask. Travelers return'd from the Japanese Islands tell of certain religious Puzzles known as Koan, perhaps the most fam'd of which concerns your very Question,— whether a Dog hath the nature of the divine Buddha. A reply given by a certain very wise Master is, 'Mu!''
" 'Mu,' " repeats Mason, thoughtfully.
"It is necessary for the Seeker to meditate upon the Koan until driven to a state of holy Insanity,— and I would recommend this to you in particular. But please do not come to the Learned English Dog if it's religious Comfort you're after. I may be preternatural, but I am not supernatural. 'Tis the Age of Reason, rrrf? There is ever an Explanation at hand, and no such thing as a Talking Dog,— Talking Dogs belong with Dragons and Unicorns. What there are, however, are Provisions for Survival in a World less fantastick.
"Viz.—Once, the only reason Men kept Dogs was for food. Noting that among Men no crime was quite so abhorr'd as eating the flesh of another human, Dog quickly learn'd to act as human as possible,— and to pass this Ability on from Parents to Pups. So we know how to evoke from you, Man, one day at a time, at least enough Mercy for one day more of Life. Nonetheless, however accomplish'd, our Lives are never settled,— we go on as tail-wagging Scheherazades, ever a step away from the dread Palm Leaf, nightly delaying the Blades of our Masters by telling back to them tales of their humanity. I am but an extreme Expression of this Process,—
"Oh I say, Dog in Palm Leaf, what nonsense," comments one of the Lunarians, " - really, far too sensitive, I mean really, Dog? In Palm Leaf? Civiliz'd Humans have better things to do than go about drooling after Dog in Palm Leaf or whatever, don't we Algernon?"
"Could you possibly," inquired the Terrier, head cocked in some Annoyance, "not keep saying that? / do not say things like, 'Macaroni Italian Style,' do I, nor 'Fop Fricasee,'—
"Why, you beastly little— "
"Grrrr! and your deliberate use of 'drooling,' Sir, is vile.”
The Lunarian reaches for his Hanger. "Perhaps we may settle this upon the spot, Sir."
"Derek? You're talking to a D-O-G?"
"Tho' your weapon put me under some Handicap," points out the Dog, "in fairness, I should mention my late feelings of Aversion to water? Which may, as you know, signal the onset of the Hydrophobia. Yes! The Great H. And should I get in past your Blade for a few playful nips, and manage to, well, break the old Skin,— why, then you should soon have caught the same, eh?" Immediately 'round the Dog develops a circle of Absence, of about a fathom's radius, later recall'd by both Astronomers as remarkably regular in shape. "Nice doggie!" " 'Ere,— me last iced Cake, that me Mum sent me all 'e way from Bahf. You take i'." "What think yese? I'll give two to one the Fop's Blood'll be first to show."
"Sounds fair," says Fender Bodine. "I fancy the Dog,— anyone else?"
"Oughtn't we to summon the Owners...?" suggests Mr. Dixon.
The Dog has begun to pace back and forth. "I am a British Dog, Sir. No one owns me."
"Who're the Gentleman and Lady who were with you in the Assembly Room?" inquires Mason.
"You mean the Fabulous Jellows? Here they come now."
"Protect you from sailors?" wails Mrs. Jellow, approaching at a dead run over the treacherous Cobbles of the Lane, "Oh, no, thank you, that was not in our Agreement." Her husband, pulling on his Breeches, Wig a-lop, follows at a sleepy Amble. "Now you apologize for whatever it was you did, and get back in that Stable in your lovely straw Bed."
"We were wondering, Ma'am," Bodine with his hat off, quavering angelically, "would the li'oo Doggie be for sale?"
"Not at any price, Topman, and be off wi' you, and your rowdy-dowing Flock as well." At her Voice, a number of Sailors in whose Flexibility lies their Preservation from the Hazards of Drink, are seen to freeze.
"Do not oppose her," Jellow advises, "for she is a first-rate of an hundred Guns, and her Broadside is Annihilation."
"Thankee, Jellow,— slow again, I see."
"Oh dear," Bodine putting his hat back on and sighing. "Apologies, Sir and Madam, and much Happiness of your Dog."
"You are the owners of this Marvel?" inquires Mason.
"We prefer 'Exhibitors,' " says Mr. Jellow.
"Damme, they'd better," grumphs the Dog, as if to himself.
"Why, here is The Pearl of Sumatra!" calls Dixon, who for some while has been growing increasingly desperate for a Drink, "And a jolly place it seems."
"Fender-Belly is buying!" shouts some mischievous Sailor, forever unidentified amid the eager Rush for the Entry of this fifth- or sixth-most-notorious sailors' Haunt upon the Point, even in whose Climate of general Iniquity The Pearl distinguishes itself, much as might one of its Eponyms, shining 'midst the decadent Flesh of some Oyster taken from the Southern Sea.
"How about a slug into y'r Breadroom, there, Fido?"
"Pray you, call me Fang— Well, and yes I do like a drop of Roll-me-in-the-Kennel now and then...."
Inside, seamen of all ranks and ratings mill slowly in a murk of pipe-smoke and soot from cheap candles, whilst counter-swirling go a choice assortment of Portsmouth Polls in strip'd and floral Gowns whose bold reds, oranges, and purples are taken down in this light, bruised, made oily and worn, with black mix'd in everywhere, colors turning ever toward Night. Both Surveyors note, after a while, that the net Motion of the Company is away from the Street-Doors and toward the back of the Establishment, where, upon a length of turf fertiliz'd with the blood and the droppings of generations of male Poultry, beneath a bright inverted Cone of Lanthorn Light striking blue a great ever-stirring Knot of Smoke, and a Defaulter merry beyond the limits of cock-fight etiquette suspended in a basket above the Pit, a Welsh Main is in progress. Beyond this, a Visto of gaming tables may be made out, and further back a rickety Labyrinth of Rooms for sleeping or debauchery, all receding like headlands into a mist.
The Learned D., drawn by the smell of Blood in the Cock-Pit, tries to act nonchalant, but what can they expect of him? How is he supposed to ignore this pure Edge of blood-love? Oh yawn yes of course, seen it all before, birds slashing one another to death, sixteen go in, one comes out alive, indeed mm-hmm, and a jolly time betwixt, whilst the Substance we are not supposed to acknowledge drips and flies ev'rywhere— "'There, Learnèd," calls Mrs. Jellow brusquely, "we must leave the birds to their Work." Beneath the swaying Gamester, the general pace of the Room keeps profitably hectic. From the Labyrinth in back come assorted sounds of greater and lesser Ecstasy, along with percussions upon Flesh, laughter more and less feign'd, furniture a-thump, some Duetto of Viol and Chinese Flute, the demented crowing of fighting-cocks waiting their moment, cries in Concert at some inaudible turn of a card or roll of the Fulhams high and low, calls for Bitter and Three-Threads rising ever hopeful, like ariettas in the shadow'd Wilderness of Rooms, out where the Lamps are fewer, and the movements deeper with at least one more Grade of Intent...At length the Dog halts, having led them to where, residing half out of doors, fram'd in cabl'd timbers wash'd in from a wreck of long ago, an old piece of awning held by a gnaw'd split, ancient Euphroe between her and the sky with its varied Menace, sits Dark Hepsie, the Pythoness of the Point.
"Here," the Dog butting at Mason, "here is the one you must see."
Instantly, Mason concludes (as he will confess months later to Dixon) that it all has to do with Rebekah, his wife, who died two years ago this February next. Unable to abandon her, Mason is nonetheless eager to be aboard a ship, bound somewhere impossible,— long Voyages by sea being thought to help his condition, describ'd to him as Hyperthrenia, or "Excess in Mourning." Somehow the Learned Dog has led him to presume there exist safe-conduct Procedures for the realm of Death,— that through this Dog-reveal'd Crone, he will be allow'd at last to pass over, and find, and visit her, and come back, his Faith resurrected. That is as much of a leap as can be expected of a melancholick heart. At the same time, he smokes that the Learned English D.,— or Fang, as now he apparently wishes to be known,— in introducing them thus, is pursuing an entirely personal End.
"Angelo said there'd be a Package for me?"
"Quotha! Am I the Evening Coach?" The two rummage about in the Shadows. "Look ye, I'll be seeing him later, and I'll be sure to ask,—
"Just what you said last time," the Dog shaking his head reprovingly.
"Here, then,— a Sacrifice, direct from me own meager Mess, a bit of stew'd Hen,— 'tis the best I can do for ye today.”
"Peace, Grandam,— reclaim thy Ort. The Learned One has yet to sink quite that low." The Dog, with an expressive swing of his Head, makes a dignified Exit, no more than one wag of the Tail per step.
"Your ship will put to Sea upon a Friday," Hepsie greets Mason and Dixon, "- - would that be a Boatswain's Pipe into the Ear of either of you Gents?"
"Why, the Collier Sailors believe 'tis bad luck...?" Dixon replies, as if back at Woolwich before his Examiners, "it being the day of Christ's Execution."
"Nicely, Sir. Thus does your Captain Smith disrespect Christ, Fate, Saint Peter, and the god Neptune,— and withal there's not an insurancer in the Kingdom, from Lloyd's on down, who'll touch your case for less than a sum you can never, as Astronomers, possibly afford."
"Yet if we be dead," Dixon points out, "the Royal Navy absorbing the cost of a burial at sea, what further Expenses might there be?"
"You are independent of a Family, Sir."
"Incredible! Why, you must be a very Scryeress...?" Dixon having already spied, beneath her layers of careful Decrepitude (as he will later tell Mason), a shockingly young Woman hard at work,— with whom, country Lout that he is, he can't keep from flirting.
But Mason is now growing anxious. "Are we in danger, then? What have you heard?"
Silently she passes him a soil'd Broadside Sheet, upon which are printed descriptions of varied Services, and the Fees therefor. "What's this? You won't do Curses?"
"My Insurance? Prohibitive," she cackles, as the young fancy the old to cackle. "I believe what you seek is under 'Intelligence, Naval.''
"Half a Crown?"
"If you insist."
"Ehm... Dixon?"
"What? You want me to put in half of thah'?"
"We can't very well charge.. .this.. .to the Society, can we?"
"Do I shame you, Sir?" Hepsie too 'pert by Decades.
"Oh, all right," Mason digging laboriously into his Purse, sorting out Coins and mumbling the Amounts.
Dixon looks on in approval. "You spend money like a very Geordie. He means no harm, lass... ?" beaming, nudging Mason urgently with his Toe, as Bullies shift about in the Dark, and Boats wait with muffl'd Oars to ferry them against their will over to a Life they may not return from. The smell of the great Anchorage,— smoke, Pitch, salt and decay,— sweeps in fitfully.
"Sirs, attend me," the coins having silently vanish'd, " - Since last year, the Year of Marvels, when Hawke drove Conflans upon that lee shore at Quiberon Bay, the remnants of the Brest fleet have been understandably short of Elan, or Esprit, or whatever they style that stuff over there,— excepting, now and then, among the Captains of smaller Frigates, souls as restless to engage in personal Tactics as dispos'd to sniff at national Strategy. Mortmain, Le Chisel, St.-Foux,— mad dogs all,— any of them, and others, likely at any time to sail out from Brest, indifferent to Risk, tSte-a-tete as ever with the end of the World, seeking new Objects of a Resentment inexhaustible."
"Oh dear," Mason clutching his head. "Suppose...we sail upon some other Day, then?"
"Mason, pray You,— 'tis the Age of Reason," Dixon reminds him, "we're Men of Science. To huz must all days run alike, the same number of identical Seconds, each proceeding in but one Direction, irreclaimable...? If we would have Omens, why, let us recall that the Astronomer's Symbol for Friday is also that of the planet Venus herself,— a good enough Omen, surely... ?"
"I tell you," the young Impostress merrily raising a Finger, "French Frigates will be where they will be, day of the week be damn'd,— especially St.-Foux, with La Changhaienne. You know of the Ecole de Pira-terie at Toulon? Famous. He has lately been appointed to the Kiddean Chair."
Mason and Dixon would like to stay, the one to fuss and the other to flirt, but as they now notice, a considerable Queue has form'd behind them. There are
Gamesters in Trouble, Sweet-Hearts untrue, Sailors with no one to bid them adieu,
Roistering Fops and the Mast-Pond Brigade, all Impatient to chat with the Sibylline Maid, singing,
Let us go down, to Hepsie's tonight, Maybe tonight, she'll show us the Light,— Maybe she'll cackle, and maybe she'll cry, But for two and a kick she won't spit in your Eye.
She warn'd Ramillies sailors, Beware of the Bolt,
And the Corsica-bound of Pa-oli's Revolt,—
From lottery Tickets to History's End,
She's the mis'rable, bug-bitten sailor's best friend, singing,
Let us go down, &c.
"Nice doing Business with you, Boys, hope I see yese again," with an amiable Nod for Dixon.
Back at the Cock-fights, Fender-Belly Bodine comes lurching across their bow, curious. "So what'd she have to say?"
Something about crazy Frigate Captains sailing out of Brest, is all either of them can remember by now.
"Just what she told my Mauve, and for free. Good. We'll have a fight, Gents. And if it's Le Chisel, we'll have a Stern-chase, too. Back on old H.M.S. Inconvenience, we wasted many a Day and Night watching that fancy Counter get smaller by the minute. And when he'd open'd far enough from us, it pleas'd him to put out the Lanthorn in his Cabin, as if to say, 'Toot fini, time to frappay le Sack.' Skipper saw that light go out, he always mutter'd the same thing,— 'The Dark take you, Le Chisel, and might you as readily vanish from my Life,'— and then we'd slacken Sail, and come about, and the real Work would begin,— beating away, unsatisfied once more, against the Wind." Foretopman Bodine pausing to squeeze the nearest Rondures of a young Poll who has shimmer'd in from some Opium Dream in the Vicinity. Like Hepsie, Mauve is far from what she pretends. Most men are fool'd into seeing a melancholy Waif, when in reality she's the most cheerful of little Butter-Biscuits, who has escap'd looking matronly only thanks to that constant Exertion demanded by the company of Sailors. She and Hepsie in fact share quarters in Portsea, as well as a Wardrobe noted, even here upon the Point, for its unconsider'd use of Printed Fabricks.
"She's a wonderful old woman, 's Hepsie," says Mauve. "Fortunes have been won heeding her advice, as lost ignoring it. She tells you beware, why, she has reckon'd your Odds and found them long— She is Lloyd's of Portsmouth. Believe her."
Later, around Dawn, earnestly needing a further Word with Hepsie or the Dog, Mason can find no trace of either, search as he may. Nor will anyone admit to knowing of them at all, let alone their Whereabouts. He will continue to search, even unto scanning the shore as the Seahorse gets under way at last, on Friday, 9 January 1761.
Had it proved of any help that the Revd had tried to follow the advice of Epictetus, to keep before him every day death, exile, and loss, believing it a condition of his spiritual Contract with the world as given? When the French sail came a-twinkling,— with never-quite-invisible death upon the Whir fore and aft, with no place at all safe and only the unhelpful sea for escape, amid the soprano cries of the powder-monkeys, the smell of charr'd wood, the Muzzle's iron breath,— how had these daily devotions, he now wondered, ultimately ever been of use, how, in the snug Shambles of the Seahorse?
To the children, he remarks aloud, "Of course, Prayer was what got us through."
"I should have pray'd," murmurs Cousin Ethelmer, to Tenebras's mild astonishment. Since appearing in the Doorway during a difficult bit of double-Back-stitch Filling two Days ago, return'd from College in the Jerseys, he has been otherwise all Boldness.
"Not seiz'd a Match? Not gone running up and down the Decks screaming and lighting Guns as you went? Cousin." The Twins consult each the other's Phiz, pretending to be stricken.
Ethelmer smiles and amiably pollicates the Revd, and less certainly Mr. LeSpark, his own Uncle, as if to say, "We are surrounded by the Pious, and their well-known wish never to hear of anything that sets the Blood a-racing.”
Brae looks away, but keeps him in the corner of her eye, as if to reply, "Boy, Blood may 'race' as quietly as it must...."
Mr. LeSpark made his Fortune years before the War, selling weapons to French and British, Settlers and Indians alike,— Knives, Tomahawks, Rifles, Hand-Cannons in the old Dutch Style, Grenades, small Bombs. "Trouble yourself not," he lik'd to assure his Customers, "over Diameter." If there are Account-books in which Casualties are the Units of Exchange, then, so it seems to Ethelmer, his Uncle is deeply in Arrears. Ethelmer has heard tales of past crimes, but can hardly assault his Host with accusations. Ev'ryone "knows,"— that is, considering Uncle Wade as some collection of family stories, ev'ryone remembers. Some Adventures have converg'd into a Saga that is difficult to reconcile with the living Uncle, who sends him bank-drafts on Whims inscrutable that catch the Nephew ever by surprise, frequents the horse-races in Maryland, actually once fed apples to the great Selim, and these days doesn't mind if Ethelmer comes along to visit the Stables. At the late Autumn Meet, gaily dress'd young women, fancier than he thought possible, had wav'd and smil'd, indeed come over bold as city Cats to engage Ethelmer in conversation. Tho' young, he was shrewd enough to smoak that what they were after was his Plainness, including an idea of his Innocence, which they fail'd to note was long, even enjoyably, departed.
"He wants whah'?"
Mason nodding with a sour Smile.
"Out of our Expenses? shall it leave us enough for Candles and Soahp, do You guess?"
"No one's sure, Captain Smith having not himself appear'd before the Council,— rather, his Brother came, and read them the Captain's Letter."
"An hundred pounds,— apiece...?"
"An hundred Guineas."
"Eeh...that suggests they expect someone to come back with a counter-offer...? As it isn't huz, who would thah' be?"
"It comes down to the Royal Soc. or the Royal N." As Mason has heard it, the Council mill'd all about, like Domestick Fowl in Perplexity, repeating, "Proportional Share!" in tones of Outrage, "— Pro-portional? Sha-a-are?"
"Leaving this, this Post-Captain the right to Lay it Out, as he calls it, at his Pleasure."
"Some Captain!— step away from a Privateer, by G-d." Aggriev'd voices echoing in the great stairwell, Silver ringing upon Silver,— sugar-Loaves and assorted Biscuits, French Brandy in Coffee,— Stick-Flourishes, motes of wig-powder jigging by the thousands in the candle-light.
"Immediately raising a particular Suspicion,— unworthy of this Captain, goes without saying, and yet,—
- not to be easily distinguish'd from petty Extortion."
"Quite the sort of behavior Lord Anson's forever on about eradicat-ing...."
"...and other remarks in the same Line," reports Mason. "They were just able at last to appoint a Committee of Two to wait upon Lord Anson himself, who took the time to inform them that in the Royal Navy, a Ship of War's Captain is expected to pay for his own victualing."
"Really," said Mr. Mead, "I didn't know that, m'Lord,— are you quite— I didn't mean that,— of course you're sure,— but rather,—
"His Thought being," endeavored Mr. White, "that all this time, we'd rather imagin'd that the Navy—
"Alas, Gentlemen, one of Many Sacrifices necessary to that strange Servitude we style 'Command,' " replied the First Lord. "Howbeit, 'twill depend largely on how much your Captain plans to drink, and how many livestock he may feel comfortable living among,— hardly do to be slipping in goat shit whilst trying to get ten or twelve Guns off in proper Sequence, sort of thing. At the same time, we cannot have our Frigate Captains adopting the ways of Street Bullies, and this Approach to one's guests, mm, it does seem a bit singular. We'll have Stephens or someone send Captain Smith a note, shall we,— invoking gently my own pois'd Thunderbolt, of course."
"Oh Dear," Capt. Smith upon the Quarter-deck in the Winter's grudg'd Sunlight, the Letter fluttering in the Breeze,— from the direction of London, somewhere among a peak'd Convoy of Clouds, a steady Mutter as of Displeasure on High, "and yet I knew it. Didn't I. Ah,— misunderstood!”
Far from any Extortion-scheme, it had rather been the Captain's own
Expectation,— the fancy of a Heart unschool'd in Guile,— that they
would of course all three be messing together, Day upon Day, the voyage
long, in his Quarters, drinking Madeira, singing Catches, exchanging
Sallies of Wit and theories about the Stars,— how else?— he being of
such a philosophickal leaning, and so starv'd for Discourse, it never
occurr'd to him that other Arrangements were even possible
"I assum'd, foolishly, that we'd go in equal Thirds, and meant to ask but your Share of what I hop'd to be spending, out of my personal Funds, upon your behalf,— not to mention that buying for three, at certain Chandleries, would've got me a discount,— Ah! What matter? Best of intentions, Gentlemen, no wish to offend the First Lord,— our Great Circumnavigator, after all, my Hero as a Lad...."
"We regret it, Sir," Dixon offers, "— far too much Whim-Wham."
Mason brings his Head up with a surpris'd look. "Saintly of you, considering your Screams could be heard out past the Isle of Wight? Now, previously unconsulted, / am expected to join this Love-Feast?"
Dixon and the Captain, as if in Conspiracy, beam sweetly back till Mason can abide no more. "Very well,— tho' someone ought to have told you, Captain, of that Rutabageous Anemia which afflicts Lensmen as a Class,— the misunderstanding then should never have arisen."
"Gracious of You, Mr. Mason," cries Dixon, heartily.
"Most generous," adds the Captain.
Tis arrang'd at last that they will be put in the Lieutenant's Mess, which is financ'd out of the Ship's Account,— that is, by the Navy,— and take their turns with the other principal Officers in dining with the Captain, whose dreams of a long, uneventful Voyage and plenty of Philo-sophick Conversation would thus have been abridg'd even had the l'Grand never emerg'd above the Horizon.
On the eighth of December the Captain has an Express from the Admiralty, ordering him not to sail. "Furthermore," he informs Mason and Dixon, "Bencoolen is in the hands of the French. I see no mention of any plans to re-take the place soon. I am sorry."
"I knew it... ?" Dixon walking away shaking his head.
"We may still make the Cape of Good Hope in time," says Capt. Smith. "That'll likely be our destination, if and when they cut the Orders.”
"No one else is going there to observe," Mason says. "Odd, isn't it? You'd think there'd be a Team from somewhere."
Capt. Smith looks away, as if embarrass'd. "Perhaps there is?" he suggests, as gently as possible.
As they proceed down the Channel, "Aye, and that's the Tail of the Bolt," a sailor informs them, "where the Ramillies went down but the year February, losing seven hundred Souls. They were in south-west Weather, the sailing-master could not see,— he gambl'd as to which Headland it was, mistaking the Bolt for Rome Head and lost all."
"This is League for League the most dangerous Body of Water in the world," complains another. "Sands and Streams, Banks and Races, I've no Peace till we're past the Start Point and headed for the Sea."
"Can this Lad get us out all right?"
"Oh, young Smith's been around forever. Collier Sailor. If he's alive, he must have learn'd somewhat."
Passing the Start-Point at last, the cock's-comb of hilltops to starboard, the Ship leaning in the up-Channel wind, the late sun upon the heights,— more brilliant gold and blue than either Landsman has ever seen,— the Cold of approaching Night carrying an edge, the possibility that by Morning the Weather will be quite brisk indeed..."Su-ma-tra," sing the sailors of the Seahorse,
"Where girls all look like Cleo-
Pat-tra,
And when you're done you'll simply
Barter 'er,
For yet another twice as
Hot, tra-
La la-la la-la la-la la—
La la la, la..."
From the day he assum'd command of the Seahorse, Capt. Smith has lived in a tidy corner of Hell previously unfamiliar to him. Leaving the rainswept landing, rowed out into the wet heaving Groves of masts and spars upon Spithead, 'mid sewage and tar and the Breath of the Wind,
he had searched, with increasing desperation, for some encouraging first sight of his new command, till oblig'd at last to accept the remote scruffy Sixth Rate throwing itself like a tether'd beast against its anchor-cables. Yet, yet,...through the crystalline spray, how gilded comes she,— how corposantly edg'd in a persisting and, if Glories there be, glorious light...and he knows her, it must be from a Dream, how could it be other? A Light in which all Pain and failure, all fear, are bleach'd away....
He'd been greeted at the Quarter-deck by a Youth of loutish and ungather'd appearance, recruited but recently in a press-gang sweep of Wapping, who exclaim'd, "Damme! Look at this, Boys! An officer wha' knows enough to come in out of the rain!"
Trying not to bark, Capt. Smith replied, "What's your name, sailor?" "By some I be styl'd, 'Blinky.' And who might you be?" "Attend me, Blinky,— I am the Captain of this Vessel." "Well," advised the young salt, "you've got a good job,— don't fuck up."
Steady advice. He haunts his little Raider like a nearly unsensed ghost, now silent upon his side of the Quarter-deck, now bending late and dutifully over the lunar-distance forms. "He wishes to be taken as a man of Science," opines the Revd upon first meeting the Astronomers, - perhaps he even seeks your own good opinion. Mention'd in a report to the Royal Society? However you do that sort of thing." Choosing to stand with the ingenious and Philosophickal wing of the Naval profession rather than its Traditional and bloody-minded one, though he would fight honorably, Capt. Smith does not consider his best game to be war.
The Vessel herself, however, enjoys a Reputation for Nerve, having proved it at Quebec, fearless under the French batteries of Beauport, part of a Diversion whilst the real assault proceeded quite upon the other flank, out of the troop-cariying ships that had sailed past the city, further upstream. Thenceforward is her Glory assur'd. She has done her duty in the service of a miracle in that year of miracles, 1759, upon whose Ides of March Dr. Johnson happen'd to remark, "No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.”
Some would call her a Frigate, though officially she is a couple of guns shy, causing others to add the prefix "Jackass,"— a nautical term. Neither Names nor modest throw-weights have kept her from mixing it up with bigger ships. Capt. Smith has long understood that tho' a Sea Horse may be born in spirit an Arab stallion, sometimes must it also function as a Jackass,— a Creature known, that is, as much for its obstinacy in an argument as for its trick of turning and using its hind legs as a weapon. "Therefore I want the best gun crew for the Stern Cannon. Let this Jackass show them a deadly kick."
When the l'Grand comes a-looming, nevertheless, the Captain is more than a little surprised. Why should Monsieur be taking the trouble?— knowing the answer to be "Frigate Business," built into the definition of the command. In return for freedom to range upon the Sea, one was bound by a Code as strict as that of any ancient Knight. The Seahorse's Motto, lovingly embroider'd by a certain Needlewoman of Southsea, and nail'd above the Bed in his Cabin, reads Eques Sit Mquus.
"Now, Eques," according to the helpful young Revd Wicks Cherry-coke, "means 'an arm'd Horseman.''
"Ranging the Land," Dixon suggests, "as a Frigate-Sailor the Sea."
"Later, in old Rome, it came to mean a sort of Knight,— a Gentleman, somewhere between the ordinary People and the Senate. Sit is 'may he be,' and Æquus means 'just,'— also, perhaps, 'even-temper'd.' So we might take your ship's Motto to mean, 'Let the Sea-Knight who would command this Sea-Horse be ever fair-minded,'—
"— trying not to lose his Temper, even with boil-brain'd subordinates?" the Captain growling thus at Lieutenant Unchleigh, who stands timidly signaling for his attention.
"Um, what appears to be a Sail, South-Southwest,— although there is
faction upon the question, others insisting 'tis a Cloud "
"Damnation, Unchleigh," Capt. Smith in a low Voice, reaching for his Glass. "Hell-fire, too. If it's a Frenchman, he's seen us, and is making all sail."
"I knew that," says the Lieutenant.
"Here. Don't drop this. Get up the Mast and tell me exactly what and where it is. Take Bodine up with you, with a watch and compass,— and if it proves to be a sail, do try to obtain a few nicely spac'd magnetickal Bearings, there's a good Lieutenant. You'll note how very Scientifick we are here, Gentlemen. Yet," turning to a group of Sailors holystoning the deck, "ancient Beliefs will persist. Here then, Bongo! Yes! Yes, Captain wishes Excellent Bongo smell Wind!"
The Lascar so address'd, crying, "Aye, aye, Cap'n!," springs to the windward side, up on a rail, and, grasping some Armful of the Fore-Shrouds, presses himself far into the Wind, head-rag a-fluttering,— almost immediately turning his Head, with a look of Savage Glee,— "Frenchies!"
"Hard a-port," calls the Captain, as down from the Maintop comes word that the object does rather appear to be a Sail, at least so far unaccompanied, and is withal running express, making to intercept the Seahorse. "Gentlemen, 'twould oblige me if you'd find ways to be useful below." The Drum begins its Beat. They have grown up, English Boys never far from the Sea, with Tales of its Battles and Pirates and Isles just off the Coasts of Paradise. They know what "below" promises.
At first it seems but a Toy ship, a Toy Destiny.... T'gallants and staysails go crowding on, but the wind is obstinate at SSW, the Seahorse may but ever beat against it, in waters treacherous of stream, whilst the l'Grand is fresh out from Brest, with the wind on her port quarter. ' 'Twas small work to come up with us, get to leeward,— from which the French prefer to engage,— and commence her broadsides, the Seahorse responding in kind, for an hour and a half of blasting! and smashing! and masts falling down!"
"Blood flowing in the scuppers!" cries Pitt.
"Did you swing on a rope with a knife in your teeth?" asks Pliny.
"Of course. And a pistol in me boot."
"Uncle." Brae disapproves.
The Revd only beams. One reason Humans remain young so long, compar'd to other Creatures, is that the young are useful in many ways, among them in providing daily, by way of the evil Creatures and Slaughter they love, a Denial of Mortality clamorous enough to allow their Elders release, if only for moments at a time, from Its Claims upon the Attention. "Sad to say, Boys, I was well below, and preoccupied with sea-
surgery, learning what I needed to know of it upon the Spot. By the end of the Engagement I was left with nothing but my Faith between me and absolute black Panic. Afterward, from whatever had happen'd upon that patch of secular Ocean, I went on to draw Lessons more abstract.
"Watching helplessly as we closed with the l'Grand, I felt that with each fraction of a second, Death was making itself sensible in new
ways We were soon close enough to hear the creak and jingling of the
gun tackle and the rumble of trucks upon the deck, then to see the ends
of the rammers backing through the gun-ports, and vanishing as car
tridges and wads were pushed into place, and the high-pitch'd foreign
jabbering as we lean'd ever closer
"Broadsides again and again, punctuated by tacking so as to present the Guns of the other Side,— ringing cessations in which came the Thumps of re-loading, the cries of the injur'd and dying, nausea, Speech-lessness, Sweat pouring,— then broadsides once more. Each time the firing stopp'd, there seem'd hope, for a Minute, that we'd got away and it was over,.. .until we'd hear the Gun-Tackle being shifted, and feel in the dark the deck trying to tilt us over, charg'd with the moments, upon the downward Roll, just before the Guns, vibrating in a certain way we had come to expect,— and when it came no more, we stood afraid to breathe, because of what might be next.
"The Astronomers and I meanwhile endur'd intestinal agonies so as not to be the first to foul his breeches in front of the others, as the Spars came crashing from above, and the cannon sent sharp Thuds thro' the Ship like cruel fists boxing our ears, knocking cockroaches out of the overhead,— Blows whose personal Malevolence was more frightening even than their Scale,— the Ship's hoarse Shrieking, a great Sea-animal in pain, the textures of its Cries nearly those of the human Voice when under great Stress."
Altho' Dixon is heading off to Sumatra with a member of the Church of England,— that is, the Ancestor of Troubles,— a stranger with whom he moreover but hours before was carousing exactly like Sailors, shameful to say, yet, erring upon the side of Conviviality, will he decide to follow Fox's Advice, and answer "that of God" in Mason, finding it soon enough
with the Battle on all 'round them, when both face their equal chances of imminent Death.
Dissolution, Noise, and Fear. Below-decks, reduced to nerves, given in to the emprise of Forces invisible yet possessing great Weight and Speed, which contend in some Phantom realm they have had the bad luck to blunder into, the Astronomers abide, willing themselves blank yet active. Casualties begin to appear in the Sick Bay, the wounds inconceivable, from Oak-Splinters and Chain and Shrapnel, and as Blood creeps like Evening to Dominion over all Surfaces, so grows the Ease of giving in to Panic Fear. It takes an effort to act philosophickal, or even to find ways to be useful,— but a moment's re-focusing proves enough to show them each how at least to keep out of the way, and presently to save steps for the loblolly boy, or run messages to and from other parts of the ship.
After the last of the Gun-Fire, Oak Beams shuddering with the Chase, the Lazarette is crowded and pil'd with bloody Men, including Capt. Smith with a great Splinter in his Leg, his resentment especially powerful,— "I'll have lost thirty of my Crew. Are you two really that important?" Above, on deck, corpses are steaming, wreckage is ev'ry-where, shreds of charr'd sail and line clatter in the Wind that is taking the Frenchman away.
What conversation may have passed between the Post-Captain and the Commandant? He wore the Order of the Holy Ghost, the white Dove plainly visible thro' the Glass,— St.-Foux, almost certainly, yet commanding a different Ship. What was afoot here? Had the Frenchman really signal'd, "France is not at war with the~~sciences"? Words so magnanimous, and yet..."Went poohpooh, he did. Sort of flicking his gloves about. Tm westing my time,' he says, 'You are leetluh meennow,— I throw you back. Perhaps someday we meet when you are biggair Feesh, like me. Meanwhile, I sail away. Poohpooh! Adieu!''
"Nevertheless," Capt. Smith had replied, "I must give chase." One of those French shrugs. "You must, and of course, may." But she is too wounded. They watch the perfect ellipse of the l'Grand's stern dwindle into the dark. At last, well before the midwatch, Captain Smith calls off the Chase, and they come about again, the wind remaining as it has been, and with what sail they have, they return to the Plymouth Dockyard.
Some at the time said there had been another sail, and that the Frenchman, assuming it to be a British Man o' War, had in fact broken off, and headed back in to Brest as speedily as her condition would allow. Some on the Seahorse thought they'd seen it,— most had not. ("Perhaps our guardian Angel," the Revd comments, "— instead of Wings, Topgallants.")
A Year before, Morale aboard the l'Grand, never that high to begin with, had seem'd to suffer an all but mortal blow with news of the disaster to the Brest fleet at Quiberon Bay. In calculating her odds vis-a-vis the Seahorse, the Invisible Gamesters who wager daily upon the doings of Commerce and Government must have discounted her advantage in guns and broadside weight, noting that a crew so melancholick is not the surest guarantee of prevailing in a Naval Dispute. Yet, considered as a sentient being, the French Ship continued to display the attitude of an undersiz'd but bellicose Sailor in a Wine-shop, always upon the qui vive for a scrap, never quite reaching the level of Glory it desir'd, always téton dernier of the Squadron, ever chosen for the least hopeful Missions, from embargo patrols off steaming red-dawn coasts below the Equator to rescue attempts beneath the Shadows of the mountainous Waves of winter storms in the Atlantic,— forever unthank'd, disrespected, laboring on, beating now alone at night back into Brest for new spars and rigging and lives.
"Ooh, La,
Fran...
-Ce-euh! , Ne
Fait-pas-la-Guerre, Con-truh les Sci--en-
ceuhs!"
- sung incessantly till the Ship made Port, and then by the Working-Parties at the Quai, with the sour cadences of Sailors in a Distress not altogether bodily,— humiliated, knowing better, yet unable to keep from humming the catchy fragment, its text instantly having join'd the Company of great Humorous Naval Quotations, which would one day also include, "I have not yet begun to fight," and, "There's something wrong with our damn'd ships today, Chatfield."
Long after Nightfall, Mason and Dixon, officially reliev'd of their Medical Duties, reluctant to part company, go lurching up on Deck, exhausted, laughing at nothing,— or at ev'rything, being alive when they could as easily be dead. Despite the salt rush of Wind, they can no more here, than Below, escape caught in the Drape of the damag'd Sails, the Reek of the Battle past,— the insides of Trees, and of Men— They have to prop each other up till one of them finds something to lean against. "Well, what's this, then?" inquires Mason.
"More like a Transit of Mars...?"
"With us going 'cross its Face."
"Were I less of a cheery Lad, why, I'd almost think..."
"It has occurr'd to me."
"They knew the French had Bencoolen,— what else did they know? Thah's what I'd like to know."
"Are you appropriating that Bottle for reasons I may not wish to hear, or,— ah. Thankee." They pass the Bottle back and forth, and when it is empty, they throw it in the Sea, and open another. 5
If ever they meant to break up the Partnership, this would've been the time. " 'Twas all so out of the ordinary," Mason declares, "that it must have been intended,— an act of Him so strange, His purposes unknown."
"Eeh,— that is, I'm not sure which one tha mean."
Mason instantly narrows his eyes. "Who else could— oh. Oh, I see. Hum.. .a common Belief among your People?"
"All thah' Coal-Mining, I guess."
In the crucial moments, neither Mason nor Dixon had fail'd the other. Each had met the other's Gaze for a slight moment before Duty again claim'd them,— the Vapors rising from the Wounds of dying Sailors smoothing out what was not essential for each to understand.
For the moment, they know they must stand as one, tho' not always how. Arriv'd in Plymouth Dockyard, drafting the letter to the Royal Society, thro' the dark hours, each keeps rejecting the other's ideas. The Candles tremble with the Vehemence of their Speech. They are well the other side of Exhaustion, and neither has bother'd to keep his defensive works mann'd against the other. With what they've lately been through together, it seems quite beside the point for them to do so. At least they are past that. Each knows, that is, exactly how brave and how cowardly the other was when the crisis came.
"Say, 'If You might arrange for us each to have a Regiment,— a Frigate being impractical, given our Ignorance of how to sail, much less fight, one,— we should be happy to proceed to war upon any people, in any quarter of the Globe His Majesty should be pleas'd to send us to,—
"Dixon, think,— what if they should say yes? Do you want to command a Regiment?"
"Why,... say, 'tis nothing I'd rule out, at this stage of my life,—
"You're a Quaker, you're not suppos'd to believe in War."
"Technically no longer a Quaker, as they expell'd me back at the end of October from Raby Meeting, just before I came to London,— so I guess now I may kill anyone I like...?"
Mason pretends interest, having already heard about it in his briefing by the R.S. "And will any personal difficulties attend that, do you think?"
"We've all of us,— the same Quaker Families, Dixons, Hunters and Rayltons in particular, again and again,— a long history in Durham of being toss'd out for anything, be it drinking, getting married by a Priest, working for the Royal Society, whatever someone didn't like. To some Christians, Disfellowship is a hard Blow, for they have been allow'd to know only others of their Congregation. But Quakers are a bit matier, the idea being to look for something of God in ev'ryone...? The Denomination's less important. Ah mean, Ah've met Anglicans before...?"
"I wonder'd why you never stare at me much."
"Eeh, Ah've even seen the Bishop of Durham. One of the very biggest among thee, correct? A Prince in his own lands. No,— I've no problem with Anglicans."
"Thank ye. I welcome the return of at least an Hour's more Sleep each Night otherwise spent in Fretfulness upon the Question. Be assur'd, I have run across the odd Quaker as well,— Mr. Bird of course coming to mind,— and have ever found you Folk as peaceable in your private Discourse, as you are Assertive in your Publick Doings."
"That's what people say, for fair."
There they sit, drinking up their liquor allowance, feeling no easier for it, trying to understand what in Christ's Name happen'd out in the Channel. Neither is making much sense. They will talk seriously for half an hour about something completely stupid, then one will take offense and fall silent, or go off somewhere to try to sleep. Out in the hall they keep running into each other, Wraiths in night-clothes.
"What if we said," Mason appearing to have given it some Thought, ' 'In view of an apparent Design, by well-known Gentlemen, to put me in harm's way—
" 'Huz.' "
"If you like. — exposing an undermann'd Warship to a certain Drubbing, Questions must emerge. Why could not the French Admiralty have been advis'd, via Father Boscovich or another available messenger, of the Seahorse's approximate Route, her destination and purpose?''
"Eeh, Mason, come, come. They would have attack'd anyway. Why would they believe any story from the English, be the Messenger King Louie Himself?"
"A little Sixth-Rate! What possible mischief could it get into? What possible threat to France?"
" Tis call'd, in that jabber over there, Une Affaire des Frégates,— 'An Affair of the Frigates.' "
"Of Forces less visible, I fear."
"Here,— any more of that Golden Virginian about? 'Twill settle our wits." In what each is surpriz'd to note for the first time as a companionable Silence, they prepare Pipes, find a Dish in the Cupboard and a live Coal in the Fire, and light up.
Wrapt tightly, as within Vacuum-Hemispheres, lies the Unspoken,— the concentration of Terror and death of but two afternoons ago, tran-spir'd without one word, in brute Contempt for any language but that of winds and masses, cries and blood. Impenetrable, it calls up Questions whose Awkwardness has only increas'd as the Astronomers have come to understand there may be no way of ever finding the Answers.
"Did the Captain signal? Did they read it, and attack despite it?"
"Or because of it...?"
It seems not to belong in either of their lives. "Was there a mistake in the Plan of the Day? Did we get a piece of someone else's History, a fragment spall'd off of some Great Moment,— perhaps the late Engagement at Quiberon Bay,— such as now and then may fly into the ev'ryday paths of lives less dramatick? And there we are, with our Wigs askew."
"Happen," Dixon contributes in turn, "we were never meant at all to go to Bencoolen,— someone needed a couple of Martyrs, and we inconveniently surviv'd...?”
"What a terrible thing to say."
''Terrible,' well, as to 'Terrible'..." And what they cannot speak, some of it not yet, some of it never, resumes breathless Sovereignty in the wax-lit Rooms.
In swift reply comes a Letter of Reproach and Threat from the Royal Society. Someday Mason and Dixon may not dream as often of the Battle with the Frenchman,— but this Letter they will go back to again and again, unable to release it.
"Not even the courtesy,— Damme! of a personal Reply,— 'tis rather the final draft of some faceless committee. To my Heart's Cry, my appeal to Bradley for Guidance, Apprentice to master, confiding candidly my fears, trusting in his Discretion,— to a four years' Adjunct, his Protege even longer,— instead of Comfort or Advice, he betrays my Confession to some Gang of initial'd Scoundrels, leaving them the task of bringing us to the level of Fear needed to get us back aboard that dreadful Ship."
"Yet others," carefully, "might hear in it a distinct Voice, indeed quite full of personal Heat."
Mason shrugs. "Who, then? 'Twas Morton his Signature,— " his Eyebrows rak'd a shade too high for it to be other than a request to let this go.
"Ordinarily, Ah'd allow it to depart upon the Tides of Fortune...?" says Dixon, "- - but as I'm included in this charge of Cowardice, if it be a Matter between thee and Dr. Bradley, why, I hope tha'd tell me somewhat of it...?"
"You suppose this is Bradley's voice? I think not, for I know him,— Bradley cannot write like this, even simple social notes give him trouble. '...Whenever their circumstances, now uncertain and eventual, shall happen to be reduced to Certainty.' Not likely."
"Eeh, thah's deep...? 'Reduc'd.' "
"As if...there were no single Destiny," puzzles Mason, "but rather a choice among a great many possible ones, their number steadily diminishing each time a Choice be made, till at last 'reduc'd,' to the events that do happen to us, as we pass among 'em, thro' Time unredeemable,— much as a Lens, indeed, may receive all the Light from some vast celestial Field of View, and reduce it to a single Point. Suggests an optical person,— your Mr. Bird, perhaps.”
"Then tha may rest easy, mayn't thee, if it's I who's being reprov'd by my Mentor, for a change...?"
Thus sleeplessly on both continue to rattle, whilst Plymouth reels merrily all 'round them, well illuminated, as a-scurry, thro' the night.
"Lightning doesn't strike twice," suggests Dixon.
"Correct. It strikes once, as it just lately did for me out there. Now 'tis your turn."
"Hold, hold...? Are tha sure of thah'...?” 6
"The Interdiction at Sea," it seems to the Revd, "was patently a warning to the Astronomers, from Beyond. Tho' men of Science, both now con-fess'd to older and more Earthly Certainties, being willing then and there to give up Bencoolen, offering rather to observe the Transit from any other Station yet in reach,— Skanderoon was mention'd,— but the Royal S. wrote back in the most overbearing way, on about loss of honor, strongly threatening legal action if Mason and Dixon were to break their contract,force majeure or no, even when it was pointed out yet again that Bencoolen lay in the hands of the French, anyway. No matter that the Astronomers were right and the R.S. wrong,— they had to comply."
"But why?" laughs Brae in exasperation, waving her Needle and Floss about. "Why weren't they simply more flexible in London? Just send the Seahorse someplace else?"
"So they did, when next our Astronomers put to sea." "Having, I hope, splic'd their Main-Brace well,— g'd Evening, all." Tis Uncle Lomax, sliding in from the day at his Soap-Works, smelling of his Product, allowing the cheeriness of the Sot to overcome the diffidence of a man in an unpopular calling,— for "Philadelphia Soap" is a Byword, throughout the American Provinces, of low Quality. At the touch of water, nay, damp Air, it becomes a vile Mucus that refuses to be held in any sort of grip, gentle or firm, and often leaves things dirtier than they were before its application,— making it, more properly, an Anti-Soap. He steers a Loxodrome for the cabinet where ardent Spirits are kept for Guests of the Wet Persuasion, and pretends to weigh his Choice.
So off we sail again (the Revd continues), this time in convoy with another, larger Frigate,— the idea being, Children, always to get back up on the Horse that has nearly killed one. Especially if it's a Sea Horse. I am quarter'd with Lieutenant Unchleigh, a rattle-head. "Damme, Sir,— a Book? Close it up immediately."
" Tis the Holy Bible, Sir."
"No matter, 'tis Print,— Print causes Civil Unrest,— Civil Unrest in any Ship at Sea is intolerable. Coffee as well. Where are newpapers found? In those damnable Whig Coffee-Houses. Eh? A Potion stimulating rebellion and immoderate desires."
I feel a certain Gastrick Desolation. What will be his idea of Diversion ashore? Nothing to do with Coffee, I suppose,— tho' this Route to India be known as a Caffeinist's Dream. What else may he not abide? My Berth a Prison, unseamanlike Behavior abounding, the very Ship a Ship of Death. How is any of this going to help restore me to the "ordinary World"?— the answer, which I am yet too young to see, being that these are the very given Conditions of the "ordinary World." At the time, my inward lament goes something like this,—
Where are the wicked young Widows tonight,
That sail the East India Trade?
Topside with the Captain, below with the Crew,
Beauteously ever display'd.
Oh I wish I was anyplace,
But the Someplace I'm in,
With too many Confusions and Pains,—
Take me back to the Cross-Roads,
Let me choose, once again,
To cruise the East India Lanes.
Frigate Captains are uncomfortable with sailing in formation,— 'tis to be turn'd to fussing about forever with Jib and Staysail, by someone senior with an oppressively tidy Theory of Station-keeping. The Aversion of the Seahorse's new Captain to group manoeuvres indeed extends to
sailing with even one other warship, as the captain of the Brilliant, 36, will discover before they are out of the Channel.
In the brisk weather, there seems little sense in dawdling. The impatient Capt. Grant keeps closing the gap between himself and the ship ahead, often drawing up to a distance that allows Sailors easily to converse in ordinary tones, till at last the Brilliant signals to the Seahorse, "Observe Standard Interval,— Comply." After a moment's Cogitation, Grant signals back, "Oh." Having given orders to make to windward, he repairs to his Cabin to fetch from a Chest a curiously embellish'd Jolly Roger, said to be of the Barbadoes, won at Swedish Rummy of a Sailing-Master off the old H.M.S. Unreflective. Now, having gather'd enough open sea, he cheerfully comes about, hoists his black Announcement, and runs full before the breeze, knifing through the swell as if intending to ram the Brilliant. The other Captain returns this Jollification by clearing for Battle. If not for the timely appearance of sail in the direction of Brest, who knows how far the Affair might have been taken?
"Insane," Mason shuddering in fear only partly exaggerated. "How can the Admiralty allow such Men freely to set to sea, in these murderous machines of war?"
"A Quaker might say, 'tis war thah's insane, and Frigate captains only more open about it...?"
"What,— All War,— no exceptions? You go about in this,— forgive me,— this Coat, Hat, and Breeches of unmistakably military color and cut,— "
"Upon the theory that a Representation of Authority, whose extent no one is quite sure of, may act as a deterrent to Personal Assault."
"— not to mention this Ocean of Ale flowing thro' you, day after day, Sundays not exempt,— a Potable well known for provoking Trucu-lence,—
"Hold,— tha're saying Wine-Drinkers are the meek who'll inherit the Earth?"
"Preferably that part of it with a sunward slope, and well-drain'd, aye,— and what of it, Mustard-Grinder?"
"Ale does not make me violent," Dixon explains, "— I am violent by nature. Ale-drinking, rather, slows me down, increasing the chances I'll
fall asleep before I cause too much damage. I could summon witnesses, if tha'd like...?"
By this point they are well out to Sea, bound for Tenerife to take on water and wine (hence the priority of the Topick), and then as far East as a mysterious seal'd Dispatch, handed to the Captain at Plymouth just before they cast off, will command. "Oh, that's all right," Mason waving grandly, "I'll take your word for it." And together as the sun goes down o'er the starboard Bow, they sing.
We swore up and down, that we'd sail nevermore,
Thro' waters infested by French-men,
Whilst in Safety and Smugness, all dry on the Shore,
Kept Morton and all of his Hench-men,—
Yet a Shark is a Shark, in the day or the dark,
Be he Minister, fish or King's Be-ench-man,
With a Munch and a Crunch and the Lunch shall be free!
And Good-bye, Royal Soci...e-tee!
For we're off to the Indies, off to the East,
Ho for the Fables and Ho for the Feast,—
Grov'ling like Slaves in the Land of the Turk,
There's nought an Astronomer won't do for Work.
From the time they clear'd the Lizard, Capt. Grant has made no secret
of where he's been these dreary months since Quiberon Bay,— camp'd
like a Gypsy upon a waiting-list, is where, ever laboring to empty his
mind, seeking to become but the sleek Purity of Ink upon Paper, trusting
in the large-scale behavior of Destiny to bring him, even in this wretched
Lull, a Ship, any Ship,— until he saw the Seahorse, and amended this to,
well, almost any Ship
It had done his Hopes little good to see her so wounded, tho' he understood the Immortality of Ships,— new masts stepp'd in and Yards set, Riggers all over her, new preventers and Swifters and Futtock-Staves, one miserable reeving at a time,— yet slow as Clock-hands, Wood, Hemp, and Canvas Resurrection would proceed. Three weeks and she was whole again, waiting in Sutton Pool. Grant's orders were to follow the Brilliant when the Brilliant should be order'd to depart, and then stand by for further Advice. I
This came by way of an Admiralty Fopling, standing up in the Gig that brought him out, waving a seal'd Sheaf of Papers. "You're to head South, and open these at Tenerife," a Smirk possessing the young Phiz as whiskers had not so far been able to do. "Now this is an instrument of Receipt,— "
Muttering, Capt. Grant surreptitiously flicked the Quill, trying to spatter ink-drops upon the Visitor's snowy lac'd Stock, as he pretended to blurt, "Yet Sir, I must confide this to someone, the Truth being,— "
' 'Truth'...?" A look of unaccustom'd Astonishment. "Perhaps I am not your ideal Confidant," he mumbled, "— divided Loyalties sort of thing...."
Feverishly, Capt. Grant continued, ' - I find my thoughts ever wand'ring, that is, you see, to the Topick of Bencoolen, and to the Rumor that my Predecessor was order'd there in full knowledge that 'twas already in the hands of the French,— rendering his whole trip rather pointless, and naturally the Thought then did occur to me, well, what if my orders are to some equally impossible Destination? Except that now it seems I may not know till Tenerife."
"Not my Desk, really, so terribly sorry," descending again to the Gig, calling back, "yet chin up, perhaps it is a British Destination, or will be so by the time you get there,— so much more swiftly than the Trade Winds, these Days, do the Winds of Diplomacy blow."
"Boy, ye're sending me 'pon a damn'd fool's errand."
"Ah— your first, Sir?"
He couldn't very well call the Sprout out, could he?— especially as he recognized too easily the malapert youth he himself had once been, the Offense he'd offer'd merely by being present,— down to the matching Waistcoat and Queue-Tie, in the same choice of citrick-yellow. He settled for loading and priming a Pistol, aiming it across the water, and allowing the Youth to decide whether to cower in the Boat or jump into the Water.
At this turn of his Life, Capt. Grant has discover'd in his own feckless Youth, a Source of pre-civiliz'd Sentiment useful to his Praxis of now and then pretending to be insane, thus deriving an Advantage over any unsure as to which side of Reason he may actually stand upon. Not till they're well at Sea, with a Fortnight more till they sight the Peaks of Tenerife, does he find Mason busy at the same Arts, morose and silent, beetle-back'd against the Wind, keeping Vigil all day and night of 13 February, the second Anniversary of his Wife Rebekah's passing, touching neither Food nor Drink,— with no one upon the Ship, including Capt. Grant, willing to approach too near,— till the final eight Bells, when Mason reaches for a Loaf and a Bottle and becomes upon the instant convivial as anyone has ever seen him.
The Sailors, having mark'd in both Men these rapid changes of Aspect, are determin'd to keep a wary eye,— tho' Madness at Sea is not quite as worrying as fire or theft, being indeed so of the essence of a Frigate's crew that one might as well speak of "Hemp at Sea" or "Wood at Sea." It's a Village, after all, 's a Frigate,— and what is a Village, without Village Idiots? Ev'ryone on board knows who the Madmen are, and that they are here as security against the Forces of Night,— "Don't want the French hurting my Mate here, do I. Jus' 'coz half the time he thinks he's Admiral Hawke,—
"Noted, noted. Now unhand me, I say!"
"There, there, your Lordship." - Common Swab."
This ship's history has, however, prov'd too hectick for its Military Band. The Frigate life is not for ev'ryone,— it seems wherever this one put in, whenever any sailor went over and fail'd to return, he was a Seahorse musician. One by one, thro' the years of the Rivalry with France, the little Combination dwindl'd,— upon the North American Station, they lost their Inner Voices, halfway thro' the West Indies their Con-tinuo,— until, home again, the Hautboy-player having been one night absorb'd into that Other World of which Wapping is the anteroom, the Seahorse found herself down to a single Fifer, to whom it fell, the noontide the Frenchman appear'd, to inspire the Lads into battle with his one silver Pipe.
None, later, could say,— tho' sure the Moment was enough,— the deepening bowel-fear as the ships drew slowly together, the l'Grand growing ever larger, smaller details ever more visible, the Seahorse's Crew, understanding that nothing would go away now, and that Shot was inevitable, 'morphosing to extensions of a single Engine homicidal,— in that general and ungovernable Tip of Soul, what allow'd us to hear the Musick so keenly?— the Fife being of standard Military issue, tun'd in that most martial of Scales, B-flat major, stirring in all who heard it, even Philosophers, the desire to prevail over a detestable Enemy,— its Performance recall'd as "virtually Orchestral." Amid the Blasts, the heavy tun'd Whirrs of enemy Shot, the mortal Cries, could the Instrument ever be heard,— "Hearts of Oak," "Rule, Britannia,"— aching for the phantom polyphony no longer on board, trying to make up for the other Voices by Efforts of Lip as difficult as any of Limb, proceeding among the Gun-Tackle.
Slowcombe had been press'd from a tavern in Wapping where he clearly ought not to've been, mischievous Lad,— having learn'd the Art of his Instrument from the fam'd Hanoverian Fifer Johann Ulrich, whom the Duke of Bedford had brought in after the previous War to instruct his Regimental Winds. "You'll ask, what's a Royal Artilleryman doing in a Sailor's Haunt? Aye, nowt but a low, mud-bound Gunner, surrounded by them who must be both Gunners and Seamen,— hoping, I confess, to pass as one of them. Is ours not the Age of Metamorphosis, with any turn of Fortune a possibility? So, upon that Night, did I pass abruptly from Soldier to Sailor, in less than the swallowing of a cheaply opiated Pint, and found, but for the inconvenience of it, a Dream come true,— there being Soldiers' sorts of Lasses, I mean, and Sailors' sorts, and a quiet Brotherhood who appreciate the Sailors' Lasses who be left, for all the reasons we know, unattended. And now tell me, for I'll ne'er tell you, of the short and devious Fifer out trolling for trouble, creeping 'round, sniggering, peeping up Skirts,— yet ah, my Lads, most times all it took was to bring out the Fife, and finger upon it some brief Air,— eight Bars of any little Quantz Etude, and usually she was mine."
"Rather stick the Pig and hear it squeal," comments Jack "Fingers" Soames, a viperish Lad whose eponymous Gesture, made in answer to all Overtures, however ritual or ev'ryday, strangely lacks any hostile Intent, being expressive rather of a deep-held wish, so far as may be possible within the Perimeter of a Sixth-Rate, to be left alone. All but the most resolutely matey of Ship's Company are content to oblige him. He enjoys the solitude that results,— never idle, obeying commands Outer and Inner, perfecting maritime Skills,— amid, but not of, a floating Village of others just as busy living lives he's no desire to enter. "So you got mar-
ried, does that mean you forgot how to fuck yourself?" ' 'Nice day'? do you know Bollocks?— go get hit by Lightning."
The only crew member he has ever been Civil to is Veevle, legendary thro'out the Royal N. for being impossible to wake to stand Watch. Countless hundreds of Ship-mates have tried without issue to rouse the somniac Tar. The Admiralty is understood secretly to have plac'd in Escrow a £1,000 reward for the first who should succeed.
Audible methods, such as screaming, having been early discourag'd by others requiring sleep, his would-be Awakeners have tried hitting the Soles of Veevle's Feet with Rope-ends, introducing Cockroaches up his Nose, and rolling him over and administering Enemas of Lucas the Cook's notorious Coffee, which in several sworn instances has restor'd life to certified Cadavers. Nothing works. They whisper elaborate Promises. They light Slow-Matches and place them between his Toes. They wrap him in his Hammock and lower him over the Side, and at the touch of the Waves, he but makes a snuggling motion, and begins to snore. It is soon widely appreciated that one must catch Veevle whilst awake, and trick him into standing someone else's Watch, whereupon he becomes the smartest and most estimable of Seamen.
"Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads "
"Excuse me, Captain, problem with the Euphroes again." "Get O'Brian up here, then, if it's about Euphroes, he's the one to see." "Hey t'en, Pat. Scribblin' again, are ye? More Sea stories?" Not only does O'Brian know all there is to know and more 'pon the Topick of Euphroes, and Rigging even more obscure,— he's also acknowledg'd as the best Yarn-Spinner in all the Fleets. "Euphroe Detail again."
They are in the southern Latitudes at last, hence the need for Awnings,— the shipboard routine settl'd into, the Boatswain, Mr. Higgs, turning ev'ryone to upon the Project of tidying up the work of the Riggers at Plymouth, who've left far too many Ends untuck'd for this Deck-Tyrant, born under the sign of Virgo, so obsessive about neatness in Knot-work, as to provide a source of Amusement for the Captain, who finds him an ideal Subject to practice being insane upon. "A Phiz of Doom! we can't have this! Worse than idle Whistling!" Mr. Higgs obliges
the section not on Watch to attend Instruction in Lashings, Seizings, the art of making a Turk's Head that might fool a Harem Girl. "You may think no one'll get close enough to see it, but a Thousand details, each nearly invisible, all working together, can mean the difference between a ship that goes warping and kedging in to a Foreign Port, and one that Makes an Entrance. And which will the Scoundrels think of meddling with first, eh? Now I want to see each of ye hauling me taut a Matthew Walker, that England shall be proud of,"— implying that somewhere there is a Royal Museum of Splices, Hitches, and Bends, where their Work may one day lie upon Display. Some in the Narcosis of the Cruise are more than eager to adopt Mr. Higgs's Obsessedness as to Loose Ends, becoming many of them quite picky indeed, scrutinizing the Rigging, often whilst fifty feet up in its Midst, for unsightly Dribblings of Stockholm Tar, Hooks too carelessly mous'd, fray'd Throat-Seizing among the Dead-eyes.
Other Sailors look for alternatives to Ennui even more extreme.
"Where's Bodine?"
"Last I saw of him was out the end of the fore t'gallant Yard, with his Penis in the Jewel Block,— quite enjoying the Friction, to Appearance."
"You men are that desperate for Entertainment?"
"Do we seem to you a care-free Lot, Sir? 'Tis quite otherwise. Bodine, among his shipmates, is indeed reckon'd fastidious,— the steps from Boredom to Discontent to Unwise Practices are never shorter than aboard a Sixth-Rate upon a long Voyage, Sir." One or two chess players hold out for perhaps an extra week,— then 'tis Sal Si Puedes, and they, too, are biting off their toenails, growing Whiskers, piercing Ears, putting upon View, for a fee, fictitious Sea-Creatures that others must bend down to see, becoming thereupon subject to Posterior Assault.
In such a recreational Vacuum, the Prospect of crossing the Equatorial Line soon grows unnaturally magnified, as objects in certain Mirages and Apparitions at Sea,— a Grand Event, prepared for weeks in advance. Fearless Acrobats of the upper Courses and hardened Gunners with prick'd-in black-powder Tattoos are all at once fussing about, nitter-nattering like a Village-ful of housewives over trivial details of the Ceremony of Initiation plann'd for those new to this Crossing, and dropping into Whispers whenever these "Pollywogs,"— namely, Mason,
.5.5 Dixon, and the Revd Cherrycoke,— happen near. Members of the Crew are to take the parts of King Neptune and his Mermaid Queen, and their Court, and the Royal Baby,— a role especially sought after, but assign'd by Tradition to him (Fender Bodine is an early favorite in the Wagering) whose Paunch, oozing with Equatorial Sweat, 'twill be most nauseating for a Pollywog to crawl to and kiss,— this being among the more amiable Items upon the Schedule of Humiliation.
"Why?" the Twins wish to know. "It sounds more like Punishment. Did somebody make it a crime to cross the Equator?"
"Sailors' Pranks, Lads,— ignoring 'em's best," huffs Uncle Ives. "And a foolish rowdy-dow over some Geometers' Abstraction that cannot even be seen."
"But that for one Instant," the Revd points out, "our Shadows lay perfectly beneath us. To change Hemispheres is no abstract turn,— our Attentions to the Royal Baby, and the rest of it, were Tolls exacted for passage thro' the Gate of the single shadowless Moment, and into the South, with a newly constellated Sky, and all-unforeseen ways of living and dying. So must there be a Ritual of Crossing Over, serving to focus each Pollywog's Mind upon the Step he was taking."
"We'd suppos'd it fun," frowns Pliny.
"Your getting thump'd about and all, Uncle," explains Pitt.
"Has either of you," inquires the Revd, "ever had a Basin-ful of Spotted Dick slung into your Face?" The Twins, deciding that this is not an actual Threat, voice approval of the Practice. "Yes, boys, it does sound sportive enough,— except for the part that no one ever tells you about,— "
"Tell us!" cries Pitt.
"Not sure I ought...the same indeed being true of Puddings and the more Cream-like Pies,— '
"Tell us, or you're Salt Pork," stipulates Pliny.
"Well, then, Lads,— it goes up your Nose. Yes. You know what Pond-water feels like up there, I'm sure, but imagine.. .thick, cold, day-before-yesterday's Spotted Dick,...curdling, spots of Mold, with all those horrible Raisin-bits, hard as Gravel,—
"And if it goes far enough up your Nose," adds Uncle Lomax with a monitory tremolo, "Well. Then it's in your Brain, isn't it?"
In the Lull whilst the Boys consider this, the Revd slips back into his tale.
On southward the Seahorse gallops, as if secure forever in a warm'd, melodious Barcarole of indolent days, when in fact 'twill be only a few degrees of Latitude more till we pick up the Trade Wind, and hear in its Desert Whistle the message Ghosts often bring,— that 'tis time, once again, to turn to. And, in denial of all we thought we knew, to smell the Land we are making for, the green fecund Continent, upon the Wind that comes from behind us.
The Astronomers have a game call'd "Sumatra" that the Revd often sees them at together,— as children, sometimes, are seen to console themselves when something is denied them,— their Board a sort of spoken Map of the Island they have been kept from and will never see. "Taking a run in to Bencoolen, anything we need?" "Thought I'd nip up the coast to Mokko-Mokko or Padang, see what's a-stir." "Nutmeg Harvest is upon us, I can smell it!" Ev'ry woman in "Sumatra" is comely and willing, though not without attendant Inconvenience, Dixon's almost instantly developing Wills and Preferences of their own despite his best efforts to keep them uncomplicated,— whereas the only women Mason can imagine at all are but different fair copies of the same serene Beauty,— Rebekah, forbidden as Sumatra to him, held in Detention, as is he upon Earth, until his Release, and their Reunion. So they pass, Mason's women and Dixon's, with more in common than either Surveyor will ever find out about, for even phantasms may enjoy private lives,— shadowy, whispering, veil'd to be unveil'd, ever safe from the Insults of Time.
7
Trying to remember how they ever came to this place, both speak of Passage as by a kind of flight, all since Tenerife, and the Mountain slowly recessional, having pass'd like a sailor's hasty dream between Watches, as if, out of a sea holding scant color, blue more in name than in fact, the unreadable Map-scape of Africa had unaccountably emerg'd, as viewed from a certain height above the pale Waves,— tilted into the Light, as a geometer's Globe might be pick'd up and tilted for a look at this new Hemisphere, this haunted and other half of ev'rything known, where spirit-powers run free among the green abysses and the sudden mountain crests,— Cape Town's fortifications, sent crystalline by the Swiftness, rushing by from a low yet dangerous altitude as the Astronomers go swooping above the shipping in the Bays, topmen pointing in amazement, every detail, including the Invisible, set precisely, present in all its violent chastity. A town with a precarious Hold upon the Continent, planted as upon another World by the sepia-shadow'd Herren XVII back in Holland (and rul'd by the Eighteenth Lord, whose existence must never be acknowledg'd in any way).
The moment Mason and Dixon arrive, up in the guest Suite sorting out the Stockings, which have come ashore all a-jumble, admiring the black Stinkwood Armoire with the silver fittings, they are greeted, or rather, accosted, by a certain Bonk, a Functionary of the V.O.C., whose task it is to convey to them an assortment of Visitors' Rules, or warnings. One might say jolly,— one would have to say blunt. "From Guests of our community, our Hope is for no disruptions of any kind. As upon a ship at sea, we do things here in our own way,— we, the officers, and you, the passengers. What seems a solid Continent, stretching away Northward for thousands of miles, is in fact an Element with as little mercy as the Sea to our Backs, in which, to be immers'd is just as surely, and swiftly, to be lost, without hope of Salvation. As there is nowhere to escape to, easier to do as the Captain and Officers request, eh?"
"Of course," Mason quickly.
"We've but come to observe the Sky...?" Dixon seeks to assure him.
"Yes? Yes? Observe the Sky,— instead of what, pray?" Smiling truculently, the Dutchman glowers and aims his abdomen in different directions. "'Of course,' this isn't a pretext? To 'observe' anything more Worldly,— Our Fortifications, Our Slaves,— nothing like that, eh?"
"Sir," Mason remonstrates, "we are Astronomers under the commission of our King, no less honorably than ten years ago, under that of his King, was Monsieur Lacaille, who has since provided the world a greatly esteem'd Catalogue of Southern Stars. Surely, at the end of the day, we serve no master but Him that regulates the movements of the Heav'ns, which taken together form a cryptick Message,"— Dixon now giving him Looks that fail, only in a Mechanickal way, to be Kicks,— "we are intended one day to solve, and read," Mason smoaking belatedly that he may be taking his Trope too far.
For the Dutchman is well a-scowl. "Ja, Ja, precisely the sort of English Whiggery, acceptable among yourselves, that here is much better left unexpress'd." Police Official Bonk peers at them more closely. It is nearly time for his midday break, and he wants to hurry this up and get to a Tavern. Yet if Mason is acting so unrestrain'd with a Deputy direct from the Castle itself, how much more dangerous may his rattling be in the hearing of others,— even of Slaves? He must therefore be enter'd in the Records as a Person of Interest, thereby taking up residence, in a pen-and-paper way, in the Castle of the Compagnie. Into the same Folder, of course, goes a file for the Assistant,— harmless, indeed, in some Articles, simple, though he appears,— pending the Day when one may have to be set against the other.
Although rooming at the Zeemanns', the Astronomers are soon eating at the house behind, owing to the sudden defection of half the Zeemann kitchen Slaves, gone quick as that to the Mountains and the Droster life. This being just one more Domestick Calamity,— along with Company Prices, collaps'd Roofs, sand in the Soup,— that the Cape Dutch have come to expect and live thro', Arrangements are easily made, the Vrooms' having been Neighbors for years. At mealtimes Mason and Dixon go out by the Zeemanns' kitchen, on past the outbuildings, then in by way of the back Pantry and Kitchen to the Residence of Cornelius Vroom and his wife, Johanna, and what seems like seven, and is probably closer to three, blond, nubile Daughters. Mealtimes are a strange combination of unredeemably wretched food and exuberantly charming Company. Under the Table-cloth, in a separate spatial domain such as Elves are said to inhabit, feet stray, organs receive sudden inrushes of Blood,— or in Mason's case, usually, Phlegm. Blood, clearly rushing throughout Dixon, is detectable as well in faces and at bosoms and throats in this Jethro's Tent they've had the luck to stumble into.
Cornelius Vroom, the Patriarch of this restless House-hold, is an Admirer of the legendary Botha brothers, a pair of gin-drinking, pipe-smoking Nimrods of the generation previous whose great Joy and accomplishment lay in the hunting and slaughter of animals much larger than they. Vroom is a bottomless archive of epic adventures out in the unmapped wilds of Hottentot Land, some of which may even hold a gleam of truth, in among the narrative rubbish-tip of this Arm-chair Commando, wherein the mad Rhino forever rolls his eye, the killer Trunk stands erect and a-bellow, and the cowardly Kaffirs turn and flee, whilst the Dutchman lights his Pipe, and stands his Ground.
One Morning, the Clock having misinform'd him of the Hour, as he hurries to Breakfast thro' the back reaches of the two Yards,— edging past a bright-feather'd Skirmish-line of glaring poultry, a bit more forward than the usual British Hen, who stalk and peck as if examining him for nutritional Purposes,— Mason only just avoids a collision with Johanna Vroom, that would have scrambl'd her apron-load of fresh- gather'd eggs, and produc'd, at best, Resentment, instead of what now, even through Mason's Melancholickally smok'd Lenses, appears to be Fascination.
How can this be? Assigning to ev'ry Looking-Glass a Coefficient of Mercy,— term it n,— none, among those into which he has ever gaz'd, seeking anything but what he knows will be there, has come within screaming distance of even, say, 0.5, given the Lensnian's Squint, the Stoop, and most of all, in its Fluctuation day by day, the Size of a certain Frontal Hemisphere, ever a source of Preoccupation, over whose Horizon he can sometimes not observe his Penis.
Between Greenwich and the Cape, however, he was pleas'd to note a temporary reduction of Circumference, owing to sea-sickness and the resulting aversion to even Mention of food, though he did achieve a tolerance at last for ship's Biscuit,— Dixon, for his part, having by then develop'd a particular Taste for Mr. Cookworthy's Portable Soup, any least whiff of which, of course, sent his partner queasily to the lee rail.
As if Dixon had come ashore with Slabs of the convenient yet nauseating Food-Stuff stowed about his Person, the women of the Colony unanimously avoid him. Not only was he swiftly deem'd eccentric,— he knows well enough the looks Emerson took whenever he came in to Darlington Market,— how fiercely did his Students then all leap to his defense!— but more curiously, from their first sight of him, the Dutch have sifted Dixon as unreliable in any white affairs here. They have noted his unconceal'd attraction to the Malays and the Black slaves,— their Food, their Appearance, their Music, and so, it must be obvious, their desires to be deliver'd out of oppression. "The English Quaker," opines Mrs. De Bosch, the Doyenne of Town Arbitresses, "is rude, disobedient, halfway to a Hindoo, either sitting in trances or leaping up to begin jabbering about whatever may be passing through on its uncomplicated journey from one ear to the other. S.N.S., my Children,"— Simply Not Suitable. But Mason is another story. Mason the widower with that Melancholick look, an impassion'd, young-enough Fool willing to sail oceans and fight sea-battles just to have a chance to watch Venus, Love Herself, pass across the Sun,— in these parts exotic even in his workaday earth tones, coming in starv'd from the Sea with all those
strange Engines, and obviously desperate for a shore-cook'd meal. None of this has appear'd to him in any mirror he's consulted.
Until June, most of their obs will be of Jupiter's Moons playing at Duck and Ducklings, and of fix'd Stars such as Regulus and Procyon, as well as the zenith-Star at the Cape, Shaula, the Sting in the Tail of the Scorpion,— all so as to establish the Station's Longitude as nearly as possible. Many nights in that Season proving to be stormy or clouded over, there will be plenty of time for Mischief to shake her Curls, pinch some color into her Cheeks, and, assuming ev'ryone 'round here is not yet dead, feel free to make a few Suggestions.
"Meet my Daughters," Cornelius is ever pleas'd to introduce them to Strangers, "— Jemima, Kezia, and Kerenhappuch." They are, in fact, Jet, Greet, and Els, as he fails, in fact, to be quite Job.
Jet, sixteen, is obsess'd by her Hair,— as if 'twere a conscious Being, separate from her, most of her activities thro' the long Cape Quotidian are directed by its needs,— from choosing Costumes to arranging Social schedules, to assessing, from the way they behave when in its Vicinity, the suitability of Beaux.
The middle Daughter Greet having chosen good Sense as a refuge when she was seven, Attention to her Hair,— as her older sister has more than once chided,— is limited to different ways of covering it up. Withal, "I am the Tavern-Door 'round here," she cries of her Role as Eternal Mediatrix, for should Els grow too frolicksome, Greet must team up with Jet to restrain her,— yet, should Jet pretend to wield Authority she hasn't earned, Greet must join with Els in Insurrection.
Els, tho' a mere twelve by the Calendar back home, down here in the Southern World began long ago the active Pursuit of Lads twice her age, not all of them unwilling. Of the three Sisters, she seems devoted most unreflectively to the Possibilities of Love, her judgment as to where these may best be sought being the nightly Despair of her Sisters. She never needs to touch her Hair, and it is always perfect.
Cornelius Vroom, anxious as others in the House upon the Topick of Nubility and its unforeseen Woes, has forbidden his daughters to eat any of the native Cookery, particularly that of the Malay, in his Belief that the Spices encourage Adolescents into "Sin," by which he means Lust that
crosses racial barriers. For it is real,— he has known it to appear, more than once, here and up in the country, where his Brothers and their families live. He keeps loaded Elephant-Guns in both the front hallway and the Dispens in back. Deep in the curfew hours, in bed with his pipe, he imagines laughter outside the windows, even when the wind drowns out every sound,— slave laughter. He knows they watch him, and he tries to pay close Attention to the nuances of their speech. Somewhat as his Neighbors each strenuous Sunday profess belief in the Great Struggle at the End of the World, so does Cornelius, inside his perimeter of Mauritian smoke at the hour when nothing is lawfully a-stir but the Rattle-Watch and the wind, find in his anxious meditations no Release from the coming Armageddon of the races,— this European settlement so precarious, facing an unknown Interior with the sea at their backs, forced, step after step, by the steadfast Gravity of all Africa, down into it at last— It is another way of living where the Sea is ever higher than one's Head, and kept out only provisionally.
The first moment they find themselves in a Room together, Jet hands Mason a Hair-Brush. "There's a bit in back I can't reach,— please give it a dozen Strokes for me, Charles?"
"Nor does she allow just anyone do this," Greet entering, crossing, and exiting, "I hope you feel honor'd, Sir," with a look back over her shoulder that is anything but reproachful. A moment later she's back, with Els, who comes skipping over to Mason, and without a word, lifting her skirts, sits upon his lap in a sinuous Motion, allowing the Lace Hems to drop again, before squirming about to glance at his Face. "Now then, my English Tea-Pot," reaching to pinch his Cheek, by now well a-flame, "shall I tell you what she really wants you to do with that Hair-Brush?"
"Els, you Imp from Hell, I shall shave your Head. Mr. Mason is a Gentleman, who would never have such designs upon my bodily Comfort," putting out her hand for the return of the Hair-Brush, " - would you, Charles?"
Mason sits, torpedo'd again. To refuse to return the Brush would be to issue an Invitation she might accept. Yet if he hands it back, she'll shrug and go flitting on, tossing her Hair about, to someone marginally more interesting, and he'll face Hour upon insomniack Hour with the Fevers
of erotick speculation ever dispell'd by the Cold Bath of Annoyance at himself. Els continues meanwhile to reposition her nether Orbs upon Mason's Lap, to his involuntary, tho' growing Interest. Greet comes over to place her hand on his Brow. "Are you well, Sir? Is there anything I may bring you?" Fingertips lightly descending to his already assaulted Cheek, her eyes Crescent and heated. Her Lips, at least as he will recall this later, beginning to part, and come closer.
"Girls." Johanna bustling in. "You are disturbing Mr. Mason, 'tis obvious, and," switching to Cape Dutch, "in here it begins to smell like the Slaves' Chambers." The three maidens immediately snap to Attention, lining up in order of Height, trying without success to avoid all Gaze-Catching.
When they've been sent away cackling, their mother places an unpremeditated hand upon Mason's arm. "As a man of Science, you understand the role of Humors in adolescent behavior, and will not respond, I hope, too passionately. Is that the word, 'Passionately'?"
"Good Vrou, rest easy,— these days Passion knows me not,...alas."
She gazes long enough at his Member, still erect from the posterior Attentions of her youngest Daughter, before looking him in the eye. "I cannot imagine, then, how 'twill be, once you and It are re-acquainted."
"Should that occur," says Mason, fatally but not yet mortally, "pray feel welcome to attend and observe at first hand." She looks away at last, and in the Release Mason feels an Impulse to smite the Wall repeatedly with his Head. "Then again, your Duties may oblige you to be elsewhere."
She brushes against him on her way out the other Door, raking him with a glistening stare. "0, too late for that, good Sir, far too late."
What is wrong with this family? He feels stranded out at the end of some unnaturally prolong'd Peninsula of Obligation, whilst about to be overwhelm'd by great Combers of Alien Lusts. He now recognizes the Hair-Brush Dilemma in a different form. This time, whatever he may say in reply, will be taken and 'morphos'd, however Johanna wishes. He feels a sudden rush of Exemption. It does not matter what he says.
That night, the Sky too cloudy for Work, Mason is awaken'd by the naked Limbs of a Slave-girl, who has enter'd his Bed. Dixon is not yet
return'd, tho' 'tis well past the Gunfire. "What the Deuce!" is his gallant greeting. "And,— who are you, then?" He recalls having seen her in the company of various Vroom Girls.
"Austra, good Sir,— 'tis a common name here for Slaves."
' 'The South.'..." He is peering at her in the moonlit room. "I am Mason. Charles Mason."
She takes his Chin betwixt her Thumb and Finger. "A few basic points, Sir. First, no unnatural Activities. Second, no Opium, no Dagga, no Ardent Spirits, no Wine, and so on. Third, their Wish is that I become impregnated,— if not by you, then by one of you."
"Ehm..."
"All that the Mistress prizes of you is your Whiteness, understand? Don't feel disparag'd,— ev'ry white male who comes to this Town is approach'd by ev'ry Dutch Wife, upon the same Topick. The baby, being fairer than its mother, will fetch more upon the Market,— there it begins, there it ends."
"What, no Sentiment, no Love, no— Excuse me? 'Approach'd'? Ahrr! Of course,— was I imagining m'self the first? And you, how many of these expensive little slaves have you borne her?"
"Why be angry with me, Sir? She is the Mistress, I do as she bids."
"Why, in England, no one has the right to bid another to bear a child?"
"Poh. White Wives are much alike, and all their Secrets are common knowledge at the Market. Many have there been, oblig'd to go on bearing children,— for no reason but the man's pride."
"Our Women are free."
'' 'Our'? Oh, hark yourself,— how is English Marriage any different from the Service I'm already in?"
"You must marry an Englishman, and see."
"Not today, Sailor. Yet take warning,— the Mother will set her three Cubs upon ye without Mercy, and make her own assaults as well, all of it intended to keep this rigid with your Desire,— and the only one in the House you'll be allow'd to touch is me."
" 'This'? I say, what's that you're doing there? You really ought not to— “
"Having but an innocent Squeeze, Sir. Keep me in Mind. I'll tell them I couldn't wake you up." She proceeds carefully as she may to the door, expecting at ev'ry step to be assaulted,— he snorts, and paws the Counterpane, but doesn't charge. Exiting, looking back over a dorsal 'Scape immediately occupying all of Mason's Attention, "See you tomorrow at Breakfast,— remember to save one of those 'cute Frowns for me." And Damme, she's off.
Next morning, none of the five Sprites is able to engage the Eyes of any other. Dixon wolfs down griddle cakes and Orange-Juice, whilst Mason glumly concentrates upon the Coffee and its Rituals. Cornelius comes in briefly to light his Pipe and nod before proceeding to his Work, which involves a good deal of screaming at the Slaves. Mason's Day, long and fatiguing, is spent popping in and out of doors, being caught alone in different rooms with different females of the household, by others, who then contrive to return the favor. Only slowly does it dawn on him that this goes on here all the time,— being likely the common Life of the House,— and that he but happens to have stumbl'd into it as some colorful Figure from the Fringes of the World, here for a while and then gone, just enough time for ev'ryone, barring some unannounc'd bolt of Passion finding a Target, to make use of him, perhaps not quite time enough for them to come to despise him.
So Mason prays for clear nights and perfect seeing,— nonetheless, his throat closes and dries, his heart's rhythm picks up whenever the Clouds cover the Sunset, and the Fog rolls swiftly all the way up to the Observatory, and over it, and on up, and he knows he'll be facing anywhere up to five distinctly motivated Adventuresses, each of whom, as in some fiendish Asian parlor-game, is scheming against the other four, the field having shifted from Motives of Pleasure to Motives of Reproduction and Commerce. Its being for them a given that nothing of a Romantick nature will occur,— nothing does. Mason is usually left with an inflexible Object, which, depending upon the Breeches he's wearing that day, not to mention the Coat, is more or less visible to the Publick, who at any rate, as it proves, are quite us'd to even less inhibited Displays.
Dixon does his best not to mention it, waiting rather for Mason either to brag, or to complain.
Eventually, "I know what you're looking at. I know what you're thinking."
"Who? I? Mason."
"Well, what am I suppos'd to do about it?"
"First, get out of thah' House."
Mason makes quick Head-Turns, to Left and Right, and lowers his Voice. "Whilst you've been out rollicking with your Malays and Pygmies,., .what have you heard of the various sorts of Magick, that they are said to possess?"
Dixon has in fact heard, from an assortment of Companions native to the Dutch Indies, Tales of Sorcery, invisible Beings, daily efforts to secure Shelter against Demonic Infestation. "They are not as happy, nor as childlike, as they seem," he tells Mason. "It may content us, as unhappy grown Englishmen, to think that somewhere in the World, Innocence may yet abide,— yet 'tis not among these people. All is struggle,— and all but occasionally in vain."
Mason cocks his head, trying to suppress a certain Quiver that also
gives him away when at Cards,— a bodily Desire to risk all upon a sin
gle Trick. "Would you happen to enjoy Entree to this world of Sorcery? I
am anxious as to Protection "
"A Spell...?" Dixon suggests.
"Emphatickally not a Love-Potion, you understand, no, no, quite the contrary indeed."
Dixon, to spare himself what might else prove to be Evenings-ful of Complaint, says, "I've met people who are said to possess a special Power,— the Balinese Word is Sakti. It has not, however, always been successful against Dutchmen. Would this be a Hate potion, then, that tha require?"
"Well, certainly not Hate. Inconvenient as Love, in its own way,— no, more of an Indifference-Draught, 's more what I had in mind. 'Twould have to be without odor or Taste, and require but a few Drops,—
"I could have a look about, tho' 'tis more common here to accept what they happen to offer...?"
Difficult indeed are the next few Nights as Dixon, searching the Malay Quarter for an Elixir to meet Mason's specifications, beneath lam-pless staircases, in the bloody lulls of cock-fights, is merrily insulted from one illicit Grotto to another. Oh, they've heard of the Philtre, all right, 'tis quite in demand, in fact, as much by one Sex as the other. As the Company seeks to confine all the Dutch of the Cape Colony behind a Boundary it has drawn, and to rule them radially from a single Point, the least immoderate of Feelings, in such a clos'd Volume, may prove lethal. Over the Mountains, to keep all tranquil, entire Tribes work day and night shifts, trying to supply a lively Market. Imitations and Counterfeits abound.
Mason is not seeking the Potion for himself,— rather, his Scheme is to introduce it into the Soup-Bowl of his Hostess, who is kept tun'd to her own dangerous Pitch thro' the Attentions of a number of young Slave-girls chosen for their good looks,— they haunt her, whisking the flies from her skin, oiling it when the South-easter makes it dry as Pages of a Bible, draping it with silks from India and France. They feed her pomegranates, kneeling quickly to lick off the juice that runs down her hand before it reaches her sleeve. Cornelius has a Peep in from time to time. Though he usually departs with an Erection, it is possible that he is feeling the pain of an ineptly shot Beast. But his Expression doesn't change. He sucks upon his Pipe, removes it from his mouth to cough, and, continuing to cough, ambles away.
In Johanna's intrigue to bring together Mason and her senior slave, however, 'tis the Slavery, not any form of Desire, that is of the essence. Dixon, out of these particular meshes, can see it,— Mason cannot. Indifferent to Visibility, wrapt in the melancholy Winds that choir all night long, persists an Obsession or Siege by something much older than anyone here, an injustice that will not cancel out. Men of Reason will define a Ghost as nothing more otherworldly than a wrong unrighted, which like an uneasy spirit cannot move on,— needing help we cannot usually give,— nor always find the people it needs to see,— or who need to see it. But here is a Collective Ghost of more than household Scale,— the Wrongs committed Daily against the Slaves, petty and grave ones alike, going unrecorded, charm'd invisible to history, invisible yet possessing Mass, and Velocity, able not only to rattle Chains but to break them as well. The precariousness to Life here, the need to keep the Ghost propitiated, Day to Day, via the Company's
merciless Priesthoods and many-Volum'd Codes, brings all but the hardiest souls sooner or later to consider the Primary Questions more or less undiluted. Slaves here commit suicide at a frightening Rate,— but so do the Whites, for no reason, or for a Reason ubiquitous and unaddress'd, which may bear Acquaintance but a Moment at a Time. Mason, as he comes to recognize the sorrowful Nakedness of the Arrangements here, grows morose, whilst Dixon makes a point of treating Slaves with the Courtesy he is never quite able to summon for their Masters.
Yet they entertain prolong'd Phantasies upon the Topick. They take their Joy of it. "Astronomy in a Realm where Slavery prevails...! Slaves holding candles to illuminate the ocular Threads, whilst others hold Mirrors, should we wish another Angle. One might lie, supine, Zenith-Star position, all Night,...being fann'd, fed, amus'd,— ev'ryone else oblig'd to remain upon their Feet, ever a-tip, to respond to a 'Gazer's least Velle-ity. Hahrrhr
"Mason, why thah' is dis-gusting...?"
"Come, come, and you're ever telling me to lighten up my Phiz? I have found it of help, Dixon, to think of this place as another Planet whither we have journey'd, where these Dutch-speaking White natives are as alien to the civilization we know as the very strangest of Pygmies,— "
" 'Help'? It doesn't help, what are tha talking about...? Tha've a personal Interest here, thy Sentiments engag'd, for all I know."
"Ahrr! My Sentiments! Sentiments, in this Place! A Rix-Dollar a Dozen today, tomorrow wherever the Company shall peg them,— the Dutch Company which is ev'rywhere, and Ev'rything."
"Somewhat like the Deists' God, do tha mean?"
"Late Blow, late Blow,— "
"Mason, of Mathematickal Necessity there do remain, beyond the Reach of the Y.O.C., routes of Escape, pockets of Safety,— Markets that never answer to the Company, gatherings that remain forever unknown, even down in Butter-Bag Castle. I'd be much oblig'd if we might roam 'round together, some Evening, and happen we'll see. Mind, I'm seldom all the way outside their Perimeter,— yet do I make an effort to keep to the Margins close as I may.”
"And I'm making no Effort, is that it, you're accusing me of Servility? Sloth? You're never about, how would you know how hard I'm working? Do not imagine me taking any more Joy of this, than you do."
"Come, then. There's too much Sand in the Air tonight for any decent Obs,— Zeemanns and Vrooms all cataleptick from these Winds, none shall miss us,— mayn't we be carefree Mice for a few Hours, at least...?"
He receives a blurr'd and strangely prolong'd Gaze. "I wish I knew where my Affection for you runs,— one moment 'tis sure as the heart-yarn of a Mainstay, the next I am entertaining cheerfully Projects in which your Dissolution is ever a Feature."
"Calling off the Wedding, again. We must try not to weep...?" For an instant both feel, identically, too far from anyplace, defenseless behind this fragile Salient into an Unknown, too deep for one Life-Span, that begins directly behind Table Mountain.
They do, to be sure, go out that Evening, as into various others together, in search of Lustful Adventure, but each time Mason will wreck things, scuttling hopes however sure, frightening off the Doxies with Gothickal chat of Headstones and Diseases of the Mind, swilling down great and occasionally, Dixon is told, exceptional Constantia wines with the sole purpose of getting drunk, exploding into ill-advis'd Song, losing consciousness face-first into a Variety of food and Drink, including more than one of the most exquisite karis this side of Sumatra,— that is, proving a difficult carousing partner, block'd from simple enjoyment in too many directions for Dixon to be at all anger'd,— rather marveling at him, as a Fair-goer might at some Curiosity of Nature.
Mason, no less problematick indoors than out, being an uneasy sleeper, begins at about this time to dream of some Presence with a Krees or Malay Dagger, of indistinct speech, yet clear intention to Dowse for the Well-Spring of Mason's Blood. He wakes up screaming, repeatedly. At length Austra, expressing the will of both Houses, sends him to talk with a certain Toko, a Negritoe, or Asian Pygmy, of a Malay tribe call'd the Senoi. It is their belief that the world they inhabit in their Dreams is as real as their waking one. At breakfast each morning, families sit and report their Dreams to one another, offering advice and opinions passim, as if all the fantastical beings and events be but other villagers, and village Gossip.
"They live their Dreams," Mason reports to Dixon, "whilst we deny ev'rything we may witness during that third of our Precious Span allotted, as if Sleep be too much like Death to advert to for long...." It is at some point that night, after securing the second Altitude of Shaula, that the Astronomers agree to share the Data of their Dreams whenever possible. After those initiatory Hours together upon the Seahorse, having found no need to pretend a whole list of Pretenses, given thereby a windfall of precious time, neither is surpriz'd at how many attunements, including a few from dream-life, they may find between them.
"Heaven help me," Mason muttering sourly, "my Dreams reveal this Town to be one of the colonies of Hell, with the Dutch Company acting as but a sort of Caretaker for another.. .Embodying of Power, 's ye'd say, altogether,— Ev'ryday life as they live it here, being what Hell's colonials have for Routs and Ridottoes,—
"Why," Eye-Lids clench'd apart, "my own dreams are very like, tho'
without the Dutch Company,— more like a Gala that never stops
Think thee 'tis all this Malay food we're eating ev'ry day...?"
Mason has a brief excursion outside himself. "You're enjoying this miserable Viper-Plantation! Why, Damme if you're not going to miss it when we're shut of it at long last. Arh, arh! What shall you do for Ketjap?"
"They must sell it somewhere in London...?"
"At ten times the price."
"Then I shall have to learn a Receipt for it."
The next time the tall Figure with the wavy Blade approaches him, Mason, willing to try anything, stands his ground, and with the help of certain Gloucestershire shin-kicking Arts, actually defeats his Assailant. "Keep your Face down," Mason tells the Adversary. "I do not wish to see your Face."
"You must then demand something from him," Toko has advis'd. "Some solid Gift you may bring back with you."
"The Krees," says Mason. Silently, the bow'd Figure throws it on the Ground to one side. Mason stoops and picks it up. "Thank you." When
7' he wakes, there it is, the Point lying nearly within the Portal of one Nostril,— a wrong turn in his Sleep might have been the End. Despite its look of Forge-fresh Perfection, 'tis not a Virgin Blade,— tiny Scratches, uncleansable Stains, overlie one the other in a Palimpsest running deep into the Dimension of Time.
"Happen 'twill be those Girls, teasing with thee...?"
"Why thankee, Blight, what would a Day be without a Common-sense Remark from you?"
"One of us must provide a Datum-Line of Sanity, and as it seems unlikely to be thee,—
"Aahhrr! The most intimate of acts, the trustful sharing of a Dream, taken and us'd against the Master, by his own sly 'Prentice!"
"Begging thy Mercy, Sir, let us not venture into the terre mauvais of professional Resentment, or we shall certainly miss the culmination of Shaula, that Sting e'er pois'd above the Pates of this unhappy People, to strike which, and which not, who can say...?"
"The very voice of Responsibility Astronomick,— was ever Star-gazer more fortunate than I, to be seconded to this Angelickal Correctness. And yet despite you, Dixon, do you know what, the Imp calls,— it advises me, 'Whom better to bore with the unabridg'd tale of your woeful treatment by the World you so desperately wish to be lov'd by, aye, unto Ravishment, than this unreflective Geordie here? At least he understands some Astronomy,' is usually how it goes."
'' 'And being your Second,' " Dixon bats back, " 'he has no choice but to listen.'''
"Just so, and take Notes if you wish, for someday, Lad, you'll be running your own Expedition, bearing all the weight of Leadership, which crusheth a man even as it bloateth his Pride— Aye, miraculous,— perhaps with some luck you'll come to know the Relief indescribable of shedding that Load, dumping months, even years, of accumulated Resentment in one great—
"Eeh, if tha don't mind?"
"Oh. Oh, of course, I hadn't realiz'd. 'Tis but our uninhibited Earthi-ness, we of lower degree, we're forever speaking of shit, you see, without much— Damme, I say, I said 'shit,' didn't I?— Oh, shit, I've said it again,— No! Twice!" Smacking himself repeatedly upon the Dome.
"Be easy, Mason, it's all right."
"You'll report me now."
"Be happy to, if I thought anyone would believe it...?"
"Wouldn't want you getting into any trouble," Mason unable to refrain from adding, "- - Spanish Inquisitors or whatever—"
"Indulge me, Sir, that word again was...?"
"Oh, for Heav'n's sake, 'Authorities,' if you like, if that's not too sectarian for you."
"I am not a fucking Jesuit, Mason. If Jesuits are manipulating me, then are we two Punches in a Droll-booth, Friend,— for as certainly would it be the East India Company who keep thee ever in Motion."
"Ah,— and how is that, exactly?"
"Someday, someone will ask, How did a baker's son get to be Assistant to the Astronomer Royal? How'd a Geordie Land-Surveyor get to be his Second on the most coveted Star-gazing Assignment of the Century? Happen 'twas my looks...? thy charm...? Or are we being us'd, by Forces invisible even to thy Invisible College?"
"Whatever my Station," bristling, "I have earn'd it. Tho' frankly, I have wonder'd about you. A collier's son,— a land-sale collier at that,— surely there's more wealth and respect in sea-coal?"
"Aye, and we're Quakers as well, is there a Nervus Probandi about someplace?"
"Merely have I gone on puzzling,— as, without influence, nothing may come of a Life, and however briskly you may belabor me with Mr. Peach,— yet who, I ask myself thro' the Watch when Sleep comes not, may it have been, between mouthfuls of 'Sandwich,' as the spotted Cubes went a-dancing, who dropp'd the decisive word about you? Don't tell me Emerson, or Christopher Le Maire."
"Why, 'twas John Bird...? Thought ev'ryone knew thah'. As Mr. Bird's Representative in the Field,— my duty's to tend the Sector,— pray nothing goes too much amiss, requiring me to fix it...? Eeh! I'm the Sector Wallah!"
Mason's response is a Reverse Squint,— each Eye, that is, doing the opposite of what it usually does when he peers thro' a Telescope. Dixon finds it, briefly, disorienting. Mason even seems to be trying to smile in apology. "The Arts of leadership in me how wanting, as all alas must know,
I bear this command only thanks to a snarl'd and soil'd web of favors, sales, and purchases I pray you may ever remain innocent of. You are right not to accept my Command,— well, not all the time, as I may hope,—
"Am I giving that impression, I'm sure I didn't mean to...?"
"You're the mystery, Dixon, not I. I'm but a Pepper-corn in the Stuffata, stirr'd and push'd about by any Fool who walks by with a Spoon, entirely theirs,— no mystery about any of them, dubious set of Cooks tho' they be, nough' but the same old Criminals, some dating back to Walpole. But your lot, now,— well, they're a different sort, aren't they?"
"Recall last year, Ingenuous,— Clive's in London by the first of August. By the eleventh of September,— that is, the next thing anyone knows,— the Assignments are chang'd, with thee no longer his brother-in-law's second, rather leading a Team of thy own, replaced by an unknown Quantity. What am I to make of this? We scarcely know Maske-lyne. Who is Robert Waddington, anyway?"
"One of the Lunarian Stalwarts, teaching the Mathematicks out near the Monument someplace, Intimate, indeed Housemate, of one of the Piggotts, those eminent advocates of taking the Longitude by Lunar Culminations."
"Maskelyne's sort of Lad...?"
(As Maskelyne will later tell Mason, Waddington from the outset was afflicted with a Melancholy lighter and faster, tho' no less lethal, than the traditional Black sort. "So how be ye, Robert?"
"Two weeks in Twickenham, how am I suppos'd to be? Strawberry Hill, Eel-Pie Island, haven't I seen it all?"
"Yet the Fishing, 'tis said— "
"Oh, Bleak easily the length of a man's hand. Ye take 'em with a Maggot that dwells only upon that Reach,— quite unknown to the rest of Britain. And if Beetles be your Passion, why, the Beetle Variety there! Fair stupefies one."
"Piggotts all well, I trust?"
A long stare. "Where's the Local 'round these parts, then?"
"A moment's Walk, tho' not as easy to get back from."
"Hum. Bit like Life, isn't it?"
And that was in early January, with the Transit of Venus yet six Months off. They were going to be left together upon St. Helena, an island that, according to rumor, often drove its inhabitants insane.)
"Tom Birch did happen to mention that 'twas Maskelyne who'd given him Mr. Waddington's address. He show'd me his Note-Book. Maskelyne had written it in himself. It appears he preferr'd as his co-adjutor the friend of the Piggotts to the Friend of the Peaches,— thus allowing me to proceed in a single unprotected little Jackass Frigate, instead of his own giant India-man, in a Convoy, with half the Royal N. there as well to keep them safe...."
"Allowing Dr. Bradley to step in, obtaining for thee the leadership of an additional Observing Team."
"And choosing you upon advice from Mr. Bird, Author of the most advanc'd Astronomickal Device in Creation. Yes, yes, upon the face of it, quite straightforward, isn't it?...And yet, d'ye not feel sometimes that ev'rything since the Fight at sea has been,— not a Dream, yet..."
"Aye. As if we're Lodgers inside someone else's Fate, whilst belonging quite someplace else...?"
"Nothing's as immediate as it was.... We might have died then, after all, and gone on as Ghosts. Haunting this place, waiting to materialize,— perhaps just at the moment of the Transit, the moment the Planet herself becomes Solid...."
"Even by then," the Revd declares, "upon some Topicks, the Astronomers remain'd innocent. That few usually believ'd this, might have prov'd more than once an Advantage, in their Strivings with the Day,— had they known how disingenuous they appear'd, they could have settl'd for much more than they ended up getting."
"Oh, Uncle, how can you reckon so?" "By others who did far less, and receiv'd more." "And they're all Dead," says Ethelmer, "so what's it matter?" "Cousin." Tenebras holding a Bodkin in at least an advisory way. Ethelmer scowls in reply, what was a lambent Spark in his Eyes now but silver'd, cold Reflection.
"Brae, your Cousin proceeds unerringly to the Despair at the Core of History,— and the Hope. As Savages commemorate their great Hunts with Dancing, so History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ, and how we have far'd. If it is undeniably so that he rose from the Dead, then the Event is taken into History, and History is redeem'd from the service of Darkness,— with all the secular Consquences, flowing from that one Event, design'd and will'd to occur."
"Including ev'ry Crusade, Inquisition, Sectarian War, the millions of lives, the seas of blood," comments Ethelmer. "What happen'd? He liked it so much being dead that He couldn't wait to come back and share it with ev'rybody else?"
"Sir." Mr. LeSpark upon his feet. "Save that for your next Discussion with others of comparable wisdom. In this house we are simple folk, and must labor to find much amusement in Joaks about the Savior."
Ethelmer bows. "Temporarily out of touch with my Brain," he mumbles, "Sorry, ev'rybody. Sir, Reverend, Sir.”
8
As the Days here slip by, whilst the Transit yet lies too distant for him quite to believe in, Dixon, assailed without mercy by his Sensorium, almost in a swoon, finds himself, on Nights of Cloud, less and less able to forgo emerging at dusk, cloaked against the Etesian wind, and making directly for the prohibited parts of town. Somewhere a Tune In the musical Mode styl'd, by the East Indians, Pelog, which they term appropriate to evening, bells quietly with him as he goes, keeping the rhythm of his stride, and he begins to whistle briskly along. After months of being told by Masters-at-Arms that he might not whistle aboard ship, any resumption of the vice comes as a freedom almost Torpedick, particularly here, as he follows these Increasingly unlighted lanes of hammered dust, with Lawless Bustle at ev'ry Hand, black slaves carrying gamecocks, looking for a Spot Contest, Bandieten exil'd from Batavia with their Retinues of Pygmies, Women in Veils, Drosters down on business, Sailors to whom ev'ry Port of Call's but another Imitation of Wapplng, and along the way, at each dimmed crossing, Cape Malays waiting with Goods to sell, all of whom have soon come to know Dixon.
"Here, Tuan! Best Dagga, cleaned, graded, ready for your flame..." "Real Dutch gin, bottles with th' original seals, yes! Intact as virgins..." "Latest ketjap, arriv'd Express from Indo-China, see? Pineapple, Pumplenose, Tamarind,— an hundred flavors, a thousand blends!" Invisible through the long Dutch workday, life in the Cape Night now begins to unwrap everywhere. Dixon smells the broiling food, the spices, the livestock, the night-blooming vines, the ocean voracious and immense. He is acquiring a nasal map of the Town, learning, in monitory whiffs, to smell the Watch,— pipes, sheep-fat suppers, pre-Watch gin,— and to take evasive action...learning to lurk, become part of the night, close enough to slave-borne lanthorns passing by to feel their heat as easily as he may scent the burghers' wives through the curtains of their sedan chairs,— the St. Helena coffee, English soap, French dampness. In the distance the nightly curfew cannon barks, announcing Dixon's transition to the state of Outlaw.
He feels like a predatory Animal,— as if this Town were ancient to him, his Hunting-Ground, his Fell so mis-remember'd in nearly all Details, save where lie the Bound'ries he does not plan to cross. Tho' how can there be any room for excess in this gossip-ridden Town, crowded up against the Mountains that wall it from the virid vast leagues of Bushmen's Land beyond? as behind these carv'd doors and Gothickal Gates, in the far Penumbrse of sperm tapers, in Loft and Voorhuis, in entryways scour'd by Dusk and blown Sand, these Dutch carry on as if Judgment be near as the towering Seas and nothing matter anymore, especially not good behavior, because there's no more time,— the bets are in, ev'ry individual Fate decided, all cries taken by the great Winds, and 'tis done. Temporally, as geographically, the End of the World. The unrelenting Vapor of debauchery here would not merely tempt a Saint,— Heavens, 'twould tempt an Astronomer. Yet 'tis difficult, if not impossible, for these Astronomers to get down to a Chat upon the Topick of Desire, given Dixon's inability to deny or divert the Gusts that sweep him, and Mason's frequent failure, in his Melancholy, even to recognize Desire, let alone to act upon it, tho' it run up calling Ahoy Charlie. "How could you begin to understand?" Mason sighs. "You've no concept of Temptation. You came ashore here looking for occasions to transgress. Some of us have more Backbone, I suppose...."
"A bodily Part too often undistinguish'd," Dixon replies, "from a Ram-Rod up the Arse."
Jet slides by in the narrow Hallway. "Don't forget to-night, Charles," she sings.
"I'll remember," mutters Mason, adjusting his Wig.
Dixon beams after her, then back at Mason. "Engaging Youngster...?”
"She is a fine young Woman, Dixon, and I shan't hear a Word more."
"Tell me," blinks Dixon, "what'd I say?" But Mason has already clam-ber'd away up the Stairs. Passing thro' the Hallway a bit later, Dixon observes Mason now in deep conversation with Greet, the two of them nervous as cats. "Mutton Stew this evening, I'm told," Dixon cries in cheery Salute. The Girl shrieks, and runs off into the Kitchen.
Mason snarls. "Time hanging heavy, 's that it? What can I do to help? Just name it."
"Why aye,— perhaps when the Ladies have retir'd,— " Thus bickering they pass into the Dining-Room. After the Cape custom, the Dutchman has lock'd his front door for the evening meal, which he now regards, smoldering, less predictable than an Italian Volcano.
"I see you have discovered another Cape delicacy, Mr. Dixon," Johanna in an effort not to get into any verbal exchange with Mason, whilst her husband is in the room, "— our Malays call it ketjap."
"Girls, don't even want you looking at it. Filthy Asian stuff," Cornelius commands thro' clouds of aromatic pipe-smoke. "Even" (puff) "if something has to be done" (puff) "to cover up the taste of this food." Another volcanickal Emission, whilst he grimly attacks his slice of the evening's mutton in Tail-fat. Over the course of its late owner's life, the Tail has grown not merely larger and more fatty, but also, having absorbed years of ovine Flatulence ever blowing by, to exhibit a distinct Taste, perhaps priz'd by cognoscenti somewhere, though where cannot readily be imagin'd.
Dixon meanwhile is struggling with the very Chinese Concoction, or rather with its slender Bottle, out of whose long neck he finds he has trouble getting the stuff to flow. "Strike her upon the bottom," whispers Els, "and perhaps she will behave." Dixon does a quick triple-take among the faces of the women, a Jocularity poised upon his Tongue but peering out warily, not quite trusting the open. He notes, at the far corner of his visual field, Mason attempting to hide behind, perhaps even beneath, the food on his plate. Cornelius, president inside his blue tobacco Fumulus, seems unaware of the tangle of purposes in the room. Greet is playing vigorously with locks of her Hair, trying to remember what her sisters above and below think she does and doesn't know at this point in the Saga, as against what her Mother believes. What Mason may be thinking is of course unimportant to any of them.
At last, the relentless Supper done, the Vrooms, as is their Custom, retire out front to the Stoep, Johanna and the Girls swiftly choosing Seats to Windward of Cornelius and his Watch-fire, leaving the Astronomers to light what Pipes they may in self-defense.
"There is something irresistibly perverse," as the Revd then noted, "about a young white woman sitting upon a Stoep in the evening, among a steady coming and going of black servants meant, as in the Theater of the Japanese, to be read as invisible, whilst she poses all a-shine, she and her friends. According to which steps they sit upon, and which are then claim'd by the Feet of young Sparks who might wish to linger, the possible viewing-angles, for both Parties, are more or less multiplied, each combination of Steps having its own elaborate Codes for what is allow'd, and what transgresses, from Eye-play to the readjustment of skirts and underskirts, and the length of time 'tis consider'd proper to gaze. Some Belles like to 'boss' their male Slaves about in front of the young men, whilst others wish to be caught gazing after Girl-slaves with unconceal'd envy. Over the Range of their Desires, they are shameless, these Dutch girls of all ages, for they are the Girls of the end of the world, and the only reason for anyone to endure church all day Sunday is to be reminded of the Boundaries there to be o'erstepp'd. The more aware of their Sins as they commit them, the more pleas'd be these Cape folk,— more so than Englishmen, who tend to perish from the levels of Remorse attending any offense graver than a Leer."
Slowly, gravely, the Younkers dance up and down the Steps in the Evening. Their talk is of Roof-tops, Arch-ways, Sheds, and Warehouses— any place secure from Traffick long enough for a Skirt to be lifted or Breeches unbuckl'd. Johanna keeps looking over at Mason, as if offering to translate. A young Gallant arrives bearing a diminutive three-string'd Lute, and dropping to one Knee before Jet,— tho' she has delegated the sighing to her sisters,— sings his own original Paean to Cape Womanhood,—
Oh,
Cape Girrl,
In the Ocean Wind,
Fairer than the full Moon,
Secret as a Sin,—
Sc You're a,
Light Lass,
So the Lads all say,
Sitting on your Stoep, hop-
-Ing Love will pass today...
You keep your Slaves about,
As don't we all,
Yet no one in love is brave,
And even a Slave may fall...
In love with,—
Cape Girl,
When South-Easters blow,
Thro' my Dreams, I know,
To your Arms I'll go,
Cape Girl, don't say no.
"And self-Accompanied, Wim!— what is that tiny Object in your Lap that you've been whanging your Triads upon, there, and so rhythmic-kally, too?"
"Found this down at that Market near the Gallows,— 'tis a Fiji Islander's Guitar, first introduc'd there two hundred years ago by Portuguese Jesuits, according to the Malay that sold me it."
"I see the Jesuit part clearly enough," Greet remarks.
"So long as you don't grasp it," murmurs Els.
'Tis an open enough Game, with a level of Calculation, among these Daughters of the Low Country, no less forgiving than the sort of thing that may be heard, any slack-time, among the Girls in the Company Brothel at the Slave Lodge,— two distinct Worlds, the Company maintaining their separation, setting Prices, seeking as ever total control, over the sex industry in Cape Town. Yet do there remain a few independents, brave girls and boys who are young enough to enjoy the danger of going up against the Compagnie. Sylphs of mixed race, mixed gender, who know how to vanish into the foothills, and the Droster Net-work, even finding safety beyond, in the land of the Hottentots. Yet 'tis difficult to leave the life in town, to give up that sudden elation, when the ships appear 'round the Headlands, Spanish Dollars everywhere in golden Infestation, every woman in town, from the stoniest white Church-Pillar to the giddiest black Belle in from the Hinterland, at once coming alert, and even some-
times a-jangle. The taverns are jumping, sailors bring their pipes and fiddles ashore, Dagga smoke begins to scent the air, voices lift, music pulses, the nights bloom like Jasmine.
Tis then Mason and Dixon are most likely to be out rambling among all the Spices armies us'd to kill for, up in the Malay quarter, a protruded tongue of little streets askew to the Dutch grid, reaching to the base of Table Mountain. The abrupt evening descends, the charcoal fires come glowing one by one to life, dotting the hill-side, night slowly fills with cooking aromas,— shrimp paste, tamarinds, coriander and cumin, hot chilies, fish sauces, and fennel and fenugreek, ginger and lengkua. Windows and doorways open to Lives finite but overwhelming, households gathering against the certain night....
Greet Vroom slips away with Austra to follow the Astronomers. "They visit different Kitchens, and eat," she reports back to her sisters, nodding her head, a little out of breath. "They wander about, eating and talking. Every now and then they'll step into one of those seamen's taverns."
"What do they eat?"
"Everything. Half of it is food you wouldn't dream of!
Out in the Dark where the Malays all feast,
Spices and Veg'table Treats from the East,
Peppers as hot as the Hearth-sides of Hell,
Things that Papa has neglected to tell,—
Curried wild Peacock and Springbok Ragout,
Bilimbi Pickles, and Tamarinds, too,
Bobotie, Frikkadel, Fried Porcupine,
Glasses a-brim with Constantia Wine, singing,
Pass me that Plate,
Hand me that Bowl,
Let's have that Bottle,
Toss me a Roll,'
Scoffing and swilling, out under the Sky,
Leaving the Stars to go silently by.
"Greet,— uncomb'd, sentimental Greet," Jet gushes. It occurs to no one that what has driven the Astronomers up the slopes of Table Mountain may be, at last, the Table Vroom. The pipe smoke, the Sheep-fat, the strange Dinner-ware, everything, dishes, spoons, Yes even twinkling
through the mutton broth at the bottom of one's spoon, are these,— well, stories,— Battles, religious Events, Personages with rapt Phizzes standing about in Rays from above, pointing aloft at who knows what, violent scenes of martyrdom from the religious wars of the previous century, obscure moral instructions written in all-but-unreadable lettering, and in Dutch withal,— framing the potatoes on one's plate, or encircling some caudal Stuffata being passed from eater to eater, and rotated as it goes, so that each gets to view a separate episode of some forever obscure doctrinal dispute— Soon enough Mason and Dixon are desperate. Pretending astronomical Chores up at the Observatory, Bowls and Cutlery conceal'd in their Cloaks, they steal away, thinking of Oceanick Fish, African Game, hot Peppers, spices of the East.
"I believe in Vibrations," declares Mason, "— I believe, that Vibrations from that horrid family get into their food, which is difficult enough to enjoy to begin with,—
"And?"
"I'd rather be out here."
"Why aye,"— as far projected into the Sea, each will confide, as Land may go, out blessedly alone upon the furthest Point, nothing beyond but the uninterrupted planetary Seas of the 4o's, the West Wind Express, and the Regions of Ice, and the Mystery at the exact Other Pole,— the night Fog creeping like quicksilver, all but surrounded by a Waste where the Seas might grow higher than either Astronomer can imagine without Fear, set up and waiting for a Southern Star, Lumina of a shapely Constellation unnam'd, forever below any British Horizon, to culminate.
They have come upon a Queue forming up a dark street, and decide to join it, Dixon in his red coat, boots with three-inch heels, and mysteriously cockaded hat, Mason, after an hour before his traveler's Mirror, having assum'd rather a darken'd, volish neutrality. As they move slowly toward the makeshift kitchen-tent, more and more of its candle-lit interior may be seen. A man in a Sarong cooks as though possessed, running about with a Krees to gaze too long at whose bright wavy edge might put a Man's Thumbs a-prickle, as his Mind in a Bind,— poking embers precisely into huge gusts of flame, stirring the contents of various pots, peeling Garlick, deveining and Butterflying shrimps, slicing vegetables, boning and filleting fish, performing perhaps a dozen such Tasks more or less simultane- ously with this single Implement, whilst beds of embers glow, and from iron pans rise huge clouds of smoke and steam, so fragrant that breathing them is like eating the first Plate-ful of a large Meal,— and his wife hands the food out the window and collects the money, and older children carry and prepare whilst younger ones tend the babies in the dark, watching the Progress of the Krees, which they have seen fly, heard sing, and, in the presence of a pure well, felt a-tremble, there being an odd number of waves to its Blade, signifying Alliance with the correct Forces.
"Amazing," Mason somehow having fallen into conversation with one of the Children. "In my country, near my Home, since the Mills came, our pure Wells have been well hidden, and we must now ask Dowsers, who use long Hazel Wands in much the same way, to find them."
"Have the Dutch conquer'd your land, too?"
"Oh, dear me, no,— " Mason prim'd to chuckle in condescension till Dixon, infernally a-beam, says, "William of Orange, what about him? Tha wouldn't style thah' a Conquest?"
"Captain Jere, Good Evening, the Satay Deluxe as usual?"
"Looks bonnie, Rakhman,— what are those yellow bits there?"
"Mangoes. Still on the green side tonight, but tomorrow,— tomorrow's the Day."
Accordingly, next morning at the first risen Gull's cry, "Eeh, Mason,— the Mangoes are in!"
"Bring me back a likely one," Mason mutters, "and perhaps I shan't kill you." Yet out of something like Duty ow'd his Senses, he finds himelf shambling down to the Market, yawning in the sun, there to behold Mountains of the Fruit apparently all come to Ripeness at the same Moment,— causing a Panic, for all must then be pick'd in a short time from the Groves up-country and rush'd directly to Town, to lie in these towering Heaps, waiting to be lifted and apprais'd, as they find the Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke doing when they arrive.
"Well met, Gentlemen! What a Morning! One feels as Adam felt,— even better, as Eve."
"I shall kill him now," Mason declares.
"Eeh, get the old Nozzle down upon this one, Mason,— a Beauty, 's it not?" The Aroma captures Mason's Attention. "Aye, tha'd better eat thah' one now thy Nose has been all over it.”
"Why don't I throw it at you instead?" They are soon retir'd to a nearby Stoep, where they sit eating Mangoes. Neighboring Stoeps are similarly occupied.
"Thought you'd sail'd," Dixon says.
"The Seahorse proceeds without me. East of the Cape, Captain Grant was pleas'd to inform me, men of Christ are not desir'd,— tho' why, he refus'd to say, even when I suggested that if clergy be bann'd, then what is contemplated out there must be too terrible to speak of, in any way but secretly."
"I, personally, am looking for that B-st-rd St.-Foux," Captain Grant declar'd. "My Seahorse is a damn'd snappy little Package, and I suppose I've grown to love her, for her Honor is become important to me."
"Shall I be safer in Cape Town?" inquir'd the Revd.
"Safe enough. You shouldn't have long to wait. Indiamen come thro' all the time, tho' they are most inflexibly anti-clerickal Folk,— their Cargo spaces are purposely built a Tun short to avoid the law that requires a Chaplain on board,— so you'd do better to represent yourself in some other line of work."
"Tha could pretend to be an Astronomer," Dixon says, "— all tha need to know, I can teach thee in five minutes."
"Surveying won't even take that long," snaps Mason. "Piss runneth downhill, and Pay-Day is Saturday,— now you're a qualified Fence-runner."
The Revd holds aloft a Mango, as if 'twere a Host. "Had I gone, I should have miss'd this. Regard how the fruit takes its shape and feel from this great seed-case within, which the Spanish call el Hueso, 'the Bone.' This Mango handles like flesh,— to peel it is to flay it,— to bite into it is to eat uncook'd Flesh,— though I can imagine as well uncomfortable religious questions arising."
Mason, who has been shock'd by impieties far more venial, might have shar'd his Moral Displeasure were the Topick not Food, allowing him promptly to advert to his own Iliad of dietary Misfortune here among the Dutch. "Their emphasis upon roots,— the eternal boiling,— the absence of even salt, we have already review'd. 'Tis the Sheep,— Heaven forfend we should ever find a Moment without Sheep in it. Sheep, where I come from, are more important than all but a few humans. A boy is as likely to learn to skate upon a Shearing-floor as upon the Ice. The smell, at some times of year sensible for Miles, of Sheep, and wool-fat, and that queasy Nidor of Lambs baking in ovens meant for bread.. .the very nasal Patina that met me here, upon entering my first Dutch house, of Mutton-fat vaporiz'd and recondens'd, again and again, working its way insidiously, over the years of cooking, into all walls, furniture, draperies, within a certain radius of that kitchen,— ahrrhh! How foolishly did I believe I'd escap'd these perfumes of Gloucestershire,— nay,— at the Dutchman's Table, I am return'd to them, as to a kind of Hell."
The young clergyman nods in apparent sympathy. "Then eating Malay food seems a cheap enough Deliverance,— bearing in mind that the cuisine of a people whose recreations include running Amok is necessarily magickal in purpose and effect, and no one is altogether exempt." Later that night, writing in his Journal, adding,— "Lamb of God, Eucharist of bread,— what Mr. Mason could not bear, were the very odors of Blood-Sacrifice and Transsubstantiation, the constant element in all being the Oven, the Altar wherebefore his Father presided."
A few pages later, he admits, "Of course, 'twas none of my affair,— yet such was the unease of those Days, as I waited for a Ship to convey me further East, that I sought distraction in the study of other Lives,— usually without their Principals knowing of it. So found we ourselves, for the moment, as some might say beached, just here, upon the Brink of all the Indies, before the Unfolding, fearful and inexhaustible, of the East.”
Despite all wish to avoid it, here they are, Vrou Vroom and Mason, in an upper Bedroom, in unshutter'd afternoon light swiftly fading, harkening to each sound in the House, waiting for the "Bull's Eye," a strange dark cloud with a red center, to appear over Table Mountain, and grow swiftly, till but minutes later the North-Wester shall sweep upon them. "I am not one of these Cape women," she is whispering, " - tho' I have ever envied their reputations. Next to Cornelius, so dreamt I, must other men figure as Adonises, and I should certainly have my pick. Alas. Whenever in earnest I have tried to flirt, each time my choice proves to be worse than Cornelius. I ought to've given up, and settled for being a Churchly ideal."
"And instead?" Mason finds to his surprize that he cannot refrain from inquiring, his Jealousy nonetheless more peevish than substantial.
Misunderstanding, she hangs her head, in lewd innocence erring upon the side of Eros, and whispers, " - I have chosen to be a very wicked woman."
"Who it seems will commit any sin."
Giggling awkward as a Girl, her face a-glow,— the first time he's observ'd her thus. She has been trying to unbutton her Bodice...the trembling in her hands and the failing light resist her...at last with a small growl she grabs both sides of the Garment and rips it in two, or, actually, twain. The light in the room is darkening with unnatural speed, turning her nipples and mouth black as ashes, her fair hair nearly invis- ible. There is a sudden hammering upon the Door. Mason jumps up and runs 'round the Room twice before locating the Window, which, without looking back, he raises, climbs thro', and vanishes from with a receding wail and a Thump somewhere below.
In runs Jet. "Charles, we've only five minutes,—Oh hello, Mamma."
"What would Mr. Mason be doing here, my Imp?" inquires merry Johanna.
"What's happen'd to your Bodice?"
In a corner, the Darkling Beetle rustles in its Cage, its Elytra the same unforgiving white as the great sand-waste call'd 'Kalahari' lying north of here, where the creature was taken up, brought Leagues overland to the Cape with hundreds of its kind, arriving hungry and disoriented, to be set out with others, like a great sugar-iced Confection, at some Harbor-side Market frequented by Sailors and the Strange. So far in its Life, it has never seen Rain, tho' now it can feel something undeniably on the way, something it cannot conceive of, perhaps as Humans apprehend God,— as a Force they are ever just about to become acquainted with—
The storm arrives, and goes on for the next three days. Cornelius, up-country, is prevented by floods from returning. The logistics are both simple and hellishly next to impossible, for tho' the Guest rooms at Zee-manns' lie empty,— Dixon being across town at a certain Malay establishment, rain'd in like ev'ryone else,— and Mason is known for not responding to knocks upon the door, yet is Johanna oblig'd to arrange plausible absences from her daily schedule, with dozens of sets of eyes, within the house and outside it, scrutinizing her every step.
No sooner, for example, is her Mother out the door than in comes bouncing Els, all a-soak. "It's fantastic!" she cries. "The Season I live for! Come, Charles. Do the English kiss in the Rain?"
Down the street somebody's roof collapses in a sodden rumble. All structural Surfaces here, even Vertical ones, touch'd by Rain, begin at once to take up Water like great rigid Sponges, and after enough of it, dissolving, crumble away. A Bell upon a Roof-top begins to ring. Fruit Peels lie squash'd and slippery in the Gutters that run down to the Canals, where the Slaves are out in the Storm, doing their Owners' Laundry, observing and reading each occurrence of Blood, Semen, Excrement, Saliva, Urine, Sweat, Road-Mud, dead Skin, and other such Data of Biography, whose pure form they practice Daily, before all is lixiviated 'neath Heaven. In the rainy-day Shadows beneath the Arcades, Pipesful of Tobacco pulse brightly, and bob about in front of watchful Faces. Ev'rything smells of wet Lime and Sewage. A stray'd Sheep cowers against a Wall too high for it, bleating fretfully. Mason is not having fun. "Chase me," at last demands the mischievous Snip, and away she shoots up the Lane and gone. No matter how he rotates his hat, Mason cannot prevent a Stream of Water from funneling somewhere onto his Person. He arrives back at the Vrooms' skidding in the Mud, Wig-powder running down his Shoulders and Lapels in a White-Lead Wash. The Door is lock'd. Inside he hears Els and her sisters laughing. Furious, he stalks thro' the down-pour around to the back, locates a Ladder, and props it against a Balcony whose Window seems open, but when he gets to it, is not. With no more than a precarious hold upon the Balcony, Mason now feels activity beneath his Soles, and looks down in time to see the Ladder being deftly abstracted and taken 'round the Corner in malicious fun by Jet, who is for some reason feeling underappreciated today. As he hangs there in Misery, tasting Ocean Salt in the Wind, watching in a spirit of Distance, "Soon," he mutters aloud, "to be Detachment," the Bolts connecting the House to the Balcony, which was never meant to bear much more weight than that of an adolescent Female's Foot, begin to slide, protesting with horrid sucking Shrieks, out of the Lime and Sand that have held them there so ornamentally till now. "What," he is heard to exclaim, "— not again?" before jumping clear of the falling Iron-work, landing, mercifully without more than Contusions and Pain, upon the soak'd Earth. This time he decides to lie for a while, as he imagines in Surrender to the Forces of Nature, allowing Heaven's Rains to visit as they will. After a bit he notices a peculiar weight to the Drops striking his Face, and withal a distinctly lateral motion, as of something actually crawling—
"Ahrrh!" He plucks from his Face a Beetle, about half an inch long and emitting green light as if bearing a Candle within. He rolls his Gaze wildly about,— all 'round him, all over Cape Town, as 'twill prove, these Insects, swept here over Mountains and Deserts, are falling. It is not a message from any Beyond Mason knows of. It is an introduction to the Rainy Season.
"What'd we respectfully request? Skanderoon, wasn't it? only to be anointed with the suppos'd contents of our cowardly Breeches, and sent here, where they know how bad the seeing is. What madness are they about? We'll be lucky to see the Sun here,— and how many Years will give us clear Nights enough to fix our Latitude and Longitude?"
"It wouldn't be like this in Skanderoon," Dixon agrees. "They say, 'tis nearly Europe there."
"Fabulous Skanderoon," sighs Mason. They are presently part-singing, to a sort of medium-tempo Cuban Rhythm,
Skan-deroon,
I'd rather be in, Skanderoon,
Tho' 'twould have to be quite soon,—
This June,—
In Skan-
Deroon!
Not far away,—
Lesser Asia, so they say,—
Minarets and Palms a-sway,
We might lounge about all day,—
Stuf-fing our Gobs,— With Turkish Delight,— Securing our Obs,— Then beginning, the Night...
Crescent Moon, Caravan, and Muezzin's Tune, I'll not be forgetting soon Souvenirs of, Skanderoon!
What a Hope. Rain rules now, and shall, until October. The Girls follow Mason one afternoon up to the Observatory, up onto the first slopes of the Mountain where they are forbidden ever to go,— "Father says because of the African Boys," they proclaim solemnly to Austra, who laughs merrily.
"Boys! Babies, rather. Stay close to me,— I'll protect you." She wishes to add, " 'Tis not with them your debit grows, but with the African Women from whom you take, take without pause or apology," but aloud says, "Just try to wear something over your Hair,— the only blond they see up where we're going is when the Kommando ride through, and the sight of it sometimes causes them to act in haste."
"I shall let mine blow wild," Els cries.
"Cover my Hair?" Jet astonish'd. "As, I haven't better things to do?"
"You'll want to keep it out of the Wind," says Greet.
"And end up with Shawl Hair? I think not, Greet." But they are by now too far ascended for her to return home unaccompanied. They are ascended into Africa. At some point all note that they can no longer hear the Town. That is all it takes, to deliver them into Africa. They can see the Bay, and the Sea beyond, and the Ships and Boats, but the girls have lost the Voices and Percussion and rough Breath of the Town,— they are of the Continent now, and the Town is a Spectacle in a Museum of Marvels, and the Rain-Beetles are in Song. And who gazes back upon it, too long or even too sentimentally, may never see it again. Or may turn to Salt, and be white for Eternity.
Mason, far ahead of them, an earthen Trudging among the Lanes, appears to be making for a curious, squat Cylindrick Structure with a Cone-shap'd roof, perch'd high enough to keep above the morning Fog,— or so the Astronomers hope.
; 'Tis a Gnome's House!" whispers Els.
Jet is gazing at the ends of large fistfuls of her Hair. "Look at these,— these should have been soaking in Egg-Whites half an Hour ago,— do you know what happens if I miss one day? They're already split beyond belief,— "
"Has anyone notic'd the Light?" inquires Greet. For the Sun is darkening rapidly, whilst striking to a remarkable Hellish Red all surfaces that not so long ago were reflecting the simple Day-light.
"What?— Never been this close to the Bull's Eye?" Austra smiles grimly. "Welcome to the Droster Republick, Misses. Up here, some believe the Bull's Eye lives, and goes about.. .selecting those it shall take."
"We must ask Mr. Mason for Shelter," cries Jet. They flee, all shivers and screams, a-splash up the hill-side to the Observatory just as the Storm breaks, arriving at the Door-Way soak'd through. Mason is not cowering, he will later explain,— tho' he is sorry if that's what it look'd like,— rather standing guard over the Instruments,— whilst Dixon, no less warily, opens the Door, and in tumble the Bunch of them, rowdy and wet.
The Carpenter of the Seahorse and his men have put up a structure solid as a Man o' War, tarr'd the Roof and all the joints, rigg'd a couple of Blocks in a Gun-Purchase Arrangement allowing the Gentlemen to slide the Shutter open and clos'd from inside. "Get her down to the Water, step a Mast, put up some Canvas, and ye may sail her home," the Carpenter assur'd them. It holds six snugly,— less awkwardly if, as Jet and Els now discover, two lie together upon one Astronomer's Couch,— as, promptly, do Austra and Greet, upon the other.
The storm drums at the Cone above, which sheds the Rain in Sheets. There is nothing to drink but Cape Madeira, a thick violet Liquid one must get thro' six or seven Bottles of even to begin to feel at ease. There is no Question of Working, all Drudgery Logarithmick having been brought up to Date, the Clock seen to, the Shutter-Tackle made secure.
"Now then," Mason rapping upon the Table's Edge with a sinister-looking Fescue of Ebony, whose List of Uses simple Indication does not quite exhaust, whilst the Girls squirm pleasingly, "as you young Ladies have been kind enough to visit during School-Hours, we must be sure that your Education advance upon some Topick,— wherefore our Lesson for today shall be, the forthcoming Transit of Venus."
Cries of, "Oh, please, Sir!" and "Not the Transit of Venus!"
"Then what in the World are thee up here for," Dixon's Eye-Balls ingenuously gibbous, "if not out of Curiosity as to what we do?"
They all take looks at one another, Austra at length detaching to smirk at Mason and cast her Eyes heavenward, where the Roar of the Storm goes on unabating. Her blond Procuresses all begin to expostulate at once, and Mason understands that the vocal assaults of the Vroom Poultry are not inborn, but rather learn'd in this World from their Owners.
"Ladies, Ladies," Mason calls. " - You've seen her in the Evening Sky, you've wish'd upon her, and now for a short time will she be seen in the Day-light, crossing the Disk of the Sun,— and do make a Wish then, if you think it will help.—For Astronomers, who usually work at night, 'twill give us a chance to be up in the Day-time. Thro' our whole gazing-lives, Venus has been a tiny Dot of Light, going through phases like the Moon, ever against the black face of Eternity. But on the day of this Transit, all shall suddenly reverse,— as she is caught, dark, embodied, solid, against the face of the Sun,— a Goddess descended from light to Matter.”
"And our Job," Dixon adds, "is to observe her as she transits the face of the Sun, and write down the Times as she comes and goes...?"
"That's all? You could stay in England and do that," jaunty little Chins and slender Necks, posing, and re-posing, blond girls laughing together, growing sticky and malapert.
The Girls are taken on a short but dizzying journey, straight up, into the Æther, until there beside them in the grayish Starlight is the ancient, gravid Earth, the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light, striking upon it brilliantly white-hot Arcs.
"Parallax. To an Observer up at the North Cape, the Track of the Planet, across the Sun, will appear much to the south of the same Track as observ'd from down here, at the Cape of Good Hope. The further apart the Obs North and South, that is, the better. It is the Angular Distance between, that we wish to know. One day, someone sitting in a room will succeed in reducing all the Observations, from all 'round the World, to a simple number of Seconds, and tenths of a Second, of Arc,— and that will be the Parallax.
"Let us hope some of you are awake early enough, to see the Transit. Remember to keep both eyes open, and there will be the three Bodies, lined up perfectly,— the Heliocentric system in its true Mechanism, His artisanship how pure." The Girls keep their Glances each looping 'round the others, like elaborately curl'd Tresses, trying to see if they should be understanding this, or,— being cruel young beauties ev'ry one,— even caring.
10
As Planets do the Sun, we orbit 'round God according to Laws as
elegant as Kepler's. God is as sensible to us, as a Sun to a Planet.
Tho' we do not see Him, yet we know where in our Orbits we
run,— when we are closer, when more distant,— when in His
light and when in shadow of our own making We feel as com
ponents of Gravity His Love, His Need, whatever it be that keeps
us circling. Surely if a Planet be a living Creature, then it knows,
by something even more wondrous than Human Sight, where its
Sun shines, however far it lie.
- Revd Wicks Cherrycoke, Unpublished Sermons
"Show us upon the Orrery," suggests Pliny.
"I get to light the Sun," cries Pitt, dashing for the card-table, where the Tapers are kept in a drawer.
Tenebras finds herself, in the general convergence upon the Machine in the corner, quite close to her Cousin Ethelmer, who is trying to remember how old she is. He cannot recall her looking quite this,— he supposes, nubile. And how old does it make him, then? Briefly he beholds the gray edge of a cloud of despair, promises himself to think about it later, smiles, and sallies, "Remember the time you snipp'd off a lock of your hair, and we fashion'd it into a Comet, and placed it in the Orrery?”
"That grew back a long time ago, Cousin."
"When you were quite a bit shorter, as well. I almost had to sit down to kiss you hello. Yet now,— um, that is,—
"Dangerous territory, Sir."
"How so? an innocent peck upon the cheek of a child?"
"Had you thought to inquire of the Child," Tenebra;'s chin rising slowly, "you might have found your education further'd in ways unexpected, Thelmer." Ethelmer for a split second is gazing straight up into her nostrils, one of which now flares into pink illumination as Pitt's Taper sets alight the central Lanthorn of the Orrery, representing the Sun. The other Planets wait, all but humming, taut within their spidery Linkages back to the Crank-Shaft and the Crank, held in the didactic Grasp of the Revd Cherrycoke. The Twins, push'd to the back, content themselves with the movements of the outermost Planets, Saturn and the new "Georgian," but three years old. Dr. Nessel, the renown'd German Engineer, last spring show'd up unexpectedly in Philadelphia, having travers'd the Sea under wartime conditions, to add free of charge the new Planet to the numerous Orreries he had built in America. In each Apparatus, he fashion'd the Planet a little differently. By the time he got to Philadelphia, he was applying to the miniature greenish-blue globes Mappemondes of some intricacy, as if there were being reveal'd to him, one Orrery at a time, a World with a History even longer than our own, a recognizable Creator, Oceans that had to be cross'd, lands that had to be fought over, other Species to be con-quer'd. The children have since pass'd many an hour, Lenses in hand, gazing upon this new World, and becoming easy with it. They have imagin'd and partly compos'd a Book, History of the New Planet, the Twins providing the Wars, and Brae the scientifick Inventions and Useful Crafts.
"Here then," the Revd having smoothly crank'd Venus, Earth, and the Sun into proper alignment, "— as seen from the Earth, Venus,— here,— was to pass across the Disk of the Sun. Seen from Cape Town, five and a half hours, more or less, Limb to Limb. What Observers must determine are the exact Times this Passage begins and ends. From a great many such Observations 'round the world, and especially those widely separated north and south, might be reckon'd the value of the Solar Parallax."
"What's that?" Pitt and Pliny want to know.
"The size of the Earth, in seconds of Arc, as seen by an observer upon the surface of the Sun."
"Don't his feet get blister'd?" hollers Pitt, with his brother goading him on, "— isn't he too busy hopping about? and what of his Telescope, won't it melt?"
"All of these and more," replies the Revd, "making it super-remarkable, that thro' the magick of Celestial Trigonometry,— to which you could certainly be applying yourselves,— such measurements may yet be taken,— as if the Telescope, in mysterious Wise, were transporting us safely thro' all the dangers of the awesome Gulf of Sky, out to the Object we wish to examine."
"A Vector of Desire."
"Thankee, DePugh, the phrase exact." DePugh is the son of Ives LeSpark, like Ethelmer home on a Visit from School, in this case from Cambridge,— traveling the Atlantick to and fro by Falmouth Packet as easily as taking the Machine to New Castle. He has shown an early aptitude with Figures. God be merciful to him, silently requests the Revd.
Somebody somewhere in the World, watching the Planet go dark against the Sun,— dark, mad, mortal, the Goddess in quite another Aspect indeed,— cannot help blurting, exactly at The Moment, from Sappho's Fragment 95, seeming to wreck thereby the Ob,—
"0 Hesperus,— you bring back all that the bright day scatter'd,— you bring in the sheep, and the goat,— you bring the Child back to her mother."
"Thank you for sharing that with us...recalling that this is Sun-Rise, Dear, -Rise, not sun-Set."
"Come! She's not yet detach'd!"
"Let us see. Well, will you look at that." A sort of long black Filament yet connects her to the Limb of the Sun, tho' she be moved well onto its Face, much like an Ink-Drop about to fall from the Quill of a forgetful Scribbler,— sidewise, of course,— "Quick! someone, secure the Time,— This, or odd behavior like it, is going on all over the World all day long that fifth and sixth of June, in Latin, in Chinese, in Polish, in Silence,— upon Roof-Tops and Mountain Peaks, out of Bed-chamber windows, close together in the naked sunlight whilst the Wife minds the Beats of the Clock,— thro' Gregorians and Newtonians, achromatick and rainbow-smear'd, brand-new Reflectors made for the occasion, and ancient Refractors of preposterous French focal lengths,— Observers lie, they sit, they kneel,— and witness something in the Sky. Among those attending Snouts Earth-wide, the moment of first contact produces a collective brain-pang, as if for something lost and already unclaimable,— after the Years of preparation, the long and at best queasy voyaging, the Station arriv'd at, the Latitude and Longitude well secur'd,— the Week of the Transit,— the Day,— the Hour,— the Minute,— and at last 'tis, "Eh? where am I?"
Astronomers will seek to record four Instants of perfect Tangency between Venus's Disk, and the Sun's. Two are at Ingress,— External Contact, at the first touch from outside the Sun's Limb, and then Internal Contact, at the instant the small black Disk finally detaches from the inner Circumference of the great yellow one, Venus now standing alone against the Face of the Sun. The other two come at Egress,— this time, first Internal, then external Contact. And then Eight more years till the next, and for this Generation last, Opportunity,— as if the Creation's Dark Engineer had purposedly arrang'd the Intervals thus, to provoke a certain Instruction, upon the limits to human grandeur impos'd by Mortality.
The Sky remains clouded up till the day of the Transit, Friday the fifth of June. Both the Zeemanns and the Vrooms speed about in unaccus-tom'd Bustle, compar'd to the Astronomers, who seem unnaturally calm.
"Dutch Ado about nothing," Mason remarks.
Dixon agrees. "And they're usually so stolid, too...?"
Els comes skidding across the floor in her Stocking Feet, heading for the Kitchen with an Apron's load of Potatoes. "Nothing to worry about!" she cries, " 'twill clear up in plenty of time!" Even Cornelius is up on the Roof, scanning the Mists with a nautical Spy-Glass, reporting upon hopeful winds and bright patches. " 'Tis ever like this before a Cloudless Day," he assures them. The Slaves speak inaudibly, and are seen to gaze toward the Mountains. They have never observ'd their owners behaving like this. They begin to smile, tentatively but directly, at Mason and Dixon.
Of whom one is insomniac, and one is not. Afterward, none in the Household will be able to agree which was which. Drops of what proves to be ketjap in the pantry suggest Dixon as the sleepless one, whilst a Wine-Glass abandon'd upon a chicken-Battery indicates Mason. The Rattle-Watch make a point of coming by ev'ry hour and in front of Zeemanns' singing out the Time of Night, adding, "And all's clouded over yet!"
Somehow, ev'ryone is awake at first Light. "The Sun ascended in a thick haze, and immediately entered a dark cloud," as Mason and Dixon will report later in the Philosophical Transactions. Clock-time is o Hours, 12 Minutes, o Seconds. Twenty-three minutes later, they have their first sight of Venus. Each lies with his Eye clapp'd to the Snout of an identical two-and-a-half-foot Gregorian Reflector made by Mr. Short, with Darkening-Nozzles by Mr. Bird.
"Quite a Tremor," Mason grumbles. "They'll have to ascend a bit more in the Sky. And here comes this damn'd Haze again."
Upon first making out the Planet, Dixon becomes as a Sinner converted. "Eeh! God in his Glory!"
"Steady," advises Mason, in a vex'd tone.
Dixon remembers the Tale Emerson lov'd to tell, of Galileo before the Cardinals, creaking to his feet after being forc'd to recant, muttering, "Nonetheless, it moves." Watch, patiently as before the Minute-Hand of
a Clock, become still enough, and 'twould all begin to move.... This,
Dixon understands, is what Galileo was risking so much for,— this majestick Dawn Heresy. " 'Twas seeing not only our Creator about his Work," he tells Mason later, "but Newton and Kepler, too, confirm'd in theirs. The Arrival, perfectly as calculated, the three bodies sliding into a single Line...Eeh, it put me in a Daze for fair." Whatever the cause, the times he records are two to four seconds ahead of Mason's.
"With all the other Corrections to make, now must we also introduce another, for observational impatience," supposes Mason,— "styling it 'Leonation,' perhaps,— "As well might we correct for 'Tauricity,' " replies Dixon, "or Delays owing to Caution inflexible."
The girls have also been observers of the Transit, having cajol'd a Sailor of their Acquaintance into lending them a nautickal Spy-Glass, and smoak'd with Sheep-tallow Candles their own Darkening-Lenses,— taking turns at the Glass, even allowing their Parents a Peep now and then,— Jet breathing, "She's really there," Greet adding, "Right on time, too!" and Els,— hum,— we may imagine what Els was up to, and what transpir'd just as the last of the Black Filament, holding the Planet to the Inner Limb of the Sun, gave way, and she dropp'd, at last, full onto that mottl'd bright Disk, dimm'd by the Lenses to a fierce Moon, that Eyes might bear.
As before the Transit the month of May crept unnaturally, so, after it, will June, July, August, and September hasten by miraculously,— till early in October, when Capt. Harrold, of the Mercury, finds a lapse in the Weather workable enough to embark the Astronomers, and take them to St. Helena in. By which time, ev'ryone is more than ready for a change of Company. The North-West Rains have well possess'd the Town,— all Intrigue lies under Moratorium, as if the Goddess of Love in her Visitation had admonish'd all who would invoke her, to search their Hearts, and try not to betray her quite so much.
After the Transit, Astronomers and Hosts walk about for Days in deep Stupor, like Rakes and Doxies after some great Catastrophe of the Passions. The Zeemanns' servant difficulties being resolv'd, the Astronomers return to that Table, and for the next four months pursue Lives of colorless Rectitude, with the Food no better nor worse, waiting upon the Winds. In the Mountains, the Bull's Eye is sovereign. All over Town, Impulse, chasten'd, increasingly defers to Stolidity. Visiting Indian Mystics go into Trances they once believ'd mindless enough, which here prove Ridottoes of Excess, beside the purpos'd Rainy-day Inanition of the Dutch. The Slaves, as if to preserve a secret Invariance, grow more visible and distinct, their Voices stronger, and their Musick more pervasive, as if the Rain were carrying these from distant parts of Town. Johanna and the Girls, after a brief few weeks in a nun-like withdrawal from the Frivolous,— Jet going so far as to cover her hair with a diaphanous Wimple she has fashion'd of Curtain-stuff,— are all back to their old Theatrics, this time to the Delight of a trio of young Company Writers lately arriv'd at False
Bay, Mr. Delver Warp and the Brothers Vowtay, coming home from Bengal non-Nabobickal as when they went out, with only enough in their pockets to draw the interest of Cape Belles, who are far less particular than the Vrooms, and fearful that if they don't get it, 'twill be as soon gambl'd away into the Purses of Sea-Sharpers. Corrupted by India, yet poor,— ungovernably lewd, yet unwrinkl'd,— and withal, what a Heaven-sent Source of White Blood are these Lads! Johanna can almost see those Babies now, up on the Block, adorable enough to sell themselves, kicking their feet in the air and squealing,— and she grows mono-maniackal in her Pursuit, whilst Austra finds herself calculating which of the Sprigs shall be easiest to
seduce, and which, if any, more of a Challenge—
Presently, from across the back-Yards jealously patroll'd by their predatory Hens, come once again sounds of feminine Merriment. Mason looks over at Dixon. "At least they're back to normal over there," he remarks. "For a while, I puzzl'd,— had the Town undergone some abrupt Conversion? Had I, without knowing it?
Dixon recalls when Wesley came to preach at Newcastle,— "His first sermon in the North-East,— the congregations immense,— all the Side, and beyond, transform'd,— belonging to the Spirit. It lasted for Weeks after,— tho' it may have been months, for all I knew of Time in those Days,— I was a Lad, but I could make it out. Little by then surpriz'd me, yet this was the canniest thing upon the coaly Tyne since Harry Clasper out-keel'd the Lad from Hetton-le-Hole...? Nothing like it again, that I've noatic'd...? Until this Transit of Venus...this turning of Soul, have tha felt it,— they're beginning to talk to their Slaves? Few, if any, beatings,— tho' best to whisper, not to jeopardize it too much...?"
"The Dutch are afraid," Mason is able to contribute, "unto Death."
"Why, Aye. So do I recollect myself, the first time it happen'd to me...?"
Mason suspicious, sniffing Enthusiasm,— "To you? Do they allow you to talk about that?"
"I've been booted out of Raby Meeting, haven't I...? I can reveal all the mystick secrets I wish...?”
"One first must keep one's Hat on one's Head, correct?"
"Aye, the Spirit ever fancies a bonny Hat,— but the fairly principal thing, is to sit quietly... ? It took me till well out of my Youth to learn, tho' now I'm not sure I remember how, any more...?"
"That's it? Sit quietly? And Christ...will come?"
"We spoke of it as the Working of the Spirit, within. Tis a distinct Change from the ev'ryday...tha wouldn't be able to miss it, should it happen...?"
"Yet then, you say, it passes...."
"It abides,— 'tis we who are ever recall'd from it, to tend to our various mortal Requirements...? and so another such Visit soon becomes necessary,— another great Turning, and so forth...? Howbeit, 'tis all Desire,— and Desire, but Embodiment, in the World, of what Quakers have understood as Grace...?"
Starting about then, rain-bound, whenever he may, Mason contrives to sit in some shutter'd room, as quietly as he knows how, waiting for a direct experience of Christ. But he keeps jumping up, to run and interrupt Dixon, who is trying to do the same, with news of his Progress,—
"Jere! I think it almost happen'd! D'ye get a kind of rum sensation here,"— touching the center of his Forehead,— "is that it?"
"Mason, first tha must sit,— not jump up and down like thah'... ? And then, sit quietly. Quietly—"Back they go, till Mason in his Chair, falling asleep, topples with a great Crash, or Dixon decides he'll step out after all, nip down to The World's End, and see what the Cape Outlawry may be up to.
Little by little, as weeks pass, the turn of Spirit Mason and Dixon
imagine they have witness'd is reclaim'd by the Colony, and by whatever
haunts it. Any fear that things might ever change is abated. Masters and
Mistresses resume the abuse of their Slaves, who reply in Bush tongues,
to which, soon enough hoarse with Despair, with no hope of being under
stood, they return, as to childhood homes Riding in and out of Town
now may often be observ'd White Horsemen, carrying long Rifles styl'd "Sterloops," each with an inverted Silver Star upon the Cheek-Piece.
When Mason and Dixon encounter Vrooms in the Street they bow, and pass, with each exchange lapsing closer to Silence. By the time the
Southeaster has advanc'd to the Circumference of the Day, there remains nothing to say to them, nor to any who have been their Hosts. "I warn'd you all," Mrs. De Bosch lilts, triumphant, "did I not, ev'ryone. Nor should I be much surpriz'd, if those frightful Instruments they brought, have serv'd quite another Purpose here."
When they leave the Cape, no one is there at the Quay to say good-bye but Bonk, the police official who earlier greeted them. "Good luck, Fellows. Tell them at the Desk, I was not such a bad Egg, no?"
"What Desk is that," ask Mason and Dixon.
"What Desk? In London, off some well-kept Street, in a tidy House, there will be someone at a Desk, to whom you'll tell all you have seen."
"Not in England, Sir," Mason protests.
For the first and final time they see him laugh, and glimpse an entire Life apart from the Castle, in which he must figure as a jolly Drinking Companion. "You'll see!" he calls as they depart for the Ship in the Bay. "Good Luck, Good Luck! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Resounding upon the Water ever-widening between them.
"What made them leave home and set sail upon dangerous seas, determining where upon the Globe they must go, was not,— Pace any Astrol-ogists in the Room,— the Heavenly Event by itself, but rather that unshining Assembly of Human Needs, of which Venus, at the instant of going dark, is the Prime Object,— including certainly the Royal Society's need for the Solar Parallax,— but what of the Astronomers' own Desires, which may have been less philosophical?"
"Love,— I knew it," Tenebrae all but sighs. " 'Twas Love for the Planet Herself."
"Nothing like your own, of course," beams her Uncle. "I recollect that when you were no more than Three, you saw Venus through your Papa's fine Newtonian for the first time. 'Twas in the crescent Phase, and you said, 'Look! the Little Moon.' You told us that you already knew the Moon had a little Moon, which it play'd with.”
"We would go outdoors, long after bed-time, up to the pasture," she is pleas'd to recall, "- - the Observatory wasn't built yet. The Ponies would all stand together, quite cross, and watch us as we came up, their eyes flashing in the light from our Lanthorns, and I always thought I could hear them muttering, for it was clear we were disturbing them."
"Did they bite you?" inquires Pitt.
"Hard?" adds Pliny.
"Rrr!" she raises her Hoop as if to hurl it at them.
"Do find a way," advises Aunt Euphrenia, careering into the room, with her Oboe and an armload of sheet-music, "to wrangle with less Noise, or your old Uncle will have to sell you, as a Brace, to the Italians rumor'd to live South of this City, where you shall have to learn to sing their vulgar Airs, and eat Garlick ev'ry day, as shall ev'ryone else,—
"Hooray!" shout Pitt and Pliny. "For Breakfast, too!"
"Tra-la, say, Food Perversion? nothing to do with the Cherrycoke side of the family," sniffs Aunt Euphrenia, producing the most wicked-looking of Knives, and beginning very carefully to carve a Reed for her Instrument from a length of Schuylkill-side Cane. "Yes lovely isn't it?" she nods after a while, as if responding to a Pleasantry. " 'Twas given me by the Sultan. Dear Mustapha, 'Stuffy' we call'd him in the Harem chambers, amongst ourselves..."
When Brae, once, and only once, made the mistake of both gasping and blurting, "Oh, Aunt,— were you in a Turkish Harem, really?" 'twas to turn a giant Tap. "Barbary Pirates brought us actually's far as Aleppo, you recall the difficult years of 'eighty and 'eighty-one,— no, of course you couldn't,— Levant Company in an uproar, no place to get a Drink, Ramadan all year 'round it seem'd,— howbeit,— 'twas at the worst of those Depredations, that I took Passage from Philadelphia, upon that fateful Tide...the Moon reflected in Dock Creek, the songs of the Negroes upon the Shore, disconsolate,— " Most of her Tale, disguis'd artfully as traveler's Narrative, prov'd quite outside the boundaries of the Girl's Innocence, as of the Twins' Attention,— among the Domes and Minarets, the Mountain-peaks rising from the Sea, the venomous Snakes, miracle-mongering Fakeers, intrigues over Harem Precedence and Diamonds as big as a girl's playfully clench'd fist, 'twas Inconve-
nience which provided the recurring Motrix of Euphrenia's adventures among the Turks, usually resolv'd by her charming the By-standers with a few appropriate Notes from her Oboe,— upon which now, in fact, her Reed shap'd and fitted, she has begun to punctuate her brother Wicks's Tale, with scraps of Ditters von Dittersdorf, transcriptions from Quantz, and the Scamozzetta from I Gluttoni.
11
"The St. Helena of old had been as a Paradise," avers Euphrenia. "The Orange and Lemon-Groves, the Coffee-Fields,—
"Gone before your Time, Euphie."
"Does that mean I am forbidden to mourn them? They are mine as much as anyone's, to mourn."
"I'd be last to lay any sort of claim," says the Revd, "— whilst the Astronomers were sailing there from the Cape, I was journeying on, quite the other way, to India, and then past India— St. Helena was a part of the Tale that I miss'd, and along with it the Reverend Dr. Maskelyne, who has continued, even unto our Day, as Astronomer Royal, publishing his Almanack and doing his bit for global Trade."
"Something wrong with that, Wicks?" inquires Mr. LeSpark.
"Only insofar as it is global, and not Celestial," replies the Revd, with a holy Smirk master'd in his first week of Curacy.
The Merchant of Purposeful Explosion throws an arm across his Brow. "Your Halo blinds me, Sir. Aye, most Italian,— Joy of it, I'm sure."
"More of this Brandy ought to dim it some." Genial Uncle Lomax, grinning mischievously at his older Brother, pours the Revd another Beaker-ful. From outside, frozen Rain sweeps briefly yet pointedly at the glossy black Window-Panes.
"Then how are we ever to know what happen'd among the three of 'm upon that little-known Island?" Uncle Ives a bit smug, ev'ryone thinks.
"Well, let us see. Maskelyne was there the better part of a Year,— aware, from early on, that he could not obtain the Observations he wanted, owing to a defective Plumb-line suspension on the Sector, yet there, enisl'd, remaining,— twenty-nine years old, first time he's been away from home, and he's facing months in what proves to be,— those whose bed-time is nigh, stop your Ears,— an infamous Port of Call, quite alone in the mid-Atlantic, a Town left to shift as it may, dedicated to nought but the pleasures of Sailors,— which is to say, ev'ry species of Misbehavior, speakable and not."
"Tides and Lunars cannot have provided the Reverend Maskleyne full occupation,— one is understandably curious as to what else may've befallen him."
"Something must have," the Revd Cherrycoke agrees, "— else he should have emerg'd mad as all sooner or later go, upon that Island."
"An attack of Reason," suggests Mr. LeSpark.
"What's the Mystery?" Ethelmer shrugs. "Didn't Days take twenty-four Hours to pass, as they do now?"
Brae peers thro' the candle-light. "Why Coz, how interesting."
The idea, in making Port at St. Helena, is to keep to windward, get South-east of the Island, and let the Trade Winds carry you to the coast,— which you then follow, generally northward, till you come 'round to the lee side, and on into the harbor of James's Town,— where despite appearances of Shelter, the oceanic Waves continue to beat without ceasing, the Clamor wind-borne, up across the Lines and the Parade, all being reduced to Geometry and optical Illusion, even what is waiting there all around, what is never to be nam'd directly.
Once ashore, the Astronomers hear the Ocean everywhere, no Wall thick, nor Mind compos'd, nor Valley remote enough to lose it. It shakes the Ground and traverses the Boot-soles of the Watch, high in the ravines.The floorboards of Taverns register its rhythmick Blows, as they have the Years of Thumps from the swinging boots of Seamen whose destinies were sometimes to include Homicide, as if keeping Faith with that same Brutal Pulse, waiting upon a Moment, needing but the single sighting,— sworn to, vanish'd,— the terrible Authorization.
Tho' the sun nightly does set below the Island's stark horizon, what Mason sees, from his first Nightfall there, is Darkness, rising up out of the sea, where all the carelessly bright day it has lain, as in a state of slumber. . .whilst at dawn, that same Darkness, almost palpably aware of his Regard, appears to withdraw, consciously, to a certain depth below the Atlantick Surface. In the Astrology of this island, the Sun must be reckoned of less importance than Darkness incorporated as some integral, anti-luminary object, with its own motions, positions, and aspects,— Black Sheep of the family of Planets, neither to be sacrificed to Hades nor spoken of by Name....
Sirius, which Maskelyne remains here to observe, is the Island's Zenith-Star, as is Gamma Draconis for Greenwich. (Englishmen are born under the Dragon, St. Helenians under the Dog. At Bencoolen Mason and Dixon would have been under inconstant Mira, in the Whale. These signs are the Apocrypha of Astrology.) Ev'ry Midnight the baleful thing is there, crossing directly overhead,— the Yellow Dog. There inverted among the Wires, all but flowing. Treacly, as you'd say,— would even a Portsmouth Poll wear such a vivid, unhealthy shade of Yellow?
A very small town clings to the edge of an interior that must be reckoned part of the Other World. No change here is gradual,— events arrive suddenly. All distances are vast. The Wind, brutal and pure, is there for its own reasons, and human life, any life, counts for close to nought. The Town has begun to climb into the Ravine behind it, and thus, averaged overall, to tilt toward the sea. After Rain-Storms, the water rushes downhill, in Eagres and Riffles and Cataracts, thro' the town, rooftop to rooftop, in and out of Windows, leaving behind a shiv'ring Dog from uphill, taking away the Coffee Pot, till leaving it in its turn somewhere else, for a Foot-Stool,— thus bartering its way out to sea. The Horizon has little use for lengthy sunsets. Creatures of the Ocean depths approach the shore-line, as near as the little Coves where the water abruptly becomes Lavender and Aquamarine, remaining to observe, deliberate in their movements, without fear.
For years, travelers have reported that the further up into the country one climbs, the more the sea appears to lie above the Island,— as if suspended, and kept from falling fatally upon it, thro' the operations of Mys-terion impenetrable on the part of a Guardian.... As if in Payments
credited against the Deluge, upon no sure Basis of Prediction, the great Sea-Rollers will rise, and come against the Island,— reaching higher than the Town with the Jacobite Name, tho' perhaps not quite to the ridgeline above it. For anyone deluded enough to remain down at sea-level, there must come a moment when he finds himself looking upward at the Crests approaching. The Public Trees quite small in Outline below them. The Cannon, the Bastions, of no Avail. Did he choose, more prudently, to escape to the Heights, he might, from above, squinting into spray whose odor and taste are the life of the sea, behold a Company of Giant rob'd Beings, risen incalculably far away over the Horizon, bound this way upon matters forever unexplain'd, moving blind and remorseless across the Sea, as if the Island did not exist.
Not as spectacular, older residents declare, as the Rollers of '50. Then, it seem'd, 'twas the Triumph of a Sea gone mad, and the Island must be lost— Being part of a general Exodus to high ground, one may not pause for too long to gaze and reflect upon the fastnesses of empty water-plain, the Sun-glare through the salt Mists after the sleepless climb thro' the Dark,— the only Choices within one's Control, those between Persistence and Surrender. Within their first week upon the Island, all visitors have this Dream.
Out upon Munden's Point stand a pair of Gallows, simplified to Pen-strokes in the glare of this Ocean sky. A Visitor may lounge in the Evening upon the Platform behind the Lines, and, as a Visitor to London might gaze at St. Paul's, regard these more sinister forms in the failing North Light,— perhaps being led to meditate upon Punishment,— or upon Commerce...for Commerce without Slavery is unthinkable, whilst Slavery must ever include, as an essential Term, the Gallows,— Slavery without the Gallows being as hollow and Waste a Proceeding, as a Crusade without the Cross. Down at the end of the great Ravine that runs up-country from the sea, beneath the cliffs, along the Batteries, in the evenings, Islanders looking to catch the breeze will nightly promenade. If one ignores the guns darkly shining and the arm'd Sentries, the Island might be fancied an East Indiaman of uncertain size, and these crepuscular parades to and fro, a Passengers' turn upon her Weather-decks,— though at closer inspection each Phiz might suggest less a Traveler's Curiosity, than some long-standing
acquaintance with the glum, even among the women who appear, each Sunset.
Besides those resident here for purposes of Nautickal Amusement, the Birds of passage thro' St. Helena make up a mix'd flock,— Convicts being transported to the South Seas for unladylike crimes in England, with St. Helena one of the steps in their Purgatory,— young Wives on their way out to India to join husbands in the Army and Navy, a-tremble with tales, haunting the Day like a shadow from just beneath the Horizon ahead, of the Black Hole of Calcutta,— and Company Perpetuals, headed out, headed home, such shuttles upon the loom of Trade as Mrs. Rollright, late of Portland, who keeps opium in her patch-box and commutes frequently enough upon the India run to've had four duels fought over her already, though she has yet to see her twenties out. Almost to a woman, they confess to strange and inexpressible Feelings when the ship makes landfall,— the desolate line of peaks, the oceanic sunlight,— coming about to fetch the road, losing the Trade-Wind at Sugar-Loaf Point, hugging the shore and playing the eddies, the identickal Routine, 'twas 0 G-d are we here again,— whilst to First-Timers another Planet, somehow accessible from this.
"There's one a-sop with the Dew," Dixon remarks, "- - in the Claret-color'd Velvet there, with the Chinese Shawl, and the Kid Boots...? She seems to recollect thee, for fair."
"Tyburn Charlie! well prick me with a Busk-Pin and tell me 'twas all a Dream. 'Tis I,— little Florinda! Yes, you do remember,— but last Year,— " and she sings, in a pleasant Alto,
'Twas the Fifth Day of May, in The Year of our Lord, Seven--Teen hundred sixty and Zero, That the Brave Lord Ferrers Ascended the Steps, of The Scaffold, as bold as a Hero...
Mason amiably joining in, they continue,
'I am ready,' said he, 'If you'll
Quote me your Fee,'— to the
Cruel Hangman's Eye sprang a Tear-oh,—
'Of your silver-trimm'd Coat,
I'll admit I made note,
But must no longer claim it, oh dear, oh!'
'0, my, 0 Dear 0!
You must think I've the morals of Nero!
Be it dangle 'em high, or strangle 'em low,
Hangmen have Feelings, or didn't ye know?'
The year after Rebekah's death was treacherous ground for Mason, who was as apt to cross impulsively by Ferry into the Bosom of Wap-ping, and another night of joyless low debauchery, as to attend Routs in Chelsea, where nothing was available betwixt Eye-Flirtation, and the Pox. In lower-situated imitations of the Hellfire Club, he hurtl'd carelessly along some of Lust's less-frequented footpaths, ever further, he did not escape noting, from Pleasure,— the moonlight falling upon the lawns, the trees, the walks, claiming the color of desire, as to represent all that Passion, seething within that small corner of Town, the music through the leaves, each washed in moon-white,— to the Fabulators of Grub-Street, a licentious night-world of Rakes and Whores, surviving only in memories of pleasure, small darting winged beings, untrustworthy as remembrancers...yet its infected, fragrant, soiled encounters 'neath the Moon were as worthy as any,— an evil-in-innocence—
("Uncle, Uncle!"
"Hum, hum, howbeit,—
"Another Cup, Sir?")
'Twas then that Mason began his Practice, each Friday, of going out to the hangings at Tyburn, expressly to chat up women, upon a number of assumptions, many of which would not widely be regarded as sane.
Rol-ling out the Edge-ware Ro-o-oad,—
To where they climb a Ladder-to-go, to sleep,—
The crowd is all a-tiptoe and the skies are bright, 'tis
A lovely day to come and have a Peep.—
He'll drop right thro' the Floor
He'll dance upon the Air
Whilst 'neath the Deadly Never-Green
'Tis merry as a Fair,— and
If you're luc-ky to be short enough,
With no-place much to stare,
Why, you might not even know, you're, there...
Turn'd thirty-two but days before, Mason, as a gift of Festivity to himself, attends the much-heralded Hanging of Lord Ferrers for the murder of Johnson, his Steward. What seems the entire world of Fashion has assembl'd, with each trying to outdress ev'ry other. Nonce-Hats, never before seen, many never to be seen again. Wigs as elaborately detail'd as Gowns. Coats especially commission'd for the occasion, with a classic Thirteen-Turn Noose Motif to the Braiding, and the Smoking Pistol depicted in Gold Brocade. As Mason, feeling shabby, curses himself for not having worn a more stylish outfit, he notes a young Woman observing him,— when he meets her Gaze, she immediately switches it away with a look of annoyance, not with Mason, it pleases him to fancy, so much as with herself, for happening to be the one caught staring,— there being scores of good reasons why no further degree of Fascination will develop from this. Judging by her escort, she's some rising Beauty of the Town, whose Looks more than excuse an absolute lack of taste in any matter of Costume, whilst at the same time she finds herself mysteriously drawn to snuff-color'd and, frankly, murkier Statements, such as Mason's, here.
"Hallo, d'you think he'll get much of a hard-on, then?" is her Greeting. "They say that agents of Lady F. are about, betting heavily against it."
Mason gapes in despair. He'll be days late thinking up any reply to speech as sophisticated as this. "In my experience," he might say, " 'tis usually the Innocent who get them, and the Guilty who fail to."
"How very curious." She will not blink, tho' her nostrils may flare. Her escorts will titter,— and her little Dog Biscuit, alone scenting her onset of interest, will begin to act up. "Could Remorse ever really unman any of you?"
"Why no.—'Tis rather that Surprize invigorates us."
Flirtatiously, she scowls, as Mason goes rattling on morosely,— "Take the noted Highwayman Fepp, but last week, most likely not insane, being mov'd by the Mathematicks of his wealth, or rather lack of it, more
than by any criminal Passion,— the Membrum Virile was remarkably flaccid, at least according to the Jobbers who cut him down,—
"And subsequently up," chirps the Maiden.
- for consider that the Murderer cannot, in the Moment, know the ecstatic surprise of the Innocent, having borne within him, from Life's beginning, an acquaintance with the sudden Drop and Snap of its End. He dreams about it, sometimes when awake. He commits his fatal Crime out of a need to re-converge upon that blinding moment where all his life was ever focus'd—"
Her eyes have grown enormous and moist,— the Bodice of her Gown squeaks gently at its Seams, her Modesty-Piece flutters as if itself per-plex'd. The Fops accompanying her having been freed to resume their chief interest, the Exchange of Gossip, even Custodial Eyes are elsewhere. "Sir," she murmurs, "I have ever sought a man such as yourself— " There is a sudden roar from the crowd, half for and half against, as His Lordship's carriage arrives, and the fourth Earl steps out. Seamen throw unchewable Sausages and half-eaten scones, brightly dress'd Women throw Roses. "Hideous suit," remarks one of the Fops, "— what's that Shade, some kind of Fawn? altogether too light for the occasion." "I do like the Silver bits, though," comments his Friend, Seymour. All manner of retainers in black livery bustle about, the one attracting the most Notice being the Rope-bearer,— for 'tis rumor'd that Lord Ferrers is to be hang'd, at his request, with a Rope of Silk. The bearer is a slight figure in black velvet, whose skin in the high sunlight appears paper-white. All the way from the Tower, atop the bright jinglings of the Carriage,— expensively encrusted and plated by highly-paid Italians,— like a Miniature propell'd, in its strange slow Progress, by some invisible Child,— is the fatal Rope held aloft, perfectly white upon a black Silk Cushion, for the inspection of all the straining Eyes. "Well it's still 'emp for me," someone remarks, " - all things being equal, if not all Men."
"Aye, Silk's what they fancy out in India, with their Thuggee,— over the wall, in your Window, kkkk! Job's done, another tasty Bite for old Kalee,— that's their Goddess, as you'd say. Silk,— it's scarcely there, and yet...”
"Kkkk!"
"Precisely my point."
Orange-girls and beggars, ale-pots, gaming in the Dirt, purses wafted away, glances intercepted, dogs bravely a-prowl for Scraps, as hungry Blademen for Dogs, Buskers wandering and standing still, with a Wind from the Gallows bringing ev'ry sigh, groan, and Ejaculation over the heads of the crowd to settle upon their hearing like Ash upon the Hats of spectators at a Fire, the Day wraps and fondles them as Mason and the temporarily heedless beauty move together thro' the crowd, till they reach a Barrow with Awnings rigg'd against the Sun. "Wine!" cries she, "oh let's do!"
"This Chateau Gorce looks interesting," says Mason, "although, as the day is mild, perhaps a chill'd Hock would be more...apropos."
"If not de Rigueur," she replies.
"But of course, Chérie." They laugh at the Piquance of these Mots, and sip Wine as the imbecile Peer goes along toward his Doom,— till some kind of problem arises with the new Trap-door Arrangement, today's being its first Use at any publick Proceeding.
"These frightful Machines!" she pretends to lament, "— shall our Deaths now, as well as our Lives, be rul'd by the Philosophers, and their Army of Mechanicks?"
"That Trap's probably over-constructed," Mason has already blurted, "hence too heavy, and bearing sidewise upon the Lever and Catch,— He notes a sudden drop in the local Temperature.
"You are...a man of Science, then?" looking about, tho' not yet with Panick.
"I am an Astronomer," Mason replies.
"Ah...existing upon some sort of Stipend, I imagine. How...wonderful. . .I'd taken you for one of the better sort of Kiddy, the way you were turn'd out, quiet self-possession, I mean, one usually is able to tell,— alas, 'tis just as Mr. Bubb Dodington warn'd me,— 'Florinda,' said he, 'you are too young to appreciate men either in their wide diversity, or for the pitiable simplicity of what they really want. Can you guess what that is, my Wren?' His Wren. Well,— it might've been one thing, mightn't it,— and then again— "Excuse me, did I hear you, I'm sure inadvertently, mention that you receive...Assessments of Character, from Bubb Dodington? the ancient Fitch of legend? That relick from a signally squalid Era in our Nation's Politickal History,— that Bubb Dodington?"
"Georgie is a particular Friend," she flares, in a way that suggests Experience upon the Stage. "If he may advise the Princess of Wales as to matters constitutional, he may advise me, whatever he wishes. He grows older, and a life of super-human excess is at last presenting its Bills,— whose demands turn ever harsher with the days,— even at the Interest, yet a Bargain. Will you have as much to say, Star-Gazer, when it is your time?"
Mason lets his Head drop, abjectly. "There's one, says Pearse, as he
fell in the Well The truth is, Madam, that I have envied your Friend
the honesty of his Life. Tho' being an Earl help'd, of course,—
"If you mean that you envy his openness as to his Desires,— I collect there are things you yourself may wish to do, that you haven't quite the Words for?" And gazing at him quite steadily, too.
"I?" Mason's Soles beginning to ache, his Brain unable to muster a thought. What he does not, consequently, understand, is that, having reckon'd him harmless, she has decided to get in a bit of exercise, in that endless Refining which the Crafts of Coquetry demand, using Mason as a sort of Practice-Dummy.
"You did have me going, Florinda."
"Well I hope so, I'm sure. Tell me, then,— are you still gazing at the Stars for Simpleton-Silver?"
"You remember that?"
"Why, you're not saying, Charlie, that there are too many Men in my Life for me to remember? Surely 'tis not the aggregate Total of all Men, but how many kinds of Men, that matters?— and that Figure is manageable, thankee."
James's Town, snug in its ravine, the watchfires high above keeping the nights from invasion, settles into the darkness. Smells of Eastern cooking pour out the kitchen vents of the boarding-houses, and mix with that of the Ocean. The town is for a Moment an unlit riot of spices, pastry, fish and shellfish, Penguin Stuffatas and Sea-Bird Fricasees. Upon the swiftly
darkening sea-prospect, in outline now appears a Figure that lacks but a Scythe in its Grasp, to turn all thoughts upon the Brevity of Life. "Dad-dums!" she cries. "Over here! Charlie, my fiance, Mr. Mournival."
"I meet so many of Florrie's old Troupe," the tall cadaverous Personage, whose Eyes cannot be clearly seen, hisses in the Twilight. "Charlie, Charlie.. .You must have been one of the Zanies?"
"Your Theatrical sense,— uncanny Sir," murmurs Mason. "Allow me to present my co-adjutor, whose repertoire of Jest is second only to what resides in the Vatican Library,— Mr. Dixon."
"A Chinaman, a Jesuit, and a Corsican are riding up to Bath...”