Watery Grave (11 page)

“His meat’s as good as any at Smithfield Market,” said I.” So he says, and I believe it to be true.”

“Well and good. We’ll try him again, shall we? But now, I must run off to the Home. I have much to attend to there before I return with Annie, and we get properly under way. So goodbye to you.”

She started for the door, then stopped to turn and exclaim: “This is all so exciting! Imagine Tom a midshipman —an officer!”

Then she disappeared down the stairs. For all concerned, I hoped it happened just as she supposed.

Sir John’s departure was much quieter and less hurried. He made his way at the usual time downstairs across the kitchen on his familiar journey to his courtroom.

“I take it Tom’s new clothes met your approval, Jeremy?”

“Oh, yes, he will present a fine figure to the admiral.”

“That’s as we would like it.”

And then he strode on, tapping the door to the stairs to determine whether it was open or shut, then opening it to descend.

Since Tom had remained above, I took it he was in the attic room we shared, perhaps pouting at the indignities that had been forced upon him by his mother; perhaps reading Lord Anson’s A Voyage Round the World; perhaps both. In a.ny case, I thought it best to leave him alone. Left to my own devices, it was not long until I myself found my way down to Sir John’s courtroom.

It seemed to me that I had neglected it of late. With the shopping and the cleaning and the general hurly-burly that preceded Tom’s homecoming, there seemed little time or opportunity to attend to those things I like best. And best of all did I like those hours I spent in the Magistrate’s Court on Bow Street.

As a magistrate. Sir John Fielding had power to try lesser crimes, adjudicate lesser suits, and bind over for trial at Old Bailey capital crimes, of which there were then a great number and are still far too many. It was in that last capacity that his famous powers of investigation and interrogation came to the fore. I had seen him, on a number of occasions, turn a witness quite inside out, forcing him to admit that he had not actually seen what he claimed to have seen—only heard it, heard about it, or supposed from other factors that it had taken place. It seemed one of life’s ironies that he, a blind man, should give such paramount importance to the evidence of the eyes. (You may thus imagine, reader, the frustration felt by the magistrate at the end of his questioning of the acting captain of the
Adventure
.)

Having said all this, I must now disappoint by informing you that during the court session I visited on that day, Sir John performed no great feats of interrogation, turned none inside out, nor taught any to say what he had seen—and that, only. It was, as days go in Sir John’s courtroom, a rather humdrum session. There was a dispute between a blacksmith and the driver of a hackney carriage over the shoeing of a horse and repairs of the conveyance, which involved the payment of a sum of two pounds; Sir John settled it amicably by persuading the blacksmith to accept three-quarters the amount, which the blacksmith agreed was a bit high, and taking it in two installments. There were two men who appeared before Sir John, one charging the other with assault; yet he who made the charge was much the larger of the two, and the smaller looked as if he had got much the worst of it. Since, according to Constable Baker, who had come upon the scene and taken down the accusation, no weapons were involved but bare fists, Sir John called it a matter of mutual combat and dismissed the charge; he warned them, however, that if they appeared before him again, he would find them both guilty of assault and fme them equally.

And so, you see, even on quiet days in court there was much to interest a lad of my years. To see Sir John thus in action day after day gave me a growing understanding of the workings of his remarkable mind, an understanding which benefited me greatly afterward in the pursuit of my own career in the law.

The last case of the day’s light docket was one of public drunkenness, and it proved to be of interest not just to me but also to Sir John.

The two men so charged shuffled up before Sir John in a state of embarrassment and proper chagrin. Mr. Marsden, the court clerk, read the complaint against them, naming them as Isaac Banneker and George Stonesifer, both seamen in the Royal Navy. The arresting constable. Constable Cowley, was called forward, and he gave a brief account of his apprehension of the two past midnight in Bloomsbury Square, wherein they had made “a remarkable lot of noise, sir.”

“Were they fighting, loudly quarrelsome? ” asked Sir John.

“Oh, no sir, ” said Constable Cowley.” Quite the opposite. They was happy and singing loudly, serenading the entire square, as you might say but there was complaints. In fact, sir, I was summoned by a footman of Lord Mansfield’s household to the scene.”

“On Lx5rd Mansfield’s order?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, well,” said Sir John, “I suppose the Lord Chief Justice needs his sleep as we all do. Did these two happy serenaders give you any trouble when you invited them to Bow Street?”

“None at all, sir. They had finished their bottle of gin. Their only problem was walking the street. They was a bit weak in the legs, sir, found it difficult walking a straight line, they did.”

“It sometimes happens so, ‘ said Sir John — then to Banneker and Stonesifer: “What have you two to say for yourselves? ‘

“M’lord,” said the first, “we can’t make no dispute with the constable, sir —”

“Who is this now who speaks?”

“Isaac Banneker, m’lord. ‘

“Continue.”

“As I say, we got no quarrel with the constable. He treated us right. It was probably just as he said. The truth is, George and I don’t remember much about it. We came ashore from our ship, was paid, and given our leave tickets. By then, ‘twas right late. And we thought to save our money by buying a bottle and staying out of the grog shops. Which we done and walked till we found us a nice, quiet place to drink it. Well, we drink a bit of gin, and we were feeling ever so good, and George says to me, ‘Isaac, do you know this one?’ And he sings to me the ballad of’Molly on the Shore,’ and then —”

“That will be all for the moment. I should like to hear from your companion. Is this as you remember it, Mr. Stonesifer?”

“Just so, sir. I sung it to him and he sings me another. I don’t rightly recall which, for we sung so many that night. It was grand while it lasted, but then the constable come and took us away.”

“So you plead guilty as charged.”

The two men looked at one another, shrugged, and responded, “Yes, m’lord, ” and, “Yes, sir,” in ragged chorus.

“Before we go further,” said Sir John, “I wonder if you two gentlemen would satisfy me on a point. You are both seamen in the Royal Navy, are you not? Tell me please, what is your ship?”

“Same as you were on yesterday, m’lord, the Acfventure,” said Isaac Banneker.” You did a right job on Mr. Hartsell, you did. All us in the crew were for you, be sure of it.”

Sir John, slightly taken aback by the response, gave a tardy wave of his hand to silence Mr. Banneker.

“Please, Mr. Banneker,” said he, “what I may have done yesterday or any other day on the
Adventure
is not a proper matter for this court. I am but curious on the matter of the leave you were given. You said, I believe, that it came lateyesterevening?”

“Well, our turn did, m’lord. See, they started running the boat back and forth between the dock and the A()i’enture not all that long after you left, m’lord, and took the whole crew off. We was all quite surprised, for they was to do the usual and let us off fifteen at a time, that party come back, and another fifteen go on leave. We was all surprised when they emptied the ship, for they’d let ladies aboard and booze, as well, just to keep us happy. But no, they sent us all off the Acfventiire. I ain’t sure how many they will get back, in truth, sir. George and I were the last boatload but one.”

“So now I shall have a crew of drunken sailors roistering about my precincts of London. Is that your information?”

“Well, not quite all the crew, m’lord. They kept the Lascars on, about fifty of them in number — and officers, midshipmen, and petty officers, of course. We came back a bit shorthanded. I’d say you had about two hundred of us to deal with, sir, till the Auentare weighs anchor.”

“Most interesting,” said the magistrate.” I wish I had been told. But now, I have you two to deal with, have I not? I have two choices. I may toss you in Newgate and let you serve a term of thirty days for your public drunkenness, which might indeed put you out of jail after the
Adventure
has sailed, making you, in effect, deserters — and you know how the Navy treats deserters …”

“Oh, yes sir. Could we but —”

“Silence, please, for I have not finished.”

“Yes, m’lord.”

“That is one choice. The other is this: I could fine you and allow you to go on your way if you were to promise me faithfully that you would seek out your fellows, and tell them for me that I shall not tolerate rowdy and riotous behavior in Westminster or the City of London. I shall deal with it quite severely. Now, gentlemen, I shall let you help me decide. Which would you have me choose?”

“Oh, the second, m’lord, ” said Isaac Banneker.

“Please, sir, the second,” said George StonesiFer.

“Very well, the second it is. But I shall send you out not entirely as free men, for you are under an obligation to me to spread the word as I have instructed you. Is that understood?”

Both men agreed quite solemnly to his terms.

“Then you are fined each a pound. Pay Mr. Marsden.”

The small crowd in the courtroom seemed to find a bit of entertainment in this last little drama. As Sir John gaveled that session of his court to its conclusion, the spectators filed out laughing and smiling to one another, amused at the outcome, though perhaps puzzled a bit at details discussed dealing with the £ngsite
Adventure
. They were ignorant of their significance; I was not.

For if the release of the frigate’s crew meant that two hundred extra souls had been added to the number who populated the dives, alehouses, and grog shops, it also meant that someone — Lieutenant Hartsell or perhaps even Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Redmond — had taken the threat of mutiny quite seriously. They feared the crew, even in the Port of London. Tom Durham’s appraisal of the situation had proved, in some sense at least, accurate.

While I felt drawn to Sir John’s chambers to ask him about this, a contrar) impulse kept me away. Beneath his commanding exterior, he seemed quite disturbed by the events that had happened, and were happening still, aboard the Aienture. And so, wisely, I went not to visit him, but rather above, where I busied myself cleaning and polishing in the sitting room, wherein, as I had been told, our party for the admiral would begin.

It was late afternoon before Lady Fielding arrived from the Magdalene Home with Annie, who carried with her a small bundle of clothes and miscellaneous belongings. After inspecting and approving my work in the sitting room, Lady Fielding hurried up to the attic room to urge her son back into his new-bought finery. This left me alone with Annie in the kitchen. She fixed me with a critical stare.

“Awright,” said she, “let’s see what you brought me to cook.”

The vegetables satisfied her, but what she was most interested in was the package of meat I had brought back from Mr. Tolliver’s. I unwrapped it, and she gave it a hard appraisal.

“Mmm, a rack anc) a leg,” said she, thrusting out her lower lip and nodding.” You’ll not leave the table hungry tonight. You buy this at Smithfield, Jeremy?”

“No, in the Garden at Mr. Tolliver’s.”

“And good meat it is. But tell me, did the old party who had my position previous keep any mint sauce about?”

I had seen a jar, I thought, while cleaning the cupboards not so long ago. I went and pulled it down. Finding it unopened, I managed with considerable effort to pull off the top. Annie dipped her finger in it and tasted.

“That’ll do,” said she.” But I know they’ve no garlic or spices about, so you must hurry off swift to Covent Garden, while the stalls are yet open and buy me a whole garlic and a good bunch of fresh marjoram. Have you got that clear? If I’m going to do this —by God, I shall do it right!”

“I thought you promised naught but humble fare. Jack,” said the admiral.” Strike me dead if this is not the best lamb e’er I tasted. I know I never ate better.”

“You do me honor, Bobbie.”

“We have a new cook,” ventured Lady Fielding.” She was formerly in the kitchen of Lord Goodhope.”

“Well, you may give her my sincerest compliments.”

“Thankyou,” said she.” I shall certainly do so.”

“Lord Goodhope … Lord Goodhope, ” muttered Sir Robert, sucking to call up the memory.” He came to a bad end, did he not? Why, I do believe I heard that you yourself had something to do with that tawdry affair —an investigation of some sort, was it not?”

“Indeed I did conduct an investigation, ” said Sir John.” Andyou are right, it was a tawdry affair, probably not the sort of thing my dear Kate would like to hear discussed at dinner table —another occasion, perhaps.”

“Certainly, certainly. My apologies. Lady Fielding.”

“Quite unnecessary, really. Tom, I see that Sir Robert’s glass needs replenishing. Would you attend to it?”

Her son poured with a heavy hand, filling the admiral’s glass near to the brim.

“Thank you, lad,” said Sir Robert; then, taking a deep draft of the wine, he spoke out to the table, though in name he addressed his host: “Jack, I do envy you so. Here you have a lovely wte. two hne boys to assist you and give you comfort —in short, a real home. While 1, who have never married, must return to my humble quarters in the Tower and eat my next dinner alone in the officers’ mess.”

“Never married? ” echoed Lady Fielding.” What a pity!”

“No, all those years at sea, after all. It would have been unfair to any woman to ask her to endure absences oi two or three years for a month or two of true married life. Now that I am seaborne no longer but shore-borne, my quarterdeck an office, I have come to wish my life had been otherwise —most specially when I find myself in such company as I find myself in at this moment.”