The Rising Storm

'What the Jacobins decide by night now becomes law in the National Assembly the following day. Mirabeau attempted to sway the Club against me, but he was howled down; Desmoulins, Lameth, Robespierre, Dupont, Petion, all supported me. And Mirabeau was again defeated in the debates that followed in the Assembly, by Barnave using my arguments against him.

'I have betrayed the Queen and all my better instincts. I caused a man to be done to death in a manner that will trouble my soul for years to come. I brought about the death of a woman who was very dear to me by remaining on in Paris, when I might have come away with her ten days ago. I have lost a friendship that I value more than life itself. And all this as the price of getting a hearing in the Jacobin Club. I have branded myself as a sans-culotte—a brutal murderer from whom all decent people will shrink. But I have served you and England well.

'You can cancel your preparations in the ports and demobilize your levees. On your own word Spain will not fight alone; so there will be no war. A year ago you asked me to devise means which might assist you to break the Family Compact. I have broken it for you. On Saturday the twenty-second, by the law of France, it was declared null and void. It is as dead as yesterday's sheep that is now mutton. More; without resorting to war, I have made possible your dream, that all Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, should henceforth become a dominion of the British Crown.'

Mr. Pitt remained quite silent for a moment, then he said: 'Mr. Brook. I owe you an apology. I—er—omitted to offer you a glass of Port.'

When Roger left No. 10 Downing Street dusk was falling. A few yards from the entrance a closed carriage was drawn up. As he walked past it a voice that he knew well called him by name. Turning he saw Georgina's lovely face framed in the carriage window. Beckoning to him she threw open the door. After only a second's hesitation he got in, slammed it behind him and sat down beside her. As he did so the carriage drove off.

After an awkward pause, he asked: 'How comes it that you knew I had returned to London?'

'I had word from Droopy Ned,' she answered in a low voice. 'As soon as Papa and I got back I asked Droopy to let me know the instant that you arrived. He sent me a message an hour ago that you had dropped your baggage at Amesbury House and gone on to Downing Street.'

Again there was a long, strained silence; then she said with a sob: 'Oh Roger 1 All this past week I have been near dead of grief.'

He turned away his face. 'I know how bitterly you must feel, but I beg you to spare, me your reproaches. The memory of that awful scene and the manner in which I brought about his death is as much as I can bear.'

'Nay,' she replied quickly. 'Fond as I was of him, it was not his death that has driven me half-crazy. 'Twas the thought of the breach between us. You are so much a part of me that I could not reconcile myself to cutting you from my life without an attempt at explanation. I had to find out if you had some shadow of justification for the awful thing you did, or if I am condemned to regard you henceforth as a monster. Why did you do it, Roger? Why?'

'It is a long story,' he murmured. 'But I too have been more distressed by your threat never to forgive me than all else put to­gether. Where can we go to talk alone in comfort?'

'I am taking you to my studio on Campden Hill. I must know the truth, and whether after tonight I may ever look you in the face again without a shudder. Let us say no more till we arrive there.'

As they drove on through Hyde Park and down to Kensington village, Roger recalled the many times that they had taken the same drive together in very different circumstances. Georgina had a natural talent for painting, and Gainsborough and Reynolds had entered on a pleasant rivalry in giving such a ravishing pupil lessons, in her studio- villa on Campden Hill; but she also used it as a petit maison, and when she felt inclined to play the wanton took her most-favoured beaux there to sup with her. With a sad pang Roger thought again of the wine, the laughter and the love that had united them when he had last accompanied her there in the early hours of the morning, after a ball.

But that was long ago; 'and no hideous Paris street scene centring round a battered, bloody corpse lay between them then.

When they arrived at the quiet villa, secluded among its grove of trees, Jenny, Georgina's faithful maid, who knew all her secrets, let them in. Roger had not seen Jenny in Paris and only once in Aran­juez; so after she had bobbed him a curtsy he talked to her for a few minutes as an old friend; and that served to relieve a little the tension between Georgina and himself. Georgina then told Jenny to bring them a bottle of Canary wine and, as the maid left them to fetch it, asked him when he had last fed.

'I have not eaten all day,' he replied; 'but am more tired than hungry. What I need most in all the world, after your forgiveness, are a hot bath and a few hours' sleep.'

She kept her eyes away from his. 'The issue cannot now be al­tered; so I will contain my impatience yet a while that you may have both, and be the better man to justify yourself—if you can. 'Tis not yet eight o'clock. Jenny shall boil some water up for you while we drink a glass of wine and you undress. You can sleep in my bed and later I will have some cold food ready for you.'

In silence they drank two glasses each of the Canary, then he had his bath and flopped into Georgina's big square bed. As its black silk sheets caressed his naked limbs he thought of the last time that he had lain there, with her burbling with laughter beside him, and won­dered if he would ever again know such perfect contentment. Then he dropped asleep.

At midnight she woke him, and shortly afterwards he joined her in the lofty studio-sitting-room, one end of which was curtained off to conceal all the paraphernalia of her painting. In the other, in front of the fireplace, a small table was set for supper. As they sat down to it, she said:

'Tell me now, Roger, what led you to this ghastly act, that must for ever bring the awful vision of his dead body between us, unless you can once and for all dispel it'

Georgina and Droopy were the only people from whom Roger had never concealed his secret activities, so; as they slowly ate their supper, he told her of his endeavours to break the Family Compact, then of Mr. Pitt's blasting of him that evening, and his reply.

It was the first time that they had ever eaten a meal together with­out laughter, and now Georgina did not even smile, as she remarked: 'You are right in that you have served your country well by these extraordinary means, and risked your life in doing so; for had you not handled matters with great skill and daring the French authorities would have had you tried and executed for murder. What had the Prime Minister to say on your proving to him that you have sacrificed all else in a fanatical devotion to your duty?'

'He asked me for the Letter of Marque I carried; struck out the words 'of Nootka Sound', altered one other, initialled the alterations and handed it back to me; so that it now reads:

“Mr. Roger Brook knows my mind on this matter, and is commissioned by me to speak upon it.'

Georgina's unsmiling eyes widened. ' 'Tis then transformed into an open warrant, empowering you during the course of your work to speak in his name on any subject. It shows that you have now won his complete trust in your judgment, 'Tis a remarkable achievement, Roger, and I am glad for you in that.'

'I thank you.' He returned her solemn glance. ' 'Tis even more a testimony to the greatness of his own mind, in that he has overlooked my many shortcomings and paid regard only to the final outcome of my mission. But I'll find no joy in his noble gesture to me unless I can convince you too that I played no dishonourable part.'

She continued to regard him dubiously, as she said: 'In so grave an affair of State I can understand that the life of a single man could not be allowed to affect the issue; but 'twas the personal relationship you bore him, Roger, that made your crime so peculiarly horrible. Surely, if a man had to die to win your popularity with the mob, you could have played the part of blind Fate and selected a victim at ran­dom, instead of seizing on the chance to slake your hatred of the husband of your mistress?'

' 'Twas no calmly reasoned plan. The thought that I might achieve my country's ends over Don Diego's dead body came to me only as a flash of inspiration while we stood together on that balcony. But had I had time to make deliberate choice of a victim I greatly doubt if I could have brought myself to throw an innocent person to that pack of wolves. I had in any case come there to kill him.'

'I do not understand you, Roger.' Georgina shook her head. 'Diego was as innocent as myself of the Condesa Isabella's death. She did not even die by poison; she was butchered by those cut-throat robbers.'

'Say hired assassins, rather! Don Diego planned her murder. I am convinced of that. When I reached the Embassy, I was still too distraught to do more than imply that I knew him to be guilty, and after—after what then