The Meaning of Night

afternoon in 1850; and, finally, the rosewood box in which my salvation had lain for so long without my knowing, and the copy of Felltham’s Resolves that I had removed from Lady Tansor’s tomb. This done, I collected together all the remaining papers from my work-table, with the indexed notes that I had made over the years, piled them up in the grate, and threw a match on the heap. At the door, I looked back as the blaze took hold, a crackling furnace, consuming hope and happiness.

With my muffler drawn over my face, I entered Morley’s Hotel, Charing-cross, and called for a brandy-and-water and a room with a fire.

That night, with the snow beginning to fall once more, swathing the city in silence, I dreamed that I was standing on the cliff-top at Sandchurch. There is our little white house, and there the chestnut-tree by the gate. No school today, so I run, exulting, towards the semicircles of white-painted stones that edge the narrow flower-beds on either side of the gate. Billick has not yet mended the rope ladder, but it still serves; so up I clamber, into the branches, into my crow’s-nest. I have my spy-glass with me, and lie down to scan the shining horizon. In my mind, every sail is transformed: to the east, a vanguard of triremes sent by Caesar himself; to the west, low in the water, a Spanish treasure-ship freighted down with Indies gold; and, coming up from the south, slow and menacing, a horde of Barbary pirates intent on ravaging our quiet Dorset coast. Then there is a clatter of plates from the kitchen. Through the parlour window I can see Mamma writing at her work-table. She looks up and smiles as I wave.

Then I awoke and began to weep: not for what I had lost, or for the times that would never come again; not even for my poor broken heart; least of all for the death of my enemy; but for Lucas Trendle, the innocent red- haired stranger, who would never again send Bibles and boots to the Africans.

By my hand,

Edward Charles Glyver,

MDCCCLV

Finis

^*[‘It is finished’. Ed.]

^*[See note, p. 15. Ed.]

^*[In Bishopsgate Street. Ed.]

^†[The Earl of Aberdeen (George Hamilton Gordon, 1784–1860). He became Prime Minister after the resignation of the Earl of Derby in 1852. He was widely blamed for the mismanagement of the Crimean War and resigned in February 1855. He would have gone to the dinner alone: his second wife had died in 1833. Ed.]

^*[Apparently fictitious. Ed.]

^*[The battle took place on 5 November 1854 – the day that Florence Nightingale arrived at the hospital at Scutari. Ed.]

^*[Rouge was a preparation of oxide of iron used to clean silver plate. Ed.]

^*[Marie Taglioni (1804–84), the celebrated Swedish-Italian dancer, for whom her father, Filippo Taglioni, created the ballet La Sylphide (1832), the first ballet in which a ballerina danced en pointe for the duration of the work. Ed.]

^*[A rich and expensive dish consisting of ribs of beef larded and braised, together with fresh (or forced) mushrooms, truffles, meat-balls and Madeira. Ed.]

^*[Large ornamental dispensers of sweets, etc. Ed.]

^†[From Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus, with a libretto by the Revd Thomas Morell. Composed to celebrate the English victory over the Young Pretender at Culloden and the return to London of the victorious Duke of Cumberland. First performed in 1747. Ed.]

^*[The poem from which these lines were taken is ‘From the Persian’, printed in Daunt’s Rosa Mundi; and Other Poems (1854). Ed.]

Post scriptum^*

Marden House

Westgate, Canterbury

Kent

10th December 1854

MY DEAR EDWARD, —

A brief note, to thank you for yours of the 9th. My brother is coming to town this morning, and has undertaken to ask Birtles to deliver this to you.

As you seem disinclined, no doubt for good reason, to come here, then I shall not press you.

I have to inform you, though, that Mr Donald Orr has written to me – somewhat intemperately – concerning what he calls ‘a serious and prolonged dereliction’ of your duties. He has indicated to me that he wishes to terminate your employment at Tredgolds, with immediate effect. I have replied, requesting that, if you so desire, you should be allowed to retain your rooms in Temple-street, for as long as you need them.

If, however, that does not accord with your wishes, then there is a cottage hard by my new residence here, which I think would suit you very well, for as long as you needed it. And so I shall leave it in your hands, to let me know what you wish to do.

You did not respond to my offer to speak to Sir Ephraim, on a strictly confidential and theoretical basis, concerning the presentation of the evidence to Lord T that you now hold. I make it again. Should you wish to avail yourself of it, I think we can be certain that Sir Ephraim’s advocacy would carry great weight with his Lordship.

And so, in anticipation of hearing from you more fully, I wish you God speed, my dear boy, as the season of our Lord’s birth approaches, and hope that all continues to go forward as you would wish, and to assure you that I am ready to advise you at any time, and give whatever help I can of a legal character. I pray for an early and successful resolution of your enterprise, regardless of the consequences for myself, to which I beg you to pay no heed. Do what must be done, and set right the injustice that you have suffered, for the peace of your mother’s dear soul. And may God reward your labours at last. Write when you can.

Yours, most affectionately,