Meanwhile, Monmouth was back in Bridgwater, his second occupation of which town was not being looked upon with unmixed favour. The inhabitants had suffered enough already from his first visit; his return there, after the Philips Norton affair – of.which such grossly exaggerated reports had reached London, and which, in point of fact, had been little better than a drawn battle – had been looked upon with dread by some, with disfavour by others, and with dismay by not a few who viewed in this an augury of failure.
Now Sir Rowland Blake, who since his pursuit of Mr. Wilding and Trenchard on the occasion of their flight from Taunton had – in spite of his failure on that occasion – been more or less in the service of Albemarle and the loyal army, saw in this indisposition towards Monmouth of so many of Bridgwater’s inhabitants great possibilities of profit to himself.
He was at Lupton House, the guest of his friend Richard Westmacott, and the open suitor of Ruth, entirely ignoring the circumstance that she was nominally the wife of Mr. Wilding – this to the infinite chagrin of Miss Horton, who saw all her scheming likely to go for nothing.
In his heart of hearts it was a matter of not the slightest consequence to Sir Rowland whether James Stuart or James Scott occupied the throne of England. His own affairs gave him more than enough to think of, and these disturbances in the West were very welcome to him, since they rendered difficult any attempt to trace him on the part of his London creditors. It happens, however, very commonly that enmity to an individual will lead to enmity to the cause which that individual espouses. Thus may it have been with Sir Rowland. His hatred of Wilding and his keen desire to see Wilding destroyed had made him a zealous partisan of the loyal cause. Richard Westmacott, easily swayed and overborne by the town rake, whose vices made him seem to Richard the embodiment of all that is splendid and enviable in man, had become practically the baronet’s tool, now that he had abandoned Monmouth’s Cause. Sir Rowland had not considered it beneath the dignity of his name and station to discharge in Bridgwater certain functions that made him more or less a spy. And so reliable had been the information he had sent Feversham and Albemarle during Monmouth’s first occupation of the town, that he had won by now their complete confidence.
The second occupation and its unpopularity with many of those who earlier – if lukewarm – had been partisans of the Duke, swelled the number of loyally inclined people in Bridgwater, and suddenly inspired Sir Rowland with a scheme by which at a blow he might snuff out the rebellion.
This scheme involved the capture of the Duke, and the reward of success should mean far more to Blake than the five thousand pounds at which the value of the Duke’s head had already been fixed by Parliament. He needed a tool for this, and he even thought of Westmacott and Lupton House, but afterwards preferred a Mr. Newlington, who was in better case to assist him. This Newlington, an exceedingly prosperous merchant and one of the richest men perhaps in the whole West of England, looked with extreme disfavour upon Monmouth, whose advent had paralyzed his industries to an extent that was costing him a fine round sum of money weekly.
He was now in alarm lest the town of Bridgwater should be made to pay dearly for having harboured the Protestant Duke – he had no faith whatever in the Protestant Duke’s ultimate prevailing – and that he, as one of the town’s most prominent and prosperous citizens, might be amongst the heaviest sufferers in spite of his neutrality. This neutrality he observed because it was hardly safe in that disaffected town for a man to proclaim himself a loyalist.
To him Sir Rowland expounded his audacious plan… He sought out the merchant in his handsome mansion on the night of that Friday which had witnessed Monmouth’s return, and the merchant, honoured by the visit of this gallant – ignorant as he was of the gentleman’s fame in town – placed himself entirely andinstantly at his disposal, though the hour was late. Sounding him carefully, and finding the fellow most amenable to any scheme that should achieve the salvation of his purse and industries, Blake boldly laid his plan before him. Startled at first, Mr. Newlington upon considering it became so enthusiastic that he hailed Sir Rowland as his deliverer, and heartily promised his cooperation. Indeed, it was Mr. Newlington who was, himself, to take the first step.
Well pleased with his evening’s work, Sir Rowland went home to Lupton House and to bed. In the morning he broached the matter to Richard. He had all the vanity of the inferior not only to lessen the appearance of his inferiority, but to clothe himself in a mantle of importance; and it was this vanity urged him to acquaint Richard with his plans in the very presence of Ruth.
They had broken their fast, and they still lingered in the dining-room, the largest and most important room in Lupton House. It was cool and pleasant here in contrast to the heat of the July sun, which, following upon the late wet weather, beat fiercely on the lawn, the window-doors to which stood open. The cloth had been raised, and Diana and her mother had lately left the room. Ruth, in the window-seat, at a small oval table, was arranging a cluster of roses in an old bronze bowl. Sir Rowland, his stiff short figure carefully dressed in a suit of brown camlet, his fair wig very carefully curled, occupied a tall-backed armchair near the empty fireplace. Richard, perched on the table’s edge, swung his shapely legs idly backwards and forwards and cogitated upon a pretext to call for a morning draught of last October’s ale.
Ruth completed her task with the roses and turned her eyes upon her brother.
“You are not looking well, Richard,” she said, which was true enough, for much hard drinking was beginning to set its stamp on Richard, and young as he was, his insipidly fair face began to display a bloatedness that was exceedingly unhealthy.
“Oh, I am well enough,” he answered almost peevishly, for these allusions to his looks were becoming more frequent than he savoured.
“Gad!” cried Sir Rowland’s deep voice, “you’ll need to be well. I have work for you to-morrow, Dick.”
Dick did not appear to share his enthusiasm. “I am sick of the work you discover for us, Rowland,” he answered ungraciously.
But Blake showed no resentment. “Maybe you’ll find the present task more to your taste. If it’s deeds of derring-do you pine for, I am the man to satisfy you.” He smiled grimly, his bold grey eyes glancing across at Ruth, who was observing him, listening.
Richard sneered, but offered him no encouragement to proceed.
“I see,” said Blake, “that I shall have to tell you the whole story before you’ll credit me. Shalt have it, then. But.. .” and he checked on the word, his face growing serious, his eye wandering to the door, “I would not have it overheard – not for a king’s ransom,” which was more literally true than he may have intended it to be.
Richard looked over his shoulder carelessly at the door.
“We have no eavesdroppers,” he said, and his voice bespoke his contempt of the gravity of this news of which Sir Rowland made so much in anticipation. He was acquainted with Sir Rowland’s ways, and the importance of them. “What are you considering?” he inquired.
“To end the rebellion,” answered Blake, his voice cautiously lowered.
Richard laughed outright. “There are several others considering that – notably His Majesty King James, the Duke of Albemarle, and the Earl of Feversham. Yet they don’t appear to achieve it.”
“It is in that particular,” said Blake complacently, “that I shall differ from them.” He turned to Ruth, eager to engage her in the conversation, to flatter her by including her in the secret. Knowing the loyalist principles she entertained, he had no reason to fear that his plans could other than meet her approval. “What do you say, Mistress Ruth?” Presuming upon his friendship with her brother, he had taken to calling her by that name in preference to the other which he could not bring himself to give her. “Is it not an object worthy of a gentleman’s endeavour?”
“If you can save so many poor people from encompassing their ruin by following that rash young man the Duke of Monmouth, you will indeed be doing a worthy deed.”
Blake rose, and made her a leg. “Madam,” said he, “had aught been wanting to cement my resolve, your words would supply it to me. My plan is simplicity itself. I propose to capture Monmouth and his principal agents, and deliver them over to the King. And that is all.”