Abigail's Cousin (41 page)

As they ate
Mesnager told Prior the legend of St Denis who, it seemed, had
refused to abandon his faith when the Roman garrison had been
commanded to re-affirm their beliefs in the ancient gods of Rome,
by swearing an oath and upon a refusal, the army imprisoned the
centurion, Denis, and when he still refused to deny Jesus Christ,
he was publicly beheaded. At this point fact blurs into legend as
Denis is alleged to have picked up his head and walked, to the
astonishment of the army, the citizens and fellow Christians, who,
inspired by Denis' act, solemnly marked the spot where he
ultimately succumbed to having no head, and caused a church to be
erected. He was later canonised.

Resuming their
journey, the travellers passed through thick forests surrounding
the city emerging into farmland and settlements. Farms gave way to
cottages and cottages to houses and subsequently to rows of houses
and Prior remarked the change of terrain under the wheels as the
carriage rumbled over paved roads and joined the former, ancient
Roman road when Paris was known as Lutece. From there Maurice
turned towards Montmartre.

Mesnager
explained to Prior that the road over which they were travelling
formerly marked a boundary of Paris upon which were ramparts manned
by soldiers. Louis however had changed all that commanding the
ramparts to be pulled down and a new kind of road to be built, a
boulevard, naming the first after a famous predecessor, Henri IV,
who was reported to have declared after re-conversion to the
universal faith: "Paris is worth a Mass!"

"Voila, la
Seine!" Mesnager shouted with joy as he sighted the riband of water
snaking its way in the distance through Paris before the carriage
took a gentle downhill road from Monmartre towards their
destination. Prior also enthused with Mesnager though on
approaching the Quai d'Orsay he was suddenly conscious of the
momentousness of the event for him, and turning to Mesnager
nervously exclaimed:

"How do I
recognise the marquis? How do I know it is the marquis?"

Mesnager
looked bewildered though admitted to himself that were he to visit
someone in England not having seen him before he might find himself
in a similar position. He asked his companion: "How will his
excellency recognise you, monsieur Prior?"

Prior replied
instantly: "By my letter of accreditation," and then rummaging in
his personal valise, added: "do you recall her majesty’s three line
power, signed and sealed by the queen herself."

Mesnager
thought a moment recalling that the earl of Jersey and the marquis
de Torcy had been formally introduced, or so he had been led to
believe by the earl. He said to Prior almost as a joke, that being
a stranger he could not very well lose his head over such a simple
question of identity; Prior smiled nervously back at Mesnager then
recalling his earlier story said:

"Your St Denis
has set me an example. I wonder how far I shall get."

It broke the tension
and they both enjoyed the joke.

Mathew Prior
had been technically correct in raising the issue of credentials
with his opposite number, Nicolas Mesnager, though had he been
aware of the fevered atmosphere in French diplomatic circles at
that time, he might have regarded the matter as superfluous. At the
time his excellency, the marquis de Torcy was beset by ill-wishers
increasing in numbers over the past six years of military failure
which ultimately led back to Louis' Court and in particular the
king's minister for foreign affairs. It had come as a bolt from the
blue in the midst of a perceived threat to the safety of the state
the news that certain people among their enemy, fearful of Le
Malbrouk's continuing success and its consequences, were anxious
for peace. Yet the marquis was too experienced a courtier on
receiving Louis instructions, not to insist that these be put in
writing. In essence they were no different to the credentials
Mathew Prior held from the queen.

The marquis
learned from the Abbe Gaultier, on his parole to return to England,
that it was commercial advantage that was sought by the English
who, it seemed, had no interest in humbling France. After
subsequent visits and exchanges he also learned of the divisions
within the court of Queen Anne though these divisions were being
negated by the growing power of Parliament. It astonished him even
more to learn that the person pulling the strings, the leading
exponent for peace, was not a member of the House of Lords but a
member in the lower House of Commons and moreover that this
gentleman had no official position in the government. He learned
his name was Robert Harley, son of a prosperous merchant, who had
fought for Parliament in the Civil War.

Furthermore
the Abbe Gaultier had informed him that Harley had gained access to
the Queen Anne through the good offices of his cousin, a certain
Mistress Abigail Hill, to the detriment of the Abbe's earlier
contact, the earl of Jersey. This last fact was disheartening as
one of the arguments used to persuade Louis towards peace was the
hope of a Jacobite restoration in England, and one thing the
marquis had learned in his long association with his monarch was
the latter’s ambition, even obsession, to drive the catholic faith
forward. The Sun King thought of himself as the prime champion of
the Catholic Church in Christendom having taken up the banner of
Spain's Philip II, who had in his age tried to chastise England and
bring it back to the true faith.

Louis’ dream
had been shattered by the Duke of Marlborough who had been
demonised to the extent that his army spoke of him fearfully as 'le
Malbrouk', translating as ‘the bad guy’, yet Providence might
provide a way out especially in view of the latest information to
reach the marquis that political circles in England regarded 'le
Malbrouk' with as much fear in their own situation as Louis had
come to regard him. Moreover he was doubly pleased to pass onto his
master that this solution might only affect Spain's overseas
territories and therefore not involve the Fatherland in
humiliation.

In the Courts
of both England and France, commercial advantage held no particular
kudos so obsessed were they with military and diplomatic
one-upmanship, and accordingly, the marquis contacted a banking
house patronised in the raising of loans to finance Louis'
campaigns. A Monsieur Nicolas Mesnager had duly presented himself
to the marquis who, upon the arrival of the Abbe Gaultier in Paris,
had introduced the two men. Mesnager's subsequent words were as
music to the marquis' ears for, it seemed, Robert Harley, in
England, under the queen’s patronage, had promised the French they
need never again suffer another military defeat once certain
mercantile and commercial advantages could be guaranteed to
England. What cared the French nobility about their entrepreneurs,
explorers and settlers in the New World often risking death and
injury for the glory of France, but who could be surrendered at a
stroke of a nobleman's pen to save royal humiliation.

The fact that
Gibraltar and Minorca would also be ceded was Spain's affair which,
in French eyes, should not have suffered them to be lost to the
English in the first place. The fact that it was French military
defeat that caused these cessions was overlooked. Moreover it was
an irony and not a little inequitable that the partner which had
achieved some military successes at Alamanza and Brihuega should be
the one to suffer. In the marquis’ estimation it served them right:
Had not Spain precipitated the crisis leading to war? Yet although
he confided such thoughts to Mesnager he would not dare express
them to his monarch, closely linked as he was to Spain’s royal
family.

Nevertheless
the marquis was called upon to concede the loss of territories
consoling his master they were overseas and far away. Acadia lost
to the New Englanders and already renamed Nova Scotia had been a
base for French privateers; also Port Royal, renamed Annapolis
after the queen. The loss of Newfoundland would hit French
fishermen particularly hard as a lot of private investment had gone
into equipping its harbours and inlets to process the cod caught in
the icy waters. Yet French fishermen should not have been too
surprised at the surrender of Canadian manufacturing capacity as
Louis had already yielded to home manufactories, enjoying a
presence at court, by a punitive decree directed at French
colonists that 'Anything that competes with manufactories in France
must never be made in the Colonies.'

Mathew Prior's
earlier misgivings as confided to Nicolas Mesnager proved
superfluous as the opportunity did not arise to meet the marquis
who was scarcely ever at his office in the Quai d'Orsay. Having
delivered his messages from the queen and the detailed terms from
Robert Harley to the Bureau de la Ministere pour Les Affaires
Etrangers, Prior was assigned a room in order to study the French
proposals in detail by translating them into English and checking
out details with Mesnager or clerks at the ministry. Mesnager would
make the journey to Versailles in order to confer with Torcy to
resolve particular difficulties. This was tedious to Prior as there
was a deal of waiting around as Mesnager had already advised him
that walking Parisian streets was taboo. This ban also prevented
him accompanying Mesnager to Versailles. It seems it was the
marquis who had issued instructions to withhold permission from the
Englishman; he wanted no incidents.

Yet Mesnager
made his stay as pleasant as possible and having discovered a
mutual interest in Greek and Roman poets and dramatists, Prior was
extended the freedom to browse the Quai's excellent collection of
classics of Horace, Vergil, Aeschylus and many more. Indeed, he saw
his own translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis published in 1684, and
he and Mesnager spent many happy hours comparing his with
Mesnager's own unpublished translation. England had moved ahead in
publishing also as Mesnager needed a patron to finance his work
while Prior had sought out a publisher from a number in
competition.

The Abbe
Gaultier meanwhile had left to visit his old monastery at Preuilly,
south of Paris, and had not returned when the Marquis de Torcy
having finalised the provisional draft treaty returned to the Quai
in order to have copies made and scrupulously checked whereafter
copies were made available to each of the three envoys. Then it was
Prior's task to reconcile his proposals ie Harley's plus his own
amendements with Torcy's new draft. Mesnager, once in possession of
the definitive draft was anxious to be on his way and having no
means of contacting the Abbe and deeming Preuilly too far, apart
from the danger of missing him altogether, he took the decision to
leave without him leaving a message for the marquis who meanwhile
had returned to Versailles, where Louis XIV permanently
resided.

It was during
that period of departure that a drama began to unfold and it had to
do with Maurice, the coachman, who confessed to Mesnager that he
had agreed a plan with someone to take possession of Mathew Prior
en route with a view to extracting a sum of money from the French
authorities who, Maurice surmised would be anxious to pay in order
to prevent dangerous revelations. It seems to have occurred to the
coachman through confessing the plot to his wife that his own life
might be in danger, as his wife pointed out that the gang would
dispose of Maurice once Prior had been taken hostage.

This new turn
of events necessitated another trip to Versailles to see the
marquis who consulted with the monarch to whom occurred the
astonishing idea of a counter-plot. He consulted with the Palace
Guard no less and as a result Louis commissioned four of the King's
Musketeers to accompany the envoys in a separate carriage. The
delay to the travel arrangements had not been long enough for the
Abbe Gaultier to return and Mesnager reluctantly felt compelled for
Maurice to accompany them owing to his knowledge of the route and
so the two carriages with Maurice’s in front set out for the
coast.

Mesnager had
not asked and the coachman had not volunteered the information as
to where the ambush was likely to take place though the envoy
guessed it might be at or beyond the inn where he had seen Maurice
leave the rooms of Madame Moulin. The presence of the musketeers
assured him that, provided they acted with caution, the party could
stay at the inn. Maurice for his part did not know what plans his
lover might have believing that he might even warn her of her own
danger. On the other hand, the thought crossed his mind that were
she to suspect his double-dealing his life might still be in danger
but Maurice was young and believed in his own immortality.

To add to his
woes, it started to rain and his thoughts were of a more present
and practical nature, how to move the canopy which he might have
loosened while stationary in Paris though he had had other things
on his mind than preparations for rain on the journey. Tying the
reins around his legs, he attempted to undo the cord on his right
side cursing that the knot was too tight to untie and so, picking
up the reins, resigned himself to getting thoroughly wet. He cursed
his own stupidity though might have cursed yet more had he known
that the rearmost carriage, bearing the musketeers, had stopped
behind him for the driver to release his own canopy and continue
upon his journey, and then done some catching up, the musketeers'
coachman wondering why that fool of a coachman ahead of him
preferred to get soaked rather than protect himself under his
canopy.

Inside the
carriage itself, to Prior, it seemed that Mesnager was not his old
self deciding however that the reason for his introspection was
that the stakes were higher. This might explain the presence of the
escort carriage filled with musketeers. They followed the same road
and though Mesnager seemed occupied with his own thoughts yet the
two men had become friends and gradually got to know the other's
background. Prior was not overly surprised by his fellow envoy's
view of the world seeing it from a financial perspective with which
he was not unfamiliar himself yet was not a little puzzled that
Mesnager had not connected fiscal matters with the funding of
trade.