Bartholomew Fair (21 page)

I doubted it, but I smiled anyway and took a large bite of my cake. Mistress Liza, it seemed, was a good cook. William had done well for himself. Both he and Liza had returned to the shop, where several customers had come in for fittings. Rikki settled down under the table with a bone Liza had found for him.

‘Adam,’ I said, ‘there was an Italian puppet show at the Fair. Did you happen to see it?’

‘Aye, but I had no chinks for a ticket.’ He smiled grimly. ‘Even if I had, I would have spent them on food, not on such foolery.’

‘It was not exactly foolery.’ I studied him seriously. I did not know him well, but everything I did know inclined me to trust him. ‘Their performance was more than a little subversive, treasonous even.’

I saw that I had caught his interest.

‘Papists, were they?’

‘Aye. Certainly.’

‘But not those ill begotten Spaniards.’

‘Nay. Italians.’

‘The Pope lives in Italy,’ he said, ‘like a spider at the centre of his web.’

‘He does.’

He looked at me shrewdly. ‘Another of these papist plots against the Queen, are you saying?’

‘It may be. Certainly some of the performance was intended to encourage any Catholics in the audience to rebellious thoughts. But there were other strands to the story. It attacked the all leaders of the Portuguese expedition, and Lord Burghley.’ I hesitated. How far should I go? ‘And it defamed the Queen herself.’

He gave a low whistle and looked worried. ‘Dangerous, then.’

‘Aye. Dangerous indeed. There is something else.’ I sipped my ale, and made up my mind to tell him everything, or almost everything. ‘At the first performance, on the first day of the Fair, there was a mixed audience – families, groups of friends, but also a number of your fellow soldiers. Clearly they had coin enough to buy tickets.’

He looked surprised, but said nothing.

‘There was also an evening performance. I was not there, that first day, so I have no idea who was in the audience.’

He nodded. He was listening intently now.

‘I was worried by what I had seen, so I reported it to Master Phelippes in Walsingham’s office.’ At his look of astonishment, I realised he knew nothing of this side of my work. No need to go into great detail.

‘As well as being a physician,’ I explained, ‘I sometimes work for Sir Francis as a code-breaker and translator. Master Phelippes was concerned at what I told him, and asked me to return and keep an eye on the Italians, together with another man from the service, Arthur Gregory.’ I decided not to mention our search for Poley.

‘And you saw more of the soldiers?’

‘Aye. A large number at the first performance yesterday. In the evening, there was no performance. It was a meeting, rather, and all those who came were soldiers, together with a few gentlemen. And this morning, every trace of the puppeteers was gone.’

He shook his head. ‘I do not like the sound of that. Certainly not all of our fellow soldiers stayed the whole while at Finsbury Fields. Everyone claimed to be penniless, and on the way here from Plymouth we lived by begging and foraging. Mayhap some were not telling the truth.’

‘Do you think,’ I said, ‘that some of them had another purpose in coming to London? Not just to ask for compensation for their recent service?’

He lowered his gaze to his clasped hands, which rested on the table in front of him. For a long time, he said nothing, but at last he looked up, his eyes troubled.

‘If our grievances had been heard, if something could have been done for us, and for those poor women left widowed and the children left orphaned . . . then I think we would have gone peacefully home. I think so.’

I noticed that his hands were trembling.

‘I heard whispers, Dr Alvarez. I tried to pay them no mind, but now, after what you have said . . . I thought it was just talk, you see. Boasting and bragging. Something to make those fellows feel important. We’d had our faces ground in the mud, like, and some men needed to fight back more than others.’

I felt my heart beginning to beat more quickly.

‘Certainly you managed to find arms.’ I said.

‘Aye, I had nothing more than a cudgel I cut from a branch myself, but some managed bows and even swords or muskets. Where they got them, I don’t know, and I didn’t ask questions.’

‘Were there traitors amongst you, do you think?’ I asked. ‘Anyone who might have dealings with foreigners, or the Catholic-trained English priests who are smuggled into the country?’

He shrugged. ‘Who could know, in all that number? I lost most of my friends before ever we came home to Plymouth. You remember the lad with the snake bite?’

‘Aye.’

‘He was my cousin.’

‘He died on our ship,’ I said.

Died in my arms, I remembered sadly.

‘Aye, well. By the time we gathered for the march to London, I was on my own. Some of the lads were fine, but I kept to myself most of the time. That didn’t stop me hearing things.’

‘What things?’

He clenched his hands more tightly together. ‘There was talk of gunpowder.’

‘Gunpowder!’ I was shaking myself now.

‘Aye. It seems some of the men who was on Drake’s ships – you remember we was provisioned and supplied to attack the Azores – well, before they went ashore, they stole some gunpowder. Thought they could sell it, in the first place. Then they had other ideas.’

‘What other ideas?’ I whispered. This was it, I thought.

‘There was talk of making a stir. Something to force Queen and Council to sit up and take notice of our claims. An almighty bang at the gates of the city. Some even wanted to use it to make fireworks.’ He gave a derisive laugh. ‘Only no one knew how.’

‘I suppose that would be fairly harmless,’ I said.

‘Not in the hands of those fools, it wouldn’t,’ he said. ‘Mark you, they would probably blow themselves to the moon before they created a show like the royal Firemaster.’

He leaned forward and lowered his voices. ‘Those who prevailed, though, did not think the gunpowder should be used merely for show. They argued there was enough to blow up a house, or to blast the way into the warehouse where Drake has the treasure hidden.’

‘Do we know where that is?’ I said. ‘I had not thought it was common knowledge.’

In truth, I did know, for it was one of the many bits of information I had picked up, working in Phelippes’s office. He thought it was essential that I should know all the locations in London which might fall prey to traitors.

‘I think they only guessed where it is,’ he said. ‘But that plan was rejected, for they thought the warehouse would be too sturdy and too well guarded, though there were some who clung to the idea, thinking to get their hands on the treasure for themselves.’

‘If not the warehouse,’ I said, ‘what then?’

‘Some argued for one thing, some for another. The Earl of Essex is very unpopular after his foolish prancing about in Portugal. He has made himself even more of a laughing stock with these pamphlets and poems that are circulating, claiming he performed a host of heroic deeds, when we know – all of us who was there – that he caused a lot of lads to drown by getting them to leap into deep water wearing full armour. And his claim of an attack against the Spanish was no more than throwing a spear against the gates of Lisbon and shouting foolhardy threats. The Spaniards did nothing but laugh at him. We all remember that.’

‘So you think they may attack My Lord of Essex?’

‘Nay, I do not think they believe it is worth the waste of the gunpowder. They do not have much, only what a few men managed to carry off, hidden about their persons.’

‘Not Essex, then,’ I said. ‘Norreys?’

‘I doubt they even thought of Norreys. He’s one of us, you see, a soldier himself. He made some wrong decisions, but they don’t forget how badly his brother was injured and like to die. Is he recovered, do you know?’

‘Not fully, I believe, but much better for decent food and regular care.’ In my mind I ran through all of the men mocked by the puppeteers. ‘Not Essex. Not Norreys. I suppose they may hold a grudge against Dom Antonio and Ruy Lopez.’

‘Another pair of old fools,’ he said frankly. ‘Nay, we know they had no say in the way matters was carried on or how the men was paid off. They despise them, but see no profit in attacking them.’

‘That leaves Drake,’ I said slowly, ‘or . . . Her Majesty.’

I went cold even uttering the words. Just how far did this conspiracy go? For it was becoming clear that it was a conspiracy, if these men had gunpowder, and if they knew how to use it.

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think even the most foolish and most angry amongst them would dare touch the Queen. They know she is to have the largest share of the booty, but she provided the most ships and the largest stake of the money. Besides, they are loyal to her.’

‘Even if they conspire with foreigners?’

‘Not all of them would be willing to do that.’

‘So we are left with Drake.’

‘So it would seem.’

I studied him carefully. ‘Are you sure of this, Adam?’

He shook his head. ‘I was not privy to their discussions, Dr Alvarez. I am telling you only what I learned from whispers and rumours passing round the camp. I was never part of this inner group who hold the gunpowder.’

‘But by now,’ I said, with some relief, ‘they must have been rounded up by the militia who attacked you at Finsbury Fields. They will surely have confiscated the gunpowder. We need no longer worry.’

‘Oh, no!’ he said, ‘I’m sorry. I thought I had made it clear. This group of men – these conspirators, I suppose you would call them – they went off yesterday. I thought they was going into the City, but perhaps they was the men you saw meeting at the puppet show last night. They took the gunpowder with them. And they did not come back.’

‘They were not there when you were attacked?’

‘They was not.’

I drew a deep breath. Putting together what Adam had heard rumoured about the camp and what Arthur and I had seen last night, it seemed very probable that the two groups of men were one and the same. Had they been warned of the attack on the soldiers’ camp? Was there a sympathiser on the Common Council or the Privy Council? Or perhaps amongst the captains of the London Trained Bands?

‘I do not like the sound of this,’ I said.

‘Nor I.’ He regarded me soberly. ‘For a time I thought it was all talk, but there are a few gunners amongst them. They’ll know how to handle gunpowder. And now it seems they are conspiring with these foreigners who are up to no good.’

‘Dowgate,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘I heard one of them mention Dowgate last night,’ I said. ‘Drake’s London house is in Dowgate.’

‘Do you think that’s what they have decided? To attack his home? Blow it up with the gunpowder?’

‘It may be only one possibility,’ I said. ‘We do not know that they will reason as we have done. I wonder how much gunpowder they have in their possession, and how much it needs to blow up a house.’

He shook his head. ‘I know nothing of gunnery.’

‘Nor I. It might make no more than a bang to frighten people, but it might bring the house down, the other houses nearby. Many could be killed. Or it could start a fire. This is a fearful business.’ I began to bite my thumbnail. ‘And where do the Italian puppeteers come in? That I do not understand. Yet they must be part of it.’

I realised there was another side to this I had not mentioned, and told him about Nicholas Borecroft. ‘Did this toy seller ever come to the camp? Could you have seen him with any of these plotters?’

He shook his head. ‘I never saw such a man, but you must understand – five hundred men and more – it was a large camp, spread out wherever we could find some shelter. This man might have come without my seeing him.’

So I was no nearer understanding how Borecroft fitted into this muddled picture, or whether he did at all.

We talked around and around the matter for some time, but made no further progress. At last I saw that Adam was growing tired and pale.

‘You must rest,’ I said abruptly. ‘Forgive me, I have tired you out. I will take what I know to those who may be able to act to prevent what could be a disaster. Thank you for your help.’

‘You will tell me what happens, Dr Alvarez?’ He looked at me anxiously.

‘I will tell you all I can, when I can. There may be matters I am not permitted to discuss.’

He nodded, but continued to look worried.

I bade him farewell and went through to the shop. Rikki followed me, gripping his bone firmly, unwilling to be parted from it. William was stitching and Liza was fitting new shoes on a tiny child. His mother looked up and beamed at me.

‘His first shoes!’ she said proudly.

I thanked William and Liza and took my leave, wondering how many small children like this little lad might be killed or injured if the renegade soldiers managed to blow up Drake’s house. I remembered the ruins of Coruña town, shattered by cannon fire as much from their own garrison in the citadel as from our puny artillery. There had been innocent civilians killed then, children amongst them, and homes shattered beyond repair. If the soldiers had a large quantity of gunpowder, the centre of London could end by resembling the ruins of Coruña. Despite the warmth of early evening, I shivered. If Adam was right, these men meant to use their gunpowder, though if their target was Drake’s home, I could not see how it would profit them. Revenge, I suppose. But it would not benefit them financially, however powerful a gesture it might make against the authorities of City and court. And it would cause terrible panic throughout London. People would believe it was a plot by the Spanish or the French, or even the start of an invasion. Last year, when we knew the Armada fleet was bound to come at some point, rumours were rife for weeks beforehand that the Spanish army had already landed.