The Devil's Breath (33 page)

 

St. Peter:
Taken from 2 Peter 3:4.

 

 

Vinegar of the Four Thieves:
Legend has it that thieves who robbed from plague victims in a southern French city, usually between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, were protected from infection by this combination of herbs. By the nineteenth century its use had spread to America. According to
The Virginia Housewife,
published in 1838, the mixture is “very refreshing in crowded rooms, in the apartments of the sick; and is peculiarly grateful when sprinkled about the house in damp weather.”

 

digitalis:
The use of
D. purpurea
extract for the treatment of heart conditions was first described by William Withering in 1785.

 

 

Dashwood Mausoleum:
Based on the design of the Constantine Arch in Rome, the mausoleum was the resting place of members of the Dashwood family from 1765.

 

 

lightning conductor:
Although there is no evidence that Benjamin Franklin suggested a lightning conductor be affixed to the golden ball, he may well have advocated it. His invention in 1752 met with almost universal disapproval among clergymen, despite the fact that dozens of church towers were regularly damaged by lightning.

 

“In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”:
Luke 4:11.

 

 

Franklin:
Benjamin Franklin’s treatise on the bizarre atmospheric conditions of 1783–4 were contained in his
Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures
. Initially he thought the fog might be due to the “vast quantity of smoke, long continuing to issue during the summer from Hecla in Iceland.”

 

treaty:
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain and the United States and its allies.

 

Sir Joseph Banks, 1743–1820:
An explorer, botanist, and scientist, he was involved in most British voyages of discovery of his day, including that of
The Bounty
under William Bligh. From 1773 he acted as unofficial director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, organizing expeditions and collecting botanical specimens that arrived from all over the growing British empire.

 

West Indies:
Several wars were fought over these islands in the Caribbean Sea, mainly between the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British. Possession often changed with the outcome of numerous naval battles. In 1783 Britain owned several islands in what was known as the Colony of the Leeward Islands, Jamaica and its dependencies including the Cayman Islands, the Colony of the Bahama Islands, the Colony of Bermuda, and the islands of Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, Tobago, and Dominica.

I
was first alerted to this most extraordinary, and yet hitherto relatively unknown, episode in modern British history by a fairly recent phenomenon. In April 2010 most of Scotland and England and, indeed, much of northern Europe, found itself at the mercy of a volcanic ash cloud. Thousands of flights were canceled, millions of air passengers were stranded, and the economic fallout was huge. The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland lasted twenty-three days, and yet this most recent episode pales in comparison to another eruption in Iceland’s modern history.

Our twenty-first-century inconveniences and frustrations were as nothing compared with what happened when, on June 8, 1783, another eruption in Iceland, of the Laki fissure, sent 132 tons of toxic gas hurtling into the atmosphere. The effects were devastating, not just for Iceland, where half the livestock died and a quarter of the population was wiped out due to the subsequent famine, but for a large area of northwest Europe, too.

Not only that, but contemporary European observers during that period dubbed it an “annus mirabilis,” or year of awe, because of the remarkable concentration of natural disasters. Added to the inexplicable poisonous fogs were violent thunderstorms, huge hailstones that reportedly killed cattle, and even frequent meteor sightings. There is little wonder that many people at the time feared the biblical Day of Judgment was near.

What we now know to be the simultaneous eruption of 130 craters along the huge Laki fissure sent lethal clouds of sulfur dioxide and fluorine into the atmosphere. Some saw the resulting poisonous haze as an act of God, while others, at the dawn of the European Enlightenment, regarded it as a scientific phenomenon, although its cause was not known at the time. (It was Benjamin Franklin who first postulated the theory that a volcanic eruption in Iceland was responsible.)

It seems that until we experienced our own “Great Fogg,” the catastrophic effects of Laki seemed to remain largely forgotten because of the equally momentous political events of the time, such as the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. Nevertheless, from the natural disaster there are many lessons to be learned.

This is a work of fiction and, as such, I have taken liberties with the facts to enhance the dramatic tension of the story. Scientists are still debating the full impact of the Laki eruption; the “Great Fogg” may not have been associated with a volcanic ash fall and its arrival would certainly not have been as dramatic as portrayed in the previous pages. Nor could it have been predicted. Yet its study could prove vital to our own future. When Laki does erupt again we need to be more prepared to deal with its deadly fallout. If we are not, then the consequences could be even more serious than they were 230 years ago.

In my research I am indebted to the staff at the Museum of English Rural Life, Reading; Gilbert White’s House, Selbourne, Hampshire; the Hellfire Caves and St. Lawrence’s Church, West Wycombe; the Museum of Methodism, City Road, London; and Benjamin Franklin’s House, Craven Street, London. Thanks also go to Dr. Kate Dyerson; Dr. Richard Payne of Manchester; John and Alicia Makin; my agent, Melissa Jeglinski; and my editor, John Scognamiglio.

 

—England, 2012

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Copyright © 2014 by Tessa Harris

 

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ISBN: 978-0-7582-6700-9

 

eISBN-13: 978-1-61773-027-6
eISBN-10: 1-61773-027-0
First Kensington Electronic Edition: January 2014