Alchemy (41 page)

At length someone came, the door was opened and Dr Gilbert stepped forward to speak to a servant. Then there was silence apart from the blowing and stamping of the horses and the jingling of their bridles. Once again there were low voices. Then Dr Gilbert nodded at the men who held me and I was pushed forward into what I saw at once was a panelled hall whose ceiling was lost in the gloom above. A gentleman all in black sat in an armchair by the stone fireplace. Dr Gilbert took off his hat and bowed.

‘We are sorry to disturb you sir at such a late hour but I judged the matter could not wait.’

‘Not even until the morning?’

‘I feared she might contrive an escape sir.’

‘You say “she” yet I see a young man. What charge do you lay that is so urgent?’

‘Witchcraft sir.’

‘You must go further than that.’

‘The bewitching of the Lady Anne Herbert who lies close to death.’

‘Your evidence?’

‘In the witch herself who has gone about in male attire pretending to be a physician and cure the sick by her potions, so that she is known as the young wizard.’

‘What gossips say is not evidence.’

‘You have only to consider sir that first she has denied her sex and assumed man’s clothing. Second that as she is not a man she cannot be a physician for they must be licensed, as you know, and therefore she is a cunning woman such as the common people resort to which is a kind of witch. Yet she has deceived
persons of quality into accepting her into their houses with her feigning to treat them in the guise of a man. As the Dowager Countess of Pembroke.’

‘I see the drift of your argument. Is the noble lady herself prepared to be called to give evidence?’

‘That I cannot say sir. She has been so cozened by this impostor. But there are others who can be called to testify who have worked and lived under the same roof. As well as the Lady Anne if she be fit.’

‘Has exorcism been tried upon her to counter the curse?’

‘No sir.’

‘Sir there is no cure,’ I said, ‘only a phthisis which the lady suffers.’

‘You are not asked to speak. There will be a time for you to defend yourself. Let this person be remanded to the gaol. And the midwives be summoned to search whether it be a he or a she. And if it be indeed a she, given female attire against her trial. You have witnesses, you say. Let them stand ready to testify.’

‘Sir I can surely produce witnesses.’

‘And you the alleged witch. What do you say? Are you man or maid?’

Then I saw that I was trapped whichever way I answered for if a maid as they would soon discover I was a witch. So I said only: ‘I am my father’s child sir who was a physician of this city.’

‘A saucy answer. You must do better than that.’

‘I must tell you sir,’ the doctor said, ‘that he was a noted alchemist and necromancer. These things often run in families. Where there is a witch mother often there is a witch son or daughter.’

‘Was your father an alchemist or necromancer?’

‘He was no necromancer sir. Some might call him alchemist for that he sought for the truth at the root of all things.’

‘To turn base metal into gold for gain.’

‘No sir, to understand the mystery at the heart of creation.’

‘To search out God’s ways and know good and evil as our first mother did, for which we all suffer. Such matters are best left to priests but now any man who can measure quantity, presume to read the leaves and blow the bellows thinks to unpick creation. Did you assist him in this?’

‘I was too young sir. He did not permit it.’

‘And did he not invoke the demons of Satan or Satan himself to assist him?’

‘No sir. He said that he tried only to understand Nature and natural causes.’

‘There can be no natural cause for a divine creation.’

‘Do you not think sir the creator may use whatever means he wills to achieve his design and that if he use natural means because he has given us dominion over the earth and the apprehension to understand nature’s workings then nothing is forbidden to us to seek out the truth of?’

‘You speak like an atheist which may be worse than a witch and too saucily for a maid if such you are. Summon the constable and take this philosopher to the gaol until the midwives can make their search. Then let the he-she be brought before me again. Prepare your witnesses sir but with care for this is a cunning tongue that would argue with the lord justice or the archbishop himself.’

Then my captors took me away out of that house leaving the doctor and Justice Ludlow together and through an arch, across a yard and knocked at a low postern. When their knocking had no result they looked about for a bell pull and we heard the note from it jangling away inside a high wall.

‘Justice Ludlow orders that the constable take this person in charge and lodge them in the gaol until summoned.’

The constable lifted up a lantern so that the light fell on my face. ‘A pretty boy. What’s the charge? Some wench got with child?’

‘Witchcraft. And none knows if it be a he or a she. You are to employ the midwives to search.’

‘Witchcraft? But if it be a he we had best have a doctor on hand. It is not proper for midwives to search a man.’

‘That is your business. We have discharged the witch into your care to keep safe against the trial.’

‘If it be a witch, it must be lodged separately for fear it should bewitch the other felons to assist an escape.’

‘Keep it bound until you have turned the key. It has a tongue of honey whatever it be. Perhaps a eunuch of nature or by the knife for I have heard of such among the Egyptians and the Turk. Goodnight to you constable.’

They left us then and the warder pushed me inside and locked the postern. ‘Now will you be quiet witch or must I bind you more?’

‘I will be quiet sir if you will lodge me apart from the other felons for I have done no wrong.’

‘None comes here that has done no wrong, for we are all sinners. But you do not have the mien of someone troublesome and if you will promise to be quiet you shall lodge apart, but if you give me any disquiet I shall throw you among them as young Daniel was thrown among the lions and then we shall see if you sink or swim.’

So he led me deeper into the building, passing a barred cell from where came groans and cries. One looked through the bars and pointed a crooked finger at me. ‘There goes a gentleman to lie soft while we sleep here without straw.’ Then he began to sing some street ballad and I saw that he was drunk.

At last the gaoler turned a key and opened a door into a narrow room. ‘Here is the royal quarters with a mattress and even a pisspot.’

‘Sir how may I use it with my hands tied? I have a little money in my pocket. If you will untie me and bring me something to eat and drink I will pay you.’

‘You will get nothing without, except water. That I am obliged by the law to give you.’

‘On my oath I will be quiet and make no attempt to escape. If I can come at my money I will pay you what you ask.’

He stared at me hard for a moment weighing the matter. ‘What would you? White bread and wine? Stand still while I cut your bonds. Remember I have the knife in my hand and will use it.’

‘I will give you no cause sir.’

‘Nor no cursing to bewitch me neither.’

‘I curse no one sir.’

He took a knife from his belt and advanced upon me with it. It would be easy for him to murder me now and take my money, alleging I had tried to escape. I held my breath and myself quite still as the knife sawed at the cords. When they fell away we both stepped back quickly, he with his knife pointing at my throat.

‘Show me the colour of your money.’

I felt in the pocket of my slaps and produced a penny. ‘If you bring me withall to eat and drink I will give you sixpence.’ I saw that he trembled between greed and fear. ‘But if you harm me there are those that will avenge me.’

‘I will trust you for the sixpence. You must sit over in the corner with your back to the wall so that I may see you at once when I return.’

‘Of your kindness sir bring me a lantern too when you return that I may see to eat.’

And so it was. When he returned with my requests I sweetened him with the sixpence and another penny. My stock of money was small and I understood that I must lay it out carefully for when it was all gone I should be no more than a beast. Sinking down on my pallet I began to eat a little bread and drink some wine to keep out the cold of this place, and to consider my situation. In vain my thoughts explored every passage out of my imprisonment and trial. Each was blocked as surely by the freezing air of reason which coated every vista with ice as
thick as any that barred the mariners seeking the Northwest Passage to hope and the spice lands.

I could not ask my lady for help without bringing shame upon her or her denial of me which would break my heart. And yet I understood that my very life was in jeopardy and that if the Lady Anne should die I would be hanged. Dr Gilbert’s word would stand against mine. Here was no malicious village neighbour accusing a poor old woman to whom he had refused a cup of milk or piece of bread, but a man of learning and the brother of a noble knight although he lay in prison, sometime favoured of a queen.

Then I began to wonder how I might contrive to die rather than suffer the pillory or being drawn through the streets to be hanged before the multitude. With this I fell into a kind of ecstasy in contemplating my death and how I would die rather than any evil repute should fall upon my lady and she should know somehow of my sacrifice that whatever they might inflict upon me or threaten me with, my lips would be sealed. So keeping the lantern still lit that I should not be surprised in the dark I fell into a kind of stupor rather than sleep, only waking to piss and then to sink into my stupor once more.

When I woke again I saw that it was day for there was a little window high up which I had not observed in the night, where a grey light entered my cell. I was glad that the night was over, for in my dreams I had ridden the nightmare of nameless fears and hopeless flight through streets and then woods where hands clutched at me.

Suddenly there was a noise of the turning of a key in the lock, the door was flung open and the gaoler entered with three others, two women and a man.

‘We have come to search you to see whether you be man or maid or witch. Or all three. Will you lie quiet or must you be constrained?’

‘I will be quiet if you will do me no hurt.’

‘Take off your clothes.’

I undid my shirt and laid it aside and the band about my breasts. Then I dropped my slops to my boots.

‘It be a maid,’ one of the women said at once.

‘You must lie down for us to search for the devil’s marks. Upon your face first.’

I lay upon my pallet, face down, hiding my shame. I felt their hands upon me parting my buttocks to search, rough hands pulling them apart and a finger thrust between.

‘Her back is clean. Now the front.’ They turned me over and while I tried to look away for shame probed my navel and my armpits, fingered my breasts and came at last to my secrets. Parting my legs one began to dally there.

‘Is this not a witch’s teat?’

‘Nay sir. All women have those, some greater, some lesser. Ask your wife if you have not seen for yourself.’ And I heard one I supposed to be a midwife laugh, at which the other joined in.

‘The justice has ordered that she be brought a gown to be dressed more seemly now that her sex is known.’

‘I will do that sir. A woollen gown instead of her fine lawn shirt and silken slops that might become any true gentleman. And if you live mistress, and are not hanged for a witch, perhaps you will be glad to earn your bread in our calling instead of pretending to physician.’

‘I must make my report for Justice Ludlow that we found no evident mark of the devil or witch’s teat but that she is woman born and then her going in male clothing may be enough to convict her.’

They all withdrew, the midwives still laughing together and I was locked in again. I put on my shirt and pulled up my slops and because my legs trembled I lay down on the pallet. Yet the memory of the last time I lay there caused me to sit up again and drink some of the wine I had saved to try to restore my
courage for I understood this was only the beginning of my trials.

Once more I heard the door being unlocked and one of the women returned with a russet grey gown which she would not give into my hands but threw upon the pallet.

‘You must pay me for that. I will take your old clothes in exchange.’

‘I will give you tuppence for it,’ I said for I saw it was neither new nor clean. ‘But my old clothes I must keep to wear under it against the chill of this place and the chafing of the wool.’ And I took two pennies from my pocket.

‘Your skin is softer than others then. The lice will feed well on you.’ And she turned about and left. When she had gone I settled down with the gown and began to search it for lice which I cracked between my thumbnails wondering whose blood was smearing them as I worked.

After some time the gaoler returned. I had heard him approach and threw the gown over my head and was again sat upon the pallet as he opened the door.

‘Where are your old clothes? You were best have given them to my wife in exchange for her gown. Now give them to me.’

‘I gave her tuppence for it. It is worth no more. I need my clothes to keep my money in, for the gown has no pocket and I no other purse. Beside if I am here for long I may need to sell them for their true worth or at least nearer than a tuppenny gown.’

‘What would you have for your dinner then, mistress, for such it seems I must call you now. Or else witch.’

‘I am no witch.’

‘That shall be seen. It is true my wife says they found no marks on you yet you go about in man’s attire like Joan the French witch who was burnt.’

‘Perhaps I am rather a Moll Cutpurse who will call upon my roaring boys to break down the doors and rescue me.’

‘Thieves can be hanged as well as witches.’

‘No one has come forward to swear I have stolen anything. Master constable or gaoler, whichever you are, let us not wrangle but come to an understanding. If you do what I ask I will pay you and if you help me to more money I will pay you more.’