The Regency (31 page)

‘Has he really so many?'

‘
Yes. Strangford, our Ambassador there, is trying to
persuade the poor devil to defy Boney, so our fleet is being sent
he's caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. No-one
can resist Boney on land. If he marches his massive army
across Spain and attacks Portugal that way, the Regent has
no hope of stopping him. On the other hand, our navy can
paralyse Portuguese trade, not only in Portugal itself, but in
her colonies.'

‘Something of a quandary!' Lucy remarked.

‘
Yes. Strangford, our Ambassador there, is trying to per
suade the poor devil to defy Boney, so our fleet is being sent
off to shew its teeth as an added inducement! At least we may
persuade him to transfer his court to South America and his
fleet to us, so that Boney shan't be able to claim a complete
victory. Between us,' he added, 'I think there is also some
question of trying to persuade him to lease us Madeira, which
would be of great benefit to our merchants.'

‘But surely —' Lucy began with a frown.

‘The island, simpleton!'

‘
Oh, I see. But the situation seems rather hopeless, doesn't
it? It looks as though Boney has everything his own way.’

‘Things are bad,' Haworth admitted. 'Denmark has gone
over, and now Russia's closed her ports to, us, though she
hasn't actually declared war yet. All our markets in northern
Europe are lost to us, and you know what that means.'

‘
I've heard enough from John Anstey about it,' Lucy
nodded. 'Warehouses bursting with goods we can't sell, mills
closing, merchants going bankrupt. John says he used to sell his coal to Russia and the other Baltic countries; now he has
to sell it to America, and that means extra cost transporting it
right across the country to Liverpool, and then across the
Atlantic.'

‘
All the same,' Haworth went on, 'Boney hasn't had it all
his own way. We've had reports from American travellers
who've been in France recently, that this trade war he's
started has affected France even more than us. No traffic on
the main highways, commercial towns half deserted, beggars swarming the streets. They've no outlet for their goods either,
remember; and then there's all the things they used to import
from us, or from our colonies, that they can't get any more —
coffee and tobacco and spices and sugar, to say nothing of
cotton and wool. The embargo is crippling Europe. I've even
heard,' he added with a grin, 'that Boney himself had to
authorise the smuggling of Yorkshire cloth last winter to
make uniforms for his army in Prussia!'

‘
Oh nonsense! That would be foolish in the extreme,' Lucy
laughed.

War is foolish, my dear,' Haworth said, glad to have
brought a smile to her face. 'But since someone else has
started it, I'm afraid I shall have to do my part to end it, so
I'm off to the Tagus in a few days' time. Oh, and here's a
piece of news for you — I'm to give passage to an old friend of
yours, who's going out to join Strangford. Can you guess?'

‘
I haven't an idea,' Lucy said. 'What old friend have I got
in the Foreign Office?'

‘
John Anstey's younger brother, Ben! I hear that Canning
thinks highly of his powers of oratory.'

‘
I don't know where he learnt it. He was always the quiet
one of the family. Well, you'll have good company on the
voyage, at any rate.'

‘
So it seems. But I'll be here long enough to dine with you, and escort you to the theatre, if Major Wiske will make room
for me.’

‘I shall like that,' Lucy said.

‘
And I've something to ask you — a sort of favour,' he went
on.

‘Yes? Anything at all!'

‘
Don't say that until you know what it is! The fact is,
Africa has long had a deep desire to go to the circus, and I should like to gratify it while I'm here. Would you make it
tolerable for me by coming with me? If you like, we could take
your children, too, and make a regular party of it. What do
you think?'

‘Go to Astley's? Haworth, you can't be serious!'

‘
Oh dear, is it too unsophisticated for Lady Aylesbury?' He
made a wry face.

Lucy grinned. 'Not in the least! Don't you know I've
wanted to go all my life, only when I was younger, I was never
allowed, and since I've grown up, I haven't dared. But taking
the children makes it all above-board, doesn't it?'

‘That's what I hoped you'd think,' Haworth grinned.

*

The expedition to Astley's Amphitheatre took place two days
later.

‘
Numbers are everything in a party like this,' Haworth
observed as they waited in the drawing-room at Upper
Grosvenor Street for the carriages to be announced. As well as
the six children, the party included Midshipman Morpurgo,
a last-minute addition at Haworth's request. 'I've managed
to steal him away from Manby to join me in my new com
mand,' Haworth explained. 'I've said he can travel down to
Portsmouth with Africa and me, so he's at a loose end at the
moment. I hope you won't object, Lucy? He is one of Africa's
oldest friends.’

Morpurgo was a handsome, fair-haired youth with exquisite
manners, and the self-possession which came from long service
at sea from an early age. He attempted to make himself
useful by attaching himself to Hippolyta, and Lucy was
amused to note how Africa quickly scotched the plan, and
intruded herself firmly between the young man and her sister,
with a look that said quite clearly, ‘Morpurgo is
my
friend'.

As Miss Trotton, and Lucy's maid Docwra — who could
control a group of children with the ease of one brought up
amongst a plethora of brothers and sisters in a tiny one
roomed cottage in Wicklow — also accompanied them, Lucy
had nothing to do but look elegant, accept Haworth's arm,
and prepare to enjoy herself.

The circus had been performing on the site in the
Westminster Bridge Road for thirty years, but the amphitheatre
itself was a new building, and very impressive. It had a
proscenium stage and orchestra pit as well as the circus ring, and
four tiers of seats finished in the first style with gilded scroll
work and red velvet curtains, and a veritable galaxy of candles.
Haworth had procured a large private box near the stage
at ring-level, and Lucy was interested to see that some of the
other boxes were occupied by people of fashion, and not just
by rustics and newcomers to Town. Evidently since the new
amphitheatre had been built it had become an acceptable
venue.

The programme was lengthy, and included a whole Chinese
shadow-play, interspersed with comic songs and dances,
which Lucy found rather tedious, although the displays of
fireworks between the acts were very beautiful. The play
ended with a hornpipe by two men who had obviously never
been nearer to the sea than the fish-pond in Vauxhall
Gardens. It was advertised as being 'Performed in a Most
Extraordinary Manner'.

‘
Extraordinary's the word,' Haworth murmured to Lucy, while Morpurgo repressed a smile as Africa remarked in a piercingly audible whisper that any of the tars on her ship
could do better than that, even dead drunk and in the middle
of a broadside-to-broadside engagement.

The circus acts in the ring, however, were fascinating.
There was a team of slack-rope dancers, who also did pole-
balancing, and two tumblers who seemed able to contort their
bodies into the most curious attitudes. There was a troupe of
dwarves who tumbled and juggled and threw each other
around the ring like cork balls, walked on their hands, and
finished with a tableau entitled 'Men piled on Men, or the
Egyptian Pyramid'.

But best of all, in Lucy's estimation, which evidently
coincided with that of the children, were the horse-acts. There
were displays of horsemanship and agility on one, two and
three horses; a clown who 'burlesqued the various parts of
horsemanship in a manner most diverting'; a horse which had
been taught to dance to music, and to answer questions by
stamping its hoof once for 'yes' and twice for 'no'; and some
costume tableaux on horseback and various scenes from
history.

Finally the orchestra played a resounding fanfare, and into
the ring came a broad-backed dapple-grey horse, which
cantered round slowly under the direction of the ring-master
with his long whip. Another fanfare, and a small, slender
figure in tight pantaloons and swallow-tail coat ran in, and
vaulting lightly onto the horse as it passed, stood up on the
broad rump, balancing with arms outstretched as easily as if
on the solid earth.

Africa leaned forward with a gasp of astonishment. 'Papa!
It's a girl!'

‘
So it is, chick.' Haworth smiled. The Equestrienne, as she
was called, had become moderately famous in London. Africa
leaned as far forward as she could without falling out of the
box, her eyes rivetted on the slim, supple figure as the
Equestrienne balanced on one leg, reversed herself and stood
on her hands, and performed somersaults on horseback, while
the placid grey cantered endlessly round. Then a hoop was
brought in and held by an assistant, for the Equestrienne to
jump through as she passed. It was an exhibition of great
skill, but the fact that it was given by a female somehow made
it seem even more impressive.

‘
I bet I could do that,' Rosamund hissed to her sister. 'If
only I could train one of the horses to canter in a circle —’

‘
Training the horse might be the hardest part of it,'
Hippolyta remarked sensibly, while Flaminia merely looked
faintly surprised that anyone should
want
to do anything so
energetic and dangerous. Thomas, who was finding the per
formance too long for his attention, was dozing and waking
against Docwra's plump shoulder; while Roland was gazing at the display with minute and dazzled attention, and planning to
ask the Equestrienne to marry him as soon as he was old
enough. He could make her a countess, and she could dance
on horseback for him every day.

The Equestrienne cantered out of the ring, there was a
final set-piece, and it was all over. Outside in the ante-room
there was the usual delay while they waited for the carriages
to be called. The crush was dreadful, and though the children
didn't seem to mind it, chattering excitedly about everything
they had seen, Lucy stirred restively, pressing close to Haworth
to avoid contact with strangers. Then to her surprise, she
heard her name called. She looked around, and saw Roberta squeezing her way through the crowds towards her.