Courting Her Highness Part 49

That was what Abigail wanted ... a love such as that. Hers was a dream of romantic love and power. There had been only one man in her life who could give her that: Robert Harley. And he had denied it. Bolingbroke? Never! She could have been his mistress for a month or so. But that was not what she sought.

Someone had come into the room.

"Samuel!" she said; and he pulled out a chair and sat by her bed.

"You are not feeling well?"

"A little tired. It is natural."

"You do too much."

She was impatient. "If I did not where would we be?"

He sighed. He knew that he owed everything to her; he knew too that he had failed to give her what she wanted.

"My clever Abigail." He took her fingers and kissed them. They were limp and unresponsive.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She turned her head away. For what was he apologizing? His inadequacy?

"I must go," she said; "the Queen needs me. I must not allow Carrots Somerset to take over all my duties."

"Do not drive yourself too hard, my dear."

"And if I did not ... would you have your fine t.i.tle? Would you have your position here at Court?"

"No," he said. "But there are other prizes."

She shook him off impatiently. He looked so ... how could she say Complacent? Smug. Lord Masham-a man of t.i.tle through his wife's endeavours.

It was not what she wanted.

"You are going to the Queen?" he asked. "You should not walk across the courtyard in your condition. Take your chair."

She shrugged him aside. It was years since she had taken advice from Samuel.

As she came out into the cold air, her eyes smarted with tears-tears of frustration. She was thinking of what might have been if the child she carried had been another man's, not Samuel's, the child of a brilliant politician who loved her as Marlborough loved his wife, with whom she could plan the future as Marlborough did with his wife.

Her vision blurred; she was not watchful of her step as one must be in the courtyard. She caught her foot in the cobbles; in a second it had twisted under her and she fell.

She lay bewildered and stunned. Then her pains began. The child was demanding to be born although its time had not yet come.

The news spread all over the Town. Lady Masham was dying. A fall in the courtyard; a premature birth; and the Queen's favourite was lying very near to death.

The Queen was in despair. She sent Dr. Arbuthnot to attend to Abigail and commanded him not to leave her until he was sure she was out of danger; and she must have hourly messages as to Abigail's state.

Anne could not be comforted. She rocked herself to and fro in her chair and asked herself how she could live without dear Masham.

Alice Hill, sitting by Abigail's bed, listened to her rambling, and knew that she was living in the past, in those days of uncertainty and degradation when she had been as a servant in the house of the Marlboroughs.

She wept, and Mrs. Abrahal who would always be grateful to Abigail for speaking well of her to the Queen sought to comfort her, and Mrs. Danvers took time off from the Queen's bedchamber to come to the invalid's bedside.

There were messages from important court personages. Viscount Bolingbroke called or sent his servant every day but Lord Oxford did not enquire once and it might have been that he was not even aware of the accident to his cousin.

Dr. Arbuthnot, who knew Abigail well, and had always admired her, used all his skill, and by great good fortune saved the life of the child which was a boy.

"Don't fret," he told Alice. "This is the best thing that could have happened. The child is a boy and he'll live. Once I can get her to understand this, she'll start to recover, I promise you."

He sat by her bed and took her hand.

"Abigail," he said, "can you hear me?"

She opened her pale green eyes and he thought how colourless they were, how lifeless-almost the eyes of a dead woman.

"Ah, you hear me then. Ye've a fine boy. Do you understand me. A fine boy."

"Robert ..." she began.

The Doctor glanced at Alice. "Is that the name she wants. Robert. Why ..."

"Named for my lord Oxford," suggested Alice.

"Ah, it may well be."

Abigail's eyes were open and she appeared to be listening.

"The boy's a fine strong wee laddie," said the doctor. "Do you want to see him?"

But Abigail had already closed her eyes. They thought that she was not aware of what was going on but this was not so. She knew that she had had an accident and that her son was prematurely born. She had been close to death and for that reason life seemed doubly precious.

Her hand was taken and held gently. She knew by whom before she opened her eyes. She thought of Samuel who was gentle and una.s.suming and lacked the overwhelming ambition of men like Robert Harley, Henry St. John and John Churchill. But perhaps for that reason he was capable of giving her greater devotion. Harley had failed her; St. John she would never trust; but she could rely on Samuel. He would always be there, to love and cherish her ... as well as their children.

She had demanded too much of life; she had wanted a great leader to love her, but great leaders were not always successful, and there were times when they were sent to pine in exile.

She had been foolish not to accept life as a compromise. Was she a foolish romantic girl to ask for the impossible?

"Samuel," she said. "You are there?"

She heard Alice's voice, gruff, relieved. "Is he there? He has not been far away for the last forty-eight hours."

No, he would not be far away when she was in danger.

"Samuel," she repeated.

He leaned towards her. "A boy," he said. "Arbuthnot says he will live and he is healthy and strong. Listen. You can hear him crying."

She nodded drowsily. The doctor said: "Let her sleep now."

"I'll get a message to Her Majesty," said Alice. "She asked that news be sent to her without delay. She'll be delighted."

"There have been messages ...?" asked Abigail.

"The Queen had to be kept informed," replied Alice excitedly. "Viscount Bolingbroke sent his servant every day."

"My lord Oxford ..."

"Oh come, you have a Queen demanding news of you. Is that not enough?"

So he had not asked for her. He cared nothing that she might have died.

"And," went on Alice, "a husband who has not slept or eaten since you fell."

She smiled, and closed her eyes.

Is that not enough? That phrase of Alice's kept ringing in her mind. If it was not enough it was as much as any reasonable woman could hope for. She was not going to be foolish. She had grown wise in the last hours. Life with its compromises had become very precious.

Samuel put his head close to hers. "I hear that you wish the child to be called Robert," he said.

"Robert!" Her voice sounded scornful. "No ... I want him to be called Samuel."

He was pleased, she sensed it.

"Samuel Masham," she repeated, "after his father."

Sarah was homesick. It was distressing to see poor Marl eagerly reading his letters from home, thinking as she did every day of the meadows about Holywell, the forests at Windsor, the greenness of England, the sound of English tongues.

She was not patient in exile. She was critical of the weather, scenery and people.

"Oh," she would continually cry, "it is not as it is in England."

It was comforting though to be with Marl for his health was not good and he needed attention; he was as homesick as she was, although not as bitter, yet, as she herself conceded having more reason to be.

It was she who ranted on about the ungrateful country which had benefited from his victories and then had turned its back on him.

Abroad they had more respect for Marlborough than they had had in England. They remembered him as the great commander here. Prince Eugene had visited them in Frankfurt for the express purpose of seeing the Duke and doing him honour which, declared Sarah grimly, was more than his Queen had done him.

There could not be enough news from home for Sarah. She laughed grimly when she heard how fond the Queen was of the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset.

"I am pleased," she said, "that she has a friend nearer her own rank than some I could name."

Never did a day pa.s.s without her mentioning Abigail. She told everyone with whom she conversed how she had taken the wretched creature from a broom, and how ungrateful the whole family were.

There was John Hill, brother to the Creature, whom she had found as a ragged boy, clothed and fed and sent to school. And she had prevailed upon my lord Marlborough to give the lad a place in his Army which he had done, against his judgment. And how had John Hill repaid such benevolence? When wicked charges were brought against the Duke of Marlborough, he had risen from a sick bed in order to go and vote against him.

"There is grat.i.tude for you!" cried Sarah. "Did you ever hear the like?" She would talk of how she had devoted her life to an ungrateful monarch; how she had sat for hours listening to ba.n.a.lities which had nearly driven her mad-all this she had done and what was the result? She was thrown aside for a chambermaid. Lord Marlborough had won honour and glory for his country; he was the saviour of England and what was his reward? Exile! He had been promised a palace, which was to be built at Woodstock and to be named after the greatest victory of all time: Blenheim. And what had happened? A fool named Vanbrugh-with whom she would never agree-had been allowed to plan it; and the money which had been promised had not been supplied. On and on she raved about the ungrateful country to which she longed to return.

"Better a cottage in England," she would say sometimes, "than a palace anywhere else in the world."

And her longing for home was like a physical pain.

She knew of the conflict which was raging there and longed to join in, partly because she liked to be at the heart of any conflict, partly because what happened after the death of Anne could be of such vital importance to her and her husband.

She had news of the efforts the Pretender's friends were making to bring him to the throne and she and John spent many anxious hours discussing whether it was possible to swerve their devotion which had up till that time been given to Hanover. In fact he was in communication with Hanover at that time and was making plans as to what action he should take, should the Queen die suddenly.

It was disconcerting. Abigail Masham was a Jacobite and she would have every opportunity, fumed Sarah, for pouring poison into that stupid ear. Moreover, the Queen was a sentimental fool and would doubtless believe that by naming her half brother as her successor she was expiating her sins.

"Our only hope is her pa.s.sion for the Church," declared Sarah. "She will think very hard before she lets a papist in."

In the meantime she and John must be content with moving from one place to another. They had stayed too long in Frankfurt and were growing restive, so they moved on to Antwerp. "Like sick people," grumbled Sarah, "glad of any change."

It was while they were in Antwerp that a terrible blow struck them.

Elizabeth, their third daughter, had died of the smallpox. When Sarah read the news she was stunned. Elizabeth had been well when they left England; and this blow, in addition to all their frustration and despair, was almost too great to be born. Marlborough was even more deeply affected than Sarah. He had always been more devoted to his family than she had been and when he received the news he collapsed with grief. Sarah found some solace in nursing him for in her hectoring way she was an efficient nurse, providing the patient obeyed her absolutely and John was too wretched to do anything else.

Sarah sat by his bed and they talked of her-their little Elizabeth-who now seemed to have been the most beautiful and accomplished of all their children.

"I remember," said Sarah, "how she would marry ... and she only fifteen. I thought she was too young but she would have her way. She adored Scroop and he her ... and no wonder. And of course it was a good marriage. That was only eleven years ago, Marl. Twenty-six ... it is too young ... too young...."

Sarah covered her face with her hands and sobbed. John tried to comfort her; he felt ill and, like Sarah, he longed for home. To be with his family ... to continue with his career ... to wield power ... to acc.u.mulate wealth. There was so much he desired, so much that could have helped to comfort him. These were indeed dark hours.

Seeing him so distraught Sarah cried angrily: "She is happier, I doubt not, than in a world like this!"

But they continued to mourn their beautiful Elizabeth; and there was no news from home to comfort them.

In London a crisis was threatening. There was an open rupture between Oxford and Bolingbroke. The Queen's health deteriorated every day, and the Court was in a ferment of excitement. Letters were pa.s.sing between Hanover and London on one hand and between St. Germains and London on the other.

The Queen swayed between her two beloved women-Lady Masham and the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset; but there were days when she was too ill to think of much but her own relief.

Oxford, who had always hated to make decisions and whose greatest weakness was his vacillation, was now uncertain how to act. He had gone over to the Whigs but still tried to placate the Tories. In view of the strength of his enemies he was doomed, and Bolingbroke was ready to destroy him. Oxford searched for the solution to his problems in the bottle, and it was not difficult to turn the Queen against a man who reeled in her presence, who now and then gave way to ribald and disrespectful comment and at the best mumbled so that she could not understand what he said.

"Our drunken dragon will soon be slain," Abigail told Bolingbroke.

He agreed with her. They were allies, though not lovers, as Bolingbroke had expected. But that was a small matter to be shrugged aside. There were plenty of women ready to share his bed; there was only one Lady Masham to smooth his way to the Queen.

Oh, what a fool was Oxford! He had used Abigail to climb to favour, for what he owed to those tetes-a-tetes in the green closet he should have been in no doubt. And just as Abigail had given him a helping hand in the beginning now she was barring his way-more than that, she was forcing him down to disaster.

He understood; but it was too late to change. Bolingbroke had the support which had once been his. He was angry with himself ... too late; and because his brain was so often fuddled by wine, he was unable to control his temper.

His good friend Jonathan Swift, appalled at what was happening, had made an attempt to reconcile him with Bolingbroke-to no avail. The rift was too wide; and Bolingbroke was too ambitious. He wanted the position Oxford now held and how could he achieve it until Oxford had lost it?

Oxford could see the end in sight. He had wanted to placate the two parties; he wanted the support of both Whigs and Tories, in the same way as he swayed between St. Germains and Hanover. After the Peace of Utrecht he should have broken away from the Tories; he saw now that he should have boldly a.s.serted his beliefs-instead of which he had wavered, he had procrastinated-and had won the approbation of neither. Moreover he had neglected those who would have helped him; and Abigail Masham was the first, and most important of these.

Oxford was about to fall and Abigail Masham was the reason. The Court watched and waited. Why had Abigail who had once thought so highly of him, suddenly turned against him? No one was quite sure. He had not treated her with the deference she had expected and hoped for, perhaps. Was that it? He had not given her the shares she had desired in the South Seas Company. Could that be the reason? Had she been his mistress? Never. Oxford was an uncommonly virtuous man which was noticeable in a society of rakes. Had she transferred her affections to Bolingbroke? There was a rake if ever there was one! But there was no scandal of that nature attaching to Lady Masham.

No one was quite sure where that partnership had turned sour. No one could be really certain about the relationship between Lord Oxford and Lady Masham.

Abigail herself was not always sure. He had failed her, she knew; and it was not because of lack of shares in the South Seas Company, although that might have been part of it. She had dreamed a dream and he had destroyed it.