Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [99]
Around ten o’clock the pair reached the region of Aldwych: walking distance from the Temple area. Unlike Anji, they failed to perceive any change in the environment around them, at least at first. But as they headed towards the Embankment, the Lord began to feel ‘distressed’ and insisted that they were being watched by ‘a thousand and one eyes… it was the one, not the thousand, which alarmed him’. The Countess ordered the coachman to stop the vehicle, believing that the Lord was unwell.
It was then that the Countess noticed a subtle change in the surroundings outside their carriage. The coachman may have noticed it too, because he began swearing loudly, insisting that they should drive away. The Countess commanded him to stay where he was, but the man’s protests only became more violent. Before he could whip the horse into action, however, something began to rock the coach.
The description, perhaps significantly, is similar to some accounts of the Gordon Riots. In 1780, Lords and Parliamentarians had been attacked in their coaches by the mob, the vehicles rocked and pushed, the occupants torn out of their seats and manhandled by the crowds. The same thing happened here, to the degree that the Countess believed some ambush had been laid by Irish radicals or violent Tory sympathisers. Her first clue that something was very, very wrong appears to have been the sound from outside. A grunting, scratching noise that was unquestionably animal in nature.
Prior to September 5 the apes had only been sighted individually, Juliette’s dream diary notwithstanding. But now the stakes were being raised. Which brings up the question of what happened to Anji and Juliette that night, while the Countess and the Lord were themselves under attack.
The answer is… unclear. As neither Juliette nor Anji tended to leave behind first-hand accounts, the only stories are urban legends, and many of them have the smack of pure myth. After Anji turned the corner and found herself staring at the bleached, broken city of the apes, what all the tales agree on is that the apes began to crawl out of the debris. They’re described as creatures out of a cautionary tale, their eyes burning, their teeth hungry for the blood of those who knew too much. There’s something decidedly creepy about the scene: ordinary Londoners going about their nightly business, completely oblivious to the presence of the snuffling, hungry beasts which ignore them completely and head directly for Anji.
The last thing on which all stories agree is the fact that Anji turned, once more, to face Juliette; and that Juliette’s face appeared quite calm, perhaps understanding that there was no point keeping secrets any longer. After that, everything is speculation.
This is the way Emily tells the story:
…but tho the elymental lady [Anji] was in peril it ment nothing to my friend [Juliette]. My friend stept foreward without any hesitation or fear, and she stood in front of the elymental so that she was between her person and the aipes. When they saw this the aipes hesitated. They were barborus animals but they could see my friend’s resolve and that she would not run. Then my friend began the incantation and advanced upon them, so as the elymental lady watched with surprise and amazement the aipes began to retreat [and] my frend did force them back into the night from where they had come…
This isn’t what Scarlette records, and presumably Scarlette had heard the story from Anji herself:
The Beast was everywhere, and Mistress Anji did what any one of us would do in such a circumstance. She turned on her heels and ran. She did not see J. run also, but the last she saw of J. was J. stepping towards the broken city. Anji also saw that though the good people of London had failed to notice anything amiss, there was one man who stood in the shelter of the cracked facades who watched Juliette with interest. Anji believed the man to have been on the watch for a woman of the streets, and to have taken an interest