London - Edward Rutherfurd [440]
Suddenly, he sat up. To his own surprise O Be Joyful was overcome by a huge indignation, a rage unlike anything he had known before. It was as if all his disgust with himself over the years and all the resentment he felt at the way these royal papists had so contemptuously duped him, had focused in a single point of fury. It was, though he did not realize it, the same sullen anger that his father Gideon had felt. No, he decided. This time, whatever the cost, he would stand up to them.
He came down from his place of concealment and made his way out of the palace. He would go to the Protestant Lord Mayor of London himself. And all the guilds too, if he must. His terror and even his rage were replaced now by a kind of wild excitement.
He was still in this state of furious elation when, about a hundred yards down Pall Mall, a carriage drew up a little in front of him, and an old man stepped out and moved slowly towards the entrance of one of the fashionable mansions. Just before reaching the steps to the door, he turned to glance at O Be Joyful, and the two men recognized each other.
It was nine years since old Julius had been made Earl of St James, and he had not expected to live so long. Yet, at the age of eighty-five, he had remarkably little to complain of. He was stooped; his eye was a little rheumy; an arthritic leg meant that he had to walk, rather painfully, with a stick but in his eighties he had acquired the same stiff dignity that had been the hallmark of his father, Alderman Ducket, back in the days when Shakespeare was still living. As he glanced at Carpenter now, in the manner of the very old who know they are soon to depart, he gave a smile of vague, uninterested curiosity.
But that was not what O Be Joyful saw. He saw the persecutor of his family, the hated Royalist, the thief who had taken an earldom to vote for a Catholic king. He was sure to be part of this papist plot. Worst of all, protected by wealth, titles, even his age, the evil old devil was grinning at him now because he thought he had got away with it.
Scarcely considering what he was doing, the craftsman rushed forward and in a voice of rage and blistering contempt he yelled: “You old devil! You think you’ve hoodwinked us all. Well, you haven’t.” Emboldened further by Julius’s look of surprise he continued shouting. “I know, do you understand? I’ve heard your priests in the palace. I know all about your Royalist papist plot. And in an hour the mayor and all London will know too. Then, my lord, we’ll string you and the king and all the priests up together.” And with a cry, he ran off.
It took Lord St James several seconds to recover from this verbal assault; but as soon as he had he clambered back into his carriage and barked out a sharp order: “Drive like the wind!”
Twenty minutes later O Be Joyful, hurrying along Fleet Street near St Bride’s, saw Meredith coming towards him. As the clergyman hailed him in his usual friendly manner, he halted.
“Why, what’s the matter, Master Carpenter? You look as if you’ve seen the Devil himself.”
O Be Joyful was glad to see the clergyman. Despite his rage and determination, the prospect of facing the Lord Mayor was rather daunting. By saying what he had to Lord St James, he had burned his boats; but he still had no idea of how to get the mayor to believe him. Seeing Meredith now, however, he suddenly realized that if he would accompany him to the mayor, it would be a different matter