Eliza shrugged. “There was a feeling among some at Court that this was an assassin acting on orders from London, or some other Protestant capital. The plot to assassinate William on Turn-ham Green might have been tit-for-tat. I thought the Juncto might want to know as much.”
“I shall pass it along, then, madame. The Juncto shall consider itself in your debt.”
“I shall consider myself in yours, if you deliver the message.”
“On the contrary, it will be my honor to be of service, madame.”
“You might also be of service by escorting him home,” said Eliza, nodding over toward Johann, “assuming he survives his fencing-lesson.”
Johann had quickly tired of being knocked down by his godfather, and so the lesson had moved along to parts of the syllabus more fun and less practicaclass="underline" viz. hanging from ratlines with one hand whilst duelling the opponent with the other.
“I had supposed he was home,” said Daniel.
“Home is Leipzig,” said Eliza. “It is a long story-much longer than that of de Gex and the harpoon.”
“I wonder if I might engage in some tit-for-tat by telling you a bit of news from my side of the water.”
“Monsieur, I should be fascinated,” exclaimed Eliza, suddenly coming alive. “How unlike you to volunteer something!”
Daniel blushed at this, but went on: “When I was at university I was terrorized by the Earl of Upnor-Louis Anglesey. Of course he has been dead since the Battle of Aughrim. But a few days ago I phant’sied I spied his ghost standing atop a bastion of the Tower of London. Then it came into my head that he must be Upnor’s brother, Philip, Count Sheerness, who has not set foot in England for almost twenty years-he fled during the Popish Plot. England has forgotten him. But perhaps he has not forgotten England, and came back over at last to play some role in the complot to assassinate William.”
“Then England certainly will not forget him again,” Eliza said. “I wonder if he’ll be suffered to leave the Tower alive.”
“Were I a betting man, I’d bet yes. I’d bet he’ll be back on this side of the Channel before summer. Oh, he’ll be kept close for a while. Perhaps he’ll even be tried. But no proof will be found that he was involved in the plot.”
“What is your reason for telling me the story?”
“As it happens, I once was imprisoned in the same place. Some murderers were sent in to do away with me. But they were intercepted by a veteran sergeant of the King’s Own Black Torrent Guards, one Bob Shaftoe, who I believe is known to you.”
“Yes.”
“He and I made a sort of compact. He would be of aid to me in doing away with my bete noire-the late Jeffreys-if I would assist him in recovering a certain young woman-”
“I know the story.”
“Very well. Then you know she is a slave, once owned by the Earl of Upnor, but distributed to Count Sheerness as a part of Upnor’s estate when Upnor was killed at Aughrim. I presume she has been on this side of the water, serving in Sheerness’s household.”
“Indeed. What is it you would have me do, Dr. Waterhouse?”
“The Black Torrent Guards have been in the Spanish Netherlands for some years, fighting the war, whensoever the Juncto could scrape together money for balls and powder. I thought perhaps you might know of some way of getting word to Sergeant Shaftoe that the owner of Abigail is in a tight spot just now, and unable to defend his properties on the Continent. Between that, and the lull in the fighting, there might be opportunity-”
“Other such opportunities have come his way in the past, but he has not been quick to take advantage of them,” said Eliza, “because he has been looking after his nephews, and could not see a way to fulfill so many obligations at once. But his nephews must have reached the age of manhood by now. Perhaps he is ready.”
“That must have vexed their uncle to no end,” Daniel mused.
“Yes. But it must have made his life a good bit simpler, too,” said Eliza. “So, consider the message delivered and your obligation discharged, Dr. Waterhouse.”
“Thank you, your grace.”
“You are most welcome.”
“-”
“Is there anything else?”
“Nothing that I would dream of mentioning to any ordinary Duchess-or woman, for that matter. But as you have an interest in money, here is a curiosity for you.”
Daniel reached into both hip-pockets at once. From each he drew a sheaf of printed bills, and held them out, rather like the two pans of a balance, so that Eliza could inspect them. The offerings on left and right were similar, but different. Clearly there had been a lot of work for engravers in London lately, for these documents had been pressed out by copper-plates of awesome complication: miles of line folded up into inches of space, like the windings of testicles. One depicted a goddess gripping a trident and sitting upon a great mound of coins. “Even by Barock standards, the most vulgar thing I’ve seen,” Eliza pronounced it. BANK OF ENGLAND, it said; and below that was printed a florid and verbose assertion that it-which is to say, this piece of paper-was money. The bills on Daniel’s opposite hand said LAND BANK and supported like claims-if anything, even more pompous.
“Whig,” said Daniel, shaking the BANK OF ENGLAND bills, “and Tory,” shaking the LAND BANK bills.
“You even have different money!?”
“The Bank of England was, as you must know, set up two years ago by the Juncto after it won the election. It is backed-these bills are backed-by the ability of the government to raise money from taxes, lotteries, annuities, and whatever other schemes the big brains of the Juncto can think up. Not to be outdone, the Tories set up their own Bank, backed by-”
“The land of England itself? How Tory-like.”
“They are nothing if not consistent.”
“Curious. Are these worth anything?”
“As always, you go to the heart of the matter. In the absence of any other money, these do circulate in London. The Marquis of Ravenscar, who gave these to me, asked that I present them to you, and try to-to-”
“To exchange them for specie?” Eliza laughed. “Cheeky fellow! So it is an experiment! A little foray into Natural Philosophy. He wishes you to gather some data on your Continental tour-to see if anyone outside of England heeds the promises stamped on these bills.”
“Something like that. I am relieved that you take it in such good humor.”
“Let me ask you this, Doctor: what is the exchange rate between Whig and Tory money?”
“Ah. At the moment, one of these-” he held up the Land Bank notes “-buys rather a lot of these.” He indicated the Bank of England notes. “For many are of the view that the Bank of England has failed already, and the Land Bank is ascendant.”
“Which amounts to saying that the Juncto will be cast down in the next election, and Harley will lead the Tories to victory.”
“I dare not disagree-as much as I’d like it otherwise.”
“Then I shall buy a few of these, in exchange for a Bill of Exchange, denominated in thalers, and payable at the House of the Golden Mercury in Leipzig,” said Eliza, indicating the Land Bank notes, “but I shall exchange them immediately for a lot of these.” She licked a finger and began to count off Bank of England notes.
“You place your trust in the Whigs? Roger shall be overjoyed.”
“I place my trust in Newton,” Eliza said.
“You refer to his new position at the Mint.”
“I had more in mind the calculus.”
“How so?”
“This is really a matter of derivatives, is it not?”
“Financial derivatives?”
“No, mathematical ones! For any quantity-say, position-there is a derivative, representing its rate of change. As I see it, England’s stock of land represents a fixed quantity of wealth. But commerce I see as a derivative-it is the slope, the speed, the rate of change of the nation’s wealth. When commerce stagnates, this rate of change is small, and money founded upon it is worthless. Hence the lopsided exchange rate you told me of. But when commerce thrives, all goes into rapid movement, the derivative jumps up, and money founded on it becomes of much greater value. Once Newton goes to work at the Mint, the supply of coin in England can only improve. Commerce, which has been frozen for lack of money, will surge, at least briefly. The exchange rate between these two currencies will swing the opposite way, long enough at least for me to take a profit.”