Parry & Co. first edition - [1848]
Another G.P.R.? Yes, and a delightful short one, too! There is no date on the title page - it is registered elsewhere as 1848, but it probably came out in December 1847, as it is clearly marketed in a 'Christmas Book' format - as Wolff maintains and the bookseller Jarndyce states in its catalogue.
The title, admittedly, rather put me off, as I have little time for the supernatural. However, the tale turned out to be a straightforward one about the aftermath of the Battle of Worcester in 1651, with a time-jump to 1660 and the Restoration. The father of Michael Foot (one-time Leader of the Labour Party 1980-1983) was Isaac Foot, a prominent Liberal M.P. and a Founder of the Cromwell Association. He used the 1644 Battle of Marston Moor to define a person's ideological alignment: "I judge a man by one thing, which side would he have liked his ancestors to fight on at Marston Moor?" Well, Isaac and I would have been on opposing sides and I think G.P.R. James would have joined Prince Rupert and me, going by the political slant of this novel.
The first two chapters, entitled Epoch the First, are really a Prologue to the rest of the novel. It commences on 3rd September 1651, with a description of the Battle of Worcester. The Royalist Lord Charles Eustace gallops up to a moderate sized brick building on the outskirts of the city. James' famous horseman therefore takes centre stage in a first chapter yet again! He joins his wife Lilla and his little daughter Kate, whom he urges to flee to Pershore if the battle goes against the Royalists. Soon after, Denzil, a lad some seventeen or eighteen years of age, richly dressed and accoutred, with his long dark hair flowing down over his laced collar to his shoulders, comes speedily up to tell his master that Cromwell is in sight. The battle is fought and lost; but Kate cleverly, on hunting for her father on the battlefield, manages to assist him in escaping from the Parliamentarians. A shrill scream is heard after they send a volley of musket shot against the fleeing figure (only towards the end of the novel do we find out that it is his wife who is killed).
Epoch the Second transports the reader to scenes nine years' later, i.e. 1660. We are in an unnamed village, which has a ruined medieval castle on its higher slopes. In its midst there is a well, which was in fact a spring of very beautiful water - here villagers would come to fill up their pitchers. The old clergyman of the place, good Doctor Aldover, a very meek, peaceful, and timid man had been dispossessed by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Gideon Samson, though somewhat starch and caustic in his manner, was a good man and a kind, at heart, and both clergymen got on tolerably well with each other. Onto the castle sward comes a very handsome young man, of some seven or eight and twenty years; ... the bright glossy curls of his long abundant hair suited his face much better than the short crop of the Parliamentary soldier, or the sleek straight-cut hair of the puritanical preacher. It doesn't take much guesswork by the reader to realize it is dear Denzil again. He has ridden long and far and sensibly falls asleep in the castle's archway. Awakening, he beheld, with a strange peculiar feeling which he could not account for, a female form of exquisite beauty and grace standing on the opposite side of the little well... Oh, no, this reader thought - not another Walter Scott type supernatural being? It appears so as, when he tries to follow her, she seemed to become thinner, less substantial, more shadowy...and finally disappears.
The perplexed Denzil makes his way down to the village and it is confirmed that he has seen the Fairy of the Castle! He first meets Doctor Aldover and Rev. Samson, the former suggesting it was merely an astral spirit and the latter arguing the sprite is the spirit of a returning dead. Aldover has a vague recollection of Denzil's face, but is counselled to be cautious due to the rank and suspicious persons in the village. Denzil again has a sleep and is this time awakened by a woman's voice, saying Come to the church at midnight! Aldover takes him down to another cottage, that of a good lad, John Brownlow, and his curmudgeonly father. Also there, Denzil meets a young girl of seventeen or eighteen years of age, who had all the lightness of youth with a perfect symmetry of every limb - it is Alice Brownlow, the old man's niece. She agrees to take Denzil to the church - at midnight. Romance is already in the air!
She leaves him at the porch, but, in the ensuing darkness, within the sepulchral surroundings once again the ethereal voice, already heard at the castle, beckons him on. This means descending into a crypt and groping along a quarter of a mile tunnel. Finally, the beautiful figure, clothed in white and already seen at the castle, tells him to pray at a tomb (in fact, it is that of Lilla Eustace). Denzil is also told to pick up a parchment scroll, read it back at Doctor Aldover's cottage and obey its instructions. Alice Brownlow turns up again and Denzil realises his heart is lost to her. The scroll has told him to go swiftly North and hand it over to an unnamed gentleman. Before he goes, he and Alice more or less plight their troth! He leaves just in time, as Parliamentary soldiers are coming to bivouac in the village.
Although there are still 90 pages to go, the rest of the tale can be quickly described. It is General Monk who Denzil has to hand over the scroll. It clearly relates to the General supporting the Restoration of Charles II. In Epoch the Third, Denzil returns to the village and finds a nasty Parliamentary soldier, Colonel Okey terrorizing the inhabitants. It is in the description of Okey that the author's prejudices are clearly shown. He harangued his men with the common-place cant of the wilder and more enthusiastic sectaries, who then struggled to retain that power and predominance which they had for many years enjoyed and misused in the land... Notwithstanding a near-fatal fall from the castle battlements, brought on by the ethereal beauty leading Okey to be shoved by a black arm to the court below, the Colonel leads a court of so-called justice against John Brownlow and others. It is at this juncture that Denzil returns, to be named by his true title, Denzil, Lord Blount, who Okey accuses of slaying his nephew at Worcester. However, all is luckily lost for Colonel O - Denzil has surrounded the court with Royalist troops; moreover, it is the very end of May 1660 - King Charles II is on the throne!
The 'Fairy' has one last message for Denzil - forswear the Court and the cities and live amongst your own people on your own lands. Then, it's time to meet Lord Eustace, who had survived Worcester, but for the loss of an arm - now replaced by a contrivance (yes, it was the Lord's black arm that pushed Okey off the castle battlements). He had been hiding in the ruins for nearly a decade, safe against villagers' snooping by the supernatural terrors and Alice Brownlow's taking him sustenance. Eustace teases Denzil that years ago he had planned for his daughter Kate to become the latter's wife. Denzil, however, refuses to budge from wanting Alice. Well, guess what?! (I had, in fact, guessed some while back) - Alice proves to be the disguise Catherine (Kate) has assumed since Worcester. Of course, they marry and, of course, Catherine/Kate had played the Fairy to keep simple villagers away from her father's hideout. Gideon Samson flees to Scotland, Doctor Aldover proves to be Lord Eustace's chaplain.
A much tighter story from James for once and quite enjoyable.
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