A Fine Madness by Alan Judd (best classic books TXT) 📕

being men who in their own estimation played a great part in affairs of which they knew less than they thought. In particular, they did not know who else might be fishing in their pool, more discreetly than they.

Having become a priest, Baines was about to return to England in order, so far as his masters in Rheims were concerned, to work secretly against us. But really, he claimed, to work secretly for us against them. However, he was arrested before he could leave Rheims and after some little torture wrote a fulsome confession which was published, securing him his pardon and permission to return to England.

He and Christopher must have taken against each other soon after meeting for not only did he denounce Christopher and Gilbert to the governor of Flushing but at the time of Christopher’s death he wrote the infamous note I told you of. You will remember that this denounced Christopher for, among other crimes, ‘his damnable judgement of religion and his scorn of God’s word’. Later, I discovered it was Baines, not Thomas Kyd, who first said that Christopher persuaded men to atheism. It was also he who denounced the innocent Kyd for the Dutch Church libel. This worthy man of God did it for money and the terms of his denunciations are so like the terms of his own confession that I conclude he had a sheath of phrases, all feathered and sharpened, to be shot from his bow at anyone he took against, or from whom money was to be made. After he converted to our own church he was rewarded with a comfortable living in Lincolnshire.

But the malice of Baines’s writings was not evident in his person that morning. He was modest and respectful, answering Lord Burghley’s questions with frequent Your Lordships, Your Honours, By Your Honour’s Leaves and If Please Your Honours. None of which entertained or impressed Lord Burghley. Having got Baines to confirm the report of the governor of Flushing – viz. that Christopher had provoked Gilbert into making and uttering the forged Dutch shilling, with the intention of making many more before fleeing to the seminary at Rheims – Lord Burghley then said with quiet precision, ‘But the two accused contradict you. Gilbert the goldsmith says you and Marlowe urged him to forge the shilling equally and Marlowe says it was you who planned to utter more coins and flee to Rheims, your former home.’ He turned to Christopher and Gilbert. ‘Is that not so?’

He made it sound as if he had already taken statements from the accused. There was surprise on Gilbert’s face as well as fear and for a moment he merely gazed, his toothless mouth open. Then he nodded. ‘It is so, my Lord, it is so.’

I feared at first that Christopher wouldn’t reply. For a second or two he returned Lord Burghley’s uncompromising gaze, then he turned to face Baines. ‘It is so, my Lord,’ he said clearly.

Baines was about to protest but Lord Burghley cut him short. ‘Two against one. What have you to say to that?’

‘It is not so, my Lord, I—’

‘And only one Dutch shilling uttered. No coin of this realm. And no more were made. Do you agree?’

‘My Lord, their – his, Marlowe’s – intention was—’

‘What you say it was. Or not. And yours was what he says it was. Or not.’

‘But the port and town of Flushing are English. Therefore the utterance of counterfeit coin—’

‘Of a foreign coin is rightly a matter for the governor to deal with as he thinks fit. He has the necessary powers. It is not for us to consider here. There need be no trial.’ He turned to William. ‘You will write to the governor and tell him that I want no more such minor vexations referred to me. We deal daily in weightier matters.’ He turned back to Baines. ‘I do not wish to see you here again without better purpose. If I do your stay may be prolonged.’ He turned again to William. ‘See that the prisoners are released. Now begone, all of you.’

And so we and the case were dismissed. Thomas Walsingham, Frizer and I left the palace with Christopher. Gilbert disappeared. Whether he lived in London or Flushing or elsewhere I know not. Most of us are like fishes in the lives of others, a silvery flank glimpsed once and never seen again. As we shuffled out it was clear that Baines did not want to leave with us but at the same time feared to irritate his Lordship by lingering. He compromised by following ten feet behind. Christopher paid him no attention at all but Frizer twice turned and grinned, which made him pause until we drew ahead.

‘Mangy dog,’ Frizer said. ‘Chuck a stone and he’d yelp. Bark at him, Kit, see him run.’

But Christopher ignored him. We stood talking in the street outside Whitehall Palace until Thomas and Frizer left for Thomas’s manor in Chislehurst. Christopher said he would return to the lodging he had taken after leaving Mary’s.

‘If I still have it. I have been away longer than promised and someone else may have taken it.’

‘Come to my house. You can wash and borrow clean clothes.’

He nodded. We watched Baines hurry across the road towards the Abbey. ‘Good riddance,’ I said. ‘He has it in for you.’

‘He has it in for everyone, chiefly himself. He cannot accept the failure he senses he is and cannot bear that others should be better.’

‘Why did you do it, coining that shilling?’

‘Boredom, curiosity. And maybe future gain, who knows? If it had worked it would be comforting to know that in time of need one could make money, actually make it.’

‘So you were prepared to do it, to go coining?’

‘Prepared, but not doing it. Prepared to do anything, Thomas, as you know. Or nothing.’

‘You do not care what you do?’

‘I should like to know the limits, the limits of what I am capable of. It’s those that define what we are.’

‘We