The great house where Scabface thought Puss Fur-None [Bess Vernon] might lodge was not convenient for cats.
The Savoy Hotel now occupies part of the site.
We had to leave the river wall and creep through a neighbour’s garden to gain entry to its yard. That set the dogs a-barking.
And then Scabface could not tell me how to find Puss Fur-None. But I thanked him, and we went our ways.
I had no choice but to haunt that house as once I’d haunted Essex House. I nigh wore out my paws trudging back and forth between there and Black-Fryes [Blackfriars].
Some cats who were once respective to me hissed as I passed.
One whispered, “Your Earl’s a plain gentleman now, no better than any other.”
“Worser,” spat her friend. “For he’s a traitor.”
I bristled up, and from behind a grating came a call, “Keep your head on. It’s all you’ve got.”
A line from one of my uncle’s sonnets came to me then.
When in disgrace with fortune and all eyes –
That much were true of me and my Earl.
Had I not seen Puss Fur-None step from a coach one day, I would have ceased my painful progresses to that house. (I’d learnt it was my Earl’s mother who dwelt there.)
Puss greeted me most loving. Then she carried me in, saying she hoped I brought good fortune.
“Good fortune!” cried the old Countess, eyeing me uncivil.
I remembered she’d sayt her son must have been bewitched to know nowt of the conspiracy until it happened. Of a sudden I feared she might claim I’d done the witching.
But instead both ladies fell to lamenting my Earl’s plight. He was ill of a sickness which had troubled him before. Ake-you [Ague].
And swellings. (Swol with discontentments at having to feign penitence and beg the Queen for mercy, most like.)
Puss Fur-None sayt how grieved she were that she could not visit him, else she would take me to cheer him.
Cheer him? What of me? ’Twere one thing to visit the Tower (a thing I’d always hoped to do) but who would wish to spend their days emprisoned?
Then and there I resolved to birth my kitlings in that house. If Her Majestie ever did permit a visit, His Harryship could have one or all of the little darlings in my place.
And because I’m a cat of honour and Scabface had kept his word (more or less), I kept mine to him. I held a Revel when next I were in Black-Fryes.
We had not time for tales. Many cats wished to tell of their doings during the late trouble. I will not set this down, for I’ve writ much of it before. Save to say that Picker and Stealer brought newes from the Tower.
They swore Essex’s head was cut off private just to spite him. They sayt, “Were it done publick, the citie would have showed its discontent.”
And they professed joy that my Earl and so many other rebels still lived!
Kind words? No, citie talk. Picker and Stealer were creatures of the citie, born and bred. They knew which way its rivers ran.
Then Scabface told of his assalt on White-Hall, and how he’d affrighted Queen Puss’s hare from her head.
That brought great applauds. All sayt we must have another Revel before the year was out.
I sayt we would, though I feared what the year might hold for me.
Arundel House was next door to Essex House.
The Earl of Southampton’s ague – intermittent bouts of high fever accompanied by shivering and cold at onset – was probably malaria, still common in England at the time. He was said to have a quartan ague, i.e. one that returns every fourth day (every 72 hours). Plus he suffered from swollen legs and other parts. I don’t know what could have caused that.
He’d also lost his earldom and become plain Henry Wriothesley, though most people still continued to refer to him as an earl. Old habits die hard.
The Earl of Southampton's Cat 
I don’t suppose he minded losing his earldom, since he kept his head.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True! He was probably most upset by the loss of Essex and Sir Charles Danvers. He had some major health problems for a while, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps the health problems were related to the rebellion and the loss of two friends.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think that’s very likely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucky to keep his head, methinks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very lucky. I’m inclined to the view that some people who’d done less lost theirs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So… is she already with kits or does she have to find a worthy father for them – and where will she do that? The ex-earl should be careful about the company he keeps or he might become… cat-atonic.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tricks seems to think that she’ll be the one at risk of cat-atonia if she joins her ex-earl. She’s already with kits – she was making dark references to cravings a while back.
I suspect Scabface is their sire, but she’s been very discreet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Amazing how being under stress can bring lay you low for sickness. And I suspect that facing the potential of the chopping block might be a wee bit stressful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He may also have been suffering from survivor guilt. I’m inclined to think his combination of social status and involvement made him more culpable than the four who were executed after Essex.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Henry Wriothesley must have challenged your spellchecker to the hilt. I love that name. The earl emeritus has suffered a status demotion but a lexical promotion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And – coolest of all – it’s a name that nowadays no-one really knows how to pronounce, because there aren’t any Wriothesleys left. The surname was originally Wryth, but I understand Harry’s ancestors went for a flasher version as they clawed their way up the social ladder.
But was Wryth pronounced Rith, or Rye-th? And as for the longer, flasher version – I’ve seen Elizabethan spellings of Wresley and Wrotsley which aren’t much help.
LikeLike
Riot- he-sleighs?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well done! That’s the sort of word play Elizabethans loved. An alternative might be: Rot-he’s sly. Pronunciation wise, I’d go for Rye-othsley. Though Hilary Mantel, when dealing with grandfather Thomas in ‘Wolf Hall’, went for Risley.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or -slays. Got it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poor Southampton! 😦 But I’m glad the Revels are ongoing….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tricks needs something to keep her cheerful.
LikeLike