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- [00:00]
Faith Moore
Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore, and this season we're reading the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.
- [00:11]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Each episode I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to.
- [00:15]
Faith Moore
Time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes. So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time.
- [00:42]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Hi, everyone.
- [00:43]
Faith Moore
Welcome back. Okay, we're getting right down to it now. The final week of this book. We've got this episode and we've got the Thursday's episode and that's it. So we're making our way to the end here. And lots happened last time. We've got lots to talk about. But speaking of the end and this ending and moving on to the next thing, did you catch the trailer for Summer Session that should have dropped into your podcast feed over the weekend? If you are subscribed. And if you're not subscribed. Why not? You should be subscribed. Hit that subscribe button so you don't miss anything else. But the trailer did drop. So I can now reveal that we are going to be spending the summer talking about fairy tales together. And you know, I always say summer session is like a college class, only fun. And I'm kind of kidding around. I'm not really qualified to teach a college class. But the idea is it's just a time when we're going to really delve into a topic and hopefully it's a topic that will help us to kind of understand better the books that we.
- [01:47]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Read here on storytime.
- [01:48]
Faith Moore
And you know, I think a lot of us think of fairy tales as like bedtime stories that you tell to your kids, and you've probably written them off at this point as not something that you are going to read on your own as a fully fledged adult person. But I am here to tell you that in fact, fairy tales are one of the most important building blocks of stories. The stories that we are still telling and that we are reading together on this show and that people are telling now when they write modern books, Fairy tales play a huge role in that. And unless you are someone who really grew up with these stories and maybe your parents read them to you in their original forms, if you didn't do that, it's possible that you've never actually read them in the original. That was true for me. I read these stories as an adult and so there's a lot about them that we actually don't know or a lot about them that we are confused about or that we have assumptions about that maybe aren't true. And so we're going to just spend some time. We're going to read them. We're going to read a lot of these fairy tales in their original form. So there's going to be lots of story time, even though we're not actually reading a book together over the summer. And I've got lots of great guests who are going to come on the show. So some weeks it'll be an interview and some weeks it'll be me just talking to you or reading to you or both. And I'm already starting to record those. I'm really excited about them. They're coming out really well. And so I really think it's going to be a fun time. I know that for, for some of you, this summertime is kind of like, oh, this is not what I signed up for. I want to be reading a book. And I completely get that. And I wish I could read to you all the time, but my schedule just doesn't allow for us to read together in the summer. So hopefully you'll stick around for the summer. I hope you do. It's still fun. We still get to talk to each other. I still take your emails and questions and things. And it's still that community feel that has become one of the most wonderful things about this show, at least for me. But if it's not your thing, then please don't worry because we really will be back in September with a new book. And another reason to make sure that you're subscribed is that that trailer for the new book will drop sometime in the middle of August and it'll come.
- [03:58]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Right into your podcast feed if you're subscribed.
- [04:00]
Faith Moore
And that will tell you what we'll be reading next. And we'll be back together again in September, just like we are now with a new book. So I wanted to give you a.
- [04:08]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Little bit of a heads up about that.
- [04:10]
Faith Moore
Feel free to write in with questions and comments, your thoughts about how you're feeling going into the summer. I would love to hear what you think about that, but I hope you caught the trailer and if you didn't, feel free to go back. It's still there and you can listen to it. So we will begin that on June 2, because we've got today, and then on Thursday we'll finish the book. And then on Monday the 26th, which I guess is also Memorial Day, we will talk about the end of the.
- [04:33]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Book, we'll wrap things up.
- [04:35]
Faith Moore
We'll kind of go over some of the bigger themes and ideas that we've been talking about throughout.
- [04:41]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
And we'll, as I say, we'll wrap.
- [04:43]
Faith Moore
It all up and hopefully that will feel like a satisfying conclusion to this amazing journey that we've been on this whole time. So that'll be the 26th of May, and then it will go to weekly and the episodes will drop on Mondays, so there won't be a Thursday episode on that week when we do the conclusion episode.
- [05:02]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
But we will be back on June.
- [05:04]
Faith Moore
2Nd and that is when summer session will begin. So I really do hope that you will stick around and that you will join us. But of course, we are not actually done yet. We have more to go. Today we are reading Fosco's narrative, so that's exciting and we have lots to talk about. Last time we read Heart Rights Narrative, Chapter seven. So we're going to get into all of that. Don't forget, of course, to subscribe, but also if you've been enjoying the show, this is a great time to tap those five stars. It's a great time to write a positive review as we get to the end of this book. And don't forget to take a look at the show notes. There's lots of links there that might be of interest to you. You can sign up to be a part of our drawing room, which is our online community. We've got a tea time coming up on May 27th. That's a Tuesday at 8pm Eastern. We'll be talking about the end of the book. We will have just finished it and you can join us there. So there's a link to find out more about that. You can buy some merch, you can find out more about me if that's of interest to you. There's lots of links there, so I hope you'll check those things out. Okay, so let's talk about what we read last time and then I've got two comments I'd like to read to you and we'll have a little chat before we hear from Count Fosco. Here is the recap. Okay, so where we left off, Walter finds the Count clearly packing for a journey. Fosco doesn't seem to have seen Walter at the opera, so he thinks that Walter is just there about what happened with Laura, but that he doesn't have any leverage. The Count locks them in the room.
- [06:31]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
And sits in front of the door.
- [06:32]
Faith Moore
With his hand on a drawer that.
- [06:34]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Seems to hold a gun.
- [06:35]
Faith Moore
Walter tells Fosco that he knows about the brand on his arm and that.
- [06:39]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Everything he knows is written down in.
- [06:41]
Faith Moore
The hands of someone else. So if Fosco kills him, it'll all come out. Fosco realizes he's trapped and he asks what Walter wants. Walter explains that he's married to Laura.
- [06:51]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Now and wants the Count to provide.
- [06:52]
Faith Moore
Proof of the date when Laura left Blackwater park so he can prove that the person who died in the Count's house couldn't have been Laura. Walter says he doesn't care about the £10,000 that the Foscos got.
- [07:04]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
All the all he wants is this proof.
- [07:06]
Faith Moore
Fosco agrees on three first, that he and Madame Fosco be allowed to leave the house freely once the proof has been provided Second, that a messenger be sent to Pesca to get the sealed letter and deliver it to Fosco. And third, Fosco be allowed to challenge Walter to a duel at some later time. Walter agrees with the stipulation that when the letter arrives from Pesca's house, it be destroyed in his presence. So after this, the Count becomes cheerful and begins writing out his confession with elaborate flourishes. Finally, at four in the morning, he gives his narrative to Walter along with the address of the cabbie that took Laura from the train station when she came to London and a letter from Sir Percival talking about Laura leaving that has the date on it, which effectively proves Laura's identity and proves that it was Anne who died in the house. After that, the Count takes a nap with Madame Fosco watching over Walter so he doesn't run away. And then he wakes up to finish packing. Finally, Fosco's agent arrives. The agent is Monsieur Rubelle, who's probably Mrs. Rubell's husband, and he goes and gets the letter from Pesca and comes back with it. The Count burns the letter as they agreed. Then the Count and Madame Fosco get into a cab and on the way out, Fosco reminds Walter that he will one day challenge him to a duel and also to take good care of Marian, who looked a bit ill the last time he saw her. As the Foscos leave, Walter sees the stranger from the opera watching them. So then Walter goes back into the house to read Fosco's narrative.
- [08:34]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Alright, so I'm going to read two comments.
- [08:36]
Faith Moore
The first one comes from Virginia Chapman. Virginia says, what an amazing chapter today. Honorable Walter, so brave, dastardly Count Fosco. I am scared for Walter and the future duel the Count has foisted upon him. I wonder if the man with the.
- [08:52]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Scar on his face will dispatch Fosco before he leaves England.
- [08:56]
Faith Moore
That would be delicious. But Walter has all the evidence.
- [09:00]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Wow.
- [09:01]
Faith Moore
And the next one comes from David Axley. David writes, while the immediate suspense of the confrontation between Walter and Fosco is ended, there's more to be anticipated. I doubt that many people want to see a scoundrel get away unscathed even today. Thus, I can't help but believe our author in the 1800s will not let.
- [09:21]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Fosco off the hook.
- [09:23]
Faith Moore
My main question is, will Fosco pay at the hand of the scarred man or at Pescas? I discount Walter Hartright due to his inexperience in physical confrontation, though he's managed to escape death on several occasions. Okay, so, yes, the battle is fought and won, essentially. Right. Walter now has in his possession the proof that will restore Laura's identity.
- [09:47]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Okay.
- [09:47]
Faith Moore
He's got the dated letter from Percival that says that Laura was still at Blackwater park and preparing to leave for London on the day when she supposedly was already dead in London. He's got the name of the cab company that took Laura and Count Fosco from the station on the day after Laura was supposedly dead. And he's got Count Fosco's written statement explaining exactly what he did and how he did it and why he did it. And that is signed by Fosco. So Walter has done it. He's got the proof he needed. The proof he's been working so tirelessly to get for pages and pages now for essentially, like, half the book almost. But it comes at a price, Right? And the price is that he had.
- [10:28]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
To let Fosco go.
- [10:30]
Faith Moore
Right. Fosco and Madame Fosco have escaped into the night. They're leaving the country. They are free.
- [10:36]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
They're getting away with it, essentially.
- [10:38]
Faith Moore
And that's a hard truth for Walter, and it's a hard truth for us, I think.
- [10:43]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Right.
- [10:43]
Faith Moore
As David says in his letter, we don't like to see the bad guy get away. And he did get away. He gave Walter what he needed to do the thing he's trying to do, which is restore Laura's identity. But he did it in exchange for his freedom. So the comeuppance that we wish he could have didn't come. And that's really hard to deal with, I think. Right. Here's what Walter says about it was hard when I had fastened my hold on him at last to loosen it.
- [11:11]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Again of my own accord.
- [11:13]
Faith Moore
But I forced myself to make the sacrifice in Plainer words.
- [11:17]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
I determined to be guided by the.
- [11:19]
Faith Moore
One higher motive of which I was certain.
- [11:22]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
The motive of serving the cause of Laura and the cause of truth.
- [11:27]
Faith Moore
Okay, so we don't like it. And Walter doesn't like it either. And as Walter says, it was a sacrifice. He sacrificed his desire to see Count Fosco brought to justice in order to get at the truth, to get at the proof that Laura is Laura and not Anne Catherick. It's a concept that's kind of hard for us to digest. I think we're sort of trained by the typical plots of books like this, like thrillers or mysteries or suspicions, suspense stories or whatever. We're trained to solve the crime, catch the bad guy and go on our merry way. But here we've solved the crime, but we haven't caught the bad guy. And instead of framing that as a loose end or a failure, Walter is framing it for us as like a necessary evil. Right? Vengeance was never the goal here. Vengeance might feel good. It would feel good to us. It would feel good to Walter. It would definitely feel good to. To Marian.
- [12:21]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
But it was never the goal.
- [12:22]
Faith Moore
The goal was always the truth. The truth of Laura's identity. And Walter has to conquer his baser instincts, his instinct to take the Count down. And through him, we have to conquer ours too. But I will say that first of all, there's still more book left. So we haven't necessarily seen the last of the Count. And as Virginia and David point out in their letters, there's this and trip duel now that Vosco is holding over Walter's head. So the Count at least assumes that he and Walter will meet again. And we also get this observation from Walter. Here's what he says. He says, what right had I to decide in my poor mortal ignorance of the future that this man too must escape with impunity because he escaped me? Meaning that Walter may not have been the one who brought justice to the situation by bringing Fosco down, but that doesn't mean that he won't be brought down at some point. And this is really great. I think I love this. Walter's mission, his whole purpose that he's been working toward all this time. His mission was to restore Laura's identity. And he's done that. It's actually beneath him and even potentially a dangerous impulse on his part to want to then strike the Count down, right? His mission is fulfilled. He's got the truth now.
- [13:42]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
He's not God, right?
- [13:44]
Faith Moore
That's what he means about his poor mortal ignorance.
- [13:47]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
He's not the one whose job it.
- [13:48]
Faith Moore
Is to damn or save Fosco. There's a higher moral order for that. He's saying that Fosco may yet have to pay a price for the things that he's done. And I think that's a really interesting way for our hero, our detective, our protector. It's an interesting way for him to think. But as David and Virginia point out, there are pieces of this whole situation that still haven't played themselves out. Who is this man with the scar who keeps showing up and who is following along behind the Foscos as they left the house? Who is this guy? And is he somehow going to bring the countdown? Is Pesca gonna have to do it, even though Walter says he's protected him from that? And will Walter and Fosco end up meeting in this duel? Which, as David points out, would be kind of bad for Walter, because Walter is not a fighter, really. I mean, he's picked up some skills in Central America and everything, but he's not like a swordsman or anything like that. And Fosco most likely is just knowing Fosco. So the duel option would be pretty bad, and Walter would have to figure out some way to best him without actually dueling him, I think. But I also just want to take a moment to admire the Fosco of it, all right? I mean, here he is. He knows he's trapped. He sees that Walter has got him dead to rights. And instead of getting angry or scared or flying off the handle or something, he's ever the gentleman, ever the cultured European count, and ever completely convinced that he is still the smartest, most interesting, most important person in the room. And he takes charge even of writing his own confession as if it was his idea in the first place. And I just love it. Right? Here's what Walter says about the enormous.
- [15:32]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Audacity with which he seized on the.
- [15:34]
Faith Moore
Situation in which I placed him and made it. The pedestal on which his vanity mounted for the one cherished purpose of self display mastered my astonishment by main force. Okay, so he's got to write this confession. Well, it's gonna be a literary masterpiece. And he's sitting there, like, throwing paper and pens over his shoulder as if he's writing his magnum opus or something, when really it's a statement of the fact that he committed a horrible crime. And he knows that, and Walter knows that, but he's acting like it's this.
- [16:06]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Great document, and Walter is sort of.
- [16:09]
Faith Moore
Stunned into just kind of letting him do it. And he even Sort of begrudgingly admires him, right? Here's what he says sincerely as I loathed the man. The prodigious streng of his character, even in its most trivial aspects, impressed me in spite of myself. Okay, so Fosco is Fosco, right? Even on the run, even on the way out. Even when cornered and confessing to a crime, he's Fosco right until the end. Even in his last words to Walter, which both remind him about the duel and also implore him to take care of Marian. Okay, here's what Fosco.
- [16:43]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
When I last saw Ms. Halcomb, she.
- [16:45]
Faith Moore
Looked thin and ill. I am anxious about that admirable woman.
- [16:49]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Take care of her, sir.
- [16:51]
Faith Moore
With my hand on my heart, I solemnly implore you take care of Ms. Halcombe. Okay, so Fosco is Fosco in all his glory. Even as he scurries out of his house and into a cab to run away from Italian assassins. Right? But now Walter has this document, this.
- [17:08]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Thing that Fosco wrote.
- [17:10]
Faith Moore
And we are about to get to read it. This next chapter is the document that Fosco wrote. So we're going to get to hear how it all went down according to the man who did it. And it's kind of funny because all of this time we've kind of understood the shape of the conspiracy, right? Laura and Anne were switched. Anne died and is buried under Laura's name in the churchyard at Limmeridge. Laura was taken to the asylum as Anne. But we don't really know exactly how it all happened. The only people who knew it were Percival, who's dead, and Fosco, who wasn't telling. So now we're gonna hear exactly how Laura and Anne were switched in Count Fosco's own words. So without further ado, let's let Fosco take the stage. And of course, don't forget to Write to me faithkmore.com, click on Contact or scroll into the show notes. Check out all the links that are there and there's a contact link there as well. And I'll see you on Thursday for.
- [18:08]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
The end of this book.
- [18:11]
Faith Moore
Alright, let's get started with Fosco's narrative of the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. It's story time.
- [18:25]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
The Story Continued by Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of.
- [18:35]
Faith Moore
The Brazen Crown, Perpetual Archmaster of the.
- [18:38]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Rosicrucian Masons of Mesopotamia, attached in honorary capacities to societies Musical societies, medical societies, philosophical and societies general benevolent throughout Europe, etc. Etc. Etc. The Count's narrative In the summer of 1850 I arrived in England charged with a delicate political mission from abroad. Confidential persons were semi officially connected with me, whose exertions I was authorized to direct. Monsieur and Madame Rubelle being among the number, meaning he was sent to England.
- [19:24]
Faith Moore
As a spy for the Italian government.
- [19:26]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
And was in charge of a group.
- [19:27]
Faith Moore
Of spies, including the Rubells.
- [19:30]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Some weeks of spare time were at my disposal before I entered on my functions by establishing myself in the suburbs of London. Curiosity may stop here to ask for some explanation of those functions on my part. I entirely sympathize with the request. I also regret that diplomatic reserve forbids me to comply with it. So he's not going to say what.
- [20:01]
Faith Moore
It was he was meant to be doing in London.
- [20:04]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
I arranged to pass the preliminary period of repose to which I have just referred in the superb mansion of my late lamented friend, Sir Percival Glyde. He arrived from the continent with his wife. I arrived from the continent with mine. England is the land of domestic happiness. How appropriately we entered it under these domestic circumstances. The bond of friendship which united Percival and myself was strengthened on this occasion by a touching similarity in the pecuniary position on his side and on mine. We both wanted money. Immense necessity, universal want. Is there a civilized human being who does not feel for us how insensible must that man be, or how rich? I enter into no sordid particulars in discussing this part of the subject. My mind recoils from them. With a Roman austerity. I show my empty purse and Percival's to the shrinking public gaze. Let us allow the deplorable fact to assert itself once for all in that manner and pass on we will receive at the mansion by the magnificent creature who is inscribed on my heart as Marian, who is known in the colder atmosphere of society as Miss Halcombe. Just heaven. With what inconceivable rapidity I learnt to adore that woman. At 60 I worshipped her with the volcanic ardor of 18. All the gold of my rich nature was poured hopelessly at her feet. My wife, poor angel. My wife, who adores me, got nothing but the shillings and the pennies. Such is the world. Such man, such love. What are we, I ask, but puppets in a showbox? O omnipotent destiny. Pull our strings gently, dance us mercifully off our miserable little stage. The preceding lines, rightly understood, express an entire system of philosophy. It is mine, I resume the domestic Position at the commencement of our residence at Blackwater park has been drawn with amazing accuracy, with profound mental insight, by the hand of Marian herself. Pass me the intoxicating familiarity of mentioning this sublime creature by her Christian name. Accurate knowledge of the contents of her journal, to which I obtained access by clandestine means, unspeakably precious to me. In the remembrance warns my eager pen from topics which this essentially exhaustive woman has already made her own. So he knows that Walter has the journal.
- [24:14]
Faith Moore
So he's not going to repeat anything that's in there.
- [24:16]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
We can trust Marian that all of that was true. The interests, interests, breathless and immense, with which I am here concerned, begin with the deplorable calamity of Marian's illness. The situation at this period was emphatically a serious one. Large sums of money due at a certain time were wanted by Percival. I say nothing of the modicum equally necessary to myself and the one source to look to for supplying them was the fortune of his wife, of which not one farthing was at his disposal until her death. Bad so far and worse still farther on. My lamented friend had private troubles of his own into which the delicacy of my disinterested attachment to him forbade me from inquiring too curiously. I knew nothing but that a woman named Anne Catherick was hidden in the neighbourhood, that she was in communication with Lady Glyde, and that the disclosure of a secret which would be the certain ruin of Percival, might be the result. He had told me himself that he was a lost man unless his wife was silenced and unless Anne Catherick was found. If he was a lost man, what would become of our pecuniary interests? Courageous as I am by nature, I absolutely trembled at the idea. The whole force of my intelligence was now directed to the finding of Anne Catherick. Our money affairs, important as they were, admitted of delay, but the necessity of discovering the woman admitted of none. I only knew her by description as presenting an extraordinary personal resemblance to Lady Glyde. The statement of this curious fact, intended merely to assist me in identifying the person of whom we were in search, when coupled with the additional information that Anne Catherick had escaped from a madhouse, started the first immense conception in my mind, which subsequently led to such amazing results. That conception involved nothing less than the complete transformation of two separate identities. Lady Glyde and Anne Catherick were to change names, places and destinies, the one with the other. The prodigious consequences contemplated by the change being the gain of £30,000 and the eternal preservation of Sir Percival's secret. My instincts, which seldom err, suggested to me, on reviewing the circumstances that are invisible, Anne would sooner or later return to the boathouse at the Blackwater Lake. There I posted myself, previously mentioning to Mrs. Mickelson, the housekeeper, that I might be found, when wanted, immersed in study in that solitary place. It is my rule never to make unnecessary mysteries and never to set people suspecting me for want of a little seasonable candour on my part. Mrs. Mickelson believed in me from first to last. This ladylike person, widow of a Protestant priest, overflowed with faith. Touched by such superfluity of simple confidence in a woman of her mature years, I opened the ample reservoirs of my nature and absorbed it all. I was rewarded for posting myself sentinel at the lake by the appearance not of Anne Catherick herself, but of the person in charge of her. This individual also overflowed with simple faith which I absorbed in myself. As in the case already mentioned, I leave her to describe the circumstances, if she has not done so already, under which she introduced me to the object of her maternal care. When I first saw Anne Catherick, she was asleep. I was electrified by the likeness between this unhappy woman and Lady Glyde. The details of the grand scheme which had suggested themselves in outline only up to that period, occurred to me in all their masterly combination at the sight of the sleeping face. At the same time, my heart, always accessible to tender influences, dissolved in tears at the spectacle of suffering before me, I instantly set myself to impart relief. In other words, I provided the necessary stimulant for strengthening and Catherick to perform the journey to London. The best years of my life have been passed in the ardent study of medical and chemical science. Chemistry especially, has always had irresistible attractions for me. From the enormous, the illimitable power which the knowledge of it confers. Chemists, I assert it emphatically might sway if they pleased the destinies of humanity. Let me explain this before I go further. Mind, they say, rules the world. But what rules the mind, the body, follow me closely here lies at the mercy of the most omnipotent of all potentates. The chemist give me chemistry. And when Shakespeare has conceived Hamlet and sits down to execute the conception, with a few grains of powder dropped into his daily food, I will reduce his mind by the action of his body till his pen pours out the most effortless, abject drivel that has ever degraded paper under similar circumstances. Revive me the illustrious Newton.
- [31:48]
Faith Moore
I guarantee that when he sees the Apple fall.
- [31:52]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
He shall eat it instead of discovering the principle of gravitation. Nero's dinner shall transform Nero into the mildest of men before he has done digesting it. And the morning draught of Alexander the Great shall make Alexander run for his.
- [32:12]
Faith Moore
Life at the first sight of the.
- [32:14]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Enemy the same afternoon. On my sacred word of honor. It is lucky for society that modern chemists are by incomprehensible good fortune, the most harmless of mankind. The mass are worthy fathers of families who keep shops. The few are philosophers besotted with admiration for the sound of their own lecturing voices. Visionaries who waste their lives on fantastic impossibilities or quacks whose ambition soars no higher than our corns. Thus society escapes and the illimitable power of chemistry remains the slave of the most superficial and the most insignificant ends. Why this outburst? Why this withering eloquence? Because my conduct has been misrepresented. Because my motives have been misunderstood. It has been assumed that I used my vast chemical resources against Anne Catherick and that I would have used them, if I could against the magnificent Marian herself. Odious insinuations. Both. All my interests were concerned, as will be seen presently, in the preservation of Anne Catherick's life. All my anxieties were concentrated on Marian's rescue from the hands of the licensed imbecile who attended her and who found my advice confirmed from first to last by the physician from London. So he's saying. It's totally wrong to assume that he intended to use his knowledge of chemistry to kill Anne or to kill Marion on two occasions only. Both equally harmless to the individual on whom I practiced, did I summon to myself the assistance of chemical knowledge on the first of the two. After following Marian to the inn at Blackwater park, studying behind a convenient wagon which hid me from her the poetry of motion as embodied in her walk, I availed myself of the services of my invaluable wife to copy one and to intercept the other of two letters which my adored enemy had entrusted to a discarded maid. In this case, the letters being in the bosom of the girl's dress, Madame Fosco could only open them, read them, perform her instructions, seal them and put them back again by scientific assistance, which assistance I rendered in a half ounce bottle. So Fosco did use his knowledge of.
- [35:17]
Faith Moore
Chemistry to have Madame Fosco drug Fanny.
- [35:20]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
So that she could read and tamper with Marian's letters. The second occasion when the same means were employed was the occasion to which I shall soon Refer of Lady Glyde's arrival in London. Never at any other time was I indebted to my art as distinguished from myself to all other emergencies and complications. My natural capacity for grappling single handed with circumstances was invariably equal. I affirm the all pervading intelligence of that capacity at the expense of the chemist. I vindicate the man respect this outburst of generous indignation. It has inexpressibly relieved me en route. Let us proceed. Having suggested to Mrs. Clement or Clements, I am not sure which, that the best method of keeping Anne out of Percival's reach was to remove her to London. Having found that my proposal was eagerly received and having appointed a day to meet the travellers at the station and to see see them leave it, I was at liberty to return to the house and to confront the difficulties which still remained to be met. My first proceeding was to avail myself of the sublime devotion of my wife. I had arranged with Mrs. Clements that she should communicate her London address in Anne's interests to Lady Glyde. But this was not enough. Designing persons in my absence might shake the simple confidence of Mrs. Clements and she might not write. After all, who could I find capable of travelling to London by the train she travelled by and of privately seeing her home? I asked myself this question. The conjugal part of me immediately answered Madame Fosco. After deciding on my wife's mission to London, I arranged that the journey should serve a double purpose. A nurse for the suffering. Marian, equally devoted to the patient and to myself was a necessity of my position. One of the most eminently confidential and capable women in existence was, by good fortune, at my disposal. I refer to that respectable matron, Madame Rubell, to whom I addressed a letter at her residence in London by the hands of my wife. On the appointed day Mrs. Clements and Anne Catherick met me at the station. I politely saw them off. I politely saw Madame Fosco off by the same train. The last thing at night my wife returned to Blackwater. Having followed her instructions with the most unimpeachable accuracy. She was accompanied by Madame Rubelle and she brought me the London address of Mrs. Clements. After events proved this last precaution to have been unnecessary, Mrs. Clements punctually informed Lady Glyde of her place of abode. With a wary eye on future emergencies, I kept the letter. The same day I had a brief interview with the doctor at which I protested, in the sacred interests of humanity against the treatment of Marion's case. Case? He was insolent. All ignorant people are. I Showed no resentment. I deferred quarreling with him till it was necessary to quarrel to some purpose. My next proceeding was to leave Blackwater myself. I had my London residence to take in anticipation of coming events. Meaning he really does have to go to London as part of his job as a spy. I had also a little business of the domestic sort to transact with Mr. Frederick Fairlie. I found the house I wanted in St John's wood. I found Mr. Fairlie at Limmeridge, Cumberland. My own private familiarity with the nature of Marian's correspondence had previously informed me that she had written to Mr. Fairlie proposing as a relief to Lady Glyde's matrimonial embarrassments to take her on a visit to her uncle in Cumberland. This letter I had wisely allowed to reach its destination. Feeling at the time that it could do no harm and might do good. I now presented myself before Mr. Fairlie to succeed, support Marion's own proposal with certain modifications, which, happily, for the success of my plans, were rendered really inevitable by her illness, it was necessary that Lady Glyde should leave Blackwater alone by her uncle's invitation, and that she should rest a night on the journey at her aunt's house, the house I had in St. John's Wood by her uncle's express advice to achieve these results and secure a note of invitation which could be shown to Lady Glyde, were the objects of my visit to Mr. Fairlie. When I have mentioned that this gentleman was equally feeble in mind and body, and that I let loose the whole force of my character on him, I have said enough. I came, saw and conquered fairly. On my return to Blackwater park with the letter of invitation, I found that the doctor's imbecile treatment of Marian's case had led to the most alarming results. The fever had turned to typhus. Lady Glyde, on the day of my return, tried to find force herself into the room to nurse her sister. She and I had no affinities of sympathy. She had committed the unpardonable outrage on my sensibilities of calling me a spy. She was a stumbling block in my way and in Percival's. But for all that, my magnanimity forbade me to put her in danger of infection with my own hand. At the same time, I offered no hindrance to her putting herself in danger. If she had succeeded in doing so, the intricate knot which I was slowly and patiently operating on might perhaps have been cut by circumstances. Meaning if she had just caught Marion's illness and died, then they would have the money and he wouldn't have to do anything else. As it was, the doctor interfered and she was kept out of the room. I had myself previously recommended sending for advice to London. This course had now been taken. The physician, on his arrival, confirmed my view of the case. The crisis was serious, but we had hope of our charming patient. On the fifth day from the appearance of the typhus. I was only once absent from Blackwater at this time, when I went to London by the morning train to make the final arrangements at my house in St. John's Wood. To assure myself by private inquiry that Mrs. Clements had not moved, and to settle one or two little preliminary matters with the husband of Madame Rubell. I returned at night. Five days afterwards. The physician pronounced our interesting Marian to be out of all danger and to be in need of nothing but careful nursing. This was the time I had waited for. Now that medical attendance was no longer indispensable, I played the first move in the game by asserting myself against the doctor. He was one among many witnesses in my way, whom it was necessary to remove A lively altercation between us in which Percival, previously instructed by me, refused to interfere, served the purpose in view. I descended on the miserable man in an irresistible avalanche of indignation and swept him from the house. The servants were the next encumbrances to get rid of. Again I instructed Percival, whose moral courage required perpetual stimulants. And Mrs. Mickelson was amazed one day by hearing from her master that the establishment was to be broken up. We cleared the house of all the servants but one, who was kept for domestic purposes and whose lumpish stupidity we could trust to make no embarrassing discoveries. When they were gone, nothing remained but to relieve ourselves of Mrs. Mickleson, a result which was easily achieved by sending this amiable lady to find lodgings for her mistress. Mistress at the seaside. The circumstances were now exactly what they were required to be. Lady Glyde was confined to her room by nervous illness. And the lumpish housemaid, I forget her name, was shut up there at night, in attendance on her mistress. Marian, though fast recovering still kept her bed with Mrs. Rubell for nurse. No other living creatures but my wife, myself and Percival were in the house. With all the chances thus in our favor, I confronted the next emergency and played the second move in the game. The object of the second move was to induce Lady Glyde to leave Blackwater unaccompanied by her sister. Unless we could persuade her that Marian had gone on to Cumberland first. There was no chance of removing her of her own free will from the house to produce this necessary operation in her mind. We concealed our interesting invalid in one of the uninhabited bedrooms at Blackwater. At the dead of night, Madame Fosco, Madame Rubelle and myself. Percival, not being cool enough to be trusted, accomplished the concealment. The scene was picturesque, mysterious, dramatic to the highest degree. By my directions, the bed had been made in the morning on a strong movable framework of wood. We had only to lift the framework gently at the head and foot and to transport our patient where we pleased without disturbing herself or her bed. No chemical assistance was needed or used in this case. Our interesting Marion lay in the deep repose of convalescence. We placed the candles and opened the doors beforehand. I, in right, of my great personal strength, took the head of the framework. My wife and Madame Rebel took the foot. I bore my share of that inestimably precious burden with a manly tenderness and a fatherly care. Where is the modern Rembrandt who could depict our midnight procession? Alas for the arts, alas for this most pictorial of subjects, the modern Rembrandt is nowhere to be found. The next morning my wife and I started for London, leaving Marion secluded in the uninhabited middle of the house under care of Madame Rubelle, who kindly consented to imprison herself with her patient for two or three days before taking our departure. I gave Percival Mr. Fairlie's letter of invitation to his niece, instructing her to sleep on the journey to Cumberland at her aunt's house, with directions to show it to Lady Glyde. On hearing from me, I also obtained from him the address of the asylum in which Anne Catherick had been confined and a letter to the proprietor announcing to that gentleman the return of his runaway patient to medical care. I had arranged at my last visit to the metropolis to have our modest domestic establishment ready to receive us when we arrived in London by the early train. In consequence of this wise precaution, we were enabled that same day to play the third move in the game, the getting possession of Anne Catherick. Dates are of importance here. I combine in myself the opposite characteristics of a man of sentiment and a man of business. I have all the dates at my fingers ends on Wednesday 24th July, 1850, I sent my wife in a cab to clear Mrs. Clements out of the way. In the first place, a supposed message from Lady Glyde in London was sufficient to obtain this result. Mrs. Clements was taken away in the cab and was left in the cab while my wife on pretence of purchasing something at a shop, gave her the slip and returned to receive her expected visitor at our house in St. John's Wood.
- [50:59]
Faith Moore
It is hardly necessary to add that.
- [51:01]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
The visitor had been described to the servants as Lady Glyde. In the meanwhile, I had followed in another cab with a note for Anne Catherick, merely mentioning that Lady Glyde intended to keep Mrs. Clements to spend the day with her and that she was to join them under care of the good gentleman waiting outside who had already saved her from discovery in Hampshire by Sir Percival. The good gentleman sent in this note by a street boy and paused for results. A door or two farther on, at the moment when Anne appeared at the house door and closed it, this excellent man had the cab door open, ready for her, absorbed her into the vehicle and drove off. Pass me here one exclamation in parentheses. How interesting this is. On the way to Forest Road my companion showed no fear. I can be paternal, no man more so when I please. And I was intensely paternal on this occasion. What titles I had to her confidence I had compounded the medicine which had done her good. I had warned her of her danger from Sir Percival. Perhaps I trusted too implicitly to these titles. Perhaps I underrated the keenness of the lower instincts in persons of weak intellect. It is certain that I neglected to prepare her sufficiently for a disappointment on entering my house. When I took her into the drawing room. When she saw no one present but Madame Fosco, who was a stranger to her, she exhibited the most violent agitation. If she had scented danger in the air as a dog, sensed the presence of some creature unseen, her alarm could not have displayed itself more suddenly and more causelessly. I interposed in vain. The fear from which she was suffering I might have soothed, but the serious heart disease under which she laboured was beyond the reach of of all moral palliatives. Meaning he might have soothed her mind, but he could do nothing for the.
- [53:27]
Faith Moore
State of her heart.
- [53:28]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
To my unspeakable horror, she was seized with convulsions, a shock to the system in her condition which might have laid her dead at any moment at our feet. The nearest doctor was sent for and was told that Lady Glyde required his immediate services. To my infinite relief, he was a capable man. I represented my visitor to him as a person of weak intellect and subject to delusions, and I arranged that no nurse but my wife should watch in the sick room. The unhappy woman was too ill, however, to cause any anxiety about what she might say.
- [54:14]
Faith Moore
The one Dread which now oppressed me.
- [54:17]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Was the dread that the false Lady Glyde might die. Before the true Lady Glyde arrived in London. I had written a note in the morning to Madame Rubelle telling her to join me at her husband's house on the evening of Friday the 26th, with another note to Perceval warning him to show his wife her uncle's letter of invitation, to assert that Marian had gone on before her, and to dispatch her to town by the midday train on the 26th. Also, on reflection, I had felt the necessity, in Anne Catherick's state of health, of precipitating events, and of having Lady Glyde at my disposal earlier than I had originally contemplated. What fresh directions in the terrible uncertainty of my position could I now issue? I could do nothing but trust to chance and the doctor. My emotions expressed themselves in pathetic apostrophes which I was just self possessed enough to couple in the hearing of other people with the name of Lady Glide. Meaning he was so upset he kept saying so out loud, and was only.
- [55:29]
Faith Moore
Master enough of himself to remember to call the person in their house Lady.
- [55:32]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Glide, not in Catherick. In all other respects. Fosco. On that memorable day was Fosco. Shrouded in total eclipse. She passed a bad night. She awoke worn out, but later in the day she revived. Amazingly, my elastic spirits revived with her. I could receive no answers from Percival and Madame Reubelle till the morning of the next day, the 26th. In anticipation of their following my directions, which, accident apart, I knew they would do, I went to secure a fly to fetch Lady Glyde from the railway, directing it to be at my house on the 26th at 2 o' clock. After seeing the order entered in the book, I went on to arrange matters with Monsieur Rubel. I also procured the services of two gentlemen who could furnish me with the necessary certificates of lunacy. One of them I knew personally, the other was known to Monsieur Rubelle. Both were men whose vigorous minds soared, superior to narrow scruples. Both were laboring under temporary embarrassments. Both believed in me. Meaning these men who were going to come and see the real Laura and declare her insane, were unscrupulous men who would do whatever Fosco asked. It was past five o' clock in the afternoon before I returned from the performance of these duties. When I got back, Anne Catherick was dead. Dead on the 25th. And Lady Glyde was not to arrive in London till the 26th. I was stunned. Meditate on that, Fosco. Stunned, it was too late to retrace our steps before my return. The doctor had officiously undertaken to save me all trouble by registering the death on the date when it happened with his own hand. My grand scheme, unassailable, hitherto had its weak place. Now no efforts on my part could alter the fatal event of the 25th. I turned manfully to the future Percival's interests and mine being still at stake, nothing was left but to play the game through to the end. I recalled my impenetrable calm and I played it. On the morning of the 26th, Percival's letter reached me, announcing his wife's arrival by the midday train. Madame Rubelle also wrote to say she would follow in the evening. I started in the fly, leaving the false Lady Glyde dead in the house to receive the true Lady Glyde on her arrival by the railway at 3 o' clock. Hidden under the seat of the carriage, I carried with me all the clothes Anne Catherick had worn on coming into my house. They were destined to assist the resurrection of the woman who was dead in the person of the woman who was living. What a situation. I suggest it to the rising romance writers of England. I offer it as totally new to the worn out dramatists of France. Lady Glyde was at the station. There was a great crowding and confusion and more delay than I liked, in case any of her friends had happened to be on the spot in reclaiming her luggage, her first questions as we drove off implored me to tell her news of her sister. I invented news of the most pacifying kind, assuring her that she was about to see her sister at my house. My house on this occasion only was in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square, and was in the occupation of Monsieur Rubelle, who received us in the hall. I took my visitor upstairs into a back room, the two medical gentlemen being there in waiting on the floor beneath to see the patient and to give me their certificates, meaning the certificate stating that Anne, who is really Laura, is crazy. After quieting Lady Glyde by the necessary assurances about her sister, I introduced my friends separately to her presence. They performed the formalities of the occasion briefly, intelligently, conscientiously. I entered the room again as soon as they had left it, and at once precipitated events by a reference of the alarming kind to Ms. Halcombe's state of health. Results followed as I had anticipated. Lady Glide became frightened, turned faint for the second time, and the last I called science to my assistance. A medicated glass of water and a medicated bottle of smelling salts relieved her of all further embarrassment and alarm. Additional applications later in the evening procured her the inestimable blessing of a good night night's rest. Madame Rubelle arrived in time to preside.
- [61:04]
Faith Moore
At Lady Glyde's toilet, meaning to help her get dressed.
- [61:08]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Her own clothes were taken away from her at night and Anne Catherick's were put on her in the morning with the strictest regard to propriety by the matronly hands of the good Rubelle. Throughout the day I kept our patient in a state of partially suspicious suspended consciousness until the dexterous assistance of my medical friends enabled me to procure the necessary order rather earlier than I had ventured to hope. So the reason Laura was so confused.
- [61:38]
Faith Moore
About what happened to her was that.
- [61:40]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
She was drugged the whole time. That evening, the Evening of the 27th, Madame Rubell and I took our revived and Catharic 2 the Asylum. So they took Laura to the asylum. She was received with great surprise, but without suspicion. Thanks to the order and certificates to Percival's letter and to the likeness to the clothes and to the patient's own confused mental condition at the time, I returned at once to assist Madame Fosco in the preparations for the burial of the false Lady Glyde. Having the clothes and luggage of the true Lady Glyde in my possession, they were afterwards sent to Cumberland by the conveyance which was used for the funeral. I attended the funeral with becoming dignity, attired in the deepest mourning. My narrative of these remarkable events, written under equally remarkable circumstances, closes here. The minor precautions which I observed in communicating with Limmeridge House House are already known. So is the magnificent success of my enterprise. So are the solid pecuniary results which followed it. Meaning he made it so that Mr.
- [63:01]
Faith Moore
Fairlie refused to see Laura and also so that he and Percival got the money.
- [63:06]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
I have to assert with the whole force of my conviction that the one weak place in my scheme would never have been found out if the one weak place in my heart had not been discovered first. Nothing but my fatal admiration for Marian restrained me from stepping in to my own rescue when she affected her sister's escape. I ran the risk and trusted in the complete destruction of Lady Glyde's identity. If either Marian or Mr. Hartright attempted to assert that identity, they would publicly expose themselves to the imputation of sustaining a rank deception. They would be distrusted and discredited accordingly, and they would therefore be powerless to place my interests or Percival's secret in jeopardy. I committed one error entrusting myself to such a blindfold calculation of chances as this. I committed another when Percival had paid the penalty of his own obstinacy and violence by granting Lady Glyde a second reprieve from the madhouse and allowing Mr. Hartright a second chance of escaping me. In brief, Fosco at this serious crisis was untrue to himself, deplorable and uncharacteristic fault. Behold the cause in my heart. Behold, in the image of Marian Halcombe, the first and last weakness of Fosco's life at the ripe age of 60, I make this unparalleled confession. Youths, I invoke your sympathy. Maidens, I claim your tears. A word more and the attention of the reader, concentrated breathlessly on myself, shall be released. My own mental insight informs me that three inevitable questions will be asked here by persons of inquiring minds. They shall be stated. They shall be answered. First question. What is the secret of Madame Fosco's unhesitating devotion of herself to the fulfillment of my boldest wishes, to the furtherance of my deepest plans? I might enter this by simply referring to my own character and by asking in my turn, where in the history of the world has a man of my order ever been found without a woman in the background, self immolated on the altar of his life? But I remember that I am writing in England. I remember that I was married in England. And I ask if a woman's marriage obligations in this country provide for her private opinion of her husband's principles. No. They charge her unreservedly to love, honour and obey him. That is exactly what my wife has done. I stand here on a supreme moral elevation and I loftily assert her accurate performance of her conjugal duties. Silence. Calumny. Your sympathy, wives of England, for Madame Fosco. Second question. If Anne Catherick had not died when she did, what should I have done? I should, in that case have assisted worn out nature in finding permanent repose. I should have opened the doors of the prison of life and have extended to the captive incurably afflicted in mind and body both a happy release. Meaning if she hadn't died on her own, he would have killed her. Third question. On a calm revision of all the circumstances, is my conduct worthy of any serious blame? Most emphatically, no. Have I not carefully avoided exposing myself to the odium of committing unnecessary crime? With my vast resources in chemistry, I might have taken Lady Glyde's life at immense personal sacrifice. I followed the dictates of my own ingenuity, my own humanity, my own caution, and took her identity instead. Judge me by what I might have done, how comparatively innocent, how indirectly virtuous I appear in what I really did. I announced on beginning it that this narrative would be a remarkable document. It has entirely answered my expectations. Receive these fervid lines, my last legacy to the country I leave forever. They are worthy of the occasion and worthy of Fosco.
- [68:42]
Faith Moore
Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought of the chapters. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website, faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode.
- [69:06]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Speaking of links, don't forget to take.
- [69:08]
Faith Moore
A look at the other links in the Show Notes. You can learn more about me, check.
- [69:12]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Out our merch store, or pick up.
- [69:14]
Faith Moore
One of my books. Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor.
- [69:19]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
This is an independent podcast.
- [69:21]
Faith Moore
It's produced, recorded and marketed by me.
- [69:25]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
So I need your help. Spread the word about the show by.
- [69:28]
Faith Moore
Posting about it on social media or.
- [69:30]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
Texting a link to your friends.
- [69:32]
Faith Moore
Subscribe, tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. If you are able to support the show financially, there's a link in the Show Notes to make a donation.
- [69:42]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
I would really, really appreciate it.
- [69:45]
Faith Moore
Alright everyone, story time is over.
- [69:48]
Isidore Ottavio Baldessare Fosco
To be continue.