“What in the world should make you think that?”

“Because he has told me a great deal of his kingdoms and his castles and his mansions – though I confess they all have very odd names and I never heard of a single one before. I think he must be one of the princes that Buonaparte deposed in Germany or Swisserland.”

“Indeed?” said Strange, with some irritation. “Well, now that Buonaparte has been defeated, perhaps he would like to go home again.”

None of these half-explanations and guesses concerning the gentleman with the thistle-down hair quite satisfied him and he continued to wonder about Arabella’s friend. The following day (which was to be the Stranges’ last in London) he walked to Sir Walter’s office in Whitehall with the express intention of discovering who the fellow was.

But when Strange arrived, he found only Sir Walter’s private secretary hard at work.

“Oh! Moorcock! Good morning! Has Sir Walter gone?”

“He has just gone to Fife House,⁵ Mr Strange. Is there any thing I can do for you?”

“No, I do not … Well, perhaps. There is something I always mean to ask Sir Walter and I never remember. I don’t suppose that you are at all acquainted with the gentleman who lives at his house?”

“Whose house, sir?”

“Sir Walter’s.”

Mr Moorcock frowned. “A gentleman at Sir Walter’s house? I cannot think whom you mean. What is his name?”

“That is what I wish to know. I have never seen the fellow, but Mrs Strange always seems to meet him the moment she steps out of the house. She has known him for years yet she has never been able to discover his name. He must be a very eccentric sort of person to make such a secret of it. Mrs Strange always calls him the gentleman with the silvery nose or the gentleman with the snow-white complexion. Or some odd name of that sort.”

But Mr Moorcock only looked even more bewildered at this information. “I am very sorry, sir. I do not think I can ever have seen him.”

40
“Depend upon it; there is no such place.”

June 1815

The Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte had been banished to the island of Elba. However His Imperial Majesty had some doubts whether a quiet island life would suit him – he was, after all, accustomed to governing a large proportion of the known world. And so before he left France he told several people that when violets bloomed again in spring he would return. This promise he kept.

The moment he arrived upon French soil he gathered an army and marched north to Paris in further pursuit of his destiny, which was to make war upon all the peoples of the world. Naturally he was eager to re-establish himself as Emperor, but it was not yet known where he would chuse to be Emperor of. He had always yearned to emulate Alexander the Great and so it was thought that he might go east. He had invaded Egypt once before and had some success there. Or he might go west: there were rumours of a fleet of ships at Cherbourg ready and waiting to take him to America to begin the conquest of a fresh, new world.