The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton Read Free Book Online Page B

Charles—and indeed, he could scarcely have been unaware; for months the Indians had been the talk of London and had even been introduced at court. The Queen took a fancy to them.
    “And I heartily approve. A Christian settlement is bound to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen.”
    “And so it shall!” put in FitzRoy with a slap on the thigh.
    They settled on Charles’s expenses—£30 a year for mess—and drew up the list of items he would need, including twelve cotton shirts, six tough breech trousers, three coats, boots, walking shoes, Spanish books, a guide to taxidermy, two microscopes, a geological compass, nets, jars, alcohol, and all manner of tools for capturing and handling specimens.
    Then they went for a stroll to purchase a pair of firearms. London was filling up with crowds for the coronation of William IV and Queen Adelaide on the morrow. Flags hung from the windows, gas illuminations were blazing, and everywhere were plastered decorations of crowns and anchors and “WRs” for the new king. But Charles was more excited by his purchase of a brand-new pair of flintlock pistols and a rifle. He had them sent to his hotel and could not resist informing the clerk that they were to be used in the wilds of South America. Later he wrote to his sister Susan, asking her to send to the Shrewsbury gun-smith for spare hammers, main springs, and plugs.
    After FitzRoy left, Charles, on impulse, bought a seat along the coronation route. The following day he took up his position along the Mall across from St. James’s Park and was awestruck at the royal procession, an unending ribbon of liveried attendants dressed in crimson red and glittering gold. As the royal coach went by, he saw the King and fancied that the monarch gave him a slight nod. His heart swelled with imperial pride. How fine it was to be an Englishman. But then the crowd across the street became unruly, pushing and shoving one another off the curb for a better view, and tall equestrian Guardsmen rode up to keep order,  the horses rearing up and kicking their back hooves violently. One man was injured and lay flat in the gutter until a carriage came to pick him up. Two officers tossed him inside like a sack of potatoes.
    That night, Charles strolled among the crowd on the Westminster Embankment. He watched fireworks explode over the Thames, bursts of reds and blues and whites that lit up the Houses of Parliament and streamed down over the majestic bridges and into the cold black water.
    Fog suddenly appeared, muffling the syncopated clacking of the horses’  hooves and engulfing the knots of people who disappeared and reappeared an instant later. Charles had the uncanny sensation that it was all for him, a stage arranged magically on his behalf that would be struck tomorrow when he departed. His step was light. He embraced the exhilarating and wonderfully lonely feeling that he was unlike anyone around him—a feeling derived, he realized with a quickening pulse, from the extraordinary knowledge that very soon his whole life, and maybe he himself, would be forever changed.
    The date was 8 September 1831.

CHAPTER 5

    The supervisor of the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University Library kept Hugh waiting while he sorted through papers on his desk.
    When he finally looked up, Hugh asked, “Do you have a good biography of Darwin?”
    The supervisor paused, as if considering whether or not to answer, and then said, his eyelids fluttering, “ All of our Darwin biographies are what one might call good. ”
    “Fine,” said Hugh. “Then I’ll have them all. ”
    A young man standing behind the supervisor raised his hand to his mouth and snickered.
    “I see. And how would you like to receive them?”
    “Alphabetically.”
    “By title?”
    “By author. ”
    Five minutes later a stack four feet high appeared on the retrieval shelf. Hugh filled out the slips and carried the books to a corner table, where he piled them around him like a pilot in a