ay up all her creditors;
moreover, as a preliminary and a token of good faith, Scott's official
pardon must be forwarded without compromise or delay. Scott himself was,
it seems, playing no easy game at this juncture, for a certain Carney,
resident at Antwerp, 'an unsufferable, scandalous, lying, prating
fellow', piqued at not being able to ferret out the intrigue, had gone
so far as to molest poor Celadon and threaten him with death, noising up
and down meanwhile the fact of his clandestine rendezvous with Aphra.
No money, however, was forthcoming from England, and on 4 September Mrs.
Behn writing again to Killigrew tells him plainly that she is reduced to
great straits, and unless funds are immediately provided all her work
will be nugatory and vain. The next letter, dated 14 September, gives
Halsall various naval information. On 17 September she is obliged to
importune Killigrew once more on the occasion of sending him a letter
from Scott dealing with political matters. Halsall, she asserts, will
not return any answer, and although she is only in private lodgings she
is continually being thwarted and vilipended by Carney, 'whose tongue
needs clipping'. Four days later she transmits a five page letter from
Scott to Halsall. On 25 September she sends under cover yet another
letter from Scott with the news of De Ruyter's illness. Silence was her
only answer. Capable and indeed ardent agent as she was, there can be no
excuse for her shameful, nay, criminal, neglect at the hands of the
government she was serving so faithfully and well. Her information[12]
seems to have been received with inattention and disregard; whether it
was that culpable carelessness which wrecked so many a fair scheme in
the second Charles' days, or whether secret enemies at home steadfastly
impeded her efforts remains an open question. In any case on 3 November
she sends a truly piteous letter to Lord Arlington, Secretary of State,
and informs him she is suffering the extremest want and penury. All her
goods are pawned, Scott is in prison for debt, and she herself seems on
the point of going to the common gaol. The day after Christmas Aphra
wrote to Lord Arlington for the last time. She asks for a round L100 as
delays have naturally doubled her expenses and she has had to obtain
credit. Now she is only anxious to return home, and she declares that if
she did not so well know the justness of her cause and complaint, she
would be stark wild with her ha