1816: the Grandest Tour

France: Chapter 20

George sent Robert and Dick down to the street to call for the carriage. He, Tobias, and Isaac meanwhile climbed the stairs again, to make one good-faith effort to locate their friend who probably didn't want to be found.

"Either of you have an idea how to find the brothels in this place?" George said when they'd reached the second-floor landing.

Tobias looked at George as if he'd just asked them to strangle the Prince Regent. Isaac was more thoughtful.

"In my limited experience," said the valet, "I would say: follow the music."

George nodded, struck by the poetry of the idea, and they walked down the lamp-lit corridors straining their ears for fugitive melodies. Before long all three picked out the faint shimmer of a pianoforte. They followed this to a dark antechamber, in which a great high door on the far wall was outlined in gay light from its other side. George paused for a breath, then pushed the door open.

The three men stepped into a bright sitting room, which seemed at first not so different from the cafes before. Instead of tables lining the walls, settees with cushions and pale, tasteful upholstery sat in their place. A few round card tables stood in the center, but the men sitting at them with women in their laps were certainly not playing whist. Others were in similar situations with ladies by the walls, while a rouge-haired adventuress was at the piano, playing the saucy tune that had brought them hither.

"Remember," said George, "we're here to find Hugh. No distraction–"

A bejeweled, middle-aged woman hove into George's view and made curtsy with a courtly, flattering salutation. George wasted no time but earnestly took the madam's hand and asked if she had seen their friend, describing him in French to the best of his ability. The madam, seeing they had no interest in her wares, arched an eyebrow and said she hadn't seen such an English milord in her maison (by which she meant maison de tolérance, the government-sanctioned brothels licensed early in Napoleon's reign). She added that he might be in one of the neighboring establishments – although these catered to a more specialized taste. Upon pronouncing this word she bulged her great eyes provocatively.

George drew his hand back and politely thanked the lady, to which she smiled with only her mouth. Exiting via the door she'd indicated, the three made their way down another corridor to a new antechamber. This room let onto a new business, presumably also a brothel. An obstacle presented itself this time, in the form of two thick-set doormen. George didn't know what say to them other than the truth: they were not here as customers, but in search of their friend. They seemed unmoved by everything he said until Tobias cut in:

"We are from the embassy of Great Britain!"

The two men exchanged glances at this, then shrugged and let them pass. As they walked through, George gave his friend a grateful and curious look.

"I thought it was worth a shot," Tobias said, "if I could say it with enough conviction."

Their triumph at getting through the door was short-lived. George hadn't been sure what the madam had meant by "specialized taste," but the notion was now becoming clear. The room they had entered was neither bright nor luxurious, and seemed in all essentials to be a dungeon.

"What in heaven..." said Tobias.

All fancy trimmings had been removed from the walls. In their place were sconces with baleful torches casting around a sinister light. Torches, however, were not the only things hanging on the wall. As the three stared through the guttering shadows they could make out long, coiled whips, manacles, an iron cage, and even a spiked mace.