Free Abigail's Cousin by Ron Pearse

their
abandoned tents and effects sought to discover the source of the
aroma which arose every day the Turks were there encamped outside the walls of the city.
The aroma was more successful in besieging the battlements than the
Turkish soldiers as it stimulated appetite among the inhabitants,
not good where hunger stalked the streets of the city.
    Someone picked
up a box upon which was written the word 'qahveh' from whence came
that appetizing aroma, that whiff of the exotic east. The searchers
found more clues including beans, milling implements and
instructions in Arabic, and before very long the Viennese were also
enjoying the selfsame beverage which was such a feature of the
Turkish besiegers' daily life and as the memories of the siege
faded, the Viennese welcomed their new found beverage as a blessing
forgetting their hardships. In the ensuing years visitors to Vienna
also liked to share the new 'qahveh' habit until eventually it
found its way to London, whose inhabitants not gifted in the
vernacular of other nations, began to open places of their own to
serve a man the new beverage of 'coffee’.
    Almost a
century after the failed siege of Vienna, coffee houses were
abundant in London boasting such names among their devotees as
Jonathon's, Garaways, Manns or, perhaps reflecting its origins,
Smyrna. Often a notice about the origins of coffee would be
prominently displayed under the title of 'The Vertue of the COFFEE
Drink'. Following its title would be a description of its origins,
for example: 'The grain or berry called Coffee, groweth upon little
Trees, only in the Deserts of Arabia.'
    While watching for his coffee being
prepared, a first-time traveller might well interest himself in
this description as leaflets also were laid upon each table. 'It is
a simple and innocent thing, co mposed into a drink by being dried into an Oven, and ground
to Powder, and boiled up with Spring water...'
    "Here you are,
sir!" The serving-man interrupts the traveller who is happy to
forgo further reading having before him a bowl containing a
half-pint of the steaming liquid, coffee, and, it needs be
stressed, the male, as the fair gender were excluded from entering
the coffee shop being the haunt of bankers, merchants, lawyers,
clergymen, parliamentarians, such as a trio of gentlemen who were
gathered together of a mid-morning to indulge their taste for
coffee while discussing the latest news in the world of trade,
politics or the occurrence of momentous events. This particular
trio of citizens had gathered one Saturday in 1702, on the 14th of
March. They were John Churchill, earl of Marlborough, the lord
Sidney Godolphin, first lord of the treasury and Charles Spencer,
third earl of Sunderland.
    It was
Churchill who spoke first:
    "Do you
realise that seven days ago at this same table I was chafing at
Caliban's inertia and of my own impotence, and now."
    "And now you
are Captain-General of the British Army, John," interrupted a
smiling Godolphin.
    "Not to
mention your appointment of Master-General of the Ordinance," burst
in a graver Charles Spencer who added: "any other man would be
sprouting wings and horns."
    Sidney
Godolphin was vehement in his denial: "Not John Churchill,
Charles," and stabbing at him with his clay pipe making the point
forcibly, said emphatically: "There is no man who is more deserving
and more modest."
    "Careful
Sidney, otherwise I shall be sprouting wings and you'll hear the
trumpet blast from on high."
    They all join
together in laughter though that of Charles is more forced but it
was Sidney who stops and says seriously: "When do you propose to
take up your appointment? Where is the army at this time?"
    Churchill was
also serious: "Good question, Sidney! I shall have to see Cadogan,
colonel Cadogan, my quarter-master who is much more knowledgeable
on these matters than I."
    "And the
French," said Spencer, "what about them? Are they going to wait
until England is ready?"
    Churchill
considered his companion's