The Betrayal

The Betrayal

The Betrayal opens with Guy Ducaine, an impoverished young Oxford graduate reduced to lecturing to a nearly empty schoolhouse in the remote coastal village of Braster, on the estate of the Duke of Rowchester. Fleeing a storm and near starvation, he collapses in his cottage and is rescued by the Duke's daughter, Lady Angela Harberly, and the famous soldier-traveller Colonel Mostyn Ray, who has come to Braster to lecture the villagers about the war. That night Ducaine glimpses a strange, menacing face at his window, and Ray later returns with wet, marsh-stained boots and no explanation. Ray also questions Ducaine closely about his dead father, Stephen Ducaine, warning darkly that he would kill Ducaine if he believed him "of his father's breed." The next morning Ducaine discovers a man's battered corpse in a marsh creek, with a signet ring bearing the motto "Vinco" nearby, which he pockets. Blanche Moyat, a local farmer's daughter, reveals that the dead man had asked her the way to Ducaine's cottage the previous night. At Ducaine's request she conceals this from the inquest, which returns a verdict that the man was washed up by the sea. The Duke of Rowchester summons Ducaine, refunds him money owed over a failed lease, and questions him closely about his background before revealing, with Lord Chelsford, that Ducaine is being considered as secretary to the secret Council of National Defence, replacing the previous secretary, Lord Ronald Matheson, who went mad after a catastrophic leak of the Council's defense plans to French intelligence. Ducaine accepts, despite Lady Angela's cryptic earlier warning against taking the post, given its history of destroying its holders. Ducaine confronts Ray in London, returns the ring, and learns Ray killed the dead man, refusing to disclose his identity beyond hinting he was an agent of sinister forces linked to Ducaine's disgraced father, who had once sold British fortification plans to France. Back at Braster, Ducaine settles into secretarial work at a cottage called the "Brand," guarded by the manservant Grooton. He discovers the Duke's safe has been tampered with despite only three people knowing its combination, and reports this, but the Duke insists on treating it as a delusion to protect the family's honor, since suspicion would fall on Ray, the Duke, or Ducaine himself. At a house party, Ducaine catches the visiting Prince Henri de Malors, a French Royalist claimant with ties to the Duke's dissolute son Lord Blenavon, rifling through his secret papers after staging a fall from the cliff; the Prince then attempts to bribe Ducaine, who attacks him physically. Lady Angela and Blenavon later pressure Ducaine into a hollow apology to keep the peace. When Ducaine reports the incident to the full Council, the Duke insists both the safe-tampering and the Prince's spying be dismissed as imagination, unwilling to suspect an old family friend, but Lord Chelsford and Ray back Ducaine, and he keeps his post while the Prince is placed under surveillance. Ducaine learns from Ray that his father did not commit suicide as he'd always believed, but lived on in disgrace in Paris with a mistress, and that this same woman has now taken up residence nearby at Braster Grange under the name Mrs. Smith-Lessing, closely associated with Lord Blenavon. Lady Angela, meanwhile, reveals she is newly and reluctantly engaged to Colonel Ray, a match Ducaine finds himself unaccountably troubled by. Travelling back from London, Ducaine shares a train carriage with Mrs. Smith-Lessing, who claims to be his father's wife, insists his father is still alive and was travelling to find him, and tries unsuccessfully to draw Ducaine into her confidence and enlist his help; he rebuffs her. Walking home alone at night past Braster Grange with the Council's secret papers, Ducaine is ambushed by two men who attempt to chloroform him; he fights free and escapes, believing his assailant was Blenavon. The next day Lady Angela urges Ducaine to trust only Ray and to press Blenavon toward leaving the country, confirming Blenavon was out all night. Ray then unexpectedly appears at Braster with a bandaged head and arm, claiming to have been thrown from a hansom cab, though Ducaine discovers Ray's story about his train journey is false, casting suspicion that Ray himself was one of the men who attacked him. Ducaine also encounters Blanche Moyat again, who tells him that Mrs. Smith-Lessing has publicly offered a fifty-pound reward for information identifying the dead man, intensifying his fear that the buried truth about the murder is about to surface.

By E. Phillips Oppenheim · First published 1907 · Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime · 40 chapters · 98,830 words

First lines

Like a clap of thunder, the north wind, rushing seawards, seemed suddenly to threaten the ancient little building with destruction. The window sashes rattled, the beams which supported the roof creaked and groaned, the oil lamps by which alone the place was lit swung perilously in their chains. A row of maps designed for the instruction of the young -- the place was a schoolhouse -- commenced a devil's dance against the wall. In the street without we heard the crash of a fallen chimneypot. My audience of four rose timorously to its feet, and I, glad of the excuse, folded my notes and stepped from the slightly raised platform on to the floor.

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The Betrayal is listed on Textopian as a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim, dated 1907 CE.

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betrayal · mystery · suspense · drama · intrigue · romance · deception · crime · secrets · betrayal of trust · conspiracy · plot twists

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