In Disguise!

APHRA BEHN Ahead of Her Time 1640–1689
I must warn the King, Aphra thought after her meeting with William Scot, another spy. Using the cipher code she had learned before leaving on her secret mission, Aphra sent her urgent warning to Lord Arlington:

Beware! The Dutch are planning to sail to England and up the Thames River to sink English ships. You must stop them!

—Agent 169

Aphra Johnson wasn’t just any girl. She was born in 1640 in the small town of Wye, near Canterbury, England, and was believed to be the daughter of a barber. As a young girl in the 1600s, Aphra had to follow strict rules. Dancing, card playing, and bright clothing were all banned. Girls were taught to be silent, obedient, and pious. Not Aphra. She was bright, willful, and independent—a girl way ahead of her time.

While other girls embroidered and learned to cook, Aphra devoured books. She was hooked on French romances, which were full of emotion, heroism, and daring. Whenever she could, Aphra also read books about history, philosophy, and literature—anything that took her beyond her confining life.

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Aphra liked to write, and she often composed funny poems. She didn’t have a lot of money to buy books, so she copied poems and plays to have her own library. Many girls spent a lot of time on this activity, making quill pens from the feathers of geese and ravens. They drew lines, practiced their letters, and then erased the lines with bread.

At that time, a girl’s education might have included some reading, writing, a little math, and music. Aphra also was exposed to foreign languages from the many immigrants who had their hair cut at her father’s shop as they passed through Wye.

Early in 1663, Aphra’s father was appointed governor of Surinam (now Suriname), a new English colony on the coast of South America, an area where the Dutch were already trading. That fall, Aphra, her mother, father, sister, and brother set sail for the colony. On the way, Aphra’s father was killed in a hurricane. Aphra and the rest of her family continued to the colony and lived there for six months. There she met William Scot, a political exile. He had been a spy in the English intelligence service, but had gotten in trouble with the government and had been banished to Surinam.

The following spring, Aphra returned to England. She was already twenty-four years old—nearly too old to get married. Most girls were married by the age of twenty. And if you were unmarried at twenty-five, you were considered a lost cause, a spinster. Aphra had no inheritance, no dowry, and no income. Her only options other than marrying were to become a lady-in-waiting, a chambermaid, or someone’s mistress.

Aphra wouldn’t consider any of these choices. She wanted to support herself by writing, but this was unthinkable for a lady of that time. Only men earned a living by writing plays and stories. So she married Mr. Behn, a London merchant, originally from Holland. (Not much is known about Mr. Behn, not even his first name.)

The marriage soon ended with Mr. Behn’s death from the Great Plague, which ravaged London for more than a year. Merchants were especially vulnerable to this horrible disease, because they couldn’t leave their businesses in London. At the time, no one knew that the disease was primarily spread by flea bites, which were more frequent in densely populated areas, so those who stayed in the city died by the thousands.

Mr. Behn didn’t leave Aphra much money, and again she found herself in a desperate situation. Then an interesting opportunity presented itself. King Charles II had heard about Aphra’s time in Surinam. He was interested in establishing trade with that country, so he asked Aphra to tell him all about it. Aphra eagerly agreed and soon found herself in front of the king, describing all she knew about Surinam—its people, its plants and animals, and how important the colony was to the Dutch.

Aphra was outgoing, funny, and good at mimicking people. The king liked her and invited her to spend more time at his court. With her vivacious personality, her pile of chestnut hair, and decked out in ribbons and pearls, Aphra became very popular.

England and Holland were rivals in trade and had been at war on and off for several years. Although unlikely, a Dutch invasion was possible, and England needed a reliable spy in Holland to keep up with what the Dutch were thinking. The king’s intelligence office, headed by Lord Arlington, thought of Aphra. She was tall, attractive, enjoyed socializing, and spoke Dutch. She would make the perfect undercover agent!

William Scot was already in Holland. English intelligence wanted Aphra to persuade William to spy again and reveal any Dutch plots against England. If William agreed, he’d be well paid and pardoned for his earlier mistakes.

How could Aphra turn down such an opportunity? How many other ladies had a job like this? Armed with instructions on how to send coded messages using a cipher, Agent 169 sailed to Holland. She wasted no time in contacting William Scot, who gave her information about the Dutch fleet’s plans to attack England.

But despite a steady stream of detailed letters to Lord Arlington, he was indifferent to her. He didn’t take her messages seriously, nor did he pay Aphra for her spying. She had to borrow money just to buy food and supplies. Still, Aphra regarded her mission as honorable and patriotic and continued sending dispatches—including the warning of the impending Dutch invasion.

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Finally, Aphra got a loan from a friend, and in May 1667, she sailed back to England. She expected to be received at court with praise and back pay. She got neither.

And what of her warning? The king had refused to move on Aphra’s intelligence. He believed that the Dutch would never dare invade England. But they did. Not a month after Aphra returned, the Dutch sailed up the Thames river. They set fire to many English ships moored in the river and captured the Royal Charles, the pride of the English navy. The English were stunned and humiliated. The war ended in a treaty in which the English gave Surinam to the Dutch.

Aphra tried unsuccessfully to convince the king to reward her for her spying services. Finally, she was thrown in prison for not paying back the loans from her friends. Somehow, she was eventually released; perhaps relatives, friends, or even the king himself, finally paid her debt.

Nearly thirty years old, Aphra was now an ex-spy, a former inmate of debtors’ prison, and a widow with no prospect of earning a living. Aphra needed to do something, but she wasn’t about to try spying again.

Despite the impossible odds, Aphra Behn became a writer—the first English woman to live by writing. By the end of her life, she had completed more than fifteen novels, seventeen plays, poetry, and translations from French and Latin. In her writing, she created strong, independent, female characters who made their own choices, just as she had.

Aphra’s health declined and she was plagued by rheumatoid arthritis. Still, she died pen in hand at the age of forty-nine. She was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.



Spycraft:

The Cardano Grille

Invented by Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), the Cardano Grille was used to send secret messages. Back then, spies made the grille from wood, but you can use cardboard.

To create your own Cardano Grille you’ll need:

• Pencil or pen

• Paper

• Two pieces of cardboard the same size as the paper

• Scissors

Follow these steps:

1. Think of a simple message you’d like to send a friend, like “Meet me at the mall 4 o’clock.”

2. Cut out word-sized squares or rectangles from different places in each piece of the cardboard. This is your grille. The number of cutouts needs to match the number of words in your message.

3. Place the grille over the paper and write the words in your message in the cutouts.

4. Remove the grille and fill in around your secret message with other words to form a note, part of a homework assignment, etc.

5. Give your friend the note without the grille. Can she read the secret message?

6. No? Now give her the grille to decode your message.

The Cardano Grille



STEP #2



STEP #3



STEP #4