Original subtitles

Sumatra, Java, Sulawese

these are places with names so beautiful

that they must have been given by poets.

My boyhood imaginings were that my destiny lay

sailing down the trade routes to those Spice Islands.

That I would carve a fortune

and marry a potentate's daughter.

But destiny has taken a less romantic turn.

Instead I have become an ink-stained printer

and journalist, none too successful financially

and I will admit, not to fortunate in love either.

Reluctantly in my profession I've had to learn

the difference between the imaginary world

and the world that is real.

But this story is not imagined, and even though

in its way it's a fairy tale, it is true

and became as much my story as it was hers.

In the summer of 1817 England may have appeared

a green and pleasant land, but it could be

a dangerous and unwelcoming place to a lone traveler.

Repressive laws had been enacted, and it was not uncommon

for beggars and vagrants to end hanging

from a soldier's rope.

But in spite of these measures, one traveler

managed to avoid the army until farm workers

came upon her near the village of Almondsbury.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

- Where is my wife, where is Mrs. Hunt?

- She's gone inside.

- George, will you all go home, please?

- The villagers are after the five shillings

for reporting a vagrant but

she doesn't look like a beggar to me, Mr. Hunt.

- George do get about your business.

She's not a fairground attraction.

- A foreigner?

- Yes, but she's not French

so you don't need to be alarmed.

- Maybe she's not French Vicar but what if she's a Corsican?

- I can assure you she's not, and I can speak French

personally, and in Corsica they speak French

or possibly Italian.

Italian, I had no idea.

I happen to believe she is a Turk.

Vicar, we had a Portuguese servant girl

during the Spanish campaign and she

turned out to be a man.

- And what has such a story to do with

this unfortunate young girl?

- He was a French spy.

- She's obviously female.

For God's sake man, you're not in Spain now.

More's the pity.

- I'm very sorry my dear.

I'm very sorry, I'll take you somewhere more civilized.

Whoa, thank you Valjet, will you wait for me please?

- Yes sir.

- Come along my dear.

Big house but very ordinary people.

I think you might have a gift for it ma'am.

- Yes I think I'm getting a little more skillful.

- Yes ma'am, really truly.

- Ma'am, Vicar's here, he's brought somebody.

- Mr. Worrall has gone to Bristol.

He won't be back until tomorrow.

- Well I had hoped that...

- What makes you think she's Turkish?

- Her hat, madam. - Oh.

- Caraboo.

- Caraboo, is that her name?

- I haven't heard her utter the word before.

You, Caraboo?

- Caraboo.

- Worrall, Worrall, I am Mrs. Worrall.

- Worrall, Worrall.

- Ella, have Mr. Frixos attend me in the drawing room.

Hurry along.

- She not Greek, she not Turkish.

I would know if she is Turkish and she definitely not Greek.

- Well perhaps you could ask her something

in your language, Mr. Frixos.

- Perhaps Mr. Hunt will take her back where he find her.

- Frixos, ask her something please.

Yes madam.

- Do you speak any other foreign language?

- Only English.

- Is it her turban that makes her

look so foreign, do you think?

Perhaps it is.

My dear, Caraboo.

- Madam she is gypsy, I throw her out.

- I'm not so sure.

Frixos, take her down to the servant's hall

and make sure that she gets some food and a bed.

- Yes madam.

So have you got a name then?

- Leave her be.

- Cat's got her tongue?

- Hey.

- Don't you like meat then?

She saying she loves your cooking

Mrs. Wilberforce.

- I don't trust her.

Mrs. Worrall, I a little anxious what Mr. Worrall say

when he come home.

- Oh Frixos, what Mr. Worrall has to say

should be of no concern of yours.

- Yes ma'am.

- Sweet dreams.

- God almighty, I need a shot.

Frixos, get me a drink.

Frixos! - Coming sir.

Good morning sir, sir.

- What the hell is that?

- That is a bust of Homer on the table

designed by Chippendale, the marble come from

a quarry in Carraba, Italy.

- Don't you bloody well patronize me, Frixos

especially not at this hour of the morning.

Who is it?

- Oh, that is a filthy beggar.

- A beggar? - Yes sir.

Mrs. Worrall take her in last night.

You know the story of the Good Samaritan?

- A beggar? - Yes sir.

- Oh.

- The poor were rioting last night.

The goons were called in to restore order.

Seven dead, I couldn't get back.

- Oh, that's terrible dear.

- There were beggars sleeping in the doorway

to Tulsey's bank, I come home and find

you've got beggars sleeping under my roof.

- Our roof Mr. Worrall, I paid for it.

And she's not a beggar dear, she's a stranger in need.

- We're all in need, I've sent her to Bristol.

- You've done what?

I've sent her to the assizers in Bristol.

Does she have any property

other than the clothes on her back?

- A bundle containing a change of linen

and a piece of soap, your worship sailor's marlin

spike and an apple sir.

- What is your name?

What is your name?

And she has no money.

- These coins sir, foreign coins, but not a penny sir.

- All persons or foreigners going from door to door

and placing themselves in the streets to beg

are to be deemed idle and disorderly.

Three months in a house of detention.

- Sir, I've seen one of the prisoners talking with her sir.

- You have?

Bring him in.

Do you know this woman?

- No sir.

I've seen him jabbering with her sir.

- No, no, no, no sir, she's just been teaching me

a few words of her language.

- And what is that?

I don't know, sir.

- Where did she come from?

- I don't know that either.

We“ ask her what she means by going

from door to door in Almondsbury?

Caraboo.

- Worrall. - Worrall.

- Mrs Worrall, you fool.

Oh.

- What is she saying?

- I think she's saying something about a

I know it sounds stupid but I think that she's saying

that her father is a, is a, is a king.

- Are you mocking this court, McCarthy?

- I don't believe it either.

- Mr. Haythorne, may I inquire as to

the correct spelling of?

Bloody journalists.

- Mr. Haythorne, may I approach the bench?

- Well I wouldn't believe a word that comes out

of this Irish wretch's mouth or hers, king.

- She's obviously a foreigner.

I know that ignorance of the law is no defense

but how would she know that to ask for food

was a criminal act, well she wouldn't.

Besides, the Vicar says she wasn't begging.

I implore you, Mr. Haythorne.

- I've placed this girl under the supervision

of Mrs. Worrall until more can be learned of her origins.

McCarthy, three months in the house of detention, vagrancy.

- Mrs. Worrall, Gutch, Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.

- Oh, so you're Mr. Gutch.

I've been wondering what manner of a man

has been writing such scurrilous things about my husband.

- I would be most grateful for an opportunity

to hear the young lady's history

at any time it might be convenient to you both.

- Mr. Gutch, in view of the articles

you've published about my husband's bank

I think it unlikely that he will allow you

even near our house, good day sir.

- Good morning Mr. Gutch.

- Good morning.

I had never clapped eyes on an Oriental princess before.

But then neither had Mrs. Worrall.

As a journalist I know that people will believe two things.

What they read in the newspapers

and what they want to believe.

And that's the way of the world.

- There.

Worrall.

- Oh, good night dear girl.

- Fancy Mrs. Worrall, royalty.

- Oh, we can't be sure of that.

- You go imply in your newspaper that we are guilty

of corrupt practices in the management of Tulsey's bank

and then you have the bare-faced gall

to ask for admittance into my house.

Next you'll be demanding we publish Tulsey's

bank borrowing, am I not right my dear?

- Mr. Worrall, let's not confuse the two issues.

This girl has nothing to do with Tulsey's bank.

Her story should be told, and your kindness

and hospitality to a stranger in distress

will not go un-remarked upon.

Don't you try worming your way

into my house, Mr. Gutch, I'm wise to your

reptilian foot in the door...

- Mrs. Worrall.

- Oh goodness, what is she doing?

Whatever it is, it's a bloody

stupid place for it.

Frixos, get over there and get her down.

- Sir, I don't think she finish her Psalm yet.

- Song, that's not a Psalm for God's sake.

I'll do it myself, hold the ladder now.

You got it Frixos?

- Yes I've got it. - Well?

- Yes sir, I am here sir.

- Girl. - Girl?

Caraboo Mr. Worrall.

- Princess, my dear, come on, this way now, come to me.

- You are the butler, aren't you Frixos?

- Yes, regrettably.

- Oh, Mr. Gutch. - Mrs. Worrall.

I'm not entirely accustomed to addressing foreign royalty.

What would be the appropriate form, ma'am?

- You are amusing yourself at my expense, Mr. Gutch.

We are not claiming that she is royalty.

That was your countryman McCarthy.

Anyway, you can judge for yourself.

I'm sure you're capable of that, Mr. Gutch.

My dear.

- Would it be appropriate to kiss her hand?

I suppose one might try.

- Does she speak any English?

- She's learning the odd word.

It seems that she was on a ship, that she jumped overboard

and swam to shore.

- Shipwrecked.

- I've ventured that perhaps she'd been enslaved

and that she escaped.

- Wherever she comes from she's certainly exquisite.

May I try a little experiment?

Gutch.

- Caraboo, I trust this is the accurate spelling.

Caraboo.

Caraboo.

- Oh, Mr. Gutch.

- I must tell Mr. Worrall.

- It's a good story, enslaved princess washed ashore

in England, sell a lot of newspapers.

But I must warn you, these people will not take lightly

to being made fools of, you should understand

that in this country, perjury is a hanging offense.

- Mr. Worrall!

Mr.Worrall!

- Here I am.

- Oh, Mr. Worrall, wonderful news.

The princess can write.

- Oh good, good, good.

- I'd be interested in anything you might have to tell me.

- She very clever, this girl.

- Do you think she's a fraud?

- Yes, I know the quality, these Worralls

they know nothing, they are idiots, here sir.

Mr. Worrall is an idiot and Mrs. Worrall is too kind.

That's why she fooled.

- It's a good story, keep me informed

and I'll make it worth your while.

Is this the village of Almondsbury?

- Yes sir, it is. - Thank you.

She drank it?

- A sip, she didn't like it.

- To think it Harold, there you was plying a princess

with drink on your cart.

I was not plying her.

Just gave her a sip of me ale.

- And then what happened?

- She came with me on my cart with Amon

what used to work up Tallis.

- I think you want to be a Prince Charming Harold.

I think you was courting her in your own quiet way.

- I was not.

Anyway, then she ran off up to Almondsbury.

- Did she pay you?

- No, but she left this behind when she ran off.

- Magdalen Hospital for the reception

of penitent prostitutes.

Psalms, hymns, prayers, rules, list of subscribers.

Is that what it says?

Where'd she get that then?

- Do you mind if I keep this?

- I can't read it anyway.

Of course this proved nothing

but the idea, the idea of it was almost too absurd

and too wonderful to be possible.

- I take no responsibility for any of this.

I just hope to God you're not making

a bloody fool of yourself.

- She needs some clothes made for her.

- At who's expense?

- Mr Worrall, she has no money.

We must do what is right.

Perhaps this, or maybe this.

- Perhaps the princess finds your taste too dowdy, my dear.

Maybe these Bristol modes aren't fashionable enough.

Of course, she wants her native attire.

- Not too native, if you take my meaning.

- And to accompany this there is no.

No, no.

No-

- Oh I think she likes this one.

- The princess has chosen one of my finest.

- Is that what she wears, Mrs. Worrall?

- It's very Oriental, very Oriental.

- Your flag tells the world that our home

has become your home my clear, as long as you wish

to remain in England.

- You're a fraud, I know you're a fraud

and I have spit in your soup.

No, personally I have pissed in it.

- Frixos, are you addressing the princess?

I am telling her about the soup.

It is cream of sorrell and the cook

hope she like it very much.

You know she doesn't understand English.

- Neither does Frixos, so maybe

they'll understand each other.

You see my dear, she appreciates my little witticisms.

- Surely you only address a guest

when they address you, Frixos.

Yes madam.

Oh dear, she's tired out.

Your cream of sorrell's done for, Frixos.

- I'll take her upstairs, sweet dear creature.

I'd better go and see that she's comfortable.

- Good night my clear, and to you too, my dear.

What's the matter with you Frixos?

- Nothing, nothing.

Mrs. Worrall is a very kind woman.

She a saint, a saint.

- So I'm told.

- When I was in the army in Athens

the capital of my country.

- Athens, yes, the Acropolis, democracy.

- I once met a woman who took in all the stray dog

in our quarter, until finally she have 38 dog.

- 38? - Yes.

- What is your point, Frixos?

- That a lot of dog.

- That is a lot of dog.

- Look at this. - Oh, oh.

Look at this, Mr. Frixos.

What a thing to do to your face.

- Oh, let's see, let's see, oh Mr. Frixos.

- Betty.

- When we get back I want you to keep the princess

upstairs for 10 minutes before bringing her down.

- To make the grand entrance for the Apthorpes.

- Yes that's right, it's important that she makes

an excellent impression, the Apthorpes are friends

of the Prince Regent.

You'll break your bloody neck woman, do get in.

- Mr. Worrall, I'm not sure I should leave her

with just the servants.

- What do you mean, just the servants?

Come on, she'll be perfectly all right.

Stop it, Mr. Worrall.

- Princess, if you come clean

then we won't tell Mrs. Worrall.

You see, we're not gonna have you lording over us

when we know you're as humble as us.

- We want to look at your arms.

Your arms, here, have a look.

- It seems she don't like men.

- You do it then, you're a woman.

- See, of course she don't have any.

- That is only her arms.

- So where else do savages put their tattoos, Mr. Frixos?

On their bums they do, let's have look all over.

You hold her arms, push her over.

Oh, Mr. Frixos, look at that.

- Was that you screaming, Mr. Frixos?

- I am not often wrong, Mrs. Wilberforce.

But I was wrong about her.

Little savage.

- Thank you Betty.

- Come in.

- There's a Mr. Frixos to see you sir.

- Fine, thank you.

- Frixos.

- You print the works of Mr. Coleridge.

A poet of great imagination.

- Unfortunately his imagination does not run

to paying his last two bills.

Have you got something for me?

- I find out something.

She bite me, she bite me so hard.

I know this is not the bite of a civilized woman.

And now I have no more doubt, only a savage would do this.

- My God, it's severe, but it's not proof, Frixos.

- I have proof, I go to the library

and I see in the book of Mr. Cook's voyages in the Pacific.

The peoples have the tattoos on their bodies.

She had this same tattoo.

- Really, that is interesting.

- I have seen it on her leg.

She had very beautiful leg for a savage.

- It is a sizeable place, there should be

an opportunity for profit.

Look at Baggers who took the salon trade

and two years later he built himself a palace.

- I've been mulling it over.

- I would half rather be pleased to grant you

favorable conditions for a trading company.

- I should damn well hope so

I saved you from the poorhouse.

- If there was a possibility for investment.

- You my lord, you will be the first I shall approach.

Frixos, you know who broke this?

Well find out who did it and get rid of them.

It's an heirloom.

What's she a" about?

- Caraboo.

- I think she's saying she did it.

Caraboo.

Caraboo.

Hell's bells.

- She's an arbiter of taste, Mr. Worrall.

- You must bring her to Bath.

We could present her at a ball, a costume ball.

Javasoo costume, my dear could you imagine the sensation

the sensation she would cause.

It might be a little overwhelming just yet,

Lady Apthorpe.

I'm so pleased you could come.

- Thank you ma'am.

The princess has shown

not a little interest in the piano.

- I though we might start with a composition

of Franz Schubert, ma'am, if you think

it would please the princess.

- Yes, I think it might, Lady Apthorpe?

What is it, Frixos?

- I'm observing the correct manner for the turban

in honor of the princess.

Very good, could you call the others in?

- Yes ma'am.

- Cinnamon, sandalwood.

- Xanadu did Kublai Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree.

Saffron, cardamom.

- Cardamom? - Cardamom.

Oh my God.

I suppose our presence is required.

- Yes.

I hate musical evenings, always have.

Isn't that right, Frixos?

- Yes sir.

- There is also the diplomatic aspect.

We could use an ally off the Javanese coast

to counter the Dutch, if we achieve that

it would not go unnoticed at Court.

A knighthood at least, a peerage perhaps

if I could influence the outcome.

- That would please Mrs. Worrall a good deal, I dare say.

Personally I'm mostly indifferent to that

sort of thing.

- Sh, Mr. Worrall please.

- Come now, milord Worrall has a certain

ring to it, does it not, what?

- Oh my clear, what is the matter?

No, no stop, please stop playing.

- Play on, please play on.

- It is honor to play for one so sensitive

to Mr. Schubert's music, ma'am.

- That Schubert was quite superb, was it good now.

- Yes it was good.

- Good night, so glad you enjoyed it.

- Thank you so much. - It was a great pleasure.

- Oh ho, your honor, that form.

- And don't forget. - No, no.

- Thank you so much. - Your carriage awaits.

- Good night, Lady Apthorpe. - Good night.

- Extraordinary behavior, blubbing like that.

- Oh, I found it so charming.

Of course she'll die of boredom.

- Another five minutes with Mr. Worrall

and I will succumb myself.

- Bye. - Bye.

Preposterous couple.

- Come along.

- A monopoly, a spice monopoly.

I'm going to be so rich.

- Of course without seeing the tattoo

I cannot comment on it, but this is rubbish.

Scribbles, not Malay or Javanese.

They bear no relation to Chinese characters.

- What about these coins?

- Javanese, Indian, any sailor employed

in the Eastern trade might come back with a handful.

- My first instinct was that it's all

an elaborate deception.

Judging by these your first instinct

is the appropriate one.

- But there's something about her, in her bearing.

Pride, spirit, I can't quite dismiss her.

- She's an imposter.

But at least she is an imaginative one.

In fact, I should be intrigued to see

this interpretation of an Oriental queen.

- I sense you're trying to do her down, the pair of you.

- That's certainly not the case.

Neither on my part, nor the professor.

- I'm not here to treat her maliciously Mr. Worrall.

This is a purely academic inquiry.

Hers is a language I have never before encountered.

- We're all wary of imposters.

A shoemaker's son is now imprisoned in RualI

for pretending to be Louis XVII.

- I read about it, it was the French.

- The confidence of your potential investors

in the spice trade depends entirely

on this girl, does it not?

No.

No, ah, Malboric.

No, aha, Mangean.

No. Ah, Mandarin

No?

No-

Do you know what this is?

Of course you do, it's a counting string.

Common to every known culture of the Orient.

Perhaps you'd like to demonstrate to these gentlemen

just how it works.

Two, four, six figs, six.

Show us six.

Aha, by her calculations there are in the region

of 2000 figs on the table.

Perhaps she uses a different method.

- I think not.

- There are six figs, she can see as well as we can.

- Perhaps so, but she cannot count them on this cord.

Thank you Mr. Worrall, this is a beautiful house

and I always enjoy a few days away from Oxford.

- You've proven nothing one way or another.

As I understand it there are thousands of islands

in the East Indies, why shouldn't one of them

have been overlooked?

- I beg your pardon?

- What does that mean?

means black.

In several languages right across India and Asia.

- She's saying you've got black teeth.

You should get them pulled.

- Mr. Worrall, have you examined the markings

on her buttock?

- No, certainly not, what do you take me for?

Perhaps we should do so now, what?

- I think you'll find her rather reluctant

as Mr. Frixos found out.

- Let us understand each other.

Are you suggesting we disrobe her here and now?

- What does it mean? - It means God.

Well that makes sense.

She's gone to her prayers.

- Tell me that's not a heathen.

- Mr. Worrall, would it be possible for me to stay here

for a couple of days rather than go back to my college?

I'm not prepared to dismiss her

without further investigation.

- Perhaps you'd be good enough to let me know the outcome.

- Yes, of course.

It's most intriguing.

- What does that mean?

- Goodbye, I presume.

- That's what I thought.

- But not in Rijang or Lampun.

No-

- Gently around my arm, simple as that.

This is the proper way.

You're a terrible student.

I will not forget this, you come back here.

- Caraboo, Caraboo.

It's a surprise.

- What kind of surprise?

- Well if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?

- Round, the world is round.

I tried to imagine her in her world.

Far off place with a beautiful name.

But I kept going back to a more intriguing

and complicated idea, the idea of an ordinary girl

with an extraordinary imagination.

♪ Why should you let your wandering eyes ♪

♪ Entice your souls to shame for sin ♪

♪ Scandal and ruin are the prize ♪

♪ You take such fatal ways to win ♪

♪ The brutal vice which reason lied ♪

- Mr Gutch, Harrison, surveyor of the charity.

- Thank you for seeing me, you have an excellent choir.

They practice hard.

- What happens to the women who pass through here?

- We try to find employment for them.

Some lead diligent, God-fearing lives.

Others, God bless them, don't stay on

the straight and narrow, fall back onto the streets.

This is one of your prayer books.

I came by it near Almondsbury.

- I was hoping to see some names in it.

They write their names in them.

It's forbidden, but they all do it anyway.

- But there are no names.

- No, so it belonged to one of our patrons or subscribers.

Anyone who gives a good sum to the charity

is presented with one of them.

- Would you be able to give me a list of your patrons

and of the women who've been discharged

from the charity in the last year?

I'm doing an article for my newspaper

and I'd like to talk to some of them.

What kind of article?

- A respectful one, I respect the work you do here.

The kindness with which you do it.

- Worrall, enormously grateful for this opportunity.

Her ladyship hasn't stopped talking about this

and neither has all of Bath.

- Bath is abuzz, abuzz, she is the sensation of the town.

- Good, good.

- Apthorpe and Hobhouse approached me in town.

Both sniffing after an investment.

- There's plenty of that, the word is out.

Look at them, they can smell the spice.

There's the bloody journalist again.

- Now Sam, his articles are provoking considerable interest.

- Oh Mr. Gutch, I did enjoy your article

and I showed it to the princess.

- Did she manage to read it?

- I think she comes from a tribe of woman warriors

Mrs. Worrall, just as well she wasn't with

Napoleon at Waterloo.

- Oh, Lord Willington said the same thing.

- He'd been presented already?

If this girl had really

come from the streets but had invented

her own language and kingdom to make fools of the class

she had been taught to fear and obey.

If she'd been so imaginative as to do that

I swear I would cherish her forever.

- The Dutch have colonized many islands in the East Indies

but I suspect there are still many more

that lie far enough away from the trade routes

to remain uncontacted and unexplored.

We believe the princess comes from somewhere here

near Mindanao, her dialect being Manguindago.

You have probably read Mr. Gutch's accounts

in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal

of the circumstances, sad circumstances

by which she arrived upon our shores

stolen from her palace home by pirates.

Sold as a slave to the captain of a merchant ship

from whom she escaped by courageously jumping

overboard in the Bristol channel.

- A lock of the princess hair, souvenirs?

Thank you.

- Have you ever been to London?

- Ah, Caraboo book.

Ah, so you've seen it before.

- England, book, Caraboo.

- Did someone give it to you?

Did someone give it to you?

- Caraboo book.

If I may.

- I'm sorry, I'm going to use it.

- Princess, princess, the tattoo.

With your permission, princess.

You can trust me, I'll just have a little look.

This is a scholarly investigation.

Just a little further, oh yes, yes.

No, princess, that is too far, my heavens, perfection.

Mrs. Worrall.

- Mr. Wilkinson, it's Sunday.

- I beg you, Mrs. Worrall, don't jump to conclusions.

I was merely in the interests of scholarship

examining her tattoo.

- I'm sure you were Mr. Wilkinson.

But I do feel in the interests of propriety

a maid at least should have been present.

Good night, Mr. Wilkinson.

Professor, what is it?

- Never in my lifetime has such a flame

been lit within me, I don't know which way to turn.

- Poor man.

- Made a bloody fool of himself, a bloody fool.

He served his purpose.

I want some peace around here, it's like having

a bitch on heat in the house.

- Mr. Worrall.

You are finished sir.

- No, I am not finished.

- You're a long way from home and perhaps lonely.

A princess' duty is to her station, her royal station.

- How is she going to understand that, for God's sake.

Men, no-y, no men.

Understand, no men, or anyone else for that matter.

- Keep your voice down, Mr. Worrall, you'll upset her.

- We spent a lot of money on you.

A bed like that doesn't come cheap.

- Oh, I think you've made your point, Mr. Worrall.

I hope I have.

- Rijang, I knew she was telling the truth, those eyes.

Shall I see you at Harvest Thanksgiving?

- Afraid not, I'm on my way to London.

Any man obsessed is to be pitied.

And it wasn't just the story I was obsessed with.

It was her.

Although I longed to discover something about the girl

one side of me was heartened to be finding nothing.

If I did discover a different tale

to publish it would be to condemn her.

- I'll never take in another one from the Magdalene.

The girl stole and there were always men

knocking on the door, lurking in the mews.

What happened to her?

- She's dead, drowned at Chatham.

♪ Good is the Lord whose liberal hand ♪

♪ Is steady opened wide ♪

- Ah, here's a little person, where is everyone?

- They've all gone to church.

- And why aren't you at church?

- I'm a Catholic. - Tut tut.

My dear girl, we have not come here to see the Worralls.

We have come to see the princess, take me to her.

♪ Earth is dead ♪

♪ Redeem the path, instead reach ♪

- Look at this.

- Oh I say, that is fine.

- I don't suppose they even know it's here.

- Rupert, I have been explaining to the princess

that the Prince Regent himself has especially requested

that she attend the ball.

- And what did her highness say to that?

- She said she would be delighted to come.

Delighted, a scholar on little melanges.

I had no idea you could speak to Javasoo.

- The bitch. - Which one?

- Lady Apthorpe, of course.

I'm sure she gave the princess no choice.

Did she give her any choice?

- Did she?

- No ma'am, they made me take down the princess' flag

and they took her off.

- We're gonna go to this ball.

- No, I can't bear to, it'll be so demeaning.

- So we'll be demeaned, it won't be the first time.

Good morning, John Gutch to see Mrs. Peake.

- Won't you come in sir?

Thank you.

- We've had three girls from the charity in the last year.

I look upon it as a duty to take them in.

- And what's become of them?

- May I ask why you're asking these questions?

- Mr. Gutch is writing an article for his newspaper

on the Magdalene charity, on the good work

that the charity does.

- I see.

- Two are still with us, and the third has left

to go to another household.

Oh, but that one was never a prostitute.

In fact, when Harrison asked her how long

she'd been on the town, she thought he was asking

how long she'd been in London.

She was a simple girl.

- What did she look like, this girl?

Was she beautiful?

- Beautiful, no I never thought so.

But men often have such different views.

You wouldn't describe her as beautiful

would you my dear?

- No, no I would not.

- Her name is Mary Baker, she's with a Mrs. Matthews

in Clapham, she's a kind woman who seems fond of the girl.

I'll give you her address, and you can decide

for yourself if you agree with my husband

on the question of her good looks.

- If she's presently employed in Clapham I won't need to.

Thank you for your time.

- Charlotte, see Mr. Gutch out, my dear.

Thank you very much.

That means goodbye.

- In what language? - It's Mary's language.

- Come along Miss Peake.

With those three words

the world of imagination had become one of reality.

♪ Balls of wits and wicked stardust ♪

♪ Former leaders fair maligned ♪

♪ All the nightfall's been affected ♪

♪ Hand unsteady as the wind ♪

- His royal highness, the Prince Regent.

- Sh.

♪ So much altered from what ladies ♪

♪ Were 2000 years ago ♪

♪ If they call an after nature ♪

♪ Blessed on English dreams I dreamt ♪

♪ So much altered from what ladies ♪

♪ Were 2000 years ago ♪

♪ Even once the accusation ♪

♪ Men our sex unjustly blame ♪

♪ They are slaves to ♪

- My dear Margaret, the dance.

- King?

- No, no dear, this is his son.

An absolutely different kettle of fish.

- Oh how witty, look at all of us, all dressed up.

- Your royal highness, may I present her royal highness

Princess Caraboo of the island nation of Javasoo.

- May we instruct our new cousin in the new

continental dance which the press has declared

unwholesome, disreputable, and lascivious?

- Oh dear.

- An imprudent choice of costume, Charles.

- Now, it's really terribly simple.

Back, side, together, one, two, three.

Back, side, together, one, two, three.

Margaret, she's a very good little dancer.

Quite enchanting, quite enchanting.

- Sweet.

- Now when my new pavilion at Brighton is completed

you shall live in it.

- I'm not going in.

I'm certainly not going in.

- This is so humiliating.

I feel ridiculous.

- I feel ridiculous too.

- Highness.

- Who is that fellow?

I don't know sir.

- The trouble with the aristocracy today

is that they have no respect for the royal family.

- Probably a Republican.

- Mary, Mary Baker, I know that you are

Mary Baker from Witherich, I fear for you.

I fear that you'll be discovered.

The consequences of that will be terrible.

- Stop it, I know you are Mary Baker.

Have you any idea of the danger

you're putting yourself in?

Mary, I care what happens to you.

I know you think this is all an amusement

but it's a mad and dangerous thing you're doing.

Princess?

- Princess, may we have the pleasure

of the next dance?

Who was that fellow, looked like Byron.

- This way sir.

- Wake up, wake up. - What's happening?

- It's morning.

- Are they still dancing?

- No, no, it's quiet.

- God's teeth, what shall we do?

Do you think we should go in?

Do you think you should go in?

Yes, I'll wait here.

- Oh, Jane, what a shame you're so late.

You missed a marvelous evening.

Yes, you have.

- I wasn't aware I was invited.

Well of course you were, silly girl.

- Well done, Mrs. Worrall, my darling, darling woman.

Well done.

Mr. Worrall sir, sir.

- God, they've sent troops after us.

Halt, halt in the name of the Prince Regent.

- Lieutenant Gordon at your service ma'am.

I am charged by his royal highness the Prince Regent

to ensure safe passage to you and your attendants

to your place of residence.

- Ha, jolly good, well done.

Convey our gratitude to his royal highness, carry on.

March!

This girl's story would sell

my newspaper, but it was much more than just a story.

To me she was the most wonderful creature in the world.

And I was not going to endanger her.

I put her at enough risk already.

Here's the piece on the ball.

- That's all of it, I thought you said

you'd be a longer piece.

- I decided against the longer version.

- Ah, at a ball given in her honor by Lord and Lady Apthorpe

the Princess Caraboo, wearing a simple white elegant dress

danced with a variety of handsome partners.

- Go on, Mr. Frixos.

- But her most ardent and persistent admirer

appeared to be the Prince Regent himself.

- I hope your majesty will approve

the form of invitation to a modest ball

to be held her at Nowell in your majesty's honor

at the end of the month of November.

We are hoping that your recent presentation

to the Prince Regent will encourage his royal highness

to do us the honor of attending the festivity.

- Does she understand?

- She will.

- Please go on, Mrs. Peake.

- When I told Charlotte about the princess

in the newspaper, we don't often see the Bristol papers.

She told me that the girl who was in our employ

Mary Baker was her name, had often told her

a bedtime story of a similar princess who was kidnapped

from her palace sold as a slave and jumped off a ship

in the Bristol Channel, it's an odd coincidence, yes?

- Mary?

Mary?

Mary, don't you recognize me?

- It is Mary.

- Mrs. Worrall, there's no doubt about it.

This is the girl I employed myself as a maid.

- Is this true?

- Very sorry ma'am, I'm very sorry.

- Worthless, because of her, worthless!

Damn her, she lied, and that is perjury.

- But a trial, a spectacle, surely we don't want to

undermine the position of the bank any further.

- The bank's done for Sam.

The world knows we've been made bloody fools of.

- We are really the guilty ones.

- Who's guilty, us?

- Yes, us, we wanted her to be a princess.

You for greed and to enrich yourselves

and I to gain the admiration of society.

- And as Christians we are taught blessed are the merciful.

- Rubbish, the law is the law, and I as magistrate

and you as citizens have a moral responsibility

to put a criminal like that at the end of a rope.

Don't we Sam?

- But you can't hang this girl for what she's done.

Oh yes I can.

- I think Mr. Haythorne is right my dear.

We do have a moral responsibility.

- Mr. Worrall, until now I was not fully aware

of the true nature of your character.

- Well hang her tomorrow, are you with me?

- I'm with you, of course.

- Mrs. Worrall, may I have a word with you please?

- Mr. Worrall says he's gonna have her hanged.

- Hanged, poor princess.

Will they do it do you think?

Of course they will.

They've done folk for less.

- Yes, but to be hanged.

- Well, I wish I had the pluck to do what she done.

She made fools of them all, see, and she had

the time of her life doing it.

That girl danced all night with the Prince Regent.

Well I say good on her, that's what I say, good on her.

- That's what I say too.

- That's Worrall's best claret.

- Sod him.

To her royal highness, she not Greek, she not French.

She not Indian, she not African, she not Russian.

She our own princess, long live the Princess Caraboo.

- Long live the Princess Caraboo.

- Long live the Princess Caraboo.

- I suppose you've come to tell me you told me so.

- I haven't come to do that.

- I'm sorry to have deceived Mrs. Worrall

'cause she was deceived because she was kind.

But them others, Mr. Worrall and them others

I don't mind about them.

- They're the ones that may cost you.

- Well, I don't care what they do to me.

- I care what they do to you.

I don't think what you've done is reprehensible.

I think it's remarkable, an adventure.

- Adventure, I suppose it was.

- How did you make up the story, invent the language?

It's a feat of the imagination.

- Is that what it is?

It wasn't nothing difficult.

Them sailors all have tales to tell of far-off lands

from roving far over the oceans.

- Is that where it started?

- No, London.

I seen a French girl begging, and I see how good she does

because people take pity on her plight

before they do on one of their own kind.

So I try pretending I'm French, to beg.

But they take me to see a Frenchman.

So I has to pretend I'm someone else

and that's how it starts.

I don't know, it was easy.

When I was her, the princess, I was her.

I just become her, it comes natural

and I'm not Mary Baker no more, I'm her.

- I'd like to hear you tell her story.

- I'm not telling it, you'll be here all night.

- Tell me part of it, a small part.

From the moment where she escapes

from the English captain.

When she lands in England, if you like.

- “Land ho," cries the sailor.

Now the princess don't know what that means

but she sees land that's as green and sweet

as the ocean is salt and blue.

"England," one of the sailors sang

like a man sings to the girl he loves.

And the princess is so happy at the sight of this land

she starts to weep, and the captain

he puts his hand on her to send her back below

and she shouts,

And that means, unhand me, you indelicate rogue.

I'm a personage of royal blood that is bluer

than the deepest blue of a sapphire.

And she dived over the side and swum strongly to shore.

You laughing at me, Mr. Gutch?

- Not in the least, it's very beautiful.

Go on with it, please.

- And when her tears had dried so that she could see

she saw England, a land of unhappiness and misery.

The folks are begging and hungry.

The princess wandered across the country

from village to village, and people was mostly kind

and fed her and gave her shelter.

But then she came to a village where they reported her

for begging, but she weren't begging, you see?

'Cause princesses don't ever beg.

Even when they're dying of hunger they don't beg.

So she done nothing wrong, and that's the truth.

I done nothing wrong, not really.

Not enough to be hanged for.

- I'll do whatever I can for you Mary, I promise.

- Would you make sure that these are delivered to Mr. Gutch?

- Certainly ma'am.

- Thank you.

- Ask him to wait in the library.

- He insists, madam.

- Who insists?

This is scandalous. - It is.

This is libel, and it can and will be answered as such.

- I think not sir, it proclaims a fraud

on the part of yourself and other officers of the bank

and you will answer it as such.

- May I remind you I am a magistrate?

- And these documents prove that you have

illegally issues bank notes several times

the value of your bullion deposits.

- Those documents are the private and confidential

property of the bank and I demand to know

how you came by them.

- I would have thought it sufficient to know

that they're in my possession.

But I have a proposal, an exchange.

One fraud for another.

- Mary, there's a ship sailing on the morning tide

bound for America, and you're to be on it.

- Oh ma'am.

- Here are your clothes, and 20 guineas.

With this letter, apply to the Moravian sisters

when you arrive in Philadelphia.

- Oh, thank you Mrs. Worrall, I'll never forget

your kindness, never.

- Don't thank me child, you owe your deliverance

to Mr. Gutch, and in a way, I owe my deliverance to you.

I wish you luck Mary.

- Oh.

- I wish you every success and happiness

in America, princess.

- Thank you Mr. Frixos.

- Mr. Worrall, after 10 years of marriage

the time has come for me to say enough is enough.

I've arranged lodgings for you in Bristol.

The servants will remain with me, of course

with the exception of Betty.

You'll need a housekeeper.

- Perhaps you'll write to me.

I'd like to hear how Princess Caraboo

fares in the New World.

- New World, it will be a new world for me.

Maybe I won't ever be coming back.

- Perhaps you will one day.

- You might find your way to America one day.

Maybe.

- I couldn't ask for more than that.

In a way that I never expected

this girl had held out her hand to me

and now I was letting her go.

What are the chances for love in a man's life?

Very few, maybe one, and I had not had the courage

to declare myself, instead the coward in me

had taken refuge in his safe, dull life.

- I'm just down to the pie shop, do you want anything?

- No, thanks.

This was my reality, I was a printer, newspaper publisher

and a man of supposed responsibility, or was I?

- Head her at the point, Mr. Marlowe.

- What language is that?

- It's Irish, it means there you are, here I am.

- Mrs. Worrall, Mrs. Worrall, have you seen the paper?

- No, why?

- Princess Caraboo entertained by Napoleon Bonaparte.

- No, no, can't be true.

- Read it, very good story.

- The ship carrying Princess Caraboo to America

was driven south by a great tempest

and passed close aboard the island of Saint Helena.

At her insistence the princess was put ashore

and presented to the emperor, oh Frixos.

- There's more.

- A week later, the princess and Mr. Gutch

boarded a ship bound for America.

It's a very good story, it it true do you think?