The 'Worst' Mouse in London

"What you say may be true of the lady's resources, Mr. Basil, but surely the occasion of her marriage would be a proper time for her friends and relations to make some little effort on her behalf. I cannot help but believe that young ladies are ill-advised not to make an effort. Certainly, this may hesitant to an acceptable wedding present, as this little bundle of letters would bring more joy to her than all the candelabras and butter-dishes in London, and all this because she will not find a beggarly sum which she could easily do, by turning her diamonds into paste — it is such a pity! And here I find you, Mr. Basil, a man of sense, boggling over terms when the whole future and honour of your client is at sake..."

He is perhaps the one of the greatest and most monstrous of the detective's adversaries who described Julius Augustus Silverson as "the worst mouse in London." Those are, indeed, strong words! He is the Master Blackmailer — the King of Blackmailers — who preys and thrives upon weakness with a frozen face, a twisted smile, and a heart of marble.

With his long narrow face, his deep-setted emerald eyes, perfectly oiled-backed hair, and his nose aspiring to aquiline, of a measured, detached manner, Silverson exudes the irony he purveys; it gives him an aura of mystery and magnetism that oozes sensuality and eroticism. He watches over his words, which rumble slowly out of him in a clipped, clear voice tinged at once with authority, ennui, and musicality. He speaks slowly, deliberately, and almost dreamily where each pronunciation is well thought through and where with each phrase fades languorously into a delicious, dying fall of charismatic sinisterness and cool intelligence, sometimes sibilantly dangerous, but always ineffably seductive in a honey-coated contemptuousness. He makes no concessions to comfort.

What is so terrible about a blackmailer? Heaven help the man, and still more the woman, whose secret and reputation came into the power of Julius Augustus Silverson. Has one ever felt a creeping, shrinking sensation, when one stands before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? The blackmailer will squeeze its quarry and bleed its victims until he has drained them dry. He allows it to be known that he is prepared to pay high sums for letters which compromise people of wealth and position and he receives these wares not only from treacherous valets or maids, or from such "professionals" as the gossip-mongers, but frequently from genteel ruffians who have gained the confidence and affection of trusting women. He deals with no parsimonious hand. Everything, which is in the market, goes to Silverson, and there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, in this great city who turn white at his name. No one knows where his grip may fall, for he is far too rich and far too cunning to work from hand to mouth. He will hold a card back for years in order to play it at the frailest moment when the stake is best worth winning. For those whom refuse his terms, an exposure would profit him indirectly to a considerable extent. If it was circulated among them that I had made a severe example of one, he would, of course, find that others would be much more open to reason. He will methodically, at his leisure, torture the soul and wring the nerves of his victims in order to add to his already swollen money-bags. Worst still, he is never in the grasp of the law. What would it profit a woman, for example, to get him a few months' imprisonment if her own ruin must immediately follow?

While his lineage and breeding alone is legend, the circumstances surrounding his life, however, are an endless tangled array of mysteries. With an unprecedented intelligence and his prestigious bloodline, Vladislav Iuliu Augustinu cel Silvicultor was born in the ancient gothic villages of Romania, either Sighişoara or Ţârgovişte, and was considered a marvel child prodigy destined for prominence. He was already attending school among the most gifted and most talented children in the world at the age of three. He was already in university where others his age were still attending grammar school. He did prove himself a virtuoso instrumentalist, an artist, a painter, and a talented linguist, fluent in over fifteen languages and twelve different dialects. Despite this information, nothing is known of his parentage, his childhood, his upbringing, or his exact education. Amongst the mediæval castles of his birthplace, his genealogy is rumoured to be found as far into the Greco-Roman Empire within the sovereignty of the Julio-Claudian Caesars, namely Julius and Augustus. He is perhaps a distant relation to Romulus Augustulus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors, and Zeno Tarasicodissa, one of the last Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperors, but this is simply questionable. However, his lineage is undoubtedly accredited to antiquity seven hundred years ago, starting in the twelfth-century with the Wallachia (Valachia) Empire, which first emerged as a political entity during the fall of the Byzantine Empire. From the consanguinity of the royal House of Basarab with Prince Mircea cel Bătrân, Silverson is a direct descendant of conquerors and kings of fifteenth-century Wallachia. Outsiders known them for their cruelty as power-hungry conquerors and as despotic warlords, but Romania exalts them with grand reverence as heroes and demigods. Another indirect relation is the Oltenian aristocratic family of Constantin Brâncoveanu, the last native ruler of Wallachia, whose long and prosperous reign to a tempestuous time in Romanian history. However, Silverson could have been granted the ennoblement of a duke or of a lord in his homeland, but due to the oppression of his country by political invaders, particularly that of the suzerainty of the territorial-lusting Ottoman Empire, which lost him a title.

Moving about with great ease within higher society and wealthier classes, he is a true connoisseur in all art matters — a renowned art dealer, critic, curator, collector, intellectual, and businessman who can make and raise the fortunes of any artist to whom he devotes himself. He is a recluse with a misanthropic loathing of humanity, cloistering himself away the heavily fortified mansion of Appledore Towers, yet little to nothing is known of his personal life. After completing a three-year long art trade between Great Britain and Indochina, he returned with a Chinese wife named "Lady Silverson" who unfortunately died during childbirth, and is now a single father of a jovial two-year-old daughter, Lillian Silverson.

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This is one of my favourite characters I have ever created — he's such a complex character, with a immense background that probably would never fit entirely on this page. It really is the best feeling in the world when your character gives people the creeps! Everyone has a secret. Whether you love him or hate him, you do have to respect him...

Inspiration - Charles Augustus Milverton (CHAS), Charles Augustus Howell (Historical), Dracula (Literary) | Models - Robert Hardy, Frank Langella, Alan Rickman

Medium - Col-erase blue.

Julius Augustus Silverson © Diane N. Tran.