The dark recesses of human nature harbor a terrifying capacity for malice, wherein the complete villain experiences a sadistic joy that mirrors the torment of their victim.
Barkilphedro embodies this profound hideouness, harboring an obsessive, venomous hatred toward Duchess Josiane. Rather than viewing her charitable patronage—which rescued him from starvation and secured his position as the Admiralty's bottle-unlocker—as a genuine kindness, his extreme envy twists it into an unbearable, calculated humiliation. He views her unearned wealth, public scandals, and high-society romance with Lord David Dirry-Moir as a monstrous injustice against his own superior academic intellect. Consumed by subterranean rage and a desire to dismantle her happiness, Barkilphedro frames his personal vendetta as a righteous strike against systemic inequality.
Unlike common criminals who rely on rigid, pre-planned schemes, Barkilphedro disdains layouts and blueprints, choosing instead to arm himself for any eventuality and wait for fate to deliver the perfect opportunity. To orchestrate a ruinous downfall, he strategically focuses on embedding himself at court to study Queen Anne. He assumes a posture of utmost humility to gain the Queen's trust, keeping watch over her sluggish, muddy intellect. Recognizing that the forty-one-year-old monarch likely harbors a hidden, aging resentment against her twenty-three-year-old sister's radiant youth, Barkilphedro seeks to discover if the Queen truly loves Josiane or secretly desires her destruction.
Through persistent monitoring, two key events provide the answers Barkilphedro needs. First, during an audience with the Prussian ambassador regarding the Queen of Prussia's illegitimate sister, Drika, the ambassador notes that Drika is younger, wealthier, and more beautiful than the Queen. When Anne bitterly mutters a condemnation against "these bastards," Barkilphedro astutely notes her usage of the plural form, recognizing that it encompasses her own illegitimate sister, Josiane. Later, after a church service, Lord David Dirry-Moir passes through the crowd, drawing breathless admiration from nearby women. Hearing Queen Anne grumble about how disagreeable the display is, Barkilphedro confirms that the monarch harbors deep-seated jealousy toward Josiane's youth, beauty, and romantic success.
Having solved his first problem by realizing he can destroy the Duchess without displeasing the sovereign, Barkilphedro faces a second dilemma: discovering how to weaponize his seemingly insignificant Admiralty job to inflict actual harm. Josiane possesses a rare royal privilege known in England as "the turn," an exclusive bedroom wall-apparatus connected to a bell that opens to directly receive confidential, sovereign communications on a golden plate. Despite this formidable barrier, Barkilphedro remains a latent giant patiently waiting in ambush, dedicated to uncovering Josiane's most vulnerable vulnerability and striking a fatal blow.