Chapter Four - Plans Laid
Expeditions take time to arrange. This particular one also involved a great deal of cross-channel communication. From England came the messages of the Commandant, still aboard Hotspur, and of Ulysses, whilst my own dispatches travelled in the opposite direction. Whether Pellew had warned Horatio about either Ulysses or the Commandant I did not know.
I got another shock late in the day. We knew a good deal about the British plans by this time, but there were still some gaps.
"A nephew? Of Ulysses?"
"Yes indeed." Hare told me. "A young man of considerable promise, from the, ah, messages, at least in his uncle's opinion. Ulysses arranged for him to, ah, board the Hotspur"
"How, sir?" I demanded, just managing to refrain from voicing all the reasons why this seemed unlikely. I wasn't supposed to know any of them. Sometimes it was a great strain remembering how much I was supposed to know. However Hare was not suspicious.
"He instructed the young man to pretend a great admiration for Hotspur's commanding officer. He then asked that the young man should be recommended to the ship to, ahem, 'get it out of his system' was the sentence I believe was used. It seems that the Admiral was quite, quite unsuspicious."
I very much doubted that, but all this gave me a sudden rush of hope. "He *wrote* that in the dispatches?"
"Oh, no, no, no." Hare dashed my hopes. "The last messenger was a man deep in Ulysses confidence. Still wouldn't tell his name, but he told me very much else."
Damn. *Damn.* Still, Ulysses was getting careless.
"A man of considerable resource, sir. Do we know how he managed to get the Commandant aboard?"
"Apparently a man assigned to join mysteriously disappeared!" Hare gave another of his nasty little giggles. "Ulysses and a couple of his allies forged a record for the Commandant and recommended him."
Well, that cleared that up. I felt cold at the thought of the other man's most likely fate.
Hare blithered on, boasting of his information. "Ulysses learned of the intention to send Hotspur to France through the Admiralty. He even knew who the Admiral had picked to command before the officer knew himself! Some arrogant young toady of the Admiral." I was schooled enough not to show any reaction to that. "He's certain the Admiral will pick the same man to, er, lead the first shore party. With the Commandant and Ulysses' nephew on board it should be easy to, ah, foil them! One at least is certain to be picked for the mission!"
"And the major shore raid, sir?"
"Ulysses has volunteered to lead that himself. However even if he is refused, we are well enough informed about their plans to have no problems! We must, we must have all quite perfect. The Commandant must be impressed!"
I knew what value to take that at. Still, once again he had left the arrangements to me. I had my own instructions, and this time they did not involve thwarting his plans too thoroughly.
I didn't like this. I didn't like it at all. The Admiral must be getting desperate to take such chances as these. Ulysses had to be stopped and quickly. His plans were getting close to fruition, on the outbreak of war the danger would be devatating. And the Admiral was, after all, a creature of the service. He would do what that demanded, by any means necessary. Including the use of a young protégé who - after our conversation in Kingston - I did not doubt he had a sincere affection for.
Strange that. After so brief a time in Kingston I felt I knew far more about him than I ever had aboard the Indy, where our contacts had been of the most formal. Rather uncomfortable too, since there was a continuous sense of being weighed against Horatio and inevitably found wanting. Actually I still felt that, but I had the sense of being weighed by a man, not simply a captain, and somehow that was easier.
I was a creature of the service, too, despite my current status. I would do as I was told. I did my best for Horatio by arranging for the prisoners to be held in a storeroom with a useful - if smelly - route to the outside world. Of course there also had to be a set of stocks - Hare was most insistent about that, but I ordered the men not to bother clearing the room out then inserted a couple of files beneath the clutter. I was sure I could rely on Horatio to explore every possible hope.
Well, pretty sure. My nights were more disturbed than ever.
The initial arrangements worked very smoothly, on all sides. Ulysses' final message indicated that not all details had been worked out yet, which had Hare in quite a flurry. He was gnawing his nails to the quick on the final evening. I was waiting at a certain cove, the place that was used for rapid communications across the channel. Theirs anyway, my own communication point was a bit further down the coast. I'd volunteered for this job, gambling that there would be no further instructions for myself. This was no time to go missing in any case, it would probably be noticed.
The boat came ashore soon after nightfall. I took the papers and read them by lantern light. And could have whooped aloud. It was *all* there. Written in clear, not in code. He must have been in a hurry. All the details of the raid. And confirmation he would be leading the shore party. No doubt he wanted to be absolutely sure that Hare would know who he was when he came ashore, in case the Commandant could not be there. But it was enough to damn him. This letter could only have been written by one man.
I had him. I *had* him.
I put the letter inside my coat. I had him. I went back up to report to Hare.
I could have left then, made my way back out to the British fleet with the proof of Ulysses' treachery. Except I could not. My instructions had been very specific on that point. The raid had to go ahead. He had to carry through the betrayal, if it was to be proved his treachery was fact and not malicious invention, forgery. An accusation against such a man cannot be made without rock solid evidence. The drama had to be played to the end.
But I had him.
He would pay. Not for treachery, not in my book. There are different kinds of loyalty and he may have felt himself a faithful son of Ireland. Not that I would dispute the government's right to execute him, but I would not have felt personal hatred of him for that reason. But he would pay for what he had tried to do to Horatio.
No allegiance could justify that.
........... "He must have thought me a great fool, or an utter weakling. The arrogance of the man! I don't believe he suspected my attitude for a moment, even though he knew his picked target was a man I had recognised long since as a great asset to the service. Did he really think me the kind of man to lend myself to so profound an injustice? Or believe me incapable of realising that what he proposed was in the worst, not the best interests of the Navy? Did he think me no better than that lazy fool Collins?
"As if there was any need to execute someone to conceal Sawyer's state! As if we could not simply have emphasised the brave manner of his death and concealed all else! No, the route he wished to take would cause more damage to the Navy than any other. I daresay he hoped one of you would reveal Sawyer's true state in self-defence or helpless anger, it could easily have happened. Besides even the dullest of men know mutiny most often happens upon ships which have been ill-run. It did Sawyer no credit to publically proclaim that he could not control his officers. Convicting someone would raise - has raised - deeply awkward questions, spread unease and discontent. Oh, nothing that can't be controlled, but it must have pleased him.
"And then to pick as his target the most promising of the officers, and the best regarded. Not only would our Navy lose an exceptional officer, there could be no surer way of spreading disaffection amongst the crew. Consider if he had been executed. How would the men who followed him devotedly react to that? I know well there were many such on the Renown. Anger, resentment bitterness. It wouldn't have brought the Navy to its knees, but he must have enjoyed his small, mean mischief.
"In that, at least, things are better for your intervention. We could have survived it, but it's better not to have to........"
(Which effectively told me that my end was unlikely to rouse much feeling among the crew, but I knew that already. I'm not like Horatio.)
Clever, clever villain. To attack the Navy in the guise of defending it was clever indeed. But his great mistake had been to assume no-one else possessed intelligence. He would die for that.
Expeditions take time to arrange. This particular one also involved a great deal of cross-channel communication. From England came the messages of the Commandant, still aboard Hotspur, and of Ulysses, whilst my own dispatches travelled in the opposite direction. Whether Pellew had warned Horatio about either Ulysses or the Commandant I did not know.
I got another shock late in the day. We knew a good deal about the British plans by this time, but there were still some gaps.
"A nephew? Of Ulysses?"
"Yes indeed." Hare told me. "A young man of considerable promise, from the, ah, messages, at least in his uncle's opinion. Ulysses arranged for him to, ah, board the Hotspur"
"How, sir?" I demanded, just managing to refrain from voicing all the reasons why this seemed unlikely. I wasn't supposed to know any of them. Sometimes it was a great strain remembering how much I was supposed to know. However Hare was not suspicious.
"He instructed the young man to pretend a great admiration for Hotspur's commanding officer. He then asked that the young man should be recommended to the ship to, ahem, 'get it out of his system' was the sentence I believe was used. It seems that the Admiral was quite, quite unsuspicious."
I very much doubted that, but all this gave me a sudden rush of hope. "He *wrote* that in the dispatches?"
"Oh, no, no, no." Hare dashed my hopes. "The last messenger was a man deep in Ulysses confidence. Still wouldn't tell his name, but he told me very much else."
Damn. *Damn.* Still, Ulysses was getting careless.
"A man of considerable resource, sir. Do we know how he managed to get the Commandant aboard?"
"Apparently a man assigned to join mysteriously disappeared!" Hare gave another of his nasty little giggles. "Ulysses and a couple of his allies forged a record for the Commandant and recommended him."
Well, that cleared that up. I felt cold at the thought of the other man's most likely fate.
Hare blithered on, boasting of his information. "Ulysses learned of the intention to send Hotspur to France through the Admiralty. He even knew who the Admiral had picked to command before the officer knew himself! Some arrogant young toady of the Admiral." I was schooled enough not to show any reaction to that. "He's certain the Admiral will pick the same man to, er, lead the first shore party. With the Commandant and Ulysses' nephew on board it should be easy to, ah, foil them! One at least is certain to be picked for the mission!"
"And the major shore raid, sir?"
"Ulysses has volunteered to lead that himself. However even if he is refused, we are well enough informed about their plans to have no problems! We must, we must have all quite perfect. The Commandant must be impressed!"
I knew what value to take that at. Still, once again he had left the arrangements to me. I had my own instructions, and this time they did not involve thwarting his plans too thoroughly.
I didn't like this. I didn't like it at all. The Admiral must be getting desperate to take such chances as these. Ulysses had to be stopped and quickly. His plans were getting close to fruition, on the outbreak of war the danger would be devatating. And the Admiral was, after all, a creature of the service. He would do what that demanded, by any means necessary. Including the use of a young protégé who - after our conversation in Kingston - I did not doubt he had a sincere affection for.
Strange that. After so brief a time in Kingston I felt I knew far more about him than I ever had aboard the Indy, where our contacts had been of the most formal. Rather uncomfortable too, since there was a continuous sense of being weighed against Horatio and inevitably found wanting. Actually I still felt that, but I had the sense of being weighed by a man, not simply a captain, and somehow that was easier.
I was a creature of the service, too, despite my current status. I would do as I was told. I did my best for Horatio by arranging for the prisoners to be held in a storeroom with a useful - if smelly - route to the outside world. Of course there also had to be a set of stocks - Hare was most insistent about that, but I ordered the men not to bother clearing the room out then inserted a couple of files beneath the clutter. I was sure I could rely on Horatio to explore every possible hope.
Well, pretty sure. My nights were more disturbed than ever.
The initial arrangements worked very smoothly, on all sides. Ulysses' final message indicated that not all details had been worked out yet, which had Hare in quite a flurry. He was gnawing his nails to the quick on the final evening. I was waiting at a certain cove, the place that was used for rapid communications across the channel. Theirs anyway, my own communication point was a bit further down the coast. I'd volunteered for this job, gambling that there would be no further instructions for myself. This was no time to go missing in any case, it would probably be noticed.
The boat came ashore soon after nightfall. I took the papers and read them by lantern light. And could have whooped aloud. It was *all* there. Written in clear, not in code. He must have been in a hurry. All the details of the raid. And confirmation he would be leading the shore party. No doubt he wanted to be absolutely sure that Hare would know who he was when he came ashore, in case the Commandant could not be there. But it was enough to damn him. This letter could only have been written by one man.
I had him. I *had* him.
I put the letter inside my coat. I had him. I went back up to report to Hare.
I could have left then, made my way back out to the British fleet with the proof of Ulysses' treachery. Except I could not. My instructions had been very specific on that point. The raid had to go ahead. He had to carry through the betrayal, if it was to be proved his treachery was fact and not malicious invention, forgery. An accusation against such a man cannot be made without rock solid evidence. The drama had to be played to the end.
But I had him.
He would pay. Not for treachery, not in my book. There are different kinds of loyalty and he may have felt himself a faithful son of Ireland. Not that I would dispute the government's right to execute him, but I would not have felt personal hatred of him for that reason. But he would pay for what he had tried to do to Horatio.
No allegiance could justify that.
........... "He must have thought me a great fool, or an utter weakling. The arrogance of the man! I don't believe he suspected my attitude for a moment, even though he knew his picked target was a man I had recognised long since as a great asset to the service. Did he really think me the kind of man to lend myself to so profound an injustice? Or believe me incapable of realising that what he proposed was in the worst, not the best interests of the Navy? Did he think me no better than that lazy fool Collins?
"As if there was any need to execute someone to conceal Sawyer's state! As if we could not simply have emphasised the brave manner of his death and concealed all else! No, the route he wished to take would cause more damage to the Navy than any other. I daresay he hoped one of you would reveal Sawyer's true state in self-defence or helpless anger, it could easily have happened. Besides even the dullest of men know mutiny most often happens upon ships which have been ill-run. It did Sawyer no credit to publically proclaim that he could not control his officers. Convicting someone would raise - has raised - deeply awkward questions, spread unease and discontent. Oh, nothing that can't be controlled, but it must have pleased him.
"And then to pick as his target the most promising of the officers, and the best regarded. Not only would our Navy lose an exceptional officer, there could be no surer way of spreading disaffection amongst the crew. Consider if he had been executed. How would the men who followed him devotedly react to that? I know well there were many such on the Renown. Anger, resentment bitterness. It wouldn't have brought the Navy to its knees, but he must have enjoyed his small, mean mischief.
"In that, at least, things are better for your intervention. We could have survived it, but it's better not to have to........"
(Which effectively told me that my end was unlikely to rouse much feeling among the crew, but I knew that already. I'm not like Horatio.)
Clever, clever villain. To attack the Navy in the guise of defending it was clever indeed. But his great mistake had been to assume no-one else possessed intelligence. He would die for that.