"What can you do?" the senior captain asked the ether, with a soft toss of his hands, and a look toward the deck head. He rose and paced slowly, his weakened left calf supported by a stiff knee boot reinforced with an iron brace. Clump, shuffle… clump, shuffle, and Lieutenant Becquet began to sweat an icy flood as Le Hideux approached him. "Here is the very sort of laziness I continually fight against, Citizen," he said to the civilian. For his benefit… and his own. "Idiots, fools, shit for brains. Oh, they spout all the right slogans, cheer when you tell them, Citizen Pouzin. As if halfhearted enthusiasm for the Revolution was enough, n'est-ce pas? But, deep in their souls, they stay shop clerks! Open on time, pretend to work, then run for the cafйs or the brothels, as soon as the door is shut for the evening. Without a thought of working! Without a care for anything but their comforts!"
Clump, shuffle… clump, shuffle, behind Becquet, who kept his gaze straight ahead at the silhouetted Citizen Pouzin, pleading with his eyes. And expecting a dagger in his kidneys.
"A gun captain, did you know that, Citizen Pouzin?" Le Hideux sneered. "From the Garonne, where they do not understand the sea. A river man. A gun captain who turned against his 'aristo' masters when he saw which way the wind was blowing. When we broke up that elitist naval artillery corps, that pack of bootlickers!… Becquet turned on them. To save his hide, hein? So he could have his soup and bread, a ready supply of coin, only. For his wine, and his whores! Got promoted because he shouted the loudest. So he could make even more money to waste on wine and whores?" Le Hideux accused, shouting into the lieutenant's ear so close that spittle from his ravaged lips bedewed Becquet, as cold as Antarctic ice crystals.
"Capitaine, I did my duty, I…"
"Too hard a task, was it, Becquet?" Le Hideux scoffed. "Too much to ask, to unload the cargo, as soon as you got to Bordighera? Even if you had to work past closing time, hein? But you had time. You docked at dusk? Answer!"
"Oui, Capitaine, just at dusk, but the Savoians…"
"Let the infantry company go ashore, instead of ordering them to help unload," Le Hideux growled, stumping back into his sight. "I ordered you to unload quickly, did I not? Dash in, dash out, before a 'Bloody patrol saw you. So that the convoy would be safe. So those Savoian volunteers would get their arms and equipment. A direct order, and an important task. Which you nodded and parroted back to me, did you not, here in this cabin, Becquet? Swore on your honor you'd fulfill, to the letter, hein? Oui?"
"Oui, Capitaine … but…!"
"Thought one puny three-gun battery of light fieldpieces would be protection enough, did you? For ships in your charge? To protect your lazy hide? Were you aboard La Follette when the 'Bloodies' opened fire on the battery?"
"Certainment, Capitaine]" Becquet declared.
"Liar," Citizen Pouzin asserted calmly, snapping Becquet's head around. "A letter from your midshipman, Hainaut."
"Oui, Hainaut!" Le Hideux chimed in. "Not four days since his capture, and we already have a letter he sent, asking for his exchange. He, at least, did his duty. You were not aboard. Where were you, in bed with a whore, up in the town? A whole half hour they took, before the battery was silenced. Were you so taken with wine that you needed a whole half hour to wake up? A half hour, Becquet. A real man would have mustered his crew, sailed out, and supported the battery. With the guns you had aboard La Follette, you could have deterred them entering. But what did you do with that precious time? Nothing]"
"The crew, they ran off, Capitaine, I tried to muster them…"
"Not run off," Citizen Pouzin countered, coming closer. "You gave them shore leave for the night. How convenient."
"They didn't come back, I…" Becquet almost swooned in fear. "Some did. I brought them…"
"From the same brothel where you wallowed?" Le Hideux scoffed.
"The 'Bloody' corvette entered, and the few who'd stayed, or the few who'd come back with me, they…"
" Hainaut had mustered them for you," Le Hideux accused. " Hainaut had sense enough to load the artillery. To load the artillery, do you hear, Citizen Pouzin? The gun-captain's guns were unloaded! Were they even loaded for the voyage, you idle fool?"
"We drew the charges, once we tied up. Accidents, new allies…"
"Convenient," Pouzin whispered, coming close enough from those harsh shadows at last, so Becquet could see him. A square-cut, hefty man, quite handsome in a rough-and-ready way, with a blunt chin and a square head. All business. "Perhaps, Capitaine, too much so."
"All you had thought for was a bottle or two, a good supper, and a plump whore, wasn't it, Becquet?" Le Hideux snapped. "Crew let go for the night, so they could have a good, easy time of it with you, so they would like you? Perhaps a bit too much libertй, йgalitй, fraternitй, hein?'
Citizen Pouzin lifted a bushy brow at that statement. A French officer was supposed to be no better than the commonest man beneath him, due no more dignity. There was supposed to be brotherhood among them, a true comradeship in the service of The Cause.
"Time enough for that when the voyage is over, when you had completed your mission," Le Hideux added in a softer voice. Pouzin was in charge of intelligence, and had as many connections in Paris as did Le Hideux; as many ears into which he could pour poison against him. "Then, and only then," he continued, glaring at Pouzin to show how heartfelt were his sentiments. And how innocent. "May you let your guard down. Had you lost your ship in battle, I'd be kissing you on both cheeks, Becquet. Had you hurt the 'Bloodies,' gotten the cargo ashore, it would have been bad luck, bad timing, their arrival, but…"
"But it seems such a total lack of diligence, and caution, we might be able to think of it as treachery," Pouzin challenged in his gruff, maddeningly calm voice. "How else may we explain the suddenly foolish actions of a man so well regarded, just weeks ago. With such a diligent, able, and unblemished record in the Republican Navy?"
"M'sieur, oh God, I…!"
"Citizen," Pouzin corrected, with a warning hiss.
"Now your Savoian hands have run away, and will never come back, hein?" Le Hideux summed up, goading Becquet with a cruel leer. "The Savoians delayed training and arms. When they seemed so eager to join us. A brave French garrison turned to blood soup, a valuable company of experienced, battle-hardened officers and men who would have trained them, lost. How much enthusiasm for military service do you think the Savoians have now, hein? There is no doubt word has spread deep into the mountains. Of how inept French warships, of how ludicrous the French Army, look. And, it's all… your.,. fault\"
"Dear God, sir…!" Becquet whimpered, almost pissing himself.
"But you will atone for this, mon pauvre petit Gun Captain," Le Hideux promised in a caressing whisper, that whisper more threatening than his loudest rants. "Oh, indeed you will. On your head be it."
"Sir…!"
"By the authority given me by the Committee of Public Safety," Le Hideux intoned, stumping away to lean on his desk to rest his leg. "I order you be held in irons until the time of your trial by court-martial, where you will answer charges of grave dereliction of duty… cowardice in the face of the enemy… the loss of your command without a shot being fired… the loss of your convoy and their cargo…"