‘Mr Reid!’ Mrs Burnham had gone white. ‘What on earth are you implying?’
A bark of laughter broke from Zachary’s throat. ‘Oh come, Mrs Burnham, there’s no need to pretend with me. You forget that I am perfectly familiar with your play-acting.’
‘What on earth … what do you mean, Mr Reid?’ she said, stumbling over her words.
Zachary saw from the corner of his eye that Mrs Burnham’s face had disappeared behind her parasol. ‘Captain Mee is the one, isn’t he, Mrs Burnham? The lieutenant you told me about?’
This set the parasol twirling in agitation so he softened his tone. ‘There’s no need to hide your face, Mrs Burnham.’
Now at last she answered, in a faltering, breathless rush. ‘Oh please, Mr Reid. All we did was talk — you will not speak of it to anyone, will you?’
Her capitulation softened Zachary a little. Without quite meaning to he voiced the question that had been circling in his head ever since the night of the levée.
‘Why him, Mrs Burnham? What do you see in that clodhopping dingleberry?’
‘I can’t tell you,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t know the answer. All I can say is that if it were in my hands I would not have chosen him.’
‘And why is that?’
‘Because we’re different, he and I. He is utterly without calculation, without guile; he is ruled entirely by his sense of duty. It is strange to say so, but I do not think I have ever known anyone so completely selfless.’
A thin smile rose to Zachary’s lips. ‘You are either deluded or naive, Mrs Burnham,’ he retorted. ‘There is nothing selfless about these military men. They are all drowning in debt; they can be bought for fifty dollars apiece. You should ask your husband about it — he has plenty of them in his pocket.’
‘Not Neville,’ she said with calm certainty. ‘He is not that kind of man.’
Zachary noticed now that her eyes had strayed to the other end of the parade ground, where Captain Mee could be seen, leaning against the hilt of his sword as he chatted with some other officers.
‘Is that what you believe?’ said Zachary. ‘That Captain Mee is immune to the inducements that tempt other men?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I am sure of it.’
He permitted himself a smile. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we shall see.’
To grease the captain’s palms would not be easy, Zachary knew, but he was certain that it could be done: it was certainly a challenge worth rising to. And the more he thought about it the more important it seemed that he should succeed in the endeavour — for would it not thwart the design of the world if one man were allowed to flout the law of cupidity, that great engine of progress that matched needs to gains, supply with demand, and thereby distributed the right rewards to those who most deserved them?
*
Compton was visiting the Cambridge the day the gun salute was fired at Hong Kong.
The sound was heard clearly at the Tiger’s Mouth, where the Cambridge was still at anchor. Everybody understood that the shots were being fired by the English to celebrate their acquisition of the island; this aroused revulsion and sadness among all aboard but most of all in Compton.
Yet he knew very well that there was nothing to be done about it: Governor-General Qishan was in the impossible position of having to reconcile his instructions from the Emperor — to drive out the invaders at all costs — with the realities of the situation, which was that the British already had effective possession of the island; to wrest it from them was impossible without a change in the balance of firepower. If the Governor-General had not conceded the demands the British might have pushed on to Guangzhou, inflicting even greater losses. The best hope now was that the Emperor, on receiving the governor’s dispatches, would perceive the wisdom of following a policy of limiting the damage.
But the Emperor was unpredictable; there was no knowing how he would respond. And until word came from Beijing, what else was there to do but prepare for another British attack? This indeed was why Compton had come to the Cambridge: he was bearing orders for the vessel to move up to the First Bar of the Pearl River.
The First Bar was a feature that Neel knew welclass="underline" it was a kind of cataract, only a few li from Whampoa. There were two such bars, or cataracts, on the Pearl River; at these points in the river’s course the water ran shallow and the channel was broken up by shifting shoals and sandbars. The navigable lanes changed from week to week and deep-draughted ships had to hire specialized pilots to guide them past the obstacles.
Neel had grown familiar with the First Bar during his time at Whampoa: the terrain there was flat and green, the river being flanked on both sides by rice-fields, orchards and scattered villages. In normal times the landscape was reminiscent of the Bengal countryside, lush, bucolic and sleepy.
But when the Cambridge arrived at the First Bar now, Neel saw that there had been dramatic changes in its surroundings. In the last month thousands of troops and workers had set up camp on either side of the river. A mud-walled fort had risen on the east bank: extending outwards from it was a gigantic raft, built with massive timbers; it stretched from shore to shore and was so solidly built that it looked like a dam. Hundreds of acres of forest had been cut down for the construction of the raft; the cost had been borne by the merchants of the Co-Hong: they were rumoured to have spent thousands of silver taels on the timber alone.
One section of the raft was moveable, to allow traffic to go through when necessary. The Cambridge crossed over to the other side and dropped anchor just abaft of the raft, across the river from the fort. The Cambridge was to serve as the fort’s counterpart, a floating gun-emplacement: her mission was to protect the raft’s moorings on the western bank of the river.
After experimenting with various angles it was decided that the Cambridge would be tethered with her bows pointing in the direction from which the invaders’ warships were expected to come. The advantage of this was that it narrowed the ship’s profile, presenting a smaller target to the attackers; the disadvantage was that it reduced the number of guns that could be brought to bear on the stretch of river that lay ahead: in the event of an attack only the guns in the Cambridge’s bows would be in play. To remedy this more gun-ports were created in the ship’s nose, on all decks. The forward guns being of critical importance, great care was invested in their manning. A dozen of the ship’s most competent sailors were chosen to be golondauzes and they were given free rein to pick their own men. Jodu was one of the first to be appointed: much to Neel’s joy, Jodu picked him for his gun-crew, giving him the job of sumbadar or rammer-man.
For the next fortnight the gun-crews spent their time devising and practising drills. The officers could provide little guidance, being unaccustomed to Western-style ships, so the crewmen had to draw up their own protocols, from memory. A Macahnese lascar who had served on a Portuguese naval vessel took the lead: it was he who drew up the drill for clearing the deck and summoning the crew to battle-stations.
Through this time Compton continued to visit the Cambridge regularly, bearing news. Talks were still under way, he said, between the British and Chinese; Compton himself often translated for the Governor-General’s emissaries. But as for progress there was little to report: so far as the British were concerned there was nothing to be discussed except the ratification of the convention of Chuenpee. They would not be satisfied unless the Emperor conceded all their demands.
For his part, Compton was convinced that the Daoguang Emperor would not make any concessions. And sure enough he returned to the Cambridge one morning with the news that the Emperor had indeed repudiated the treaty in its entirety. Not only that, he had severely reprimanded Governor-General Qishan for making concessions to the British. His instructions to the authorities in Guangdong remained unchanged: no compromise was possible and the invader had to be repelled at all costs. But this time the Emperor had done more than issue exhortations: he had personally sanctioned funds for the rebuilding and strengthening of all the Pearl River fortifications. In addition thousands of troops from Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan were to be sent to Guangdong to reinforce the province’s defences.