Did he mean he had been outclassed in intrigue by the wily French?
“There’s only one way to redress this deplorable state of affairs. A display of military might before their very gates as will bring them to their senses. With Bonaparte’s troops flaunting themselves as near as Dalmatia, nothing else will persuade the perfidious Selim to offer us the respect that is our due.”
“Sir,” Kydd said, with all the conviction he could muster, “I was fortunate in having surprise on my side when I came here. Should the Turks wish to contest the passage of a fleet I’ve no doubt they could do so in the confines of the waters I’ve seen leading here. Do you not feel that an unfortunate reverse in our attempt to force the Dardanelles would have the opposite effect to what you’d wish?”
“I’m surprised at your tone, Captain. The very appearance of Nelson’s fleet alone will strike awe and terror in the breasts of these benighted heathen. This is why-and I tell you in the strictest confidence-I have gone over the head of your commander-in-chief to Whitehall and the prime minister, demanding that a showing off Constantinople be made. I expect a positive reply daily, sir.”
This madman, if he got his way, would condemn Collingwood’s fleet to a desperate fight point-blank against forts and the Turkish Navy, almost certainly to end in wreck and retreat, and to what clear purpose? England’s precious blockading fleet decimated and humiliated-it didn’t bear thinking about.
Surely even a land-bound government like Grenville’s would see the risks and futility of it, find some other way of offsetting the French influence-and replace this haughty fool.
At eleven the next morning everything changed. Suddenly bursting into view rounding the point a massive two-decker ship-of-the-line appeared-Canopus, the 80-gun flagship of Rear Admiral Louis’s squadron.
The rest of the squadron would no doubt be waiting hove to in the open water before the peninsula. Arbuthnot had his military might.
Kydd lost no time in taking boat to make his report and hand over Collingwood’s instructions.
He’d last seen this ship as the French Franklin at the Nile, fighting bravely in the darkness of that infernal night-and his own ship, Tenacious, had been her chief antagonist.
But this was going to be a less glorious occasion unless he could persuade the admiral to deny the ambassador his ambition.
“Sir Thomas, is it, then?” Louis had a high-pitched wheeze that made him hard to follow.
“Sir,” Kydd acknowledged. Louis’s baronetcy had been for his role in the San Domingo fleet action in the West Indies under Duckworth.
Handing him the instructions, Kydd waited politely. Louis put the packet aside. “I’ll take ’em up later. Do tell me what you’ve been about, will you, old chap?”
“New-joined to Admiral Collingwood’s blockade fleet, sir. He received disturbing news from the ambassador here concerning unrest and threats to British interests. He desired me to lose no time to find yourself, sir, and give you these instructions.”
“And so you have. But don’t tell me-unable to find me you took it upon yourself to come here to see what assistance you could be to the ambassador.”
“This is why I’m here, yes, sir.”
“Quite right. Then what did you find, pray?”
Kydd told briefly of the disturbances seen ashore, Arbuthnot’s arrival and installation in L’Aurore. Delicately he explained his reservations about the ambassador’s desire to raise the stakes by threatening undisclosed action with an overwhelming naval force.
“And so your appearance here with your squadron is very welcome to him,” he concluded.
“Not so, not so.” Louis coughed, banging his chest. “I’m alone, the flagship only. My squadron lies at anchor at the mouth of the Dardanelles.”
He went on, “A single ship by way of being no provocation was my thinking. He’s to be disappointed, it seems. Does he wish to be taken off?”
“Sir, I believe he would wish to discuss such with you,” Kydd said cautiously.
“I’d better take on board what’s being said here before I see him.” He picked up the instructions. “Excuse me,” he muttered.
“Ah. In so many words I’m to make reconnaissance of these waters and afford what assistance I can to his excellency. I don’t consider forcing the Dardanelles with a squadron a reconnaissance, do you?”
Arbuthnot was bitter and scathing at the admiral’s attitude and insisted on a grand council in Canopus for the following morning.
“Let me put it to you as plainly as I can,” he said. “I’m here on the spot. You’re not. I know the Turk. You do not. And what I’m saying is that they’re a backward, decayed people who understand only the language of strong and weak. At the moment, since the successes of the Corsican in Europe, they do admire him and listen to his siren words.
“Yet the greatness of Nelson is known even here, to which we certainly owe the treaty of amity the French are seeking to overthrow. Gentlemen, what I’m asking only is that the hero’s own navy does flourish itself in all its glory before the walls of Constantinople. The artful Selim will instantly see it in his best interest to eject the French and receive us as brothers.”
Louis heard him out, then put his hands flat on the table and wheezed, “No. No! I cannot counsel nor lend my name or ships to such a foolhardy gesture. Sir, I’m instructed to aid you in so far as it lies in my power-and subverting a reconnaissance into an armed provocation is not-”
A sudden knocking on the door interrupted him. A breathless lieutenant flew in and blurted, “Sir, my apologies-you’re desired on deck this minute, if you please.”
They were met with a chilling sight: smoke rising ominously from several places inland and figures running along the sea-front pursued by an ugly crowd. Several stumbled and were hacked down by those following. Cries of terror and rage came floating out.
“I rather think events have overtaken us,” Louis said.
More emerged from the streets and between buildings; it was obvious that they were making for the jetties on the waterfront. Several boats were lying off and came in, firing upwards to deter pursuers. The frantic victims tumbled in. A few stragglers were too late and were mercilessly dispatched on the quayside or flung themselves into the water.
“The mob’s turned against us, then.”
“So it would seem,” said Arbuthnot, without emotion.
There was no possibility of intervention as any show of force would trigger an incident that could place the situation beyond retrieving.
The boats were all headed towards the looming bulk of Canopus, her ensign proclaiming her a haven of peace and sanity in a world turned mad.
“Your directions, sir?” Louis asked, his features set.
“One moment. Lend me that,” Arbuthnot said to a lieutenant, and took his telescope. “As I thought-that’s Italinski.”
“Sir?”
“They’re not ours. They’re Russians, although what the devil set the Turks off, Heaven only knows.” He handed back the glass and folded his arms, waiting for the first boats.
The Russian ambassador, a big man, was helped over the bulwark, puffing like a whale. He saw Arbuthnot and lumbered across to him.
“T’ank the God you here,” he bellowed, then remembered a bow. “They mad, like beast.”
“My dear Italinski, you have my sincere sympathy.” He glanced at the wild-eyed Russians scrambling over the side. “In course you shall have sanctuary in any ship of His Britannic Majesty’s Navy.”
“Ze bigger ze better, Charles. Zis vill do for now.” His bushy black eyebrows worked with emotion.
“Might I enquire just what stirred the populace to riot and slaughter against your people all of a sudden?” Arbuthnot asked.
“Don’ they always?”
“Just this particular time, if you would humour me, Andrei.”