Ramage And The Rebels

'We are ready,' Ramage said, glancing at Aitken, who was going to take notes if necessary.

The Governor said: 'You are curious why I wish to surrender the island to you - to Britain, rather.'

'I have been trying to find out from the moment you first mentioned it, Your Excellency,' Ramage said dryly. 'It seems to be the point upon which all negotiations must pivot.'

'It is, it is. But I regret the surrender is not entirely straightforward.'

There is always a catch, Ramage thought sourly. Now come his terms: you can have my island wrapped up in Bruges lace on condition that you . . .

'Nor,' van Someren continued, 'is it very complex. If I may explain some of the background, you will understand at once why you have been seeing smoke at the western end of the island, and hearing occasional gunfire.

'First, you know the circumstances by which the French claimed the United Netherlands as an ally and that our Prince Sovereign had to flee and is now a refugee living in England. Anyone who disagreed with France or the Revolution was - ' he made a chopping gesture with his hand to imitate the guillotine.

Those of us in distant colonies at the time had to decide how best we could serve our country. We had three choices. We could become refugees and get to England or a British colony. We could withdraw from public life (and risk being arrested, accused of being traitors to the republican cause and then executed). Or we could appear to be prepared to serve the republican cause in the hope of safeguarding our own countrymen, because if we did not serve them the French would put in their own men.

'Rightly or wrongly I allowed myself to continue as Governor in this last category, and until recently I have been able to spare my people the worst excesses for which the Revolution in France has become famous - infamous, rather.'

He paused and poured water into a glass from a carafe in front of him. He drank and then continued. 'But recently - in the past few months - some of our wilder young men have come out violently in support of the French Revolution, or its revolutionary principles, rather. They gathered in the western end of the island, freed slaves, and began threatening to overthrow my government, which they claim is not truly revolutionary - although, ironically, it is approved by Paris.'

'Do they have a leader?'

To begin with they had their own committee. The Committee of Liberation they called it. Now their new leader is one of the French privateer captains, who has taken all the men from the ships to reinforce these - these revolutionaries. It seems an odd word for the Governor of an island belonging to the Batavian Republic to use, but these rebels want to destroy all that most of us in the island consider justifies Curacao's existence.'

The smoke . . . ?' Ramage prompted.

'Villages and plantation houses being burned down by these rebels.'

'Why?' Ramage was curious at what seemed a self - defeating activity.

'In some cases because the people would not join the rebels; in others my troops were using them as defences. But mainly because this privateer captain, their leader, is a murderer who enjoys killing and destroying - and robbing and raping. They say he is mad . . .'

'Where are your troops now?'

'I have withdrawn them here to defend the port'

'Are they loyal?'

To me, yes. There are only one hundred of them, phis the gunners from the forts and a score or so infantrymen.'

'And the ordinary people here in Amsterdam and the island - what are their sympathies?'

'Against these rebels: they are mostly tradesmen who want to be left in peace to carry on their business. They want no part of the present war - as you know, Curacao was one of the great trading centres on this side of the Atlantic. This war has brought business to a standstill. Trade with Britain is cut off, France has no money to buy, and nor has Spain. We are reduced to a precarious trade with the Main. Our warehouses are full —with goods that have been there for years.'

"Your Excellency,' Ramage said deliberately, making it dear that he was about to speak as the official British representative, 'you realize that to my government you and your - is it a legislative council? - are rebels: men in arms against the House of Nassau, which my government regards as the rightful rulers of the United Netherlands? Now you are in turn attacked by men you call rebels. Your problem is, in effect, a revolution within a revolution.'

For several moments van Someren was silent. His eyes had narrowed, giving him a slightly Oriental appearance; his hands clasped on the table in front of him, showed the knuckles white. 'You speak like a diplomatist, My Lord,' he said without animosity, but choosing his words with precision, 'and like a diplomatist, you want to drive a hard bargain. For myself, though, I am concerned only with saving lives. There are many hundreds of innocent men, women and children living here in Amsterdam. We have reason to believe the rebels intend to loot the city and then bum it down.'

'Why do they want to do that?' Ramage asked bluntly.

Van Someren gestured to Major Lausser, who sorted through papers in front of him and handed the Governor a letter.

'You read French, My Lord?'

'I do, Your Excellency.'

Ramage took the proffered letter, hard put not to smile at the way each of them observed the courtesies with their titles and reflecting how inappropriate was a naval uniform at a negotiating table. The letter, comprising only a few lines, was from some group that called itself The - Revolutionary Committee of the Batavian Republic in the Antilles', and was addressed to the Governor by name. It said, without any preliminaries, that unless he surrendered Amsterdam by noon on a given date - it used the new revolutionary method of dating which Ramage could never remember - it would be burned down, and the Committee took no responsibility for the safety of the women and children while the men would be treated as traitors.

Ramage folded the letter and went to give it back to the Governor; then he unfolded it again, read the signature, and said to Aitken: 'Make a note of the name "Adolphe Brune, chief of the privateers".' He spelled out the names and then returned the letter to van Someren.

'I trust that decides you,' the Governor said.

"You have about a hundred men, trained troops?'

'Yes, mostly artillerymen.'

'And there are a thousand republicans?' Ramage guessed the figure, curious to see van Someren's reaction.

'Not as many as that We estimate about five hundred at the most. The privateers were all short of men - we guess at a total of three hundred and fifty. There were about one hundred republicans when all this began, but they may have been joined by others, the inevitable - how do you call them? - opportunists. About fifty, we think.'

'All short of weapons and powder, though?'

Van Someren shook his head. 'Unfortunately they have plenty, because each privateer has weapons - muskets, pistols, cutlasses - for at least fifty men, so they can arm five hundred. Before I brought my troops in, patrols were reporting capturing men holding positions with three loaded muskets in reserve beside each of them.'

'How many men are left in the privateers?'

Even as he asked the question Ramage realized that he had made a bad mistake: he had taken no steps to prevent someone from the privateers getting on shore to ride off into the hills and report to Brune that a British frigate had just come into the harbour and her captain was at Government House.

'One or two men in each vessel,' and then, perhaps reading Ramage's thoughts, van Someren added: 'I left sentries concealed who will seize anyone landing to carry the news of your arrival to the rebels.'

Ramage wished he had a pen or pencil to twiddle. Sitting here with his elbows on the table and one hand resting on the other was comfortable but it seemed to stifle coherent thought. Ideas must come through active hands. Clasped hands reminded him of contented parsons and portly priests mumbling things by rote or making embarrassingly obvious remarks in portentous voices. The true artists in this form of activity, he thought sourly, became bishops, and the lords spiritual never found themselves sitting in the residences of governors of enemy islands trying to think what to do next.