Ramage's Diamond

The Juno was still under way, dragging the schooners along with her, each being held by the grapnels thrown on board the frigate by the confident Frenchmen. Aitken was standing in front of him, his left hand jammed into his jacket, which was buttoned, and a dark stain on his left shoulder. 'Baker and the Marine lieutenant have everything under command down there, sir. About three dozen prisoners, with the Marines guarding them. Twenty or thirty Frenchmen dead and as many more wounded.'

'Our own casualties?' Ramage asked quietly.

'About a dozen dead and wounded to larboard, I should think, sir. I have parties going round attending to the wounded, and Mr Bowen has half a dozen men helping him.'

'Very well,' Ramage said soberly, 'we were very lucky.'

'Lucky?' Aitken was too startled to say 'sir', and added: 'It all worked perfectly!'

Ramage turned back to the quarterdeck rail. Perhaps it had worked out perfectly so far, but none of them realized that up to now they had carried out barely a third of his plan: the hardest part was yet to come.

Two hours before dawn Ramage was weary but still excited. He had questioned the captain of the larboard schooner for half an hour and by playing alternately on the Frenchman's pride and his fear of what was going to happen now he was a prisoner, had managed to discover what the French had intended.

The two schooners, La Mutine and La Créole, had been taken over by the French Navy the day before the Juno sailed into Fort Royal Bay, and the first lieutenants of the two frigates had been put in command. Each had forty men taken from the frigates and embarked seventy soldiers from the 53rd Regiment. Their mission, the French lieutenant had said, was to board the Juno simultaneously from each side and take her into Fort Royal. After that the Frenchman would say no more. Ramage guessed that the man had decided it was proper to discuss the operation, but the way he had then refused further information made Ramage suspect him of hiding a great deal more than he revealed.

He had just signalled to the two Marines to take the Frenchman away when Aitken came into the cabin, obviously excited. The moment the Marines and their prisoner had left he said: 'Orsini and Rossi, sir: they've found an Italian among the prisoners who wants to quit the French and serve with us! He's a quartermaster and seems an intelligent fellow.'

'Fetch him in - but I'll talk to Orsini first'

The midshipman was almost giggling with excitement. He and several seamen, including Rossi, were guarding prisoners, he told Ramage, when Rossi had made some comment in Italian. One of the prisoners immediately spoke - 'In the accent of Genoa,' Orsini said, with all the contempt of one who spoke with the clear accent of Tuscany.

'Go on, boy,' Ramage said impatiently. 'What did he want?'

'We took him away from the other prisoners - in case any more of them spoke Italian - to see what he wanted. It seems he comes from a village twenty miles from Genoa. When Bonaparte invaded Genoa and renamed it the Ligurian Republic, many able-bodied men were forced to serve in the Army and Navy. They had no choice, this man says.'

Ramage nodded: he could not imagine the French giving able-bodied men any choice. Rossi had been fortunate in quitting the Republic before the French arrived (indeed, Ramage suspected the police were after him). So this prisoner might well have been serving the French against his will and, like Rossi, might prefer to serve in the Royal Navy. Well, he thought grimly, that depends on how much he knows and how much he tells.

'Anyway, sir,' the boy continued eagerly, 'this man – his name is Zolesi - told us that the Governor will be very angry that the schooners failed to capture the Juno: apparently a convoy is due very soon, and he wants us out of the way.'

Ramage stared at the boy. ' "Very soon" - he said that?'

When Orsini repeated the Italian phrase, mimicking the Genoese accent, Ramage said impatiently, 'Fetch the man. And bring Rossi.'

Zolesi was a stocky man with fair hair and blue eyes, and Ramage guessed that his forebears were mountain folk. He saluted smartly but Rossi, holding a pistol, watched him warily. He began by speaking to Rossi, expecting he would translate, but the seaman said: ‘The captain speaks Italian.'

Ramage, impatient to question Zolesi about the convoy, had first to listen to the man's request to be allowed to serve in the Royal Navy. His story sounded plausible and Ramage noticed Rossi nodding as he described how the French sent naval press-gangs and army squads through the streets, rounding up all able-bodied men.

Finally Ramage interrupted him. There were a few questions, based on what the French lieutenant had said, which would check the man's reliability.

'You were serving in La Mutine?’

'For this operation, sir.'

'Before that?'

'In La Désirée. Forty of us were sent to the schooner. And seventy soldiers.'

'What regiment?'

The man's brow wrinkled. 'The 53rd Regiment, sir.’

'Who commanded La Mutine?’

The first lieutenant of La Désirée. He was killed, sir.'

Ramage nodded. 'Is the Surcouf ready for sea?'

'Not yet, sir, but they are working hard.'

"And La Désirée?’

'Accidente!’Zolesi exclaimed. 'They are short of everything: yards, rope, canvas, wood for repairs, blocks, hammocks - everything!'

'Yet the French expect to commission her?'

sOh yes, once the convoy arrives.'

'But that has been delayed,' Ramage said, deciding that Zolesi was not likely to lie in this type of conversation, and the Italian's reply was just what he wanted.

'Delayed, sir? But it's expected within a week! A week - from today, in fact. Have the British captured it?'

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don't know, but it's not a large convoy anyway.'

'I don't know how big it is, sir, but the French are terrified of something happening to it. That's why the two schooners were sent out to capture this ship.'

'Will they send out more?'

Zolesi shook his head expressively. 'No! There was a good deal of trouble over these two. They were privateers and the owners refused to let the Navy use them.' Seeing Ramage's puzzled expression, he added: ‘The Governor took them over by decree.'

'But why no more attempts?'

‘I heard the privateer owners sent a deputation to the Governor, swearing that if he tried to take over any more the owners would sink them first.'

'What did the Governor say?' Ramage asked curiously.

'I heard he was very worried: the owners of the privateers are powerful men in Martinique. Now you have captured these two . . .' Zolesi stood with his arms spread out in front of him, palms upturned.

Ramage nodded to Rossi and said in English, 'Take him away and keep him separated from the others.'

'Can he ...’ He broke off, obviously worried that Ramage would think him impertinent.

'Keep him apart and see what else he knows about the convoy and the French defences in Fort Royal. And anything more about the other frigate. You can hint that he'll be allowed to enlist -  and get the bounty, too!'

By now all the unwounded from the two schooners were being guarded by the Juno's Marines. The bos'n and his mates were busy sewing the dead men into hammocks ready for funerals at daybreak, with the gunner cursing that it was going to be a waste of roundshot until Ramage pointed out that there was plenty in the schooners, and it was more appropriate that Frenchmen should be buried at sea with French roundshot sewn into the foot of their hammocks.