Ramage sent for Aitken and Southwick and when they arrived he told them to sit down. The First Lieutenant was holding himself a little stiffly, the result of a bandage Bowen had put on the shoulder to cover a gash from a French pike. Ramage asked if they wanted hot drinks - the galley fire had been lit earlier to give the men a hot breakfast and provide Bowen with the hot water he demanded for the treatment of some of the badly wounded men. When both men refused, Ramage handed Aitken the sick list that Bowen had scribbled out and sent up to him. Nine Junos had been killed, seven seriously wounded and eighteen more had wounds that needed treatment but which allowed them, in an emergency, to go to general quarters.’
The First Lieutenant, his face drawn with weariness but his eyes still bright, passed it to Southwick. 'The figures are fantastic, sir. That's 139 French dead and wounded as against thirty-four Junos killed or wounded, and eighteen of ours were little more than scratches.'
'Surprise,’ grunted Southwick. 'That's what did it. Johnny Frenchman was too confident. The French were just standing there in both schooners, a solid mass of men waiting to leap on board. The Junos just leaned over the hammock nettings and fired right down into them!'
'We were damn' nearly too confident, too,' Ramage said.
Southwick sniffed, 'Well, sir, I'd better report on the schooners. The Mutine's foresail is badly torn and the gaff's broken. They dropped the sail in a hurry and the gaff crushed a couple of their own men. The sail's being repaired and the carpenter is fishing the gaff. It's a long break, so it isn't too difficult. Decks cut up with pistol and musket shots, a few shrouds parted - they're already knotted - and she'll be ready to get under way in an hour. The French had forty seamen on board; we can manage with ten. La Créole suffered no damage to speak of, except for bullet holes in the deck. She can get under way the moment you give the order. I've chosen the two prize crews, as you told me to. It's just a question of...'
'Exactly,' Ramage said, 'who is to command them,'
Aitken nodded. 'It'll take a week to sail 'em to Barbados and get our men back - perhaps more.'
'We needn't worry about Barbados for the time being,' Ramage said, and both men looked up quickly, obviously puzzled. Ramage decided to tease them for a little longer.
‘That Tricolour, Southwick: have Jackson and Rossi finished it yet?'
'No, sir. It's so big. It's taken all the red cloth we have on board including the red baize. I hope you won't be ordering many floggings ...'
'You won't regret it,' Ramage said enigmatically. 'I hope the other men have finished the smaller Red Ensigns.'
'I forgot to tell you, sir, we have three or four on board we can use, apart from the ones in the flag locker.'
Ramage nodded. 'Anyway, we have to decide who is to command the ships.' Southwick gave yet another sniff. It was clear that he considered taking a schooner to Barbados with a prize crew was an easy voyage to be left to the master's mate in one and perhaps the Fourth Lieutenant in the other.
Ramage thought the time had come to stop teasing both the Master and Aitken, but could not resist one last dig.
'I was thinking of putting you in command of La Créole, Aitken, and I hope Wagstaffe can manage La Mutine.'
The First Lieutenant's jaw dropped, and even though the light from the lanthorn was dim, Ramage saw that he had gone white. He realized that Aitken thought he had failed in his duties during the night's attack and was being put in command of the schooner to get him out of the way to allow another of the lieutenants to be promoted in his place.
Ramage reached out and touched his arm reassuringly. 'Cheer up, Aitken. Listen to me for a minute or two and after that you will be perfectly free to refuse the command and stay on board the Juno.’
Aitken swallowed and tried to smile, while Southwick looked completely puzzled, as though he feared for his Captain's sanity.
'Some time this morning,' Ramage said quietly, 'the French Governor in Fort Royal, and the naval commander, will be expecting to see La Créole and La Mutine sailing into Fort Royal Bay, escorting the Juno with a Tricolour flying above the Red Ensign ...'
He paused for a moment to make sure both men pictured the scene.
'On a Sunday morning everyone will be out in the streets cheering and I wouldn't be surprised if the guns of Fort St Louis began firing a feu de joie. The schooners will sail up to the anchorage, tack and wear round the Surcouf frigate a couple of times to show off. The French prize crew will bring the Juno in and prepare to anchor her close to the Surcouf. Just imagine the scene with everyone cheering and yelling, the crews of the schooners lining the bulwarks and waving, and the French prize crews on board the rosbif frigate Juno manning the rigging, singing revolutionary songs, no doubt.'
'But, but sir,' Aitken stammered. 'The French haven't captured the Juno!'
'No, indeed they have not,' Ramage said quietly, 'but the Governor of Fort Royal doesn't know that yet.'
CHAPTER TEN
The sky was cloudless, an unbelievable, almost gaudy blue, and the hills and mountains forming a wide bowl round Fort Royal Bay were a fresh green from the night's rain squalls. To the north Ramage could see the truncated top of Mount Pelée, and for once it was clear of its usual cap of cloud. The wind was brisk from the east and the sunlight sparkled from the wavelets. It was, he thought, a good morning to be alive; a piece of good fortune emphasized by the fact that an hour earlier he had attended a funeral service for forty-seven Frenchmen and conducted it for nine Junos.
Each of the fifty-six bodies had been put one by one on the hinged plank at the bulwark just above where the standing part of the foresheet was made fast to the ship's side, and the appropriate flag placed over it. Fifty-six times the plank had been tilted, the flag held, and the body in its shotted hammock slid over the side into the water. He had conducted the service for the Junos and he had asked the lieutenant who had commanded La Créole to carry it out for the Frenchmen; surely one of the few funeral services conducted by a man guarded by armed Marines.
As the Juno stretched close hauled across the mouth of Fort Royal Bay heading for the anchorage off the city, Ramage knew he was really gambling. By comparison last night's capture of the schooners had been a matter of calculation, and he had calculated correctly. Now he needed a gambler's luck, if there was such a thing, because what he was going to attempt was beyond calculation. Like some pallid gambler at Buck's, he could only roll the three dice (in this case the Juno, La Mutine and La Créole) and hope for the best, knowing that the croupier would rake in men's lives if he lost. His life and the Junos' were at stake.
He glanced aloft to where the Tricolour streamed to leeward, a third again as large as the Red Ensign beneath it. Every available telescope in Fort Royal would be watching it. Over to starboard Aitken was keeping La Créole well up to windward, while to larboard Baker was making a good job handling La Mutine, Wagstaffe had been disappointed to find that he was not going to get command after all until Ramage had told him his task.
The Junos were exhausted. First they had to transfer all the French wounded to La Mutine, where Bowen was still on board, with his instruments and assistants, attending to them. Once the wounded had been made as comfortable as possible in La Mutine, the French prisoners were transferred to her as well and secured in the hold, with Marine guards covering them. There was little likelihood of them trying to escape, for Ramage had explained carefully to the French lieutenant that he intended sending them all into Fort Royal under a flag of truce, providing the lieutenant gave his word that the total number of men would be entered on the exchange list, and none would ever serve against the British until the equivalent number of British prisoners in French hands had been duly exchanged. The Frenchman had readily agreed - it was a common enough practice - and drawn up a list of the names of the wounded and prisoners and signed it.