"Why George! How lovely to find you here."
"The pleasure is all mine, M'am, he replied with a grin, "This is the most God-forsaken station I've ever been on so the society of some English ladies will prove a rare blessing."
As he spoke his eyes switched to Clarissa, taking in her young loveliness with evident appreciation, and Amanda presented him to her.
Roger next inspected the guard of honour, then the party moved off to a row of open carriages that had been drawn up behind the troops. According to protocol Roger and Gunston got into the first, while Amanda and Clarissa were escorted to the second by the two A.D.C.'s. The band struck up again and they drove off.
At an order the troops raised their shakoes and gave three cheers. Some of the coloured folk joined in the cheering, but most of the whites and mulattoes in the crowd remained silent
"Sullen lot, these lousy Frogs," remarked Gunston. "But I stand no nonsense, and have been keeping them well under my thumb."
"Would it not have been a better policy to endeavour to win them over by conciliation?" replied Roger quietly.
The young Colonel gave a sneering laugh. "There speaks 'Bookworm Brook', the little toady that I used to lick at Sherborne. You can't have changed much to advocate a policy of toadying to the French. But I suppose it was toadying to Mr. Pitt that got you your governorship."
"Listen, Gunston," Roger said with an edge on his voice. "I could call you out for that But we have already fought one duel with pistols, and rather than expose you to the possibility of being cashiered for fighting another, I gave you satisfaction a second time before an audience of both sexes with buttons on the foils. In that I proved by far the better swordsman, and I could kill you tomorrow morning if the choice of weapons lay with me."
"I'm in better practice now," Gunston retorted, "and Fm game to take you on with the buttons off any time you like."
"I have never doubted your courage, but you have not heard me out I have no intention of either giving or accepting a challenge in your case. I have been sent here for a purpose which I mean to do my best to fulfil. You, too, are in the King's service. Having been thrown together in this way is most unfortunate, seeing that we have a natural antipathy for one another. But as your superior I shall expect from you a prompt obedience to my orders, and a reasonable politeness. Should you fail in either, I warn you here and now I shall have you placed under arrest for insubordination." Gunston shrugged. "You need have no fears about my doing my duty; and you are right in that for the sake of the Service it would be a bad thing for us to be at cross purposes. But there is still much antagonism to the British here; so this is a soldier's job, and you will be well advised to be guided by me in all measures for keeping the population under."
"I shall certainly consult you, but form my own judgment in due course," replied Roger quietly. And that closed the conversation. Meanwhile the carriage had carried them through streets which had some fine examples of Louis XIV and Louis XV architecture and up a steep winding road to the Governor's Residence. It was a large chateau and still contained many handsome pieces of furniture, carpets, tapestries, and pictures which had been collected there by a long line of noble governors during the ancien regime. Its tropical garden was gay with flowers and from its situation high up on the Hill there was a lovely view over the five-mile wide bay to a famous beauty spot called Trois Ilets on the opposite shore.
As they got out at its entrance and the A.D.C.'s handed the ladies down from their carriage, Gunston looked towards them and remarked: "That's a fine little filly that Amanda's brought with her. I must put her through her paces."
"You will treat Miss Marsham with every respect!" snapped Roger. "Or find yourself accountable to me."
"Indeed!" A mocking smile appeared on Gunston's ruddy countenance. "Does your Excellency's authority then extend to prohibiting your staff from polite attentions to young ladies?"
With an angry frown Roger turned away. Gunston had him there, and as he was a fine dashing figure of a man many women found him attractive. After a time Clarissa might well yield to his experienced wooing, and while Roger had persuaded himself that he would be glad for her to have an affaire with someone like one of the young A.D.C.'s, the thought of her in Gunston's arms made him seethe with impotent rage.
Having acknowledged the greetings of a staff of some thirty coloured servants who had been assembled to welcome their new master and mistress, Roger said to Gunston: "Please take me to the room in which you transact your business."
"Damn!" the Colonel muttered in a low voice. "After getting us all up at an ungodly hour by your early arrival this morning, surely you do not mean to start work now the hottest part of the day is approaching? You won't last long here if you play those sort of games."
"I am anxious to have the latest news out of Europe," Roger replied coldly; so with just the suggestion of a merry wink at Clarissa, Gunston led him away to a pleasant room at the back of the house overlooking the bay. There, Gunston rang a handbell, which brought a negro footman hurrying in with the ingredients for a 'planter's punch', and while mixing the drink the Colonel began to comply with Roger's request.
"Tis said that my Lady Southwell gave birth to a child covered with hair, and that it matched in colour the beard of the Netherlands Envoy, who has long pursued her. So the wits have made a rhyme on it that runs:
The Dutchman, bearded like a goat, Has at last had his Southwell. But it cost him a fur coat"
Had anyone else told Roger this silly story he would have laughed. Instead he said impatiently: "I am not interested in scandal. I want the latest particulars you have of our war against the French.” Yet even as he said it he felt that he was being horribly pompous, and acting like a man twenty years older than Gunston rather than one two years his junior; although as far as their mentalities were concerned the former was the case.
"Ah well!" The Colonel shrugged his broad shoulders. "You shall have it, then, though there's little enough to tell. Some three months ago the French sent an expedition to recapture Corsica, but it was driven off. In all other theatres they are still getting the best of it. General Jourdan has had several successes on the Rhine and Pichegru has invaded the Low Countries."
"I learned that from General Williamson whilst in Jamaica, Is there no later news?"
"Not of the war; but from the news-sheet carried by a packet that arrived here three days ago I gather that in Paris more members of the old Terrorist gang are meeting with their just deserts at the hands of the Reactionaries. You may have heard of a brute named Carrier, who drowned hundreds of poor wretches at Nantes. An honest fellow named Fouché brought tears to the eyes of his fellow deputies when describing this monster's vile crimes, and so secured his death."
Suddenly Roger laughed. "Honest fellow! My God, Gunston; if you only knew! Fouché was responsible for the murder of near as many people in Lyons as Carrier was in Nantes. Yet such an act is typical of him. His capacity for hypocrisy is bottomless; although! would have scarce thought, considering all those other rogues know of him, that he could have succeeded in staging such a volte-face. Still, it only goes to show that power remains in the hands of the extremists, and they are still at their old game of cutting one another's throats.'1
"You know this man, Fouché, then?"
Roger forbore to say that the mutual hatred between Fouché and himself was even deeper than that he bore Gunston, and nodded. "Yes; as Mr. Pitt's agent in France I have had to have dealings with most of these cannibals at one time or another."