The flying squadron

'Beyond the fact that she had British deserters on board,' Wyatt persisted sarcastically.

'Her captain surrendered,' added Metcalfe with a characteristic lack of logic lost in the heat of the dispute.

'He struck, Mr Metcalfe,' Vansittart said, and Drinkwater realized he was more than holding his own; he was enjoying himself. 'He struck, merely to avoid the further effusion of blood. It was a pity Humphries insisted on searching the Chesapeake…'

'He found four men,' Wyatt snapped, 'four deserters.'

Vansittart turned a contemptuous expression on Wyatt. 'The facts, Mr Wyatt,' he said with a cool detachment, 'indicate three of those men were Americans pressed into our service. Had Captain Humphries contented himself with accepting the surrender and apologizing for the dishonour he had done the American flag by his unprovoked attack, we might have thus avoided the necessity of eating humble pie in the affair of the President and the Little Belt.' Vansittart stared round the table, a smile of satisfaction playing round the corners of his mouth which he hid by delicately dabbing at it with his napkin. He had achieved a victory over these rough sea-officers and was justifiably pleased with himself. He caught Drinkwater's eye. 'I know many of you to be vexed by the case of Americans born before Independence and therefore theoretically British subjects ripe for impressment into the British fleet. But I hardly think one of you to be so mean-minded as to admit this a casus belli, eh?'

'I do not think the Americans will go to war over the plight of their seamen,' Drinkwater said, breaking the silence of Vansittart's triumph, 'though their politicians may make a deal of noise about it. However, there is always the danger that they may imagine us to be in a position of weakness, as indeed we are, with the army in Spain to supply. Suppose they did let loose say five hundred privateers, as Mr Wyatt suggests, to tie up our cruisers with the burden of convoys, and suppose then they attempted, as they did in the last war, to conquer Canada. I would venture to suggest the most disloyal conjecture that they might succeed.'

'Ah, sir, that', said Vansittart, holding up a wagging linger to add import to his words, 'is what concerns His Majesty's government...'

'Or that of the Prince of Wales,' Metcalfe interjected sententiously.

'No, sir, the Ministry remains the King's; the Prince, in his capacity as Regent, is, as it were, in loco sui parentis.' Vansittart's little joke was lost. The King's supposed insanity combined with his son's extravagant and profligate frivolity and the Duke of York's corruption and malpractice at the War Office, served to cast a shadow over most political deliberations.

'We should also remember Russia,' Drinkwater went on. 'She has seized Finland from the Swedes and her fleet is not to be despised…'

'Canada is the keystone to it all,' Vansittart said, almost waving away Drinkwater's words. 'It all depends upon whether the hawks prevail over the doves in the Yankee administration.'

'Let us hope', said the chaplain, speaking for the first time, 'that good sense and Christian charity prevail…'

'We always hope for that, Mr Simpson,' said Pym the surgeon ironically, 'and are so consistently disappointed, that did hope not spring eternal into the human breast, there would be an end to all your piety.'

A small tribute of laughter followed this and a silence fell as Mullender cleared the table. The ruined carcass of the pig lay dismembered.before them. The dinner had not been entirely unsuccessful.

'It is the Orders-in-Council prohibiting trade with the French Empire which will provoke a war,' Drinkwater said. 'The Americans believe it to be an unwarranted interference with their right to trade. Their grain saved the Revolution once, in '94, and they are great boys for profit ... they might yet prove a force to be reckoned with.'

The cloth was drawn and the decanter set before him. He held the lead-crystal glass against the heel of the ship. It had been a present from Elizabeth and he would be most upset if it were lost. He drew the stopper and sent the port on its slow circulation. An anticipatory silence fell upon the company.

When it had completed its circuit he proposed the loyal toast. 'Gentlemen,' he said, solemnly, 'the King.'

'The King,' they chorused.

He raised his glass a second time. 'His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent.'

They mumbled their responses and waited as Drinkwater again lifted his glass. 'And to peace, gentlemen, at least with the Americans.' He bowed towards Vansittart. 'And success to Mr Vansittart's mission.'

'Amen to that,' said the chaplain.

After the officers had left, Drinkwater motioned Vansittart to remain behind. He refilled their glasses while Mullender clattered the dishes in the adjacent pantry.

'I am glad to see you fully recovered from the sickness, Mr Vansittart, and in such good form. I am afraid they are not sophisticates where political matters are concerned.'

'I thought my presence offended them, they seemed so taciturn.'

Drinkwater laughed. 'You marked their odd behaviour then, but discovered the wrong cause.'

'I think not, Captain, though I own to that apprehension initially. It seemed to me they find Metcalfe overbearing.'

'Yes, you are right,' agreed Drinkwater admiringly. Vansittart was no fool, though there was no point in dwelling upon the subject. 'As to their attitude to our present assignment, they have been too closely bred to war and would delight in licking what they consider to be the upstart Yankees.'

'You have reservations, Captain?'

'I am old enough to have served in the last American war and, in a lifetime of service, have found it to be a foolish man who underestimates his adversary.'

Vansittart nodded, his face suddenly wise beyond his years, borne down by the responsibility of his task.

'You are more than a mere messenger.'

Vansittart looked up, his eyes shrewd. He could hold his liquor too, Drinkwater acknowledged.

'Yes. It is likely that we will give ground on the matter of impressment. It will be a great coup for John Quincy Adams who has been alleging our perfidious actions are on a par with murder. He claims several thousand such cases and it will set a deal of lawyers pettifogging over the rules governing neutrals but...' he shrugged.

'Needs must when the devil drives, eh?'

'It defuses any action mediated towards Canada. You see, Captain, there is a rumour, gathered by persons close to French affairs, which suggests the Americans will claim certain oceanic rights over the Gulf Stream, and that they are approaching France for the means to build seventy-five men-o'-war...'

'And John Quincy Adams has been hob-nobbing with Count Rumiantsev in Russia ...'

'How the devil d'you know about that?' Vansittart's eyebrows rose in astonishment. 'Ah, I collect: Lord Dungarth.'

Drinkwater nodded. 'He has from time to time seen fit to enlighten me.'

'He seeks to draw Russia back to the old Coalition and reaffirm an alliance with Great Britain again.'

'Yes.' Drinkwater thought of the dropsically obese, one-legged man whom he had first known as a dashing young first lieutenant in the war with the American rebels a generation earlier. 'He has devoted his life to the defeat of the French.'

'It is not entirely that which prompts this appeasement of the Americans, nor the news of Adams and the Russians combining against us. The truth is that a halting of trade with America is having a bad effect on our industries. The mercantile lobby is active in Parliament and though the Luddites are hanged when caught, their cause cannot be thus easily suppressed. Public disorder', Vansittart said, leaning forward slightly and lowering his voice confidentially, the exaggeration betraying a degree of insobriety, 'is currently tying down more regiments of light dragoons then the French are in Spain.'