'Please ...' There was no denying the extremity to which the woman was reduced.
'Sadly, you are unlikely to believe me when I say I am of little influence and certainly quite incapable of finding the support which would gain you such a living ...'
'I don't ask for very much, Nathaniel; fifty pounds per annum, enough to keep me from the gutter ... forty even.' She saw him shaking his head and a sudden fire kindled in her eyes. She dropped the intimacy they had fallen into. 'Come Captain, you cannot claim to be of no account. I know you are otherwise; why else are you serving in a squadron commanded by a royal prince? Your Prince William could see to it that I was awarded such a pension! Shall I go and petition him ...?' She was scornful, her eyes ablaze.
'Madame, Madame, you do not know what you say!' Drinkwater had to laugh. 'His Royal Highness and his brothers are so often in debt that I would counsel you to steer clear of that path. You might find yourself reduced to whoring in his bed in expectation of guineas, only to be paid in florins! England is not France; your Prince of Benevento has far more power than Prince William Henry, and probably a more generous purse, whatever other vices he has.'
'But you can do it, Nathaniel, for God's sake, you must! Do I have to beg? I will ...' She looked round and saw the cot.
'For God's sake get up! This is too melancholy a drama for such behaviour ...' Drinkwater was keenly aware that, despite his caution, Hortense Santhonax had boxed him into a corner. 'Forty pounds you say? Well, well, I will see what I can do, though don't depend upon it. Come, come,' he floundered, 'it is not seemly to see you so reduced...'
'I have your word?' She had at least the grace to plead.
'You have my word.'
'Thank you, Nathaniel. It gives me no pleasure to be beholden to you.'
'It gives me no pleasure that you are,' Drinkwater replied grimly. He would have to find the woman's pension himself, if he could not obtain funds under some pretext or other. 'So, what is this news that will save Europe?'
To her credit, Hortense Santhonax came straight to the point. 'A group of officers in Paris, unwilling to swear the oath of allegiance to the Bourbon or to take advantage of the dissolution of their vows to the Emperor Napoleon, have already plotted to rescue him from exile.'
She paused a moment, satisfied herself that Drinkwater had taken the bait and went on. 'Talleyrand', she said, eschewing the former French foreign minister's imperial title, 'is arranging matters so that the Emperor will be exiled on the island of Flores in the Azores. Money has already passed into the hands of certain influential Russians to ensure this, so the decision will be supported by Tsar Alexander. I do not think either the Prince Regent or your government will oppose it. But, having consented not to disturb the peace and tranquillity of France, a deposition to which effect the Emperor has already signed, the Emperor will embark in ships which will convey him from the Azores and transport him to North America. Scarcely will your navy have ordered frigates to watch the islands, than Napoleon will have vanished, as will many of his guard, to join forces with the Americans. Can you not imagine the joy with which Mr Madison will welcome the greatest military genius the world has ever known?'
'I can imagine Mr Madison regretting his eagerness when Mr Madison is no longer Mr President,' Drinkwater remarked drily, but Hortense was quick to dismiss his scepticism.
'Napoleon Bonaparte will have lost Europe, Nathaniel, but he will gain Canada! The Québecois await him eagerly...'
Drinkwater thought of the speculations in the English press and Hortense's earlier reference to them. Napoleon's intended destination of America was at least a speculation. It might be a great deal more. 'And you say the Tsar is complicit in this plot?'
'Absolutely, yes. The matter has been settled between Alexander and Napoleon, thanks to Caulaincourt. I do not believe Napoleon will try and usurp the presidency of the United States, nor that he would again overreach himself, for he too is no longer a young man; but Canada will fall to him, and he will have again an empire the size of Europe! Do you think he cannot beat the British out of the country that was once a possession of France?'
The enormity of the implications came as no surprise to Drinkwater. It was as if the possibility seeped into him, giving form to a deep fear, charged with all the inherent horror of something inevitable. The idea was not new, the thing was perfectly possible and not very difficult. But it marked the base ingratitude of the Tsar, into whose coffers the British had poured thousands of pounds to keep his armies in the field.
'If this is true ...'
'It is true,' she shook her head as if wishing she could dismiss it. Then she looked up at him, 'And it is worth forty pounds a year.'
But Drinkwater was no longer listening, he had turned away and stared through the stern windows. They had swung to the flood now and the eastern sky was already showing the first glimmer of the dawn. What was proposed was nothing less than the ruin of Great Britain hard upon the heels of the ruin of France. The euphoria of peace would be snatched from an exhausted people, the economy would be wrecked by further war, the troops mutinous if they had to be shipped in great numbers across the Atlantic to confront the resurgent Emperor of the French ...
It did not bear thinking about. But he could not avoid it. When Britain had lost the Thirteen Colonies of North America, she had still had the vast wealth she derived from India and the sugar islands of the West Indies. Once before India had been threatened by Napoleon, now it was all too clear that it would be the Tsar's patiently obedient and savagely efficient legions who would thrust down towards the sub-continent. Drinkwater had few illusions but that they were capable of such a campaign.
He swung round to find Hortense intently watching him.
'This is not bluff, Madame?' His voice was suddenly hard, his brows knitting above his eyes which glittered fiercely. She felt less sure of herself, saw briefly the man who had killed her husband and who had spent his adult life engaged in a war with the elements as much as her fellow countrymen.
'No, no, if you want proof, you can examine the papers of the port of Antwerp. Three days after the Emperor abdicated, two frigates, new ships just fitted out in that port, sailed for the Atlantic'
'If true I doubt I have time to examine any papers ...' Drinkwater's brain was racing. He, more than anyone else, knew the state of affairs at Antwerp. French money had been building ships on the Scheldt for years. As head of the Admiralty's secret Department he had received regular reports of their progress: no doubt two, three, a dozen frigates and perhaps a seventy-four or an eighty might be in a fit state for sea. And the present time, with the blockade everywhere stood easy, was the most propitious for a quiet departure of two frigates. They could look like Indiamen, by God!
'Do you know the names of these ships?' he asked, his voice rasping.
'I almost forgot,' she said. 'One was to have been called L'Aigle, but it has very likely been altered to something more like a Dutch East Indiaman. It was given out that they were bound for the Indies. They wear Dutch colours, but are French, of that you may be certain. Off Breskens they took on arms and men additional to their crews, veterans, men of the Old and the Middle Guard, Chasseurs à Cheval and Empress Dragoons, even Poles of the Lanciers ...'
'D'you know anything of their passage, Hortense, if they left three days after the Emperor abdicated, then they left on ...'
'The 9th April, and had weighed anchor from Breskens by the 14th...'
'Ten days ago, by God!'
'And they were to go north, to the northwards of Scotland.'
'D'you know who commands them?'