He said it with warm confidence and conviction.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
His confidence was misplaced.
When James wrote his letter of resignation to their Lordships, they refused to accept it. They insisted that he must first answer the charges brought against him, at his court martial, and summoned him to Portsmouth. The charges were that he had ignominiously failed to offer sufficient resistance to the enemy in an action at sea, had run away, and that in direct consequence had lost his ship.
He had not expected such charges to be laid. Mr. Driscoll had intimated to him that the only charges brought would be the formal and usual ones following the loss of his ship. Such charges followed the loss of any RN ship in any circum-stances at sea action, storm, or other calamity. If James could prove that his ship had been lost in spite of his best and most vigorous efforts to preserve her, Mr. Driscoll had indicated, then no blame would attach to his name and his career would not be impaired.
The offences with which he would now be charged were far harsher. They amounted to a full-blown accusation of cowardice. When he had read them, with their Lordships’ formal letter of reply, James was furious.
‘This is an outrage! Lies, gall, and wormwood! Pure damned spite!’
He threw the documents down on the table in disgust.
‘I will not go to Portsmouth. I will stay here. If they mean to conduct this wretched trial, they must come here and arrest me.’
He strode up and down the room. Fortunately he was alone. His increasing vehemence would have alarmed and frightened Catherine, who had thought the question entirely resolved by his letter of resignation, and their peaceful future confirmed.
‘I will not go willing, neither, by God. They attack me in my own home at their peril. I will show them what a man of fighting experience may produce in his own protection, and in defence of his family! Let them come, God damn them! They will discover right quick what ferocious skills I command, and rue the bloody day they crossed my path!’
He returned to the table, seized the documents and tore them into shreds, and threw them on the fire. He made no reply to the letter, nor to the charges, and ignored the summons.
Days afterward, a second summons came to Melton House, and that too James ignored.
Several further days after that a young lieutenant of Marines came to the house, with a Marine sergeant and a small contingent of men. The sergeant and his men waited outside, and the lieutenant was admitted.
James met him in his library, wearing a plain dark frock coat, and when the lieutenant saw that James was wearing a sword indoors, he was greatly dis-comfited. Out of good manners he had already removed both his hat and his sword, and left them with the footman in the hall.
‘Sir James Hayter, I am obliged to request .that is, I am to escort you .’
‘Who are you, sir?’
‘Lieutenant George Bracken, Sir James, of the Second Marine Division at Portsmouth.’
‘Well, Mr. Bracken, you have come here on a fruitless errand, I think.’
‘Fruitless .?’
‘I will not go with you, today.’ Shaking his head.
‘Will not .? But I I have a warrant .’ Lieutenant Bracken was greatly embarrassed now, and beginning to be intimidated. The walls of leather bound books, the tall portraits, the desk and chairs and grand windows with their silk curtains all spoke of power and position.
‘A warrant? D’y’mean you have come here to put me under arrest?’
‘I I hope that will not be necessary, Sir James. I .my most fervent wish is that you will--’
‘Submit?’ James, over him.
‘ .will come with me, sir, and behave gentlemanlike.’
‘Gentlemanlike?’ James tilted his head a little, as if better to hear. ‘D’y’suggest I behave un-gentlemanlike, in my own house?’
‘No, indeed I do not, sir. I merely meant .I merely wished to indicate ..that I have my duty to perform.’
‘And as I have said to you, plain enough: I will not go with you, today.’
‘Then .then ..it is my duty to--’
‘You have done your duty, Mr. Bracken. You have come here to take me away, and I have declined to go. Now leave me alone, if you please.’
‘No, sir, no .I fear I cannot do that, sir. I must insist--’
‘Be quiet, sir! Y’will insist on nothing! Leave this room, and my house, at once or by God know the consequence!’ A hand on his sword.
‘I am unarmed, Sir James.’
James saw that the young man spoke the truth, and at once removed his hand from his sword.
‘Very well. If I was mistook then I was mistook. I had thought you meant to offer me violence.’
‘In course I have no such wish. However, I must say to you, sir, that if you will not come with me now, then with reluctance, I .I shall be obliged to call on the assistance of my sergeant, and his men.’
James now decided on a change of tactics. He unbuckled his sword and hung it on the back of a chair, and rang the table bell on his desk. When his butler Waddle responded, James:
‘The ‘eighty, Waddle, and two glasses.’
‘Very good, sir.’ A brief bow, and he departed.
‘I will like you to drink a glass of wine with me, Mr. Bracken. Will you sit down?’
James moved behind his desk, and indicated a chair in front. The young man, thoroughly puzzled, did sit down. James sat down, with the desk between them.
‘Now then, we will drink our wine, and behave gentlemanlike one to the other, and then we will resolve the matter.’
‘Resolve it, Sir James .?’
‘Indeed.’ A nod, a smile.
‘Erm .how, exact?’
‘Let us drink our wine, first. Hey?’
Their wine came, and was poured. The butler again departed. James lifted his
glass, and Mr. Bracken lifted his.
‘Your health, Mr. Bracken.’
‘Your health, sir.’
They drank.
‘Very good.’ James leaned back in his chair. ‘Now then. As I think you may not be aware, I have retired from the Royal Navy. I have informed their Lordships of my decision in a letter I know they have received. Their Lordships chose to ignore that letter. They wish to chastise me by court martial for something I did not do. I decline to allow it. I decline to attend what can only be a travesty of a trial. In any case, as I say, I have left the navy behind me. I am no longer a sea officer in a blue coat, and their Lordships have no call upon my services in any distinction, nor upon my time. You see before you, at ease in his own home, a private man.’
‘Sir James ’ began the lieutenant. James talked over him.
‘A man, I am bound to say, Mr. Bracken without wishing to elevate myself unduly, nor strut before the world a man that can bring very considerable resources to bear, in his own interest. A man of position, and title. A man of property. A man of means.’
‘I I understand you, sir. However, I--’
‘You like this wine, Mr. Bracken?’
‘It is excellent.’
‘Ain’t it, though? I confess that at first I did not like it. Nay, I thought it tart, you know, too sharp on the tongue. I was wrong. It finishes long and mellow and considerable.’ A relaxed pull at his glass. ‘As I myself intend to do at my leisure.’
And presently, feeling himself unable not to say unwilling to press so distinguished a host any further, for fear of bringing later and greater trouble down on his own head, Lieutenant Bracken went away alone.
When he returned to Portsmouth he was roundly abused by his commanding officer for failing in his duty, but his commanding officer did not pursue the matter further himself, for the same reasons the young lieutenant had not. He feared the private influence, the hidden power of connection that lay behind a landed gentleman of old family, more than he feared the formal wrath of the Admiralty. That James’s power was largely imaginary, an illusion produced by a grand house, broad acres, and confident defiance w
as neither here nor there. It was believed.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Captain Rennie was not called upon to face a court martial. However he was called upon to explain to Mr. Symonds in London the full circumstances leading to the failure of the venture. Rennie had hoped to journey to Norwich to be with Sylvia, but could not avoid the summons to London, and so reluctantly went, and put up at Mrs. Peebles hotel. The following morning he went to Whitehall.
Rennie had not heard from James and so knew nothing of his decision to defy the Admiralty and his court marshal, and retire from the service. When Rennie had concluded his detailed explication to Mr. Symonds, that gentleman was less censorious with him than he had been with the coldly furious Captain Hayter whom Mr. Symonds now admitted to himself he had perhaps unjustly provoked.
‘I was obliged to convey the sad news in a letter to his father.’ Rennie nodded and sighed.
‘Eh?’ Mr. Symonds had not been paying close attention to Rennie the last few moments, occupied as he was with his own thoughts.
‘Admiral Allbright.’
‘Ah, yes. His wayward son, that you mentioned. Entered as an idler, and died of his wounds.’
‘I would not say wayward. Not wayward, exact.’
‘Ah. Mistook in his activity, then.’
‘Aye. Very grievously mistook.’
‘I am bound to say, Captain Rennie, that your thorough and particular revelations have persuaded me that the sea action which destroyed Foxhound and badly damaged Expedient was alas unavoidable, after all. Britain and France are at war, and two French frigates attacked you on the open sea. Further it is clear that enemy spies had penetrated the navy, and had obtained intricate knowledge of our plans to bring our man away from Naples.’
‘Do not you think the Fund itself may have been penetrated?’
‘The Fund? Nay, I do not. All our activity is close guarded, close kept. Concealment is complete.’
‘Ah. Mm. Well well. ‘ A grimace, a nod.
‘You doubt that, Captain Rennie?’ A frown.
‘In short, I do, Mr. Symonds.’ And now he described all of the events that had befallen James and himself before they weighed and made sail, including the episode in Water Passage, the invasion of the Hayters’ hotel bedroom, and the shot fired aboard Foxhound, that had wounded his cheek.
Mr. Symonds was deeply dismayed.
‘Why did not you tell me these things before you sailed? Why did not Sir James tell me? Good God! Good God! I should have been made aware!’
Rennie sniffed, and: ‘I think there was a great many things you did not tell us, Mr. Symonds. Hey?’
‘Of necessity, Captain Rennie! Of necessity! For reasons of concealment!’
‘Which clearly failed, would not you say?’ With a mixture of increasing irritation, and increasing disdain.
Mr. Symonds made a great effort of will, and calmed himself. He made to smile, and achieved only an unhappy spasm of his facial features, as if they were being forcibly twisted by an unseen hand. A breath, and:
‘Very well, Captain Rennie, so that we will not be at odds in this since it is of such great significance I will concede that perhaps it would have been wiser to have took you into our confidence as to the true intent--’
‘Not to say the true destination, and the true difficulty of realizing your design.’ Rennie, over him.
‘Come now, Captain Rennie, it was not my design. It was a design in the--’
‘Yes yes, well well.’ An impatient shake of the head. ‘Whose design it was ain’t the question now, sir. The question is: who will be blamed for its failure? Who will be blamed for the loss of Foxhound, and one hundred and twenty men? Is it to be Captain Hayter?’
‘I know he was to have been court martialled, but that--’
‘Yes yes, but that is entirely usual, when a ship is lost.’ Over him.
‘I believe they wished to bring charges of cowardice in the face of the enemy.’
‘Cowardice? James Hayter, whose ship was smashed and blown up in action, who survived by a miracle, and is one of the bravest men I ever knew? Hell’s flames and burning damnation, so he is to be blamed after all, and that is how this is to be resolved. It is a matter of cowardice, is it?’
‘Nay, nay, but it ain’t. Not now, Captain Rennie. Captain Hayter will not be tried, after all.’
‘Eh? There is to be no court martial?’
‘No.’ And Mr. Symonds told an astonished Rennie of James’s retirement from the RN, and his subsequent refusal to attend his court martial on the grounds that he
was no longer a sea officer, and wished to remain at home with his family.
‘He has called their bluff, by God.’ Rennie, in wonder.
‘He has, Captain Rennie. So the heart of it now is this. How are we between us to recover the advantage, and bring our design to a satisfactory conclusion?’
A further shake of the head. ‘It cannot be recovered, Mr. Symonds. Not by Sir James whose ship is already lost, and is evidently now himself lost to the navy. And certainly not by me. My own ship is damaged most severe, I too am now on the beach, and very likely will remain so. As you can surely see, I no longer have an interest in the matter, any more than does Sir James.’
‘But what of England’s interest?’ Fervently. ‘We cannot allow such a failure, not in a time of national peril, a time of war. We cannot.’
Rennie lost all patience and stood up. ‘For Christ’s sake, is not the integrity of the Royal Navy in England’s interest? Is not every last ship that weighs and makes sail under the jack doing so in England’s interest? And every last man in her? That risks his life in every storm, in every fierce and bloody action? That toils at the pumps, and hauls on the falls until his hands crack raw? That may die far from home and his loved ones, far from solace and comfort, on the vastness of the ocean, like those poor wretches in Foxhound? Have you the least under-standing, I wonder, of what it is to go to sea for your country, and your king? Everything you have said to me today nor at any other time would indicate ye haven’t the remotest notion, sir. Not the least stirring of an idea. God forgive your heartless insistence, and your reckless, muddled schemes, and your whole insidious damned Fund, that has caused this calamity. If the Royal Navy cannot nor will not turn its back on you then by God I will. And I do.’
Mr. Symonds waited a moment, then nodded and:
‘Bravo, Captain Rennie. Bravo, indeed. I wonder when you will stand for parliament? You clearly have a gift for rhetoric if not for logic. Which in course ain’t a requirement in politics.’
‘You mock me, sir?’
‘You mock yourself, Rennie. I never heard such windy prattle in a man grown up,
such skewed and miserable expression of national pride.’
‘You dare to question my--’
‘I dare because I must. We must find this man, and bring him here to England. We must have his invention under our control, and all the sketches, plans, and drawings pertaining to it. If we do not, England and her whole future may be lost.’
Mr. Symonds looked at Rennie a long moment, then, quietly:
‘Think close upon that, Captain Rennie and then will you turn your back?’
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Rennie swallowed his anger and wounded pride, sat down and listened to Mr. Symonds’ further proposal with a mixture of deep skepticism and deep cynicism.
‘It is my absolute belief that we can yet save the scheme, and bring Mr. Milson to England all three of us, together.’
‘Eh? If, as you say, James has retired from the service, and refuses to leave his house and his family, how can there be three of us?’
‘I have arranged that the charges against him which now lie quiet will be dropped altogether. He will be reinstated on the Naval List.’
‘But .good heaven, aside from anything else he has no ship, Mr. Symonds. I have no ship.’
‘Expedient’s repair will be expedited. That has also been arranged. She will be ready to sail in le
ss than a week. We will then depart for Naples.’
‘All three of us .in Expedient? Is that what you mean?’
‘Exact.’
‘And what if by the time we arrive at Naples Mr. Milson has departed? The men that attacked Captain Hayter and me at sea both said that Milson would be took by their associates to another destination presumably France.’
‘I believe that was pure bluff. They do not know where Mr. Milson hides, at Naples. You were threatened at sea, and suffered interception, to gain our adversaries time to find him. In similar, the threats those same men made to you about your wives were bluff. Your wives have not been abducted, nor even so much as threatened.’
‘I am not yet certain of Sylvia’s safety, not entire. I have wrote to her, and was intent on going to Norfolk as soon as I was able but I have not yet had word from her in reply. I am fearful that she may be in danger.’
‘Do not disturb yourself, Captain Rennie. I do not think she is.’
‘How can you be sure of that? How can I?’
‘Measures will be took to protect her as they will be took to protect Sir James’s wife and mother, when he is no longer at home. They will all be kept altogether safe.’
‘Where is my wife? Is she at home? Or at Norwich?’
‘I will send someone to Norfolk to discover that, at once.’
‘Thank you.’
Rennie gave Mr. Symonds the details of his house at Fakenham, and of Sylvia’s cousin’s house at Norwich, with a hastily scribbled note for his wife, and was silent a moment, bringing order to his thoughts. Presently:
‘Now then, Mr. Symonds, you say that James Captain Hayter will be reinstated to the List. I am not clear why you need him to go with us this time, after all the poor fellow has endured even supposing he is willing. ‘
‘We need him for precisely the same reason as before. He has a close knowledge of Naples, and the surrounds. Neither of us has such knowledge.’
‘But what if he don’t wish to go? What if he refuses outright?’
‘I do not think he will refuse.’
‘I don’t see why he will not, in view of everything that has happened.’
The Following Wind Page 18