by Neil Munro
CHAPTER XL
MY INTERVIEW WITH PITT
Of our voyage across the Channel there need be no more said than that itwas dull to the very verge of monotony, for the wind, though favourable,was often in a faint where our poor sail shook idly at the mast. Twodays later we were in London, and stopped at the Queen's Head aboveCraig's Court in Charing Cross.
And now I had to make the speediest possible arrangement for a meetingwith those who could make the most immediate and profitable use of thetidings I was in a position to lay before them, by no means an easymatter to decide upon for a person who had as little knowledge of Londonas he had of the Cities of the Plain.
MacKellar--ever the impetuous Gael--was for nothing less than a personalapproach to his Majesty.
"The man that is on the top of the hill will always be seeing furthest,"he said. "I have come in contact with the best in Europe on that understanding, but it calls for a kind of Hielan' tact that--that--"
"That you cannot credit to a poor Lowlander like myself," said I, amusedat his vanity.
"Oh, I'm meaning no offence, just no offence at all," he respondedquickly, and flushing at his _faux pas_. "You have as much talent ofthe kind as the best of us I'm not denying, and I have just the oneadvantage, that I was brought up in a language that has delicacies ofaddress beyond the expression of the English, or the French that is, insome measure, like it."
"Well," said I, "the spirit of it is obviously not to be translated intoEnglish, judging from the way you go on crying up your countrymen at theexpense of my own."
"That is true enough," he conceded, "and a very just observe; but nomatter, what I would be at is that your news is worth too much to bewasted on any poor lackey hanging about his Majesty's back door, whomight either sell it or you on his own behoof, or otherwise make a mullof the matter with the very best intentions. If you would take my way ofit, there would be but Geordie himself for you."
"What have you to say to that?" I asked the priest, whose knowledge ofthe world struck me as in most respects more trustworthy than that ofthis impetuous Highland chirurgeon.
"A plague of your kings! say I; sure I know nothing about them, formy luck has rubbed me against the gabardine and none of your erminedcloaks. There must be others who know his Majesty's affairs better thanhis Majesty himself, otherwise what advantage were there in being aking?"
In fine his decision was for one of the Ministers, and at last theSecretary of State was decided on.
How I came to meet with Mr. Pitt need not here be recorded; 'twas indeedmore a matter of good luck than of good guidance, and had there been noScots House of Argyll perhaps I had never got rid of my weighty secretafter all. I had expected to meet a person magnificent in robes ofstate; instead of which 'twas a man in a blue coat with yellow metalbuttons, full round bob wig, a large hat, and no sword-bag nor rufflesthat met me--more like a country coachman or a waggoner than a personageof importance.
He scanned over again the letter that had introduced me and received mecordially enough. In a few words I indicated that I was newly come fromFrance, whence I had escaped in a smuggler's boat, and that I had newsof the first importance which I counted it my duty to my country toconvey to him with all possible expedition.
At that his face changed and he showed singularly little eagerness tohear any more.
"There will be--there will be the--the usual bargain, I presume, Mr.Greig?" he said, half-smiling. "What are the conditions on which I am tohave this vastly important intelligence?"
"I never dreamt of making any, sir," I answered, promptly, with somenatural chagrin, and yet mixed with a little confusion that I should intruth be expecting something in the long run for my story.
"Pardon my stupid pleasantry, Mr. Greig," he said, reddening slightly."I have been so long one of his Majesty's Ministers, and of late haveseen so many urgent couriers from France with prime news to be bargainedfor, that I have grown something of a cynic. You are the first that hascome with a secret not for sale. Believe me, your story will have allthe more attention because it is offered disinterestedly."
In twenty minutes I had put him into possession of all I knew of theplans for invasion. He walked up and down the room, with his handsbehind his back, intently listening, now and then uttering anexclamation incredulous or astonished.
"You are sure of all this?" he asked at last sharply, looking in my facewith embarrassing scrutiny.
"As sure as any mortal man may be with the gift of all his senses," Ireplied firmly. "At this moment Thurot's vessel is, I doubt not, takingin her stores; the embarkation of troops is being practised daily,troops are assembled all along the coast from Brest to Vannes, and--"
"Oh! on these points we are, naturally, not wholly dark," said theMinister. "We have known for a year of this somewhat theatrical displayon the part of the French, but the lines of the threatened invasionare not such as your remarkable narrative suggests. You have been goodenough to honour me with your confidence, Mr. Greig; let me reciprocateby telling you that we have our--our good friends in France, and thatfor six months back I have been in possession of the Chevalier D'Arcy'sinstructions to Dumont to reconnoitre the English coast, and of Dumont'sreport, with the chart of the harbours and towns where he proposed thatthe descent should be made." He smiled somewhat grimly. "The gentlemanwho gave us the information," he went on, "stipulated for twentythousand pounds and a pension of two thousand a year as the just rewardfor his loving service to his country in her hour of peril. He wasnot to get his twenty thousand, I need scarcely say, but he was to getsomething in the event of his intelligence proving to be accurate, andif it were for no more than to get the better of such a dubious patriotI should wish his tale wholly disproved, though we have hithertoacted on the assumption that it might be trustworthy. There cannot bealternative plans of invasion; our informant--another Scotsman, I maysay--is either lying or has merely the plan of a feint."
"You are most kind, sir," said I.
"Oh," he said, "I take your story first, and as probably the mostcorrect, simply because it comes from one that loves his countryand makes no bagman's bargains for the sale of secrets vital to herexistence."
"I am much honoured, sir," said I, with a bow.
And then he stopped his walk abruptly and faced me again.
"You have told me, Mr. Greig," he went on, "that Conflans is to descendin a week or two on the coast of Scotland, and that Thurot is to createa diversion elsewhere with the aid of the Swedes, I have, from the mostdelicate considerations, refrained from asking you how you know allthis?"
"I heard it from the lips of Thurot himself."
"Thurot! impossible!" he murmured.
"Of Thurot himself, sir."
"You must be much in that pirate's confidence," said Mr. Pitt, for thefirst time with suspicion.
"Not to that extent that he would tell me of his plans for invadingmy country," I answered, "and I learned these things by the merestaccident. I overheard him speak last Sunday in Dunkerque with the YoungPretender--"
"The Pretender!" cried the Minister, shrugging his shoulders, andlooking at me with more suspicion than ever. "You apparently move in themost select and interesting society, Mr. Greig?"
"In this case, sir, it was none of my choosing," I replied, and went onbriefly to explain how I had got into Thurot's chamber unknown to him,and unwittingly overhead the Prince and him discuss the plan.
"Very good, very good, and still--you will pardon me--I cannot see howso devout a patriot as Mr. Greig should be in the intimacy of men likeThurot?"
"A most natural remark under the circumstances," I replied. "Thurotsaved my life from a sinking British vessel, and it is no more than hisdue to say he proved a very good friend to me many a time since. But Iwas to know nothing of his plans of invasion, for he knew very well Ihad no sympathy with them nor with Charles Edward, and, as I have toldyou, he made me his prisoner on his ship so that I might not betray whatI had overheard."
The Minister made hurried notes of
what I had told him, and concludedthe interview by asking where I could be communicated with during thenext few days.
I gave him my direction at the Queen's Head, but added that I had it inmy mind to go shortly to Edinburgh, where my address would be best knownto the Lord Advocate.
"The Lord Advocate!" said Mr. Pitt, raising his eyebrows.
"I may as well make a clean breast of it, sir," I proceeded hurriedly,"and say that I left Scotland under circumstances peculiarlydistressing. Thurot saved me from a ship called the _Seven Sisters_,that had been scuttled and abandoned with only myself and a seaman onboard of her in mid-channel, by a man named Daniel Risk."
"Bless me!" cried Mr. Pitt, "the scoundrel Risk was tried in Edinburgh amonth or two ago on several charges, including the one you mention, andhe has either been hanged, or is waiting to be hanged at this moment, inthe jail at Edinburgh."
"I was nominally purser on the _Seven Sisters_, but in actual fact I wasfleeing from justice."
The Minister hemmed, and fumbled with his papers.
"It was owing to a duelling affair, in which I had the misfortuneto--to--kill my opponent. I desire, sir, above all, to be thoroughlyhonest, and I am bound to tell you it was my first intention to make theconveyance of this plan of Thurot's a lever to secure my pardon for thecrime of manslaughter which lies at my charge. I would wish now that myloyalty to my country was really disinterested, and I have, in the lasthalf-hour, made up my mind to surrender myself to the law of Scotland."
"That is for yourself to decide on," said the Minister more gravely,"but I should advise the postponement of your departure to Edinburghuntil you hear further from me. I shall expect to find you at the inn atCharing Cross during the next week; thereafter----"
He paused for a moment. "Well--thereafter we shall see," he added.
After a few more words of the kindest nature the Minister shookhands with the confessed manslayer (it flashed on me as a curiouscircumstance), and I went back to join the priest and my fellowcountryman.
They were waiting full of impatience.
"Hast the King's pardon in thy pocket, friend Scotland?" cried FatherHamilton; then his face sank in sympathy with the sobriety of my ownthat was due to my determination on a surrender to justice once mybusiness with the Government was over.
"I have no more in my pocket than I went out with in the morning," saidI. "But my object, so far, has been served. Mr. Pitt knows my story andis like to take such steps as maybe needful. As for my own affair I havementioned it, but it has gone no further than that."
"You're not telling me you did not make a bargain of it before sayinga word about the bit plan?" cried MacKellar in surprise, and couldscarcely find words strong enough to condemn me for what he described asmy stupidity.
"Many a man will sow the seed that will never eat the syboe," was hiscomment; "and was I not right yonder when I said yon about the tact? Ifit had been me now I would have gone very canny to the King himself andsaid: 'Your Majesty, I'm a man that has made a slip in a little affairas between gentlemen, and had to put off abroad until the thing blewby. I can save the lives of many thousand Englishmen, and perhaps thecountry itself, by intelligence that came to my knowledge when I wasabroad; if I prove it, will your Majesty pardon the thing that lies atmy charge?'"
"And would have his Majesty's signature to the promise as 'twere a deedof sale!" laughed the priest convulsively. "La! la! la! Paul, here's ourCeltic Solon with tact--the tact of the foot-pad. Stand and deliver!My pardon, sire, or your life! _Mon Dieu!_ there runs much of the oldoriginal cateran in thy methods of diplomacy, good Master MacKellar. Toomuch for royal courts, I reckon." MacKellar pshawed impatiently. "I'masking you what is the Secretary's name, Mr. Greig?" said he. "Fox orPitt it is all the same--the one is sly and the other is deep, and it isthe natures of their names. I'll warrant Mr. Pitt has forgotten alreadythe name of the man who gave him the secret, and the wisest thing PaulGreig could do now would be to go into hiding as fast as he can."
But I expressed my determination to wait in the Queen's Head a weeklonger, as I had promised, and thereafter (if nothing happened toprevent it) to submit myself at Edinburgh. Though I tried to make aslittle of that as possible to myself, and indeed would make myselfbelieve I was going to act with a rare bravery, I must confess now thatmy determination was strengthened greatly by the reflection thatmy service to the country would perhaps annul or greatly modify mysentence.