CHAPTER XVI
HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH
All the ships able to take their place in the fighting-line were leftoutside. The French prisoners were disembarked and their places taken bydrafts from the British warships, who at once set about making suchrepairs as were possible at sea. Admiral Beresford boarded the_Ithuriel_, which, until the next fight, he proposed to use as adespatch-boat, and ran up the harbour.
He found every jetty, including the North and South Railway piers, meremasses of smoking ruins: but the Ordnance Depot on Priddy's Hard hadsomehow escaped, probably through the ignorance of the assailants. Helanded at Sheer Jetty opposite Coaling Point, and before he was half-wayup the steps a short, rather stout man, in the undress uniform of aGeneral of Division, ran down and caught him by the hand. After him camea taller, slimmer man with eyes like gimlets and a skin wrinkled andtanned like Russian leather.
The first of the two men was General Sir John French, Commander-in-Chiefat Aldershot, and the second was General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander ofthe Southern Military District.
"Bravo, Beresford!" said General French, quietly. "Scooped the lot,didn't you?"
"All that aren't at the bottom of the Channel. Good-morning, Hamilton.I've heard that you're in a pretty bad way with your forts here,"replied the Admiral. "By the way, how are the docks? I've got a few lameducks that want looking after badly."
"We've just been having a look round," replied General Hamilton. "Thetown's in an awful state, as you can see. The Naval and Militarybarracks, and the Naval School are wrecked, and we haven't been able tosave very much from the yards, but I don't think the docks are hurtmuch. The sweeps went more for the buildings. We can find room for halfa dozen, I think, comfortably."
"That's just about what I want," said the Admiral. "We've lost the_Hindustan_ and _New Zealand_. The _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_ arepretty badly mauled, and I've got half a dozen Frenchmen that would beall the better for a look over. The _Britain_, _Edward VII._, _Dominion_and _Commonwealth_ are quite seaworthy, although, as you see, they'vehad it pretty hot in their topworks. The cruiser squadron is practicallyuntouched. We've got the _Verite_, _Justice_ and _Democratie_, but the_Verite_ has got her propellers and rudders smashed. By the way, thatship of Erskine's, the _Ithuriel_, has turned out a perfect demon. Shesmashed up the first attack, sank nine destroyers and two cruisers, oneof them was that big chap the _Dupleix_, before we came on the scene.During the action she wiped out I don't know how many destroyers andtorpedo boats, sank the _Jeanne d'Arc_ and saved my ship from beingrammed by crippling the _Verite_ just in the nick of time. If we onlyhad a squadron of those boats and made Erskine Commodore, we'd wipe thefleets of Europe out in a month. Now that's my news. What's yours?"
"Bad enough," replied General French. "A powerful combined fleet ofGermans and French, helped by some of these infernal things that seem asmuch at home in the air as they are in the water, are making a combinedattack on Dover, and we seem to be getting decidedly the worst of it.Dover Castle is in flames, and nearly all the forts are in a bad way; soare the harbour fortifications. The Russians and Dutch are approachingLondon with a string of transports behind them, and four airships abovethem. Their objectives are supposed to be Tilbury and Woolwich on onehand, and Chatham on the other. By the way, weren't there any transportsbehind this French Fleet that you've settled up with?"
He had scarcely uttered the last word when a helio began to twinkle fromthe hill above Foreland.
"That's bad news," said the Admiral, "but wait now, there's somethingelse. It's a good job the sun's come out, though it doesn't look veryhealthy."
The message that the helio twinkled out was as follows:
"Thirty large vessels, apparently transports, approaching from direction of Cherbourg and Brest about ten miles south-east by south."
"Very good," said the Admiral, rubbing his hands. "Of course they thinkwe're beaten. I've got five French cruisers that they'll recognise. I'llget crews aboard them at once and convoy those transports in, and theCommanders will be about the most disgusted men in Europe when they gethere."
Acting on the principle that all is fair in love and war, AdmiralBeresford and the two Generals laid as pretty a trap for the Frenchtransports as the wit of man ever devised. Ten minutes' conversationamong them sufficed to arrange matters. Then the Admiral, taking a listof the serviceable docks with him, went back on board the _Ithuriel_ andran out to the Fleet. He handed over the work of taking care of the lameducks to Commodore Courtney of the _Britain_; then from the damagedBritish ships he made up the crews of the French cruisers, the _JulesFerry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. Hetook command of the squadron on board the _Victor Hugo_, and to theamazement of officers and men alike, he ordered the Tricolor to behoisted. At the same time, the White Ensign fluttered down from all theBritish ships that were not being taken into the dockyard and wasreplaced by the Tricolor. A few minutes afterward the French flag roseover Fort Monckton and upon a pole mast which had been put up amidstthe ruins of Southsea Castle.
The French prisoners of course saw the ruse and knew that its verydaring and impudence would command success. Some of them wrung theirhands and danced in fury, others wept, and others cursed to the fullcapability of the French language, but there was no help for it. Whatwas left of Portsmouth was already occupied by twenty thousand men ofall arms from the Southern Division. The prisoners were disarmed andtheir ships were in the hands of the enemy to do what they pleased with,and so in helpless rage they watched the squadron of cruisers steam outto meet the transports, flying the French flag and manned by Britishcrews. It meant either the most appalling carnage, or the capture of theFirst French Expeditionary Force consisting of fifty thousand men, tenthousand horses, and two hundred guns.
The daringly original stratagem was made all the easier of achievementby the fact that the Commanders of the French transports, counting uponthe assistance of the airships and the enormous strength of the navalforce which had been launched against Portsmouth, had taken victory forgranted, and when the first line came in sight of land, and officers andmen saw the smoke-cloud that was still hanging over what twenty-fourhours before had been the greatest of British strongholds, cheer aftercheer went up. Portsmouth was destroyed and therefore the French Fleetmust have been victorious. All that they had to do, therefore, was tosteam in and take possession of what was left. At last, after all thesecenturies, the invasion of England had been accomplished, and Waterlooand Trafalgar avenged!
Happily, in the turmoil of the fight and the suddenness in which theremains of the French Fleet had been forced to surrender, the captain ofthe _Victor Hugo_ had forgotten to sink his Code Book. The result wasthat when the cruiser squadron steamed out in two divisions to meet thetransports, the French private signal, "Complete victory--welcome,"was flying from the signalyard of the _Victor Hugo_. Again a mightycheer thundered out from the deck of every transport. The cruiserssaluted the transports with seventeen guns, and then the two divisionsswung out to right and left, and took their stations on either flank ofthe transports.
And so, all unsuspecting, they steamed into Spithead, and when they sawthe British ships lying at anchor, flying the Tricolor and the same flagwaving over Fort Monckton and Southsea Castle, as well as from half adozen other flagstaffs about the dockyards, there could be no doubt asto the magnitude and completeness of the victory which the French Fleethad gained, and moreover, were not those masts showing above the watersof Spithead, the masts of sunken British battleships.
Field-Marshal Purdin de Trevillion, Commander of the ExpeditionaryForce, accompanied by his staff, was on board the Messageries liner_Australien_, and led the column of transports. In perfect confidence heled the way in between the Spithead Forts, which also flew the Tricolorand saluted him as he went past. As the other vessels of the greatflotilla followed in close order, Fort Monckton and the rest of thewarships saluted; and then as the last transport entered the narrowwaters, a very
strange thing happened. The cruisers that had droppedbehind spread themselves out in a long line behind the forts; theBritish ships slipped their moorings and steamed out from Stokes Bay andmade a line across to Ryde. Destroyers and torpedo boats suddenly dottedthe water with their black shapes, appearing as though from nowhere;then came down every Tricolor on fort and ship, and the White Ensign ranup in its place, and the same moment, the menacing guns swung round andthere was the French flotilla, unarmed and crowded with men, caught likea flock of sheep between two packs of wolves.
Every transport stopped as if by common instinct. The French Marshalturned white to the lips. His hands went up in a gesture of despair,and he gasped to his second-in-command, who was standing beside him:
"Mon Dieu! Nous sommes trahis! Ces sacres perfides Anglais! We arehelpless, like rats in a trap. With us it is finished, we can neitherfight nor escape."
While he was speaking, the huge bulk of the _Britain_ steamed slowlytowards the _Australien_, flying the signal "Do you surrender?" Withinfive hundred yards, the huge guns in her forward barbette swung roundand the muzzles sank until the long chases pointed at the _Australien's_waterline. The Field-Marshal knew full well that it only needed thetouch of a finger on a button to smash the _Australien_ into fragments,and he knew too that the first shot from the flagship would be thesignal for the whole Fleet to open fire, and that would mean massacreunspeakable. He was as brave a man as ever wore a uniform, but he knewthat on the next words he should speak the lives of fifty thousand mendepended. He took one more look round the ring of steel which enclosedhim on every side, and then with livid lips and grinding teeth gave theorder for the flag to be hauled down. The next moment he unbuckled hissword and hurled it into the sea; then with a deep groan he droppedfainting to the deck.
It would be useless to attempt to describe the fury and mortificationwith which the officers and men of the French Force saw the flags one byone flutter down from end to end of the long line of transports, but itwas plain even to the rawest conscript that there was no choice savebetween surrender and massacre. They cursed and stamped about the decksor sat down and cried, according to temperament, and that, under thecircumstances, was about all they could do.
Meanwhile, a steam pinnace came puffing out from the harbour, and in afew minutes General French was standing on the promenade deck of the_Australien_. The Field Marshal had already been carried below. Agrey-haired officer in the uniform of a general came forward with hissword in his hand and said in excellent English, but with a shake in hisvoice:
"You are General French, I presume? Our Commander, Field-Marshal Purdinde Trevillion had such an access of anger when he found how we had beenduped that he flung his sword into the sea. He then fainted, and isstill unconscious. You will, therefore, perhaps accept my sword insteadof his."
General French touched the hilt with his hand, and said:
"Keep it. General Devignes, and I hope your officers will do the same. Iwill accept your parole for all of them. You are the Field-Marshal'sChief-of-Staff, I believe, and therefore, of course, your word is his. Iam very sorry to hear of his illness."
"You have my word," replied General Devignes, "for myself and those ofmy officers who may be willing to give their parole, but for those whoprefer to remain prisoners I cannot, of course, answer."
"Of course not," replied General French, with a rather provoking genialsmile. "Now I will trouble you to take your ships into the harbour. Iwill put a guard on each as she passes; meanwhile, your men will pilearms and get ready to disembark. We cannot offer you much of a welcome,I'm afraid, for those airships of yours have almost reduced Portsmouthto ruins, to say nothing of sending ten of our battleships and cruisersto the bottom. I can assure you, General, that the losses are not all onyour side."
"No, General," replied the Frenchman, "but for the present, at least,the victory is on yours."
Then transport after transport filed into the harbour, and GeneralHamilton and his staff took charge of the disembarkation. Six of theBritish lame ducks had been got safely into dock, and every availableman was slaving away in deadly earnest to repair the damage done inthose terrible two hours. Repairs were also being carried out asrapidly as possible on the cruisers and battleships lying in Spithead,and as shipload after shipload of the disarmed French soldiers werelanded, they were set to work, first at clearing up the dockyards andgetting them into something like working order, and then clearing up theruins of the three towns.
The news of Admiral Beresford's magnificent coup had already reachedLondon, and the reply had come back terse and to the point:
"Excellently well done. Congratulate Admiral Beresford and all concerned. We are hard pressed at Dover, and London is threatened. Send _Ithuriel_ to Dover as soon as possible, and let her come on here when she has given any possible help. Land and sea defence of south and south-east at discretion of yourself, Domville and Beresford. CONNAUGHT."
By some miracle, the Keppel's Head, perhaps the most famous navalhostelry in the south of England, had escaped the shells from theairships, and so General French had made it his headquarters for thetime being. Sir Compton Domville had received a rather serious injuryfrom a splinter in the left arm during the destruction of the NavalBarracks, but he had had his wounds dressed and insisted, against theadvice of the doctors, in driving down to the Hard and talking mattersover with General French. They were discussing the disposition of theFrench prisoners and the huge amount of war material which had beencaptured, when the telegram was delivered. They had scarcely read itwhen there was a knock at the door and an orderly entered, and said:
"Captain Erskine, of the _Ithuriel_, would be pleased to see the Generalwhen he's at liberty."
"The very man!" said General French. "This is the young gentleman," hecontinued, turning to Admiral Domville, "who practically saved us fromtwo torpedo attacks, won the Fleet action for us, and saved Beresfordfrom being rammed at the moment of victory."
The door opened again, and Erskine came in. He saluted and said:
"General, if I may suggest it, I shall not be much more use here, and mylieutenant, Denis Castellan, has just had a telegram from his aunt andsister, who are in London, saying that things are pretty bad there. Ifancy I might be of some use if you would let me go, sir."
"Let you go!" laughed the General. "Why, my dear sir, you've got to go.Here's a telegram that I've just had from His Royal Highness theCommander-in-Chief, saying that Dover and London are in a bad way, andtelling me to send you round at once. When can you start?"
"Well, sir," replied Erskine, after a moment's thought, "we're notinjured in any way, but it will take a couple of hours, I'm afraid, toreplenish our motive power, and fill up with shell, and added to that, Ishould like to have a good overhaul of the machinery."
"Just listen to that, now!" exclaimed Admiral Beresford, who had enteredthe room while he was speaking. "Here's a man who has done nearly asmuch single-handed as the rest of us put together and fought through asstiff a Fleet action as the hungriest fire-eater in the navy wants tosee, and tells you he isn't injured, while half of us are knocked toscrap-iron. I wish we had fifty _Ithuriels_, there'd be very littlelanding on English shores."
"I don't think you have very much to complain of in the French landingat Portsmouth, Beresford," laughed Sir Compton Domville. "I don't wantto flatter you, but it was an absolute stroke of genius. We shall haveto set those fellows to work on the forts and yards, and get some gunsinto position again. It isn't exactly what they came for but they'llcome in very useful. But that can wait. Here's the wire from theCommander-in-Chief. Captain Erskine, you are to get round to Dover andLondon as soon as possible, and, I presume, do all the damage you can onthe way. General French is going to London as soon as a special can begot ready for him."
"May I ask a great favour, sir?" said Erskine.
"Anything, after what you've done," replied Sir Compton. "What is it?"
General Fre
nch and Lord Beresford nodded in agreement, and Erskinecontinued, addressing Lord Beresford: "That Mr Lennard, whom yourlordship met on board the _Ithuriel_, has given me the formula of a newhigh explosive. Absurdly simple, but simply terrific in its effect. Imade up half a dozen shells with it and tried them. I gave the _Dupleix_three rounds. They seem to reduce steel to dust, and, as far as we couldsee every man on the decks dropped as if he had been struck bylightning. From what we have done with them I think they will be ofenormous value. Now Mr Lennard is very anxious to get to London and thenorth of England, and if General French could find him a place in hisspecial--"
"My dear sir," interrupted the General, "I shall be only too delightedto know your maker of thunderbolts. Is he here now?"
"Yes, sir, he's in the smoking-room with Lieutenant Castellan. And thatreminds me, if I am to go to London, I hope you will allow me to handover the German spy that we caught here as soon as convenient."
"Bring them both in," said General French. "Sir Compton and GeneralHamilton will court-martial your spy this morning, and, I hope, shoothim this evening."
Within an hour, Lennard, who had something more serious now to thinkabout than even war, was flying away Londonwards in General French'sspecial, with a letter of introduction from Denis Castellan to his auntand sister, and an hour after the special had started, the _Ithuriel_had cleared the narrow waters and was tearing up the Channel at fiftymiles an hour, to see what havoc she could work on the assailants ofLondon and Dover.
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