At an order the troops raised their shakoes and gave three cheers. Some of the coloured folk joined in the cheering, but most of the whites and mulattoes in the crowd remained silent.
‘Sullen lot, these lousy Frogs,’ remarked Gunston. ‘But I stand no nonsense, and have been keeping them well under my thumb.’
‘Would it not have been a better policy to endeavour to win them over by conciliation?’ replied Roger quietly.
The young Colonel gave a sneering laugh. There speaks ‘Bookworm Brook’, the little toady that I used to lick at Sherborne. You can’t have changed much to advocate a policy of toadying to the French. But I suppose it was toadying to Mr. Pitt that got you your Governorship.’
‘Listen, Gunston,’ Roger said with an edge on his voice. ‘I could call you out for that. But we have already fought one duel with pistols, and rather than expose you to the possibility of being cashiered for fighting another, I gave you satisfaction a second time before an audience of both sexes with buttons on the foils. In that I proved by far the better swordsman, and I could kill you tomorrow morning if the choice of weapons lay with me.’
‘I’m in better practice now,’ Gunston retorted, ‘and I’m game to take you on with the buttons off any time you like.’
‘I have never doubted your courage, but you have not heard me out. I have no intention of either giving or accepting a challenge in your case. I have been sent here for a purpose which I mean to do my best to fulfil. You, too, are in the King’s service. Having been thrown together in this way is most unfortunate, seeing that we have a natural antipathy for one another. But as your superior I shall expect from you a prompt obedience to my orders, and a reasonable politeness. Should you fail in either, I warn you here and now, I shall have you placed under arrest for insubordination.’
Gunston shrugged. ‘You need have no fears about my doing my duty; and you are right in that for the sake of the Service it would be a bad thing for us to be at cross purposes. But there is still much antagonism to the British here; so this is a soldier’s job, and you will be well advised to be guided by me in all measures for keeping the population under.’
‘I shall certainly consult you, but form my own judgment in due course,’ replied Roger quietly. And that closed the conversation.
Meanwhile the carriage had carried them through streets which had some fine examples of Louis XIV and Louis XV architecture and up a steep winding road to the Governor’s Residence. It was a large chateau and still contained many handsome pieces of furniture, carpets, tapestries and pictures which had been collected there by a long line of noble governors during the ancien régime. Its tropical garden was gay with flowers and from its situation high up on the hill there was a lovely view over the five mile wide bay to a famous beauty spot called Trois Ilets on the opposite shore.
As they got out at its entrance and the A.D.C.’s handed the ladies down from their carriage, Gunston looked towards them and remarked: ‘That’s a fine little filly that Amanda’s brought with her. I must, put her through her paces.’
‘You will treat Miss Marsham with every respect!’ snapped Roger. ‘Or find yourself accountable to me.’
‘Indeed!’ A mocking smile appeared on Gunston’s ruddy countenance. ‘Does your Excellency’s authority then extend to prohibiting your staff from polite attentions to young ladies?’
With an angry frown Roger turned away. Gunston had him there, and as he was a fine dashing figure of a man many women found him attractive. After a time, Clarissa might well yield to his experienced wooing, and while Roger had persuaded himself that he would be glad for her to have an affaire with someone like one of the young A.D.C’s, the thought of her in Gunston’s arms made him seethe with impotent rage.
Having acknowledged the greetings of a staff of some thirty coloured servants who had been assembled to welcome their new master and mistress, Roger said to Gunston: ‘Please take me to the room in which you transact your business.’
‘Damn!’ the Colonel muttered in a low voice. ‘After getting us all up at an ungodly hour by your early arrival this morning, surely you do not mean to start work now the hottest part of the day is approaching? You won’t last long here if you play those sort of games.’
‘I am anxious to have the latest news out of Europe,’ Roger replied coldly; so with just the suggestion of a merry wink at Clarissa, Gunston led him away to a pleasant room at the back of the house overlooking the bay. There, Gunston rang a handbell, which brought a negro footman hurrying in with the ingredients for a ‘planter’s punch’ and while mixing the drink the Colonel began to comply with Roger’s request.
‘ ’Tis said that my Lady Southwell gave birth to a child covered with hair, and that it matched in colour the beard of the Netherlands Envoy, who has long pursued her. So the wits have made a rhyme on it that runs:
The Dutchman, bearded like a goat,
has at last had his Southwell.
But it cost him a fur coat.’
Had anyone else told Roger this silly story he would have laughed. Instead he said impatiently: ‘I am not interested in scandal. I want the latest particulars you have of our war against the French.’ Yet even as he said it he felt that he was being horribly pompous, and acting like a man twenty years older than Gunston rather than one two years his junior; although as far as their mentalities were concerned the former was the case.
‘Ah well!’ The Colonel shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘You shall have it, then, though there’s little enough to tell. Some three months ago the French sent an expedition to recapture Corsica, but it was driven off. In all other theatres they are still getting the best of it. General Jour dan has had several successes on the Rhine and Pichegru has invaded the Low Countries.’
‘I learned that from General Williamson whilst in Jamaica. Is there no later news?’
‘Not of the war; but from the news-sheets carried by a packet that arrived here three days ago I gather that in Paris more members of the old Terrorist gang are meeting with their just deserts at the hands of the Reactionaries. You may have heard of a brute named Carrier, who drowned hundreds of poor wretches at Nantes. An honest fellow named Fouché brought tears to the eyes of his fellow deputies when describing this monster’s vile crimes, and so secured his death.’
Suddenly Roger laughed. ‘Honest fellow! My God, Gunston; if you only knew! Fouché was responsible for the murder of near as many people in Lyons as Carrier wag in Nantes. Yet such an act is typical of him. His capacity for hypocrisy is bottomless; although I would have scarce thought, considering all those other rogues know of him, that he could have succeeded in staging such a volte-face. Still, it only goes to show that power remains in the hands of the extremists, and they are still at their old game of cutting one another’s throats.’
‘You know this man Fouché, then?‘
Roger forebore to say that the mutual hatred between Fouché and himself was even deeper than that he bore Gunston, and nodded. ‘Yes; as Mr. Pitt’s agent in France I have had to have dealings with most of these cannibals at one time or another.’
‘I fear I should have found your late occupation, to say the least, repugnant.’
Ignoring the covert sneer, Roger asked: ‘What else?’
‘There was one item of local interest in the despatch which arrived with the packet. It seems that although the Spaniards are our allies, their people in Santo Domingo are assisting the negro army against us by furnishing it with supplies and weapons; so my Lord Grenville has instructed our Ambassador in Madrid to demand that Don Garcia, the Governor of the Colony, should be recalled.’
‘I am glad to hear it; for I have recently been in that island, and had intended to inform Whitehall of the perfidy of the Spaniards.’
Gunston began to mix them another drink, and while doing so said: ‘In the confidential news circular that accompanied the despatch there was much about the situation in Poland; but I don’t suppose you would be interested in that.’
‘On th
e contrary. The ill success of the allied armies on the Scheldt and Rhine has been almost entirely, due to the Prussians and Austrians both holding a large part of their forces in reserve, lest Catherine of Russia seize the whole of Poland whilst their backs are turned. So I am very interested indeed. Pray tell me of it.’
‘Strap me! I had no idea of that.’ The Colonel raised his ginger eyebrows. ‘Well, apparently, last spring, the Russians, who were exercising a sort of protective custody in a large part of Poland, feared a rising aimed at driving them out; so they decided to disarm the Polish troops. Their attempts to do so put the fat in the fire. There was a lot of fighting in Cracow, Warsaw and other Polish cities, which ended in the Russians getting pushed out. Then a Polish patriot named Kosciusko got an army together with the idea of liberating the whole of Poland; but he had the Prussians, who were occupying another sector of the country, on his hands as well as the Russians, They inflicted a severe defeat upon him and proceeded to invest Warsaw. But Polish partisans played the very devil with their lines of supply; so in September they were forced to raise the siege.’
Roger already knew all this, but he waited patiently for his informant to go on. Gunston poured the fresh drinks and continued.
‘The Poles weren’t given the chance to remain cock-a-hoop for very long. An Austrian army had started to invade their country from the south, the Prussians were still to the west of them, and a new Russian army under a General Suvóroff was advancing upon them from the north. Early in October Kosciusko went out to try to prevent two Russian forces joining up and his army was utterly routed. He was taken prisoner and in the first week of November, after a frightful slaughter, Suvóroff captured Warsaw. That put an end to the last hope the wretched Poles had of regaining their independence.’
‘Then we may assume that Russia, Prussia and Austria are now squabbling over the bones of Poland’s carcass. This explains why the French have been able to invade the Low Countries. Last spring my Lord Malmesbury negotiated a pact with King Frederick William of Prussia to send 62,000 troops there in return for further subsidies from us and the Dutch. He will have taken the money and by now have gone back on his word.’
Gunston gave Roger a puzzled glance. ‘You are right there. I recall now that in the confidential summary there was a passage to the effect that towards the end of October, on some trumped up excuse, the Prussians had denounced a treaty with the Maritime Powers by which more troops were to be sent against the French. But how did you know of it?’
‘I did not know it; but it is my business to judge what repercussions events in one place are likely to have in others. And now, if you will produce the most recent despatches from London,’ I will look through them for myself.’
Having unlocked a cabinet, Gunston handed Roger its key and a bundle of papers; then he said: ‘I gave orders this morning for the removal of my personal belongings to a house nearer the town. If you have done with me for the present I will go and see that my instructions have been carried out.’
‘By all means.’ Roger made him a semi-formal bow, then added: ‘But I should be glad if you would make arrangements for me to inspect both the fortress and its outlying batteries tomorrow morning. May I count upon you calling for me at eight o’clock?’
‘By all means.’ Gunston grinned at him again. ‘As a civilian you can know little of such matters; but, providing you keep your mouth shut, the inspection you suggest may favourably impress the men.’ With this parting shot, and his sabre-tache banging on his thigh, the stalwart Colonel swaggered from the room.
He little knew the surprise that was in store for him. Less then a year previously Carnot, the greatest Minister of War that France had ever known, had sent Roger to inspect the fortifications of Brest and then Boulogne, and had complimented him on his reports. During his inspection next morning he kept up a running commentary of pertinent questions and picked upon every weakness of the defences with an eagle’s eye that a senior General might have envied. Gunston was left amazed and breathless.
The inspection satisfied Roger that from a purely military point of view Gunston knew his business. The discipline was good, the troops were being kept up to the mark with frequent drills, exercises and practice in taking stations at an alarm; and, as far as the capital was concerned, the disposition of its garrison was sound. But he was appalled when he learned the number of men who had died since Admiral Sir John Jervis had captured the island and left Gunston there as its Garrison Commander, with two regiments of Foot and some auxiliary troops. He was, too, greatly concerned by the sick lists that he had demanded to see, and the fate of the several hundred men who now lay in hospital; the more so as on his ordering that they should all be dosed daily with an infusion of Cinchona bark, he learned that the plant was not grown in the island, and that the drug itself could be obtained only in small quantities.
Another matter that worried him was the hostile attitude of the island’s inhabitants. As the garrison was small and much weakened by sickness, he felt that, as a temporary measure, Gunston’s policy of repression might possibly be justified; but to maintain it permanently could lead nowhere. Henry Dundas, with his sound common sense, had said that if the captured islands were to prove real assets, rather than a drain on British resources, their peoples must be weaned from their old allegiance, and brought to realise that under the British flag they would enjoy more individual liberty, together with a greater security and prosperity, than they had done under the flag of France. Roger was fully in sympathy with the Minister’s policy, and determined to carry it out.
As a first step in the one matter he instructed Fergusson to investigate and make a full report to him on the state of things in the hospitals; on the other, from lack of more promising counsel, he consulted Gunston, inquiring how best he could get a message to the people.
The Colonel said that his own method had been to have what he wanted to say translated into French, printed off and posted up in the principal towns of the island. Then if such fresh regulations as he had issued were ignored, he had a few people who had infringed them arrested and flung into prison, thus ensuring his orders a much wider publicity.
When Roger told him that this practice was anything but suitable for the object he had in mind, Gunston said: ‘Well, you can always try your luck with the Assembly. It is a collection of notables who in the old days used to make recommendations to the Governor. When Sir John Jervis took over it was decided that it should not be abolished, but remain quiescent, so that it could be summoned as required for any special purpose. On the few occasions that I’ve had its members called together I’ve found them noisy and truculent. But it’s just possible that they might give you a hearing.’
On this, Roger asked that they should be assembled in three days’ time; then he gave considerable thought to composing an address, the keystone of which was the verbal message the King had given him when he kissed hands, expressing his intention to have a good care for the interests of his new subjects in Martinique. When the day came Roger had no reason to complain of Gunston’s arrangements. A troop of Hanoverian cavalry had been detailed to escort his coach and British red-coats lined the approaches to the Assembly Hall. Gunston, the senior Naval officer in the port, the Mayor and numerous other French officials were gathered on its steps to receive him. Having acknowledged their greetings, he drew himself up to his full six feet, and, followed by them, marched into the building. He was directed to a curtained archway which led on to a dais at one end of the hall. Two footmen drew aside the curtains. Flushing with mortification and rage he halted between them. Every bench in the hall was empty.
For a moment he was utterly at a loss, then he turned about and marched straight back to his coach. As he got in, he beckoned Gunston to accompany him. He felt that he had been made a complete fool of, and that his bête noire was responsible. Now, white to the lips with fury, he snapped:
‘What’s the meaning of this?’
‘Don’t ask me,’ the Colonel replied
quite calmly. ‘I had the notices sent out as you directed. But I did warn you that they are an unruly lot of bastards. I suppose they got together beforehand and decided to ignore the summons to attend you.’
‘You must have known that the hall was empty.’
‘How could I? It’s not my business to act as usher to a crowd of Frogs and see them into their seats. I never went inside the building until I entered it behind you.’
There seemed no reply to that; yet Roger remained convinced that Gunston must have known, or at least suspected, that he was about to be made the laughing stock of Fort Royal. He was, moreover, intensely annoyed by the thought that such an affront to himself, as the representative of his Sovereign, could not be allowed to pass without his taking some appropriate action.
Gunston suggested that the obvious course was to arrest some of the leading deputies and send them to cool their heels in prison until they learned better manners; but Roger was most loath to antagonise them still further. After some thought that evening he penned a circular letter to be sent to each of them, which read as follows:
His Excellency the Governor appreciates that in every occupation a new hand is expected to pay his footing, and should not resent jokes played upon him. But the repetition of a joke deprives it of its humour.
His Excellency had intended to convey to the Assembly a message of goodwill from His Majesty the King, and also to announce the relaxation of certain restrictions. He therefore counts upon a full attendance of deputies when they are next summoned, for the betterment of relations between the Government and people of Martinique.
This, Roger felt, would not only save his face but evoke considerable surprise and discussion; and, in order that his good intentions might have ample time to become generally known, he decided not to summon the Assembly again until another week or ten days had elapsed.
Meanwhile he thought it would be a good plan to spend a few nights in St. Pierre, the oldest settlement in the island, which had since become a fine city and the centre of its commerce. It was only some fifteen miles away along the coast, but there was another Governor’s Residence there; so he sent orders for rooms in it to be prepared for him, and despatched Dan and his new negro body-servant by coach in advance.
The Dark Secret of Josephine Page 28