Virtue’s Reward (A Poor Man at the Gate Series, Book 11)

by Andrew Wareham

  “Are you the source of Plunkett’s Irish Whiskey, sir?”

  “I am, my lord, the distilleries are on my estates.”

  “You must be related to St Helens, one would imagine. His Roberts enterprises act to an extent for you, do they not?”

  “They do, my lord. My mother was a Masters, sister to the Marquis of Grafham and aunt to the mother of the present Lord St Helens.”

  “Lord Nash of Claudy is also related, my lord.”

  Patrick was none too pleased that his host should have seen fit to mention that.

  “I am given to understand that Lord Nash has also recently taken the opportunity to reinforce order and discipline in his locality. His means differ from yours, one understands, Mr Plunkett.”

  “I prefer not to Coerce if I can persuade, my lord. One cannot always do so, but I will not hang a man except as a last resort. It is the case of course that there are very few Protestants to be discovered in my part of Ireland so that it does make sense to attempt to bring the Catholics, or some of them, into willing loyalty. I must employ men, my lord, in my fields and maltings and distilleries – and in the nature of things the most of them cannot be Protestant. I will not say that I am bringing them to love me, my lord, but they hate me a little less actively than some.”

  “You have the advantage, Mr Plunkett, of the whiskey, of the extra income it confers upon you.”

  “I do indeed, Lord Wellesley, and without it I do not believe I could achieve the very little I have so far attained. Ireland is poor, my lord, and without more wealth can face only disaster. There are more grown men and women every year, and looking to wed and set up house in the normal way of things – and there is no land for them. In England they may go, willing or not, to the manufacturies – but we have almost none of them here. The people must leave, my lord, or must be given work – and both will cost money that a poor country does not have.”

  Wellesley listened and took notes, but he had little hope of a solution. The government in London was unwilling to put up taxes to pay for English needs; imposing an income-tax on the English middle order of people for the benefit of Irish peasants seemed a very unlikely thing to do. All they could do was to encourage the leading men of Ireland to work for the betterment of all.

  To that end Patrick was informed later in the month that he was to style himself ‘Lord Plunkett’, a baron in the peerage of England, so that he might speak in the House of Lords and let his words of wisdom percolate into both the English and the Irish understanding.

  His wife was gleeful – no mere Irish barony for her son to inherit!

  “If Lord Nash ever has a son, then he will always be lesser than ours, my lord!”

  Book Eleven: A Poor Man

  at the Gate Series

  Chapter Three

  “The Liverpool and Manchester Railway has been an immediate success, Mr Quillerson. My correspondents tell me that returns in excess of ten per centum are confidently expected. It seems to me that with its large population, New York State is in many ways ideal for the construction of our own first railways.”

  “True indeed, Mr Star. The project has been floated already – though the word used here is ‘railroads’, sir.”

  “Good – far better not to be the very first projector. What routes have been proposed?”

  “Short, local projects to connect New York to the farming areas immediately adjacent.”

  “What of a great highway south along the coast to Baltimore and then to Washington, Mr Quillerson?”

  “A massive project, sir! Is it possible?”

  “All things are possible, Mr Quillerson, but, as the family has always said, some are perhaps more likely than others. Rough mileages are one hundred and fifty to Philadelphia and then one hundred and eighty more to Baltimore and a mere thirty to Washington. Say three hundred and sixty miles – America is after all a far larger country than England. One must note as well that much of the land is not yet taken up and so the costs of the right-of-way will be far lower than in England. I believe that the proprietors of the Liverpool and Manchester spent the better part of one hundred thousand dollars a mile, the bulk on land purchase. We would not require one fifth of that sum.”

  “Twenty thousand dollars a mile, Mr Star. One million for every fifty miles. Allowing for the costs of rolling stock, then at least seven and a half millions, sir. That is a great deal of money to raise.”

  “A joint-stock company would be essential and with leading names upon its prospectus, Mr Quillerson. It might be wise to issue the stock in three tranches, that to Philadelphia first at say three millions, then for the section to Baltimore and then for the final run to Washington. There would be a need for legislative approval, and I do not know whether that would be at State or Federal level.”

  Quillerson finally agreed that such a project would be of the greatest benefit to the country, but he did not believe that he would wish to be involved in it. It was not really his sort of business, and he was much more committed to the north and west than to the roads south.

  Henry agreed that it would be demanding of time. He might discuss the project elsewhere, but in all probabilities he would confine himself to shipping and ventures in the Deep South.

  He left Quillerson puzzled, quite unable to understand why Mr Star had raised the question so easily to dismiss it.

  Colonel Miller was feeling both ancient and idle – the pressure of years was bearing upon him and he must soon, he felt, go to his long sleep. He was not dissatisfied with all he had achieved, remembering the hard-scrabble farm where he had grown up, barefoot until he had first become involved with the movement towards independence. He was in a mood to be honest with himself and admitted that in fact his early activities partook far more of the nature of highway robbery than of military insurgency. Not to worry – he had killed and robbed British officers, even if only because they normally had more money on them, and far better boots than the average civilian. He had knifed the first in a back-alley and had taken his pistols as well as his purse and footwear. The next had been a captain and his servant on the road not so far from Albany, and they had provided him with his first horses, more pistols and a carbine and had allowed him to recruit and arm a follower. It had taken him nearly a year to put together a band of thirty armed men and by then the War had commenced and he could claim to be a patriot; he had not looked back from that beginning. He had made more and more money and now was a respected plantation owner in Virginia, growing his cotton with the best. His son would follow after him, and his grandchildren, born to an English aristocrat, would establish the tradition of his line. He was a lucky man, he believed.

  Thomas came out onto the balcony where he was sat enjoying the evening sunshine.

  “What do you know of railroads, sir?”

  “Only what I have read, my boy, and so, I do not doubt, no more than you, sir.”

  Thomas was a fine figure of a man in his forties, the Colonel thought, his full head of hair still not thinning and built big and strong. A true Southern gentleman by his looks and ways.

  “I hear that Mr Henry Star, the noted businessman, is in process of projecting a railroad that will join Washington to New York. They will be no more than a day distant from each other by railroad, sir.”

  A week on horseback or four days by ship and stagecoach, inconvenient, uncomfortable, sometimes hazardous, all to be replaced by a day sat in a comfortable railroad car. The wonders of the modern age, indeed.

  “Not, one might expect, dagger-cheap, my boy?”

  “The word is of millions, sir. A great joint-stock enterprise, three-quarters of a million of ten dollar shares envisaged before the end; a first issue of three hundred thousand on the New York Exchange for the tracks to Philadelphia.”

  “We could, perhaps, subscribe, my boy?”

  “We certainly could, sir. The only question in my mind is simply to what extent do I wish to become involved with any business in which Mr Henry Star is a prime mover.” />
  They pondered that question for several minutes, coming to the conclusion that they very much did wish to become involved in the railroads, but they very much did not wish to do business with Mr Henry Star.

  “I think, sir, that we might wish to discover another railroad project, ideally promoted by a gentleman better known to us as a man of integrity. I have, though, a very strong suspicion that the railroads will at first tend to attract adventurers rather than men of a solid respectability.”

  “I agree, Thomas! Let us keep our purse strings firmly tied together as far as this project is concerned. We might, however, look about us for other, less buccaneering shall we say, enterprises.”

  No matter how much they looked, they could not find any project in the Southern States; the expectation was that railroads must make their profits from carrying goods, and that demanded industry which the South did not possess.

  “There is a proposal for a railroad to follow the flatlands of the coast from Boston to New York, promoted out of Boston by the respectable families there, sir.”

  “Shares on the Exchange or by private subscription, Thomas?”

  “Privately, one understands, sir.”

  “Then I have some doubts whether we would be invited to join their cabal!”

  The laughed together, accepted that they must wait a few years before attempting to join the converse of the respectable. The Boston Brahmins particularly would have little to say to the Millers, who had been far too open in cutting corners on their deals.

  “Steamships, Thomas – I do not believe we can venture on land. Let us seek yards that wish to expand out of sail. Perhaps Mr Star will give us the good word.”

  “I doubt that Henry Star will wish to plough the sea any further, sir – perhaps that is why he wishes to promote railroads.”

  “He was fortunate to live through the shipwreck, from all I heard. One would not be surprised if he remained closer to home after that.”

  “The efforts of his brother Luke and of the Greek gentleman, Stavros, played a very great part in his survival. The newspapers made much of both men.”

  Stavros was irritated by the publicity his efforts had given him. He was to an extent a public figure, the newssheets having splashed his name, together with line drawings of his face, on their front pages. He was a hero, in company of his apparently dear friend, Mr Luke Star. He had to smile and be seen in the man’s company and exchanging handshakes when his sole wish was to cut his murdering throat. The opportunity might yet arise, as they were to go together into the Texas settlements as part of the influx of armed young men that was to drive back the dreaded Comanche and also to displace the irrelevant Mexicans.

  They had discussed the matter of driving back the Comanche, no small undertaking as they were fearsome light cavalry armed with flintlocks as well as the traditional bow-and-arrow of the Indian.

  “Best to deal with them as we did the Ottoman in Greece, Stavros.”

  “What, find their women and children and butcher them out of hand, Lukas?”

  It was an incautious comment and one that Stavros regretted as he made it. He was surprised to see Star wince and shake his head.

  “Not that, Stavros! I saw too many massacres, on both sides, and more than once failed to stop my own people from taking part. I shall have no truck with that behaviour, though I have no doubt it will happen – war and atrocity go hand in hand, I fear.”

  “I saw the same, Lukas. War is about killing, after all, and soldiers care little just who they slaughter.”

  Luke had been aware for some time that Stavros had once had a family; he had not spoken about the tragedy – it was private.

  “I meant to say that we should build forts, mud-brick walls will do if they stand twenty feet high. Adobe, I believe them to call it over in the Mexican lands. Sit behind the fortifications, one to each settlement, and use our long rifles to snipe at them. When they rush the walls, then bring small cannon into play. I saw old naval swivel guns used to great effect, two pounders, quickly loaded and fired, some two dozen of pistol balls sweeping the walls like a giant shotgun. Such a fort can be reduced by cannon, and a pair of eighteen pounders will flatten one in a day. They could not hold against the Mexican army, but they could butcher the Comanche, for they have a habit of not giving up a losing fight and will rather stand and die, I am told, than accept defeat, and they certainly have no great guns.”

  Henry Star, returned to New Orleans after his first excursion to New York since the shipwreck, listened interestedly and said that he was quite sure he could lay his hands on the small cannon they wanted, and on barrels of black powder and grapeshot or pistol balls.

  “What of larger guns, Luke? A battery of howitzers, twelve pounders tossing explosive shell, could be effective. I saw them at work in the War of 1812.”

  “Damned expensive, brother! Six guns firing fifty rounds each would burn the better part of half a ton of gunpowder; at some seventy five cents a pound at the moment that is no small sum for a day’s activity. Add to that the cost of the shells themselves – and I have no idea what that would be – and the wages of the artillerists – for we would need some trained men – and we find ourselves with a very costly endeavour.”

  Henry found himself persuaded; as well he suspected that he would have to travel north to discover cannon and he had not enjoyed his recent excursion to New York and back; the sea no longer held charms for him. He listened to Luke as he moved on from guns to politics.

  “Could Washington not be begged to speak to the Mexicans, to call upon them to mount a joint military campaign into the north to hunt the Apache on the one side and the Comanche on the other? It is clearly a business that should be dealt with by the army.”

  “I can speak to our Senator and the Representatives, but I doubt it would have much effect, Luke. They are weaklings, all of those little men in Washington, and they will not build an army of the size we require. Equally, they are afraid that the Mexicans might encroach if once encouraged to come north again.”

  If Washington would play no part in freeing Texas from its sets of oppressors then it could hardly claim the right of government afterwards. There was reason to support a wholly independent Texas – it would be able to make its own laws relating, for example, to land grants.

  Swivel guns; galloper guns; naval carronades; short barrel cannonades; a pair of small mortars – a miscellaneous, heterogeneous collection of artillery, distinguished only by being in reasonably good condition and available at a very low price.

  “Some from the breaker’s yards – the naval pieces, obviously; two four pound cavalry guns dating from the war and very much obsolete; two cannonades from Michelet the merchant – who kept them for old time’s sake; they were used by merchantmen working dangerous waters, probably from his old slavers. Where the pair of six inch mortars originate, I have no idea, but they have a hundred of empty bombs with them.”

  Henry had passed the word to all of his contacts in and around New Orleans, had begged them to come up with great guns for his latest project.

  “Twelve pound carronades, Henry – four of them, British naval guns. They will defend a wall but they will cost money. These damned cannonades are eighteen pounders, Henry – not what we need except to stick on a wall with their noses making threats at the Mexican army. Twenty four of swivels, the most of them British, and how they turned up here I do not know – but they are ideal for our purpose. The four pound galloper guns can be put on the back of a wagon, useful there. What to do with the mortars, I have no idea – I have never seen one before, do not know what powder charge they would take or how to aim them; was I you, brother, I would ship them upriver and emplace them on the balcony of your plantation house as elegant ornaments and a reflection on your glorious military past.”

  They loaded a coastal schooner and set off for the depths of Texas and, unknowingly, into the beginnings of a war.

  The American colonists of Texas had suffered severely from the depredat
ions of the Indian tribes, many of their homesteads destroyed and families subjected to vile atrocity. They welcomed an influx of armed men and of weapons and were happy to listen to the military suggestions of men with overseas experience. They commenced the building of forts at central locations where families could flee at short notice. The Mexican authorities quickly became aware of the forts, and demanded that they should be demolished, being a threat to the legitimate government of Texas.

  The Texicans refused the Mexican demands and insisted that if the army would not defend them then they had the absolute right to protect themselves. Negotiations took the form of increasingly bluntly worded notes, neither side being prepared to travel to meet the other face-to-face and discuss the problems sensibly.

  The Mexican government reversed its policy of allowing a free influx of American settlers and returned its army to the north, mostly to inland posts where they took the brunt of Comanche and Apache attacks and responded to them with a matching savagery that the settlers greatly applauded.

  The new immigrants, unmarried young men, could not claim to be farmers or cattle ranchers and retired from the inland areas to towns on the coast, a large number, including Luke Star reaching Anahuac, a small town on the Trinity River where it opened into Galveston Bay. They were swiftly ordered out and, taking advice from the empresarios, the contractors of the original American colonies in Texas, they refused to go.

  The Mexican governor of Anahuac was particularly vehement in his demands that the settlers must bow down to Mexican law.

  The settlers in Anahuac formed a committee, immediately condemned as illegal, and which proposed to take action in what they described as self-protection. The Chairman found his way to Luke, proposing that he should take a leading part.

  "It's all because the feller’s a bloody renegade, Mr Star, suh. His name is Bradburn, and just how much of a Mex does that make him, suh?”