Ramage And The Rebels r-9

by Dudley Pope

  'Aye, sir."

  "Well anchor between the two, about a third of the way to the eastward.'

  'Aye aye, sir.'

  'I was thinking of springs,' Ramage said casually, to make sure Aitken left enough room for the ship to swing, and warning the young Scot without the Dutch knowing that the Calypso might end up having to open fire on the town.

  'Aye, sir.' Aitken let his accent become so pronounced that even Ramage could only just understand him when he said, ' 'Tis a bonny spot for clapping a spring on the cable.'

  Ramage watched the walls of the batteries pass the Calypso, with the channel narrowing so that he felt a couple of good men could throw heaving lines to the shore on each side. Van Someren turned and said anxiously: 'You will not go too far in, I hope: it gets shallow towards Schottegat, where the privateers are anchored.'

  Did it really get shallow or was His Excellency worrying about the privateers? It was hard to be sure. Ramage had no chart of the inside of Amsterdam, but it seemed likely the channel would get shallow that far in. Until those signatures were on the instrument of surrender, he thought to himself, it is wiser to be suspicious and wary.

  Then suddenly he realized what Southwick had meant A few minutes after he had come back on to the quarterdeck with the Governor, Southwick had been fussing round taking compass bearings of various points in Amsterdam, and as Ramage had passed him the old master had muttered, rather loudly: 'Numbers three, five and six.'

  Ramage had not paid much attention. Obviously they weren't bearings, but the numbers had no significance, until now. Southwick knew nothing of what was going on with the Dutch; there had not been time or opportunity to tell him anything. But Southwick, in his own wise way, was trying to remind his captain.

  The Articles of War were unambiguous on the question of dealing with the enemy. It was one thing for one of the King's officers to capture an enemy ship or island in battle; it was quite another to be involved - as he now was - in negotiations.

  While Aitken gave the order to clew up the maintopsail, Ramage recalled the wording of Article number three: 'If any Officer, Mariner, Soldier or other Person of the Fleet, shall give, hold or entertain Intelligence to or with any Enemy or Rebel, without leave from the King's Majesty, or the Lord High Admiral or the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral, Commander - in - Chief, or his commanding officer, every such Person so offending, and being thereof convicted by the Sentence of a Court - martial, shall be punished with Death.' Death with a capital 'D'. Well, Captain Ramage did not have leave from anyone, least of all Admiral Foxe-Foote.

  Neither Articles five nor six specified death - with a capital 'D' (it meant in fact that if a court found you guilty it had to sentence you to death). No, they laid down death or whatever punishment 'the nature or degree of the offence shall deserve'.

  Five dealt with 'all spies, and all persons whatsoever' who came as spies 'to bring or deliver any seducing letters or messages from any Enemy or Rebel', or try to corrupt any captain or anyone in the Fleet 'to betray his Trust'. That could cover His Excellency and his aides.

  Number six would catch Ramage if he so much as offered His Excellency a drink. He had already done that, he reflected grimly, and was not guilty because His Excellency had not accepted it. If he had accepted a rum punch, though, then Captain Ramage would have been guilty - 'No person in the Fleet shall relieve an Enemy or Rebel with Money, Victuals, Shot, Arms, Ammunition, or any other supplies whatsoever, directly or indirectly . . .'

  The phrase 'directly or indirectly' took on a new meaning: at this moment the Calypso is coming bead to wind, foretopsail backed, and ready to drop an anchor. If she goes aground - indeed, if the whole thing is a trap - Captain Ramage will have provided the Governor of Curacao with all the items, and a few score tons of 'any other supplies'.

  Like most laws passed by Parliament in its infinite wisdom, the Articles of War were a fine - meshed fishnet which caught without discrimination everything from sprats and sharks to waterlogged tree - trunks. And splash went the bower anchor, just where he wanted it, and the smell of burning drifted aft as friction scorched the hemp rope as it raced out of the hawse. Now the Calypso had sternway, pushed by the backed foretopsail, putting a strain on the cable and digging the anchor in. Later when the Governor and his aides had gone on shore, the springs would be put on the cable, and the Calypso's broadsides would be able to rake both sides of the town, if necessary.

  The Dutchmen had been chattering to each other and Ramage cursed his lack of knowledge of the language. Van Someren turned to him: 'If I may borrow an English expression and "give credit where credit is due", I must congratulate you and your men: I have never seen anchoring so well done with a ship of this size, even by captains who have been in a hundred times. You have visited here before?'

  Ramage grinned and shook his head. /None of us has. But perhaps you would repeat your kind remarks to my first lieutenant: you saw he was handling the ship.'

  Van Someren nodded and Ramage called Aitken. It would do no harm to make the point to these Dutchmen that, in the Calypso anyway, the captain was not the only man who could handle the ship in a confined space. Aitken showed sufficient surprise at the Governor's congratulations that Ramage sensed that His Excellency had in mind that the junior lieutenant would probably be handling the ship when she left . . .

  The Governor said to Ramage: 'I would like to go on shore now to prepare for our formal meeting. Then this evening perhaps you and your officers would have supper at Government House?'

  He saw Ramage hesitating and added: 'I am sure our negotiations will be completed by then. And my wife and daughter will be glad to have new partners for dancing.'

  Ramage thought of the daughter and agreed at once. Young Kenton, the junior lieutenant, was going to have to stay on board, unless Southwick decided to miss an evening on shore in favour of a few hours' peace and quiet on board.

  An hour later Ramage and Aitken, in full uniform, were seated in what was obviously a small council chamber, with the Governor and Major Lausser sitting opposite them. The dark reddish - brown of the big rectangular table contrasted with the cool white of the stone walls and the black marble floor. Paolo had come on shore with Ramage and, as soon as they had all been introduced to the Governor's wife and daughter, the boy had been swept off by the women for a tour of the city.

  The daughter was beautiful; as unexpectedly beautiful in such a dull island, Ramage thought, as a frangipani blossom. She had corn - coloured hair that glinted gold; blue eyes that betrayed a sense of humour; full lips that hinted at - well, they more than hinted. She was physically the opposite of Gianna: she was only a couple of inches shorter than Ramage, while Gianna was a fraction under five feet tall. She had full breasts while Gianna's were small and firm. If Gianna was the imperious little Latin, then Maria van Someren was the typical blonde Amazon, not large - limbed or heavy - featured but a young woman who could look a man straight in the eye without shyness or coyness. And, Ramage was sure, she had known immediately that the moment he had first met her in the drawing room, when she had been wearing a cool, long white dress in the French fashion, clinging and cut low in front, he had in his imagination seen her standing there naked, elegant and proud. She had given a slight curtsy as they were introduced, a curtsy when Ramage had imagined her breasts moving slightly, her nipples caressing the silk of her clothing.

  'You agree. My Lord?'

  Ramage, his lips kissing those nipples, suddenly found himself in the Council room and the three men waiting for him to answer. To answer what?

  ''I'm sorry,' he said heavily, 'I was thinking of something else.' Deep thoughts, his voice implied, weighing, for instance, the importance of Curacao against Antigua, or comparing Amsterdam with English Harbour. They would be large nipples. 'Would you repeat that question?'

  The Governor's smile showed that he understood how important matters required careful consideration. 'I was asking if we should begin.'

  '
We are ready,' Ramage said, glancing at Aitken, who was going to take notes if necessary.

  The Governor said: 'You are curious why I wish to surrender the island to you - to Britain, rather.'

  'I have been trying to find out from the moment you first mentioned it, Your Excellency,' Ramage said dryly. 'It seems to be the point upon which all negotiations must pivot.'

  'It is, it is. But I regret the surrender is not entirely straightforward.'

  There is always a catch, Ramage thought sourly. Now come his terms: you can have my island wrapped up in Bruges lace on condition that you . . .

  'Nor,' van Someren continued, 'is it very complex. If I may explain some of the background, you will understand at once why you have been seeing smoke at the western end of the island, and hearing occasional gunfire.

  'First, you know the circumstances by which the French claimed the United Netherlands as an ally and that our Prince Sovereign had to flee and is now a refugee living in England. Anyone who disagreed with France or the Revolution was - ' he made a chopping gesture with his hand to imitate the guillotine.

  Those of us in distant colonies at the time had to decide how best we could serve our country. We had three choices. We could become refugees and get to England or a British colony. We could withdraw from public life (and risk being arrested, accused of being traitors to the republican cause and then executed). Or we could appear to be prepared to serve the republican cause in the hope of safeguarding our own countrymen, because if we did not serve them the French would put in their own men.

  'Rightly or wrongly I allowed myself to continue as Governor in this last category, and until recently I have been able to spare my people the worst excesses for which the Revolution in France has become famous - infamous, rather.'

  He paused and poured water into a glass from a carafe in front of him. He drank and then continued. 'But recently - in the past few months - some of our wilder young men have come out violently in support of the French Revolution, or its revolutionary principles, rather. They gathered in the western end of the island, freed slaves, and began threatening to overthrow my government, which they claim is not truly revolutionary - although, ironically, it is approved by Paris.'

  'Do they have a leader?'

  To begin with they had their own committee. The Committee of Liberation they called it. Now their new leader is one of the French privateer captains, who has taken all the men from the ships to reinforce these - these revolutionaries. It seems an odd word for the Governor of an island belonging to the Batavian Republic to use, but these rebels want to destroy all that most of us in the island consider justifies Curacao's existence.'

  The smoke . . . ?' Ramage prompted.

  'Villages and plantation houses being burned down by these rebels.'

  'Why?' Ramage was curious at what seemed a self - defeating activity.

  'In some cases because the people would not join the rebels; in others my troops were using them as defences. But mainly because this privateer captain, their leader, is a murderer who enjoys killing and destroying - and robbing and raping. They say he is mad . . .'

  'Where are your troops now?'

  'I have withdrawn them here to defend the port'

  'Are they loyal?'

  To me, yes. There are only one hundred of them, phis the gunners from the forts and a score or so infantrymen.'

  'And the ordinary people here in Amsterdam and the island - what are their sympathies?'

  'Against these rebels: they are mostly tradesmen who want to be left in peace to carry on their business. They want no part of the present war - as you know, Curacao was one of the great trading centres on this side of the Atlantic. This war has brought business to a standstill. Trade with Britain is cut off, France has no money to buy, and nor has Spain. We are reduced to a precarious trade with the Main. Our warehouses are full —with goods that have been there for years.'

  "Your Excellency,' Ramage said deliberately, making it dear that he was about to speak as the official British representative, 'you realize that to my government you and your - is it a legislative council? - are rebels: men in arms against the House of Nassau, which my government regards as the rightful rulers of the United Netherlands? Now you are in turn attacked by men you call rebels. Your problem is, in effect, a revolution within a revolution.'

  For several moments van Someren was silent. His eyes had narrowed, giving him a slightly Oriental appearance; his hands clasped on the table in front of him, showed the knuckles white. 'You speak like a diplomatist, My Lord,' he said without animosity, but choosing his words with precision, 'and like a diplomatist, you want to drive a hard bargain. For myself, though, I am concerned only with saving lives. There are many hundreds of innocent men, women and children living here in Amsterdam. We have reason to believe the rebels intend to loot the city and then bum it down.'

  'Why do they want to do that?' Ramage asked bluntly.

  Van Someren gestured to Major Lausser, who sorted through papers in front of him and handed the Governor a letter.

  'You read French, My Lord?'

  'I do, Your Excellency.'

  Ramage took the proffered letter, hard put not to smile at the way each of them observed the courtesies with their titles and reflecting how inappropriate was a naval uniform at a negotiating table. The letter, comprising only a few lines, was from some group that called itself The - Revolutionary Committee of the Batavian Republic in the Antilles', and was addressed to the Governor by name. It said, without any preliminaries, that unless he surrendered Amsterdam by noon on a given date - it used the new revolutionary method of dating which Ramage could never remember - it would be burned down, and the Committee took no responsibility for the safety of the women and children while the men would be treated as traitors.

  Ramage folded the letter and went to give it back to the Governor; then he unfolded it again, read the signature, and said to Aitken: 'Make a note of the name "Adolphe Brune, chief of the privateers".' He spelled out the names and then returned the letter to van Someren.

  'I trust that decides you,' the Governor said.

  "You have about a hundred men, trained troops?'

  'Yes, mostly artillerymen.'

  'And there are a thousand republicans?' Ramage guessed the figure, curious to see van Someren's reaction.

  'Not as many as that We estimate about five hundred at the most. The privateers were all short of men - we guess at a total of three hundred and fifty. There were about one hundred republicans when all this began, but they may have been joined by others, the inevitable - how do you call them? - opportunists. About fifty, we think.'

  'All short of weapons and powder, though?'

  Van Someren shook his head. 'Unfortunately they have plenty, because each privateer has weapons - muskets, pistols, cutlasses - for at least fifty men, so they can arm five hundred. Before I brought my troops in, patrols were reporting capturing men holding positions with three loaded muskets in reserve beside each of them.'

  'How many men are left in the privateers?'

  Even as he asked the question Ramage realized that he had made a bad mistake: he had taken no steps to prevent someone from the privateers getting on shore to ride off into the hills and report to Brune that a British frigate had just come into the harbour and her captain was at Government House.

  'One or two men in each vessel,' and then, perhaps reading Ramage's thoughts, van Someren added: 'I left sentries concealed who will seize anyone landing to carry the news of your arrival to the rebels.'

  Ramage wished he had a pen or pencil to twiddle. Sitting here with his elbows on the table and one hand resting on the other was comfortable but it seemed to stifle coherent thought. Ideas must come through active hands. Clasped hands reminded him of contented parsons and portly priests mumbling things by rote or making embarrassingly obvious remarks in portentous voices. The true artists in this form of activity, he thought sourly, became bishops, and the lords spiritual never found themselves sitting i
n the residences of governors of enemy islands trying to think what to do next.

  'You are satisfied?' van Someren demanded, his voice slowly becoming almost querulous from anxiety as he realized that this English officer seemed far from delighted at the prospect of having the richest Dutch island in the Caribbean surrendered to him. The Dutchman watched carefully. This Lord Ramage sat quite still, like a cat waiting for a mouse. He did not move his hands - nor crack the joints of his knuckles like Lausser. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking: his eyes gave nothing away, sunk beneath bushy eyebrows. He had tapped the table with his left hand when he wanted his lieutenant to make a written note of something but van Someren saw it was always a figure or a name, never a phrase. Obviously he was not a diplomatist because he was concerned only with facts, not phrases.

  Whether or not this Lord Ramage eventually accepted the surrender - and it seemed far from sure at the moment - van Someren knew that it was fortunate for Curacao that he was commanding the frigate that suddenly appeared off the port. Had that French frigate come in, she would have provided more than enough men for the rebels to swing the balance: she would have made sure the rebels were left in control of Amsterdam. Which would in turn mean his own arrest and execution. By a miracle, this Ramage had captured her. In fact, having the Calypso anchored in the port almost made up for the fact that the Delft was so long overdue. Thank goodness he was not bothered daily by demands from Maria for news about the Delft. The frigate was due almost exactly six weeks ago, and that was all he knew. Either she is delayed in the Netherlands or she is delayed by storms or calms. Or she has been captured or sunk.

  Now Lord Ramage is watching me. Those brown eyes do not miss much. And he is rubbing one of two scars on his forehead, as though a mosquito bite has started itching. The lieutenant suddenly glances sideways at him, van Someren noticed, as though this nibbing of the scar is significant.

  'Would you just repeat briefly, Your Excellency, exactly what you are proposing. Slowly, because I want Mr Aitken to write it down, so that we have a record for my admiral.'