‘True. But to antagonise the Emperor and risk all on his being defeated is no light matter. What return, think you, would the Czar be willing to make if Sweden took this gamble?’
Roger shrugged. ‘That, Your Royal Highness, I cannot say, but it should be considerable. Perhaps he might agree to return Finland.’
‘I greatly doubt that; and, although my compatriots would give much to get the Grand Duchy back, I have no mind to press for it.’ Turning in his chair, Bernadotte pointed to a map on the wall and went on, ‘Regard the configuration of the northern countries, Count—er—Mr. Brook, I should say. Nature intended this great peninsula to be the country of one people, and the Norwegians differ no more in language and customs from the Swedes than in France do Basques from Bretons or the people of Marseilles from those of Flanders. ’Tis not Finland but Norway that I desire.’
Leaning forward eagerly, Roger said, That greatly simplifies our problem. I see no ground why Alexander should object to your annexing Norway. He is a liberal-minded man, and readily accepts proposals when they make sound sense.’
‘You speak as though you know him.’
‘I do, Your Royal Highness. I was presented to him before his father’s assassination in which I was concerned with Count Pahlen, General Bennigsen and others; although it was our intention only to depose the Czar Paul, not murder him. ’Twas the Zuboff brothers who committed that crime. I have since had confidential talks with the present Czar at both Tilsit and Erfurt, so I have come to know him quite well.’
‘He has Danish connections, so do you not think he might side with Denmark on such a question?’
‘Not as things are. How could he, if Sweden and Britain both gave him their support against Napoleon? Since the Royal Navy cut out the Danish Fleet from Copenhagen and milord Wellington, having landed there, spiked all the guns in their forts before leaving, the Danes have become the inveterate enemies of Britain. The Czar cannot have it both ways. Either he fights alone, or joins this new Coalition. If he does the latter, since the Danes are France’s allies, he must count them, too, among his enemies.’
For the first time during their interview, Bernadotte smiled. ‘I congratulate you, Mr. Brook. I knew you had a high reputation as a soldier, but had no idea you were so able a negotiator. I do not wonder that your Government gives you such far-reaching powers.’
Roger returned the smile. ‘I thank Your Royal Highness for the compliment. May I take it that you are favourably disposed to my Government’s proposals?’
‘You may; provided that England is willing to give me a free hand in Norway.’
‘Since that could not conflict with England’s interests, I consider myself empowered to promise that.’
‘Good.’ Bernadotte handed back the lettre de marque. ‘You will need this for presentation when you secure your audience with the Czar.’
Roger jerked upright in his chair. ‘No, no, Your Royal Highness. It is no part of my mission to proceed to St. Petersburg. I was instructed only to approach you. It was naturally assumed that, should you agree to become England’s ally, you would become our bridge with the Czar, and choose a suitable representative to lay your views before him.’
Bernadotte smiled again. ‘I have chosen one, Mr. Brook—yourself. Who could undertake this business with a better hope of success? My Swedish diplomats are prejudiced against the Russians; you are not.’
‘Your Royal Highness, I beg you …’ Roger began.
But Bernadotte waved his protest aside and said firmly, ‘I’ll not take “no” for an answer, Mr. Brook. You have made it plain to me yourself that you have been deeply involved in Russian affairs, and are on intimate terms with leading members of their nobility, whose influence you can seek to aid our design. I have no-one with such assets whom I could send. I will give you a lettre de marque similar to the one you have; then you can speak on behalf of my Government here as well as your own. Yes, I insist on it.’
‘Then Your Royal Highness leaves me no alternative,’ Roger sighed. ‘When do you wish me to start?’
‘At once. Our ex-master at least showed us that, having taken a decision, speed in executing it is the secret of success. I will give orders for a frigate to sail with you tomorrow morning. At this season of the year the greater part of the Gulf of Finland is frozen over, but she could take you across to Revel and from there it is not much above two hundred miles to St. Petersburg. I will, of course, furnish you with money for the part of your journey you must make by sleigh, and for other expenses. I will also make your adieux to Their Majesties, on the pretext that I have sent you to report on the state of our garrisons upcountry, and forgot to tell them of my intention. For the few hours that you remain here, and when you return to inform me of the Czar’s reactions, you will continue to be known as M. le Colonel Comte de Breuc. Wait upon me here, please, at seven o’clock in the morning. I will then give you the lettre de marque and instructions to the captain of the frigate.’ Standing up to show that the interview was over, he smiled, shook Roger warmly by the hand and added:
‘This has been a most interesting conversation, Mr. Brook. It is my earnest hope that it will bear fruit. And you may rest assured that your secret is safe with me.’
As Roger undressed in his icy, stone-walled chamber, he felt no elation that he had succeeded in his mission. He gloomily reflected that, through talking too much about his past, he had hung himself with his own petard, and landed himself with another long winter journey from which there was no saying when he would return.
When he reported to Bernadotte the next morning, the Prince Royal told him that he was sending sealed orders to the captain of the frigate. These, giving Roger’s destination, would not be opened until the ship had left port. In the meantime, it would be given out that he was being conveyed on the first stage of his tour of inspection, up to Osthammar. From the Prince he received the lettre de marque and a not very large purse of gold; then he was taken by an adjutant down to the harbour and aboard the frigate.
It was still dark when they left the Castle, but soon afterwards a wintry sun came up to light the innumerable islands lying off the Swedish capital. After his last experience of sea travel, Roger hated more than ever the thought of going aboard a ship; but this time, in the comparatively sheltered waters of the Baltic, he was more fortunate. The sea was no more than choppy and, two days later, he was landed at Revel without having succumbed to seasickness.
After a night spent at the best inn, he hired a troika, had a good stock of provisions packed into it and set off along the road that crossed northern Estonia. In places, it ran near enough to the Gulf of Finland for him to catch glimpses of fishing boats threading their way among the ice floes, where the gulf was not completely frozen over. As the road was a main highway it was in fair condition and kept open, but fifty miles a day was as much as he could average; so he spent nights at Rakvere, Narva and Gatchina.
At the last place he looked at a small palace with interest. It was there that Catherine the Great had made her son Paul, whom she greatly disliked, reside. Eccentric to a point that later developed into madness, he had spent his entire time drilling his own regiment of troops. As a great admirer of Frederick the Great, he had dressed his men in Prussian uniforms, but he carried discipline to a point when it became sadistic torture, making his men stand to attenton for hours on end and having them flogged if they so much as eased a limb.
On March 3rd, his fourth day out from Revel, long after dark he entered St. Petersburg. Being familiar with the city he had himself driven to the Laughing Tartar, a big inn at which young Guards officers often gathered for drinking bouts. There he did not have to resort to any subterfuge, as he had many friends in the Russian capital, and was known to them all as Mr. Roger Brook.
To his relief he learned that the Czar was not, as he had feared might be the case, in Moscow supervising the mobilisation of his army, but in residence at the Hermitage. By half past eight on the morning after his arrival, Roger had had h
imself driven out to the magnificent Palace, given his name to a Chamberlain and requested an audience.
He spent the next five hours in a vast waiting room, but it was comfortably furnished and had a number of large, porcelain stoves which kept it warm. Having nothing to do and there being nothing to read, he whiled away the time thinking about a variety of people, among them Bernadotte, Georgina, Napoleon, Droopy and the Czar Alexander.
The last was a most unusual monarch, for he was at the same time a revolutionary and an autocrat. His grandmother, the beautiful, licentious, cultured and intelligent Catherine, had given him as a tutor a Swisss named La Harpe, who was a disciple of Rousseau’s. La Harpe had instilled into the young Prince the liberal ideas formulated in the Rights of Man, which were then agitating France and brought about the French Revolution. Alexander had imbibed them with enthusiasm and, on coming to the throne, had ardently desired to better the lot of his subjects in every way, even to the point of liberating all the serfs.
For this purpose he surrounded himself with young men who shared his ideas, in particular Counts Stroganoff and Novssiltzoff, and the charming Polish Prince Czartoryski. He also took into his favour Michael Speranskii, a brilliant bureaucrat. Among them they drafted plans for a Bill of Rights, based on the English Habeas Corpus Act, and to revolutionise the Government by turning it into a constitutional Monarchy, with an elected Diet.
But, in the event, only a few minor reforms were actually carried out. An endeavour to force the nobility to free their serfs would have brought about Alexander’s assassination. Theoretically, he would have liked everyone to have rights; but, if put into practice, that would have undermined the god-like authority long vested in the ‘Little Father’ of the Russian people and, with regard to establishing a Parliament, that was well enough for prominent citizens to air their views in, but if it came to their telling him what to do and what not to do, that was utterly unthinkable.
His enthusiasm for the French Revolution had cooled when the leaders of the people had abused their authority and initiated the Terror. Horrified by the blood bath engulfing the nobility and bourgeoisie that followed, he had belatedly joined the other monarchs in their attempt to destroy the young Republic and restore law and order.
The Russian Army had fought better than those of any of her allies; but, after several bloody battles in which they had held their own, Napoleon’s genius as a general had inflicted so severe a defeat on Alexander’s forces at Friedland that he had been forced to ask for an armistice.
Although at war with France, Alexander had already conceived an admiration for Napoleon, owing to the way in which he had brought order out of the chaos of the Revolution. So when in July 1807 the two Emperors met at Tilsit, on an elaborate raft in the middle of the river Niemen, he had completely succumbed to the Corsican’s forcefulness and charm. In a matter of days they had agreed to carve up a good part of the world between them.
By then, after reigning for ten years, the Czar toyed with his idealistic ideas about reforms only occasionally. Instead, he had become something of a mystic and much addicted to reading the Bible. Also, like his grandmother, he had ambitions to expand his Empire. The gentle Czartoryski was no longer his principal adviser, but Arakcheieff, his Minister of War: a rough and brutal, although devoted man.
Russia was already at war with Turkey along the lower Danube, and the two Emperors happily made a plan to divide the Sultan’s vast Empire between them. Alexander was to have Turkey in Europe, which then included Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece; while Napoleon was to have Egypt, Palestine and Turkey in Asia, which would open the road for him to Persia and India. Meanwhile, he made no objection to Alexander’s depriving the Swedes of Finland.
But things had not turned out in accordance with their grandiose plans. Alexander had conquered Finland, but by committing his best troops there, he was unable to make any appreciable headway against the Turks, which was the one thing that Napoleon wanted of him. Then they could not see eye to eye about Constantinople. The Czar claimed it, when the city had been taken, as part of Turkey in Europe. Napoleon would not agree to that, because it would have enabled Russia, should she become hostile, to cut his main line of communication with India. There was also, to Napoleon’s intense annoyance, the Czar’s passive refusal to carry out his promise of adopting the Continental System. Napoleon intended only to make use of him, and had become an egomaniac whose lust for conquest would never be satiated. Both now were arming for a mighty conflict, in which one of them must destroy the other. Thus matters stood when, shortly after one o’clock, Roger was ushered into the Imperial presence.
Alexander Paulovitch was then thirty-five years old, a fine, upstanding, handsome man with a roundish face and fair, curly hair. Extending his hand for Roger to kiss, he greeted him pleasantly:
‘Welcome again to our capital, Mr. Brook. Whence have you come?’
There being no necessity to beat about the bush, Roger replied, ‘From Sweden, may it please Your Imperial Majesty. I have spent some two months there, as the guest of the Prince Royal.’
‘That must have been an interesting experience,’ the monarch commented. ‘We hear great things of our new neighbour. He proved himself an excellent administrator when acting as Napoleon’s Viceroy in northern Germany, and his talents in that direction should greatly benefit his subjects. However, we are not so sanguine about his activities in his old capacity as a General. We are told that he is both reorganising and increasing the Swedish Army.’
Alexander’s statement favoured Roger’s design, but he had long since learned not to rush his fences; so he raised his eyebrows and said, ‘May I ask Your Imperial Majesty why you should be averse to his doing that?’
The Czar shrugged. ‘To a man of your intelligence, Mr. Brook, surely the reason for our concern is obvious? It is no secret that the Emperor is preparing to repudiate our alliance and wage war on us. The Swedes still bitterly resent our having taken Finland from them. Given favourable conditions they might attempt to win it back. Engaged in a death-struggle with the French, it would be most embarrassing for us to be attacked by a hostile army on our flank.’
Now that Alexander had openly acknowledged the dangers of his situation, Roger smiled, produced the lettre de marque from Bernadotte, and said, ‘Then I hope that I am the bearer of welcome tidings to Your Imperial Majesty. The Prince Royal has never had any love for the Emperor. Moreover, he has now become at heart, as well as by naturalisation, a patriotic Swede. He, too, is still allied to France, albeit unwillingly. Under certain circumstances he would be prepared to face the Emperor’s wrath by breaking that alliance and, given certain conditions, enter into a pact with Your Imperial Majesty.’
Alexander nodded thoughtfully. ‘This proposal is of obvious interest to us, Mr. Brook. But what are the Prince Royal’s conditions? I fear he would require the return of Finland, and we should regard that as too high a price to pay.’
‘The Swedish Diet would naturally clamour for that, but the Prince Royal has already displayed so much wisdom in governing Sweden that I feel certain they would not seek to thwart any arrangements he entered into. Regarding Finland, he is prepared to let matters remain as they are. But he has ambitions in another direction. If he breaks his alliance with France, his alliance with Denmark will also lapse; and he has no love for the Danes. Would Your Imperial Majesty agree not to oppose his annexing Norway?’
‘This makes your proposals even more interesting, Mr. Brook. We will ask the views of our Ministers upon them. Meanwhile, you will become our guest. We will give orders for accommodation in the Palace to be allotted to you.’
Roger bowed. ‘I thank you, Sire. There is, however, another matter upon which I crave your gracious consideration.’ Producing his other lettre de marque, he went on, ‘I arrived in Sweden from England, having been sent to the Prince Royal by my Government. The object of my mission was to endeavour to bring about a new Coalition consisting of Russia, England and Sweden. As I have had the honour
to inform Your Imperial Majesty, subject to your agreeing Sweden’s terms, she is willing to break with the French. She would then enjoy the protection of a British fleet which would be sent to the Baltic. That could also be of use to you, Sire, for it would ensure supplies, and probably consignments of arms, reaching your ports.’
The Czar had glanced at the lettre de marque and now remarked, This is signed by the Marquess Wellesley. He is no longer Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and has been superseded by Lord Castlereagh. We had this news only two days since. We are informed that seven years as a virtually autocratic monarch in India had rendered the Marquess so intolerably dictatorial that his colleagues in the Cabinet welcomed his resignation.’
This information was a blow to Roger, as it tended to undermine the authority vested in him by the lettre de marque; but he said quickly, ‘’Tis true, Sire, that the Marquess is a man of most haughty mien, but I have no doubt whatever that in this matter the Cabinet will endorse his policy, because it is in the interests of England to do so. Although for long periods Britain has sustained the war against France alone, she is as determined as ever to bring about the Emperor’s downfall. Yet she needs peace as badly as does the rest of Europe, and the sooner it can be brought about the better for all concerned. It follows that, rather than allow further Continental nations to be defeated piecemeal, she is most anxious to give them her support; and so more swiftly bring about final victory.’
‘Your premises are sound, Mr. Brook, so we will also give our consideration to entering on an alliance with England.’
The audience being over, Roger bowed himself away. An hour later his belongings had been fetched from the Laughing Tartar and he was installed in a pleasant room in the Palace. The Hermitage was a magnificent building, and he delighted in visiting again the vast, heated conservatory erected by Catherine the Great, in which semi-tropical flowers flourished even in mid-winter.
The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware Page 27