The Dark Secret of Josephine rb-5

by Dennis Wheatley

  Apart from two days of squalls as they were approaching the entrance to the Channel, the weather proved favourable; and although Lieutenant Tasker was unable to repeat his fine performance on the outward point, his fast little vessel accomplished the passage in thirty-one days. Late in the evening of September the 19th she docked at Southampton, and Roger and Dan at once went ashore. By ten o'clock they were leaving the town in a post-chaise hired to drive them through the night to London.

  At a little before six in the morning the post-chaise set Roger down outside No. 10 Downing Street. Having sent Dan on with the luggage to the Marquis of Amesbury's great mansion in Arlington Street, where, as a son of the house. Droopy Ned lived when in London and a room was always at Roger s disposal, he rang the bell.

  It was answered by a night porter who informed him that the Prime Minister was in residence there, but was not normally called until seven. Roger then said he would wait, and shortly afterwards the ground floor became a bustle of servants preparing the rooms for the day. The steward came on the scene and, recognizing Roger, ordered a footman to bring him a tray. The hot chocolate, crisp new rolls, cold York ham, and fruit upon it were most welcome after his night on the road, and he had not long finished eating when he was summoned to the presence.

  The Prime Minister was in his dressing-room, lying back in a tilted chair being shaved by his valet; so he did not see Roger enter, but, as the footman announced him, called out:

  "Come in, Mr. Brook. You are most welcome; and the more so as I had counted your arrival unlikely for another fortnight at the least"

  "Thank you, Sir. That I am here so soon you owe to Lieutenant Tasker's having spared no effort to carry out your instructions. He had his sloop ready to leave Martinique within twenty-four hours of her arrival, and made two near-record trips." As Roger spoke he walked over to the window so that he could face his master.

  "I'll note the name and see that he is commended for his diligence," Mr. Pitt murmured. Then, when the valet had wiped the remains of the soap from his face, he sat up. As his glance fell on Roger he exclaimed:

  "Devil take me! Had I met you in the street I doubt if I would have known you." Roger smiled. "Shaving in a choppy sea can be a plaguey tricky business; so as there were no ladies aboard I decided to let me beard grow. After five weeks it needs the skilled hand of a barber to remove it; but seeing the urgency of your summons I felt it my duty to wait upon you immediately I reached London, rather than to hang about waiting for the shops to open."

  "And you did rightly. I'll tell you what I have in mind while we breakfast."

  "Your steward has already stilled my cravings in that direction, Sir; but I shall be happy to attend you while you eat yours."

  A few minutes later Mr. Pitt moved over to a small table where breakfast had been laid for him. As he sat down and the valet left the room, Roger said:

  "I take it that you sent for me because you wish me to act as political adviser to the General commanding the Royalist Army that landed on the western coast of France?"

  The Prime Minister gave a bitter laugh. "The Royalist Army! Did you not know, man, that it no longer exists. The expedition was a complete and utter failure."

  "That is indeed bad news. I knew nothing of it apart from what Tasker told me of our having in June defeated the French Fleet and a few days later landed the expedition successfully. I'll confess, though, that I had some doubts about its making a swift penetration of the country, as the stroke must have lost much through having been delayed until after the Vendeeans had entered into an accommodation with the enemy."

  "'Twas not that which caused its failure. The terms of the pact entitled the Vendeeans to retain their arms, and a large part of them had even remained embodied as militia. The Republicans infringed the terms of the treaty by arresting certain Vendeean officers; so they had ample pretext for denouncing it. The Chouan leaders Stofflet and Cadoudal both did so, and thousands of peasants flocked to their banners, only a few weeks later to be killed or captured."

  Roger sadly shook his head. "Alas for those poor gallant country people! They had already suffered so much in the Royalist cause, and appealed so long for help in vain. To have their hopes raised at last then meet such an end must have been doubly bitter. Was it then divided councils, and petty jealousies among the French nobility who went upon the expedition, that led to this sad fiasco?"

  "You have said it, Mr. Brook." The Prime Minister dealt with the piece of beefsteak on his fork, then went on: "His Majesty has always distrusted the French aristocracy, so opposed the project and showed his acumen by predicting the manner in which it was brought to ruin; whereas I was fool enough to allow myself to be persuaded to it by Mr. Windham and the Comte de Puisaye. The former has long made himself the champion of those who hope for a restoration in France, and since his appointment as Secretary of State for War had never ceased to press the Cabinet to sponsor a landing in Brittany. Then de Puisaye arrived here last winter and encouraged us to believe that he could raise the whole of Brittany again, would we but give him arms, money and a token force to form a rallying point."

  Between mouthfuls of his steak, Mr. Pitt continued gloomily to relate a tale of incompetence and disaster.

  "We set about raising eight French regiments. Gentlemen by the hundred offered themselves for commissions, but there was a sad dearth of volunteers willing to join as privates. De Puisaye then urged us to offer French prisoners-of-war their freedom if they would serve in the ranks of the Monarchist Army. We did so and recruited satis­factory numbers, though I fear that many of these turncoats had experienced no true change of heart, and seized upon the offer only as a means of getting back to France.

  "Soon after the expedition had sailed my lord Bridport dealt a sharp blow at the enemy fleet by capturing three sail-of-the-line and bottling the remainder of the squadron up in L Orient. Commodore Sir John Warren then had a free hand to disembark the Royalist troops from their transports. Throughout he stood by them, showing great initiative in using the guns of his ships to support their operations as far as that was possible, and later he took off some eighteen hundred of the survivors; but it was entirely beyond his powers to prevent the debacle which engulfed the majority.

  "As you can imagine, my enemies seized upon the disaster as good ammunition for a new attempt to blacken the Government, and particularly myself, with the people. They said we could not have failed to realize that an expedition entirely composed of volunteers must end in failure, and that our not having sent with it a force of British regulars was proof of our criminal intention—namely, that we had planned to rid ourselves in this manner of the imigris who had plagued us for so long.

  "Charles Fox surpassed himself in unscrupulous vindictiveness and, for once, abandoning his championship of the Republicans to accuse Ministers of 'having deliberately sent noble gentlemen to be massacred'; and Sheridan with eager spite declared that 'though British blood had not flowed at Quiberon, yet British honour had bled at every pore'— a phrase that ran round England."

  "That members should use the privilege of the House to utter such diabolical slanders in it fills me with disgust," said Roger angrily. "But may I ask, Sir, why you did not stiffen these inexperienced French with some regiments of well-disciplined British troops?"

  "You well may," the Prime Minister replied bitterly. "That was my original intention, but those stiff-necked French aristocrats would have none of it. They were ready enough to accept British money, British arms and a British fleet to put them safely ashore; but they insisted that, in the initial operation at least, only Frenchmen should be allowed to set foot on the sacred soil of France. For a year or more General the Earl of Moira's force had been standing by in the Channel Islands held ready for just such an employment; but I was brought to agree that it should be used only as a follow-up when the invasion was well under way. In consequence, apart from a few score of our Marines, the landings were entirely French.

  "Their reception by the Breton pe
ople could not have been more enthusiastic. De Puisaye's optimism in that respect was amply justified, except in one important respect. M. de Charette, who has proved himself the most able and resourceful of the Vendeean leaders, refused to join in the revolt from personal jealousy. Nevertheless, on the day following .the landings, the Bishop of Dol, who had accompanied the expedition, celebrated a Mass in the open which was attended by many thousands of persons, all of whom declared their willingness to lay down their lives for the church and monarchy.

  "Thus, apart from de Charette's churlish aloofness, the campaign could not have had a more favourable beginning. It was with the opening of military operations that serious dissensions first threatened its success. It had been the Cabinet's intention that de Puisaye should assume the over-all command; but, most unfortunately, their Lordships of the Admiralty had issued a document which could be read by the Comte d'Hervilly as giving him the command of the French forces raised in England. Had de Puisaye accepted that it would have left him with authority only over the Chouan bands which had risen at his call. In consequence, the two nobles were soon at loggerheads; and not solely over the question of command either. De Puisaye was all for taking the utmost advantage accruing from the surprise landings by an immediate advance inland, whereas d'Hervilly favoured first consolidating their position and taking a fortress that dominated the Quiberon peninsula.

  "The fortress soon surrendered and, with almost unbelievable folly, d'Hervilly allowed some of the men in it who protested their monarchist sympathies to remain there as part of its new garrison. In the mean­time the energetic General Hoche had rallied the Republican forces, driven in de Puisaye's Chouan outposts and bottled up the Royalists by entrenching his men across the peninsula's neck.

  "With Sir John Warren's willing collaboration, de Puisaye then despatched a force under his most trusted Lieutenant, de Tinteniac, by sea, to land farther up the coast and attack the Republicans in the rear. At the time I was, of course, unaware of it, but later it transpired that, in approving the arrangements for the campaign, the Bourbon Princes were using de Puisaye only as a cat's-paw, because he favoured a Constitutional Monarchy. Being set for absolutism they intended to cast him aside as soon as he had served their purpose by raising his followers in Brittany. But the treacherous fools acted prematurely. In order to discredit de Puisaye as a General, the Princes' agents in Paris sent instructions to his Lieutenant on landing that there had been a change of plan and he should now make for St. Malo. Tinteniac, believing that he was acting in accordance with de Puisaye's wishes, obeyed. In consequence, when the Royalists made their attempt to break out of the peninsula, the attack on the Republican's rear, on which they had counted to aid them, never matured,"

  Roger groaned. "What a shocking tale of mismanagement and perfidy."

  "It is not yet done." Mr. Pitt pushed aside his plate with an angry gesture. "The attack in the isthmus was made on July the 16th. That morning the transports bringing fifteen hundred veteran emigre's from Germany, under the young Comte de Sombreuil, arrived in Quiberon Bay. From fear that de Sombreuil might deprive him of sole credit for a victory d'Hervilly insisted on attacking before there had been time to disembark these reinforcements. His volunteers were routed, and the pursuit of them by Hoche's cavalry was checked only by the heavy fire brought to bear by Sir John Warren's gunboats.

  "On being informed of the Royalist dispositions de Sombreuil pressed to be allowed to take over the fortress, which was the key to the whole position, and substitute for its garrison some of his seasoned troops; but d'Hervilly would not hear of it. His refusal led to his own final defeat and that of everyone else concerned.

  "Some of the men of the original garrison who had pretended to have monarchist sympathies went secretly to General Hoche, and suggested to him a plan by which the fortress could be retaken. On the night of July the 20th, under cover of a storm, that by ill-fortune had forced Sir John Warren's ships to withdraw from the rocky coast to the safety of the open sea, these traitors led Hoche's men along the beach past sentries, who were also in the plot, to the fortress. There, aided by other traitors within, they were hauled up over the battlements, and in the dawn took by surprise those of the garrison who had remained loyal.

  "Simultaneously Hoche, no longer having to fear a bombardment from the British Fleet, launched a resolute attack upon the Royalist positions. The fortress fell, and its guns were turned upon d'Hervilly's men. He and his regiments of volunteers, the Chouans, and with them hundreds of women and children, were driven back into the sea. De Sombreuil and his veterans threw themselves into a smaller fort, but instead of having the sense to hang on there until our ships could rescue them, they surrendered. As a result of this debacle the Repub­licans took over six thousand prisoners, near seven hundred of them being emigres, to whom they later gave a mockery of a court-martial and then shot."

  Roger nodded. "This ghastly business puts then a final end to any hope of embodying the Vendeeans in a future army of liberation."

  The Prime Minister selected a peach and began to peel it "Not quite; but as nearly as in my opinion makes little difference. It had been agreed that the British troops under my lord Moira should follow de Puisaye to Quiberon and that with them should go the Comte d'Artois. At the news that His Royal Highness meant to assume command of the expedition in person, Charette suddenly emerged from his fit of sulks and declared that the presence of a Prince of Blood was all that was needed to ensure a victorious campaign by his partisans. Accordingly, we had d'Artois and his feckless, venal household conveyed to the Isle of Yeu, which lies some distance off the coast of Brittany. But there he sits, and I am convinced has not the courage to join Charette in the new revolt that temperamental but gallant man is now leading."

  "I trust Sir," said Roger with an uneasy glance, "that you have no thought of despatching me to His Highness, with the idea that I might induce him to put himself at the head of the Royalist forces, then act as adviser to him?"

  "Good gracious, no!" Mr. Pitt gave a pale smile. "I set a better value on your talents than to ask you to waste them in an employment like to prove so unprofitable. Yet it was, in part, this Quiberon disaster which caused me to send for you."

  "How so, Sir?"

  "For once I acted on an impulse. It was on July the 22nd, which may be accounted the blackest day that Britain has known for many a year. That morning the Spanish Ambassador had informed my lord Grenville that his country found herself so hard pressed that she was compelled to withdraw from the Alliance. Then in the evening there arrived the news that the Quiberon expedition, the spearhead of the invasion on which we had pinned such hopes, had been completely annihilated. That night I wrote the order for your recall."

  Roger's forehead creased in a puzzled frown, and he murmured: "I still do not see . . ."

  "It is quite simple, Mr. Brook. The appreciation which you gave me when we last met of future political trends in France has, God be thanked, proved wrong. But your pessimistic views about the war showed an uncanny foresight and have proved terribly correct. I make no promise to follow your advice; but I desire you to tell me what, were you in my place, you would do now?"

  "Really, Sir!" Roger's face showed his astonishment. "You rate my abilities far higher than they merit Besides, how can I even venture an opinion, when I have been out of touch with events in Europe for so long?"

  "You know the broad picture, and that is sufficient for our purpose. During the past eight months the Grand Alliance has fallen in pieces about our ears. In February Tuscany caved in and the Netherlands Army collapsed. In April we lost Prussia, till then our most potent ally, together with Westphalia and Saxony. In May the Dutch went over to our enemies. In July the Spaniards too betrayed us, and since then Hesse-Cassel, Switzerland and Denmark have all sued for peace. It is true that Catherine of Russia has now made a pact with the Emperor and promised to send him some support; but she is old, ill and has little to gain, so I doubt if she will despatch more than a token force; a
nd in the meantime our Austrian allies are near played out Everywhere the armies of the French Republic are victorious, and with the destruction of the Quiberon expedition there disappeared our last hope of striking a blow at its heart."

  Roger considered for a moment, then he said slowly: "There seems nought for it, then, but to initiate measures which, while safeguarding the interests of such allies as are left to us, might bring us an honourable peace."

  Mr. Pitt raised an eyebrow. "Knowing your hatred of the Revolution­aries, Mr. Brook, I had never thought to hear you advocate such a policy."

  With a shrug, Roger replied: "As long as I live, Sir, I shall feel a loathing for the men who must still make up the bulk of the Con­vention. But it would be wrong to allow one's sentiments to influence one's judgment on such an issue. If there is no longer any hope of our emerging victorious from the war, its continuance can result only in a profitless (draining away of our country's resources. Therefore, the sooner we can negotiate a reasonably satisfactory peace, the better —and it would be better still if some formula could be found to bring about at the same time a general pacification of Europe."

  "Well said, Mr. Brook; well said!" The Prime Minister smiled. "Although I challenged you, I am entirely at one with you in this. As you must know, I have always regarded war as senseless, barbarous, and the worst scourge that can afflict the people of any nation. Although under great pressure, I succeeded in restraining our country from entering the present conflict until the French declared war upon us; and, just as our cause is, I would give much to put an end to it, pro­viding that can be done with honour. The problem is, how can we set the stage for an accommodation which I believe would now be as welcome to the war-weary French nation as to our own?"