by Dudley Pope
“Let the court vote.” The voice was insistent. “We’ve heard the charge, we’ve heard the evidence, and we’ve heard the defence, so we can vote: is he guilty as charged or not?”
“But you haven’t heard my defence,” Heffer protested. “I cannot call witnesses!”
“The very documents you put in as your defence, Monck’s orders, proved your guilt; Rowlands has given detailed evidence proving how you collaborated with those Royalists, Yorke and Whetstone.”
“Vote…vote…” the other two voices formed a chorus, and Slinger agreed.
“Very well, starting with the most junior of us – do you find General Heffer guilty as charged or not guilty?”
“Guilty…”
“Guilty…”
“Guilty…”
The three colonels were emphatic, and Slinger added his verdict, then tapped the table with something intended to be a judge’s gavel. “General Heffer, this court, formally constituted here at Cagway on the island of Jamaica to consider various charges against you of mutiny and high treason, hereby finds you guilty on all counts. You will stand to attention while the court passes its sentence.”
A chair scraped, and Slinger continued, his voice trembling with satisfaction: “The sentence of this court is that first you shall be shot, and then your body be hanged in chains at the gateway to the Palisades as a dreadful warning to other traitors. Sergeant of the Guard – take him away and guard him well!”
Ned tapped Thomas’ arm and walked into the room.
The three colonels were seated at the table with their backs to the window and a hunched Heffer was standing in front of his usual chair. Slinger sat at the head of the table at the far end facing the door.
A soldier – presumably the sergeant – stood behind Heffer, while Rowlands and the three original subaltern guards stood against the far wall, their backs to the window. Every man stared at Ned and Thomas, and Slinger was the first to react, leaping up and exclaiming: “You!”
Ned gave a slight bow and said sharply: “All of you get back from the table!” and at the same time seized the nearest lantern. Chairs crashed over as the sergeant and four colonels, three of them having no idea what was happening, hurried to obey orders given by someone who sounded in authority.
“Now,” said Ned evenly, “all you gentlemen are in danger of your lives, so keep absolutely still.” I’ve about a minute, he told himself, before the reaction sets in and they all start yapping at once, like hungry puppies when the bitch comes back.
“General Heffer, please collect General Monck’s orders and then go outside and wait in the hall.”
Thomas slapped the dazed man on the back as he went out. “Wake up, Teffler; we hadn’t deserted you – just went for a glass of wine!”
Ned looked at Slinger. “Introduce these three men, please.”
Slinger glanced nervously at the other colonels and Ned suddenly realized that Slinger was in fact the cat’s-paw: these three men had planned the coup, letting Slinger take the credit at first – just as he would take the blame if it all failed.
“Keep your mouth shut!” one of the colonels ordered, and Ned recognized the voice of the man who had first called for the vote. “These men aren’t armed. We–”
“Wait!” Ned snapped. “Turn round and look at the window!”
Five pistols with five unshaven faces, all sporting wicked grins looked through the window out of the darkness, and each muzzle pointed at a colonel with the fifth angled round to cover Rowlands, the guards and the sergeant.
“Now look at the door!”
Leclerc stepped into the room, followed by Coles, Rideau and Brace, each holding a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other. Ned gave a lantern to Coles, who put his sword in its scabbard and held the light higher.
“I have no more authority to arrest you all than you had to arrest General Heffer – except that every loyal citizen has a right and duty to prevent treason. What you men are doing is treason and you know it: you have seen General Monck’s orders and you know the King has been–”
Slinger tipped the table over and as the two remaining lanterns crashed to the floor there was a drumroll of gunfire. In the light of Coles’ lantern Ned saw Slinger look startled and then collapse; two of the colonels crumpled and Rowlands gave a scream. There was a moment’s silence and Ned saw Leclerc still poised, aiming his pistol. Before Ned could shout the Frenchman fired and the fourth colonel collapsed.
“No more problems now,” Leclerc said briskly, “unless these four–” he gestured at the former guards and the sergeant, “–want to fight.”
As Ned stood stock-still in the room, suddenly conscious in the silence of the sharp tang of the candle smoke and gunpowder, his ears ringing from the explosions, he realized that Leclerc had thought faster than him. The revolt was over because the four ringleaders – there was little doubt that these four had led the whole business – were dead or wounded: no courts-martial would be needed to restore General Heffer’s authority.
Thomas said: “I think we’ll put up some gibbets on Gallows Point and hang the bodies in chains. It was a good idea they had.”
Ned said: “Yes, like the carrion crow hung up outside the gamekeeper’s lodge. Still, we’d better make sure they’re all dead. And get half a dozen of our men from the front door to secure our former guards.”
Leclerc and Brace inspected the bodies as Coles held the lantern over them, and Ned called to Heffer through the door. He was surprised at the general’s appearance – it was as if the pistol shots had reminded the man that he was a soldier.
Ned put the table back on its legs and Thomas picked up the extinguished lanterns. He flicked open the doors, removed the candles and took them over to Coles’ lantern to light them.
With the chairs back in place, Ned waved Heffer to be seated, and sat down opposite him.
“Tell me, General, were these four the only traitors?”
“There are two more who stayed with their battalions. A couple of hours’ ride from here.”
“Will the soldiers stay loyal if those two colonels are arrested?”
“The major of one battalion would have to be taken as well.”
“Very well, do you have a few men you can trust to bring them in? Some of my buccaneers might enjoy a few hours on horseback, if you need reliable men. You’d better put the orders to the battalion in writing, though, along with the warrants for the arrest of the three men.”
“Can I arrest them?” Heffer asked uncertainly, betraying the effect the last hour had had on him.
“You’re the governor,” Ned said. “If you can shut the bordellos, you can certainly arrest traitors,” he added sarcastically.
Leclerc bent over to whisper in Ned’s ear: “The one in the end chair, the foxy-faced one who pushed over the table, he is dead. The one I shot is dead. The third is dead and the fourth bleeding badly. We are doing what we can to save him,” he said, “but I don’t hold out much hope. The youngest subaltern–”
“That would be Rowlands, I suppose,” the general said. “A grave disappointment to me…”
“–will be ready for the grave in ten minutes or so. The ranges were too short to offer a long life to the targets,” Leclerc said. “How do you like that for a joke in a foreign language?”
“It’s not foreign to me,” Thomas said with a straight face. “So we have three live and unwounded subalterns and a sergeant left, eh?”
“At the moment,” Leclerc said unambiguously. “We will walk them down to the jetty.”
Ned looked at Heffer, considered for a moment that but for the buccaneers the general would have been hanged within the hour by these same three subalterns, turned back to Leclerc and nodded.
Heffer coughed apologetically. “First I must thank you, then I must apologize that you were su
bmitted to all this.” He waved a hand round the room to indicate the bodies and the prisoners. “Might I ask what you are now going to do with your – er, your little fleet?”
“Return to Tortuga,” Ned said, shortly, knowing that he had won the battle for his buccaneers. “Once my captains have bought more stocks of rumbullion, they’ll be anxious to get back.”
“Your captains?” Heffer said, with a heavy-handed attempt at humour. “You sound like an admiral!”
“I am. At least the buccaneers have just elected me their admiral, so I have a little fleet of twenty-eight ships. Four times the size of the one that took Santiago.”
Heffer tugged at his jerkin to straighten it up. A night without sleep was being unkind to him, and the long face sagged as though the muscles holding the flesh were gradually surrendering. “I must congratulate you. What do they call themselves, ‘The Brethren of the Coast’?”
“Yes, and I trust that when you write your dispatch to General Monck describing tonight’s affair, you will mention the help you received from them.”
Heffer looked embarrassed. He shifted the position of the lantern a few inches and turned it so that his face was in shadow.
“I was hoping…somehow…the confidential nature…”
Ned stared at him. “How will you account for the loss of four colonels and three subalterns?”
“With your agreement,” Heffer said, “it can be done.”
“I’m not signing any false declarations,” Ned said firmly.
“No, no, nor would I ask. No, it is only a question of you and your people maintaining a discreet silence. The seven of them are dead or dying. My next dispatch has to report the death already of nine officers and twenty-three private soldiers from yellow fever, various fluxes and malaria. The extra seven –” he waved a hand around the room “–it matters little how their deaths are described in my dispatch.”
Ned gave a dry laugh. “Well, they can’t have died of yellow fever if you are going to hang their bodies in chains at Gallows Point.”
“My goodness!” Heffer said, and Ned realized that he must be the only man who could make that expression sound like an oath. “I’d forgotten all about that. What a decision to have to make. If I conceal the mutiny from London, I can’t hang the men in chains. But I want to string them up, as a dreadful example to the rest of the garrison of the perils of mutiny. What shall I do?”
“Are you really asking me?” Ned said, trying to sound friendly.
“Well, yes, you’ve always spoken freely and honestly – haven’t you?”
“Yes, but you rarely like what I say.”
“But these are unusual times,” Heffer said. “What do you think I should do?”
“I don’t think,” Ned said quietly. “I know, and I know Sir Thomas agrees. The fact that four colonels still supported Cromwell and the Commonwealth, despite the Restoration is not your fault. Why not tell them in London? It gives them a good idea of the problems you face. Point out that you have to defend yourself against the Spanish with officers you cannot fully trust. But at the same time describe the batteries you’re building with the guns the buccaneers brought from Santiago.
“Who knows? The army or the government might send you some more guns, powder and shot. Emphasize that while the main threat is from the sea, you have no ships. You can say you have to rely on the buccaneers.
“Meanwhile, string up these colonels and subalterns in chains. Get the gibbets built first thing in the morning – put a couple on that stretch of beach at the end of the spit but on the landward side, so everyone can see them as they’re rowed over to the landing stage to go to St Jago, and the rest beside the road where the Palisades begin.”
Thomas rapped the table with his knuckles. “That’s the best advice you’ve had for years, Teffler; worth a guinea a word. You can’t keep the mutiny secret, and since you’ve quashed it and shot the mutineers, why the devil should you try? Bodies wrapped in chains will stop anyone with similar ideas dead in his tracks. And let me add my penn’orth: here in the island give the buccaneers all the credit you can for helping you stop the mutiny: let your garrison think the buccaneers are on your side and will support you.”
“But aren’t they? Won’t they?”
“No, they’re not, and I doubt it,” said Ned brutally. “Why should they? They’re not English – or, rather, those that are have been ill-treated by Cromwell’s England. No, Teffler my friend, the buccaneers came on shore tonight to rescue their admiral and Sir Thomas, and they punished the men who had kidnapped us. The fact this led to your rescue was – for you –a lucky coincidence.”
“Perhaps I ought to give them a reward? What should it be?”
“Ah, you’re a lucky man,” Thomas said. “Just think of it, Ned, our friend Teffler can give a reward that not only costs him nothing but brings him even more advantages!”
Ned simply laughed and nodded.
“I don’t understand,” Heffer said. “What must I do?”
Ned leaned forward and lowered his voice, to provide more emphasis.
“The scuffle this evening with those wretched colonels has made you forget what the main threat is – to this island, not to you personally.”
“You mean the Spanish troops from Portobelo and Providencia landing on the north coast?”
“Yes. Is there a greater threat?”
“No, indeed not. I was telling you before you went to Tortuga, I don’t know what I am going to do!”
“You ask for our advice, so I’ll give it. For yourself, get those batteries completed here on the Palisades – I noticed that first one, where we found the men asleep, is still not finished. Concentrate your troops – if the Spanish are going to land and march, there’s no point in you exhausting your men by marching them over the mountains and through the jungle. Place them in positions you want to hold. After all, that’s how the Spanish beat you in Santo Domingo, wasn’t it? They just massed their men between you and the city and you bolted as soon as you smelled powder – no, not you personally, but just about everyone else.”
“Why can’t your ships stop the Spaniards landing?” Heffer asked plaintively. “That would be the best defence!”
“We have just told you: the buccaneers have absolutely no interest in defending Jamaica for you: they’ve no allegiance to England.”
“Sir Thomas mentioned a reward,” Heffer said, finally accepting that he could expect no more help from the buccaneers.
“Yes, I’m coming to that: I wanted first to remind you about the Dons. You can reward these buccaneers and at the same time give yourself a considerable insurance by offering them Port Royal as a base.”
“But you’ve already said they won’t come!”
“I said they won’t come while you shut down most of the taverns and make the place like the inside of a Puritan church!”
“What must I do then?”
“There’s no need for you to do anything – except not forbid everything. First, invite the buccaneers to use Port Royal – that means making the offer to me. Second, assure them that you will leave the town to develop normally. Third, issue every ship with a commission, or letter of marque to operate as a privateer –”
“But you have already said the Spaniards ignore commissions,” Heffer interrupted.
“Yes, but I’m not concerned with the Spanish; I’m concerned with you, or the government of Jamaica. If you set up an Admiralty Court and have it administered fairly, we’ll bring in our prizes and have them condemned in court, so that the King gets his share and so does the Lord High Admiral, if one has been appointed. The prizes are then legally condemned, and local men can buy the hulls or use them for trading – or buccaneering. In that way Jamaica gets defended and also prospers.”
“But you said the buccaneers won’t fight for England!”
> “They won’t, as such,” Ned said patiently. “They’ll fight for purchase and they’ll fight for a base which lets them turn their purchase into money and their money into liquor and women: it’s as simple as that!”
Thomas roared with laughter. “Don’t look so shocked, Teffler. Instead of paying out cash for a navy, you are getting one free. Listen, if a buccaneer takes a prize ship into Tortuga, he has trouble selling the cargo and the hull. But here he’ll be able to sell the ship and the cargo – you are short of everything, and the merchants are going out of business – so your people, merchants and gamblers, can trade, or even start buccaneering.”
“Yes, but…well…”
“Yes, all your psalm-singing hypocrites will be shocked o’ nights, hearing the roisterers sing raucous songs as they stagger out of the taverns and bordellos, but remember – drink, food, women and trinkets and fine dresses to put on them: it all costs money. The buccaneers will be spending the money, and your merchants and the tavern keepers will be pocketing it. And no doubt you’ll be charging customs and excise soon, and landing charges once the trading ships start bringing cargoes. The buccaneers will make the place prosperous, Teffler, and in the meantime they’ll make it safe!”
Heffer turned to Ned. “If I do all this, will you as admiral guarantee to keep the ships here while the Spaniards from Portobelo and Providencia threaten us?”
“No,” Ned said promptly. “If you invite the buccaneers to make Port Royal their base, they’ll defend their base, but as their leader I warn you that the best way of defending Port Royal is by attacking the Spanish elsewhere!”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Heffer grumbled.
“Well, the best way of preventing the Spaniards landing in Jamaica,” Ned explained patiently, “or making them withdraw if they’re already here, is to threaten one of their own towns. One which suddenly needs the Dons in Jamaica to defend or retake it.”
“Yes, I can see that, but where can you attack so that the Spanish take fright and leave us alone? And will the buccaneers agree to such an attack if they think it is simply to defend Jamaica?”