Roger chose Madeira and, handing him a glass, the clergyman went on: ‘How long have you been in Russia, and what think you of the country?’
‘I landed only this morning, Sir; so I have had little time to judge. The fine streets and buildings of the capital fill me with admiration; but, at first sight, the majority of its inhabitants strike me as exceedingly uncouth, and more like bears than men.’
Mr. Tooke laughed. ‘Indeed, the lower orders here are not far removed from animals, and even their betters oft display a violence which we would regard as most reprehensible at home. Yet the Russians have their good points and one is their complete freedom from all bigotry. That has made my work here both pleasant and easy, which I well might not have found it had I taken a post as chaplain in some of the, so-called, more enlightened countries.’
‘Do they place no restrictions at all then on the practice of the Protestant faith?’
‘None whatever, nor upon any other. And, in fact, the Russian Government’s toleration has had such a beneficial effect that, instead of being at daggers drawn as we should be in any other country, the clergy of all sects work together here in the greatest harmony. I count many friends among the pastors of other denominations, and those of us who are of the Reformed religions meet together once a week to discuss how we may better the lot of our respective congregations. I have often preached by invitation in the Calvinist church; and, strange as it may seem to you, I once even stood sponsor at the christening of a Roman Catholic child, the priest very civilly omitting those questions from the service which he knew that my conscience would not allow me to answer in the affirmative.’
‘Indeed I find that most remarkable,’ Roger smiled, ‘when at home we still debar the Papists from entering any form of public life, and in many Catholic countries Protestants are still frequently the victims of persecution.’
‘ ’Tis very different here. All men may hold such religious beliefs as they choose, and although the Empress herself is a strict follower of the Orthodox Greek Church she has recently appointed an Archbishop for her Catholic subjects, and established a seminary of Jesuits at Mohilef. This spirit of goodwill is even carried to the extent of Her Majesty’s confessor, Ivan Pamphilief, giving a “Dinner of Toleration” each year on the 6th of January. At it the Metropolitan Gabriel presides, and the principal clergy of all religions are invited. On one occasion when, before the dinner, wines of various kinds were handed round on a salver, our host made a charming allusion to the widely divergent creeds of the assembled company, by remarking: “These wines are all good; they differ only in colour and taste.” And that is the happy spirit which animates religion in this land which the western nations stigmatise as barbarous.’
Roger nodded. ‘ ’Tis certainly a much nearer approach to a true interpretation of the teaching of Our Lord than anything so far achieved elsewhere in Europe. Yet in other respects the Russians appear to be still only half-civilised. Their brutality is a by-word; and I gather that for quite insignificant faults they inflict punishments on their servants which we should consider ferocious.’
That I admit; yet a death-sentence is a rarer thing here than in most other countries.’
‘What though, Sir, of exile to Siberia? ’Tis said that thousands of hapless folk are despatched every year to drag out a miserable existence in those icy wastes?’
Mr. Tooke made a deprecating gesture. ‘News of general conditions in such a distant country as Russia travels but slowly to the outer world. No doubt in England people still believe the state of things here to be much as they were in the days of Her Majesty’s predecessor, the Empress Elizabeth. She was as great a tyrant as her father, Peter the First, yet lacking his originality and abilities. On her ascension to the throne in 1741, she took a vow never to resort to capital punishment, but since she was mean, cruel and suspicious by nature she allowed countless judicial-atrocities to be committed in her name.
‘In cases of suspected treason even inferior magistrates were empowered to have prisoners’ hands tied behind them to a rope by which they were then hoisted to the ceiling, let down with a jerk so that their arms were wrenched from their sockets, then knouted in that position to extract a confession. Quite frequently, too, innocent people were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night by her secret police and, without any form of trial, carried off into exile. ’Tis said that during the twenty years of her reign she banished over twenty thousand of her subjects to Siberia. But things are very different today. On coming to the throne the Empress Catherine forbade the use of all forms of torture, and although she sometimes sends those who have displeased her into exile, ’tis only on comparatively rare occasions. Her private life leaves much to be desired, but she is of a kindly disposition and rules with great humanity.’
Roger was about to ask Mr. Tooke’s personal impression of the Empress when heavy footfalls sounded in the passage outside, the door opened, and a rugged face surmounted by crisp, iron-grey hair was thrust round it.
‘Your pardon, William!’ the newcomer exclaimed on seeing Roger. ‘I was not aware that you had a visitor; and having delivered a parcel from my wife to your good lady, had thought that I would look in on you for a word before making my way home.’
‘Come in, Samuel, come in,’ cried Mr. Tooke; then, turning to Roger, he added in French. ‘Allow me to present you, Monsieur, to one of Her Majesty’s most distinguished and devoted servants; Admiral Sir Samuel Greig, of the Imperial Russian Navy. Samuel, permit me to introduce Monsieur le Chevalier de Breuc, a young Frenchman newly arrived in Petersburg.’
The Admiral had advanced into the room. He was a stalwart, thick-set man in his early fifties. His weatherbeaten face was lit by a pair of impatient, flashing eyes. He looked a rough diamond, and when he spoke it was with abrupt forcefulness. Instead of returning Roger’s bow he stared at him truculently for a moment, then bellowed with a heavy Scots accent.
‘Young Frenchman, eh? Tell that to the Marines! I’ll swallow my own anchor if he’s not as much an Englishman as yourself. And you, young man! Tell me this instant what criminal intent leads you to come to Russia deceiving honest men into believing you a Frenchie?’
13
Hell’s Kitchen
Taken completely off his guard, Roger remained tongue-tied for a moment. He had not the faintest idea what had led to this swift penetration of his incognito. He knew only that if the Admiral’s loyalty to his Imperial Mistress proved greater than any sentimental ties he retained for the land of his origin, the game was up. He, Roger, could count himself lucky if no worse befell than for his mission to end before it had properly begun, by his ignominious and immediate expulsion from Russia. That was, unless he could somehow manage to bluff his way out of the extraordinarily unfortunate encounter.
He had often heard of Admiral Greig. Indeed, the intrepid sailor was regarded as almost as much of a hero in the country of his birth as in that of his adoption. He had commanded a division of the first Russian Fleet ever to enter the Mediterranean; and, although the Supreme Command had been vested in Count Alexis Oriof, the brother of the Empress’s first great favourite, there were good grounds for believing that Greig and his fellow Scot, Rear-Admiral Elphinstone, were the real authors of the signal victory by which the Russians had annihilated the entire Turkish Fleet in the Bay of Chesme.
Since then, he had distinguished himself by leading numerous spectacular actions, and, between wars, had become, in all but name, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy. His rise was all the more spectacular in that he had started his sea career in merchant ships, then served before the mast in the British Navy for six years before being allowed to accept a Lieutenant’s commission in the Russian service.
He now held the rank of Grand Admiral; and the five great jewelled stars blazing upon his breast—denoting him to be a Knight of the Orders of St. Andrew, St. George, St. Vladimir, St. Anne and St. Alexander Nevski—were more than enough to show the unlimited faith that the Empress placed in him
. To Roger, it seemed in the highest degree improbable that such a man would be prepared to abuse his mistess’s confidence to the extent of allowing a spy to remain at large in her country.
His only course seemed to be to lie like a trooper, and pray that Mr. Tooke would not give him away; so, drawing himself up to his full six feet, he said haughtily: ‘You are under a sad misapprehension, Sir, and obviously mistake me for another. I have lived in England long enough to speak your language with some fluency, but my name is de Breuc, and I am a native of Strasbourg.’
‘Enough of such lying, boy!’ snapped the Admiral. ‘I know you for what you are.’
Hopelessly puzzled as to the reason for this unshakeable assurance, Roger could only stand his ground and take refuge in assumed anger.
‘Since you give me the lie, Sir,’ he said sharply, ‘although you are my senior by many years, you leave me no alternative but to call you out.’
The Admiral gave a great bellow of laughter, then shook his head with a humorous grin.‘ ’Tis easy to see that you have not been long in Petersburg, my young fire-eater. The Russians may be a backward people in many ways, but at least they realise the idiocy of settling differences of opinion by jabbing at each other with their swords. Should you slap a Russian’s face he will hit you back or break his cane over your head; but you will not find one fool enough to submit himself to a contest in which justice has no part, and the best swordsman, be he right or wrong, comes off victorious.’
‘Then, Sir,’ snapped Roger. ‘Should you persist in giving me the lie, my palm will itch so that it will inevitably make contact with your face.’
With a slight cough the Reverend Mr. Tooke intervened.
‘Gentlemen, this matter has gone far enough. Why you should imagine, Admiral, that the Chevalier is an Englishman I have no idea; but I trust you will be satisfied that he is a person of good standing when I tell you that he has brought me a letter of introduction from our old friend Sir James Harris.’
Roger was filled with admiration for the extraordinarily tactful way in which the learned churchman had provided a bridge while skilfully evading the point at issue. Mr. Tooke had made no admission that his visitor was not, to the best of his belief, a Frenchman, neither had he vouched for his integrity; but he had, by naming him a protégé of the ex-Ambassador, placed him at once on a respectable footing.
‘Ah! Then I’ll say no more,’ cried the Admiral with ready good humour, but he added with a broad wink at Roger: ‘Except to ask the Chevalier to remember me most kindly to Admiral and Lady Brook, should his travels ever take him to a little town called Lymington’
With a friendly grin Roger hid his confusion at being so completely bowled out. Then, feeling that in the circumstances it would now be both churlish and stupid to persist in, denying his true identity, he said: ‘I pray you pardon me, Sir, for my extreme rudeness, but I had good grounds for striving to preserve my incognito. Tell me now, I beg, how it comes about that you knew me the second you set eyes on me?’
The Admiral laughed. ‘You’d not remember me, but I’ve known you ever since you were a toddler, and I’ve a long memory for faces.’
‘I must confess I don’t recall our meeting, Sir, though I’ve often heard my father speak of you with friendship and admiration. You served under him at the reduction of Havana, did you not?’
‘Aye, that was way back in ’62 and long before you were born, boy. Your father and I were much of an age and became firm friends despite the deck that lay between us. ’Twas he who persuaded our captain to recommend me as suitable for a commission when the Russians asked for a few British seamen to help train their fleet. Years later, when my squadron re-victualled in England on our way round to Greece, he came aboard to see me, bringing both your mother and yourself. You were no more than a child of two then, but I saw you again at Lymington when you were about eight. You’ve altered little since then, except that you’ve grown into a fine figure of a man.’
‘I still marvel that you should have recognised me so instantly, Sir.’
‘ ’Twas the similarity of the name coupled with those dark blue eyes of yours, lad. They are your mother’s very own, and I fell in love with her for them the first second I saw her. But tell that to Lady Greig and I’ll have you keel-hauled out in Cronstadt Bay. I still see your father on the rare occasions when I get leave to spend a few weeks in the old country, and it chances that he is not at sea himself. Can you tell me how fares it with him?’
‘Why, yes, Sir. When I sailed from England towards the end of April I left him mightily well and in the best of spirits.’
‘Ah! The two of you are reconciled, then. I’m monstrous glad to hear it; for your defiance of him and running away to France near broke his heart.’
Roger flushed. ‘So you knew of that, then?’
‘He told me of it when I was last in England, two summers back; and I had not heard that you had since made your peace. ’Twas that which made me at first suspicious of your intentions here. I thought mayhap that you were still living by your wits, and had come to Russia in the guise of a Frenchman as a precaution against disgracing your own name, should you be caught while up to some nefarious business. But since you come sponsored by our good Sir James that puts a very different complexion on the matter. I trust that you left that handsome rascal also in good health?’
‘In the very best, Sir. And, I am happy to report, about to be raised to the peerage as Baron Malmesbury, in recompense for his great services to the Crown.’
‘He well deserves the honour. ’Twould in fact have been earned alone by the splendid fight he put up while here against Frederick the Great’s malign influence over the Empress.’
‘Let us then drink a glass of wine to his long enjoyment of his new title,’put in Mr. Tooke.
‘I thank you, William,’ the Admiral smiled. ‘I’d not say nay to a glass of your good dry Sack.’
When they had drunk the toast, they all sat down, and the Admiral gave Roger a shrewd glance, as he said: ‘I’ll ask no questions as to your purpose here, and thereby invite no lies. But your posting as a Frenchman while bringing a secret introduction from Sir James to my old friend, suggests certain possibilities which, in my position, it is difficult to ignore.’
‘I appreciate that, Sir,’ Roger replied seriously, and the Admiral went on:
‘ ’Tis said that no man can serve two masters; yet we British—and there are quite a number of us here now that I have leavened the whole Russian Fleet with British officers—have, in effect, achieved an honourable compromise. Technically we are no more than loaned to the Russian Government and can be recalled at any time; but our recall could not be enforced, and many of us have made our homes here. Therefore, most of us feel that our first loyalty should be to the hand that feeds us and the land in which our fortunes lie; yet out of natural sentiment we have pledged ourselves never to take any action which would be definitely to the detriment of the land of our fathers.
‘For example, during the last war the Empress was persuaded by her Minister, Count Panin, to form the League of Armed Neutrality, by which Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to defend their merchantmen from search for contraband of war being carried to Britain’s enemies. Since Russia was the initiator of this pact she would normally have taken the foremost part in these anti-British activities; but whenever a Russian ship-o’war commanded by a British officer appeared liable to be involved he put a blind eye to his telescope and sailed off in the opposite direction; thus rendering Russia’s part in the Armed Neutrality a nullity.’
‘Tell Mr. Brook what came about from the arrival of Paul Jones, Samuel,’ put in their host, ‘for that is a more recent example of our compatriots’ feelings.’
‘Aye,’ the Admiral nodded. ‘You’ll have heard of the English renegade who turned pirate and played the very devil with our merchantmen, in the American interest, during our war with the Colonies. When the fighting was over he found that persons of qual
ity in the United States had little time for such a rapscallion and traitor as himself. So, greatly disgruntled, on learning of the outbreak of the new war ’twixt the Russians and the Turks, he came here to offer his services to the Empress. He is a bold enough rascal, but ignorant, and never having directed the operations of more than one ship at a time, completely unfitted for high command. However, misled by tales of his courageous exploits Her Majesty was sufficiently ill-advised to offer him a high appointment in the Grand Fleet, which has been equipping these few months past at Cronstadt.
‘Immediately I was informed of this I called a meeting of the senior British officers in the Fleet. Their opinion was unanimous. Not one of us were prepared to serve either with or under an ex-pirate and a man who had played traitor to his country. Some thirty of us went to the Empress in a body and resigned our commissions.’
‘Well done, Sir,’ murmured Roger.
The Admiral chuckled. ‘That put the poor lady in a pretty fix; for such a step being utterly impossible to her own officers it had never entered her mind that we might undertake it. To accept our resignations would have immobilised the Grand Fleet, which is soon due to sail again under Count Orlof for Turkish waters; while to give way to our demand that the man Jones should be dismissed from her service would have created a precedent which might have had most serious repercussions among her own countrymen. She solved this unique challenge to her authority with her usual ability, by sending Jones as second-in-command to the small fleet in the Black Sea. But this little passage of arms is enough to show you that, although far from home and the servants of an autocrat, we British still reserve our right to use our own judgment in all that we feel concerns us.’
Roger smiled his most winning smile. ‘I’ve never doubted that, Sir, and I trust that in my own case, whatever you may suspect to be the object of my visit here, you will not disclose your thoughts to others.’
The Shadow of Tyburn Tree Page 31