Also by Julian Stockwin
Kydd
Artemis
Seaflower
Mutiny
Quarterdeck
Tenacious
Command
The Admiral’s Daughter
Treachery (US title: The Privateer’s Revenge)
Invasion
Victory
CONQUEST
Julian Stockwin
www.hodder.co.uk
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton
An Hachette UK company
Copyright © Julian Stockwin 2011
The right of Julian Stockwin to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Epub ISBN 9781444711998
Book ISBN 9781444711967
Maps drawn by Sandra Oakins
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
338 Euston Road
London NWl 3BH
www.hodder.co.uk
To the Lady Anne Barnard, Capetonian diarist and chronicler
1750–1825
CONTENTS
Conquest
Also by Julian Stockwin
Conquest
Copyright
Dedication
Maps
Dramatis Personae
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Author’s Note
Glossary
Dramatis Personae
Thomas Kydd, captain of L’Aurore
Nicholas Renzi, his friend and confidential secretary
L’Aurore, ship’s company
Gilbey, first lieutenant
Curzon, second lieutenant
Bowden, third lieutenant
Clinton, lieutenant of marines
Dodd, marine sergeant
Cullis, marine corporal
Dr Peyton, surgeon
Calloway, midshipman
Kendall, sailing master
Saxton, master’s mate
Oakley, boatswain
Owen, purser
Tysoe, Kydd’s valet
Stirk, boatswain’s mate
Poulden, coxswain
Greer, sailmaker
Olafsen, sailmaker’s mate
Pinto, seaman
Ah Wong, seaman
Harmer, ‘Buttons’, seaman
Officers, other ships
Commodore Home Popham
Captain Honyman, Leda
Army officers
Major General Sir David Baird
Lieutenant Colonel the Lord Geoffrey MacDonald
General Lord Beresford
Brigadier General Ferguson
General Yorke
Colonel Pack
Lieutenant Grant
Dr Munro
Tupley, quartermaster general
Cape Town
General Janssens, former governor of Cape Colony
Willem van Ryneveld, fiscal
Barbetjie van Ryneveld, his wife
Oudsthoorn, chief clerk
Höhne, Renzi’s sworn translator
Stoll, personal aide to Renzi
Knudsen, Danish shipwreck survivor
Ritmeester Francken, captain of Fort Onrusberge
Van der Riet, landdrost of Stellenbosch
Others
Frederick Stanhope, Marquess of Bloomsbury
Marchioness of Bloomsbury
Cecilia Kydd
Lord Grenville
Marie Thérèse Adèle de Poitou
Baron de Caradeuc
Poncelot, Chef de Bataillon des Chasseurs de la Réunion
Robert Patton, governor of St Helena
Chapter 1
Captain Thomas Kydd held his impatience in check. Still in thrall to the all-so-recent cataclysm of Trafalgar, he and his ship had played escort to the body of Admiral Nelson in their grief-stricken return to England. Then, immediately, he had been given orders for sea, falling back on the Nore to victual and store with the utmost dispatch before setting forth to attempt urgent rendezvous with Commodore Home Popham in Madeira.
Much affected by the loss of the great commander, Kydd had at first resented not being able to attend what would no doubt be the greatest funeral of the age, but as all of Nelson’s victorious battle-fleet, save the legendary Victory, were still faithfully on station, who were he or his men to complain?
Under a press of sail, L’Aurore had braved the hard south-westerlies and was now rounding the last point before the deep anchorage of Funchal Roads opened up.
Madeira was peculiarly well located at the crossroads of the pattern of trade routes that led to Europe; merchant shipping and naval vessels alike gratefully raised landfall before the last few weeks of far voyaging – or girded for long months outward bound. Now, in winter, the little island was at its best: an emerald jewel in the warmer reaches of the Atlantic, with crystal water, succulent fruits and blessed rest for mariners who had won clear of the Channel’s bluster on their way to exotic destinations.
Kydd peered through the throng of shipping to a denser group, and caught sight of the swallowtail of a commodore’s pennant high aloft in an elderly 64-gun ship. They were in time!
He assumed a strong quarterdeck brace. Kydd knew that his ship – a thoroughbred light frigate captured from the French a bare year ago – was at her best, even with all the haste in getting back to sea. His head lifted in pride at the impression she must be making on the eyes now upon her – and he remembered how, in a similar frigate, he had passed this way all those years ago, a young sailor before the mast, making skilled seaman from humble press-ganged beginnings. And now he was captain of his own frigate . . .
This was no time for reminiscing: he had served with Popham before and was eager to make his acquaintance again – and find out what was in store for L’Aurore.
Shortening sail, they threaded their way through the packed shipping, no difficulty for the nimble frigate on a favourable wind, and in short order their anchor plunged down and their thirteen-gun salute cracked out.
He was met on Diadem’s quarterdeck with all the ceremonial of a post-captain coming aboard a flagship. ‘A swift passage, Mr Kydd,’ Popham said, the intelligent eyes appraising. ‘I count myself fortunate that you shall now be able to join our little enterprise.’
There had been just the barest details about it in his orders, Kydd reflected, but he replied respectfully, ‘I’m honoured to be here.’ Then he ventured, ‘Er, you did say “enterprise”, sir? I’m as yet mystified as to its purpose.’
Popham gave him a quizzical look, then dealt with a hovering first lieutenant before inviting Kydd to a sherry below. He wasted no time on pleasantries. ‘The French fleet has been destroyed and the way is made clear for us to take the offensive. This is nothing less than the first move in a race to empire!’
‘Sir, I don’t—’
‘Are you in doubt of empire, Mr Kydd? The world is populated by quantities of benighted heathens who, in the nature of things, will be ruled by one or other of the Great Powers until they be of stature to stand alone. It were better for them that it be us, with our enlightened ways, than the selfish and rapacious Mr Bonaparte, do you not think, sir?’