"Hmm? Please convey to the Colonel Buonaparte that I cannot in good conscience take credit for the accuracy of our gunnery, capitaine," Lewrie said, once he had a word in edgewise. "Our sea mortars were in the charge of a most experienced and talented Spanish officer, Comandante Don Luis de Esquevarre y Saltado y Perez, and his bombardiers. A most gallant man. He went down with the ship, unfortunately."
Least I can do for the arrogant shit, Alan thought; let someone remember his deeds, now he's dead and gone.
"Ah, m'sieur le colonel is sadden to 'ear zis, Capitaine Luray. 'E 'ad wish 'e may 'ave meet ze artilleriste avec ze grand courage. Ze colonel, 'e alzo say, 'e 'eez 'ave ze 'ighes' respect pour votre generosity a' votre late ami. Encore, 'e e's-press 'is amazement de votre brave deeds."
"I thank him kindly," Lewrie smiled.
"Colonel Buonaparte, 'e say 'e eez know les batteries de General Carteau sink ze bateau, ze batterie de flotte, las' mont ', in ze Petit-Rade, avant 'e arrive. An' now 'e 'ave ze grand distinction to do same. An' not only sink une batterie de flotte… but tak' 'er officeurs an' crew prisoner. Weech ze ozzer chef d'artillerie do not," the captain said, with a smirk again.
Damme, there it is, Lewrie sighed; knew they'd get around to a surrender, sooner or later. To this vauntin' little coxcomb? Then we'll be months in gaol, maybe a whole year before France gets beaten silly. Christ! Damned if I think I'm going to like that!
"The colonel has been in charge of the batteries of La Seyne?" Lewrie asked, stalling for time, staving off the inevitable. And trying to think of something, anything, for a plan of escape. "Tell the colonel… the gracious Colonel Buonaparte, that my ship was the one that gave his gunners so much grief. By Balaguer? Oui, us."
That saved them another precious minute, as the young Buonaparte looked almost wolfish that he'd at last sunk the greatest thorn in his side; his bete-noire, as he put it. He smiled a bit wider, sure he had done something praiseworthy. And Lewrie could surmise by then that he was a man who lived for praise and honours. All the short ones did.
"Forgive me asking, capitaine, but…" Lewrie said, almost chummily by then. "I thought it was the mortars at Fort La Garde that sank us. The colonel only had the two light field pieces, and never hit us."
After a long babble in Frog, and some chuckles among Marmot and Junot, and a look on young Colonel Buonaparte's face like the cat that ate the canary, the cavalryman began to translate. The colonel crossed his arms over his chest, pouting chin-high in triumph. Posing!
Right, give 'em a chance to boast; works every time, Alan thought.
"Ah, oui, m'sieur Capitain Luray," the captain beamed slyly, "ze fort, mais oui, but…" he all but waved an impish finger at him. "Colonel Buonaparte, 'e eez in La Garde, ze inspection, n'est-ce pas? An' 'e say 'e realise, at once!"
The dragoon captain snapped his fingers for emphasis, as if he were tweaking Lewrie's nose.
"Labatterie jeune… new batterie, eez not St. Margaret, but you' supplies arrive from la mer, ze sea, hein? Eef eez not Fort St. Margaret, zen mus' be la batterie de flotte. Colonel Buonaparte realise… at once!… mus' be near ze fort, so 'ave to be 'ere, m'sieur, no ozzer. Near La Garde, ze range? See La Garde, et ozzer hills trop hautes. Too high? Ve ride out, vite, vis deux canon. An' ze flags de signaux, you see. 'E direc' ze feu. Ze firing. Et, voilа! Le colonel sink you!"
"He has my congratulations for his quick wits, sir," Lewrie said with another slight bow, feeling sick at heart at how easy it had been. "Though, of course, he does not exactly have my thanks."
"Ze colonel 'e eez delight to 'ear eet, m'sieur. Maintenant… ze wind eez cold, vos hommes, ils ont froid. Suffer? Ve mus' demand of you votre surrender, Capitaine Luray, vite. Colonel Buonaparte offer all officeurs la parole, you keep vos swords. Receive ze treatment beau."
"I…" Lewrie began to say, fingers twitching on his scabbard. There was no more shilly-shally, no more delays he could think of, and most especially, not even the slightest hope of an escape attempt could he devise that wouldn't get a lot more of his men killed.
"And what will happen to my men, m'sieur?" he posed instead. 'To my… matelots, my sailors?"
"Zey be tak' away," the dragoon captain shrugged, as if concern about the fate of enemy sailors didn't signify. He looked them over with scorn, like a remount officer deciding to herd off a pack of old nags to the knacker's yard. "Zey go to un fort, under guard. Or ze prisoner 'ulks… w'en we take Toulon."
"And should I give you my parole, I'd be forced to swear, upon mine honour, that I would no longer engage in combat with France, long as the war lasts? Even if I was exchanged?" Lewrie pressed, hem-hawing for time, just a minute of freedom more.
"Zat is la convention, m'sieur," the fellow said, growing testy and impatient once more. "Vite, your response?"
Lewrie turned to look around at the hang-dog faces of his men, faces still creased in pain and shock, some mildly perplexed by the conversation their captain was holding with a foeman. Saw the vacant and weary, defeated gapings of men without another ounce to give. Men he'd vowed to defend, to cosset, to husband… or to die with, if needs must.
Should he give his parole, he'd be almost free, in some inland French garrison town, sleeping in clean linen, bathing and shaving regularly, eating and swilling as well as any French civilian. Receive a packet of half-pay through the cartels, letters from Caroline, arrange for extra funds to be sent him. Sleep late, dawdle, ride (under guard) with a sword on his hip, the gentleman still. Hire whores, if he felt the itch.
And all the while, these men would be in chains, fettered in a loathsome fortress cellar, chained like a coffle of slaves aboard some foetid, reeking condemned ship of the line like felons awaiting transportation for life, eating slops and mushes, and thinking themselves lucky if they only slept two to a blanket, flea-ridden, lice-crusted…
"Je regrette…" he sighed, dreading those prisoner-of-war gaols just as much as his men would. But he could not do that to them, could not abandon them without a backward glance. Dear as he wished he might toddle off and call it the fortunes of war, he could not. Nor end his naval career, miss out on the blazing finale to a short-lived war, as a mildly inconvenienced…idler!
He lifted his hanger from the belt frog, held the sparkling hilt up to the wan sunshine, in front of his face. Saw the seashells wink as it turned in his grasp. He kissed the handguard and held it out.
"Je regrette, messieurs, I cannot give you my parole."
The dragoon captain made to take it from him, but Colonel Buonaparte shouldered him aside and reached out for it. Somberly, he seized the scabbard at the midpoint, his arm level. With a sad gravity, the young French officer brought it to his own face, cradling it like one might a child, to bestow his own kiss upon the bright silver chase, and nod at Lewrie with those large, penetrating eyes of his, glowing watery.
"Sir," Spendlove said, stepping to Lewrie's side and offering up his midshipman's dirk. "I cannot give you my parole, either."
"Mes braves," Buonaparte smiled. "Vous avez du poil au culs."
"Et vous, m'sieur?" the dragoon captain asked de Crillart.
Oh, shit, Alan shuddered! They learn he's Royalist, they'll be havin' his head off 'fore dinner! And all his gunners, by sundown!
"He has no sword to surrender, sir, he lost it. M… Mister Scott, he lost his sword when the ship went down," Lewrie extemporised quickly, speaking loud enough for all his men to hear. "Permit me to introduce Mister Barnaby Scott, our…"