When they reached the scene Jago paused, as if considering what to do.
‘Mr Jago, there’s only the few of us. Where are the others to help?’ Hetty pleaded.
He gave a tight smile. ‘They’ll come – magic it’ll be, you’ll see.’
He strode forward and pointed at the rubble, then set to with his mattock.
It was a signaclass="underline" from their hiding places scores of men raced out and, roughly shouldering him aside, went at it with a will, heaving off slabs of brick, tossing aside fragments and reducing the pile.
Passing men joined in the mad scrabble.
Hetty stared open-mouthed. ‘M-Mr Jago, how did you …?’
She turned to Golding, standing back and leaning on his rake. ‘Do you know how he did it?’
The young man tipped his hat in admiration. ‘Ha! Cautioned young Andreas not to tell a soul, but he’d heard the mansion where the Crown Jewels was hidden just fell down an’ we were on our way to help ourselves. They has to keep out o’ sight until we shows ’em which place it is, then they goes at it for ’emselves, like good ’uns. Mr Jago knew he’d snitch, the scamp.’
The rubble was fast disappearing revealing a once splendid ground floor in a shattered state, bowed down under the tons of debris, but now rapidly clearing. A shout brought Jago and Hetty running – a section of the floor had given way, exposing a dark void.
Jago used his fists to work his way to the front and peered in.
There was movement. A glint of something. He eased down to lie prone at the edge of the pit. As his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he saw Nicholas Laughton, sixth Earl of Farndon in a wine cellar, sitting beside the countess and swigging extravagantly from a bottle of excellent white wine.
‘So early, m’ lord?’
‘As it has served us for water these past days, Jago. Do be a good fellow and help us out, will you?’
Chapter 100
Danish Headquarters, the Citadel
Every eye in the room was on Peymann as the recitation went on. Then it was the turn of the Danish land forces commander, General Bielefeldt.
‘Sir, it’s with the greatest reluctance I have to tell you that many of the burgher militia have abandoned their posts on the defences in the face of the bombardment. They’re on the front line. It leaves the ramparts undefended. Should the British choose to storm us, there can be no hope.’
‘I see.’ Peymann rubbed his bloodshot eyes. ‘It had to happen, I suppose, poor fellows.’
Significant glances were exchanged around the table. Did this mean …?
‘Sir, I really think that-’
‘Gentlemen,’ Peymann said, and sighed, placing his hands on the table in a gesture of finality. ‘This you may take to be a council-of-war, with the object of establishing the most advantageous terms of capitulation. Note that down, will you, Knud?’
‘No!’ blurted Bille. ‘There’s still the-’
‘Kommandor,’ Peymann said, in tones of the utmost weariness, ‘we have resisted valiantly and can do no more. I shall ask for a cease-fire as of this hour and will expect to be discussing terms with the English commander shortly. Shall we begin?’
It had to be faced. They were defeated. Even the Crown Prince’s exhortations couldn’t change that.
‘We ask for the honours of war, of course. Due ceremony, the exchange of prisoners, that sort of thing, yes. But one question stands above all. This war was brought to us by the British, who wanted one thing – our fleet. This question therefore is, do we yield it up lightly or do we destroy it before they can lay their hands on it?’
‘No question! I shall set a torch to it in person,’ Bille ground out. ‘The honour of Denmark is not to be preserved by tamely surrendering our glorious fleet, undefeated and unbowed.’
Peymann winced. ‘I really cannot support you in that, Kommandor. The dockyard is in the centre of Copenhagen and will lay ablaze any of our city still left to us.’
‘And it will antagonise the British beyond their enduring. Our terms will be so much the sterner, and I fear-’
‘Antagonise? Damn it, if they-’
‘There’s one outcome of denying them the fleet that disturbs me greatly.’
‘General?’
‘That they may decide instead to remain in Sj?lland, take Elsinore and turn it into a second Gibraltar to safeguard their Baltic trade. They’d then be very hard to cast out.’
‘True enough. Gentlemen, we can do no other than comply with the demand.’
Murmurs of agreement came reluctantly but Bille sat red-faced and tight-lipped.
‘In consequence of which I desire you will accordingly sign your agreement to our resolve.’
‘I will not!’ Bille spluttered. ‘On my soul, I will not do it. Arm every true Dane, I say, to follow me as, with gunboats and all that floats, in a last glorious charge we throw ourselves at the English invaders of our motherland.’
Chapter 101
British Headquarters, Hellerup
‘Well, now, and they’ve finally come to their senses,’ breathed Cathcart. ‘An armistice to discuss terms. Thank God that carnage is over. It sickened me to think of those poor wretches … We’d better get to work and settle what we want of the beggars. I shall give ’em a cease-fire until four, in which they are to state to me what they’ll consider acceptable as terms. If by then they’re still footling about, we will resume our bombardment.’
‘The fleet.’ Admiral Gambier had no doubt about the first item.
‘You think they’ll give it to you without an argument? Or worse?’
‘They must. We’ll not be moved until we have it – they must know that.’
‘Umm.’
‘And surplus stores, sailing gear, that sort of thing.’
‘Very well. We get the fleet. What else?’
‘To take Sj?lland itself ?’ Brigadier Stewart came in brightly. ‘With our Swedish friends across the Sound, ’twould make a capital base to control the Baltic trade for ever!’
‘I rather fear our men-o’-war will soon be iced out to the Skaggerak in the north,’ Gambier said gloomily, ‘as will leave your military unprotected.’
‘And I’d think in any case that thirty thousand not too many for the garrison, a number I fear would not be countenanced by the government at this time.’
‘A pity. Well, we’ll settle for the fleet and no conquests. It’s what we came for, was it not?’
Unexpectedly it was Wellesley who spoke for the Danes. ‘I rather think it would be contrary of us not to accept that the Danish fought nobly with what little they had against our superior forces. Can we not show it by a leniency in our terms?’
‘That’s nobly said, Sir Arthur,’ rumbled General Bloomfield.
‘Besides which,’ Wellesley continued smoothly, ‘should the conceit be that, having secured the fleet, we are satisfied with no territorial gains, then it is no longer terms of surrender under discussion, for we will have left immediately and with no conquests.’
‘Quite!’ said Cathcart, with satisfaction. ‘By that we are spared the expense of an occupation.’
‘So no need for military parades, hauling down of flags, so wounding to the feelings. They cannot object to that.’
Chapter 102
At the gates of the Citadel, close to the scene of the hardest-fought encounters, instruments of ratification for an armistice were exchanged by a small group of officers. Then, without ceremony, the Danish guard marched away. The rest of the garrison left the Citadel, an empty fortification, for the British to take possession.
It was agreed that the Citadel and dockyard alone were to be occupied and only for the period needed to fit out the Danish fleet for sea, after which the British would leave for ever. The commanders took up their temporary residence and the last details could be put into train.
‘Maynard!’
Jolted by the adjutant’s irritable shout he presented himself.
‘A task for yourself, a sergeant and six. Here’s a list of the last-known addresses of British citizens, merchants and such in Copenhagen. Visit each and see if they’re about, then offer them escort back. Clear?’