Mutiny

_{Fearon, delegate to the Leopard, raised his fists. 'I know the gib-faced shab 'ut did that. When I get aboard . ..'}

_{The bigger 50-gun ship slid away with the tide. Others in the fleet opened fire on her but she made her escape. Then it was the turn of Repulse — but her furtive setting of sails had been spotted by the alerted fleet and guns started to go off.}

_{'Captain Davis, call away my barge,' shouted Parker. 'I'm going to send those beggars to the devil by my own hand, see if I don't!' The boat put off, and pulled madly for Director.}

_{Repulse's sails caught the wind and she heeled, gathering way. Parker scrambled up the side of Director and could be seen arguing with her gun-crews — they had not opened up on Repulse as she slipped away — but then Repulse suddenly slewed and stopped, hard aground.}

_{Parker flew into his boat again, and stood in the sternsheets wildly urging on its crew as it made for Monmouth, the closest to the stranded ship. He swarmed up the side and ran to her fo'c'sle. An indistinct scrimmage could be seen around a nine-pounder. Then it fired — and again.}

_{Kydd watched in misery as Monmouth and other ships poured fire on Repulse. All the high-minded sacrifice, hard work and dedication, the loyalty and trust, now crumbling into vicious fighting.}

_{Hundreds of Sheerness folk lined the foreshore to watch as the mutineers' guns thundered, the stink of powder smoke drifting in over them. They would have something to tell their grandchildren, Kydd thought blackly.}

_{Miraculously Repulse seemed unscathed through the storm of fire. Then Kydd understood why. Savage splashes and spouts rose all around the ship, none on target, an appalling standard of gunnery — the gunners were firing wide.}

_{The masts of Repulse changed their aspect as the ship floated free with the tide. She spread more canvas, eased off and away.}

 

_{The night passed interminably. The ultimatum would expire at two in the afternoon. Would they then go to the capstans, bend on sail and set course for London? By this time tomorrow the biggest city in the world might be a smoking ruin - an impossible, choking thought.}

_{Kydd couldn't sleep. He went on deck: the lights of the fleet were all around, the three-quarter moon showing the row-guards pulling slowly round the periphery of the anchorage. His eyes turned to other lights glimmering on shore. In the nightmare of the past few days he had not had time to think of Kitty. What would she be feeling now? Would she think badly of him? Had she already fled into the country?}

_{His breast burned and, as he looked up at the stars, a terrible howl escaped into the night.}

_{In the morning Parker appeared. There were dark rings round his eyes. 'Good day to you, Tom,' he said quiedy. 'My deliberations are done. And they are that we cannot do this thing. I am preparing a petition asking only that we receive pardon. We send this to the Admiralty today.'}

_{An hour later, Captain Knight of Montagu arrived in a boat. He carried the King's reply. In the plainest words possible King George comprehensively condemned the actions of the mutineers and utterly refused to entertain any further communication.}

_{Captain Knight carried back Parker's petition by return.}

_{When the news emerged, there was outrage at Parker's betrayaclass="underline" Director and Belliqueux shifted moorings to the bow of Sandwich to put her under their guns, and the wait resumed. At noon the fleet began to prepare for sea — sail bent on ready for loosing, lines faked out for running, topmen at their posts.}

_{'Is the signal gun charged?' Parker hailed.}

_{'Ye're not goin' ahead with it?' Kydd's voice broke with anguish.}

_{'I am their president, they have voted for it, I will do my duty,' he said woodenly, turning away to consult his fob watch. 'It is now two. You may fire, if you please.'}

_{The six-pounder cracked spitefully, and from all around the fleet came acknowledging gunfire. Capstans were manned, topmen lay out on the yard ready to loose sail. It was their final throw.}

_{But a noise was heard, a swelling roar of voices, that welled up from the furthest reaches of all the ships. Fierce arguments, louder rejoinders, fighting — but not a capstan turned or a ship moved.}

_{The seamen had decided: the mutiny was over.}

_{They had fired on the King's ships, stood as a deadly threat to the government of the day and repudiated the King's Pardon. There would be no limit to the Admiralty's vengeance. It left Kydd numb, in a floating state between nightmare and reality, but also with a paradoxical sense of relief that all the striving, doubt and uncertainty were now resolved for ever.}

_{He stood on the fo'c'sle with Parker, watching boats full of soldiers heading for any ship flying a white flag. The first made for them.}

_{'It's finished f'r us, Dick,' Kydd said, in a low voice, ‘But we face it when it comes.'}

_{Parker crossed to the ship's side and gripped a line. 'History reached out and touched me, Tom. Did I fail? Was it all in vain?'}

_{Kydd could find no words to reply. He noticed the white of Parker's knuckles and saw that he was only just in control.}

_{'Any with a shred of humanity could not stand by and see those men groan under the burden of their miseries. I could nod' He turned to Kydd, eyes bright. 'So you might say I am the victim — of the tenderest human emotion.'}

_{He resumed his dogged stare at the approaching boats. "They could only ever see us as a mortal threat, never as sailors with true cause for complaint. At any time they could have remedied our situation and claimed our loyalty, but they never did. Instead they bitterly opposed everything we put forward. They offered redress and pardon at Spithead, but to us nothing.'}

_{He heaved a deep breath. 'I was the one that the illiterate, base-born seamen turned to when they needed a leader - they elected me to achieve their goals, but. .. It grieves me to say it, my friend, but the material I had at my command was not of the stuff from which is wrought the pure impulse of a glorious cause. They were fractious, hot-tempered, impatient and of ignoble motives. In short, Tom, my friend, I was betrayed.'}

_{The approaching boat came alongside, and the unbending Admiral the Lord Keith came aboard.}

_{'Which one of you is Richard Parker?'}

_{The president of the delegates walked towards him. 'I am.'}

_{'Then I arrest you in the King's name. Provost corporal, do your duty.' Parker smiled briefly.}

_{'That will do. I'll be back for the others. Get him ashore.'}

_{Kydd watched Parker move to the ship's side. He turned once towards him, then disappeared.}

_{The boat returned, and Kydd was ordered aboard with others for the journey ashore. A numb state of resignation insulated him from events, but when they approached the small dockyard wharf his heart nearly failed him. Nothing had prepared him for the degradation, the baying crowd, the noise and the shame. Hoots of derision, small boys playing out a hanging, the hisses of cold hatred - and Kitty, her face distorted and tear-streaked.}

_{Flanked by soldiers who kept the crowds at a safe distance, the seamen shuffled off, shackled in pairs with clumsy manacles. They were taken to the fort, searched at the guardhouse and then on towards the garrison chapel. Under the chapel were the cells; dark, dank and terrifying. And there Kydd waited for his fate.}

_{Renzi watched Kydd, with the others, stumble out of sight into the fort. He forced his mind to rationality: Kydd's incarceration in the fastness of the garrison with two regiments of soldiers in the guard was unfortunate for his plan. He would, in probability, be moved like Parker to the security of Maidstone jail until the court martial. This would be at night, and without warning.}