As Lord Nelson spoke, occasionally making shrewd comments on the abilities of those French officers he had encountered in the past, Ramage became more and more appalled at the magnitude of the task he was being given, even though he did not yet know the exact details. How on earth was he to land in France and, within a very few days, start worming one of the greatest secrets in France out of generals and admirals? The whole thing was ridiculous, and he began to feel resentful at being singled out. He had been trained to command ships at sea; it was unreasonable to involve him in this hole-in-the-corner spy business.
At that moment he glanced up to see the Admiral looking at him. It was disconcerting because he was more than conscious that the right eye was almost opaque, as though a thick film had grown across it. But the left eye was sharp enough; Ramage had the uncomfortable feeling that the Admiral had just looked into his innermost thoughts.
'Unfair, isn't it,' he commented. 'Damn' fool admirals expect you to land in France and winkle out secrets within a week or so. Was that what you were thinking?' He suddenly smiled, a friendly and understanding smile, and nodded before Ramage could answer. 'I should hope so; anyone with enough imagination to succeed should have decided fifteen minutes ago that the whole thing is impossible. No, don't look so surprised; the fact is - and I'm speaking from a few years of experience - that the task that looks utterly impossible is often the easiest to accomplish. The tallest mountain isn't always the hardest to climb, you know; it's often the smaller ones that have vertical faces.'
Ramage realized he had just been given a revealing insight into the man who had destroyed the French fleet at the Nile, saved the present First Lord from disaster at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and turned it into a narrowly-won victory, and more recently, smashed the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in a battle that hung on a knife-edge for a couple of hours. Tall mountains aren't always the hardest to climb, he repeated to himself. He must remember the phrase: his father would be more than interested since Nelson, as a young post captain, had served under him.
'Very well, Ramage, that's all the information we have from our agents. I want you to have a complete understanding of it for a particular reason: whatever you pick up in France, you must be able to estimate its importance at once: whether we know it, whether we ought to know it and how urgently, and its significance. You'll also know what to ignore. But there's another reason. Frankly, I have my doubts about the accuracy of most of this -' he tapped the written notes, 'because I have no great faith in the reports of agents and emigrés. It'll be useful to be able to check as much of it as we can when you get back. As far as the Moniteur reports are concerned, you must bear in mind that it is the most convenient way that Bonaparte has of providing us with misleading information.'
'Which in itself might provide positive information,' Ramage thought to himself and as Lord Nelson looked up suddenly realized he had said it aloud.
'Exactly, my dear Ramage, two negatives make a positive, and that's something you can bear in mind as you read those Moniteur reports - which I only obtained late last night from the Secretary of State's office. My French isn't good enough to make all that easy reading, but see what you can find out. Make notes. Mention anything you think might interest me. Anything,' he reiterated, 'however unimportant it might seem.'
'Aye aye, sir. But how am I to get to France?'
The Admiral laughed; a short, almost mirthless laugh. That's your problem. You can be put on shore by boat from any one of my cutters; or you can find out how the smugglers travel back and forth. Now for your specific orders. As the First Lord mentioned last night, it is essential to find out how many of each type of vessel the French can put to sea at the next new moon period. Barges, gunboats, fishing craft and so on. I'd like some estimate of how many more can be commissioned by the following new moon. So that is the first part of your task, and the most dangerous. The second part you can do by keeping your eyes open: accurate estimates of the number of troops, guns and horses and amount of provisions the vessels can carry.'
'And the sailing date . . .?' Ramage asked cautiously.
The chances of your discovering that are slight, even if Bonaparte knows it, which I doubt very much. We can be certain of one thing, though: the French won't risk having the troops and horses on board for more than twenty-four hours before sailing. Most of those vessels are anchored in such exposed places that the soldiers will become seasick within fifteen minutes.'
The Admiral stood up. 'You can stay here and go through those papers. Put them in the portfolio when you've finished and return them to the Board Secretary. I'm going down to Dover now, and you can report to me there tomorrow evening. Is there anything you want to mention now that won't wait until then?'
Ramage nodded hurriedly, since he had been wondering how he could raise the point. 'Men, sir. At the moment I don't know how I'll be handling all this, but -'
'But by chance,' Nelson interrupted, 'you happen to know the ships in which some of those scoundrels from your last ship are now serving ...'
Ramage grinned. 'Purely by chance, sir!'
'Very well, I’ll speak to the First Lord, and you can leave a list with the Board Secretary when you give him the portfolio. No more than a dozen, and I don't know what the deuce you need them for.'
He had written the names of the three men he wanted before he realized that only one of them was British. The first man was Thomas Jackson, the American who had served as his coxswain in all the ships he had commanded. 'All' included the Kathleen cutter, which he lost at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the Triton brig, which he lost after a hurricane in the Caribbean, and more recently the Lady Arabella brig. The second name was the Briton, Will Stafford, a Cockney who had been a locksmith and burglar before being swept up by a press gang. His former trade might come in useful. The third man was an Italian, Alberto Rossi, whose presence in France would not arouse suspicion.
He put the list to one side and began reading through the notes he had made while going through the dozens of pages taken from various issues of Le Moniteur. 'Two negatives make a positive,' Lord Nelson had said, and a pattern was certainly emerging. The Sussex coast was mentioned twenty-three times as a destination for the invasion and Kent only thrice; each time it was a passing reference to the white cliffs of the South Foreland at Dover. Essex was mentioned nineteen times, Ipswich seven and Colchester nine. London was never named, except for one reference to Napoleon holding a victory parade in St James's Park.
Providing it was not all a wild coincidence, there was someone on the staff of Le Moniteur whose job was to make the British believe that the French would land on the Sussex coast -using the vessels at Calais, Boulogne and nearby ports - and in Essex, using those at Ostend and Dunkirk. He was doing his best to make the British think there was no interest in landing on the Kentish beaches, and that London would not be the main objective.
Ramage shrugged his shoulders: Lord Nelson could draw what conclusions he liked, once he had the facts. He arranged the pages in sequence and found himself trying to look at it through the eyes of Admiral Bruix and Marshal Soult, who were in command of the French Invasion forces. Did Bruix know the English coast well? Had Soult ever visited England? Well, they had advisers, that was certain enough.