Ramage's Devil

Yet... yet... He resumed walking with Aitken.

'It doesn't leave us room or time to make any mistakes,' he said. 'If we're off the coast of Cayenne and L'Espoir heaves in sight, she only has to cover five miles or so and she's safe.'

'But if we're patrolling that stretch of the coast with all our guns run out, sir,' Aitken protested.

'You might just as well leave them unloaded with the tompions in,' Ramage said grimly. 'I can hardly fire into a ship where a quarter of those on board are likely to be those I'm ordered to rescue...'

'Then how are we ... ?' Aitken broke off and came to a stop facing Ramage. He shook his head. 'I've spent many hours trying to decide the route L'Espoir would take, so that we could intercept her, but I didn't think of ... Yet it's so obvious!'

'Not that obvious,' Ramage assured him. 'Neither the admiral nor his flag captain considered it in drawing up my orders!'

'We're going to have to bluff 'em,' Aitken said dourly.

'Bluff won't help much: the French will see Devil's Island close to leeward and all they have to do is make a bolt for it.'

'Would they risk damage to their spars with land so close to leeward?'

'Of course. From what I've read, it's a mud-and-mangroves-and-sand coast and it's theirs, so even if we sent all their masts by the board, the ship would drift on to a friendly lee shore and the French would march their prisoners off at low water. Not quite that, because there's ten feet or so of tide, but you know what I mean.'

'But L'Espoir's people would know they'd then be marooned there for months, until the next batch of prisoners are sent out. Worse than that, until the next ship arrives that manages to break our blockade of Brest.'

Ramage thought of the problem often facing captains: how to train their officers fully to consider all the enemy's advantages without getting too overwhelmed or depressed to think of ways of overcoming them. An overwhelmed or depressed officer was almost as dangerous as an overconfident one. Well, perhaps Aitken would get there by himself.

'The French captain may have guessed that a British frigate is after him,' Ramage said, without adding the corollary that he would have had a long time to think of his advantages and disadvantages.

'I don't see why, sir,' Aitken said politely but firmly. 'In fact, if you'll pardon me, I think it'll be just the opposite. He'll be treating it like an unexpected cruise.'

'But he can't be sure he won't be intercepted somewhere by a patrolling British frigate.'

Ramage almost grinned at the effort Aitken, usually a very patient man, was making not to show his complete disagreement with this sort of reasoning. In other words, Ramage thought, it's working: Aitken really is considering!

'Sir, no ship that he meets, not one, whether French or British, Spanish or Dutch, will know that the war has started again: the news can't possibly have reached them yet. Cayenne and Devil's Island won't know of the new war until L'Espoir arrives, and her captain knows that as long as he smiles and waves if he sights a British frigate, he's in no danger because the British frigate will think the world is at peace.

'The Calypso, sir,' Aitken continued emphatically, 'is the most westerly British ship that knows the war has started again. If we've overtaken L'Espoir, then we are the westernmost ship in existence.'

Ramage nodded agreement. 'We can be thankful Bonaparte didn't send out a dozen frigates from Brest the moment our ambassador left Paris: in areas off Madeira and the Canaries they could have captured dozens of John Company and other ships all bound to and from England. But he didn't because he's a soldier and not a sailor, and anyway they're very short of seamen in Brest.'

'Aye,' Aitken agreed. 'That Bonaparte seems to be a bonny soldier and we can be thankful he didn't take to the sea. Anyway, L'Espoir will have no reason to think the Calypso knows there's a war.'

'Wouldn't she be suspicious at seeing a British frigate so far south on this coast? About eight hundred miles south of the nearest British naval headquarters, Barbados?' Ramage continued testing Aitken.

'Sir, the Calypso's French-built, and apart from the fact that she's a little smarter than the usual French national ship, there's no way she'd know we're British unless we're flying our own colours.'

Now Aitken was straying from the point Ramage wanted him to discover and consider.

'Yes, I agree with all that but - and it's a big "but" - Bonaparte never forgives anyone who makes a mistake. In France there's a very complicated secret police system under which everyone is supposed to report on everyone else. One effect is that anyone failing to carry out his orders is likely to be accused of treason. Failure is frequently labelled treachery to the Revolution. And that usually means the guillotine - few brought before the courts in France are ever found not guilty.'

'So you think that the captain of L'Espoir will have considered that among the possible risks and dangers, sir? That he won't regard this voyage as a cruise, even though he is certain to be sailing ahead of the news of war?'

'Look at it another way, Aitken: forget the naval aspect. The captain of L'Espoir is carrying out the orders of the admiral at Brest, but he is a realist: he knows that the orders really come from the Ministry of Police, from that man Fouché, in fact. His written orders may have said that he was to carry fifty déportés from Brest to Devil's Island and hand them over to the préfet, but he knows very well that those fifty men (and their women) are regarded by Bonaparte at the moment as being the fifty greatest traitors who can be transported instead of guillotined. Now do you follow?'

Aitken shook his head. 'I don't think so, sir. It seems quite straightforward to me, but from the tone of your voice obviously it isn't!'

'Well, if somehow the captain does not deliver those fifty prisoners to the préfet in Cayenne, but instead they escape or are rescued by a British ship, so that Bonaparte and his police can't get at them, then -'

'Ah, I see!' Aitken exclaimed, his voice a mixture of triumph and disbelief. 'He would be accused of treachery - of deliberately allowing those fifty to escape.'

'Exactly. Ministers in power and Bonaparte himself always need scapegoats. The captain of L'Espoir knows that. No one commands a French national ship of war today solely because of his seamanship. Remember, in the first six months of the Revolution France destroyed many of her best officers, so today most of her captains are former boatswains; men who've survived all those earlier régimes. The captain of L'Espoir has survived - for nine years. He knows how to do it; he's an expert. So you can be sure he hasn't ruled out the chance of interception.'

'How does that affect us, sir? He must still be sure he is sailing ahead of the news of war.'

'Come now, forget that aspect. He has fifty valuable prisoners on board - valuable particularly because they could lead him to the guillotine. Surely he must have at least one overwhelming advantage ...'

'Well - oh yes!' Aitken exclaimed. 'Fifty hostages! No one attempting a rescue would dare risk harming them! Yes, he knows no one dare fire a broadside into him. By God, he's as immune from harm as a pirate holding a nun in front of him.'

'Exactly, immune from broadsides, and he doesn't have to give a damn about arriving disabled on a lee shore. If he hands over the prisoners to the préfet safely at the cost of losing his ship the Minister of Marine might be lenient as long as he gets a favourable report from the préfet. Mind you, the captain and ship's company will be marooned in Cayenne and half might die from the black vomit and the survivors be captured on their way back to France in another ship...'