Soldier of Fortune

'You look as if you've been riding hard, Daniel.'

'I bring news that could brook no delay, Your Grace.'

'Then it must be from The Hague.'

'No,' said Daniel, 'it comes from Paris.'

'Paris!' exclaimed Marlborough. 'What were you doing there?'

'What else but gathering intelligence?'

'Go on.'

'It's as you feared, Your Grace,' said Daniel. 'They mean to strike at the heart of the Empire. When they won the battle of Speyerbach, they gained the fortress of Landau and seized two places on the Rhine that guarantee them secure crossings.'

'The towns of Brisach and Kehl,' noted Marlborough.

'In short, the French now have ready access to their allies in Bavaria. Marshal Tallard means to exploit that advantage.'

'That's precisely what I would do in his position.'

'Vienna is their target. If they take that and put the Emperor to flight, it will be almost impossible to dislodge them.'

'Then we must ensure that they never get close to the Imperial capital,' said Marlborough firmly. 'How much did you glean in Paris?'

'A fair amount, Your Grace.'

'Tell me all.'

Clearing his throat, Daniel delivered his report. He had committed all the details to memory, knowing the folly of writing it all down and carrying incriminating documents on a mission behind enemy lines. If he were stopped and searched, such material would bring arrest, torture and probable execution. Locked inside his brain, the information was wholly safe. Marlborough was an attentive listener, letting him give his account in full before asking any questions. When Daniel had at last finished, he earned a broad grin of admiration from the Duke.

'How ever did you find all this out?' asked Marlborough.

'I chose my source carefully.'

'I'd be tempted to say that it was General Salignac himself for you seem so well-informed about his movements.'

'I spoke to someone very close to the general,' said Daniel.

'Then it must have been his mistress. In my experience, French officers rarely confide in their wives. It's when they lay their heads on the pillows of their paramours that they become more talkative.' He raised a quizzical eyebrow. 'Am I right?'

'Both right and wrong, Your Grace,' replied Daniel with a twinkle in his eye. 'The lady in question was once the general's mistress but is now his wife, a position with which she is not entirely happy. What she has gained in respectability, she has lost in other ways. In brief, she craves attention. I was able to provide it.'

Marlborough laughed. 'You always were a ladies' man and this is not the first time we've profited from the fact. I congratulate you, Daniel. You've learnt more from an hour in the arms of a woman than my other spies in Paris have learnt in a month.'

'Each man has his own methods of garnering information.'

'Yours is by far the most pleasurable.'

'I endeavour to give as well as to receive pleasure, Your Grace.'

'As any gentleman would,' said Marlborough. 'What you have told me confirms decisions I had already made. My plan of action must be an audacious one because audacity is the only way to succeed against the French. When I reach Holland again, I'll acquaint Grand Pensionary Heinsius with the notion that the army will head for the Moselle. I know that he favours the move.'

'He might do so,' remarked the other, 'but there's not enough daring in such a manoeuvre for the Duke of Marlborough. I fancy that you have something else up your sleeve as well.'

'You're a shrewd man, Daniel.'

'I have the advantage of having served under your command.'

'Then you'll know how I like to keep my true intentions to myself and reserve the element of surprise. At this point in time, only the Queen, the Lord Treasurer, whom you just met, and Count Wratislaw, the Austrian minister, are aware of my design.'

'Apart from the Duchess, that is.'

'No,' said Marlborough guardedly, 'I've not even told my wife what I have in mind. All that she knows is that I intend to go higher into Germany — which, of course, is the truth.'

'But not the whole truth, I suspect,' said Daniel

'Wait and see.'

Daniel inclined his head. 'I'm at your command, Your Grace.'

'Then my orders are that you get some food and drink inside you,' said Marlborough, indicating the table. 'If you've ridden all the way from Dover, you must be starving as well as exhausted. You can speak to our cook and order anything you wish.'

'That's very kind of you.'

'It's scant reward for what you learnt in Paris.'

'Will I have time for any leisure, Your Grace?'

'Yes, Daniel. We'll sail from Harwich at the end of next week. That will give you almost eleven days.' His smile was warm. 'Do you think you could find a way to amuse yourself in London for that length of time?'

Daniel chuckled. 'I'm certain that I can.'

'Then enjoy yourself while you can because there'll be little opportunity for dalliance once the army is on the march once more.'

'I know.'

'When hostilities do resume,' warned Marlborough, 'you'll have to take great care not to meet General Salignac on the battlefield.'

'Why is that, Your Grace?' 'Put yourself in his place, man. He'll be eager to wreak a terrible revenge on the person who seduced his wife.'

'I have no worries at all on that score.'

'Really?'

'No,' said Daniel. 'The general has absolutely no idea who I am.'

Edward Marston

Soldier of Fortune

Using their forged passports, the two men boarded the ship at Calais.

'We'll never find him,' moaned Seurel. 'It's a waste of time.'

'We must find him,' said Catto, speaking in faultless French. 'We've tracked him this far and we'll pick up his trail in England. The general will not condone failure, Frederic. If we go back empty-handed, we'll pay dearly.'

'How do we know that he crossed the Channel?'

'I've described him to three different port officials and they remembered him clearly. Daniel Rawson may not have used his real name but he definitely sailed from Calais.'

'How could you describe him when you've never even seen him?'

'The general's wife has seen him,' said Catto with a snigger, 'and she was in a position to note the most private details about the man. We not only know exactly what he looks like, we have his name and his occupation.'

'Didn't Madame Salignac say he was a merchant?'

'That was only a ruse. What merchant takes a beautiful woman to bed in order to ask about her husband's movements in the army?'

'I see what you mean.'

'As soon as he realised what had been going on, the general knew who Daniel Rawson really was — a British spy!'

Seurel cackled. 'A lucky one at that — I wouldn't mind spying on Madame Salignac. She'd set any man's blood racing.'

'Nobody would ever get close enough to her again,' said Catto. 'The general has seen to that. His wife might as well be in a convent.'

'Mon dieu! What a terrible waste!'

Frederic Seurel made a vivid gesture with both hands to reinforce his meaning. He was a short, ugly, thickset man in his forties with dark hair and beard. He had been an accomplished thief in his youth but a harsh prison sentence had made him resolve to respect the law in future. Hardened by ten years in the French army, he had been invalided out when badly wounded in the thigh. He still walked with a pronounced limp.

Charles Catto, by contrast, was a tall, slender, lithe man in his early thirties with fair hair, a conventionally handsome face and a plausible manner. Born and brought up in England, he preferred to fight in a French regiment and it was there that he had caught the eye of General Armand Salignac. Because he was so alert, reliable and resourceful, Catto had been employed by the general in all sorts of secret missions, with an unbroken record of success. None of his assignments, however, had had the importance attached to the present one. Catto and Seurel had been left in no doubt about that.