She had all but given up hope for her plan when the sun had gone down behind the fog last night. "If I see the sun rise tomorrow morning," she had said, "then perhaps there is a way; if not, the work of the last two months is wasted, and I shall begin all over again."
At first light today she had gazed into the eastern sky half hoping to see nothing but a cliff of fog, for then her plan would have been unequivocally dead, which would have been altogether simpler and easier. Instead she had seen the disk of the sun, as crisp, and about as bright, as a copper coin resting on a bed of ashes.
She closed her eyes; invoked the Devil and the Heavenly Father in the same sentence, in case either of them was listening; and closed the shutters on three of the cabin windows, while leaving the others open. As Météore swung round on the morning tide, and exposed her gilded backside to the town, this signal would become visible to those who had been watching for it.
She began to pack some goods into a bag: first, five Bills of Exchange, which she wrapped up in a wallet of skins, oiled to baffle moisture. Then a rolled blanket. Scarves. A comb and some pins, clips, and ribbons for suppressing her hair. Some silver coins, mostly Pieces of Eight chopped into wedge-shaped bits, certain to astonish the English.
The rooves of Cherbourg were glowing, seemingly not with the reflected light of the sun, but rather from within, like hot irons pulled from the forge. A boom sounded from far off, then another, then a ripple of them.
Then someone knocked on her door and her skeleton practically jumped free of her skin; for she phant'sied somehow it was a handful of wayward grapeshot striking Météore. She dropped her bag on the floor and kicked it under her bed, then went to the door and unlatched it. It was Brigitte, her lady-in-waiting.
"It is Monsieur d'Ascot to call on you, my lady."
"Bit early."
"Nevertheless, he is here."
"A few minutes while I make myself presentable."
"Shall I help you?"
"No, for I am not really going to make myself presentable. I make him wait because I can, and because it is expected, and because he deserves to be punished for coming so early."
"PARDON ME, MADAME, for having disturbed your morning," said William, Viscount Ascot, in French that sounded as if he'd practiced it while he'd been waiting. Eliza thought of asking him to speak English; but he'd probably take it as an insult. "I was asked to keep you apprised of any news concerning the invasion."
This meant several things. First of all, in spite of the fact that James Stuart had showed up, there must be someone competent still in charge and making information wash up and down the chain of command. Second, this man, Ascot, must be one of the agents who were supposed to carry the Bills of Exchange to London. Third, nothing was going to happen; for if Ascot and the other four agents were going to do it today, all five would have showed up at dawn, and they'd already be fanning out across the Channel in separate boats, each with a Bill of Exchange in his breast pocket.
"Time is drawing very short," Eliza remarked. "The Bills must be presented in London three days from now. They must be sent on their way this morning, or else I might as well tear them up."
"Yes, madame," said Ascot. "The King and Council are aware of it." He meant James Stuart and his claque. As if to emphasize this, he gazed out the window into Cherbourg. Somewhere in the town, on some church-steeple, there must be signalmen poised to raise flags as messages came in from the headquarters at La Hougue. "The fog is lifting!" he exclaimed. "When I was strolling on the upperdeck just now, madame, I was able to see one or two miles out into the Channel."
"And what did you observe, monsieur?"
"Boats coming in, madame."
"Under sail or—"
"No, for the wind is only just coming up. They are longboats, with sailors pulling lustily at the oars. Some of them are towing a damaged ship—a big one."
"Do you think it might be the Soleil Royal?"
"Quite possibly, madame. Or"—Ascot smiled—"perhaps what is left of Britannia."
This made Eliza dislike Ascot somehow; for he was after all an Englishman. He was straining visibly to say things he guessed she would like to hear; and his guesses were not very interesting. She was silent for a moment, out of sheer hopelessness. Into that silence Ascot put the words "On those longboats will be information, madame; the information that the King of England shall require to make his decision."
Eliza nodded as if she accepted this; but what she was thinking was, first, How could even a syphilitic be so insane as to phant'sy that the invasion might still happen and, second, If he doesn't cancel it soon I shall have a grave problem on my hands. She glanced involuntarily at the cabin windows, and the three closed shutters. They'd been visible from Cherbourg for at least half an hour now. Things were in motion that she could no longer control.
For a minute or two it had been possible to hear shouting abovedecks, which aboard ship was a wholly usual thing; more so when longboats were coming in from the Channel bearing news. Eliza had paid no attention to it. Now, though, they heard a thunking splash. A man, or something as big as a man, going overboard.
"Madame, I beg your leave to investigate—" began Ascot.
"Go, go!" said Eliza in English; which startled Ascot so much that he reverted to it as he opened the cabin door.
"I can't imagine what this is all about—what on earth—"
Eliza followed him out the hatch into a dark and somewhat cluttered space sheltered beneath the poop deck. But in a few strides they had emerged onto the open upperdeck of Météore. From here they enjoyed a clear view forward, which meant, out of the harbor and into the waters of the Channel. As Ascot had mentioned, many longboats were coming in. Too many, to Eliza's suspicious eye; for how many were really needed, to carry a few bits of news? Bright patches shone out here and there in the fog on the Channeclass="underline" sunlight illuminating squares of canvas that had been strung up to catch the freshening breeze.
As Ascot had mentioned, one ship—a big one—was a good deal closer. It was not so much being towed by longboats as being washed into the harbor by the tide. It had somehow caught a sunbeam that had pierced a loop-hole in the fog. Or so Eliza thought when she first caught sight of it out the corner of her eye. When she looked at it full on, though, she realized it was making its own light. It was burning. It was, or had been, Soleil Royal.
Her attention was diverted by another thunk-splash, then another. It could no longer be denied that men were jumping off the ship.
Several of the sailors on the upperdeck were men she had never laid eyes on before. And to judge from the curious way they were gazing about, they were new to Météore.
Just ahead of them a man vaulted over the upperdeck railing on to the ship. This was not supposed to happen. There was nothing out there—it was like a stranger jumping into a second-storey window.
"I say!" exclaimed Ascot, still stuck in English. "I do say!"
The newcomer turned to face Ascot. His answer was as follows: "Fucking whoreson Jacobite traitor!" He was raising one arm as he delivered this remark, and punctuated the sentence by turning Ascot's head into a pink spout. The thing in his hand was a blunderbuss.
Eliza went back into the dark space beneath the poop deck and began pulling doors open. The doors led to cabins where Brigitte, Nicole, and a maidservant were lodged. "Into my cabin now, no questions!"
She got them all into the big cabin: four women in all. Brigitte was of a mind to heave furniture against the door. But that did not work as well here as it would have ashore, since the significant furniture was bolted down. Some trunks, a chair, and a mattress were all that they could shift for in the way of a barricade. Eliza urged them all to bend their efforts to this task, even though she knew it was absurd. A glance out the windows told her that Météore was moving. The English had cut her anchor cable, made her fast to a longboat or two, and were towing her out into the Channel. Better for them to attend to barricade-making than to think too hard about what this portended.