The following day, with full confidence that he need fear no trouble, as Fergusson's arrangements were already completed, Roger ordered to sea the ships on which, the sick and seedy had been embarked. Then, with Amanda's help, he entered on arrangements for a great reception, at which Madame de Kay—or Cousin Margaret as she now asked them to call her—was to present the ladies of the island. It was held on March the 4th, and proved another triumph. From then .onward Roger knew that he had both the official and social leaders of French opinion in the island solidly behind him.
Had Georgina's father, the shrewd Colonel Thursby, been there to witness these events, he would have had good cause to smile. For it was he who had said on the night that Roger had received his appointment that, in making it, Mr. Pitt had shown not only generosity but sound good sense, as there were few men better fitted to rule a colony recently taken from the French than Roger Brook.
By early March further news had come in from Europe. That extraordinarily astute diplomat, Catherine of Russia, had outwitted the Prussians by entering into a pact with the Emperor of Austria for the partitioning of Poland. It was true that Prussian troops were in occupation of a considerable part of Poland, but in the face of such an alliance the Prussians would now have no alternative but to accept the Empress's decisions on how the remnant of that unfortunate country was to be permanently split up among the three powers concerned.
The transfer of a great part of the Prussian army to the east was now having disastrous effects upon the Allies in the West. The French Army of the Rhine, under General Jourdan, was carrying all before it on a front stretching from Geves to Coblenz, and another under Pichegru had penetrated to Amsterdam, where the French had been welcomed as liberators by the Dutch republicans. Still worse, from the British point of view, General Moreau had with great daring performed an amazing feat of war. In January, followed by a few squadrons of cavalry and a battery of horse artillery, he had galloped across the ice at the estuary of the Helder to the island of Texel, where the Dutch fleet was frozen in at its moorings, and captured the whole of it intact, so that its ships had now been added to those of the French.
Bad as this news was, three days after giving his big reception Roger received news of a much more distressing nature from nearer at hand. A sloop arrived in the port with an express from the Attorney General of Grenada. It stated that without warning on the night of March the 2nd an insurrection had broken out there, the town of Grenville had been surrounded, and the whole of its British inhabitants—men, women and children—massacred. The Governor had chanced to be in another part of the island with a party of friends, and on hearing the news they had taken a sloop round to the small port of Gouyave, only to be immediately captured on landing by another band of insurgents. The revolt had been led by a coloured planter named Julien F6don, and it was now known that he had received his directions for the plot to seize Grenada from the indefatigable Victor Hugues. After sacking Grenville, Fédon had established his headquarters on an almost inaccessible hill-top outside the town and from there was now doing his utmost to set the whole island ablaze. Any help that could be sent was most urgently needed.
Grenada being the southernmost of the Windward Islands, its nearest neighbours were, to the south, Trinidad, but that was held by the Spaniards, and to the north, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Martinique, in that order, with Barbados slightly nearer than the latter but farmer out into the Atlantic. Hugues had already started trouble in St. Lucia and engineered a rising of Black Caribs in St. Vincent; so, apart from anything the Governor of Barbados might be able to do, Roger felt that the responsibility for the prevention of further slaughter lay mainly with him.
He was in no position to send a considerable force but was determined to do his best, and rode over to consult with Colonel Penruddock. The major part of the Fort Royal garrison was due back from its cruise in two days' time; so it was decided that as soon as it had landed three hundred and fifty men of the St. Pierre garrison should be despatched to Grenada under a promising young major named Marsden.
When the commandeered ships returned to port it transpired that nineteen of the sick had died while at sea, but the remainder were convalescent, and that the health of the seedy men had greatly improved. As those who had succumbed would almost certainly have done so anyway, Roger was highly pleased, and thought with gratitude of his old friend Droopy Ned who had suggested to him this method of combating the scourge. He could hope now that the three hundred and fifty men of the 57th who were soon to leave for Grenada would not only turn the tide in favour of its small garrison, but return equally improved in health.
Having seen the expedition off he now allowed himself a greater degree of relaxation. Since the reception, invitations had been pouring in from all the leading families in the island. To accept as many of them as possible was obviously good policy, so Amanda, Clarissa and himself were feted and dined and shown the beauties of the island in the pleasantest possible circumstances.
The news received from Europe in April continued to be bad.
In February the Prussians had actually opened peace negotiations with the French at Basle: the Dutch Army which had been fighting to maintain the Prince of Orange had received such a mauling that it had been forced to surrender; and Tuscany had seceded from the Grand Alliance, which now seemed to be falling to pieces.
From France there were indications that the Moderates were at last getting the upper hand. The sale of the property of the relations of emigrés had been stopped, and the priests and nobles sentenced to deportation had been released. More indicative still, the Government had offered liberal terms, including liberty of worship, to the Royalist Army in la Vendee, and its Chief, the brave Charette, had signed a peace at La Jaunaie by which he acknowledged the Republic. But that meant that still more French troops were freed to fight against the remaining Allies.
The news from Grenada was also bad. F6don still remained secure in his natural fortress and the British troops were dying like flies in the fever swamps below it, Marsden had himself gone down with Yellow Jack, and, in a fit of despair, committed suicide.
Roger was distressed, and much angered by this wastage of his men, but there was nothing he could do about it; so, very sensibly, he continued with his pleasant round of entertaining and being entertained.
Clarissa had, justifiably, become one of the most popular 'toasts’ in the island, and was having the best of both worlds. As comparatively few of the young British officers could speak French she was their unrivalled darling, and as she went frequently into French society with Amanda, there was a score of young Frenchmen always seeking her company. Roger watched her with interest, wondering for which of her many beaux she would soon show a definite preference; but, although she was obviously having the time of her young life, the weeks went by without any sign that she had entered upon a serious romance.
At the beginning of May, as the hot season was approaching, they moved to a smaller but very pleasant Residence high up among the hills in the interior of the island; but they continued their social life, except for modifying it to the extent that from the 1st of June no engagements were ever entered into between eleven in the morning and five in the afternoon, as for the greater part of those hours the heat was too intense for them to do anything but doze nearly naked on their beds under mosquito curtains.