Roger suppressed a groan, then shook his head. 'I cry you mercy, sir! I am no coward. Time and again, during these past ten years, I've risked my life; but there's a limit beyond which-'
' Mr. Brook! ' the Admiral cut in, ' there is no limit to the duty we owe our King and country. And in these very special circumstances I do not consider it consonant with mine to find you a passage home.'
With fury in his heart, Roger stared at the frail, tense figure on the far side of the desk, then burst out, ' If you think the last would deter me, you have misjudged your man. Had I a mind to it, I would unaided reach China or Peru. Aye, or still in the guise of a French Colonel break prison and, despite your damned blockade, reach home.'
A smile twitched at Nelson's lips and he said quietly, ' You are wrong, Mr. Brook. I have not misjudged my man. There spoke the son of my old comrade-in-arms. You could not have proved better to me that you are a real chip off the old block and a true Englishman. And that is why you will return to Cairo.'
Roger slumped back in his chair with a heavy sigh. Then, suddenly, he smiled. ' I had meant to, sir, to give you joy of your great victory. Now I give you joy of two, although the latter is a very minor one. I give you best, and will do as you wish.'
' Well said! I felt assured you would.' The Admiral's bright eye now beamed with approval. 'With my next despatch I'll enclose a letter for your father's eye only, thus giving him the joy of reporting to Mr. Pitt the fine service rendered by his son. And now, how shall we set about returning you to Bonaparte? '
This was no simple matter; for the thunder of the cannonade had brought hundreds of Arabs to the beach, and since dawn they had been murdering and stripping such French sailors as had managed to swim ashore. Even if it had been safe for Roger to land he could not be provided with a horse and it was over ten miles to Alexandria. Then, since he insisted that none of Nelson's men should be allowed into his secret, they must continue to believe him French, yet some way must be devised by which he could escape.
After ten minutes' thought and discussion a way was found. Nelson recalled his Flag Captain and said to him, ' Berry, the Colonel is a most sensible man. Naturally he dreads the possibility of being held a prisoner for several years. Therefore, in return for a certain service—although I could not allow him to return to Bonaparte—I have agreed that we will put him ashore as a free man in Crete, Italy or Sicily, as may prove convenient. The service he will render us is to go in a boat with you to the outskirts of Alexandria and point out to you the position of certain concealed batteries the French have mounted along the coast. As the Colonel has not yet broken his fast, be good enough to take him to your cabin, have a meal and a bottle of Marsala sent there and then, while he eats, return to me.'
Berry gave Roger a look that barely disguised his contempt for such a traitor, then beckoned him to follow. He bowed his farewell to the little Admiral, with the faintest hint of a wink, and ten minutes later was hungrily disposing of a meal of salt pork washed down by good wine in the Flag Captain's cabin.
When Berry returned to his Admiral, Nelson said, ' Don't be deceived, my dear fellow, by our Colonel. He is no traitor, but a brave man and a slippery customer. I feel certain that he suggested this betrayal of the batteries outside Alexandria because he knows that twilight will be falling by the time a boat can take him there, and that it will have to go close inshore. Fd wager a guinea to a penny that he means to jump out and swim for it.'
' Should he attempt it,' Berry growled, ' I'll put a pistol bullet through his head.'
The Admiral laughed. ' Nay, nay; you'll do nothing of the kind. He gave the impression that he was talking very freely, and so did I. In short, I trust that I matched his cunning with my own. I've given him a main-sail full of false information and I wish him to convey it to that scoundrel Bonaparte. A mile or two before you come opposite Alexandria have the boat pull close inshore. Should I prove right, and he jump for it, let him. And beforehand you must give orders to the boat's crew that they should fire after him but in no circumstances hit him. Is that clear? '
' Aye, aye, sir,' Berry grinned. ' What a good jest, to use him to deceive the Frog-eaters.'
Roger had no sooner finished his meal than the Flag Captain escorted him down to a longboat, the crew of which had already received their instructions. Again he looked from side to side at the scene of terrible devastation and, as the sailors bent to their oars, the boat nosed its way between wreckage of all kinds and bloated corpses.
Half an hour's strenuous pulling brought them to seaward of Aboukir Island and, passing over the sandspit, they rounded the promontory. After another hour and a half, that seemed far longer to the anxious Roger, they were within a few miles of Alexandria. By then it was half past six and the sun was sinking low on the horizon. The boat was no more than a hundred yards from the shore and Roger felt that the time had come for him to make his breakaway.
In the stern of the boat Berry was sitting on the landward side of the coxswain and Roger on the seaward side. Praying that Nelson had given his instructions clearly, and that they would be obeyed to the letter, Roger pointed to a mound at no great distance from the beach, and said:
' Regardez, Monsieur le Capitaine la premiere redoute . . Then, jumping up, as Berry turned to look shoreward, he gave him a sharp push sideways and leapt over the gunwale into the water.
As his head came up he heard shouts and oaths. Ducking swiftly, he swam a dozen yards under water. When he came up a second time he heard shots and several pistol bullets sang over his head. Swimming strongly he got halfway to the shore, then looked back. The coxswain was yelling at the crew of the boat and turning her to come after him. Berry was standing up in the stern, reloading his pistol. The shelving shore was shallow. Next moment Roger's feet and knees struck sand. Half wading, half swimming, he floundered on, looked back again and saw that the boat had run aground.
Two more pistols cracked. Fearful that he might yet be hit by a bullet, he stood up and splashed his way ashore. By the time his boots wpre squelching on dry sand the firing had ceased and two of the boat's crew, having poled their oars, were endeavouring to push the boat off into deeper water. He covered another hundred yards at a lurching run, then flopped down behind the nearest of a group of palm trees.
The only rest he had had since setting out from Damanhur, nearly forty hours earlier, had been his sleep of exhaustion on the hard tier deck of Audacious. He would have given a great deal to scoop out a hole for his hip in the warm sand and spend the night where he was. But he dare not, in case marauding Arabs came upon and killed him. After twenty minutes to recover from his exertions, he got to his feet and set out on the two-mile trudge to Alexandria.
By the time he reached the most advanced French picket it was fully dark and, when challenged, as he did not know the password, he could only shout that he was a French officer who had escaped from the English. Giving him the benefit of the doubt the sentry called his Sergeant and, as soon as the N.C.O. was satisfied, he could not have been more helpful. From somewhere he produced an Arab with a donkey cart and Roger was driven in it to Kleber's headquarters.
There he told his story to the General, who had already heard of the disaster to the French Fleet but was anxious to have a full account of it. Roger did his best to oblige him for some twenty minutes, then declared that he was so exhausted that he must go to bed. Kleber, loudly commending him for the wit and courage he had displayed in fooling ' those pigs of English' and making his escape, took him up to a bedroom, and a quarter of an hour later he was fast asleep.