A King`s Commander

CHAPTER
4

Once well out to sea and headed east, shepherding their prizes, Lewrie had hoisted "Captain Repair on Board" to summon Knolles, so he could write his report on the action. To their surprise, Knolles had fetched along a French prisoner of war, a surly, coldly sneering lout in a midshipman's uniform that was a very tight fit, so bad that he appeared as if he'd stripped a much shorter and slenderer lad for his clothes; all out at the elbows and wrists, breeches that buckled up above his knees-had they buckled at all. A tall and lanky thatch-hair, who wore it long and un-clubbed to either side of his face, like a parted curtain. Midshipman Jules Hainaut altogether resembled a very dim-witted peasant, just off the turnip wagon, who'd been clad in some cast-off theatrical costume as a jape.

"Speaks damn-all English, of course, sir," Lieutenant Knolles said with an apologetic shrug. "And only a word or two of Italian… those mostly food, drink, or something to do with whores… so Mister Mountjoy's skills as a linguist might not avail, either. He's French, I've determined… but from where, God only knows, sir. He's no French I ever learned. A Parisian would send him to the guillotine for bad pronunciation."

"However did you catch him, Mister Knolles?" Lewrie asked.

"He was aboard the largest tartane, sir… the armed one. Popped off with a brace of horse pistols, missed by a mile, and dropped to the deck when Cony shot back at him." Knolles laughed easily, savoring his small triumph at the quayside. "Rather clumsily, at that."

"So the Frog Committee for Public Safety, or Directory," Lewrie said, chuckling, "appears to have their own 'Bad Bargains,' as does our King?" "Aye, sir," Knolles agreed.

"Now, the prizes, Mister Knolles!" Lewrie urged, turning to more rewarding thoughts, and dismissing the French midshipman immediately.

"Lord, sir!" Knolles exclaimed. "Arms, uniforms, boots, packs… everything to equip and feed, and field two regiments. The smaller tartanes are Savoian, I've determined. The larger one is French. She carries some four-pounders, swivels, and a pair of twelve-pounder French-cast carronades, sir. Rather clever mounting, fore-and-aft, in the middle of the forecastle and at the taffrail. The slide-carriages are built atop a round wood platform, which can point in about three-quarters of a full circle. Quite ingenious, really. Pinned through the deck just like a sea-mortar platform. On a small vessel, without a lot of standing rigging to impede one's aim, sir, well…! She could employ them even closing or fleeing, on a bow-and-quarter line." "And her cargo?" Lewrie pressed.

"Powder, made cartouches, cartridge paper, tents and blankets, mostly, sir. She escorted the others to Bordighera. I got that much from our French mute. But her main load was a company of French infantry, to do the training, sir. Half of that lot you erased on the shore road. They were raising at least one Savoian regiment of volunteers, Captain. With hopes of another, do you see." Knolles crowed himself. "And we put paid to that scheme, sir!"

"But her crew?" Lewrie wondered aloud. "Where'd they gone when we closed them? They could have given you one hell of a scrap."

"Oh, them, sir." Knolles sneered. "Savoians, too, for the most part. Fisherman and such, 'pressed' into French service. They offered a joining bounty, some fraternity cant… and gaol as the other option, if they didn't, uhm… willingly volunteer, sir. Even our lout yonder thinks them scum. Scampered off, soon as we sailed in, leaving their Frog masters to do the honorable thing."

"Well, we've had ourselves quite a productive morning, Mister Knolles." Lewrie grinned. "And hurt the French cause, no end. Your part in it was gallantly carried, and I'll stress that in my report."

"Thankee kindly, sir." Knolles all but blushed, thinking it was necessary to appear modest and unassuming.

"Lord, don't scuff your shoes like a schoolboy, Mister Knolles," Lewrie genially chided him. "Save that for Captain Nelson, and your patrons. Just 'twixt you and me, it's quite all right to admit you're 'all the go.' "

"Aye, sir." Knolles grinned, lifting his eyes. "If you say so."

"Yon Frog tartane, Mister Knolles…" Lewrie pondered. "She's a bit stouter than our little Bombуlo? And a tad longer?"

"About sixty feet, altogether, sir," Knolles supplied. "Cleaner, certainly. And doesn't reek of fish."

"Condemned as a lawful prize, she'll swing idle for months, and then get disarmed and sold out," Lewrie griped. "How many four-pounders did you say?"

"Six, sir," Knolles informed him.

"Damme, let's keep her. And those novel swiveling carronades," Lewrie decided quickly. "Shift your crew over to her, and leave just a barebones crew aboard Bombуlo. You'd best shift our two-pounders aboard her, too. And the swivels. That'd be easier than stripping her, then rearming Bombуlo. What's her name, by the way?"

"La Follette, sir," Knolles said, snickering. "The Little Fool."

"Really!" Lewrie gaped with amazement, then began to laugh in hearty appreciation. "Most apt. The little fool, tender to a jester. Well, damme… it can't be coincidental, d'ye think?"

"God knows, sir." Knolles shrugged. "But it sounds… lucky."

There it was again, that thing of his, and Jesters luck. But perhaps it wasn't coincidental. Perhaps, with her capture, his luck, and his ship's, were turning for the better.

"Very well, Mister Knolles, carry on. Send me Andrews, soon as you can. Cony to serve as your acting bosun. Five hands for Bombуlo, same as the other two prize tartanes, and we may have enough men to go around, till we drop anchor at Vado Bay. It's only eighty sea miles or so. With this sou'east wind, we could be there by dusk, pray God."

"Aye aye, sir."

A late dinner, bites taken between writing. And fending off his young ram-cat, who was ever fascinated by the waving plume of his quill pen. "No, Toulon. Sweetlin'? Can't you go play with mousey?" Lewrie attempted to cajole. "Aspinall?"

"Sir?" his steward replied from the pantry. "Dangle something tempting, will you, for God's sake?" "Monkey-fist, Toulon," Aspinall offered. "See it swing, hey? Wanna fight yer monkey-fist, hey cat?"

Toulon would. With an excited trill, he jumped down to dash for the pantry door, where a newish toy of intricately plaited small-stuff swung and jerked alluringly. It was Aspinall's first successful stab at decorative knot-work, a skill he was picking up from Andrews. There were rather good place mats woven from sennet in the great-cabins now, a set of restraining ropes in the pantry where he labored, prettily served with turk's-heads, so he wouldn't go arse-over-tit in the next spell of nasty weather. But Andrews had done half of those himself as examples.

Crash! came the sound of a Marine guard's musket beyond the door. "Cap'um's dark, Mister Mountjoy… sah!"

"Enter." Lewrie sighed around a chunk of salami and goat cheese. "Excuse me, sir," Mountjoy said as he entered. "But I expect you're almost ready for me to make a fair copy of the report from your rough, sir?"

"Just about, Mister Mountjoy. Glass o' chianti?" "Aye, sir, that'd be welcome."

"A tad puckerish, is chianti," Lewrie admitted. "But it grows on one. Aspinall, a glass for Mister Mountjoy. And a top-up for me." "Aye, sir."

"A bit of news, too, sir," Mountjoy offered. "That French prisoner Mister Knolles brought aboard is Flemish. Did as you bid, sir, tried to speak with him, but I do declare, sir, I've never heard worse French in all my born days. But, most happily, Mister Rahl the quarter-gunner happened by."

"Mister Rahl," Lewrie posed, a trifle dubious. Rahl couldn't put four words of the King's English together with a pistol pointed at his head. "The Austrian Netherlands, sir. Or rather, should I say, what was once the Austrian Netherlands," Mountjoy explained. "A polyglot, sir. Flemish, Waloon, bastard Dutch, a version of French as far from good French as Birmingham 'mumbletonian' is to English. But they do still know the tongue of their conquerors, sir. German. Mister Rahl was Wie Gehts?' and Was Machts Du?' with the clod, quick as a wink, sir. Our M'sieur Hainaut is the usual story these days. A 'prentice seaman, from Antwerp, or thereabouts, of French blood, sir. Joined up eager as anything, soon as the Frogs drove the Austrians out. Bad as the Frogs need skilled men, they took him on as a petty officer, much like Mister Cony…"

"Bosun's mate," Aspinall said, almost under his breath, back to entertaining the cat after fetching the wine.

"Uhm, quite… " Mountjoy frowned. "Anyway, sir, Hainaut rose to become a midshipman, double-quick. Acting, one might suppose. And poorly paid, if that's the best uniform he could afford, what? Earned the notice of a senior officer, came under his wing…"

"Patronage," Lewrie supplied to enlighten Mountjoy's continuing ignorance.

"Oddly, he won't tell me who he is, sir. Just refers to him as 'Die Narbe.' Rahl tells me that means 'The Scar,' Captain. Capitaine de Vaisseau Scar, sir. Might be another German who threw in his lot on the French side, but Mister Rahl believes it's more a nickname, sir. But then, German names, I've found, are much like Red Indian names… holdovers from tribal times, when 'Strong Arm' and 'Bear-Killer' were popular. So it could be a proper name, no matter what Mister Rahl believes. I gather this Captain 'Scar' is in charge of coastal convoys and their escorts." Mountjoy blithely shrugged off, taking a sip of his wine.

"Sail hoi" came the interruption, making Lewrie almost tip his glass over.

"Later, Mister Mountjoy," Lewrie said, getting to his feet and into his coat and hat; and finishing his wine. First things first, he told himself. "Do you go ahead with the fair copy of the report, while I see to this." A final pat on Toulon 's head, and he was out the door and pounding up the ladder to the quarterdeck.

"Where away, Mister Buchanon?"

"Three points off th' starboard bows, sir," the sailing master told him, pointing an arm in the general direction. "T'gallants 'bove th' horizon, so far, Cap'um. I make us 'bout ten miles off th' coast, an' 'bout ten miles east o' San Remo. She's almost bows-on, sir, an' that could mean she's on a course t' a French-held port."

"From somewhere to the sou'east, then…" Lewrie mused. "From Leghorn? To San Remo?"

"Very possible, sir. Might be one o' 'em so-called neutrals 'ey told us t'watch for," Buchanon agreed.

"Check with the signalman-striker, Mister Buchanon. Have him fetch out that French Tricolor we used off Ushant. And order Lieutenant Knolles in La Follette to come under my lee. I'm sure he has a tricolor aboard… but he'll be needing one of our smaller ensigns, to declare his proper identity when the time comes. A boat ensign'll do."

"One aboard Bombуlo now, sir," Buchanon reminded him.

"Very well, have him send a boat for that one," Lewrie schemed. "Damme, Mister Buchanon, were you an Italian captain, running goods to the Frogs, what would you make of our motley group?"

"Be relieved, sir," Buchanon guffawed. "Couple o' French warships, escortin' a three-ship convoy long th' coast? Just th' thing. Better'n runnin' afoul o' one o' 'em nasty Englishmen!"

"Would you be tempted to come close enough to speak them, sir?"

"Were I worried 'bout any Royal Navy ships in th' area, I would, sir. Aye, I surely would sail right up an' ask, 'fore I put in to San Remo. Might have too much wagered to lose, else."

"Let us devoutly hope, Mister Buchanon," Lewrie enthused along with him. "Once we've our flag situation settled, we'll harden up to windward a point, as if we're standing out to 'smoak' him. Like what a properly wary escort'd do."

"Very well, sir."

"I'll send Knolles a quick note. Tell him to guard the prizes while we're gone. And what we're about. And conform to my flag when I show them false colors. Damme!" Alan swore in wonder again. "I do believe this could turn out to be a Dev'lish profitable day!"

"It could, at that, sir!"

"Oh! Mister Rydell," Lewrie said, snapping his fingers at the small lad. "Nip below and order Mister Mountjoy to come to the quarterdeck. And for him to fetch my new gold-laced coat, with the epaulet. And my full dress hat. Has the gentleman a sword, he's to fetch that from his cabin, as well."

"Aye aye, sir," Little Rydell replied with a puzzled look.

Thankee, Captain Cog-burn, Lewrie thought with a wry grin; one of us, at least, is going to look very convincing to that ship.