Inferno

Chapter 75

British headquarters, Hellerup, five miles north of Copenhagen

Commander-in-chief of British land forces Lieutenant General Cathcart opened the meeting without mincing his words. ‘I have to acquaint you, gentlemen, with the fact that General Peymann has seen fit to reject my repeated call for a cessation of arms and treat for a peace.’

‘Good God,’ muttered Major General Finch of the Guards. ‘He’s beaten and doesn’t know it. After Koge they’ve not a hope in Hell of-’

‘They fight for the honour of their country,’ Wellesley said stiffly. ‘Do you expect any less?’

Cathcart eyed the recent victor warily. He’d need to tread carefully for this was no mere subordinate. The well-born Wellesley had returned from triumphs in India to become a Tory Member of Parliament. In a very short while he had been elevated to government as the chief secretary for Ireland and privy counsellor with the ear of the highest in the land, which placed him in the peculiar position of being a member of the administration that was giving him his orders.

‘This is very true, Sir Arthur. Nonetheless it places us at some difficulty in knowing how to proceed in achieving the purposes of this expedition.’ If the expedition failed, the siege lifted with an inglorious return, his would be the humiliation and disrepute, not Wellesley’s. ‘I’d consequently be interested to hear your several views, gentlemen,’ Cathcart invited.

The commander of the inshore squadron spoke crisply and with conviction: ‘A direct seaborne assault on the fleet, my lord.’

‘Captain Paget?’

‘Our object is the neutralising of the Danish fleet. If this is achieved, we can raise the siege and return home in the fullest satisfaction.’

‘Sir, the harbour is closed to us. The Citadel and other defences are too strong to contemplate a frontal assault, not to mention your pestiferous gunboats all of a swarm.’

‘I’m persuaded we can do it in one stroke.’

‘Oh?’

‘A grand seaborne assault on the Trekroner Fortress in overwhelming strength. We take that and we turn its heavy guns on the Danish fleet in Nyholm. As well, it allows us to bring up our bomb-ketches and mortars for a very complete destruction. As to the gunboats, it will be my particular pleasure to first blast their lair at Lynetten to kingdom come.’

‘All of which leaves the navy hero of the hour,’ murmured Finch.

‘Sir, that is an unworthy remark,’ Paget burst out hotly. ‘I demand you retract it.’

‘Gentlemen, it is in any case irrelevant to this discussion,’ Cathcart intervened smoothly. ‘It was never in contemplation that the fleet be destroyed except as a last resort. I beg you will think again.’

‘It does strike me that we may have overlooked one possibility,’ Stewart of the 43rd offered.

‘Yes, General?’

‘Copenhagen is strongly invested to one side of the Strait of Kallebo only, namely the north. The south is untouched, being upon the island of Amager. A landing on that island to take the Danish on both sides will halve the forces facing either, and at the very least increase our pressing upon the enemy.’

‘A capital notion, Richard,’ Wellesley said, with enthusiasm. ‘As you have the Reserve Division still in place across the water.’

‘I cannot in any wight advise it,’ Paget said, with some feeling. ‘The same channel that separates the two halves of the city is a sovereign highway for the gunboats, which I’m sanguine can be relied on to go through untroubled to dispute any landing. This is a place infested with shallows. No ship with weight of metal can be expected to work up into the bight to defend the descent.’

An icy glare from Wellesley was his only reply.

‘The siege, it seems, is fated to continue,’ Cathcart said heavily, fiddling with his pencil. ‘Unless we can conjure some stroke as will have Peymann reconsider his position. In the circumstances I think that unlikely.’

‘Not even with-’

‘I may have omitted to tell you that we lately captured dispatches from the Crown Prince. In them he’s ordered to defend Copenhagen to the last and then destroy the fleet. It can be assumed that he received a duplicate by other means and therefore we can take it this is what he will do.’

In the glum silence that followed, there was no mistaking the sentiment. If they held out, the British had won the battles but the Danes had won the war, for the Great Belt blockade must be abandoned in weeks with the onset of ice.

He glanced across to a quiet, precise officer. ‘General Bloomfield, for the lateness of the season we cannot possibly contemplate a customary siege with all your parallels, trenches and so forth. You are our artillerist. What are the prospects for a concentration of fire to procure a quick breach in order to storm the city by main force?’

‘None.’

‘Sir?’

‘I have been well provided with guns, my lord, but no formal siege pieces of a weight that could reduce the walls and ramparts we see here. I can offer you no hope of a quick end to the business.’

‘Then?’

Stewart raised an eyebrow. ‘It does cross my mind that we may be playing it too much the strategicals. Our motions are purely military, intended to remind the commanding general of defences of his parlous situation. We’re at a mile and a half distant of the walls of Copenhagen, out of range of their batteries but as well out of sight of the common people.’

‘What the devil are you saying, Richard?’ Wellesley snapped. ‘I don’t follow.’

‘Should we close well in with the walls, show ourselves in force and numbers, not to say with our host of guns, then would not this dread presence give cause to the populace to beseech General Peymann to treat for terms?’

‘Seeing us clamping a hold on ’em, meaning business, what?’ Finch put in quickly. ‘We’d be under fire but what the devil? We must do something. I’m for it.’