The Iberian Flame

Chapter 38

Darkness lay in every direction in the moonless night as the flotilla set off from their assembly point to seaward of the Inshore Squadron. Sail was shaken out in the light breeze – cutters and launches, barges and yawls all towing low rafts loaded with combustibles and men ready for the worst that the enemy could do.

The lights of the old town area were a fine seamark and, with the distant twinkle from Rota several miles on the other side of the bay, there was no mistaking their position. Almost invisible in the gloom they passed the outer San Sebastian fort without incident and shaped course for the next danger: the waters between Trocadero and the Cadiz peninsula, guarded by the Puntales and Matagorda fortresses.

Once past them, they were in the inner harbour and could make directly for their objective.

The blackness of the night was almost absolute, and it was difficult even to make out the nearer craft. They were maintaining fair speed, so transit between the two fortresses should be rapid; the half-mile or so in twenty minutes.

They were coming up to the narrowing, only just visible as a deeper blackness. If they could-

Then to larboard the unthinkable happened. A signal rocket soared skyward, exploding with a thud and spray of twinkling stars, followed almost immediately on the other side by another.

Suspended against the walls of both forts flares burst into flame, casting a deadly illumination over the scene, reflected in the calm night seas and bathing them in an unearthly light.

Then cannon opened up, heavy and concussive, gun-flash leaping from the casemates of the fortresses, sending shot slamming past in giant plumes all around them.

Ahead Kydd saw a line of fighting lanthorns. Gunboats.

With a sickening realisation he knew they’d been betrayed. Signal rockets had gone off as if waiting for a sign; the fortress guns had been loaded and primed; and the gunboats were already in the water, deployed in the right position. Hardly able to speak he gave the order to turn back, to give up. If ever he laid hands on the traitor he would choke the life out of him with his bare hands.