Galleon (31 page)

“Do you know Honfleur?” Ned asked unexpectedly.

“I’ve been there as a child, but I can’t remember much about it. Tarred rope, rotting fish, paint, linseed oil – I seem to remember only smells. The ship’s chandlers’ shops fascinated me. I can’t recall what they
looked
like, but what mysterious
smells
! Why do you ask? Honfleur must be as far from Paris as we are from Porto Rico!”

Ned waved towards the anchored sloops. “The
Didon
of Honfleur is just the ship we need.”

“Stop talking in riddles!”

“I haven’t put all my ideas together yet, but we need Thomas and Saxby over here, and their mates.” He looked at Aurelia and grinned. “And Diana and Martha Judd too, of course.”

While a boat went off with the message, Ned took out the inkwell and uncorked it, found a new quill and searched for his pen knife to cut a point, and then took a sheet of paper. He sketched the bay with Marigot at its eastern end, marked in the hill with the battery on top, and then drew in Gallows Bay, carrying the sweep round to include the headland from which they had launched the coconuts, naming it ‘Coconut Point’. Then he marked in the position of the galleon.

After carefully wiping the quill and putting the cork back in the inkwell (and, after looking at his sketch, cursing that he had not shaken the bottle first: the ink was very faint), he shut his eyes and in his imagination pictured the night attack on the galleon. He was not conscious of Aurelia coming back to the cabin after telling Lobb to fetch the others, and she sat quietly sewing after tiptoeing round the table to look at the chart he had drawn.

When he opened his eyes, as though wakening from a brief nap, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he smiled and nodded. “A plan. I’m not sure if it’s practical, but I can’t think of a better way of tackling it.”

“You’re going to set Martha Judd on to them?”

He sighed. “I thought of that, but poor Saxby’d be heartbroken if she went off with a handsome
hidalgo
.”

“I see no alternative to leaving it to Martha,” Aurelia said teasingly, hoping Ned would describe his plan. “It has to be a night attack but there’s no moon. We’d need scaling ladders if we go alongside and try to board. They’re expecting an attack and your coconut trick showed us their sentries are wide awake. And Couperin is frightened to death that the Spanish will bombard the town…”

“All looks hopeless, doesn’t it?” Ned said blithely. “Let’s leave all the gold and silver plate to Couperin, sail home to Jamaica and finish building our house.”

“Oh you beast! Give me some hint!”

Ned looked down at his rough chart. “You’ll hear all about it when the others arrive, but there are three main points. We’ve got to be able to
see
the galleon in the dark: we’ve got to be able to attack her: and we’ve got to take the Spaniards by surprise.”

“Martha Judd, swimming out holding a candle – there you have it all: seeing, attacking and surprising. Aren’t I a wonderful help?”

He walked round the table and kissed her. “We’ll use some of the gold and silver to build a big church in Port Royal so that we can be married properly. In stone, and pews to hold a hundred. A minstrel’s gallery. A peal of bronze bells. Have I forgotten anything?”

“Yes. I haven’t agreed to marry you.”

“A mere trifle,” Ned said, kissing her again. “Ah, here they come: I can hear Thomas booming and Martha chiming. Let’s go on deck and meet them.”

After welcoming them on board, Ned pointed out the
Didon
. “Take note of her,” he said. “Do you agree she looks the most weatherly of the trio?”

“All three must be reasonably weatherly,” Thomas said. “After all, they crossed the Atlantic to get here!”

“She’s the one I’d pick,” Saxby said. “Why do you ask, sir: are we taking her as a prize?”

Ned laughed. “No, not a prize. Come below and pick holes in an idea I have. Couperin has sent out the cargo manifests – or at least an indication of what the three ships are carrying, and this idea occurred to me.”

“I know,” Thomas said, “we’re all going to make our fortune by preserving guavas and bananas in pitch and sending them to London in the
Didon
. We’ll also send Martha to set up a business at the Sign of the Golden Guava, next to Mr Wickes who sells hot waters to the gentry from his establishment at Black Friars, just by the Playhouse.”

“You’re not getting me back to England,” Martha said emphatically. “Cromwell had me transported and I’ve been grateful ever since. Your uncle was a rogue in every other respect,” she told Thomas, “but he got me out of the drizzle and cold into sunshine and warmth, and no one – not even you,” she told Saxby, “will every make me return to that miserable weather!”

“Well spoken,” Ned said, “so Thomas will have to leave the guavas to rot on the trees. Now come on, we haven’t a lot of time.”

He sat at the head of the table and explained his plan, surprised at the end of it that everyone congratulated him and agreed it was the only possible one.

“There are three aspects as I see it,” Thomas said, holding up three fingers. “The first is that there must be plenty of illumination, so that whoever is sailing the
Didon
can see where to go. But we can’t wait for the moon.” He folded one finger. “That leaves us with ‘surprise’ and ‘means’. Only you could think of a way of surprising the Dons while they’re actually watching us,” he told Ned. “But I’m sure it’ll work.” He folded down the second finger, leaving only the index finger sticking up. “The means – well, as long as we don’t have any trouble with Couperin, it should work. But we must remember there are enough Dons on board that galleon to seize Marigot.”

“That did occur to me too,” Ned admitted, “but even if they did they wouldn’t stay. The ships are due here soon from Cartagena, and they’d take them back. The island is big enough for the French to hide in the mountains for a few days.”

“We could have some of our men with muskets along the beach, just to discourage them,” Saxby said. “Just enough to make them think Marigot is strongly held, so they’d keep away from the town.”

“Yes, there are other bays to the eastward where they can be taken off by their friends from Cartagena,” Ned said, “but our interest is getting the plate! Thomas, you and I had better go over and tell Couperin the glad news. In the meantime the rest of you can be getting your men ready.”

He looked down at a list he had written. “Very well. Lobb, you will be responsible for lighting up the merry scene, so you’d better come on shore with us, and have a good look round. Saxby, you should start filling kegs and collecting boats.” He looked up impatiently, listened to Martha and then glanced at Saxby, who shook his head helplessly. “Very well, Martha, you can go along with him. You can make sure the slowmatch doesn’t go out. Now, Thomas – Mitchell and fifteen men had better get over to the
Didon
. You’ve got your list of what they need? Good. The
Didon
should be ready to sail within a couple of hours. Now Lobb should take ten men from the
Griffin
and ten from the
Phoenix
, all with muskets, and decide where he’s going to place them, after dark. And remember, everyone must make dam’ sure the Dons can’t see anything you do. The galleon is behind the great hill, which Nature put there as a convenient screen. They can’t see our three ships, nor the three sloops. They’ll have seen the sloops arrive – and think no more than that: three small sloops laden with the usual cargoes.”

Couperin listened to Ned describing the plan with all the enthusiasm of a man accused of murder listening to a hanging judge sum up the overwhelming evidence against him. Finally he shook his head. “I can’t allow the
Didon
to be used like that.”

Ned watched him without comment.

“And all those Spaniards! Why, you agreed there must be at least two hundred of them. They could capture Marigot – I’ve barely fifty men I can rely on!”

“That’s twenty more than you mentioned when we were last here,” Thomas commented sourly.

“And who is going to pay for all that cargo?”

Ned leaned forward. “I agree, Your Excellency. It is unfair to burden you with all this responsibility. After all, you will have to account to Paris for everything – ship, cargoes, perhaps even the capture of Marigot by the Spaniards for a few days.”

Couperin looked relieved. “I am glad you understand the position I am in. I am sympathetic towards the Brethren of the Coast, and I admit I agreed to your earlier offer, but I must look after the interests of France–”

“And your own,” Ned said sympathetically.

“–and of course my own responsibilities as Governor General of St Christophe and St Martin. Already I have had my own ship stolen. Commandeered, anyway, and I doubt if the Spanish will keep their word to return her. And I bear all this responsibility alone: since the unfortunate death of my deputy yesterday, I have no one to advise me.”

“It is insupportable,” Ned said gently, “and it is unfair of us to make these demands on you. The answer is clear to me, and I am sure you will agree. We cancel the agreement making you temporarily a member of the Brethren which entitled you to a quarter share. Thus no blame can rest on your shoulders. True, you won’t get any of the purchase, but of course ‘Nothing venture…’

“Instead of you commandeering the
Didon
and confiscating the few tons of cargo we need from the other two ships, we shall take all three ships as prizes, so they will go into the general purchase account. I am sure your friends are well insured, and no blame attaches to you: the vessels were captured by the buccaneers, and that’s that – there was nothing you could do to prevent it.”

By now Couperin, face drained white and hands shaking, was like the accused man after the judge had pronounced sentence. His dreams of gold and silver ingots, leather pouches of gems, even a few ornaments being given to him as his share of the purchase, with no one else to split it with (the original partner’s funeral was being held tomorrow), had vanished. He had just talked himself out of a possible fortune.

“But…but well, surely–”

Ned interrupted him. “It is simple enough, Your Excellency. If you commandeer a French ship and a few tons of cargo, you stand a good chance of getting a fortune. But your duty to France, your sense of honour, your responsibility to your friends who own the
Didon
, all these prevent you from taking that chance. And believe me, Your Excellency, we respect your sentiments. You are a man of honour; we are but thieves sailing in from beyond the horizon.” He stood up and bowed. “The only request I have, Your Excellency, is that since we told you our plan in good faith, you will in equal good faith not repeat it to a living soul.”

“I – of course, Mr Yorke. I–”

“Otherwise,” Ned said grimly, “there’ll be a double funeral tomorrow.”

Couperin leapt to his feet, his face now changing: gone was the look of fear, of apprehension and doubt. Ned stared at the man, unable to believe the sudden transformation.

“Monsieur Yorke, please: the
Didon
is requisitioned, along with whatever cargo you need from the other two ships. I will give the orders at once. All my men – fifty-two – are at your disposal: give me their orders and they will be carried out to the letter. There are times,
m’sieur
,” he explained, “when Paris seems very near. Equally, there are times when Paris must be forgotten; when the emergencies we governors face are immediate and would never be understood by the
bufones
in Paris. Someone who has never been to these islands, who has never seen Spain’s grip, can never understand.”

Ned smiled and shook Couperin’s hand. “London gives us the same problems. London and Paris – they could be on the moon for all the relevance they have. We live out here,
M’sieur
Couperin, and one must remember that. The Spaniards could kill and rob us, not the elegant gentlemen in London and Paris.”

He thought a moment. Fifty Frenchmen on the beach. Yes, that would save using men from the
Griffin
and the
Peleus
. Which in turn…

“Yes,” he said, “so we are agreed: you help the Brethren and have a quarter share. In return we have the
Didon
and the cargoes we need, and your fifty men – led by you, eh?” When Couperin agreed, Ned gave him their instructions and then said: “Two good horses: you must give two of my men sound horses with good saddles. Can you do that? Not mules, horses.”

“From my own stable,” Couperin said eagerly.

“Good – have them waiting here for the men to collect tonight – any time from eight o’clock onwards. Eight o’clock our time,” he emphasized, “not French time.
Everything
– success or failure, a fortune or our destruction – depends on those two horses. They have to gallop a mile in the darkness – less, in fact. But
gallop
they must!”

“Twenty miles if necessary,” Couperin said. “You can trust me,” and his eyes twinkled as he added, “this time.”

Thomas bent over the binnacle, trying to read the heading in the faint light of a rush candle. “Who’d believe these dam’ fools would use rush candles for the compass,” he growled.

“I certainly would,” Ned said, amused by Thomas’ wrath. “No trader sails at night among these islands! They have more sense, since they can make every passage in daylight. I’m surprised there was even a candle in the holder!”

“I’ll be glad when we get to Marigot,” Thomas admitted frankly. “We don’t have a good enough chart to take us round St Martin safely at night. We might as well be riding round the coast on horseback: we’re just navigating from village to village. Let’s hope the village opposite this island of Tintamarre still has some people awake and with lanterns alight.”

“The channel is wide enough,” Ned said unsympatheti-cally. “I admit it’s a dark night but you can just distinguish the shore.”

“Just,” Thomas growled. “In fact I can just make out Tintamarre. Once it’s on our starboard quarter, we turn to larboard and then it is a dead run to Marigot. When do you want the two lanterns lit?”