The Black Moon (37 page)

one, Sam. But the jailer felled me they'd been around earlier. Cap'n Poldark's had to do wi' this. I know not what, but he helped to turn their minds into leaving me go free. Sam.'

`Yes, brother?'

-When you've made that tea, go you to sleep again. I regret I've waked you. I'll take a bite teat and then I'll go down Nampara to see Cap'n Poldark.'

Ross said:- `Well, it is finished. Forget it. Don't waste your breath in thanks. Just avoid any such pitfall in the future.'

`I spoke only truth,' said Drake. `That bible was truly give to me. But what you done you done yelp me, and I have to say thank you. And I say'n from my heart.'

They were up in the L
ong Field. After riding in to St
Ann's at
nine to meet the
lawyer who
was corning from Truro, a
nasty but clever young man called Kingsley who was now working in association with Nat Pearce, Ross had discovered that the charge against Drake had been withdrawn. He had therefore paid oft Kingsley and, having watched from a distance to see Drake emerge from, his foetid charge room, he had turned his mare homewards without having been seen by the boy. He had not spent a restful night, for he had staked what might well have been his whole future and the future happiness and prosperity of his family upon intimidating George; and he felt it too high a price to pay, or to have risked paying, in order to redeem a thoughtless, presumptuous boy from a mess which was at least partly of his own making.

He had resented having to do it, and he had bitterly disliked the necessity of such an interview with George
-
which had rubbed up all their enmity afresh, like an abrasive, stone on a sore place
-
and, because Drake was Demelza's brother and he was taking these actions for her sake, some of the discomfort, the odium, the displeasure that he felt devolved on her. So having achieved his end and before any relief at the outcome could percolate through, he had ridden straight home, brusquely told her that her brother was free and as brusquely cut short her delighted and loving thanks. Up in the Long Field he went to inspect the hay and to consider whether it should be cut this w
eek or left a while longer. On
this arrived Drake, pallid, gaunt, lean, attractively boyish, dislikeable as the cause of all the trouble, hesitating, standing before
him, following him awkwardly as
he moved about the field.

`I feel I done wrong in this,' said Drake, `causing trouble betwixt your
house and Trenwith. Twas not m
y wish to do so.'

Evidently he had seen Demelza before he came up here.

`There was trouble before you ever came. The only wrong you did was to allow yourself to become in
volved with a young woman of an
entirely different station in life
-
and that was more
her fault than yours.'

`Oh, no. Twas no fault of hers. Begging 'your pardon; but she never behaved no way but as a

lady should.'

`Perhaps we may have different opinions on that,' Ross said.

`No, Cap'n Poldark, No.. Tis hard that she should suffer.' It was mid-June, Ross thought. Late enough anyhow. But
a week's gentle rain followed; by sun would bring the hay up another nine in
ches. It was miserably short. But once this fine spell broke one might well
get three weeks' rai
n. And wind with it. Then the
stuff would be lying all over the place like a drunkard's hair newly roused from sleep.

Sourly he said: `Well, now you will be able to give your full attention to your religion again. Your brother ha
s been worried. He thought you
were backsliding. The meeting house still wants its roof.'

Drake said
: `I'm going away.'

. . Oh? Where?'

`I don't rightly know. I been thinking, But I caused trouble here, and twas not seemly of me.'

`Back to Illuggan?'

'No...

`I think your brother will be disappointed. To say nothing of your sister.'

The boy kicked at a stone
among the grass. `I got to go
away for a while, Cap'n Poldark: T'ease my own mind.' ,

`Well, have a
care where you go. Work is hard to come
by, even for a tradesman, and
a parish will not accept you as a charge upon it unless it is your own.'

`Yes, I d'know that.'

`To become a vagrant is a lost life indeed. I saw a group recently being driven up the fore street of Redruth. They had done no ill except that they did not belong to the town and so must be whipped
on. to

the next. And there one may presume they would receive the same treatment.'

`To tell truth,' Drake said, `I don't think it worry me what do happen. So long as I can forget . . .

Ross eyed the boy. Dramatics? The agony of shattered calf-love: In a few months he would have forgotten all about it and all the damned trouble he had caused and would be larking and whistling about the place as if nothing had happened.

Possibly. But all f
irst
love was not shallow. His own had persisted over many years. Demelza's had never changed. This boy was too like his sister.

He said: `D'you think this hay should be cut now or wait a couple of weeks?''

`Please?'

'This field. Should it be cut now?'

Drake stared at the field so long that Ross thought he was never going to reply.

`What will you do after?'

'With the field? Use it for grazing.'

`Then there's no haste, is t
here?
Hay don't spoil by being
left. Not like corn.'

They, began to walk slowly back towards the house,

`I'd best be going,' Drake said as they drew near the gate.

`I don't wish for to be in the way just now.'

`Would you like to come to France with me?' Ross said. 'What?'

`I'm going t
o France. Would you like to come
?' 'To -
to France?'

`Yes. There are seven or eight going from this district. We
are taking part in a French landing.'

`I
-
when would you be going?'

'Sunday or Monday. We sail from Falmouth.' Drake walked along for a time in silence.

`It was just a thought,' said Ross, with a sense of relief.

`Forget it.'

'Yes’
said Drake. `I'd like to come.'

'It will not be a religious experience, I would warn you.

The
French are very
unconvertible. And so would be most
of your companions.'

`Yes,' said Drake. 'I'll come.'

They sailed from Falmouth on the Tuesday morning tide, in an Admiralty cutter, a yawl and a three-masted lugger, totalling about two hundred men. Of these one, hundred and forty were French, the rest crew, or Englishmen like Ross joining the expedition, for reasons of conviction, adventure or friendship. they rendezvoused with the main fleet off the Lizard on the Wednesday evening and proceeded south in convoy. De Maresi and de Somb
reuil were transferred from the
cutter to the flagship
Pomone
one, and because of his friendship with them Ross went too. His following remained aboard the Energetic.

It had been a
curious leave-taking. That from Demelza - had been muted
-
not in any way ungenuine, but set about with so many cross-currents that the main stream of her anxiety was not as clear as it had been last October. For
one thing,
she
was not with child and was able to hide her fears better.
For
another, his saving of Drake
from a prison sentence had created a sort of quid pro quo
in her emotions. Although he had never told her what he had done or said on his visit to George, she knew he could only have achieved his ends by means of a threats or bargain, which must have entailed some kind of risk to them all. So it seemed that his having courted one danger on her behalf left him freer to engage in another. Or it left her less able to protest. There was a sense of fatalism in her m
ind too, in that she perceived
more clearly than he thought that she had married a man for whom an occasional adventure came as second nature. She liked the idea of it no more for that but saw it as something unavoidable.

He had said nothing definite about return, for this was clearly out of his hands. He, might
be away two weeks, or it might
be six. But he kissed her cool lips, and stroked her face and said he would write if it was to be more than
four. `Very well, Ross,' she said, eyes looking clearly into his. `I shall be waiting. And Clowance will have two more teeth.'

`Have a good care for them. And for yourself, love. I'll bring you back a special piece of silk.'

`Bring me back yourself.'

So he left. Little had been said against Drake accompanying him, for the alternative seemed to be to allow him to cut adrift from all his friends. But again Demelza felt that, having preserved him from one hazard they were now putting him in the way of another.

A call at Killewarren to say good-bye to Caroline.

She said: `The female of the, species has a quite detestable role to play at these times. She offers her house, her time and her money for th
e planning of a high adventure.
and then when it comes to be implemented she is set aside on a shelf like a dusty ornament and left bobbing away there until it is done.'

`I cannot think you would enjoy bobbing away for two weeks in small boats in the company of four thousand seasick men. I suspect the high adventure will be packed into a short space of time and the rest will be dull slogging either at sea or ashore.'

`For a man of good sense, Ross, that is a foolish evasion.'

He smiled and, sipped the sherry she had pressed on him. `Well I cannot alter it for you
-
and perhaps would not
if I could.' There is 'a nasty brutish' sweat about war, however it may be dressed up, and I prefer the women I care for to be preserved from it.'

`I prefer the men I care for to be similarly preserved, but one way or another they embroil themselves. I trust this may be the last time.'

`Amen.'

He was turning away, but she said: `Ross.' `Yes?'

I have the discomfortable feeling that it is all my fault.' `What is?'

'Your going. Dwight's being there: that certainly is. So have a care, please, if not for your own skin then for my conscience.'

`I'll have a special care for your conscience.'

`Thank you.' She put one hand on either side of his face and kissed him on the mouth. It took several seconds. Well,' she said,' releasing him, `I have been wanting to do that for a long time.'

`It is a mistake to restrict oneself in one's pleasures,' Ross said. `One should never risk being thought a Puritan.'

They smiled at each other, and he left.

He also saw Verity before sailing from Falmouth, and they had two meals together talking of old times.

He thought of all these leave-takings and of many other things during that first week on board the
Pomone
one - not least of George's capitulation which, while it had greatly relieved him, had at the last rather surprised him. It showed him that his estimate of George's character had been correct; but it also showed George up to be a reasonable man. No doubt he had bowed resentfully to an uncivilized threat, but that he had done so proved him to be a person more easy to endure as a neighbour. Perhaps sooner than one ever supposed it might be possible to come to some accommodation in the district so that they could all live in peace.

The weather was fair that week, with an easterly breeze, and each morning when dawn broke, red-smeared and smoky, a wonderful sight was to be seen. To the south of the Pomone the ships of the Channel Fleet rode like great sea birds that had settled on, the water but held their wings still unfolded. The Royal George and the Queen Charlotte, both of 100 guns. The Queen, the London, the Prince of Wales, the Prince, the Barfleur, the Prince George, all 98s. An 80, the Sans Pare
il
, and five 74s, the Valiant, the Orion, the Irresistible, the Russel and the Colossus. And all around the Pomone were the res
t of Sir John Borlase Warren's
squadron: three line-of-battle ships, five frigates and the forty or fifty sail carrying the French troops and their supplies. It was a great fleet, sufficient to put heart into the faintest doubter.

But there were no pessimists in those early days, and the evening meals in the aft cabin of the Pomone were cheerful, noisy, confident, conducted haphazardly in two languages, sometimes both spoken together. Charles de Sombreuil was outstanding in the company both as a conversationalist and as a strategist.

Yet even in those very early days Ross was aware of dissension between the leading Frenchmen. It appeared that the Comte Joseph de Puisaye had never previously met the Comte d'Hervilly, his second in command. Attempts which had been made to bring them together in London had failed, d'Hervilly always being too busy with his regiment. Seeing them at the same table one realized why. De Puisaye was a huge, stout, powerful man, a Breton himself, and one-time leader of the Chouans, those Bretons who had banded themselves
together and carried on
a desultory war against the Revolution ever since the King's execution. Though a count
himself, his nobility, like his accent, was a provincial one,
and he had the further
disability in the eyes of many people
of having been a Girondist in the early years of the Revolution, before he turned against it. D'Hervilly, on the other
hand, was a colonel of one of the best regiment's of France,
the Royal-Louis. His aristocracy was unimpeachable, his re
lationship with the exiled Bourbons of the closest, and his
contempt for M. de Puisaye and his
half-peasant
following
barely concealed. It was an unfortunate beginning to the
adventure.

This division existed even among the troops. The spearheads were the few crack regiments available, made up of the finest fighting soldiers, highly trained and disciplined. But of necessity t
hese were few, and the rest of
the soldiers were a motley lot, recruited anywhere and anyhow.

Furthermore, as the fleet drew near its destination and as tactical and strategical discussion begun, it became clear that neither of the l
eaders had a clear idea of how
to exploit any early success which might be theirs. De Puisaye waved a hand and explained that at the very sight of a counterrevolutionary force the whole countryside would rise and
they I would proceed in triumph to liberate. one town after
another.' Two Chouan officer
s; who had most recently arrived
from Brittany, confirmed that 10,000 armed, men were i
n
the hills surrounding the area of Quiberon and Carnac and
would join forces with them
as
soon as they, landed
.

D'Hervilly, who had the responsibility of leading the troops
produced his maps and pointed with his long thin forefinger
and asked, where, where, where. At each generalization offered him in reply he shrugged and took a pinch of snuff and looked coldly at his friends.

When they were not far from the French coast, an advance frigate sighted French warships, and the whole of the Channel Fleet wore away to give battle. The weather was changing, the sky smeared and troubled, but for a while the wind dropped. Ross took the opportunity to row across to the Energetic to see how his own followe
rs were. He found them occupied
, rather as he would have expected. Drake had borrowed a bible and was sitting in a coil of rope reading it, with his forefinger keeping him in the words. Bone was mending his shirt; Ellery and Jonas were aft helping with a rope; Hoblyn and Tregirls were playing
tric-trac
while some Frenchmen looked on.

Ross could not stay long, for if the wind picked up he would be likely to be marooned aboard the Energetic; but he had a word with each, longest with Drake, who had benefited from his week at sea. As he was about to leave Tholly sidled up to him and said:
`Know what I think, young Cap'n?'

`No. What do you think?'

`That this is a bit o' trouble we're running into.,
This here. This landing, like.'

`Why do you say that?'

'These Frenchies. I hear 'em talking. They think I don't understand. Some of 'em's prisoners of war. They've been prisoners of war and now they're let loose.'

'D'you mean . . . Released to join this expedition?'

''That's what I do mean. Someone's been round the camps in England asking for volunteers. See? You a Royalist? You want to fight for the new King? You want to overthrow the Republic? If ye do, join our expedition.'

`And? . . .
'

Tholly coughed loudly through his horrible teeth. `What ye'd expect: Tis a fine way to go home. That's what they've said. I've heard 'em whisper, whisper in the dark.'

Ross stared across at the
frigate; which was his
home..
O'ne of the sails
was lilting.

`You
think when they get ashore?’

'Some'll fight, maybe. Some'll not. Some'll just down muskets and away.'

`This may be an isolated
case. Have you heard many speak thus?'

`Enough.'

'Ah ... Well, it will have to be borne in mind.'

`Excuse me, sir,' said the sailor who had come with him. `I think we'd best go.'

`Yes.' , Ross patted Tholly's good arm. 'Be careful you do not win too much money from Jacka. He has a nasty temper when roused.'

They saw no more of the Channel Fleet, but news reached them of a sharp engagement in which three French ships of the line had been captured. They themselves stood on for France and anchored in the lee of the Quiberon peninsula on the Thursday evening following.

It was a part of the coast Ross had never been to before. The bay of Quiberon faced east and was formed by a tongue
of land jutting out into the
sea towards a considerable island, which was called Belle Isle. This tongue of land, he was told, was six miles long and from one to three miles wide. It protected the bay from all winds except the southeast and made this a stretch of coast ideal for landing troops or supplies.

It looked very peaceful that evening with two or three little villages drowsing in the declin
ing sun and scarcely anyone to
be seen. The long unbroken stretch of sand reminded hire of Hendrawna Beach, except that the surf was non-existent and the cliffs not so savage. He stood with de Sombreuil and two or three others, watching two French coast pilots approaching the convoy. They were each flying a white flag and as they came nearer they could be heard shouting: Vive le Roi! Vive le Roi!'

`It is the beginning,' said de Sombreuil, quietly now, his enthusiasm given way to sober emotion. `There is my land. So I salute it. It is all how you see it, is it not? To a man from the Americas or from
sonic other part this is just
land, landfall. To me it is France, my home and my life.'

`Where do we expect to put our men ashore?'

`Over there. At the furthest point from Quiberon. That is
the village - Carnac. We are
told all will be ready there to receive u
s. But, two officers were sent.
ahead in a pinnace'
two-days- ago - it will depend on, their report.'

Ross could see a familiar figure on board the Energetic, which was coming to anchor near. He waved a hand and saw a hooked iron raised in reply. There was much shouting between the pilot boats and the anchored fleet, and presently two men came aboard and went down into the cabin below. They were there half an hour and then reappeared accompa
nied by the lean austere figure
of Colonel d'Hervilly.

`He is going to see for himself,' said de Sombreuil. `I do not think he is the best man to lead such a mixed company, but one does not question his courage.'

They watched the count being rowed to one of the pilot b
oats and then the boats put in
to the shore. One or two other boats, fishing smacks and the like, began to appear and to circle round the fleet. There was no sign of hostility. The sun went down. Two days of rough weather had followed the calm off Brest, but now it was quiet again. Ross wondered if his hay was yet safely in.

After dark M. d'Hervilly came back and a council of war was held in the captain's cabin of the Pomone. Ross was not invited to be present but de Sombreuil kept him well posted. It was a meeting of high words. D'Hervilly had found nothing in Carnac: a few Chouan officers, a few amiable peasants ready to help; no sign of the 10,000 men promised, only assurances that they would come, would flock out of the hills to join
the expeditionary force once it
had landed. Once it had landed, they promised, everything would follow. But on the evidence of his personal reconnaissance dHervilly decided that no landing at all should take place.

For a time nothing would move him. It was entirely against all military sense, he said, and indeed against the instructions of
the Court of St James, that he
should land a weak force almost devoid of cannon, h
ear equipment and horses upon a
shore where they w
ould be bound soon to encounter
well-organized, Republican resistance. All the promises of the Chouans, so persistently repeated in London, had been broken
. The landing army m
ight remain here in its convoying ships, or it might return to England; he would not, he declared, lead it to its destruction ashore.

Against this all the persuasions of M. de Puisaye and the other Bretons beat in vain. They swore that half Brittany

was already in revolt:, it
needed only a single light to appear in the Bay of Quiberon for the whole country, to burst into flame. They asked him what resistance he had met with in his own landing? He was welcomed as a friend.. Then Sir John Borlase Warren, who had hitherto held his peace, tried to move the angry Frenchman.
Having built up this invasion
force, with all its armaments and provisions, did it not seem, he said, inglorious to return without at least making some attempt? Even if the army landed and things went wrong, it would not have its escape cut off. The fleet would remain to guard the lines of retreat. The French fleet had been severely damaged and driven bac
k into Brest. There was nothing
to fear at sea. Re-embarkation was always available.

Then someone at
last mentioned courage, and it
took English intervention to prevent a duel. Then d'Hervilly abruptly gave way. So be it. He was overruled. They should land tomorrow morning at daybreak. The responsibility for the landing should be his
-
the responsibility for, making the decision to land was not. That had to be recorded; then he would consent.

De Sombreuil came up at once and told Ross.

`We shall begin to lower the boats now. The troops are to be issued with thirty cartridges and two flints per man
, and provisions for four days
nothing else but the knapsack. They will
take their places in the boats
all through the night and at dawn will begin to land. Helas! It is the beginning!'

`You agree with de Puisaye?'

`I think de Puisaye is too much wind. But it is the thing to do now. And he is right, I believe, in general. The country will rise, if we are not annihilated first!'

Ross rowed over to the Energetic, where boats were already being lowered. After finding a space among them in the dark, he went on deck and had another word with each of his friends. Neither they nor the other English on board were preparing to leave. He had a last word with Drake and told him why this must be an entirely French landing. `Nor have I,' he added, `offered you any explanation yet as to why I have brought you and the others.'

`I don'
t mind,' said Drake. `At least t’
as taken my thoughts away.'

`As to what I intend to do - if anything - it will all depend on the success of the landing. I have no fixed p
lans. Indeed we may do nothing
at all.''