The Sultan's Daughter (45 page)

It was then discovered that some two thousand of them were from the garrison of El Arish. Apparently, not wishing to be burdened with so many prisoners, Bonaparte had, after taking the great fortress, freed them on condition that they would take no further part for a year in the war between France and Turkey. However, they had promptly broken their word and marched off ahead of him to strengthen the garrison at Jaqa. On March 9th, two days after the fall of Jaffa, Napoleon had had the whole two thousand taken out to the sand-dunes and shot.

When Shotter heard this his language about the French became unprintable. Roger, too, was profoundly shocked and felt that such an appalling massacre must always remain a stain on Bonaparte's name.

Proceeding up the coast on the following day, March 12th,
Firefly
came up with Sir Sidney Smith's Squadron. It consisted of two frigates:
Tigre—
in which Sir Sidney, having promoted himself, was flying the broad pennant of a Commodore—
Theseus
, and a number of smaller vessels. A boat was lowered and Shotter went aboard
Tigre
. Three-quarters of an hour later he returned and called up to Roger to come down and join him in the boat, which then made a second trip to
Tigre
and they both went aboard.

Sir Sidney received them in his stern cabin. He was a fine-looking man of thirty-four, very richly dressed and wearing the sash and diamond-encrusted Grand Cross of his Swedish Order. When the introduction had been made he said to Shotter, ‘I thank you, Lieutenant. You may leave us.'

During the three and a half weeks of
Firefly's
voyage, her Captain and Roger had become firm friends; so as Shotter was about to leave the cabin, Roger wrung him firmly by the hand, thanked him for his many courtesies and said he hoped they would meet again. Shotter warmly reciprocated the hope and closed the cabin door behind him.

Sir Sidney then tapped a letter that was lying on his table and said, ‘Mr. MacElfic, do you know the contents of this?'

‘No,' Roger replied coldly, ‘but I can make a good guess. It is from Admiral Nelson and in it, without any warrant to do so, he places me at your disposal as a secret agent.'

‘It does much more than that. Sir Horatio informs me that for several years you have been in the service of the Prime Minister, and may be entrusted with both military and diplomatic secrets of the highest order. It also states that you performed the extraordinary feat of getting yourself appointed one of General Bonaparte's aides-de-camp. You must be a very exceptional man, Mr. MacElfic, and I am honoured to have your company on this station.'

Considerably mollified by this welcome, Roger replied, ‘I thank you, sir. I am much relieved to feel that, from what Admiral Nelson has said of me, you are not likely to request me to risk my neck counting the guns in a fort for you, or finding out if some local Sheik can be bought for a small sum of money. For my part, since I have been sent here against my will, I am at least consoled that it should be to an officer so distinguished for his brains, initiative and daring.'

Sir Sidney smiled. ‘That was generously said. But Sir Horatio says nothing of your having been reluctant to join me. Perhaps you would clarify the point.'

‘Put briefly, Admiral Nelson decided that my connection with General Bonaparte could be used to inflict greater damage on the French than would allowing me to return to Paris. So having promised me a passage to Gibraltar he virtually shanghaied me and put me on a ship bound for Egypt.'

‘Then I can sympathise with your resentment. But the little man will stick at nothing that he feels may help discomfit our enemies, and I am the gainer. When, pray, were you last in Paris?'

‘In early May. I sailed with Bonaparte to Egypt. But in March we might well have met.' Roger gave a sudden laugh. ‘There was an occasion when I was threatened with being sent to join you in the Temple.'

‘Indeed! Well, you may thank your stars that you did not. I spent two years in that damnable prison, and during them I nearly died of frustration.'

‘That I can well believe, sir, knowing your zest for action. I, too, know that gloomy prison, though not as a prisoner. I penetrated it several times during an abortive attempt to rescue poor Queen Marie Antoinette.'

‘Did you now! Perhaps, then, you knew a most devoted servant of the Queen and dear friend of mine—a Swedish nobleman, Count Axel Fersan?'

‘I knew him well,' Roger smiled. ‘And that brings us to Sweden. We might well have met there for I, too, served King Gustavus in his war against Russia; and, for a special service I was fortunate enough to render him, he did me the honour to confer on me the Order that you wear. But, alas, I had to bury my Star beneath the foul straw of a cell in the fortress of Schlüsselburg, for had it been found upon me it would have cost me my life.'

Holding out his hand, the Commodore shook Roger's and said enthusiastically, ‘Mr. MacElfic, I can see that we are birds of a feather, and shall delight in one another's company. You must dine with me and we shall find a thousand things to talk about.'

Roger was shown to a cabin, where he found that his few things had been brought over from
Firefly
. For an hour or so he lay down in his cot and considered his situation. Pleased as he was with his reception, he was still extremely loath to rejoin Bonaparte and again face deserts, thirst, a plague of flies and the many hazards inseparable from a campaign in Syria. Yet, short of flatly refusing to serve Sir Sidney, he saw no alternative. He could only hope that he might be able to strike some sort of bargain, then pray that his luck would hold.

When they met again for dinner, at which only the two of them were present, Sir Sidney opened the conversation by remarking, ‘I fear we can scarcely look on this as a celebration, because in the despatch referring to yourself I also received notice of my demotion. But perhaps you were told about that before you left Palermo?'

‘Sir William Hamilton did tell me that there had been some misunderstanding,'Roger replied tactfully.

‘Let us call it that. The fact is that our little Admiral, although rightly weighed down with all the laurels he can carry, is still jealous of anyone else gaining a single leaf from that honour-bestowing shrub. With his three weeks' sailing distance away in Palermo, dancing attendance on a buffoon King and a terror-crazed Queen, it is only sensible that the Levant should be an independent Command. But since the Nile, he has become raised to such heights by the adulation of the people that his superiors no longer dare cross him. In consequence, our strategy must suffer.

‘He has ordered me to strike my broad pennant and revert from the rank of Commodore to that of Captain. That I shall not do, because it would be bad for discipline for my Squadron to see their Commander receive such a slap in the face.

‘However, another matter perturbs me far more. The seat of war in the Levant is no longer Egypt but Syria. The only way in which Bonaparte can reach Constantinople is by a march along the coast and our only chance of preventing him from doing so is by giving our greatest possible support to the Turks in the coastal fortresses he will have to attack. The blockade of the Egyptian coast could easily be maintained by two frigates and some smaller craft. It had, therefore, been
my intention to order Captain Hood to join me here with his line-of-battle ships. This is where they should be, and they would have proved invaluable. But, alas, I have been deprived of the right to make proper use of them.'

Roger took a good pull at his glass of claret and replied, ‘Sir Horatio's treatment of me rankles somewhat; but I share the universal admiration of his genius as a sailor. Therefore I feel that I can say without prejudice that I judge you to be right. Pray tell me now of the present situation.'

‘Bonaparte has twice smashed the Turks—at E1 Arish and at Jaffa. He is now advancing along the coast opposite us and obviously intends to invest St. Jean d'Acre. As you will know, it is a mighty walled city. Its fortifications were built by the Crusaders who held it for many years against the Saracen. At present, Djezzar Pasha commands there. He is a most vile man and capable of any barbarity; but he has an abundance of courage and determination. If he can hold it all will be well. If he fails all will be lost, for it is the key to Syria.'

‘How do you regard his chances?'

The Commodore shrugged. ‘I would say fifty-fifty. I've no reliable information about the size of Bonaparte's Army, but it cannot be very large. Moreover he is so ill-found for provisions that he had to commit the enormity of massacring two thousand prisoners taken at Jaffa, because he could neither fed them nor spare the troops to march them back to Egypt and dared not leave them in his rear.'

‘Yes. I heard about that.'

‘Another factor is that plague has broken out in his Army. If it becomes an epidemic that may relieve us of our anxieties. But should it not, the French will remain extremely formidable. On the other hand, the Turks are mustering two Armies—one in Rhodes and the other in Damascus—both designed for the relief of Acre when it is invested. The question is whether either will arrive in time to relieve the fortress.'

‘Should they fail to do so, Bonaparte would still have to fight them afterwards.'

‘That is true, but the odds would then be in his favour. I am informed that he has sent emissaries to the Christian Druses and other peoples who are restless under the Turkish
yoke. At the moment they are sitting on the fence, waiting to see if he can succeed in taking Acre. If he does, they will rise and join him. That could mean his gaining the adherence of no fewer than eighty thousand auxiliaries. With such a force at his disposal it would prove the end of the Sultan's Empire. You will see now how everything depends on our holding Acre.'

‘I do, indeed. How far do you think you can assist in that?'

‘From off-shore the guns of my little Squadron should seriously interfere with the attacks of the French, but the crux of the matter will lie in Djezzar Pasha's ability to defend the walls of the city. Since you know of my escape from the Temple, you may have heard that it was made possible by a good friend of mine: Colonel Phélippeaux. He was a Colonel of Engineers in the old Royal Army of France, and is a great expert on fortifications. He accompanied me to the Levant and, before I sailed from Alexandria early in the month, I sent him and Captain Miller ahead of me in
Theseus
. He is now in Acre inspecting the defences and, if his recommendations are accepted, I have hopes that by now they are being greatly strengthened.'

As the meal proceeded, Roger described to his host the collapse of the Neapolitan invasion of the Roman States, the evacuation of the Royal Family and the horror which had subsequently descended on Naples. They then talked of the Russo-Swedish war and the French Revolution. Later Sir Sidney gave Roger an account of his capture at Le Havre.

He said there was no foundation in the story that he had attempted to blow up the docks. He had been given command of the frigate
Diamond
and a flotilla of small craft, with orders to clear the Channel of French privateers that were then seriously interfering with British commerce. In the course of a year he had captured or destroyed a great number of them; but one, owing to her exceptional speed, continued to elude him. Learning that she was in Le Havre, he had determined to cut her out. Having no Lieutenant available upon whom he could rely, he had taken in the boats himself. The lugger was taken by surprise and captured almost without resistance. However, when Sir Sidney went on board and the lugger was got out into the river, she was caught by
a flood-tide and carried upstream. They hoisted sail but the wind had fallen; so at daybreak she was still above the town and becalmed. The French then attacked her from both the water and the land with all the forces the big port could muster; so against such overwhelming odds Sir Sidney and his men had been compelled to surrender.

When they were halfway through a decanter of rich Malaga wine Roger said, ‘You will appreciate that, as I owe allegiance only to Mr. Pitt, I can refuse to accept your orders. But placed as I am I feel it would be unpatriotic to deny you such help as you may in reason ask from me. On this I would be glad to hear your views.'

The Commodore remained thoughtful for a moment, then he replied, ‘The thing that would be of most value to us would be an accurate appreciation of Bonaparte's forces and his supplies. Upon such information we could settle the best tactics to use in the defence of Acre. If he has strength and staying power it would, I think, pay Djezzar Pasha best to make a number of determined sorties and so prevent the French from creating a strong, entrenched position and from tunnelling beneath the walls. But if the previous engagements of the French, and now the plague, have seriously weakened them, Djezzar would do better to take no risk of his best troops being cut up outside the city, but sit tight and wait until starvation and disease cause the French Army to fall to pieces.'

‘That is sound reasoning,' Roger agreed. ‘Now I must be frank. I have no intention of risking death going backwards and forwards in the desert, or of spending several months at Bonaparte's headquarters endeavouring to get periodical reports back to you of how matters are going there. If in a single mission I can secure for you the information you require, will you agree to send me back to England at the first opportunity?'

‘Yes,' replied the Commodore, without hesitation. ‘That is a fair offer and I willingly agree to your conditions.'

‘Good,' Roger nodded. ‘The next question is how am I to make connection with the French? Although the Turks are our allies, you cannot simply put me ashore. It is certain that
I should fall in with a band of marauding Arabs who would promptly murder me.'

‘We could disguise you as an Arab,' Sid Sidney suggested.

‘Thank you, no,' replied Roger with a quick shake of his head. ‘Your Arabic may have been good enough for you to pass as an Arab in Morocco, but mine is not good enough for me to pass as one in Palestine. And, as these people cannot read any
laissez-passer
with which you might furnish me, it would be useless.'