defice coeptis … 'Falter not in what thou hast begun.' Valerius Flaccus,' Peel cited, taking what heart he could.
That'un made Lewrie wince; it had been that ne'er-do-well Peter Rushton's droll advice, just after they had set fire to the governor's coach-house at Harrow, which had gone up in a most spectacular blaze, surpassing their wildest expectations; just before he and that other scoundrel, Clothworthy Chute, had gotten clean away, leaving Lewrie to be nabbed with the port-fire in his hands. The caning they'd escaped (since Lewrie was stupidly 'honourable' enough not to tattle) had been Biblical; which thrashing hadn't held a candle to the one his father, Sir Hugo, had given him after he'd been sent down in shame- along with the long bill for damages! Falter not, indeed. Pah!
'My word, Mister Peel, but… what a load of 'balls'!' Lewrie replied. 'Pass word for my servant Aspinall, there! If Pelham seems happy, Peel, best we let him crow over whatever it is that's made him so, before we, uhm… tell him what we've been up to. Perhaps over a large bowl o' punch, hey? One with a liberal admixture o' whisky?'
'I've been to Saint Domingue!' Grenville Pelhamm boastfully announced once they were alone in Lewrie's great-cabins. 'Direct action, that's the thing, and damme gentlemen, but I do avow that we're on the cusp of success, at long last. Carpe diem, what? 'Seize the day,' so I did! Uhmm, tasty punch, this. What's in it? Diff rent…'
'Oh, some celebratory champagne,' Lewrie said, ticking off the ingredients, and manfully striving not to roll his eyes at all the old Latin adages being bandied about in Public School Boy style, with a 'pooh-poohing' wave, 'properly French, o' course. Cool tea, bottle o' dessert wine, a half-gallon o' ginger beer, sugar, and lemon. The usual ingredients… mostly. Saint Domingue, though, really? Well, well!'
'Got our Mister Harcourt to slip Toussaint L'Ouverture a letter asking to meet him on lie Gonaves, the middle of the bay just off Port-au-Prince… on the strictest q.t. and he did' Pelham said, preening. ' Ugliest little monkey ever you did see, but shrewd, for being a butler in his early days. Or so he thought, hey? Oddest damn' eyes he has, too. Like a lion's. His best feature, since he's so short, squat and bow-legged. Went… what's the Hindoo word?… in disguise I did.'
'In mufti' Lewrie supplied, for his father used the term after years and bloody years with a 'John Company' sepoy regiment.
'I was wond'rin' why you were clad so, uhm…' Peel commented for Pelham was still wearing a dark buff suit of 'ditto' with a waistcoat in a green shade most often seen on sadly neglected houseplants, a pale tan unbleached linen shirt, tall riding boots covered by dark-brown corduroy 'spatterdashes' to mid-thigh, buttoned up the outside with dark horn buttons, and had come aboard sporting a flat-crowned, wide-brimmed farmer's hat half-buried in assorted dark-brown feathers. The hat was of cheap felt, not beaver, of a colour that Lewrie could only describe as 'shit-brickle' or 'dyspeptic dog turd ochre.' Lewrie could only assume that Pelham had struck an earth-shaking bargain with L'Ouverture, if he still felt need to sport his 'costume' days or even weeks later, like a Muskogee warrior displaying his most-recent scalps.
'Mufti, that was it,' Pelham crowed, holding out his tall mug for a second refill. 'L'Ouverture's nigh illiterate, and cannot even speak halfway decent French, just their horrid Creole pate… patois, mean t'say. I say pate? Hmm.'
'So, did your negotiations proceed to the point that we should offer congratulations all round, sir?' Peel asked him, sharing a look with Lewrie at Pelham's slip.
'Got a much better reception with General Rigaud,' Pelham said, with a sly-boot's wink. 'L'Ouverture was stand-offish, said he'd give Britain's terms a good ponder, though I think he was just stallin' for time to see what his putative master, General Hedouville, would do for him. Slavishly bound to France, is L'Ouverture, as we supposed, Peel. Slavish, hah! Rigaud, though… has fewer supporters and troops, but better organised and armed, and easily supplied through Jacmel, and a strong stone fortress to protect his rear. Whites, rich, landed Mulattoes and half-castes, the educated and civilised, as good as any in Paris 'fore the wars, and the ladies …! Not to boast, but in a lone week the presence of a mannered English gentleman allowed me more carnal pleasure than a whole six months on my Grand Tour of the Continent, ha ha! Rigaud would take hands with Hedouville in a heart-beat t'save his hide before L'Ouverture is sicced on him, but Hedouville's nothing substantial to offer him, not like we could. No British troops ashore this time, but artillery, shot, and powder, and enough arms, munitions, boots, and accoutrements to arm more of his followers. Enough horses to haul guns and mount a large, mobile force that could ride circles round L'Ouverture's barefoot infantry will turn the trick. Rigaud was all ears, let me tell you, and much more receptive! Almost slavering.'
'So, you will recommend Rigaud to Lord Balcarres at Jamaica, to the Foreign Office, sir?' Peel asked with a troubled frown.
'Already have, Mister Peel!' Pelham bragged, 'And lit a fire to gather all the arms, horses, and saddlery we may, soonest. Came here to do the same. The quicker Rigaud gets the goods the better; before Hedouville makes his offer. Then, on the pretext of L'Ouverture blocking British ships in his ports, even under false colours, we will blockade his parts of the island, to guarantee Rigaud's success.'
'I trust you were discrete, sir,' Peel went on, leaning forward. 'And how did you get there?'
'Ain't stupid, Peel,' Pelham griped, tossing off his third mug of punch, and rising to get himself another refill. 'Maitland will lay that before him later. As for the how, I hired a small Bahamian boat, come to Kingston to trade, and was headed for the Turks and Caicos for salt. Went in my disguises, in and out of the bay at night, unseen… Sailed far West before turning for Jacmel, after, so no one ashore had a glimpse of us. Dressed as a sailor then, and Gawd what a stench it was, all lice and fleas for days! Played as if we'd come to buy coffee and such. But the hard part's nearly done, and as soon as we can get a convoy to Rigaud at Jacmel, we have Saint Domingue in our grasp.'
'That boat. What were Bahamians doin'…?' Lewrie quibbled.
'Trading, I told you,' Pelham bulled on over his objection. 'A two-masted… whatever you call 'em, from an island off Great Abaco, where big merchantmen don't put in much, but completely English, not to worry, Captain Lewrie. Every last one of them sounded like a West Country peasant, or a Bristol dock-walloper. Place where they build a fair number of boats, they said. Long settled, but sparsely peopled, I think, and not much farmland, so it's trade where they can, or perish.'
'Man O' War, Elbow, Green Turtle, Guana Cay… do you recall a name, sir?' Lewrie speculated aloud.
'Green… something edible,' Pelham answered, shrugging, and sipping. 'Green, boiled… disgusting? Anyway…! Rigaud won't be cheap, Mister Peel, but I held the price down to a quarter-million per year for Rigaud, and another quarter-million for his cronies and generals, so he can pay his troops, and hire on the bootless mercenaries we abandoned when we left the island. Those who've sided with L'Ouverture for the promise of a few puny acres of plantation land? Once they get wind of Rigaud having showers of silver coin, though, we may expect at least a tenth of L'Ouverture's army changing sides and haring down to South Province, and Rigaud's so-called Mulatto Republic. Two months, four on the outside, and Rigaud will be ready to take the field against L'Ouverture. Then, perhaps a year from now, we step ashore in triumph, Mister Peel… Captain Lewrie, having stolen a march on the French, and those pesky Americans, for good and all! With not only French Saint Domingue, but the Spanish half of Hispaniola in our possession, as well. Have to invade Santo Domingo! When Toussaint L'Ouverture's slave armies are broken, that's where he will flee, and den up. When congratulations are offered, you may rest assured I will feature your stalwart efforts in support of my endeavours in the most appreciative terms to the Crown.
'So,' Pelham barked, beginning to look a touch bleary. 'While I've been up north, what have you two been up to, in the meantime, to bedevil and dethrone Guillaume Choundas?'
Pelham, thankfully, was too engrossed in dipping himself a new mug of punch to take note of the uneasy silence that followed that enquiry; and with his back turned, he could not discern the queasy looks that passed between them.
'Damme, but this is an inspiritin' punch,' Pelham enthused with a lip-smacking grin.
