The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War

loyalist watching from the headland was sensing an approaching disaster and he was determined to show them confidence. “It occurs to me,” he spoke to the six young kilted officers, “that Sir Walter Raleigh played bowls as the Armada approached. We can match the English in insouciance, don’t you think?”

“By playing bowls, sir?” one of the Campbells asked.

“I prefer swords to bowls,” McLean said, and drew his broadsword. His lamed right arm made drawing the weapon difficult and he had to use his left hand to help free the blade from its scabbard. He stooped and laid the sword on the turf.

Eleven other swords were placed on the ground. There were no musicians at Dyce’s Head so the brigadier clapped his hands rhythmically and the six ensigns began to dance above the cross-laid blades. Some of the 74th’s other officers sang as they clapped. They sang in Gaelic, and McLean joined in, smiling.

Bethany clapped with the other spectators. The ensigns danced, their feet close but never touching the swords. The Gaelic song finished, McLean indicated the defiant sword-dance could end and the boyish officers grinned as their audience applauded and the blades were retrieved. “To your posts, gentlemen,” McLean said to his officers. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he looked at the civilians, “I cannot foretell what will happen now, but if you stay in your homes I am confident you will be treated with a proper civility.” He was not confident of that at all, but what else could he say? He turned to take one last look at the fleet. A splash and rumble of cable sounded clear across the water as the first ship dropped anchor. Its sails, loosened from the wind’s grip, flapped wildly until men tamed the canvas onto the wide yards. A glint of light from the ship’s afterdeck flashed bright in McLean’s eyes and he knew a rebel was examining the shore with a telescope. He turned away, going back to his unfinished fort.

James Fletcher had spent the night on the Penobscot’s eastern shore, the Felicity safe in a small cove. He watched the Massachusetts fleet appear from the south and he waited till the ships had almost reached Majabigwaduce before rowing out of the sheltered haven. Then the wind caught his mainsail and he could ship the oars and run before the breeze to where the fleet was anchoring. The transports had gone farthest north, anchoring west of the peninsula’s bluff and, like the warships, well out of the range of any cannon the British might have ashore.

Fletcher headed for the largest of the warships, reckoning that would be the commander’s vessel, but long before he reached the Warren he was intercepted by a guard boat manned by a dozen oarsmen and four green-jacketed marines. They hailed him and so he turned the Felicity into the wind and waited for the longboat to reach him. “I’ve got news for the general,” he called to the marine officer.

“You’ll have to see the commodore,” the marine insisted, and pointed to the Warren. Sailors on the frigate took the line Fletcher heaved, then he let the gaff fall and clambered up the frigate’s side.

He stood on deck where a young and nervous midshipman arrived to be his escort. “The commodore is busy, Mister Fletcher,” he explained.

“I’m sure he is.”

“But he will want to see you.”

“I hope so!” James said cheerfully.

The rebels’ warships had anchored due west of the harbor mouth, which was filled by Captain Mowat’s three sloops of war. Those sloops, anchored fore and aft to keep their starboard broadsides pointed towards the bay, had their gunports open and were flying the blue ensign at their sterns while at each masthead, three on each sloop, was the British flag. Twin pulses of white spurted rhythmically from the North’s flank and Fletcher grinned. “They never stop pumping her,” he said.

“Her?”

“The North.” James pointed. “The sloop closest to Dyce’s Head, see? I reckon the rats have chewed clean through her bottom.”

Ensign Fanning gazed solemnly at the enemy ship. “She’s an old ship?” he guessed.

“Old and rotten,” James said, “a pair of cannon-balls through that hull will turn her into firewood.”

“You live here?” Fanning asked.

“All my life.”

Commodore Saltonstall ducked out of his cabin door, followed by a man James Fletcher knew well. John Brewer was a captain in the local militia, though he was so short of recruits that he had few men to command. It had been to Captain Brewer that James Fletcher had sent his map and letter, and Brewer now smiled at seeing him. “You’re welcome, young Fletcher!” Brewer gestured at the commodore. “This is Captain Saltonstall. I dare say young James here has news for you, sir.”

“I do, sir,” James said eagerly.

Saltonstall seemed unimpressed. He looked once at James Fletcher, then turned to the portside rail where he stood for a long time gazing at Mowat’s ships through a telescope. “Mister Coningsby!” he snapped suddenly.

“Sir?” Midshipman Fanning responded.

“The bitter ends of number four’s train-tackle look like a snake’s honeymoon! See to it.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

Captain Brewer, a jovial man dressed in homespun and with an ancient broad-bladed cutlass strapped at his waist, grinned at Fletcher while Saltonstall continued to inspect the three ships that guarded the harbor’s mouth. “What is your name?” the commodore inquired brusquely.

James Fletcher decided the question was aimed at him. “James Fletcher, sir. I live in Bagaduce.”

“Then come here, James Fletcher of Bagaduce,” Saltonstall demanded and James went to stand beside the commodore and, like him, gazed eastwards. To the left he could see the heavily wooded bluff that hid the fort from the commodore’s view. Then came the three sloops with their combined broadsides of twenty-eight cannon and, just to their south, the guns on Cross Island. “You live here,” Saltonstall said in a voice which suggested pity for such a fate, “and I see three sloops and a battery, what am I missing?”

“Another battery on Dyce’s Head, sir,” James said, pointing.

“Just as I told you, sir!” Brewer put in cheerfully.

Saltonstall ignored the militia captain. “Of what strength?”

“I saw only three small guns being hauled up there, sir,” James said.

“Six-pounders, probably,” Brewer said.

“But they’ll plunge their fire on us as we reach the harbor mouth,” Saltonstall observed.

“Reckon that’s what they’re up there for, sir,” James said, “and there’s another battery on the harbor shore.”

“So three batteries and three sloops,” Saltonstall said, collapsing the glass and turning to look at Fletcher. He did not seem to like what he saw. “What water in the harbor?”

“What do you draw, sir?”

“Eleven feet, nine inches,” Saltonstall said. He was still talking to James, but now fixed his gaze just past James’s head to stare at the poopdeck companionway.

“Plenty of water for you, sir,” James said with his customary cheerfulness.

“The tide?”

“Fifteen to eighteen feet, near enough,” James said, “but even at low water you can pass her.” He pointed to the Nautilus, the southernmost of Mowat’s ships. “You can get past her, sir, with ten feet to spare, and once you’re inside you’ve not a care in the world.”

“Get past her?” Saltonstall asked scornfully.

“Plenty of room, sir.”

“And a battery not a hundred paces away?” Saltonstall asked harshly, meaning the guns on Cross Island. Those guns were just visible and behind them were tents for the gunners and a British flag high on a makeshift pole. “And once I am inside,” he went on, “how the devil do I get out?”

“Get out?” James asked, disconcerted by the commodore’s evident dislike of him.

“I take your advice,” Saltonstall said sarcastically, “and I sail into Majabigwaduce, but once there I am under the guns of their fort, am I not? And incapable of leaving?”

“Incapable, sir?” James said, nervous of the immaculate Saltonstall.

“For God’s sake, you thickhead!” Saltonstall snapped. “Any fool can sail into that harbor, but how the devil do you sail out again? Answer me that!”