Glenbervie, of the Household, tells me he sleeps every night with his camp equipage and accoutrements to hand, to the evident anguish of the Queen. In course he will not be suffered to take the field. In the strictest confidence I have to tell you that the Bishop of Gloucester has prepared his palace for the evacuation of the King and the Royal Family across the Severn at Worcester.
'In addition, Sir Brook Watson, the commissary general, has instructions in the event of the imminent loss of the capital to make ready thirty ox-wagons for the transport of the nation's entire gold reserves to be deposited with the King at Worcester under the same guard. '
To speak of such things! To hear and consider the destruction and conquering of his country of birth. It was a thing of horror for Kydd.
Boyd continued, 'At Woolwich the arsenal and artillery stores will be taken, as will the Purfleet Ordnance Board powder magazines, to Weedon in Northamptonshire. There is in construction there a vast military complex which will act also as a seat of government in the event of—' 'This is hard to bear, sir!' Kydd blurted. 'Surely—' '—the fall of the capital. It is by way of being astride the Grand Union canal and well placed for the conduct of a protracted campaign.'
Kydd tried to gather his wits. 'The—the common people, sir. How will they, er, what might be done to . . . ?'
'They have not been overlooked. Plans have been drawn up for their preservation. Here. These instructions have been lately sent to every town and village in the south.' He extracted a leaf and passed it over.
Kydd read. 'The Deputy Lieutenants and Justices . . . the following directions . . . in case of an Alarm of the Landing by the Enemy . . . for the removal of women and children, aged and infirm to a place of general Military Rendezvous . . .' It went on to direct how a village was to be sectioned by responsibility, how carts were to be numbered, marked and covered such that those with a ticket of the right form might be conveyed away with provisions following. Males of the village over the age of twelve had duties of driving livestock or firing deadstock, nothing of value to be left for the foraging army.
Clergy and other worthies would act as shepherds and superintendents, and it was trusted that on the receipt of an alarm, regularity, sobriety and seemliness would characterise the comportment of the villagers. More followed in the same vein, calm, ordered and clear, but underlying all was awful reality: that the defences of England had failed and a hostile army was at last to take vengeance for centuries of humiliation.
'Sir. The Navy is ready. We've fleets o' the finest battleships as are poised to fall on the invading—'
'Just so, Mr. Kydd.' Boyd sighed, and sat down wearily. 'As you shall see later, our squadrons are outnumbered by a margin and are wide scattered. While we have the greatest confidence in them, and recognising Bonaparte faces formidable difficulties, I'm supposing they are overborne and the enemy is able to reach our coasts. In that melancholy eventuality the last service the Navy can do its country is for the small ships to throw themselves before the armada in sacrifice in the hope that the time so dearly bought might—'
He was interrupted by a timid knock at the door. 'Sir, the volunteers?' his lieutenant asked.
'Ah, yes. We'll be down presently.' He rose briskly, then scrupulously barred and shuttered the room.
'Volunteers?' asked Kydd, as they clattered down the stairs.
'Do you have any objection?' Boyd said cuttingly. 'The Loyal London Volunteers. These men may well be hazarding their lives in the very near future. To attend a parade seems little enough in return.'
'A parade? In that case, sir, o' course I'll be present,' Kydd hastened to say.
Mollified, Boyd went on, 'It's a duty to be performed by those in the Admiralty who can from time to time be spared, as you must count yourself.'
They left the rear of the Admiralty and emerged onto the great expanse of the parade-ground. Opposite, two long lines of redcoats stood motionless. Kydd's mind, though, was on what had been passed on in the office. Of rumours he had had his fill, but he had been shaken to hear the final dissolution of his country discussed in such clinical terms.
A stand was erected on one side, flags of all kinds proudly aloft and flanked by a guard in different regalia. 'Be so good as to make a countenance, sir,' Boyd hissed icily. 'There are those who look to us for assurance in these times.' His own demeanour was pleasant and confident and he stepped out forcefully, Kydd quickly falling in beside him assuming a like pose. They mounted the stage, nodding to the other officers in uniforms of every possible description, and sat nonchalantly. A corpulent and red-faced general puffed on to the central dais, and to the left, with a spirited whirl of drumsticks and crash of cymbals, a band stepped out.
Kydd was in no mood to enjoy the spectacle. As each rigid line passed he mechanically rose and removed his cocked hat with the rest but his mind was elsewhere: to seas far over the horizon where, without a shadow of doubt, the destiny of England was to be decided—not here with these well-meaning amateur soldiers.
At last it was over and they could return. Inside their little room again, Boyd's expression tightened as he pulled out a long map covered with ciphers in red and tiny scrawled notes. He studied it for a moment. 'This is our situation as of this morning. The disposition of our major fleets need not concern you—the Brest blockade with Cornwallis is holding, Nelson is in the Mediterranean and the North Sea Fleet is watching over the Dutch.
'What is of more intimate concern is the disposition of Bonaparte's forces.' He glanced at Kydd, as if weighing what he should say. 'I will not hide it from you, since it is you who must oppose them. The number of line-of-battle ships he has to command is many and will be still greater if Spain moves against us, as it must surely do, but these are matters of high strategy and change from day to day. You will want to know more of what faces your own part of the field.
In fine, it is the forefront of the battle. The invasion Grande Armee is massing with three corps—Marshals Davout, Soult and Ney, if you're interested—with more than a hundred thousand picked troops ready to embark for the first assault, the Emperor Bonaparte himself to take command. For this, as you will know, he has been fast assembling the largest invasion flotilla in history with specialist craft only some of which we have knowledge of.'
Kydd stared at the map. The dense-packed notations on the French side seemed endless, stretching away down the coastline. Across the Channel—so very close—a single line of dots and squares was brought right up against the line of the sea.
'You will be informed about the details of these vessels later. Take it from me that they are in their thousands and under the direct command of Admiral Bruix, a most experienced and canny officer. They have been in the building at every boatyard and river port on the coast and are being assembled at the main ports. To the north of Cap Gris Nez we have Calais, Dunkirk, Gravelines and so on to Ostend and Flushing, to the south Wimereux,
