'I didn't think—'
'As you would, Englishman. I'll have you know that an American is accounted a welcome guest in France, as would any true republican, which means I can come and go as I please.'
Renzi swallowed his anger. 'Just so. Now you are a guest of the King.' He regretted the words immediately, but it was too late.
'We won a war so's not to bend a knee to a king—and I'm not about to start now.'
Something made Renzi answer quickly, 'Then why, pray, do you feel able to stand with us now?'
'You don't see it, do you?'
'I beg your pardon?'
'As I said before, my inventions are for mankind—at one stroke to annihilate the present system of marine war by making it impossible for a navy bent on aggression to venture forth on the high seas. By this we create a guarantee of the liberty of the seas for all men, and where there is free trade there we will find the true sovereignty of the people.'
'But—'
'Once the people have their emancipation they will throw off the yokes of oppression—your monarchs, politicians and other parasites with their standing armies—and at last stand free. Whoever makes my machines possible is of no account, so long as they are created.'
Renzi paused. 'Some would say that the submarine boat is a barbaric weapon that pits innocent seamen against a foe that can never be seen.'
Fulton's face shadowed. 'That may be true, but for the greater good it must be suffered. I have started a revolution in the minds of engineers that cannot now be stopped, and I must go forward to face my destiny, sir.'
CHAPTER 8
'ARE WE ALL ASSEMBLED? Then we'll begin.' Although only in his forties the prime minister, the younger William Pitt, wore on his face the effect of years spent leading England in the long wars against the French. This capable prime minister had resigned earlier on a matter of conscience but the lacklustre administration that had replaced his had stumbled on from an ill- advised peace treaty, through a hasty declaration of war to the current crisis. Now matters appeared to be reaching their climax but that did little to lift the mortal weariness that lay so heavily on him. The others in the cabinet room regarded him with concern.
'Sir, I feel I must express my profound sense of deliverance in seeing you once more in the chair that so rightfully belongs to you, at the helm of state in these parlous times. I'm sure I speak for us all when I say—'
'Thank you, Lord Harrowby,' Pitt said, to the new foreign secretary, 'but business presses.' He looked meaningfully at the secretary of war. 'My lord Camden?'
'Our confidential agent in the matter of the French plunging boat has just returned from France. I have to tell you he confirms the reports concerning its effectiveness as only too true, sir.' There was a general stir about the table.
'Go on.'
'It seems it is no mere philosophic curiosity. Before Napoleon and his admirals in Brest the inventor personally stalked a vessel from beneath the sea and exploded it to pieces in front of their eyes.'
'Melville?'
The first lord of the Admiralty leaned forward. 'Sir. If this device is ever perfected we stand under a near- insuperable threat. Our navy being unsafe even in its own harbours renders our entire strategic situation questionable. I cannot answer to the consequences.'
'It may not come to that pass, sir,' Lord Camden said quietly. 'This agent was successful in seducing the inventor from the French and at this moment he is in England awaiting our pleasure.'
'Ah, yes . . .'
'Foreign Secretary?'
'I have to bring to your attention, gentlemen, that my predecessor was in communications of a clandestine nature with this inventor in France. As a condition of his quitting the country, certain demands were made and agreed to that we are morally obliged to accept.'
'And these are?'
'Among others, that a committee be immediately convened to examine his plans for a greatly improved submarine boat to be constructed and deployed by us, with a form of assistance from the royal dockyards and the Navy to this end.'
'This seems reasonable enough,' Pitt replied. 'But I'll wager there's somewhere a price in gold being asked.'
'A considerable sum was mentioned but this is contingent upon his satisfying the committee in the particulars.'
'Then I see we have a way forward. Ask the gentleman concerned to prepare his plans for the craft, which he will then present in due course. This will satisfy the immediate problem.'
'Er, which is that, Prime Minister?'
'That while he is working for us, he is not for the French,' Pitt said. 'And we buy ourselves time to consider our position. I'm not altogether convinced that this is something we, a maritime nation of the first rank, should necessarily be involved with.'
He went on, 'We'll give him his chance, see what he comes up with. We'll have a strong committee— philosophers, scientificals, engineers of note and all of some eminence—to judge his work. Then we'll decide what to do. Agreed?'
At the polite murmuring he declared, 'I shall ask the Treasury to open a disbursement account against my discretionary funding for now, this to include some form of emolument, say a monthly subsistence draw, and desire
