flying a white flag. The first made for them.
'It's finished f'r us, Dick,' Kydd said, in a low voice, ‘But we face it when it comes.'
Parker crossed to the ship's side and gripped a line. 'History reached out and touched me, Tom. Did I fail? Was it all in vain?'
Kydd could find no words to reply. He noticed the white of Parker's knuckles and saw that he was only just in control.
'Any with a shred of humanity could not stand by and see those men groan under the burden of their miseries. I could nod' He turned to Kydd, eyes bright. 'So you might say I am the victim — of the tenderest human emotion.'
He resumed his dogged stare at the approaching boats. 'They could only ever see us as a mortal threat, never as sailors with true cause for complaint. At any time they could have remedied our situation and claimed our loyalty, but they never did. Instead they bitterly opposed everything we put forward. They offered redress and pardon at Spithead, but to us nothing.'
He heaved a deep breath. 'I was the one that the illiterate, base-born seamen turned to when they needed a leader - they elected me to achieve their goals, but. .. It grieves me to say it, my friend, but the material I had at my command was not of the stuff from which is wrought the pure impulse of a glorious cause. They were fractious, hot-tempered, impatient and of ignoble motives. In short, Tom, my friend, I was betrayed.'
The approaching boat came alongside, and the unbending Admiral the Lord Keith came aboard.
'Which one of you is Richard Parker?'
The president of the delegates walked towards him. 'I am.'
'Then I arrest you in the King's name. Provost corporal, do your duty.' Parker smiled briefly.
'That will do. I'll be back for the others. Get him ashore.'
Kydd watched Parker move to the ship's side. He turned once towards him, then disappeared.
The boat returned, and Kydd was ordered aboard with others for the journey ashore. A numb state of resignation insulated him from events, but when they approached the small dockyard wharf his heart nearly failed him. Nothing had prepared him for the degradation, the baying crowd, the noise and the shame. Hoots of derision, small boys playing out a hanging, the hisses of cold hatred - and Kitty, her face distorted and tear-streaked.
Flanked by soldiers who kept the crowds at a safe distance, the seamen shuffled off, shackled in pairs with clumsy manacles. They were taken to the fort, searched at the guardhouse and then on towards the garrison chapel. Under the chapel were the cells; dark, dank and terrifying. And there Kydd waited for his fate.
Renzi watched Kydd, with the others, stumble out of sight into the fort. He forced his mind to rationality: Kydd's incarceration in the fastness of the garrison with two regiments of soldiers in the guard was unfortunate for his plan. He would, in probability, be moved like Parker to the security of Maidstone jail until the court martial. This would be at night, and without warning.
The whole plan hinged on communicating with Kydd, passing on the vital message — and, of course, Kydd playing his part without question. But if he could not even make contact?
Condemned men — and Kydd was as good as condemned — had a certain unique position, and it was permitted that they could be visited by loved ones; no one would question a woman's privilege in this regard.
'O' course, you'd be meanin' Kitty Malkin. She's over on t' next one, Queen Street.'
She didn't answer the door, but Renzi saw inside through the curtained window that there was a light. He knocked and waited, feeling conspicuous.
Eventually the door opened, and a rumpled and tear-stained Kitty appeared.
'I hesitate to intrude at this sad time, Miss Malkin, but do you remember me?'
She looked at him without interest. 'No, sir, I do not.'
'I am the particular friend of Thomas Kydd.' Her eyes flared but she said nothing. 'Please, don't be alarmed. I come to you to see if you will do him a service. A particular service, which may be the means of saving him from an untimely end.'
'Why did ye not save him afore now, may I be s' blunt as to remark it?'
