cabin and glanced round to see that Goddard and most of the captains at the table were watching Alexis. If she remained seated, she was simply a spectator, perhaps the wife or daughter of some important person that no one knew; if she left the cabin she must be a witness.
Although she knew none of this, Alexis unwittingly added to the tension. Anxious not to be associated with her brother and wanting to avoid getting caught up in the crowd of men at the door, she waited until the last moment, and then slowly stood up and walked out of the cabin, every man's eyes on her. She knew it and enjoyed it, but had only one of those men been watching, the man sitting in the chair with the provost marshal behind him and the only captain not wearing a sword, she would have walked with the same elegance.
As the Marine sentry now standing guard just inside the cabin shut the door and then stood to attention, Goddard looked across at Shirley (for the first time, Ramage realized) and asked: 'Your first witness is ready?'
Shirley slowly stood up. 'Yes, indeed, sir.'
'Call him, then,' Goddard said, already showing signs of impatience.
Shirley beckoned the lieutenant sitting at the end of the front row of chairs who walked across the cabin uncertainly, as though treading on ice. Shirley pointed to a spot a yard or so from Jenkins's chair, where the deputy judge advocate was already waiting with the Bible and a piece of card.
'Put your right hand on the Holy Evangelist and recite this oath.' He held up the card and the lieutenant, every movement uncertain and his brow shiny with perspiration, read in a monotone and at great speed: 'The evidence I shall give before this court respecting the charge against the prisoner shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.'
Jenkins sat down, dipped a quill in the inkwell, and glared up at the lieutenant. 'Your name, rank and ship - and,' he admonished before the man had time to say a word, 'speak slowly: I have to write down everything you say. And that,' he added, looking at Shirley and then Ramage, 'goes for the interrogatories, too.'
The lieutenant was silenced by Jenkins's manner, mistaking the deputy judge advocate's fussy briskness for hostility.
Jenkins turned to Shirley: 'Sir, will you instruct this officer to tell us who he is?'
'Ridley, sir,' the man said, 'Jasper Ridley, first lieutenant of the Jason frigate.'
Jenkins's pen squeaked as he wrote, repeating each word after the lieutenant. Finally he stopped and looked up at Goddard.
Ramage saw that Shirley was now holding a handful of slips of paper, the first of which he handed to Jenkins, who read it. Shirley, as prosecutor, had adopted a method which helped the deputy judge advocate and speeded up the proceedings. Jenkins had to record all the evidence - the questions asked and the answers given. If the prosecutor, for instance, had his questions written down on separate slips of paper, Jenkins had only to number each one, writing the number in the minutes and the answer given. Later, after the day's evidence when he was preparing the final copy of the minutes from his rough draft, he could write the questions out in full in place of the numbers.
As president, Goddard started the proceedings with what was the usual first question: 'Tell the court all you know about the charge against the prisoner.'
As the man stood, apparently struck dumb, Ramage remembered questioning him on board the Jason, where he and the rest of the ship's officers were being held prisoner by Shirley, a Marine guard at the door.
'Come on, come on!' Goddard exclaimed.
'I don't know where to begin, sir.'
'Begin when the ship left Barbados.'
'Very well, sir. We left Barbados bound, as I understood it from the captain, for Spithead. After two or three days we sighted a sail on our larboard bow. The lookouts reported that she had hauled her wind and was beating up towards us. I understand the captain gave the order to bear away and run down towards her. Soon after this, various other sail were sighted and it seemed the ship might be a frigate escorting a convoy to England. We knew one had sailed recently from Barbados.'
'What happened then?' Goddard asked.
'I understand we hoisted the challenge and also our pendant numbers.'
While Jenkins's pen scratched away, Ramage pencilled in some single-word queries on a pad he now had in his lap and, realizing that both Shirley and Goddard were watching him, made sure that he wrote a minute or two after Ridley had spoken the phrase he wanted to question him about later.
'Carry on, then,' Goddard said.
'Well, the two ships approached but - well, I understand that because the Calypso had not answered the challenge and was French-built, Captain Shirley was about to give the order to beat to quarters when the Calypso suddenly wore round and came alongside us, throwing out boarding grapnels and securing herself alongside. Boarding parties came over and Captain Ramage took command of the ship.'
'Did anyone on board the Jason try to repel the boarders or open fire?' Goddard asked.
'We had no reason to expect an attack, sir,' Ridley said in a monotone. 'We expected the usual visit from the captain of the Calypso, or his first lieutenant.'
'So the officers and men of the Jason offered no resistance to the Calypso's attack?'
Ramage thought for a moment whether to protest at the word 'attack' but decided not to start an argument with Goddard over words which would probably end up simply antagonizing the other members of the court.
'No resistance at all, that I know of, sir.'
'Where was Captain Ramage?'
'He was leading the first boarding party, I believe: then Captain Shirley spoke to him on the quarterdeck and they went down to the cabin.'
'Where was the officer waiting that Captain Ramage put in command?'
Ramage stared at Goddard. The whole object of the trial was to decide whether or not Captain Ramage had superseded Shirley and put one of his own officers 'in command': it was up to the court to decide whether or not he did after hearing the evidence for the prosecution and the defence. But here was Goddard, the president of the court (supposed not only to be neutral but the guardian of the court's neutrality), asking the whereabouts of the officer the prisoner 'put in command'.
Goddard glanced at him, obviously expecting an objection, but Ramage kept silent: he guessed Goddard was trying to provoke him, but he knew a full broadside was always more effective than the same number of guns fired singly.
'I don't know,' Ridley said. 'I wasn't on deck at the time.'
Ramage made another note.
'You have some questions?' Goddard asked Shirley.
'I have, sir, and the deputy judge advocate already has the first, so if you will give permission . . .'
Goddard nodded and Jenkins read from the slip of paper.
'When was the first time you knew that Captain Ramage had removed Captain Shirley from command of the ship?'
'He came down to my cabin with some of his officers and so informed me.'
Shirley handed across another sheet of paper, and Jenkins read: 'What reason did he give for such an action?'
'He claimed that the Jason had fired on his ship.'
'Had she?' Goddard asked, obviously not wanting to lose the drama of the moment, which had provoked the captains round the table into sudden movement: some turned to look at Ramage, others were now watching Shirley.
'No, sir,' Ridley said in a voice hardly above a whisper.
The captain on Goddard's right leaned over and whispered something. The admiral nodded and said: 'Captain Swinford has a question to ask.'
'What can possibly have led Captain Ramage to say such a thing to you?'
'I do not know, sir,' Ridley said woodenly, and then looked back at Jenkins as he read from another of Shirley's slips of paper.
'Did the prisoner make any other allegations against Captain Shirley?'
'Yes, sir,' Ridley took out a handkerchief and mopped his face, and Ramage noted he was the only man in the room who was perspiring at all. 'Yes, sir: he asked me if I thought that Captain Shirley was mad.'
'What was your answer?'
'Well, first I protested that it was a very improper question for someone of Captain Ramage's position to ask, and gave it as my opinion that Captain Shirley was not mad.'
That answer clearly did not satisfy Goddard. 'In your view, as a naval officer and first lieutenant of the Jason frigate, was there any circumstance which could lead Captain Ramage suddenly to ask you such an extraordinary question?'
Ridley shook his head. 'No, none sir.'
Ridley's whole attitude, Ramage felt, was that he wanted to run away: not because he was frightened of the court or overawed by being called as a witness. Rather - and that was it, he realized with a shock but was unable to think of the explanation - that Ridley was being blackmailed, and the questions Goddard was asking were coming close to the subject about which he was being blackmailed and about which he dare not talk.
Jenkins was holding another piece of paper and, when Goddard nodded, began reading: 'Lieutenant Wagstaffe, the officer whom Captain Ramage left in command -' Jenkins paused for a moment, as if anticipating a protest from Ramage, who decided to continue his policy of making none at this stage, '- gave certain orders after Captain Ramage returned on board his own ship. What were they?'
'I understand they were to do with the Jason's course and her future position in relation to the Calypso.'
'Can't you be more specific?' grumbled Goddard.
'No, sir, I wasn't present at the conversations.'
Jenkins received another slip of paper from Shirley. 'What did the Jason do from then on until she arrived in the Channel?'
'She helped escort the West India convoy.'
Obviously Goddard expected more. ' 'Helped escort'? What did the ship do? Did Captain Ramage make signals, send messages over?'
'I understand the Jason's orders - which meant, I suppose, the orders given to Lieutenant Wagstaffe - were to keep a cable to leeward of the Calypso and this was generally astern of the convoy.'
'Captain Ramage did not send you off investigating strange sail, or anything like that?' Goddard inquired.
'Not to my knowledge, sir.'
