EVERYBODY'S MASTER
The peril of England was now growing fast; all the faster from being in
the dark. The real design of the enemy escaped the penetration even
of Nelson, and our Government showed more anxiety about their great
adversary landing on the coast of Egypt than on that of England. Naval
men laughed at his flat-bottomed boats, and declared that one frigate
could sink a hundred of them; whereas it is probable that two of them,
with their powerful guns and level fire, would have sunk any frigate we
then possessed. But the crafty and far-seeing foe did not mean to allow
any frigate, or line-of-battle ship, the chance of enquiring how that
might be.
His true scheme, as everybody now knows well, was to send the English
fleet upon a wild-goose chase, whether to Egypt, the west coast of
Ireland, or the West Indies, as the case might be; and then, by a rapid
concentration of his ships, to obtain command of the English Channel,
if only for twenty-four hours at a time. Twenty-four hours of clearance
from our cruisers would have seen a hundred thousand men landed on our
coast, throwing up entrenchments, and covering the landing of another
hundred thousand, coming close upon their heels. Who would have faced
them? A few good regiments, badly found, and perhaps worse led, and a
mob of militia and raw volunteers, the reward of whose courage would be
carnage.
But as a chip smells like the tree, and a hair like the dog it belongs
to, so Springhaven was a very fair sample of the England whereof (in its
own opinion) it formed a most important part. Contempt for the body of
a man leads rashly to an under-estimate of his mind; and one of the
greatest men that ever grew on earth--if greatness can be without
goodness--was held in low account because not of high inches, and
laughed at as “little Boney.”
However, there were, as there always are, thousands of sensible
Englishmen then; and rogues had not yet made a wreck of grand
Institutions to scramble for what should wash up. Abuses existed, as
they always must; but the greatest abuse of all (the destruction of
every good usage) was undreamed of yet. And the right man was even now
approaching to the rescue, the greatest Prime-Minister of any age or
country.
Unwitting perhaps of the fine time afforded by the feeble delays of
Mr. Addington, and absorbed in the tissue of plot and counterplot
now thickening fast in Paris--the arch-plotter in all of them being
himself--the First Consul had slackened awhile his hot haste to set foot
upon the shore of England. His bottomless ambition for the moment had
a top, and that top was the crown of France; and as soon as he had got
that on his head, the head would have no rest until the crown was that
of Europe.
But before any crown could be put on at all, the tender hearts of
Frenchmen must be touched by the appearance of great danger--the danger
which is of all the greatest, that to their nearest and dearest selves.
A bloody farce was in preparation, noble lives were to be perjured away,
and above all, the only great rival in the hearts of soldiers must be
turned out of France. This foul job worked--as foul Radical jobs do
now--for the good of England. If the French invasion had come to pass,
as it was fully meant to do, in the month of February, 1804, perhaps its
history must have been written in French, for us to understand it.
So, at any rate, thought Caryl Carne, who knew the resources of either
side, and the difference between a fine army and a mob. He felt quite
sure that his mother's country would conquer his father's without much
trouble, and he knew that his horn would be exalted in the land, when he
had guided the conqueror into it. Sure enough then he would recover his
ancestral property with interest and be able to punish his enemies well,
and reward his friends if they deserved it. Thinking of these things,
and believing that his own preparations would soon be finished, he
left Widow Shanks to proclaim his merits, while under the bold and able
conduct of Captain Renaud Charron he ran the gauntlet of the English
fleet, and was put ashore southward of Cape Grisnez. Here is a long
reach of dreary exposure, facing the west unprofitably, with a shallow
slope of brown sand, and a scour of tide, and no pleasant moorings.
Jotted as the coast was all along (whereon dry batteries grinned
defiance, or sands just awash smiled treachery) with shallow transports,
gun-boats, prames, scows, bilanders, brigs, and schooners, row-galleys,
luggers, and every sort of craft that has a mast, or gets on without
one, and even a few good ships of war pondering malice in the safer
roadsteads, yet here the sweep of the west wind, and the long roll
from the ocean following, kept a league or two, northward of the mighty
defences of Boulogne, inviolate by the petty enmities of man. Along the
slight curve of the coast might be seen, beyond Ambleteuse and Wimereux,
the vast extent of the French flotilla, ranged in three divisions,
before the great lunette of the central camp, and hills jotted with
tents thick as limpets on a rock.
Carne (whose dealings were quite unknown to all of the French
authorities save one, and that the supreme one) was come by appointment
to meet his commander in a quiet and secluded spot. It was early
February now, and although the day was waning, and the wind, which was
drawing to the north of west, delivered a cold blow from the sea, yet
the breath of Spring was in the air already, and the beat of her pulse
came through the ground. Almost any man, except those two concerting
to shed blood and spread fire, would have looked about a little at the
pleasure of the earth, and felt a touch of happiness in the goodness of
the sky.
Caryl Carne waited in the shelter of a tree, scarcely deserving to be
called a tree, except for its stiff tenacity. All the branches were
driven by the western gales, and scourged flat in one direction--that in
which they best could hold together, and try to believe that their life
was their own. Like the wings of a sea bird striving with a tempest,
all the sprays were frayed alike, and all the twigs hackled with the
self-same pile. Whoever observes a tree like this should stop to wonder
how ever it managed to make itself any sort of trunk at all, and how
it was persuaded to go up just high enough to lose the chance of ever
coming down again. But Carne cared for nothing of this sort, and heeded
very little that did not concern himself. All he thought of was how he
might persuade his master to try the great issue at once.
While he leaned heavily against the tree, with his long sea-cloak
flapping round his legs, two horsemen struck out of the Ambleteuse road,
and came at hand-gallop towards him. The foremost, who rode with short
stirrups, and sat his horse as if he despised him, was the foremost man
of the world just now, and for ten years yet to come.
Carne ran forward to show himself, and the master of France dismounted.
He always looked best upon horseback, as short men generally do, if they
ride well; and his face (which helped to make his fortune) appeared
even more commanding at a little distance. An astonishing face, in its
sculptured beauty, set aspect, and stern haughtiness, calm with the
power of transcendant mind, and a will that never met its equal. Even
Carne, void of much imagination, and contemptuous of all the human
character he shared, was the slave of that face when in its presence,
and could never meet steadily those piercing eyes. And yet, to the study
of a neutral dog, or a man of abstract science, the face was as bad as
it was beautiful.
Napoleon--as he was soon to be called by a cringing world--smiled
affably, and offered his firm white hand, which Carne barely touched,
and bent over with deference. Then the foaming horse was sent away in
charge of the attendant trooper, and the master began to take short
quick steps, to and fro, in front of the weather-beaten tree; for to
stand still was not in his nature. Carne, being beckoned to keep at his
side, lost a good deal of what he had meant to say, from the trouble he
found in timing his wonted stride to the brisk pace of the other.
“You have done well--on the whole very well,” said Napoleon, whose voice
was deep, yet clear and distinct as the sound of a bell. “You have
kept me well informed; you are not suspected; you are enlarging your
knowledge of the enemy and of his resources; every day you become more
capable of conducting us to the safe landing. For what, then, this
hurry, this demand to see me, this exposing of yourself to the risk of
capture?”
Carne was about to answer; but the speaker, who undershot the thoughts
of others before they were shaped--as the shuttle of the lightning
underweaves a cloud--raised his hand to stop him, and went on:
“Because you suppose that all is ripe. Because you believe that the slow
beasts of islanders will strengthen their defences more by delay than
we shall strengthen our attack. Because you are afraid of incurring
suspicion, if you continue to prepare. And most of all, my friend,
because you are impatient to secure the end of a long enterprise. But,
Captain, it must be longer yet. It is not for you, but for me, to
fix the time. Behold me! I am come from a grand review. We have again
rehearsed the embarkation. We have again put two thousand horses on
board. The horses did it well; but not the men. They are as brave as
eagles, but as clumsy as the ostrich, and as fond of the sand without
water. They will all be sea-sick. It is in their countenances, though
many have been practised in the mouths of rivers. Those infamous English
will not permit us to proceed far enough from our native land to acquire
what they call the legs of the sea. If our braves are sea-sick, how can
they work the cannon, or even navigate well for the accursed island?
They must have time. They must undergo more waves, and a system of diet
before embarkation. Return, my trusted Captain, and continue your
most esteemed services for three months. I have written these new
instructions for you. You may trust me to remember this addition to your
good works.”
Carne's heart fell, and his face was gloomy, though he did his best
to hide it. So well he knew the arrogance and fierce self-will of his
commanding officer that he durst not put his own opposite view of the
case directly before him. This arrogance grew with the growth of his
power; so that in many important matters Napoleon lost the true state of
the case through the terror felt by his subordinates. So great was the
mastery of his presence that Carne felt himself guilty of impertinence
in carrying his head above the level of the General's plume, and stooped
unconsciously--as hundreds of tall men are said to have done--to lessen
this anomaly of Nature.
“All shall be done to your orders, my General,” he replied,
submissively. “For my own position I have no fear. I might remain there
from year to year without any suspicion arising, so stupid are the
people all around, and so well is my name known among them. The only
peril is in the landing of stores, and I think we should desist from
that. A few people have been wondering about that, though hitherto we
have been most fortunate. They have set it down so far to smuggling
operations, with which in that tyrannical land all the lower orders
sympathise. But it would be wiser to desist awhile, unless you, my
General, have anything of moment which you still desire to send in.”
“What sort of fellow is that Sheeseman?” asked Napoleon, with his
wonderful memory of details. “Is he more to be confided in as a rogue or
as a fool?”
“As both, sir; but more especially as a rogue, though he has the
compunctions of a fool sometimes. But he is as entirely under my thumb,
as I am under that of my Commander.”
“That is very good,” answered the First Consul, smiling with the sense
of his own power; “and at an hour's notice, with fifty chosen men landed
from the London Trader--ah, I love that name; it is appropriate--you
could spike all the guns of that pretentious little battery, and lock
the Commander of the Coast-Defence in one of his own cellars. Is it not
so, my good Captain? Answer me not. That is enough. One question more,
and you may return. Are you certain of the pilotage of the proud young
fisherman who knows every grain of sand along his native shore? Surely
you can bribe him, if he hesitates at all, or hold a pistol at his ear
as he steers the leading prame into the bay! Charron would be the man
for that. Between you and Charron, there should be no mistake.”
“He requires to be handled with much delicacy. He has no idea yet what
he is meant to do. And if I understand his nature, neither bribes nor
fear would move him. He is stubborn as a Breton, and of that simple
character.”
“One can always befool a Breton; but I hate that race,” said Napoleon.
“If he cannot be made useful, tie a round shot to him, throw him
overheard, and get a gentler native.”
“Alas, I fear that we cannot indulge in that pleasure,” said Carne, with
a smile of regret. “It cost me a large outlay of skill to catch him, and
the natives of that place are all equally stubborn. But I have a plan
for making him do our work without being at all aware of it. Is it your
wish, my General, that I should now describe that plan?”
“Not now,” replied Napoleon, pulling out a watch of English make, “but
in your next letter. I start for Paris in an hour's time. You will hear
of things soon which will add very greatly to the weight and success of
this grand enterprise. We shall have perfidious Albion caught in her own
noose, as you shall see. You have not heard of one Captain Wright,
and the landing-place at Biville. We will have our little Biville
at Springhaven. There will be too many of us to swing up by a rope.
Courage, my friend! The future is with you. Our regiments are casting
dice for the fairest English counties. But your native county is
reserved for you. You shall possess the whole of it--I swear it by
the god of war--and command the Southern army. Be brave, be wise, be
vigilant, and above all things be patient.”
The great man held up his hand, as a sign that he wanted his horse, and
then offered it to Caryl Carne, who touched it lightly with his lips,
and bent one knee. “My Emperor!” he said, “my Emperor!”
“Wait until the proper time,” said Napoleon, gravely, and yet well
pleased. “You are not the first, and you will not be the last. Observe
discretion. Farewell, my friend!”
In another minute he was gone, and the place looked empty without him.
Carne stood gloomily watching the horsemen as their figures grew small
in the distance, the large man behind pounding heavily away, like an
English dragoon, on the scanty sod, of no importance to anybody--unless
he had a wife or children--the little man in front (with the white plume
waving, and the well-bred horse going easily), the one whose body would
affect more bodies, and certainly send more souls out of them, than
any other born upon this earth as yet, and--we hope--as long as ever it
endureth.
Caryl Carne cared not a jot about that. He was anything but a
philanthropist; his weaknesses, if he had any, were not dispersive, but
thoroughly concentric. He gathered his long cloak round his body,
and went to the highest spot within his reach, about a mile from the
watch-tower at Cape Grisnez, and thence he had a fine view of the vast
invasive fleet and the vaster host behind it.
An Englishman who loved his Country would have turned sick at heart and
faint of spirit at the sight before him. The foe was gathered together
there to eat us up on every side, to get us into his net and rend us,
to tear us asunder as a lamb is torn when its mother has dropped it in
flight from the wolves. For forty square miles there was not an acre
without a score of tents upon it, or else of huts thrown up with slabs
of wood to keep the powder dry, and the steel and iron bright and sharp
to go into the vitals of England. Mighty docks had been scooped out by
warlike hands, and shone with ships crowded with guns and alive with
men. And all along the shore for leagues, wherever any shelter lay, and
great batteries protected them, hundreds of other ships tore at their
moorings, to dash across the smooth narrow line, and blacken with fire
and redden with blood the white cliffs of the land they loathed.
And what was there to stop them? The steam of the multitude rose in
the air, and the clang of armour filled it. Numbers irresistible, and
relentless power urged them. At the beck of the hand that had called the
horse, the grey sea would have been black with ships, and the pale waves
would have been red with fire. Carne looked at the water way touched
with silver by the soft descent of the winter sun, and upon it, so far
as his gaze could reach, there were but a dozen little objects moving,
puny creatures in the distance--mice in front of a lion's den. And much
as he hated with his tainted heart the land of his father, the land
of his birth, some reluctant pride arose that he was by right an
Englishman.
“It is the dread of the English seaman, it is the fame of Nelson, it is
the habit of being beaten when England meets them upon the sea--nothing
else keeps this mighty host like a set of trembling captives here, when
they might launch forth irresistibly. And what is a great deal worse,
it will keep me still in my ruined dungeons, a spy, an intriguer, an
understrapper, when I am fit to be one of the foremost. What a fool I am
so to be cowed and enslaved, by a man no better endowed than myself with
anything, except self-confidence! I should have looked over his head,
and told him that I had had enough of it, and if he would not take
advantage of my toils, I would toil for him no longer. Why, he never
even thanked me, that I can remember, and my pay is no more than
Charron's! And a pretty strict account I have to render of every
Republican coin he sends. He will have his own head on them within
six months, unless he is assassinated. His manners are not those of a
gentleman. While I was speaking to him, he actually turned his back upon
me, and cleared his throat! Every one hates him as much as fears him, of
all who are in the rank of gentlemen. How would it pay me to throw him
over, denounce my own doings, excuse them as those of a Frenchman and a
French officer, and bow the knee to Farmer George? Truly if it were not
for my mother, who has sacrificed her life for me, I would take that
course, and have done with it. Such all-important news would compel
them to replace me in the property of my forefathers; and if neighbours
looked coldly on me at first, I could very soon conquer that nonsense. I
should marry little Dolly, of course, and that would go half-way towards
doing it. I hate that country, but I might come to like it, if enough of
it belonged to me. Aha! What would my mother say, if she dreamed that
I could have such ideas? And the whole of my life belongs to her. Well,
let me get back to my ruins first. It would never do to be captured by
a British frigate. We had a narrow shave of it last time. And there will
be a vile great moon to-night.”
With these reflections--which were upon the whole more to his credit
than the wonted web of thought--Carne with his long stride struck into
a path towards the beach where his boat was waiting. Although he knew
where to find several officers who had once been his comrades, he kept
himself gladly to his loneliness; less perhaps by reason of Napoleon's
orders than from the growing charm which Solitude has for all who begin
to understand her.