The Black Moon (39 page)

move out to make way for
them. Every
where were arguments, quarrels, orders and, counter-orders, bitter disarray. Even the soldiers near headquarters had not eaten anything since dawn.

After a while the three Englishmen went back to the, fort and Ross made an attempt to find someone in authority. But the nearest he got was to enter the large officers' room in
the fort and to see the bulky figure of the. Come de Puisaye surrounded by a crowd of protesting Chouans. Any hope Ross
had of having a word
with him was remote indeed, so he returned to Bone and Ellery and said:
`There is nothing we can do tonight. Let us go back. We shall be safer aboard.'

'So through the starless July evening, with the tramp of feet, the rumble of wheels, the chatter of excited French in their ears, Ross did not so much fear f
or his own safety in this melee
at worst he could make himself understood in French and he had the authority of manner to carry, it off but Bone and Ellery who could not speak a word mig
ht find themselves attacked as
spies; for every man suspected his neighbour.

They had almost 'reached their boat when a solitary horseman came past them. Even in the dark his figure was hard to mistake and Ross called:

`De Sombreuil!'

The horse was reined in.

`Who is that? Oh . . . it is you, Poldark. What, are you
doing away from your little ship?'

'I brought two of my friends to stretch their legs. Have
you five minutes?'

‘
An hour if you wish it - for all the good I do here or elsewhere. Decisions are made. Or do they just grow? It is becoming a
cauchemar
.'

Ross said to tone: `Take Ellery to the boat. I will join you in a few minutes,'

De Sombreuil had slid off his horse, was patting its nervous nose. Even though it was only a farm horse it had' become infected with the general unrest,

`What effect is this going to have, Charles?' Ross said, pointing at the bobbing lights, the moving columns.

The Frenchman shrugged. 'Oh, I know, I know. Who decides it? Not I. Sometimes I am of the councils, sometimes not. In fact I was away when d'Hervilly forced this decision. Of course we have a
battle ahead
of course this I know: the enemy is not far away. By this withdrawing we have established a strong position. Who then moves the first?

But it is not all just decided by the battle.'

They stood there for a while unspeaking.

`Charles.'

`Yes,
my
friend?'

`I am of no value to you
here -
you know that?' 'Of great value to share a meal, a glass of wine.'

Yes; yes,
but you know, that I km hamstrung because I
am, no part of the regular English. fo
rce and because we English have
to tread a tightrope lest we appear to be invading France.'

`If you were you would not be my friend,'

`This was understood when I chose to come. But you know my primary purpose in coming. It cannot now be achiev
ed in the foreseeable future.'

`Well ... the battle is yet to be fought. If we had, Hoche on our side I should feel the happier.'

'But - forgive me-although the landing may yet succeed, it cannot succeed as we first thought it might. Do you remember de Maresi at Killewarren rolling up the
carpet? So he said the Royalist
army would roll across France.'

`Louis is always the one for the gesture splendid.'

`So . . .' Ross took the Frenchman's arm, `How far shall I be abdicating from such high ambitions by leaving you all here and attempting to achieve my purpose in another way?'

'No, Ross. That is not so. The high ambition was ours, not yours. That I accept, and much else also. I would like you beside me in my regiment in the coming battle; but that not being possible you must consider, yourself free to go home.'

`Not home.'

`Not home?'

'Not home.'

'Ah ... I see.'

There was a crack of a cannon somewhere in the distance towards Sainte Barbe but nothing followed it.

`For this,' said Ross, `I shall need a boat.'

`You have many,'

`A French boat. A fishing boat. A ketch, a small lugger.'

`Well . , they are not absent from this coast.'

`I cannot requisition one. But you
could.'

De Sombreuil's spurs clinked. `On what grounds? I should not be happy to do this. Feeling between ourselves and these uneducated peasants is high enough, already.'

`Then I may not have one?'

`My friend, I cannot tell you to have one. But I cannot tell you not to have one, can I? In Qui
beron, in all these villages, a
t every quay you will see
such boats. There is great con
fusion at this time. Someone will miss it, of course, but if you are very careful, who will know where it has gone?'

`Well
, thank you, if I should not be acting against the
spirit of our entente .

`I do not think so. I do not, think so. But it will not be easy. Spy out your ground and
let
it

be at night.'

They walked
a few paces and de Sombreuil put his hand on the saddle.

`Also, in this enterprise that you undertake, also have a care. It is not an easy matter that you contemplate.'

`Perhaps it is impossible. I cannot know until I see for myself. In the meantime, my, friend . . . If I should not see you again.'

"Again? Ever again?' De Sombreuil laughed. `In one year or two, you shall come to my chateau in Limousin where we shall drink better wine than anything you have tasted here! My vineyards, though small, are among the best in France.'

`I did not mean ever again,' Ross said. `But in this adventure only.'

`Well, yes. Well, yes. But of course it may be ever again. This will be a bitter struggle which lies ahead . . . Do you know, it is very strange to lose one's family - slaughtered by these
sansculottes
-
and also to lose one's country,
one's estates, one's ancestral
home. One becomes - isolated from life, and rather careless of it.'

`Do not be careless of it,' Ross said, `for it is all we have.'

`It is all we have, but in order to tolerate it it must be worth the having. This expedition will decide for me whether it is worth the having ...'

`And Mlle de la Blache?'

'Ah, yes. As soon as this is over we shall marry. When I can take her back to my home and
raise a new family in peace ..’

It is what I have been doing, thought Ross; but all the same I have left it.

`If you are able to
see Mlle de la Blache before I -
and that would seem a probability - may I ask it that you should give her this small ring? It was my mother's. I found it in a purse just before I left. It is not valuable.' -

Ross accepted the ring, fumbled for his purse, dropped it
in.

`With, my love,' said de Sombreuil. `With your love.'

`It is a bauble,' said de Sombreuil. `I did not know I had kept it.
’

`I cannot promise delivery,'

`Who can? You or I? We shall, see .. When are you leaving?'

`Oh,
not before tomorrow or the day after. As you say, there are many boats. But also many owners. In any event, if before I leave a battle is joined I shall not go but will wait for the outcome.'

De Sombreuil showed his teeth in the dark. `No battle will be joined
-
either tomorrow or the day after, not while d'Hervilly commands. We shall stand and glare at each other, we and the bleus, for several more days yet, each waiting for the other to make the fatal move.'

Ross waited his two more days. During this time the Republicans, well appraised of their opponents' withdrawal, quickly occupied Carnac and the other villages, the defending Chouans retreating into the peninsula or escaping by boat, to be picked up by the English. Women and children were with them, bearing with them whatever of their possessions they could carry. It was not a heartening sight. The Republicans in fact came to within musket shot of Fort Penthi
è
vre, and then retreated, like a wave that is temporarily spent. They took up positions on the heights of
Sainte Barbe and lit fires all
along the coast.

So the two forces glowered at each other. The Comte d'Hervilly at last produced a plan of attack. Spies told him that the opposing army was roughly double in numbers to his own, but, unknown to Hoche, an army of Cohuans w
as in being at the Republicans'
back. D'Hervilly believed that if the two armies attacked Hoche simultaneously they could win a resounding victory. It was certainly a possibility, but no one knew when it would be attempted. Ross could wait no longer. The time for him to leave was ripe. So he literally stole away.

It wa
s a typical Breton fishing boat, a two-masted lugger, very similar to a Cornish boat of the same kind. About forty-five feet in length, with a beam of fourteen, it carried a sail area of probably 1,300 square feet and it would handle well in the ordinary rough winds of the coastal areas for which it had been designed. One could not see
it being sensitive to the light
airs of a summer night.

Fortunately the night they took it there was a stiff westerly breeze. Tregirls had spotted it two nights previously, and for two nights they studied it. The fishermen had been out as
usual
with the tides, but
this
boat
had not been used, Tregirls
had spent a
half day in the village and had discovered that three weeks ago, the owner had died and that they were waiting for his brother in Vannes to come and claim it.

It was not easy slipping down in the dark. There were so many soldiers about, so many billeted in the cottages that the tiny harbour never really slept as it would at normal times. Yet the lack of absolute quiet had its own advantages. If seen they were less likely to be challenged. And who exactly was to know what orders or counter-orders had been issued by the high command?

So they moved across the cobbles from one shadow to the next. A dog or two barked and a half-dozen drunks lay like dead on the quay. Then Tregirls was aboard, then Drake, then the others, and finall
y Ross. No one so far had cried
‘
thief
’
. But there were anxious moments yet while the Sarzeau was detached from its fellows and quietly pulled and poled towar
ds the harbour mouth. The last
corner of the stone jetty loomed over them, then, they hoisted one sail and then a second. Still no shouts. As the boat answered her helm Ross began to breathe again.

Of th
e
eight who sailed in the Sarzeau that night as the sky misted and cleared and misted again, with light cloud, five knew how to sail a boat: Ross, Tregirls, Bone, Ellery and Nanfan; and this was their type of boat. They had been aboard similar craft on and off through the years since they were children. They carried food enough for about ten days, fishermen's jerseys and a number of the brightly coloured Breton neckerchiefs, so that they would pass at a distance for what they were supposed to be. They also carried three pistols, four muskets and a number of knives.

The wind dropped at dawn and did not get up again with the sun, so they drowsed away part of the day moving slowly towards Groix and the Iles de Glenan. There was no .hurry. They could do little before dusk. Ross spent an hour with Tholly looking over a map of the area round Quimper and then he took out the ground-plan of the convent which the Dutch ex-prisoner had drawn for
him while at Falmouth. It was
a considerable building, or rather series of buildings, situated in extensive grounds.

Ross had not ever quite envisaged this sort of enterprise when they left England. At the worst he had thought that the Royalist landing would create such confusion in the province that by the time he reached Quimper the prisoners might
already b
e beginning to free themselves.
Instead the, Royalists were shut up in a peninsula fifty miles away and on the defensive. The best he could now hope for was that any Republican troops, in the vicinity of Quimper were likely to have been drawn south to help Hoche contain the invasion. But whether the guards at the prison would be lax or on the alert and what degree of surveillance was exercised he had no notion. The Dutchman had given him a good idea of the number and dispositions of the guards. But they would all be armed, and he wondered if he were leading these seven cheerful Cornishmen to their deaths. The one advantage
-
or one of the very few
-
was that the prison guards would all be conditioned to look for trouble coming from within -
not from outside. If there were such a camp at Truro, Ross thought, no guards there would ever expect Frenchmen to appear from the outside and attack them. The analogy was good, for Quimper was on a river ten or eleven miles from the sea.

Ross was a man of action but also a man of introspection. That part of his character, which made him so constantly critical of authority also worked against himself. The same faculty which questioned the rightness of the law
- and the lawmakers was sharp
to keep his own actions under
a similar scrutiny. It was a combination of character which acted both as a saving grace and as a hair shirt. So today was not as pleasant for him as for the others, who laughed and joked among themselves, happy to be on the
move after so much inactivity.

He watched them and listened to them
- even Drake some
times joining in -
an
d doubted his own decision, on
which so much hung. Impatience - a sense of timing - a sense of futility - had moved him to leave the Quiberon expedition while its fate was undecided. For all the brave front that the Royalists put on, there had come to be a smack of failure about the invasion, a feeling of impending doom. All his earlier doubts, submerged in the common enthusiasm, had surfaced as the enthusiasm waned. He did not any longer believe that even de Sombreuil and de Maresi felt it would succeed. They stayed on because they were on French soil, and because they were committed to the Royalist cause and because they were brave men,

Should he, then, have done the same, at least until the thing was decided? Was he a coward, or at least less brave, to be deserting them at this moment while the issue was stall in the balance? Once or twice during the day he would
have been glad t
o have accepted that stricture, it could have given him the freedom to turn and tell his followers that after all he had changed
his mind and instead of hugging the French coast they were going to sail straight; back to Cornwall
and their homes and the safety
and comfort and routine of their daily lives. This undertaking they were about to engage in was proper perhaps to a hot young fool of twenty
-
one dreaming hi
s dreams of death or glory; it was not the sort
of venture to be led by a successful mine-owner of ris
ing thirty-six with a wife and
two children and a position in the county. How George would laugh. Or more probably sneer, And how justified he would be!

They made the coast across the bay about six in the afternoon, and then there was much poring over the chart to decide which was the river entrance they sought. Tregirls had been twice in these waters during his years at sea, and it was his experience that took them towards the village of Benodet at the entrance to the river Odet. An hour later they sailed in through the narrow inlet and into the broader water beyond. It was still full daylight but the fact that they were in a French fishing boat enabled them to pass unchallenged. Twice men called to them from the other boats and Tholly replied with obscenities that seemed to satisfy.

The wind was fitful between the woo
ded hills, and as these closed
in and the river narrowed again it almost failed. But they just kept way on. By now they were approaching steep and wooded cliffs. It was a dubious point how far they should sail in. According to the chart, after passing through this narrow gorge the river broadened again into a placid lake more than half a mile wide. But anywhere now they might be stopped, and still darkness was a way off. Ross raised his eyebrows at Tholly, who was at the tiller, and Tholly shrugged and said:
`It's up to you, cap'n.'

`Then risk it.'

They reached the bay, as it was called on the chart, and the dying sun threw startling shadows and tipped the tree tops with flam
e. A few cottages glimmered in the evening light.
Mainly these were on the eastern bank, so they kept close to the western, which was overgrown and much wilder, with one or two chateaux on rising ground among the trees. They came on a tongue of wa
ter running off to the left; it
was narrow and greatly overhung but the channel looked deep eno
ugh to take them. Ross motioned to Tholly, who
put th
e
tiller over. They drif
ted
gently
into the creek, sails coming
down as q
uietly as they could be made to
. The i
nlet was no more than a hundred
yards, and towards its end the yellow mud was showing. Two curlews flew across the water, crying out their own names in melancholy fright: Tholly brought the lugger in to the left bank, just before the water began to shoal, and Nanfan tied up to a friendly tree.

`Be it high tide or low tide?' asked Jacka Hoblyn gloomily, staring over the side.

`High, but I don't think yet a flood.'

'Mebbe when we come leave the tide'll be out.'

`It depends when we return,' Ross sai
d. `We have to take that risk.'

They ate supper of bread and cheese and' wine while the birds twittered and the sun sank. Then when dusk had at last fallen Ross led the way along the river bank towards the town.