Patrick O'Brian - The Mauritius Command

They stood in, and here, on the leeward side of the island, what a different state of things was seen! Calm beaches, lapping billows, boats plying to and fro: and up in the hills companies of redcoats regularly formed; companies of turbans; guns at work, and still more guns being dragged up by ant-like lines of seamen.

The Colonel and his staff raced ashore, all weariness forgotten; troops, guns, heavy equipment began to pour from the frigate. Jack's duty bound him to the ship, however, and he stood watching through his telescope. "This is a damned poor way of being present at a battle," he said to Mr Farquhar. "How I envy Keating."

Colonel Keating, provided with a captured horse on the beach itself, spurred his mount up the paths to Colonel Fraser's forward post, where they both surveyed the scene. "You have a charmingly regular attack here," said Keating with great satisfaction, directing his spy-glass right and left. "And a most judicious defence: the French have made a very proper disposition of their forces."

"Yes, sir. It is as regular as one could wish, except for the blue-jackets. They will rush forward and take outworks before they are due to fall: though I must confess, they have done wonders in getting the howitzers up. But on the whole it is pretty regular: over on the right, sir, beyond the signal-post, Campbell and his sepoys have made the prettiest set of approaches. They are only waiting for the word to charge: that will carry us two hundred yards nearer their demi-lune."

"Then why don't you give it, Mother of God? They have clearly outflanked the enemy already. Where is your galloper?"

"He is just behind you, sir. But if you will forgive me, there is a parley in train. The political gentleman from the ship came up with a clergyman and a party of tars and said he must speak to the French commanding officer. So knowing he was the governor's adviser, we beat a chamade and sent him across with a flag of truce. It seemed to me proper; and yet now I half regret it . . . Can he be quite right in the head, sir? He desired me to to keep this bone for him, saying he would not trust it 0 the French for the world."

"Oh, these politicoes, you know, Fraser said Colonel Keating. "It will come to nothing, however. They are very strongly entrenched on the hill; and even if McLeod comes up from the east, it will take us a good week of regular approaches to press them to their main works."

They were studying the main works with great attention through their telescopes when an aide-de- camp said, "I beg your pardon, sir, but Dr Maturin is approaching with a French officer and a couple of civilians."

Colonel Keating walked forward to meet them. Stephen said, "Colonel Keating, this is Colonel Saint- Susanne, who commands the French forces on the island. These gentlemen represent the civil administration." The two soldiers saluted one another: the civilians bowed. Stephen went on, "From a desire to avert the effusion of human blood, they wish to know the terms upon which you will grant a capitulation covering the whole island: and I have taken it upon myself to assure them that the terms will be honourable."

"Certainly, sir," said Colonel Keating, with an icy glare at Stephen. "Gentlemen, pray step this way."

Jack and Farquhar, prosaically eating an early elevenses and wondering vaguely, repetitively, why there was no longer any firing in the hills, were interrupted first by cheering on the shore and then by an ensign bearing a scribbled note. "Forgive me, sir," said Jack; and he read, "My dear Commodore--Your friend has disappointed us--he has done us out of our battle, as neat a battle as you could wish to see. We had driven in their piquets--outflanked their right wing--and then quite out of order a capitulation is proposed, to avert the effusion of human blood forsooth--they accept the usual terms--honours of war, side-arms and baggage, personal effects and so on--so if you are satisfied, please come ashore to sign together with your obliged humble servant, H. Keating, Lieut.-Col."

The Commodore laughed aloud, beat his massive thigh, held out his hand and said, "Governor, I give you joy. They have surrendered, and your kingdom awaits you. Or this island of it, at the least."

CHAPTER SEVEN

His Excellency the Governor of La Reunion sat at the head of his council table: he now wore a uniform as splendid as that of the gold and scarlet colonels on his left hand, more splendid by far than the weather- worn blue of the sea-officers on his right; and now there was no question of his sitting mute. Yet there was no trace of hauteur to be seen on his eager, intelligent face as he tried to guide the meeting towards a unanimous approval of the Commodore's revolutionary scheme, his plan of an instant attack upon Mauritius, with simultaneous landings from Flat Island off Port-Louis and in the neighbourhood of Port South-East at the other end of the island. Colonel Keating had been with him from the first; but a distinct inclination to enjoy the fruits of victory for a while, "to allow the men a little rest', and, more creditably, a desire to prepare the campaign with due deliberation, so that mortars for example did not arrive without their shells, had yet to be overcome; for if so ambitious and risky an operation as this were to fall, the attempt could be justified only by a unanimous vote.

"I shall echo the Commodore's words, gentlemen," said Mr Farquhar, "and cry "Lose not a moment". This is the moment at which we have a superiority of five to three in frigates, when we possess a fleet of transports, troops in the first flush of victory, and exact intelligence of the enemy's strength and dispositions on the Mauritius, supplied by their own records here."

"Hear him, hear him," said Colonel Keating.

"With command of the sea we may concentrate our forces wherever we choose. Furthermore, my colleague"--bowing to Stephen at the far end of the table--"assures me that at this juncture, this very favourable juncture, our efforts at sapping the enemy's morale are more than likely to be crowned with success; and we are all aware of Dr Maturin's powers in that direction." It was not the most fortunate stroke: some of the colonels who had toiled and sweated extremely in the hope of glory turned a sombre gaze upon Dr Maturin. Feeling this, Mr Farquhar hurried on, "And perhaps even more important, this is the moment at which our hands are free. The Leopard has taken our despatches to the Cape: she will not return. No orders from any authority unacquainted with the exact state of local conditions can take the guidance of operations from the hands of those who are acquainted with them--no new set of staff officers can, for the moment, arrive with a plan of campaign matured in Bombay, Fort William, or Whitehall. This is a state of affairs that cannot last."

"Hear him, hear him," said Colonel Keating, Colonel McLeod and Colonel Fraser; and the fatter, more cautious staff-officers exchanged uneasy glances.

"Far be it from me to decry patient laborious staff-work," said the Governor. "We have seen its gratifying results on this island: but, gentlemen, time and tide wait for no man; and I must remind you that Fortune is bald behind."

Walking away from the Residence through streets placarded with the Governor's proclamation, Jack said to Stephen, "What is this that Farquhar tells us about Fortune? Is she supposed to have the mange?"

"I conceive he was referring to the old tag--his meaning was, that she must be seized by the forelock, since once she is passed there is no clapping on to her hair, at all. In the figure she ships none abaft the ears, if you follow me."

"Oh, I see. Rather well put: though I doubt those heavy-sided lobsters will smoke the simile." He paused, considering, and said, "It don't sound very eligible, bald behind; but, however, it is all figurative, all figurative. . . " He gazed with benign approval at a strikingly elegant woman accompanied by an even more willowy black slave-girl, stepped into the gutter to let them pass, they looked haughty, unconscious, a thousand miles away, and continued, "Still, I am glad they have come to see reason. But Lord, Stephen, what an infernal waste of time these councils are! If it had dragged on another day the squadron would have been dispersed- Sirius is gone already--and I should have had to follow my own scheme. My first duty is to the sea, and I must get at Hamelin before the Bellone and Minerve are back. But as it is, I can combine the two. Pullings!" he exclaimed.