Джулиан Стоквин - Persephone

Contents

Also by Julian Stockwin

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Maps

Dramatis Personae

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Author’s Note

Glossary

Also by Julian Stockwin

Kydd

Artemis

Seaflower

Mutiny

Quarterdeck

Tenacious

Command

The Admiral’s Daughter

Treachery (US title: The Privateer’s Revenge)

Invasion

Victory

Conquest

Betrayal

Caribbee

Pasha

Tyger

Inferno

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton

An Hachette UK company

Copyright © Julian Stockwin 2017

The right of Julian Stockwin to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 473 64092 4

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

To Kathy

For forty years the woman of my heart

Dramatis Personae

(*indicates fictitious character)

*Sir Thomas Kydd, captain of HMS Tyger

*Nicholas Renzi, Earl of Farndon, friend and former confidential secretary

Tyger , ship’s company

*Bowden, second lieutenant

*Bray, first lieutenant

*Brice, third lieutenant

*Dillon, Kydd’s confidential secretary

*Doud, quartermaster’s mate

*Halgren, coxswain

*Joyce, ship’s master

*Maynard, master’s mate

*Stirk, gunner’s mate

*Pinto, quartermaster

*Herne, boatswain

*Tysoe, Kydd’s manservant

Others

Antonio de Araújo E. Azevedo, foreign minister

*Baldur, Gudthrun, Sigardur, an Icelandic rural family

*Bazely, sloop commander and old friend

Canning, foreign secretrary

Castlereagh, secretary of state for war

*Clarinda, cousin of Persephone

Dom João, regent of Portugal

Dom Pedro, Portuguese admiral in command the royal fleet

Dom Rodrigo, Portuguese minister for marine commerce

Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of Great Britain

Edward, Duke of Kent, son of George III

*Fookes, Peregrine, MP

*Groos, kaptajn, Kierteminde

Hawkesbury, home secretary

*Jenkins, Josiah, merchant

Jørgen Jørgensen, Protector of Iceland

Junot, French general, attacking Lisbon

*Langton, commander Wasp

*Lockwood, Persephone

*Lockwood, Sir Reginald, retired admiral

Louriçal, Joaquim, First Secretary to Regent Dom João

McMahon, aide to Prince of Wales

Montagu, port admiral, Portsmouth

*Paulo, Portuguese boy

Pellew, captain, Conqueror

Perceval, chancellor of exchequer

*Sankey, captain, Royal Yacht Royal Charlotte

Sheridan, playwright, former treasurer, Royal Navy

Smith, Sir Sidney, rear admiral, in command Lisbon squadron

Stephensen, Magnus, Chief Justice of Iceland

Strangford, Lord, British ambassador in Lisbon

Thompson, captain, Foudroyant

Trampe, count, Danish governor of Iceland

Wilberforce, William, MP and leader of movement to abolish slavery

William, Duke of Clarence, son of George III

Chapter 1

In the captain’s cabin of HMS Tyger , Charles Dillon delicately plucked off his opponent’s stones and placed them with the others in the centre of the backgammon board. He paused for a moment, then bore off one of his own for the second time in a row, murmuring apologetically, ‘I’m persuaded my distinguished commander may be distracted.’

‘Oh, forgive me, dear chap,’ Captain Sir Thomas Kydd replied distantly to his confidential secretary, staring out through the stern-windows at the crowded Yarmouth Roads where the rest of the ships that had seized the Danish fleet lay at anchor.

Newly returned from their Baltic deployment with Gambier’s expedition from the North Sea Squadron, Tyger gently heaved at the swell from the east, and with her company on liberty ashore, the ship was quiet.

While Copenhagen had suffered under a cruel bombardment, the Danish gunboats throwing themselves heroically at the great British fleet and Wellesley decisively beating their army in the field, Tyger had been engaged in the most important job of all – sealing off the scene from any prospect of outside intervention. Now, victualled and watered, she waited for new orders.

‘Shall we remain with the squadron do you think?’ Dillon enquired, as Kydd’s manservant Tysoe brought in sherry and biscuits.

‘Probably not,’ Kydd murmured. ‘Matters are now resolved – pro tem – in these waters.’

With the exception of Portugal and Sweden, the entire seaboard of Europe from end to end was now in Bonaparte’s hands but the ruthless action of the British had not only saved the crucial Baltic trade but had robbed the tyrant of the Danish fleet to use against England.