Julian Stockwin - Conquest

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

Julian Stockwin

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton

An Hachette UK company

Copyright © Julian Stockwin 2011

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.

Epub ISBN 9781444711998

Book ISBN 9781444711967

Maps drawn by Sandra Oakins

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

338 Euston Road

London NWl 3BH

www.hodder.co.uk

To the Lady Anne Barnard, Capetonian diarist and chronicler

1750–1825

CONTENTS

Conquest

Also by Julian Stockwin

Conquest

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

Author’s Note

Glossary

Dramatis Personae

Thomas Kydd, captain of L’Aurore

Nicholas Renzi, his friend and confidential secretary

L’Aurore , ship’s company

Gilbey, first lieutenant

Curzon, second lieutenant

Bowden, third lieutenant

Clinton, lieutenant of marines

Dodd, marine sergeant

Cullis, marine corporal

Dr Peyton, surgeon

Calloway, midshipman

Kendall, sailing master

Saxton, master’s mate

Oakley, boatswain

Owen, purser

Tysoe, Kydd’s valet

Stirk, boatswain’s mate

Poulden, coxswain

Greer, sailmaker

Olafsen, sailmaker’s mate

Pinto, seaman

Ah Wong, seaman

Harmer, ‘Buttons’, seaman

Officers, other ships

Commodore Home Popham

Captain Honyman, Leda

Army officers

Major General Sir David Baird

Lieutenant Colonel the Lord Geoffrey MacDonald

General Lord Beresford

Brigadier General Ferguson

General Yorke

Colonel Pack

Lieutenant Grant

Dr Munro

Tupley, quartermaster general

Cape Town

General Janssens, former governor of Cape Colony

Willem van Ryneveld, fiscal

Barbetjie van Ryneveld, his wife

Oudsthoorn, chief clerk

Höhne, Renzi’s sworn translator

Stoll, personal aide to Renzi

Knudsen, Danish shipwreck survivor

Ritmeester Francken, captain of Fort Onrusberge

Van der Riet, landdrost of Stellenbosch

Others

Frederick Stanhope, Marquess of Bloomsbury

Marchioness of Bloomsbury

Cecilia Kydd

Lord Grenville

Marie Thérèse Adèle de Poitou

Baron de Caradeuc

Poncelot, Chef de Bataillon des Chasseurs de la Réunion

Robert Patton, governor of St Helena

Chapter 1

Captain Thomas Kydd held his impatience in check. Still in thrall to the all-so-recent cataclysm of Trafalgar, he and his ship had played escort to the body of Admiral Nelson in their grief-stricken return to England. Then, immediately, he had been given orders for sea, falling back on the Nore to victual and store with the utmost dispatch before setting forth to attempt urgent rendezvous with Commodore Home Popham in Madeira.

Much affected by the loss of the great commander, Kydd had at first resented not being able to attend what would no doubt be the greatest funeral of the age, but as all of Nelson’s victorious battle-fleet, save the legendary Victory , were still faithfully on station, who were he or his men to complain?

Under a press of sail, L’Aurore had braved the hard south-westerlies and was now rounding the last point before the deep anchorage of Funchal Roads opened up.

Madeira was peculiarly well located at the crossroads of the pattern of trade routes that led to Europe; merchant shipping and naval vessels alike gratefully raised landfall before the last few weeks of far voyaging – or girded for long months outward bound. Now, in winter, the little island was at its best: an emerald jewel in the warmer reaches of the Atlantic, with crystal water, succulent fruits and blessed rest for mariners who had won clear of the Channel’s bluster on their way to exotic destinations.

Kydd peered through the throng of shipping to a denser group, and caught sight of the swallowtail of a commodore’s pennant high aloft in an elderly 64-gun ship. They were in time!

He assumed a strong quarterdeck brace. Kydd knew that his ship – a thoroughbred light frigate captured from the French a bare year ago – was at her best, even with all the haste in getting back to sea. His head lifted in pride at the impression she must be making on the eyes now upon her – and he remembered how, in a similar frigate, he had passed this way all those years ago, a young sailor before the mast, making skilled seaman from humble press-ganged beginnings. And now he was captain of his own frigate . . .

This was no time for reminiscing: he had served with Popham before and was eager to make his acquaintance again – and find out what was in store for L’Aurore .

Shortening sail, they threaded their way through the packed shipping, no difficulty for the nimble frigate on a favourable wind, and in short order their anchor plunged down and their thirteen-gun salute cracked out.

He was met on Diadem ’s quarterdeck with all the ceremonial of a post-captain coming aboard a flagship. ‘A swift passage, Mr Kydd,’ Popham said, the intelligent eyes appraising. ‘I count myself fortunate that you shall now be able to join our little enterprise.’

There had been just the barest details about it in his orders, Kydd reflected, but he replied respectfully, ‘I’m honoured to be here.’ Then he ventured, ‘Er, you did say “enterprise”, sir? I’m as yet mystified as to its purpose.’

Popham gave him a quizzical look, then dealt with a hovering first lieutenant before inviting Kydd to a sherry below. He wasted no time on pleasantries. ‘The French fleet has been destroyed and the way is made clear for us to take the offensive. This is nothing less than the first move in a race to empire!’