Free 1805 by Richard Woodman

grievance. Drinkwater's report had said little,
certainly nothing that would elevate his first lieutenant and place him
on the quarterdeck of the prize as a commander. In fact Drinkwater had
sent the prize into Portsmouth with the wounded under the master's mate
Tyrrell, so, apart from his prize money, Rogers had dismissed the
notion that he could expect anything further from the capture. In
addition to this it seemed that the impetus to
Antigone
's
cruise had gone, that no further chance of glory, advancement, or
simply resuming his normal relationship with Drinkwater would offer
itself to him. He took refuge in the only action left to him as first
lieutenant; he harried the crew.
Antigone
's
people were employed constantly in a relentless series of drills. They
shifted sails, exercised at small-arms and cutlasses, and sent down the
topgallant and topmasts. To kill any residual boredom they even got the
heavy lower yards across the rails aportlast. When Drinkwater drily
expressed satisfaction, Rogers demurred respectfully and repeated the
evolution until it was accomplished to his own satisfaction.
    For his part, Drinkwater accepted this propitiation as
evidence of Rogers's contrition, and his own better nature responded so
that the difference between them gradually diminished. Besides, news of
Gorton's slow death at Haslar Hospital seemed to conclude the incident.
    Towards the end of April they had spoken to the 18-gun
brigsloop
Vincejo
on her way to the westward,
with orders to destroy the coastal trade off south Brittany. Her
commander had come aboard and closeted himself with Drinkwater for half
an hour. Their discussion was routine and friendly. After Wright's
departure Drinkwater was able to confirm the speculations of the
officers and explain that their late visitor was indeed the John Wesley
Wright who, as a lieutenant, had escaped from French custody in Paris
with Captain Sir Sydney Smith. He also mentioned that Wright was far
from pleased with the condition of his ship, its armament, or its
manning, and this seemed to divert the officers into a discussion about
the '
Vincey Joe'
, an old Spanish prize, held to be
cranky and highly unsuitable for its present task.
    Drinkwater kept to himself the orders Wright had passed him
and the knowledge that Wright, like himself twelve years earlier, had
been employed by Lord Dungarth's department in the landing and recovery
of British agents on the coast of France. The orders Wright had brought
emanated from Lord Dungarth via Admiral Keith, and prompted Drinkwater
to increase his officers' vigilance in the interception and seizure of
French fishing boats. Hitherto fishermen had been largely left alone.
They were, as D'Auvergne had pointed out, the chief source of claret
and cognac in England, and were not averse to parting with information
of interest to the captains of British cruisers. But their knowledge of
the English coast and its more obscure landing places, the suitability
of their boats to carry troops and their general usefulness in
forwarding the grand design of invasion had prompted an Admiralty order
to detain them and destroy their craft. In this way
Antigone
passed the first weeks of a beautiful summer.
    It was from their captures, and from the dispatch luggers and
cutters with which Lord Keith kept in touch with his scattered
cruisers, that Drinkwater and his officers learned of the consequences
of the attempt made by discontented elements in France to assassinate
Napoleon Bonaparte. The Pichegru-Cadoudal conspiracy had implicated
both wings of French politics and been exposed in the closing weeks of
the previous year. It had taken some time to round up the conspirators
and had culminated in the astounding news that Bonaparte's gendarmes
had illegally entered the neighbouring state of Baden and abducted the
young Due D'Enghien. The duke had been given a drum-head court-martial
which implicated the Bourbons in the plot against Bonaparte, and
summarily shot in a