A Flag of Truce
Page 30
‘And what of your friends?’ she asked. ‘The ones for whom you have gone to so much trouble?’
The excited look immediately died in John Pearce’s eyes, to be replaced with one of deep wretchedness. ‘I must go now, Mrs Barclay, and tell them that I have once more completely failed them.’
‘They will forgive you, I am sure.’
‘They may well that. The real question is: can I forgive myself?’
Standing outside the hospital later, once Emily Barclay had departed, he looked at HMS Faron, riding on her anchor in the Grand Rade. He knew that the telling of what had happened would be hard, but not as hard as the remedy. Talk of getting Ralph Barclay into court on a charge of perjury was easy to say, but it would damned difficult to accomplish. With a heavy heart and deep foreboding, he went to his own boat, and gave orders to head back to the ship.
Author’s Note
The story in A Flag of Truce has some basis in fact. There was a problem in Toulon with radical sailors from the Atlantic ports who had no desire to support the administration which had taken over the town and port.
Lord Hood, for the sake of security, was obliged to ask Rear Admiral Trogoff for four seaworthy 74-gun ships, which, stripped of their guns, would be used to transport the seamen to their home ports of Brest, Lorient and Rochefort – not a policy that proved popular when it became known in London what he had been obliged to do. The act may well have led to hints that he should retire, thus proving how difficult it was, in the days of long time-lag communication, for a commanding admiral to know what course to adopt on a foreign station.
Sad to relate that many of the officers who refused to serve Trogoff fell victim to the Revolution they had attempted to support. Some were accused of treason and executed in the port of their arrival, while others were transported to Paris to be tried by a Revolutionary Tribunal, then guillotined in one of the great public squares in front of the usual howling mob.
The Revolution, by the time they made their landfall, was already eating its own.
If you enjoyed this, you may like to read other books in the exciting John Pearce series.
Read on to find out more…
Also by
DAVID DONACHIE
By the Mast Divided
London, 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce is illegally press-ganged from the refuge of the Pelican tavern to a brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on its way to war. In his first few days Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. But he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men – fly Charlie Taverner; quiet Ben Walker; tired old Abel Scrivens; the bairn of the group, Rufus Dommet; the droll, tough Irish labourer, Michael O’Hagan; and the bumptious Gherson – pressed men like himself, who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader. During an action-packed two weeks, as HMS Brilliant chases a French privateer across the English Channel, this disparate group of men form friendships that will last a lifetime.
A Shot Rolling Ship
1793. Pressed into King George’s Navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce and his comrades, the Pelicans, find themselves working aboard HMS Griffin, a slow and over-crowded ship, sailing the Channel in search of the numerous French privateers that prey on English merchant shipping: her task to stop them and, if possible, to capture or destroy them. But Pearce has greater things on his mind: he must rescue his ailing father from the dangers of revolutionary Paris. But, betrayed by someone he trusted, Pearce returns to the Griffin to learn his sea-going trade in order to exact revenge…
An Awkward Commission
July, 1793. John Pearce has survived wild storms and bitter battles with the enemy, and, surprisingly, he’s gained a promotion. He is finally free to follow his own wishes, but the same does not apply for the trio of Pearce’s closest friends, who call themselves the Pelicans. Whilst Pearce is in London, his friends are shipped off to the Mediterranean. Vowing to liberate the men who have stuck by him through thick and thin, Pearce has no choice but to take ship and follow them. But with help being withheld by all higher powers, he is obliged to embark on a dangerous mission before he can free his friends: at stake, the whole British position in the Mediterranean.
About the Author
DAVID DONACHIE was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has had a variety of jobs, including selling everything from business machines to soap. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The author of a number of bestselling books, he now lives in Deal with his wife, the novelist Sarah Grazebrook.
By David Donachie
THE JOHN PEARCE SERIES
By the Mast Divided
A Shot Rolling Ship
An Awkward Commission
A Flag of Truce
The Admirals’ Game
An Ill Wind
Blown Off Course
Enemies at Every Turn
A Sea of Troubles
Written as Jack Ludlow
THE REPUBLIC SERIES
The Pillars of Rome
The Sword of Revenge
The Gods of War
THE CONQUEST SERIES
Mercenaries
Warriors
Conquest
THE ROADS TO WAR SERIES
The Burning Sky
A Broken Land
A Bitter Field
THE CRUSADES SERIES
Son of Blood
Soldier of Crusade
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
12 Fitzroy Mews
London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2008.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2013.
Copyright © 2008 by DAVID DONACHIE
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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 buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1304–2