I am aware that a great many rumours now surround my name. Some damn me as a rake and a wastrel, others declare me to be a hero. Like yourself, I have done great damage to the armies of Napoleon in Portugal and Spain, yet I have never considered myself to be a hero. As for being a rake and a wastrel, does it matter how I have behaved as long as it was in the service of the crown?
I know as well as yourself that one does not achieve glory by sitting at a desk and breaking enemy codes, but one does win wars. Glory does not interest me, so all I now ask is that I be allowed to return to your staff and resume my code breaking work against the French. In support of my request, I respectfully submit this account of my mission in England from June to August in this year, 1811. I am aware that it will not clear my name of scandal; my intention is only to show that I acted in the best interests of Britain at all times.
* * *
I COULD EASILY read the messages being sent by the semaphore tower on Southsea Common as I approached Major Jodrel’s offices in Portsmouth. The code was laughably simple, but the information was only about shipping movements in the harbour. I noted the name of the sloop Dauntless, which had just brought me from Lisbon.
I had a book in my hand when I arrived at the offices, and was all ready to spend an hour or two waiting until I was sent for. Instead I was ushered straight in, for he had been waiting for me. This was a surprise. Majors never wait for second lieutenants unless they carry important dispatches, and I was carrying only a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield.
“The major is not one for foppish talk, so don’t bother with gossip or dropping names,” said his aide as we climbed the stairs.
“Then we have that much in common,” I replied.
“He also hates flattery, so let that be your last compliment. The major has a theory that polite chit-chat between officers is sapping the strength of the British Army. Let him do the talking, and answer his questions as briefly as possible.”
I entered Jodrel’s room and stood to attention. Without even greeting me he gestured through the window.
“Look out there, Lieutenant Fletcher,” he said. “What do you see?”
“It’s a Murray semaphore tower, sir.”
“Very good—oh, and do stand easy. Yes, the signaling line runs from that tower out there to towers on Portsdown Hill, Beacon Hill, Blackdown, Hascombe, Netley Heath, Cabbage Hill, Putney Heath, Chelsea, and finally the Admiralty in London. If I send a message from here, it will reach London in nine minutes. Britain’s been using the Murray shutter system for the past fourteen years. The French have a different signal-tower system, but both have the same flaw. Can you tell me what it is?”
“You can see them, sir. Anyone hiding nearby with a paper and pencil can see what’s being transmitted and write it down. Even coded messages can be broken.”
“You have it,” said Jodrel, slapping a fist into the palm of his hand. “The transmission of the message is swifter than horses, but it is exceedingly public. One might as well publish military secrets in a newspaper.”
I nodded and gave a discreet smile. Second lieutenants who wanted to become first lieutenants were expected to smile when their betters made a joke.
Major Jodrel continued, “Certain very clever people have had great success breaking the codes in captured French dispatches for General Wellesley in Spain, and there are probably Frenchmen who can do as well with our codes. If we could send messages invisibly, however, spies would have nothing to watch and written dispatches would be a thing of the past. We would gain a huge advantage over the French.”
“There are carrier pigeons, sir. The Indians use them.”
“And there are marksmen with birdshot. The French will use them at the sight of our first carrier pigeon. No, Lieutenant, we need a method of messaging that cannot be seen. Three years ago a man named Sir Charles Calder proposed a method of invisible messaging to me. Come along. I’ll show you his device.”
Sir Henry led me up more stairs and unlocked the door to a garret. Within this was a device that resembled nothing I had ever seen, and it did not appear to have any function at all.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I see a Voltaic pile for providing electrical charge, and an electroscope for detecting the charge. There is also a concave metal mirror about a yard across, and what seems to be a lump of amber about as big as my fist. There are insects embedded in it: a fly, two spiders, and an ant.”
“Never mind that, what of the apparatus?”
“Little plates the size of farthings are arranged around the back of the amber. Amber has electrical properties, so I would say this also has something to do with the Voltaic pile and electroscope.”
“Splendid, splendid. General Wellesley was wise to send you. This machine is what Sir Charles called an amberscope. It is meant to detect electrical influence from a piece of amber in Ballard House, near Wimbourne Minster. That’s forty miles away. By changing the intensity of the electrical charge in the Wimbourne machine, Sir Charles hoped to send a message in dots and dashes that one could read by watching this electroscope.”
I bent over and examined the device. A layer of dust had settled on it, and the Voltaic pile was severely corroded.
“It has not been used for a long time,” I observed.
“That’s because it never worked. Sir Charles asked me to have a man activate and monitor the thing for a quarter-hour every day, at noon. This was done for six days, but never once did the electroscope’s plates even twitch. Sir Charles was bitterly disappointed, and told me to throw it in the harbor.”
“But you saw its promise and kept it?”
“There’s a war on. I couldn’t spare a man to cart it away.”
“So, just a fine dream,” I said as I straightened.
“That’s what I thought until one morning last April. Sir Charles arrived in a carriage, asked me to write some secret words, seal them in an envelope, and have a dispatch rider take it to Ballard House. At six that evening he was to give it to an employee there. I wrote ONE ALOOF STAND SENTINEL and sent my rider on his way. Do you know the quote?”
“The fairies say it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“Very good. Some must fight, and some must stand guard. Was that a fair test for the messaging device?”
“I suppose so, sir.”
“Sir Charles draped some wires from the balcony to his coach, and at six in the evening he entered it and closed the door behind him. I heard a sound like some trapped insect buzzing in a bottle. This went on for a minute or so, then he stepped out and gave me this.”
The major handed me a folded square of paper. I opened it. The words ONE ALOOF STAND SENTINEL were written in small, neat capitals. Below it were the date, time, and location. I was astonished, but saw the military value at once.
“Instantaneous and invisible messaging!” I exclaimed.
“And without repeater towers,” said Jodrel. “Sir Charles has abandoned the amberscope idea and developed a spark semaphore with a range of eighty miles. He opened the box and explained the mechanism, but most of it was beyond me. It works on the principle of a lightning flash, that’s all I understood.”
“But lightning is highly visible.”
“This was lightning made small, apparently. I swore Sir Charles to secrecy and sent him back to his estate, escorted by a young captain from my staff and fifty soldiers. They have been guarding Ballard House ever since. That very night I wrote a letter to General Wellesley and sent it on the very next supply ship to Lisbon. I wanted the device assessed by a man with a real understanding of battlefield messaging, not some coffee-house fop from the Admiralty or Horse Guards. Wellesley sent you. Why?”
“With all due respect, sir, I am under orders not to speak of that.”
“So, you probably are one of Wellesley’s secret code breakers. Perhaps you are even George Scoville himself, sent here under a false name. No matter, there is work to be done, and I must take you at face value. You are to go
to Ballard House tomorrow, assess this spark semaphore, satisfy yourself that it is no trick, then advise me on how to build dozens more for use in the Spanish campaign. Remember, too, that the range is eighty miles. The distance from Wimbourne Minster to Cherbourg is less than eighty miles.”
“So I am also to check the loyalty of all those in Ballard House?”
“Indeed. Were the French to learn this secret we might as well hand the world to Napoleon on a silver platter. Sir Charles is a patriot, but is also heavily in debt. His father had a love of gambling, you see. During the Battle of Trafalgar a cannonball cured him of the habit, and since then Sir Charles has tried to salvage the family fortunes by managing the estate prudently, marrying money, and not playing cards. All that has not been enough, and he needs the financial largesse of the crown as much as the crown needs his spark semaphore. You may remind him of that, should he forget his manners.”
“Thank you, sir, I shall remember that.”
“Oh, and be sure to heed some important advice when you get to Ballard House.”
“Sir?”
“Sir Charles is somewhat … intensely devoted to his work, while his wife, Lady Monica, is rather highly spirited.”
“They do not get along?”
“No. Try not to take sides.”
* * *
IT TOOK ME a day to ride from Portsmouth to Wimbourne Minster. The countryside was all lush farmland, and so peaceful that you would not think there was a war raging anywhere in all the world. The guards were encamped in a field beside the road near Ballard House. I was met by Captain Hartwell, who was a delicately handsome youth of perhaps seventeen, with rosy cheeks and curly blond hair. His family had bought him a commission, but was not willing to let him risk his life in Spain.
“Not the most exciting of posts, Lieutenant Fletcher,” he said as we walked on to the house.
“I’ve had my fill of excitement for the three years past, sir.”
“Oh, surely not! What of war’s glory, and the grand adventure of combat?”
“For me the war has been mostly boredom, with moments of intense fright. The glory and adventure must have been happening to someone else.”
“I would give anything to swap places with you.”
“Sometimes wars are won by those who just stand sentinel, sir.”
“If so, I’d rather be doing the fighting, while someone else wins the war.”
Hartwell explained that he was not permitted within Ballard House due to some disagreement with Sir Charles, so he left me at the front door and led my horse on to the stables. Sir Charles was informed that I had arrived, and presently he came downstairs to the parlour. He had a rumpled, untidy look, was unshaven rather than bearded, and his hair was long and tousled. His expression was that of a man who had been interrupted while doing something important, and was feeling a bit cross about it. He had a magnifier lens in a frame strapped over one eye, and his hands were stained and scratched, like those of an artisan.
“Papers?” he snapped, holding out a hand.
I gave him my orders. He read the documents carefully, glancing up at me from time to time.
“It says here that you are a second lieutenant,” he said, speaking so rapidly that I could barely follow him. “Field commission!”
“Yes, sir.”
“For bravery?”
“For intelligence work, sir.”
“Signaling?”
“I have a strong background in signaling, sir.”
This told him that I was an expert in an important field, yet his attitude did not soften.
“So you have been sent to assess my work?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Was not my demonstration to Major Jodrel convincing enough?”
“It was very convincing, but Major Jodrel knows only signals, not electrical machines,” I replied. “I have some knowledge of both.”
“I told him that I was willing to give my spark semaphore to the crown for the war effort.”
“And the remission of certain debts,” I added.
He glared at me, but did not dispute the point. Although he was lord of the estate, he now knew that my fingers were upon the strings of the purse.
“What more does he want?”
“He wants you to explain the device to me, Sir Charles. I can arrange for many more to be built.”
* * *
THE RULE IN Ballard House was that downstairs belonged to Sir Charles’s wife, while upstairs was the domain of Sir Charles. Lady Monica had a very good sense of style, so the furniture, paintings, and rugs were both expensive and tasteful. Climbing the stairs took us into a realm of bare walls, exposed floorboards, and rooms full of untidy, roughly wrought mechanisms on cluttered workbenches. It reminded me of a collection of watchmakers’, carpenters’, and gunsmiths’ workshops, all jumbled together and presided over by a toymaker. Half a dozen men were working at various tasks ranging from glass blowing to coating harpsichord wires with wax.
Sir Charles believed in the value of models to work out ideas. Within the bedchambers, corridors, and drawing rooms upstairs were dozens of working models of signaling devices, weapons, steamboats, and even hot-air balloons. Leading me into his study, he opened the lid of a sea chest.
“Thunderstorms were my inspiration,” he said proudly as he gestured to a tangle of brass, porcelain, coiled wires, and wax.
“Thunderstorms are beyond human control,” I replied politely.
“What is a spark between two electrical wires if not a small flash of lightning?” he snapped back. “Stand here. Watch the gap between the two brass spikes.”
He threw a small lever protruding from the side of the rosewood chest. Two wires ran from the chest to a curtain rail above the window. He walked across to the other side of the room and threw a lever on the side of a similar chest, which also trailed wires.
“The two devices are now active, Lieutenant,” he explained as he lifted the lid of the second chest and reached inside. “Don’t watch me, man! Watch the spikes.”
There was a soft buzz, and a length of blue spark appeared between the brass spikes. It reminded me of lightning seen at a great distance. There was another, briefer, spark, and they continued until I had counted thirty-two sparks. I felt my pulse quicken when I realized that nothing connected the boxes.
“Draw that lever back,” said Sir Charles. “The Voltaic piles are quickly drained.”
“So these sparks were passed between the two boxes, through the air, invisibly?” I asked, trying hard not to seem too amazed.
“So you noticed! You are not entirely a fool, then. What can you tell me about the grouping of the sparks?”
It was definitely a code. British lives depended on my ability to recognize and break codes, and I had become very good at teasing patterns out of chaos.
“There was a pause after every group of four sparks. The third and seventh groups of four were identical. The third and seventh letters in my name are E. At a guess, you may have just sent the word FLETCHER between these two boxes.”
For the first and only time I saw Sir Charles’s jaw drop open with surprise.
“Incredible!” he exclaimed. “So, you must be one of Wellesley’s master code breakers.”
“I am not permitted—”
“Damnit, man, I’ll have none of that secrecy nonsense. More important people than you trust me with secrets. Examine my device. Take as long as you like.”
About half the space inside both sea chests was taken up by Voltaic piles. This meant that if the device and its source of electrical charge were put in two smaller boxes, they could be carried like saddlebags on a horse, and used on battlefields. The implications of that made my head spin.
“These two boxes have greater military worth than a hundred thousand cavalry,” I finally managed. “How long would it take for you to explain the principle and operation to me?”
“You broke my dash-dot code on the first hearing, so you must have a formidable i
ntellect,” Sir Charles conceded grudgingly. “I would say … one week.”
“And their manufacture and maintenance?”
“Who knows? I have never tried to teach that to anyone.”
* * *
SIR CHARLES’S WIFE, Lady Monica, joined us for dinner in the late afternoon. She was younger than Sir Charles, although older than myself by perhaps five years. The dining room was hung with paintings by Constable and Rubens, while ancient painted urns, probably plundered in Greece, stood on pedestals at each corner.
Lady Monica was aware that she was surpassingly beautiful and was well practised in wielding her charms. She had a particularly unsettling way of flirting with her eyes alone, so that Sir Charles noticed nothing. Her hair was black and wavy, and pinned up in the manner of the highborn Spanish ladies. She wore a blue velvet coat over a white lawn gown with a red boa draped over her shoulders, it being currently fashionable to dress in the colours of the British flag. She used no makeup, perhaps to emphasise that her skin was flawless.
“This is Lieutenant Fletcher. He breaks French codes for Wellesley in Spain,” said Sir Charles. “Lieutenant Fletcher, this is my wife Monica.”
People were shot for such careless talk in Spain, but I reminded myself that this was England.
“Charmed, Ladyship,” I said as I bowed and kissed her hand.
“So, a handsome killer with brains,” she replied. “What chance has that poor Napoleon got against men like you?”
The meal was in the patriot style, being beefsteak, with shallots, baked potatoes, and beetroot, accompanied by mustard and port wine, and served on more silver than I had ever seen on one table. This was quite a departure from what I was used to in the borderlands of Spain and Portugal, apart from the port wine. They were certainly trying to keep up appearances.
Sir Charles spoke continually of his dash-dot code and spark semaphore machine, while Lady Monica stared at the ceiling or rolled her eyes. Presently he realized that his beef was getting cold, so he gulped it down, then excused himself and hurried back upstairs. It was as if he had a lover waiting for him there, but I was fairly sure that his lover was made of brass, wire, and wax. Lady Monica and I continued on to asparagus, beetroot pancakes, and a rather delicate German wine.
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