The Commodore. C. S. Forester

“They’re all Dutchmen, I think, sir. Not Frogs. We got ’em off the barge we caught. Had to fire into ’em a long time – just shot the barge to pieces, us an’ the other boats. They’re following us, sir, with the other prisoners.”

“You only caught one barge?”

“Yes, sir. The others ran for home the moment the rocket went up. But we got two hundred prisoners, I should think, an’ we had to kill nigh on a hundred more.”

One single barge taken, with two hundred men, when Hornblower had hoped for a dozen barges at least and three thousand men! But Purvis in his innocence was obviously delighted with his capture.

“Here’s one of their officers, sir.”

Hornblower turned on the blue-coated man who was wearily climbing over the side.

“Who are you, sir?” he asked in French, and after a moment’s hesitation the officer replied haltingly in the same language.

“Lieutenant von Bulow, of the Fifty-first Regiment of Infantry.”

“French infantry?”

“Of the King of Prussia,” said the officer, sternly, with a Teutonic explosiveness in the word ‘Prusse’ which indicated his annoyance at the suggestion that he would be a Frenchman.

So Macdonald had not risked French lives in this highly dangerous venture; that was to be expected, of course. Bonaparte had made war largely at the expense of his allies for the last ten years.

“I will see that you are given refreshment,” said Hornblower, politely. “Please order your men to sit down against the rail there.”

The officer barked the order. It was significant how at the first warning ‘achtung’ the dispirited soldiers came instantly to attention, standing stiff and straight. Most of them were wet and bedraggled, apparently having been in the water before surrendering. Hornblower gave orders for them to be fed, at the same time as the other boats came back downwind, each with its quota of prisoners. On the cramped decks of the Raven the two hundred prisoners made a fine show; Cole had the two foremost chase-guns run inboard and trained round upon them, a round of canister in each gun, the gun-captains posted with lighted matches ready to fire into them. Seamen, still grinning, went along their ranks handing out bread and beer.

“See how they eat, sir!” said Purvis. “Look at that one, layin’ into his biscuit like a wolf with a bone. God damme, it’s gone a’ready. It’s true what they say, sir, about Boney never feeding his men.”

An Imperial army was wont to gather its food from the countryside as it marched; Macdonald’s sixty thousand had been stationary now for over two weeks, and in a thinly populated country. They must be on short commons. Every day the siege of Riga could be prolonged cost lives in plenty to Bonaparte, and although he was ever prodigal with lives there must come a time at last when he would have no more to spare, not even Prussian ones, or Italian ones. The greater the pity, then, that the whole division that had tried to pass the river had not been wiped out. Hornblower told himself that was his fault; he should not have entrusted any vital part of the operation to a nervous old woman like Cole. He ought instead to have stayed on board Raven himself. Yet it was hard to be sure of that; the other end of the line, which he had entrusted to Vickery in Lotus, was just as important, and it was desirable that he should be in the centre in Nonsuch to coordinate the activities of his two wings. If Vickery and Cole had had their positions interchanged – as would have to be done – although Vickery could have been relied upon not to spring the trap too soon, could Cole have been relied upon to keep it closed? There might be five thousand Prussians on the farther bank of the Dwina at this moment if it had been up to Cole to head them off. Hornblower found himself wishing that he had known exactly which night Macdonald would make the attempt; he might as well have wished for the moon.

“Mr Cole,” said Hornblower, “make a signal to Nonsuch, ‘Commodore to Captain. Am proceeding to Riga with prisoners’. Then the guard-boats can return to their respective ships, and if you’ll kindly up anchor we’ll start.”

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