The Hawk Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title

  By the Same Author

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter ONE

  Chapter TWO

  Chapter THREE

  Chapter FOUR

  Chapter FIVE

  Chapter SIX

  Chapter SEVEN

  Chapter EIGHT

  Chapter NINE

  THE

  HAWK

  Also by Peter Smalley

  HMS Expedient

  Port Royal

  Barbary Coast

  PETER

  SMALLEY

  THE

  HAWK

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  ISBN 9781407005942

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  Published by Century 2008

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Copyright © Peter Smalley 2008

  Peter Smalley has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs

  and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This electronic book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  First published in Great Britain in 2008 by

  Century

  Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,

  London SW1V 2SA

  www.rbooks.co.uk

  Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse/co.uk/offices.htm

  The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

  A CIP catalogue record for this book

  is available from the British Library

  ISBN: 9781407005942

  Version 1.0

  Again for Clytie

  Cutter. A small vessel commonly navigated in the channel of England, furnished with one mast and a straight running bowsprit. Many of these vessels are used on an illicit trade, and others employed by the government to seize them; the latter of which are either under the direction of the Admiralty or Custom-house.

  (Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine, 1815)

  ONE

  1790: Swallow Street, London

  Sir Robert Greer looked at himself in his glass, and was frightened.

  'Fender! Fender!'

  'Sir?' His valet appeared at the door.

  'I am unwell. Summon Dr Robards.'

  'Unwell, Sir Robert?' Peering at his master. Not five minutes had passed since the valet had fastened the final buttons on his master's coat, turning him gently a little further towards the morning light from the window, and straightened his snowy stock. He had looked very waxy, certainly – but had not complained of feeling ill. 'Is it just come on, sir . . . ?'

  'Yes. Yes. Do as I say, man. Dr Robards, at once.' His deep voice a-quiver. He reached a hand for the back of the chair, steadied himself, and sat down. The bumping click as the door of his dressing room swung shut. Fender's footfalls on the stair. Voices. The subdued thud of the great door. A shaft of sun brightened on the floor, and now – a return of the pain.

  'Hnnh . . .'

  Sir Robert gripped the arm of the chair, the carved mahogany arm. His naturally pallid face was ghastly white, tinged blue about the mouth, his black eyes sunk in his skull. That was what had alarmed him so, when he looked in his glass. His sickly pallor, and his sunken eyes. And now the pain that had woken him this day, as early light crept in discs across the wall, had come back.

  Interminable seconds passed as the longcase clock in the corner ticked, and tocked, and ticked. The distant shout of an ostler in the street. Hooves, and passing wheels.

  'Where in God's name is Dr Robards – ?' The question ending in a hiss of breath. The knuckles tight on the arm of the chair.

  At last the sound of a carriage arriving, and the bustle of a person of importance entering the house. A clatter on the stairs as Fender ran on ahead, the creaking of the door, and Fender stood aside.

  'Good morning, Sir Robert.' Dr Glendower Robards came in, tall in his black coat, carrying his medical instrument case.

  He placed it on a second chair, waved Fender out, and approached the patient.

  'Thank God you are come, Robards . . . I am not myself . . . hnnh . . .' Dr Robards took the outstretched, clutching hand, and gave reassurance with a squeeze.

  'You are in pain, I perceive, Sir Robert. Will you tell me the place, now?' Taking Sir Robert's pulse, and observing its rate against his pocket watch, slipped smoothly from his waistcoat.

  Sir Robert pointed to his lower belly with his other hand.

  'In my vitals . . . deep in my belly . . .'

  'What have you ate, today? You have breakfasted?'

  'Nay, I have not. Nothing.'

  'Off what did ye dine then, yesternight?' He let go of Sir Robert's wrist, and put away the watch. Adjusted his small frameless oval spectacles, and stared into each of Sir Robert's eyes in turn. 'Hm?'

  'Partridge, and a little claret.'

  'How little?'

  'Eh?' Swallowing, and breathing shallow.

  'How little quantity of claret?'

  'Very little. A glass only.'

  'One glass?'

  'Aye.' A further spasm struck, and he hissed, and gripped the chair. 'Damnation . . . ohh . . .'

  'We may easily dispose of the pain, in a moment. But first tell me – has it been like this before? Ever before?'

  'Yes. Yes. Once or twice before today. But never so bad as this . . . ohh . . .'

  'When? Will you tell me exact?'

  'For God's sake, Robards. Give me something. Give me some relief.'

  'In a moment, Sir Robert. I will not allow you to suffer longer than is entirely necessary. Now then, if you please, when did the pain come?'

  'In the morning, once or twice, after I had woke.'

  'Early?'

  'Aye.'

  'Before you had recourse to your piss pot?'

  'Yes. I believe so, yes.'

  'And was the pain lessened afterward? After ye had passed water?'

  'Perhaps it was, a little. But I do not feel pain in my bladder, Robards. Only in my belly.'

  'Hm, well. A calculus must pass from the kidney, through the region of your anatomy where you are feeling the spasms. Hm?'

  'It is a stone – you think so?'

  'Very possibly. Very possibly. Ain't uncommon in gentlemen of your years, Sir Robert.'

  'What is the – the treatment?'

  'The stone may pass of its own accord. Or it may possibly lodge and remain.'

  'Lodge – and remain?'

  'In which case, Sir Robert, we must consult the King's own surgeon, Sir Wakefield Bennett.'

  'I cannot allow myself to be unwell. I have important business in hand. People that must be pursued, and punished.' Sir Robert drew a determined breath and clasped the arms of his chair as if to rise. A further spasm of pain pinned him in his seat. 'Ohh . . .'

  'Do not attempt effortful
movement, Sir Robert.' Dr Robards moved to his instrument case. 'I will give you something for the pain.'

  'Is it physic?' Shallow, panting breaths.

  'It is paregoric elixir, Sir Robert, a liberal measure.' He tipped fat drops of camphorated tincture of opium into a glass, and added water. 'I may prescribe pareira, also.' He handed the glass to his patient. 'Should there be pus in the urine.'

  'Pus?' Appalled, clutching the glass.

  'You have observed no discoloration of the urine?' 'Nay, none.' Sir Robert drained the glass in one sucking gulp.

  'The stream is free-flowing?'

  'It is.'

  'Hm, that is well.' Taking the empty glass. 'We may perhaps, with good fortune, avoid infection.'

  'I wish to put a question. What must I do? What course of action d'ye propose?'

  'That is two questions, Sir Robert. In answer to the first, you must practise indolence. As to the second, we must await – developments.'

  'Indolence! What nonsense is this? Did not y'hear me? I am engaged on grave matters –'

  'Hm. Yes.' Regarding his patient, making a face. 'Grave is the word I fear most, in such a case. I will not like to stand in the rain over yours, and hear the burial service read.'

  'Eh?'

  'I will like you to be indolent, Sir Robert, if you please.

  Take broth, and a light diet. No wine. I will leave paregoric to be took at intervals of – let us say – three or four hours. We will wait a week, and if the stone has not yet passed, we will then consult the King's man. Good morning.'

  And Dr Robards took up his bag, and quit the house. Sir Robert sat long in his chair, and felt the opium take effect. Felt the pain ease, felt a gradual numbing of his limbs and his senses.

  'Indolence,' he said at last. A sigh. If he must be indolent, then he must. His pursuit of Captain William Rennie RN, and Lieutenant James Hayter RN, in the question of treasonable conduct, must lapse for the moment.

  'Aye, lapse.' Another breath. 'But not permanent, by God. I will pursue them, and bring the charge home, the moment I am well again. – Fender! Fender!'

  'Sir?' At the door.

  'I will like to go down to my library. Is there a fire lighted there? Give me your arm, man.'

  His Majesty's Hawk cutter, ten guns, lay at her mooring off the Hard at Portsmouth, immediately south of the dockyard, and some two cables distant from His Majesty's ship Tamar, sixtyfour, and His Majesty's frigate Tempest, thirty-six. Hawk's guns were not yet in her, nor was she provisioned or stored. She had recently been purchased from the small private yard of Thos Varder at Dover, where she had been built to the specification of the Board of Excise, to add to their small fleet, and then commandeered by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in His Majesty's name. She had no guns, and was trimmed only by her ballast of pigs and shingle, but she was a handsome vessel. She was 68 feet long in the lower deck, 51 feet at the keel, 23 feet 6 inches in the beam, and the depth of her hold was a fraction over 10 feet. Her tonnage by builder's measure was 131 and a few ninety-fourths. Her new paint, black along the wales, and her bulwarks red, was reflected in the riding water and emphasized her neat, purposeful lines. Her mast, with topmast and topgallant mast fidded, was tall and slightly raked. That, and her long, flat-sleeved bowsprit, marked her as a revenue ship, able to carry a prodigious spread of canvas both on her square yards and on her steep gaff and long boom. At present her square topsail alone was bent, the yards angled to aid her anchors against the tide. Her commander was absent, as were her midshipmen, her standing officers – boatswain, gunner, carpenter – and her sailing master and steward purser. Indeed, none but her commander had been appointed. A small dockyard crew, assembled by the Master Attendant at the behest of the Admiralty, and the Navy Board, now temporarily manned her. This crew had bent the topsail and mounted an anchor watch.

  BOOM.

  The noon gun echoed across the harbour, and a flight of black-headed gulls rose wheeling and raucous in alarm, and swooped away towards Gosport across the glinting water.

  The Master Attendant Mr Tipping, very florid, stood a little way down the Hard and looked at the Hawk from under his shading hand with something like disapproval. To his clerk he said: 'I cannot allow her that mooring very long, with the fleet due.'

  'No, sir.' The clerk, nodding.

  'Tamar must weigh and go up a little, and Tempest also. I cannot allow a cutter to occupy that number more than another day or two. It will not answer.'

  'No sir.' Shaking his head.

  'She don't belong here, unattached. Unmanned, unattached, and God knows where her officers and people may be. I do not. I don't like mystery, and I don't like private ships lying where they oughtn't, Mr Tite.'

  'No, sir.'

  Mr Tipping looked distractedly at his clerk, frowned down at him, then looked out across the water again. 'I will allow her that number two days more, then I must grow severe. Make a note, Mr Tite.'

  'Yes, sir.' Scribbling with his pencil, and following along as Mr Tipping stumped away to the dockyard gates, his wig scattering powder on the shoulder of his coat.

  'Mr Tipping?'

  'Ain't here, sir, just at present.'

  'Are not you Mr Tite?'

  'I am, sir, yes.' The little clerk, hunched over his desk, saw a well-made young man in the doorway, not in naval dress but with an unmistakably naval bearing; the set of his shoulders, and the placing of his feet a little apart, said that he was a naval officer.

  'Were not you the Master Shipwright's clerk, Mr Rundle's clerk . . . ?'

  'I was, sir, many a year, but then Mr Rundle passed, d'y'see, and Mr Tipping wanted me – and here I am.'

  'Ah.' Nodding. 'I am Lieutenant Hayter, and I – '

  'Yes, sir, yes. Mr Tipping did wish to see you most particular urgent, immediate on your coming to Portsmouth.' Laying aside his pen, and rising from his chair.

  'Ah. I wished to see the Hawk cutter, that I understand –'

  'The Hawk is here, sir, indeed. Mr Tipping is most desperate anxious that she should weigh and proceed.'

  'Weigh and proceed?' Lieutenant James Hayter RN unfastened his cloak and stared at the clerk in the dim light of the Master Attendant's office. 'But I have yet to accept the commission. I have not got my papers, Mr Tite. I wished merely –'

  'Oh dear, oh dear. Yes, I see.' A sigh, and he opened and then closed the ledger on his narrow desk, and pushed the inkwell to one side in a tidying motion, and pursed his lips.

  'Mr Tipping will be very distressed by that intelligence, I fear. He wished most particular for the Hawk to vacate her numbered mooring without further delay.'

  'May I see the Hawk? Where is the mooring? Is she far out at Spithead, or closer –'

  'She is just off the Hard, sir.'

  'Is she? Excellent. Then I will go there at once, Mr Tite.' Refastening his brown cloak, and putting on his hat.

  'Do you not wish to see Mr Tipping, though? Will I tell him that you – '

  But Lieutenant Hayter was already out of the door and striding away across the cobbled dockyard towards the gates, his cloak swirling in the breeze.

  He came to the Hard a few minutes after, and strode down the shallow slope towards the water's edge. Boats lay there, and casks, and a group of seamen stood by their barge, smart in their blue jackets and round, beribboned hats, waiting for their officer. James came to a halt, and looked out over the wind-ruffled water. And there he saw the cutter riding at anchor, her topsail angled to the wind, pretty as a picture.

  'The Hawk,' he murmured.

  'Are you for me, sir?' A voice behind him, brisk in tone. James turned.

  A short-statured, stooping figure, in an admiral's undress coat and hat. Pale blue eyes, staring cold and direct. Admiral Hollister, Vice-Admiral of the White, commander of the Channel Fleet.

  'Well?'

  'Sir?' James shook his head a little, entirely at a loss.

  'Do not shake y'head at me, sir. Are you our new Third for Vanquish – for Capt
ain Repton and myself – or are you not?'

  'I am not, sir.'

  'Are not you Lieutenant Newell? Lieutenant Rutherford Newell?'

  'I am not, sir. I am Lieutenant Hayter, and I – '

  'Why are ye not properly dressed, Mr Hayter?'

  'I beg your pardon, Admiral, but I am not yet – that is, I am just come to Portsmouth to look at my new ship, and I – '

  'New ship?' Admiral Hollister regarded him with a frown, then: 'Yes, now. Was not your First in the Expedient frigate, under Captain Rennie?'

  'I was, sir, but she has paid off, and lies in Ordinary – '

  'What is your new ship?'

  James pointed. 'The Hawk cutter, sir.'

  Admiral Hollister shaded his eyes and looked, nodded, waved away a very young lieutenant who had approached and now stood waiting, and:

  'Yes, I see. Since a cutter is commissioned with only one lieutenant – she is your first command, hey?'

  'That is so, sir. However, I have yet to – '

  'Will it aid you to go out to her in my barge, Mr Hayter? Am perfectly willing to oblige.'

  'Well, sir, that is exceeding kind in you, but I am not – '

  'Happy to oblige, Mr Hayter.' Over him, nodding vigorously. 'Most happy to aid a fellow sea officer going into his first command. Mr Stanway!'

  'Sir?' The young lieutenant hurried forward and stood with his back very straight, his hat correctly off.

  'Mr Hayter will join me in my barge. We will take him to his cutter.' Turning his head to James: 'Tell me her name again . . . ?'

  'She is Hawk, sir, ten guns. However, I am – '

  'Hawk. A felicitous name, for a pretty little bird of prey. Very good.'

  And much against his will – for he had determined merely to look at the Hawk from the shore, and then make his way at once elsewhere – James clambered into the barge and sat in the stern sheets with Admiral Hollister. The admiral did his best to be congenial, and pleasant, as spray flew up from dipping oars and the barge turned into the wind, by enquiring after Captain Rennie.

  'He is on the beach, sir.' James ducked his head, and clutched at his hat in the wind.