Part 9 (1/2)

”They worry you!” Lovell responded jovially. ”Now why should that be?” He had borrowed Captain Carver's telescope and was gazing seawards at Monhegan Island.

Wadsworth hesitated, not wanting to introduce a note of pessimism on a morning of bright sun and useful wind. ”We were expecting fifteen or sixteen hundred men, sir, and we have fewer than nine hundred. And many of those are of dubious usefulness.”

The Reverend Murray, clutching a wide-brimmed hat, made a gesture as if to suggest Wadsworth's concerns were misplaced. ”Let me tell you something I've learned,” the Reverend said, ”in every endeavor, General Wadsworth, whenever men are gathered together for G.o.d's good purpose, there is always a core of men, just a core, that do the work! The rest merely watch.”

”We have enough men,” Lovell said, collapsing the telescope and turning to Wadsworth, ”which isn't to say I could not wish for more, but we have enough. We have s.h.i.+ps enough and G.o.d is on our side!”

”Amen,” the Reverend Murray put in, ”and we have you, General!” He bowed to Lovell.

”Oh, you're too kind,” Lovell said, embarra.s.sed.

”G.o.d in His infinite wisdom selects His instruments,” Murray said effusively, bowing a second time to Lovell.

”And G.o.d, I am sure, will send more men to join us,” Lovell went on hurriedly. ”I'm a.s.sured there are avid patriots in the Pen.o.bscot region, and I doubt not that they'll serve our cause. And the Indians will send warriors. Mark my words, Wadsworth, we shall scour the redcoats, we shall scour them!”

”I would still wish for more men,” Wadsworth said quietly.

”I would wish for the same,” Lovell said fervently, ”but we must make do with what the good Lord provides and remember that we are Americans!”

”Amen for that,” the Reverend Murray said, ”and amen again.”

The waist of the Sally Sally was filled with four flat-bottomed lighters commandeered from Boston harbor. All the transports had similar cargoes. The shallow-draught boats were for landing the troops, and Wadsworth now gazed at those militia men who, in turn, watched the coast from the was filled with four flat-bottomed lighters commandeered from Boston harbor. All the transports had similar cargoes. The shallow-draught boats were for landing the troops, and Wadsworth now gazed at those militia men who, in turn, watched the coast from the Sally Sally's portside rail. Tall plumes of smoke rose mysteriously from the dark wooded hills and Wadsworth had the uncomfortable feeling that the pillars of smoke were signal fires. Was the coast infested by loyalists who were telling the British that the Americans were coming?

”Captain Carver was grumbling to me,” Lovell broke into Wadsworth's thoughts. Nathaniel Carver was the Sally Sally's captain. ”He was complaining that the state commandeered too many transports!”

”We antic.i.p.ated more men,” Wadsworth said.

”And I said to him,” Lovell went on cheerfully, ”how do you expect to convey the British prisoners to Boston without adequate s.h.i.+pping? He had no answer to that!”

”Fifteen hundred prisoners,” the Reverend Murray said with a chortle. ”They'll take some feeding!”

”Oh, I think more than fifteen hundred!” Lovell said confidently. ”Major Todd was estimating, merely estimating, and I can't think the enemy has sent fewer than two thousand! We'll have to pack two hundred prisoners into each and every transport, but Carver a.s.sures me the deck hatches can be battened down. My! What a return to Boston that will be, eh Wadsworth?”

”I pray for that day, sir,” Wadsworth said. Did the British really have fifteen hundred men, he wondered, and if they did then what possible reason could Lovell have for his optimism?

”It's just a pity we don't have a band!” Lovell said. ”We could mount a parade!” Lovell, a politician, was imagining the rewards of success: the cheering crowds, the thanks of the General Court, and a parade like the triumphs of Ancient Rome where the captured enemy was marched through jeering crowds. ”I do believe,” the brigadier went on, leaning closer to Wadsworth, ”that McLean has brought most of Halifax's garrison to Majabigwaduce!”

”I'm certain Halifax is not abandoned, sir,” Wadsworth said.

”But underdefended!” Lovell said warmly. ”My word, Wadsworth, maybe we should contemplate a raid!”

”I suspect General Ward and the General Court might want to discuss the matter first, sir,” Wadsworth said drily.

”Artemas is a good, brave man, but we must look ahead, Wadsworth. Once we've defeated McLean what's to stop us attacking the British elsewhere?”

”The Royal Navy, sir?” Wadsworth suggested with a wry smile.

”Oh, we'll build more s.h.i.+ps! More s.h.i.+ps!” Lovell was unstoppable now, imagining his victory at Majabigwaduce expanding into the capture of Nova Scotia and, who knew, maybe all Canada? ”Doesn't the Warren Warren look fine?” he exclaimed. ”Just look at her! Can there be a finer vessel afloat?” look fine?” he exclaimed. ”Just look at her! Can there be a finer vessel afloat?”

At twilight the fleet turned into the vast mouth of the Pen.o.bscot River where it anch.o.r.ed off the Fox Islands, all except the Hazard Hazard and and Tyrannicide Tyrannicide, which were ordered to make a reconnaissance upriver. The two small brigs, both from the Ma.s.sachusetts navy, sailed slowly northwards, using the long evening's gentle light to probe closer to Majabigwaduce, which lay a full twenty-six nautical miles from the open sea.

Commodore Saltonstall watched the two brigs until the gathering darkness hid their sails, then he took his supper on the quarterdeck beneath a sky bright with stars. His crew left him alone until one tall figure crossed to the commodore. ”A pot of wine, sir?”

”Captain Welch,” Saltonstall greeted the tall marine, ”I'm obliged to you.”

The two officers stood side-by-side at the Warren's Warren's taffrail. A violin sounded from the foredeck of the brig taffrail. A violin sounded from the foredeck of the brig Pallas Pallas, which was anch.o.r.ed closest to the frigate. For a time neither the commodore nor the marine said anything, but simply listened to the music and to the gentle sound of waves slapping against the hull. ”So,” Saltonstall broke their companionable silence, ”what do you think?”

”The same as you I reckon, sir,” Welch said in his deep voice.

The commodore snorted. ”Boston should have demanded a Continental regiment.”

”That they should, sir.”

”But they want all the credit to go to Ma.s.sachusetts! That's their idea, Welch. You mark what I say. There won't be many thanks offered to us.”

”But we'll do the work, sir.”

”Oh, we'll have to!” Saltonstall said. Already, in his brief tenure of command, the commodore had earned a reputation as a difficult and daunting figure, but he had struck up a friends.h.i.+p with the marine. Saltonstall recognized a fellow soul, a man who strove to make his men the best they could be. ”We'll have to do their work,” Saltonstall went on, ”if it can be done at all.” He paused, offering Welch a chance to comment, but the marine said nothing. ”Can it be done?” Saltonstall prompted him.

Welch stayed silent for a while, then nodded. ”We have the marines, sir, and I dare say every marine is worth two of the enemy. We might find five hundred militiamen who can fight. That should suffice, sir, if you can take care of their s.h.i.+ps.”

”Three sloops of war,” Saltonstall said in a tone that suggested neither confidence nor pessimism about the prospects of destroying the Royal Navy squadron.

”My men will fight,” Welch said, ”and by Christ they'll fight like fiends. They're good men, sir, well-trained.”

”That I know,” Saltonstall said, ”but by G.o.d I won't let Lovell throw them away. You only fight ash.o.r.e with my permission.”

”Of course, sir.”

”And if you get orders that make no sense, you refer them to me, you understand?”

”Perfectly, sir.”

”He's a farmer,” Saltonstall said scornfully, ”not a soldier, but a G.o.dd.a.m.ned farmer.”

On board the Sally Sally, in the captain's cramped cabin, the farmer was cradling a mug of tea laced with rum. Lovell shared the table with his secretary, John Marston, and with Wadsworth and the Reverend Murray, who appeared to have been promoted to senior aide. ”We should reach Majabigwaduce tomorrow,” Lovell said, looking from face to face in the feeble light of the lantern that hung from a beam, ”and I a.s.sume the commodore will prevent the enemy s.h.i.+ps from leaving the harbor and so obstructing us, in which case we should land immediately, don't you think?”

”If it's possible,” Wadsworth said cautiously.

”Let us be hopeful!” Lovell said. He dreamed of the victory parade in Boston and the vote of thanks from the legislature, but small doubts were creeping into his mind as he gazed at the crude map of Majabigwaduce's peninsula that was spread on the table where the remains of supper still lay. The Sally Sally's cook had produced a fine fish stew served with newly baked bread. ”We shall need to anchor off the land and launch the lighters,” Lovell said distractedly, then used a crust of cornbread to tap the bluff at the western end of the peninsula. ”Can McLean really have left this height undefended?”

”Unfortified, certainly, if the reports are true,” Wadsworth said.

”Then we should accept his invitation, don't you think?”

Wadsworth nodded cautiously. ”We'll know more tomorrow, sir,” he said.

”I want to be ready,” Lovell said. He tapped the map again. ”We can't let our fellows sit idle while the commodore destroys the enemy s.h.i.+pping. We must put the men ash.o.r.e fast.” Lovell gazed at the map as though it might provide some solution to the morrow's problems. Why had McLean not placed his fort on the high bluff? Was there a trap? If Lovell had been given the task of defending the peninsula he was sure he would have made a stronghold at the harbor's entrance, high on the point of land that dominated both the wide bay and the harbor, so why had McLean not done that? And McLean, Lovell reminded himself, was a professional soldier, so what did McLean know that Lovell did not? He felt a s.h.i.+ver of nervousness in his soul, then took comfort that he was not alone in his responsibility. Commodore Saltonstall was the naval commander, and Saltonstall's s.h.i.+ps so outnumbered the enemy that surely no amount of professionalism could redress that imbalance. ”We must believe,” Lovell said, ”that our enemies are afflicted by overconfidence.”