Chapter 26 – Hide & Seek
The Marquis entered the drawing room as soon as Napoleon left.
‘I think I pushed him one step too far,’ Jason tried to explain. ‘And I fear that we may all pay with our lives for this.’
‘I heard everything from the study next door. The walls are porous. Calling him desperate was probably ill-advised. But in the end I doubt it made any difference. He is in a desperate situation. He risks fighting on several fronts. He needed your majesty to commit to him today. Your failure to commit today is what actually forced his hand. He cannot permit you to leave for fear that you might unite with his enemies in Toulon.’ The Marquis continued. ‘When I heard the direction the conversation was taking I sent a quiet word to the men to saddle up behind the castle. We are all waiting for you. I made sure the order was carried out quietly so as not to alert the Captain who accompanied Napoleon. He was having tea in a ground level tea room. Napoleon is not from these parts. He is unlikely to know that there is another small drawbridge at rear of the castle. It is seldom used. We will use that and head for the forest behind the castle. About a mile into the forest is a little known road leading south east. We can use it to gain a head start.’
‘What did you do with the custodian in charge of the castle and his staff?’
‘I have given orders for them to be tied up in a store room so that they do not see where we are going and so as to prevent their raising the alarm after we depart. I made it clear that they are only to be taken prisoner after Napoleon and the Captain have left the castle grounds.’
Jason and the Marquis ran down the stairs to the courtyard and exited through the gate at the back of the castle. They ended up at the barracks and stables. The royal guards were mounted and ready to go. The scouts had already departed. As Jason and the Marquis mounted their stallions the entire party headed for the small drawbridge at the rear of the castle. They were soon joined by the guards who had been assigned the task of taking care of the castle’s custodian and his staff.
‘Not too fast when you are on the other side of the bridge,’ Jason shouted to the men. ‘I do not want a visible dust cloud. We can pick up speed when we reach the road which passes through the middle of the forest.’
‘You are lucky you are with me, your majesty,’ the Marquis pointed out.
‘Why do you say that?’ inquired Jason.
‘The republicans have already tried to kill me four times and failed. Once they tried to kill my son and I in my castle. The second time they tried was at the Devil’s orifice. And the third and fourth occasions they tried to execute me.’
‘There is a place in war for lucky commanders,’ Jason conceded before he returned his attention to directing their escape from France. ‘I want two scouts behind the column at all times. Knowing if we are being pursued is no less important that knowing what lies ahead,’ he ordered. It also occurred to him that he still possessed the pigeons. The problem was that they did not know where Napoleon’s army was. They would not be able to advise Montuga of their route for a while yet. As they reached the forest, Jason turned around to look back at the castle. He realised that the Marquis had been correct. The height of the castle walls indeed obscured their entire withdrawal from anyone tasked with observing the front of the castle. Hopefully, the castle was only under surveillance from the forward facing side. When the column reached a dirt road in the middle of the forest Jason ordered them all to a halt.
‘Send for the trackers’ he shouted. He waited until the two specialist scouts arrived from somewhere ahead of the column. ‘Did you see any recent tracks in this road?’
‘We checked. No!’
‘Gentlemen!’ Jason turned to address the whole column. ‘You are to keep your eyes open, your voices down and your wits about you now. I do not have any idea about whether Napoleon’s men are behind us or up ahead. We could be marching towards concealed artillery without knowing it.’ Jason then asked for a pigeon and scribbled the following note in the smallest print he could manage on the tiny piece of paper which he removed from the container on the bird’s leg. He wrote on both sides:
‘M at war w Fr. Pursued by N.B. RN must invade TLN. Unsure TLN? Or D.O?’
The pigeon was released. It flew upwards before circling Jason’s men three times. It then headed off in the direction of Montuga. The column followed the dirt road through the forest. The scouts scanned the route ahead of them and they reported back to Jason periodically. The need for the scouts to eliminate the possibility of the column being ambushed up ahead prevented them from advancing anywhere near as quickly as Jason would have wished.
‘We need to move faster than this, your majesty,’ the Marquis advised. ‘It can only be a matter of time before Napoleon discovers what we have done. He will then come after us at full speed.’
‘No!’ Jason responded. ‘We move carefully until we are well away from Lyon and until I am satisfied that the threat Napoleon poses is indeed only from the rear and not ahead.’
After half an hour had elapsed, the scouts reported that the road they were traversing split into two about a mile ahead. One road apparently led in a southerly direction towards Toulon, whist the other led in a south easterly direction towards Montuga and the Italian republics.
‘South east or South?’ the Marquis asked Jason.
‘I think we need to go South East. If we can make it to the Montugan Alps we will be able join up with two hundred rested soldiers waiting for us in the Nanoux valley. They can provide us with cover as we head through the pass. Also, I am banking upon Napoleon thinking that we plan to head for Toulon to link up with the British fleet and the royalists who are planning to revolt there. Even if Napoleon is uncertain about which direction we are heading in, I assume he must have a sizeable force heading for Toulon to deal with any uprising there in any event. After all, his Mediterranean fleet is based there. If we head for Toulon, we are likely to run into, or be pursued by, a significant force,’ Jason said.
‘I agree, your majesty. I do not think we have much of a choice. We must head for the pass.’ The Marquis requested Jason’s permission to send one of the remaining pigeons to Montuga to alert the royal guards of the column’s plans. In the latest note, the royal guards in Monte Vista were ordered to send word to the guards in the Nanoux valley to prepare for a possible attack by Napoleon’s forces. They were also ordered to send any reinforcements which Montuga could spare to the Nanoux valley. The road split in two again. The Marquis consulted his map. He advised that the road to the right would connect with the route the column had taken from Montuga to Lyon on their forward journey. The road to the left led to the foothills of the French Alps.
‘The route through the French Alps is longer. It is longer by around a day. I doubt Napoleon would expect us to follow the longer route so we are unlikely to be followed. If he suspects we are going to the Devil’s Orifice, he will probably use the more direct route. Napoleon’s men could arrive at the pass a day or a day and a half ahead of us.’ The Marquis looked at Jason as he waited for his decision.
‘There is also the slight possibility that if Napoleon employs the direct route to the Devil’s Orifice, the villages along the way will all tell him that they have not seen us. He may then think that we headed for Toulon and he could even turn south west and head there,’ Jason pointed out.
‘Probably too much to hope for, your majesty.’
‘We will go along the longer route,’ Jason decided. ‘If we are fortunate, we may trap Napoleon’s force between ourselves and the men waiting for us at the French entrance to the pass.’
The column emerged from the forest as the sun withdrew below the horizon. The town of La Motte lay ahead. The scouts presented the letter granting free passage to the Montugan column to the town’s mayor. He permitted the column to set up camp in a field immediately outside of the town. The scouts returned to Jason to report that the mayor did seemed completely unaware that the column no longer enjoyed the right of
free passage through France. On the contrary, the mayor seemed friendly and co-operative. He even requested the scouts to convey an offer of accommodation in the town for Jason and some of his officers. Jason decided it was best to politely decline the offer. He decided that, apart from the scouts, the column needed to stay together in one group. This would enable them to leave as a group at short notice if necessary.
Before the column entered the town, Jason arranged for scouts and a few guards to break away from the column in order to set up three smaller camps at secluded spots along each of the three roads approaching the town of La Motte. Their instructions were to intercept and eliminate anyone who they suspected could be a French scout or a French messenger. Jason told his scouts that he expected Napoleon to use his relay system to send a message to all the towns along both routes to Montuga and along the route to Toulon that the passage of Jason’s column was to be obstructed by any means possible until the nearest French garrison could engage them; or something to that effect. The system involved messengers on horseback galloping from one town to the next at top speed. Upon reaching the next town, a new messenger on a fresh horse would take custody of the pouch containing the message.
Only the fastest horses and the finest riders were assigned to the relay system. Every French town was provided with at least two resident messengers and two horses. Napoleon was also likely to use the relay system to establish the whereabouts of the Jason’s column. A message requesting this information would be sent from town to town along all the routes Jason’s column was expected to use. A reply could be sent back to Napoleon along the same route.
Shortly after midnight Jason was awoken in his tent by one of the royal guards holding a lantern. A scout required an urgent audience.
‘We intercepted a messenger your majesty.’ The scout proudly handed a pouch to Jason, who instantly opened the parchment it contained. Jason was unsurprised to read that it was a despatch from Napoleon to the First Citizen and/or each Garrison commander whom it might concern. This letter and others like it had been sent along all the major routes Jason was expected to utilise. The letter requested anyone with information about Jason’s column to send a reply to him by relay as a matter of supreme urgency. The letter indicated that he would be at Vienne, a town some eighteen miles to the South of Lyon, until the next day at eleven o’clock and that all replies were to be directed there. The fact that Napoleon was at Vienne suggested that he had expected Jason to head for Toulon. He also realised that Napoleon had probably set up an ambush along the only road leading south from the castle’s main entrance. He had probably posted a lookout to warn him when Jason and his men eventually emerged from the castle. Jason wished he could have been a fly in the First Consul’s tent when he was eventually informed that the castle was empty and that a rear exit and an additional drawbridge had been discovered.
‘Well done. This information is priceless,’ Jason congratulated the scout.
‘What shall I do with the messenger, your majesty? He is with a guard outside your tent?’
‘Your orders were to kill him,’ Jason reprimanded. ‘Why did you bring him here?’
‘He is only thirteen, your majesty. Forgive me, but I thought your majesty might show mercy to a boy so young.’
‘Bring him to me!’ Jason ordered. The scout stepped out of the tent and swiftly returned with a young boy whose hands were tied behind his back. His vigorous trembling caused his teeth to chatter. He was thin with dark hair and fine facial features. He was shorter than an average thirteen year old boy. His wiry yet taut physique was clearly suited to the task for which he had been chosen.
‘What is your name?’ Jason asked.
‘I am Charles Raymond your majesty. I beg you to spare me. I will do whatever you ask.’ The boy emitted a faint but unpleasant odour. Jason realised that the boy’s bowels had probably let him down when the scouts who had caught him were debating whether or not to comply with their orders to kill him.
‘Have the boy and his clothes washed,’ he told the scout. The scout’s expression of relief at Jason’s instruction was exceeded only by that on the face of the boy. ‘You take his horse and tomorrow I want you to find the slowest horse we have for the boy. He will be coming with us. Keep him tied up for the night. If he attempts to escape, kill him.’
‘Yes, your majesty. Thank you your majesty,’ the scout replied. The boy also bowed and thanked Jason as he backed out of the tent.
The column left La Motte shortly before dawn. Jason had managed to establish that the French messenger had approached La Motte using a different route to the one his column had used. Their interception of the parchment would ensure that none of the towns from La Motte through to Montuga would be informed of its contents, and nor would any of these towns consider it necessary to despatch any report on the movement of Jason’s column. Once Napoleon’s scouts discovered the rear drawbridge to the castle however, his scouts would no doubt have little difficulty in tracking the shoeprints of a column of three hundred horses. For all he knew, Napoleon’s cavalry might already be bearing down on them. He estimated, however, that his column probably enjoyed at least a twenty four hour head start.
At the end of the next day the scouts reported that there was still no sign of any pursuit by Napoleon’s cavalry.
‘This can only mean that they took the shorter route and are waiting for us up ahead,’ Jason concluded.
‘I agree,’ the Marquis said. He then hesitated.
‘What troubles you?’ Jason asked.
‘I wonder whether Napoleon may not have been correct about the royal navy’s ultimate agenda. It would be sad we assisted the Royal Navy to become dominant only to fall victim to such dominance later,’ the Marquis mused.
‘Are you having second thoughts about my decision not to side with Napoleon?’
‘It is not that, your majesty. It is simply that as a Frenchman who once commanded a ship in the French navy, I do have some reservations about French royalists assisting the Royal Navy to destroy or to control the French Mediterranean fleet. My mistrust of the British is deep routed.’
‘And do you think you can trust Napoleon or the French republicans who follow him after everything the republicans have done to you, to the French aristocracy?’
‘Your majesty is of course correct about the republicans. And yet, for the life of me, I can’t seem to distinguish between Napoleon himself and King Louis XV1, except to point out that Napoleon comes across as wiser, and fairer. And his administrative abilities are apparently excellent.’
‘It’s a pity you waited until now to express these views,’ Jason said.
‘Would it have made a difference, your majesty?’
‘Probably not. Much like you, I found Napoleon to be both likeable and respectable. I certainly considered the alliance he offered most carefully.’
‘What made you decide against it?’
‘I feared one of two things. One is that Napoleon could ultimately lose power and be replaced by some other republican who could easily renege on any deal Napoleon struck with a monarchy. But what I really feared was that if we assisted Napoleon to defeat the British, he would become even an even greater hero in the eyes of the French people than he is at present. Roman history has enough examples of Generals who took advantage of their supreme popularity and their status as war heroes to side-line the republic and the senate and to entrench themselves as sole ruler for life,’ Eric said.
‘You doubt that Napoleon would have honoured the terms of his alliance if he had become sole ruler of France?’
‘Strangely I believe that he intended to keep to his end of the bargain. But I also believe that he would equally be capable of justifying the need to invade Montuga and to capture its fleet if he felt he could justify it as being necessary for France. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I distrust the British slightly less than I distrust Napoleon.’
Eric paused to consider the Marquis’s deeply furrowed brow.
&
nbsp; ‘If I had chosen an alliance with Napoleon, would you really have considered fighting alongside him against the royal navy and against fellow French aristocrats?’
‘Your majesty should understand that I remain loyal to you and to Montuga for the sanctuary it has provided to me. But I am also a Frenchman. If the royalists were to decide to hand Toulon or any French warships to the Royal Navy, this could play into Napoleon’s hands. Many Frenchmen would not hesitate to put aside internal squabbles to answer a call to defend France against the Royal Navy and any British soldiers on French soil.’ The Marquis then paused to pose a prickly question of his own.
‘Could your majesty have fought alongside Napoleon against the royal navy, in which your majesty once served?’
‘Only if I was left with no other choice to save Montuga.’
‘It would seem then, that one’s background accounts for a far greater share of one’s feelings of loyalty than one might care to admit,’ the Marquis concluded.
‘Perhaps it doesn’t do to dwell on it,’ Jason replied.
Two days later the column arrived at the small village of Escargot in one of the valleys of the French Alps. The men and all the horses were visibly exhausted. Jason had pushed them to cover greater distances than usual over the past two days. He estimated that they would arrive at the Nanoux valley at about eleven o’clock the next morning and he wondered whether the royal guards in the valley had possibly already been engaged by the French. Jason feared that if the French attacked using a large cavalry force, the royal guards would no doubt have to withdraw and flee up the pass. This would prevent him from executing his intended plan of attacking the French from behind in a pincer movement.
A long range scout sent by Jason returned to Escargot after dark. He reported a large French cavalry task force at the three way intersection leading to Escargot in the East, Excelsior in the West and the Nanoux valley in the South. The intersection was about seven miles from the Montugan base camp at the Nanoux valley. The scout estimated that the French force comprised of around eighteen hundred mounted men. They were apparently setting up camp next to the intersection. The scout expressed the opinion that the French probably planned to engage Jason’s forces at the intersection. A dense forest about a quarter of a mile to the north of the intersection would, according to the scout, be an ideal place to hide two companies of cavalry which would permit the French to launch a surprise attack from the side of the road, once the battle was underway.
‘If you are correct in your estimation, then we can assume that the French know we are here and that they are waiting for us to come to them. On the other hand, did you see anything in their preparations which suggests that they are aware that we have some troops to the south of them in the valley?’
‘No, your majesty,’ the scout replied. ‘But I also cannot say for certain that the royal guards are aware that the French cavalry has arrived. A hill separates the Nanoux valley from the intersection. The guards in the valley may be in entrenched positions waiting for the French, or for us to arrive.’
‘If that is true, we could be in trouble,’ the Marquis remarked. ‘We are three hundred against eighteen hundred. We cannot hold out against such odds unless we can be assured of a surprise synchronized pincer movement from the south. If the guards at the pass hear the battle and if they then still have to cover seven miles to join it, it may all over by the time they get there. Even if they do arrive on time, we are going to need a lot of luck to win. The French will still have the advantage in numbers.’
‘We shall have to dispatch a scout to the royal guard’s camp in the Nanoux valley tonight,’ Jason concluded.
‘With your leave, majesty, I think it would be wise for me to go with the scout. I know the area better than most. There is a little moonlight.’
‘But you will need to be careful, my lord. You must leave the road and go south into the valley well before you reach the intersection. If you were to fall into French hands, it would be a disaster.’
‘I will take care, your majesty.’