Chapter X: The French Fleet Signalled

MRS. BRYCE could seldom be happy for long in one place. Before the end of September she had decided to quit Folkestone for Sandgate. Polly was charmed, and Mr. Bryce made no serious objection.

"If Buonaparte should come, my dear, what then?" was all that he ventured to suggest; and Mrs. Bryce snapped her fingers at the First Consul.

"Let him come, if so it pleases him. Pray, Mr. Bryce, do you consider that we are bound to shape our course with a view to gratifying old Nap?" demanded the vivacious lady.

Mr. Bryce wondered privately what his wife's feelings would be, if one day a round shot from a French man-of-war should rush through the room in which she was seated. But to Sandgate they went, on a rainy autumn day, when the sea wailed dismally, and the wind howled more dismally still, and the lodgings which Mr. Bryce had managed to secure wore an aspect most dismal of all. Even Mrs. Bryce's spirits were affected by the state of the atmosphere.

Books in their possession were few, and had already been read. Jack failed to appear so soon as they had expected. Mr. Bryce sallied forth, despite the rain; but the ladies could not think of following his example. Mrs. Bryce in despair turned to some old volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine, lying in a corner; and in so doing, to her gratification, she fished out two or three recent numbers of the same serial.

"Ah, ha, my dear Polly, now we shall do," she declared cheerfully. "Now we may defy the elements, and you shall get on with your purse-netting, and I will find something to read aloud for your entertainment. I wonder much that Jack does not come."

"Jack is busy, or he would be here," Polly said confidently. Just as she had her half-netted blue silk purse nicely arranged between foot and knee, Mr. Bryce walked in, carrying letters,—at the sight of which Polly dropped her work, and started up.

"Nay, not from France. Nothing from France," Mr. Bryce said with quick understanding; and Polly returned to her seat languidly. "One from Bath for you, and one from Norfolk for my wife. Two letters in a day! You ladies may count yourselves fortunate."

Mr. Bryce disappeared anew, and Polly remarked, "My grandmother has written to me."

"Read it aloud, Polly. 'Twill serve before the Magazine," quoth Mrs. Bryce, and Polly complied, looking ahead, lest she should stumble upon any sentence meant only for herself. The letter ran as follows:

"Bath, Oct. 28, 1803."

"MY DEAR POLLY,—Yours to Molly has very seriously disquieted my mind, I assure you. If General Moore, with his gᵗ experience considers that the French landing may be apprehended as likely soon to Take Place, 'tis sure the height of imprudence for you to remain in that neighbourhood, where the French Army, if it lands, will doubtless Pillage and Burn to the best of their Ability."

"Nor does it appear to me, my dear Polly, that you will be greatly the better off in Lonⁿ, where certainly the Invading Army will immediately march, so soon as it has effected a Landing."

"I am therefore about to Propose what seems to me the wiser plan for all of you. Which is, that you and Mrs. Bryce shou'd return again to Bath, without Delay, leaving Mr. Bryce, as Dou'tless he will desire, to take his proper share in the Defence of our Country. If Mrs. Bryce be willing to act according to this plan, I most gladly offer to her such Humble Accommodation as is in my power to bestow. The aspect of affairs is truly Alarming; and if it be seriously apprehended that Lonⁿ is like to be in greater danger of Bustle and Trouble than Bath, there is no Necessity for you all to remain in that part of England. If Mrs. Bryce can dispense for a while with the Good Table to which she is used, and can put up with more Humble Fare, then every friendly Accommodation in my power is at her Service."

"Last Saturday there appear'd before the Market Place forty-three Blacks, who said they had been prisoners to the french, but had been retaken, and were come to offer themselves volunteers to King George. The Country men stared at them, and the women cried out. The next morning here arrived a coach-full of the same colour. They are all sent to Marlborough, how to be disposed of I don't know."

"My love to Jack, who I hope will not be spoiled by his many friends,—alas, too frequently the case in these days of scarcity of Good Young Men. Molly is well and behaves herself."

"Bath, it is expected, will soon be crowded with Irish Company. A great many large houses were engaged last week. The Bristol people think that, were the french to effect a landing on some of the Welsh coasts, they might soon expect to be troubled with them there and at Bath. Several meetings have been held on this subject. But 'tis the opinion of most that Lonⁿ lies in greater danger."

"Yesterday was a solemn day for humiliation. The places of worship were well attended; and the Clergy here exerted themselves, I trust, to the best of their Abilitys."

"May God graciously avert from Old England so great a Calamity as
the presence of an Enemy upon her soil."

"Adieu.—Your affectionate Grandmother,"

"C. FAIRBANK."

Mrs. Bryce pronounced the writer's mode of expression to be "vastly old-fashioned."

"But when you write, you may thank her all the same. Mrs. Fairbank means it kindly, and if I thought old Nap would come in truth—but 'tis all bluster and empty boasting. For my part, I put no sort of belief in any invasion of our shores. But you may inform her that I am sincerely grateful; and that, should occasion arise, I will not fail to avail myself of her hospitality."

Then Mrs. Bryce turned to her own letter.

"From my cousin in Norfolk. And if you'll believe it, Polly, they're all in a bustle and a fright there too, lest Nap should land first on the eastern coast. He'll have enough on hand, if he's to go everywhere that's expected of him. And if he goes there, they'll get them away into the fen country, where 'tis thought the French soldiers won't be able to follow."

Before Polly could reply, Jack walked in, and with him a young man, Albert Peirce by name, nephew to the Admiral, and subaltern in one of the Shorncliffe regiments.

Introductions followed, and Polly bestowed one of her most graceful curtseys upon the newcomer. No doubt Polly liked to be admired, as was natural in so pretty a girl; and she read instant appreciation of her charms in Mr. Peirce's face. So she did her best to be agreeable to him during the next two hours, and she seemed to be in very good spirits. Whether those spirits remained equally good after she had disappeared for the night, she alone could know.

Early the next morning, Polly was roused by agitated sounds.

"Polly! Polly! Wake up this instant, Polly! I vow and protest, the child is crazed! Wake up, Polly! Polly, do you hear—they're coming!"

Polly roused herself with great deliberation. Though lively enough at night, she was a heavy sleeper in the morning; and she dragged herself to a sitting posture, with half-shut eyes and loosely hanging hair, looking, it must be conceded, not quite so lovely as was her wont.

"Must I get up already, ma'am? 'Tis early."

"Get up! And already! 'Tis time you bestirred yourself in good earnest! Polly, they're coming! They're on their way hither."

"Jack and Mr. Peirce!" Polly yawned.

"Jack and Mr. Peirce, quotha! Why, 'tis the French! Cannot you understand, child? I've ever said 'twas nonsense, and they'd never truly come. But they're off! they're on their way! And the wind is favourable, and tis all up with us." Mrs. Bryce frantically wrung her hands, standing beside the curtained bed, in her flowered dressing-gown, her hair hanging loose, though not descending so low as Polly's abundant mane, while her face was yellow-white with terror. "And what we're to do nobody knows. Two French fleets of transports, and a whole French army aboard! And bonfires alight, and folks all astir, and there will be fighting, and people will be killed. And Mr. Bryce will sure be in the thick of everything, and he will get shot, and I shall be left a widow, Polly."

Mrs. Bryce collapsed on the foot of the bed. "And we might have been safe away, if I hadn't made such a prodigious fool of myself, never thinking for a moment that old Nap meant a word of what he said. I protest, 'tis enough to drive one distracted. I'll never in my life go to the sea-coast again, not for no sort of consideration! And they say old Nap'll be here in a few hours, Polly, and there's no way of getting off;—not a horse to be had for love or money! If I'd had a notion of it, I'd never have stopped here."

By this time Polly had grasped the situation, and her drowsiness was gone. She sprang out of bed upon her little white toes, and made a movement akin to dancing, as she flung a pink wrapper round her shoulders. This was being in luck, she would have said, if she had spoken out her first thought. To find herself in the very thick of it all—as safe as if a hundred miles away, with Moore and his soldiers to protect her, yet able to see everything!—it was delightful. Polly was a high-spirited girl, not easily alarmed; and fear found no corner in her mind this morning. She was simply eager and excited; whereas Mrs. Bryce, who from sheer perversity had refused to believe in even the possibility of an invasion, and who from sheer lack of imagination had failed to realise beforehand what such an invasion might mean, was overwhelmed with terror.