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looked pensively round the cabin. ‘You seem to have a little piece of England here, Captain.’
    Drinkwater smiled and drained his own glass. ‘The other man’s grass always appears a little greener.’
    Wilson rose. ‘The sooner you deliver your specie to Revel, Captain,the better. My stock at Imperial headquarters may rise a little and I may be less importuned and accused of British lassitude. The Russians are constantly asking why we do not send troops to their assistance. Money and arms seem to disappear without effect.’
    â€˜God knows it costs enough without our having to fight their battles for them!’ Drinkwater said indignantly.
    â€˜Ah, the pernicious income tax!’
    â€˜I was not thinking merely of the money, Colonel.’ Drinkwater gestured vaguely around him.’ It is not merely ships that make up the navy. It takes many men. Do the Russians not appreciate that?’
    Wilson raised his eyebrows, his expression one of amused cynicism, and, pulling himself upright, caught his head on the deck beam above. Wincing, he said, ‘They are a land-power, Captain. We cannot expect them to understand.’ He extended his hand.
    â€˜Let us hope’, said Drinkwater, shaking hands, ‘that you and Bennigsen finish the business. Then we can enjoy our next glass together in London.’
    â€˜A cheering and worthy sentiment, Captain Drinkwater, and one that I endorse with all my heart.’
    Drinkwater accompanied Wilson on deck and saw him over the side. He watched as the barge was pulled across to Young’s brig, the
Jenny Marsden
. Wilson looked back once and waved. Drinkwater acknowledged the valediction then turned to the officer of the watch. ‘Well, Mr Fraser . . .’
    â€˜Sir?’
    â€˜Not all the lobsters strut about St James’s. Now do you prepare to get the ship under weigh.’

4
April 1807

A Stay of Execution
    â€˜It comes on to blow, Mr Q!’ Drinkwater clamped his hat more securely on his head. ‘You were quite right to call me.’ He staggered as
Antigone
’s deck heeled to the thump of a heavy sea. The wave surged past them as the stern lifted and the bow dropped again, its breaking crest hissing with wind-driven fury as it was torn into spume.
    â€˜We must put about upon the instant! Call all hands!’
    â€˜Aye, aye, sir!’ Quilhampton shouted forward and the bosun’s mate of the watch began to pipe at the hatchways, then he turned back to the captain who had crossed the heeling deck to glance at the compass in the binnacle. ‘I’ve had Walmsley aloft this past hour and there’s no passage as yet . . .’
    Drinkwater moved to the rail, grasped a stay and stared to leeward as
Antigone
lay down under the sudden furious onslaught of a squall. Through his hand he could feel the vibration of the wind in the frigate’s rigging, feel the slackness in the rope as it bowed to leeward. He wiped his eyes and stared across the white-streaked water that heaved and boiled in the short, savage seas that were the result of comparatively shallow water and a quickly risen gale. The rim of the sea terminated, not at the skyline, but in a line of ice.
    â€˜Damned unseasonable,’ Drinkwater muttered – unconsciously rubbing his shoulder which ached from damp and the chill proximity of the ice – while he considered the effect of the gale on the sea. It occurred to him that it might bring warmer air to melt the ice, and the thought cheered him a little, for it was clear that until the ice retreated further northwards any hope of reaching Revel was out of the question.
    Drinkwater left Quilhampton to tack the ship. The frigate came round like a jibbed horse, her backed fore-yards spinning her high-stabbing bowsprit against the last shreds of daylight in the west.
    â€˜Mains’l haul!’ The blocks clicked and rattled and the men hauledfuriously, running the lee