The Shadow of Tyburn Tree (47 page)

‘He takes after his father in that he is a great admirer of the Prussians, and spends much of his time training his regiment in their barrack-square evolutions. He and his wife are very devoted to one another, and I should think, the only couple in the whole court who have remained faithful to their marriage-vows. She was a Princess of Württemberg, and is of a very different nature from her predecessor. His first wife was Wilhelmina, the youngest of the three Hesse-Darmstadt girls, and she had a great taste for gallantry. My father became her lover. The Empress found them out and packed him off as her Minister to the two Sicilys; but the Queen of Naples then became his mistress, so he lost nothing by the exchange.'

Suddenly rapping Roger's arm with her fan, she went on: ‘Hist! I have just caught the Grand Duke's eye, and will present you to him.'

Neither the Grand Duke's features nor his manner were impressive. Above a long upper-lip he had a silly little retrousse nose and a pair of rather prominent brown eyes; he spoke with the jerkiness of a shy man who is called upon to display an air of authority for which he is quite unsuited. After asking Roger a few questions about himself, he said:

‘I have just obtained Her Majesty's permission to take my regiment to the front. If you are not already engaged else-where I should be happy to number you among my military household.'

Caught properly this time, there was nothing that Roger could do but bow and render thanks for the honour done him.
Later that evening he learned its cause. Catherine, true to her policy of never taking any step which might bring her son into the public eye, had refused him the command of the emergency army that was being got together for the defence of St. Petersburg. Instead, all her great Captains, Romantzof, Repnin, Suvarof, Kamenskoi and Soltikof, being away at the Turkish war serving under Prince Potemkin, she had given the command to a comparatively inexperienced general named Mouschin-Pouskin. Smarting under the humiliation of being made to play second fiddle to this almost untried commander, the Grand Duke had determined to outshine him by the size and brilliance of his personal entourage; so he was recruiting everyone he could to it as swiftly as possible.

Roger was intensely annoyed at the turn affairs had taken, but the following morning he looked to his weapons and duly presented himself at Paul Petrovitch's temporary headquarters. There, he soon saw, from the number of gentlemen assembled, that his duties would be entirely nominal and consist of no more than making one of a showy cavalcade whenever the Grand Duke chose to ride forth to battle.

For a while they all stood about watching the military-minded Prince bark orders at his troops like a Prussian drill-sergeant, then the majority of them dispersed to go about their own business.

That afternoon Natalia Andreovna brought the news that Alexis Orlof, feeling old and tired, had had the good sense voluntarily to surrender his right to command the Fleet so that the Empress might vest it in Admiral Greig; and that at that moment the gallant Scotsman was preparing to take it to sea. It sailed that evening, to the great relief of the citizens of St. Petersburg, who felt that in it lay their only real chance of protection.

For the next few days Roger danced attandance on the Grand Duke, while a vast amount of baggage was being got together, and exercised a fine bay mare which Natalia had presented to him to carry him in the campaign. Then on the 8th of July, he was warned to be ready to set out the following day. He had a last hectic meeting with his green-eyed mistress, and did his best to comfort little Zaria, by telling her that he hoped to return soon so he was keeping on his rooms, and that she could remain there in the care of Dr. Drenke. On Monday, the 9th, to much blowing of trumpets and banging of drums, he made one of the brave company which rode out with Paul Petrovitch to the war.

They had no great distance to cover, and on the third day pitched an elaborate camp, from which it was proposed to
operate against the Swedes. So far there had been no pitched-battle, only a number of skirmishes to secure frontier defiles, in most of which the Swedes had had the best of it. The people on both sides of the frontier were pro-Russian, so fairly reliable reports were constantly coming in about the invading army.

It appeared that Gustavus had arrived at Sveaborg with sixteen ships of the line, five large frigates and a great fleet of war-galleys specially designed for operating in the shallow waters among the coastal islands. Rumour had it that he had intended to march direct upon the considerable town of Frederikshamn, but had been delayed by difficulty in landing his artillery. In consequence, having now lost the chance of taking the place by surprise, he proposed to attack it from both sides simultaneously, and was waiting for his fleet to come up to seaward of it.

Roger had never yet participated in any military campaign so, annoyed as he was at having to leave the Court within a few days of securing the entrée to it, he felt that he would at least be compensated by the excitement of seeing his first battle; but his hopes were doomed to disappointment. The nervy, narrow-minded little Grand Duke proved to be no more than a parade-ground soldier. Instead of seeking out the enemy he spent his days playing the petty martinet, inspecting and drilling his troops, and inflicting savage punishments on them for such slight misdemeanours as appearing with dirty buttons. Roger soon became extremely bored, but as he was technically on active service he could think of no possible excuse which would justify him in asking leave to return to St. Petersburg.

On the 18th of July news came through that a great sea-battle had taken place the previous evening. At five o'clock in the afternoon while cruising off the island of Hogland, Admiral Greig had come across the Swedish fleet half-hidden by a fog-bank. A most bloody encounter ensued, which for a time had to be broken off from mutual exhaustion; but at eight o'clock Admiral Greig received reinforcements and attacked again. The fog had increased to such a degree that few of the ships' companies were aware of what was going on except in their immediate vicinity, and the deadly carnage continued with groups of two or three ships fighting isolated duels to a finish.

Both sides claimed a victory, but in the course of a few days it emerged that Admiral Greig had scored a great triumph, as he succeeded in driving the remains of the Swedish fleet into Sveaborg, and declared himself confident of being able to keep them bottled up there for the remainder of the campaign.

Meanwhile it became clear that, having taken a few small
towns, Gustavus had no intention of advancing further until he had reduced Frederikshamn. The immediate threat to St. Petersburg having been removed, General Mouschin-Pouskin showed no inclination to give battle, and informed the Grand Duke that he was not to risk his troops for the time being. Paul Petrovitch regarded this as a fresh insult, and, evidently having no stomach for the more active part that he might be called on to play later, seized on it as an excuse to resign his little command. To Roger's great delight, on the 28th of the month the camp was packed up, and on the 30th, he accompanied the Grand Duke ingloriously back to St. Petersburg.

The only thing he had gained from his three weeks of abortive campaigning was the somewhat disquieting knowledge that, should he have the good luck to gain any special intelligence which might prove of value to King Gustavus, it would be no easy matter for him to get through with it to the Swedish lines. On numerous occasions he had ridden out with reconnaissance parties, and each time they had approached one of the comparatively few ways of ingress through the exceptionally marshy and difficult country into Swedish Finland, they had found it guarded by a strong outpost with orders to turn everyone back. In addition the woods and fens were patrolled by
sotnias
of wild Cossacks, who were apt to give short shrift to anyone they suspected of attempting to go over to the Swedes.

That these precautions were well justified Roger learned on his return to St. Petersburg. Apparently Gustavus was having considerable trouble with his army. It was said that, to justify his unconstitutional act in going to war without having first obtained the consent of his
Riksdag
, he had dressed up a lot of Finnish peasants in Russian uniforms, caused them to fire upon his troops, then fired upon them in return; afterwards declaring that Russia had attacked Finland and he was within his rights in waging a defensive war.

This measure of the crafty King had not fooled his own officers, and many of the nobility among them were reported, to have expressed their disapproval of the war in the strongest terms; while others, particularly from the Finnish regiments, had deserted and come over to the Russians.

On the other hand many of the Russians also displayed little inclination to fight; and after his successful action off Sveaborg Admiral Greig had sent three of his Russian captains back to Cronstadt in irons, charged with deliberately mishandling their ships in order to evade coming to action. Thus, cowardice and treachery being feared by the commanders on both sides, special measures were being taken to prevent traitors communicating with the enemy.

The only land-route from Helsingfors to Stockholm being well over a thousand miles, and a great part of it through almost trackless mountains, Gustavus was now completely cut off from his base. This new development provided a good reason for him to offer the Empress an accommodation, and he did so, but not with any desire for peace. He was clever enought to see that in whatever terms he made it the fact of its rejection would serve to strengthen his hand with his discontented officers, and he took care that its conditions should be entirely unacceptable, even demanding that Russia should disarm until the conclusion of the treaty.

Natalia Andreovna told Roger that the Empress was so furious when she received it that she had exclaimed: ‘What language! If the King of Sweden were already at Moscow I should even then show him what a woman is able to do, standing on the ruins of a mighty empire.'

Her only reply was to replace the inept Mouschin-Pouskin with the more active General Mikhelson, who promptly attacked a strong Swedish post at Savolax and won a somewhat costly victory.

Gustavus, feeling that he had already lingered over-long at Frederikshamn now determined to take the town by assault. Embarking some half of his troops into galleys, he sent them to the far side of the bay under General Siegeroth with orders that when they had landed and were ready to attack, the General should fire a cannon, upon which both forces would hurl themselves upon the enemy.

After some difficulty with contrary winds Siegeroth carried out the manœuvre and fired his cannon. It proved a signal for the most bitter humiliation of the unfortunate King. He had already placed himself at the head of his troops and was about to give the order to charge when Colonel Hesteko and a number of other officers rode up to him.

The Colonel declared firmly that it was wrong for His Majesty to expose his own life and that of his subjects for such an unjustifiable cause, and that he and his friends refused to be a party to it.

In vain the King upbraided the group as cowards. Then, turning to the troops he appealed to them in Swedish to follow him without their officers. Not a man would budge, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that he prevailed upon them not to lay down their arms there and then.

Gustavus, far from home, the major part of his fine fleet destroyed, his lines of communication cut and his army in a state of sullen mutiny, now seemed in a desperate situation; and as tidings of the parlous state to which he had so swiftly
been reduced drifted through to St. Petersburg, Roger became extremely worried.

It was not that he felt any particular attachment to the Swedish King, although he had a considerable admiration for his courage. Moreover his personal sympathies naturally inclined towards the Russians, both because they had been attacked without justification or warning and owing to their ready acceptance of him in their midst as a friend and comrade. Yet he knew well enough that far deeper issues were involved. However unprincipled Gustavus might be, he was fighting Britain's battle. He alone among the Princes of the North had had the insight to see that unless a check could be put upon Catherine's lust for power, she would subjugate the whole of Scandinavia. Mr, Pitt had foreseen that the rise of the mighty Russian Empire now constituted a new menace to all Europe and had specifically laid it down that, unless Catherine could be induced to enter into a pact for the maintenance of lasting peace, no effort must be spared to assist those who were prepared to challenge Russian aggrandisement.

Apart from the Grand Turk, who was merely endeavouring to defend himself, Gustavus was the only monarch who had dared to defy the growing might of the unscrupulous Muscovites, and Roger knew that it was his duty to aid him if it were in any way possible to do so. The trouble was that he could think of no means by which anyone in his position could conceivably lessen the plight in which the Swedish King had landed himself.

In due proportion to the decline in Gustavus's fortunes, Catherine's elation soared. She had now succeeded in mustering twenty thousand men, and in view of the semi-mutinous state of the Swedish army, could consider St. Petersburg safe from attack by land as well as by sea. Moreover, with the truly maternal desire not to hazard the lives of her soldiers needlessly, and the brilliant generalship which was one of her many gifts, she had been swift to seize upon the possibility of rendering further fighting redundant by causing Gustavus's own subjects to bring about his final destruction. To this end she sent secret agents to put certain proposals before her enemy's rebellious officers, and issued fresh orders that deserters from the Swedish army were now to be encouraged and allowed to pass through the Russian lines.

The result was that in mid-August a deputation of Finns, representing a considerable body of Gustavus's mutinous troops, arrived in St. Petersburg.