For King or Commonwealth by Richard Woodman Read Free Book Online

the northwards.
    â€˜What d’you make of her?’ Faulkner had asked when he had come on deck in response to Lazenby’s summons.
    â€˜She’s a packet, sir,’ Lazenby had remarked confidently, handing his glass to Faulkner. ‘Mark the spars . . .’
    â€˜Indeed, and the extent of her sails,’ Faulkner said, lowering the telescope and returning it to its owner. ‘She may outrun us.’
    â€˜Aye and let every vessel on the coasts know of us.’
    Faulkner chuckled with some satisfaction. ‘I doubt not that we are already well known to the under-writers and on “Change”.’ In ten days they had taken three prizes, two off the Texel fresh from being nipped in the Baltic ice and full of Russian hemp and flax, Swedish iron and timber from Dantzig. Shifting his cruising ground, Faulkner had next crossed to Orfordness and, finding a large vessel anchored in Hollesley Bay, had swooped upon her flying the new cross-and-harp ensign of the English Commonwealth. Ranging up alongside with his guns run out, Faulkner was gratified in seeing half her company escape towards Harwich in the ship’s longboat.
    â€˜God’s blood, Mr White!’ he had called to his lieutenant commanding his small broadside in the waist. ‘They fear we are about to press them!’
    Faulkner could scarce believe his luck, though it cost him a quarter of his own company to send her home to Mainwaring’s care as Prince Rupert’s prize-agent. Worthily named the
Hope
, in due course he was to learn that she had been commissioned as the
King’s Falconer
in his honour. Drawing offshore to cover the
Hope
’s passage to Helvoetsluys, the
Phoenix
recovered her prize crew without putting in to the Haringvliet, Rupert using their return to send two of his ships out to watch for the Earl of Warwick’s squadron that was expected daily, intent on blockading the Royalist fleet in the Haringvliet.
    Faulkner crossed to the vicinity of the Smith’s Knoll, picking up intelligence from the fishermen drifting for herring. Among the news that he gleaned was that Warwick, his loyalty to the Parliamentary cause in doubt, had been replaced by Vice-Admiral Robert Moulton. As to the fishermen, he was scrupulous in making no move against them, except to ask if any wished to serve the King. He picked up three young men anxious to avoid service in the army, but, more importantly, his investment in Genever gin yielded the latest news of the King’s trial which both he and Mainwaring were anxious to learn.
    â€˜We must keep abreast of events, Kit,’ the old man had insisted, casting a significant glance at Katherine by the fire. ‘Do not trouble yourself about her,’ Mainwaring had added, squeezing Faulkner’s arm. ‘She too has a future as dear to me as mine own life.’
    It was after the recruitment of the three young fishermen that they had sighted the packet and given chase and now Faulkner, with Lazenby pacing beside him, made up his mind. Looking at the distance of their quarry, Faulkner turned his attention to the sky and ceased walking. Beside him Lazenby paused and, seeing Faulkner’s attention had focused on the sky, followed his gaze.
    â€˜No. But you are correct, Mr Lazenby. We shall have a change in the weather by tomorrow. Do you maintain the chase until darkness and then we shall haul our wind and stand to the southward. I have a mind to pursue a favourite scheme and now is the time.’
    â€˜May I ask where you intend to strike, sir?’
    â€˜The Nore, Lazenby, the Nore.’
    It felt as though spring had deserted the mouth of the great river as, two days later, the Phoenix ghosted up the Swin in a light and freezing north-easterly breeze. She seemed like a phantom to the two Leigh bawleys fishing on the edge of the Barrow Sand, the sea-smoke rising about her and almost entirely concealing her so that they were afterwards unable to tell the