The Lion of Midnight Read Online Free

little craft that started to ply around us as we approached Gothenburg begged to differ. Each claimed to offer the services of the finest pilot in West Sweden, derided our folly in navigating these waters without his services, and proclaimed that we would certainly come to grief on any of the vast rocks that had mysteriously come into being since our charts were drawn.
    I surveyed the scene from the quarterdeck, content to leave the conning of the ship entirely to Jeary. Phineas Musk and Lord Conisbrough were alongside me, looking out onto what for the noble lord was clearly a familiar spectacle: he named this island and that castle, identifying the owners of many of them. A surprising number seemed still to be the property of the former queen, Christina, whose abdication had evidently not condemned her to poverty. At length, I asked Conisbrough what I might expect in Gothenburg. After all, God alone knew when we would find a conjunction of wind and tide that would permit us to put to sea with an entire mast-fleet of eight ships, even if that fleet were ready to sail at a moment’s notice – and knowing the nature of our English ship-masters and seamen, I doubted if that would be the case.
    Conisbrough looked across to the distant shore of the mainland, a rocky strand of jagged cliffs and hills. For such a vast man, the eyes set within his ugly face were remarkably small, the eyebrows almost feminine. ‘Gothenburg is a viper’s nest,’ he said slowly. ‘The Dutch and English vie against each other, waging their own private war on this foreign sod. There are Dutch inns and English ones, and woe betide any man foolish – or drunk – enough – to enter the wrong door. Like most of the city elders, the
Landtshere
– that is the name for a governor in this country – namely, the noble Baron Ter Horst, favours the Dutch. He is no friend of the English. His father was a Dutchman, and the entire city was built up by the Dutch, less than half a century past.But the Gothenburgers are shrewd. They know full well that the rest of Sweden detests the Dutch as being the age-old ally of the Dane, so they tread carefully. Sweden is neutral, so Gothenburg pretends to be neutral, but all know where the city’s true sympathies lie.’ Conisbrough turned to face me directly. He was a truly vast man; I was of a goodly height, one of the few men at his court able to look Charles Stuart in the eye, but I felt myself dwarfed by this hirsute titan before me. ‘But trust not too far among the English of Gothenburg, Sir Matthew,’ he continued, ‘for our race in its turn is divided between royalists and the old Commonwealths-men, the Cromwellians, and all kinds of skulking fanatics who have made the place a safe haven.’ Musk looked at him with unfeigned interest: an unexpected opportunity to crack a few round heads was suddenly opening up before him. ‘Why,’ said Conisbrough , ‘Gothenburg even harbours a regicide, who walks brazenly in the open here and does not even fear lest the wrath of King Charles might put a blade in his belly.’ Conisbrough’s speculation was not outlandish : eighteen months before, one of the fifty-nine vile traitors who signed the late king’s death warrant had been murdered at Lausanne by an Irishman shouting ‘
vive le roi
!’ as he pressed the pistol to the rogue’s head. Needless to say, our court (and my mother, who had her own very private reasons for detesting the regicides) had rejoiced heartily upon the tidings. ‘Then, of course, there are the Scots,’ Conisbrough said, ‘who endeavour to profit their own enterprises, regardless of the war and regardless of the purchasers.’
    ‘They sell to the Dutch?’ I protested.
    Conisbrough nodded.
    ‘But that is treason!’
    The noble baron smiled. ‘Your Scot has an elastic notion of treason, Sir Matthew, especially if a goodly supply of florins might be in the offing . The Scots factors in the pitch and tar trades have greatly fattened their