The Lion of Midnight Read Online Free Page A

bellies by shipping cargo after cargo to Amsterdam since this war began.’
    Musk nodded in vigorous agreement; he had little love for those whom now, since the late Union, we are meant to call ‘North Britons’ and embrace as our dear neighbours.
    The king would hear of this, I vowed, feeling a sense of loyal indignation at such behaviour. Thus distracted and irritated by the perfidiousness of the North Britons, I entirely overlooked the real import of what My Lord Conisbrough had told me.
    ‘Well then,’ I said, ‘I see I shall need to be on my guard in this Gothenburg of yours, My Lord. I pray our sailing with the mast-fleet is not unduly delayed, lest we become too embroiled in this northern Sodom.’
    ‘Doesn’t sound so bad,’ said Musk. ‘Sounds much like Colchester.’
    ‘I have not yet told you the half,’ said Conisbrough heavily. ‘There are also the Danes, resentful of the Swedes’ triumph over them in the late war and outraged by what they call our perfidy at Bergen. The city is full of them, for you know how close we are to their lands. They will seek an early blow against England to redeem the honour of their realms, you can be sure of it. And there are the Swedes themselves, of course. Their great victories have made them almost as arrogant as the French, but they have also become more peevish among themelves. Not a day goes by there without swords being drawn for and against the High Chancellor , or for and against a restoration of the late queen.’
    ‘The late queen? Christina?’ I said, with some surprise. ‘But she converted to Catholicism and removed herself to Rome! Can there be Swedes who favour her return?’
    Conisbrough nodded. ‘She is a Vasa, of their own dynasty, unlike the German cousin to whom she resigned the crown. The child of Gustavus Adolphus, their hero king. Many will forgive her anything, even her religion, and there are even many true Lutherans who would rather see her back on the throne than the feeble dullard of a boy who occupies it now.’ As Conisbrough implied, King Karl the Tenth had died suddenly at the height of his fame but six years before, leaving a backward childof four to succeed him. ‘Indeed, some say Christina seeks just that,’ said Conisbrough. ‘You know she returned from Rome, a few years past, to assert her right to succeed young Karl if he should die? But the visit served only to remind her of how cold Sweden is. Ever since, she has not stirred from the Roman sunshine.’
    Musk blew onto his hands. ‘Can’t say I blame her,’ he said.
    So this was our destination. A vipers’ nest. I thought back to how grateful I had been when the Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England , entrusted me with the command of the
Cressy
, one of the few ships of such size set out over the winter, as a reward for my gallant services in the previous summer’s campaign. I recalled the delight of my wife – that is, of Cornelia, Lady Quinton, a title she deployed like a First Rate – at the prospect of the pay that would accrue to me for this voyage (it being common practice for the masters of merchant ships under convoy to provide ‘gifts’ to the captain of that convoy, quite apart from the wages that His Majesty might eventually deign to pay, many months in arrears). I had envisaged an easy winter’s cruise, bringing back the mast-ships before our main fleet fitted out for the summer’s campaign. I hoped for a good command – one of the vast new Third Rates at the very least – but as a knight and the former captain of a Second Rate, albeit a small and ancient one, I might even have some expectation of hoisting my own flag. It was a notable transformation for someone who could barely have told fore from aft just five years since; but Conisbrough’s words, and our encounter with the
Oldenborg
, made much of my confident optimism fall away. Even setting aside all of the potential pitfalls that lurked ashore in Gothenburg, it was certain that by the