The wounded Thuella needed copper, oak, and pitch. Day followed day and the supplies were promised, but never came. The American consul in Bordeaux pleaded on Cornelius Killick’s behalf, and the only answer had been the strange request, from Major Pierre Ducos, that the American take a chasse-maree south and investigate why the British collected such craft in St Jean de Luz. There was no French Navy to make the reconnaissance, and no French civilian crew, lured by British gold, could be trusted with the task, and so Killick had gone. Now, as he had promised, he had come to this lavish room in Bordeaux to give his report.

“Would you have any opinion,” Ducos now asked the tall American, “why the British are hiring chasse-marees?”

“Perhaps they want a regatta?” Killick laughed, saw that this Frenchman had no sense of humour at all, and sighed instead. “They plan to land on your coast, presumably.”

“Or build a bridge?”

“Where to? America? They’re filling the damned harbour with boats.” Killick drew on his cigar. “And if they were going to make a bridge, Major, wouldn’t they take down the masts? Besides, where could they build it?”

Ducos unrolled a map and tapped the estuary of the Adour. “There?”

Cornelius Killick hid his impatience, remembering that the French had never understood the sea, which was why the British fleets now sailed with such impunity. “That estuary,” the American said mildly, “has a tidefall of over fifteen feet, with currents as foul as rat-puke. If the British build a bridge there, Major, they’ll drown an army.”

Ducos supposed the American was right, but the Frenchman disliked being lectured by a ruffian from the New World. Major Ducos would have preferred confirmation from his own sources, but no reply had come to the letter that had been smuggled across the lines to the agent who served France in a British uniform. Ducos feared for that man’s safety, but the Frenchman’s pinched, scholarly face betrayed none of his worries as he interrogated the handsome American. “How many men,” Ducos asked, “could a chasse-maree carry?”