Chapter 164: Royal Scandal and Little Boys
Chapter 163 – Royal Scandal and the Little Boy
The old man with the cane was walking wobbly when suddenly he looked up and spotted Elder ahead of him.
The old man raised his hand in greeting without much care, “Good afternoon, Elder! How’s your uncle doing these days?”
Elder took off his hat and smiled stiffly, “Thanks to your patronage, he’s been doing quite well lately. It’s just that the timing was bad, he was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet for another rotation last month, otherwise he would have been able to meet you at the banquet today.”
The old man nodded slightly, he then turned his gaze to Arthur on the side, “And this is?”
Elder hurriedly introduced him, “This is my friend and the scientist that Admiral Codrington invited as a guest today, Mr. Arthur Hastings, Superintendent of Scotland Yard.”
“Police?” The old man bristled in dissatisfaction, “I hate police.”
With that, the old man walked past the pair on his cane without much care, and it wasn’t long before they heard a cock-a-doodle-doo like noise coming from the lounge.
“General Smith, what brings you here?”
“What? Can’t I come?”
“That’s not what I meant, I just heard from my colleagues at the Admiralty that you had relocated to Paris, so I thought it was only right that you should not be in London.”
“Do you not know that there is a revolution in Paris? It’s not peaceful there lately, and I, an old man, can’t withstand the tossing and turning, so I’ve returned to London for some peace and quiet. Whenever it subsides over there, when will I go back. Well …… who’s this? Yo, Cochran? Didn’t you bet that you would never go back to Britain in your life? What, looking at you like this, you’ve given in to the Admiralty?”
“It’s all in the past, Admiral Smith, you see for the sake of my supporting you and General Pilau in the Parliament back then to blockade Toulon Harbor, your old man’s mouth a little more mercy.”
“Toulon Harbor? How fucking dare you kid mention Toulon Harbor? Wasn’t it you who proposed to the Admiralty that a suicide attack on Toulon Harbor be carried out with a formation of ships packed with explosives? You weren’t the one who led the fleet out there, and look at all the fucking shit you suggested.
Luckily the Admiralty had the good sense not to listen to you. Otherwise, using all the ships for suicide attacks, are you planning to put me in command of sardines?”
“That was indeed my suggestion, but you must consider the soundness of that suggestion. It was a fireboat attack that I used before in the Battle of the Basque Waterways to successfully crush the French Brest fleet led by Allemand.
If that son of a bitch Gambier hadn’t forced me to retreat, I could have wiped out all eleven French battleships and scored a victory no less than that of Trafalgar, or at the very least, the Battle of the Nile.
But Gambier, that bastard Gambier! He rejected my suggestion of fire attack before the battle began, and accused me of saying that ‘fire attack is a cruel and contrary to Christian morality act of war,’ and when he found that I had used it to achieve great results, he gave me strict orders not to pursue it, and demanded that the fleet should retreat at once.
The most ridiculous thing is that after the battle he had me court-martialed, tell me, is he a donkey-day bastard thing!”
“Alright, alright, calm down, it was twenty years ago. But I do agree with you that Gambier is indeed a son of a bitch. On that point, you, I, and Admiral Eliab Harvey are basically in agreement that James Gambill simply doesn’t have the military literacy and basic competence to be a fleet commander.
The guy was just a seniority monger who picked up a captain’s position right off the bat by virtue of the fact that he had joined the Royal Navy in 1768, finished his apprenticeship at sea, and just happened to be in time for the springtime of the North American War of Independence in 1775, so he just passed his Admiralty exams and picked up a captain’s position in the process.
But even if that time every day war, he also spent almost 20 years, until 1794 only from the frigate captain to the battleship captain, and after that is the mother of all by the long years of military service rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. And then the dog was transferred to the Navy Headquarters to sit in an office.
And then, as you know, our honest and loyal General Gambier, as if favored by God, made the leap from Rear Admiral to Lieutenant Admiral to Admiral in just ten years.
By the way, I heard from Codrington earlier that Gambier has been promoted to the rank of Royal Navy Marshal this year along with Williams Freeman and Charles Ball, is the Admiralty out of its mind again?”
“What can be done about that? Who let our Marshal Gambier and the current King’s Majesty have a good relationship? You should also know that our King’s Majesty served in North America for twelve years ……”
Elder twisted his head to look at the lounge with a look of having seen a ghost on his face.
It wasn’t long before he realized that the three naval colonels who had originally stayed in the lounge were also sweating profusely as they walked out.
Seeing the three of them, Arthur couldn’t help but smile and ask, “Are the three of you out of matches as well?”
The three naval colonels looked at each other and laughed bitterly.
Colonel Fitzroy spoke up, “Rather than staying in the lounge, perhaps buying matches could be considered a nice job.”
Franklin, on the other hand, grumbled, “Why hasn’t Admiral Codrington come yet? He’s the only one coming over to get those two to reign it in a bit.”
Hearing this, Sir Elliot was just helpless, “Better forget it. General Thomas Cochran may be light in seniority, but he didn’t even shrug off Marshal Gambier’s orders back then. When he was court-martialed later on, he even directly scolded Marshal Gambier in court for being timid and indecisive, and later on, he slammed the Admiralty in the Parliament for being corrupt and incompetent, and for being rigid in management.
As for Admiral Sidney Smith, he was more senior than Admiral Codrington and still retired as an Admiral.
Most importantly, when he was in the Mediterranean back in the day, he didn’t even give a damn about Admiral Nelson, and his detached fleet went wherever it wanted to go, and never applied to Admiral Nelson, the Commander of Egyptian waters, when it entered or left Egyptian waters. The latter even crossed the Foreign Office several times and privately signed an armistice with the French. It’s all right for you to let General Codrington deal with the Ottomans, but he’ll never be able to handle these two.”
Elder also couldn’t help but mutter, “Is General Smith best known for these things? I’ve heard that wasn’t he suspected of knocking up Queen Caroline when he was younger?”
Hearing this, Colonel Fitzroy quickly glared and warned, “Don’t mention this. It’s still unclear exactly how this was screwed up. General Smith is only involved, don’t the other targets also include Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir George Canning?”
Elder was horrified at this, “What! They both did it too?”
Hearing this, Arthur hurriedly pulled Elder out of the room, apologizing as he did so to the colonels behind him, “Excuse me for a moment, Elder and I have to go buy matches for General Cochran.”
With that, he led Elder out of the Codrington mansion at a brisk pace, until he went out and saw the westering sun and oncoming traffic, which slowed Arthur’s pace.
The two stood by the red wall beside the road, and Arthur drew out his own pipe and matchbook and took a sharp sip.
The smoke rose in puffs and Arthur tossed the matchbook to Elder.
Elder was about to light his cigarette, but before he could strike it, he heard Arthur open his mouth and ask, “About Queen Caroline ……”
Elder’s match nearly set his hand on fire when he heard the name. He pooh-poohed a mouthful of spit and spoke, “If you wanted to hear about it so badly, what did you just pull me out for?”
Arthur shrugged, “Isn’t the person in question sitting inside? I’m worried that if he hears it, it will affect your great future in the future.”
Elder sniffed, but did not care, he returned.
“In fact, it’s nothing, when our old King George IV was still the Prince of Wales, and the Crown Princess Caroline’s feelings were not in harmony, and even after Caroline gave birth to Princess Charlotte not long after, the two of them were officially separated. And wait until George IV later when the king, but also want to directly to her to kick off.
As you know, Queen Caroline fought a long battle over the title. With both mental and physical emptiness, didn’t Queen Caroline have to get a little comfort from someone else’s embrace?”
Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but pinch his chin and nod, “That seems to make some sense, continue.”
Elder got Arthur’s affirmation, and immediately spoke with a fluttering brow about the tidbits of information he had collected from various sources.
“As you just heard, Queen Caroline has three scandalous subjects.
Among them, Sir George Canning was the most popular politician in Britannia at the time.
Sir Thomas Lawrence was then recognized as the best portrait painter in Britain.
General Sidney Smith, on the other hand, was the shining general who crossed Nelson’s path as well as the famous eccentric of the Admiralty.
Although these rumors are not necessarily true, after all, all three men had very many enemies because of their personalities and achievements. Perhaps these messages were put out by their political enemies to attack them as well.
However, the fact that Queen Caroline’s belly grew large during the days of her separation from His Majesty the King, and the fact that the Queen was very close to all three during that period, are both certain.
As to whether or not the three of them did it or not, that’s impossible to say. But according to my personal opinion, the most probable of the three is perhaps still General Sidney Smith.”
Arthur sniffed and leaned against the red wall and exhaled a smoke ring, “How so?”
Elder continued his analysis with a smug look on his face, “Arthur, think about it! At the time when this matter of Queen Caroline’s belly getting big came out was around 1802, at that time Sir Canning had just got married not long ago, and was busy attacking Viscount Sidemus’ cabinet in the parliament every day so that William Pitt the Younger could come back to power, and based on the sinister personality of that Viscount Sidemus, it’s completely possible to release this kind of news to attack Sir Canning.
And in the years that followed, these scandals did not affect Sir Canning’s political career, as he not only served as Foreign Secretary, but also as Prime Minister for a term. Mind you, he was nothing more than an actress’s kid with little background other than a banker uncle. If he did have an affair with the Queen, how did he land smoothly?
As for Sir Thomas Lawrence, he was very influential in the art world, but the scandal didn’t hurt him to follow through. The Duke of Wellington, the Marquess of Londonderry, the Earl of Aberdeen, Pius VII, and even His Majesty the King himself sought him out for portraits as usual, and knighted him and made him the Director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. So there would be no problem for him.
But General Sidney Smith was the only one who was thrown out of Britain when the scandal broke. At that time, he had already been ordered to be forcibly discharged by the Royal Navy because of his disobedience to command, but since the scandal spread more and more, in the end, the Admiralty could only pinch their noses and reinstate him, and then kick him out to the Atlantic Ocean to let him cool off with the sea breeze.”
Hearing this, Arthur suddenly looked at Elder with a little more respect in his eyes, “Elder, it’s like I’ve finally realized what you’re capable of. If you don’t engage in intelligence work in your life, you’re simply spoiling this spirit of hard work and tireless pursuit of extreme details!”
Elder was taken aback by him, “What? Are you suggesting that I, upon my return from my global voyage, join the Admiralty’s Geographic Mapping and Topographic Information Statistics Department? That’s what they do there for nautical intelligence. But I’ve heard that the requirements there are rather strict, and I’m not sure if it’s okay for a free-spirited nature like mine.”
“Yes, why not?” Arthur smiled back, “If you listen to me, could I still lie to you?”
As soon as Arthur’s words left his mouth, suddenly, he felt that his waist was hit by someone.
He jerked his head back, only to see behind himself stood a little boy holding his hands, wearing a broken felt hat, with a dirty face, who looked like he should be about ten years old.
The little boy blinked his eyes, and spoke intermittently with a Scottish accent that was different from the London accent, “First …… Mr. Trouble …… Trouble have pity on me, I haven’t eaten anything for two days. ”
Arthur first looked up at the surrounding crowd, to determine that there is no police nearby after, this only from the pocket to touch a coin in his hand.
“Young man, if you come to beg in the West End in the future, you’d better not be on this street. The frequency of police patrols here is very dense, and if they find you, although you won’t be thrown into jail, you’ll inevitably receive a few sticks or be sent to the poorhouse.”
The boy stared blankly at the silver coin in his hand, he couldn’t believe his luck today.
It was half a crown, worth two and a half shillings.
“Is this …… this really for me? First …… sir, I’ve never seen you so generous.”
Arthur just laughed at his words, and he raised his head at Elder beside him, “I’m atmospheric? No, you think I’m atmospheric because you don’t know this gentleman next to me, let him tell you to see what real atmosphere is.”
Elder would have liked to get his feet wet, but Arthur’s words, coupled with the fact that the rest of his eyes glanced at a few more young ladies and ladies who were disembarking from their carriages and looking over at the place and smiling, made him want to get his feet wet.
Our Mr. Elder, at this point, could do no more than reach that trembling hand into his pocket and pull out a silver coin, even larger than Arthur’s, and place it in the boy’s palm.
“Take this, a crown, for my grateful heart, my boy, and take it for something good to eat.”
The boy could not help smiling with delight at the sight, and he took off his hat and bowed, “Thank you, kind sir.”
Just as he was joyfully planning to take them for a good meal, suddenly he heard Elder’s shouts again from behind him.
“Wait a minute! Boy!”
Elder rushed to the little boy’s front, he looked at the ladies and ladies who had already walked away, and embarrassedly took back the half-crown silver coin that Arthur had given from the little boy’s hand, “Young man, you forgot to give me the change.”
(End of chapter)