You have given him the right to order the
militia to obey him, and nothing could be better. He will organize like
a master. We haven't forgotten his fight on the Ariadne. Didn't the
admiral tell the story at the dinner we gave him of how this ex-convict
and mutineer, by sheer genius, broke the power of the French at the
critical moment and saved our fleet, though it was only three-fourths
that of the French?"
"You don't think the French will get us some day?" asked the governor
with a smile.
"I certainly don't since our defences have been improved. Look at the
sixty big cannon on Fort Augusta! They'd be knocked to smithereens
before they could get into the quiet waters of the harbour. Don't forget
the narrows, your honour. Then there's the Apostle's Battery with its
huge shot, and the guns of Fort Royal would give them a cross-fire that
would make them sick. Besides, we could stop them within the shoals and
reefs and narrow channels before they got near the inner circle. It
would only be the hand of God that would get them in, and it doesn't work
for Frenchmen these days, I observe.
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