The Black Moon by Winston Graham

Author:Winston Graham [Graham, Winston]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Sagas, Fiction
ISBN: 0330463322
Google: xx3GUFnqpQoC
Amazon: B005I4UBAM
Publisher: Pan
Published: 2011-08-18T13:00:00+00:00

The early snow of March melted and was succeeded by a cold thaw. Gales and sleet followed, with floods such as had Dot been equalled in the memory of man. The Severn burst its banks at Shrewsbury and carried away bridges, the Lee overflowed the Essex Flat, all the Fens were under water and many of the inland banks swept away, the Thames rushed through. London and submerged so much of it that inhabitants at Stratford and Bow lived in their upper rooms and used rowing boats in the streets. Vessels were wrecked all round the coasts, but this time unfortunately none cast itself upon the hospitable-shores of Grambler and Sawle.

In Holland the French were triumphant, and the British government sent transports to the Weser to evacuate the remnants of their army, an army which, let down by its allies, its commissariat, its medical supplies and its own officers, had lost 6,000 dead in a week, mainly from typhus and the cold. Frederick William of Prussia had already made peace with his adversaries, and there would be barely time to get the remnants of the Expeditionary Force home. The remaining countries of, northern and central Europe were preparing to make the best peace they could with the new dynamic that the French brought. Virtually the war was over. But Pitt said: `It matters little whether the disasters which have arisen are to be ascribed to the weakness of Generals, the intrigues of camps or the jealousies of Cabinets; the fact is that they exist, and that we must anew commence the salvation of Europe.'

One person who was happy amid these disasters, who came back from London by stages, the coach slithering and sliding and lurching among the thaws of early March, was Caroline. A first prisoner-of-war list had been received by the Admiralty on which the name of Surgeon-Lieutenant Dwight Enys was officially recorded. What, however, was more to the point was a three-page letter in the same mail bag from Dwight Himself. Demelza was in her garden on the 11th of March, staring with particular pleasure at a crocus which had 'decided to rear its canary yellow head before the last frost was out of the ground, when Caroline arrived, and she knew at once by the look of her that she brought good news. Ross happened to be near by, and they went in out of the wind and read the letter together in the parlour.

`1st February, 1794/5

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