‘And if I return home in disgrace and am executed then the prospects for all of you are not golden,’ Buckingham pointed out. ‘I would not be in your shoes when you are asked what service you gave the king on the Ile de Rhé. I shall be dead, of course, so it will not trouble me. But you will all be hopelessly compromised.’

There was a little uncomfortable movement among the men in the cabin.

‘So are we all decided?’ Buckingham asked with a wolfish grin. ‘Is it to be an attack?’

‘Torres cannot stand against us!’ Soubise exclaimed. ‘He was ready to surrender once, we know the measure of the man now. He’s a coward. He won’t fight to the last, if we frighten him enough he will surrender again.’

Buckingham nodded to John as if there were no-one else to convince. ‘That’s true enough,’ he said. ‘We do know that he will surrender if he thinks a battle is lost. All we have to do is to convince him that the battle is lost.’

He leaned forward and spread out some papers on the table. John saw that they were his sketch plans, drawn when they were new to the island and his new gillyflower was heeled into his little nursery bed. Now it was rooted and putting out new shoots, and the sketches were dirty in the margin from much use.

‘We bring the ships as close as we can and pound the fort from the sea, then fall back,’ Buckingham said. ‘First one side then another, so as soon as they get our range we drop back. Then on the landward side of the fort we launch an attack. Scaling ladders to get the men to the tops of the walls. They must carry and throw down ropes. As the ships fall back from their attack, they land the sailors and they support the soldiers in the attack on the walls. As soon as the soldiers are inside they open the sally ports and the rest of the sailors come off the ships and into the gate.’

‘Perfect!’ Soubise exclaimed.

John was looking critically at the map. ‘How will the ships come forward and fall back?’ he demanded. ‘What if the wind is in the wrong quarter?’

Buckingham thought for a moment. ‘Can we use the landing craft as barges?’ he asked. ‘Take the ships in tow to help them around?’

A gentleman nodded. ‘The wind is bound to be right for either coming in or going out.’

Buckingham looked to John. ‘What d’you think, Tradescant?’

‘It might work,’ John said cautiously. ‘But we could only tow one or two ships in and out at a time. We couldn’t do the big attack you described.’

‘One or two would do it,’ Buckingham said. ‘It’s to keep their attention to the seaward side while we attack on land.’