Elisabeth closed the door and turned to the empty room. Part of her felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness, of having been abandoned. She could barely grasp in her mind everything that had happened, the distance she’d come. But another part of her trembled with nervous excitement.

She went downstairs and ordered hot water for a bath, and then she opened all the windows and shutters in her room, let the heat pour in.

EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS OF THE BEXHILL COURT MARTIAL 13 SEPTEMBER 1810

(1) Testimony of Charles William Talbert, pilot of His Majesty’s cutter Arrowhead: ‘They had her mizzen for a foresail and the foresail out for a main and you’d have caught more air in a coat if you’d’ve known what you were doing, Your Honour.’

(2) Testimony of George Boulton, owner of Swiftwing, in pursuit of the stolen craft aboard His Majesty’s cutter Arrowhead: ‘When the fog came in we thought, well, that’s it, we’ll never catch up now, not with the cover and then the night coming and the wind in the right direction. But we sailed out for a look in the morning and the fog blew off quick like. She’d basically drifted down the coast, and when we got to her, she was sitting like a log on the water and one of ’em was splashing an oar around.’

Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.R. Pike for the Prosecution: ‘How far had she sailed?’

Boulton: ‘Oh, about six or seven miles off the Hythe head. But to be perfectly accurate, sir, there were no sailing about it.’

(3) Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.R. Pike for the Prosecution, questioning Sergeant Edward Tennant, who’d been aboard His Majesty’s cutter Arrowhead in pursuit of the two deserters from the 2nd Light Battalion of the King’s German Legion: ‘It has been claimed, Sergeant Tennant, that the two accused called out, “France! France!” in an excited manner and with their arms waving when His Majesty’s cutter Arrowhead became visible to them after the fog lifted. Is this correct?’

Sergeant Edward Tennant: ‘Yes, that is correct, sir.’

Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.R. Pike: ‘How did you interpret their actions?’

Sergeant Edward Tennant: ‘They thought we were French, sir. They believed they’d made it across the Channel and reached the coast of France.’

Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.R. Pike: ‘Were they fearful or gleeful?’

Sergeant Edward Tennant: ‘I would say they were gleeful, sir.’

Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.R. Pike, addressing the Judge Advocate: ‘I understand this as no less than an act of treason. I submit the prisoners should be hung until dead as in accordance with the law.’