Ramage and the Renegades

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The tiny island where Ramage and his men fought out their battle actually exists as described, 673 miles from Bahia. Still uninhibited, it belongs to Brazil. It was first surveyed by Captain Philip D'Auvergne R.N., Prince of Bouillon in 1782 and his original chart, in the British Museum, shows he made an error of only about twenty-five miles in plotting its position.

DP.

Yacht Ramage

Marigot

St Martin

French Antilles

Ramage lowered the copy of the Morning Post and listened. A carriage was clattering to a stop outside the house and old Hanson, muttering 'Coming, my Lord, coming!' as though someone was already hammering impatiently at the door, was shuffling across the hall. Pausing for a moment when he saw Ramage sitting in the drawing room he called: 'The Admiral's back, Master Nicholas!'

Dear old Hanson; for as long as Ramage could remember the butler always muttered 'Coming, coming' as he walked across the hall to answer the front door, and at every third step his right hand, with thumb and finger extended, lifted to his face to push his pince-nez back up over the bridge of his nose. It must be a most sensitive nose because Hanson's spectacles rarely slipped right off the tip to dangle from their black cord. Ramage remembered as a boy, fifteen or twenty years ago, watching fascinated as the butler lovingly polished the silver. Would they ... would they ... yes, there - but a quick movement of the right hand would, disappointingly, catch them just in time.

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