Chapters 8 and 9 Summary

Hornblower holds council with Bush, Vickery, Cole, Mound, Duncan, and Freeman, the captains and commanders of the flotilla. He explains the political situation obtaining in the Baltic—Denmark is hostile; Sweden, Russia, and Swedish Pomerania are nominally neutral. A variety of other independent cities or small countries, including Prussia, have various allegiance to France. Hornblower himself does not know the answers to all their questions. They then disperse and start sweeping for the French privateer. A heavy fog rolls in just as a strange sail is raised. Hornblower enjoins the chase and things are made confusing by the fog. Signals are exchanged and Blanchefleur is cut off from escape and then cut off from a friendly harbor. She finally seeks shelter, anchoring in shoaling water within shot range of a Swedish fortress. Approach to her is made difficult by various...