Clydee

Mine too!!! I couldn't possibly tell you how many times I have read the whole thing. There are so many great chapters, There are so many great characters I can't decide who I like best. Cavendish for one, Winkler. Daventrey for another, and the list goes on and on.

I see tempers are starting to flare..

Mark, Thank goodness...I was worried you may have for some reason or another abandoned this story and that would have been such a shame. But you haven't and that is a good thing! I don't know how you manage to deal with all of these different personalities, but you do it so well! PLUS writing your other stories too! Now I wonder what is next for George. I thoroughly enjoy your writing and I thank you for so many enjoyable hours of reading. Clyde

I'd like to see Cavendish elevated...he's always been a interesting character and very wise even at his age. Maybe his father would appreciate him more (like he should!)

His lordship will probably live in the new place and rent out the other. You can only live in one place at a time and the new place is going to be more modern. That is unless he updates the Portland Place home with gas and plumbing like the new one. The one in Cowes (sp?) will be updated at some point also, I imagine. Great chapter, Mark! clyde

Mark, I love all of your stories, especially the ones about Granger. If I were to have as much sex as Granger does I'd be sore and exhausted all the time! I suspect your are deliberately teasing us about the upcoming meeting with Napoleon just to keep us in anticipation or just being mean! l understand and if I could write I would do just the same thing. Love this series and always will. Thank you.

I hope this means you will finish the Falcon Banner series too. Welcome back, I've missed your writings.

You know what, I am beginning to think Christopher has abandoned this story. How long has it been? Over a year and a half since the last post from him and while I realize he had to redo the last book...oh, never mind, I'm just whining. I'm afraid he's going to lose his audience if we don't get something pretty soon. I would hate to see that happen, I love all his books.

I think the Spaniards may have quite a bit to do with Granger's release...and the reason I think that is because Mark brought it up. It hadn't occurred to me that his friends in the Spanish court might be able to influence his release somehow. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I don't see Calvert's assignment to the West Indies as a bad thing, certainly not to be treated as an exile. He is a legitimate captain of a frigate in his majesty's navy, after all. It seems to me that everyone in England who counts is aware of the Granger/Calvert connection...are there no secrets any more? Whatever, no one seems to mind all that much. Of course they don't have any hard evidence either, just speculation. No one has caught them in action, thank goodness!

Maybe they will treat George with a 74 and cut him loose to prowl...or maybe he'll just take a 74 from the French with a crew of captured British sailors and then create some mayhem with them. It wouldn't be out of character for Mark to provide us with such an opportunity! I'm sure that a lot of things would have to fall into place for that to happen, not at least violating his parole...unless he was forced to escape somehow. We never know exactly what lurks in the mind of our esteemed author! The scenario I had in mind would be someone high in the French government deciding to execute George so he has to escape and ventures (eventually) to a port city where they are holding British prisoners of war, and well, you can guess the rest! But, since I ain't writing this thing, I guess we'll have to wait for Mark to decide!

He'll probably be elevated to Earldom at least. I would, anyway! With his string of successes plus his work at the Nile, a Dukedom might even be possible. We'll see if King George agrees!

What an interesting chapter! I don't really understand Caroline's reaction to Calvert and Gatling. One would have thought she would have been pleased with the recent developments, but no, she goes ballistic because they are pulling away from George. How she gets treason out of it I don't know. I think she's over reacting... Glad to see that George has new company for his stay in France! It was only a matter of time... Thank you, Mark, you've read my mind and sent us a new chapter!

Whatever happened to the 200,000 in silver that Calvert picked up? Is he planning to blow it all on a Bahamas vac? I'm pretty sure he hadn't transferred it to Baccante. I don't remember him saying anything about it, for that matter. Maybe he did and I just missed it...

Well, I for one enjoyed the chapter very much. I always thought Winkler should have someone to love and be loved. He and Jacobs seem to fit well together and I'm sure Mark has a solution in mind about Jacob's marriage... Whatever happens between Jacobs and his wife remains to be seen obviously, and they (Winkler and Jacobs) might as well be a couple while they can.

Another great chapter, Mark! The battle scenes were among your best! With Granger captured, I wonder how well he will be treated, since he's been such a thorn in the French's side for so long. Maybe he'll meet up with someone knows him and respects him as an honorable foe and be released. On the other hand, they might want to eliminate him for good... On the Hornblower issue, I see quite a difference between the show and the books, but you are right, look at them as two seperate entities and you'll be happier. I have some of the series on my Kindle, but not all are there. The part where he takes on the 4 ships and gets captured is not on Kindle yet, as far as I can tell. It's a bit annoying, because they skip over that part and go on to his becoming a Commodore. I think this whole Bridgemont Series should be put on E-books when you get the chance. I'd love to have it on Kindle! I love this subject and you write it so well. Another series of books I've read are the Bolitho series by Alexander Kent. Really good! I was a little surprised to encounter Jack Aubrey in this chapter, but I guess I shouldn't be. I've read some of Patrick O'Brien's books, but he really gets technical in his writing and it takes a lot of patience to get through some of them. (and there are a lot of them!) Sorry for all the hopping around...at my age it's what I seem to do! Thanks again for a great chapter and for a great series!