The Surgion's Mate

Our protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Swift, begins his self-journey as a young loblolly boy, an untrained surgeon's assistant aboard HMS Victory as it enters the pivotal Battle of Trafalgar. His courage and self-respect are severely tested. Jean, Jack to his mates, however, has a burning ambition to make something of himself beyond his lowly status. Jack, we find, is an émigré from the French Revolution, his mother and Grand-mere sending him to England as a boy for his safety. He bears hatred for his English father who abandoned the family at the start of the Revolution. After the battle, Jack does a stint with the surgeons at the British hospital in Gibraltar. There, his fluency in French gains him pertinent information from wounded prisoners. This leads him to be coerced into accepting an espionage mission to France to discover the future naval and invasion plans of Napoleon. To do so, Jack must trail Admiral Villeneuve, the commander of French naval forces at Trafalgar. Jack is teamed up with an English agent, the beautiful and promiscuous Lady Dunbar. Jack falls in love with her, only to have his callow heart broken. Recovering from the emotional wound, he is sent to an English farm to be prepared for his mission by a French soldier, a deserter named Francoise. The man, suffering mentally from the wars, becomes Jack's mentor and close friend. He teaches Jack everything needed to enter France clandestinely as a dragoon. Jack anxiously enters France, meeting up with an English agent who, in short order, is arrested as a spy. Unable to save his new friend, Jack trails Villeneuve to determine the man's next assignment. Instead, while staying at the same hotel outside of Paris, Jack witnesses Villeneuve's assassination. He is now pursued by the assassins and their fearsome leader, a one-eyed man Jack calls "Tricorn." Jack flees, trying to find his family in rural France, eventually escaping his pursuers. He finds his Grand-mere in a remote area of France. Her housekeeper is a beautiful young woman, Angeline, an orphan with a troubled secret past. The women hide Jack. Soon, Jack and Angeline fall in love. Their peace is disturbed when Jack is found by Tricorn and his thugs. Grand-mere is murdered as Jack and Angeline escape. Angeline's subsequently abducted by Tricorn's men. Jack rescues her, killing several of the men, but Tricorn escapes. Angeline turns against Jack. He becomes suspicious of her when he learns she knew one of the men. Feeling betrayed, Jack reluctantly leaves Angeline. Shortly, he is caught by military scouts leading a medical train. He's accused of desertion, and about to be hanged when Angeline returns, professing her love. Jack's life is saved only when his execution is halted by the arrival of Chief Surgeon Larrey of Napoleon's army, who desperately needs more surgeons for a coming battle. Jack's able to prove his medical knowledge to Larrey, but is now unwittingly drawn into the Battle of Jena against the Prussians. Jack and Angeline risk their lives, going onto the battlefields to rescue the wounded, bringing them back for surgery in horse-drawn ambulances to field hospitals. At the height of battle, Jack is about to be killed, when Angeline saves his life. In a startling turn, Jack learns Angeline's secret. Now, a plague befalls the victorious French army, and Jack falls deathly ill from Camp Fever. In a delirium, he dreams he is being sent to convalesce in Holland, rescued by a mysterious English agent. He recovers weeks later, indeed in Holland, and taken under wing by Hollanders working for the English. Jack and Angeline are brought back to England safely, and soon married. Jack's former surgeon aboard Victory becomes his benefactor, arranging for him to attend medical school. Jack finally achieves peace with his new family, when he is again approached to volunteer for an espionage mission. He declines the offer, but in the process, gains surprising insights as he's about to start a new life

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