The Hundred Days (32 page)

Jack drank his own sherry with satisfaction and
they sat down to a remarkably copious supper. Picking up his fork he said, ‘Did
you say that Lord Barmouth was remarried? I heard nothing about it.’

‘He was, though. To Admiral Horton’s remarkably
handsome young widow. It is her absence that makes him crosser than usual.’

Jack nodded vaguely, and in the pause between the
pair of fowls and the sucking-pig he asked, ‘Did you wait on Lord Keith?’

‘Yes, I did,’ said Dundas. ‘I had a message for him
from my father; but I should have gone in any case. I have a great respect for
the Admiral.’

‘So have I. How was Lady Keith?’

‘As lovely, and kind, and learned as ever: she was
good enough to ask me to dinner, and she and the chaplain of one of the
seventy-fours prattled away about some peculiarities of the Hebrew used in the
Jewish community on the Rock.’

‘Do they indeed use a colloquial Hebrew?’ asked
Stephen. ‘I had always supposed that they kept to their archaic Spanish.’

‘From what I gathered they spoke Hebrew when Jews
from remote countries appeared - countries where Arabic or Persian took the
place of Spanish. Rather as those more learned than I am use Latin when they
are in Poland or, God preserve us, Lithuania.’

‘As I remember,’ said Jack, ‘they meant to stake a
house somewhere near the Governor’s cottage.’

‘Just so: Ballinden. It is a little higher up, but
somewhat closer to the town. A charming place, with a prodigious view of the
Straits and a fine garden kept by a Scorpion: perhaps rather large for them and
I am afraid the apes are a nuisance at times. But they both seem very happy
there.’

‘Bless them,’ said Jack, raising his glass. ‘They
were both most uncommon kind to me.’

Pudding came on almost as soon as they had drunk
the Keiths’ health, a fine honest naval pudding of the kind that Jack and Dundas loved, and to which
Stephen (unlike Jacob) had become inured. ‘Thank you very much,’ said Dundas, refusing a second piece,
‘and I am afraid I must...’ Before he could utter the words ‘tear myself away’
the Surprise’s bell struck eight times, the cabin door opened and the
midshipman in charge of Captain Dundas’ barge said, ‘Sir, you told me to ..

 ‘Very true,
Simmons,’ said Dundas. ‘Jack, thank you many,
many times for a splendid supper; but if I do not speed on my way, I shall be
flogged round the fleet. Gentlemen’ - bowing to Stephen and
Jacob - ‘your servant.’

All was over, the table cleared, all but for the
brandy. Jacob had said good night, and a curious silence filled the cabin.

‘Seeing Dundas hurry off in such a
dutiful, truly naval fashion,’ said Stephen, ‘puts me in mind of an indiscreet
question that I have often been tempted to ask you: and since after all I too
am essentially concerned in our voyage, I shall venture upon it now. If Heneage
Dundas is in danger of being flogged round the fleet for dillying and dallying
on his way, may you not run the same risk, when at last your snail’s pace
brings you to Gibraltar and the Commander-inChief, who is not your very closest
friend?’

‘Stephen,’ said Jack, ‘I dare say you have noticed
that the moon changes both her shape and her hours of rising and setting from
time to time?’

‘Indeed I have - a most inconstant orb. Sometimes a
mere sickle facing left, sometimes right; and sometimes, as I have no doubt you
have observed yourself, no moon at all. The dark of the moon! I remember you
once landed me on the French coast at just such a time. Yet I am no great
lunarian: a priest in the County Clare explained her motions to
me, but I am afraid I did not fully retain his words.’

‘He did persuade you that it was a regular process
- that the changes could be foretold?’

‘I am sure he did, at least to his own
satisfaction.’

‘It is the case, I do assure you, Stephen: and the
very first appearance of the new moon at certain seasons is of the utmost
consequence to Jews and Muslims. Now you are aware that the commander of the
Arzila galley must be either the one or the other - almost certainly a Muslim -
and in any case a sailor. Furthermore he is presumably a sailor in his right
mind, so wind and weather permitting he must necessarily pass through the
Strait at the dark of the moon or as near as ever he can get to it, a night
that he can foretell as well as we can. So seeing that both he and I think
alike, I hope to give him the meeting somewhere south of Tarifa.’

‘To be sure, that puts a different complexion on
the matter.’

‘Furthermore, I have no wish to lose any spars by
cracking on, nor to lie there day after day under the
eye of a Commander-in-Chief who dislikes me. He is a very distinguished sailor,
I fully admit; and his reputation as a fighting captain was very high indeed;
yet as a flag-officer he has been less fortunate... It is very odd, but there
is something about the Admiralty board-room table that has a sad effect on some
of those who sit there, sensible men who can club-haul their ship off a roaring
lee-shore or take a huge Spanish beauty like the Santisima Trinidad and remain
perfectly civil and unassuming until this point, this board-room table. It is
not invariable, but I have served under some who, on
becoming a Sea-Lord, above all First Sea-Lord, who suddenly swell up into
creatures of enormous importance, who have to be approached on hands and knees,
and addressed in the third person. No. Lord Barmouth will have a monuwent in
the Abbey with a great many fine actions engraved upon it; but he is perfectly
capable of doing a dirty thing, and I should rather make my obeisance a very
short time before the dark of the moon and then go about my business, looking
as much like a distressed merchantman as possible.’

It was a good plan; it kept the ship from the wear
and tear of a hurried passage, so that (apart from other considerations) she
should be entirely ready for the eagerly-expected meeting. But it was based on
the false assumption that the Commander-in-Chief should be sitting in Gibraltar.

He was in fact exercising the vessels under his
command, the ships of the line to port, the sloops and minor craft to
starboard, in line abreast; and well behind them sailed a numerous
convoy of merchantmen.

This surprising armada was reported, bit by bit,
from the masthead as the morning cleared, starting with the foremost division
of sloops; and Jack had time to spread more canvas, much more canvas, to the
north-east breeze before the hail came down: ‘On deck, there. On deck: flag two
points on the starboard bow.’

Fortunately the Surprise was in a high state of
cleanliness - decks already dry from the swabbing - guns as neat as a paper of
pins - all hands reasonably well turned out and necessarily stone-cold sober;
but this did not prevent Harding, Woodbine and the Royal Marine officer from
fussing about the ship or Killick from overhauling the rear-admiral’s uniform
that Jack wore, on formal occasions, as commodore.

The day cleared. The signal midshipman and his
yeoman watched the almost continual stream of hoists running up aloft as Lord
Barmouth put his fleet through a variety of manoeuvres and expressing a variety
of comments, mostly unfavourable. At last Surprise’s number appeared, together
with Commodore repair aboard flag.

Bonden and his crew already had the barge clear for
lowering down and the moment he saw Jack emerge from his cabin in the glory of
number one scraper, presentation sword and a large quantity of gold lace he
gave the word and the boat glided down, instantly followed by bargemen and a
master’s mate at the tiller. ‘As soon as we are a cable’s length away,’ said
Jack to Harding, ‘start the salute: and I am sure you will never forget a
couple of spares in case of a misfire.’

With this he ran down into the barge, and as usual
Bonden shoved off, saying to his crew, ‘Row dry, there; row
dry.’ And when they had pulled just a cable’s length, the Surprise began
her salute to the Commander-in-Chief, seventeen guns: for this was the first
time she had met him in office. After the seventeenth Implacable replied, but
hesitated slightly after the thirteenth as though doubtful of Jack’s right to
more, though his broad pennant was clearly to be seen - hesitated until some angry
voice roared from the quarterdeck, when the remaining two were fired almost
together.

The captain of Implacable, Henry James, an old
shipmate, received Jack kindly as he came aboard: the Royal Marines presented
arms, and the flag-lieutenant said, ‘May I take you to the Commander-in-Chief,
sir?’

‘I am happy to see you, Mr Aubrey,’ said Lord
Barmouth, half-rising from behind his desk and giving him a cold hand.

‘So am I, upon my word,’ said Sir James Frere, the
Captain of the Fleet, whose grasp was much more cordial.

‘But I do not quite understand what you are doing
in these waters. Pray sit down while you tell me.’

‘My Lord, the previous Commander-in-Chief gave me a
squadron with orders to proceed to the lonian and Adriatic and - having seen
the trade on its way - to put an end to Bonapartist ship-building in those
parts, to persuade some French ships to come over to the Allies and to take,
sink, burn and destroy those who would not. An emissary from Sir Joseph Blaine
also spoke of the Ministry’s concern at reports of a Muslim confederacy’s
intention of preventing the junction of the Russian and Austrian forces
marching westward to join the British and Prussian armies, or at least to delay
it long enough for Napoleon’s superior numbers to crush each of the Allied
states separately. This move on the part of the Muslim group however required
the enlistment of a large number of mercenaries; and they had to be paid. The
money was to come from a Muslim state on the confines of Morocco, and it was expected to
travel by way of Algiers: our intelligence people eventually put an end to that
and it is now to come by sea, through the Straits, as I have told Lord Keith in
repeated dispatches, not knowing that he had been superseded. Perhaps I should
add that Sir Joseph also supplied my political adviser with a local expert, a
gentleman perfectly fluent in Turkish and Arabic, who was of the greatest
value: with his help we detached one French frigate, destroyed two others, and
burnt a score of yards together with the ships they were building.’

‘Yes,’ said the Admiral. ‘I have heard something of
it; and I congratulate you on your success, I am sure... (‘How he banged them
about!’ murmured Sir James.) Have you prepared a report?’

‘Not yet, my Lord.’

‘Then you can come back to Gibraltar with us and let me have it
there as soon as possible. You spoke of your political adviser and his
colleague?’

‘Yes, my Lord.’

‘I should be obliged if you would send them both
across to confer with my politico. And Aubrey, although Lord Keith gave you
quite a handsome squadron, it has melted away, for convoy duty and the like.
What is that schooner you have in company?’

‘She belongs to my surgeon, sir, and she acts as
our tender.’

‘Well, she is a handsome little craft, but she don’t amount to a squadron; so perhaps it would be more
proper if you were to strike your broad pennant and revert to a private ship.’

Jack had intended to ask the Commander-in-Chief
whether there was any news of the French or Allied armies, but these last words
were so clearly meant to be disobliging that he merely took his leave. On deck,
however, he found Implacable’s captain, who said that although there were
rumours of the wildest sort, such as a rising in Ireland and a French invasion of Kent, he had heard nothing
authentic except for the soldiers’ exasperation, frequently expressed, at the
Russians’ slowness.

Jack nodded with satisfaction and then said, ‘Lord
Barmouth has ordered me to send my surgeon and a politico across: they are
amazingly gifted linguists and very learned men, but neither has much notion of
coming up the side of a ship, and was you to rig a bosun’s chair, I should take
it kindly.’

Back in the Surprise he took off his finery, struck
his broad pennant, told Harding to follow the flag into Gibraltar, and sent for the
log-books. He and Adams were still establishing the bases of his report -
obviously with great gaps that only Stephen and Jacob could fill - when they
heard the boat’s return, the anxious cries, and the children’s piping ‘We!come
aboard, dear Doctors, welcome oh welcome aboard!’

Coming below, Stephen looked attentively at his
friend, deep in papers, and said, ‘You are low in your spirits, brother.’

‘Indeed I am. For your own ear alone, I am very
much afraid that we are going to be baulked of our galley - pipped on the post
- done brown. In my simplicity I told the Commander-in-Chief that she was
coming up by the Straits and that I meant to intercept her. I let it be
understood, that .I was still acting on the orders given me by Lord Keith; but
I fear I may be set aside and the chance given to some more favoured man.’

‘Be easy in your mind, my dear,’ said Stephen in a
tone that carried great conviction. ‘Jacob and I have just been talking with
the Commander-in-Chief and his politico, then with the politico alone - Matthew
Arden, a very intelligent man, very highly influential in Whitehall. The Ministry regard this as an exceptionally important theatre of war and
they have sent one of their best brains, a man who has refused high office,
very high office indeed. He is also a close friend of Lord Keith’s, who would
be mortally offended at heaving his evident wishes set aside. Arden and I have
known one another these many years: ,we have never
disagreed on any important point, and this time again we got along together
exceedingly well. Furthermore, I am happy to say that for all his domineering
manner, Lord Barmouth is in awe of Matthew Arden... you are drawing up an
account of our little campaign, I see... heavy going, heavy going: I must give
you some remarks on Algerine politics and my sojourn in Africa. But I do wish
you could have heard how Arden exulted at your doing in the Adriatic, and how
he obliged the Commander-in-Chief to acknowledge that the elimination of that
particular danger was a most important feat ... No, no, Jack: courageous though
Lord Barmouth quite certainly is, I do not believe for a moment that he would
dare to use you ill in these circumstances.’