The Letter of Marque (17 page)

'Very well put," cried Mrs Williams. '"Life's blood" is very well put. I congratulate you, Mr Aubrey." She shook his hand with real cordiality; and taking the tureen from her daughter, she observed, 'It must weigh a hundred and fifty ounces."

'Oh sir," cried Charlotte, standing on tiptoe and peering into the chest, 'I believe there is another just the same. Please, please may I bring it out?"

'Do, by all means, my dear,' said Jack.

'It is far too heavy and delicate for a child,' said Mrs Williams, eagerly pushing forward and raising the next tureen. 'But she shall have the cover, which I see lies next.'

'May I have a go too, Papa?" whispered Fanny, pulling his sleeve.

Common justice required that she should, and presently the unpacking turned into a kind of lucky dip, each fishing in strict turn and calling or even shrieking out the name of the catch - sauce tureen, small ladle, large ladle, side-dish, cover, a monstrous epergne and so down to the scores of plates, -big and little - until the tables overflowed and there was nowhere to tread without crushing straw or shavings into the carpet, to say nothing of tissue paper and jeweller's cotton, and the place looked like an idealized bandito's lair; for the West India merchants had done the thing handsomely, very handsomely.

'You will have to take on a mate or two in the polishing line,' said Jack to Killick, who was gazing round with a kind of imbecile rapture at the number of surfaces that he might now attack with powdered chalk and shammy leather: like many seamen he had a passion for making metal shine, and he had already reduced Jack's earliest silver plates to something not far removed from foil.

'Now everything must be washed in hot water and soap, because of the children's dirty hands,' said Mrs Williams, 'and when it is thoroughly dry it must be wrapped in baize and locked up in the strong-room. It is far too good for use.'

'Charlotte,' said Jack. 'Here is a spoon for you, for your own; and here is one for Fanny.'

'Oh thank you, sir,' they cried, courtseying and blushing with pleasure: they were twins, and the perfect unison of their cry, expression, movement and blush was particularly absurd and touching.

'And here's for thee, George. You will need one when you join your first ship.'

Mrs Williams expressed her views on naval education; they were familiar to Jack Aubrey from pretty frequent repetition ever since George was breeched, but he heard them with a mind detached.

'Mama,' said Fanny, staring at the inscription on the first tureen, 'you left out debellare superbos at the bottom. What does it mean?'

'It is Latin, my dear,' said Sophie. 'And that is all I know.

You will have to wait for Dr Maturin or Miss O'Mara.' Miss O'Mara, the daughter of an officer killed at the Nile, was the promised governess whose name usually darkened the little girls' days with apprehension whenever it was mentioned; but now Fanny scarcely noticed it. 'I shall ask Papa,' she said.

'The parlour, there," hailed Dray, whose muddy boot (he had but one, the other leg being made of wood) confined him to the kitchen.

'Ho,' replied Killick, in an equally carrying voice.

'Express for the Captain.'

'There is an express for you, sir,' said Killick.

'An express! Oh what can it be?' cried Mrs Williams, putting her handkerchief to her mouth.

'Jump along to the kitchen and fetch it, will you, George,' said Jack.

'The boy fell off his horse in the lane, and is covered with blood,' said the returning George, with some satisfaction. 'So is the letter.'

Jack walked into the deep bow-window, and in the quietness produced by astonishment (an express was a very rare event at Ashgrove Cottage) he heard his mother-in-law whisper to Sophie 'What a shocking bad omen. How I hope it is not to say Mr Aubrey's bank is broke. Blood on the cover! I am certain it is to say Mr Aubrey's bank is broke. No bank is safe nowadays; they break right and left.'

He stood pondering for a moment. It was true that what little refitting the Surprise required was well in hand, and if that good, solid, reliable Tom Pullings had been aboard he could have been sure of finding her ready for sea within a very few hours. But Tom was not to report until Tuesday, and although Davidge and West were capable, experienced officers he did not know them well and he would not rely on their judgment alone where preparation for action was concerned: for Stephen would not have spoken of a short voyage or even shorter notice if there had not been some likelihood of action at the end of it.

As he weighed the possibilities he became aware that his silence and Mrs Williams' foolish whispers were casting a damp upon the occasion; the children were looking quite solemn. 'Sophie,' he said, putting the note into his pocket, 'I believe I shall run down and look at the ship in the morning, rather than wait until Tuesday. But in the meanwhile, let us carry all these things into the dining-room and spread them out as though we were going to give a banquet.'

With two extra leaves the dining-table could seat fourteen people comfortably, and these fourteen people required a prodigious quantity of plate. Although the service was more bulbous, fussy and convoluted than any Jack or Sophie would have chosen, even half-laid the table looked very grand in a rather ostentatious way, particularly as the curtains had been drawn and the candles lit to give the brilliance greater play, and the children were still hurrying to and fro like ants, filled with delight, when wheels were heard outside, and peering through the curtains they saw a chaise and four.

Stephen stepped from the carriage, bent and cramped with his long journey, and Padeen, carrying a bag: the children rushed off in a body, over-excited and shouting far too loud that 'Dr Maturin was come in a chaise and four, and one of the horses was in a fine lather, and Padeen still had his face done up in a bandage.'

'Stephen!' cried Jack, running down the steps. 'How happy I am to see you. You could not have chosen a better moment; we are just about to have a banquet. Padeen, I hope I see you better? Killick will help you carry the Doctor's bags up to his room.

The post-chaise rolled off, to wait at the Goat and Compasses until the postillion should have the good word, and Stephen walked in, kissing Sophie and the two little faces stretched expectantly up, and exchanged bows with George. 'I am glad to find you here,' he said to Jack in the hall. 'I was afraid you might have run down to Shelmerston yesterday or even the day before.'

'I only had your express an hour or so ago.'

'Good afternoon to you, ma'am,' said Stephen, bowing to Mrs Williams in the drawing-room. 'Would you believe such a thing? I sent off an express from London town no less - no remote Ballymahon or Cambridge in the bog - two days ago and it arrives only two hours before me. One pound sixteen shillings and eightpence in pure loss, besides half a crown for the boy.'

'Oh, I believe it only too easily, sir,' cried Mrs Williams. 'It is all part of the Ministry's design to ruin the country. We are governed at present by fiends, sir. Fiends.'

'I have a silver spoon of my own, sir,' said George smiling up at him. 'Should you like to see it?'

'Sophie,' said Jack, 'this is the most wonderful opportunity for christening the new plate. Stephen has not dined. We have not dined. Everything is laid out, or as near as damn it, for an admiral's inspection. Could we not run up a simple dish or two - there is some soused hog's face ready, I know - and dine in glory?'

'Of course we can, my dear,' said Sophie without hesitation. 'Give me an hour and there will be at least something under every cover.'

'In the meanwhile, Stephen, let us go into the smoking-room and drink a glass of madeira; and I dare say you would like a cigar after your journey.' In the smoking-room he said, 'Your Padeen looks as if he had been in the wars. Was the operation very painful?'

'It was. It was extremely painful and prolonged. But he came by those lumps and bruises that you observe in a battle at Black's. In the room where the members' servants take their ease, three men put a mock on his bandage and asked him was his father an ass or a rabbit? He destroyed them entirely. Broke the leg of the one - tibia and fibula: a compound fracture -flung the other bodily into the broad old-fashioned fire they have down there and held him on it for a while, and chased the third till he leapt into the lake at St James's park, where Padeen would not follow because of his fine black clothes. Fortunately some of the members are Middlesex magistrates and I was able to bring him away.'

'It will not do to meddle with him. He is the kind of lamb that lies down with the lion, in wolf's clothing. I saw him board the Spartan like a good 'un.'

'So he did, too.' Stephen walked over to the fire, lit his cigar and said 'Listen, Jack: we have the possibility of a truly naval action, by which I mean attacking a frigate of the French navy. I am assured that success or even honourable failure in such an encounter might have a favourable effect upon your eventual restoration to the post-captains' list.'

'By God, I should give my right arm for that,' said Jack.

'Pray do not say such things, my dear,' said Stephen. 'It is tempting fate. My friend holds out no sort of guarantee of course, but it is a fact that to the official mind a battle with a national man-of-war counts, whereas an equally severe battle with a private man-of-war does not. Now very briefly the position is this: among the shipping at St Martin's there is a new frigate called the Diane, of thirty guns. She has been particularly designed and fitted out for a voyage to South America, particularly Chile and Peru, not unlike ours, and perhaps to the South Seas to harry our whalers there. Her stores are almost all aboard; so are the more or less official French representatives; and she is to sail at slack water on the night of the thirteenth, the dark of the moon, to clear the Channel before daylight. She and some other vessels in St Martin's have been blockaded there for some time by a small inshore squadron that included the Nymph, perfectly capable of coping with her and any of the brigs or gunboats that might come out to help her. Yet the exigencies of the present situation are such that during this critical period neither the Nymph nor her frequent companion the Bacchante can be spared from a more important operation elsewhere and the squadron is reduced to the Tartarus and the decrepit Dolphin. This deficiency is endeavoured to be concealed by the presence of the Camel store-ship and another vessel, but the enemy are aware of our motions and mean to carry out their plan. It therefore occurred to my friend that if the Surprise were to intervene it might be to the benefit of all concerned.'

'By God, Stephen,' said Jack, shaking his hand, 'you could not have brought me happier news. May I tell Sophie?'

'No, sir, you may not; nor anyone else until we are at sea or upon the very point of heaving our weigh - I mean topping our boom. Now listen, Jack, will you? I have taken it upon myself to give your consent -'

'And well you might, ha, ha, ha!'

'- to the operation, to the attempted operation, and to the somewhat devious official aspect that it is to assume. We have let or hired the ship to the Crown, and the Admiralty has provided a document that will deal with the situation in the event of any serving officer's proving difficult or legalistic. Since dear William Babbington is now the senior officer present the likelihood of disagreement seems tolerably remote; but it is as well to have the paper and we may well think it the best cover or protection for our South American voyage. It begins By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain et cetera and it is addressed To the Flag Officers, Captains and Commanders of His Majesty's Ships and Vessels to whom this shall be exhibited. Then the body of it runs: Whereas we have directed John Aubrey, Esquire, to proceed in His Majesty's hired vessel the Surprise upon a particular service, you are hereby required and directed not to demand of him a sight of the Instructions he has received from us for his proceedings on the said service, nor upon any pretence whatever to detain him, but on the contrary to give him any assistance he may stand in need of, towards enabling him to carry the said instructions into execution. And it is signed by Melville and two other lords of the Admiralty, and at their command by that black thief Croker. And as you see, it is dated and sealed.'

Jack took the paper as reverentially as he would have taken an infinitely more holy substance: tears came into his eyes, and Stephen, knowing how apt the English were to display embarrassing emotion, said in a harsh voice, 'But I must tell you however that the Diane is commanded by an exceptionally capable officer, the brother of that Jean-Jacques Lucas who fought the Redoutable so nobly at Trafalgar. He has been allowed to pick his crew, and he has trained them accordin; to his brother's methods: their agility in changing the sails am so on surprises qualified observers, even more so the speed and accuracy of their small-arms and great-gun fire. The ship wil most probably have some civilians and their papers aboard am it would be a great stroke if we could seize them intact. Now, have you a map, a plan, a chart of the place at all, so that w may pore over it?'

'I have my own survey,' said Jack. 'The second one. Shall we walk into what I rather absurdly call the library? Bring your wine with you.'

Jack Aubrey was singularly exact and methodical in matter of this kind and within two minutes he spread out a slight! yellowed sheet on the library table, observing that he had mad it with Mr Donaldson, the master of the Bellerophon, the be; hydrographer in the Navy, during the year ninety-seven: 'th variation of the compass had altered thirty-one seconds eastwards since then and some of the soundings would nee revision, but he would undertake to lead in and moor his ship under the batteries without a pilot.'

The chart showed a deep narrow harbour, less than a quarter of a mile wide at its mouth and two miles deep, with six-gun battery at the bottom of it, the entrance narrowed by breakwater. Both shores were fairly steep-to, but that on tr southern side, which ran out in a bold headland carrying lighthouse was much higher except at its junction with the mainland, where the low isthmus was guarded by a conside able fortification. The town spread over most of the headlan east of the lighthouse and on the other side of the port; the men-of-war lay along a fine stone quay on the south side of the harbour; the merchant-men were generally but not always on the other side, while the smallcraft and fishing-boats kept in the bottom. The town might have four or five thousand peop as well as the garrison, and there were three churches. And I course the quite well known ship-building yards and stores.