The Letter of Marque

  'Does the nomination depend on Mr Aubrey alone?' asked Martin, his face fairly glowing.

  'It does.'

  'Then may we not perhaps run a little? As you see, the road is downhill as far as the eye can reach.'

  'On deck, there,' called the lookout at the masthead of the Surprise. 'Three sail of ships—four—five sail of ships fine on the starboard bow.' They were hidden from the deck by the high land to the north ending in Penlea Head, but the lookout, a local man, had a fine view of them, and presently he added in a conversational tone, 'Men-of-war; part of the Brest squadron, I fancy. But there's nothing to worry about. There ain't no sloops nor frigates, and they are going to wear.' The implication was that if they had been accompanied by sloops or frigates, one might have been detached to see what could be snapped up in the way of men pressed out of the ship lying there off Shelmerston.

  Soon after this they appeared from behind Penlea: two seventy-fours, then a three-decker, probably the Caledonia, wearing the flag of a vice-admiral of the red at the fore, then two more seventy-fours, the last quite certainly the Pompée. They wore in succession and stood away into the offing with the topgallant breeze two points free, making a line as exact as if it had been traced with a ruler, each ship two cable's lengths from its leader; in their casual, thrown-away beauty they must have moved any seaman's heart, though most bitterly wounding one excluded from that world. Yet it had to happen sooner or later, and Jack was glad that the first shock had been no worse.

  This particular misery had many aspects, not the least being his sharp, immediate, practical realization that he was the potential prey of his own service; but he was not much given to analysing his feelings and once the squadron had disappeared he resumed his dogged walk fore and aft until as he turned he caught sight of a lugger hoisting her sail in the harbour. A small figure was waving something white in the bows, and borrowing Davidge's telescope he saw that the waver was Stephen Maturin. The lugger went about to cross the bar on the starboard tack and Stephen was made to get out of the way—to sit upon a lobster-pot amidships; but even so he continued his thin harsh screeching and the waving of his handkerchief; and to Jack's surprise he saw that he was accompanied by Parson Martin, come to pay a visit, no doubt.

  'Bonden,' he said, 'the Doctor will be with us very soon, together with Mr Martin. Let Padeen know, in case his master's cabin needs a wipe, and stand by to get them both aboard dry-foot, if possible.'

  The two gentlemen, though long accustomed to the sea, both had some mental disability, some unhappy want of development, that kept them from any knowledge of its ways; they were perpetual landlubbers, and Dr Maturin in particular had, in his attempts at coming up the side, fallen between more ships and the boat that was carrying him than could well be numbered. This time however they were ready for him, and powerful arms heaved him gasping aboard, and Jack Aubrey cried 'Why, there you are, Doctor. How happy I am to see you. My dear Mr Martin'—shaking his hand—'welcome aboard once more. I trust I see you well?' He certainly saw him cold, for Martin was exhausted and the sea-damp breeze had pierced his thin coat through and through during the passage from the shore; and although he smiled and said everything proper, he could not keep his teeth from chattering. 'Come below,' said Jack, leading the way. 'Let me offer you something hot. Killick, a pot of coffee, and bear a hand.'

  'Jack,' said Stephen, 'I do most humbly beg your pardon for being late; it was my own fault entirely, so it was—a gross self-indulgence in bustards; and I am most infinitely obliged to you for waiting for us.'

  'Not at all,' said Jack. 'I am engaged to Admiral Russell this evening and shall not sail until the beginning of the ebb. Killick, Killick, there: my compliments to Captain Pullings, who is in the hold, and there are some friends of his come aboard.'

  'Before dear Tom appears,' said Stephen, 'there is one point that I should like to settle. The Surprise needs a surgeon's mate, especially as I may have to be absent some part of the time, early on. You are acquainted with Mr Martin's competence in the matter. Subject to your consent, he has agreed to accompany me as my assistant.'

  'As assistant-surgeon, not as chaplain?'

  'Just so.'

  'I should indeed be happy to have Mr Martin with us again, above all in the physical line. For I must tell you, sir'—turning to Martin—'that even in a King's ship the hands do not take kindly to the idea of having a parson aboard, and in a letter of marque—why, they are even more given to pagan superstition, and I fear it would upset them sadly. Though I have no doubt that in case of accident they would like to be buried in style. So that as long as you are on the ship's books as assistant-surgeon, they will have the best of both worlds.'

  Pullings hurried in, with the friendliest welcome; Padeen tried to find out in his primitive English whether the Doctor would like his flannel waistcoat; and Davidge sent word that the Admiral's cutter would be alongside in five minutes.

  The Admiral's cutter came to the larboard side to avoid all ceremony, and with an equal lack of pomp Stephen was handed down the side like a sack of potatoes. 'It is very kind of you to invite me too, sir,' he said, 'but I am ashamed to appear in such garments: never a moment did I have to shift since I arrived.'

  'You are very well as you are, Doctor, very well indeed. It is only myself and my ward Polly, whom you know, and Admiral Schank, whom you know even better. I had hoped for Admiral Henry, who is very much in the medical way, now that he is at leisure; but he was bespoke. Left his best compliments, however, and I have his latest work for you, a very pretty book.'

  The pretty book was called An Account of the Means by which Admiral Henry has Cured the Rheumatism, a Tendency to Gout, the Tic Douloureux, the Cramp, and other Disorders; and by which a Cataract in the Eye was removed, and Stephen was looking at the pictures while Polly, an enchanting young person whose black hair and blue eyes brought Diana even more strongly to mind, played some variations on a theme by Pergolesi, when Admiral Schank woke up and said 'Bless me, I believe I must have dropped off. What were we saying, Doctor?'

  'We were speaking of balloons, sir, and you were trying to recollect the details of a device you had thought of for doing away with the inconvenience, the mortal inconvenience, of rising too high.'

  'Yes, yes. I will draw it for you.' The Admiral, known throughout the service as Old Purchase because of his ingenious cot that could be inclined, raised, lowered, and moved from point to point by the man who lay in it, even a feeble invalid, with the help of double and triple pulleys, and many other inventions, drew a balloon with a network of lines round the envelope and explained that by means of a system of blocks it was designed to diminish the volume of gas and thus its lifting-power. 'But, however, it did not answer,' he said. 'The only way of not going too high, like poor Senhouse, who was never seen again, or Charlton, who was froze, is to let out some of the gas; and then if the day cools you are likely to come down with shocking force and be dashed to pieces, like poor Crowle and his dog and cat. Was you ever in a balloon, Maturin?'

  'I was in one, sure, in the sense that the car contained me; but the balloon was sullen and would not rise, so I was obliged to get out and my companion was wafted off alone, landing three fields away, just inside the County Roscommon. Though now they are grown so fashionable again, I hope to make another attempt, and to observe the soaring flight of vultures close at hand.'

  'Was yours a fire-balloon or one filled with gas?'

  'It was meant to be a fire-balloon, but the turf was not as dry as it should have been and that day there was a small drizzle wafting across the whole country, so though we blew like Boreas we could never make it really buoyant.'

  'Just as well. If you had gone up, and if the envelope had taken fire, as they so often do, you would have spent your last few seconds regretting your temerity. They are nasty, dangerous things, Maturin; and although I do not deny that a properly anchored gas-balloon let up to say three or four thousand feet might make a useful observation-post for a general, I do believe
that only condemned criminals should be sent up in them.'

  A pause, and Admiral Schank said, 'What has happened to Aubrey?'

  'Admiral Russell has taken him into the library to show a model of the Santissima Trinidad.'

  'Then I wish he would bring him back again. It is several minutes past supper-time—Evans has already looked in twice—and if I am not fed when I am used to being fed, your vultures ain't in it: I tear my companions and roar, like the lions in the Tower. I do hate unpunctuality, don't you, Maturin? Polly, my dear, do you think your guardian is took poorly? The clock struck a great while ago.'

  In the library they stood gazing at the model, and Admiral Russell said, 'Everyone I have spoken to agrees that the Ministry's action against you, or rather against your father and his associates, was the ugliest thing the service has seen since poor Byng was judicially murdered. You may be sure that my friends and I shall do everything we can to have you reinstated.' Jack bowed, and in spite of his certain knowledge that this was the worst thing that could possibly be done, far worse than useless, since the Admiral and his friends belonged to the Opposition, he would have made a proper acknowledgment if the Admiral had not held up his hand, saying 'Not a word. What I really wanted to say to you was this: do not mope; do not keep away from your friends, Aubrey. By people who do not know you well, it might be interpreted as a sense of guilt; and in any case it makes for brooding and melancholy and the blue devils. Do not keep away from your friends. I know several who have been hurt by your refusal, and I have heard of more.'

  'It was very handsome of them to invite me,' said Jack, 'but my going must have compromised them; and there is such competition for ships and promotion nowadays that I would not have my friends in any way handicapped at the Admiralty. It is different with you, sir: I know you do not want a command, and an Admiral of the White who has already refused a title has nothing to fear from anyone, Admiralty or not. But I will follow your advice as far as—'

  'Oh sir,' said Polly in the doorway, 'the kitchen is all in an uproar. Supper was half on the table as the great clock struck and now it is half off again, while Evans and Mrs Payne wrangle in the corridor.'

  'God's my life,' cried the Admiral, glancing at the library timepiece, a silent regulator. 'Aubrey, we must run like hares.'

  Supper wound its pleasant course, and although the soufflé had seen better times the claret, a Latour, was as near perfection as man could desire. At the next stroke of the clock Polly said good night; and once again the particular grace of her curtsey, the bend of her head, gave Stephen a vivid image of Diana, in whom grace stood in lieu of virtue, though indeed she was usually honourable according to her own standards, which were surprisingly rigorous in some respects. It was pretty to see how Polly blushed when Stephen opened the door for her, she being still so young that it was a great rarity in her experience; and when the men sat down again Admiral Russell took a letter out of his pocket and said 'Aubrey, I know how you value Nelson's memory, so I mean to give you this; and I hope it will bring you good fortune in your voyage. He sent it to me in the year three, when I was with Lord Keith in the Sound and he was in the Mediterranean. I will read it to you first, not so much out of vainglory, as because he wrote it with his left hand, of course, and you might not be able to make it out. After the usual beginning it runs "Here I am, waiting the pleasure of these fellows at Toulon, and we only long to get fairly alongside of them. I dare say, there would be some spare hats, by the time we had done. You are a pleasant fellow at all times; and, as Commodore Johnstone said of General Meadows, I have no doubt but your company would be delightful on the day of battle to your friends, but damned bad for your enemies. I desire, my dear Russell, you will always consider me as one of the sincerest of the former." ' He passed it, still open, across the table.

  'Oh what a very handsome letter!' cried Jack gazing at it with a look of unfeigned delight. 'I do not suppose a handsomer letter was ever wrote. And may I really have it, sir? I am most exceedingly grateful, and shall treasure it—I cannot tell you how I shall treasure it. Thank you, sir, again and again'—shaking the Admiral's hand with an iron grasp.

  'They may say what they like about Nelson,' observed Old Purchase, 'these fellows so ready with their first stones. But even they will admit that he put things very well. My nephew Cunningham was one of his youngsters in Agamemnon and Nelson said to him, "There are three things, young gentleman, which you are constantly to bear in mind. First, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your King: and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman as you do the Devil." '

  'Admirably well put,' said Jack.

  'But surely,' said Stephen, who loved un-Napoleonic France, 'he cannot have meant all Frenchmen?'

  'I think he did,' said Schank.

  'It was perhaps a little sweeping,' said Russell. 'But then so were his victories. And really, upon the whole, you know, there is very little good in the French: it is said that you can learn a great deal about a nation from its proverbial expressions, and when the French wish to describe anything mighty foul they say, "sale comme un peigne", which gives you a pretty idea of their personal cleanliness. When they have other things to occupy their mind they say they have other cats to whip: a most inhuman thing to do. And when they are going to put a ship about, the order is "à-Dieu-va", or "we must chance it and trust in God", which gives you some notion of their seamanship. I cannot conceive anything more criminal.'

  Jack was telling Admiral Schank how Nelson had once asked him to pass the salt in the civillest way imaginable, and how on another occasion he had said 'never mind about manoeuvres; always go straight at 'em', and Stephen was about to suggest that there might be some good Frenchmen, instancing those who had made this sublime claret, when Admiral Russell, returning from a brief reverie, said, 'No, no. There may be exceptions, but upon the whole I have no use for them, high or low. It was a French commander, of excellent family as these things go with them, that played me the dirtiest trick I ever heard of in war, a trick as loathsome as a French comb.'

  'Pray tell us, sir,' said Jack, privately fondling his letter.

  'I will only give you the briefest summary, because if you are to sail on the turn of the tide I must not keep you. It was when I had the Hussar—the old Hussar—at the end of the last American war, in eighty-three, a neat weatherly little frigate, very like your Surprise, though not quite so fast on a bowline: Nelson had the Albemarle on the same station, and we got along admirably well together. I was cruising rather north of Cape Hatteras, in soundings—fresh gale in the north-north-west and hazy February weather—and I chased a sail standing to the westward with the starboard tacks on board. I gained on her and when we were quite near—damned murky it was—I saw she was under jury-masts, uncommon well set-up, and that she had some shot-holes in her quarter. So when she showed an English ensign reversed in her main shrouds and English colours over French at the ensign-staff it was clear that she was a prize to one of our ships, that she had been battered in the taking, and that her prize-crew needed help—that she was in distress.'

  'It could mean nothing else,' said Jack.

  'Oh yes it could, my dear fellow,' said the Admiral. 'It could mean that she was commanded by a scrub, a dishonourable scrub. I stood under her lee to hail and ask what they needed, and jumping up on to the hammock-netting with my speaking-trumpet to make them hear over the wind I saw her decks were alive with men—not a prize-crew at all but two or three hundred men—and at the same moment she ran out her guns, putting up her helm to lay me athwart hawse, carry away my bowsprit, rake me and board me—there were the boarders by the score in her waist all on tiptoe, all a-grinning. Still with my speaking-trumpet up I roared out "Hard a-weather" and my people had the sense to shiver the after-sails even before I had time to give the order. The Hussar obeyed directly, and so we missed most of the raking fire, though it did wou
nd my foremast and carry away most of its starboard shrouds. We were both by the lee forward, almost aboard one another, and my people hurled cold round-shot down at their boarders—with prodigious effect—while the Marines blazed away as quick as they could load. Then I called out "Boarders away," and hearing this the scrub put up his helm, wore round and made sail before the wind. We pelted away after him. After an hour's brisk engagement his fire slackened and he clapped his helm a-starboard, running to windward on the larboard tack. I followed him round to jam him up against the wind, but alas there was my foremast on the point of coming by the board—bowsprit too—and we could not keep our luff until they were secured. However, we accomplished it at last, and we were gaining on the Frenchman when the weather cleared and there to windward we saw a large ship—we soon found she was the Centurion—and to leeward a sloop we knew was the Terrier; so we cracked on regardless and in a couple of hours we were abreast of him—gave him a broadside. He returned two guns and struck his colours. The ship proved to be La Sybille, thirty-eight—though he threw a dozen overboard in the chase—with a crew of three hundred and fifty men as well as some American supernumeraries, and the scrub in command was the comte de Kergariou—Kergariou de Socmaria, as I recall.'

  'What did you do to him, sir?' asked Jack.

  'Hush,' said the Admiral, cocking an eye at Schank. 'Old Purchase is fast asleep. Let us creep away, and I will run you back to your ship; the breeze serves, and you will not lose a minute of your tide.'