A Regimental Affair

though in a voice to be heard by the table as a whole, ‘because he was afterwards made aide-de-camp to my uncle.’

This further revelation made Hervey redden. He had no idea of Lady Mary Bagot’s kinship with the duke. Henrietta glanced at Lord Towcester again. His envy was so intense as to appear quite alarming to her.

‘I confess to feeling humbled by the presence of two Waterloo men,’ declared Lady Mary’s husband.

Hervey was amazed that a minister with plenipotentiary powers should express himself humbled in any way by a soldier, but he thought his sentiment genuine nevertheless.

Sir Peregrine was equally self-deprecating. ‘Oh, now, for my part at least, I would own that it was sheer circumstance, and infinitely to be preferred to the fighting that Pakenham’s army had in the Mississippi at the time.’

‘Well, let us pray there is no recrudescence, on either front,’ conceded Bagot.

Lady Sarah Maitland made to rise, her chair eased by a footman. ‘Not too long, my dear,’ she said, fixing her husband with a smile that none might resist. ‘There can surely be little to detain you now that there is so universal a peace.’

The men stood as she led the ladies to the drawing room.

When they were gone, the junior guests closed to the middle of the table, and the port was passed. Lord Towcester lit a cigar. ‘And what is your opinion of recrudescence here, Bagot? Do the Americans covet His Majesty’s provinces still?’

The tone was the merest shade lofty, but enough to register with the minister plenipotentiary. ‘Well, Lord Towcester, “covet” would imply to me that the United States laid claim to Canada and would not be at rest until that claim is granted,’ began Bagot. ‘I do not see it thus, though if it were possible to seize the provinces with impunity I should not doubt that the temptation would be too great.’ He lit a cigar too, blowing smoke confidently towards the ceiling. ‘But the time is past. They failed to take advantage of our distraction by Bonaparte, and they know they have not the strength to take on our fleet and army now. I have just finished negotiating the neutrality of the Great Lakes, indeed. They have given up any right of a naval presence on them, save a few vessels to protect their legitimate interests, in return for the same. Yet we could reinforce the Lakes at any time from the Atlantic, with sufficient determination. And the St Lawrence — a first-rate — is laid up in ordinary. Recommissioned, she would still outgun anything the Americans could put on Lake Ontario for at least a year.’

‘I heard they had something to meet her with in the New Orleans?’ said Lord Towcester.

Bagot took another leisurely draw on his cigar. ‘A hundred and ten guns to seventy-four? Not, I think, good odds. And in any case, the New Orleans is still on the stocks.’

Lord Towcester frowned. ‘And so you believe that the border may now be left unguarded?’

‘I did not say that, Lord Towcester,’ replied Bagot, frowning equally. ‘I believe, though, that it permits a strategy over a long term of disengaging from a forward defence of the frontiers. The United States has, anyway, other priorities. It is the south and west which more naturally engages the people seeking new land. And in doing so they run into the native Indians and the Spanish. That will absorb the energies of government these next twenty years.’

Sir Peregrine Maitland refilled his glass and passed the port to the superintendent of the Indian Department. ‘How say you, Lawrence?’

Barry Lawrence took the decanter and poured himself a glass, raising his eyebrows as if to say he was touching on something unfathomable. ‘Well, Sir Peregrine, I believe the Americans are about to begin a struggle that will take a generation and more to end.’

Lord Towcester looked incredulous. ‘Do you mean to say that an assortment of savages will trouble an army which inflicted so much pain on our own?’

‘I’m afraid I do, your lordship.’

Lord Towcester huffed.

‘And I very much fear that we in Canada may not escape the consequences. Have you heard of the affair at Niagara?’

Sir Peregrine was apparently none too keen to have it related. ‘Let us adjourn, gentlemen. These are weighty matters for an evening such as this, and Major Lawrence shall anyway have every opportunity these winter months to tell you of his concerns.’

By now Hervey had formed a very agreeable opinion indeed of the superintendent, who was quite evidently a forthright man with a passion for his subject. Indeed, Lawrence put him in mind of the Collector of Guntoor, and he wondered at the ability of the nation to produce men of aptness such as they, able so to immerse themselves in a society alien in every way, with danger and reward in wholly unequal proportions. ‘Shall you tell me of this affair tomorrow when we meet?’ he whispered as they left the room.

The superintendent looked at him and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you have a strong stomach?’

Major Lawrence’s office was like no other Hervey had seen. Whereas the Collector of Guntoor’s had the appearance of a donnish study, the superintendent of the Indian Department’s was both museum of curiosities and military headquarters. One long wall was covered in shields and arrows, and in glass-topped cases there were silver bracelets, amber necklaces and other finely worked pieces. On the wall behind his desk were feathered headdresses pinned flat. But on the other long wall were perhaps twenty maps rolled and tied, and on the table beneath, magnifying glasses, compasses, rulers and measuring sticks.

‘Coffee?’ asked the superintendent, taking an enamel pot from the top of the stove.

‘I thank you, yes,’ said Hervey, looking about the walls.

‘It’s not just decorative, either. Every feather has its meaning.’

‘And do you know of it?’

‘Most, yes. And my field officers know what I do not. A lot of it is bygone stuff even to the Indians, though. They’ve been expert shots with musket and rifle for many years now. I’ll tell you of the more extraordinary pieces another time, perhaps. I thought we might speak of your duties here. Your troop is to have the Niagara frontier, is it not?’

Hervey confirmed that it was so, although he had yet to have precise orders. General Rolt, the general officer commanding in Upper Canada, was still in Quebec meeting with the commander-in-chief. ‘And Lord Towcester has instructions not to embark on anything until his return.’

Lawrence nodded. ‘Though if I were you, I should want to have a look at the river itself soon. It’s the only place the Americans made any real showing in the war. Oh, they landed here in York and knocked the place about a good deal, but they didn’t reinforce the landing. It was a half-hearted affair. The point about the Niagara River frontier is that it’s a mere furlong and a bit across at its narrowest point. Have you studied the map, yet?’

‘No,’ admitted Hervey. ‘We’ve yet to see one of the frontier. All I have is a very general one — Melish’s Seat of War, which I was able to buy in but an hour in Quebec.’

‘A good start, though. It ought to give you a feeling for the size of the country.’ He pulled at one of the ribbons on his map wall, and down dropped an enlargement of the Melish print, with coloured hatchings and additions in his own hand. ‘I’ve marked the general areas in which are the predominant tribes or nations of Indians.’ He indicated these with a feathered arrow. ‘The Indians you will see west of York, towards the Niagara frontier, are those of the Six Nations. I admire them a great deal; theirs is a confederacy that’s endured for three hundred and fifty years.’

‘What’s the basis of their confederation?’ Hervey drew his chair up closer to the map.

‘The language family. They are able to make themselves understood to each other readily enough. You have heard of Hiawatha?’

Hervey had not. ‘Or else I forget.’

‘No matter. In the middle of the sixteenth century, as tradition has it, Hiawatha united five of the nations which lived in these northern parts — the Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Senecas.’ He pointed to north and south of Lake Ontario. ‘The Iroquois, they are usually known as. And later they admitted the Tuscarora tribe — of the same family, so to speak. The original league was called “the Great Peace”, but it was only a peace among the Iroquois themselves. To other nations they were immensely warlike. The Huron, the Erie and others — they had all but been destroyed by the seventeenhundreds, and the Iroquois spread west to the Illinois river.’

‘How did they stand with regard to us?’ asked Hervey, making notes.