it.
'Private Needham, a word with you,' said the serjeant-major to the cornet's groom. Armstrong's Tyneside conveyed an unnerving degree of affability, which fooled no one within its hearing.
Hervey concluded that his best course was to repair to his own tent to shave. Half an hour later, as he drank one of Johnson's fortified brews from regimental china, Perry and Armstrong came to his tent. They had first compared accounts of the night's wanderings and found them in essentials to be the same. 'Green admits to failing to rise at once to the alarm,' said Perry. 'He went back to sleep until Needham rousted him out, and then he had to prime his pistols.'
'Why were they not primed at evening stand-to?' said Hervey.
'Because he's an indolent officer,' said Perry decidedly. 'But he appears at least to tell the truth.'
'That, or he's very calculating in his confidences.'
Perry sighed. It wasn't the sort of remark that one officer should make of another, but Green had exhausted everyone's patience an age ago. 'By the time he was ready, it seems the regiment had moved off.'
'And he spent the whole night trying in vain to find us?' The incredulity in Hervey's voice was marked.
'He said he thought we would have ridden in the direction opposite to that from which the fire was coming, on account of wanting to fall back on the guns.'
Hervey paused to consider the notion. 'Astonishing. Why might he believe that?'
'Hervey, he is, as I said, an indolent and ineffectual officer. While you or I or any other would have ridden towards the sound of the firing, he it seems works with a different instinct. But it would be difficult to say that that instinct was any more than feeble. There is nothing to prove that he was… well, running away.'
Hervey thought for a while again. 'Sar'nt-Major?'
Armstrong inclined his head ever so slightly and raised an eyebrow. 'It's not for me, sir, to make comment on an officer's capability. All I can say is Needham's not a bad man. He says he kept saying to Mr Green that it seemed strange they were finding no sign of us, and saying they ought to make for the firing, but Mr Green was certain of himself. And then he says Mr Green seemed to lose his notion of where they were, so they stopped for an hour or two, and it was only at dawn that Mr Green could see which direction was camp.'
Hervey sighed. An entirely plausible story. And yet he was not inclined to believe it. He didn't doubt Needham. Nothing that he knew of him suggested he would run from a fight. The opposite, perhaps. And Corporal Wainwright messed with him regularly; that was surely recommendation as to character. CI just can't see how an officer could think in the way Green did!'
Green was no boon companion of Perry's, but the lieutenant was scrupulously fair. 'If every officer's instinct were the same, sir, there would be no occasion for surprise.'
'That might be so, but I can't believe it exculpates Green. There must be something wrong with the logic, but I haven't the time to look for it,' replied Hervey, his irritation increasing.
Armstrong could see no other conclusion either. 'Sir, with respect, if Mr Green had been a corporal we couldn't bring any charge as would stick – save failing to turn out for 'alarm'.'
Hervey shook his head. 'But he's not a corporal, Sar'nt-Major.' 'No, sir, of course he's not,' replied Armstrong, looking sideways at Perry. 'But the same evidence would apply if charges were brought. That's all I'm saying.'
Hervey was silent a while. Then he got up. 'Mr Green had better pay a good sum to the widows' fund, then. And you had better put him on his guard, Arthur. I do truly believe we have a wrong 'un here; and I say thus saving your presence, Sar'nt-Major.'
Armstrong said nothing. It was a confidence he would rather never have heard, but they had been together too long for Hervey to withhold even so infamous an opinion.
Hervey looked at him sternly. Armstrong was worth a hundred Greens. No, more than that, for a worthless thing did not gain in worth by mere increase in numbers. Come what may, Armstrong and his like would never have their just desserts; no more than would Green. Hervey put down the teacup. What a powerful thing was this drink: it brought the nation to fight in Hindoostan and it paid for Green to play the gentleman. Yet Armstrong's pension, if he were to have one, would scarcely keep his family in it. But this was no time for philosophy. He nodded emphatically: 'Very well, then, gentlemen. Boot and saddle at ten.'
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Two days later
Camp before Bhurtpore, 21 Dec. 1825 Parole – LUCKNOW The nature of the operations upon which the Army is about to be employed, requiring that the Infantry Regiments should have as few calls upon them for Guards as possible, the Right Hon. The Commander-in-Chief is pleased to direct, that the following Detail only be furnished; all other Guards not included in this statement, are forthwith to be withdrawn… Hervey passed the statements to Armstrong. 'They do not directly bear on us, but it's as well to know the comings and goings.'
Armstrong, sitting in a chair in front of him, with Lieutenant Perry to Hervey's right, took the papers and looked quickly over them.
Private Johnson emerged from Hervey's tent with a coffee pot. 'Any more, sir?'
Hervey gestured to the others first, then let his cup be filled with the blackest liquid he had seen in many a year. Johnson would never throw away the unexpended portion of the day's coffee ration, and so each morning he boiled up the same liquid and the same beans, throwing in more in random measure. With the addition of copious quantities of sugar, and warm buffalo milk, it was a fortifying and nourishing drink, even if only very distantly related to any that could be had in the coffee houses of London.
'But the infantry will have a longer wait than they think, by all accounts,' said Hervey, still stirring his cup. 'The Jhaut gunners have found their mark on a good number of saps.'
Armstrong looked puzzled. 'They are tunnelling, though, aren't they?' 'It seems not. They can't get close enough.' Armstrong looked incredulous.
So did Perry, but for a different reason. 'I don't understand, Hervey.'
'They have to dig ventilation shafts once the tunnel exceeds a certain distance, which would rather give away the game.' Hervey took a sip of his coffee. 'And they're no fools behind those walls. There are counter-tunnels ready dug. I saw some of them myself. So I think we may safely say there will be no assault this side of the new year.' The Sixth had been in worse places at Christmas. Here at least it was warm when the sun was up, they were dry, there was firewood aplenty, and the supply of rations and powder was regular. Armstrong's expression changed to a smile. 'Corporal Stray'll be here today, sir, and a full load of rum.'
Hervey smiled too. The officers' mess was well stocked with excellent claret, but rum was so versatile an additive. He was almost of the opinion that he would exchange it bottle for bottle. 'Very well, then. There are no further orders. Interior economy today, make and mend. And I am brigade field officer, you'll recall.'
Perry and Armstrong rose. 'If it's all right with you, sir, I'd like to ride over and see them sappers working later on,' said the serjeant-major.
'By all means. Don't be too hard on them, though,' replied Hervey, smiling still.
'No indeed, sir. But I'd like to see how many of them would make colliers.' Hervey reported to the headquarters of the First Brigade of Cavalry at ten o'clock. There was no telling what the duty might entail. Last night had been quiet, and the siege proceeded, as they were all informed, in the usual methodical if painfully slow manner. But activity was the nature of staff work, and he could therefore expect anything. Certainly the headquarters looked well-shod. The brigade tent had yellow pennants at each end of the ridge pole, and a lance-guard at the entrance. There was no doubting that this was the post of Colonel Murray, a man fervent in holding to the cavalry opinion that everything mattered, from the patent shine on a pair of levee hessians to the edge on a troop man's sabre.
The major of brigade, Captain Harris – of the 16th Lancers like Murray himself – received him with a smile. 'Well, Hervey, we have at least seen how it is done!'