Rumours Of War

greet them?

‘Why don’t they let us ’ave a go at Boney, Mr Hervey?’ a dragoon called after him at stables, not daring, perhaps, to hail the lieutenant. ‘Why don’t they send the Sixth to do the job, sir?’

Hervey ignored it. He was not going to have the ‘distance’ closed so importunately, and from behind his back, though he was not inclined to let the NCOs upbraid the man too much. And anyhow, what was he meant to say? He had no more idea than they why the advance was so ponderous. Sir Edward Lankester told them as much as he knew, no doubt; he could hardly go and pester him for more. What was it that Coates used to say? That they would pass whole weeks in Flanders idling and with no notion what was afoot; then there would be a great rush, and then another long halt. ‘Hurry up to wait’, he called it.

There was another fortnight’s fretting, however, before Hervey’s troop had their first skirmish. They had crossed the border near Elvas the day after the halt at Vila Vicosa, the country at once becoming rugged and even harder going. Hervey was soon counting himself fortunate to have a pair of horses not overcharged with blood. The march thereafter had been as uneventful as before, but the pace had quickened, and so the grumbling had not been as bad. They made Badajoz the first evening, then they followed the valley of the Guadiana to Talavera la Real and Medellin; then they turned north-east to Magagos, Truxillo and Almaraz, crossing the Tagus again to Naval Moral and Callera. And now they had a cold night march to Talavera la Reyna, with but sixty miles to Madrid as the crow flew. And the Sixth were leading the army, and Sir Edward Lankester’s troop were scouting.

Hervey and Cornet Laming had taken the point by turns throughout the night. They rode half a mile or so ahead of the first detachment, keeping check of the scouts’ rate of advance, and the route, which was now in the hands of Spanish guides. As dawn came up, it was Hervey’s turn at point. The road ahead was open, downhill slightly, with rough grazing on either side, but with no sign of either sheep or goats, and scattered squat-looking trees, olive perhaps. In the distance Hervey could just begin to make out the lights of their objective, Talavera la Reyna (the name meant nothing to him then; eight months later he would count it one of the names he would never forget). The guides said it was a fine city, and welcoming. He was looking forward to a half-day’s halt there, some sleep perhaps, and most of all a bath.

His hopeful thoughts were abruptly halted as back came one of the scouts at a pace – Private Claridge, a miner like Armstrong, but from the Somerset fields. Claridge saluted, although it was not the practice on outpost work. ‘Sir, Corporal Armstrong reports men on the road ahead. He can’t make out how many though, sir.’

‘Very well. Lead on,’ said Hervey, matter-of-fact, though his heart was already pounding.

Armstrong was only a furlong down the road, but because of the way the land lay, Hervey would not have been able to see him until much closer, even had it been light. In a minute or so, Claridge slowed the trot, then came to walk. They found Armstrong leaning on his horse’s neck to try to get a better perspective ahead.

As Hervey closed, Armstrong dismounted and lay flat on the ground to get a clear line. ‘I can’t make out whether they’re sheep or what, sir. But there’s definitely something moving.’

Hervey was surprised that Armstrong had detected anything at all, for his own telescope revealed nothing but a dark mass against a dark background, though it was lightening now by the minute. ‘There are not supposed to be any Frenchmen this side of Madrid,’ he said, searching with the glass. ‘They could be Spaniards.’

They could be anything, indeed. They could be shepherds abiding in the fields; or Marshal Soult’s outposts if Madrid was already in French hands. That was why armies had cavalry, was it not, to discover these things? But Hervey had never pictured the actual discovery quite like this.

‘No Franceses,’ said their Spanish guide, an elderly officer who had once been a serjeant-major and who now sat impassive, save occasionally that he spat noisily. He seemed wholly indifferent to the ado.

Hervey tried some Latin. ‘Pastori?’

The man shrugged his shoulders.

Hervey was unsure what he meant. He tried more Latin, and French. ‘Miles? Soldats d’Espagne?’

The man shrugged his shoulders again, but slower, and made a sound that suggested it was possible.

‘Mais no Franceses?’

The man spat, even more noisily than before. ‘No.’

Hervey knew he must either send a dragoon back to halt the forward detachment, or press on. Having the advantage of the sun rising behind the unrecognized figures while they themselves remained in shadow, he decided to advance.

He half whispered the order. Corporal Armstrong remounted at once, and the others – Lance-Corporal Boldy his coverman, and Privates Claridge and Starling – unfastened the pistol holsters on their saddle arches and pushed their cloaks back over the shoulder. Hervey signalled the advance with his hand, and set off at a walk, the Spanish officer at his side still clearing his throat with great determination and force.

They had not gone fifty yards. ‘Oveja!’ snorted the guide, with even more forceful expectoration.

Hervey halted, and saw: sheep indeed, and all over the road, and left and right of it for fifty yards. But there were men with them, mounted, were there not? He screwed up his eyes to make them out better. He motioned the others to draw their pistols.

‘You would shoot sheep, senor?’ Another loud expectoration.

Hervey took no notice.

Corporal Armstrong came up alongside him. ‘Half a dozen, I reckon, sir,’ he said, barely audible.

‘Could be shepherds,’ replied Hervey, just as quietly. ‘But strange to be mounted at this hour, don’t you think? Probably Spaniards from the garrison, but . . .’

They still had the advantage of the light, but although the silhouettes were unmistakably mounted men, they were just silhouettes. They could easily be soldiers, and numerous, the flock making just enough of a noise to cover their approach.

Fifty yards more, at most, and then he would know for sure. But so would the men amid the sheep.

Hervey thought rapidly. If they were Spaniards they would challenge first. If French, they would know there was nothing before them but the enemy, and there might be no challenge. He would not be able to identify them one way or another until they spoke, and so the advantage would not be his. He had no option, therefore, but to advance until a demand for the parole – or a ball – came their way.

Another ten yards; the challenge came. ‘Qui vive?’

Hervey pressed his mare on, his heart racing. They might yet be Spaniards; the French challenge was common enough practice.

‘Qui vive?’ This time it was emphatic.

‘Qui veut savoir?’

‘Ha! L’Empereur veut savoir, monsieur.’

The pistol seemed double the weight as he brought it up. He cocked and fired in a split second. The others did the same. The powder flashes and the noise startled him as much as it did the horses, but he pressed forward, grasping for his sabre.

There were screams; then more screams, and shouting. Sheep scattered in every direction.

Hervey lunged at the dark shape in front of him. The hilt almost jumped from his hand as the blade struck.

Corporal Boldy’s horse leapt past him, Hervey’s coverman giving point to the same dark shape and toppling it from the saddle. There was no drill in the movement of swords and horses. It was all confusion. But soon there were shouts of ‘Quarter!’ everywhere. Hervey’s heart beat quicker than ever he’d known, and his blood coursed. But he had not spilled a drop of his own.

In five more minutes it was daylight, and their handiwork was plain to see. Two chasseurs a cheval lay dead, and another dying. Two more staggered with fearful wounds to the head, and three stood with their hands clasped in supplication. They were not so formidable, thought Hervey. Nothing like as formidable as he had imagined the men who had marched the length and breadth of the continent and carried all before them.

‘Help those wounded there, Corporal!’

He need not have said it, for the victor’s compassion had already moved two of the dragoons to dismount with their water bottles.