Hervey turned, a little sheepishly. ‘Ah, Serjeant Ellis.’
‘Captain Lankester’s compliments, sir, and could you join the officers for tea before the escort musters.’
‘Yes, serjeant, of course.’ There was an implied rebuke – from Lankester or Ellis, he did not know. Perhaps it was from both; but there was nothing to be done save do as bidden. Certainly there was nothing to be said, except thanks to the dragoons for their hospitality.
Serjeant Ellis waited until Hervey was gone, and then he eyed Harris, Knowles and Finch in turn. He did not actually say the words, but ‘watch yourselves’ came to their minds. When he was gone, they screwed up their faces in various gestures of disapproval or self-pity.
‘What did the chaplain say last Sunday?’ grumbled Knowles: ‘ “God loves a cheerful giver”!’
‘Ay, Knacker,’ replied Chokey Finch. ‘But Ellis doesn’t. And ’e’s got more say ’ere than God ’as.’
‘He likes it enough when
‘He wanted Maureen Taylor an’ all.’
‘Bell-bastard!’
‘Ah, Hervey; you will have some tea ere you go?’
Lankester spoke as if it were his drawing room in Hertfordshire rather than the troop mess, though without the least degree of affectation. But instead of china and silver, Lankester indicated the blackened camp-kettle hanging above the fire, the tea much sweetened with treacle and turned to the colour of saddle leather by the addition of goat’s milk. Private Sykes dipped in an enamelled cup and handed Hervey a quart of the scalding brew.
‘I fear there will be no dinner unless your servant has been uncommonly active,’ said Lankester, a shade wearily. ‘We have just, I understand, taken receipt of some fine pork, but it is as yet on its feet.’
From the other side of the cloisters came squealing, as if Lankester’s word had been the command.
‘A pig becomes pork,’ said Lieutenant Martyn, smiling ruefully and relighting his cigar.
But the squealing continued too long.
Lankester grimaced. ‘What in the name of heaven is yonder butcher doing?’
It stopped suddenly; then there was musketry – ragged, perhaps half a dozen shots.
Lankester put down his basin. ‘Stand to arms, then, gentlemen. Hervey, go and see what is the cause.’
Hervey refastened his cloak and hurried outside. He saw the trail of blood before he reached the infirmary, where the inlying picket was quartered. There were dragoons milling about, and the picket-commander, but no semblance of order.
‘What is happening, Corporal? What is the alarm? Why are you not stood-to?’
‘A pig got loose, sir.’
Hervey scowled. ‘The
‘The men, sir. They’s ’ungry!’
Hervey’s mouth fell open as he realized what had happened. ‘You mean they fired on a pig?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Did you approve it?’
The corporal hesitated.
‘Come, man! Did you have them fire?’
The same Welsh voice as before intervened. ‘Is there some difficulty, Mr Hervey?’
To Hervey’s mind the question smacked of wilful obtuseness. Ellis was picket-serjeant; he ought himself to be rousting them about. There was a hint of insubordination in the absence of the ‘sir’ after his name too. There had always been a resentful edge to Ellis.
‘I am waiting for an answer, Corporal!’
‘I said as we should shoot the pig, sir. The men is ’ungry, like Serjeant Ellis says.’
Hervey was dumbfounded. They had had a hard march of it, and rations were short, but was that just cause? The picket’s orders were exacting, especially in the matter of opening fire; the whole billet was now standing-to. ‘Place the corporal in arrest, Serjeant Ellis.’
‘I wouldn’t advise that, sir.’
Hervey braced himself. He had no wish to upbraid a serjeant in front of dragoons. ‘I note your advice, Serjeant, but I would have you place the corporal in arrest for disobeying his standing instructions.’
‘Mr Hervey, a pig is fair game, I should say. There’s not a deal of rations otherwise.’
Hervey blanched. What did Ellis think he was doing? The corporal had disobeyed regimental orders. It was not for the picket-serjeant or anyone else to question them by winking at the breach. The pig-shoot may have been of absurdly little moment, but if standing instructions could be disobeyed without remark, then the Sixth would soon be a convention not a regiment.
He would not bridle, however. He would explain himself clearly, and then put it to the test. ‘Serjeant Ellis, Corporal Cutter is in disobedience to regimental standing instructions. It is for the adjutant to decide if there are mitigating circumstances. You are to place the corporal in immediate arrest.’
‘Look, Mr Hervey, Corporal Cutter was only—’
Hervey boiled. Ellis had gone too far. And all over a pig. ‘And you are to report yourself to the serjeant- major.’
Ellis looked black.
Hervey turned on his heel and marched away, just as Daniel Coates had told him. Make the order plain, he used to say; give it decidedly, and then leave the man to it, for then he could only obey or disobey rather than argue.
He went straight to the adjutant and found him in the chapel of rest unfastening his sword, the regimental serjeant-major likewise. He saluted and stood at attention.
‘A false alarm, by all accounts,’ said the adjutant. ‘What frighted the picket?’
‘Nothing, sir. The picket fired on a pig which had loosed itself from the butcher. I have placed the picket- corporal in arrest.’
‘Have you, indeed?’
‘For disobeying standing orders.’
‘That is reasonable. What think you, Mr Scott?
‘The picket’s orders is quite clear, sir.’
‘Indeed,’ said the adjutant, laying down his swordbelt with an air of finality. ‘Deuced fool, Corporal Cutter. Well done, Mr Hervey. Be sure to inform Mr Laming. Has the picket-serjeant taken charge now?’
‘Yes.’ Then Hervey braced himself again. ‘I am afraid I had to order him to report himself to the serjeant- major. He showed too much reluctance to carry out my orders.’
‘What orders?’
‘To place the picket-corporal in arrest.’
‘You ordered Serjeant Ellis to the sarn’t-major? Was it absolutely necessary?’
‘He took Cutter’s side in the business, and in front of the picket. He said that the pig was fair game. I ordered him twice to place him in arrest, and it took a third.’
The adjutant looked at the serjeant-major, seeming by no means convinced. ‘Is there anything you wish to ask, Mr Scott?’
‘If I may, sir, I would ask Mr Hervey if he would repeat how his second order to Serjeant Ellis was framed, as exactly as may be.’
The adjutant nodded to Hervey.
‘I recall exactly that I said I would have him place the corporal in arrest for disobeying standing instructions.’
The adjutant looked at the serjeant-major again.
‘If I may, sir, I would ask Mr Hervey: it was after this order – I mean after Mr Hervey informed Serjeant Ellis that the arrest was on account of disobedience to standing orders – that Ellis said the pig was fair game?’
‘That is so, Serjeant-major.’
The serjeant-major looked at the adjutant. ‘It seems a very certain business, I would say, sir.’
‘I fear it is so. Let us
