An Act Of Courage

need of her capability now.

But what was the purpose of turning over the past, or the question of dissembling, when he would in all likelihood face the discipline of the Horse Guards? He doubted any amount of purchase or patronage could restore a career thereafter. Would it come to that, to court martial? What else could it come to unless he escaped soon? He could wish himself in Belem now, or Madeira, but above all he wished he were in Wiltshire. That was where his true duty lay, was it not? Home – a cold church but a warm hearth. How many times had he heard the Christmas bells in Horningsham? His stomach twisted: only once since joining the Sixth. Yet that season was imprinted on him as if he had never left – perhaps even stronger, for the changes which must have come, year by year, had never troubled him, so that his memory was the sixteen-year-old’s, as perfect as may be. Except that there was now a dependent in that place, a daughter he was neglecting, even when he had his liberty. He could not say truly that he honoured his father and his mother, either, by his long absence. It was not so plain a commandment, perhaps, as the seventh, which he broke with astonishing ease; but break it he did. His condition, in all things, was not one in which he could take any pride.

He opened his Prayer Book with a heavy heart. It was at least something familiar; he would be transported for half an hour, perhaps even contentedly. He began with the day’s lessons, then turned to the appointed psalm, 119 – Beati immaculati: Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes: and I shall keep it unto the end . . . O take not the word of thy truth utterly out of my mouth: for my hope is in thy judgements. So shall I always keep thy law: yea, for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty . . .

He smiled ironically. He could walk in liberty at this moment. It was only his parole that he would render up. But that would not be keeping the law as it fitted the soldier. He had pledged somewhere, if only in his own hearing, to keep it to the end.

He read on, until the closing verses: It is good for me that I have been in trouble: that I may learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me: than thousands of gold and silver. He shook his head. How often was the psalmist apt!

To Hervey’s considerable surprise, and equal joy, the physician visited him a little before six o’clock. ‘I could not bear to think of you dining alone this day, Major Hervey,’ he had said, and with such warmth that Hervey was prompted to take his hand by return.

Indeed, after he had read the psalm, his cell had become a place of some cheer suddenly. His jailers had fetched more wood for the fire, and servants he had not seen before brought a bowl of candied fruit, and fine wine and cakes. And when the physician had said that he could not bear to think of Hervey dining alone, he had meant that he would dine with him. So Dr Sanchez and his ‘charge’ had feasted on roasted capon, beef and puddings, and Hervey had almost been able to forget his condition for an hour or two. They spoke freely, but of the past, which avoided cause for dispute or indiscretion, for Britain and Spain had been allies (in later years at least) in the long struggle against Bonaparte. The more they spoke, the more they found common ground.

‘Oporto was a very fine affair,’ said Hervey, taking a cigar. ‘I did not realize it at the time, but it spoke everything of the Duke of Wellington. He had a reputation for caution, but that is to misunderstand. He was – is, I suppose – a safe general, and there is much difference between the two. A general may have his reverses, but a commander-in-chief must never be beaten.’

‘To have the enthusiastic support of the people, in the way you had at Oporto, is greatly to be prized, Major Hervey. That was the undoing of the French in my country. You know, I hope, of the guerrilleros?’

Hervey blew the first of his cigar smoke towards the high ceiling. ‘I do, but I confess I regard a great deal of what they did with utter revulsion. I saw unimaginable things on the way to Corunna, the most shameful things, but the butchery which followed after Oporto was an outrage. The duke begged the people not to molest the French wounded, but it had little effect. It was nothing to what we saw later in Spain, however.’

The physician nodded thoughtfully. ‘But by Oporto, the Duke of Wellington had secured his reputation, it is true. A fine affair indeed, a brilliant affair, Marshal Soult ejected from Portugal to cower in Galicia a prey to the Spanish army. Such audacity on the duke’s part!’

Hervey did not immediately respond. There was no doubting the duke’s right to praise, yet Soult had not been destroyed; neither was he by the Spanish. True, he had had to abandon all his supply, just as Sir John Moore had, and many of his guns, but the fact was that Soult had escaped and would recover and be a thorn in the duke’s flesh for four more years. Months after Oporto there were rumours the duke had thrown away his chance by disdaining the advice of a Portuguese officer who knew by what route the French would escape.

Escape – the word again. What might his route of escape be? Was there some secret way, ancient but unmarked on any map, as Soult’s had been, by which he might slip from these quarters and out of the castle, through the lines and across the border? Who might be his guide? He had high hopes of Sanchez, but there was a difference between hope and desperation.

He drew on his cigar. ‘I did not speak of the horses and mules at Oporto, did I? The French abandoned them as they did everything else. As we had at Corunna – except that we destroyed all ours. Or, at least, we tried to. In truth we made a fearful thing of it. Poor creatures! But at Oporto they merely . . .’ Hervey’s French broke down.

Dr Sanchez inclined his head.

‘I mean, they just cut through the . . . tendon at the back of the hock, just a sabre slice, leaving the animal to limp about. What is a man who contrives such a brute method, as if he were merely slashing a sheaf of corn?’

‘Or who do murder and rape?’

Hervey shook his head. ‘They had treated the people very ill, certainly.’

Sanchez frowned, but with a look of sadness rather than censure. ‘I was thinking of my own city, Major Hervey.’

Hervey checked himself. Badajoz had changed hands several times in the course of five years of war, but he had no doubt what the physician meant. He lowered his eyes, and then looked back at him again. ‘I think Badajoz the most shameful thing in the whole time we were in the country. I confess I recall it often enough still. I’d seen on that march to Corunna what our soldiers were capable of when there was a reverse, if the officers were not attentive, but I’d never imagined such scenes as I witnessed here that night. Shameful, unspeakable.’

Sanchez looked at him intently. ‘So you were, indeed, here during the siege, Major Hervey?’

Hervey was puzzled by the manner of expression. What did he mean by ‘indeed’? ‘Yes, I was here.’

Sanchez said nothing for a moment. Then he brightened. ‘I was at Talavera, you know.’

Hervey brightened too. ‘Ah! There was a victory in the proper fashion! You were with General Cuesta?’

‘I was surgeon in the Duke of Albuquerque’s corps.’

‘Then we stood not half a mile distant from each other! As I recall, I confess I found it infernally hot.’

‘You recall it perfectly, Major Hervey,’ said Sanchez, with a most companionable smile.

Hervey was now thoroughly warmed – the fire, the food, the wine, but above all the fellow feeling. Here with him was, if not a cavalryman, then a man who had served with cavalry. It was not necessary for him to explain everything, now: the physician would understand so much.

Talavera! Hervey smiled and shook his head. What a battle to have shared! There was nothing like it till Waterloo!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHARGE, AND COUNTER-CHARGE

Talavera, 24 July 1809

The march to Talavera was not the happiest of times to recall, however. There had been celebrations enough after crossing the Douro – how the people of Porto had sung the praises of Sir Arthur Wellesley, and how the army had congratulated itself! But later had come reports, disappointing if not at first unsettling, that Soult’s army had not been destroyed, that it had got away into Galicia, albeit badly mauled; and then the