‘When did you know it was I? How?’
The physician smiled a little, as much as to say that Hervey ought not to be surprised that such a thing could be known. ‘Soon after I looked inside your Prayer Book, when the guards took it, I thought it probable. It seemed unlikely that there would be any other by your name in the British cavalry. And then, as we began to speak about the past, I became more certain. But only listening to you now could I be assured.’
‘I am much moved, senor.’
‘A daughter murdered, Major Hervey: one does not forget the details, I am sorry to say.’
Hervey, pained, looked down. ‘No, of course.’
Dr Sanchez poured himself another glass of wine. ‘But let us talk no more of it, my friend.’ He lowered his voice. ‘There is interesting news from Lisbon – or rather,
‘Oh?’
Sanchez lowered his voice still further. ‘Several brigades of English troops are landed.’
Hervey brightened. ‘Indeed!’
‘I rather think this may hasten your release, parole or no.’
Hervey frowned. ‘I would far prefer escape by the method we have set in-hand. If I am released it will mean ceremony, and . . .’ He paused. ‘Do you have any more of the tribunal?’
Sanchez shook his head. ‘I have heard not a word. But then, Major Hervey, truly I am not privy to these things. I do know, however, that the governor of this place is called away – perhaps to Madrid, I am not told – and nothing would be likely before his return. We have several days in that regard, I believe.’
‘But not a day to lose.’
‘No, there is never a day to lose, Major Hervey,’ said Sanchez, quietly but emphatically. ‘Well, it is but a day’s wait now for the new password. Your scheme of codes has worked admirably well.’
It had. Brigadier-General Dom Mateo de Braganza had seen at once what was Hervey’s design, and had sent two portmanteaux of books, including General Folque’s manual of semaphore codes, together with a trial message. Hervey had replied in a long letter of thanks, with numerals from the code-book carefully interspersed, and had received a reply by return which told him of the plan to steal him away, and the identity of his ‘fellow of long acquaintance’. Tomorrow, when Sanchez learned the new password, Hervey would send it in a letter asking for some dictionary or other, and then the escape would follow before dawn two days following.
‘Was there any intelligence of where these brigades would go?’ he asked, unable even now to distance himself from the matter of strategy that had propelled him here in the first place.
‘If there was, it was not given to me,’ replied Sanchez, shaking his head. ‘I imagine one must come to Elvas? It is the logical place.’
Hervey groaned. ‘It is a long story.’
‘How so?’
He had no wish to appear evasive: here was a man risking his neck, after all. But the precise extent of the physician’s loyalty he could not gamble on. ‘I found myself in dispute with others over where the troops should go.’
But Sanchez had no interest in the details. ‘Well, we must pray they will have no recourse to arms. It would be a dreadful thing indeed for an old ally.’
Hervey presumed Sanchez referred to the Portuguese, although he might easily have in mind his own countrymen: the alliance with Spain against Bonaparte had come late, and had always been uncomfortable, but they had indeed been allies.
In truth, Sanchez was obliged by a debt he felt personally to Hervey, not to the British. That there would have been no debt had it not been for the infamous conduct of a part of the army at Badajoz, he was not inclined to dwell on. He bore no grudges. Like many of his countrymen, he professed to liking Englishmen while disliking the English.
Hervey approved his wish for peace, however: let them pray, indeed, that there would be no recourse to arms. ‘
The physician smiled. ‘Ah, Major Hervey, would that your Latin came from your Prayer Book!’
Hervey returned the smile. ‘It does, but a very little. I rather fancy we were taught the nobler texts. I recall quite a trade in epigrams when I was a cornet. But I am very unpractised now.’
‘And your Greek? I am afraid there was scant choice if not in Spanish in the little library here.’
‘My Greek is very ill. I confess I struggled a good deal with the New Testament you so thoughtfully provided.’
‘Not, perhaps, so great a failing in a soldier?’
Hervey smiled again. ‘No, I don’t suppose it is. If there is war in Greece then I might be able to forage in pentameters; otherwise I imagine it to be little loss. Doctor, I was grateful merely for the sentiment; and as I said, it occupied my mind –
Sanchez held up his hands, conceding the point. ‘But now, to return to your friends in Elvas, is it not very gratifying to learn that such a man as Colonel Laming, and a lady of rank, have hastened to your aid?’
Hervey took another large measure of wine. It warmed him, the taste of the familiar from hearth or mess. ‘I hardly know what to think.
Sanchez finished his wine, and made ready to leave. ‘Well, you shall see both, and soon. I will leave you to your books, now, Major Hervey. I have calls to make.’
‘Of course, doctor.’
Sanchez rose, looking thoughtful again. ‘Do not trouble yourself with unhappy memories of this place, Major Hervey. We Spanish understand what is the nature of war. You know well enough what our
Hervey smiled. ‘I was at Salamanca.
‘Exactly! And thence to the Pyrenees . . .’
Hervey shook his head. ‘You forget: we could not take Burgos. We had to withdraw again to the border.’
Sanchez raised his hands and his eyebrows: he had forgotten. ‘But
‘No, and we ran the French hard and fast the following year. I made my first footing in France in October.’
‘Five years!’ said Sanchez, shaking his head. ‘A long time in the life of a young man.’
Hervey shrugged his shoulders. ‘It would be crueller now for me, I assure you!’
Sanchez grasped Hervey’s shoulder. ‘Major Hervey, my
Later, when all was silent in the repose of the afternoon, Hervey took up a pen and began a letter home – or rather, to the place where his sister held the guardianship of his daughter, and increasingly the care of their ageing parents.
