On His Majesty's Service

General?’

‘He said, apparently, that he has seen none – no siege guns, that is. But by all accounts Hussein Pasha commands in person, and so I conclude that he does not intend merely investing the garrison and waiting for us to sail away. There’ll be siege guns coming up, all right; and in their wake an assault.’

‘What is your assessment of our situation therefore?’

‘It is on this point I would engage your assistance, Colonel Hervey. I am already greatly in your debt, and I appreciate your orders forbid you to take up arms, but I’d deem it the greatest favour if you were to make an inspection of the defences and report your findings to me. My officers will make their dispositions according to the regulations – of that I am confident – but your eyes are not so regulated, and it may be that you observe some weakness that the enemy, being also not drilled in our regulations, sees also.’

Hervey hesitated. He might be able to persuade Lord Hill that his actions in the reconnaissance had been dictated by necessity, but what Wachten asked was for calculated assistance.

‘General, my mission requires that I observe what I can of your methods of war,’ he said slowly. ‘It would be greatly to the advantage of my mission, therefore, if I were to inspect the defences, and it is only gentlemanlike that I tell you what I write to the commander-in-chief.’

Wachten smiled. It was a bold as well as subtle line of reasoning. ‘Colonel Hervey, your conduct as a gentleman has never been in doubt.’

Whoever had chosen Siseboli for the coup de main had chosen well. Bourgas, with its stronger garrison, would have been a harder place to capture in the first instance, and although it offered a better anchorage, it was closer to the Balkan forts and would almost certainly have brought swifter and stronger retribution (though why the Seraskier had delayed for so long before marching on Siseboli was everyone’s question). Siseboli also had the advantage of being on a promontory, a peninsula, which could be covered by the fire of Russian warships from either side. Even were the Turks to overcome the defensive outworks to the landward end, the isthmus was too narrow a defile for them to exploit their strength. Unless Turk warships could drive off those of the Russians, the town itself ought to be able to withstand attack. Cornet Agar began speaking of Spartans and Thermopylae as, half an hour later in their billet, Hervey readied himself for his survey of the defence-works.

The isthmus was two furlongs at most in length, and one and a half wide – rocky ground, short, scrubby grass. When he had first seen it, he had been surprised that with so many orchards, market gardens and shanties at its landward end there had been no encroachment. Guarding the approaches to the isthmus, at a distance of seven hundred yards (easy cannon range) from the walls of the town itself, were two redoubts which Wachten’s engineers had built. Covering these, as well as the isthmus, were two gunboats moored either side of the peninsula. It was an admirable disposition, he reckoned; by night or in fog the Turks might be able to slip past the redoubts, and even across the isthmus, but it would take prodigious skill (the like of which he had not so far witnessed). And as soon as the alarm were raised the gunboats could fire blind and the isthmus would be barely tenable. Even if a sufficient number of Turks were able to cross, they would have to force the gates or storm the walls – almost certainly without artillery, which they could scarce bring up under fire from the gunboats – and even if they succeeded in that, the buildings within the walls were solid affairs and would make formidable strongpoints. Fire would be a danger, of course; though the lower floors were stone-built, the houses were half-timbered; but setting the town alight would be perilous for the Turks, too. Except that, Hervey supposed, they might have no compunction in razing Siseboli if it fired out the invader.

But what if the Seraskier did not intend attacking, only laying siege? He would know, probably, that the Russians were not landed in strength enough to drive his force off. Would it matter if they were penned in here? But the Russians’ purpose in taking Siseboli was to use it as the point of entry for supplies once General Diebitsch had marched south through the Balkan; the Turks could scarcely maintain a siege with a Russian army approaching from the rear. Since the garrison could always be reinforced by sea, the fate of Siseboli lay therefore in action to the north, in the Balkan. Hervey recognized that meanwhile, all that Wachten had to do was avoid defeat rather than take the offensive. Fairbrother might have been sporting with him when he compared Siseboli with Gibraltar, but Hervey was of a mind that the two had indeed much in common.

‘Sir?’

He had been too deep in thought, even while readying himself. ‘Yes?’

‘I have finished the Pliny and Herodotus,’ said Agar, as one who was not about to impart good news.

‘And?’

‘Herodotus has nothing to reveal, as I expected. He frequently conflates myth and truth. Pliny’s more agreeable to read, but not instructive. Indeed, I was at times uncertain which Apollonia he was writing of; there are so many places of that name between Sicily and Palestine.’

Hervey checked his stride as he made for the door: ‘Mr Agar, I am content to take your scholarship as read, else I should not have troubled the general with expectations. Pray tell me what you have learned, or nothing at all.’

Agar looked rather abashed; he was all too aware he could sometimes detach himself from the here and now. ‘He speaks of bitumen in the water hereabout, that it is injurious to horses.’

Hervey nodded. ‘But that much we may suppose the people of the town know after so many years drinking it. I shall inform the general nevertheless.’ He smiled. ‘It will show him that we have not been idle. Thank you, Agar.’ In truth, he supposed that Wachten had only given him the books as a test of his resource rather than in serious expectation of discovering anything of use.

Agar was warmed by the thanks, nevertheless. He had received high praise for the rescue of the fallen Cossack and did not wish to lose the smallest part of his future commanding officer’s esteem.

The sudden whoosh of a mortar bomb overhead and then the crash of tiles in the street behind recalled them both to the present. There was no explosion, though. Was it solid shot, or a fuse not ignited on firing? Deuced tricky things, fuses; like the Turkish cannon – the slightest fanning of an all-but dead ember, and … A mistake, of course, to allow the enemy’s mortars to come up so close,’ said Hervey, lengthening step.

‘Enemy mortars, Hervey?’ said Fairbrother.

‘I was speaking from the point of view of the Russians, no more.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. We might otherwise feel obliged to do something to distance the mortars.’

Hervey smiled, knowingly. ‘I might yet be persuaded – for our own safety.’

There was a huge explosion from the direction of the gates.

He checked for an instant, feeling instinctively for the pistol at his belt, though he knew what must be the cause (he’d heard powder kegs go heavenwards in his time). ‘Pray it’s not brought down the walls,’ he said grimly as they began doubling.

It had not, but it had brought down every horse of the ammunition train, and a good many men. As they came round the corner they saw the gate garrison (a company of the Pavlovsk) already tending the wounded.

But not the horses. ‘Pall Mall drill,’ he called, running to the wreckage.

Fairbrother cursed; Agar retched. It was one thing to draw blood with sabre or pistol in the heat of battle, and another to come cold upon a slaughterhouse.

The explosion, like all explosions, had worked its own peculiar destruction. The superstructure of the leading caisson-waggon had been blown high and scattered wide, doing little damage, except that the driver, headless but still holding the reins, lay between his team, which had crumpled as if felled by a poleaxe, bloodless save for a trickle at the nose. The four horses of the caisson following were down also, but thrown apart so that they lay on their side as if sleeping. The driver had been hurled backwards from his seat and lay gorily impaled on the tarpaulin spike, while the serjeant in command of the train had been blown from the saddle with such force that his uniform was stripped from his back. He lay by the gatehouse, unrecognizable but for the remains of a sleeve with its broad white chevrons of rank, his horse lying grunting nearby – butchered meat like its rider. The corporal lay dead but unmarked beside his horse at the rear of the second caisson.

To the flank of the lead waggon was the worst destruction: every man of the two-dozen escort had been cut down by shards from the copper hoops of the powder barrels, as if they had marched into a discharge of grape. Those not dead or close to death sat with expressions of bewilderment. Chaplains were already making the sign of the cross.