who was so well placed to know what they thought of his conduct here. If his logs and order-?books were sent for, there would be some things he would find hard to explain away. Those strokes of profound cunning, those little stratagems that had seemed individually so impenetrable, now in the mass took on a sadly imbecile appearance. And how did the Polychrest come to be on the sand-?bank in the first place? Explain that, you infernal lubber. So he was more than usually pleased when Lord Melville rose from behind his desk, shook him warmly by the hand, and cried, ‘Captain Aubrey, I am delighted to see you. I said you would be sure to distinguish yourself, do you recall? I said so in this very room. And now you have done so, sir: the Board is content, pleased, eminently satisfied with its choice of you as commander of the Polychrest, and with your conduct at Chaulieu. I wish you could have done so with less cost: I am afraid you suffered terribly both in your ship’s company and in your person. Tell me,’ he said, looking at Jack’s head, ‘what is the nature of your wounds? Do they. . . do they hurt?’
‘Why, no, my lord, I cannot say they do.’
‘How were they inflicted?’
‘Well, my lord, the one was something that dropped on my head - a piece of mortar-?shell, I imagine; but luckily I was in the water at the time, so it did little damage, only tearing off a handsbreadth of scalp. The other was a sword-?thrust I did not notice at the moment, but it seems it nicked some vessel, and most of my blood ran out before I was aware. Dr Maturin said he did not suppose there was more than three ounces left, and that mostly in my toes.’
‘You are in good hands, I find.’
‘Oh yes, my lord. He clapped a red-?hot iron to the place, brought up the bleeding with a round turn, and set me up directly.’
‘Pray what did he prescribe?’ asked Lord Melville, who was intensely interested in his own body, and so in bodies in general.
‘Soup, my lord. Enormous quantities of soup, and barley-?water, and fish. Physic, of course - a green physic. And porter.’
‘Porter? Is porter good for the blood? I shall try some today. Dr Maturin is a remarkable man.’
‘He is indeed, my lord. Our butcher’s bill would have been far, far longer but for his devotion. The men think the world of him: they have subscribed to present him with a gold-?headed cane.’
‘Good. Good. Very good. Now I have your official letter here, and I see that you mention all your officers with great approval, particularly Pullings, Babbington and Goodridge, the master. By the bye, I hope young Babbington’s wound is not too grave? His father voted with us in the last two divisions, out of compliment to the service.’
‘His arm was broken by a musket-?shot as we boarded, my lord, but he tucked it into his jacket and fought on in a most desperate fashion; and afterwards, as soon as it was dressed, he came on deck again and behaved extremely well.’
‘So you are truly satisfied with all your officers? With Mr Parker?’
‘More than satisfied with them all, my lord.’
Lord Melville felt the hint of evasion, and said, ‘Is he fit to command?’ looking straight into Jack’s eye.
‘Yes, my lord.’
Turmoil of conscience: immediate loyalty and fellow-?feeling overcoming good sense, responsibility, love of truth, love of the service, all other considerations.
‘I am glad to hear it. Prince William has been pressing us for some time on the, subject of his old shipmate.’ He touched his bell, and a clerk came in with an envelope; at the sight of it Jack’s heart began to beat wildly, his thin sparse blood to race about his body; yet his face turned extremely pale. ‘This is an interesting occasion, Captain Aubrey: you must allow me the pleasure of being the first to congratulate you on your promotion. I have stretched a point, and you are made post with seniority from May 23rd.’
‘Thank you, my lord, thank you very much indeed,’ cried Jack, flushing scarlet now. ‘It gives me - it gives me very great pleasure to receive it from your hands -even greater pleasure from the handsome way in which it is given. I am very deeply obliged to you, my lord.’
‘Weel, weel, there we are,’ said Lord Melville, quite touched. ‘Sit down, sit down, Captain Aubrey. You are looking far from well. What are your plans? I dare say your health requires you to take some months of sick-? leave?’
‘Oh no, my lord! Oh, very far from it. It was only a passing weakness - quite gone now - and Dr Maturin assures me that my particular constitution calls for sea air, nothing but sea air, as far from land as possible.’
‘Well, you cannot have the Fanciulla, of course, since she will not be rated a post-?ship - what the gods give with one hand they take away with the other. And seeing that you cannot have her, then in compliment to you, it seems but just that she should be given to your first lieutenant.’
‘Thank you, my lord,’ said Jack, with a face so dashed and glum that the other looked at him with surprise.
‘However,’ he said, ‘I think we may hold out some hope of a frigate. The Blackwater: she is on the stocks, and all being well she may be launched in six months. That will give you time to recover your strength, to see your friends, and to watch over her fitting-?out from the very beginning.’
‘My lord,’ cried Jack, ‘I do not know how to thank you for your goodness to me, and indeed I am ashamed to ask for more, having had so much. But to be quite frank with you, my affairs were thrown into such a state of confusion by the breaking of my prize-?agent, that something is quite necessary to me. A temporary command, or anything.’
‘You were with that villain Jackson?’ asked Lord Melville, looking at him from under his bushy eyebrows. ‘So was poor Robert. He lost better than two thousand pound, a ca’hoopit sum. Weel, weel. So you would accept an acting-?command, however short?’
‘Most willingly, my lord. However short or however inconvenient. With both hands.’
‘There may be some slight fleeting remote possibility - I do not commit myself, mind. The Ethalion’s commander is sick. There is Captain Hamond’s Lively, and Lord Carlow’s Immortalite; they both wish to attend parliament, I know. There are other service members too, but I have not the details in my head. I will desire Mr Bainton to look into it when he has a moment. There is no certainty in these matters, you understand. Where are
