A Regimental Affair

your very sorry news.’

Hervey ignored the sentiments. ‘Your lordship, there is one thing which puzzles me. Why was my wife leaving the fort, and by that road?’

‘Captain Hervey, I hardly think this is the time or—’

‘I am sorry, your lordship, but I very much consider that it is. My wife had come here to see me — there is no ordinance against that — and the road she was on had been closed by order of the Americans and myself.’ Hervey’s manner was cold, insistent, but respectful still.

Lord Towcester’s eyes showed no more warmth than they had ever done. His mouth had closed to a slit, and his words began to come with a hiss. ‘Was I expected to know that, sir?’

‘But why did you send her away?’ Hervey’s anger was now only barely concealed.

‘Did I say that I had, sir?’

‘Do you deny it?’ Still Hervey kept his anger just in check, though Lord Towcester could not know how hard he struggled.

‘Captain Hervey, your tone is becoming impertinent!’

Hervey’s tone was still as cold as the air outside, and seemingly as calm. ‘Why did you send my wife away, sir?’

Lord Towcester huffed. ‘Because, sir, she had taken to meddling!’

‘I beg your lordship’s pardon?’ The contempt was undisguised.

‘It seems that she had written to the Duke of Huntingdon, raking over dead coals.’

‘I consider your sending her away improper. And I need hardly add that if you had not done so she would be alive at this minute.’

‘What!’

‘Even if you did not know the road was closed, I consider that it was a reckless thing to have done, and I shall make my complaint to General Rolt.’

‘You impertinent devil!’ roared Towcester. ‘Mr Dauntsey, you will take this officer’s sword!’

The adjutant stood open-mouthed. ‘My lord! Captain Hervey has just suffered the most wretched bereavement!’

‘That is no excuse for insubordination! Take his sword, sir!’

‘There will be no need of that,’ rasped Hervey. ‘I shall send in my papers this very day. But I shall also lay before the major general my complaints, including your late conduct at Niagara, and certain other matters of which I have been made aware.’

‘How dare you, Captain Hervey! What conduct? What matters?’

‘You will discover, your lordship. But I believe I may say that it were better that your lordship placed a pistol to his head!’ He saluted slowly and turned on his heel.

Lord Towcester struck the table in so great a rage that the veneer splintered. ‘Stay where you are, sir! I have not finished with you! Mr Dauntsey, arrest that officer!’

But the adjutant made no move.

* * *

Back in his quarters, Hervey took the letter from his pocket. He had had it now for longer than he had known the worst, and his sister’s neat round hand was a comfort, even if, as he supposed, it bore ill news. But what ill news could possibly compound his grief? Elizabeth’s earnest face was before him now, and without doubt there was solace in it.

Horningsham

10 December 1817

My dearest Matthew,

I bring you news that you will scarcely be able to believe. Our father has been made archdeacon and a canon of the cathedral! I cannot begin to explain how this all came about, for up until only a very few days ago we were certain that he was to be deprived of the living here. But the bishop deems that the offences of which he stood accused, and which charges were to have been heard by the consistory, were all occasioned by misunderstanding. The old archdeacon has been translated to Ely, where he is made dean, and the bishop, it seems, believed it only right that Father, whose nerves have suffered so very ill these past months, should have the preferment in his stead. And so he is now Archdeacon of Sarum, and by the time this letter reaches you he will have been installed, and so you may write to him thus.

Mama is restored to all her former spirits. She even says she hopes the old archdeacon will have a perpetual chill in the Ely fens! And now that there is peace and ease in the vicarage I myself shall go to Warwickshire, to Lord John Howard’s people, for his sister is to give a ball. I do not think you met her. She came to Bath last winter when her brother took a house there for the season, and I like her very much.

I pray that this finds both you and Henrietta in excellent health and spirits. By my reckoning, this shall reach you not many weeks, or even days, before the birth of my nephew — or shall it be niece? I long to hear of that news, which I do pray you will hasten to us here by the speediest of means!

And so I shall end, for it pleases me more than I can say to write to you a letter with such happy content at last, and I do not wish to dilute its happiness with common tattle. God is very good to us!

Your ever affectionate sister,

Elizabeth

Hervey folded the letter carefully and put it back into his pocket. He would write to Elizabeth, and at the same time to Lord and Lady Bath, to say that he had lost his wife — that he had lost his wife. He did not know how he would find the words, however, or even the courage.

But for one letter he was certain he could find both words and courage in ample measure. He went to the desk, took out pens and paper, sat upright in the chair and looked out of the window. Despite the bitter cold, his dragoons were going about their business as best they could, for in the army, life must always go on, and with as little interruption as might be.

Hervey dipped his pen in the inkwell, and began to write his report to the major general.

The End

HISTORICAL AFTERNOTE

Something was bound to give in the business of the cavalry and aid to the civil power. On 16 August 1819, at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester, one of the shadowy villains of my tale held another meeting, the numbers approaching sixty thousand. The magistrates ordered the local yeomanry to arrest ‘Orator’ Hunt, but the parttime cavalrymen botched it. An antecedent troop of my own regiment was sent to rescue them and restore order, which they did apparently with restraint. But the damage was done, and ‘Peterloo’, as the press dubbed it, became a cause celebre for the reform movement. But it did have a positive side, for it was a major