On His Majesty's Service

None of this could have been unknown to Youell, reckoned Hervey; and he wondered at Lord Hill’s purpose. ‘All of them fought well at Corunna, though, sir,’ he tried, risking rebuke in speaking unbidden, and seemingly to contradict.

But Lord Hill better than most knew how well they had fought that day, for he had commanded the brigade on the left flank, astride the road to the town. ‘The point is, Hervey, if the retreat had continued another week we’d scarcely have had an army left to fight with at Corunna.’ He looked out at the snow again. ‘Look here, you will dine with me this day week, and we shall speak then of your duties in the east. There’s nothing arising from your Cape despatches of which we need speak now; they are admirably clear. But I have to tell you one thing – and though it is not for me to do so, I feel the obligation since it was I who selected you to command of the Sixth.’

Indeed it was, Hervey knew – and without purchase. ‘I have not had opportunity to thank you, my lord.’

Lord Hill looked uneasy. ‘Yes, yes, that is all very well – and I do not need thanks for doing my duty – but matters are not as they were. I am fighting a damnably bloody war of retrenchment. I have had to give orders for the Sixth and two other regiments to be reduced, to be placed en cadre – a depot squadron, a hundred men, no more.’

Hervey felt his stomach turn as badly as it could before a fight. ‘For how long, sir?’

‘Indefinitely. They’re supposed to be disbanded: that is what Hardinge asked, but I’ve managed to persuade him that the economy in placing them en cadre is almost as great, and the general situation too uncertain to risk complete disbandment – far easier to re-raise than if they had been wholly struck from the list.’

Hervey was now on the edge of his chair. ‘But, sir, why the Sixth? Our seniority, our late service in India, our—’

‘Colonel Hervey,’ warned Youell, firmly but with a note of respect nevertheless.

‘Forgive me, my lord, but it makes no sense to reduce a regiment which has acquired such expertise in its trade. Why cannot those late sent to India be recalled?’

‘Colonel Hervey, remember your place, sir,’ repeated Youell, though more as entreaty than command.

Lord Hill huffed, but with the air of a man challenged reasonably enough. ‘Hervey, let me explain to you the very grave situation the Horse Guards finds itself in.’ (By ‘Horse Guards’ Hervey knew that Hill meant he himself.) ‘The army estimates are in course of preparation as we speak. They require a reduction of eight thousand men. To this end I have it in mind that every battalion is diminished by fifty men, that four companies of one of the penal corps are disbanded as well as the whole of the Staff Corps – some twelve hundred men – though I believe we might transfer a thousand of these to the Board of Ordnance.’ He smiled grimly at the ruse.

Hervey could well appreciate the Horse Guards’ difficulties, for if such sleights of hand to overcome a reduction in supply were being employed, the situation must indeed be disadvantageous. But all the same, if there were not troops enough for every call on them, why reduce the cavalry when they possessed the greatest celerity of movement?

Lord Hill appeared to read his mind. ‘And yet the calls on the army are no less insistent, not least in Ireland and in Canada. I need hardly point out that the cost of a regiment of cavalry is twice that, and more, of infantry. There are one hundred and three battalions of the Line, and seventy-four of these are abroad. It is His Majesty’s government’s policy that troops in foreign stations should be relieved every ten years – that is to say, at the rate of seven battalions a year; but where are the reliefs to be found if there are only enough battalions at home to last for four years? Ministers, as is their wont, put forward makeshift after makeshift. But it will not serve.’

Hervey was about to ask why the prime minister himself, with all his experience of organization, was unable to suggest other than makeshift, but thought better of it and returned instead to the wisdom of reducing the cavalry. ‘But if two or three regiments are recalled from India they may be replaced effectually by native ones – or by regiments raised from the Europeans there, of which there is growing number, as your lordship will know.’

Lord Hill shook his head. ‘If all I were obliged to do is reduce the number abroad I might consider such a proposal, even against the advice of the Board of Control, which is ever anxious as to the relative number of native to King’s regiments. But let me remind you that these regiments do not trouble the army estimates; it is the Company that pays for them.’ He raised his hand as Hervey, further emboldened, made to speak again. ‘You are about to argue the requirement for aid to the civil power. It is the argument that I myself made with the Secretary at War. Mr Peel’s Police bill will soon be before parliament, and calls on the army thereafter should be the less – three regiments less, Hardinge calculates; do not ask me how. I prevailed on him to await the outcome of the bill, and even its implementation, before we make any irrevocable reduction. Hence the placing of three regiments en cadre. I trust I have made myself plain?’

Hervey shifted a little in his chair. ‘Really, my lord, I am discomforted as well as honoured by the pains you have taken to explain this to me. I—’

Lord Hill shook his head. ‘No, it is the least I could do. And lest you suggest that in a year or so we send the Sixth to India and disband the more junior regiment due return, let me disabuse you of the notion: we must show the saving in this year’s estimates. The matter has been discussed with Lord George Irvine, and that must be the end of it.’ He raised his hand again to stay one last attempt. ‘But, of course, quite apart from the future of your regiment is the future of you yourself.’

By no means had this been absent from Hervey’s own thoughts, but it had not been uppermost. In any case, if matters had been discussed with the colonel of the regiment – Lord George Irvine – there really did seem to be little more to say. ‘You mean I am not to have command, sir?’

‘No-o, I did not mean that. You may certainly have command of the regiment en cadre if that is your desire, but frankly, Hervey, what satisfaction is there to be had in such an appointment? You’d be little more than a troop captain. I want you to have command instead of a Line battalion.’

Hervey’s face registered disappointment.

‘It is beyond my power to appoint you to any other cavalry regiment since none is in want of a lieutenant- colonel. I wish you to have command of the Fifty-third.’

Hervey swallowed. Lord Hill was himself their colonel – the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot; everyone knew it. He could make no remark that appeared either deprecating or ungrateful.

But Lord Hill was not yet finished. ‘They’re posted to Gibraltar later this year. With the situation in Portugal promising so ill, there are bound to be repercussions in Spain, and Gibraltar must remain on the greatest alert. You would have much to engage your talents, and Sir George Don you would find an agreeable garrison commander.’

None of this Hervey could possibly gainsay; Kezia, even, would find the posting pleasing – would she not? And yet it was so far from what he had wished for himself – from what he had been given to understand would be his – that he could not summon the will to embrace it.

Lord Hill came to his rescue once more. ‘I do not expect you to decide at once, neither am I minded simply to order you to duty there – though I half believe it would save the both of us a deal of trouble if I did. You may think on it a while and give an answer by and by – before setting out for the Levant at any rate.’

Hervey smiled appreciatively, and bowed. ‘Thank you, my lord.’

‘Very well, let us now meet your Captain Fairbrother.’

Only after they had left Lord Hill’s office did Hervey remember the iklwa. He thought of asking Colonel Youell to send it in, but then thought better of it since he was anyway to dine with Hill in a week’s time. He retrieved the swaddled weapon with his greatcoat, thanked Youell for his consideration – indeed, he was a little ashamed at his earlier presumption – and the two friends left as the clock atop the headquarters struck twelve.

Walking back to the United Service Club, with all the appearance of snowmen by the time they reached the corner of the Admiralty, Hervey gave his friend a full account of his meeting before the commander-in-chief had in turn received him. Fairbrother said little by reply; he knew perfectly well how dejected was Hervey. And yet so affable, humane a man had Lord Hill seemed to him that he could not but think his friend ill-served in the extreme by any notion other than to accept the offer of the infantry command. But he knew it, too, to be futile to attempt a persuasion when Hervey was in a mood such as this – and with the thermometer evidently fallen while they were indoors, his earlier delight in the white blanket was turning into something more akin to Hervey’s shivers.