A Regimental Affair (24 page)

Hervey too had taken a large measure of the brandy, and was beginning to feel its powers. ‘I’ve heard it said there is something of a man’s spirit that’s for ever broken when he’s been flogged; that however his body mends, he’s never the same again.’

Barrow nodded. ‘I’ve heard that as well. All men are different, mind.’

‘Do you know what was Mr Lincoln’s opinion of the matter?’ The RSM’s opinion was always inscrutable outside the orderly room.

Barrow took another gulp of brandy. ‘I do. Even an RSM must confide in someone, and it’s only natural to confide in one who’s been in that seat himself.’

‘And?’

‘I said “confide”, Hervey.’

Hervey would dearly have known the RSM’s opinion, for it was so rarely given, and Mr Lincoln had served the longest of any man in the Sixth. ‘I hope you
won’t
send in your papers, Barrow. It seems that Strickland will, and soon enough there’ll be no one but Towcester’s lackeys. Besides aught else, your dragoons wouldn’t thank you.’

The glasses were by now full again.

‘Cod’s, Hervey! My troop’s well-found – it’s true. But they’d no more miss me than . . . They like a gentleman, not one as is like them under the skin. You know that as well as I.’

As a rule, Hervey knew it to be right. But though there was little actual love for Barrow in the ranks, there was respect nevertheless. ‘Barrow, your troop would follow you. That’s the important thing, is it not?’

‘Of course they’d follow. There are serjeants behind them!’

Hervey frowned. ‘Would follow
willingly
.’

Barrow huffed and drank more brandy. ‘Brighton’ll be one turnout after another. Towcester will be lashing the whole regiment before a week. I haven’t the stomach for it.’

‘It may not be so bad. We might see inside the Prince Regent’s pavilion,’ tried Hervey, with a sort of smile.

‘Hervey, I don’t like saying this. It goes against everything I’ve held to in two and a half score years in the service. But yon Earl of Towcester is a bad lot. He’ll fall foul of the Horse Guards sooner or later. They all do. But he’ll lead the regiment a pretty dance ere then. And a lot of men shall pay a heavy price – Hopwood, me,
you
even . . .’

‘I’ve been trying to tell myself that it won’t be so bad once we have real work to do.’

‘Maybe,’ Barrow conceded, though not sounding convinced. ‘But if I had the means . . .’

‘For what?’

‘To let them in authority know what is his true nature, I would!’

Hervey understood that the financial stake for Barrow was too high. And perhaps, in its way, it was for him too. He shuddered at the notion. It must never be so, he told himself: he must act disinterestedly, always. And if a man like Barrow was driven to thoughts of defiance, then was it not time that he himself made such a stand?

When Hervey returned home that evening, a little before eight, the brandy was no more than a dull headache, for he had turned out his troop for sword drill in the afternoon to sweat the flogging out of them. It had been a woeful affair to begin with, for Serjeant-Major Kendall seemed wholly incapable of exercising any mastery over a body of men; and had it not been for the most judicious,
and surprisingly tactful, intervention of Serjeant Armstrong, the parade might have become like a shambles of a busy morning. He had wondered when he could be rid of Kendall, when he might raise the matter with Lord Towcester. He had even discovered lately that the serjeant-major had managed to get himself and the commissary wagons thoroughly lost during the general’s inspection, where but for the early finish to the scheme there would have followed certain disarray in the troop. But at the moment Hervey could not broach the subject even with the adjutant, for such was the strong detestation in that quarter that a request to have the man moved would only be met with accusations that he was trying to deflect the blame for his own shortcomings. There seemed no end to his problems.

The heavy silk curtains in the drawing room were closed, and candles burned brightly, although it was still light outside. The house was a picture of elegant comfort rather than of luxury, a good place for a soldier to withdraw to.

Henrietta greeted him warmly. ‘Johnson has just this minute left,’ she said, holding her cheek to his lips. ‘He told me about the affair at the barracks. I am sorry, my darling.’

It pleased and touched him that she should understand so perfectly. ‘A hideous business.’ He sighed deeply. ‘I should have been home before now, but—’

‘There is a bath drawn for you. Why don’t you wash away the day and then come to me as if it were a fresh one? I’ve news that should interest you.’

‘From Wiltshire?’

She gave him a puzzled smile. ‘Yes.’

‘Is my father to be made bishop?’

‘Wait and see, dearest,’ said Henrietta indulgently. ‘I shall expect you down in half an hour, and then I shall tell you all.’

His bath was a restoring exercise, but when Hanks poured water over his head he had a moment’s vision of the salt water and Private Hopwood’s back. He made an effort to put that from his mind, though, for Henrietta did not deserve to have to share the Sixth’s troubles. He dressed quickly and returned to her side, hopeful of diverting news from Wiltshire.

Henrietta was holding a glass of champagne, which she loved better than any other wine. Hervey might not himself have chosen
it in the circumstances, but the regiment’s trials were not to be hers, and so he took the glass which Hanks proffered.

‘Well?’ he said, with amused anticipation. ‘What is it in Wiltshire that will interest me?’

Henrietta waited until Hanks had closed the door behind him, and then gave her husband another kiss. ‘My dearest, Princess Charlotte is with child!’

Hervey tried hard to conceal his disappointment at news that was of such little moment to him. Had he not heard it before, too? ‘My darling, what is—’

‘And so am I!’

Sensations of every kind came over him. He was dumbstruck. Henrietta, blushing a little, smiled at him. ‘Matthew, I am wondering why you seem so surprised. There has scarcely been a day when . . .’

This was certainly true, even on the night of the general’s inspection. He took her in his arms, shaking his head with a sort of unbelieving pride.

‘But I do believe it was the day when Jessye went to the stallion.’

He reddened, and then became anxious. ‘Shouldn’t you be sitting? Resting? Have you seen a doctor? Is there—’

‘
Matthew
.’ She put a finger to his mouth.

He kissed her with the greatest tenderness. ‘Whoever could have thought that the day might end as well as this?’

‘It is not ended yet, my dear,’ she whispered. ‘And I am not suddenly become as a piece of china.’

Hervey was ready for the rude rebuff, the curse, profanity, obscenity – whatever it was to be – for he was the man’s troop leader, the officer in whose charge Private Hopwood now was, punishment having been carried out.

Joseph Edmonds had told him, when first he had joined the Sixth, that it was unfair for an officer ever to confront a man when his senses were dulled by alcohol, or fired by another spirit, for if the man then acted violently – by word or worse – the officer was in truth guilty of provoking it. Hervey knew that Private Hopwood was scarcely able to rise from his bed and assault him, but what if his verbal abusing was loud enough to be heard by all the others in the sick bay? What if the abuse were directed not at him but at
the commanding officer, the adjutant, the farrier-major – at anybody, indeed, who might then prefer a charge of insubordination? Would he, Hervey, have the right to overlook such a thing – as he was prepared to do now, should the invective be directed at him personally?

But Hopwood’s reply was silence.

At first Hervey thought Hopwood might not have heard him, being still drowsy, perhaps, from the laudanum. ‘Private Hopwood,’ he said again, thinking at least to give him back a little dignity in addressing him by his rank. ‘Is there anything I can do?’

Still Hopwood made no reply. Hervey was now caught between anger at the refusal to speak, for the man was still under discipline, even prone in his sickbed, and compassion for his evident wish to be shot of officers. He would not leave, though, without first making Hopwood meet his eye. But as he moved closer to the bed, he wished with all his heart that he hadn’t, for Hopwood’s eyes were streaming – a continuous flow of tears, as if all will to stem them were gone, and every drop of that soldier’s spirit which had made him face his punishment so bravely the day before was being washed away. Hopwood was no longer a man in age three or four years his captain’s senior; he was not even a child.

Hervey turned to leave, but as he did so came the extraordinary sound of hymn-singing. Not the doleful stuff of Corporal Sandbache’s prayer meetings, which even Lord Towcester had not thought worth suppressing, nor even the regimented chorus of a Sunday church parade, but a full-throated rendering of ‘He who would valiant be’. By how many, Hervey wondered? It sounded like half the regiment! He hastened outside to find his troop and the chaplain, hats off, heads high.

The sound would be carrying throughout the barracks, and easily across the square. Hervey glanced towards the orderly room, where the lieutenant colonel’s pennant was run up the pole; Lord Towcester was certainly at orderly room. The windows were closing one by one. All, that is, but Mr Lincoln’s.

Henrietta was on her day bed, and did not hear him come in.

‘My
dear
,’ Hervey stammered as he saw her. ‘Are you unwell?’

She turned to see his anxious face, and laughed. ‘No. I am tired!’

It was not yet ten in the morning. ‘But—’

‘Matthew . . .’ she protested coyly.

He saw her tease at once, and kissed her forehead.

‘Why are you home so soon? Is anything wrong?’

Hervey shook his head, then shrugged. ‘Oh . . . I just didn’t want to be about the barracks.’

‘Why ever not? Ordinarily it claims you stronger than I can.’

‘That is not true!’

‘Matthew, I am not complaining. You might not be quite so much the man if I had you all to myself!’

He frowned, then realized she was teasing him again.

‘What has sent you home then?’

He sat at the edge of her bed. ‘I went to see Hopwood – the dragoon who was flogged yesterday.’

‘Oh,’ she said, her face becoming less animated. ‘Do you want to tell me of it?’

‘Would you mind?’

She sat up and took his hand. ‘Of
course
I should not mind. Why should I mind your speaking of anything which is making you unhappy? Did you not listen to
anything
that Mr Keble said when we were married?’

He smiled sheepishly. ‘You carry the evidence, my love.’

They kissed, but she broke off and pressed him to what had made him return.

‘It was as if we had thrashed the very manhood out of him,’ said Hervey, shaking his head. ‘I can’t think that is right, even for his offence – even for twice the offence.’

She raised her eyebrows – a look that implied she might agree with him. ‘If
I
were a soldier I should want an officer who felt as you did. What do you suppose would be my chances of getting one?’

It was a curious way of putting the question. He wondered if she thought him alone in his sentiments. ‘My darling,’ he said, smiling gently at her, ‘you flatter me, but you must not suppose that mine is a lonely opinion. Since before I joined the Sixth they were known to be a regiment that did not flog. It was – if you like – a point of honour with the officers that we did not need recourse to it to prevent riot or desertion. No doubt there were some men who took advantage of it, but the regiment was never found wanting on campaign. And we were by no means unique. I’m sure that not one
in four regiments of cavalry used the lash in the Peninsula. The point is, this business may have driven something of a wedge between the men and their officers. They assembled this morning to sing hymns outside the infirmary –
hymns
, of all things. And they sang most defiantly. It does not bode well.’

She nodded, and took his hand again. ‘What shall you do?’

He sighed. ‘I had a word with Strickland after seeing Hopwood. Do you know he is on the point of leaving? He’s continually subjected to insults for his religion by Lord Towcester.’

Henrietta said that she did not know. Barracks gossip had yet to establish its conduit to her, other than by Johnson, who so far seemed inclined to allow only a trickle. ‘And what did you say?’

‘I told him I had a mind to go and see Lord Sussex. That the colonel ought to know about the unhappy state of affairs generally. But he begged me not to.’

Henrietta looked hesitant. ‘I am very glad that he did. Do you really suppose it would do any good?’

‘It is Lord Sussex’s regiment.’

‘Yes,’ she conceded, frowning. ‘But a man such as Towcester will not be without wiles. And how do you suppose things will turn out if Lord Sussex is unable to take your word against his? Lord Towcester has put a deal of money into the regiment. You said so yourself.’

‘I don’t think that would affect Lord Sussex’s judgement.’