A Regimental Affair (39 page)

‘My darling!’

She shook her head. ‘Did you ever read the book of hers I gave you?’

He had to own that he had not. ‘I confess it never engaged me.’

‘Matthew, do you
ever
read novels?’

‘Yes.’

‘Which last did you read?’

The answer came almost at once. ‘It was called
Waverley
.’

‘Was it of soldiery?’

He frowned. ‘There were some very romantic episodes.’

‘It
was
about soldiery! And how recently was it that you read?’

‘On board ship.’

Now
she
frowned. ‘The return or the outward passage?’

He sighed. ‘I prefer poetry.’

She laughed. ‘I know you do. Then I shall read to you tonight, when we are in bed. John Keats.’

He looked blank.

‘Don’t you remember? Mr Keble spoke of him when we were at the henge those three years ago, but I don’t think he’d been much heard of then. I have his first volume, published only this spring.’

He smiled in pleasant anticipation. ‘You know, I
do
very much like it here.’

She laughed again. ‘Of course you do, Matthew Hervey! You are surrounded by your dragoons, the lieutenant colonel is twenty miles away, and you have me with you!’

‘In that order?’

‘I think, probably, yes!’

They kissed, and would have moved closer, but a knock at the door reclaimed them. Private Johnson announced the Bow Street men.

‘Come in, gentlemen, come in,’ said Hervey, holding out his hand with a display of real pleasure. ‘You have been elusive this past week or so.’

‘Indeed we have, sir; indeed we have. Good afternoon, your ladyship.’

Henrietta smiled as warmly, and asked Johnson to bring more cups.

‘Sit down, gentlemen, please,’ said Hervey, helping them to chairs. ‘What brings you?’

‘I think we may be very close to a deciding bout,’ said the senior of the two. It seemed an apt metaphor, for he had always looked to Hervey like a man at home in the ring.

‘Indeed, Mr Wilks? Then I am all attention.’

The other investigator, the former insurance man, took out his pocketbook and sat poised to make notes. There was no look of the pugilist to Mr Bartle. Rather had he the appearance of an apothecary.

Wilks drained his teacup, drew forward in his chair and began to speak in a more confidential tone. ‘I do believe we know the identities of the leaders of the so-called Shirewood Brigade. It’s they that have been organizing the violence in the north of the county.’

Hervey nodded. ‘You know who is this “Enoch”?’

Wilks smiled. ‘That much was easy, sir. Enoch is a hammer.’

Hervey did not comprehend.

‘The hammers they use for machine-breaking. They’re called “Enochs” after the ironworks that makes them.’

Hervey felt a little foolish. ‘Do continue please, Mr Wilks.’

‘We had a meeting with General Evans last night in the castle when he got back from London.’ At this point Wilks looked rather uncomfortable. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but though I know we are in the borough’s pay, and you asked us here, we had a duty to the GOC.’

‘Of course, of course,’ said Hervey, who had never for once supposed that Bow Street men worked to as rigid a system of command as his.

‘Well, then, the Home Office, it seems, is of the opinion that although there is plotting against the government all over the place, it is haphazard. There’s no method in it. All their spies and informers suggest the same, that these Luddites are only associated with the conspirators by opportunity – by suggestion, even, for the most part. And the likes of Hunt and the Spa Fielders have no more connection with the trouble here than Bonaparte.’

Hervey was glad to hear it, but didn’t immediately see the implication.

‘If we can give one knockout blow to one of these “brigades” ’ – Wilks’s dislike of using an otherwise honourable term was quite evident – ‘then there’s a very good chance the others will be cowed into surrender – or, rather, inactivity. They’ll fear we’ve penetrated their secrecy entirely, and the threat of the gallows should do the rest.’

‘And we are now in a position to do this, to deliver this knockout blow?’

Wilks smiled, and a suggestion of the same came to the lips of his assistant. ‘We are, sir!’

‘Would you like more tea before you tell us how, Mr Wilks?’ asked Henrietta.

‘Indeed I should, ma’am!’

‘And you, Mr Bartle?’

‘Very much, your ladyship.’

She filled their cups and asked if they would prefer that she left.

Before Hervey could say anything, Wilks protested that indeed he would not. ‘For it was your information with regard to
Mrs Stallybrass that began the trail to this evening, your ladyship.’

Henrietta seemed very gratified by this.

‘Well, sir, it seems that your ambuscading scheme has them running very scared. They can’t assemble in the numbers they need, especially since the posse is now so effective.’

It was now Hervey’s turn to feel gratified.

‘And your dragoons are so quick about the place that our night owls fear being counter-attacked if they do manage to concentrate. It’s the same at Worksop.’

Hervey was pleased to hear that Barrow was having equal success, though hardly surprised.

‘They’ve called a meeting tonight at the Crow’s Nest in Cuckney.’

Hervey knew the place. ‘About the remotest spot they could have chosen.’

Wilks agreed. ‘If they can get there, there’ll be every twisted-in commander in the north of the county – and one or two from as far afield as Derby and Yorkshire.’

‘How many?’

‘Upwards of twenty. And they’ll have their guards with them.’

Hervey blew out his breath. ‘Twenty! That would be a devil of a fight with twice the number of dragoons.’

Henrietta began to look anxious.

‘With three times the number!’ Wilks interjected. ‘These’ll be desperate men when they’re cornered. All of them’ll face the gallows.’

‘I shall have to send for help from Ollerton or Worksop.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t, sir,’ said Wilks. ‘It would be better that there was no extra movement of troops. They’ll be jittery, these men, and I wouldn’t want them frightened off. They’ll know your dragoons by sight by now, and they’d recognize reinforcements from a different troop.’

‘Then I shan’t be able to lay my ambushes tonight.’

‘No, sir. I wouldn’t want you to, for that might discourage a few as well. No, we want the birds to flock to the Crow’s Nest, like regular black crows of an evening.’

‘Rookeries, again, Mr Wilks?’ smiled Hervey.

‘Rookeries indeed, sir. How many birds does it take to make a rook pie, d’ye think?’

Henrietta rose, a little pale, and excused herself. Hervey made to follow, but she bade him stay. ‘Just a little air, that is all. I was never partial to the dish.’

‘Very well, gentlemen,’ said Hervey, sitting down again. ‘But I’m afraid I shall have to have a written request from a magistrate – either that or an order from my commanding officer.’

Wilks looked uncomfortable for the second time. ‘How can I put this, sir?’ He cleared his throat. ‘The GOC said, most emphatically, that we were to treat direct with you, and on no account to speak of it . . . in Nottingham itself. The general will be here himself by five, he said.’

Hervey made no comment. ‘So we shall ask Sir Abraham Cole?’

‘That would be best, sir,’ agreed Wilks. ‘Also, the general’s DAAG will come to apprise you of the position as regards the new Act.’

Hervey went to a writing table, dashed off a few lines to Sir Abraham, and called Private Johnson to have them delivered straight away to the moot hall, where the chairman of the bench had taken up residence. ‘Well then, gentlemen,’ he said, taking the stopper from a decanter of Madeira. ‘I imagine we have rather a lot of details to discuss!’

Sir Francis Evans arrived shortly before five. His ears were bright red as he stepped from the stirrups to the mounting block, and Hervey took note of the danger signal. His look was fearsome rather than merely angry, however, for there was a glint in his eye like a hungry bird of prey – a hawk which had spotted its quarry and was savouring the swoop. ‘Everything set, Hervey?’

‘Yes, General,’ Hervey replied surely. ‘There is just the bidding from the magistrate to come.’

‘Good. Better tell me your intention, then.’ Sir Francis pulled off his gloves and set about the dust on his sleeves with the utmost aggression.

Hervey took him to his map board, by which Johnson had already placed a steaming pot of coffee. ‘You don’t miss tricks much, do you, Hervey?’

‘Indeed, sir.’ Hervey assumed he meant the coffee.

‘Nor do I, Hervey. Nor do I!’

‘No, sir.’ Hervey was becoming a little lost, and thought he
would press on with what he knew. ‘There is Cuckney, sir,’ he began, pointing out the little cluster of houses where the old Worksop and Chesterfield turnpikes crossed. ‘It’s eight or nine miles from here, and the roads are good. The Crow’s Nest was once a posthouse, and it has good-sized stables, with a few liveries still.’ He showed the general a sketch plan drawn from the recollection of the half-dozen dragoons who had visited there once or twice in the first days. ‘The Bow Street men say the Luddites will assemble over the space of an hour or so, under cover of regular taverners, and when all are come – by nine, they reckon – they will meet in the stables loft for about an hour and then disperse in time for the curfew.’

‘The trick will be judging the moment to take them. Has Barnaby instructed you?’

‘Yes, General. He arrived an hour ago. As I understand it, the new Act makes assembly for a seditious purpose illegal.’

‘Just so. It’s meant to stop jackanapes like Hunt from drawing the crowds and hotting ’em up, but it could serve our purpose, too, for if there isn’t enough evidence for charges under the common law for unlawful assembly, then we ought still to be able to net them for sedition. Either way it’ll be the rope.’

‘Mr Wilks says there will be an informer at the meeting, and that it will be his evidence that will convict.’

The general looked very satisfied.

‘But in the event that the man is not there, Mr Bartle will already be secreted in the loft to witness it.’

‘And how shall he get there without being seen?’

Hervey smiled. ‘It’s very ingenious, sir. He’ll take a—’

‘No,’ said the general sharply. ‘I don’t need to know.’

‘Very good, sir. So, we shall have our patrols about the roads before dark so as to give every appearance of the usual, and then they’ll make a proper show of retiring from the district, but they’ll assemble in the forest in subdivisions here.’ He pointed to half a dozen patches of green in a broad circle around Cuckney. ‘By the clock, they’ll leave their hides and make a cordon about the Crow’s Nest at a depth of about a furlong.’

‘That much is easy enough, Captain Hervey,’ the general agreed.

‘It will bring Spain back to mind, for sure, sir.’

The general saw that too. ‘And then what?’

‘Major Barnaby says that we stand to have things go badly against us if we do not call upon them to throw down their arms – assuming they will be armed, that is.’

‘It’s a very fair presumption, Hervey.’

‘And in truth, sir, I don’t wish to go in with fire against men who have not offered resistance.’

The general made a wry smile. ‘
Tirez les premiers
, Captain Hervey?’

Hervey sighed. ‘You yourself said it was a most objectionable business, firing on one’s own countrymen, General.’

‘Indeed I did, Hervey. Your forbearance does you credit. And, in truth, there’ll be more example in the gallows and the transport than dead meat.’

‘Quite, sir,’ he agreed, though a shade caught by the tone.

‘But see here, those are decent sentiments, and never should I wish the day to come when we had insufficient officers of that mind. But these will all be twisted-in men, looking the gallows in the face. You’re not to take any chances.’

Sir Francis’s robust support was very welcome. ‘No, sir. I intend that we shock them so greatly they will throw all in.’

‘Very well. And you shall have my best support.’

Hervey was not sure of his entire meaning. ‘Sir?’

‘I mean that I shall ride with you. I do not send men on such hazards while I warm myself by a fire!’

‘No, Sir Francis, indeed not,’ said Hervey, with a slightly anxious note. ‘But—’

‘If things go badly it’ll be me to answer for it, and I’m an infinitely harder fish to swallow than a captain of dragoons.’

‘I am
very
much obliged, sir.’ Hervey supposed that the disadvantages of the general’s interfering were outweighed by the safety he provided.

‘Well, then: do we eat before we go?’ said Sir Francis, with a proper smile at last.

‘Yes, General, in half an hour, when my cornet is back with the bidding from Sir Abraham Cole.’