A Divided Command

by David Donachie

  He was at a stand, sure that nothing he could say would resolve matters; his solution was not brave, but it was better than to continue in an argument he could not win. And how alike it was to that which had happened to him earlier in the day.

  ‘I am commanded to go aboard HMS Agamemnon. You may have seen her enter the roads and anchor this morning. Nelson has been made a commodore, and even if he were not I must obey, his being so much my senior.’

  ‘Nelson,’ Emily replied with some distaste.

  Pearce had no idea he was not her favourite officer. She had attended a ball at Sheerness without her husband – he had been away pressing at the Pelican – and greatly enjoyed her evening, being by nature vivacious: dancing, drinking punch and laughing at the sallies of the naval officers present.

  This was a fact that Nelson passed on to Ralph Barclay in a way that made her sound more like a scapegrace than an innocent, for which she had been severely chastised by a spouse who was both jealous and careful of his dignity. To Emily, Horatio Nelson was no more than a sneak.

  ‘Anyway, I must be off, I have kept him waiting as it is.’

  ‘Of course, John, do hurry away and do not concern yourself with me.’

  He was still seething with the unfairness of that parting shot when he got to the waiting boat. The generally benign looks that greeted him got a glare in return and a sharp command to ‘Look lively and bear away’.

  Michael and Charlie had taken their carnal pleasure almost as soon as they arrived in the drinking den and were now in the process of imbibing away all the coin they had about them. Rufus had so far avoided the ladies – a loose term certainly – and was far from in a jolly mood, feeling out of place in a low-ceilinged, barred-windowed establishment that was designed to ensure that the difference between night and day was impossible to discern.

  His upbringing, if not deeply religious, had been churchgoing enough to imbue in him the need for chastity; in addition Rufus was shy and lacking experience, whereas Charlie and Michael were not, and he felt out of place amongst the noise and excesses. So while he drank, his consumption was much more sparing than that of his companions and no amount of joshing by them would bring him out of his shell.

  The place was busy, the taproom and the whores of all ages and shapes doing sound business. It was full of sailors from Agamemnon, the frigates Dolphin, Lutine and the newly crewed Frenchman Melpomene. Not too many ordinary hands from the frigates had been let ashore, only the trusted ranks who could be relied upon to return, but Nelson had let a goodly number out of his sixty-four and they made up the majority.

  The whole place and the raucous atmosphere, as well as the serious crowding, went up several notches when the midshipmen of the flotilla came to join their lower-rank colleagues. In age they were little different to their fellow tars but the mids of the King’s Navy had a reputation for causing mayhem of which they were inordinately proud. The owner, no stranger to the depredations of such creatures, sent out into the public area a number of burly looking coves with barely concealed clubs.

  Charlie was in his element; he loved the chance to engage with and josh his fellow humans and he could tell a tale better than most and now he had an audience known to be credulous, and if not that, deeply superstitious. If they were not completely stupid, they were happy enough to be spun a yarn without ever interrupting to point up the improbabilities of Charlie’s story: that he was the foundling son of a man of great means, a titled fellow, fallen on hard times, so that instead of enjoying his coach and four as well as the attentions of his servants, Charlie had been obliged to make his own way in the world.

  When pressed as to how, he had quick and well-rehearsed answers, for it was a variation on a tale he had told many times as he sought, in places like Covent Garden and Seven Dials, to dun innocents – he called it guiding them – bumpkins who had come wide-eyed to the Great Wen of London, only for them and their bulging purse to fall into the maw of a man who could show them how to spend their coin. Soon, with his fiction taking ever more improbable paths, Charlie had his audience in stitches.

  Michael had started singing – wild dancing was sure to follow, then it was possible he would become upset and fists would fly, this caused by some remark he would deem as innocent were he sober – and since some of his fellow imbibers were Irish too, there was much in the way of sentimental ballads in his native tongue. All the while Rufus sipped away and wondered if it was yet dark outside, for he doubted his companions would be keen to meet the strictures set by John Pearce and return aboard Larcher before penury forced them to.

  Barely listening to Charlie, there not being a tale he had not heard before, he did not realise his friend had moved on from his fictions to the nature of Rufus himself. So he did not hear Charlie tell the Agamemnons that his young freckled friend had yet to lie with a woman and was too shy to do so, even if he had the means in his poke to fund the purpose. To men who had taken their pleasures in every port they visited, and many of whom were the same age or even younger than Rufus, to say such a state of affairs was a red rag to a bull could be taken as an understatement.

  If he was aware of the growing level of noise Rufus had no idea of the cause and when he caught, out of the corner of his eye, the coins being tossed into the centre of the table, he assumed it to be some form of wager of which he was not part. The men who grabbed him were unknown to Rufus and had moved without threat so he was unprepared to fend off the half-dozen eager hands. The youngster found himself lifted bodily and just had a sight of a grinning Charlie Taverner as he was borne aloft to the staircase that led up to the cubicles where the whores plied their trade.

  His protests were loud but ignored, as ahead of him one of the less ugly ladies, in addition a person close to his own age, was engaged to initiate Rufus into the ways of the world, to take the boy they brought with them and return him a man. To ensure he would not emerge unreformed they took the trouble to remove his ducks, which showed that if he was mentally reluctant, his body held a contrary opinion.

  Thrown into the room and on to the cot, with the rickety door left open so they could see that their coin was well spent, his aggressors watched while a girl who knew her trade overcame what were feeble protests. She straddled Rufus, whose facial expressions went from objection, through wonder, to anticipation, then exhilaration, finally settling on what looked like disbelief, the whole short act, for it would not have troubled a clock, accompanied by loud cheering from his supporters, who, having thrown in his breeches, trooped noisily back down the stairs.

  When he came down the stairs it was with such a smile, that it was remarked no angel ever looked more beatific.

  It was flattering that Nelson came to welcome John Pearce personally and his greeting was full of good cheer.

  ‘Mr Pearce, I have orders for you from Lord Hood.’ That such news was not responded to with equal enthusiasm threw Nelson slightly and he looked up at his visitor, his startlingly blue eyes confused. ‘I do assure you they are of a pleasant nature.’

  ‘Would I be permitted, sir, to say if that is the case, it is a novel one to my mind?’

  Nelson shrugged and gave a sly grin. ‘Needless to say, I have heard of some of your exploits and have been rendered envious.’

  ‘I would have given way to you at any time, Captain Nelson, I do assure you, for my “exploits”, as you call them, came about more by coercion than any desire on my part.’

  ‘Your modesty does you credit.’

  Pearce was about to protest that he was telling the truth, there was no modesty involved, but he thought better of it: to do so would be a waste of time with such an enthusiast as Nelson, so instead he apologised for being tardy.

  ‘I was ashore when I received your message.’

  ‘As are most of my officers as well as a goodly number of my crew, and no doubt they are setting the whole town by its ears. It is one of the constraints of command that such pleasures are barred to us, though I recall fondly some of my own youth. Bu
t I am glad you have come aboard at this hour, for you can dine with me, that is if you do not have a previous engagement.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Good, for we have matters to discuss.’

  Pearce had a vision of Emily then, not the irate one he had so recently left, but a more benign apparition. Was Nelson about to refer to their liaison? Time to deflect even the chance of that.

  ‘My orders are, sir?’

  ‘To proceed once more to Naples with despatches for Sir William Hamilton.’

  The conversation had taken them from the entry port to Nelson’s cabin, a large space reasonably, if not grandly appointed and there was a servant waiting to take an order that some wine should be fetched. As he went to carry out this instruction Pearce was sure he staggered which, given Agamemnon was at anchor on a relatively swell-free sea, was remarkable. Nelson obviously picked up on his expression, which caused him to speak very softly.

  ‘My man Lepeé is a tad fond of sipping, I’m afraid. I chastise him but it does little good.’

  As they sat down, Pearce was thinking that it was hard to imagine Nelson chastising anyone; it did not seem to be in his nature yet he must have done so many times in his naval career. You did not serve for over two decades and reach not only his rank, but also the appreciation of the likes of Sam Hood, without you had real ability, and the application of discipline was part of that.

  ‘If I had a guinea,’ Nelson added, ‘for every time one of my officers has told me to dismiss him I would scarce need to worry about taking a prize.’

  ‘I take it, sir, he has some attribute about which they do not know?’

  ‘He saved my life, Mr Pearce, though I will allow that God’s hand was in it as much as Lepeé, for I was near death with malaria on a land expedition in the Caribbean. He brought me downriver to safety and a restored health. I cannot just dismiss a man to whom I owe that.’

  ‘I have friends like that, sir,’ Pearce responded.

  This was imparted with real feeling, for if he hardly knew Nelson the man had just gone up several notches in his estimation.

  ‘And we must hang on to them, Mr Pearce, with all the grip we can muster.’

  The wine decanter and two glasses arrived slowly in a far from straight line. The two officers sat in silence as the contents were poured and when that was unsteadily complete the man was kindly dismissed. When conversation did commence it began on general topics eventually settling on those twin naval stalwarts; previous battles and mutual acquaintances, which was fine until Nelson mentioned Ralph Barclay, referring to the conversation that they had engaged in off Tunis the previous year, in which Pearce had told him the story of his illegal impressement.

  ‘Poor fellow lost an arm at Toulon. Does that not temper your grievance?’

  Pearce was not to be put off by his host’s obvious sympathy. ‘No, sir, it does not, given it was an entirely illegal act, a fact I have been seeking to see him chastised for since the day it occurred.’

  ‘Chastised?’

  ‘I have an attorney looking into the matter.’

  ‘Ah!’ came the response, that and the taking of a quick sip of wine. ‘I did know he was very short-handed at the outbreak of war.’

  ‘Am I to gather, sir, that you approve?’

  ‘Not entirely, but I can understand why he might be drawn into such an act.’ Seeing a lack of agreement, Nelson continued quickly. ‘You may not know that Barclay, like me, spent five years on the beach and I can tell you, Mr Pearce, there is not much more debilitating than spending that amount of time without a ship and on half pay. I think you might be astounded, and somewhat sympathetic given your parentage, to hear why I think this happened in my case.’

  ‘Now, sir, it is my turn to be curious.’

  ‘Surely it would not surprise you to know that I read some of your father’s pamphlets?’

  ‘No,’ Pearce lied; it seemed to him very unlikely.

  ‘I cannot say I agreed with the remedies he proposed, but I will say that Adam Pearce had the right of things in many areas.’

  Nelson topped up his wine glass, but in such a way and with such a look on his face as to debar interruption.

  ‘I was asked – tasked – really, to prepare a report on the state of the rural folk in my area of Norfolk and I spoke as I found. I saw poverty in the extreme, people living in a state of deep anxiety for fear that a bad harvest may bring them starvation. There was no meat on their table, indeed there were many hovels I visited for whom a table was a luxury.’

  Nelson, not in any sense a tall man, seemed to shrink into his chair as he spoke and his chin was now close to his chest. ‘I can only say that in speaking with honesty I did nothing for my prospects. I strongly advised some system of relief for the lowest of our brethren but that was not a message those who held the reins of power wanted to hear and they certainly did not want to tell that to the King, though I fear my view, perhaps even the whole report, must have been passed on.’

  ‘And you think it caused you to be unemployed?’

  ‘I cannot be certain and I have posed the question, albeit with some timidity, to Lord Hood, who as First Lord turned down my many written requests for a place. He will not say I was bypassed for that report, but it is wise to remember that he was and is a politician as well as a sailor.’

  ‘Added to which he is a member of Pitt’s government.’

  ‘So you see, Mr Pearce, there is a certain amount of fellow-feeling in my assessment of this sorry tale for how are we to make our way in the world and prosper as naval officers without we have a ship and hands enough to crew it. If you tell me that Ralph Barclay stepped outside the strict bounds of the law to get men to crew his ship, after five years of want, I have to tell you that I do have some sympathy for him.’

  ‘Will it be dinner for just one, Your Honour?’ slurred Lepeé, who had slipped in while Nelson was talking.

  ‘For two, Lepeé. Mr Pearce is off to Naples and he and I have much to discuss.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Charlie Taverner seemed to have got himself in a right pickle. The flotilla midshipmen, a good thirty in number, had surrounded him and they were clearly not best pleased with whatever it was he had been saying to them. One, not young by any means but a burly fellow, had him by the scruff, while the rest were loud in their growling. Rufus, who had half entertained the idea of a repeat of his earlier encounter, had to detach himself from the group of overblown madams to whom he was talking and grab hold of Michael to come to the rescue.

  ‘Say anything like that again, you swab, and we’ll set you face down in the privy.’

  ‘I is only passing on to you what I heard,’ Charlie cried. ‘I was having a quiet wet and along comes a whole tribe of bullocks, everyone an officer, who then sat down and began to drink like they hadn’t seen water for a week. Well, I kept my head down with the likes of those coves around and by doing so I heard every word they said, not that it were hard, seeing as how they were braying loud.’

  ‘Bullocks you say?’

  ‘Redcoats to a man and 65th Foot, I gathered, ’cos they mentioned their regiment more’n once as the best in the whole army.’

  ‘You,’ Michael shouted, ‘let him be or by the name of Jesus you’ll feel my hand.’

  When those facing Charlie turned to the sound of that call, their expressions as closed up as their fists and very ready to dispute, they had a moment’s hesitation; O’Hagan was a sight to instil caution in any man. There was his sheer height and girth, as well as a face that was bright red – if they thought because of fury, Rufus reckoned it to be more to do with drink – and his great hams, with knuckles like walnuts, were raised up and fearsome.

  Added to that, some of the seamen present, seeing there might be a chance to clout some of the mids with whom they sailed, jumped-up little bastards to their way of thinking, had moved to back Michael up, while to their rear the men the owner had sent out with clubs seemed ready to intervene if matters got out of hand
. It was sufficient to give overall pause, but really it was the victim who took the heat out.

  ‘Belay, Michael,’ Charlie called, ‘for these fine fellows have a right to hear what I learnt.’

  ‘Fine fellows, my arse,’ came a comment from behind O’Hagan.

  ‘Happen you has the measure of it,’ spoke up another, ‘but it would be fair to hear what all the fuss is about.’

  Charlie called, so he was now talking to the room, ‘I was just telling this fellow here what the bullocks said about their Commodore Nelson, for it were not praise – far from it.’

  That got a more extended growl, especially from the Agamemnons, proving that admiration for their captain was not confined to those who served abaft the mast.

  ‘So let it out.’

  ‘I would be obliged, good sir, if you could let go of my neckerchief.’

  The atmosphere had changed so the senior-looking mid eased his grip on Charlie, who having been pinned against a wall, could sink a little so his feet were firmly planted again.

  ‘Talk, man.’

  ‘I will at that, Your Honour. They was saying that Nelson was a right nuisance at Calvi and the place would have fallen double quick if he had not kept poking his nose into matters about which he knew less than nowt.’

  ‘Is that word for word?’

  Charlie paused, and if Michael was too far gone to see it, Rufus was not. His mate was thinking on the wing and he had on his storytelling face; that cocked head and slight look of wonder, as if what he was relating was too far-fetched to be possible.

  ‘Well, I don’t want to be in the way of causin’ trouble, but it were a mite more foul put than that. They was not kind about Captain Nelson’s parentage, let me say, who could not be sure of a claim for any man or woman to have bred him. They reckoned him the spawn of some whore who had been found in the church doorway.’

  That was not well received and Charlie spoke quickly lest the room was tempted to take it out on him. ‘Nor were they mellow about his height, calling him a stunted dwarf and, it hurts me to say this, but they made out he was likely partial to his midshipmen, as much as they seemed to be partial to him. Said if he ever came to the Pensy Ambrose they would provide him with somewhere Italian to put his meat, for there was no shortage of bumboys in Leghorn.’