Hornblower and the Hotspur. C. S. Forester

‘Sir,

You are requested and required to proceed immediately in HM Sloop Hotspur under your command to the port of Cadiz.’

The second paragraph required him to execute at Cadiz the orders he had received from the Commander-in-Chief. The third and last paragraph named a rendezvous, a latitude and longitude as well as a distance and bearing from Cape St Vincent, and required him to proceed there ‘with the utmost expedition’ as soon as he carried out his orders for Cadiz.

He re-read, unnecessarily, the opening paragraph. There was the word ‘immediately’.

“Mr Bush! Set all plain sail. Mr Prowse! A course to weather Finisterre as quickly as possible, if you please. Mr Foreman, signal to the Commodore. ‘Hotspur to Indefatigable. Request permission to proceed’.”

Only time for one pacing of the quarter-deck, up and down, and then “‘Commodore to Hotspur. Affirmative’.”

“Thank you, Mr Foreman. Up helm, Mr Bush. Course sou’west by south.”

“Sou’west by south. Aye aye sir.”

Hotspur came round, and as every sail began to fill she gathered way rapidly.

“Course sou’west by south, sir,” said Prowse, breathlessly returning.

“Thank you, Mr Prowse.”

The wind was just abaft the beam, and Hotspur foamed along as sweating hands at the braces trimmed the yards to an angle that exactly satisfied Bush’s careful eye.

“Set the royals, Mr Bush. And we’ll have the stuns’l booms rigged out, if you please.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

Hotspur lay over to the wind, not in any spineless fashion, but in the way in which a good sword-blade bends under pressure. A squadron of ships of the line lay just down to leeward, and Hotspur tore past them, rendering passing honours as she did so. Hornblower could imagine the feelings of envy in the breasts of the hands over there at the sight of this dashing little sloop racing off towards adventure But in that case they did not allow for a year and half spent among the rocks and shoals of the Iroise.

“Set the stuns’ls, sir?” asked Bush.

“Yes, if you please, Mr Bush. Mr Young, what d’you get from the log?”

“Nine, sir. A little more, perhaps – nine an’ a quarter.”

Nine knots, and the studding sails not yet set. This was exhilarating, marvellous, after months of confinement.

“The old lady hasn’t forgotten how to run, sir,” said Bush, grinning all over his face with the same emotions; and Bush did not know yet that they were going to seek eight million dollars. Nor – and at that moment all Hornblower’s pleasure suddenly evaporated.

He fell from the heights to the depths like a man falling from the main royal yard. He had forgotten until then all about Doughty. That word ‘immediately’ in Moore’s orders had prolonged Doughty’s life. With all those captains available, and the Commander-in-Chief at hand to confirm the sentence, Doughty could have been court-martialled and condemned within the hour. He could be dead by now; certainly he would have died tomorrow morning. The captains in the Channel Fleet would be unmerciful to a mutineer.

Now he had to handle the matter himself. There was no desperate emergency; there was no question of a conspiracy to be quelled. He did not have to use his emergency powers to hang Doughty. But he could foresee a dreary future of Doughty in irons and all the ship’s company aware they had a man in their midst destined for the rope. That would unsettle everyone. And Hornblower would be more unsettled than anyone else – except perhaps Doughty. Hornblower sickened at the thought of hanging Doughty. He knew at once that he had grown fond of him. He felt an actual respect for Doughty’s devotion and attention to duty; along with his tireless attention Doughty had developed skills in making his captain comfortable comparable with those of a tarry-fingered salt making long splices.

Hornblower battled with his misery. For the thousandth time in his life he decided that the King’s service was like a vampire, as hateful as it was seductive. He could not think what to do. But first he had to know more about the business.

“Mr Bush, would you be kind enough to order the master-at-arms to bring Doughty to me in my cabin?”

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