The château guarded by half a battalion of soldiers was General Clausen’s headquarters; the prisoners and their escorts rode into the courtyard and dismounted there. The Count was almost unrecognisable by reason of the grey stubble thick over his face; Brown, as well as being bearded, had one eye and cheek swollen purple with a bruise. There was no time to exchange more than a look, no time for a word, when a dapper dismounted officer came out to them.
“The General is waiting for you,” he said.
“Come along,” said the Hussar officer. Two soldiers put their hands under Hornblower’s arms to urge him forward, and once again his legs refused to function. There was not a voluntary contraction left in his muscles, and his blistered feet flinched from any contact with the earth. He tried to take a step, and his knees gave way under him. The Hussars held him up, and he tried again, but it was unavailing — his legs floundered like those of a leg-weary horse, and, indeed, for the same reason.
“Hurry up!” snapped the officer.
The Hussars supported him, and with his legs half trailing, half walking, they dragged him along, up a brief marble stair under a portico, and into a panelled room where behind a table sat General Clausen — a big Alsatian with bulging blue eyes and red cheeks and a bristling red moustache.
The blue eyes bulged a little wider still at the sight of the three wrecks of men dragged in before him. He looked from one to another with uncontrolled surprise; the dapper aide-de-camp who had slipped into a seat beside him, with paper and pens before him, made more effort to conceal his astonishment.
“Who are you?” asked the General.
After a moment the Count spoke first
“Louis-Antoine-Hector-Savinien de Ladon, Comte de Graçay,” he said, with a lift of his chin.
The round blue eyes turned towards Brown.
“And you?”
“My name is Brown.”
“Ah, the servant who was one of the ringleaders. And you?”
“Horatio, Lord Hornblower.” Hornblower’s voice cracked as he spoke; his throat was parched.
“Lord ‘Ornblower. The Comte de Graçay,” said the General, looking from one to the other. He made no spoken comment — his mere glance was a commentary. The head of the oldest family in France, the most distinguished of the younger officers of the British Navy — these two exhausted tatterdemalions.
“The court martial which will try you will assemble this evening,” said the General. “You have today in which to prepare your defence.”
He did not add ‘if any’.
A thought came into Hornblower’s mind. He made himself speak.
“This man Brown, monsieur. He is a prisoner of war.”
The arched sandy eyebrows arched higher yet.
“He is a sailor of His Britannic Majesty’s Navy. He was doing his duty under my orders as his superior officer. He is not amenable to court martial in consequence. He is a legitimate combatant.”
“He fought with rebels.”
“That does not affect the case, sir. He is a member of the armed forces of the British Crown, with the grade of — of —”
For the life of him Hornblower could not remember the French equivalent of ‘coxswain’, and for lack of anything better he used the English word. The blue eyes suddenly narrowed.
“This is the same defence as you will be putting forward at your court martial,” said Clausen. “It will not avail you.”
“I had not thought about my defence,” said Hornblower, so genuinely that his tone could not but carry conviction. “I was only thinking about Brown. There is nothing of which you can accuse him. You are a soldier yourself, and must understand that.”
His interest in the present discussion made him forget his weariness, made him forget his own instant peril. The genuineness and sincerity of his anxiety about Brown’s welfare had their effect on Clausen, who could not fail to be affected by these pleadings for a subordinate by a man who himself was about to lose his life. The blue eyes softened with a hint of admiration that was lost on Hornblower, keenwitted and sympathetic though the latter was. To him it was such an obvious thing to do to look after Brown that it did not cross his mind that it might be admirable as well.