The emigre advisers of the Duke filed into the room a little puzzled and apprehensive; Hornblower received them still sitting, in fact almost lounging back in his chair.
“Good morning, gentlemen” he said, cheerfully. “I have asked you to come to hear the letter I am about to dictate to the Prime Minister. I think you understand English well enough to get the gist of the letter. Are you ready, Colonel?
‘To the Right Honourable Lord Liverpool.
My Lord, I find I am compelled to send back to England His Royal Highness the Duke d’Angouleme’.”
” Sir!” said the astonished equerry, breaking in, but Hornblower waved him impatiently to silence.
“Go on, Colonel, please.
‘I regret to have to inform Your Lordship that His Royal Highness has not displayed the helpful spirit the British nation is entitled to look for in an ally’.”
The equerry and the chevalier d’honneur and the almoner were on their feet by now. Howard was goggling at him across the room; Dobbs’ face was invisible as he bent over his pen, but the back of his neck was a warm purple which clashed with the scarlet of his tunic.
“Please go on, Colonel.
‘During the few days in which I have had the honour of working with His Royal Highness, it has been made plain to me that His Royal Highness has neither the tact nor the administrative ability desirable in one in so high a station’.”
“Sir!” said the equerry. “You cannot send that letter.”
He spoke first in French and then in English; the chevalier d’honneur and the almoner made bilingual noises of agreement.
“No?” said Hornblower.
“And you cannot send His Royal Highness back to England. You cannot! You cannot!”
“No?” said Hornblower again, leaning back in his chair.
The protests died away on the lips of the three Frenchmen. They knew as well as Hornblower, as soon as they were forced to realise the unpalatable truth, who it was that held the power in Le Havre. It was the man who had under his command the only disciplined and reliable military force, the man who had only to give the word to abandon the city to the wrath of Bonaparte, the man at whose word the ships came in and went out again.
“Don’t tell me,” said Hornblower with elaborate concern, “that His Royal Highness would physically oppose an order from me consigning him on board a ship? Have you gentlemen ever witnessed a deserter being brought in? The frogmarch is a most undignified method of progression. Painful, too, I am informed.”
“But that letter,” said the equerry, “would discredit His Royal Highness in the eyes of the world. It would be a most serious blow to the cause of the Family. It might endanger the succession.”
“I was aware of that when I invited you gentlemen to hear me dictate it.”
“You would never send it,” said the equerry with a momentary doubt regarding Hornblower’s strength of will.
“I can only assure you gentlemen that I both can and will.”
Eyes met eyes across the room, and the equerry’s doubt vanished. Hornblower’s mind was entirely made up.
“Perhaps, sir,” said the equerry, clearing his throat and looking sidelong at his colleagues for their approval, “there has been some misunderstanding. If His Royal Highness has refused some request of Your Excellency’s, as I gather has been the case, it must have been because His Royal Highness did not know how much importance Your Excellency attached to the matter. If Your Excellency would allow us to make further representations to His Royal Highness —”
Hornblower was looking at Howard, who very intelligently recognised his cue.
“Yes, sir,” said Howard. “I’m sure His Royal Highness will understand.”
Dobbs looked up from his paper and made corroborative sounds. But it took several minutes before Hornblower could be persuaded to postpone putting his decision into instant effect. It was only with the greatest reluctance that he yielded to the pleadings of his own staff and the Duke’s. After the equerry had led his colleagues from the room to seek the Duke, Hornblower sat back with a real relaxation replacing the one he had simulated. He was tingling and glowing both with the after effects of excitement and with his diplomatic victory.