CHAPTER SIX
At five minutes to eight Jack Aubrey walked quickly through the dreary rain over the cobbles of the Admiralty courtyard, pursued by the voice of the hackney coachman.
‘Fourpence! Call yourself a gent? The poor bleeding Navy’s half-pay shame, that’s what I call you.’
He shrugged, and ducking under the overflow from the gutter he hurried into the hail, past the main waiting-room and on to the little office called the Bosun’s Chair, for he had a First Lord’s appointment, no less. The fire was beginning to draw, sending up a strong writhe of yellow smoke to join the yellow fog outside, and through the yellow shot darts of red, with a pleasant roar and crackle; he stood with his back to the chimneypiece, looking into the rain and mopping his best uniform with a handkerchief. Several figures passed dimly through the Whitehall arch, civilians under umbrellas, officers exposed to the elements: he thought he recognized two or three -certainly that was Brand of the Implacable – but the mud deep in the buckles of his shoes occupied him too much for close attention.
He was in a high state of nervous excitement – any sailor waiting to see the First Lord must be in a high state of nervous excitement – yet the surface of his mind was taken up less with his coming interview than with getting the utmost possible service from a single handkerchief and with vague darting reflections upon poverty
– an old acquaintance, almost a friend – a more natural state for sea-officers than wealth –
wealth very charming
– should love to be rich again; but there was the loss of all those little satisfactions of contriving – the triumph of
a guinea found in an old waistcoat pocket – the breathless tension over the turn of a card.
The hackney-coach had been necessary, however, with the mud ankle-deep, and this damned south-wester: best uniforms did not grow on trees, nor yet silk stockings.
‘Captain Aubrey, sir,’ said the clerk. ‘His lordship will see you now.’
‘Captain Aubrey, I am happy to see you,’ said Lord Melville. ‘How is your father?’
‘Thank you, sir, he is very well – delighted with the election, as we all are. But I beg your pardon, my lord. I am out of order. May I offer you my very best congratulations on your peerage?’
‘You are very good – very good,’ said Lord Melville, and having answered Jack’s civil inquiries for Lady Melville and Robert, he went on, ‘So you had a lively time of it, coming home?’
‘We did indeed, my lord,’ cried Jack. ‘But I am astonished you should know.’
‘Why, it is in the paper – a passenger’s letter to her family, describing the Indiaman’s capture and recapture. She mentioned you by name – says the handsomest things.
Sibbald pointed it out to me.’
That infernal girl, that Lamb, must have sent her letter by the revenue cutter: and there he had been, hurrying up from Plymouth on borrowed money to reach a London filled with bums forewarned, all waiting to arrest him for debt, charmed with the idea of tossing him into the Fleet or the Marshalsea to rot until the war was over and all chance gone. He had known many officers with their careers ruined by a tipstaff – old Baines, Serocold. . . and there he had been, prancing about the town, dressed like the King’s birthday for every sneaking attorney to behold. The thought made him feel cold and sick: he said something about ‘quite amazed – had posted up from Plymouth with not more than a couple of hours at his father’s place
– thought he had certainly outrun the news.’ Yet it must
have made tolerable sense, for Lord Melville only observed in that Scotch voice of his, ‘I am sure you used your best endeavours. but I wish you could have come more betimes
– weeks, nay, months earlier, before all the plums were gone. I should have liked to do something for you: at the beginning of the war there were commands aplenty. I shall look into this question of promotion that has been urged upon me, but I can hold out no hope of a ship. However, there may be some slight possibility in the Sea-Fencibles or the Impress Service: we are extending both, and they call for active, enterprising men.’
They also called for solvent men, seeing that they were landborne posts: comfort-loving men, devoid of ambition or tired of the sea, willing to look after a kind of fisherman’s militia or to attend to the odious work of the press-gang. Clearly it was now or never, all or nothing. Once that hard-faced man the other side of the desk had made a firm offer of a shore appointment there would be no shifting him. ‘My lord,’ said Jack, with all the force and energy he could respectfully express, ‘I like a plum, a post-ship, as much as any man alive; but if I might have four pieces of wood that swim, I should be happy, more than happy, to sail them on any service, on any station in the world as a commander or anything else. I have been afloat since I was fourteen, sir, and I have never refused any employment their lordships were good enough to offer me. I believe I may promise you would not regret your decision, sir. All I want is to be at sea again.’
‘Heu, heu,’ said Lord Melville, in his meditating way, pinning Jack with a grey stare. ‘So you make no stipulation of any kind? There was a great deal of clack about your friends wishing you to be made post for the Cacafuego affair.’
‘None whatsoever, my lord,’ said Jack, and shut his mouth. He thought of trying to explain the unfortunate word ‘claim’ that he had been inspired to use the last time he was in this room: thought better of it, and kept his
mouth shut, wearing a look of deferential attention and maintaining it better than he could have done a year ago, although he had a far greater respect for St Vincent than he ever could have for a civilian.
‘Weel,’ said the First Lord, after a pause, ‘I can promise nothing. You can have no conception of the applications, of the interests to be managed, balanced . . . but there might be some remote possibility . . . come and see me next week. In the meantime I will look into this question of promotion, though the post-captain’s list is grievously overcharged; and I will turn over the possibilities. Come and see me on Wednesday. Mind me, now, if I do find anything, it will be no plum: that is the one thing I can promise you.
But I bind myself in no way at all.’
Jack stood up and made his acknowledgments of his lordship’s goodness in seeing him.
Lord Melville observed, in an unofficial voice, ‘I dare say we shall meet this evening at Lady Keith’s: if I can find time, I shall look in.’
‘I shall look forward to it extremely, my lord,’ said Jack. ‘Good day to you,’ said Lord Melville, ringing a bell and looking eagerly at his inner door.
‘You seem wery cheerful, sir,’ said the porter, scanning Jack’s face with ancient, red-rimmed eyes. Wery cheerful was an exaggeration; contained satisfaction was more the mark; but at all events it was nothing remotely like the expression of an officer with a flat refusal weighing on his heart.
‘Why, Tom, so I am,’ said Jack. ‘I walked in from Hampstead this morning, as far as Seven Dials. There is nothing like a morning walk to set a man up.’
‘Something copper-bottomed, sir?’ asked Tom: no tales of morning walks would wash with him. He was old, knowing and familiar; he had known Jack before his first shave, just as he knew almost every other officer on the Navy List below the rank of admiral, and he had a right to a tip if something copper-bottomed turned up while he was on duty.
‘Not – not exactly, Tom,’ said Jack, looking keenly out through the hall and court to the sodden crowds passing up and down Whitehall – the chops of the Channel, full of shipping; and what cruisers, privateers, chasse-marées, lurking there among them? What unseen rocks? What bums? ‘No. But I tell you what it is, Tom: I came out without a cloak and without any money. Just call me a coach and lend me half a guinea, will you?’
Tom had no opinion of sea-officers’ powers of discrimination or management on shore; he was not surprised that Jack should have come out lacking the common necessities of life, and from his reading of Jack’s expression he was of the opinion that something was on its way – the Fencibles alone would provide a dozen fresh appointments, even if he were not made post. He produced the little coin with a secret, conniving look, and summoned a coach.