‘Why must I dress, for all love?’
‘We are dining with Sir Joseph Banks in Soho Square,
together with a dozen other gentlemen. Donovan will he there.’
‘I shall rejoice of meeting Mr Donovan,’ said Stephen, passing his hand over his forehead.
As they parted he went on ‘Will you indulge me in an indiscretion? The bill, now, that was attempted to be negotiated, sure it never came from the obvious source in the Admiralty?’
‘No, no. Certainly not: I should have told you at once. Nathan has not yet traced all the stages of the proposition
– for it was no more: the document never left England, and even the proposition was withdrawn, as though the proposer felt the risk too great. But a King’s Messenger was concerned and it is clear that the initiative was taken by someone at a higher level and in a different ministry. I fear it will be exceedingly difficult to run the man to earth.’
Before leaving for his journey Stephen Maturin paid a last call on Lawrence, whom he found looking old, tired, and discontented. ‘Really, Maturin,’ he said, ‘it is very difficult to help your friend. When I suggested that in view of the disagreeable nature of some of the evidence, he might prefer to stay away from the court, he at once replied, with a most offensively knowing expression, as though I could not be trusted to look after my client’s
interests, “that he preferred to see what was going on”. It was all I could do not to take him up, and if we parted on civil terms, it was only because his lovely wife was there. Far lovelier than he deserves: and more intelligent.’
‘You are to consider that I spent a considerable time undermining his confidence, not perhaps in the law, but in law-courts and lawyers.’
‘But not in his own counsel, for Heaven’s sake! That would be a criminal excess of zeal.’
Lawrence turned aside and stifled a sneeze. ‘Forgive me. Do you sometimes feel cursed snappish of a morning?’
‘I feel cursed snappish on most mornings, but above
all when I am sickening for a common cold, even more the Spanish influenza, God forbid.
Will I feel your pulse, now?’
‘No, no, I thank you. I passed by Paddy Quinn just now – he said it was nothing and gave me a bottle of physic. I had a late night – it is nothing.’
Stephen had no opinion of that vapouring quack, the cattle-thief Quinn, but a certain decency had to be preserved between physicians and he said no more.
Having blown his nose twice and searched among the papers on his desk, Lawrence asked, ‘Who is this Mr Grant they mean to call? Mr Grant of the Navy?’
‘He is an ancient lieutenant, superannuated by now I believe. Long ago he had some experience of the voyage to New Holland, or Australia, if you prefer, and so he was appointed to the Leopard when Jack Aubrey was ordered to take her there. But, however, on the way the horrible old Leopard struck a mountain of ice in the high southern latitudes: Mr Grant thought she would sink, and he went off with several like-minded men in a boat; Aubrey stayed with his ship, took her to a remote and I may a4d delectable island, repaired her and so carried her to her destination, our own Banks’s well-named Botany Bay. Grant survived, but he was never promoted. This he attributes to Jack Aubrey’s malignance, and he has written many scurrilous letters on the subject and even some pamphlets, accusing him of every kind of dishonesty. He is quite mad, poor man.’
‘I see,’ said Lawrence, and he made a note.
‘You look grave.’
‘Yes. Statements made against a man by his enemies always seem to have greater force than those made in favour by his friends; and God knows the prosecution seems to have scraped a great many together, and to have tampered with almost everyone who has ever met him. Surely it cannot be true. that he is the father of a black Catholic priest?’
‘The young man is not a priest, He is only in minor orders, and a bastard cannot go farther without a dispensation.’
‘Exorcist or acolyte or priest, it is all one so long as he is a Papist. Imagine the effect en a rigidly Puritanical judge, who is at the same time a violent political opposer of Catholic emancipation and a slave-owner in the West Indies. Quinborough is a garrulous judge and
he never spares the court his moral reflections on points of this kind: that is one of the things that I wanted to spare Aubrey when I suggested he should stay away.’
‘Conceivably you mistake your man. From his jolly, rosy-gilled, well-fed appearance you would scarcely think so, but he is in fact something of a Stoic. He admires fortitude beyond any other virtue and once he is tied to the stake he feels he must go through with it. But tell me, is it really possible that he should just absent himself from court at his pleasure, without leave?’
‘Why, of course it is. This is a Guildhall trial.’
‘No prisoner, and the sentence executed upon a proxy, I dare say?’
‘Surely Aubrey’s solicitors must have made it clear to the meanest understanding? This is a misdemeanour removed into the King’s Bench, so naturally it has some analogies with civil proceedings and the defendants may appear by attorney rather than in person. They only have to appear in person some days after the verdict, to hear the sentence.’
‘What could be more logical or evident? You will not forget my shorthand report of the proceedings, I beg?’
‘I have already bespoken Tolland. What now?’ -this, testily, to a clerk.
‘I ask pardon, sir,’ said the clerk, holding up a bottle and a spoon, ‘but Dr Quinn said every hour exactly.’
‘May it profit you,’ said Stephen, standing up. ‘There is also something to be said for going to bed. You look destroyed entirely.’
‘If I did not have to defend a wretched boy this afternoon I should certainly lie down. But he stole a five-guinea watch – caught in the act – and unless I can persuade the jury that it was worth less than twelve pence he will be sentenced to death. It is only the effects of a late night – it will pass off tomorrow. Besides, I have Quinn’s draught.’
‘Damn Quinn and his draught,’ said Stephen to himself as his hackney-coach threaded through the heavy traffic in the Strand. ‘If I could have given him a good comfortable dose of pulvis Doveri I should have felt no anxiety. Ten or even fifteen grains would have answered very well.
Dover: Dr Thomas Dover: he too was a privateer’s man. He sacked Guayaquil, if I do not mistake, which is no way for a medical man to behave, but then on the other hand he saved some two hundred of his men, and they stricken with the plague ‘The top of his mind reflected upon that enterprising physician and corsair, while all the lower part turned the question of Jack’s trial over and over again, with the same ignorant but boding anxiety
At a wine merchant’s in St James’s Street he sent a dozen of Hermitage to the Marshalsea, and at a grocer’s in Piccadilly a great raised pie, a Stilton cheese, and some potted anchovies for relish, then he picked up Pullings at Fladong’s and they drove to the Cross Keys, where a carriage had been booked
‘This is travelling in style,’ said Pullings, looking out at the familiar Portsmouth road ‘I never was in a chaise and four but once, and that was when the Captain was carrying dispatches I went along for the ride and the glory, and taking the whole journey we travelled at very near ten miles an hour; but then we never stopped for meals – ate bread
and cheese in our hands – and the Captain leaned out of the window much of the way, encouraging the post-boys.’
‘It is the only way I know of purchasing time,’ said Stephen. ‘We shall not stop for meals either. The only
halts I have in mind at all arc at Portsmouth to see Captain Dundas, for whom I carry a message, and possibly to look in on Mr Martin, if we have daylight by then. I had also thought of passing by Ashgrove to pick up Bonden and Padeen, but I question whether their weight and the consequent loss of speed is worth their help in moving the ship. What do you say?’
‘They would be very valuable, sir. We are only likely to find a few slack-arsed longshoremen down there, and to carry the barky round to Shelmerston brisk we should have some right taut petty-officers. I am sure Captain Dundas would lend you one or two, and they could come on with Bonden by coach. We should not need them the first day.