‘I see, I see: so it is as indefinite as a game of cricket, where a truly dogged batsman can tire down the sun. But tell me, what is the usual length of a bout?’
‘Why, sir, if it were another gent as asked,’ said Bonden, with his singularly winning gap-toothed smile, ‘I should say, as long as a piece of marline. But being it is your honour, I will answer that three or four rounds or say a quarter of an hour is usually enough for young fellows new to the game, fellows with some pluck but with little wind and no science; but with right bruisers, fighting for a handsome prize or from a grudge against the other cove
or both, right game bruisers, with plenty of bottom, it can last a great while. Even in just Navy fighting, I saw Jack Thorold of the Lion and Will Summers of the old Repulse knock one another about for forty-three rounds in just over an hour; and talking of myself, it took me sixty-eight rounds and an hour and twenty-six minutes to beat Jo Thwaites for who should be champion of the Mediterranean.’
‘Barrett Bonden, you astonish me. I had supposed it was a five or ten minutes affair, like a bout with the small-sword.’
‘It does seem a long time; but the London fancy are used to even longer battles. Gully fought the Game Chicken for two hours and twenty minutes – the sixth round alone lasted a quarter of an hour – and Jem Beicher and Dutch Sam went on near as long before their seconds agreed to call it a draw. Both men were still game, but they could barely stand, neither could see, and their mothers would not have recognized them.’
‘Oh Papa,’ cried Brigid, shrill as a bat in her anguish. ‘Come quick! Come quick! George is bleeding terribly.’ She broke into her still somewhat easier Irish, panting as they ran, and explained that she had only given him a little small push to show how prize-fighters did it, and now he was bleeding like a holy martyr. ‘0, if George should die, the sorrow and woe, 0, the black grief of the world…’
‘Why, child,’ said Diana, meeting them, ‘never be so distressed. You only tapped his claret. It is all over now. I have mopped him up and put his shirt to soak – always remember, my dear, cold water is the only thing for blood – and he is eating sillabub in the kitchen. If you run very fast, you may get some too. Stephen, my dear, Jack is in a great rage. He has been waiting almost five minutes to take you to see the mere. I was coming to fetch you.’
‘God love you, sweetheart,’ cried Stephen, kissing her, ‘I had forgotten it entirely.’
On their way out to the great mere, where an osprey had been seen that summer and where hard winter might bring down the odd great northern diver, they saw Captain Griffiths riding along his former track and peering about. He wheeled his horse on catching sight of them emerging from the bushes. ‘Damn it all,’ said Jack. ‘We shall have to speak to the fellow again.’
‘Good morning, Aubrey,’ said Griffiths, touching his hat to Stephen, who responded. ‘Have you any news from the squadron?’
‘Not a word.’
‘That is surprising, with the wind so strong and steady in the south-west, hardly varying a point. You could run up from Ushant in a day .. . However, I hear there is to be a fight between your coxswain and my head-keeper on Wednesday. Shall you be there?’
‘It depends.’
‘I am afraid I shall not: I have to go up to town for the committee. Shall you attend?’
‘Conceivably.’
‘In spite of our majority? Well . . .’ shaking his head. ‘But to go back to this match: I take the liveliest interest in it, and I will back my man for any sum you may wish to name, giving seven to five.’
‘You are very good, sir,’ said Jack, ‘but on this occasion I do not choose to bet.’
‘As you please, as you please. I dare say you know best.
But’ – turning his horse again – ‘faint heart never won fair lady, they say.’
They were by the mere again on Wednesday, on the far side, farther than Dundas cared to walk until the wigeon should start coming in, and as Jack set about repairing a hide on
the edge of the reed-bed, repairing it so that it should be almost indistinguishable from the other reeds, as Harding had showed him so many years ago, he said, ‘That fellow was prating about faint hearts the other day. I cannot tell you how faint mine is at present, when I consider: one unlucky fall on the part of one single unhappy horse, a postchaise losing a wheel, a friend being out of the way, and my ride to London gets me there after the fair – I do not get there for Friday’s committee. I am keeping very quiet today, so as to ride with a clear mind and a firm, untroubled hand. I have not even been to look at the Dripping Pan. I have kept perfectly calm. Yet I don’t know how it is…’ He paused for quite a while and then in the tone of one quoting an aphorism he went on, ‘The heart has its reasons that the …that the…’
‘Kidneys?’ suggested Stephen.
‘That the kidneys know not.’ Jack frowned. ‘No. Hell and death, that’s not it. But anyhow the heart has its reasons, you understand.’
‘It is a singularly complex organ, I am told.’
‘And I am uneasy about a whole variety of things. Tell me, Stephen, did you think there was anything odd about the way that fellow talked?’
‘It seemed to me that he was a little more obviously false than before; and I was quite struck by his insistence on the steadiness of the wind from the blockading squadron. If I do not mistake, the relations between you and Captain Griffiths hardly warrant his riding out to ask you for news?’
‘No, indeed. The barest civilities, that is all. No invitations on either side, ever since I came home and said I was dead against their scheme of inclosure and should not sign but should heartily oppose their petition.’
‘Has this affected our admiral, Lord Stranraer? I mean, as far as you are concerned?’
‘I cannot tell. I hardly knew him before the Bellona was sent to join his command. But as I told you, he was perfectly ready to dislike me from the start, as a Tory, as a naval member of Parliament, and as my father’s son.’
‘Another question, Jack: does a great deal of money depend upon this scheme?’
‘I have not gone into it thoroughly, yet I should say that in time there is. They would have to spend a very considerable amount in hedging, ditching, draining and above all clearing, but some of the common, farmed by men with capital, would make famous wheat and root land; and with canals cut through the wet, low-lying waste it would be capital pasture in a few years’ time. Eventually I believe the whole operation would pay the promoters hands down. They would make a great deal.’
‘The kind of money that would push men on to extreme measures?’
‘I think much more than money is involved: for one thing there is the very high station of a man with some thousands of acres laid out in fair-sized fields with hedge and ditch, ideal country for hunting, and for shooting too, if you care for that kind of shooting. And above all, country inhabited by a few big tenant-farmers anxious about their leases and by a crowd of respectful villagers who have to do what they are told and accept what they are given or go on the parish. A man in that position is as much of an autocrat as the captain of a man-ofwar without the loneliness, the responsibility, the violence of the enemy and the dangers of the sea. Then again there is the pleasure of having your own way against opposition. And it is but fair to add that they think, or have been persuaded to think, that it is all for the country’s good.’
‘From Lord Stranraer’s reputation, would you say he was a man whose love of his country, of high station, and incidentally of a considerable addition to his fortune, might induce him to bend the ordinary course of morality so that good might result?’
‘I should not assert jt. I know very little of him. His reputation in the service is that of a good seaman and a strict disciplinarian, but I do not think he is much liked. He has had little opportunity of showing his courage, yet as far as I know it has never been doubted.