Admiral Hornblower

by C. S. Forester

  ‘I know who I owe it to, all the same,’ said Bush, sturdily. ‘They’re going to post me as captain this week. They won’t give me a ship – not with this leg of mine – but there’s the dockyard job at Sheerness waiting for me. I should never be captain if it weren’t for you, sir.’

  ‘Rubbish,’ said Hornblower. The pathetic gratitude in Bush’s voice and expression made him feel uncomfortable.

  ‘And how is it with you, sir?’ asked Bush, regarding him with anxious blue eyes.

  Hornblower shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘Fit and well,’ he said.

  ‘I was sorry to hear about Mrs Hornblower, sir,’ said Bush.

  That was all he needed to say on that subject. They knew each other too well to have to enlarge on it.

  ‘I took the liberty, sir,’ said Bush, hastily, ‘of bringing you out your letters – there was a good deal waiting for you.’

  ‘Yes?’ said Hornblower.

  ‘This big package is a sword, I’m sure, sir,’ said Bush. He was cunning enough to think of ways of capturing Hornblower’s interest.

  ‘Let’s open it, then,’ said Hornblower, indulgently.

  A sword it was, sure enough, with a gold-mounted scabbard and a gold hilt, and when Hornblower drew it the blue steel blade bore an inscription in gold inlay. It was the sword ‘of one hundred guineas’ value’ which had been presented to him by the Patriotic Fund for his defeat of the Natividad in the Lydia, and which he had left in pawn with Duddingstone the ship’s chandler at Plymouth, as a pledge for payment for captain’s stores when he was commissioning the Sutherland.

  ‘A sight too much writing on this for me,’ Duddingstone had complained at the time.

  ‘Let’s see what Duddingstone has to say,’ said Hornblower, tearing open the note enclosed in the package.

  SIR,

  It was with great emotion that I read today of your escape from the Corsican’s clutches and I cannot find words to express my relief that the reports of your untimely death were unfounded, nor my admiration of your exploits during your last commission. I cannot reconcile it with my conscience to retain the sword of an officer so distinguished, and have therefore taken the liberty of forwarding the enclosed to you, hoping that in consequence you will wear it when next you enforce Britannia’s dominion of the seas.

  Your obedient and humble servant to command.

  J. DUDDINGSTONE.

  ‘God bless my soul!’ said Hornblower.

  He let Bush read the note; Bush was a captain and his equal now, as well as his friend, and there was no disciplinary objection to allowing him to know to what shifts he had been put when commissioning the Sutherland. Hornblower laughed a little self-consciously when Bush looked up at him after reading the note.

  ‘Our friend Duddingstone,’ said Hornblower, ‘must have been very moved to allow a pledge for forty guineas to slip out of his fingers.’ He spoke cynically to keep the pride out of his voice, but he was genuinely moved. His eyes would have grown moist if he had allowed them.

  ‘I’m not surprised, sir,’ said Bush, fumbling among the newspapers beside him. ‘Look at this, sir, and at this. Here’s the Morning Chronicle and the Times. I saved them to show you, hoping you’d be interested.’

  Hornblower glanced at the columns indicated; somehow the gist of them seemed to leap out at him without his having to read them. The British press had let itself go thoroughly. As even Bush had foreseen, the fancy of the British public had been caught by the news that a captain whom they had imagined to be foully done to death by the Corsican tyrant had succeeded in escaping, and not merely in escaping, but in carrying off a British ship of war which had been for months a prize to the Corsican. There were columns in praise of Hornblower’s daring and ability. A passage in the Times caught Hornblower’s attention and he read it more carefully. ‘Captain Hornblower still has to stand his trial for the loss of the Sutherland, but, as we pointed out in our examination of the news of the battle of Rosas Bay, his conduct was so well advised and his behaviour so exemplary on that occasion, whether he was acting under the orders of the late Admiral Leighton or not, that, although the case is still sub judice, we have no hesitation in predicting his speedy reappointment.’

  ‘Here’s what the Anti-Gallican has to say, sir,’ said Bush.

  What the Anti-Gallican had to say was very like what the other newspapers had said; it was beginning to dawn upon Hornblower that he was famous. He laughed uncomfortably again. All this was a most curious experience and he was not at all sure that he liked it. Cold-bloodedly he could see the reason for it. Lately there had been no naval officer prominent in the affections of the public – Cochrane had wrecked himself by his intemperate wrath after the Basque Roads, while six years had passed since Hardy had kissed the dying Nelson; Collingwood was dead and Leighton too, for that matter – and the public always demanded an idol. Like the Israelites in the desert, they were not satisfied with an invisible object for their devotion. Chance had made him the public’s idol, and presumably government were not sorry, seeing how much it would strengthen their position to have one of their own men suddenly popular. But somehow he did not like it; he was not used to fame, he distrusted it, and his ever-present personal modesty made him feel it was all a sham.

  ‘I hope you’re pleased, sir,’ said Bush, looking wonderingly at the struggle on Hornblower’s face.

  ‘Yes. I suppose I am,’ said Hornblower.

  ‘The Navy bought the Witch of Endor yesterday at the Prize Court!’ said Bush, searching wildly for news which might delight this odd captain of his. ‘Four thousand pounds was the price, sir. And the division of the prize money where the prize has been taken by an incomplete crew is governed by an old regulation – I didn’t know about it, sir, until they told me. It was made after that boat’s crew from Squirrel, after she foundered, captured the Spanish plate ship in ’97. Two-thirds to you, sir – that’s two thousand six hundred pounds. And a thousand to me and four hundred for Brown.’

  ‘H’m,’ said Hornblower.

  Two thousand six hundred pounds was a substantial bit of money – a far more concrete reward than the acclamation of a capricious public.

  ‘And there’s all these letters and packets, sir,’ went on Bush, anxious to exploit the propitious moment.

  The first dozen letters were all from people unknown to him, writing to congratulate him on his success and escape. Two at least were from madmen, apparently – but on the other hand two were from peers; even Hornblower was a little impressed by the signatures and the coroneted notepaper. Bush was more impressed still when they were passed over to him to read.

  ‘That’s very good indeed, sir, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘There are some more here.’

  Hornblower’s hand shot out and picked one letter out of the mass offered him the moment he saw the handwriting, and then when he had taken it he stood for a second holding it in his hand, hesitating before opening it. The anxious Bush saw the hardening of his mouth and the waning of the colour in his cheeks; watched him while he read, but Hornblower had regained his self-control and his expression altered no farther.

  LONDON,

  129 BOND STREET.

  3rd June 1811.

  DEAR CAPTAIN HORNBLOWER,

  It is hard for me to write this letter, so overwhelmed am I with pleasure and surprise at hearing at this moment from the Admiralty that you are free and well. I hasten to let you know that I have your son here in my care. When he was left orphaned after the lamented death of your wife I ventured to take charge of him and make myself responsible for his upbringing, while my brothers Lords Wellesley and Wellington consented to act as his godfathers at his baptism, whereat he was consequently given the names Richard Arthur Horatio. Richard is a fine healthy boy with a wonderful resemblance to his father and he has already endeared himself greatly to me, to such an extent that I shall be conscious of a great loss when the time comes for you to take him away from me. Let me assure you that I shall look upon it as a
pleasure to continue to have charge of Richard until that time, as I can easily guess that you will be much occupied with affairs on your arrival in England. You will be very welcome should you care to call here to see your son, who grows in intelligence every day. It will give pleasure not only to Richard, but to

  Your firm friend,

  BARBARA LEIGHTON.

  Hornblower nervously cleared his throat and re-read the letter. There was too much crowded in it for him to have any emotion left. Richard Arthur Horatio Hornblower, with two Wellesleys as godfathers, and growing in intelligence every day. There would be a great future ahead of him, perhaps. Up to that moment Hornblower had hardly thought about the child – his paternal instincts had hardly been touched by any consideration of a child he had never seen; and they further were warped by memories of the little Horatio who had died of smallpox in his arms so many years ago. But now he felt a great wave of affection for the unknown little brat in London who had managed to endear himself to Barbara.

  And Barbara had taken him in charge; possibly because, widowed and childless, she had sought for a convenient orphan to adopt – and yet it might be because she still cherished memories of Captain Hornblower, whom at the time she had believed to be dead at Bonaparte’s hands.

  He could not bear to think about it any more. He thrust the letter into his pocket – all the others he had dropped on the deck – and with immobile face he met Bush’s gaze again.

  ‘There are all these other letters, sir,’ said Bush, with masterly tact.

  They were letters from great men and from madmen – one contained an ounce of snuff as a token of some eccentric squire’s esteem and regard – but there was only one which caught Hornblower’s attention. It was from some Chancery Lane lawyer – the name was unfamiliar – who wrote, it appeared, on hearing from Lady Barbara Leighton that the presumption of Captain Hornblower’s death was unfounded. Previously he had been acting under the instructions of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to settle Captain Hornblower’s estate, and working in conjunction with the Prize Agent at Port Mahon. With the consent of the Lord Chancellor, upon the death intestate of Mrs Maria Hornblower, he had been acting as trustee to the heir, Richard Arthur Horatio Hornblower, and had invested for the latter in the Funds the proceeds of the sale of Captain Hornblower’s prizes after the deduction of expenses. As Captain Hornblower would see from the enclosed account, there was the sum of three thousand two hundred and ninety-one pounds six and fourpence invested in the Consolidated Fund, which would naturally revert to him. The lawyer awaited his esteemed instructions.

  The enclosed accounts, which Hornblower was about to thrust aside, had among the innumerable six and eightpences and three and fourpences one set of items which caught his eye – they dealt with the funeral expenses of the late Mrs Hornblower, and a grave in the cemetery of the church of St Thomas à Beckett, and a headstone, and fees for grave-watchers; it was a ghoulish list which made Hornblower’s blood run a little colder. It was hateful. More than anything else it accentuated his loss of Maria – he would only have to go on deck to see the tower of the church where she lay.

  He fought down the depression which threatened to overmaster him once more. It was at least a distraction to think about the news in that lawyer’s letter, to contemplate the fact that he owned three thousand odd pounds in the Funds. He had forgotten all about those prizes he had made in the Mediterranean before he came under Leighton’s command. Altogether that made his total fortune nearly six thousand pounds – not nearly as large as some captains had contrived to acquire, but handsome enough. Even on half-pay he would be able to live in comfort now, and educate Richard Arthur Horatio properly, and take his place in a modest way in society.

  ‘The captains’ list has changed a lot since we saw it last, sir,’ said Bush, and he was echoing Hornblower’s train of thought rather than breaking into it.

  ‘Have you been studying it?’ grinned Hornblower.

  ‘Of course, sir.’

  Upon the position of their names in that list depended the date of their promotion to flag rank – year by year they would climb it as death or promotion eliminated their seniors, until one day, if they lived long enough, they would find themselves admirals, with admirals’ pay and privileges.

  ‘It’s the top half of the list which has changed most, sir,’ said Bush. ‘Leighton was killed, and Ball died at Malta, and Troubridge was lost at sea – in Indian waters, sir – and there’s seven or eight others who’ve gone. You’re more than half-way up now.’

  Hornblower had held his present rank eleven years, but with each coming year he would mount more slowly, in proportion to the decrease in number of his seniors, and it would be 1825 or so before he could fly his flag. Hornblower remembered the Count de Graçay’s prediction that the war would end in 1814 – promotion would be slower in peace time. And Bush was ten years older than he, and only just beginning the climb. Probably he would never live to be an admiral, but then Bush was perfectly content with being a captain. Clearly his ambition had never soared higher than that; he was fortunate.

  ‘We’re both of us very lucky men, Bush,’ said Hornblower.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ agreed Bush, and hesitated before going on. ‘I’m giving evidence at the court martial, sir, but of course you know what my evidence’ll be. They asked me about it at Whitehall, and they told me that what I was going to say agreed with everything they knew. You’ve nothing to fear from the court martial, sir.’

  XVIII

  Hornblower told himself often during the next twenty-four hours that he had nothing to fear from the court martial, and yet it was nervous work waiting for it – to hear the repeated twitter of pipes and stamping of marines’ boots overhead as the compliments were given to the captains and admirals who came on board to try him, to hear silence close down on the ship as the court assembled, and to hear the sullen boom of the court martial gun as the court opened, and the click of the cabin-door latch as Calendar came to escort him before his judges.

  Hornblower remembered little enough afterwards of the details of the trial – only a few impressions stood out clearly in his memory. He could always recall the flash and glitter of the gold lace on the coats of the semicircle of officers sitting round the table in the great cabin of the Victory, and the expression on Bush’s anxious, honest face as he declared that no captain could have handled a ship with more skill and determination than Hornblower had handled Sutherland at Rosas Bay. It was a neat point which Hornblower’s ‘friend’ – the officer the Admiralty had sent to conduct his defence – made when his question brought out the fact that just before the surrender Bush had been completely incapacitated by the loss of his foot, so that he bore no responsibility whatever for the surrender and had no interest in presenting as good a case as possible. There was an officer who read, seemingly for an eternity, long extracts from depositions and official reports, in a spiritless mumble – the greatness of the occasion apparently made him nervous and affected his articulation, much to the annoyance of the President of the Court. At one point the President actually took the paper from him, and himself read, in his nasal tenor, Admiral Martin’s pronouncement that the Sutherland’s engagement had certainly made the eventual destruction of the French squadron more easy, and in his opinion was all that had made it possible. There was an awkward moment when a discrepancy was detected between the signal logs of the Pluto and Caligula, but it passed away in smiles when someone reminded the Court that signal midshipmen sometimes made mistakes.

  During the adjournment there was an elegant civilian in buff and blue, with a neat silk cravat, who came into Hornblower with a good many questions. Frere, his name was, Hookham Frere – Hornblower had a vague acquaintance with the name. He was one of the wits who wrote in the Anti-Gallican, a friend of Canning’s, who for a time had acted as ambassador to the patriot government of Spain. Hornblower was a little intrigued by the presence of someone deep in cabinet secrets, but he was too preoccupied, waiting for the t
rial to re-open, to pay much attention to him or to answer his questions in detail.

  And it was worse when all the evidence had been given, and he was waiting with Calendar while the Court considered its decision. Hornblower knew real fear, then. It was hard to sit apparently unmoved, while the minutes dragged by, waiting for the summons to the great cabin, to hear what his fate would be. His heart was beating hard as he went in, and he knew himself to be pale. He jerked his head erect to meet his judges’ eyes, but the judges in their panoply of blue and gold were veiled in a mist which obscured the whole cabin, so that nothing was visible to Hornblower’s eyes save for one little space in the centre – the cleared area in the middle of the table before the President’s seat, where lay his sword, the hundred-guinea sword presented by the Patriotic Fund. That was all Hornblower could see – the sword seemed to hang there in space, unsupported. And the hilt was towards him; he was not guilty.

  ‘Captain Hornblower,’ said the President of the Court – that nasal tenor of his had a pleasant tone – ‘This Court is of the unanimous opinion that your gallant and unprecedented defence of His Majesty’s ship Sutherland, against a force so superior, is deserving of every praise the country and this Court can give. Your conduct, together with that of the officers and men under your command, reflects not only the highest honour on you, but on the country at large. You are therefore most honourably acquitted.’

  There was a little confirmatory buzz from the other members of the Court, and a general bustle in the cabin. Somebody was buckling the hundred-guinea sword to his waist; someone else was patting his shoulder. Hookham Frere was there, too, speaking insistently.

  ‘Congratulations, sir. And now, are you ready to accompany me to London? I have had a post chaise horsed and waiting this last six hours.’

  The mists were only clearing slowly; everything was still vague about him as he allowed himself to be led away, to be escorted on deck, to be handed down into the barge alongside. Somebody was cheering. Hundreds of voices were cheering. The Victory’s crew had manned the yards and were yelling themselves hoarse. All the other ships at anchor there were cheering him. This was fame. This was success. Precious few other captains had ever been cheered by all the ships in a fleet like this.