Honour Redeemed

by Donachie, David

  Embankments had already been thrown up to house them, secure emplacements that were a mixture of pine logs and sand. With even more men from the fleet bringing ashore the gunners and ammunition, the 32-pounders were in action against Fornali at first light the next morning, aided by the line-of-battle ships which came inshore to bombard the seaward walls.

  The general opinion was that Lacombe would have to ask for terms within a week at most. Confirmation of Corsican movements above the passes leading to Bastia, even if they hadn’t actually invested Fornali, gave him no other option. The French were still fighting to hold it open, but it was a desperate task, only aided by the islanders’ desire to avoid excessive casualties in an action which all believed would do little to affect the eventual outcome.

  Markham seemed to have inherited the Seahorses without anyone giving him specific orders to do so; not surprising with their own officer and NCOs dead, and their ship detached to carry dispatches to Admiral Hotham, Hood’s second in command, cruising off Toulon. They set up a camp just inside the woods, retrieving their packs off the beach, then begging, borrowing and stealing those things which they didn’t receive by right. Markham’s own kit, completely forgotten about since the landing, had been slung ashore, probably by one of Bernard’s sailors, who’d had no interest in the fact that Lieutenant Croppie’s equipment landed in the water. Thankfully it contained very few perishables; an extra pistol, powder, balls and the necessaries for cleanliness. His spare shirts had dried fast enough, as had the powder, and Rannoch had undertaken to clean his weapons personally.

  Once the bombardment commenced, with lines of seamen ready to resupply, there was little for the men to do but wait for the actual assault, and they were permitted some very well deserved rest. Markham, despite the noise of the cannon, slept like a log throughout the rest of the day, and only woke as it was getting dark. Exiting from the tent Rannoch had found him, he felt the wind coming off the land, a breeze which, for the second day running, had pushed the bombarding ships off their station. But still the orange glow of the shore-based fire lit the darkening sky, and awake, he could hear the balls crashing into the stone walls of the fort, slowly but surely creating a breach in the thick masonry. He watched for a while as the last of the light faded, until the guns were housed for the night, and the firing ceased.

  Around him, his men slept or sat quietly talking round their fires, several of them bandaged where they’d suffered slight wounds. The Seahorses occupied one fire, separate from his Hebes. In both cases, their muskets, cleaned and gleaming, stood in orderly stacks ready for use. The smell that assailed his nostrils, a mixture of pine resin, warm gun oil and tobacco, was pleasant. That was, until it conjured up memories of other forests, and other encampments, where the same ingredients had been present, and death and destruction had come with the dawn.

  ‘Dornan, some hot water, if you please.’

  ‘Sir.’

  The marine got to his feet and looked at him, while Markham waited for the information to seep into his brain. Round of face, with eyes that always seemed surprised, Dornan was sometimes more of a liability than an asset. Being slow-witted, he was often the butt of jokes from the sharper members of the unit, especially the two Londoners, Quinlan and Ettrick. Finally the marine bent and picked up a kid, which he dipped into the pot on the fire, spilling enough to kill half the flames and earn him a curse from his mates. Markham took the container off him and re-entered his tent. The small polished silver mirror, lit by one candle, gave off precious little light, and it threw his lean face into the kind of deep shadow that made him, not for the first time in his life, curse the shaving ritual.

  But a hand across the square chin confirmed the need for the razor, the stubble thick and black in contrast to the dark brown of his tousled hair. The eyes were still full of sleep, grey pupils made cat-like as they picked up a flicker from the candle. He threw a handful of the hot water on his face before lathering up, and shaved round it, careful close to the numerous small scars that stood testimony to the number of wounds he’d sustained, not all of them from soldiering.

  He knew he should really have an orderly, someone to brush his coat, wash his shirts and breeches, clean his boots and shave him on demand. But servants, in his experience, were a venal crew, who engendered greater worry than they saved, more interested in what they could steal than in making their master comfortable. When they cooked, most of the food, chosen to suit their own palate, was wont to disappear down their throats, just like the wine. And woe betide the officer who left money or valuables lying around. There were exceptions to that, of course, personal attendants who would lay down life and limb for their master. But George Markham had never met one. Not in Ireland, England, America or Russia. So until he did, he’d see to his own needs, eating whatever food was put before him aboard ship, and joining his men on everyday rations in the field.

  That thought made him smile, showing teeth white enough to match the creamy lather. There was a sort of hypocritical piety to such thoughts, given the life he’d led in London before being forced, by penury and the threat of arrest, to take up his army commission. Hard tack and salt beef it was not, though a wiser head might have made it so. But George Tenby Markham had lived high in his time, had a modicum of charm and Irish wit, and also believed in the old adage that it was necessary to speculate to accumulate. If he wanted to acquire a fortune, he felt he must spend as though he already owned one.

  So he’d lived the life of a gentleman of the town, eating well, and sometimes drinking to excess, gambling just enough to be considered a player, attending balls, routs and rallies at Vauxhall and Ranelagh, and pursuing his love of all things gracious, especially the ladies, married and single, of the circles he’d moved in. He was drawn to the theatre especially, not only by a love of drama, but by the nature of the people who lived the thespian life. There was little hypocrisy in such a world, and much excitement.

  The events of that period, when he’d returned from fighting the Turks on behalf of the Czarina Catherine, tended to break down into the duration of his romantic liaisons. Images of the women he’d made love to floated through his mind; faces, bodies and preferences in a joyful reverie. That ended abruptly when he recalled the unfortunate meeting at Finsbury Park, where he’d put a ball into the Comte des Ardres, a French emigré nobleman who, quite naturally, took great exception to finding George Markham in bed with his wife.

  He swore, at the end of every affair, that it would be the last, a promise that had never yet survived a sideways glance or even a waft of seductive perfume. And as he removed the last of the lather from his ears and nose, he looked at a face now bronzed and lean instead of puffy and powdered. It was good to be here in Corsica, on active service, away from the temptations which had so often been his downfall.

  The coat looked like what it was, a garment to fight in. It hadn’t started that way, of course, although it had never been much in the way of finery. But crawling through dunes and pine forests and charging field gun emplacements had done little to improve the look of the thick scarlet cloth, even in weak candlelight. One of his gold aiguillettes had been clipped by a ball, and required to be trimmed with scissors. Grease from a cannon wheel had left a streak across the white facings, and there was a tear in his breeches which could only be hidden by pulling his stockings higher. With a final slap producing a puff of dust, he jammed his hat on his head and came out of the tent.

  Looking around a second time he saw the Negro, Bellamy, perched on a log right on the edge of their encampment, stirring a pot over a small blaze. His head was swathed in a thick white bandage that contrasted sharply with his coal-black face, the skin so shiny that his cheeks picked up the orange from the dancing flames.

  Rannoch was on his own too, bent over another fire, holding a tin pot in which he was melting the lead from standard issue musket balls. The cast he was using, which he’d scrounged off the Hebe’s armourer, lay to one side, by the bucket of water he needed to cool them.
The first time he’d seen Rannoch at work, it had contained the old piece of barrel he used to test them. But that, along with everything else they’d owned, had been abandoned in Toulon, a place they’d escaped from with little more than their flapping shirts. Markham, out of the corner of his eye, watched Rannoch working as he moved through the rest of the men, checking on those who were awake, inquiring after wounds, hurts and lost equipment, until he was close enough to his sergeant to speak.

  ‘Where are you going to get the barrel to test them?’

  ‘I am using my own right now,’ Rannoch replied, without looking up. ‘Slipping it just home to see if it fits. It is not perfect but it will have to do.’

  ‘The Army have supplies aboard the transports, muskets from every manufactuary in the land. And I am willing to bet that some of them are old stock.’

  ‘But are they true to my barrel?’ Rannoch said, looking at him. Then he picked up his own Brown Bess, the firelight picking out the sheen of the stock, and the gleam of polished brass on the firing plate. ‘The piece I used before was cast by the same hand as this musket, though I will grant it was not at the same time. But they were true to each other. Only by luck will I find another like it.’

  Markham was dying to ask where he’d got the originals, both musket and barrel. But that was just one of the dozens of questions which Rannoch did not care to answer. He kept his past to himself, which to a naturally inquiring mind was a form of torture. Was there a wife, a family somewhere, brothers, sisters? Where and why had he got that brand on his thumb, and what had happened to make his hatred of officers so deep and abiding? They’d become as friendly as a lieutenant and a sergeant could, Rannoch careful to preserve the necessary distinctions, so that he would not get too familiar with Markham. More importantly, this ensured his superior couldn’t get too informal with him. This was fundamental for the proper maintenance of discipline. But inside those very essential constraints, they trusted each other, an accolade Markham had earned, and not one that the Highlander seemed prepared to bestow on any other superior.

  ‘Why is Bellamy sitting alone?’

  Rannoch’s back stiffened slightly, as though he saw the question as a rebuke. ‘When he came back, he took one look at the Seahorses around their fire, and moved away.’

  ‘He could have sat with our men, could he not?’

  ‘He did not ask them, sir, and neither did I.’

  The check on Markham was in the ‘sir’, which was not, in anything other than formal situations, an appellation often found on Rannoch’s lips. And it was also in the stiff way his sergeant was holding himself, a plain statement that any further questions on the subject would be very unwelcome. That made Markham angry.

  ‘At the moment, Sergeant, though I haven’t asked for it, he’s my responsibility.’

  ‘Then do him a kindness and send him to run errands for the surgeon.’

  ‘No!’ Markham snapped, standing up.

  ‘That is the right you have as an officer,’ Rannoch replied, without looking up. ‘Just as I have a duty as a sergeant to point out to you that the presence of that man could well make bother.’

  ‘Did you see who hit him on the beach, Rannoch?’

  It was a question he’d been determined not to ask, because it could do nothing but cause trouble. In some senses his own duty demanded that. The men had their own way of settling differences amongst themselves, and every officer worth his salt respected it. But now Rannoch pulled himself upright, to tower over his officer. And when their eyes locked there was neither deference nor fear in those of the Scotsman.

  ‘I did.’

  Markham was surprised rather than angry. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because if I had not, the Seahorses would never have followed me down that gully. And who knows what might have happened if they had sat still? I had no idea of the damage done by those mortars. You, and all the men we survived Toulon with, could now be dead.’

  Markham turned away, totally at a loss. If Rannoch was anything, he was considerate to any man who served with him. Yet in his eyes, when he had answered, there had been a hint of something other than expediency. And Bellamy must know that the Highlander had cracked his skull with his musket. No wonder he was sitting alone. It seemed feeble, a mere gesture, to go and talk to Bellamy instead of reprimanding Rannoch, but that was all he could think of to do, firstly to reassure the Negro, and secondly to let the Highlander know that should he fancy repeating the blow, Markham wouldn’t tolerate it.

  ‘I’m glad to see you have recovered,’ he said, indicating that Bellamy, who’d started to rise, should stay seated. He was aware that behind him all conversation had ceased. ‘I hope the surgeon did a proper job.’

  When Bellamy replied, Markham was again struck by the quality of his speech. There was a minor colonial twang to it for sure, but it was no more than that, and certainly it was not the voice of an ignorant slave.

  ‘He could hardly stand, he’d taken so much rum. I fear my head will resemble a patchwork quilt when it heals, of the variety made by country folk eager to fleece the unwary traveller.’

  ‘Then let’s hope the hair grows thick to cover it.’

  ‘That is one thing I do not have to be concerned about. The hair on my head grows as thick as my skull.’

  Now those eyes, dark brown with huge whites, were fixed on his. And that made Markham look away, since he knew he was being invited by Bellamy to comment on who had hit him. The marine could see his discomfort, and after only a short pause he continued.

  ‘I have yet to thank you for saving my life before that.’

  ‘I was happy to do it.’

  The thick lips split into a wide, tooth-filled grin. ‘Even if you nearly drowned yourself?’

  ‘You should learn to swim, Bellamy.’

  ‘That, sir, is to invite either crocodiles or sharks to feast off my flesh. The stuff of nightmares, I think, and I must own, because of it, to having an abhorrence of water any deeper than my ankles.’

  ‘Yet you are a marine.’ Bellamy’s eyes dropped, and now it was Markham’s turn to be introducing a subject that the other party didn’t want to pursue. ‘All in all, you’ve had a poor welcome to the island of Corsica.’

  ‘A fitting one, if Seneca is to be believed.’

  ‘Seneca?’ asked Markham, unable to hide his surprise at a soldier, let alone a Negro one, using the name.

  ‘He was banished here. He said, Quid tarn nudum inveneri potest …’

  ‘Please Bellamy,’ Markham protested, ‘do not labour my weak Latin.’

  The Negro grinned again. ‘“What could be so barren, so rugged all around as this rock? What more wanting of provisions, what more rude in its inhabitants?” There is more, much more, none of it flattering.’

  ‘What are you doing here, Bellamy?’

  For the first time, the marine adopted the voice that Markham had heard every other time he’d met a Negro. ‘Ah fit for King George, boss.’

  ‘And how often does King George fight you?’

  Bellamy understood immediately. ‘It is ignorance, sir, which brings retribution for slights imagined around my ears. I do not hold my place in the eyes of others as nature’s gift. And I also own that I do not help matters by parading what erudition I have been blessed with.’

  ‘It is unusual.’

  That made him slightly angry. ‘There is not a man I have served with, sir, even one blind with prejudice, who would not benefit from the education gifted to me.’

  ‘By whom?’

  ‘Archimedes Bellamy, my late master. A great human being. He schooled me in order to prove that a man of Africa was as good as any European, the only difference being in the teaching.’

  ‘He seems to have succeeded remarkably well.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘Is his death anything to do with your presence here?’

  Bellamy’s eyes dropped, and the answer came in a whisper. ‘Everything. And being of a scientific bent, I daresay he wou
ld be curious to see whether I will die at the hands of the King’s enemies, or of the jealousy and prejudice of one of his subjects.’

  Markham laid a hand on the black marine’s shoulder. ‘Do not fear to turn your back while you’re under my command, Bellamy, regardless of what happened today.’

  ‘That may cause you more difficulties than you can yet appreciate, sir.’

  ‘Sergeant Rannoch.’

  The response cut across the continuing silence at his back. ‘Sir!’

  ‘This marine is under my personal protection. No punishment is to be inflicted on him, by anyone, without my express permission. Do you understand?’

  ‘I do, sir.’

  Markham turned slowly, to allow those who’d been staring at him time to avert their gaze. All did so except Sharland, who was glaring with undisguised loathing. ‘Bellamy will eat with us, march with us, fight with and possibly die with us. But if he receives so much as a scratch from anyone other than the enemy, the person who inflicts it will wish he was a leper.’

  Both the Army and the Navy had set up facilities for the officers ashore. Neat rows of tents lay under the shade of the pines, the avenue that had been cut between them now part of the gun emplacements. Two long, high, canvas marquees near the dunes provided a mess for each service to dine in. Very close to each other, with long tables down the middle, the blaze of candles that illuminated the interiors showed the movement of every individual inside. Markham could see, as he approached, cups of wine being raised in toasts to the anticipated success of the siege.

  The command posts were just in front of these, smaller affairs in the main, the only one to match the dimensions of the messes that of General Dundas himself. Under lanterns, staff officers busied themselves making lists and plans, each tent-front open to the cool night air, as well as the admiring gaze of those the occupants wished to impress with their zeal. As if to emphasise the duality of the enterprise, the navy had its own command post, with marine sentries at the door. The most striking feature of this was the fact that though the distance from one to the other wasn’t great, there was no hint of traffic between them.