The Hundred Days Read Free

on due modesty and decent eating;
but that was long ago, and for a great while now they had been perfectly well
together.
    A cloud passed over her face, and putting her hand
on Jack’s knee she said, ‘I was so happy to see you - to have recovered you
from Cape
Horn
at the very last moment - that I overlooked more important things. Tell me, how
is poor dear Maturin?’
    ‘He looks older, and bent; but he bears up
wonderfully, and it has not done away with his love of music. He eats nothing,
though, and when he came back to Funchal, having attended to everything at
Woolcombe, I lifted him out of the boat with one hand.’
    ‘She was an extraordinarily handsome woman and she
had prodigious style: I admired her exceedingly. But she was not a wife for
him; nor a mother for that dear little girl. How is
she? She was not in the coach, I collect?’
    ‘No. The only other one on the box was
Cholmondeley; my mother-in-law and her companion inside, and Harry Willet, the
groom, up behind - happily Padeen did not go that day. And Brigid does not seem
very gravely upset, from what I understand. She is very deeply attached to
Sophie, you know, and to Mrs Oakes.’
     ‘I do not
believe I know Mrs Oakes.’
    ‘A sea-officer’s widow who lives with us, a learned
lady - not as learned as you, Queenie, I am sure - but she teaches the children
Latin and French. They are none of them clever enough for Greek.’
    A pause. ‘If he does not eat, he
will certainly grow weak and pine away,’ said Lady Keith. ‘We have a famous
cook aboard Royal Sovereign - he came back to England with the Bourbons. Would
an invitation be acceptable, do you think? Just us and the
Physician of the Fleet and a few very old friends. I have a crux in this
passage of Ennius I should like to show him. And of course he must have a
conference with Keith’s secretary and the political adviser very soon... Oh,
and Jack, there is something I must tell you, just between ourselves. Another
Mediterranean command would be too much for him, so we are only here until
Pellew comes out; though we shall stay in the Governor’s cottage a little while
to enjoy the spring. Do you get along well with Pellew, Jackie?’
    ‘I have a great admiration for him,’ said Jack -
and indeed Admiral Sir Edward Pellew had been a remarkably dashing and
successful frigate-captain - ‘but not quite the veneration I have for Lord
Keith.’
    ‘My dear Aubrey,’ cried the Admiral, walking in
from the coach, ‘there you are! How glad I am to see you.’
    ‘And I to see you, my Lord Viscount, if I may so
express myself. My heartiest congratulations.’
    ‘Thankee, thankee, Aubrey,’ said the Admiral, more pleasant
than quite suited his wife. ‘But I must say that I deserve to be degraded for
having put in that foolish proviso in your orders about waiting for Briseis. I
should have said-but never mind what I should have said. The fact is that at
that time I merely wanted your squadron to guard the passage of the Straits:
now, at the present moment, the situation is much more complex. Six hundred
thousand people cheered Napoleon when he entered Paris - Ney has joined
    him - a hundred and fifty
thousand King’s troops, well-equipped, drilled and officered, have done the
same - he has countless seasoned men who were prisoners of war in England and Russia and all over Europe at his devotion, flooding
to the colours - the Emperor’s colours. There is the Devil to pay and no tar
hot. Is Dr Maturin with you?’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    ‘Is he up to talking about all this with my
secretary and the politicos?’
    ‘I believe so, my Lord. Although he shuns ordinary
company he is dead set on the war and seizes upon any means whatsoever of informing
himself - newspapers, correspondence and so on - and I have known him talk for
three hours on end with a French officer - royalist of course - whose brig was
in company with us during a flat calm off Bugio.’
    ‘He would sooner not dine aboard Royal