Company Of Spears

‘Nothing of real help. The Dutch call it perdesiekt. It strikes from time to time, though without obvious cause, the only common factor being that it tends to come at the onset of summer. It’s highly contagious and they’ve no treatment for it. The chances of recovery appear to be about one in five.’

‘Could it be something else, contracted in England?’

‘I could not dismiss the possibility, but I know of no disease which takes longer than twenty-eight days to manifest itself, which is why we fix the period of quarantine at twice that time. If it is this perdesiekt then there’s consolation that those that recover will be salted.’

Hervey sighed. ‘That is cold comfort, I think.’

‘At this time, perhaps. The Dutch have been clever about it, though. They’ve built their studs with salted stock. Any Caper we buy – and we’ll have to buy – will be warranted resistant to it.’

Hervey thought for a while. ‘There’s nothing you can do?’

‘On the contrary: I’m doing a great deal, but it can be of little prospect, for I can only treat speculatively – and variously, so that if there is any amendment it will likely as not be confined to a quarter of them.’

Hervey felt himself tired, but even so he thought Sam Kirwan a shade difficult to follow this morning. ‘Would you explain?’

‘One quarter of them I’m not treating at all. One quarter I’m dosing strongly with acetic acid, another I’m purging with calomel, and the rest I’m bleeding.’

‘Bleeding? But you always said—’

‘Unless I can show that I’ve bled, the College will dismiss any findings.’

Hervey’s brow furrowed. ‘Sam, if you believe that bleeding does nothing but weaken a sick animal, then a quarter of these are condemned for the sake of science.’

‘Not a quarter, Hervey, but one in five of a quarter; unless – and it would be perverse in the extreme – all the animals in that quarter were the ones that would recover naturally.’

Hervey had questioned Sam Kirwan’s judgement once before; tired though he was, he would not do so a second time. ‘Very well. You did not say: have any died yet?’

‘No. Death generally occurs in about a week, say the Dutch. The disease only manifested itself four days ago.’

‘And a very strict quarantine of the chargers is being enforced?’

Sam glanced at Hervey from under raised eyebrows.

‘Very well. But you know, come to think of it, we may have a dozen of these saved, but meanwhile we run a terrible risk of contagion. I’ve half a mind it would be better to destroy the lot.’

Sam nodded. ‘I understand your concern perfectly. And I acknowledge I am keenly studying the science in all this, but the chargers are separated by a mile and more; and only I and my assistants travel between them. I do not see how there could be any contagion.’

Hervey was in truth only too pleased to be persuaded that there was no need for destroying the best part of a troop’s worth of horses. ‘Has Fearnley done anything about remounts, do you know?’

Remounts were the regimental officers’ business, not the veterinary surgeon’s, though a prudent buyer would take his opinion. Sam Kirwan had not waited to be asked, however. ‘I’ve made arrangements to go with him to a farm at Eerste River, about fifteen miles east. The Dutch say there’s a good breeder there. He sells to the Company in Madras.’

‘They’ll be tits, no doubt.’

‘But hardy, and good doers, and salted, so you might care to sit a little shorter in the saddle.’

Hervey shrugged. ‘If they’re up to weight then I’ve no very great concern for appearance. When do you go?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘I may go myself, depending on duties at the castle. But Fearnley’s perfectly capable of choosing remounts – once he’s got over his dismay at not seeing blood. I would have Armstrong go with him too.’

They watched in silence for a while as one of the assistants went to work with a bleeding stick.

‘Two quarts only: enough to keep the antediluvians at the College content. And from the toe: least damage.’

Hervey looked sadly on the scene. He knew Sam Kirwan to be a man of genuine love for the horses in his care: Sam would never have wished such an event. But at least he had his science to compensate him. For the rest – even the roughest dragoon – it was a melancholy affair. No one of his troop had paraded with his own horse longer than a year, for they had brought none back with them from India; yet he had seen seasoned men cry at the destruction of a trooper not weeks in their charge. And, he was bound to concede, it made mockery of his petition to the Horse Guards that shipping troopers was good economy and sound practice, for now there would be both the expense of remounting and delay in the troop’s readiness for the field.

Hervey made his way back to the castle, but without the spring in his step with which he had left the rifle range. When he reached his quarters he found Johnson attending to the lees of their time at the frontier.

‘What’s up, sir?’