Company Of Spears

He folded the letter, replaced it between the bindings, wrapped it in the oilskin and put it back in his pocket. As he did so he thought again of Elizabeth’s sisterly duty – so admirable a thing – and then the object of that duty, and wondered how was his friend in southern waters. Perhaps – his new command notwithstanding – he might even envy him a little, for would not Hervey have more prospects of the smell of black powder than would he himself in the Ionian? The native tribes of the Cape Colony would know no better than to chance against His Majesty’s land forces; but the Turk must know that he could have no fight at sea with a first-class naval power. And certainly not three such powers, now that it was Russia and France bound in by formal treaty. The Ionian mission would indeed be a noble one, but it would in essence be an affair of display – a show of force, a demonstration. It would be his old friend who heard the sound of the guns, not he.

XXI

REPORTS AND RETURNS

Cape Town, 23 November

The onset of summer at the Cape, with fine weather for shooting and drill, was on the one hand most welcome: the Rifles were becoming the handiest of troops. Yet Hervey chafed at the enforced inactivity of his dragoons, whose days were spent breaking remounts. It was true that in drill the Rifles were by no means in advance of them, but as regular cavalry shipped with their own horses, E Troop should have been at duty already for the best part of three months.

When the time came – two months after returning from the frontier – for Hervey to submit his first report as detachment commander to Lord Holderness in Hounslow, he was at least relieved that the end of the Troop’s incapacity was at hand.

E Troop Detachment,

H.M. 6th Light Dragoons,

Cape Colony.

23rd November 1827

To The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Holderness,

Commanding Officer,

H.M. 6th Light Dragoons,