Company Of Spears

General Bourke on the other hand, when he returned from St Helena in the middle of October, Hervey found to be a straightforward man, but much preoccupied with administration and the business of accounts. Hervey was sorry for him. It was clear that the War Office had set him the most stringent economies, and that his future depended on them. Hervey wished never for general rank if it meant being an actuary in a red coat.

Colonel Somerset had no difficulty persuading General Bourke that the Xhosa would soon make war on the colony. Or rather, he had no difficulty persuading him of the possibility – and, as the frontier defences stood, of the unfavourable outcome. So persuaded, it was the general’s duty to alert the lieutenant-governor to the danger, and to set in hand the appropriate measures.

Hervey was not persuaded, however. Or rather, Edward Fairbrother was not, and it was Fairbrother’s opinion for which he had the greater regard. They had indeed become firm friends, and Hervey had arranged for him to exchange on to full pay as supernumerary captain in the Mounted Rifles.

Throughout November memoranda had travelled backwards and forwards like petitions in the Court of Chancery: Hervey to Bourke, Bourke to Somerset, Somerset to Bourke, Bourke to Somervile, Somervile to Hervey, Hervey to Somervile, Somervile to Bourke. Until in the end the lieutenant-governor felt himself thoroughly apprised of both the arguments and the plaintiffs, and that a colonial council was the appropriate means of resolving the dispute.

‘I thought it better to hold the council here rather than in chancellery,’ he said as General Bourke took the coffee cup from the tray which the khitmagar held ready at the door of the residence’s library. ‘I have asked Colonel Hervey to attend, and I beg you would forgive me if it is amiss, for if the troop of cavalry is to return to England not so very long from now, and he with it, I would have him give as much an account there of our deliberations as possible.’

‘Eminently reasonable, Sir Eyre,’ said Bourke, unperturbed. ‘As I informed you, there will be no need of a lieutenant-colonel in the Rifles once they are formed into independent companies. I myself would not have wished it, but the state of the military accounts …’ He shook his head.

‘And I have asked, too, Captain Fairbrother. I believe it would be apt if he were to hear our deliberations, since I might wish him for an interpreter at a later date.’

The general’s countenance remained the same: if the lieutenant-governor could be accommodating in the matter of military economies, then he himself could overlook an irregularity of military protocol. ‘It is your prerogative, Lieutenant-Governor. You will not, I imagine, be asking for their opinion on military matters on which I should be obliged to give mine on a par.’

‘No, indeed, certainly not! Only their opinion of the peril we face. Yours is the military opinion on which I must act.’

The show of mild dismay was effective: the general nodded. ‘Of course.’ He drained his cup and took another.

Somervile now sought to be confidential. ‘You are aware, are you not, of all the changes in government?’ (On the sudden death of the prime minister in August there had been comings and goings.)

‘I may not be. Huskisson has War and the Colonies, as I understand.’

‘You understand right.’ The former President of the Board of Trade was now Secretary of State for the War and Colonial Department. ‘Palmerston remains at the War Office, and Anglesey at the Ordnance.’

‘And has Peel returned?’

‘No. It is Lansdowne who has the Home department.’ ‘Capital.’ General Bourke was of the opinion that no good would come of things as long as Peel and those like him were opposed to giving the Catholics their relief. ‘He’d stand in the last ditch outside Dublin.’

Somervile half smiled. ‘Ah yes, Catholic Emancipation. Which reminds me, the amendment to the Slave Ordnance…’

General Bourke looked at him intently, and not a little suspiciously.

‘I take note of your memorandum,’ said the lieutenant-governor.

‘You mean you will delay its promulgation?’

‘If we conclude this morning that action is necessary then I fear I have no alternative.’

Bourke looked satisfied. ‘It is, of course, a civil judgement, but the military consequences are of concern to me. We should have to call out the burghers of Graaff Reinet and Uitenhage first, and they’re among the biggest slave owners. It wouldn’t do to embitter them now.’

Somervile nodded, reluctantly: it was a damnable thing to play with men’s liberty like this – and, for that matter, to play false with the burghers so.

The khansamah appeared. ‘The council is assembled, sahib.’

Somervile smiled his thank-you. ‘Well, General, shall we to our council of … war, I am tempted to say?’