The Surgeon’s Mate. Patrick O’Brian

secretary.’

      ‘Mother of God,’ said Stephen to himself, and well he might: Jack, as a lively bachelor in Minorca, had cuckolded Mr Harte repeatedly, and cuckolds were likely to use their horns even long after their receipt; while Jack had also publicly, justly, accused Mr Wray, a person even then high in Government employ, of cheating at cards. It was an accusation that Wray had not seen fit to resent in the usual manner at the time, but it was not likely that he would stomach it for ever.

      ‘I waited as long as I could, but then when I reached the office at a brisk run – and I can tell you, Stephen, that brisk running, at my age, ain’t what it used to be – all I found was another disappointment. A miserable goddam afternoon.’

      ‘Ooh-hoo, husband,’ said a pretty whore in the twilight. ‘Come with me and I will give you a kiss.’

      Jack smiled, shook his head, and walked on. ‘Did you notice she called me husband?’ he said after a few paces. ‘They often do. I suppose marriage is the natural state, so that makes it seem less – less wrong.’

      The word marriage reminded Stephen that he had meant to take Beck’s certificate, that necessary document, to a priest and arrange for his wedding with Diana; but he could at present scarcely drag himself along – all the weariness of the last few days was rising in him like an overwhelming fog, now that the interminable crisis was past. All that survived was the spirit of contradiction. He said, ‘Not at all. On the contrary, as one of your great men of the past age observed, it is so far from natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilized society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.’

      ‘Hark,’ said Jack, pausing in his stride. Down by the harbour a band had begun Heart of Oak, and a great concourse of people were either chanting the words or cheering. Smoke and the rosy glow of torches could be seen above the roofs, and suddenly the flames themselves came into sight, crossing the far end of their street – an unofficial procession of seamen and civilians, leaping and capering as they passed the narrow gap, and on every hand more people were hurrying down to join it, among them the pretty whore.

      Good humour came flooding back into Aubrey’s face. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. ‘That’s more like a heroes’ welcome. Lord, Stephen, I am so happy, these little vexations apart. And tomorrow, when I have Sophie’s letters, I shall be happier still. Listen. There is another band striking up.’

      ‘All I ask,’ said Stephen, ‘is that they should welcome their heroes at a decent distance from the Goat – that they should not strike up within a furlong of the inn. Though the Dear knows, I believe I should sleep through ten bands playing in the corridor.’

      They may well have played there, or at least outside his window, for the Shannons celebrated their victory as wholeheartedly as they had won it, and Halifax rocked with the sound of their merriment until dawn and beyond; but Dr Maturin lay like a log until a sunbeam, darting through his bed-curtains, teased him into wakefulness at last. His body was beautifully limp, perfectly comfortable; his mind was rested, calm, relaxed; he would have moved out of the beam and lain there browsing among his thoughts, perhaps dropping off again, if he had not heard a somewhat artificial cough, the cough of one who does not wish to wake his companion but rather to advertise his presence if waking has already taken place.

      He pushed the curtains aside and met Jack’s eye, his surprisingly sombre eye. Jack was standing by the window, looking unnaturally tall, even taller than usual, and Stephen observed that this was because he had taken off his sling and the arm hanging down by his side changed his proportions. He smiled on seeing Stephen, wished him a good morning, or rather afternoon, and said, ‘I have some letters for you.’

      Stephen considered for a moment. At least some part of Jack’s sad appearance arose from the fact that he was wearing a broad black band of crape on his arm; but there was more to it than that. ‘What’s o’clock?’ he asked.

      ‘Just turned of noon, and I must be away,’ said Jack, giving him a small bundle of letters.

      ‘You have been up a great while, I make no doubt,’ said Stephen. He looked at the covers without much interest.

      ‘Yes. I was at that God-damned office the moment they opened their doors. Their chief was away, but even so I made them rummage the place from top to bottom – such disorder you would not credit – but never a word for me.’

      ‘Several packets have been taken by the Americans, or lost at sea, brother.’

      ‘I know, I know,’ said Jack. ‘But even so … however, whining will do no good. Then I reported to the Commissioner. He was very civil, very welcoming, and he gave me good news of Broke – had been sitting up for an hour, talking quite rationally, and may be able to write his own dispatch. And he asked me to dinner after the funeral: but I noticed he felt uneasy, and after a good deal of backing and filling out it came. I am not to have Acasta, but am to go home. I was away too long, and she has been given to Robert Kerr.’

      The Acasta was a particularly fine forty-gun frigate, one of the few that could be considered a match for the heavy Americans, and Stephen knew how Jack had looked forward to commanding her in these waters. He looked for some words that might soften the blow, but finding none he said, ‘I am grieved for you, Jack. But listen, if you feel the least pain or throbbing in that arm, you are to put it up – you are to put it in your bosom.’ He stretched, gaped, took off his nightcap, and said, ‘You spoke of a funeral?’

      ‘Yes, of course. You are not awake, Stephen. We bury poor Lawrence of the Chesapeake.’

      ‘Should I come too? I can be ready in a moment. I should be very willing to show the respect I feel, if it is usual.’

      ‘No, the custom is only men of the same rank, apart from those detailed to attend and his own officers. Stephen, I must go. Tell me, did you get any money? I shall not have time between the funeral and the dinner, and I should like to do the proper thing as soon as possible.’

      ‘It is in my coat-pocket, hanging behind the spence.’

      Jack plucked out the roll of bank-notes, peeled off what he needed, called out ‘Thankee, Stephen,’ buckled on his sword and ran down the stairs.

      All the post-captains in Halifax were gathering on the gun-wharf: he knew most of them, but he only had time to greet one or two before the clock struck; exact to the minute the coffin came ashore with its escort of Marines, and the cortège formed behind it, the few American officers who could walk, the soldiers, the captains two by two, the generals and the Admiral.

      They marched to the sound of a muffled drum, and the cheerful streets fell silent as they came. Jack had taken part in many processions of this kind, some of them very poignant indeed – shipmates, close friends, a cousin, his own officers or midshipmen – but he had never regretted an enemy commander as he regretted Lawrence, a man quite after his own heart, who had brought his ship into action and had fought her in the handsomest manner. The steady beat, the marching steps in time, caused his bitter disappointments of this morning to fade from his mind; and the exactly-ordered ceremony, the chaplain’s ritual words, and the rattle of earth on the coffin, made him very grave indeed. The firing party’s volley, the last military honours, jerked him from his thoughts, but not from his gravity. Although death was so much part of his calling, he could not get rid of the image of Captain Lawrence standing there on his quarterdeck just before the first devastating broadsides; and he found the reviving cheerfulness among his companions particularly jarring. It was not that their respect for the dead man was feigned, nor that their formal bearing until the time the gathering broke up was hypocritical, but their respect was for an unknown, though certainly brave and able commander – respect for the abstract enemy, for officerlike conduct.

      ‘You knew him, I believe?’ said his neighbour, Hyde Parker of the Tenedos.

      ‘Yes,’ said Jack. ‘He came to see me in Boston. He had captured one of my officers when he took the Peacock, and he was very kind to him. He commanded