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A little group of officers had appeared on deck and were standing grouped on either side of Cambro
“Your word of honour, milord?”
“My word of honour,” repeated Hornblower, still steadily, still like a man of honour.
No one could disbelieve the word of honour of a British Admiral, of a man who had held His Majesty’s commission for more than twenty years. He went on now with the arguments he had rehearsed.
“This exploit of yours can be forgotten now, Count,” he said. “With the Emperor’s death all hope of reconstituting the Empire is at an end. No one need know of what you had intended. You, and these gentlemen, and the Imperial Guard below decks, can remain uncompromised with the regime that rules France. You can carry them all home as you had said you would do, and on the way you can drop your warlike stores quietly overboard. It is for this reason that I have visited you like this, alone. My country, your country, do not desire any new incident to imperil the amity of the world. No one need know; this incident can remain a secret between us.”
Cambro
“The Emperor is dead!” he said.
“I have already assured you of my sympathy, Count,” said Hornblower. “I offer it to these gentlemen as well. My very deepest sympathy.”
The American captain broke into the murmurs of Cambro
“There’s a cat’s-paw of wind coming towards us,” he said. “We’ll be under way again in five minutes. Are you coming with us, mister, or are you going over the side?”
“Wait,” said Cambro
“The Emperor is dead!” he said again, as if he were saying that the world had come to an end.
The ranks were ragged now; emotion had broken down even the iron discipline of the Old Guard. Cambro
“I drew this sword for the Emperor,” said Cambro
He took the blade in both hands close to the hilt, and put it across his lifted knee. With a convulsive effort of his lean, powerful body he snapped the blade across, and, turning, he flung the fragments into the sea. The sound that came from the Old Guard was like a long drawn moan. One man took his musket by the muzzle, swung the butt over his head, and brought it crashing down on the deck, breaking the weapon at the small of the butt. Others followed his example. The muskets rained overside.
The American captain was regarding the scene apparently unmoved, as if nothing more would ever surprise him, but the unlit cigar in his mouth was now much shorter, and he must have chewed off the end. He approached Hornblower obviously to ask the explanation of the scene, but the French adjutant interposed.
“France,” said the adjutant. “We go to France.”
“France?” repeated the captain. “Not—?”
He did not say the words ‘St Helena’, but they were implicit in his expression.
“France,” repeated the adjutant, heavily.
Cambro
“I will intrude no further on your sorrow, Count,” said Hornblower. “Remember always you have the sympathy of an Englishman.”
Cambro
“I will remember,” said Cambro
“I have done my duty towards the world,” said Hornblower.
He would not hold out his hand; Cambro
“Goodbye, Count,” he said. “I hope we shall meet again in happier circumstances.”
“Goodbye, milord,” said Cambro
Hornblower climbed into the mizzen chains and the boat pulled in to him, and he fell, rather than climbed, into the stern-sheets.
“Give way,” he said. No one could feel as utterly exhausted as he felt. No one could feel as utterly unhappy.
They were waiting for him eagerly on board Crab, Harcourt and Gerard and the others. He still had to preserve an unmoved countenance as he went on board. He still had duties to do.
“You can let Daring go past, Mr. Harcourt,” he said. “It is all arranged.”
“Arranged, My Lord?” This was from Gerard.
“Cambro
“France? To France? My Lord—?”
“You heard what I said.”
They looked across the strip of sea, purple now in the dying day; Daring was bracing round her yards to catch the faint breeze that was blowing.
“Your orders are to let them pass, My Lord?” persisted Gerard.
“Yes, damn you,” said Hornblower, and instantly regretted the flash of rage and bad language. He turned to the other. “Mr. Harcourt, we can now proceed into Port of Spain. I presume that even if the wind is fair you will prefer not to risk the Dragon’s Mouth by night. You have my permission to wait until daylight.”
“Aye aye, my Lord.”
Even then they would not leave him in peace as he turned to go below.
“Di
Hopeless to snarl back that he wanted no di