Empire of Ivory Page 0,31

undertaking, "I hope you will not think me lacking in respect or conviction, but I am in no way fitted for such a role; and could not agree, if I wished to. I am a serving-officer; my time is not my own."

"But here you are in London," Wilberforce pointed out gently, "and surely, while you are stationed at the Channel, can on occasion be spared," a supposition which Laurence could not easily contradict, without betraying the secret of the epidemic, presently confined to the Corps and only the most senior officials of the Admiralty. "I know it cannot be a comfortable proposal, Captain, but we are engaged in God's work; we ought not scruple to use any tool which He has put into our way, in this cause."

"For Heaven's sake, you will have nothing to do but attend a dinner party, perhaps a few more; kindly do not cavil at trifles," Lord Allendale said brusquely, tapping his fingers upon the arm of his chair. "Of course one cannot like this self-puffery, but you have tolerated far worse indignities, and made far greater a spectacle of yourself, than you are asked to do at present: last night, if you like - "

"You needn't speak so to Laurence," Temeraire interrupted coldly, giving the gentlemen both a start: they had already forgotten to look up and see him listening to all their conversation. "We have chased the French off four times this last week, and flown nine patrols; we are very tired, and we have only come to London because our friends are sick: and left to starve, and die in the cold; because the Admiralty will do nothing to make them more comfortable."

He finished stormily, a low threatening resonance building in his throat, the instinctive action of the divine wind operating; it lingered as an echo, when he had already stopped speaking. No one spoke for a moment, and then Wilberforce said thoughtfully, "It seems to me we need not be at cross-purposes; and we may advance your cause, Captain, with our own."

They had meant, it seemed, to launch him with some social event, the dinner-party Lord Allendale had mentioned, or perhaps even a ball; which Wilberforce now proposed instead to make a subscription-party, "whose avowed purpose," he explained, "will be to raise funds for sick and wounded dragons, veterans of Trafalgar and Dover - there are such veterans, among the sick?" he asked.

"There are," Laurence said; he did not say, all of them: all but Temeraire himself.

Wilberforce nodded. "Those are yet names to conjure with, in these dark days," he said, "when we see Napoleon's star ascendant over the Continent; and will give still further emphasis, to your being also a hero of the nation, and make your words a better counterweight to Nelson's."

Laurence could scarcely bear to hear himself so described; and in comparison with Nelson, who had led four great fleet actions, destroyed all Napoleon's navy, established Britain's complete primacy at sea; who had justly won a ducal coronet by valor and deeds in honorable battle, not been made a foreign prince through subterfuge and political machination. "Sir," he said, with an effort restraining himself from a truly violent rejection, "I must beg you not to speak so; there can be no just comparison."

"No, indeed," Temeraire said energetically. "I do not think much of this Nelson, if he has anything to say for slavery: I am sure he cannot be half so nice as Laurence, no matter how many battles he has won. I have never seen anything as dreadful as those poor slaves in Cape Coast; and I am very glad if we can help them, as well as our friends."

"And this, from a dragon," Wilberforce said, with great satisfaction, while Laurence was made mute by dismay. "What man can refuse to feel pity for those wretched souls, when it may be stirred in such a breast? Indeed," he said, turning to Lord Allendale, "we ought to hold the assembly here where we sit. I am certain it will answer all the better, so far as producing a great sensation, and moreover," he added, with a glint of humor in his eye, "I should like to see the gentleman who will refuse to consider an argument made to him by a dragon, with that dragon standing before him."

"Out of doors, at this season?" Lord Allendale said.

"We might organize it like the pavilion-dinners in China: long tables, with coal-pits underneath to make them warm," Temeraire suggested, entering with enthusiasm