Empire of Ivory Page 0,39

judge them more quickly," a blasphemous remark which made Laurence blanch, lest Wilberforce should have overheard; but his attention was fortunately elsewhere at present, on a growing noise at the far end of the long clearing, where a crowd was gathering.

"I wonder he should have come," Wilberforce said: it was Nelson himself, who had entered the clearing in the company of several friends, some of them naval officers of Laurence's acquaintance, and was presently paying his respects to Lord Allendale. "Of course we did not omit an invitation, but I had no real expectation; perhaps because it was sent in your name. Forgive me, I will take myself off awhile; I am happy enough to have him come and lend his reflected glow to our party, but he has said too much in public for me to converse easily with him."

Laurence was better pleased, for his own part, to find Nelson not offended in the least at whatever whispers and comparisons had been put about between them; that gentleman was rather as amiable as anyone could wish, offering his good hand. "William Laurence; you have gone a long way since we last met. I think we were at dinner together on the Vanguard in ninety-eight, before Aboukir Bay: how very long ago, and how short a time it seems!"

"Indeed, sir; and I am honored your Grace should remember," Laurence said, and at his request rather anxiously took him back to be presented to Temeraire, adding, when Temeraire's ruff ominously unfurled at the name, "I hope you will make his Grace most welcome, my dear; it is very kind of him to come and be our guest."

Temeraire, never very tactful, was unfortunately not to be warned by so subtle a hint, and rather coldly asked, "What has happened to your medals? They are all quite misshapen."

This, he certainly meant as a species of insult; however Nelson, who famously preferred only to win more glory, than to speak of what he already had gained, could not have been better pleased at the excuse to discuss the battle, told over so thoroughly by the public before ever he had risen from his injuries, with an audience for once innocent of the details. "Why, a rascal of a Spanish fire-breather gave us a little trouble, at Trafalgar, and they were caught in the flame," he said, taking one of the ample number of vacant chairs at the table nearby, and arranging bread rolls for the ships.

Temeraire, growing interested despite himself, leaned in closely to observe their maneuvers on the cloth. Nelson did not flinch back in the least, though the onlookers who had gathered to observe took nearly all of them several steps back. He described the Spanish dragon's passes with a fork and much lurid detail, and further rescued his character, in Temeraire's eyes, by concluding, "And very sorry I am that we did not have you there: I am sure you should have had no trouble in running the creature off."

"Well, I am sure, too," Temeraire said candidly, and peered at the medals again with more admiration. "But would the Admiralty not give you fresh ones? That is not very handsome of them."

"Why, I consider these a better badge of honor, dear creature, and I have not applied for replacement," Nelson said. "Now, Laurence, do I recall correctly; can I possibly have read a report in the Gazette that this very dragon of yours lately sank a French ship, called the Valerie, I believe, and in a single pass?"

"Yes, sir; I believe Captain Riley of the Allegiance sent in his report, last year," Laurence said uneasily; that report had rather understated the incident, and while he was proud of Temeraire's ability, it was not the sort of thing he thought civilian guests would find reassuring; still less so should any of them learn that the French, too, now had their own Celestial, and that the same dreadful power might be turned against their own shipping.

"Astonishing; quite prodigious," Nelson said. "What was she, a sloop-of-war?"

"A frigate, sir," Laurence answered, even more reluctantly. " - forty-eight guns."

There was a pause. "I cannot be sorry, although it was hard on the poor sailors," Temeraire said, into the silence, "but it was not very noble of them, stealing upon us during the night, when their dragon could see in the dark and I could not."

"Certainly," Nelson said, over a certain murmur from the assembled company; he, having recovered from his surprise, had rather a quick martial