“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Hornblower.
St Vincent was bowing again; Hornblower bowed. He was aware of the fact that he must not turn his back upon the King — that was almost the sum of his knowledge of court ceremonial — and he found it not so difficult to withdraw. Already there was a line formed of people waiting their turn to reach the royal presence, and he sidled away from them in St Vincent’s wake.
“This way, if you please,” said Harmond, directing their course to the farther side of the room. “Wait a moment.”
“His Majesty’s service makes strange bedfellows sometimes,” said St Vincent as they waited. “I hardly expected you would be saddled with this, Hornblower.”
“I — I have not yet understood,” said Hornblower.
“Oh, the Prince is —”
“This way, if you please,” said Harmond, appearing again.
He led them towards a diminutive figure who awaited them with composure. A young man — no, only a boy — wearing an outlandish uniform of gold and green, a short gold-hilted sword at his side, orders on his breast, and two more hanging from his neck. Behind them towered a burly figure in a more moderate version of the same uniform, swarthy, with fat pendulous cheeks. The boy himself was handsome, with fair hair falling in ringlets about his ears, frank blue eyes and a nose slightly turned upwards. The burly figure stepped forward, intercepting the approach of the group to the boy. Harmond and he exchanged glances.
“Presentations should be made to me first,” said the burly figure; he spoke thickly, in what Hornblower guessed to be a German accent.
“And why, sir?” asked Harmond.
“By the fundamental law of Seitz-Bunau only the High Chamberlain can make presentations to His Serene Highness.”
“Yes?”
“And I, sir, am the High Chamberlain. As you know.”
“Very well, sir,” said Harmond with resignation. “Then may I have the honour to present — Admiral the Right Honourable Earl St Vincent; Captain Horatio Hornblower; Lieutenant Anthony Bracegirdle.”
Hornblower was about to bow, but out of the tail of his eye he caught sight of St Vincent still holding himself ponderously erect, and he restrained himself.
“To whom have I the honour of being presented?” asked St Vincent, coldly. It appeared as if St Vincent entertained some prejudice against Germans.
“Doctor Eisenbeiss,” said Harmond.
“His Excellency the Baron von Eisenbeiss, High Chamberlain and Secretary of State to His Serene Highness the Prince of Seitz-Bunau,” said the burly man, in further explanation. “It is with much pleasure that I make your acquaintance.”
He stood meeting St Vincent’s eyes for a moment, and then he bowed; St Vincent bowed only after Eisenbeiss had begun to bow; Hornblower and Bracegirdle followed his example. All four of them straightened up at the same moment.
“And now,” said Eisenbeiss, “I have the honour to present —”
He turned to the Prince and continued his speech in German, apparently repeating his first words and then mentioning the names in turn. The little Prince gave a half bow at each name, but as St Vincent bowed low — nearly as low as he had bowed to the King — Hornblower did likewise. Then the Prince spoke in German to Eisenbeiss.
“His Serene Highness says,” translated the latter, “that he is delighted to make the acquaintance of officers of His Majesty’s Navy, because it is His Highness’s will that he should make war against the French tyrant in their company.”
“Tell His Serene Highness,” said St Vincent, “that we are all delighted, too.”
The translation was made, and the Prince produced a smile for each of them. Then there was an uncomfortable moment as they looked at each other. Finally Eisenbeiss said something again to the Prince, received a reply, and then turned to the group.
“His Serene Highness,” he announced, “says that he will not detain you longer.”
“Hm’ph,” said St Vincent, but he bent himself once more in the middle, as did the others, and then they withdrew themselves, backwards and sideways, from out of His Serene Highness’s presence.
“Damned upstart whippersnapper,” mumbled St Vincent to himself, and then added, “At any rate, our duty’s done. We can leave. Follow me over to that door.”
Down below loud bawling by a footman in the courtyard brought up the Earl’s coach again, and they climbed in, Hornblower utterly dazed by reason of his cold, the excitement he had been through, and his puzzlement about the incident in which he had taken part.
“Well, that’s your midshipman, Hornblower,” said St Vincent. His voice was so like the rumbling of the iron tyres over the cobbles that Hornblower was not sure that he had heard aright — especially as what St Vincent had said was so strange.
“I beg your pardon, my lord?”
“I have no doubt you heard me. I said that’s your midshipman — the Prince of Seitz-Bunau.”
“But who is he, my lord?”
“One of those German princes. Boney chased him out of his principality last year, on his way to Austerlitz. Country’s brimful of German princes chased out by Boney. The point is that this one’s the King’s great-nephew, as you heard.”
“And he’s to be one of my midshipmen?”
“That is so. He’s young enough to learn sense, not like most of ‘em. Most of ‘em go in the army. On the staff, God help the staff. But now the navy’s fashionable — first time since the Dutch Wars. We’ve been winning battles, and God knows the soldiers haven’t. So all the ne’er do well young lords join the Navy nowadays instead of the Light Dragoons. It was His Majesty’s own idea that this young fellow should do the same.”
“I understand, my lord.”
“It won’t do him any harm. Atropos won’t be any palace, of course.”
“That’s what I was thinking, my lord. The midshipmen’s berth in Atropos —”
“You’ll have to put him there, all the same. Not much room in a flush-decked sloop. If it were a ship of the line he might berth by himself, but if it’s to be Atropos he’ll have to take what comes. And it won’t be caviar and venison, either. I’ll send you orders on the subject, of course.”
“Aye aye, my lord.”
The coach was grinding to a stop at the Admiralty; someone opened the door, and St Vincent began to heave himself out of his seat. Hornblower followed him in under the portico.
“I’ll bid you good-bye, then, Hornblower,” said St Vincent, offering his hand.
“Good-bye, my lord.”
St Vincent stood looking at him from under his eyebrows.
“The Navy has two duties, Hornblower,” he said. “We all know what one is — to fight the French and give Boney what for.”
“Yes, my lord?”
“The other we don’t think about so much. We have to see that when we go we leave behind us a Navy which is as good as the one in which we served. You’ve less than three years’ seniority now, Hornblower, but you’ll find you’ll grow older. It’ll seem you’ve hardly had time to look round before you’ll have forty-three years’ seniority, like me. It goes fast enough, I assure you. Perhaps then you’ll be taking another young officer to present him at the Palace.”
“Er — yes, my lord.”
“Choose carefully, Hornblower, if it ever becomes your duty. One can make mistakes. But let them be honest mistakes.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“That’s all.”
The old man turned away without another word, leaving Hornblower with Bracegirdle under the portico.
“Jervie’s in a melting mood,” said Bracegirdle.
“So it seems.”
“I think he wanted to say he had his eye on you, sir.”
“But he had an anchor out to windward all the same,” said Hornblower, thinking of what St Vincent had said about the chance of one making mistakes.
“Jervie never forgives, sir,” said Bracegirdle, seriously.