The Iberian Flame

Chapter 51

Brooks’s, London

The minister for war, Lord Castlereagh, was not often to be found in his club: he was anything but gregarious in his socialising and lately much taken up with the rapid turn of events in Iberia.

A figure approached him. ‘Well, hello, old stick. It’s been quite some time, I believe.’

Castlereagh put down The Times and blinked. ‘Oh, but all the better for the anticipating,’ he murmured distantly, rising to his feet to greet the man. It never did to ignore the most influential merchant bankers, and Sir Philip Bentinck Lawder of the Baltic Exchange was as high as they came.

A club steward appeared and waited patiently.

‘A little something against the cold, will it be?’

‘A splash of brandy would answer, m’ lord.’

‘Do sit, Pip. What brings you here today?’ Castlereagh asked politely.

‘Curiosity is all, old fellow. You must know I did well out of your late Baltic expedition, damn well, and I’m duly thankful for it. Now all this upheaval in Spain – where’s it going? That’s what I’d like to know!’

‘As would we all.’ Castlereagh sighed.

‘Yes, but I mean to say-’

‘Pip. You have your money to hazard. I have the only army of size England possesses thrown promiscuously ashore in Iberia among a countless French horde to care about, put there at the howling of Parliament and the mob to aid the Dons. It seems they don’t want our help, so it has to be the Portuguee, God help us.’

‘They got ashore, didn’t they?’

‘They did. Thanks to the navy, as always, but it’s not them I’m sore exercised about at the moment. It’s what I’m being asked to do.’

‘What’s that, then, dear fellow?’

‘Since the piping days of the elder Pitt it’s been our golden rule never to tangle ourselves in a Continental quarrel. All our strategy and plans follow this dictum. It’s worked to full satisfaction until now in so far as we’ve resisted the temptation to put troops ashore on some adventure or other.’

‘Copenhagen?’

‘In to do the job, out as soon as we may. No, Pip, this is different. There’s no defined objective I can work to, no clear task I’m given that, being achieved, we can say we’ve won.’

‘To help the Spanish, surely.’

‘I can ship them arms and guineas, but as soon as it turns to troops on the ground, I have to ask some devilish hard questions. What are they to be used for? To fight the French in common cause. Until when? Presumably until they’ve been ejected from the country. How long will that take? At the very least years – mayhap many years. So there we are, moiled in a Continental land war for the indefinitely long term as we’ve always said we wouldn’t be.’

‘Don’t be so cast down, m’ friend. We’ve lost the Dons as an enemy and gained ’em as a friend. They’re passionate about the thing, are they not?’

‘I’m not at all sanguine they’re an advantage. If you’ve heard what I have about the reign of chaos they call their government and the band of peasantry and bandits they call their army it would give you cause to weep.’

‘Our own military is much to be esteemed, I fancy.’

‘Such as we have,’ Castlereagh muttered. ‘And that only as good as the officers.’

‘Why, how can you say that when it’s the hero of the Mahrattas to their fore?’

‘Wellesley? He may be the people’s hero, but he’s a politicking, fame-seeking popinjay who happened to be available at the time. He’s an able general, I’ll grant, but damned difficult to work with.’ He paused, then said, ‘In any event, he’s not to be accounted anything more than a junior in the field. Horse Guards has realised that the only active military command is in Iberia, and now I have them loudly claiming the honour for themselves, so I’ve this day had to sign papers appointing three generals of seniority above Wellesley. No doubt they’re already on their way to relieve him of his army.’ He sighed extravagantly. ‘With Junot’s numbers being what they are, I can’t imagine why. I wouldn’t wish to be in the field against him. We’ll see.’

‘So what do you expect?’

‘To be brutally honest, a gallant defeat. But we’ve obeyed the people’s will, and as long as the military are prudent enough to keep within shouting distance of the sea, we’ll be able to take them off again.’

‘A damned cynical view, if I may say so. Surely there’s a bright side.’

‘Umm. Not as I’d term plausible, Pip. If by some miracle we can prevail in Portugal, it would be the first time in Europe’s recent history that the French are ejected from their own conquered territory. And if we could then back the monarchy, trade, their full liberty, we’ve near a thousand miles of the desert and mountains of Iberia to cross and restore before we can say the same about Spain. Do you think that credible, dear fellow?’

Lawder sipped his brandy, regarding Castlereagh steadily. ‘I take your point, sir. And will await an outcome with some interest, this you may believe.’