All in Scarlet Uniform (Napoleonic War 4) by Adrian Goldsworthy Read Free Book Online Page A

condition does not mean that we will go back to Wellesley’s army.’
    ‘MacAndrews is going,’ said Hanley.
    ‘True,’ Truscott conceded, ‘but on detached duty of some sort.’
    ‘It is a training mission to aid the Spanish,’ Williams explained. He had not shared Dobson’s suspicion with the others.
    ‘Well, God knows they need all the help they can get in that regard,’ said Truscott, remembering the night before Talavera when thousands of raw Spanish conscripts panicked and fled at the sound of their own volley. ‘Good luck to him, though, as I doubt it will be an easy task.’ In the last year British and Spanish armies had not cooperated well, leaving considerable bitterness on both sides. ‘Still, I have not heard the details of his orders.’
    ‘He is to take a number of officers and good sergeants,’ said Williams. ‘A third will come from the battalion and the rest from other corps. The colonel asked if I wanted to volunteer for the duty.’ Lieutenant Colonel FitzWilliam had arrived that morning and seen Williams in the afternoon. He was friendly, full of praise for the lieutenant’s record and the fine conduct of Williams and the other men from the 106th who had fought at Talavera.
    ‘I presume from your talk of Christmas at home that you did not accept?’ Hanley grinned. ‘That’s a shame. It would have been nice to have company on the voyage.’
    ‘Sorry. The colonel gave me the day to consider it, but I would prefer to wait and go back with the whole battalion.’
    ‘You surprise me,’ said Hanley.
    ‘Ah, I believe I may have an explanation,’ said Truscott. ‘Am I correct in assuming that the major’s family is remaining here?’
    Williams nodded. His friends knew of his feelings for Miss MacAndrews, but even so it was difficult to speak of them. ‘It has been a long time,’ he said. ‘Perhaps too long, and it may be that my hopes are in vain.’ The lieutenant seemed ready to plunge into gloom. They had all heard the stories of other suitors for Miss MacAndrews. It was even said that the new colonel was much taken with the major’s daughter.
    ‘Another glass, gentlemen?’ suggested Hanley, wondering whether FitzWilliam wanted to send a rival off to Spain to clear the field. As he rose to fetch the bottle he patted Williams on the shoulder. ‘Good luck, Bills.’
    ‘Well, I fear that we have strayed from the point in hand,’ Truscott continued. ‘The battalion will no doubt be sent off some time next year, but there is no assurance that it will go back to Wellington’s army. Have you not heard the stories of this planned expedition to the East Indies?’
    ‘Yes, and when I came through the depot a month ago, the mess was full of talk of us training to be light infantry,’ said Williams.
    Truscott shrugged. ‘It has happened to other corps. And in the main they have chosen battalions with good numbers of active young recruits, much like us.’
    ‘Perhaps, but here we are a month later, and it seems that no one is speaking of it any longer even as a possibility.’
    ‘True enough.’ Truscott accepted his refilled glass from Hanley and took a generous sip. ‘I did hear tell that they could not provide sufficient muskets of the light infantry pattern.’
    Williams drank more carefully, eager to make the champagne last, as his friends were always quick to refill an empty glass and he rarely cared for more than two. ‘Portugal or Spain still appear most likely.’
    ‘If the new ministry still wants to fight there,’ said Truscott cynically. Yet another government had fallen after the debacle of the expedition to Antwerp, this time in such acrimony that two former ministers had fought a duel.
    ‘They must fight there,’ said Hanley quickly. He had lived in Madrid for several years before the French came and had seen what their soldiers had done to protesting crowds. He loved Spain, and in spite of a still lingering admiration for France’s revolution and for