Patrick O'Brian - The Hundred Days

‘Did the impalements trouble you?’

‘I loathed them with all my soul, although they are as traditional in some parts as public hanging is in England. But it was not that which made me doubtful about my first impression: after all, sodomy is a hanging offence with us and a matter of burning alive with some others, whereas it is a joke in this country, as it was in ancient Greece. No: after a while I began to wonder whether the simplicity was quite what it seemed, as well as the apparently complete division between Dey and Vizier where foreign affairs were concerned. But you know as well as I do that an excess of mistrust and suspicion is very widely spread in our calling: it sometimes reaches ludicrous proportions.’

‘Two of our colleagues in Marseilles were obliged to be shut up in a mad-house near Aubagne, each convinced that his mistress was poisoning him for the benefit of a foreign power.’

‘In my case it scarcely warranted chains, a bed of straw, and flogging, but it went pretty far: when we paused to eat by the spring I went to my baggage-mule and discovered the Dey’s wonderfully handsome, wonderfully discreet present, the American rifle that killed the lioness; but when I had recovered from my astonishment something compelled me to look very carefully indeed at lock, stock and barrel - both barrels - before I could thank him wholeheartedly. A man we both knew was killed by the explosion of a fowlingpiece that burst when he fired it - a gift, of course.’

‘William Duran. He was incautious, having to do with such a woman: but still there are limits. One cannot live in a glass globe, like that marvellous person in Breughel. For my part I thought him subtler and more intelligent than you did, for whereas with you he was necessarily dumb, restricted to the hunter, with me, obviously, he spoke a great deal and with a choice of words, particularly in Turkish, and a felicity of expression surprising in a mere soldier. But whether he is clever enough to manage the janissaries, the corsairs and his curious Vizier, I do not know. What was your opinion of the Vizier? You saw much more of him than I did.’

‘A politician of course, but one not without an agreeable side. I should not trust him in any matter of importance.’

Hootings far behind them, and the blowing of a horn: they turned, and there was the best-mounted of the Turkish guards hurrying after them, the main group being a great way off.

Jacob relayed his panting words: ‘He says that the others cannot keep up: and he fears - all the people fear - that the sirocco will be with us in an hour or two.’ Looking southward he added, ‘If we had not been prating so eagerly over other men’s characters I should have noticed it long before. You see that dark bar over the third mountain range behind us? That is the precursor. Presently the south-east wind will begin to blow and then the much stronger sirocco will reach us, its hot air filled, filled, with very fine sand. You have to have a close-woven cloth over your mouth and nose.’

‘You know this country: tell me what you think we ought to do.’

‘I do not believe it will be a very bad sirocco: we shall probably not reach the oasis and the lodge before dark, but I think we should press on. The sirocco often drops after sunset, and we should have some moonlight to help us on our way. At all events, I think that is better than camping unprepared in the wilderness, with little water and the animals likely to be harassed by wild beasts.’

‘I am sure you are right,’ said Stephen: he wheeled his horse and with the other two he rode back gently to meet the band, who greeted thçm with a cheer. ‘Pray ask Ibrahim whether he can guide us after nightfall - whether he will be able to recognize the trail where it is very faint?’

Ibrahim received the question at first with incredulity and then with as decent a concealment of laughter as he could manage. ‘He says he is as competent as seven dogs,’ reported Jacob.

‘Then pray tell him that if he succeeds he shall have seven gold pieces; but if he do not, then he must be impaled.’

Towards the end of their journey, which grew more horrible with every hundred yards traversed, with the dense cloud of fine sand quite hiding the moon and making its way through protective cloth and the hot wind growing stronger, even the seven dogs faltered time and again. Quite often Ibrahim had to beg them to stop, huddled together for protection, while he cast about: but getting them to start again and to leave the slight shelter of the larger animals was another matter. He was repeatedly kicked, pinched, reviled; and he was actually in tears when a rift in the veil of flying sand showed the oasis, with the sparse lanterns of the hunting-lodge. Sparse because almost everybody had gone to bed, and apart from the pair at the main gate the only lamp still glowing was in the room where Ahmed, the undersecretary, was finishing a letter. The porters were obviously unwilling to get up to unbar the gates and open them; but Ahmed, hearing the controversy and recognizing Jacob’s voice soon induced them to do their duty.

He asked Jacob whether he should warn the Vizier. ‘By no means at all,’ said Jacob, ‘but if you could bestow these people, give them food and drink, and allow Dr Maturin and me to have a bath we should both be immeasurably grateful.’

‘All these things shall be done,’ said Ahmed. ‘I shall rouse some servants. But when you have taken your bath I am afraid you will have to lie in my room again.’

Down, down, down into a blessed sleep: Stephen, washed clean of sand, even his hair, fed, watered, wrapped in clean linen. Sank to those perfect depths where even the varying howl of the sirocco could not disturb him.

Nothing but strong determined hands could claw him up to the infinitely unwelcome surface, but this they did, and there was the insufferable Jacob at first light asking him whether he remembered what he had told him about Cainites - insisting upon the word Cainite and even shaking Stephen more fully awake.

‘Your soul to the Devil, Amos: will you give me a sup of water, for the love of God?’ And when he had drunk and gasped he said, ‘Certainly I remember what you told me about the Cajnites of the Beni Mzab and elsewhere, the way they were created by a superior power and bore the mark of Cain.’

‘Yes. Well listen now: Ahmed is a Cainite too. We recognized one another at once. He knows roughly the nature of our visit - he knows that we are not travelling for medical experience or knowledge - he wishes to be useful to us, being entirely on our side, and he offers his services.’

‘Amos, my dear, you are a deeply experienced intelligence agent: tell me in all seriousness how sound a source of information he is, what kind of information he can give, and at what price.’

‘A sounder source we could not wish: as for the kind of information, he has shown me a copy of the Vizier’s message to the Sheikh of Azgar, Ibn Hazm, telling him to recall his caravan at once and to load the treasure aboard a wonderfully fast-sailing xebec that has already left for Arzila, a little shallow fishing-harbour in Shiite territory just north of Laraish: Yahya ben Khaled, the captain of the xebec and the most capable and fortunate corsair in Algiers, will wait there with a very strong guard until the wind comes into the west, and then he will sail, passing through the Strait of Gibraltar in the darkness, with the wind and the strong eastward current driving him at great speed, and head straight for Durazzo by the sea-lanes he knows best, the fastest.’

Stephen sat considering: then he nodded and said, ‘There was no mention of reward, I collect?’

‘None. I believe his offer was perfectly straightforward: but I gathered that eventually, by no means as a direct consequence of this affair, a kind word to the governor of Malta, to allow him to set up in Valetta, where he has cousins, would be welcome. It is in no way a condition: nor indeed could it be.’