*Orders:
a Renown vignette*
“Would you have done it?” Archie Kennedy asked.
“Would I have done what?” Horatio Hornblower said. He knew well enough what the question was about. He simply did not want to answer it.
“Would you have obeyed that order, if Clive hadn’t distracted him?”
“It was an order, Archie,” Hornblower said, as though that were an answer.
“It was an order that would have got good men cut down and achieved nothing. You cannot believe he was even thinking of the military situation.”
Although they were alone in the wardroom, Hornblower found himself glancing nervously around, lowering his voice, already low, still further.
“You should not speak so of the captain.”
“Do you disagree?”
Hornblower swallowed, trying not to relive that scene on deck. They had been studying a newly built French fort, from well outside firing range; he had ventured to share his own conclusions (which had been stupid, when would he learn?) and Sawyer, enraged, had promptly ordered him to take a boat load of men and launch an attack. In full view and broad daylight. They would have been blown out of the water.
Luckily Clive had been on deck and stepped in, distracted the captain with some reminiscence. Five minutes later Sawyer had forgotten he had ever given the order, had commanded that Renown should sail further up the coast instead. It had been a close thing, though. It might happen again any day, any time.
“A naval officer cannot pick and choose which orders he obeys, Archie.”
“It would be an unfortunate principle in general,” Kennedy replied. “But do you think there are no circumstances in which it can be needed?” He, too, had his voice very low. “ ‘The laws of God and nature are above those of man’, Horatio.”
“What was that?” Hornblower asked curiously. “You sounded like you were quoting something.”
Kennedy shrugged and smiled a little. “Part of the conclusions from the inquiry of the Scots Parliament into the massacre of Glencoe. Do you know about that, Horatio?”
“Of course I do.” Hornblower grimaced. “You must have heard Seaman McEnery on the subject. From the way he talks you’d think it had happened in his lifetime, instead of over a century past.”
“Ah well, that’s Highlanders for you. A grudge only improves with age.”
“You’re a Scot yourself, Archie.”
“A Lowland Scot, and therefore,” Kennedy grinned, “a civilised one. Haven’t I taught you the difference yet? Anyway, you know about the massacre.”
Hornblower frowned, trying to put together the fragments he’d gathered from McEnery. “It was the soldiers being quartered on the people they then killed which caused the outrage wasn’t it?”
“Yes. A terrible breach of honour, by both Highland and Lowland standards – and even English ones. The actual killing might have been overlooked,” a slight, sarcastic grimace. “They were technically rebels, even though the rebellion had mostly petered out and choosing one group to make an example of was mostly pure vindictiveness – or so I understand it. But it was the breach of hospitality that was considered shocking.”
“How do you know so much about it?” Hornblower asked. His friend had never been a student of history.
“Family tradition.” Another half-smile. “My father told me. One of his great-uncles, or maybe it was great-great-uncles, was a lieutenant in a company sent to the glen – not one of those quartered there, part of a supporting force. Anyway when they understood their orders he and another lieutenant refused to take part. They broke their swords and were placed under arrest. The old boy’s rather proud of that. He made a point of quoting that bit out of the Parliamentary Inquiry to me when I joined the Navy.”
“What happened to them?” Hornblower asked, reluctantly fascinated. “The lieutenants, I mean.”
“Oh, nothing in the end. The whole thing was so widely denounced that the charges were dropped. But it was a very brave thing to do.”
“But hardly in the same category as refusing an order that is merely...” Hornblower groped for an acceptable way of putting it, “...likely to result in high casualties.”
“I didn’t say it was, Horatio,” Kennedy said quietly. He usually knew when not to push too far. “I was just arguing a point about orders in general.”
No more was said, but the question still hung in the air.
‘Would you have done it?’
Hornblower did not know.
Author’s note:- It is true that two lieutenants refused to take part in the Glencoe massacre and were placed under arrest. No trial appears to have been held. Their names are not known for sure, but may have been Francis Farquar and Gilbert Kennedy. The notion of making Gilbert Kennedy and Archie Kennedy relatives was too good to resist!