Meanwhile he would take the glass and raise it to his host with a ‘Your regiment, sir’, and drink a full measure. (Whisky, too; good whisky – he’d expected arrack – and excellent soda water.)

He was not long back in his quarters, now at the fort, with Corporal Johnson still directing the bhistis drawing his bath, when his brigade major came. Hervey had chosen a young field officer of the Madras Native Infantry who’d bloodied his sword in Ava, been aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief and then on the staff at Fort St George. Captain Parry had one of the neatest hands in the headquarters, and Hervey was of the same opinion as his father in the matter, that a neat hand betokened a calm mind; but one day, too, he’d seen him bang his fist on the table by return when a colonel of artillery had persisted in an unreasonable demand. A fair hand and the courage to speak his mind – the makings of a good executive officer (and deserving the pay of acting major).

‘General, I intrude, but I’ve only just learned you’re back. I was laying out lines for the Nizam’s Horse.’

Hervey waved him to a chair. ‘When did you come?’

‘Three days ago. Major Sleeman’s told me of the suppressing measures, and what’s still to be done, and Sir Eyre of the change in the order of battle for Chintal.’

Hervey nodded. ‘We’re done with thug-hunting now, I trust. So Gordon’s sowars are here, then?’

‘Tomorrow. And a second of the Nizam’s follows.’

‘Well, that’s all to the good, no doubt, but not directly in Chintal.’

Somervile had applied to the Nizam under the terms of the subsidiary alliance for a regiment of cavalry to police the dak roads. None from the contingent could be employed outside the presidency without permission of the Nizam, but he’d kept his intentions towards Chintal secret anyway.

‘And their commandant is in the field.’

Hervey smiled. ‘Better and better.’ (The Nizam, evidently, wished to be helpful, since Gordon’s were reckoned the most efficient.) ‘I’ve not seen Sir John Gordon since France. You’ll give me word as soon as he comes?’

‘Of course, General.’

‘And what others?’

‘Three troops of horse artillery are at Guntoor, and the rest will follow within the fortnight, if there are no more mishaps on the Krishna. They lost two guns for a day embarking from Vellore. The Fifty-fifth will be here in three more days, and the Thirty-ninth a week, perhaps more, and their strength uncertain. Theirs was a short summons.’

‘Indeed.’ But he was pleased to hear of it; both they and the Fifty-fifth had been his comrades-in-arms in Coorg. ‘And the native infantry?’

‘The Third will be here tomorrow, the Fifth and Sixth in ten days. And the King’s battalions and Madras Europeans from Vellore in three weeks, perhaps four.’

Hervey nodded again. ‘It might be worse, I suppose. You’ll not know the outcome of my sojourn in Chintal, though.’

‘St Alban has told me all, General.’