A Shred of Honour by David Donachie

job.’ He gestured to a youngster who stepped forward and produced a blue flag, then a red one. A mere stripling of about fifteen, with a spotty, sweating face, he stood very erect as Elphinstone gave him his orders.
    ‘Driberg. Up into that excuse for a church tower, laddie , so we can see you. Red to increase, blue to reduce, and both flags crossed to show on target.’
    ‘Aye, aye, sir,’ replied Driberg, as he ran off to comply.
    ‘I’ll get my men into position.’
    ‘I should damned well hope so, Markham,’ snapped de Lisle, his colourless face carrying an expression ofmanufactured shock. ‘I wouldn’t want the reputation of the Hebe dented by a want of application on the part of the man in charge of my marines.’
    ‘I want those Frenchmen running this time, not you,’ added Elphinstone, his voice every bit as unfriendly as his countenance. ‘Spotted Dick’ favoured his fellow captain with a thin smile of approval.
    Stung, Markham replied with real anger. ‘We drove them back once, before they brought up the cannon.’
    De Lisle’s disbelief was very evident. And inexplicable, in a situation where he could have claimed some credit, the defenders being from his ship. ‘Over a thousand men?’
    ‘They were no more than a single regiment then.’
    ‘That’s just as well,’ barked Elphinstone, ‘otherwise we’d probably have met you on the outskirts of Toulon several hours ago. Take the marines I’ve brought up through the village and deploy them on the other side as soon as the guns open fire. Wait for me, and their own officers, there.’
    He swung his horse round before Markham could respond, calling to the other marine officers, both captains , to send their men after Markham, and attend on him to confer. The leading sailors had come abreast and Elphinstone ordered them to halt. They spun the carts and tipped them so that the guns could be run down onto the hard packed earth of the road. Others were unloading shot and powder, while still more were fixing up a wooden brake that would act to contain the recoil. Someone, who was able to see far enough down the road, had told the French gunners about these reinforcements. They lifted their range again, trying to hit the column of redcoats who were now passing the naval gunners.
    ‘Corporal Halsey, round up our men as best you can and get them back through the village.’
    ‘You’d better tell us how matters are placed over yonder ,’ demanded Elphinstone. Markham explained to the assembled officers the position of the guns, plus thetheory that the enemy infantry were probably deployed on the reverse slope waiting to attack.
    ‘Which they will do immediately you open fire, sir. There’s no advantage to them now in keeping their infantry out of the action. I would …’
    He got no further, and the way Elphinstone responded brought a real, full-blooded smile to de Lisle’s lips. ‘Don’t try to teach me to suck eggs, laddie, just get on with the orders you’ve been given.’
    Markham flushed angrily as Elphinstone turned his back on him again. But hierarchy demanded he bite his tongue, salute and obey. The marines’ column from Toulon was ahead of him, and he ran to catch up. The cannon were in place as he left, and with a precision that would have shamed the gunners of the Hebe, they were loaded and made ready to fire, booming out just as he re-entered the village. He had a vague impression of faces cowering in a doorway, and called to Halsey to find out who they were.
    ‘That frog and his women. He wouldn’t go the right way. Said he felt safer in a house.’
    ‘The man’s an idiot.’
    Once the two batteries engaged he began to form up the men on the Marseilles road, marching them into the open as soon as Elphinstone’s cannon began to range. At the first shots, the French commander moved what infantry he’d deployed back from the crest. Self preservation demanded that, regardless of the tempting target assembling in front of them,