had been defused in the end but it had been a clear pointer to German attitudes and the deep and violent passions of resentment coursing beneath the glittering uniforms that thronged the Kaiser’s palaces.
The dancing had stopped and people were reaching for their coats.
‘You will have to return to your ship,’ the Ice Maiden said, and he saw that her face looked bleak and worried.
‘Surely there isn’t that much hurry?’
She sighed. ‘I think you will find there is,’ she said. ‘This is a black day for Germany. The Archduke represented German influence in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Emperor had even promised him recognition for his morganatic wife. All the work of fifteen years is gone.’
Four
That evening, soon after they were aboard, a despatch boat came into the anchorage and shot past the ship’s stern. She had been to fetch the Kaiser from where he’d been taking part in a sailing race. He was seated aft, his appearance quite the opposite ofwhen they’d seen him going to sea in the morning. He’d left on the yacht, Meteor, with a large party and, as the ship had passed close astern of Clarendon he had seemed to be in excellent spirits. Now he was alone, his staff grouped behind him at a distance, while he sat staring silently ahead, his chin supported by one hand. That evening they heard he’d left for Berlin.
The news had clearly brought the review week to an abrupt end, and as the British ships sailed for home through the Kiel Canal, they noticed they were being energetically photographed from all angles from the suspension bridges, while zeppelins hovered above them in the sky like huge cigars, taking more pictures.
The swan song of the old navy came in a last review at Spithead for which Clarendon received a new commanding officer, Captain the Lord Charles Everley, a small gloomy man with sad eyes and the pendulous jowls of a bloodhound.
‘Looks as if he’s been struck by lightning,’ Kelly said. ‘Who is he? And where did he come from?’
‘China Station.’ Fanshawe always knew the details. ‘Asked for a posting home. First wife died four years ago. Got a daughter twenty years old who’s a bit of a problem. Got married again before he went out and hasn’t seen his new wife much since. Perhaps he needs to.’
Even now, Home Rule for Ireland seemed of far greater importance than the possibility of war and Kelly stared at the assembled ships, feeling old and cynical and doubtful. The Navy hadn’t had a real war for over a hundred years, and men who had entered as cadets had retired as admirals without ever hearing a shot fired in anger, and he wondered how many senior officers there still were like his father.
With the possibility of war in the offing there had been an unexpected spate of letters from home but none of them had seemed to Kelly to contain much hope for the Navy. Admiral Maguire had always set great store by ceremony and even now he seemed to be considering the ritual of being at war rather than the hard facts of death or defeat. ‘The Navy,’ he had written, ‘will see the thing through if it comes to a conflict. We have always known how to behave and have always been the envy of the rest of the world.’
Remembering what he’d seen of the Germans at Kiel, Kelly had an uneasy feeling that it was that very envy which had brought the present crisis to its climax, and that behaviour – high-nosed, haughty and self-satisfied – which might well bring the sort of result no one was expecting.
Suddenly the world seemed on the verge of a catastrophe just when it appeared to be at its most brilliant. Two mighty European systems, hostile to each other, faced each other in glittering and clanking panoply so that every word, every whisper, counted in the mounting crisis. There was a strange temper in the air that even Kelly was aware of. Every great nation had made its preparations and knew whom its enemy would be, and, rather than have fleet manoeuvres
The dancing had stopped and people were reaching for their coats.
‘You will have to return to your ship,’ the Ice Maiden said, and he saw that her face looked bleak and worried.
‘Surely there isn’t that much hurry?’
She sighed. ‘I think you will find there is,’ she said. ‘This is a black day for Germany. The Archduke represented German influence in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Emperor had even promised him recognition for his morganatic wife. All the work of fifteen years is gone.’
Four
That evening, soon after they were aboard, a despatch boat came into the anchorage and shot past the ship’s stern. She had been to fetch the Kaiser from where he’d been taking part in a sailing race. He was seated aft, his appearance quite the opposite ofwhen they’d seen him going to sea in the morning. He’d left on the yacht, Meteor, with a large party and, as the ship had passed close astern of Clarendon he had seemed to be in excellent spirits. Now he was alone, his staff grouped behind him at a distance, while he sat staring silently ahead, his chin supported by one hand. That evening they heard he’d left for Berlin.
The news had clearly brought the review week to an abrupt end, and as the British ships sailed for home through the Kiel Canal, they noticed they were being energetically photographed from all angles from the suspension bridges, while zeppelins hovered above them in the sky like huge cigars, taking more pictures.
The swan song of the old navy came in a last review at Spithead for which Clarendon received a new commanding officer, Captain the Lord Charles Everley, a small gloomy man with sad eyes and the pendulous jowls of a bloodhound.
‘Looks as if he’s been struck by lightning,’ Kelly said. ‘Who is he? And where did he come from?’
‘China Station.’ Fanshawe always knew the details. ‘Asked for a posting home. First wife died four years ago. Got a daughter twenty years old who’s a bit of a problem. Got married again before he went out and hasn’t seen his new wife much since. Perhaps he needs to.’
Even now, Home Rule for Ireland seemed of far greater importance than the possibility of war and Kelly stared at the assembled ships, feeling old and cynical and doubtful. The Navy hadn’t had a real war for over a hundred years, and men who had entered as cadets had retired as admirals without ever hearing a shot fired in anger, and he wondered how many senior officers there still were like his father.
With the possibility of war in the offing there had been an unexpected spate of letters from home but none of them had seemed to Kelly to contain much hope for the Navy. Admiral Maguire had always set great store by ceremony and even now he seemed to be considering the ritual of being at war rather than the hard facts of death or defeat. ‘The Navy,’ he had written, ‘will see the thing through if it comes to a conflict. We have always known how to behave and have always been the envy of the rest of the world.’
Remembering what he’d seen of the Germans at Kiel, Kelly had an uneasy feeling that it was that very envy which had brought the present crisis to its climax, and that behaviour – high-nosed, haughty and self-satisfied – which might well bring the sort of result no one was expecting.
Suddenly the world seemed on the verge of a catastrophe just when it appeared to be at its most brilliant. Two mighty European systems, hostile to each other, faced each other in glittering and clanking panoply so that every word, every whisper, counted in the mounting crisis. There was a strange temper in the air that even Kelly was aware of. Every great nation had made its preparations and knew whom its enemy would be, and, rather than have fleet manoeuvres
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