They heard a faint inquiring bark from a dog.
Give em a hail, Brown, said Hornblower.
Ahoy! roared Brown. House ahoy!
Instantly two dogs burst into a clamorous barking.
Ahoy! yelled Brown again, and they staggered on. Another light flashed into view from another part of the house. They seemed to be in some kind of garden now; Hornblower could feel plants crushing under his feet in the snow, and the thorns of a rose tree tore at his trouser leg. The dogs were barking furiously. Suddenly a voice came from a dark upper window,
Who is there? it asked in French.
Hornblower prodded at his weary brain to find words to reply.
Three men, he said. Wounded.
That was the best he could do.
Come nearer, said the voice, and they staggered forward, slipped down an unseen incline, and halted in the square of light cast by the big lighted window in the ground floor, Bush in his nightshirt resting in the arms of the bedraggled other two.
Who are you?
Prisoners of war, said Hornblower.
Wait one moment, if you please, said the voice politely.
They stood shuddering in the snow until a door opened near the lighted window, showing a bright rectangle of light and some human silhouettes.
Come in, gentlemen, said the polite voice.
Chapter Seven
At least his host had sufficient self-control to show no surprise.
Come in, come in, he said. He put his hand to a door beside him and then withdrew it. You will need a better fire than I can offer you in the drawing-room. Felix, show the way to the kitchenI trust you gentlemen will pardon my receiving you there? This way, sirs. Chairs, Felix, and send the maids away.
It was a vast low-ceilinged room, stone-flagged like the hall. Its grateful warmth was like Paradise; in the hearth glowed the remains of a fire and all round them kitchen utensils winked and glittered. The woman without a word piled fresh billets of wood upon the fire and set to work with bellows to work up a blaze. Hornblower noticed the glimmer of her silk dress; her piled up hair was golden, nearly auburn.
Cannot Felix do that, Marie, my dear? Very well, then. As you will, said their host. Please sit down, gentlemen. Wine, Felix.
They lowered Bush into a chair before the fire. He sagged and wavered in his weakness, and they had to support him; their host clucked in sympathy.
Hurry with those glasses, Felix, and then attend to the beds. A glass of wine, sir? And for you, sir? Permit me.
The woman he had addressed as Marie had risen from her knees, and withdrew silently; the fire was crackling bravely amid its battery of roasting spits and cauldrons. Hornblower was shivering uncontrollably, nevertheless, in his dripping clothes. The glass of wine he drank was of no help to him; the hand he rested on Bushs shoulder shook like a leaf.
You will need dry clothes, said their host. If you will permit me, I will
He was interrupted by the re-entrance of the butler and Marie, both of them with their arms full of clothes and blankets.
Admirable! said their host. Felix,
you will attend these gentlemen. Come, my dear.
The butler held a silken nightshirt to the blaze while Hornblower and Brown stripped Bush of his wet clothes and chafed him with a towel.
I thought I should never be warm again, said Bush, when his head came out through the collar of the nightshirt. And you, sir? You shouldnt have troubled about me. Wont you change your clothes now, sir? Im all right.
Well see you comfortable first, said Hornblower. There was a fierce perverse pleasure in neglecting himself to attend to Bush. Let me look at that stump of yours.
The blunt seamed end still appeared extraordinarily healthy. There was no obvious heat or inflammation when Hornblower took it in his hand, no sign of pus exuding from the scars. Felix found a cloth in which Hornblower bound it up, while Brown wrapped him about in a blanket.
Lift him now, Brown. Well put him into bed.
Outside in the flagged hall they hesitated as to which way to turn, when Marie suddenly appeared from the left hand door.
In here, she said; her voice was a harsh contralto. I have had a bed made up on the ground floor for the wounded man. I thought it would be more convenient.
One maida gaunt old woman, ratherhad just taken a warming pan from between the sheets; the other was slipping a couple of hot bottles into the bed. Hornblower was impressed by Maries practical forethought. He tried with poor success to phrase his thanks in French while they lowered Bush into bed, and covered him up.
God, thats good, thank you, sir, said Bush.
They left him with a candle burning at his bedsideHornblower was in a perfect panic now to strip off his wet clothes before that roaring kitchen fire. He towelled himself with a warm towel and slipped into a warm woollen shirt; standing with his bare legs toasting before the blaze he drank a second glass of wine. Fatigue and cold fell away from him, and he felt exhilarated and lightheaded as a reaction. Felix crouched before him tendering him a pair of trousers, and he stepped into them and suffered Felix to tuck in his shirt tails and button him upit was the first time since childhood that he had been helped into his trousers, but this evening it seemed perfectly natural. Felix crouched again to put on his socks and shoes, stood to buckle his stock and help him on with waistcoat and coat.