Chapter 303: Meeting the King
Chapter 301 An Interview with the King
Astori Theater.
Led by the royal attendant, Arthur arrived at the door of the royal box on the third floor.
After Arthur handed over the officer’s knife and pistol in his hand to the guard in front of the door for safekeeping, the valet finally gently knocked on the door of the box room.
The one who came to open the door was Sir George Elliot, the Royal Servant Attaché and Captain of the flagship of the Royal Naval Base in Portsmouth, HMS Victory, who had once had a chance to meet Arthur at General Codrington’s banquet.
He smiled and invited Arthur into the compartment, leading Arthur to salute, “Your Majesty, Arthur Hastings has been summoned to come as you commanded.”
With his left hand in front and his right hand adorned behind him, Arthur bowed slightly and said, “Your Majesty.”
William IV had already drank his cheeks red by this time, except that instead of making him sleepy and shriveled up, this bit of wine made him feel more and more hale and hearty as an old sailor.
He raised his glass and asked Arthur: “Young man, I just heard the Duke of Wellington said, you are not only a sword master, but also a very talented and action young man. Currently you are serving as the head of the criminal offense investigation department of the Greater London Police Department, and you have also single-handedly built the basic structure of the London Police Intelligence Bureau?”
Arthur smiled softly and replied, “I am honored to receive such praise from you, but I am only fulfilling my duties as assigned by Your Excellencies.”
William IV smiled broadly and asked, “Quite modest, how long have you been working at Scotland Yard?”
Arthur replied back, “I joined Scotland Yard in September 1829 and have been in service for over 2 years now.”
William IV surveyed the St. Edward’s Crown badge on his shoulder, although he couldn’t figure out the police rank establishment of Scotland Yard, he could still judge from the shoulder badge that Arthur should be equivalent to the rank of Army Major, and then linking it to the rank of Army Colonel of Charles Rowan, the Commissioner of Police of Greater London, he quickly understood approximately what rank Arthur was equivalent to in Scotland Yard.
The 66 year old king couldn’t help but sigh, “Have you already reached this position in more than 2 years? This promotion speed of yours is no less than when I was in the Royal Navy! How old are you this year?”
Arthur whispered back, “21 years old.”
“Twenty-one?” William IV smiled broadly and spoke, “That’s still slightly slower than me. I joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen, completed my training at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich at the age of fifteen and left for North America to serve as a cadet trainee, returned to the Admiralty at the end of my traineeship at the age of twenty and passed my final examination to become a full officer in the Royal Navy, and at the age of twenty-one was promoted to the rank of Captain of the Navy, qualified to command a frigate, and was reassigned to North America to serve in the West Indian Fleet.”
Arthur heard the old king talk about his glorious past and understood what he wanted to hear.
Arthur smiled and returned, “I know of your experience, I have a good friend who served in the Royal Navy who was an avid fan of Horatio Nelson. Not only does he know the story of Admiral Nelson himself like the back of his hand, but your biography, a close comrade of Admiral Nelson’s, is also in his book. If I remember correctly, you commanded the frigate Andromeda in the West Indian Fleet? Then you were promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy and changed to the command of the battleship ‘Brave’?”
William IV heard that Arthur actually knew about his past, the king who was often ignored before his succession could not help but be a little surprised.
He asked, “You know about the Andromeda and the Valor?”
Arthur laughed softly and said, “I know a little about the Brave, it is a famous ship of the Royal Navy, it participated in the Battle of the Nile Estuary that made General Nelson famous in Europe. If I remember correctly, at that time, General Nelson, in order to stop Napoleon’s plan of an expedition to Egypt, led his thirteen battleships in a duel with the French Navy in formation in Aboukir Bay, southeast of Alexandria Harbor, Egypt.
Goliath, Ardor, Orion, Theseus, and a host of other famous ships of the Royal Navy took part in the battle, and naturally HMS Valiant, which you commanded, was one of them. HMS Valiant was one of the ships that you commanded, and it was a battle of valor in which the French battleship Conquest was crushed by a combination of powerful firepower and tactical command.
After this battle, Admiral Nelson also succeeded in destroying 11 French battleships with zero loss of ships, which established his unshakeable position in the Royal Navy. With only 218 men killed in action in the Royal Navy, compared to 6,000 wounded, killed, and captured in the French Empire, it was truly a respectable and outstanding victory.”
Hearing this, Talleyrand, who was on the side, just leaned over the edge of the table shaking his glass and snickered, “Mr. Hastings, you have to consider my old man’s sentiments more or less when you say that, don’t you? But you’re right, the victory was indeed honorable. A battle at the mouth of the Nile, a battle at the Battle of Trafalgar, and Nelson beat our naval commander Vilnaeve raw and like a fool.
Even Napoleon himself could not do anything to Nelson, after the Battle of the Nile, he took the battle report dumbfounded, his mouth still can’t stop chanting: ‘my navy just like this is finished? Is it destined to be destroyed in Egypt?’
And when the Battle of Trafalgar was over, perhaps due to the sentiment of heroes for heroes, Napoleon, while deploring the fatal blow suffered by the French Navy, did not forget to order all Imperial Navy ships to all hang Nelson’s portrait, in tribute to this rival at the same time, but also in order to encourage the Imperial Navy to learn from Nelson’s heroic spirit.”
Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington took a sip of wine and spoke, “I don’t think it’s fair for him to do this to Vilnaf, and for Napoleon to do this is almost like publicly humiliating Vilnaf.”
Talleyrand shrugged his shoulders and said, “It can’t be helped, he’s just got that temper. He was a rather brilliant general with many of the qualities of a legend, and I’ve never denied that he was the most unique and charismatic figure of his time, but he was by no means perfect. There were almost as many flaws in him as there were strengths. On this point, Bernadotte sums it up perfectly: ‘He was greater than all of us.’ But God punished him because he trusted only in his own talents, and used his massive war machine to the point of exhaustion, however, everything is opposite, and there is no exception in the past or present’.
Most of those Napoleon wannabes didn’t have direct contact with him, but any guy who had contact with Napoleon didn’t like him. He’s one of those unique people that you can hold a book and read about his exploits and feel your blood boil, and simply hate to work for him. But it only takes a deeper encounter with him to realize that he was a man with an ego to the core, a man who could put no one in his place for the sake of fame and fortune.
As he said himself: ‘The scabbard belongs to France, while the blade belongs to me’. And the reason why I did so much against him was for no other purpose than to show him that it was wrong for him to think that way.”
Arthur listened in silence to the grudges and feuds of the great men of the last age, and after mulling it over in his mind, he finally felt that I’m afraid it wasn’t quite the right occasion to share what he had learned about Napoleon’s sexual proclivities from unnatural sources.
Hearing these words, William IV couldn’t help but sigh: “Speaking of that era, it was really a great century of change. The biggest regret in my life is that I didn’t follow Nelson to participate in the Napoleonic Wars, if God is willing to give me such an opportunity, I can even lose my crown, even if I am told to die on the battlefield I would be willing to do so.”
Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington hastened to dissuade him, “Your Majesty, you must not talk nonsense. It’s always better to be able to not fight, and if I were to choose, I’d rather not have fought so many battles. I swear to you, every time I set foot on the battlefield, I can’t wait for the war to end the next second. No one is happy in a season of shelling.”
William IV laughed out loud at his words, “Wellington, don’t be nervous, I’m just making an analogy. Besides, as soon as the war against France started that year, I strongly requested to return to active naval service, and I mentioned it almost every year from 1793 until 1814, but not once was it agreed to by Parliament or the Admiralty. If it had not been for this, I would not afterwards have devoted myself to the House of Lords, where I spent my days in quarrelling and fighting with others for fun. Manhood is supposed to be about building up, and if Parliament won’t let me deal with the enemy, then I’ll have to deal with Parliament.”
When the Duke of Wellington heard this, he also knew that the King should be implicitly pointing out his feelings of dissatisfaction with the House of Lords.
It was true, as the king had said, that he had been fighting in the House of Lords since he was still a prince. At that time, there were quite a few noblemen who, due to disliking his youthful and unruly life style as well as his lack of classical cultural literacy due to his many years of service in the Royal Navy, had not infrequently set themselves up in the House of Lords to fight William IV in a tit-for-tat manner.
When William IV ascended to the throne last year, because of the coronation ceremony things with a lot of unpleasant, so until now there are still a lot of disregard for the king of the House of Lords guys.
And William IV on this phenomenon is also extremely angry, but perhaps older and mature, the former prodigal prince actually did not choose to lose his temper, but suppressed the heart of the dissatisfaction, at least on the surface still maintain a harmonious relationship with the parliament.
And the Duke of Wellington as the Lords nobility, but also the Tory representatives in the Lords, naturally, has been doing everything possible to maintain the fragile and sensitive relationship between the king and the nobility.
After all, William IV is still the king, although nowadays the king is less likely to interfere with the parliament as in the period of George III, but this kind of non-interference is only a kind of tacit agreement between the parliament and the king similar to the subterfuge, the king still retains such as dissolution of the parliament, the power of re-election.
However, for Britain, William IV’s present almost semi-lying mode of management is also a blessing.
It’s like that folk joke.
Queen Elizabeth showed the big boys how Britain should be run.
George I showed the crowd how not to run Britain.
George III showed the group how anyone could run Britain.
George IV showed the group how Britain didn’t need to be run by anyone.
Now William IV is going down this road of not needing to be governed longer and further than his brother George IV, and this is naturally what Parliament is happy to see.
But to tell the king that Britain is not to be governed by you is obviously extremely impolite and inappropriate; the nobility derive their own legitimacy and power from the king, so to deny him is to deny themselves.
And the art of finding the king something harmless and fulfilling to do is an art well worth learning.
The Duke of Wellington duly changed the topic and said: ”Your Majesty, I remember didn’t you mention before that since the army and the Royal Navy have basic training in fencing, similar training programs and training manuals could be added to the Scotland Yard’s police force as well? Since Mr. Hastings is here today, why don’t you seek his advice? You should not look at him as young, his professional qualities in this area are definitely expert.”
(End of chapter)