When last we left Captain Hornblower, he had just attacked four French ships all by his lonesome, and been forced to strike his colors.
Flying Colours begins soon after this battle, with Hornblower in French captivity. The French have taken a dim view of some of his escapades in
A Ship of the Line, deciding that his perfectly legitimate ruse de guerre is in fact an act of piracy, for which Captain Hornblower and his first lieutenant Bush must be sent to Paris to be shot by firing squad!
This is especially unfortunate because Bush got his foot shot off in the last engagement, and the wound is barely half-healed. But no matter. The sneering French grandee packs Hornblower, Bush, and Hornblower’s coxswain Brown into a carriage to transport them to Paris. If Bush dies along the way, why, it will save the firing squad some trouble, that’s all.
I’m not entirely sure why the French have decided they need to try Bush as well as Hornblower, but I also don’t care because it’s clearly occurring for a very important purpose: C. S. Forester needs Bush along on this road trip from hell in order to make this the slashiest Hornblower novel since
Lieutenant Hornblower.
Item: after they are shoved into the carriage, Hornblower takes Bush’s hand to comfort him, as the journey will no doubt be tortuous to his wound, and Bush grasps Hornblower’s hand and starts caressing it.
Item: when they stop at the hotel, there is
only one bed. (Hornblower gets the bed, Bush sleeps on his stretcher, and Brown sleeps on a pallet on the floor. No matter. Let me have this.)
Item: unable to get a doctor on the second morning, Hornblower has to tend to Bush’s wounds
himself. This is too gross to be romantic but it is extremely intimate.
Item: later on, while they are escaping France, they all have to huddle for warmth one night and Hornblower feels a “ridiculous pleasure” (direct quote) when he wakes up under Bush’s arm. HORNBLOWER PLEASE.
In the midst of all this, Hornblower and company end up spending a few months hiding in the house of a sympathetic French nobleman, and Hornblower seduces his widowed daughter-in-law Marie, as one does. I felt some concern that she was going to die tragically, as there’s a Marie(tte) in the Hornblower movies who shared a few characteristics with this character (French; in love with Hornblower; raised from peasant past by Revolution) who meets a sticky end. (I did a short
rewrite, which I link here because it is a work of comic genius which makes me laugh every time I read it. Adieu, 'Ornblowaire!)
Now, book!Marie
might still show up in the final three Hornblower books to die dramatically, but she made it through this one alive, at least. And she completely slayed Hornblower with this comment: “I don't think you will ever love anybody, or know what it is to do so.” I don’t think this is actually accurate (Lady Barbara! Bush???) but it does seem like the kind of thing that would lodge in Hornblower’s relentlessly, inaccurately self-analytical head and torment him forever, so good job serving up some ice cold vengeance, Marie.
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