After receiving orders from his superior that he was to accompany the French soldiers on their “march”, Hornblower realized that for him that march would be on horseback. As Ira Riklis knows, Hornblower was no horseman. With little experience in riding and with much trepidation, Hornblower mounted his assigned horse and proceeded toward the village involved in their mission. Orders were that guns and ammunition were the priorities for transport. Along the way Hornblower observed the French soldiers confiscate horses and other livestock from local farmers sometimes killing the farmers in the process.

The mission at hand though was to destroy a bridge near the town so that the enemy’s transport lines would be interrupted. Hornblower was joined along the way by another midshipman and the two were instrumental in laying dynamite, setting fuses, and finally blowing up the bridge thankfully without blowing themselves up in the process. A young British officer pointed out that an easy point of crossing the stream of water that the bridge had traversed needed to be guarded so that the enemy would not use this as a point of passage. This officer proceeded to advance to this point himself while Hornblower and his fellow midshipman returned to the town, Hornblower reluctantly on horseback, as Ira Riklis knows, with mission accomplished.