"Bien!" said the major of Portuguese Cacadores. "Then we reach one or two only possible conclusions: either these rumours of a policy of devastation which have reached the Prince of Esslingen are as utterly false as he believes them to be, or - "
"To my cost I know them to be true, as I have already told you,"
Samoval interrupted bitterly.
"Or," the major persisted, raising a hand to restrain the Count, "or there is something further that has not been yet discovered - a mystery the enucleation of which will shed light upon all the rest.
Since you assure me, Monsieur le Comte, that milord Wellington's policy is beyond doubt, as reported to Monsieur, le Marechal, it but remains to address ourselves to the discovery of the mystery underlying it. What conclusions have you reached? You, Monsieur de Samoval, have had exceptional opportunities of observation, I understand."
"I am afraid my opportunities have been none so exceptional as you suppose," replied Samoval, with a dubious shake of his sleek, dark head. "At one tine I founded great hopes in Lady O'Moy. But Lady O'Moy is a fool, and does not enjoy her husband's confidence in official matters. What she knows I know. Unfortunately it does not amount to very much. One conclusion, however, I have reached:
Wellington is preparing in Portugal a snare for Massena's army."
"A snare? Hum!" The major pursed his full lips into a smile of scorn. "There cannot be a trap with two exits, my friend. Massena enters Portugal at Almeida and marches to Lisbon and the open sea.
He may be inconvenienced or hampered in his march; but its goal is certain. Where, then, can lie the snare? Your theory presupposes an impassable barrier to arrest the French when they are deep in the country and an overwhelming force to cut off their retreat when that barrier is reached. The overwhelming force does not exist and cannot be manufactured; as for the barrier, no barrier that it lies within human power to construct lies beyond French power to over-stride."
"I should not make too sure of that," Samoval warned him. "And you have overlooked something."
The major glanced at the Count sharply and without satisfaction. He accounted himself - trained as he had been under the very eye of the great Emperor - of some force in strategy and tactics, a player too well versed in the game to overlook the possible moves of an opponent.
"Ha!" he said, with the ghost of a sneer. "Far instance, Monsieur le Comte?"
"The overwhelming force exists," said Samoval.
"Where is it then? Whence has it been created? If you refer to the united British and Portuguese troops, you will be good enough to bear in mind that they will be retreating before the Prince. They cannot at once be before and behind him."
The man's cool assurance and cooler contempt of Samoval's views stung the Count into some sharpness "Are you seeking information, sir, or are you bestowing it?" he inquired.
"Ah! Your pardon, Monsieur le Comte. I inquire of course. I put forward arguments to anticipate conditions that may possibly be erroneous."
Samoval waived the point. "There is another force besides the British and Portuguese troops that you have left out of your calculations."
"And that?" The major was still faintly incredulous.
"You should remember what Wellington obviously remembers: that a French army depends for its sustenance upon the country it is invading. That is why Wellington is stripping the French line of penetration as bare of sustenance as this card-table. If we assume the existence of the barrier - an impassable line of fortifications encountered within many marches of the frontier - we may also assume that starvation will be the overwhelming force that will cut off the French retreat."
The other's keen eyes flickered. For a moment his face lost its assurance, and it was Samoval's turn to smile. But the major made a sharp recovery. He slowly shook his iron-grey head.
"You have no right to assume an impassable barrier. That is an inadmissible hypothesis. There is no such thing as a line of fortifications impassable to the French."
"You will pardon me, Major, but it is yourself have no right to your own assumptions. Again you overlook something. I will grant that technically what you say is true. No fortifications can be built that cannot be destroyed - given adequate power, with which it is yet to prove that Massena not knowing what may await him, will be equipped.
"But let us for a moment take so much for granted, and now consider this: fortifications are unquestionably building in the region of Torres Vedras, and Wellington guards the secret so jealously that not even the British - either here or in England - are aware of their nature. That is why the Cabinet in London takes for granted an embarkation in September. Wellington has not even taken his Government into his confidence. That is the sort of man he is. Now these fortifications have been building since last October. Best part of eight months have already gone in their construction. It may be another two or three months before the French army reaches them. I do not say that the French cannot pass them, given time.
But how long will it take the French to pull down what it will have taken ten or eleven months to construct? And if they are unable to draw sustenance from a desolate, wasted country, what time will they have at their disposal? It will be with them a matter of life or death. Having come so far they must reach Lisbon or perish; and if the fortifications can delay them by a single month, then, granted that all Lord Wellington's other dispositions have been duly carried out, perish they must. It remains, Monsieur le Major, for you to determine whether, with all their energy, with all their genius and all their valour, the French can - in an ill-nourished condition - destroy in a few weeks the considered labour of nearly a year."
