Empire of Ivory Page 0,35
enemy more challenging than an abandoned old fortification, or a couple of birds. "But at least she will take a little training, and eats properly, which I call a victory, for now," Granby said. "And after all, as much a fright she gives us, she'll give the Frogs a worse; Laurence, do you know, we talked to the fellows at Castle Cornet, and they set up a bit of sail for her: she can set it alight from eighty yards. Twice the range of a Flamme-de-Gloire, and she can go at it for five minutes straight; I don't understand how she gets her breath while she is at it."
They had indeed some trouble in keeping her out of direct combat, for meanwhile the French were continuing their harassment and scouting of the coast, with ever-increasing aggression. Jane used the sick dragons more heavily for patrol, to spare Temeraire and the ferals: they, instead, sat most of the day waiting on the cliffs for one warning flare or another to go up, or listening with pricked ears for the report of a signal-gun, before they dashed frantically to meet another incursion. In the space of two weeks, Temeraire skirmished four times more with small groups, and once Arkady and a few of his band, sent experimentally on patrol by themselves while Temeraire snatched a few more hours of sleep, just barely turned back a Pou-de-Ciel who had daringly tried to slip past the shore batteries at Dover, less than a mile from a clear view of the quarantine-grounds.
The ferals came back from their narrow but solitary victory delighted with themselves, and Jane with quick cleverness took the occasion to present Arkady ceremonially with a long length of chain: almost worthless, being made only of brass, with a large dinner-platter inscribed with his name for a medal, but polished to a fine golden shine and rendering Arkady for once speechless with amazement as it was fastened about his neck. For only a moment: then he burst forth in floods of caroling joy, and insisted on having every single one of his fellows inspect his prize; nor did Temeraire escape this fate. He indeed grew a little bristling, and withdrew in dignity to his own clearing to polish his breastplate more vigorously than usual.
"You cannot compare the two," Laurence said cautiously, "it is only a trinket, to make him complacent, and encourage them in their efforts."
"Oh, certainly," Temeraire said, very haughty, "mine is much nicer; I do not in the least want anything so common as brass." After a moment he added, muttering, "But his is very large."
"Cheap at the price," Jane said the next day, when Laurence came to report on a morning for once uneventful: the ferals more zealous than ever, and rather disappointed not to find more enemies than the reverse. "They come along handsomely: just as we had hoped." But she spoke tiredly; looking into her face, Laurence poured her a small glass of brandy and brought it to her at the window, where she was standing to look out at the ferals, presently cavorting in mid-air over their clearing after their dinner. "Thank you, I will." She took the glass, but did not drink at once. "Conterrenis has gone," she said abruptly, "the first Longwing we have lost; it was a bloody business."
She sat down all together, very heavily, and put her head forward. "He took a bad chill and suffered a haemorrhage in the lungs, the surgeons tell me. At any rate, he could not stop coughing, and so his acid came and came; it began at last to build up on the spurs, and sear his own skin. It laid his jaw bare to the bone." She paused. "Gardenley shot him this morning."
Laurence took the chair beside her, feeling wholly inadequate to the task of offering any comfort. After a little while she drank the brandy and set down her glass, and turned back to the maps to discuss the next day's patrolling.
He went away from her ashamed of his dread of the party, now only a few days' hence, and determined to put himself forward with no regard for his own mortification; if for the least chance of improving the conditions of the sick.
...and I hope you will permit me to suggest [Wilberforce wrote] that any oriental touch to your wardrobe, only a little one, which might at a glance set you apart, would be most useful. I am happy to report that we have