parties. We have two dozen outposts and garrisoned castles between London and Edinburgh, and he cannot march his army past them."
"Surely the least risk ought not be run. Bonaparte went from Berlin to Warsaw on the eve of winter - "
"Because half the garrison commanders threw up their arms and surrendered at nothing more than a fanfare at their gates. I have more faith in our officers than that."
"The King is not a young man," Perceval said, breaking into the increasing heat of Wellesley's exchange with the minister, "nor in the best of health - "
"No-one proposes he should expose himself upon the battlefield," Wellesley said, "but he can still address the troops."
Perceval paused, and heavily, quietly said, "The King is not in the best of health."
No-one spoke a moment; then someone said to Wellesley, in a conciliating tone, "If the Prince of Wales stays; or Prince William, and the King goes - "
Wellesley shrugged it away, a tight angry motion. "If you are determined to send him away, send him; and if you mean to give away his throne, too, make a parcel of it with whatever else these snakes are asking for, and let them preach sedition to the troops direct; why not?"
"Come, General Wellesley, this is surely overreaction - "
"If you believe for an instant they did not know perfectly well what the beast was about - "
"I hope we are not going to be distracted by some notion that Talleyrand, if not Bonaparte himself, seriously concocted a plan of subterfuge to be carried out by one dragon among others," Eldon said. "I have heard the idle chatter of the beasts; let us not read into it conscious and deliberate intent - "
"Sir," Laurence said, and bore the looks which he received for having the temerity to interject, "perhaps you are not aware that dragons learn their tongue in the shell, and do not ordinarily acquire another; it cannot be by coincidence that they brought a beast which could speak English, and easily communicate anything to our own."
"So let them be fed a second time, and it will drive any seditious thoughts out of their heads, if any managed to get in," Eldon said. "What else could Bonaparte possibly offer the creatures anyway?"
"Respect, if nothing else," Laurence said. "If you cannot see the neglect and disdain with which they have been treated has left them open to the meanest approach, the least offer of courtesy and reward - "
"That is enough from you, Laurence," Lord Mulgrave said icily. "You have done more good for Bonaparte than Talleyrand and Murat and any ten yammering dragons could achieve here, if we gave them every opportunity in the world."
Laurence flinched, and hoped he did not show it. Mulgrave had approved the fatal plan to send the sick dragon to France, in the first place; he had led the inquiry where Laurence had learned of it by accident; he had chosen the men for the court-martial, and personally overseen it, with deep venom.
"A man may be a wild enthusiast even without being a traitor," Mulgrave said, "and you are both; if you have been allowed to live a little longer, by counsel other than mine, you are certainly the last man on whom anyone of sense would rely."
Wellesley said sharply, "This is the distraction; and I dare say if Talleyrand could listen in he would congratulate himself on its success. Sir," he said to Perceval, "throw him out, I beg of you, and Murat with him. Every minute that flag of parley sits before the eyes of the army, you cut a little more of the heart out of my men. We ought to be speaking of the counterattack, not debating terms of surrender: that is what these are, however you like to dress them up."
"General Wellesley, you and General Dalrymple will forgive my bluntness," Lord Liverpool said, breaking in, "but unpleasant as these terms are, we may find them preferable to the ones he offers us in March. - I hope my remarks are taken as no reflection upon the Army. It is a plain fact that Bonaparte has beaten every army that ever took the field against him, the Russians, the Austrians, the Prussians, the Turks, and we ourselves. It seems to me we might well agree to whatever he wants, so long as the Army and the Navy are preserved a little while, and the King is safe; anything that will get him out of London and back