02 - Keane's Challenge Read Online Free Page A

duke’s own, was its long aquiline nose. But, despite his amiable countenance, there was a seriousness about Grant’s manner. ‘Yes, sir. We will need to know all of that and more besides, if we are to outwit the fox. But you are aware, Your Grace, that we have the means to do it. Captain Keane is on his way.’
    Wellington nodded. ‘Keane? Is he, by God? Here?’
    Grant nodded.
    ‘Good. I need to hear his report. Don’t let him tarry, though, Grant. I won’t have men of that calibre hanging around headquarters like a pack of lapdogs. We have officers enough, for that, to be sure. All purchase and too little talent. Best to get Captain Keane back into the field, where he’s best used. He, with all the exploring officers in Scovell’s Corps of Guides, are become my eyes and ears now. They are our best weapon.’
    He stared at the map of the Peninsula spread on the table before him and then, apparently absently, traced a line with his finger from the border with France up towards the north and off into the air as if to some other country.
    He sighed. ‘The Corsican wins a battle in Austria and now we must suffer. Our friends the Austrians are, I suppose, wholly to blame. All that I won at Talavera, the archduke threw away at Wagram. So now Bonaparte has more men to throw at us here. Hundreds of thousands of them, Grant, marching down from the north even as we speak, to “push us into the sea”.’
    ‘Sir?’
    ‘That’s what he says, is it not, our man in Paris?’ He waved a piece of paper towards Grant. ‘You have seen this, have you not? Look at it. A missive from the French capital. The latest from that man we keep at Bonaparte’s court. I forget his name. How much do we pay him?’
    ‘I’ll enquire, sir. Captain Radlett, as I recollect. He is invaluable.’
    ‘That’s as maybe. But I don’t need a spy to tell me what I know already. Bonaparte says that he will push us back into the sea “as he did before”.’
    He scanned the paper and read from it aloud. ‘The emperor’s order to Marshal Massena read as follows: “The leopardcontaminates the land of Spain yet again.”’ Wellington raised an eyebrow. ‘Since when were we a leopard, Grant?’
    ‘I think Bonaparte refers to Britain as such, sir. The image, I think, being that of the lion couchant on His Majesty’s coat of arms.’
    Wellington nodded and grinned. ‘Not a leopard, though, you see. No proper education, Grant. Peasant stock, Bonaparte.’ He spoke the name slowly, as if the very word caused a sour taste in the mouth, then paused and seemed to dwell on the idea of Napoleon and all for which he stood. ‘As I was saying, our agent in Paris writes that “Napoleon” intends to drive us into the sea. He is sending Marshal Massena.’
    ‘I would reckon, sir, that the marshal will bring with him a good one hundred thousand men, now that the Austrians seem to have given up the fight for the present.’
    ‘They have lost the stomach for it, do you suppose?’
    ‘I could not comment on that, sir. But I would very much doubt it. It will surely be merely a temporary defeat. They are his principal enemy in the field, sir, have always been. Do not forget, Your Grace, the French cut off the head of an Austrian princess, their queen. And should Bonaparte prevail, he will seize their country as part of Greater France. They know they have much to lose.’
    Wellington looked Grant hard in the eyes. ‘We all have much to lose. You know the situation, Grant. If we are driven from the Peninsula, then Bonaparte has all of Europe at his feet. And through Spain and Portugal he will have land in the Americas. We may rule the waves at present, but should he sign a treaty with the Americans, what then?’
    ‘Yes, sir. It is very grave.’
    ‘It all devolves upon us, Grant. The fate of the civilized world.If Marshal Massena can beat us here –’ in emphasis he pointed to the map of Portugal – ‘if he can invade Portugal with success and make a