‘Does this mean that Buonaparte is finished at last?’
‘Umm. We shall see. We do have intelligence that’s unimpeachable for once – I can tell you in confidence that we took the singularly aptly named La Fortune at sea, and aboard by extraordinary good luck we found the general’s dispatches to Paris.’ He smiled boyishly. ‘And in them he tries so hard to find a victory in his ruination that I nearly feel pity for the man. Now he has to explain to France how his grand design for glory and empire has failed. How the fine army that he led to victory and conquest across all Europe is now lost to plague and starvation in the deserts of Syria. And also why he has cynically abandoned his men to their fate – it seems he seeks to flee secretly to Paris.’
Pitt’s smile widened. ‘But when he arrives, the hardest task he will face is to explain the fact that the army he vastly outnumbered yet who defeated him – for the very first time on land – was not in the character of the military at all, but common sailors!’