"It will be a long time before you are called on to add that problem to your other worries," Roger said with a shrug.
"On the contrary," came the swift reply, "I foresee myself having to do so within a year from now."
With a somewhat rueful smile, Roger enquired: "Am I to take it, then, that you still believe me wrong in my assessment of the way things will go in Paris?"
"No. Your appreciations have always been so well founded that you have sadly reduced the hopes I had of being able to make a peace with the new government. But there are other means by which the French nation may be brought to reason, and I had m mind the advance of the Allied armies."
"Strap me!" exclaimed Roger, drawing up his long legs with a jerk. "Do you then believe, Sir, that within a measurable time they are capable of achieving a conclusive victory?"
"I shall be much surprised if they do not 'Tis true that we have suffered a considerable setback owing to the victory the French gained at Fleurus towards the end of June; but the daily increasing strength of the Coalition should soon do far more than make good that misfortune. In return for handsome subsidies, which owing to good management Britain can afford to pay, both Austria and Prussia are putting new contingents in the field, and our measures for raising many more troops in this country are at last taking effect"
"When I saw you at Walmer in February you spoke of raising eight new regiments this autumn. Is it to them that you refer, Sir?"
"It is," Mr. Pitt replied with a self-satisfied nod.
Mentally Roger groaned. Aloud he said: "Then you must forgive me if I doubt the ability of such a reinforcement, plus some hired Germans, to turn the scale against the levies raised this year by the French. The indefatigable Carnot, whom I believe history will rank as the greatest War Minister France has ever had, set himself to raise fourteen armies, and he is well on the way to succeeding."
"Fourteen rabbles, Mr. Brook! Fourteen rabbles! I'll warrant you that any of them would show their heels at the very sight of a battalion of His Majesty's Foot Guards."
"I'll not argue that. But I would be mightily interested to hear on what you base your hopes of a victorious campaign. In '92 and ‘93 the road to Paris was on numerous occasions left open, yet the Allies failed to take it. There is no particular reason to suppose that such opportunities will recur, and the Republican troops are in far better trim that they were then."
The Prime Minister airily waved a long graceful hand. "I agree that good opportunities were lost; but that was due to divided councils among the allied Generals, and now they are much more at one. As for the improvement in the French troops which you suggest has taken place, that will be more than offset by the handicap they are bound to suffer from incompetent leadership."
"I fear I am at a loss in seeking grounds for your last statement, Sir."
"Why, Danton at least had the sense to realize that armies cannot be handled by sans-culottes, and while he was War Minister continued to employ experienced commanders. Ask yourself what has become of them?"
"Lafayette and Dumouriez came over to the Allies. The Due de Biron, Luckner, Custine, Houchard, and the Vicomte de Beauharnais were sent one after the other to the guillotine."
"Precisely! The Robespierrists knew nothing whatever of military affairs. Any General who served them had only to suffer one reverse to be recalled, accused of treachery and executed. The French have decapitated their own army. That is why its defeat should now prove easy, and Christmas see the Allies in Paris."
With an uneasy glance, Roger said: "You appear to have taken no account, Sir, of the ability which has been displayed by the young Generals who are products of the Revolution. Pichegru, Hoche and Jourdan, the present commanders of the armies on the Rhine, the Moselle and in Flanders, have all shown a natural flair for directing operations. The last, since his victory at Fleurus, has already wrested from us all the difficult country cut up by the Lys and the Scheldt."
"What does that signify while we still hold the fortresses of Landrecies, Quesnoy and Valenciennes? By his rash advance he has thrust his head into a noose. Prince Coburg and His Highness of York will be monstrous unlucky should they fail to trap him there. Besides, France cannot much longer afford to support a war. Her finances are in chaos, her people starving and her coasts blockaded."
"'Tis true that the past five years of upheaval have entirely wrecked the former administrative machinery of the country; but, believe me, Sir, Cambon, Cambaceres, Dubois-Crance and others have made good that handicap by brilliant improvisation."
"Mr. Brook, an understanding of finance is not among your many talents. You may take it from me that the total destruction of a fiscal system that it took many centuries to build up must lead to bankruptcy. Wars cannot be fought without money, and a drying up of supplies must soon cripple the French armies to such a degree that they will fall an easy prey to the Allies."
Roger forbore to comment further. His private opinion was that his master knew even less about military affairs than had the Robespierrists, and that while they had at least had the sense to give a free hand to the brilliant Carnot, he was becoming a menace to his own most cherished hopes by putting a distorted interpretation on facts whenever they did not fit in with his own opinions.
Having emptied his last glass of port, Mr. Pitt enquired casually: "When do you plan to return to France?"
With equal casualness, Roger let fall the bomb-shell that he had come determined to deliver with his report that morning: "I had not thought of doing so, Sir."
"What say you?" exclaimed his master with a startled look.
"I was loath to return when I did in February, and now I am definitely set against it. In the past two years I have spent less than three months with ray wife; and that is far too little for a couple who have some fondness for one another."
No woman had ever played a part in the life of the austere Prime Minister, so it was difficult for him to appreciate how other men could allow the attractions of feminine society to distract them, even temporarily, from the nation's affairs. With marked coldness he spoke his mind.
"If I remember aright you gave two of the best years of your life to honeymooning in Italy and afterwards idly dancing attendance on your wife; so even if your work has since taken you from her for long periods, she has no great grounds for complaint. Officers in our ships and more distant garrisons frequently do not see their families for six years at a stretch; so I pray you do not detract from my good opinion of you by allowing the calls of-domesticity to ring louder in your ears than those of duty."
"'Us not that alone, Sir; but also the strain I have been under these many months past. You can have little conception what life was like in Paris this spring and summer. The elimination of the nobility, the priests and the well-to-do had long since been achieved, and the Terror was turned against anyone and everyone who cherished the mildest belief in the liberties the Revolution had been initiated to bring. The Committee of Public Safety had its spies everywhere and acted with fanatical ruthlessness. Each night hundreds of surprise domiciliary visits were paid, and the discovery of a fire-arm or a letter from a relative who had fled abroad was enough to land a whole family in jail. Each morning the letter-box of the mfamous Public Prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, was stuffed with scores of denunciations, and nine out of ten of those anonymous accusations became a death-warrant for the person named. For a single indiscreet expression, or open grumbling in the bread queues, people were seized upon and condemned to death. Even the sans-cuhttes had become cowed and no longer dared to question the will of the camarilla that held the whole nation enslaved. I was unable to prevent the death of one I dearly loved, and had to stand by while others died for whom I had considerable affection. Every hour of every day was like living through a nightmare, and I'll have no more of it.