At last, dawn began painting the eastern horizon gray and then pink. The engineers gave up. The redcoats jeered louder and more foully than ever. But now they were more visible to the French and Atlantean artillerists. The gunners answered with balls of iron.
Having made sure their foes wouldn't span the Pomphret here, Cornwallis' men drew back out of range. They left a few soldiers near the river, where the men could keep an eye on their opponents and make sure the French and Atlanteans wouldn't keep trying to bridge this stretch of the river.
Which didn't mean the French and Atlanteans wouldn't try to bridge the Pomphret somewhere else. It only meant the redcoats wouldn't expect them to bridge it anywhere else Cornwallis' troops made that unpleasant discovery a couple of hours after sunup.
Pistol shots and carbines announced cavalry coming down from the north. The bigger booms from field guns announced that artillery accompanied the horsemen. Before long, crashing volleys announced that solid blocks of infantry accompanied the cavalry and field guns.
General Cornwallis hadn't sent his whole army north from Pomphret Landing: nowhere near. He'd sent enough men to keep the engineers from bridging the Pomphret where his scouts discovered them making the effort. He'd succeeded in that. Meanwhile, a few miles farther north, more French engineers quietly did bridge the river… and the English had no idea they were doing it till after it was done.
Taken in the flank by the troops who'd unexpectedly crossed to the east side of the Pomphret, the redcoats fled south. Victor Radcliff crossed the river in a rowboat.
He shook the hand of the Marquis de la Fayette, who'd led the larger detachment of Frenchmen and Atlanteans over the Pomphret to the north. "My compliments to your engineers," Victor said. "They performed bravely here and splendidly in your position."
"My chief engineer, Major Flamel, extends his compliments to you, Monsieur le General," de la Fayette replied. "He assures me it was by your clever ruse alone that we gained passage over the river."
"Having an idea is easy. Turning it into something useful is anything but," Victor said. "Major Flamel gets the credit for doing that."
"As I have seen before, you are a generous man," the French noble said. "I presume you now intend to drive the Englishmen out of Pomphret Landing?"
"That's what I have in mind, yes. I don't know what kind of works they've built north of town-it doesn't do to underestimate Cornwallis' engineers, either," Victor said.
"Sadly, I have also seen this for myself," de la Fayette agreed. "But even if their fieldworks prove strong, what prevents us from marching past them to the sea and trapping the redcoats between our lines to the east and the Pomphret to the west?"
"I'd like nothing better than to trap them inside Pomphret Landing," Victor said. "If we do that, we win the war. So it seems to me, anyhow. And if it seems the same to General Cornwallis, he won't let us do it. He'll fall back on Croydon before we can cut him off. Croydon has the best harbor north of Hanover, and it sits on a peninsula easy to fortify. I would much rather stand siege there than in Pomphret Landing, especially with the Royal Navy easily able to supply the garrison by sea."
"With Cornwallis having so much of his force here, the enemy will not easily be able to bring in foodstuffs from elsewhere in Atlantis," de la Fayette said. "Most of the land is under the control of the United States of Atlantis in your person." He bowed.
"There is some truth in that," Victor said. "Some, but less than I would wish. True, most of the redcoats are here. But England could still land more Terranovan savages near Avalon, or a force of German mercenaries down by New Hastings. And forces loyal to King George-native Atlantean forces, I mean-still hold too much of the countryside."
"Custis Cawthorne and your other representatives in Paris spoke little of that," de la Fayette observed. "They talked always of the war against oppressive England, not of the civil war against your own folk."
"Should that surprise you?" Victor said. "Don't French diplomatists also paint the best picture they can of your kingdom's situation and needs?"
De la Fayette bowed again, this time in amusement mingled with rue. "No doubt they do. But one does not expect the vices of civilization from the folk of a land so new and vital. Eh bien, perhaps one should."
You aren't stun bumpkins as we thought. The marquis couldn't very well mean anything else. Now Victor bowed to him. "Serving one's country to the best of one's ability is surety no vice, your Grace."
"Well, no." De la Fayette seemed faintly embarrassed. "But so many of us were charmed by your seeming rusticity. Monsieur Cawthorne gives a masterly portrayal."
Victor had all he could do not to laugh himself silly over that Could any man be compelled to enjoy himself more than Custis Cawthorne enjoyed playing such a role? While that might be possible, Victor found it most unlikely. "And how many pretty little French girls has Monsieur Cawthorne sweet-talked into his bed by playing the poor chap who needs to be instructed in such arts? And how many of them ended up astonished that he turned out to know so much already?"
The Marquis de la Fayette looked astonished himself. "How could you know that?"
This time, Victor did laugh; if he hadn't, he would have exploded. "I've known Monsieur Cawthorne many years. I have some notion of how his beady little mind works. Does he ask people to teach him card games, too, and take away their money with what he calls beginner's luck?"
"Mm d'un nom!" de la Fayette said, and not another word on that score, from which Victor concluded that Custis had some of the nobleman's money in his pocket Well, good for Custis, Victor thought. It was high time the United States of Atlantis turned a profit on something.
The field fortifications north of Pomphret Landing were as strong as the talented English engineers could make them. All the same, Cornwallis used them to shield his withdrawal to the east, not to try to hold the town. "It turned out as you foretold," de la Fayette said. "It could be that I should ask you to read my palm."
"I'm sure we both have better things to do with our time," Victor said. After the Atlanteans and French rode into Pomphret Landing, he found one of those things: he sent a letter to General Cornwallis, urging him to surrender. Surely you can see your force is reduced to no more than a red-coated carbuncle on the fair face of Atlantis, he wrote.
Before sending the letter to Croydon under a flag of truce, he showed it to de la Fayette. "A carbuncle on the face of Atlantis?" the Frenchman said after working his way through the English. "You prove yourself to be possessed of a noble heart, Monsieur le General. Me, I would call him a boil on Atlantis' arse."
Victor smiled. "That is what I was thinking, as a matter of fact. Whether I have a noble heart or not, I would not presume to say. But I am sure General Cornwallis has one. This being so, I am confident he will divine my meaning even if I state it obliquely."
"Obliquely?" The marquis savored that. "Not a word I would have used, which does not keep me from understanding you. As you speak English with me more often, I discover in it subtleties of which I would not previously have suspected it was capable."
"You are generous, your Grace," Victor Radcliff said, more sincerely than not. For anyone from France to allow that English might be subtle was no small concession.
Having received de la Fayette's approbation, the letter did go off to Croydon. Victor didn't think he would have to wait long for Cornwallis' reply, and he didn't. The courier who'd taken Victor's missive also brought back the English commander's response. "I didn't get to read it, General, on account of it was upsy-down to me while he was a-writing it, and he sealed it up as soon as it was done, but I don't reckon he's ready to chuck in the sponge," the courier said.