"The worst he can tell me is no," Victor said, breaking the seal. "Even if he should, how am I worse off than I would have been without making the attempt?"
He unfolded the letter. Sure enough, the missive was in Corn-walks' own hand, with which Victor had been familiar since the last war, when they fought on the same side. Always a pleasure to receive even the smallest communication from you, my dear General Radcliff, Cornwallis wrote. If he was not a man with a noble heart, he certainly was one who flaunted his urbanity.
Because this pleasure is so great, it pains me doubly to find myself compelled by circumstance to refuse you in anything, the English general 'continued. None the less, I am so compelled on this occasion. I do not believe our situation hopeless: very much the reverse, in fact. Whilst we do at present find ourselves occupying only Croydon, this may change at any moment, as you must be aware. The Royal Navy may come with orders for our embarkation, in which case we should land at some spot not well prepared to resist us. Or, contrariwise, ships may bring us reinforcements from across the sea. Should mat come to pass, you and your foreign allies would soon have reason to look to your laurels. These things being so, continued struggle seems far preferable to craven surrender. I have the honor to remain your most obedient servant… Cornwallis appended his signature, complete with a fancy flourish below his name.
The courier had been watching Victor's face. "He says no, eh?"
"He does indeed. He has reasons he finds good for going on with the fight."
"Are they good reasons?" the courier asked.
"They… may be." Victor didn't like to admit even so much He imagined the Royal Navy taking Cornwallis' redcoats down to Freetown or Cosquer. Their arrival would indeed come as a complete and most unwelcome surprise in those parts. And if transports brought five or ten thousand more English soldiers-or even mercenaries from Brunswick or Hesse-to Croydon, Cornwallis could sally forth against the Atlanteans and French with every hope of success.
"What do we do, then?" the courier inquired.
"I'm still ciphering that out," Victor said slowly. It seemed a better answer than Damned if I know, even if they meant about the same thing. What really bothered him was that he would have trouble laying proper siege to Croydon. The Royal Navy didn't have to take the redcoats down the coast or reinforce them to aid them against his army and the Frenchmen. As long as food and powder and shot came into Croydon, Cornwallis' army was and would remain a going concern. And the Atlanteans could do very little to stop the Royal Navy from supplying the enemy.
Victor Radcliff took Cornwallis' reply to de la Fayette. The marquis read it with grave attention. "What he says is very much what I should say if I found myself in his position."
"And I," Victor agreed. "Is there any chance the French navy might interpose itself between Croydon and the ships of the Royal Navy? Prevent Cornwallis from revictualing himself and he becomes vulnerable to all the usual hazards of a siege. That failing he is in almost as enviable a position as the defenders of Nouveau Redon before the spring was put out of commission."
"I could wish you had chosen a different comparison," de la Fayette said.
"My apologies," Victor said, "but you will, I trust, understand why it sprang to mind. Not only was I there, but so was General Cornwallis-Lieutenant-Colonel Cornwallis, as he was then."
"Indeed." De la Fayette's tone showed him to be imperfectly appeased. With an effort, he brought his wits back to the matter at hand. "As for our navy… I must confess, I know not whether that may be within its capacity."
"We should find out." Victor's enthusiasm spurred him on. "We truly should, your Grace. If we can cork up the Englishmen in Croydon, the war is ours, and the United States of Atlantis indisputably free. For what other purpose did you and your brave men leave France?"
"For no other purpose," the marquis admitted… reluctantly? He also found a notable difficulty with Victor's scheme, and proceeded to note it: "How do you propose to inform the French navy that its services in these parts are desired? I have not the faintest idea where in the broad Atlantic-or even the not so broad
Mediterranean-its ships of the line and frigates may be."
Enthusiasm or no, Victor Radcliff found himself compelled to contemplate the cogent question. Having contemplated, he delivered his verdict: "Damnation!"
"Just so," de la Fayette agreed.
But, where he seemed to think the heartfelt curse settled things, Victor was less inclined to give in or give up. "We have as yet no Atlantean navy to speak of-" he began.
"Indeed not, or you would give your own vessels the task of interdicting Croydon," de la Fayette said, and then, "Interdicting? It is the right word, n'est-cepas?"
"Yes, it is, but I hadn't finished yet," Victor said. "We have no navy to speak of, but we have a good many merchantmen and a great plenty of fishing boats. If we send them forth in search of your warships, they should be able to find them before long, and to lead them back here to render our cause such aid as may prove within their power."
The Marquis de la Fayette blinked. "God has blessed you with an adventurous spirit-this is not to be denied. Have you any notion how very wide the ocean is, however?"
"I do, sir," Victor replied. "I have crossed it myself, and my ancestors made their living from it for centuries." He didn't mention that he was no sailor himself. De la Fayette might already know that, but what point to reminding him if he did? Victor went on, "With enough boats searching, the enterprise is bound to succeed in time-and, chances are, in not such a long time, too."
"Well, it could be." De la Fayette didn't seem altogether convinced. Victor wasn't altogether convinced, either, but he was convinced it was worth a try. And the French nobleman seemed to admit that much, for he asked, "And what will our land forces be doing whilst awaiting the navy's arrival-which may not prove altogether timely?"
"I expect we will be doing what we would be doing if there were no such thing as the French navy," Victor replied. "That is to say, we will be doing everything in our power to defeat Cornwallis' army in and around Croydon. Had you anything else in mind for us?"
"By no means, Monsieur le General. I merely wished to make certain you did not intend to rest on our laurels, so to speak. The war still wants aggressive prosecution, and will fail without it."
"D'accord," Victor said. De la Fayette smiled at the very French agreement. Victor continued, "My first target for prosecuting the war would be the English works defending the hamlet of Wilton Wells. If we drive them away from the village, we dent their lines in a way Cornwallis won't care for."
"Splendid!" the marquis said gaily. "Let us proceed, then." Proceed they did. But Cornwallis' fieldworks bristled with cannon. Ditches and abatis kept the Atlanteans from getting close. The forlorn hopes that broke through the interlaced tree trunks and branches proved exactly that. The English guns sprayed them with canister. The men who could staggered back through the gaps they'd made in the abatis. The rest lay where they'd fallen, some writhing and moaning, others ominously still.
Some of the forlorn hopes were French, others Atlantean. Neither commander had any excuse to blame the other's soldiers, for they'd failed together. All de la Fayette said was, "It could be that we will find an easier way toward Croydon than the one that goes through Wilton Wells."