Molly had to obey. Yet she felt sure that soon again she heard the tiny smothered sound which had suggested tears. She lay long listening. Was Polly thinking of Denham Ivor? Or could it be a question of Captain Peirce?
* * * * * * *
This side of life went on, and had to go on, even in such a period of stormy unrest, of perpetual warfare between nations. Men and maidens love and mate, work has to be done, hopes rise and sink, even the lesser amusements and gaieties and the small daily occupations of existence do not cease, though the whole world may be at loggerheads.
The deadly duel between Napoleon and Britain continued; and while Britain was supreme on the ocean, Napoleon was all but irresistible upon land. Of all the nations England alone withstood him; and at this date she fearlessly faced Europe in arms. For the Continent had crouched beneath the arm of the tyrant, and was tamely ranged on his side.
In the year 1807 Great Britain had not a single ally. Sweden, the last remaining, had been compelled by Russia to break away. One brother of Napoleon's was king of Holland; another was king of Westphalia; a third was king of Naples; while lesser European kingdoms and the congeries of little German states had well-nigh disappeared into the vortex, and French soldiers swaggered about the streets of Berlin.
Great Britain was neither crushed nor intimidated. She had flung off the fear of invasion; and her ships triumphantly ranged the seas. She had, indeed, as yet been less successful on land than at sea. Many a battle had been gained, many a deed of splendid valour had been done. But while one expedition after another had been despatched hither and thither, with intent to undermine and weaken the enormous power of Napoleon, most of these had failed to give any serious check to his advances. England had an Army inadequate to her needs, both in numbers and in military equipment; and the expeditions sent were invariably too small for the work they had to do.
All this while the inner life of the nation flowed on. Taxes were heavy, food was dear, much suffering existed; yet the spirit of the people neither failed nor faltered. They were cheery and full of courage, looking forward with high hope to a better state of things. In a little while, surely, justice would be meted out, and the cause of liberty would prevail.
Even in England Napoleon was not without his enthusiastic admirers. There are always some whose party feeling is stronger than their patriotism; and some others who will sentimentally put a man upon a pedestal, with regard to his intellect only, apart from questions of character. But the mass of the people was in deadly earnest. The nation as a whole was ready to fight Buonaparte to the last coin in its purse, the last drop of blood in its body.
One more tragic story had yet to be told. One more apparent failure, which contained in itself the heroic germ of coming victory, had yet to be lived through. One more great Englishman was to die, in the very moment of a success which at the time could scarcely be read otherwise than as a defeat. Then the turn of the tide would have begun.