Would Sir John be willing to discuss the question with him? "It appears to me," he wrote, "to be quite impossible we can go on as we are now constituted. The Commander-in-chief must be changed; and the Country and the Army naturally turn their eyes to you as their Commander."
This letter took Moore by surprise. The two had met before, perhaps, but they had not been intimate. He at once replied cordially, and the interview was arranged for the next day, Wellesley calling upon Moore on his way home.
Outsiders, of course, did not know what this interview meant. Jack and Roy, taking a stroll together in a leisure hour, passed Moore's quarters at the moment when Wellesley rode up and dismounted. Their eyes met, and Roy murmured, "Wonder what's up now!"
"Something will have to be up soon, if things are not to go to a complete smash," returned Jack. "England won't stand long throwing men and money away for nothing. If battles are to end as that did the other day—" he referred to Vimiera—"there'll be a rumpus somewhere. Shouldn't wonder if a change is coming soon. Those two don't meet for nothing."
"No chance of anything proper being done till Moore is put into his right place," declared indignant Roy, not aware that he was echoing the precise sentiments of Sir Arthur Wellesley himself.
And they knew nothing, they could know nothing, of what was at that moment going on within the four walls of the house they had passed.
The confidential talk which took place inside those walls was a remarkable one.
Two of the greatest men of their generation had met there—one who was in a few years to become the foremost soldier of his age; another who could hardly have failed to become so, had he lived a few years longer. Each was bent upon the good of his country; each was willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the other what might be for his own gain. One by birth was Scots, one by birth was Irish; but both were British—nay, English!—to the backbone.
Sir Arthur Wellesley, in age eight years the younger, was still at the opening of his grand career. Sir John Moore, after thirty years of hard service, was fast nearing the close of his. He at this date had a world-wide fame. Sir Arthur, though he had made his mark by a masterly campaign in India, was not yet famous beyond a certain circle. But Moore had noted his power.
Wellesley's strongly-outlined eagle face and large Roman nose contrasted with the refined delicacy of Moore's features. In force of character, however, in strength of will, in courage and patriotism, in freedom from all narrowness of party spirit, the two were alike. With Wellesley, as with Moore, private interests went down before National interests, and DUTY was a word utterly supreme through life.