"How so?"
"Wasn't it agreed that you should try to take Île Saint-Georges?"
"Yes, but when shall I be allowed to open my campaign?"
"To-morrow, if you promise to fail."
"Never fear; I am only too likely to fulfil your wishes in that regard."
"So much the better."
"I do not fully understand you."
"We need to have Île Saint-Georges make a stubborn resistance, in order to induce the Bordelais to call for our two dukes and their army, who, I am free to say, although my opinion on that point comes dangerously near coinciding with Madame de Tourville's, seem to me eminently necessary under present circumstances."
"Unquestionably," said Claire; "but although I am not as learned in the art of war as Madame de Tourville, I had the impression that a place is not usually attacked until it has been summoned to surrender."
"What you say is perfectly true."