"And then again," the general said with a slight embarrassment, "since you compel me to say it, I consider it unworthy of me."
"Oh, General, permit me to remark that you have not understood me."
"Monsieur, you are joking, my friend, I have so thoroughly understood you, on the contrary, that if you wish it, I will repeat to you word for word, the plan you have conceived, and," he added with a laugh, "which, with an author's self love, you are so anxious to see me carry out."
"Ah!" said the adventurer, with an air of doubt.
"Well, the plan is as follows: to quit the city suddenly, take no artillery with me, so as to march more quickly across country roads, surprise the enemy, attack him—"
"And beat him," the adventurer added meaningly.
"Oh, beat him," he said dubiously.
"It is infallible; consider, General, that your enemies rightly consider you shut up in the city, engaged in fortifying yourself there in the provision of the siege, with which they menace you; that since the defeat of General Márquez, they know that none of your partizans keep the field, and that consequently they have no attack to fear, and march with the most perfect security."
"That is true," the general muttered. "Hence, nothing will be more easy than to rout them; a guerilla war is not only the sole one you can carry on at the present day, but it offers you almost certain chances of success, by unnecessarily harassing your enemies, and beating them in detail; you have the hope of seizing once more the fortune which is abandoning you, and of delivering yourself from your odious rival. Only gain the victory in three or four encounters with his troops, and your partizans who are deserting you because they believe you ruined, will return in crowds, and Juárez's formidable army will melt away like snow before the sun."
"Yes, yes, I understand the boldness of this plan."