“That,” said Minas, “you may safely leave to myself and Souza’s other friends, the northern noblemen who have no intention of becoming the victims of British disinclination to pitched battles.”
“The second—and this is more difficult—is that we should obtain by hook or by crook a plan of the fortifications.” And he looked directly at Samoval.
The Count nodded slowly, but his face expressed doubt.
“I am quite alive to the necessity. I always have been. But—”
“To a man of your resource and intelligence—an intelligence of which you have just given such very signal proof—the matter should be possible.” He paused a moment. Then: “If I understand you correctly, Monsieur de Samoval, your fortunes have suffered deeply, and you are almost ruined by this policy of Wellington’s. You are offered the opportunity of making a magnificent recovery. The Emperor is the most generous paymaster in the world, and he is beyond measure impatient at the manner in which the campaign in the Peninsula is dragging on. He has spoken of it as an ulcer that is draining the Empire of its resources. For the man who could render him the service of disclosing the weak spot in this armour, the Achilles heel of the British, there would be a reward beyond all your possible dreams. Obtain the plans, then, and—”
He checked abruptly. The door had opened, and in a Venetian mirror facing him upon the wall the major caught the reflection of a British uniform, the stiff gold collar surmounted by a bronzed hawk face with which he was acquainted.
“I beg your pardon, gentlemen,” said the officer in Portuguese, “I was looking for—”
His voice became indistinct, so that they never knew who it was that he had been seeking when he intruded upon their privacy. The door had closed again and the reflection had vanished from the mirror. But there were beads of perspiration on the major’s brow.
“It is fortunate,” he muttered breathlessly, “that my back was towards him. I would as soon meet the devil face to face. I didn’t dream he was in Lisbon.”
“Who is he?” asked Minas.