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they fell back.
Right now, they're digging in across the mouth of Viper River Gap."
"Let 'em," Joseph said. "We're not trying to break out, no matter what
Lieutenant
General Bell says." He breathed a sigh of relief two sighs of relief, in fact,
one for holding and the other . . . "Seems to me General Hesmucet doesn't
quite know what to do with his great big army yet. Good."
"Maybe that's it," Husham allowed. "I tell you for true, though, sir, if
they'd hit me with everything they had, gods only know how I would've held
'em. Now I've got that brigade from Leonidas the Priest, so I'm good for a
while longer, anyways. And I hear tell you're bringing more men up towards
Caesar."
"I'm bringing the whole army, Brigadier," Joseph answered. "And I'll tell you
something else, too: I don't think I'm the only one."
In a tent just east of Viper River Gap, General Hesmucet looked daggers at
Brigadier
John the Bird's Eye. "You had them," Hesmucet growled. "Gods damn it, you had
them, and you let them get away. The sort of chance a soldier only gets once
in a lifetime. You could have strolled right into Caesar "
"Begging your pardon, sir," the younger man broke in, "but that isn't true at
all. I
tried to break into Caesar, and I took some hundreds of men killed and wounded
for my trouble, and I did not succeed."
"One understrength brigade holding the town," Hesmucet grumbled. "You
outnumbered the traitors three or four to one. You could have had your way
with them, could have seized Caesar, could have cut Joseph the Gamecock off
from Marthasville, which is the one thing in all the world the one and only
thing, mind you he knows must not happen to his army."
"Sir," James the Bird's Eye said stiffly, "my orders were to attack the
glideway line to see how it was defended, and then to dig in at the mouth of
Viper River Gap and to have my men ready to pursue the northerners if they
took flight. I followed them exactly as you gave them to me. If you blame me
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for that, sir . . ." He didn't go on, not with words, but the tip of his curly
black beard quivered in indignation.
And Hesmucet, contemplating the orders he had indeed given, let out a long,
rueful sigh. "Very well, Brigadier. You have a point, and you made it well. I
can still wish you might have done more, but you were perfectly justified in
doing as you did on the basis of what I told you."
"Thank you, sir," Brigadier James replied, his tone still aggrieved.
I meant every word of what I told you, though
, Hesmucet thought.
You had the sort of chance you may never see again, and you didn't take it.
The northerners were strong enough to stop your first tap, and you didn't tap
twice. If you had, you'd be a hero today and probably an earl tomorrow
.
"May I make an observation, sir?" Joseph the Bird's Eye asked.
"Go ahead," Hesmucet said, though most men would have quailed at speaking too
frankly by the way he said it.
Young James had nerve, even if he hadn't done everything Hesmucet would have
wanted of him. He said, "Sir, if this was supposed to be your striking force
and the one attacking the gaps farther south your holding force, you might
have done better to let me assail the Vulture's Nest and the Dog's Path and to
have sent Lieutenant General George up here with his much bigger army to
strike at Caesar."
Hesmucet pondered that. He was not a sweet-tempered man, but he was, on the
whole, a just one. However much he wanted to scorch Brigadier James for his
presumption, he discovered he couldn't. "Well, gods damn it, you're right," he
said.
James the Bird's Eye blinked. "Sir?" Evidently, that wasn't what he'd expected
to hear from the general commanding.
"You're right," Hesmucet repeated. "I wish you weren't, but you are. I sent a
boy to do a man's job, and I had a man ready to hand. That was a mistake. I
hope I won't make the same one again. A good general makes mistakes once. A
bad general keeps doing the same stupid gods-damned thing over and over."
"That's . . . probably something worth remembering," James said.
"So it is for you and me both," Hesmucet said. "All right, Brigadier you may
go.
It would have been nice if we could have just swarmed into Caesar and ruined
Joseph the
Gamecock right at the start of this campaign, but if we can't, we can't. We'll
try something else, that's all."
Saluting, James the Bird's Eye ducked his way out of the pavilion. Hesmucet
paused, thinking how the war had changed since its early days. Doubting George
had had it right.
Back then, armies on both sides had largely marched where they would. When
they happened to collide with an opposing army, they would fight. Now both
Marshal Bart and Hesmucet himself had clear goals in mind: Bart to hammer the
Army of Southern
Parthenia till it could stand no more hammering, Hesmucet to do the same to
the Army of
Franklin. No one in the first two years of the war could even have imagined
such efforts.
These truly were campaigns, perhaps the first such that had ever been fought
in the
Kingdom of Detina.
"What that means is, I'd better not bungle this one any more," Hesmucet
muttered.
He stepped out of the pavilion and called for a couple of runners. When the
men came up, he said, "My compliments to Doubting George and Fighting Joseph,
and ask them to attend me here at their earliest convenience."
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"Yes, sir," the runners chorused. They put their heads together for a moment,
no doubt deciding who would go to which general. Then they loped away.
Lieutenant General George got to Hesmucet's tent first. The commanding general
would have been surprised had it been the other way round.
George might not love me, but he does love the kingdom
, Hesmucet thought.
Fighting Joseph loves Fighting Joseph, and nobody and nothing else
.
"Your flanking move didn't quite work, sir," George remarked.
"No, not quite," Hesmucet agreed. "I probably should have used James the
Bird's
Eye to demonstrate against the two gaps farther south and sent your bigger
army through
Viper River Gap against Caesar."
"I rather thought so at the time, sir, but I doubted whether I should press
the point,"
George said. "I know you're keeping that kind of eye on me."
"Well . . . yes." Hesmucet wasn't easily nonplused, but Doubting George had
done the job. "We will manage to work together, though, one way or another, I
think. And I'm still figuring out what I can do with all the soldiers I've got
here. This is a large command. Next time, I'll manage my moves better."
"Fair enough, sir," George said. "I don't doubt that in the slightest."
Fighting Joseph rode up just then, a procession of one. Hesmucet, an
indifferent rider, had an indifferent unicorn. Doubting George, a good rider,
had a fine unicorn. And
Fighting Joseph, a splendid rider, had the most glorious unicorn Hesmucet had
ever seen:
whiter than snow, horn shod with polished silver rather than workaday iron,
coat and mane and tail all combed to magnificent perfection.
Fighting Joseph looked moderately magnificent himself. He was a handsome,
ruddy man whose hair had gone silver, not mere gray. He looked as if he ought
to be a king, not so lowly a creature as a general. Many people King Avram not
least among them
believed he thought he ought to be king, too. Avram had given him command in
the west anyhow the year before, willing to gamble victories against the
chance of a usurpation after them.
He hadn't got the victories. Duke Edward of Arlington not only beat but
embarrassed
Fighting Joseph at Viziersville. Now Joseph commanded a wing here in the
distant east, not an army in the vital west. But he still thought well of
himself.
"Good morning, gentlemen," he said as he dismounted and tied his unicorn to a
tree branch. He saluted with a certain reluctance, as if unhappy about
acknowledging any man his superior, even if only in a formal sense. "Now that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
they fell back.
Right now, they're digging in across the mouth of Viper River Gap."
"Let 'em," Joseph said. "We're not trying to break out, no matter what
Lieutenant
General Bell says." He breathed a sigh of relief two sighs of relief, in fact,
one for holding and the other . . . "Seems to me General Hesmucet doesn't
quite know what to do with his great big army yet. Good."
"Maybe that's it," Husham allowed. "I tell you for true, though, sir, if
they'd hit me with everything they had, gods only know how I would've held
'em. Now I've got that brigade from Leonidas the Priest, so I'm good for a
while longer, anyways. And I hear tell you're bringing more men up towards
Caesar."
"I'm bringing the whole army, Brigadier," Joseph answered. "And I'll tell you
something else, too: I don't think I'm the only one."
In a tent just east of Viper River Gap, General Hesmucet looked daggers at
Brigadier
John the Bird's Eye. "You had them," Hesmucet growled. "Gods damn it, you had
them, and you let them get away. The sort of chance a soldier only gets once
in a lifetime. You could have strolled right into Caesar "
"Begging your pardon, sir," the younger man broke in, "but that isn't true at
all. I
tried to break into Caesar, and I took some hundreds of men killed and wounded
for my trouble, and I did not succeed."
"One understrength brigade holding the town," Hesmucet grumbled. "You
outnumbered the traitors three or four to one. You could have had your way
with them, could have seized Caesar, could have cut Joseph the Gamecock off
from Marthasville, which is the one thing in all the world the one and only
thing, mind you he knows must not happen to his army."
"Sir," James the Bird's Eye said stiffly, "my orders were to attack the
glideway line to see how it was defended, and then to dig in at the mouth of
Viper River Gap and to have my men ready to pursue the northerners if they
took flight. I followed them exactly as you gave them to me. If you blame me
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for that, sir . . ." He didn't go on, not with words, but the tip of his curly
black beard quivered in indignation.
And Hesmucet, contemplating the orders he had indeed given, let out a long,
rueful sigh. "Very well, Brigadier. You have a point, and you made it well. I
can still wish you might have done more, but you were perfectly justified in
doing as you did on the basis of what I told you."
"Thank you, sir," Brigadier James replied, his tone still aggrieved.
I meant every word of what I told you, though
, Hesmucet thought.
You had the sort of chance you may never see again, and you didn't take it.
The northerners were strong enough to stop your first tap, and you didn't tap
twice. If you had, you'd be a hero today and probably an earl tomorrow
.
"May I make an observation, sir?" Joseph the Bird's Eye asked.
"Go ahead," Hesmucet said, though most men would have quailed at speaking too
frankly by the way he said it.
Young James had nerve, even if he hadn't done everything Hesmucet would have
wanted of him. He said, "Sir, if this was supposed to be your striking force
and the one attacking the gaps farther south your holding force, you might
have done better to let me assail the Vulture's Nest and the Dog's Path and to
have sent Lieutenant General George up here with his much bigger army to
strike at Caesar."
Hesmucet pondered that. He was not a sweet-tempered man, but he was, on the
whole, a just one. However much he wanted to scorch Brigadier James for his
presumption, he discovered he couldn't. "Well, gods damn it, you're right," he
said.
James the Bird's Eye blinked. "Sir?" Evidently, that wasn't what he'd expected
to hear from the general commanding.
"You're right," Hesmucet repeated. "I wish you weren't, but you are. I sent a
boy to do a man's job, and I had a man ready to hand. That was a mistake. I
hope I won't make the same one again. A good general makes mistakes once. A
bad general keeps doing the same stupid gods-damned thing over and over."
"That's . . . probably something worth remembering," James said.
"So it is for you and me both," Hesmucet said. "All right, Brigadier you may
go.
It would have been nice if we could have just swarmed into Caesar and ruined
Joseph the
Gamecock right at the start of this campaign, but if we can't, we can't. We'll
try something else, that's all."
Saluting, James the Bird's Eye ducked his way out of the pavilion. Hesmucet
paused, thinking how the war had changed since its early days. Doubting George
had had it right.
Back then, armies on both sides had largely marched where they would. When
they happened to collide with an opposing army, they would fight. Now both
Marshal Bart and Hesmucet himself had clear goals in mind: Bart to hammer the
Army of Southern
Parthenia till it could stand no more hammering, Hesmucet to do the same to
the Army of
Franklin. No one in the first two years of the war could even have imagined
such efforts.
These truly were campaigns, perhaps the first such that had ever been fought
in the
Kingdom of Detina.
"What that means is, I'd better not bungle this one any more," Hesmucet
muttered.
He stepped out of the pavilion and called for a couple of runners. When the
men came up, he said, "My compliments to Doubting George and Fighting Joseph,
and ask them to attend me here at their earliest convenience."
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Yes, sir," the runners chorused. They put their heads together for a moment,
no doubt deciding who would go to which general. Then they loped away.
Lieutenant General George got to Hesmucet's tent first. The commanding general
would have been surprised had it been the other way round.
George might not love me, but he does love the kingdom
, Hesmucet thought.
Fighting Joseph loves Fighting Joseph, and nobody and nothing else
.
"Your flanking move didn't quite work, sir," George remarked.
"No, not quite," Hesmucet agreed. "I probably should have used James the
Bird's
Eye to demonstrate against the two gaps farther south and sent your bigger
army through
Viper River Gap against Caesar."
"I rather thought so at the time, sir, but I doubted whether I should press
the point,"
George said. "I know you're keeping that kind of eye on me."
"Well . . . yes." Hesmucet wasn't easily nonplused, but Doubting George had
done the job. "We will manage to work together, though, one way or another, I
think. And I'm still figuring out what I can do with all the soldiers I've got
here. This is a large command. Next time, I'll manage my moves better."
"Fair enough, sir," George said. "I don't doubt that in the slightest."
Fighting Joseph rode up just then, a procession of one. Hesmucet, an
indifferent rider, had an indifferent unicorn. Doubting George, a good rider,
had a fine unicorn. And
Fighting Joseph, a splendid rider, had the most glorious unicorn Hesmucet had
ever seen:
whiter than snow, horn shod with polished silver rather than workaday iron,
coat and mane and tail all combed to magnificent perfection.
Fighting Joseph looked moderately magnificent himself. He was a handsome,
ruddy man whose hair had gone silver, not mere gray. He looked as if he ought
to be a king, not so lowly a creature as a general. Many people King Avram not
least among them
believed he thought he ought to be king, too. Avram had given him command in
the west anyhow the year before, willing to gamble victories against the
chance of a usurpation after them.
He hadn't got the victories. Duke Edward of Arlington not only beat but
embarrassed
Fighting Joseph at Viziersville. Now Joseph commanded a wing here in the
distant east, not an army in the vital west. But he still thought well of
himself.
"Good morning, gentlemen," he said as he dismounted and tied his unicorn to a
tree branch. He saluted with a certain reluctance, as if unhappy about
acknowledging any man his superior, even if only in a formal sense. "Now that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]