Would the English troops and inexperienced Volunteers be in any way their match?
It seemed incredible, the Marquis thought, that during the two years of Armistice while Bonaparte had continued to maintain vast armaments and had used the raising of the blockade to replenish his empty dockyards, England had disbanded the Volunteers and halved her Army.
Yet what was the use now of moaning and regretting the stupidity of a policy already put into effect?
What mattered now was that they should be waiting and ready for when Bonaparte attempted to land.
The Marquis was sunk in his thoughts as the carriage journeyed the short distance from Hanover Square to Alton House.
The coachman drew up the horses with a flourish, the Marquis stepped across the carpeted pavement and in through the doorway
