Which of you is the worse traitor?"
"Your Majesty will regret these words. Villeneuve and myself are devoted
to you. I have not heard from him. I have received no despatches. But in
a private letter just received, which is here at your Majesty's service,
I find these words, which your Majesty can see. 'From my brother on
the Spanish coast I have just heard. Admiral Villeneuve has sailed for
Cadiz, believing Nelson to be in chase of him. My brother saw the whole
fleet crowding sail southward. No doubt it is the best thing they could
do. If they came across Nelson, they would be knocked to pieces.'
Your Majesty, that is an opinion only; but it seems to be shared by M.
Villeneuve."
Napoleon's wrath was never speechless--except upon one great
occasion--and its outburst put every other in the wrong, even while he
knew that he was in the right. Regarding Decres with a glare of fury,
such as no other eyes could pour, or meet--a glare as of burnished steel
fired from a cannon--he drove him out of every self-defence or shelter,
and shattered him in the dust of his own principles. It was not the
difference of rank between them, but the difference in the power of
their minds, that chased like a straw before the wind the very stable
senses of the man who understood things. He knew that he was right, but
the right was routed, and away with it flew all capacity of reason in
the pitiless torrent of passion, like a man in a barrel, and the barrel
in Niagara.
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