Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate
if the cause does not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore
we cast our vote for moving out and giving battle in the open,
instead of waiting till we were drawn from our walls like a badger
from a hole.
Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so, needless to
say, did that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready
to flash out fire. A great map of the country was brought and
spread out before her. About thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna,
where Sorais lay, and ninety odd miles from Milosis, the road
ran over a neck of land some two and a half miles in width, and
flanked on either side by forest-clad hills which, without being
lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite impracticable
for a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked earnestly
at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in
some women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger
upon this neck of rising ground, and turning to her husband,
said, with a proud air of confidence and a toss of the golden
head --
'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies. I know the spot, here
shalt thou meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before
the storm.'
But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.
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