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He rose at the end of his bitterly humorous tirade, a tall, handsome, almost boyish figure. 'And you, Mandeville, think this letter opportune!'

'It is opportune with the business that brings me,' said the equerry. 'You are forgetting the back country. Charles Town itself may be a hotbed of rebellion. But up there, beyond the Broad River, they are loyal and tory. And they'll fight.'

'But who wants to fight?' Lord William was almost impatient. 'I am sent out from home with orders to play a conciliatory part—which is the only part I have the means to play, the only part that I believe it is sane to play. Other orders follow. I am to coerce; I am to arm. I am to prepare to receive British troops. The latter I can do. But the rest...'

'That, too, if you have the will,' said Mandeville.

'How can I have the will? Who could have the will whilst there is the faintest chance of conciliation. And why should there not be?'

'Because these people have determined otherwise. Lexington showed us that clearly enough. Up there in Massachusetts...'